Chapter III: Oopsie Daisy
When Wendy opened her eyes, she noticed four things in quick succession.
1) It was bright, waaaay too bright.
2) Her head was killing her.
3) Her mouth was as dry as sand and she was thirsty as hell.
4) Someone was pounding on her bedroom door with the fury of a thousand suns, and it was making everything else so much worse.
"Weeeeeeeeendy," whined Gus in between knocks at the door, "I'm huuuuuungry."
Groaning, Wendy flipped her pillow and buried her face into it, relishing the feeling of the cool side against her forehead. It didn't do too much to fix her headache though. "Go make some cereal!" she shouted through her pillow, her voice hoarse.
She heard Gus grumble through the door. "We're all out, dad said you were supposed to get some yesterday!" He hit her bedroom door one more time to punctuate his whining.
Wendy groaned even harder. He was right, dad had asked her to pick some cereal up on the way home from the Shack, but she'd totally forgotten. Cereal was the only thing besides microwave dinners that the boys in her family had any idea how to make for themselves. "I'll make some eggs in a bit!" she yelled, tearing her face from the blessed coolness of the pillow. "Just go away!"
She heard more grumbling, and then the telltale sound of footsteps against wood floor as her youngest brother finally left her alone.
Wendy smashed her face back into the pillow, held it tight against her face, and then screamed.
Just another day in the Corduroy household.
She let herself lay there for one final blissful moment, then, slowly, oh so slowly, sat up, massaging her temples as she did so. She needed some water, STAT. And some coffee. And probably some Tylenol too.
Wendy all but fell out of bed and picked up the first pair of sweats that she could find. She'd already worn them a few times, but when she was the only one doing the damn laundry, that meant she had to make some sacrifices from time to time and wear some grubby clothing.
She found her phone laying on the floor next to her bed, not plugged into its charger. Flipping it open, she saw several unread messages waiting for her (which she did not have the mental energy for at the moment), and confirmed that her phone was in fact practically dead. And it was already ten o' clock.
Ugh.
At least she didn't have to work today.
She looked down at herself to verify that she was in fact wearing a tank top (her brothers could walk around shirtless all damn day, but God forbid she leave her room only wearing a sports bra up top!), and then left her room. She yawned as she made her way down their short hallway and into the kitchen, feeling more than a little disoriented still.
First order of business, she found a clean mug and filled it to the top with tap water, and then looked into the cabinet where they usually kept their medicine for the Tylenol. But of course it wasn't where it should be! So she had to tear through several other cabinets before finding it sitting alongside the salt, pepper, and other spices.
The brain of Dan Corduroy was truly an enigma, even to his oldest child.
Wendy popped two pills into her mouth and washed them both down with a gulp of water. Then, she chugged the rest of the water and took a deep breath. Leaning against the counter, she closed her eyes to collect herself and block out the blinding light of day.
She opened her eyes slowly, almost scared to take in the kitchen in its entirety. Dishes were piled high in the sink, and the counters were filled with clutter. Empty cereal boxes sat beside half-eaten bags of chips, which naturally weren't tied or clamped to prevent them from getting stale.
So, the boys had been worthless, like always. They had the easiest chores in the world and they never even managed to do them! She grit her teeth hard. It was too early to yell at them, especially since it'd only make her headache even worse.
With how terrible her day was starting, she was relieved to see that dad hadn't forgotten to make enough coffee for the two of them. She poured herself a cup, glad to see that it was still hot, and then set it aside.
It was gonna have to be eggs and toast, she decided. She didn't have the willpower to make much more than that, and if they complained, then hey, they could starve for all she cared!
When she withdrew the carton of eggs from the fridge, she found that there were only eight eggs left. That was two for each of them.
Wait...
"Marcus!" She shouted.
A second later, Kevin's muffled voice yelled back from the boys' shared bedroom. "He went with dad!"
Alright, scratch that. It was three eggs for her and Kevin, and two for Gus.
Wendy pushed aside the dirty dishes in the sink and pulled out their one half-decent frying pan. She quickly washed it ('Not so damn hard, is it Kevin?') and put it on the stove's right side burner. She let it heat for a minute, then poured in some vegetable oil.
Gus and Kevin preferred scrambled eggs, but Wendy had always preferred 'em fried. When she was in a good mood, she was willing to treat her younger brothers a bit, but this was not a scrambled eggs sort of morning for her.
She retrieved the salt and pepper from the cabinet, then cracked three eggs into the pan and dusted them with a bit of each. Sometimes she risked four eggs in the pan, but then they'd usually merge into one mega egg and the boys always complained when that happened. Always with the complaining.
