Author's Notes: I don't know how many of my readers watch Gossip Girl, but I've always liked the idea of Kirsten Cohen being friends with Lily van der Woodsen (partly because I know Kelly Rowan is good friends with Kelly Rutherford in real-life!). This is a little drabble I wrote recently, and it's written very differently from how I usually do but I hope you enjoy reading this!
This mainly explores the Lily/Kirsten friendship, but alludes to Sandy/Kirsten and Rufus/Lily as well. You don't have to even watch the show to understand (or so, I am hoping!). I'd really love to know what you think.
AU, and timeline is pretty much messed up. Let's just look over the flaws here, shall we?
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WISHES
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Another 'family' business trip for Lily, another Newpsie event for Kirsten.
With a face worn out from too much smiling at people she didn't even know, Kirsten escapes the restricting confines of her father's too-grand mansion and makes her way down that familiar path.
Her familiar path, which led to the beach just a little beyond her home. Kirsten did not like the ocean, how could she, with all the fish? But over the years, the fine sand that was only oh-so-inviting and the soft lull of waves crashing the shore beckoned her often to the clandestine area when she needed to be with herself.
(Often it was to get away from Hailey, but ask, and Kirsten will not admit that.)
However, when she finally sets foot in the sand tonight, she finds a sight she had never seen all the times in the past she was there.
Kirsten must be hallucinating, but she thinks she just saw herself.
She tries to mask her surprise, but the young lady turns around before she could do that.
There were hints of shyness before her smile becomes confident. Too confident, in fact, like it was almost practiced.
That smile, that smile alone gave Kirsten another reason to believe she was seeing herself in this girl.
"Kirsten, right?"
She nods in confirmation, not even allowing herself to be surprised that this girl knew who she was.
"I'm Lily."
A few chosen, polite words later, and both girls were seated on the sand, vaguely wondering how meeting each other should be so different from meeting thousands of people they've met before.
Lily checks her watch. It's 11:11 in the evening.
And to her right, after seeing the time herself, Kirsten's eyes are closed as a soft smile plays on her lips.
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"You make wishes when it's 11:11?"
"Well, yeah I do. Doesn't everybody?"
"I don't."
"Somehow, I'm not surprised."
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With the wealthy background that was one of the trivial things they have in common, it was not an oddity that Lily and Kirsten came to know each other through a party.
Such socialites, they were. Blessed with good looks, hopelessly blond and blue-eyed. Lily is a few years younger than her acquaintance, a fact she will eventually come to rub in to Kirsten in years to come.
(Ironically, decades later and it's Lily who ends up needing the Botox, but she thinks Kirsten's too nice to point that out.)
They were renowned to be the ones always at the top of their game, the opposite coasts where they came from. But together? They're stunning. Unapproachable, almost. Where Kirsten comes from, she has learned to deal with such shallow people. Same goes for Lily, though on a slightly more different level she thinks Kirsten will ever encounter. But she couldn't be more wrong about that, though she doesn't have to realize it now.
But Kirsten and Lily.
Lily and Kirsten.
Both were pleasantly surprised at how they genuinely seemed to get along.
"So, 'KiKi', huh?"
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"You know, I never really saw you as someone who believes in things like that."
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When Kirsten escapes her father's home again, this time it's for good.
Off to Berkeley she goes, and the only 'Newport' thing she's brought with her besides her material possessions, is her friendship with one Lily van der Woodsen.
And Lily's not even from Orange County, but she has helplessly associated the girl with where she came from.
Since that night, their being acquaintances has turned into some sort of a friendship, though it was mostly over long-distance calls or when Kirsten happened by New York, or when Lily got to go with her parents back to California for business reasons like the first time.
Despite the distance, Kirsten feels like Lily's the only person who she can talk to about anything and everything.
But she finds it hard to tell Lily the real reason why she's really leaving Newport and starting anew in Berkeley.
So she doesn't.
She can't even admit it to Jimmy.
Or herself.
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"Why do you make a wish when it's 11:11?"
"Because I like believing in magic."
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Barely a month after settling in Berkeley, and Kirsten meets Sandy Cohen.
He's unlike any other guy she has ever encountered before, and that scares her. A lot.
Shitless.
The minute she comes home (well, if you could call her mail truck a home) after her coffee date with him, Kirsten's immediately on the phone with Lily and telling him all about this guy she met.
