CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Slurp Slurp

"Well guys, it's been four hours of food, fun, and general insanity. I hope you enjoyed and don't forget to follow GracefulGaming on Twitch, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr –"

"Shameless plug," Lizzie coughs.

"And most importantly, subscribe to our YouTube channel for more craziness! Internet hugs for you all. Jenna out!"

"RACHEL IS THE BEST!" Lizzie shouts as I close out the stream. I stretch back in the chair as Lizzie gets off the floor and walks over to the door. I dart out in front of her, yank the door open, and run down the hall into the bathroom.

"GOTTAPEEGOTTAPEEGOTTAPEE!" I've been holding it since morning, which is never a good idea. I hear Mitch laughing in the living room.

"Is she always like this?" he asks Lizzie.

"Yes. You get used to it after awhile," she replies. I emerge from the bathroom, drying my hands on my pants.

"I regret nothing," I say. "So what do y'all want to do?"

"I was just gonna go over to Corrin's dorm. I had a theory question I was gonna bother him with," Lizzie says. She and Corrin are both music minors, where I'm a neuroscience minor.

"Oh. Okay. Well, um, Mitch, d'you wanna see some of the city? – well, really it's a town, but –"

"Sure. I'd love to," Mitch says, smiling at me.

"Great," I say. "Well, I'm gonna go put some real pants on, then we can leave." I never changed out of my lovely orange pants, but I did put on a more bearable sweatshirt. After I put on some jeans and my non-heavy-duty boots, I grab my coat and lead him out the door. He starts heading towards his car, but I shake my head.

"It's only a few blocks. You can walk."

"But MOOOOOOM," he says in a whiny voice.

"No buts. Eat your vegetables and don't make me use your middle names."

"How did you know I had more than one?"

I raise one eyebrow and look at him sideways. "The YouTuber wiki knows all."

"Oh. Right. So where are we headed?" he asks.

"To a coffee shop. I'm thirsty and cold."

"But you just drank a huge cup of chocolate milk like twenty minutes ago," he replies.

"So?"

"We've been walking for five minutes."

"Yeah. So?"

"So that sounds like a good idea," he says, turning to smile at me. I smile back, a weird, fluttery feeling flaring up in the pit of my stomach.

"Well good, 'cause we're here," I say, pulling open the door. A rush of warm air makes me feel all happy, as well as the prospect of coffee. We order our drinks and stand at the end of the counter to wait. I'm still shivering from the short walk, even though I'm not really cold.

"Are you cold?" he asks, moving closer. He hugs me from behind and rests his chin on my shoulder. I stop shivering immediately.

"Not really, but thank you," I say, somewhat quieter than normal. He smiles at me, and we stand like that for a few more minutes. I think once again how glad I am that he's here, and how nice it is to have a friend who's like and older brother (almost). I still find him hot, not gonna lie, but that doesn't factor as much into my attitude towards him as it did before we met.

"Lily?" a barista calls, and I step forward out of Mitch's hug to grab my drink and thank her. I'm here often enough that they know vaguely who I am. Mitch is called a few seconds later. As I go to take a sip, I notice something on the side of cup below my name.

"No way," I say.

"What?" Mitch asks.

"Can I see your cup?" I ask. He extends his hands toward me and I turn the cup so that I can see his name. Sure enough, the same thing is written on his cup as well.

"What's wrong?" he asks. I hold up my cup in response so that he can see what's below my name. His eyes widen.

"No way," he says, checking his own cup. I nod.

"I almost can't believe this," I say, looking at my own cup again. Written in Sharpie underneath both our names is a small message from Stacy, one of the employees I'm familiar with.

#Jenja for DAYZ! You guys are such a cute couple :)

I look over to see her smirking behind the counter. I shake my head. She nods. I shake my head again. She rolls her eyes as if to say Oooooookay then, whatever helps you sleep at night.

"I had nothing to do with this, I promise," I say to him. He smiles, and hugs me with one arm.

"It's okay, J. Could be worse."

"It can always be worse. At least I'm not Sleeping Beauty."

"What?" he asks, confused. I smile.

"C'mon. I'll explain it as we walk."

-oO0Oo-

*MITCH'S POV*

I hear Lizzie shout from down the hall, then again a few seconds later on my laptop when the stream ends. The girls come out into hall, and Lily immediately sprints for the bathroom.

"GOTTAPEEGOTTAPEEGOTTAPEE!" she says. I laugh.

"Is she always like this?" I ask Lizzie.

"Yes. You get used to it after awhile," she replies. Lily comes out a few seconds later, wiping her hands on her sweatpants. We decide to go out and see the town a little bit while Lizzie goes over to Corrin's. After about five minutes, Lily emerges with "real pants" and we head out. It only takes us a couple minutes to get to the coffee shop. We order our stuff and wander over to the end of the counter. The shop is fairly crowded, and from the way Lily's acting it doesn't look like we'll be staying long. She shivers as she stares off into space, even though the walk was only a few minutes.

