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THIRD PERSON'S POV
Fallon and Esme sat on the phone with each other for the past hour that night, going over a project that they had been assigned to.
Boredom consumed them enough to push it to the side and make their conversation. "Uh, hey, E?" Fallon began, concern etched on her face. "What's up" Esme responded while sketching on the first page of her new book. Fallon shifted around in her room and spoke.
"I heard what happened between you and O'Malley the other day. You good?" Fallon says, grabbing Mae's full attention. Staring at Fallon through the camera for a moment before she spoke, Mae nods. "Yeah. Never better, actually" Esme said, returning to her work. "Really?" Fallon pressed. "Yeah. That was over before it even started so" Esme says.
"Dealing with her and Nia has been a lot lately, but not having to worry about them feels good".
"Is that wrong? I feel like it's wrong" Mae questions as she picked with her bracelet. "It's not wrong to care and focus on yourself, Mae" Fallon reassures her. The athlete picked up her phone as they talked and readjusted her comfort in her bed to lay on her stomach. "You've been supportive of Tess and Nia for so long. What have they been doing for you in return?" She asked.
Esme pauses her artwork and looks at Fallon through the screen.
Fallon raised a brow and waited for a response. Mae bites down on her bottom lip and places her focus on her pencil and paper. Fallon scoffs at the action. "You've been hurt by them, especially her, more than once" Fallon noted. "I hate that for you" She says.
"You do?" Esme questioned, glancing at Fallon with a slight shock.
"Of course, I do! You don't deserve to be in that situation" Fallon said. "Yet, surprisingly, you still try to make the best out of it" She added. "I love that about you" Esme's heart began to pound in the moment as they made contact over the phone like many times before. "Stop. You're being so sweet!" Mae held her head down and tried to tame her growing smile.
"I'm serious" Fallon tells her.
"If I was your girl I'd..." She hesitated, taking a look at Mae, and shook her head. "You know what? Forget it" Esme, now curious with butterflies, encouraged the girl to continue with what she had planned to say. "No! No, no, no. Tell me!" Mae placed her book on her side and grabbed her phone. "If you were my girlfriend, what would you do?".
"If I were your girl, I'd never treat you the way Tess did" Fallon said. "We'd have movie nights, shared playlists, picnics, ice skating, the fair!" The athlete listed. "Heck, I'd even write you love letters" She added.
"Love letters?" Esme questioned with a playful smile.
"If that's what you're into, yes" Fallon replied, pressing her lips together. "That would be us and so much more if I were your girl" She says. "Is that so?" Esme, a blushing mess, flirted. "Definitely" Fallon stated as Mae grabbed her book. While doing so, once again, Esme and Fallon held eye contact with each other.
Breaking the moment, Mae continued with her drawing.
"Good to know" Mae mumbled. Their conversation continued and Fallon took notice of Mae zoning in and out of their conversation. "What're you drawing anyway?" Fallon asked. "I— I, uh," Looking at Fallon and back to her work in progress of a new sketch, Mae's eyes slightly widen.
"Nothing!" She says with a shy laugh.
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"Nothing important" Mae rips the paper out of her book and crumbles it up in her hands. "At least not anymore... A dumb flower" She lied with a smile, tossing the side. "Don't be ridiculous, I bet it looked great" Fallon tells her. "Thanks, Fal" Mae smiled.
"So back to this project, what do you think we should add?" She changes the topic.
Listening from the outside of the fourteen-year-old door, Toriah closes the cracked door they were eavesdropping behind. "That was so corny" Tatum gagged, weirded out by Fallon's confession. "Do you think they hate each other now?" Tori asked her friend as she faced him. "Who her and Tess?" Tatum asked. "Yeah. Was it wrong for me to say something?" She worried.
Tatum rolled his eyes and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Tor, relax. You were protecting your sister from my dumb one" He hoped to reassure her. "She seems sad though" Toriah glanced at the door. "She doesn't look sad to me" Tatum shrugs, dropping his hand down. "Yeah, but I know her" Toriah says, looking at Tatum.
"She's good at pretending, you know, that things are fine when they really aren't".
"Tess is stubborn about her feelings too" Tate said. Toriah looks down and taps her foot on the floor. "There's not much that we can do about it now" Tate spoke up, taking the girl out of her thoughts. "What's done is done. They'll figure it out" He stated. Toriah hummed and gave him a half smile.
Toriah walked away and aimed for her room. "Okay. But should I talk to her though?" She asked, worrying more. She turned back around as fast as she did before to head inside Mae's room. "No, Tori. Come on" Tatum stops her and pushes her into her bedroom. "She was gonna find out soon or later, right?" He says with a slight head tilt as Toriah leans against her dresser.
"I guess..." She agrees.
"Right. So it was best that she heard it from you and not someone else" Tatum said. "You think?" Tori questions. "Yes. I do" Tate answers. "Now stop being a worried dummy and come fix me ice cream!" Tatum nudges Toriah with a smile. "Fix you ice cream!?" Toriah says with raised eyebrows.
"I'm your guest, cupcake. If you don't do it you're a horrible host" Tatum walks out of her room and makes his way into the living room and kitchen.
"You've been over here twenty times already! Fix it yourself" She says from a distance after eventually following behind her best friend.
