❛ DEJA VU ❜ - 𝖼𝗆𝖻 ✓

004; well hello stranger

third person.

the following day as the sun had set and the night was upon the people in virginia, the friend group were all finally at the house the party was being hosted in, and were trying to have mollie avoid harper at almost all costs.

the girl still had yet to see corbyn again, and the group were trying their best to make sure that out of all the possible nights, it wasn't this one that they did, only to save the awkwardness and the introduction of the two girls.

and so after the friend group had met with mollie again and expressed their excitement over the return of the girl, they grabbed themselves a drink before finding a spot to crowd around in the house.

but as they all became involved in a conversation, she took the time to look around the room with a small smile on her face, trying to look past all the gaps in the crowd between the groups of people dancing.

in the kitchen, by the drinks all laid out on the counter, her smile faded once she saw corbyn, who was stood by himself and leant against one of the counters with a drink in his hand.

"what are you looking at? you look slightly confused," charlie asked, finding a way out of the conversation they were in as mollie pointed over to the boy, "oh."

"why isn't he with the group?" mollie looked at her, "did you fall out with him?"

"no he just came with someone else," charlie lied, receiving a confused look from mollie before she began to weave through the crowd to get to the kitchen, "no, no mollie."

"you know, she looks different," daniel folded his arms.

"daniel it's just a haircut." jack shook his head as the boy beside him slowly nodded, "char where is she going?"

"you know that boy we wanted her to avoid," she mentioned, watching nicole immediately look over at him before she put her palm to her forehead.

"the one thing i ask you all to do," nicole sighed, handing her drink to jack before following the girl walking over to corbyn.

by the time nicole had even began to follow mollie through to the kitchen, she had already placed herself on the opposite side of the kitchen island to the boy, her hands pressed up against the side as a smile grew on her face.

"well hello stranger," mollie spoke up, causing the boy stood opposite her to look up from his phone before a slight expression of panic landed on his face which soon changed into a small smile.

as he glanced over to the hallway quickly, he took a step forward so that he was in the same place she was, only on the opposite side of the island, "hey, i didn't think you'd be here."

"i wasn't expecting to see you either," she shrugged, "why are you by yourself?"

"i'm just waiting for a friend," he slowly nodded as nicole stood behind the girl shaking her head and rolling her eyes, "are you here with the group?"

"i am." mollie replied, "how's your family?"

"they're great," corbyn smiled slightly, "really good, yeah. how's max and julie?"

"they're very good," mollie nodded, "astrid is due in a couple weeks so they're excited about that."

"do you know what they're having?"

"a girl," she smiled, "which i'm happy about."

"happy although you hate kids," corbyn tilted his head as mollie shrugged and laughed slightly, "that doesn't make sense."

"alright, i'm happy that max is happy about it." she corrected herself as nicole placed her hand on mollie's shoulder, "but-"

"mollie we should go," nicole interrupted their conversation, glancing down the hallway as harper was making her way up it.

"okay," mollie nodded as she turned back to corbyn, "are you coming?"

"i'll stay here," corbyn replied, "thanks though."

as mollie nodded once more before giving the boy a smile, she grabbed herself another drink before her and nicole both walked off back to their friend group, missing harper by a couple seconds as she looked at him confused.

"are you sure you don't want to go stand by your friends tonight?" harper asked him.

"i just wasn't sure if you would be okay with it or not," he replied as the girl shrugged, "okay we'll go see them then."

"sounds good to me," harper smiled, placing down her empty cup before the couple walked through to where the group of friends had been standing,

and as they approached the group, corbyn took notice of nicole and jack guiding mollie away from them and towards the front door to the house, not giving her a chance to turn her head back.

"where are they going?" corbyn asked them, a small frown on his face.

"had to rush off," olivia shrugged.

"is that mollie with them?" harper asked, "she's pretty."

"yeah," zach nodded as the group glanced over to corbyn, noticing the sudden change in mood before they looked back at harper, "that was mollie, yeah."

"she seems nice," she smiled before glancing up at corbyn, "are you close with her?"

"uh," the boy paused, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans as he shrugged, "something like that, yeah."

"just don't get on her bad side," jonah suggested, "unless you want a broken nose."

"oh yeah do not fuck her over," daniel raised his eyebrows, "you will regret it big time."

"okay, noted." she laughed nervously while slowly nodding.

"anyway," cara said, "do you have a favourite song off the boys' new album?"

"uhhh, i like slow down." harper told them, watching them all nod whilst trying to hide their terrible attempt at holding back their laughter, "..okay."

"alright well we're going to go," corbyn said, putting his arm around the girl before giving them all a small smile.

once corbyn and harper walked off and left the group alone, they collectively let out their laughter before shaking their heads and sighing, knowing the boy had to hide how he was feeling to avoid telling his girlfriend about his relation to the girl she was yet to meet.

♡

a/n

a minor collie interaction