Well, the cold I had got worse and still hasn't gone away, but I wanted to get this chapter up, so I'm sorry about any sloppy writing! Also, I really want to thank everyone who sent messages to me on tumblr after the last chapter, I really love hearing from you, even if it's just silly stuff that you want to share with me! Also, everyone needs to go and check out lehighfivegirl on tumblr- they made so much amazing fanart for this trash fanfiction! And, also, just as a note for this chapter- I know that Bill is generally emotionless in canon, because he's a demon with no regard for human life, however, in this chapter, he does get pretty emotional, and that's because he's human in this, and it wouldn't be natural for a human to be totally emotionless 100 percent of the time, hence the fact that he does panic a bit in this chapter. I am sorry if he seems out of character though!
Chapter Seven
To say Dipper was inexperienced when it came to romance would be an understatement. The brunet had only ever had one 'successful' romantic experience, and that only happened because Mabel set him up with the girl in question, and even then, it only lasted a few months. So when he found himself pretty much head over heels for the Bill, the blonde barista that worked in the Gravity Falls Starbucks, he had no idea what to do.
The only thing he could think of doing at that point was exactly what he had been doing prior- carry on the silent friendship he had developed with Bill, and hope that something happens. The fact that the blonde seemed to be constantly flirting with him through his notes didn't seem to help things either, and just made Dipper all the more confused. Bill did seem to flirt with the majority of the people who came into the shop, as Dipper noticed, however the only person it happened periodically to was Dipper himself, which lead to him questioning whether the comments were meaningful, or just the barista mocking him.
At first, Dipper was in a state of denial. He refused to believe that he was attracted to Bill, and wouldn't let himself think of him as anything other than an acquaintance, or possibly even a friend. However, it eventually got to the point where he found himself thinking far too much about the barista, the blonde constantly on his mind, almost frustratingly so on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, when Bill had his days off from work. The fact that Bill seemed to have taken over his thoughts without him realising annoyed Dipper to no end, as it was pretty damn distracting.
Similar thoughts that had been passing through Dipper's head for the whole of the prior few weeks filled his mind as usual on the morning of his 6 week anniversary of owning the Mystery Shack, thoughts of which he only looked up from as a bike swerved around him, the person riding it whisking past in a blur of colour and angry noises as he was startled back into full consciousness by the realization that he had stopped moving, and was standing in the middle of the road outside of Starbucks. Letting out a surprised exclamation, he leapt backwards, tripped over the edge of the pavement and fell backwards onto the ground, scrambling awkwardly to his feet as he looked up and saw Bill through the window of the Gravity Falls Starbucks, practically crying with laughter.
Dipper coughed awkwardly, and pushed his way through the coffee shop door, walking over to the counter, where Bill was still laughing, a high-pitched, clear sound. As he slid his note across the counter, the barista reached up and wiped his eyes, letting out a few more bursts of laughter, before opening up the note and jotting down his own message on the cup, sliding it over to Dipper, who picked it up, paid for the drink and left while he read the response.
'Oh my god Pine Tree that was hilarious- you're so clumsy fucking hell. Why did you even stop in the middle of the road like that? Did the sight of me in the window stun you into stillness?'
Dipper could practically see Bill's face smirking at him as he read the last line. Taking a sip of his coffee, Dipper begrudgingly made note of how the barista was pretty accurate when it came to both statements. The brunet walked back to the Mystery Shack, making sure that he made it safely across all roads, and prepared himself for his next tour, trying to force Bill out of his mind before he fell off the cliffs or encountered some sort of similar accident.
Later that day, after the tours were done, Dipper logged straight onto skype to talk to Mabel, hoping that she could give him some advice about his situation with Bill.
'Hey Mabel, can I have some help with something?' Mabel's response came through swiftly.
'What is it BroBro?' Dipper typed out his response as vaguely as possible- going into detail would probably just result in him embarrassing himself.
'This is going to sound really stupid, but there's this person that works in the Starbucks I go to, and I really like them, and I'm pretty sure that they've been flirting with me over the past few weeks, but I have no idea and I'm too awkward to ask them, and I think you can probably guess the rest.' The brunet hoped that he wouldn't have to explain himself any further than that.
'ohohohohohohohoh' It was about that point that Dipper began to regret even mentioning his predicament to his sister. 'DipDop has a crush on a Starbucks barista! I like where this is going already.' The regret became stronger, but there was no backing out of it now. When it came to situations alike to the one Dipper was in, Mabel was an unstoppable force. 'I don't see why you don't just go and talk to him, Dipper- if he's flirting with you, then he probably likes you back, you know.'
