She parks her car in between the Methodist church and the primary school that they both attended. She watches the children that stick their middle fingers up as they pass it, strings of obscenities following.
“Weans.” Lawrence throws open the door to her car and gets in, a plastic bag on their lap. “A think Miss Trunchball was right all along.”
“I don’t think we were ever that small.” Ellie muses, her acrylics tapping on the steering wheel.
Lawrence barks a laugh, bag rustling as they open it to survey their harvest. “I couldny remember if you prefer the strawberry or the apple laces so I got both.”
“Anything festive in there?” She pokes her head between Lawrence and the bag only to be pushed away. “Hey!”
“Of course I’ve got festive snacks, despite yer apparent trust issues. Mince pies and chocolate orange, and here I even got us an advent calendar each.”
Ellie grins at Lawrence’s eyes lighting up with excitement. “Headcase.” She switches the radio on, confronted by Michael Bublé’s voice streaming out and hitting her ears at a volume previously unknown to man. Lawrence cackles as she hurriedly turns it down.
“Love a bit of boobs.” And they laugh again at their own double entendre. The sound, dulled only slightly by the Christmas music blaring from the speakers, opens back the ache in her heart. Once upon a time she would’ve been able to pick out Lawrence’s laugh in a crowd of thousands.
trying to hold myself accountable and get things written so this seems the best way
“Hiya, babe. Christ, you’re gonnae get hypothermia sitting there like that! Share my brolly with me, will ya?”
Ellie pats the ground beside her, flicking up muddy water onto her dress and beneath her fingernails. “Come sit!”
“There’s a perfectly good bench two feet away, why are we sitting on the grass?” Lawrence asks, but Ellie simply pats the ground again, and so she acquiesces and squishes onto the wet mud.
general 6 with diamond chaney pls angel!!!!!!! 💖💖💖
the very first page (not where the storyline ends)
“I’ll wait for you.”
“Oh my god, it’s ten past already.” Aurora looked up from her phone in horror, dramatically holding her hands to her chest as she started to “jog” down the hill into town.
Normally it was Ellie who made an effort to try and get a move on when they were late (which, thanks to Ellie’s inability to factor singing and dancing into her allotted makeup time and Aurora’s need to change outfits a dozen times despite deciding days earlier what to wear, happened basically every time they left the house). But the roles were reversed that day, mostly because it was Aurora’s freshers they were meeting and Ellie, who’d only agreed to come on the social for moral support and the promise of a free cocktail, didn’t really care what impression they had of her.
Well, that and the absolutely massive fuck-off bigger than the whole of Scotland blister she had on the back of her foot prevented her from walking any pace faster than old lady trying to find a pew in church.
So Ellie was trying her best to keep up as Aurora not only passed the spot in the underpass that they’d deemed the best photo opportunity on the way into town but also the house with one-way glass windows that they normally used to check themselves out without so much as a pause. She made a mental note to buy a new pack of blister plasters in the morning - the good ones that cost a small fortune and come in the little plastic box, maybe they’d stop her trainers rubbing like sandpaper every time she so much as thought about taking a step.
“Here, is that them there?” Ellie pointed to a big group waiting outside the bar, squinting to see if she could match any of them to the Facebook profiles she’d spent a good half an hour stalking earlier that day.
“Surely not?” Aurora pulled a face. “Only four of them said they were coming and we’re not even that late.”
“Rory, one of them is literally waving at you.”
“Oh god, it’s that Lawrence. Quick, act cool.”
Normally Ellie would have told her friend to piss off then and there, knowing fine well that Aurora was one of the coolest people she knew. But Ellie had heard enough about that Lawrence over the past few months to understand the concern - their tongue worked faster than the checkout staff at Lidl and, much to Ellie’s amusement, Aurora had been burnt by it several times.
It had all started with the time Aurora decided to run an advice session for the freshers on Zoom, Ellie dying in the room below as she heard the fresher call Aurora a boomer and ask if she sold Avon within the first five minutes. And Aurora hadn’t helped herself since then either, turning up to their college bar with Tayce at the pinnacle of their “we’re just friends and nothing more despite the fact you can hear us fucking every night” phase only for Lawrence to be there pulling pints, making a remark about sexual tension as they popped their drinks down and giving Aurora a nice big wink that turned her face the colour of Ruby Woo and earned an entire reenactment to Ellie the next morning.
In fact, Ellie couldn’t think of one time that Aurora had interacted with that Lawrence without coming home red-faced to give a full reenactment of the torture. There had even been drunken talk of putting one of those chips in Aurora’s ear next time she went into college so Ellie could try and outsass and, more importantly, out-Scottish them - apparently this worked pretty well on an episode of the Suite Life once but Ellie told her she’d love nothing more than to hear Aurora being roasted in live time and would do absolutely nothing to stop it (besides, she’d always been a CBBC kid anyway).
So yeah, maybe she had come for a little bit more than the promise of a free cocktail.
“If it isn’t A’Whora.” That Lawrence, or maybe just Lawrence now that they were in front of her, a real person rather than a bunch of stories and a Facebook profile picture that hadn’t been updated since 2013. “What time dya call this? Bingo run over like?”
A real person with gorgeous lilac hair and big brown eyes like the Cadbury’s buttons Ellie’s brother had bought her for her thirteen birthday (they were never allowed anything branded and she’d kept them for weeks, treating herself to one only on special occasions).
Looking at Lawrence, Ellie knew she’d never have that kind of willpower anymore.
“Blame this one.” Aurora pointed her way. “She’s got a massive blister from wearing shitty Primark trainers.”