What was he like?, Lily asks, always eager to hear about her friend and her rebellious ways. She never thought Kirsten would be that girl to defy her parents and run away from the bubble that was her home. She was a whole lot stronger than Lily saw her to be, and that fascinates her.
Sometimes, she wonders how it would be like if she were more like Kirsten.
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"How does it work?"
"Well, the superstition is simple. When you look at the clock and you see it's 11:11, you make a wish."
"That's it?"
Kirsten laughs. "That's it. You don't have to make everything complicated, Lil."
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The phone calls became fewer and farther in between as the years pass.
Kirsten and Lily still talk, of course. It just wasn't as often as it used to be. Not as often as they would have liked.
It was during one of these lulls of theirs when Lily meets Rufus Humphrey, in a concert gig nonetheless. A concert gig she would've rather died than be seen at (what kind of name is Lincoln Hawk anyway?).
But she happened to be there, and he happened to be there, and the next thing she knew, he was making her laugh.
Some part of her thinks she finally knows how Kirsten felt about Sandy.
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"Why 11:11?"
"Huh?"
"What's the significance of 11:11 anyway? Why that number?"
"Apparently it's when the universe taps you on the shoulder."
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Lily doesn't have to wonder anymore. She knows.
Granted, it's just not the same. And she would be the first to admit she's becoming more of a groupie than a rebel like Kirsten was (is), but it still displeases her mother, and when Lily's not caught up having so much fun being with Rufus, she's taking such pleasure in that fact.
Rufus is a wish granted. A wish Lily had made at 11:11.
That wish wasn't to be like Kirsten.
And no, that wish wasn't to find an excuse to flaunt her rebellion to her mother.
No. Lily wished for something else. Someone else.
Just like how Sandy was to Kirsten's own wish.
And Lily couldn't be happier.
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"What if the clock says 23:11 instead of 11:11? Does it still count?"
"I don't know." Kirsten's smile is amused. "You're thinking way too much into it."
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The next time Lily and Kirsten see each other, it's in New York and Lily is in tears.
She doesn't think Kirsten has been presented with such choices before: The man who gave her such happiness, or the one thing that Lily hates to admit she's afraid of letting go of.
No, she corrects herself. Kirsten has been presented with such choices, and with no hesitations she chose Sandy over everything else. That was why she was in New York in the first place: to finally meet Sandy's mother.
She and Sandy were finally getting married, and yet Lily can't even be happy for them. Not right now.
"How do you make it seem so easy?" she asks from under her sheets.
Kirsten sighs. It has been far too long and she had no idea of how difficult the past few years had been for her. Sure, they were her happiest, but compared to her childhood years of ease back in Newport, life in Berkeley wasn't as simple.
"It's not." She soothes, falling silent to choose her words carefully. She and Lily were so different, yet so alike that it scares her. A thought comes to her, and a peaceful smile tugs at her lips reminiscently. "Ever you try wishing at 11:11?"
The very simple and child-like concept of wishes always made Lily think of Kirsten. There was something magical about them that never failed to make her happy.
But it's failing her right now.
"Wishing doesn't make things happen, Kirsten."
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"Kirsten, it doesn't work!"
"You're not supposed to look at any other clock again until you're sure it's past 11:11 already."
Lily's jinxed herself, but she doesn't tell Kirsten that.
Even though, technically, she just did.
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Lily and Kirsten grow up, and, admit it or not, become the adults they had avoided that very night they first met.
Little did the times come when they would look at the clock randomly and see that it was 11:11. Therefore, less were the chances of them making wishes, and even during those rare opportunities they were so caught up they just didn't end up making any.
If there was one wish Lily and Kirsten should've made, way back before, it's never to become the people they're becoming now.
But it was too late.
Or was it?
11:11.
Lily wishes it wasn't. Oh, how she wishes.
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"Since when did you start making 11:11 wishes yourself?"
"Since you made me believe in them."
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Almost two decades later, and things have changed a lot.
They were both older, more mature than the two teenagers they used to be, having gone through the trials and tribulations life brought to them. But despite all those, they were still Lily and Kirsten, and Lily-and-Kirsten, that much they knew.
There was so much to say, and it felt like they both didn't know where to start catching up.
In that moment, however, words were not needed. It was the words left unsaid that mattered the most.
"Oh, Kirsten, come over here and give me a hug."
And Kirsten can't help but think, deep down, some things never really did change.
It's been far too long indeed.
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"Well, did your wishes come true?"
"In a way, one did."
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End.