Triple Pines

Dipper+Pacifica=Jelly

"You were amazing!" Dipper praised while we walked home. I was freezing while he looked rather cozy in my hoodie, but I was too annoyed with him to demand that he give it back.

"She was practically swooning when you gave her my sweater, she loved it!"

It was like he couldn't stop, like he was practically throwing up his excitement. The one thing I was happy about was the fact that Dipper hadn't said anything that showed that he knew about the kiss.

Huh. Why did this situation seem familiar?

Oh yeah. Dipper lied to us about his first kiss with Pacifica just a few weeks ago.

"You the man, Ty. You the man," Dipper finally concluded. We were on the trail in the woods now, about halfway to the shack.

"No problem," I muttered sarcastically. Dipper didn't seem to be catching on to the fact that he was a complete and total coward for not doing all of this himself. But whatever. It was over and I'd never have to deal with Pacifica NorthWest again.

"So. . . you think you'd be free another night when I have to meet her parents?"

I stopped in my tracks to glare at him.

"What?" I hissed through clenched teeth.

"Yeah!" Dipper said in a stunningly clueless way. "You were such a gentleman back there, the NorthWests would love you."

I clenched my fists in my pockets, trying to control the burning urge to punch that stupid smile right off Dipper's face.

"Listen. Carefully," I said angrily. "I'm never doing that again. Pacifica is your girlfriend, I shouldn'tve agreed to this in the first place! You need to man up and do this by yourself."

Dipper looked hurt at first, then ashamed.

"You're right, and I'm sorry," he said. "It's just that I really want to impress Pacifica. She's one of the richest people in town-"

"And you think you have something to prove just because of that?" I finished.

Dipper shrugged. "Well. . . yeah. I guess."

I sighed. "Dude, you're awesome. Did you see the way she talked to me? The way she looked at me? That's the way she looks at you! She likes you no matter what, you need to be yourself. That's what Pacifica wants."

I was expecting Dipper to agree and say something like, "you're right, let's put this behind us and run off into the sunset like the happy brothers we are!" But instead he looked exasperated.

"Here we go again!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "You're always the one speaking words of wisdom while I go on and feel like crap, this is exactly what I was saying when I said you're good with words!"

"And. . .that's a bad thing. . .?" I asked quietly.

"Well. . . er. . . No! Of course it's not!" Dipper exclaimed furiously. "Why are you even like this? We're supposed to be exactly the same physically and mentally, we're freaking CLONES!"

I hated it when he used the C word.

"Look, I'm me and you're you. Get over it already!" I shot back. "Why is everyone always so confused when they discover that I actually have my own personality?!"

Dipper fell silent. The sound of crickets and the occasional rustle through the leaves filled the air around us.

"Is that really how you feel?" He asked quietly.

"Pretty much. Yeah," I replied. "But whatever, I'm not going to pretend to be you anymore. Got it?" I turned on my heel and walked as fast as I could manage, leaving Dipper behind to think about what I had said.

. . . . . . . .

I almost walked into the Mystery Shack in Dipper's clothes when he stopped me and pointed it out, so we quickly switched back in the woods before going inside.

"How did it go?" Melody asked when we walked into the kitchen. Mabel and Soos were playing cards with her at the table.

"Good," Dipper said.

"Where've ya been, Ty?" Mabel asked curiously.

"I've been out on a walk, I saw Dipper coming back so I decided to do the same. It was getting late," I lied.

"Wow, it is late. You kids better get to bed," Soos said after checking the time. It was almost ten o'clock.

When Dipper and I went to bed, neither of us said a word to each other. I set my alarm for 5:00 a.m. I hadn't been to the statue in a while, and boy was I ready to get away for a morning.

. . . . . . . .

The following morning aftter my usual ranting by myself in the woods, I headed back to the Shack for some breakfast. When I arrived and sat down to eat I noticed Dipper wasn't in the house.

"Where's Dipper?" I asked Mabel as she finished setting the table.

"Out with Pacifica, they went to see a movie."

I crossed my arms and mumbled, "great. That's just peachy."

Mabel looked surprised at my little outburst. She set my plate along with her own as she sat across from me. She picked up a fork and asked, "what's been going on between you two lately?"

I pushed my plate away.

"It's nothing," I muttered.

Mabel looked down at my untouched plate.

"Oh, it's somethin' alright," she said. "You usually can't resist my homemade pancakes. What's wrong? Are you sick?"

"No," I said.

"Yep, you're definitely sick with something, now what could it be. . ." she said, leaning forward and squinting closely at me.

". . . you're not jealous of Dipper, are you?"

"What?! No way!" I exclaimed hotly.

Mabel smirked and leaned back on the two back legs of her chair.

"Yep, you've got one bad case of the green disease, buddy," she concluded. She leaned forward again.

"But the real question is, why are you jealous?"

"But I'm NOT!" I said, I was beginning to sound like a toddler throwing a tantrum.

"You're jealous that he's dating Pacif-"

"SHUT UP!" I yelled, standing up so fast that my chair fell backward. I ran out of the room, flung open the door and ran back to the woods.

I couldn't let myself admit it.

I just couldn't.

I wasn't going to admit that I wasn't actually jealous of Dipper, and there was definitely no way that I could let anyone know that I had an undeniable crush on Pacifica NorthWest.