❝ Do you want to join me in my blanket fort? ❞ //Hope/Finn
“You made a blanket fort?”
Finn stood just on the outskirts of the fort that had been constructed around Hope’s small room at the back of her store. He glanced down at her head popping out from between two blankets, his brows raised. As much as he hated that she was living all cooped up like this instead of just crashing on his couch, it was nice to see she was at least… doing something fun? Was her turning her bed into a blanket fort a cry for help or her making light of things? He couldn’t tell yet. He’d have to crawl in for awhile to find out.
At his height, he really had to hunch down to slip through the entrance and come crashing down onto her bed. “Yeah, I am not twelve anymore, this is not easy…”
It used to be effortless, the two of them plus Kris plus Theo being able to cram into a small space so comfortably. Now it’d be difficult to get them all together in more ways than one. They had definitely grown up. If Finn hadn’t already known that, the ache in his back was there to remind him.
“Love what you’ve done with the place,” he said, looking around and hoping a book didn’t come falling onto his head from one of the shelves. “But I’m not gonna lie, you’ve made more impressive ones.”
He could vividly remember the fort they’d put together on his thirteenth birthday in his basement. They’d gone all out, fairy lights and a mass of pillows and a TV inside of the fort. And by ‘they’, he mostly meant Hope. Theo had handed her things as she asked for them, but the boys were mostly useless. All four of them had fallen asleep in that thing, popcorn and chip bags strewn between them.
It was hard not to get nostalgic for those days.
“Still great though,” he added, reaching out to pat Hope’s arm. He had a feeling he wasn’t the only one remembering their childhood. Things had been a lot simpler back then. And a blanket fort couldn’t solve anything now, or take them back to childhood completely, but it could provide a sentimental feeling of safety and innocence and simplicity for the time being. A hope that maybe some things can go back to the way they were. Not everything had to change.
Theo huffed out a laugh, breathy and not the most lively, but genuine all the same. It was the best he could manage with his eyes still closed and the rest of him not fully awake yet. If it hadn’t been for Jules stirring in bed beside him, he’d still be asleep. Ever since he gave up drinking and started going to bed sober, he’d become a much lighter sleeper.
“Has that ever worked for anyone?” he mumbled in response, his voice rough. “I don’t think those sheep give a shit about helping people fall asleep.”
He rolled over on his side, snaking an arm around her waist to tug her closer. Just with her warmth pressed against him, he instantly felt like he could go back to sleep in a second. But he forced his eyes to stay open. If she was up, so was he.
Just because he’d managed to fall asleep that night, didn’t mean every night was easy for him. Him and Jules were going through the same thing here, and he’d never want to make her go through a bad night alone.
“What number did you get to?” he asked, pushing himself up onto his elbow so he could gaze down at her - and because he’d be less likely to fall asleep again if his head was up. “You want me to keep counting with you or have you abandoned the sheep? I can play with your hair or something if that’d help.” He tilted his head down, brushing his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. “Whatever you need.”
📫 for a letter my muse would write about yours to a third party.
Dear Finn,
Sorry if this letter takes so long to get to you again. Waiting for my parents to bring me stamps takes forever sometimes. They're still busy all the time. You remember, probably. If they keep forgetting again I'll just walk to the post office myself. One of my friends could probably show me where it is. I don't know this neighborhood very good yet. I miss my old house and school. I mostly miss you all. I miss Hope a lot. Kris, too. And you of course. I met new kids who are cool but they aren't you guys. I guess they're my friends. They're a little older but they live near me and I met them when we first got here. Their names are Kyle, Matt, and Chris. He spells it differently than our Kris. They both like sports though. They're really different to you guys, but different doesn't always mean bad, right? No one could be like you all. Especially Hope. I haven't met a lot of girls yet but I can already tell none are like her. Don't tell her I said so but I don't think any girl in the whole world is like her. She's the toughest and sweetest girl I know, I always did think so. She could never be replaced. None of you could be.
Write back if you can.
