The afternoon faded into night all too soon, with the hours passing much more quickly than either of the two girls would have preferred since they were enjoying each others company. Pacifica really hadn't wanted to leave the Mystery Shack but it was already much later than she'd originally intended to stay, and even her parents might notice if she was gone for much longer
Well, maybe they would anyway- stranger things had been known to happen. Especially in this town.
Mabel's sudden inspiration that Pacifica should stay the night for an impromptu sleepover had been extremely tempting, but she had quickly made up an excuse about having an early morning horseback riding lesson to go to and ducked out of the Shack before the urge to stay became more than even her willpower could handle- she wasn't made of stone after all.
Mabel had stopped Pacifica at the door before she had managed to complete her escape and given her a long warm goodbye hug topped off with a friendly kiss on the cheek that had set her blonde friends heart beating like crazy in her chest. Pacifica shivered quietly to herself as she walked out into the darkness of the Mystery Shack's parking lot and toward the headlights of the waiting limousine... it had been a serious physical effort not to lean her face in and plant her own lips against Mabel's right then and there. She wondered if they would have felt as soft and warm as she often fantasized that they would... like brushing her lips against silk. Knowing Mabel they'd probably taste like candy too, an almost sugary flavor mingling with-
Get a grip on yourself Pacifica, she silently scolded herself as she opened the car door and slumped herself down into her seat, laying her usual expression of bored disdain back over her face like a mask and hoping that she wasn't blushing again. Thankfully it was mercifully dark inside the car, so even if she was no one would be able to tell.
"Have a good time miss?" James asked, his voice carefully not expressing more than a polite and mostly feigned interest. He knew when it paid to look like you didn't really care what your boss was up to and this definitely seemed like one of those times.
"It was fine," she snapped back, "Can we get going now? I don't want to sit around in this parking lot all night."
The chauffeur kept his mouth shut for the rest of the ride back, which was fine by her... she was busy thinking back on the day, already missing the moments that had passed. It was so stupid though - why should one little afternoon visit make her feel this good? They hadn't even done anything that special... just sat around talking for a while with each other in the strangely comfortable attic of the old shack, leaning up against one another in Mabel's too-small twin bed...
So why did that simple afternoon chat still feel more fun than any of the parties she'd gone to that year, or make her happier than any of the awards she'd gotten for the various contests she'd won?
Well... it's not like I don't actually know why, Pacifica thought to herself as the limousine drove through the tall gates of the Northwest's mansion, pulling around to let her off at the long walkway leading to the building. She paused briefly before opening the door and tried to compose her thoughts about the day.
Its useless trying to deny anything at this point, especially to myself... I mean, if I wasn't sure I liked her before I definitely know now after seeing her again.
Pacifica wasn't as much of a fan of cheesy romcoms or terribly overwritten romance novels as Mabel was, so a phrase like 'head over heels in love' wouldn't have immediately occurred to her - but if she'd heard it at this moment she would have agreed with it 100%. It was definitely a cliché, but that's exactly how she had felt when she'd been there side by side with her smiling, laughing, ridiculously cute friend - unbalanced and slightly dizzy and so stupidly happy just to be alive and there at her side.
Pacifica realized that a drunkenly happy grin had started to spread over her face once again and she quickly wiped it off before opening the front door making her way into the house. The imposing hallway of the mansion seemed even larger in the dark of the night and her footsteps echoed on the stone floor of the foyer loudly, growing fainter in the distance. The few times that Mabel had visited her here she'd commented that her parents house looked like the set of a high-class horror movie at night and at times like this Pacifica couldn't help but agree with that assessment. Especially when it was totally silent as it was now.
Pacifica wasn't really sure where anyone else was right now... the house never had a particularly large staff aside from a few maids and the chauffeur and they would probably be asleep by now. Her parents could be anywhere from their rooms down the hall or Hawaii for all she knew since they tended to fly off at a moments notice for parties or conferences or other events. Sometimes she'd even received souvenirs from trips they had taken when she hadn't even been aware that they were gone. Pacifica made her way up the central staircase and to her door, throwing it open to reveal an area larger than the Mystery Shack's living room. It was an elegantly appointed room, with a large canopy bed, plush maroon carpeting, a state of the art entertainment center & a variety of extremely valuable and tasteful paintings hanging on the walls. It was perfectly gorgeous but it had all the warmth and comfort of a furniture ad in a upscale catalog - sterile as a petri dish. Pacifica's past attempts to try and put some of her own personality into the layout of the room had clashed with the advice of her mother's decorator and her own suggestions had been gently but very firmly vetoed. The only thing that could really said to be hers was the glass fronted trophy case that sat butted up against the far wall, containing all of the various ribbons, trophies & medals that she'd won ever since her first elementary school field day. The Mystery Shack's cheap plastic party crown held a special place of honor in the case - a bittersweet reminder that while a Northwest never lost that didn't mean that they always deserved to win.