'Wait, when did I tell you it was a guy I was talking about?' Dipper typed out his response quickly, his fingers hitting the keys of his laptop a little harder than necessary.
'Ha, so it is a guy! I knew it! Pacifica is going to have to give me $10 when she gets back from class now.' By now, Dipper was resisting the urge to smash his forehead into the keyboard of his laptop, although that urge wasn't exactly something uncommon when it came to conversations with his sister.
'Wait, Wait, you were betting on whether I was straight or not?'
'Yeah, pretty much- and I just won. I'm going to be able to buy so many sweets with the money I'm getting from this.' By this point, he wasn't even surprised. 'Anyway, BroBro, I don't see why you don't just go up to him and tell him you like him. Or at least flirt back or something like that. He probably isn't a mind-reader, you know.'
'Wait, you still haven't explained how you even knew the gender of the person I was talking about. True, Bill might not be a mind-reader, but from what I know, you aren't either.'
'Oooh, so he's called Bill then? Well, after I set you up with that girl a few years ago, you told me you'd never trust my advice when it came to girls ever again. You never said anything about advice when it came to guys though. So, you can stop avoiding the main point now. Why don't you just tell him you like him? That always seems to work for me.' Dipper had to resist a small laugh at Mabel's last statement.
'Yeah, and what percentage of the time does 'always' count as this time? about 5%, maybe?'
'Oh ha ha. It's not like you've had any more success romantically than me.' The indignance in Mabel's voice could pretty much be heard in her response, even though it was typed.
'Yeah, that's true. I just don't want to dive right in there like that? I'm kind of worried that I'll scare him off.'
'Pshh DipDop, you'd be fine. Just go for it!' By this point, Dipper knew that there was no point in getting any sort of advice from Mabel, and pushed away from his computer slightly, running his fingers through his hair in a slightly agitated way. Sitting up again as he noticed another message coming through onto his skype from mIndscape, Dipper played with the option of talking to mIndscape about Bill in his mind, wondering if it was a good idea or not. He eventually came to the conclusion that even the masked Youtuber would be more helpful than Mabel, and typed out a response to the Youtuber's incoming message.
'mIndscape help, I have a pretty major problem'
'WHAT'S WRONG? DID YOU GET SWALLOWED BY A LIVING CAVE AND ARE SENDING THIS FROM THE AFTERLIFE' Dipper was getting used to the Youtuber's strange comments by now, although he still wasn't too keen to know exactly what was going on in his evidently chaotic mind.
'You know that Starbucks worker I was talking about a little while ago? He's literally perfect and it's becoming a pretty major problem. I almost got hit by a bike today because I accidentally stopped in the middle of the road because I was thinking about him too hard. I probably sound super cliche and ridiculous because of it, but it really shouldn't be allowed for him to be that attractive.'
There was a long pause between Dipper's message and mIndscape's response, the brunet sat back in his chair and ended up waiting over five minutes before something came through.
'DON'T GET HIT BY BIKES KID. THAT PROBABLY ISN'T HEALTHY.' To Dipper, it sounded almost as if mIndscape was skirting around the main topic of his message, however he didn't want to pursue it, in case it made the Youtuber feel uncomfortable.
Bill was completely aware of the fact that Pine Tree seemed to like him, and he was fine with that- teasing him with that fact was what made him all the more fun. However, as soon as the brunet put it into words, and seemed pretty serious about it, that was when Bill began to panic. As soon as Pine Tree's message came through to him, he sat and read it over multiple times, unsure of what he was even supposed to respond with. Pine Tree clearly had no clue that the person who he knew as mIndscape was the same person as Bill the Starbucks barista, and that fact backed Bill into a corner.
No matter what the situation, Bill knew that he couldn't allow himself to reciprocate feelings for the brunet. He had done a good enough job of denying it until now, and he couldn't allow that to change. All of his past relationships had ended up in some sort of disaster, and call it selfish, but he didn't want to have to go through the whole process all again, and he didn't want to have to put Dipper through that either- it would undoubtedly end painfully for the both of them. Plus, showing any sort of feeling towards Pine Tree, no matter how much he wanted to, would most likely risk the anonymity of his channel, something which was his only way of acting how he wanted without fear of being judged- mIndscape was Bill's safe space, and he didn't want that taken away. By the time Bill had allowed those thoughts to pass through his mind, he had come to the conclusion that he would try his best to avoid directly responding to the main subject of Pine Tree's message, in the hope that he would drop the topic.