Sincerely,
Theo
💌 for a letter my muse would write to yours.
Dear Hope,
Getting your letter really made my day. I haven't written to the others in awhile, so maybe you can pass along an apology for me? I haven't forgotten about any of you, I promise. No matter how many years go by, that'll be impossible. I have my reasons, I promise you, but I don't want to waste space with any of that. Kris' last letter came earlier this year and he told me you two started dating. That was no shock. Me and Finn used to talk about how gross you two were. All googly eyed at each other. We both hated it, but I think we hated it for different reasons.
I was always jealous of how much you liked Kris. We all knew you did but a part of me still kind of hoped that by the time you were able to start dating, you'd be over him or he'd be over you (which never seemed likely considering you're you and how could he stop liking you?) and I hoped I'd have some sort of chance to be with you. I know that's stupid. I'm 16 and super wise now, so I realize that. I realize it's dumb to still like you, too, but I think I do. No - I know I do.
Sometimes, checking the mailbox and seeing you wrote back is the only bright spot of my entire month. I keep expecting you to stop replying. The others... Their letters have slowed, and so have mine to them, but you're still a consistent part of my life even when you're miles away. I like you so much that the inevitable knowledge that you will, one day, not write me back is crushing. Every time your letter takes a little longer to get here, I get this consuming feeling of dread that this it. This is the letter you don't reply to, this is where the distance between us all grows even more. So maybe now is the time for me to get rid of that feeling, too. It's the anticipation that kills.
So maybe you shouldn't write back. I kind of don't want to read you nicely rejecting me, if I'm being honest. So don't. Please. This confession can be a goodbye of sorts.
If it seems like I'm pushing you away, all of you, I'm sorry. I don't think you all would like me too much anymore anyway. And I don't want to read you arguing that either, because you have no idea. It doesn't seem like things have changed for you all over there, which is good, but things are different for me.
I'm happy for you and Kris. I mean that. I hope he's good to you because I don't think anyone is more deserving of a gentle, kind love than you. But I'm not worried, I'm sure he'll be a great boyfriend to you.
"Good morning, sleepyhead,"/‘ what do you want for breakfast?'/‘ your favorite cartoon is on.' //Faith/Elise
‘what do you want for breakfast?’
The question was asked as Elise finally slid into the chair across from Faith. She felt awful, she’d kept her waiting at Alvarez’s for nearly half an hour, but she was moving slow this morning. She’d worked until close and then pulled an all nighter finishing her paper in the library. Between work and school, she hadn’t even seen her dorm room since six the previous morning. All she wanted was her bed. But she also needed to stuff her face because she hadn’t dinner and was starving, and Faith was one of a very select few that she could actually tolerate being around right now.
“Does it count as breakfast if I’ve been awake for over 24 hours and am going to crash the second I leave here?” she asks, opening the menu awaiting her, and then promptly closing it because she gets the same thing every time she eats breakfast here. “This may qualify as dinner? I don’t know. I’m still getting french toast.”
“Good morning, sleepyhead.”
Elise was still half asleep as she trudged into the living room, rubbing her blurry eyes with one hand and clutching a textbook in the other. She was going to take advantage of having an actual nice quiet mostly empty place to study in by spending her morning on the couch reading for class, but that was before she found Faith there already. Which didn’t exactly shock her, considering it was Faith’s home. Faith really was such a savior in Elise’s eyes. In a time when she was really drowning and in need of some support and guidance, she hadn’t been able to turn to her own parents who’d have just said ‘we told you so’ if she admitted to struggling in school. But Faith had been there. The mom friend she hadn’t even known she needed. She gave her advice, encouragement, and a place away from campus to breathe at. Her dormmate wasn’t difficult to live with by any means, but sometimes she just needed a getaway, and Faith provided her with that.
She hated feeling like she was taking advantage or being a burden by being there so often, so she didn’t stay there every night, but this weekend she was allowing herself a break from campus and work life. She had both days off, and no classes until Monday. But - that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to think about school at all. She’d still study, but it felt a lot less stressful doing so on a comfortable couch at her friend’s place.
