Jack sits patiently in the seat across from Gina while she recovers from her laugh attack.

He can't resist the urge to admire her features as she's doubled over, struggling to catch her breath.

Gina Porter is truly a goddess.

It's why he never understood why she was single and pining after some stoner kid with 80s pornstar sideburns and mild derealization problems. Maybe she seeks the love she thinks she deserves… or maybe she just has bad taste. Either way, she could have anyone in this hokey town bending to her will at the mere snap of her fingers, so why him?

Jack would bend.

If he was ready to date, which he isn't.

His last relationship was mentally draining, toxic and she threw a rock through his windshield. It pretty much ruined things for him in the romance department.

Still, this didn't stop him from fantasizing about what dating his best friend would be like. They'd probably do all the same things they do now but with... added… bonuses.

Oh god.

Now he's thinking about receiving "bonuses" from his best friend.

Focus Jack.

"Okay, okay," she brushes the hair off her forehead dramatically with a "whew". "That was a good one Jack. I almost believed you for a second.

He cocks his head to the side, arms folded like a belligerent toddler, "I was being serious. We should date."

Her smile falls.

"W-why?"

"To make Ricky jealous, duh." They don't have to worry about lowering their voices, the Starbucks is surprisingly empty for it to be rush hour.

She has her thinking face on. Jack knows not to disrupt while her brain is at work. He busies himself by glancing around at other customers.

What do they do everyday? What are their jobs? Hobbies? Do they have friends that they help to win over doe-eyed skater boys by fake dating them while actively suppressing deeper feelings for said friend?

Probably not.

A familiar song comes on the overhead radio.

I kinda wanna throw my phone across the room

'Cause all I see are girls too good to be true

With paper-white teeth and perfect bodies

Wish I didn't care

"Alright, so say your little plan works…" Gina starts.

"Patronizing."

She continues, as if uninterrupted, "What's the end goal here? Yeah, he'll realize his feelings for me, but I'll be with you. Ricky's not a homewrecker."

He ignores the way his heart clenches when she says that she'll be with him . This is so she'll end up with Ricky. Focus Jack. "We'll stage an elaborate break up that'll make me seem like the biggest dumbass in the world for letting you go." Not too far off from reality.

And I see everyone gettin' all the things I want

And I'm happy for them, but then again, I'm not

Just cool vintage clothes and vacation photos

I can't stand it, oh, God, I sound crazy

Gina is insanely talented and beautiful and funny, but sometimes her insecurities get the best of her. He can tell on her face that she's overthinking and doubting her appeal. It breaks his heart.

"I- I don't know, Jack. What if he only wants me when other people want me? What if it's just the thought of having something unattainable? That's not what I want."

Without a second thought, Jack takes her hand across the table and pulls her focus, "You. Are. Amazing. He'll like you for you. We're just gonna give him a little push. Okay?" The staring becomes a little intense and his hands are starting to sweat within hers but he won't let go until she speaks.

Please speak.

"Sorry Jack," her hands fall from his, "but that plan is stupid. Ricky and I just aren't meant to be. I know you're doing this all for me and I'm grateful but, I'm getting over it, and so will you."

It's a lie. He can tell. But he let's it go.

Co-comparison is killin' me slowly

I think, I think too much

'Bout kids who don't know me

I'm so sick of myself

I'd rather be, rather be

Anyone, anyone else

But jealousy, jealousy

Nini walks into school the next day holding hands with EJ Caswell.

Chemistry, being the only class Nini, Gina, Ricky and EJ all had together, was pretty tense to say the least. The new couple kept making googly eyes at each other from across the room. It shouldn't have been as distracting as it was considering they're 10 feet away from each other but they didn't even try to hide it. Gina swore she could see the smoke coming out of Ricky's ears. Gina just tapped him on the shoulder and told him to chill "before the teacher sees you and starts a discussion about the biochemical reactions that occur inside a man fuming literal smoke."

It was a good enough joke to make him laugh and get him through the last 15 minutes of the period.

But now they have lunch.

Carlos, Seb, Ashlyn, Big Red, Ricky and Gina are all at their usual table (though Gina must admit that she still hasn't gotten used to lunch with Ricky everyday).

Carlos and Seb aren't fighting today but they're being equally as annoying by loudly playing Smash or Pass: Broadway Edition. Fingers crossed that they don't get to Evan Hansen, it always leads to a "Who's hotter? Ben Platt or Jordan Fisher?" debate which then leads to a "What's more important, hotness or talent?" debate, which ultimately ends with an angry Seb storming off saying "Well maybe I think talent is hot. YOU KNOW HOW I FEEL ABOUT BEN PLATT."

Yeah.

Gina thinks it proves just how compatible they are. Who other than Carlos and Seb would even agree to spend their lunch period playing Smash or Pass but make it Broadway ?

Good news, Ashlyn and Big Red are finally comfortable doing couple stuff around everyone else. Bad news, they're pretty gross.

Like… those gingers are freaks.

