Author's Note: Welcome to the shit show.
Arya woke up feeling like a different person. Her eyes felt puffy from only four hours of sleep, and she was slower than usual getting to the bathroom to brush her teeth, but she felt like she had changed overnight. Nothing drastic, but as she splashed water on her face and brushed her teeth, she couldn't help but feel like there was something different about her.
Maybe it was that she'd gone to sleep vowing not to let whatever feelings she had for Gendry get in her way anymore.
Maybe it had nothing to do with that. But whatever it was, she felt lighter today, like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She still had to keep up her little charade with Gendry, but she'd made herself a promise, and she intended to stick to it until it was all over.
Now all she had to do was get through this wedding without breaking that promise.
( O O O )
The rehearsal dinner was set for tonight, and Arya had spent the entire day looking for a dress. She'd dragged Gendry along to keep her company, which, in hindsight, might not have been the best idea. But Sansa hadn't been able to come, unsurprisingly. She had to work on setting up the dining hall at the hotel for tonight, so Arya had no other choice but to bring Gendry with her.
"You know you could have just bought a dress earlier instead of waiting until the last minute," Sansa pointed out last night when Arya had called her.
"Yeah, that's probably true" Arya admitted, "but then what I have used as my foolproof excuse when you would ask me to come to help you set up the dining hall tomorrow all day?"
She yelled out a quick goodbye and hung out just as Sansa had gotten herself started on a rant about Arya's inconsiderate tendencies and her selfish personality, and immediately texted Gendry right after.
Arya: We're going dress shopping tomorrow at Nordstrom
Gendry: No thanks. I already found the perfect dress to compliment my legs
Gendry: It's lace. Picked it up at Saks last week
Arya: You're hilarious. I'll pick you up at noon tomorrow
Ever since that day at Gendry's apartment, when they had clinked their plastic cups together and agreed to continue on with their little plan, they had been surprisingly...good with each other. There wasn't any awkwardness. There wasn't any tension.
Things were, weirdly enough, more normal now than they were when they first started this whole thing.
Things were normal enough, in fact, that Arya had no problem telling Gendry to come with her for her little shopping trip. If she had done that a week ago, she probably would have lost her nerve before hitting send.
It felt nice. Like things were almost back to normal.
Almost...But not quite. Not yet.
She stepped out from behind the curtain of the dressing room, her eyebrows raised in anticipation of Gendry's opinion. The dress she wore was a deep purple, with a halter neck and a hemline that showed off a bit more leg than Arya was used to, but she'd seen it on the hanger and thought it was rather pretty.
Gendry, however, didn't seem to have the same opinion. He was wearing the same facial expression that he'd worn when he'd seen the previous four dresses she'd tried on that were now splayed across the bench outside the dressing room: There was the floral printed dress with the high neckline and flared out skirt (Gendry commented that she looked like a regular 1950s housewife in it, and Arya had promptly taken it off right away), then the floor length fitted gray dress that earned a grimace for no conceivable reason, then the green lace dress with spaghetti straps that Gendry said made her look like a pine tree, and the black cocktail dress with white flowers lining the hem that rested just above her knee.
"I don't like it," he said simply, resting his back against the wall behind him and crossing one ankle over his knee. He let out a heavy sigh, tilting his head to see the three remaining dresses behind Arya.
Arya groaned and threw her hands up. "You don't like any of them! Do you even have an opinion, or is this just your way of punishing me for asking you to come today?"
Gendry raised an eyebrow. "You think I would have actually come if I didn't want to help?" he asked seriously. "I'm giving you my honest opinion. I think it's an ugly dress."
"And you know so much about dresses how?" Arya asked.
"I've taken quite a lot of them off," he quipped back cheekily.
Arya snorted and turned around so he could unzip the dress. "Yeah, I'm sure you did when you had your short-lived career as a drag queen," she said tiredly.
"Hey," he said defensively, "people loved Gendry the Drag Queen."
"God, you can't even make up a good drag name on the spot," she admonished, walking back into the dressing room and shutting the curtain.
"Okay," she called out, shimmying out of the dress and holding it out to Gendry through a small gap. He took it from her, along with the hanger, and she soon heard the sound of it falling on top of the rest of the dresses in her ever-growing pile of rejects. "I'm trying on one last dress, and if you still don't like it, I don't care."
"Fine. Wear a hideous dress for the rehearsal dinner. See if I care."
Arya wished there was no curtain separating them so she could glare at him.
There were three dresses hanging in front of her, a knee-length pink dress, a blue dress with an uneven hem, and a fitted gray one with long sleeves, a short hem, and small pearls sewn into the fabric. She bit her lip as she considered them each, and finally grabbed the blue one, slipping into it and closing the side zipper.
"Okay," she said again. "Gendry, if you don't like this dress, I swear to God I will make you walk all the way home because I don't have the energy in me to try on these other two dresses."
"Let's see it, then," he replied.
Almost shyly, Arya stepped out from behind the curtain, curling her toes in the flip-flops she'd brought along for comfort.
The dress was a dark blue-green color, almost like teal, with one shoulder. Gauze flowed over the dress like water, shifting with each movement she made no matter how small.
Gendry opened his mouth when he saw her, but then he closed it, leaning his head to the side as he inspected the dress more closely. "I...what dress is Sansa wearing tonight?" he asked.