“’Morning,” she grumbled, pausing to clear her throat. “I’ve come to sit with you and read. Please continue as you were.” She flopped onto the couch beside her, pulling her feet up to sit cross legged with her book resting in her lap.
As Faith continued to flip through the TV channels, Elise opened the book, looking for the right chapter. She wasn’t someone who was easily distracted, she could work through her dormmate on the phone with her boyfriend back home and through Evan taking orders when she was reading in the back room, so the sounds of the TV didn’t pull her away from her work. She only looked up when Faith told her, “Your favorite cartoon is on.”
Elise’s eyes flickered upwards and she gasped in pleased surprise. “Oh my god, I didn’t even think they still aired Danny Phantom!” But there it was, right on the screen. She looked over at Faith with a grin. “This was my all time favorite show growing up.”
Danny Phantom, Phil of the Future, and Spy Kids were little Elise’s top three things to watch, but Danny had held the top spot in her heart for years and years. It had been ages since she’d seen it though. She remembered mentioning that to Faith, all of that, forever ago in conversation. It honestly kind of touched her that she remembered.
“Paulina was my first weird cartoon crush,” she admitted with a laugh. “Oh, we have to watch!”
Closing her book, she pushed it to the side. Studying could wait.
[text]: So….how many dogs do you own exactly? Just asking for research purposes. / [text]: so yeah I may have stole your dog while I was drunk but that doesn’t mean I’m not a nice girl. Your dog loves me. We bonded. / Shan & Woojin
Shan→Woojin: So... how many dogs do you own exactly? Just asking for research purposes.
Woojin→Shan: What sort of research is this? Are you plotting my murder? A robbery? Identity theft?
Shan→Woojin: so yeah I may have stole your dog while I was drunk but that doesn’t mean I’m not a nice girl. Your dog loves me. We bonded.
Woojin→Shan: If my dog isn’t back at my apartment within the next hour, I’m calling the cops. I’m being generous because of hangover time.
Woojin→Shan: Bring me back my baby, bitch.
❝Tequila is not my friend? YOU’RE not my friend.❞/❝I should call my ex.❞/❝Does playing Mario Kart drunk count as drunk driving?❞//Hope/Finn
1.
“Does playing Mario Kart drunk count as drunk driving?”
Finn didn’t look away from the screen as Hope addressed him. Partially because he didn’t want to look away and lose, partially because he was so drunk that he wasn’t sure he could move his eyes at this point. He was so zoned in on their race on the TV that he couldn’t look at anything else. But he did give a thoughtful grunt in reply.
“I hope not,” he said, words garbling together thanks to the multiple shots they’d done that night. He’d really regret those in the morning. “Phone’s right there if you wanna call and rat us out though. But I’m winning right now so I really wish you wouldn’t.”
2.
He should have known this wouldn’t be pretty when it was Nadia who called him to pick up Hope instead of Hope herself. Usually if she had one too many, Hope knew how to get herself home, or she picked up the phone to dial Finn. But when he showed up at the bar, she was way past the point she usually was when she called for a ride. He didn’t think he’d seen her this drunk since they were teenagers and didn’t know how much they could handle yet.
(The answer: not much.)
“I found your number in her phone,” Nadia spoke, British accent thick in her own tipsy state. “You seemed like the best person to call.”
Finn nodded, giving her an appreciative smile and a squeeze to the shoulder. “Yeah, thank you. I’ve got it from here.”
Just past Nadia’s shoulder, there sat Hope, glass in hand. Finn reached out, intersecting her and her drink before she could take another sip. The look he got was one of rage that he hadn’t been the target of in awhile.
“Hey, about we cut you off now, huh?” he asked, pushing the drink to the side. “I don’t think tequila is your friend tonight.”
“Tequila is not my friend? You’re not my friend.”
Finn sighed. “No, no, I am,” he said. Once again he had to take the drink from her as she tried to stretch her arm out to grab for it again. “I’m your best friend, I’m Finn, I’ve been your best friend for thirty years. Ya know me?”