While Big Red and Ashlyn try to swallow each other whole, Ricky and Gina are engaging in pleasant conversation. Believe it or not.

"Wait huh!? You don't follow the MCU?" Ricky looks like someone just told him that pigs are falling out of the sky.

"No," she says very exasperatedly. She's tired of Marvel and their movies and shows that come out every other month that she's supposed to keep up with because they have an overarching storyline but then she also has to watch them in a specific order and there's already like 50 movies out that she's already behind on so she doesn't feel like catching up...

Sorry. She can't even read pages 72-73 in her textbook without taking 5 breaks.

No can do.

Ricky's eyeing her suspiciously now, as if looking for a cog loose.

"Okay, we're watching Iron Man. The first one. It's my favorite and it's amazing and hilarious and you're going to love it."

Gina tries not to break out into a face cracking grin, "Uh, and when will this be taking place?" She settles on a smirk.

"Can you do tonight? My dad's out of town on a 'boys trip'. We'll have the big TV to ourselves."

Not even a heartbeat later, "Sure!" She forgot to remind herself to play it cool.

"Cool. I'll see you at 6." He's smiling that boyish smile now and it's directed solely at her.

She's not over it. Why did she lie and say she was over it? She's far from over it.

The fireworks in her head are so loud, she almost doesn't notice Ricky's eyes shifting focus to somewhere over her shoulder, his smile fading.

She turns to see Nini and EJ eskimo kissing two tables behind us (which, if you ask Gina, is grosser than regular kissing).

"They're sitting together at lunch now." His eyes widen after he says it like he hadn't meant to let that slip.

It pains her. He used to be able to share this type of stuff with her. They were each other's confidants.

She decides then and there that they were going to get back to that status.

"Yeah... h-how are you feeling about all of this?"

She probably should've phrased it better… or not stumble through it like a teething baby.

He doesn't care. He actually looks… relieved?

Maybe he wants to go back to the way things were just as much as she does.

"I don't know, G. I thought I was over the break up, I really did." His eyes won't meet hers and her heart hurts even more. "But now she's with EJ and.. I guess.. maybe I'm not?" He finally looks up.

Well this is interesting. Seems like Jack's little theory was correct.

Still doesn't mean it'll work in the context of Gina.

"It's fine if you're not. You said you were over it. You were in denial." She speaks from experience. "But one day you'll really mean it."

It takes him a moment but he's finally smiling again. "I've missed your wise sage ass."

"I've missed your overdramatic ass."

Jack drops Gina off at the Bowen Household at 6:45pm per her request, despite Jack's protest.

"Wow. Your mom's car is pretty fast. What was that, a 10 minute drive?"

Jack just lifts a brow to show that he's not buying any of what she's selling.

She sighs,"Okay fine. We should've left at 5:30 instead of 5:15 but I was excited to see Ricky so I forced you to drive me here early but now that I'm here, I'm scared to go in and look like a loser who had nothing better to do than to show up 15 minutes early to watch a movie that came out 12 years ago. Is that what you want to hear?"

A smirk accompanies the lifted brow in an overall "I told you so."

He doesn't say it though, just let's it be implied.

"No. What I want to hear is 'Goodbye, Jack,' because I have to return this baby to my mom's garage soon, otherwise you're not gonna have a personal driver for awhile because ya boy Jack will have been grounded."

Her face, which was once shy and embarrassed, quickly morphed into default Gina 1.0. "Fine. Asshole." She moves to get out of the car. "Have fun watching furry boyfriend ASMR videos."

Jack's face looks like he just witnessed the ultimate betrayal."You promised you'd never speak of it again!"

"Sounds like a promise only friends would make."

Before he can come up with a retort, she turns her back to him, hiding her leer, and walks up to Ricky's door.

Suddenly nervous, standing on Ricky's doorstep for the first time since her biggest regret ever , she turns back around to take solace in her best friend, but he's already gone.

Okay, so maybe she shouldn't have brought up his absurd interest in furry comfort videos.

But she'll apologize tomorrow with a pack of Starbursts and an embarrassing secret of her own. Right now, she needs to focus her attention on not barfing all over her new Chucks.

She's wearing her favorite cropped Champion hoodie with grey high waisted shorts. Her hair's slicked down in a neat low bun. She believes she captured "casual but not too casual that it looks like I'd rather be somewhere else" perfectly.

The night is beautiful. Ricky's soft white porch lights casting a warm, golden glow over her features, making her caramel lip gloss pop even more.

It's already looking good for her.

Now all she has to do is ring the doorbell.

She checks her breath for the umpteenth time (still minty), checks her reflection in her compact mirror, plans her smile for when Ricky opens the door (this is an important step), takes a deep breath and then finally rings the doorbell.

"The door's open!"

Well, so much for all of that.

As soon as her foot hit the hardwood floors, she became very aware of two things. One, it smells like a stoner's dream in here. The overwhelming stench of weed and day-old pizza is almost enough to throw her off.

"So he's smoking. That's fine. I have my asthma pump. Everything is still going according to plan," she says under her breath to no one in particular.