As soon as the Youtuber had responded, he closed down his skype tab and left his video to export, leaving his recording room and heading over to the kitchen, pulling out an almost empty bag of popcorn from a cupboard and lying down across his armchair, eating the popcorn to try and distract himself. All he could think of though were the times his parents had scared past relationships away from him, or times that he'd messed up and ruined things, or times when people had been hurt because of him and the stupid stuff he had the habit of saying, and how he didn't trust himself enough to handle anything like that again. Once he'd finished the popcorn, he tossed the wrapper onto the ground, and flopped back into the chair, a loud sigh escaping him. Standing up, he picked the triangle mask off the ground, where it rested against the kitchen counter, and put it back on over his face, sitting back down into the armchair and lying back, the mask obscuring his vision slightly.
At that point of time, remaining masked made him feel just the slightest bit more secure.
The next morning, Bill woke up to find himself still lying in the armchair, late for work, the mask covering his face. His back was stiff from sleeping in such an awkward position, and the triangle mask was pressed up against his nose, one arm prickling with the sensation of pins and needles as he moved it from its position of being thrown over his head. He grudgingly lifted the mask from his face, not feeling up to going into work. Taking off the yellow sweater and bow tie he was wearing, Bill smoothed out his shirt, not bothering with changing his clothes, the process seeming pointless to him at that point of time, and dropped his phone into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and heading out of his apartment and down the stairs.
The air outside his door was cold and biting, and swept against him like a wall as soon as he stepped out into the street. Shuddering involuntarily at the cold air that whisked around him, his arms protected only by the thin material of the black shirt he was wearing the night before. Bill walked all the way to Starbucks with his head down. He was suddenly painfully aware of people watching him as he walked past, feeling exposed without his mask to hide behind. People would often tell him that the internet was a dangerous place, where everyone can know everything about you at the press of a key, however, right now, for Bill, it seemed that also applied to the world outside of the internet. Bill wasn't usually one to be scared of people, however memories of all the times he had messed things up and caused people to hate him or distrust him were renewed in his mind, and every glance seemed scathing and ready to make some comment that would cause him to snap and lash out.
The Youtuber was glad for the warmth that entering Starbucks brought him, however that was the only thing that made him grateful to be inside the coffee shop. Walking quickly, knowing that he was probably late, Bill hung up his bag and pulled on his apron, the 'Professional Asshole' badge left in the bottom of his bag as he rolled the joints in his shoulders, the cracking sound not as satisfying as it would usually seem, before heading back out behind the counter and waiting for someone to come into the shop.
"Bill, are you okay? You haven't yelled weird stuff at anyone this morning, and normally I'd be glad of that, but it's pretty out of character for you." Bill looked up sharply from wiping crumbs off the counter as someone spoke to him. He had gone through the morning of work in a subdued manner, his mind still lingering in the panic that he had experienced the night before. Keeping the past out of his mind was something that he prided himself in being able to do, however there was only so long that he could keep it out of the way for.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired." Bill dismissed the other Starbucks worker's concerns with a half-hearted wave of his hand, lying in an attempt to get them to leave him alone. Almost as soon as his co-worker moved away from him, the door to the shop opened suddenly, a gust of cold wind sweeping in, the noise causing Bill to look instinctively to the doorway to glance at the person entering. He cursed internally to himself as he caught sight of Pine Tree, standing in the doorway, waving to him slightly before walking over to the counter, producing a slightly crumpled note from his pocket. Bill looked from side to side fleetingly, then walked up to meet Pine Tree, forcing a smile onto his face, moving along to make a drink for the aspiring writer. The note remained in the palm of his hand, unread. Every time Bill tried to look down to read the note, a spark of worry of what it would say struck through him. He wanted more than anything to be able to tell Pine Tree to just ignore him, to leave him alone so that he didn't have to go through the inevitable process of turning the brunet away from him to stop him from getting hurt. Picking up the sharpie, he went to pen down his note to Pine Tree on the cup, but his hand faltered, and he recapped the pen and passed the drink across the counter to where Pine Tree was waiting patiently for it.
Bill caught sight of the confused look on Pine Tree's face as he looked down at the cup, before he turned and looked the other way.
Well things went downhill there pretty quickly, didn't they. I'm not even sorry for making him sad any more.
Anyway though, I hope you enjoyed reading, and thankyou to everyone's super kind comments- hearing that you like my trash fanfiction really makes my day!