π°πππ·πΎπ'π π½πΎππ΄
Wishing you all a wonderful day and a good read.
π²ππππππ π·π½
February came around and it had been a few days from the "incident". That's what Jake and Trixie calls it. It had been a few extremely painful days. Sure, Jake was exhilarated that Rose was speaking to him once again- let alone sitting at his table. But it was hard to enjoy that excitement when Alicia and Spud were not speaking to each other.
Spud would attempt to say hello or start a conversation which usually began in the words "sorry", then Alicia would brush him off. She had been ignoring him. Not even avoiding him. Just ignoring him. If Spud was wherever she needed to be she wouldn't find somewhere else to go, she would just pretend he never existed. It made the friend group, plus the addition of Rose and Lilly, very tense whenever they were around. Not even the two of them together with the group. One of them was enough to make everything awkward. Spud was depressed, causing the atmosphere to be sad. Alicia was angry, making the atmosphere as stiff as a board.
Spud was beginning to lose hope. He attempted talking to her less and less as the days went on. He even stopped smiling or telling jokes. Spud's a very transparent guy, so Trixie and Jake needed some way to fix this mess.
"Your skater group is actually interesting!" Lilly complimented while eating a fry. It was lunchtime and neither Alicia or Spud were there yet. "Thanks for convincing me to eat here, Rose."
Jake wanted to ask Rose why she sat with them in the first place, but he didn't want to push his luck. Trixie huffed and rested her head in her hand. "Seems fun to you, but our friends are hurting big time."
Rose smiled softly. "Aw, you care."
Trixie felt her face grow red. "No, I don't! It's that they're annoying as shit. Y'know, they mope around and shit. Yeah. Makes my day shitty."
"That's a lot of shits," Jake teased. He could tell when his friend would get flustered. She'd cover it up with a tough girl act. Or at least try to.
"We should get them back together," Rose suggested.
Lilly asked, "Were they even together in the first place?"
Jake shook his head. "Nah. They never actually had a stable relationship. They just kept having se-"
Trixie elbowed him hard, shutting him up. "Kept having a super hard time admitting their feelings to each other!" she filled in, smiling unconvincingly.
Rose raised an eyebrow, not questioning it. "Okay . . . I think we should try."
Lilly stopped eating the gross cafeteria food and put a piece of gum in her mouth. "How are we supposed to do that? They seem done-zo."
"Yeah, well," she hesitated, "they could be good for each other. They both like each other, so why not? Boys do dumb things all the time; that's not an excuse, but if one cares enough, they wouldn't give up just like that." She looked at Jake. "Sometimes relationships need conflict to prove if the people are strong enough to get through the obstacles."
Jake blushed. Trixie was fired up. "You're right! I knew I liked homegirl."
Lilly grinned. "Oh my God, Rose you should be a motivational speaker."
Rose calmed down and played with her hair bashfully. "Seriously?"
Lilly shrugged. "It's a start."
Jake shook his head out of his thoughts. "Okay, let's do this. I got a plan."
Trixie chuckled, "No offense, Jakey. But you're not the best at apologizes."
He sighed, looking right at Rose. "I know I'm not. Quite frankly I suck."
Lilly sat back. "Then why should we listen to your plan?"
He looked at all of them. "Just give the plan a chance, alright? One listen." Everyone reluctantly agreed and leaned in as he explained his ideas.
After school, Spud dragged his feet to his locker. It was filled with overdue assignments and unfinished homework. When he packed his bag and closed his locker, Trixie was on the other side. Spud gasped, "Shit, Trixie. You scared me."
"Hiii, Spudinski," she said with an overly perky tone.
Spud groaned, "What do you want? I told you I'm not giving you those five bucks."
"No, it's not that." Trixie almost puked from what she was about to do. She reluctantly hooked arms with the boy. "I just wanted to hang out after school."
Spud looked at their joint arms. "Uh, sure. Where are we and the rest heading?"
"No, silly," Trixie wanted to gag from this fake flirting, "just the two of us."
Cluelessly, Spud shrugged. "Oh. Okay."