“Pree-mark.” Ellie rolled her eyes, partly because it annoyed her and partly because she thought it might make Lawrence smile. Which it did, the corners of their mouth turning up and making Ellie want to grab her phone immediately and change that prepubescent Facebook profile picture then and there.
Maybe it was a good thing. Cause if she’d known what Lawrence had looked like ten minutes earlier she would have been stuck at that one-way glass window til the owners banged on the other side. That or she’d still be in Aurora’s room getting ready, asking Google to play ‘Call Your Girlfriend’ just one more time so she’d at least feel confident enough to make conversation with her newfound crush. Either way, she wouldn’t be standing like an idiot at the back of the group, speaking a secret language with her eyes as they went to enter the bar.
“It’s bloody full, we’re gonna have to go to Slug instead.” Aurora rolled her eyes like they’d been told they’d have to walk all the way to Scotland for a drink (Ellie probably would have if it wasn’t for the killer blister, she was sick to death of English pint prices).
“I canny be arsed to walk right across town, I need a new plaster.”
“Spoons is closer?” One of the other freshers piped up, Ellie having almost forgotten they were with them for a second.
Well, most of them.
“It’s fine, al just pop into Tescos and buy some plasters then meet you there,” Ellie spoke before Aurora had a chance to interject, Ellie knowing fine well her best friend wasn’t stepping into Wetherspoons for at least another month after an unfortunate incident the Wednesday prior involving jager bombs, the tongue of a masters student with a strange look of Norma Desmond and a pitcher full of vomit (unless, of course, Tayce were to decide she fancied another night of drinking seven pounds a bottle wine then Ellie knew Aurora would be straight at the front of that queue).
She wondered what kind of jokes Lawrence would have made at Aurora’s expense if they’d been there.
The kind of jokes they would be making before the end of the night anyway, when Ellie would inevitably let the vodka go to her head and tell the story anyway.
“I’ll order you that cocktail.” Aurora beckoned the freshers across the bridge, Ellie laughing at the way they all followed, baby sheep being herded by the sluttiest Bo Peep you’d ever laid eyes on.
Were they that tragic a year ago?
“Your blister really that bad?”
Their voice caught Ellie off-guard, her words turning to mush as she realised Lawrence was still standing next to her, the early spring air between them light and fragile.
Everyone knows the type of air. The air that lets you know the good times are on their way, not long till the sun will be beaming down on the pavement, the smell of cider lingering around all night even once the sky goes dark. For Ellie it meant drunk games of French cricket by the bandstand, Aurora getting far too competitive and deciding Ellie had a personal vendetta against her for making her go first. Afternoon pints after studying that’d turn into the worst karaoke session ever heard and get them at least three noise complaints in one term last year.
The type of air she’d thought about all winter; the green outside their college blooming with daffodils and snowdrops and the prettiest lavender she’d been waiting all year to see.
Maybe it had bloomed a little earlier this year.
“It’s the grossest thing you’ve ever seen,” Ellie replied, coming to the immediate conclusion that, yes, she was that tragic a year ago. And, no, she hadn’t gotten any better.
“Better run an’ get your plasters then, before that bunch of lightweight’s pass out from one drink in the sun. I'll wait for ya.” Lawrence nodded towards the shop. "But maybe tell me your name before you do? Just in case you don't make it back here and I have to put a missing person's report on Facebook."
"It's Ellie." She laughed, wishing immediately that she had a cooler, more impressive name to show Lawrence she wasn't the most basic girl they'd come across in the entirety of the city.
"Nice to meet you, Ellie." Lawrence smiled. "Try not to miss me too much in the time it takes you to cross that road, yeah?"
Ellie took a step forward, somewhat confident that she already did.
so after being kind of inspired by @thehonorarybeaumont i had an idea for a little challenge type thing with the rarepairs of druk.
It’s pretty simple. All you gotta do is either end an ask (if on anon with some kinda emoji or word notifier and you can submit your stuff to my blog n i’ll post it) or dm me with a number between 1 and 26.
All these ships recieved at least a few votes on the poll that was done so i think there’s someone out there who wants to read them. the idea of this is to get people writing random/rare ships but in a way that’s easy, so anyone can do it and there’s not a huge word requirement. really anything over 100 words will do and even then write as little or as much as you want.
If anyone needs help with brainstorming i find a prompt list of plan with ya i spout out a LOT of ideas on the regular :))
Ahhhhh!!! TY so much for requesting! Here’s a bit of fluffy stuff for you.
“You’re beautiful.” Lawrence pressed his lips against the side of Ellie’s forehead. The pair were sprawled out together on Lawrence’s sofa, happily taking a break from shows and touring. “I don’t tell you that enough.”
“You tell me everyday babes.” Ellie smiled at him. It was true, even when they were miles apart from each other, Lawrence would always find a way to remind Ellie of his love. Though to most the gestures looked incredibly cheesy, Ellie loved them simply because she loved Lawrence. “You’re beautiful too, just so you know.”
“Oh I know.” Lawrence teased, quickly dodging Ellie’s hand from playfully smacking him for the comment. In retaliation he began to tickle at Ellie’s sides.
With little room to escape from where she sat between Lawrence’s legs, the younger queen began to squirm.
“Loz please.” She broke into a laugh. “Stoppp it tickles.”
“Only if I get a kiss.”
Ellie turned her head back as far as she could to let her lips meet her boyfriend’s. She never grew tired of the feeling that spread through her body whenever Lawrence gave her any form of physical affection, so much as a touch sent a warmth straight to her heart.