Dad still needed to fix the stove's burners, so it took way too long to cook a few eggs. He'd made the whole setup himself when she was little, and while he was a stellar woodworker, he was... less stellar when it came to things like gas and electric work.
The price of self sufficiency, she supposed.
As the eggs cooked, Wendy finally felt like she could really breathe. Perhaps it was the routine of cooking breakfast, or the water she had chugged, but the pounding in her head seemed to fade ever so slightly.
'God, why did I drink so much last night?'
And just like that, it all came flooding back.
Robbie's dumb text, bailing on the hangout with the crew, hitting up Dipper, sneaking Dad's keys out of his room, picking up Dipper, seeing Danny's car and nearly canceling the whole thing, Sandra being a bitch, chit-chatting with Than and Ashley, trading embarrassing names with Dipper, beer pong and way too much beer, a couple of shots to top it all off, and then…
…Well… Danny doing his summer best to ruin her night. And then Dipper doing his best to fix it for her.
Walking home with his hand in hers…
And… then…
"You're not gonna let the eggs burn again are you?" asked Kevin (who had made his way into the kitchen without her noticing), jolting her back to the present.
"Go away," she ground out, "you know I hate backseat chefs."
Kevin only snickered, and wandered over to the kitchen table to wait for his breakfast.
But he was right, the eggs were browning a little too much. So she flipped them over in a rush, accidentally spilling a bit of oil onto the stovetop.
It took her way too long to fiddle open the tie on their sliced bread, but she managed it, and jammed four pieces of bread into the toaster with a forcefulness she hoped Kevin didn't notice.
God.
She'd kissed Dipper last night.
She'd fucking kissed him.
She'd invited him to a party, got him good and drunk, made him walk her home, and then kissed him.
Wendy didn't want to believe it, but even through the now worsening pounding in her head and the haze of just how much she'd drank last night, the memories played out like high definition video. Clear as day.
Okay. Alright. She needed to focus. Breakfast first.
She set her spatula down and washed three plates in a frenzy, then plated the three eggs before they could burn. She cracked two more into the pan, sprinkled them with salt and pepper, and then tried her damnedest to think about anything but what had happened last night.
When the toast popped, she didn't even have the presence of mind to yell at Kevin to come get his eggs, but he must have been hungry because he did it all by himself.
Gus wandered into the kitchen not long after, and in no time he was hovering beside her waiting expectantly.
It took all of Wendy's power not to shout at him to go sit down and wait for once in his goddamn life. Instead, she managed to say simply, "Put two more pieces of bread in for me."
Which he promptly did.
The second Gus's eggs were done, she flopped them onto one of the plates along with the two remaining pieces of toast from the first batch she'd made. Gus accepted the plate with a smile and left to join Kevin at the table.
She cracked the final three eggs (her eggs) into the frying pan just as the toast (her toast) popped up.
Wendy always had to leave her servings for last, otherwise she might wind up with less than she'd initially planned. Marcus in particular had a way of accidentally taking more than he was supposed to.
She watched her eggs sizzle, willing herself with all of her might to think about anything else than what was battering at her mental gates.
'I'm so sick of this.'
When her eggs were finally done, she plated them, flicked off the stove, dumped the pan into the sink, snatched her two pieces of bread and her now much-less-hot coffee, and trudged over to the kitchen table.
Kevin was already done, but he was still sitting at the table for some reason. Gus was picking at his food slowly, like he always did.
Wendy sipped her coffee, praying that the caffeine would do its job quickly even as she winced at the bitterness of it. Staring at her eggs and toast, she realized she barely felt like eating them. Her stomach was turning, and not from the hangover.
But she had to eat, she knew. And she had to eat here, at the table, like she always did. Even though she wanted to just take her plate and hide in her room where her brothers couldn't see her.
Still, she put it off, and grabbed the newspaper that her dad had left resting on the table to keep her mind from wandering.
It was the Sunday paper, which meant that it was a lot thicker than usual. The Gravity Falls Gossiper liked to have special interest articles on Sunday to pad the page count, and with a start, Wendy remembered that Mabel had told her something about a story she'd submitted. She could vaguely recall something about squirrels?
Mabel had been really excited that she'd have her picture in the paper, but when Wendy flipped to the special interest section, she quickly noticed a decided lack of Mabel's bracey grin. Instead, there was an article about the lake from the local fishermen's association, another one about bird watching, and a final article by the Northwest heiress declaring Summer 2012 the Summer of V-necks. A girl who reminded her of Sandra smiled at the camera.
Wendy frowned. Maybe she'd misremembered? Maybe it was supposed to be next weekend?