I can't believe that I used to hate her for that night... It's just sounds so incredibly petty when I think about it now. Was that really what I was like back then?
I can't deny that I did though - I honestly hated Mabel's guts for beating me in a contest to win a stupid $2 plastic hat. No, that's not really it... I hated her for standing up to me. For not just letting me walk all over her like everyone else had all my life. For being better than me at something.
Ugh... I can't believe she even wanted to hang out with me in the first place after how I had treated her before. She's way too nice for her own good.
The blonde girl yawned, suddenly feeling the tiredness from the day catching up with her and began to slip out of her clothes: jacket, skirt and top all neatly folded and placed in their appropriate hampers for cleaning. Pacifica pulled open a drawer from the large chest and absentmindedly reached for her pink silk pajamas, of which she had several pairs, but stopped as she was seized by a sudden impulse. She glanced around the room quickly, though needlessly since there wasn't any sign of anyone around the house much less here in her private room, and shut the drawer. Pacifica locked the door to the bedroom, walked over to her closet and then began to dig around in the back, reaching past racks of clothing that she had long since outgrown but had never bothered to throw away until she found exactly what she'd been looking for. It was a large gym bag, the one that she'd used to carry her old mini-golf equipment in back when she was just a kid. She unzipped it quickly and dumped its contents out on the floor, spilling a colorful pile of oddly mismatched garments at her feet. Sweaters.
Pacifica reached her hands into the pile, enjoying the textures and feeling around until she found one that felt just right. It was mostly blue, being a darker navy blue at the bottom half of the torso and knitted to look like the waves of the ocean and a lighter sky blue at the top half. There was a cute looking red and white sailboat floating along on the sea of yarn, it's triangular sails puffed wide out to catch some nonexistent wind.
I remember when Mabel gave this to me... I had asked her what the boat was for and she'd said it was to commemorate us 'burying the hatchet' or whatever that old timey phrase she'd used was.
"See, the boat represents our new friendship - it works on a couple of levels. Friendship. Friend-SHIP - get it?" Mabel had said, her face struggling to contain the childish grin that was starting to spread across it.
"Yeah, I think I've managed to figure it out." Pacifica had replied dryly, accepting the sweater with a polite smile. She remembered how she'd looked at it critically, not quite believing what she was seeing or the fact that someone had decided to give a gift like this to her. It was just so... silly.
Pacifica didn't do silly. Silly was undignified, and since she lived her life in the spotlight she had been strongly encouraged never to do anything that would potentially embarrass the Northwest name. Even if her family name had later turned out to be built on a shaky foundation of lies it hadn't changed the fact that to the people of this town it still mattered quite a lot, and to her parents it mattered even more than that.
Still though... even if it was silly... no one had ever made her anything before. She had closets full of clothes worth more than the deed to the Mystery Shack and boxes full of jewelry bought from high end boutiques, but she'd never been given something that a person had to put more effort into than swiping a credit card to get.
"Thanks," Pacifica had mumbled, her voice sounding almost grudging from her effort to disguise the oddly strong feeling of gratitude over receiving such a simple gift.
"Whoa, no need to get so enthusiastic there Pacifica- Calm your tits girl!," Mabel had said with a teasing grin, and Pacifica had chuckled out half in surprise.
She hadn't really been hanging out with Mabel for long at that point and it had still been kind of weird having someone just talk back to her without any hint of respect or apology in their voice. She'd come to expect it from almost everyone so much that its absence was jarring, but also strangely welcome. She hadn't wanted just another lackey when she had decided to go see Mabel that day... she'd wanted to spend time with someone different. An equal. Someone who treated her like a person and not just a wallet with lipstick and a fancy reputation.
"I really do like it though," Pacifica had added in response to Mabel's comment, feeling a little more at ease.
