Chapter 2

At 6:00am the song Disco Girl by BABBA began to play from a mobile phone sitting on a bedside table. With a groan Pacifica Northwest slowly threw the covers off and got up, grabbing her phone on the way to the bathroom. Her one-bedroom apartment wasn't enormous, but it was plenty big enough for one person. One bedroom as stated, a living room, a small kitchenette, and the bathroom where she was currently getting ready for the day.

15 minutes later she emerged from the bathroom and returned to the bedroom to get dressed in her uniform, ready for another day working at Greasy's Diner. Pacifica still took pride in her appearance but no longer spent hours getting ready in the morning as she did in her younger years.

She grabbed an apple from a bowl in the kitchen on her way past and then paused by the front door as she did every day. Sat on a ledge by the door was a picture frame that contained a picture of three teenagers. It was of herself along with Mabel and Dipper Pines, they'd taken it on the twins' 16th birthday, it was a little slice of what had been the best time of Pacifica's life.

Her eyes lingered on Dipper for a little longer, as they did every day, before she forced herself to look away and exit her apartment. Greasy's Diner wasn't too far from where Pacifica lived, and Gravity Falls was usually pretty quiet this early in the morning, so her walk to work was, as normal, quiet and uneventful.

"Morning Susan" called Pacifica as she entered the Diner and there was a muffled reply from the kitchen area.

Pacifica had just enough time to stow her bag behind the counter in her usual spot and grab her notepad and pencil, when she heard the bell of the door go as the mornings customers began to arrive. The most common answer to her question of "What can I get you?" was "Coffee" though a fair amount of people also wanted some breakfast as well. The first few hours of work were often some of the busiest and Pacifica was rushed all over the place keeping track of people's orders. She was fairly used to it by now and could cope but she did always look forwards to when the morning rush died down.

Things were quieting down by 8:30am as most of the Diner's customers had work to get to, and by 9:45am the last person had left, leaving only the staff in the building. Pacifica busied herself with tidying up as Lazy Susan headed out, apparently the kitchen had run out of some ingredients without anyone noticing so she was off to restock.

After she'd gathered all the rubbish people had left on various tables, Pacifica grabbed a cloth and cleaning spray and began to work her way around the Diner. While the busy periods kept her concentrating on orders, Pacifica quite liked these quiet times when she could let her mind wander as she repeated the rather monotonous actions involved in tidying up.

Pacifica didn't look up from the table she was cleaning when she heard the bell on the door, a little thing that showed the progress she'd made over the years.

"Just take a seat and I'll be with you in a minute," she called over her shoulder.

When she didn't hear any movement Pacifica sighed but still finished wiping down the table before she turned to see who had arrived.

Standing there with messy brown hair, yet another terrible handmade sweater (this one lime green with a brown beaver on the front) and the biggest, smarmiest grin, was Pacifica's best friend, Mabel Pines.

"You bitch," said Pacifica with a laugh after blinking for a few moments, "You never said that you were going to visit."

Mabel couldn't hold it in any longer and squealed "Surprise!" as she threw her arms in the air and rushed over to hug Pacifica.

"I'm sorry," said Mabel, squeezing harder, "I got some last-minute free time and thought this'd make a nice surprise."

"Well, it's made my day so well done," said Pacifica hugging Mabel back, "It's so good to see you again. Come on, let's sit down."

"Are you sure?" asked Mabel even as she bounced over to one of the tables and sat "aren't you working?"

Pacifica gestured at the otherwise empty diner as she joined Mabel at the table.

"I don't think that's an issue, and besides, I'm due a break. So how are things going? Are you still staying at the Mystery Shack?"

"Yes I'm staying at the shack, you know Soos would get offended if I didn't," said Mabel waving her hand in the air, "College is interesting, but no one there quite matches my creative flair you know. Waddles is still doing his thing, he's currently back at my place house sitting, I came out this way to see a fashion show for my course, but it got cancelled last minute hence why I'm here."

Mabel easily noticed the slight sadness that appeared in Pacifica's eyes.

"S-so it's just you visiting?" asked Pacifica with a smile plastered on her face.

Mabel leant forwards and steepled her fingers as she narrowed her eyes at her best friend, Pacifica managed to last about twenty seconds before she blushed and looked away. Eventually Mabel relented with a sigh and slumped onto the table looking up at Pacifica.