Jake huffed in annoyance as he looked at his reflection. "This was not a part of the plan," he stated.
Rose giggled, "Well, we have to make both parties jealous. Last time I checked, Alicia isn't into girls. So you're the last option."
"Option? More like victim. I hate suits." He adjusted his uncomfortable collar. He missed his baggy clothes.
"It's not a suit, It's a button-up." Rose fixed his last button. She was so close, Jake stopped complaining.
Lilly walked back into the room. "I called her. She's on her way."
"Great!" Rose squealed. "Jake, are you good at acting?"
"You're asking me this now?"
There was a knock on the door. The girls pushed him out. Rose said, "Remember, pretend we're not here."
"And take this." Lilly handed him a flower.
"What's this for?"
"To give to her, you doofus!" Lilly ordered, "Now go out there and convince her you like her."
Jake walked out of Lilly's room and opened the door. Alicia was dressed in a chocolate brown knitted dress with some strappy pink heels. She looked beautiful, Jake had to admit. But he didn't feel that way about her. He felt bad for lying, but it was for a good cause: his friends.
She was surprised to see Jake. "Hey, um, where's Lilly and Rose?"
"Change in plans." Jake took out the carnation. "This is for you."
Alicia received the flower, unsure. "Thank you?" that came out more like a question than she intended. She looked Jake up and down. Fancy clothes? "What's going on?" she asked him. "Lilly asked me if she wanted to have a girls' night."
"We lied. You're going out with me instead," he said bluntly.
Alicia raised an eyebrow. "What? No-"
Jake held her hand and began to walk. "Not taking no for an answer, sorry."
Trixie was bored, checking the clock every hour. Where were these two? she thought, waiting for Jake to come in with Alicia. The arcade they were in was packed. Trixie leaned against the wall in complete and utter boredom while Spud excitedly played all the games. At least he was having a good time.
Finally, she saw Jake walk in with Alicia. Trixie jumped up and quickly made her way to Spud, ready to fake flirt some more. "Hey, Spud-a-boo."
Spud finished a third round of wasting his coins on a claw machine. "Spud-a-what? What happened to calling me Spudinski?"
Trixie took his arm again. "Just a little pet name. The other got old." She fluttered her eyes at him. She seriously wanted to barf.
"Okay, this is kinda weird," Spud said.
Alicia and Jake made it up to the "couple". Jake faked his shock. "What a coincidence! You guys are here, too?"
Alicia and Spud immediately looked away from each other. Trixie faked the shock, too. "Small world," she said.
"Alicia and I were about to have some ice cream. Care to join?"
"My pleasure," Trixie replied.
The acting was garbage. The two sounded like robots and they were speaking extremely out of character. Yet, Spud and Alicia didn't realize this. They were both too occupied with the fear of Trixie and Jake's sudden infatuation with them.
The two couples made their way to an ice cream place nearby. It was Spud and Trixie's turn. Spud was about to order for the both of them when Trixie checked her texts. Little did they know, she was on a call with Lilly and Rose so they could listen in and text Trixie on what to do. Trixie cringed at what Rose told her to do.
She shoved her phone in her pocket and suggested, "Spud! We should share a big one."
"What's the point in that?" he asked her.
Trixie glared at him in aggravation. "Just do it."
Spud submissively ordered one large for the two of them. Alicia stood behind them in confusion. As long as they weren't sharing a spoon it should be fine.
Jake followed Trixie's lead. "What do you want, Cia?"
"Oh, me? I'm more of a milkshake girl."
"Ask and you shall receive." Jake started to order.
"Ask and you shall receive?" Jake never talks like this! Alicia's head was buzzing with questions. Maybe he was just nervous or trying to make her feel better. She missed the old Jake, though. The one that was her friend. This Jake sounded like a 40-year-old suburban dad.
The worker gave Jake one vanilla milkshake. One. Alicia asked him, "Where's mine?"
Jake gave her a straw. "This is your's. And mine." He walked to the picnic bench Spud and Trixie were sitting on.