"Are you cold?" I ask. I move over to her and hug her from behind to warm her up, resting my chin on her shoulder.

"Not really, but thank you," she replies just loudly enough for me to hear. We stand that way until the barista calls for Lily's drink. It's nice to be here. I recorded plenty for the time I'm here, so I don't have to worry about that. Maybe later we can record a little bit, we haven't had a chance to lately. I've never really had anyone like her before, a girl who's a friend but also kind of my sister but also kinda attractive. She gives nice hugs, anyway. Speaking of hugs, Lily steps out of mine as she gets her drink. A few seconds later, my name is called, and I grab the cup. I take one sip before Lily speaks.

"No way," she says, staring at her cup.

"What?" I ask. I don't see anything wrong. This coffee is pretty good, even if it's not an icecap.

"Can I see your cup?" she asks. I hold it out so that she can see it, but I don't have to let the toasty warm cup go. She twists it so that she can see my name, and her eyes widen.

"What's wrong?" I ask, expecting there to be a penis drawn on my cup or something. She holds up her cup, name towards me. There's a note written below it.

#Jenja for DAYZ! You guys are such a cute couple :)

Well. I don't know if this is better or worse than a dick on my coffee. The same message is written on my cup.

"No way."

"I almost can't believe this," she says, looking at her own cup again. She looks over at the barista, and the two of them have a silent exchange that I don't really pick up on. I guess it's a girl thing.

"I had nothing to do with this, I promise," she says. I smile and give her a one-armed hug.

"It's okay, J. Could be worse," I reply.

"It can always be worse. I could be Sleeping Beauty," she says.

"What?" I ask. That makes absolutely no sense.

"C'mon," she says. "I'll explain it as we walk." She leads the way to the door and back into the frosty outside world. It's warmer here than in Montreal, but that's not saying much. Snow is piled high everywhere but the sidewalk, and more is drifting down lightly while we walk.

"So, Sleeping Beauty," she begins. "In one of the older versions of the story, she isn't woken up by true love's kiss by a prince. Instead, she's raped by a passing king and gives birth to twins in her sleep. As if that wasn't bad enough, when she eventually wakes up, the king comes back and explains to her what's up. He promised to take her back to his kingdom, but went back without her. The king's wife got her to send her kids to the kingdom, where she wanted to kill them and make her husband eat them. Luckily, the cook saved them, but then when Sleeping Beauty came to the kingdom the wife tried to burn her alive."

"I – wow," I say. Not many other words for that.

"Don't worry, the wife ends up getting burned alive instead, and they all live happily ever after. It just takes them awhile," she replies, smiling innocently.

"I will never see Disney the same way."

"Oh, you shouldn't. Do you wanna hear the real story of Rapunzel?" she asks.

"Do I?"

"Do you?"

"I don't know, do I?" I ask. I can see her getting annoyed.

"I'm not playing your games, senor. I CANNOT BE CONTROLLED!" she runs ahead a few feet as if to prove her point, then stops and waits for me.

"So where are we going?" I ask, changing the subject.

"Infinity and beyond."

"So… you don't know?"

"Exactly. Want to hear about Rapunzel?" she asks again.

I sigh, fake-exasperated.

"Well, it all started when this one pregnant lady got real bitchy with her husband…"

She is definitely the oddest little sister I never had.

A/N TIME! THE BEST TIME! : Hey guys! QD here with another chapter for you beautiful individuals. Before I get too far into this author's note, I just want to let y'all know that I started another story. It's called Ancient Merome, so go check it out if you want. It's really different from this one, both in setting and feels. I have decided that I am the queen of mixed ships, so prepare to have your navies assaulted! Get it? Ship? Navy? I'm not funny, but I'm still laughing. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you guys as usual for all of your lovely support. We're way over a hundred reviews now, which is absolutely insane. You guys have signal-boosted this story to over 7300 views, which is just mind-blowing. Much luv to all of you beautiful individuals! Here's the facts:

-I'm not proud of it, but I have on many occasions run to the bathroom yelling 'gotta pee.'

-The YouTube wiki really does know a creepy amount about these people. Just one look at Mitch's page and you will understand.

-I tend to shiver after I'm cold, but not during. I don't know why.

-My friend once gave her name as Jesus when we got Starbucks.

-'At least I'm not Sleeping Beauty' is a phrase my friends and I use relatively often.

-I looked up Sleeping Beauty on Wikipedia for this. The story I told is accurate to one version of it. Yay! Research!

And the fictions:

-I probably wouldn't let someone hug me like that in public for very long without expecting consequences of the same type.

-I think it probably goes without saying that I am misrepresenting Mitch (I'm sorry Benja!).

I think that about wraps it up for this chapter. As always, don't be afraid to PM me. I love hearing your voices! I also have a poll up as to some content that I might put out in the future, so go vote plz! Keep up the reviewing, following, etc. and whatnot because you guys are my inspiration, my motivation, anything that ends in –ation you're probably it. Much luv and Internet hugs!

-Quiet Defiance

PS – Don't forget to check out Ancient Merome *shameless plug over*