Caught off guard, Arya scrambled to get her phone from her bag and showed Gendry a picture of the dress.
"You should get this dress," he said.
"Why did you need to see Sansa's dress to finally come to that decision?"
"I needed to make sure you didn't choose a dress that would make you look more beautiful than her. She'd kill you. And your dress would beat her dress if she wasn't the bride and the star of the show."
Arya was struck into silence, a shiver going down her spine as she took the compliment in, unsure of what it meant. But whatever it meant, it sent a little thrill through her.
"Thanks," she said softly, slowly retreating back behind the curtain to get undressed.
Gendry says something back to her but Arya doesn't hear as she tugs her sweater over her head and zips up her skinny jeans. She fishes her sneakers back out of her bag and shoves her flip flops down to the bottom, putting on a clean pair of socks and lacing up the sneakers as quickly as possible.
By the time she comes out of the dressing room, the dresses that had been splayed across the bench are gone and Gendry is practically bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation as he waits for her so they can finally leave.
Arya grabs her blue dress by the hanger and thanks whatever god is in heaven that the lines at the register are short today. It doesn't even take them ten minutes to get to the front, and Arya swiftly swipes her card and signs her name on the receipt, thanking the woman behind the counter and rushing out of the store. When she makes it out and the cool breeze of February wind hits her face, Arya smiles in relief.
"I'd say I had a pretty successful day, don't you think?" Arya asked as she saw Gendry join her out of the corner of her eye. "Look, we got here at half-past twelve, and now it's only two. I bet you've never gone shopping with someone as efficient as me."
Gendry sent a look her way but he's just barely smiling.
"If the dinner only starts at eight, we still have time to get lunch," he said, looking ahead at the cars passing by them on the street.
Arya turns to him with a broad smile on her face. "How does pizza sound?"
Gendry snorted. "We should probably start eating healthier things," he commented.
Arya shook her head and started walking towards the end of the block to the crosswalk. "Nah. I spent years on a strict diet for dance. I can live the rest of my life eating pizza every day if I want to, and I'll be damned if I'm not dragging you down with me."
( O O O )
The Stark family had always been involved in the business of hotels. Ned Stark had only been a young man of twenty-three when he took over the reigns of the Stark Hotel, and despite the other chains of hotels founded by their family name that dotted the country, the Stark Hotel was the original, the oldest, and the pride and joy of their family.
Even though there was a certain pride in every Stark member for this hotel, Sansa had decided against marrying in their ballroom and chose the ever-classic dream of marrying in the Plaza. However, Ned had managed to convince her to have her rehearsal dinner at the Stark hotel, and after much convincing, she'd finally relented.
As Arya sat in the dressing room waiting for Sansa to finish getting ready, she cast a look around the space they were occupying, her thoughts traveling to her own wedding. Whether or not she'd have one, who it would be with, where she would have it...if Arya were to ever marry, she knew she'd probably end up getting married here. She'd always felt a very strong connection to the hotel, more familiar with it than the rest of her siblings. There were nights when Ned would have to spend the night here for work and she would somehow convince him to let her stay with him just because she loved it that much.
Lost in her thoughts, she didn't notice Sansa calling her name. Arya glanced up and saw Sansa holding out a hand to her. "Do you mind helping me zip up my dress?" she asked, turning around and lifting her hair away.
Arya stood up from the little round tufted ottoman bench she'd chosen as her seat and zipped up Sansa's dress. It was a long wine-colored dress with the straps crisscrossing at the back and showing off a diamond-shaped bit of her back.
Arya, who had been dressed for the better part of an hour now, moved Sansa's hair back behind her shoulders. It had been curled very loosely and done up in a braided crown half-up half-down hairstyle. The rest of her red hair flowed down her back elegantly. Her face was flushed with anticipation and excitement, her cheeks blushing red underneath the makeup she'd applied for herself.
"Don't forget to breathe," Arya reminded her. "You still have a wedding to get through."
Sansa closed her eyes, her eyeshadow catching the light. "Three days," she whispered, mostly to herself.
Arya smiled. "Just think," she said, fitting her elbow in through Sansa's as they walked out the door and began the trek down the short hallway to the elevator, "in three days, you'll no longer be a Stark."
Sansa snorted. "Yeah, right. I'll always be a Stark. It just won't be the name I use every day."
"What is it you decided on? Sansa Stark-Tyrell?"
She nodded and pressed the button for the elevator. "I'm changing it as soon as we get back from our honeymoon."
The two sisters entered the elevator and pressed the button for the third level.
"Where are you sleeping tonight?" Arya asked.
"The house, in my old bedroom. I'm sleeping there until the wedding. Willas decided tonight would be the last night we see each other until I walk down the aisle."
"How romantic," Arya said. She wasn't sure if she was saying dryly, or if she was being serious.
Sansa looked at Arya through the mirror that covered one of the walls of the elevator. "Don't so upset at the prospect of spending the next three nights with me," she said. "You're more than welcome to go spend the night at your boyfriend's apartment, you know."
Arya laughed and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I'll make sure you to walk down the aisle before you as a ghost from beyond the grave after Mom and Dad kill me for sleeping at Gendry's."
"Please. As if they still think you're a virgin—"
"Sansa!"
"What, did you honestly think they believed you were a twenty-three-year-old virgin?" Sansa gave her a look. "I have news for you. They knew when we were sneaking around."
