connyr0โ:
โฆ
as wendy called him out for dissing his motherโs taste in entertainment, he couldnโt help the stupid smile that spread as she so easily jumped on his motherโs side. it was stupid, totally stupid. and her position arguably had very little to do with his mother at all. but a mamaโs boy at his core it did warm his heart a little. after a moment he held his hands up in surrender, easily giving up the fight with smile remaining on features.ย โ i meant no disrespect to hgtv, truly, โ he said, though it was hard to appear genuine when he had that dumbass grin on his features. but it was harder to keep that grin from his face around wendy.ย โ but i will start preparing now for the property brothers marathon thatโs in my future. โ he teased, knowing damn well if he was ever subjected to such a thing it would be the furthest thing from torture he could imagine.
he didnโt like the way he said with everyone. he meant it, of course he wanted to have a fun little movie night with all his friends. he got so lucky at broadripple to quickly find a group of people like he had. but heโd only said it to protect himself. though wendy wasnโt that sort of person he could so clearly see her laughing in his face if he ever accidentally passed that invisible line that revealed his feelings, or even suggested his feelings were anything other than platonic. but she smiled, and as far as conny wasnโt effected by his distinctionโ which was exactly what heโd wanted. he cringed a little when she mentioned west side story, mostly teasingly. itโs not that he didnโt like musicals, but if the musical numbers were the best part of a film heโd rather just listen to an album.ย โ iโm not saying no to west side story โฆ butโ โ he paused to suck a breath,ย โ you gotta build up to that sort of thing. thatโs like jumping in the deep end of a wave pool when you donโt even know how to swim, โ he reasoned, and if it was anyone but wendy suggesting it he might mention that heโd rather drown in said wave pool than watch west side story. for wendy heโd totally watch west side story.ย โ how about โฆ โ he trailed off, filing through movies heโd seen and either had downloaded or were available on some sort of streaming service that were musical or music centric that would happily bridge the divide between connyโs favourites like scream and get out and anything from the stephen king universe and wendy and isobelโs desire for musicals.ย โ across the universe? you ever seen it? โ he suggested. though not a huge beatles fan, he had a major soft spot for evan rachel wood and jim sturgess too.ย โ iโm pretty sure i have it downloaded but i could always hole up in the library for an afternoon to get it. โย
it wasnโt something conny ever really put much thought into, but he realised he maybe didnโt know a whole lot about his friends. of course a lot of that ignorance could be excused because he was new to broadripple and broadripple being a boarding school allowed everyone a break from their families and home lives. but he liked hearing the way wendy talked about her family. even if she was joking around. dopey smile tugged up his lips for a moment before he pressed them together again and nodded his head.ย โ right, of courseโ you know iโm surprised they even got as far as dropping you off at camp, how they even thought they could go so long without you? itโs shocking to me, completely shocking. โ he played along, trying to subdue amusement on his features but, as always, totally failing.ย
when she wiggled her sap covered fingers at him, he gave in easily. swinging bag back over his shoulder and rearranging camera strap so it hung to his side instead of against his chest. unscrewing the water bottle as he stepped closer to her so he could properly inspect the damage.ย ย โ but you did learn something, โ he said, taking her hand into his, gentle with his touch like she was injured and not that he was wary about getting sap all over his own hands.ย โ watch what youโre touching in the woods. โ he looked up from her hand to her to offer a stupid grin, amused with himself, before he looked back down again. he turned her palm upwards, still being soft with his touch, so he could pour a little water into it. curve of her hand catching a little of it while most of it ran off the sticky surface and onto the dirt between them.ย โ i have no idea, โ he admitted, rubbing the water into the sap and her skin as he attempted to clean it.ย โ i think most of them do, it just takes a broken branch or like, a cut to see it for some of them. โย if connor roberts were some sort of poet maybe he could have thought about how sometimes people were like that. that it took something drastic to see what they were made of. instead he was hyper fixated on how soft wendyโs skin was, wondering if heโd ever noticed that before, and completely aware of how close they were for this whole interaction. he paused to pour more water on the problem area, cupping her hand with his free hand as he did.ย
โฆ
Wendy sighed heavily, as if it were a huge burden, then smiled. โYouโre lucky Iโm soft for that soundtrack. T.V. Carpio singingย โI Wanna Hold Your Handโ? Slaysย me.โ Which was the truth, but the truth extended beyond that. Wendy had spent an entire summer when she was thirteen watching and rewatching Across the Universe with Nell; in the month of July, they definitely watched it at least once a day. Eventually her dad hid the DVD. "We could make it into a Rocky Horror thing. People sing and act along. Iโd be shockedย if everyone didnโt know at least one song word-for-word. And Nell and I had that weird choreography during that draft scene memorized. Like, when the weird plastic-faced soldier men are mandhandling all the guys in their underwear? We did the push ups and everything. โSheโs so heeeavy,โโ Wendy sing-songedย at the end, now more excited by Connyโs suggestion than her original one.