"I knew you would - you are a girl of wealth and taste after all," Mabel had said in her most snooty accent.
"Wealth yes, though considering I've got you for a friend now the taste part is questionable," Pacifica had teased back, her voice lacking the characteristic edge that usually came with cracks like that.
"Pfft, having me for a friend is the first thing you've done that shows you have ANY taste - I know all about the finer things in life after all. Stick with me kid and maybe one day we'll even find a way to pull that giant stick out of your butt," Mabel had said jokingly, grabbing Pacifica around the shoulders and waving her arms out wide like a con-man in an old movie about to beguile some young sucker.
Pacifica shook herself quickly out of the memories of that far away afternoon. It had all taken place years before her feelings toward Mabel had moved beyond simple friendship, but she couldn't look back on those days without feeling her memories start to become colored by that strange glow that accompanied all her thoughts about Mabel lately.
Four years later and she's still such a dork, Pacifica thought to herself with a smile as she traced her fingers absentmindedly over the lines of the boat, wondering how exactly she'd managed to make it in the first place. Mabel had tried to teach her knitting once a few years ago, but Pacifica's competitive edge had just gotten her frustrated at being less-than-great at something in front of a peer and she'd grumpily given it up after only one afternoon. Old habits die hard after all, and not wanting to feel like she'd lost at anything was a very hard one to break.
Pacifica slipped the cozy garment down over her head and then stuffed the rest of the sweaters back in the bag before returning to bed, enjoying the soft feel of it against her skin. It had been made a few years ago and she'd done a lot of growing since then (it was noticeably tighter up around the chest for one thing), but fortunately Mabel always tended to knit them kind of extra long and baggy so it wasn't really uncomfortable to wear even now. Pacifica glanced at herself in the mirror and smiled. Maybe it wasn't as elegant as silk pajamas but it felt a lot warmer, in more ways than one.
She climbed into her bed and pulled the thick goose down comforter loosely over herself, snuggling deep into the slightly squashy overstuffed pillows and mattresses and let out a small yawn as a fresh wave of drowsiness washed over her. It had been a good day, but also a strange one. She had been so stressed out and conflicted for months about her feelings, but when she had finally came face to face with Mabel all of that worry that had been nagging at her had vanished.
Everything that she'd feared had come true - she was 100% no-doubt-about-it attracted to Mabel and for some reason she felt great.
I want to see her again soon... I didn't really know how much I'd missed her till she was right there in front of me. She looked like she missed me too... she said she did.
Probably just in a purely friendly way though. She has no idea that I feel this way about her... and she probably never will. I'm just a friend that Mabel see's a few months out of the year who's too scared of how she feels to even call her up when she's not around.
Me, scared of something... who would even believe it if I told them?
Pacifica turned over on her side and resettled into her pillows, though her discomfort was purely mental.
The morning sun was barely peeking up over the tops of the trees surrounding the Mystery Shack, but the sounds of activity could already be heard from the kitchen.
"Hey Dip, do you have anything supernatural-ish planned for us today?" Mabel asked her brother from across the breakfast table as they ate their usual bowls of off-brand cereal.
"What do you mean?" Dipper asked as he glanced up from reading the riddles and jokes from the back of the cereal box.
"You know - like a monster hunt or maybe getting abducted by aliens or something." Mabel said only half-jokingly.
"For today? Um... not that I know of. Usually the aliens like to set up their appointments a week in advance. Why do you ask?" he said.
"Oh, well I was thinking of taking a day off and going to hang out with Pacifica this afternoon." she replied.
Dipper rolled his eyes slightly.
"Knock yourself out - but please don't drag me along this time. Going to the mall with you guys last summer was probably the longest 4 hours of my life." Dipper said.
"We were there like, 40 minutes." Mabel scoffed.
"Well if felt like four hours anyway," Dipper grumbled.
"I still don't know why you and Pacifica can't get along better - you've honestly got a lot more in common than you realize." Mabel said.
"Maybe we do, but I'm not too interested in finding out how much." Dipper said with a shrug.
"See - you guys are both judgmental and stubborn! The potential for friendship pretty much makes itself at that point," Mabel said triumphantly.
"I guess I'll go hang out with the Multibear or something - I haven't seen that guy in ages." Dipper said, pointedly ignoring her jibe as he slurped down the last of the milk from his bowl and started to head out the room.
