Finally watched GMNY in full and Cheese Soufflé just won over my heart. Can you just imagine him asking his mom for advice on how to make a girl he likes notice him and his sisters teasing him all annoying with things like 'Charlie likes a giiirl!' and 'Charlie and Riley sitting in a tree!' and his mom probably told him to pay attention to her and notice the little things about her because she'll appreciate it, and Charlie really took heed of the advice and paid attention to everything lol. This guy is head over heels in his crush, and he's probably so unbelievably threatened by Lucas that he started antagonizing him. And it turns out his efforts were in vain nevertheless. It makes my heart hurt. Can we have happy Charlie please?
It's funny because I'm not really a fan of most unrequited relationships in TV shows (since they're mostly done badly), but for some reason, I can't help but feel like this one maaaaybe isn't quite as unrequited as we're being led to think. I think Riley could perhaps grow to actually like Charlie. (Don't quote me on that. Just speculation). I think they could be a dorky cute couple together. Anywaaaayyyy, that thought birthed this random story.
It's fragments, word vomit, and unstructured and weird. I didn't feel like writing it out all the way at once because the shit is long (and I'm too lazy to write a super long one shot right now, but in the future, I'll condense it in one, probably), so this is what happened. Hopefully it won't take forever to write this whole thing up but I'm also lazy as hell during breaks so I make no promises. Bah whatevs.
Rated K+ for Kites Flying Away
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own GMW but I do love me some good old angst.
Sometimes when Riley is working on her school work, her eyes will be drawn to the photo on her desk.
She's four. Her father is holding her in his arms as they squint at the camera her mother had been holding, sand in their hair and clothes and all over their faces. It's growing late, the setting sun in the horizon above the water creating this almost ethereal glow over the photograph.
It had been the first time Riley had ever gone to the beach. The first time she had flown a kite in her life.
Riley doesn't remember much of that day, but the one thing she does recall was letting go of the kite because she had gotten distracted by a puppy that an old couple had been walking by the shore. By the time she finally realized her kite had disappeared, carried off somewhere by the wind, it was too late.
It wasn't the first time something like that had happened to Riley.
She could remember numerous dropped ice cream incidences, where she hadn't paid attention or had gotten intrigued by something else in the big beautiful world and dropped it before she even realized it was too late. Times when she was too scared to step away from what she was certain she knew she wanted as a flavour only to realize the other flavours were just as good, if not better.
Missed opportunities and lost chances.
It wasn't the last time she'd missed an opportunity either. In fact, she considered those the start of a defining characteristic in her life that would shape the way she lived and what choices she made for the next several years.
And unfortunately, a characteristic that would lead her to make a decision that she would come to regret years later…