Her smile softened when Conny took her hand. It was an innocent, helpful gestureโthe way the pad of his thumb rubbed gently against her fingers likely both platonic and perfunctoryโbut it made her heart all fluttery just the same. Wendyโs skin sung with it, and she inadvertently leaned in closer like a moth to a flame. It wasnโt that she was touch-starved really, as Wendy was always slumping against or looping her arms through friends and family alike. She got her skin-to-skin contact pretty frequently, and she wrangled Ella into snuggling with her on more than one occasion. But this was differentโand while the feeling of wanting to be touched wasnโt foreign, this time it felt a little revelatory. To be touched and then to want more in a way that was gut-deep and a bit scary. Wendy fantasized about kissing more people than she could remember, and she even managed to make it happen with a couple of them, but she had never stood so close but felt so far away from the action. Her heart gave a quick, sharp twist.
โI was trying to have a Grandmother Willow moment,โ she grumped in defense. Though the fact irked her, she figured you probably couldnโt forceย a spiritual connection with nature. Sheย hummed in acknowledgment of Connyโs following words. They struck her as poetic, and she mulled them around in her head before she tucked them away for safekeeping. She wished she could use her phone and Google what other trees could be tapped, but the fact that she couldnโt still held the rosy-tinted hue of a bygone era in the same way that leaving the handwritten note for Conny had. She wondered how much longer that feeling would stick around. Wendy hummed again as her gaze turned up, looking at the way the trees shot skyward. She remembered reading once that the forests in New England were pretty young by comparison to others. Originally deforested for farming thanks to colonization, the woods they walked were probably teensย in tree-years or something. It made them a little less intimidating for a moment.ย She didnโt know the names of many of them or how to identify them other than the pine tree, but she liked that with the unknown the possibilities were then endless.
When her eyes settled back on Connyโs face, she felt her own warm almost immediately. He was close enough that she could see each individual eyelash, and the birthmarks that scattered across his cheek and down his neck. โYeesh. Youโre always helping me with my messes,โ she joked, then watched as the water dripped from her hand down onto the dirt. Once she was sap-free, she let herself linger in his hold for a moment before she pulled back. She didnโt want to dry her hand on her cow-print shirt, in case there was some sticky remnant that transferred, so she shook it in hopes to air dry.ย โYouโre not going to start charging me for labor, are you?โ She waited for him to right himself and his supplies before she set off again. โBecause the best I can do isssss... haikus? I could totally pay you in haikus. Pretty sure I saw a movie where a guy did that.โ Her tongue pressed against the inside of her cheek as she thought: summer, their broad grins, the sap on her hand. โCheerful summertime,โ she started, counting out the syllables on her fingers.ย โA new, little sticky smile...โ She straightened with a smile of her own.ย โBetrayed by the tree.โ She turned the five-finger count toward him.ย โFive-seven-five. Boom.โ

















