carissa was definitely the last person that gabbi had expected to see when they went back for their second semester at brown. the two of them had passed each other in the halls when they went to rosehill, but never really anything more than that. gabbi had never really cared to strike up a conversation with her, but definitely knew of her.
by the time when carissa actually seemed enticing to talk to, she was expelled. gone from gabbi’s little view and then forgotten about — that was until .. they bumped into each other in the halls and kind of stood there awkwardly because they knew who each other was but never went too much into it.
it took the same thing happening three more times for gabbi to formally give carissa their number and invite her over that night to catch up. but the question was catch up on what? they’d never talked much in high school, so there was nothing to catch up on. it was more like get acquainted with but gabbi didn’t want to seem rude, and by the looks of it, neither did carissa who played into it.
now they were in gabbi’s studio apartment that was right off of campus, a single joint being passed between the two of them. gabbi was slightly nervous for some reason — could be the weed or the fact they let a borderline stranger into their apartment. it was most - likely the former.
… they somehow get on the topic of eleanor.
that was a sensitive topic for gabbi, why wouldn’t it be when they’d invested so much time and effort into dating her only for it to be rejected. eleanor gave them the reason for college being the reason why they shouldn’t pursue anything further along with the total bombshell of, ‘ how would we work when everything that you do seems to be casual? ’ that was the real final blow.
“ we haven’t really talked since, ” gabbi says after taking another hit and explaining the past with eleanor and how they’ve ended up here, without her. “ maybe a text here or there, uh — i think the last time we actually talked she texted me on my birthday and wished me luck at college. ” talking about this was making their stomach turn and they wanted off of this topic quick, it was seeming to be a sinking ship of information that they shouldn’t even be confiding in @farmqveen in the first place.
“ which like, cool, glad to know she cares, if not fully then at least a little bit, ” there’s a dry laugh as gabbi glances up for a moment and meets carissa’s eyes, they let their words hang a bit more before continuing on, “ it’s stupid for me to even be upset but it’s just she doesn’t think she really doesn’t understand what it’s like to be in this situation and — ”
[ FACE ] : receiver won’t stop talking. in an attempt to get them to stop, sender grabs their face, underestimating the intensity of the act.
then gabbi’s cut off by lips on their own. it wasn’t unwelcome and gabbi lets that be known, returning the kiss. their hand holding the joint away from the both of them as to not burn either of them in the middle of the kiss.
eventually pulling back, their eyes look into carissa’s, searching. the girl who moments earlier couldn’t stop talking was rendered speechless.
The embarrassing fact of the matter is Carissa isn’t even a student at Brown, isn’t a student at all yet. But she’s finally got her GED and has been accepted into a culinary program at J&W (luckily less than a mile away from Brown considering the apartment she shares with Montana and Meghan feels like it’s on top of their campus). Not a Brown student, but on campus enough running forgotten items to Montana that she runs into Gabbi Broussard. Four separate times.
Thank God, Gabbi didn’t think she was stalking them or something. They actually ended up giving their number to her an invite over to their place to ‘catch up’, not that they were really friends in high school so it’s not catching up as much as it is getting to know each other — Carissa doesn’t question it and just goes along with how Gabbi’s presenting this offer.
She says she’ll be there and she’ll smoke them up.
It’ll be nice to not feel like a perpetual third wheel for once since being in Rhode Island.
Usually quiet Carissa has a tendency to be a talker when she gets high with someone else, no matter who it is or how well she knows them. As long as she feels comfortable, and she does with Gabbi – oddly enough. She doesn’t like that, she doesn’t know them outside of the reputation both of the Broussards had at Rosehill.
And as usual, everything comes back to Nora. (Which it’s her fault, Carissa’s pretty certain she brought the girl up in the first place – but she’s the right level of high where she follows the conversation; however, details get hazy.)
She must have hit a sore spot for them though, because before she can say anything stupid like 'I came up here with Montana because I didn’t want to deal with being around her with how she acts with Drea’ or admit to having odd feelings even still for the girl who was her first real girlfriend or (more horrifying) admit to the fact that her young teen 'romance’ messed her up bad enough that Nora was her only girlfriend —- Gabbi barrels through what happened between them and her.
They’re talking so fast. They seem to be getting even more worked up as they talk. They sound like they’re out of breath.
So kissing them to calm them down and shut them up seems like a great idea to Carissa’s hazy mind.
She’s lucky she doesn’t get punched, she gets kissed back instead. Carissa lets herself enjoy it.
When Gabbi pulls back though and looks at her speechless. Carissa feels sheepish. She feels like apologizing; she should have asked and not steal a kiss like that. So she does.
“Uh, sorry. That seemed like a good idea, but maybe that was a bit out of line.”
She takes the joint from Gabbi’s hand– clear that they were trying to keep them both safe from burns while they shared that kiss- and puts it to her lips to take a hit. Hoping it eases the embarrassment she’s feeling currently.