Kevin, who was still at the table for some reason, cleared his throat suddenly, drawing her attention away from the prissy blonde's smirk.
"What?" she asked.
Kevin crossed his arms, and adopted his best 'smartass younger brother' face. "Dad knows you took the truck last night."
She wanted to deny it reflexively, but she suddenly remembered that she hadn't even brought the truck back. Dipper had said he'd handle it and–
God. She was such an idiot.
Taking her silence as an admission of guilt, Kevin just laughed snottily, making her want to give him a noogie he'd never forget. "He found the keys in the mailbox this morning, and he said it wasn't parked where he left it. I thought you always covered your tracks?"
She did! Usually.
But last night was... different. She'd messed it all up. Messed everything up.
On top of everything else that was barreling through her brain, she now had to worry about a 'dad talk' too.
Mission: "Piss Off Wendy" accomplished, Kevin left the table with a laugh, leaving his plate and cup sitting there as extra salt in the wound. He returned to the boys' room, probably to keep playing on their Playstation 2, which he'd been hogging all Summer.
Puberty was hitting Kevin early, and it was turning him into a real fuckin' jerk. Marcus hadn't been nearly this bad.
Gus just sat there awkwardly, watching her with wide eyes, still holding his fork with a tiny little piece of egg on the end of it.
"Are you gonna get in trouble?" he asked, after a long silence.
Wendy shrugged with practiced cool that she didn't quite feel. "I dunno. Maybe."
There was no way dad didn't know she'd taken his truck before, but with Dan Corduroy it was all 'out of sight, out of mind'. If she didn't get caught, he could pretend he didn't know. And while she could complain at length about her brothers, the one rule they all followed was to NEVER snitch on each other.
Rubbing it in when they eventually messed up though... that was fair game.
Gus chewed slowly on his tiny piece of egg; he was the slowest eater in the family by far, worse than a bird when he wanted to be. "I'll sweep later," he said as he chewed, "and maybe Kevin'll do the dishes if I hide all the games."
Wendy couldn't help but laugh at the thought of that, even though she knew exactly how it'd play out. Kevin would threaten and cuss and yell, and then Gus would wimp out and spill his guts, and Kevin still wouldn't do the damn dishes.
"Thanks," she said, reaching over to ruffle his hair, "but don't worry about Kevin, I'll take care of the dishes."
Gus nodded, relief flooding his still-pudgy face.
Wendy finally tore into her now room temperature eggs and slightly burnt toast. She washed it all down with the rest of her coffee, downing it in one long chug. Between breakfast, the coffee, and the Tylenol, something would have to help relieve her hangover.
Thoughts of a moonlit night on the porch continued to plague her all throughout.
Deciding that she couldn't put it off any more (and she was an excellent procrastinator), she pulled out her flip phone and checked her messages. With friends like hers, her phone's inbox was always completely clogged, and this morning was no exception, especially since she hadn't checked her phone pretty much at all the night before.
Tambry. Tambry. Tambry. Tambry. Robbie. Robbie. Robbie. Tambry. Tambry. Tambry. Robbie. Nate. Tambry. Tambry.
The realization that Dipper hadn't sent any texts didn't fill her with the relief she'd thought it would, but she squashed the strange feeling with a vengeance.
She scanned Robbie's messages quickly, and then promptly deleted them. They were the standard crap from him, and she was totally sick of it.
Robbie hadn't been taking part in the group's hangouts since they broke up, and she'd really hoped last night would be the beginning of a return to normalcy for them. Of course, he'd spoiled it before it even started by sending her a fuckin' five paragraph essay spelling out his love for her while she was getting ready to head over.
(Which was about when she'd remembered Sandra's party was happening, and made the mistake of thinking that her night was still salvageable.)
Tambry's messages were her usual too. A play-by-play of pretty much everything that happened at Robbie's place. Nate and Lee created some unholy abomination of a mixed drink, and Thomson spent an hour vomiting because of it. And predictably, Robbie got way too high. Nate even supplied a photo of said too-high Robbie.
She laughed, despite herself.
"What's so funny?" Gus asked between bites.
"Nunya."
"Nunya what?"
"Nunya business, shut up."
Gus stuck her tongue out at her, and she returned the favor.
Tambry's second to last message was a standard good morning message, sent at 8 o'clock on the dot. Tambry woke up earlier than any of them, even on weekends; Wendy was always jealous of how little sleep that girl needed to function.
Her last message was from not even twenty minutes ago, Wendy realized with a start. She must have been even more wound up than she thought if she didn't feel the buzz.
'are you alive? do we need to send a search party?'