Arya fidgeted uncomfortably. "I mean, I didn't think they believed all the stories I told them, but still."
"One time, when Robb was sixteen, he tried to sneak into the house at three in the morning, and Dad turned on the light. He got so scared that he dropped the wrapper for his condom out of his hands."
"What?"
"Yep. The only reason I know is because I was the one who accidentally woke Dad up." At Arya's questioning look, Sansa continued her explanation. "I had just managed to get back into the house and change into my pajamas when I went to use the bathroom and tripped. He woke up from hearing me fall, believed me when I told him I had just woken up to pee, then went to check on everyone's rooms and saw Robb was missing from his bed. Not even ten minutes later, Robb walked right into the house."
Arya's eyes were wide by the time Sansa finished her story, wondering how she'd never heard this before. "Did Robb ever know that it was basically your fault he got caught?"
"We were at the same party—I just left a little bit earlier than he did while he went to go have sex with his girlfriend at the time."
"Oh, my God."
"Do you remember that time you were dating Daniel, in your freshman year of college?" Sansa asked, watching the numbers tick down on the elevator.
Arya nodded mutely.
"I once overheard Mom telling Aunt Lysa over the phone that she was going to put a few boxes of Plan B in your closet without telling Dad."
"I thought that was you!" Arya shrieked.
It was true—only two weeks after Arya had finally had sex for the first time ever with Daniel, she had been looking through her closet and found a small pile of Plan B boxes in the shoe box where she kept her favorite and most worn pair of boots. She had just thought it had been it was Sansa, simply assuming her mother would have tried to talk to her about it if she suspected she was having sex, but never brought it up.
Sansa shook her head, pursing her lips to keep her laughter in. "Nope. I just didn't tell you. And Mom didn't want you to know that she knew you were having sex, and she especially didn't want to let Dad know."
"How did she even find out?"
Sansa shrugged her shoulders delicately. "She's our mom. She did the same thing to me like, a week after I had sex with Joffrey for the first time."
Their elevator reached the third floor, finally, and Arya was still blinking rapidly by the time they reached the double entrance doors to the ballroom, trying to process the new information she'd just taken in.
"Arya, you look beautiful," Catelyn said as she hugged her daughter. Arya wrapped her arms around her, trying not to think of her telling her sister about her sex life.
( O O O )
"So, you're telling me that your mom just decided to put a bunch of boxes of Plan B in your closet when you were eighteen and never brought it up, never said anything to you, and you never suspected a single thing? In your entire life since it happened?" Gendry asked, his eyes wide as he took in Arya's story with undivided attention.
"That's exactly what I'm telling you!" Arya replied, still feeling a little shock. "I've always thought my mom was so strict and stuff when it came to sex. I just assumed that because she never brought it up to me, she never thought I was doing it. But...nope. She was secretly helping me laid the entire time."
Gendry whistled lowly and shook his head. "Damn. Cheers to Catelyn Stark, then, I guess."
Arya raised her glass of champagne to clink against his, a small giggle escaping her lips. "It's probably the stupidest thing I've ever heard," she admitted.
"It is a bit bizarre, isn't it?" Gendry agreed, taking a long sip from his champagne flute. "Then again, you never know what your parents were like when they were in college, do you? Your mom might have needed a box of Plan B at some point and didn't have one."
Arya wrinkled her nose. "Can we not?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and shaking her head.
"Oh, is the thought of your mother knowing about your sex life making you uncomfortable?"
"Gendry, I will not hesitate to cause a scene and throw my champagne on your nice suit."
He laughed off her clearly empty threat, and Arya settled back into her chair, smiling brightly down at the table. This was...easy. This was nice. It was like they had been off the entire time they'd pretended to date before because they both jumped into it without thinking of the consequences, and the next thing Arya knew, she was falling for her best friend once again when she'd sworn never to let those old feelings get the best of her again.
And after they'd agreed to try it one more time, things had felt so normal between them again.
Those old feelings seemed to be ebbing away, slowly leaking out of Arya with every word she spoke to him. It was nothing short of pure, strong relief as she realized it. She knew part of it was thanks to her literally trying to force it out of her system, but whatever worked best.
She wasn't the type of person to judge the way things got done as long as they ended up being finished.
And it seemed like her feelings for Gendry were finally going away, slowly but surely.
All she could hope for now was that they stayed away before they tried to almost ruin her entire friendship with Gendry once again.
"Arya?"
Arya blinked twice and lifted her chin from her hand. "Hmm?"
Gendry was waving his hand in front of her face, eyebrows raised. "I was trying to speak to you, but you were just kind of zoning out. What were you thinking about?"
Arya shrugged one of her shoulders, shaking her head. "Just...losing in my own thoughts, I guess. Why? What's up?"
"I was gonna tell you how pretty your sister looked tonight."
"Oh." Arya looked over her shoulder to see Sansa standing in the middle of the room, talking to one of her friends from college. There was a glowing smile on her face, her red hair looking perfect and her face practically shining with happiness as her friend put one hand on her shoulder earnestly, a look of fondness on both girls' expressions. "She really does look beautiful, doesn't she?"
"She's gonna be really happy with Willas, isn't she?"
Arya nodded, a smile spreading across her own face. "Yep. They're going to have a great life together, I think."
