Pacifica was at the center of attention, laughing with her friends and Mabel at the lakeside of the party. It had become a thing to celebrate the kickoff of summer like this, especially after Pacifica found a way to sneak money out from her parents account. The only reason they weren't noticed was because of how casual these were: streamers, coolers, ice chests, beer. They were much more authentic than the bombastic celebrations her parents arranged for say, her birthday.

Dipper was off and away from the center of the party though, leaning against a fence with a beer in hand as he watched his fiancee having fun with their friends. He was here, away from them, after just too much light ribbing about his interests. He took it in stride, but excused himself to cool off, as he typically did for times like this.

He sighed his beer again and was starting to wonder where he could find Soos, when he saw his other best friend approaching. "Wendy! Hey!"

The tall redhead was coming up with her own beer. The jacket she wore was parted to reveal a green plaid that Dipper hadn't seen in years. She wasn't wearing a hat, either. "Hi Dip."

"I didn't see you come in. How've you been?"

"Eh, surviving. Trying not to strangle the linemen that are supposed to fix the transmission lines around town before fire season. It sucks."

"Oh, yeah, you're fire warden around here now aren't you? How's that going?"

"Sucks, but it beats being a lumberjack. My dad's still punching trees for Mayor Tyler."

"Ugh. How's the rest of the family?"

"Doing all right. Gus is giving my dad hell about his future. He ships off to college soon. Genetics."

"Wow… Gus, really?"

"Ayup."

"Heh, cool."

Wendy sipped her beer, then pointed at his hand with a finger and said, "Congrats by the way."

"Huh?" Dipper glanced at the ring on his hand. "Oh! Uh, thanks!" He said and laughed, "Yeah… yeah…" he glanced over at Pacifica in the distance. She was playing a beer game with Mabel now, their friends laughing at one of her attempts.

"When are you two getting married?"

"Well uh, Pacifica hasn't decided on a date yet. We're still trying to decide on a venue too."

"Knowing you I'll bet it's some creepy haunted house thing. Or the Mystery spot, you talk about it often enough."

"Well… uhh… not… exactly." Dipper replied. "W-we were sorta compromising on the flower conservatory in San Francisco."

Wendy nearly gagged. "Flowers dude? I didn't peg you for that kind of thing."

"It's close to home and appeals to her tastes. It's ah… also not haunted."

"I guess that works. Don't want ghosts crashing your big day."

"Uh, yeah something like that."

"Hmmm." Wendy said.

The two hung there for a moment to watch the revelers. Pacifica was shouting at someone. The group laughed.

Wendy asked him then, "You just graduated, right?"

Dipper snapped out of his thinking, "Ah! Uh, yep! BA in finance!"

Wendy stared, surprised, then arched an eyebrow. "I thought you said years ago you wanted your own ghost show."

"Ahh…. I… gave that up." Dipper said, "Needed a job that makes money, right? This way I can help Pacifica after we're hitched. You can make a lot of money in finance."

"Yeah… but are you happy doing it?"

Dipper hesitated, sipped his beer again, then answered, "Well… as long as she's happy, I'm happy." He laughed nervously.

Wendy studied him, then chuckled once and said, "That's the important thing, being happy."

"Yeah."

Wendy looked out at the trees, the water, then the distant cliffs, before she said, "Well, I gotta get going soon. Tomorrow I'll be headed upstate again for work. I'm probably gonna be gone for a while, I just wanted to see you again to say congrats."

"Hah thanks. Hey, we should hang again soon."

"I'd love to, but this thing is going to take me out the rest of the summer." She sipped her drink, then said, "I'd give anything to just dive into these woods again to go looking for shit. I miss the trouble we used to get into."

"Aha… yeah… me too." Dipper said wistfully. Then he turned to her and said, "Remember the dinosaur invasion? I rode a T-Rex! Nobody believed it!"

"My favorite was the time we freakin astral projected to the moon to fight Nazi ghosts in the past."

"Oh my God, I forgot about that!"

"We did some really rad stuff back then."

"Yeah!"

"It sucks we had to grow up and give that up."

"Yeah…"

They were silent again for a moment. Dipper was watching Pacifica in the distance start shouting at a loose cat that was in her seat at the table, eating her salad. Mabel was trying to hold her back.

Wendy said then, "I was so afraid I'd mess that all up by asking you out. Who knew all it took was just us getting older."

Dipper heard that and blinked. "Wait… what?"

"Yeah," Wendy said. She looked at Dipper with a wry smirk, then said, "You're, like, my best friend dude. You remember what I said that first summer? It was always true dude, even today. I have more fun with you than anyone else. Still."

Dipper turned towards her. "Well, yeah… but… why would asking me out ruin any of that?"

She shrugged. "You remember what happened with all my past relationships. Robbie. Wade. Allie. They all inevitably burst into flames and my exes end up hating me. I… I didn't want that. Not for you and me- you meant more to me then that, dude."

"Well, yeah…" Dipper said, "Robbie was shallow and Allie had a complex about redheads. I thought you and Wade were okay."

"He asked me to marry him."

"You didn't tell me that!"

"I said no."

"What? Why?"

"I just wasn't feeling it! I thought he would be fun because he was a hiker and stuff but… all he wanted to talk about were stocks and business shit. If I'm gonna listen to someone for the rest of my life, I want it to be fun and kinda crazy, y'know? So I said no and walked away."

"Wendy…" Dipper uttered.

"So, yeah, didn't wanna do that to us." Wendy replied, then chuckled once sadly.

"But… I… I didn't think… you liked me. I thought I wasn't your type or… something."

Wendy locked eyes with them as both of them thought over a path not taken. Then they wondered why they hadn't. She was the first one to break eye contact. "Sorry dude, I shouldn't have said anything." She downed the last of her beer, then said, "I'll see you later. Good luck, congrats again." She started walking away hurriedly.

"Wendy!" Dipper called to her but she didn't turn back. He didn't follow. His eyes were on her as she walked back towards the parking lot.

He heard his name called and looked back to the festivities. Pacifica was waiving, holding up a gaudy golden trophy that they had designated would belong to the winner of the pong games. She was beaming at him, beckoning him to come down and sit among her snooty friends.

He tried to force a smile and wave back. Even at this distance his eyes locked with Mabel, who was not smiling, and he saw her turn her head to look at the parking lot also.

When Pacifica turned back to the lake, away from him, Dipper dropped his hand and sighed deeply, angrily.

"God Damnit." He uttered.