Wendy snorted and replied in a similar vein.
'I didn't make it, scrape me up off the side of the road'
Tambry's replies were always lightning fast, so Wendy didn't even bother closing her phone. Within fifteen seconds, the reply came.
'lol'
'how was the party?'
Of course she would ask first thing. Of course!
Wendy hesitated, her fingers hovering over her Razr's keypad as she fought herself over what kind of bullshit she should spin.
'it was fine. saw than and ashley. they missed you guys'
Gus finally finished his food as she waited for Tambry's next reply. He collected up his dishes as well as Kevin's and took them to the sink. He even rinsed off the plates before he put them in!
"Thanks Gus," she called out, grateful for her youngest brother's decency.
Gus just nodded and scurried out of the room in a rush.
Tambry's reply arrived with a buzz.
'wish i could have been there instead of listening to robbie whine all night'
'anything fun happen?'
Wendy could only roll her eyes, Tambry was always looking for something new to gossip about; cell phones had ruined her! She typed out a hasty reply.
'the usual. beer pong, beer, loud music. nothing wild'
But then she hesitated to send it. She hated lying to Tambry... but it wasn't a lie, right? It had been the usual, pretty much.
Right up till the end.
'the usual. beer pong, beer, loud music. nothin wild. wanna go to greasys later? I can tell you all about it'
She pressed send before she could chicken out. Tambry was the only one among her friends she could talk to about any of this shit. If she wanted to find a resolution to any of it, she needed her; the boys just didn't get this sort of thing.
Tambry's reply was simple, and exactly what she knew to expect from her oldest friend.
'what happened?'
Wendy sidestepped the question entirely.
'2 o clock, greasys'
'just you and me'
Tambry's final reply was as brief as her previous one.
'ugh, fine'
Wendy shut her phone with a sigh as she leaned back in her chair. Once again, the relief she expected hadn't come. She felt just as shitty as she had all morning, with yet another problem on her plate.
What the hell was she going to tell Tambry?
Wendy kept busy for the rest of the morning. If her dad had been home, he'd have known something was wrong.
First, she collected up all of the dirty laundry that she could find, and then filled up the washer with as much as the poor thing could take. Too much and it'd break, and she knew dad wouldn't be happy with having to shell out for a new washer; she certainly didn't have enough saved to pay for it herself.
With the washer going, she moved on to the mountain of dishes sitting in the sink, and then progressed to cleaning up the kitchen countertops. As soon as she was satisfied with the countertops, she'd turned to the fridge, and thrown out anything that was expired. With her family, that was a lot.
She'd had half a mind to sweep the kitchen as well, but she decided to trust Gus and leave it to him.
From there, she'd returned to the washer, which was now done with its initial load, and thrown it all over into the dryer. Then she'd set a second load going; it was important to keep the washer going pretty much constantly, otherwise she'd never finish all the damn clothes.
The couch and television had called to her fiercely then, but she'd crushed those thoughts with a vengeance and instead taken out the trash before commandeering the bathroom to take a shower and wash off the sweat that she'd worked up.
Wendy found little relief in the shower though, finding it harder than ever to escape her thoughts with nothing to distract her but the pounding of water on the back of her head.
By the time she'd escaped the shower and the thoughts that burned hotter than any water (and it was indeed the shortest shower she'd taken all summer), the dryer had finished, and so she'd found herself some fresh clothing to put on. A nice, clean, tank top and some jeans. She couldn't go wrong with that.
Only when the third load of clothing was in the washer did she start folding the prior two loads, which she did in the living room so that she could keep it all on the couch. When she was done, she finally allowed herself to take something resembling a break.
She reclined on the couch, using the folded clothing as a makeshift cushion, and turned on the shittiest, most pointless, most aggravating reality television she could find. Anything to rot her brain and keep her distracted.
By the time the third and final load of laundry was transferred over to the dryer, it was 1:20. It didn't take long to get to Greasy's by bike, but she'd had about as much reality TV as she could take before exploding.
The surge of anxiety she felt every time her phone buzzed certainly hadn't helped.
None of the texts ever ended up being from Dipper though.
Greasy's Diner was about as full as it usually was at around this time, which was to say, not very. The lunch rush had come and gone, and it was too early for dinner for most people.
Which, of course, was why she'd picked 2 o'clock as her meeting time.
Wendy locked her bike out front and strolled in like nothing was the matter. Just cool, calm, collected Wendy. Like always. Nothing on her mind here, no sir-ee.
"Take a seat wherever you like!" Lazy Susan called from behind the counter as she refilled an older guy's cup of coffee.