She didn’t look amused with him. Obviously she knew who he was, she wasn’t that out of it. But she was clearly in a mood - either the alcohol put her in one, or she’d tried and failed to use the alcohol to get rid of the bad mood - and he was trying to simultaneously cheer her up and get her to stop drinking. Doing both at the same time seemed to be a tough task.
“Come on,” he urged, a hand around her shoulder to try and guide her off the bar stool. “Let’s go get something to eat and sober you up. You wanna go to Alvarez’s? Maybe get some tacos from that food truck down the street? Ohh, a fried egg and bacon sandwich? You know you could put away like two of those right now. Or we could just go to my place and you can sleep this off?”
With the current state of her, Finn was pretty sure taking her anywhere but right to bed would be a disaster. She’d more than likely pass out right there in the restaurant booth. But he was trying to give options.
“What do you wanna do?”
”I should call my ex,” she slurred in response.
His eyes widened with alarm. “Oh, no! That was not - No!” But she was already dialing. He hadn’t even seen her grab her phone.
“No, no, no!” He moved frantically, snatching it from her with little effort thanks to her slack grip. Thank god the call hadn’t gone through yet. “Calling Kris is the absolute last thing you should do right now. That’s… no. No, no.”
He shoved her phone into his back pocket and gripped her shoulder again, physically steering her up this time. The ‘let her decide to leave for herself’ route was long abandoned now. She clearly wasn’t up for making good decisions.
“I’m gonna drive you to my place and order a pizza on the way,” he told her, trying his best to not get frustrated with how slow she was dragging her feet at his side. “If you’re not fast asleep in the back of my car when we get home, you can have the whole thing to yourself.”
She didn’t argue much, surprisingly but also thankfully, as he shuffled her into his backseat. There was some nonsensical drunken ramblings throughout the drive - which Finn is sure the pizza guy taking his order loved hearing in the background - but she didn’t fall asleep. He hoped she did soon though. It seemed like she needed it, and not just because of how drunk she was.
The divorce hadn’t been easy on her. Or Kris, for that matter, but Finn had had a front row seat to Hope’s post-divorce breakdowns. She needed all the rest and ease she could get.
Finn hadn’t meant to choose sides, they were both his best friends, but he’d known Hope the longest - even if it was only by a couple extra years, it counted. He knew her inside and out and he couldn’t help but want to help her and defend her in all of this mess. He’d be there for Kris still, too, of course, but when it came down to it - he was Hope’s best friend. She needed him, and even when she didn’t ask for his help, he would always be there to give it.
‘ we’re too drunk to even walk. ’/[Text]: Dumbass I drove... you sat in the passengers seat and steered with a paper plate./[Text]: A lesson I learned in the hospital....when you masturbate while attached to a heart monitor, it scares the nurses a lot./[Text]: If you get me a sex toy for Christmas everyone in my family will question our friendship//Nico/Kai
‘ we’re too drunk to even walk. ’
Nico scoffed, taking offense to Kai’s words. He shot up too quickly from the couch they were sharing and immediately fell back onto his ass, proving those words to be true after all.
He persisted.
“Speak for yourself, man,” he told him, the fact that none of his words were slurring together a surprise even to him. “I can fuckin’ walk.”
He was standing on his two feet, a little wobbly but standing nonetheless - but he wasn’t moving. It felt like a victory to him though. “I’ll walk for the both of us. Come here. Hold me.”
He grabbed Kai’s wrist, tugging him upwards before letting go and wrapping his arms around his waist instead, hiking him up and over his shoulder. Shocked at his own strength and the fact that that had worked, he let out a sharp howl of laughter. “Onward we go!”
Then, he finally put one foot in front of the other, and proceeded to crumble under Kai’s weight. They both hit the floor, Nico erupting into an even louder laugh than before.
“Ah, shit…” he sighed when he finally caught his breath. “Fuck. Guess we can’t walk.”