"I hope so. She deserves it, probably more than almost anyone I know."
"I just hope her wedding is the one day she gets to look back on and thinks it's the time when she was the happiest, where not even one thing went wrong."
"You don't think she'd think that about other days? The birth of her first child, the day one of them gets married, the day—"
"Those days are different," Arya said, waving her hand in front of him. "The day her child is born, when she does have a child, you only feel happiness after it's all over and you hold your baby in your arms. The day your child gets married, you, as the parent, will feel sad as well as happy because they're officially starting their own lives without you because they have someone else to lean on when they need it. But Sansa's wedding day is literally all about her, just like it should have been from the very beginning. It should be a day in her life where she wakes up happy and goes to sleep even happier, with her mood dropping not even once."
Gendry was looking at her with something like awe on his face. Arya ducked her head, feeling like she was blushing.
"What are you staring at me for?" she asked.
"You really love her, don't you?"
Arya scoffed. "Of course I do. She's my sister—I love her more than anything. I used to hate her when we were younger, and it's like, one day, we just woke up and looked at each other and asked ourselves why we couldn't stand the sight of each other for years. Now, I couldn't even live without her."
"That should be in your speech," Gendry said. He sounded frantic, like he was thinking five different thoughts all at once. "That should be something you put in your speech. I know you still haven't finished it yet, so you should write that down somewhere before you forget it."
Arya opened her mouth and then thought for a few seconds. "How did you know I still haven't finished my speech?" she asked. She knew she hadn't told him that her speech was only half-finished yet, too ashamed to admit it.
Gendry gave her a look. "Come on, Arya. You think I wouldn't know?"
Arya gave him a look and furrowed her brow together as she fished her phone out from her small clutch, opening her Notes app and quickly typing out a few sentences before shutting it and putting it back.
She snapped the clutch closed and sat back against her chair. "What on Earth would I ever do without you?" she asked.
Gendry smiled at her and raised his glass to her before downing the rest of the champagne inside. "It's a good thing neither of us will ever know."
The thought sent a flurry of butterflies fluttering through Arya's stomach, and she quickly stomped them down, biting her lip as she avoided his eyes.
Suddenly, Gendry stood up and offered his hand to her. "What do you say we have a dance together, hmm?"
Arya snorted. "I think not. You know I can't dance."
"Come on. After this whole charade is over, who knows the next time we'll have the chance to make fools of ourselves on the dance floor and not give a shit about what anyone else thinks about it?"
Well, Arya thought as she uncrossed her legs and fitted her hand through his as she allowed him to lead her to the dance floor, he always did make one hell of a point.
( O O O )
An hour later, Arya was repeatedly kicking Gendry's ankle in a rhythmic motion, keeping time in her head as her foot dully collided with his ankle. She had her chin cradled in her hand, trying to keep her eyes open as her Aunt Lysa droned on and on about how her sweet little boy was growing up into such a delightful young man right before her very eyes.
The very eyes that were currently filling with tears as her son, now twenty and picking at a piece of lettuce, tried to zone out of whatever his mother was saying. Lysa tried to stroke Robin's hair, but his hand batted hers away halfheartedly, like he knew it would do no good and she would be right back at it in only a few minutes. Arya felt a bit of pity for him, three years younger than her and still being treated like a child by his overbearing and eternally paranoid mother.
"And would you believe it if I told you," Lysa continued as she drew her hand back from Robin's hair, "that he has a friend getting married. Married! Well, the second I heard the news, I said to him, there's no way I'll allow that kind of behavior in my house. I said to my Robin, there's no way you'll be following in your friend's footsteps. No, he has quite a long while until he's ready to get married, isn't that right, sweetheart?"
Robin blinked blearily up at them and shrugged his shoulders.
Arya vaguely wondered if he was high right now.
"Well, anyway. Enough about me," Lysa said, waving her hand in the air and plastering a slightly dazed smile on her face. "Let's talk about you, Arya."
Arya cocked her head to the side, not missing how Lysa had spent the past twenty minutes going on and on about her twenty-year-old son and somehow considered all of it just talking about her, but tried to give her aunt a smile in return. "What's to know? It's not my wedding, is it?"
"Oh, yes, well, I seem to have lost Sansa! I was having a wonderful conversation with her and then she got called away—some kind of bride business, you know how it is."
"Right," Arya said, nodding her head in agreement. She kicked Gendry a bit more forcefully this time as she heard him try to disguise a laugh as a cough. Because right behind Lysa, to Arya's complete and utter unsurprise, Sansa was standing with Margaery laughing with her over champagne flutes. She caught her sister's eye and gave her a sympathetic look, to which Arya responded with a glare.
"I always said your mother let you children get married too young. She always seemed to let you kids run right out of the nest without even saying goodbye." Lysa swept a knowing look between Arya and Gendry and sniffed purposefully before taking a bite of her salad.
Arya's thoughts went once more to Catelyn telling Lysa of Arya's sex life and wondering for the seventh time that night if she had been drunk when she decided to tell her.
"Anyway," Lysa said with a heavily executed sigh, as if it was a chore to turn the conversation away from her own personal thoughts. "Let's talk about you, now, shall we, dear? I see you've got a lovely new...boyfriend, have you? What's your name?" She turned her eyes on Gendry, who immediately straightened in his chair and blinked like an owl at her.