Wendy quickly found the spot she always took, the middle booth right beside the window.
She'd beaten Tambry, but she knew she would if she left her house early. Tambry liked to show up as close to the scheduled time as she could. It was one of her quirks.
Wendy stared idly out the window while she waited for Lazy Susan to make her rounds of the diner.
It was pretty overcast today. Yesterday had been bright and sunny all day; she'd been sweating in her flannel throughout her shift at the Shack. Even her jeans hadn't breathed like they usually did, which was why she'd switched into shorts before the party–
–walk–hands–Dipper–kiss–
She pushed the memories aside furiously, just in time for Susan to make her appearance at her booth.
"Can I get you anything to drink, dear?" She asked, her lazy eye nearly closed like it always was.
Wendy played it cool. "Just some water for now, thanks. I'm waiting for Tambry."
Lazy Susan's eye (her good one) crinkled as she smiled kindly. "Oh, of course! I'll be right back with that Ms. Lumberjack."
She was back with the water within a minute, which was a testament to how few customers the diner had at the moment. Wendy accepted the water with a smile and nod of her head, and Lazy Susan shuffled off back behind the counter to make small talk with the guy whose coffee she had refilled.
Looking around, Wendy realized that it was in fact just her and that guy patronizing the fine establishment at that moment. She could only see the side of his face, but he didn't look too familiar to her.
'Probably an out-of-towner.'
Gravity Falls didn't have the biggest selection of restaurants, so odds were pretty good that if someone was passing through and got hungry, that they'd be stopping by Greasy's Diner.
Wendy was halfway through her glass of water when she saw a certain green SUV pull up outside.
Tambry exited from the passenger side and trudged to the diner while staring intensely at her smartphone, ignoring her mother's spirited attempts at a farewell.
The bell above the door rang as Tambry entered the diner, which drew a "Welcome!" from Lazy Susan that Tambry completely ignored. Without taking her eyes away from her phone, she walked the length of the diner and slid into the booth across from Wendy.
"Hey," Tambry said with her usual lack of enthusiasm, as she sent one final text message and set her phone face down on the table.
It was a small gesture, but from Tambry, it meant the world.
"Sup dude," Wendy said, careful to sound as normal as she could.
Tambry shrugged lazily, and visibly stopped herself from grabbing her phone to check it again. "Boring Sunday," she said, after a beat, "mom was annoying. Kept asking me if I had any summer homework to do even though I told her I did it already."
"Well, did you do it?" Wendy asked.
Tambry snorted and rolled her eyes.
Wendy laughed. She wasn't in any honors classes herself, which meant she didn't have any summer homework to do. God only knew how she'd feel if she had that on her plate too.
Tambry's eyes locked on hers, and her flat expression somehow became even flatter. "So. What happened?"
Wendy chewed on her lip, suddenly at a loss for words. She'd thought plenty about what to say, but it was a lot harder to get the words out when the conversation wasn't imaginary. So she played dumb to buy a bit more time. "What do you mean?"
Tambry frowned now. "You know what I mean, we could have just texted if something hadn't happened. I know you."
Wendy groaned and looked out the window, finding it hard to look at Tambry. "It's... complicated," she finally said vaguely, unsure of how to start. She rested her chin on her left hand.
"What?" Tambry said with a scoff, "Did you get drunk and make out with some guy again?"
Wendy kept her gaze focused on the clouds, and pretended like it didn't sting a bit to hear something like that from one of her closest friends. "No," she said, feeling like a scolded child. "...I mean, yeah. Kinda." She made a noncommittal gesture with the hand she wasn't resting her head on. "Halfway there."
"Come on Wendy," Tambry said with a distinctly annoyed tone. "I'm not gonna play this dumb game."
Wendy couldn't tell her that it was Dipper, that was completely off limits. She couldn't even begin to think of how Tambry would react if she found out she'd kissed a twelve year old, drunk or no. But… well… she owed Tambry a lot; she was always the one who lent an ear when Wendy had a problem like this one.
Resolving to tell as much of the truth as she could, she finally tore her eyes away from the window and met Tambry's expectant gaze.
As soon as she got started, the words spilled out. "Well, I got a bit carried away in beer pong, and then Jason–you know Jason, right?– he came by offering jell-o shots while we were all chillin' in one of Sandra's living rooms, and Than and Ashley were there so I couldn't just turn him down! So I had a couple."
Dipper had just rushed to the bathroom when Jason showed up with the shots. In retrospect, she was glad he'd been gone. Considering how hard he always tried to impress her, Dipper probably would have felt pressured to drink one too.
Her heart clenched at that thought.