[Text]: Dumbass I drove… you sat in the passengers seat and steered with a paper plate.
Nico→Kai: huh that doesn’t sound right to me Nico→Kai: i remember the entire drive i swear i was in the drivers seat Nico→Kai: i remember eating pizza as i drove because im super great at multitasking like that Nico→Kai: you must have been real drunk if you think you drove lol
[Text]: A lesson I learned in the hospital….when you masturbate while attached to a heart monitor, it scares the nurses a lot.
Nico→Kai: what the fuck got you horny in a hospital dude Nico→Kai: like thats funny as hell but that place smells like… like a hospital. its the unsexiest place. Nico→Kai: you have some weird kinks i don’t wanna know about
[Text]: If you get me a sex toy for Christmas everyone in my family will question our friendship
Nico→Kai: you don’t have to show it off tf open it in private Nico→Kai: i can’t just take it back, i already opened it, they’ll think i used it Nico→Kai: i didn’t, i swear, i just had to make sure it was what i wanted it to be and that the batteries i bought were the right ones for it Nico→Kai: you can ask Evan he was in the room with me, he didn’t seem impressed but i think he was just hating on the color Nico→Kai: you’ll accept my sex toy and you’ll like it like a good friend
“I made your favourite.” / “Can I kiss you?” / “I think you’re beautiful.” / “I want you to be happy.” / Kris & Hope
“I made your favourite.”
Hope slipped her heels off and got into her slippers, and she heard her husband call out from the kitchen and she smiled so huge her face felt like it might split in half.
‘Her favourite’ was pizza and a boozy night in front of the TV. Nothing something most people would say was their favourite or think was romantic. But spending the night yelling drunken warnings at horror movie characters, eating pizza with her husband was her favourite way to end her week.
She had asked him over because she had missed him. Missed talking to him about her day, no matter how small and inconsequential it was. She missed him talking about his crappy days and his good days. Missed fixing him dinner and having wine together.
“Can I kiss you?” His question felt both like sweet relief, and the pain of fingers against a too fresh bruise. She nodded before she could begin to think better. That they shouldn’t. That there were reasons that they’d divorced.
But she didn’t think those things. She just thought that he looked so nice and warm right now. He looked like he always did, but she thought he looked like he still loved her. Maybe it was the wine. Maybe it was the missing him so hard she couldn’t breathe properly. But, there, in the backroom of her little inconsequential bookshop, in her little life, she felt his lips on hers, and the possibility of starting them over again.
They pulled apart, his hand against her jaw, foreheads pressed together, their breaths mingling.
It was then she noticed that she was crying again. Hot salty tears slipping down her cheeks.
She jerked away from Kris in that moment, breaking the connection.
“I shouldn’t.... I shouldn’t have asked you here,” she spoke rapidly, wiping at her cheeks. “This was a mistake,” the words left her mouth before she could stop them, but now she didn’t care. She didn’t need to see how badly this all hurt.
“Please leave, I... I need to be alone,”
“I think you’re beautiful.”
It had been a rough day. She tried to not let other people’s comments weigh on her mind, but like. Fuck people, alright?
Hope had taken scissors to her hair over the weekend to give herself a more tomboyish look, even with her dresses. And, like, so what if people said that it was ugly, or uneven. Whatever, that’s the look. She didn’t want to look remotely approachable.
But still.
She had her pride.
So when Kris had said those words to her, she thought it was a stupid joke, until she could see it on his face he wasn’t fucking around.
“Thanks,” she replied, ducking her head and brushing her bangs out of her face, trying to hide the flush that spread across her cheeks.
“I want you to be happy.”
“Fuck you!” Hope screamed into her empty bookstore, recalling the words Kris had said to her.
He wanted her to be happy, and clearly that wasn’t him anymore.
He wasn’t wrong. But that had only been because of him keeping things from her and saying awful things, untrue things about her and Finn.
Oh god. How was she meant to get through all this on her own? How could she tell her mom? How could she tell Finn? How could she explain to every person in town that her and Kris were getting a divorce?
