saturday mornings are for pancakes // a dream x reader fanfiction

CHAPTER 41: MAGNOLIA

A sigh of relief rolls through me as I finally send in the last bit of code for my project. I spin around in my swivel chair once, feeling more free than I have all week.

I start to think of what I could do, but nothing comes to mind. Nick is streaming for a couple hours, and George is probably asleep. I heard Clay leave a couple hours ago, so I'm assuming he won't be back till later.

I spin around once more. The chair slows down so that I am facing my partially open closet doors; boxes peeking out of it.

I sigh, knowing I should've gotten those figured out long ago when I moved in. I glance at the picture frame of Maggie and I on the truck. I miss her, I think to myself, so much.

I drag a single box out of the closet and close the door, ignoring all the other responsibilities. I sit on the floor of my room, and at first I just stare at the box.

My fingers graze over the name written on top. Maggie. I slowly open the flaps that I closed so long ago. Everything is covered in a layer of dust since I probably haven't opened this box since before I moved out of my parent's house.

The top layer is a bunch of pictures. I set them aside for now. I don't think I could face opening up those memories. I dig deeper to find posters and dried flowers; I add those to the piles of pictures.

My hand lays on a bundle of brochures that are secured together with a rubber band. I unwrap them slowly.

I sigh when I see the contents. How could I have forgotten these?

As I flip through each of them, I notice there must be a brochure for everywhere in the world. Egypt, Seattle, Finland, England, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, Spain, Costa Rica.... My fingers land on the New York City one. The words "the city of dreams" sprawled underneath the big header.

A sticky note is tucked into the New York brochure. I carefully pluck it out and run my fingers over Maggie's handwriting. It's a date for the day after we would've graduated.

That's where she wanted to start. She always told me, "You know, New York is the place to start. There's so many people in New York that we could make a fool of ourselves on every street corner and nobody would recognize us again."

I glance around my room. At the life that I've happily settled into. What would she think of it?

Would she be happy that I've found friends? Would she be sad that I still haven't traveled? Would she not care at all because those were just two high schooler's dreams?

My eye catches something that isn't Maggies, and I instinctively grab it. It's a baseball with a sloppy signature. I squint to read the words: To say you knew me before I was famous -Ben Thatcher

I turn my body to reach for the picture frame on my desk. I look on the right-hand corner to see an angry teenage boy running out of the house, already yelling at us for sitting on his truck.

Ben Thatcher.

Now I grab the pictures I had thrown to the side, wondering how in the world I managed to forget Ben Thatcher.

I turn through a lot of pictures, and I don't see him anywhere. I huff. I remember he was always there, treating us like little kids. I squint at a few pictures strewn in front of me. I smile when I catch it.

From the first look, most of them are just of me and Maggie with our friends, but then with a closer look you see Ben, always in the background.

There he is glaring at us as we make a human pyramid. There he is playing beer pong in the background at a party we all went to. There he is laughing with his best friend in the truck as they wait to take us home.