But the second thing she notices is that there are multiple voices coming out of the living room.

Praying to God that it's just the movie and he started without her, she turns the corner to find their entire friend group (minus Nini) chatting away on the couch, floor and anywhere else there was space.

Gina breathes,"Oh… wow."

Courtney, high as a kite, glides over to Gina and pulls her into a bone crushing hug. "Hey sis! I didn't know you were coming. We're about to put the movie on. You wanna smoke?"

"Uh, no thanks. I can't really inhale smoke into my lungs. I might die lol," Gina replies, trying not to sound too uncool.

"Well that's fine. Ashlyn baked edibles too if you want?"

…

Fuck it. Gina's reeling from the embarrassment of actually believing tonight was a date.

She needs a little release.

Thirty minutes later, Gina's lying face down on the floor attempting to count all the individual carpet threads. Apparently, she becomes super focused when she's high.

This is how she notices the way Ricky's been staring at his phone all night like he just got news that his pet turtle "ran away".

Ashlyn and Big Red are grinding awkwardly in the middle of the room to no music. Court and Carlos are having a heated argument over which girl group is the best to ever exist (Courtney says Destiny's Child, Carlos says The Spice Girls, and Gina says the whole argument is stupid because they are completely different genres of music… and also Blackpink exists). Seb and Howie are bonding over their mutual interest in chickens, and next to them on the couch is a sad Ricky.

Gina walks over and plops herself onto his armchair, so close that she can smell his peppermint shampoo. "Why so serious?"

Ricky's eyes brighten when they look up at her and those all too familiar butterflies start to fill her stomach. "That's DC, Gina," he smiles like she's the most adorable thing in the world.

"Whatever. Points for effort."

A silence fills their space. It's tense yet comfortable at the same time, but leave it to a high Gina to ruin the moment all too soon. "Why were you looking so sadly at your phone earlier?"

She definitely could have phrased that better, but words are hard for her right now. It's like her tongue needs a nap.

"Oh it's nothing. Nini and EJ went live on Instagram and I just couldn't pull my eyes away no matter how much it hurt." He's looking down at his fidgeting hands.

…

"Come dance with me." It slips past her lips so fast, she couldn't stop it if she tried.

This causes him to finally look up, surprised. "There's no music."

She gestures to Ashlyn and Red, "That didn't stop them."

Before he can protest, she pulls him on his feet and into her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

This isn't what she meant by "dancing" but her brain's pretty much out of commission. So now she's slow dancing with Ricky Bowen to the quippy banter of Tony Stark and Pepper Potts, high off her mind.

Not how she imagined the night going. But he doesn't seem to mind. In fact, and this might just be her imagination, but she swears he's staring at her lips.

She leans further into his touch, and just as she's tilting her head up, his phone rings. The space between them grows, as he steps back to check the caller ID.

"It's Nini!"

If she thought his eyes brightened when he saw her earlier, then he is positively glowing right now.

The room suddenly feels very suffocating.

"You take your call. I'm gonna go take a walk." In true Gina fashion, she leaves before he can even register her words.

Her feet carried her a little too far.

She's been walking nowhere in particular for about 15 minutes now and she really wishes she had a goal or place in mind when she stumbled out of Ricky's front door because she doesn't recognize any of these houses.

Thank God she's in the suburbs.

She pulls out her phone, dials the first person that comes to mind, and moves to retrace her steps.

He picks up, "Jack speaking."

"You're such a nerd. 'Jack speaking'" she mocks him.

"And here I thought you were calling to apologize for using my most embarrassing secret against me. But alas , you just wanted to mock me."

Oh. Right. She forgot about that.

"I'm so sorry for dredging up your dark, lonely pastimes. Can you please forgive? I'll tell you about my crush on Borat…" She learned a long time ago that the way to Jack's heart is through equal retribution.

Nothing could've prepared her for the cackle that followed. "Borat!? Alright Starburst," he says through giggles,"you're forgiven."

He realizes that she probably called him for a reason, "So how's your date going?"

"Great, if you consider a bunch of high, horned up and angry teenagers arguing about the best early 2000s female popstars, a date… then yeah. It's going swell." She huffs into her phone.

"Yikes. You're not the only one he invited to movie night, huh?"

"Nope. But I actually didn't let that deter me. We actually started slow dancing?" The events of tonight finally starting to register with her. "But there was no music, just Iron Man. And it was romantic. But then Nini called." She can't mask her bitterness, even if it's misplaced. "And now I'm lost somewhere in Ricky's neighborhood."

"Are you okay? Do you need me to come pick you up?"

"I'm fine. I'm retracing my steps."

They don't talk but he stays on call with her while she walks.

This was stupid. What made Gina think that Ricky would actually invite her on a date… to watch Iron Man… at his house? She's reached a new level of denial.

But another part of her can't help but think that maybe there are some feelings there. He might not look at her like he looks at Nini, but it's only a matter of time…

"Hey, Jack.. Do you maybe still wanna "go out" with me?"

…

"I'm coming to pick you up"