A Weekend Ruse (Older!AU)

Ｐｒｏｌｏｇｕｅ

Applying to colleges wasn't as stressful as Dipper had initially thought it would be. He had actually started applying rather early, or at least it seemed like he did since all his peers were scrambling to send things off at the end of the school year.

He had tried not to fret over getting in. He's a smart guy. Almost all of his classes are on an AP level!

And okay, he didn't have as many extracurricular activities as his sister Mabel (her list of clubs, teams and committees could fill a whole page. And he would know, since he had been the one to type up her résumé) but he was on the Math Team and Science Olympiad.

He had also tried to join the school's book club with Mabel, but that had been a bust since it was mainly just girls gushing over Gerard and planning to see the latest Wolf-Man Bare-Chest movie.

Every now and then he attended an Astronomy club meeting. Dipper would have gone more regularly, but the leader of the club was a girl named Lavender.

She looked like a mix between a grunge and hippie, and either way she just didn't look like someone from the new/current millennium.

Which, granted, didn't really bother Dipper as much the fact that she smelled like she rolled in a dumpster after smoking pot.

Plus she was way more interested in horoscopes than in constellations and eclipses.

Dipper's community service hours ranked in at the grand total of zilch.

Between college level courses, projects, and winning math competitions, Dipper honestly just wanted to use his free time to read and lounge about.

When he was waiting for colleges to reply, his mind would zero in on his lack of service hours. There's probably some kid out there who took on a workload exactly like Dipper's, but had squeezed in time to pick up trash on the side of the road.

That's the guy who'll get accepted, and Dipper's application would get tossed in the trash. God, maybe he should have picked up more trash.

Mabel picked up trash.
She helped cleaned up and beautify a neighborhood park, but Dipper thinks that had been done moreover as a pretense.

He was pretty sure she had done it to talk to 'boys that care', or at least look at them while they planted flowers without shirts on. Ugh, why do those muscle-ly guys need to take off their shirts anyway?

We get it, you have muscles. They flex and whatnot. Why can't they keep their clothes on like normal people, like non muscle-ly Dipper.

In the end, Dipper got accepted or at least waitlisted to every college he applied to, including his first choice which offered him a scholarship.

With all that time spent trying to not worry about his acceptance letters, he hadn't even thought about Mabel getting accepted to a college...on the other side of the country.

"It won't be so bad," Dipper had tried to reason when the joy of getting into their dream schools had quickly spiraled into separation anxiety. The geographical aspect of going to different colleges hit them hard like a wave of freezing water.

"There's Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And we got all of summer! We could even go visit Grunkle Stan, just like old times."

They never really had been apart before, especially not as long as a whole school semester. Even in high school with all their different friends and interests, they always considered each other to be their best friend.

Always got to see each other, talk to each other, hang out, help each other out with work and projects, and their senior year (the first time they didn't have at least one class together) he might have used his study block to chat with her during her art class instead of actually studying.

So being miles away from each other was a scary, all consuming thing that weighed down on their chests and made packing up their rooms rather painful.

"Y-yeah," Mabel had agreed, but her voice still had a pinch of worry in it. Much like Dipper's had. "It's not like we won't see each other ever again. And -pfft- come on, Dip, it's two thousand- whatever! We can text, and Skype and junk. Like, all the time!"

"Well, not all the time," Dipper had reasoned, his mind already trying to workout a calling schedule.

Her school year started a week earlier than his, and after helping her move into her freshmen dorm, he had to admit that it didn't feel like the end of everything as he knew it (even if it kind of is).

Their parents had gone out to find a McDonald's, and Mabel's roommate had yet to make an appearance (the other side of the room empty, except a bare cot).

The siblings sat alone on the edge of her new bed, fingers intertwined as they watch Mabel's tiny, pink TV.

She leans into him, head resting on his shoulder, her warmth sinking into him. He could smell the mix of her strawberry shampoo and vanilla lotion, and its such a comforting scent that it forces him to relax (as it always did) and he rested his head atop of hers, inhaling her for the last time.

Or at least until Thanksgiving.

She gave his hand a squeeze, and he'd replied by squeezing back, tightening their hold on each other.
It won't be that bad. It won't be too different.

They could call and text and chat anytime they wanted. They actually have a plan in place to call each other every day. And with all their school work and making new friends, they won't have time to miss each other.

But still...

"I'm going to miss you, Mabel."

She pulled away from his shoulder, forcing him to sit up. She had smiled at him, because it was the first time either of them had admitted it.

They had been trying so hard to come up with ways to not miss each other, trying so hard to convince themselves that the world isn't ending.

And maybe it's not ending, but it's nice to really acknowledge this thing bearing down on their chests.

So she kissed his left cheek. And then his right. She tapped his nose with her pointer finger, and he smiles back at her. Her eyes dropped down to his mouth, and then her lips were pressed against his, ending a second later with a cutesy mwah sound effect.

He laughed because he didn't really know what else to do. Their hands had slackened at some point, so he made the grip firm again. Her thumb made lazy circles over his knuckles.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Bro."

The sweet taste of her lip-gloss lingered for days, and he didn't really understand why that didn't bother him.

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A/N: Pinecest is so cute, anyways I hope you'll enjoy this fan fic!