dead sea (a. pressman)

prologue

Heather James had been in love with Allie Pressman for longer than she could remember. They had met on the first day of kindergarten, and growing up together had both advantages and disadvantages. Heather could read Allie better than anyone, besides maybe her sister, Cassandra, who was only one year their senior. Allie knew almost everything about Heather - she had been the first one Heather came out to in seventh grade, though she conveniently left out her feelings towards the blonde.

Growing up beside Allie just let Heather fall deeper and deeper in love with her every single day. She knew she wouldn't trade any of it, though. Knowing Allie had always been the best part of her life. Even if she could never fully have her in that way, she was more than happy to be her friend, even if there was now a little something extra to their relationship.

"Hey, I'm headed over to the Pressmans'," Heather said as she came to the bottom of the stairs. Her parents were both in the living room, her mother reading a book and her father working on his laptop, though they both looked up at her words. "Where's Rose?"

"At her friend Jasmine's house for the night. Have fun, tell Amanda we say hello," her mother, Sarah, said, flashing her oldest daughter a smile.

"Stay safe!" her father called as she walked through the front door, making her mentally roll her eyes. She lived in West Ham, it's not like it was New York City. Hardly anything bad happened here, considering the fact that it was a town on the smaller side.

It was only a fifteen minute walk to Allie's house, and she spent the entire time with an earbud in, listening to her usual playlist. She didn't bother to knock when she reached their front door - She had been given permission to just walk in way back in third grade. Allie was waiting for her at the kitchen island.

"Heather!" she exclaimed with a bright smile, hugging the girl easily. Heather laughed.

"You just saw me like three hours ago," the girl pointed out, though she accepted the hug easily, relishing in being surrounded by Allie's usual floral-scented perfume.

"More like five hours. Worst five hours of her life, apparently," Cassandra chimed in as she walked into the room, a teasing smile on her face.

"It's just 'cause I make everything better," Heather joked, accepting a hug from the older girl as well. Cassandra had kind of adopted her as a second little sister when they were younger, and was the only one who knew of Heather's feelings for Allie. She had managed to coax it from her when they had run into each other late one night, both girls after a late night snack.

"Obviously true," Allie said, nodding her head solemnly before her smile broke through. "Now c'mon, I have a movie and everything set up already." She grabbed Heather's hand and pulled her after her as she hurried upstairs. Heather just barely managed to call a greeting out to Allie's parents when the two girls raced past the living room.

Heather dropped her bag by the door to bedroom, Allie shutting it behind them before they both settled onto the bed. Snacks were laid out at the end of the bed, including Heather's favorite - barbecue chips.

"On tonight's program we've got the new It, followed by the Princess Bride, of course," Allie informed her, flashing her a smile as she grabbed the remote and sat before her best friend on her bed.

"You're just spoiling me tonight, huh?" Heather said with a slight laugh, lightly elbowing the blonde in the side before grabbing the bag of barbecue chips and opening it. Despite already knowing what the response would be, she offered the bag to the other girl, only for her to push it away with a disgusted look.

"You insult me," she said dramatically, reaching for the bag of potato chips instead.

"God, you're so vanilla, Pressman," she teased as the previews for the movie started. Allie looked over only to stick her tongue out at her.

"Right, because your gross chips are sooo exotic." Both girls laughed, Heather knocking their shoulders together before reclining back, relying on the pillows to prop her up just enough that she could see the screen.

By the end of the movie, neither were paying much attention to the screen, instead tangled up in each other. This was a semi-regular occurrence, since about six months ago. Neither of them had expected it to happen, it just kind of... did. It continued to happen, until they had an odd sort of friends-with-benefits situation. They refused to acknowledge it before or after, however. They always just acted like they were normal best friends.

Heather had been feeling conflicted about it for weeks. The constant off and on was tearing her apart, her real feelings for Allie making it difficult for her to act like it didn't happen or didn't mean anything.

They decided to restart the movie, as they were laying together afterwards. They had been a little, well... distracted, after all. As she shimmied back into her sweatpants, Heather looked over at Allie. Blonde hair a mess, cheeks flushed redder than a rose. She looked beautiful. "Hey, Al?"

"What's up?" she asked, absently adjusting her tank top before looking over at her, expression questioning.

Heather took a breath, dropping her eyes down to the comforter. "I think, um... Well, I'd like if this whole thing was a little more... real?" A glance at Allie's expression made her realize she was merely confusing the other girl. "I just, I mean, uh... I like you. Like a lot, actually, Allie, and I think-" As she spoke, she gained more confidence, until the other girl cut her off.

"I like Will." Three little words, just not the three that Heather wanted to hear, and they hit her like a punch in the gut. She didn't let Allie see that though, her face falling into a stoic mask.

"Oh. Okay."

"So, I think... We should stop, this... thing," Allie gestured between the two of them, looking uncomfortable. "Best friends is what we're best at, not whatever this was. So let's just go back to that, yeah?"

"Yeah." Allie smiled brightly at her, though Heather couldn't read her eyes. When had that happened? She could almost always tell what was happening inside the blonde's head, though now she hadn't a clue. She returned the smile anyway, doing her best to keep her expression blank even as her heart cracked.

///

i dunno how to describe that ending as other than terrible, the whole chapter ain't that great but whatever
anyway, i'm excited to dive into the actual fic next chapter, so stay tuned 😊