"Have fun with your monster friend!" Mabel called out cheerfully, waving a quick goodbye wave at Dipper before turning back to her breakfast to get it finished so that she could start the fun part of her day.
It had been a couple of days since she'd last seen Pacifica and Mabel was really looking forward to hanging out with her again today - well possibly hanging out with her anyway. Mabel hadn't planned this out in any way really, she was just hoping that her blonde friend would be free when she gave her a call later today. She was pretty sure it would all work out though - in her experience if you just started your day with a smile and did your best things usually did.
She was sort of annoyed at Dipper for the attitude he always seemed to have around Pacifica but she knew it was just his sometimes endearing, sometimes annoying brotherly protective instincts acting up. He'd never really forgiven Pacifica for how she'd treated Mabel back when they had first met the rich girl years ago and had always been suspicious of her motives since then.
You'd think after years of me hanging out with her without any problems that he'd finally be convinced that this isn't some kind of 'Carrie' situation... honestly I don't think ole Paz would have the patience to be fake nice to anyone for that long, even for the sake of a mean joke.
Mabel hummed a tune to herself as she dug around through the huge pockets of her sweater for her phone, occasionally pausing to examine some interesting trinket or object that she'd picked up earlier and forgotten about till now though she stopped and shook the distractions from her head once she'd finally recovered the sticker-pocked phone from the depths of its woolen prison. The phone rang a few times before Mabel was rewarded with the sound of a somewhat dazed and cranky Pacifica answering on the other end.
"Do you have any idea what time it is?" Pacifica grumbled in her ear, her sleepy voice contrasting with the cheerful picture that Mabel had of her on the contacts screen of her phone.
"Time for you to get your butt out of bed - we're hanging out today!" Mabel declared.
"Uh huh - and I wasn't consulted on this because?" Pacifica asked sarcastically.
"Hey, you get to drop in on me uninvited so I get to do it to you too - that's how friendship works," Mabel said cheekily.
Pacifica grumbled to herself for a bit and shook the last traces of grogginess from her head.
"Alright, just give me an hour to get ready and I'll get the chauffeur out of his kennel." she replied.
"Awesome! Wait, you don't actually keep him in a kennel right?" Mabel asked only half-jokingly. The ways of the rich were still mysterious to her and she'd only visited Pacifica's house a handful of times in the past.
"Of course we don't - well not anymore anyway. Grandpa was kind of a freak." Pacifica joked back dryly.
"Alright - an hour then!" Mabel chirped back.
Mabel spent some time getting herself ready for the day ahead, trying to think of all of the fun possibilities the day had to offer. Maybe they could go spend some time out at the lake? Or perhaps a visit to the arcade where they'd had a casual ongoing rivalry in trying to beat each others high scores in various games over the past few summers? Maybe the movies - there was a new romantic comedy out that had a famous wrestler trying to break into Hollywood as the lead actor so it was guaranteed to be comedy gold even if the movie was terrible!
She was lost in thought about the seemingly potential for fun when her phone suddenly chimed out in her pocket and she glanced down at the screen.
Pacifica: Bad news. My mom and dad took the limo out of town and they won't be back for a few days. I'm kind of stuck here at home till then.
Mabel groaned and slumped back onto the bed. She'd really been looking forward to today...
Well... with a little determination this can still work out.
Mabel glanced out the window and spotted the Mystery Shacks old reliable golf cart sitting unattended in the parking lot, and she knew for a fact that Stan always kept the keys hanging carelessly on a peg by the door. She grinned to herself and reached for her phone.
Mabel: Never fear princess - the cavalry's on the way to rescue you from your prison!
Pacifica: What does that even mean?
Mabel: Don't worry, its going to be awesome - I'll be there in like, 30 minutes.
Mabel snatched up her handbag and dashed down the stairs, determined to have an awesome day today no matter what obstacle came up. She only got to see Pacifica a few times out of the year and she wasn't going to let a little thing like this stop her!
The sound of the doorbell echoing through the halls was surprising since no one had buzzed the gate for entry. Pacifica shooed the maids off and went down to the front door herself and found Mabel waiting there for her looking somewhat disheveled but still cheerful.
"How did you get over the fence? It's 9 feet tall." Pacifica asked her, slightly impressed.
"Grappling hook." Mabel replied, twirling the dangerous device once like an old west gunfighter before tucking it back into the recesses of her huge colorful handbag.
