Ex Best friend!

1

The day began as generic as any other for (Y/N).

A spurt of optimism filled her as she slurped down the last of her cereal and made her way outside - failing to notice the big splodge of milk that would be visible on her shirt until the fourth period. The sun was waving down on her, the slight hum of insects and the sight of her neighbour with a pair of shears at hand reminding her that spring was now in full bloom.

"Morning (Y/N)," the familiar voice called over the fence.

"Morning!" She waved back at the woman who she would have once called a second mother, the auntie she had never had.

"When's your mum back?" Mrs George asked as (Y/N) neared the end of the driveway. "I'm due a coffee date!"

"A week on Friday." (Y/N) smiled back at her, remembering the days when she and Regina used to join them on their mothers' meetings, sipping lemonade and pretending to be sophisticated on the opposite side of the cafe. Remembering how Regina would always make her laugh and she'd end off spitting her soda out anyway and ruining their facade.

Pulling her headphones out of her bag as she said goodbye, she looked up at the girl whose laugh was currently leaping around inside her head like a carousel, whose grinning face was a portrait in (Y/N) brain as clear as the lakes they used to play in.

Only now she wasn't grinning quite the same.

Taking her usual seat at the bench, she glanced across at Regina: her blonde hair coiffed to perfection, her lips lined just at the right spot, her jet black beauty mark contrasting against her Snow White complexion. She was the type of girl who needed to be painted.

Their eyes met briefly, as they often did on mornings like this, (Y/N) darting hers away quickly in a chaotic manner and looking at her phone instead: seven twenty-seven. Her bus would be here in six minutes. Gretchen would be here in three.

For a split second, she thought she felt Regina's eyes looking back on her but she didn't dare look.

Instead, she tried to think of ways that she could stop herself from reading the freckles on her old friend's arm as if they were the dictionary definition of perfection. She thought about how Regina's mascara may have been left on from the night before, or how she'd seen the straight A student climb out of her window and down her drainpipe like Black widow herself to steal away into the night. Or how the Regina she knew in reality was anything but the flawless girl that was adored around the halls.

Seven-thirty. The familiar horn rang before Regina went to sit shotgun in her best friend's car. (Y/N) let out a breath she didn't know she was holding along with a sigh of relief that the girl was out of sight and out of mind for the day.

Or at least until they had Chemistry together in the third period.

***

"Oh my god," (Y/N) spoke aloud, her body frozen for a second as she absorbed the scene in front of her.

Like something from a disaster movie, she watched as water sprayed from the enormous hole in her living room ceiling, her socks already damp through her trainers.

Her flight or fight reflexes kicking in, (Y/N) did the first thing her brain told her to do which was to run next door and ring their bell as many times as she could, managing to slip on her lawn and stain the knees of her jeans whilst doing so.

"Hi?" Regina looked (Y/N) up and down, her nose wrinkling with curiosity as she took in the other girl's disheveled state, her greeting more of a question than a welcome.

"Hi." (Y/N) paused, trying to think of how she could explain to Regina that she'd simply walked through her front door after school into a foot of brown water, a smell that matched that description almost exactly, and a giant hole in the ceiling that was firing said brown water at her like an army missile.