"Okay, and? You drank a bit too much, what next?" Tambry's arms were crossed.
Wendy closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Danny was there," she ground out. "I saw his car before the party, and I almost bailed."
Tambry's eyes widened. "Danny? He hasn't been to a party since– wait– you didn't kiss Danny did you?"
Wendy could only snort. "No, he cornered me after I went to the upstairs bathroom–"
"–cornered?" Tambry asked, sitting up straight with even wider eyes. "Wendy did–"
"–nothing happened!" Wendy said firmly, cutting her off before she could blow it out of proportion. "He just wanted to talk, that's all."
Tambry looked like she was going to push for more details, but Lazy Susan finally reappeared beside their booth.
"Is there anything I can get started for either of you?" she asked kindly.
Shooting her a dirty look, Tambry nonetheless had something in mind. "Diet coke," she said, "and an order of fries."
Wendy held up two fingers. "Make it two orders of fries, and I'd like a Pitt Cola."
Lazy Susan scribbled it down on her notebook and collected up the menu that neither of them had looked at. "That'll be out in a jiffy," she replied happily, before ambling back behind the counter.
The second she was out of earshot, Tambry leaned forward. "Okay, so you and Danny talked. What about?"
Wendy schooled her expression as best she could. "The breakup, mostly."
Tambry narrowed her eyes. "Mostly?"
Danny had seen Dipper at the party, and he made sure she knew that. He'd gotten about as close to calling him her new boy toy as he could without actually saying it.
That pissed her off then, and it still pissed her off now.
(Especially because she'd proven him right.)
"Just the usual bullshit pleasantries. 'How are you', 'how've you been', 'how's Tambry and the gang', all that crap." Not a lie, just an omission. That was fine, right? "Anyway, I got a bit... upset. Yelled at him. Told him to go away."
That was when Dipper had found her, and when she'd first held his hand.
Even now, she wasn't totally sure why she'd done it.
"And, well, there was this guy there at the party. He gave me a shoulder to cry on."
Tambry leaned back in her seat, her expression unreadable. "Uh-huh, and who was this guy?"
Wendy hesitated, not sure if she should feed her something completely bullshit, or just try to dodge the question. But she knew Tambry, and Tambry wouldn't let it go until she got a name.
"Well?" Tambry pushed.
Wendy cringed. Fumbling for something that sounded appropriate, she mumbled the first name that came to mind that wasn't 'Dipper'.
"Mason."
Ugh. She wanted to jump off a bridge.
"Mason?" Tambry asked, the gears turning behind her eyes. "I don't know any Masons."
"He's from out of town," Wendy improvised quickly, "just visiting family for the summer."
Tambry clearly wasn't totally satisfied, but Lazy Susan chose an opportune moment to return with their drinks. "A pitt cola," she said, handing a cool glass to Wendy, "and a diet coke!" Tambry accepted it with a glare.
"Thanks Susan," Wendy said for the both of them.
Susan smiled wide, revealing coffee stained teeth. "The fries will be right out!"
Once she was gone, Tambry was on her again. "Okay, so, Mason, he gives you the whole nice guy routine, and then you kiss him?"
For a heartbeat, Wendy was angry. It wasn't just some stupid nice guy routine, Dipper was nice, and he always had been! Tambry didn't know him at all like she did.
But as quickly as the anger came, it was gone. Tambry wasn't completely wrong either, it pretty much was that simple.
Wendy stared down into her drink, deflated. "Yeah, more or less."
Tambry scoffed harshly. "That's it? You get drunk and kiss some guy after your ex makes you feel bad? It's not like you're dating anyone this time, who cares! This could have been a text."
Wendy felt her face flush with a mixture of shame and anger, but before she could retort, Lazy Susan was back with the fries. The elderly waitress slid a plate full of steak cut french fries to each of them.
"Just holler if ya need anything else dears!"
"We will," Wendy replied with false cheer.
Lazy Susan waved, and was gone again, leaving the two of them to stew in silence.
Wendy shoved a fry into her mouth, hoping the taste of a good potato would calm her down. She couldn't let herself get too mad at Tambry. Without the details she was leaving out, it probably didn't seem so bad.
"He asked me out a week or two ago, actually," Wendy grumbled between fries. "I turned him down. Said I wasn't ready for another relationship this summer, that I needed to focus on myself, yadda yadda."
Wendy wished Dipper had only asked her out, but that wasn't how he did things. He'd confessed his love for her. Full throated. All while holding what he thought was her corpse.
It wasn't a memory that she could just forget.
Tambry's eyes narrowed again. "So why'd you kiss him then?"
Wendy slumped. Wasn't that the million dollar question?
