NOTES: Short chapter; Half Darcy's POV and half Lizzy's.
Y'all. I have found a full-proof way of getting through writer's block. JUST WRITE WHAT YOU WANT. It's your story! If you're bored with the way it's going, change it! This little plot line is the result of this new philosophy— it won't change the major outcome of the story, but it will give y'all some fluff and humor sooner 💕 (though there might be a little angst, depending on how it goes, just warning y'all)
Anyway, have a great day/night! I'll post again very soon ~Vinny
Darcy didn't have a chance to respond again after that, because his sister burst into the room, out of breath and pink in the face. Her candle wax hair was flying in all directions as she yelped, "Ok, I'm here! Ready to go?"
He nearly fell out of his chair in surprise. Then he furrowed his brow. "Um.. what? Go… where?"
Georgiana's face grew a shade darker pink. "Well, I, uh… um…"
Darcy watched her as she collected herself slowly, and gave him a very out of character beaming smile.
"I thought we agreed to go to the mall today! There's a planetarium-type store, and they have a new telescope we planned to add to the roof! What, don't you remember?"
Darcy raised one of his eyebrows slowly, tucking his chin. "Noo.. I… don't remember that."
Georgie's light brown eyes widened, and she looked to be breaking out into a sweat. She mumbled something incoherent to the floor, fiddling manically with the strings of her jacket.
Darcy got out of his chair, and put both hands on her arms to still the fluttering movements. "Georgie. Are you okay?"
She looked back at him, and seemed to hesitate. "I… yes. I'm sorry. I wanted to.. go to the mall with you, but was worried you… would say no."
Now both of his eyebrows were raised. "Uh… you.. could have just asked me, you know."
She laughed softly, high in her voice box. "Yeah, I guess I could have."
"Well," he said, patting his thighs, "I'm fine with going, if that's what you wanna do. Just let me grab my jacket and my keys— we are taking my car, right?"
"Actually… can I drive us there?"
Darcy rolled his lips inwards, not acknowledging the strangeness of her request. He only nodded in acquiesce, and padded off to grab his coat. As he left, Georgiana breathed out a long, heavy sigh of relief.
'Ok,' she texted,'I may have been a little suspicious (sorry!) but I got him to come. We're on our way.'
'Perfect,' her wonderful girlfriend responded, 'Lizzy and I are on our way 2. Oh, and sorry about springing this on u. Lizzy just left me like four angry voicemails over some guy she was emailing, and her first step to falling in love is rage.'
Georgie snickered. Punching the keys, she typed back, 'Lol it's no prob. U know how bad I want them to reconcile. And if Lizzys starting to fall for some1 else, it's time to move.'
'Exactly. Now, I gotta go. She's starting to think Im not actually scrolling thru Spotify.'
Georgiana turned off her phone and slipped it back into her pocket, just in time to meet her brother at the front door.
"Ready?" He asked, one of his eyebrows twitching towards confusion.
Georgie took a bolstering lungful of air, and managed a smile. She got this. He would thank her, afterward.
"Oh yeah," she said with a grin, "I'm all ready."
"Remind me again, why are we here?"
Violette smiled pragmatically at her friend as she pulled into the half-deserted parking lot. "I thought we were overdue for a shopping spree."
"Yeah, so you told me..," Lizzy hummed, glancing out the window. "But… aren't there.. closer malls?"
"I think there are, but… well, Ambiance, darling! It's all about ambiance."
"Uh huh," she said, disbelief bleeding through her sideways grin.
"Sooo…," Violette began as she parked the car. "What've you been up to this morning? 'Fore I called you, I mean."
"Hm? Oh, I was emailing the Best Man."
Violette paused. She looked at her friend carefully. "I thought you hated that guy. You called like four times last night, talking about how much you hate him."
Some of Lizzy's freckles disappeared under her newly forming blush. "Well, I may have… jumped to conclusions. Made a snap judgement. I'm trying to work on that."
Her friend raised her eyebrows, nodded, and turned away to hide how pale her face had gotten. Fuck. This guy had already made it mast the 'I hate you' stage?! Violette KNEW she wasn't over Fitzwilliam yet, so what gives? Was… was this a rebound? She hoped not. But either way, she and Georgie were going to have to hurry, if they wanted to get these two idiots to settle their differences.
Meanwhile, as Violette's inner monologue dissolved to turmoil, Lizzy was experiencing some disturbing thoughts as well.
That guy… the Best Man. He— he couldn't be right.. about her… could he? She wasn't judgemental… she had instincts… I-it wasn't the same thing. Lizzy was sure of that.
But still, she reasoned with herself, kicking a pebble across the parking lot and watching it skitter away into the distance, I should… maybe work on changing my mind. Sometimes.
Looking sideways at her old friend (who, by all accounts, was acting very strangely this morning), Lizzy came to a decision.
She would hang out with Violette, of course, but she would make it her duty to NOT form snap judgements about the people in the mall. She would… She would give them the benefit of the doubt.
As Lizzy and Violette approached the large swinging doors, a shrill voice began to assault their eardrums.
"ExCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME! SIR! SIR! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!"
Out of curiosity, Lizzy cracked the door slowly, and stuck her face through.
Inside, a portly woman wearing fox skin and what looked like velvet was red in the face from screaming at a poor kiosk worker, just inside the doors. Behind her cowered a young, bored looking woman with mousy brown hair and downcast eyes. They looked to be drawing a crowd.
"I AM CATHERINE DEBOURGH!" The woman bellowed in a nasal tone, "How DARE you assault me with that UNWANTED Product!"
"I- I'm so sorry, miss," The poor man said, cowering, "I- It's just— I'm supposed to ask people if they want a sample of perfume, then spray it on them. I- I'm so sorry."
"You better be," The fox skin woman sniffed disdainfully. "I'm going to have a word with your manager about this."
Suddenly, she turned on her heel and snapped at the young bored woman behind her. "Anna! Come along, dear! We have shopping to do— then we can leave this godforsaken place."
As the two odd characters made their way through the crowd (bustling and trudging, respectively), Lizzy hid a smile behind her hand. Wow. That was…
Her smile melted away. This might be harder than she had thought.