"Should have guessed. Thanks for coming to get me - I think I would have gone crazy if I had to stay shut up in here till my parents got back," Pacifica said with a small but sincere smile.
Mabel glanced around the opulent foyer of the mansion and turned back to her friend with a grin.
"Oh yeah, I can just see you rotting away in this hellhole. How have you even survived this long?" Mabel teased.
Pacifica crossed her arms and pouted in response.
"You've gotten a lot meaner since we started hanging out, do you know that?" Pacifica snipped.
"Maybe, but you've gotten a lot nicer so it evens out. I guess we've rubbed off on each other more than we thought," Mabel said with a grin, reaching out to pull Pacifica into a friendly hug of apology.
Pacifica felt her cheeks flush at the mental image of Mabel rubbing on her and returned the hug shyly, annoyed with herself since she could feel her cheeks starting to color even more just from the warm pressure of Mabel's arms around her. She squirmed out of her sweater-clad friends grip before too long, ostensibly just to straighten out her outfit but mostly to calm her way-too-fast heartbeat.
"So, what kind of plans did you have for the day?" Pacifica asked to try and fill the awkward pause.
Now it was Mabel's turn to blush, and she coughed and glanced down at the floor.
"Yeah about that... um... do you happen to have a golf cart battery lying around somewhere in this giant palace of yours?" she said shyly.
Pacifica quirked an eyebrow at her friend.
"Golf cart battery?"
"I kinda borrowed the cart from the Shack but it ran out of juice on the way over here..." Mabel said.
"Oh... so I guess we're both stranded then." Pacifica said.
"Yeah, this wasn't a really well thought out rescue," Mabel said jokingly, glancing down again bashfully.
Pacifica smiled at her friend. She looks really cute when she gets shy like that...
"Well, I'm glad you came anyway. I mean, its not like we don't have stuff to do around here... it just would have been boring to be alone." she said reassuringly.
"Ugh... if I just had a real car this wouldn't have happened in the first place." Mabel said in frustration.
"Yeah, I know that feeling." Pacifica replied moodily.
Mabel shot her friend a questioning glance.
"I thought you did have a car though? You mentioned you got one for your last birthday when we hung out earlier." Mabel said.
Pacifica frowned at the memory.
"I can't use it though, remember? My parents are the ones with the keys. They think I'm going to go smash it into the town hall or something," Pacifica grumbled.
Mabel glanced at Pacifica thoughtfully, rubbing her chin.
"Would you want to see a neat trick that Grunkle Stan showed me once?" Mabel asked.
It was a sleek hot pink beast of a machine with an engine that roared like a rabid jaguar when Pacifica so much as gently tapped the gas pedal. Currently that very gas pedal was solidly pinned to the floor of the car by a foot encased in one of a $500 pair of shoes, sending the luxury sports car careening down the road at a truly breathtaking speed while its driver whooped and cheered with unbridled enthusiasm.
Mabel certainly found the speed breathtaking anyway - she wasn't sure when the last time she'd actually breathed was and she wondered if the cars luxury leather seats were going to have her fingerprints permanently ground into them from the sheer force of her terrified grip.
That's probably the only way they're going to be able to identify my body, Mabel thought grimly as her wide eyes took in the sight of the trees on the roadside turning into a vaguely green and brown blur, because when this thing crashes I'm going to look like a can of tomato paste with some colorful yarn stuck to it.
Mabel turned her head away from the horrifically hypnotizing sight of the road flashing by and saw the look of absolute joy on Pacifica's face from being behind the wheel of her car for the first time in months.
Maybe hotwiring this death-trap was not one of my brightest ideas, Mabel thought regretfully as her stomach lurched violently when Pacifica wheeled the car into a wide swooping turn.
"Thank you so much for hotwiring the car! This was an awesome idea!" Pacifica practically squealed, turning a bright grateful smile to Mabel.
"Watchtheroadwatchtheroadfortheloveofgodwatchtheroad!" Mabel babbled back at her incomprehensibly.
So this is how I'm going to die... after nearly being killed by robots and dinosaurs and monsters it turns out its going to be a car crash. That's just disappointing!
"You're so paranoid - you're like my driving instructor," Pacifica teased, turning her eyes back to the road and taking a deep breath in through her nose and releasing a cheerful exhalation.
"Maybe we could try going a little less than the speed of light for a bit?" Mabel suggested hopefully.