"I dunno dude, heat of the moment I guess?"
Tambry rolled her eyes as she grabbed the ketchup that sat right in front of the window. She squirted a big glob of it onto her plate, and then offered it to Wendy.
Wendy shook her head and looked back outside glumly. It was starting to rain, which was pretty fitting for her current mood. She should've brought a jacket.
Tambry silently ate a few fries, watching her the whole time, and for a moment, the only sound was the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops against the diner's windows, and Lazy Susan's chatter to the out-of-towner.
Wendy fiddled with the straw in her drink.
After a particularly large sip of coke, Tambry broke the silence. "Look, I don't think we'd be having this conversation if this was some guy you wanted to get with, so what's the big deal? Just tell him it was a mistake. You appreciate his friendship, but you drank too much, that wasn't the real you, you weren't thinking straight, who cares," Tambry said with a wave of her hand, like she was flicking water off it after a shower. "He's gonna be gone in a month anyway. "
Wendy's heart sank even further.
It must have shown on her face, because Tambry's expression softened ever so slightly. "Man, for a guy you turned down, you seem to care an awful lot."
Avoiding her gaze, Wendy shoved a few more fries into her mouth and chewed them long and slow, trying not to remember the heartbreak on Dipper's face that night at the bunker. The way he'd tried to smile through it and pretend like she hadn't just destroyed him.
She'd let him down as nicely as she could, hadn't she? What else could she have done?
"Wendy," Tambry said forcefully, snapping in her face to catch her attention. "It's not gonna get any easier if you wait, just rip off the bandaid. Do you want another guy hounding you the rest of the summer? Or do you actually wanna be able to enjoy it?"
Wendy tried to smile, but her heart wasn't in it. "Yeah... You're probably right." She downed a few more fries, but the saltiness wasn't working its usual magic.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket several times in quick succession, interrupting her pity party. She hesitated for a brief moment to take it out, but curiosity won the battle. She had to know if it was Dipper.
Tambry had the same thought. "Is it him?" she asked with blatant interest.
Flipping her phone open, Wendy was once again relieved (was she relieved?) to see a name that wasn't Dipper's. "Nope, it's Mabel," she said, surprised.
Tambry made a noise, but took Wendy's use of her phone as permission to finally look at her own again.
'heeeeeeeeeeeey wen wen'
'suppose i maybe needed to break into the minigolf course at saaaaaaay midnight tonight to win a golf contest'
'would you be able to help?'
'dippers being LAME'
Wendy froze at the mention of Dipper (lame?), but found her bearings quickly.
'of course girl, Im always down for breaking and entering'
She almost, almost, left it at that, but her fingers were typing and her brain couldn't stop her.
'dippers not going?'
Mabel replied nearly as quickly as Tambry tended to, so it wasn't even a minute until she got her response.
'hes being all moody'
'says he just wants to stay home instead of have FUN'
Wendy could only stare at the text on her screen, feeling even worse than she did before. She wracked her brain for something to say, but she knew Mabel pretty well, and anything she said about Dipper now, she'd definitely relay to him.
But her phone buzzed several more times, saving her the trouble.
'OH WAIT'
'grunkle stan says he can break me in'
'you can still come if you want!'
'itll be a girls night!'
'with grunkle stan!'
Wendy mulled it over honestly. It'd be fun to break into the minigolf course, and Mabel was always a riot to spent time with, but... if Mr. Pines was helping, then it'd probably be better for her to sit this one out.
Especially since it meant that no one would be at the Shack besides Dipper.
It was a chance to settle everything, just handed to her on a silver platter.
'maybe next time then, on second thought I got some stuff I need to do. have fun!'
Mabel's next messages were just a string of smiley faces and thumbs-ups. Wendy chuckled softly, and put her phone back in her pocket.
Tambry followed suit, though it seemed to cause her almost physical pain to set her phone down. "So, what was that?"
Wendy shrugged as she chomped on a few more fries. She'd let them get cold. Oops. "She thought she might need my help, but she didn't. No big deal."
"Hmm."
They munched on fries for a few minutes in an almost companionable silence.
"Hey," Wendy said, finally finding her words. "Would you be up to hang out for the rest of the day?"
Tambry quirked an eyebrow. "The whole day? Why?"
"If I get home while my dad's awake he's probably gonna yell at me, and I really don't feel like it today." At Tambry's confused look, she added, "he knows I took the truck last night."
Scoffing, Tambry nodded. "Sure then, I guess," she said before her expression hardened. She held her left index finger up. "On one condition. You talk to Mason, today, and you shoot him down."