"Yes, just me, the last time I heard from Dipper was last month where he said he was leaving Germany and heading for the Alps," said Mabel looking uncharacteristically serious, "Listen Pacifica… While there is nothing I want more in the universe than for you and my brother to get together, like seriously I nearly exploded when I first saw what was going on between you… M-maybe it's time for you to move on, I'm still not sure what happened between you two but Dipper's been gone for years now…"

"Are you really the person to give dating advice?" asked Pacifica with a sad smile.

"Hey!" frowned Mabel, "I have a lot of experience in this field" she started counting on her fingers "8…15… 17 Ex boyfriends worth to be exact. Andonly 5 of them turned out to be supernatural creatures in disguise! Wait, I dated Jeff the gnome twice so… Ha! Only 4 supernatural creatures!"

"You dated Jeff the gnome again?!" asked Pacifica in shock.

"Eh, it'd been a few years and this time I knew he was a gnome from the start. I also specified that it would be just him this time round. Either way that was an interesting time, turns out that he's more into guys but always felt pressured into finding a queen for all gnome-kind, we're still on good terms," Mabel chuckled to herself before looking Pacifica in the eye, "Listen, you mean a hell of a lot to me Pacifica, I'm not going give you some crappy half-arsed advice."

Pacifica felt her eyes prickle slightly as she glanced around the empty diner, there was a lot that she hadn't talked to anyone about but now she felt like this was the moment when she was mature enough to talk about it and there was the right listener.

"I have tried to move on Mabel," Pacifica started slowly and quietly, "I've been on four dates so far, each with a different guy."

"Ooh, progress."

"Not really," sighed Pacifica, "three of them only lasted one date, turns out two of them were only after the Northwest's money and the other was a superficial bastard who blatantly was only interested in my looks…"

"Oh…"

"The fourth guy was genuinely nice though," Pacific stared into the distance for a moment, "we went on three dates total, he treated me well, liked me for who I was, not for my appearance or my parents' money. He probably would have made me very happy… but I let him down gently."

"What? Why?"

"Because… because it hurt to be with him! Every moment we were together it just reminded me of Dipper, except that Dipper was all that for me and more… and… and I felt terrible for weeks afterwards because I had such a stupid reason for breaking up and…"

Mabel shot upright in her seat when Pacifica started to cry and hurriedly scooted round the table in a panic to pull her friend into a hug.

"Dipper saved me," cried Pacifica into Mabel's sweater, "and so did you, you two helped me grow as a person and get out from under my parents' shadow. Dipper was the first person to see the real me, to actually care about the Pacifica underneath the Northwest. And then we spent years together, you and me and him and the others, and I couldn't help but fall in love with the stupid dork…"

Mabel gently stroked Pacifica's hair as she sobbed into her shoulder for another minute or two. Mabel hadn't realised quite how much her friend had been bottling up and was mentally slapping herself for not noticing something sooner. Eventually Pacifica sat up again while wiping her eyes.

"Sorry about that Mabel," Pacifica sniffed, to which Mabel just pulled her into a hug in reply, "but there's not much hope for me, I don't think I'll ever feel about anyone else the way I feel about Dipper, and there's not much of a chance with that anymore."

"Oh shut up," said Mabel while blowing her hair out of her face, "I know for a fact that my brother was head over heels in love with you, like 'lying awake at night thinking of you' in love… what happened between you two?"

"Probably about time I told someone about this too," muttered Pacifica as she pulled away from Mabel, damp sweater was rather itchy, "predictably, as with most bad things in my life, it was my parents. I can still remember that day like it was yesterday which just makes it all the more painful. Dipper had told me earlier in the day that he had something important to tell me and that he was going to visit me that evening. I can still hear him stuttering over his words, feel the heat in my cheeks…"

"I think I remember that day," said Mabel thoughtfully, "Dipper didn't tell me what he was going out for and when he came back, he climbed straight onto the roof of the mystery shack and stayed there all night. Come to think of it, it was after that night that he spent the next three days holed up with Gruncle Ford in his lab, and then when they re-emerged Dipper announced his journey of discovery."

Pacifica's fists tightened so much her skin went white when she heard this.

