Title: I Can't Save Us (My Atlantis)
Pairing: Dipper Pines/Pacifica Northwest
Word Count: +1,000 Words
Disclaimer: All properties belong to their rightful owners.
(Your Heart And My Heart Are) Very Old Friends
Chapter VII
She rolls up on his driveway with an armful of boxes and the first thing he immediately notices is her eyes. They were a breathtaking shade of blue. Looking into them feels like looking at lightning breaking apart the sky; so electric and bright. He closes his blinds and goes back to doing his homework, but she doesn't leave his mind for days.
Ever since she and her family had moved in across the street, he had been stealing glances of her up from his bedroom window. Today, she is in her garden, tending to her red carnations. It's been exactly nine days since he first laid eyes on her and still, he can't seem to pluck up the courage to talk to her.
He's crossing the street before his brain can even think to decide against it.
"Hi," He says, not quite knowing what to do.
"Hello, neighbor," She smiles, embarrassed to be a nice girl, and he wonders why.
It's almost thirty-degrees outside and yet she's clad in a chunky knit turtleneck sweater and jeans. She pats the soil bed beside her and he counts the freckles on her arm. She makes him want to be here, fully, watching her wipe the beads of sweat off her forehead and water her flowers in the golden sunlight.
"I, uh, I was just…" He gestures vaguely behind him, and he should really just shut up and run away but she makes him want to keep talking. "Wondering…um…if you, I mean, do you…"
She looks at him imploringly.
"Do you happen to know anything about gardening?"
A giggle.
Are you laughing at me or with me?
He decides it doesn't matter, as he spends some of the next few days with her. He had told her he was interested in starting his own patch of homegrown vegetables and fruits, but that he lacked the green thumb. She seemed more than willing to show him herself how to do it.
She taught him the basics of keeping his crops alive and well, recommended plants best suited for small gardens and beginners. She slipped on a pair of gardening gloves over her slender hands and crouching down, she motioned for him to do the same. Her scent slunk its way up his nose and clung to his memory. Lavender. He'd purchased a multitude of lavender-scented air fresheners since then, but they could never really mimic her scent. That day, they spent an hour and a half going over instructions. He didn't mind.
Though the garden may have been a ruse, he wasn't lying when he said he was new to the hobby. He struggled to keep his crops just healthy and green enough to stay alive, but not so much that she would think he no longer needed her help. He wanted to see her every chance he could, so he would constantly call on her help with his garden, and her eyebrows would crinkle together after every time. He didn't mind.
Everything was like that for the following months. She'd help him in his yard whenever he asked, although a ghost of a frown would pass through her expression more often as she repeatedly explained the things that needed to be done. Well, she was having another big argument with her parents, which had started two days ago over the phone. He'd heard all of it. That must be why she'd been keeping their conversations curter. He didn't mind.
Soon, however, she had started declining his requests for help every now and then. It was understandable; her parents were getting a divorce and the entire thing was tedious and grueling. He traced with his eyes the worry etched in lines on her usually sunny and smiling face. He made sure to stop by the store later to get her a pack of those chocolates she'd been raving to her friends about in her emails last week. He'd get her anything she wanted. He didn't mind.
As he passed by her house on his walk home one evening he noticed the large-stemmed, full-grown roses newly planted in her front yard. She said they were from a classmate of hers, a new friend she had made in History 101 class that day.
"Uh-huh," he replied and red lights flashed danger in his mind. A friend? He climbs upstairs to his room and slams the door a little harder, her smile seared painfully into his thoughts as she told him roses were her favorite. His knuckles meet the wall and he feels a small pang in his chest. He didn't mind.
He clicked more pictures of her from his window. Her arms were gracefully floating in the air as she danced to a tune he didn't know the sound of. A smile played on her lips and her hair formed an enchanting golden halo around her head. She wasn't looking directly at the camera, but she was so beautiful. He didn't mind.
He finally caught a glimpse of her Friend-From-History-101 a week or so later, when he drove her home from school that night. She had told her parents she was going to be coming home late because of a project she had to after school, but he returned her already half-past ten when her parents had just gone to bed. His hair was dark and greasy and his nose too big for his long face to look handsome. She looked ten times prettier just being next to him, but he made her laugh. Both of them looked like they just had the time of their lives, and she had declined his offer again earlier that day. The crack in his wall grew, and his sister had started asking questions. He didn't mind.
He peeked behind the curtains as he saw for the nth time her friend taking her away from him in his car. Something red and hot bubbled inside his chest. It boiled over when the two of them returned and he gave her something more than a kiss goodnight.
Black, spindly fingers had already blossomed in multiple webs to the wall next to his window.
Red, spindly fingers had blossomed in multiple webs across her friend's chest as he cornered him by the street that night.
Because he did mind.
A/N: Woah, there! Haha that was a bit of departure from my usual content. Bit darker. Anyway, if you couldn't tell, this was all from Dipper's POV, and he is somewhat stalking his neighbor across the street which is Pacifica. Hope you enjoyed it, this one was just kind of experimental writing. Hopefully, I'll be updating again soon. But until then, happy holidays and cheers to the new year!
(P.S. This is completely unrelated, but I am part of the 45% that LOVED Star Wars: The Last Jedi and I HELLA SHIP REYLO! If you know any good Reylo fics that aren't AUs, hit me up in the reviews, I'd love it. Peace!)
xoxo Amaya