Alicia looked at her straw in disgust. She had zero types of feelings towards Jake like that. She sighed. As long as they weren't sharing a straw, she guessed it was okay.
Alicia sat next to Jake and stuck her straw in the cup. Jake was already sipping. He gestured for her to taste some as well. Hesitantly, she took the straw in her mouth. His face was so close. She wished it was a certain someone else.
Spud scowled at the two. Trixie hadn't seen him so angry in awhile. It was honestly terrifying. She picked up her phone to see a new text from Lilly saying to spoon feed him. Trixie wanted to delete herself from planet Earth when she held up a spoon full of ice cream to the boy's lips.
"Here," she said. Spud gave her a weird look but opened his mouth anyway.
Now Alicia was scowling at the two. Her own best friend? This was too close for comfort. Trixie never giggles like that. She was never fond of Spud, why now?
The two terrible actors noticed the jealousy. Jake gave Trixie a thumbs up. She winked at him. Trixie picked up her phone to Lilly saying it wasn't enough. One of them needed to do something to make one or both of them explode; absolutely lose their heads. They both sighed, knowing what to do.
Jake took Alicia's straw out of her mouth and threw it in the trash bin, making it in. Alicia commented, "That was cool. But why did you do that?"
Jake stopped drinking from his straw and pushed it to her side of the cup. "We should share one. There's too much plastic being wasted in this world."
She looked at the bin then back at him. "You just threw the plastic straw away, though. Not even in the recycling."
Spud was fuming. Still, it wasn't enough to get him to say something. He felt too guilty for what he did. He didn't feel worthy of getting into Alicia's love life, even if this was his best friend. Trixie picked up on this and realized she needed to make Alicia angered.
"Sorry, girl," she whispered before she fed Spud another spoonful of ice cream then placed the spoon in her mouth.
Alicia couldn't believe her eyes. No way on Earth was this just a friendly date. She stood up. "What the fuck, Trixie? How could you just do that in front of me?" She turned to Spud. "And you are such a jerk! You love every woman, don't you? You feed on getting me jealous and humiliating me. That was an indirect kiss!"
Spud stood up, too. "Like you weren't just about to share a straw with Jake. My best friend! Plus, I didn't know she was going to do that."
Alicia was on the verge of tears once she faced Trixie again. "You were supposed to be my best friend. I was your . . . 'homegirl' or something. You knew everything because I told you everything. You know I love him!"
Spud walked up to her, smiling. "Alicia, you love me?"
She stammered, "I- uh- well, I didn't mean it like that!"
"Bingo!" Jake sang.
"Finally, that's over." Trixie stretched her arms. "Now I can wash my mouth out with soap."
Spud cocked his head. "What do you mean?"
She laughed. "You actually thought we were flirting with you?! We were all tryna get y'all to talk it out."
Alicia repeated, "All?"
Trixie took out her phone to show that Rose's cell was on the call. "Lilly's in on it, too," she told them.
"Why?" Spud asked.
"Because," Jake began, "you two don't just like each other, you love each other. You would be each other's ride or die if you let it happen. Sometimes relationships need conflict to prove if the people are strong enough to get through the obstacles."
Rose smiled on the other line. He remembered what she said.
A tear went down Alicia's cheeks. "He hurt me so bad, though."
Spud frowned. "I'm so sorry. I don't deserve forgiveness." He squeezed her hands. "But, I can show you how much you mean to me if you let me because . . . I love you."
Alicia looked up at him and nodded. He wiped her tear. They shared a kiss. Jake and Trixie sighed a sigh of relief. Their efforts paid off. The kiss lasted too long for comfort. The couple's passion really made Trixie want to throw up.
"I'll be right back," she said before darting to the nearest trash can.
Nearby, a train dropped off a girl in the mist. Her hair flowed as she walked out of the train station. The city grew foggy, as if it desired to hide from her very presence. She licked her sharp teeth and smiled. This is the place she wanted to be. New York City: the home of the American Dragon.
This was kind of short but I'll have more soon. I'm juggling two fanfics pretty well for the most part. Hope your summer's are going well!