Pacifica glanced down at the dashboard and saw the speedometer reading in the triple digits.
Oops.
"Sorry - I guess I just got a tiny bit carried away," Pacifica said somewhat sheepishly, relieving the pressure on the pedal till the car slowed to a relatively sedate 70 miles an hour.
"It's okay... just... just try not to kill us. I'd hate to have gone through all of high school for nothing." Mabel said.
Pacifica didn't respond, but she smiled to herself once again. It just felt so good to be driving again... the adrenaline rush was almost overwhelming.
"Alright - so what's on the agenda for today again? I kinda forgot the plan once we started moving," Pacifica confessed.
Mabel gulped to herself as the car swerved and danced along the backroads leading into town.
"I think I did too," she said, "but I remember something about needing to get a new battery for the cart."
"Gotcha - that one's on me since you showed me how to get my car moving," Pacifica said with a grin.
"I have become death, destroyer of roads," Mabel mumbled to herself as the car roared into the outskirts of the unsuspecting town.
Somehow, against all odds, Mabel survived the day and actually ended up having a fantastic time. True, they'd gotten stopped by Sheriff Blubbs and Deputy Durland at one point after the car had screamed down Main street just slightly slower than the speed of sound but when Pacifica had introduced them to Benjamin Franklin and his identical quintuplets they'd agreed to overlook the incident. To Mabel's relief Pacifica had agreed to not try and break break the laws of physics from behind the wheel for the rest of the afternoon and they'd spent their carefree hours around town managing to squeeze as much fun as they could out of the sleepy little city. It turns out two girls, one with nearly unlimited funds and the other with a nearly unlimited imagination, can actually accomplish quite a lot in just one day... parts of the town would possibly never recover.
The moon had risen up pretty high by this point and the two friends were busily working together by the roadside trying to switch out the worn out battery of the golf cart for the brand new deluxe model that Pacifica had bought for Mabel in gratitude for the afternoon of fun.
"I still don't see why you don't just call your big weird manservant over to help with this," Pacifica grumbled as she helped Mabel heft the old battery out from the engine area and over to the back seat of the little cart so it could be re-charged back at the Shack.
"What's the point of stealing the cart in secret to go joyriding if I just announce that I took it?" Mabel said as she wiped the sweat from her forehead, looking over her handiwork with satisfaction.
"Won't they obviously know you're the one who stole it since the rest of them are at home?" Pacifica asked.
"Well obviously yeah, but its the principal of the thing." Mabel said with a shrug.
There was a brief pause once the job was done and the girls were sitting down against the cart and taking a breather. Now that the cart was fixed Mabel would probably be taking off again and Pacifica would probably have to head back home, but neither of them were in a hurry to head back to face the consequences of their actions for the day yet.
"Thanks a lot for coming to rescue me from boredom today," Pacifica said.
"Boredom and me are old enemies - I know all of its weak spots," Mabel joked.
Pacifica chuckled and shot a sideways glance at Mabel. Her face was slightly flushed from all the work required to get the golf cart in working order again, but it just seemed to add a glow to her cheeks that looked interesting in the moonlight. Pacifica found her eyes drifting down to stare at the gentle cupids bow curve of Mabel's soft round lips which glistened from a coat of shell-pink gloss and she was suddenly intensely interested in finding out what flavor it was. She guiltily darted her eyes back up when she caught Mabel's large brown eyes turning in her direction.
"I wish every day could be this fun," Mabel said somewhat wistfully.
"Yeah... me too," Pacifica agreed, glancing back at Mabel's face once again. Her tongue darted out to moisten her dry lips and she briefly thought about leaning in to place them against Mabels...
Get a hold of yourself Pacifica... you're starting to lose it... must be all the endorphins from earlier messing with your head.
Mabel sighed and started to rise up, stretching out her arms and legs.
"Well, I guess I should get back home to the Shack... I'm sure Stan and Dipper are wondering what I've been up to." she said.
"You sure you're going to be okay just driving that cart home at night? I think I could walk faster than it moves," Pacifica said as she rose up and brushed stray leaves off from her clothes.
"After what I've been through this afternoon I think I'm looking forward to going a little slow," Mabel said only half-jokingly.
"I can't believe the great Mabel Pines is scared of going a tiny bit fast," Pacifica teased.
"Well, I guess I'm not as totally fearless as Pacifica Northwest, speed demon extraordinaire!" Mabel said.