"Fine," Wendy answered, closing her eyes. "I'll do it."
At midnight.
The rest of the day passed slowly for Wendy. They went all over: the arcade, the bowling alley, the mall, and even the cemetery (once it had stopped raining). Tambry didn't bring up 'Mason' even once, but it was a specter that hung over her no matter where they went.
Tambry wasn't a gold star conversationalist when she wasn't texting, but Wendy appreciated her friend's presence anyway. It was better than being alone.
At 9 o'clock, Tambry finally went home, but not before giving her a knowing look.
At 10 o'clock, Wendy stopped at Tons and got the cereal she was supposed to get the day before.
At 11 o'clock, knowing her dad would be asleep, she dropped the cereal off at home and grabbed herself a jacket.
At 11:45, she was up the road from the Mystery Shack, leaning against her bike's handlebars with an ache in her chest.
Mr. Pines' Cadillac was gone, and all of the lights in the Shack seemed to be off. Well, except for one. The triangular window above the main entrance was still lit, casting a soft glow that didn't quite make it down onto the porch.
She wondered what Dipper could be doing at this hour. Reading? Making one of his paranormal investigation videos? Or maybe... maybe he was just lying in bed, staring at his phone, and thinking about when the girl who'd already broken his heart once would finally text him.
Wendy ground her teeth. All she had to do was text him, 'I'm outside' and pedal the rest of the way to the porch. He'd come running, she knew he would.
And then she just had to do like Tambry said. Tell him it was a mistake, that she wouldn't have done it she hadn't been such a mess. She hadn't really meant to kiss him, he was just in the right place at the right time, like back in April! It was just the heat of the moment, it didn't really mean anything! And besides, you're gonna be gone in a month anyway, so who cares? We can still be friends! For real this time.
'I was just a drunk asshole, like Sandra and Danny said.'
But... he was her friend, and she cared about him. And she could never say anything even close to any of that shit to him, not without killing their friendship. And... and she didn't want that.
She didn't want to come to the Mystery Shack for the rest of the summer just to find that he was avoiding her again, that he wouldn't look at her anymore, or spend time with her while she avoided doing the few things Mr. Pines asked her to.
She wanted to hear his stories about the crap he got up to in the woods, or his gripes about his great uncle and sister. She wanted to counter him with all the shit her own family put her through, and complain about how much high school fuckin' blew. She wanted to tell him how much she wished the summer would last forever, so that she could just keep coming to the job that she hated, that she hadn't even wanted, so that she could have a good time with the kid from California who made weird little comments under his breath and snuck glances at her whenever he thought she wouldn't notice.
'Wendy, that's not fair.'
It wasn't! And that's why she'd shut him down! He was twelve, and she was fifteen, what the fuck else was she supposed to do? She'd let it go for as long as she could, but it wasn't right to pretend like she hadn't noticed when she'd known all along! Maybe, deep down, she'd liked the attention, liked the lengths he'd go to see her smile. Maybe she'd liked the way he'd do something stupid or risky to impress her, or make her happy when she was sad. Sure, he messed up sometimes, but didn't everyone? Hadn't she?
'Wendy, that's not fair.'
That's what he'd said last night, at the end.
The instant she'd pulled her lips away from his, her face warm and her heart pounding hard in her chest, she'd known she crossed a line.
He tried to close the distance, just like she had, but she'd recoiled. She'd jerked away, her eyes wide.
She'd seen the light die in his eyes. She'd watched it morph into hurt, and disappointment, and confusion.
She'd watched him struggle to find something to say, his eyes growing wet in the moonlight while she sat frozen on the top step of her porch.
'Wendy, that's not fair.'
That's what he'd settled on. And she hadn't even had the courage to respond.
She remembered making some pathetic excuse, and fleeing into her house, just leaving him there without an explanation. Without a defense of herself or her fucking stupidity.
And here she was, staring at her phone, trying to think of one a day late. Trying to think of a way to wind the clock back and make everything fine again. Make everything the way it was, where they were just friends and she wasn't some asshole toying with a kid's feelings to make herself feel good.
12:00. That's what her phone said.
'I'm outside,' she typed.
Her thumb hovered on her enter key–
–and the light in the twins' room went dark.
Wendy slammed her phone shut and jammed it into her pocket. She rode home in silence, hating herself the whole way.
AN: Thank you for the kind reviews so far, I'm glad people found chapter 2's ending as dastardly as I intended it. I hope you all enjoyed this one just as much, despite the lack of our main ship!
Please do review if you enjoyed it, or if you have any questions/notes/corrections to point out. Reviews are the balm that heal a writer's weary soul!