"I…I was waiting outside later that day for Dipper to arrive, I was a bundle of nerves, full of nervousness, anticipation, hope, fear… however it wasn't Dipper who turned up first. It was my parents walking along with a poncy looking young man I didn't recognise. I put up with the idle small talk and introductions, looking back on it now my father had clearly planned the whole thing out and was just waiting because all of a sudden, out of the blue, he told me that this young man was now my Fiancé!"

"He what?!" shouted Mabel, her eyes widening in shock.

"I froze," said Pacifica slowly, "I knew by that point just how bad my parents were but even I thought there were limits… and this went miles beyond that. I physically couldn't process this; I just couldn't believe my parents would do such a thing. The young man pulled me in for a hug and kissed me on the cheek and I just stood there because I still couldn't believe my parents could, let alone would, do such a thing. Eventually I came back to my senses and pushed him away. I turned and stomped a few feet away as I gathered myself to launch a tirade of insults on my parents… but then I saw it…"

"Oh no," whispered Mabel who was starting to see where this was going.

"The back of Dipper, with that distinctive hat of his, disappeared between some trees in the distance. And I froze again, this time I think my brain just didn't want to process the fact that Dipper just witnessed all that, heard my father loudly declaring that I had a fiancé. I probably could still have saved things at that point but then I spotted it, a bouquet of flowers lying on the ground in the direction Dipper had just left. And… and… I think it broke me. Realising that all my hopes had come true, Dipper had brought me flowers, he felt the same way that I did… and then all those hopes had just been mercilessly crushed. I fled to my bedroom and cried myself to sleep," Pacifica sighed and leant her head on Mabel's shoulder, "It was the wrong thing to do, I should have gone straight after Dipper, but I was a silly teenager and I had just been brutally betrayed by my own parents. I didn't leave my room for three days and I had stewed in my negative emotions for so long that I just couldn't bring myself to visit the Mystery Shack. And by that point Dipper was gone from Gravity Falls… the last day I saw him and the last day I talked to my parents, I gathered up my things and left the mansion for good. I ended up here at the Diner since I didn't know where else to go, Lazy Susan put me up for a little while before I found my own apartment and the rest is history."

Mabel gently moved Pacifica off her shoulder so that she could stand up and began to pace back and forth breathing very heavily. Just as Pacifica was getting slightly worried and was about to ask something Mabel exploded with a "WHAT THE FUCK?!"

"I did think it was odd that you haven't mentioned your parents for the last few years, and I did think it was odd that you and Dipper suddenly fell apart right before I got my sugary sweet payoff, but seriOUSLY WHAT IN THE ACTUAL HELL IS UP WITH YOUR PARENTS, ARRRGHGH, IF I SEE PRESTON, I'M GONNA… GONNA… GODDAMNIT!"

In a rage Mabel stormed up to the Manliness Tester in one corner of the diner, threw in a cent and grabbed hold of the handle as her eyes blazed with the flames of wrath. Raw anger sent the machine lighting all the way up to 'Man', one below the maximum result, but seeing that she didn't even get free pancakes out of all this tipped Mabel over the edge. Just as Mabel looked like she was about to rip the machine from its fixings, a pair of arms wrapped around her from behind and she heard Pacifica laughing lightly.

"It's ok Mabel, really, I've had a few years to adjust, reflect on what happened. Things aren't how I wanted them but not everything's bad, I'm free from the Northwest name now"

When Pacifica was happy that Mabel had calmed down, she let go of her friend and stepped back. Mabel in turn took a deep breath and walked over to the diner's counter where she scribbled something on a napkin which she left in plain sight. Mabel then went and grabbed Pacifica's hand and started to drag her out of the diner, Pacifica managed to see that the napkin had 'Sorry, stolen your waitress, Mabel Pines x' written on it.

"What are you doing Mabel?" laughed Pacifica though she still let her friend drag her along.

"I don't know yet, but I need to do something to vent, and you need some comforting and I'm not leaving you alone for the duration of my stay now."

Pacifica nearly started tearing up again. Sure, she didn't live like a Northwest anymore, but she knew she'd throw it away again in a second if it meant having a friend as good as Mabel.

"How about some minigolf" she said with a laugh as she moved up next to Mabel "I hope you've been practising!"

"Oooo, good choice" said Mabel as her eyes lit up "Golf clubs are excellent for smashing things!"

The two young women headed for Ye Royal Discount Putt Hutt, laughing all the way, and only one of them had the intention to vandalise a golf buggy when they got there.