"This is Gendry," Arya said. "We've been friends for more than a few years, actually."
"How sweet," Lysa simpered. "Tell me, Gendry, is all of this wedding business getting to your head now, as well? Are you planning on popping the question to my darling niece anytime soon?"
Gendry opened his mouth to answer, a smirk already pulling his lips upwards, and Arya clamped a hand on his shoulder and jumped in before he could speak. "We haven't discussed it," she said firmly, digging her nails in his arm through the thick material of his suit jacket. "We've only been dating for two months, you see."
"Oh, still such a new relationship. I remember when I first met my dear Jon Arryn." Arya could see her jaw clench tightly as she finished speaking, and wanted to call her aunt out on marrying the man just for the money could offer her, but she knew his death had only caused her paranoia to heighten and now, any mention of him caused her to rage at whoever spoke of him.
"Well, anyway, how did you two get together?" Lysa asked, leaning forward eagerly.
Arya wasn't quick enough to stop Gendry from speaking this time. "Oh, you should have been there the entire time I was working my magic on her," Gendry said, grandly throwing his arm around Arya's shoulders. "I really managed to woo her."
"How?" Lysa asked intently, her eyes glinting.
"You should really hear the pick up lines I used on her. Worked like a goddamn charm," Gendry promised.
Arya saw Lysa's eyebrows stitch together, and she tried to kick at Gendry's ankle again, but he put his hand on her knee to stop her. "I mean, really, I've never used such creative stuff on someone. But that's just the effect your niece has on me." His arm tightened around Arya's shoulders and grinned wide at Lysa.
Lysa, who was looking between the two of them with something akin to shock covering her face.
Robin was still staring blankly at his salad with his bloodshot eyes.
"I think my personal favorite line was this one," Gendry continued, showing no signs of stopping his speech. "We were sitting in my apartment eating some Chinese food, and I just turned to her and said, 'You look like an angel that fell from heaven and hit its face on the pavement.' I mean, who wouldn't have fallen for that one?"
Arya leaned her head up to face the ceiling and closed her eyes, Gendry's forearm cushioning the back of her head.
"How...charming," Lysa commented, her nose wrinkling distastefully. She didn't even try to hide it.
"Isn't it?" Gendry said with overeager sincerity. His eyes were alight with mirth.
Arya opened her eyes and felt her lips twitch up in a smile of her own.
She straightened up in her chair and faced Gendry with a wide grin. "Babe, you're forgetting the best one," she said, nudging his elbow with her shoulder. "Don't you remember the first one you ever said to me?"
Gendry looked like he was trying to hold in his laughter and it was taking more effort than he thought. "Can't remember. Do tell, Arya."
"We were sitting in my kitchen and you needed the WiFi password, so you turned to me said, 'Hey, girl. Is your name Wi-Fi? Because we have a connection.'" She turned back to Lysa. "I practically kissed him on the spot."
Gendry let a short, loud laugh slip out of his mouth by accident and shook his head dramatically at Lysa. "Pity she didn't; it took two more weeks of me thinking up genius lines like those before she finally agreed to go on a date with me. She really made me work for it."
Arya shrugged her shoulders and sighed. "Oh, well. We're here now, aren't we?" she asked.
Gendry did laugh this time, real and light. "Yep, here we are."
Lysa looked like she was smelling something bad.
Robin, meanwhile, was still sitting there.
Still high.
Still looking unseeingly at his salad.
Arya wondered how long before the rehearsal dinner he'd decided to smoke weed.
Gendry made a show of looking at his watch and sighed loudly. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to excuse me and my girlfriend, here," he said as he stood up and brought Arya with him. "We have to go dance now. But it was a pleasure to enjoy your company."
Arya was quick to follow him onto the dance floor this time, a bright smile lighting up her face as she kept her hand in his.
( O O O )
When they finally made it to the dance floor, Gendry pulled her close to him and ducked his head down so it was buried in her shoulder, laughing quietly.
Arya felt his body shaking and couldn't help laughing with him. "Those were probably the worst pick up lines I've ever heard in my life."
"Hey, speak for yourself, Arya," Gendry said, leaning back to look at her. "I've used some of those on girls in college."
Arya pretended to gag and let him begin to lead their dance together. "Let's not talk about your taste in girls in college, shall we?" she suggested meaningfully as Gendry spun her around and then brought her back to his chest.
"Why, do you have something against them?" he asked. "I'll have you know I dated some of the finest girls college could offer. We were all so high all the time none of us even noticed what we were saying half the time." Gendry looked back at the table they'd just escaped from. "Kind of like your dear old cousin over there."
Arya didn't bother looking at her family sitting at the table behind her. She had gone to the dance floor so she didn't have to bother herself with them anymore. She focused her attention on Gendry, letting him spin her around once more. "Alright then," she said. "Let's hear some more of your amazing pick up lines if they worked so well in college."
"I thought we just agreed that standards weren't very high in college."
"No, but you definitely were, and we all know that weed plus hot girls equal terrible bad pick up lines that are only accepted because aforementioned hot girls are horny and want sex," Arya said matter-of-factly. "So let's go, Gendry. What was your most popular pick up line you used when you were out looking for girls that night?" she asked.
Gendry looked behind her shoulder as he thought of them, and she knew the moment he realized what it was when his face turned bright red.
