friends (rick riley and scott holland)(INDEFINITE HIATUS)

chapter ten

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chapter ten: little red dress

a/n:

this is very lighthearted! don't get used to it.

tw(s) — one joke about suicidal gestures, smoking, faint homoeroticism, cole is a human being in this fic, suggestive content ;)

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"So, we're just not going to talk about it?" Rachel breaks the silence, squinting as a too cold for mid autumn breeze blows past them.

The four of them—— Rachel, Laney, Alexa, and Gwen—— have been standing outside one of the entrances to the Mall of America for half an hour. With homecoming (and, more importantly to the upperclassmen, the after-parties) just over the horizon, they clambered into Rachel's little sedan after a grueling cheer practice and set out to buy dresses that fit for both. Gwen, for reasons that none of the three of them could discern, insisted that they didn't go inside just yet, leaving them stranded out here in the cold and quiet for a long thirty minutes now.

And Rachel, who can barely handle being quiet through exams, just couldn't handle it anymore.

Dancing from one foot to the other, Gwen hands the cigarette back to Rachel, "Talk about what?"

The smoke burns in her throat and her chest like bad whiskey but it warms her from the inside.

(Besides, the familiar stench of Marlboro lites has become nothing more than a comfort to her in the past few years.)

"The flowers." Rachel says matter of factly. Her teeth chatter against one another uncomfortably until she puts the smoke between her lips. "Some secret admirer left you flowers and you didn't call them, and we're just, like, not talking about it?"

Gwen elects not to answer.

"That's what you want to talk about?" Laney asks as she rubs her arms through her sleeves. She has tucked herself into Alexa's side and is pouting at the two of them.

"What else is there to talk about?"

"I don't know," Alexa's comment is more of a sigh than anything real, "maybe you could start with why we're waiting here in the first place?"

"I'm waiting for someone. They'll be here any minute."

"You've been saying that for fifteen——"

"Why won't you talk about it, though? That's what I don't get."

"Gwen doesn't talk about her love life." Laney interjects again, sounding miserable, not unlike one of the puppies from 101 Dalmatians.

"Okay, now you're making me out to be a snob." Gwen scoffs, hugging herself tightly. "I supply plenty of gossip when it's worth it."

"How is this not worth it, though? Flowers are, like, the peak of romance!"

"Oh, my god," Alexa groans. "Gwen isn't talking because she didn't call the number because she's scared that the guy who left them is Brody slash the guy she slept with after the end of summer party slash the captain of the Golden Garden Wolverines slash Rick's nemesis slash my wrists if I have to hear this again."