"Oh I am far from fearless," Pacifica said unthinkingly.
"Really? I don't think I've ever seen you actually scared of anything - even when you were about to be murdered by little golf-ball people you were still more pissed off than terrified," Mabel said, sounding interested.
Why did I say that? Ah, now she's going to be curious - I know how this girl works... any second now it'll be -
"Sooooo... what exactly are you scared of?" Mabel asked, leaning toward Pacifica with an interested expression on her face.
"Nevermind, doesn't matter," Pacifica mumbled. I just mumbled! Since when do I mumble?
"Come on - you know how this ends, either you tell me or I tickle it out of you," Mabel said in a playfully threatening manner.
Honestly... mumbling... blushing... being shy like some kind of loser! Even if I do like her that doesn't mean I have to turn into a total wuss about it. I'm still Pacifica-friggin-Northwest dammit! I know who I am and I know what I want and I shouldn't be scared of that.
"You really want to know?" Pacifica asked, feeling her heart start to pound in her chest harder than the overworked engine of her car had all afternoon.
"Yeah, lay it on me." Mabel said.
Good choice of words, Pacifica thought.
Pacifica took a deep breath and then made a step toward Mabel to place her hands on her shoulders. The shorter girl tilted her head slightly up at Pacifica with a questioning look, but she froze when she caught sight of the expression she saw on her friends delicate features... a mixture of hesitation and determination and something else that was pleasantly familiar... Pacifica tilted her head slightly and Mabel unconsciously mirrored the gesture and before she knew it she found herself being pulled in close, her face just inches from Pacifica's and their breaths mingling together in the cool night air.
So close, Pacifica thought.
Should I... do I... can I...
Yes.
Tossing aside all of the worry and doubt and fear that had been clouding her mind for months, Pacifica leaned in and gently pressed her lips against Mabel's, wrapping her arms possessively around her neck to pull her in closely against her. Mabel stayed frozen in shock for the space of a few heartbeats before she felt something inside her melt from the contact and her own hands hesitantly wound out around Pacifica's slim waist as she tilted her head back and began to kiss her back, her mouth parting slightly in invitation which Pacifica eagerly accepted. Pacifica's heart was pounding like a jackhammer in her chest but there was a sharp current of pure unfiltered happiness running through it all - after countless times of thinking of this very moment it had actually happened and it was better than she'd imagined. Being here... feeling her... tasting her... feeling her kiss back...
The moment lasted less than a minute, but it seemed to stretch on for much longer before their lips parted and the two were left staring at one another with slightly stunned expressions.
It was strawberry flavored, Pacifica thought light-headedly.
"Oh..." Mabel said quietly, and then fell silent.
"Yeah," Pacifica answered as she suddenly felt something like panic start to overtake her. She stepped back.
"So is that what you were-" Mabel began
"Yes... I was scared to tell you about... this," Pacifica said, feeling that damned uncomfortable awkward feeling start to flush over her again now that her sudden rush of bravado had worn off.
"Ah... yeah... Um... I think... uh... I think I might need to think about this," Mabel said somewhat dazedly.
"I'm... I'm gonna go now," Pacifica said quickly, glancing at Mabel again and seeing a slightly lost expression on her face.
"But-" Mabel said.
"Today was really fun... sorry if that was weird, bye." Pacifica said as she started to back away toward her car.
"Hey!" Mabel exclaimed suddenly, stamping her foot down hard into the ground and sending a puff of leaves up in the air.
Unconsciously Pacifica froze in her tracks and turned to Mabel, feeling sick with dread in her heart. This was it... she'd screwed it all up... she'd just lost her only real friend and all because she couldn't just keep her stupid mouth shut...
"Look - no matter what... I mean... Whatever happens, I still want us to hang out, okay?" Mabel said, her face coloring slightly.
Pacifica stared back.
Okay... maybe its NOT the end of the world.
"Yeah, me too,," Pacifica said, feeling slightly awkward in spite of herself.
"Cool... um... have a safe drive home," Mabel said as she sat down in the open canopy of the golf cart.
"Yeah, you too." Pacifica replied.
She watched the small cart putter its way down the road and back toward the Mystery Shack as she sat inside the plush luxury interior of her own car.
Well... that just happened. She didn't reject me... but she didn't say yes. She said she had to think... but that's better than it could have gone if it all went wrong.
Now what do I do?