"Okay, what is it?" she said loudly.
Gendry dipped her in an exaggerated fashion to ignore the question for as long as he could before Arya straightened up, her hair swinging in her face.
"Okay," he said seriously, moving her hair from her face before standing still in front of her. People continued dancing around them, but they were standing at the edge of the dance floor completely motionless, Gendry putting his hands on her shoulders and bending down so they were the same height. She felt like a small child who was about to be scolded by her father. "Whatever I say next, you have to swear that you'll still think of me as your friend after this."
Arya snorted and shrugged her shoulders, her hands falling to her sides. "Okay, whatever you say. I'm sure I won't judge you too hard. At least, not actually. Depending on what comes out of your mouth, I might have to over exaggerate my jokes when I make fun of you from now on, so be careful of that when you choose whatever heinous line you're about to give me."
Gendry closed his eyes for a few seconds and then reopened them. He cleared his throat and said, with a completely straight face, "Do your breasts make up Mount Rushmore—because I think my face should be among them."
Arya's mouth dropped open and she let out a small noise of shock, like a cross between a squeak and a shriek. "Please tell me I just heard you incorrectly, because there is no way I will ever believe you used to say that to other humans."
"In my defense, that was the one I would use only when I was really drunk, like, all the time."
"I don't care! That's no excuse!"
She started giggling uncontrollably, and Gendry laughed along with her, rolling his eyes and pulling her back into the sea of dancing couples. He twirled her out, away from him, and then pulled her back in without warning, his hand clasping hers. "There are plenty more that I used back when I was nineteen and trying to beat all my friends by sleeping with the most girls."
Arya got her laughing under control and breathed deeply, her cheeks flushed with giddiness. "Well, don't leave me hanging. You can't just leave it like that! I need to know more of your grand pick up lines. Although, I highly doubt anything could beat the one you just told me."
"Okay, okay, here's a good one I would use in the library. It's handy that I have my library card because I'm totally checking you out."
She dissolved into another fit of giggles, the sound much more high-pitched than her usual laugh, and Gendry kept on laughing with her. People dancing close to them were giving them strange looks, but surprisingly, none of them were judgmental. It was like because they were doing it a rehearsal dinner for a wedding, they had a free pass to be as giggly as they wanted to be.
"Okay, I don't think I can hear any more. You really are terrible at this," Arya said. "Did any of those even work on anyone?"
Gendry shrugged. "Sometimes yeah, sometimes no. But I don't think they ever actually worked on any girl. They just decided to sleep with me because why not?"
"Yeah, that and they also probably thought you were really attractive."
Gendry smiled proudly. "Did you just offhandedly admit that I'm attractive, Arya?" he asked mockingly.
Arya raised an eyebrow and she was about to answer his question with a snide remark when the photographer came around, asking them if they wanted to take a picture together. Arya almost refused, but Gendry shushed her. "Of course we would," he said.
He moved her so his chest was pressed against her back, his arms wrapped loosely around her waist from behind. And then, after the picture was taken, Gendry tilted her head so he could kiss her softly. Through Arya's closed eyes, she saw a flash pop off.
When they separated, Gendry smoothly took her back in his arms to continue their dance like nothing had happened.
"What was that for?" Arya asked as she let him begin to lead their dance again. Neither of them were rather skilled when it came to dancing with a partner, but at least Gendry didn't just trip over her feet for no reason.
"For calling me attractive," he replied without missing a beat, flashing a smirk down at her.
Arya rolled her eyes. "Am I supposed to try and deny that people find you attractive? You've had enough girlfriends that you wouldn't need the ego boost."
Gendry thought about it for a second, his eyes traveling up past the top of Arya's head before he answered her, giving her a delicate twirl. "Yeah, but getting a compliment out of you is like pulling teeth. You'd rather throw up than give me an actual compliment on something. Can you really blame me for taking that one little comment of yours to heart more than any of my old girlfriends? Especially since you're my best friend?" he asked, looking back down at her and meeting her gaze with open, honest blue eyes.
Arya looked right back at him, unflinching and unapologetic. She didn't back down from his look, but she didn't say anything, either, even as she saw the question burning in his eyes that he wanted her to answer without asking her first. Well, she wouldn't let him do that. If he wanted her to say something, then she needed to hear him ask the question first. Especially if this conversation was going the way she suspected it would. There would be no way she would give up whatever control she'd gained over the past few days right now.
Finally, when he saw that Arya wasn't going to say anything until he elaborated further, Gendry took a deep breath and continued speaking. "Do you want to know something funny?" he asked her.
"What's that?" she asked.
"I think I might have started to get some feelings for you over the past few weeks," he said.
So open, not hesitant at all—his own truth, right out there for everyone to hear if they cared enough to listen. Nobody did care enough, though. Except for Arya. Arya cared enough to listen. And even as the words hit her ears, even as her brain processed what she'd just heard, her expression didn't change. She couldn't find the right words to respond with. Every possible response she could think of sounded wrong. But Gendry was looking at her expectantly—not waiting for her to reaffirm her feelings for him, just waiting for a response from her after his confession.
Eventually, all she could manage to get out was a small, thin-voiced "Don't joke." Her look of cool composure fractured just a little bit when her eyebrow twitched under the pressure of whatever this conversation had turned into, and Arya broke their staring contest first, looking away from him.
"I'm not joking," Gendry insisted. "I really did. In fact, it might have even been a while before we even started this whole...thing. It was like I hadn't realized it yet, and my brain just made me ask you to pretend to date so I could get close to you, or figure out if you liked me, too, or—something along those lines, I guess." He tried to get her to look at him, but Arya refused. "Do you?"
Arya blinked twice, trying to get her thoughts in order. "I—you don't even like me," she breathed.
"What?" Gendry asked, looking at her incredulously. "What are you talking about? Of course, I like you. I—I really like you, Arya. And when Jon came to see me, he told me that he could see that and it was time to step up and try to let you know how I actually feel. Arya, you don't even know how much I—"
"Stop!" Arya said loudly, too loud for the music playing. People near them turned to them with brows furrowed in confusion. Arya stopped dancing with Gendry and began walking away. She tried not to look like she was so upset, but she could feel her face turning red and her eyes began to sting with tears that hadn't shed yet, so she ducked her head and made sure to look at the floor beneath her.
Gendry followed her off the dance floor, quick to catch up with her with his long legs. She was trying to walk as fast as she could but Arya had never been so great with heels and she didn't want to trip over her own feet while she felt like she was about to cry.
When they made it out of the ballroom, Gendry took her elbow and turned her to face him.
"What are you talking about?" he asked. "How could you say I don't like you? I know very well how I feel about you. And you are—"
"Realistic," Arya cut in, interrupting him mid-sentence. "I knew this would happen. I knew it would because the same thing happened to me. You think you like me but it's just the pretending. Kissing when we have to, putting your arm around me, showing everyone how we're such a happy couple—it's all gotten to your head."
"The same thing happened to you?" Gendry repeated. "So you admit that you have feelings for me—"
"No! It wasn't real feelings. We—we just caught up in this whole thing. That's why I ended it the first time after Jon overheard us. Because I didn't want to get hurt when I knew you didn't feel the same way I thought I felt about you."
"But I do. And this—" Gendry gestured between them for emphasis with his free hand "—This is real. It's not us playing ourselves or whatever you think it is."
Arya tried to get her elbow out of his grasp, and he let go of her immediately. Even confused, even angry, he always did what she wanted. Always put her and whatever she wanted above himself and whatever he wanted.
"Arya, you can't always just run away from everything when you get scared. It's what you've done with every relationship I've seen you get yourself into."
"That is so not true," she said defensively. "I was realistic when it came to my other relationships. I wasn't going to deal with years of unhappiness or indifference just because someday, down the line, I might get to be happy with them at some point in my life."
"But we could be happy together now. You just said you had feelings for me, and I know you still do. Everyone already thinks we're together—"
"Gendry it's not my fault that you like to jump headfirst into every single situation and expect the best possible outcome because you're too blinded by what you want that you don't even bother thinking of the possible consequences. But I'm not going to let myself be the consequence, not with you."
Gendry recoiled as if she'd slapped him, stunned into silence.
Even confused, even angry, he always did what she wanted. Knowing that she had that kind of power made her hate herself. Especially when she decided to use it to her advantage.
"I think you should go, Gendry." She crossed her arms over her chest and turned her face to the elevator. "It's not a good idea for you to stay here."
"You're kicking me out?" Gendry asked, surprised beyond belief.
"It was a dick move for you to bring this up at my sister's rehearsal dinner. You really should have thought that through better. And I'm not spending the rest of the night dodging you and prompting a bunch of questions about what happened between us. So yes, I'm kicking you out. And you need to leave."
She didn't bother looking over her shoulder to see if he left when she turned on her heel and walked right back into the ballroom.
( O O O )
"What happened between you and Gendry tonight?" Sansa asked from Arya's doorway.
Arya looked up from where she was sprawled across her bed, wearing her favorite pajamas with her face freshly washed and her hair tied up into a messy bun.
"What are you talking about?" she asked nonchalantly.
"Don't try to pull one over my head," Sansa said blithely, walking into the room. "I saw you walking out of the ballroom, and when you walked back in, you were alone. And Gendry didn't come back in for the rest of the night. I tried to talk to you about it afterward, but you made sure to be by yourself the entire time."
Arya shrugged, fiddling with her phone and tapping her index and middle fingers against the screen. The rhythmic tapping noise of her nails against the protective glass calmed her, somehow.
Sansa sighed heavily and turned around. Before she made it out of the room, she looked over her shoulder at Arya one last time. "Whatever it is, try to figure it out, soon. Not because of the wedding," she said quickly when she saw Arya ready a snarky comment, "but because you guys are good together. Show up alone for all I care at this point. If you're not with him when he clearly makes you happy, what's the point of having a date?"
Arya and Sansa looked at each other for a few more beats of silence before Sansa shook her head at Arya. "Fine. But you're going to have to talk to him," she said.
Arya shook her head. "Actually, I don't have to do that," she replied. "There's no reason for me to talk to him when I don't want to."
"No, but you have to. Even if you guys don't fix whatever your fight was about earlier tonight, and you break up...he's still your best friend and you should still try to fix that relationship while you still can. Before it's too late and you lose him as your friend, too."
Arya sunk deeper into her blankets. "I'll talk to him when I feel like I'm ready to talk to him," she said stubbornly.
"Well, get ready," Sansa told her, "because I just let him in the house, and he's waiting outside by the stairs."
"Sansa!"
Manipulative, meddling, control freak Sansa who needed everything to be her way. Arya wanted to hit her. This had nothing to do with her! Why did she think it was her right to go and let Gendry in when Arya had made it very clear that she didn't want to speak to him at all?
She was halfway finished with untangling herself from the blankets she'd piled onto her mattress when Gendry appeared in her doorway.
"It's because she loves you," he said, as if he could read her mind and know the exact question she was wondering. Arya looked past his shoulder at the back of Sansa's head disappearing down the hallway. Her red hair moved with each step she took, still curled, although they'd fallen throughout the night.
"What?" Arya asked stupidly.
"I could see the question written all over your face," Gendry answered, moving farther into her room and closing the door behind him. "She let me in because she wants to see you happy."
"Then she should know me well enough by now to know that talking to you right now isn't the right thing to do," she bit back. "I need time."
"Time?" Gendry repeated. "What's 'time' to you, Arya? You're going to ask me to keep my distance from you until you're ready to be my friend again, but just my friend even though we both know we both have feelings for each other that go a lot farther than just friends, and then you're going to keep asking me not to cross any boundaries until we just don't talk anymore so you can run away again?"
"I liked you," Arya said suddenly, looking down at her duvet cover. It was stamped with little polka dots everywhere in a light shade of purple. "I really liked you, even before this. I had the biggest crush on you when I was younger, and then we never saw each other so it all went away...and then we became friends all of a sudden and I could literally feel those feelings coming up again so I had to force them down. And it worked until you brought up this whole...thing."
She paused. Took a deep breath. Another one.
"And then it was like I was right back where I started. I liked you all over again."
Gendry was smiling at her, but his movements were still slow as he approached her bed and sat on the edge.
"Then don't you get it?" he asked. "You did have real feelings for me before. And you were too young and I was too stupid, but they were real feelings, weren't they? So how can you say that we were just playing ourselves this whole time and asking to get hurt by tricking ourselves into thinking we had any feelings for each other?" He tried to lean forward towards her, but Arya straightened her legs towards him so he couldn't get any closer.
"Arya..." His head dropped down and he shook his head slowly. "I don't get you," he whispered, sounding like he was talking more to himself than to Arya.
Arya shrugged tightly. "If you don't get me, then you shouldn't want to waste your time trying to figure me out," she said simply.
"Goddammit, Arya!" Gendry yelled, his voice jumping up much louder than the whisper he'd just uttered.
The two of them were locked in yet another staring contest. Gendry, sitting across from her while his eyes blazed bright, anger and desperation fighting for dominance, and Arya, using her blankets as a shield to cover herself while her eyes remained shielded, any emotion locked up tight so he wouldn't be able to see what she was feeling.
Honestly, Arya wasn't even sure what she was feeling right now.
"Are you really so afraid to be with someone you actually care about that you'll do whatever you can to ruin whatever bond you already have with them just to make sure you don't get hurt? Are you that scared?"
"I'm not scared," Arya said viciously, her legs drawing back up to her chest immediately as she glared at Gendry fiercely.
"Oh, yes, you are," Gendry said, nodding his head. "If you're not scared, then what is it? You're so terrified of someone actually getting close to you and then they'll wake up one day and realize they don't like what they see."
Arya's breath came out in one heavy rush. But Gendry was staring at her openly, only honest truths coming out of his mouth.
"And you're always so quick to jump into any kind of relationship you can get into because you're so desperate for any kind of affection you can get," Arya shot out. "You always jump right into everything without thinking of what could go wrong. It's always all or nothing with you—"
"Only when I think someone is worth it in the long run."
Arya sat back against her headboard, breathing heavily.
"Listen," Gendry said. He sounded exhausted now. "Just tell me that you don't feel anything for me. Don't try to twist the truth around and say it was just our...whole situation that caused it. Just tell me right now that you don't feel a single thing for me, and I'll walk away. I'll give you whatever space you need until you're ready to be friends again. And if you're not...then, that's okay, too. I won't be fine with it, but eventually, I'll get over it."
Arya looked at him, trying to find some kind of loophole in his gaze, some kind of trick he could pull over her. There was nothing but earnest pleading.
She could tell him she liked him. She could kiss him right now, actually kiss him and get to know what his lips felt like, learn how to memorize his face and figure out what he liked, what he didn't, what he wanted to try. She could teach him what she liked, show him the right way to do everything she enjoyed. She could say one little sentence and it would all be okay.
She knew that. If she said yes, Gendry wouldn't ever hold this against her. He wouldn't even bring it up. He'd pretend like he forgot all about it. Even if she said no, that she just wanted to be his friend, he would wait for her to be ready to be his friend again, and they'd never speak of it again.
But she couldn't do that. She wanted to, she wanted to just lean over and kiss him, and kiss him, and keep kissing him until the sun came up and then again and again and again and—
Arya closed her eyes and shook her head.
Her legs swung over the side of her bed and she walked over to her desk, rifling through sheets of loose paper until she found the only one she actually cared about.
"I'll do you one better," she said and ripped the contract up.
Gendry blinked once and pursed his lips tightly. "Fine," he said. "Message received, loud and clear. I'll see you around, Arya."
He didn't slam the door when he left. Somehow, that made it even worse.