Daisy Chains || Ranboo (SLOW UPDATES)

41 || both

After the stream everyone had eaten cookies and played Risk, ignoring the fact that they'd be hungry for real food in a couple hours. Tom had won the board game by far, cheering loudly for himself and playfully calling the other three people "fucking losers". Nobody cared about the language, if anything they all enjoyed the playful banter that continued after the game.

Amie and Tom had walked down the street to buy a loaf of bread and coffee pods for the brewer from the store, leaving Reese and Toby alone in the house. The two clean up from the stream, conversing about plans for the rest of the week.

"So what's going on with you and Amie?" Toby asks, after a particularly long few minutes without talking. Another long pause comes next, and he starts to regret asking.

Reese runs his hand—the one that is not holding a soapy sponge—through his hair, moving it out of his eyes. "Honestly? I don't know either, she said she was too tired to talk about it last night." He tries to recall her words, coming close to quoting her, but not quite. "She said something about not wanting to mess everything up because she was half asleep, and I didn't want to push her, so we're going to talk later."

Toby nods pensively. "But, you kissed at the airport, and I heard part of the conversation over the phone a few days ago."

"Yeah," Reese looks away from his friend, face flushing at both of the memories. He asks curiously, "So what exactly did you hear on the phone?"

The brunette grits his teeth, not wanting to intrude too much. "Uh, I don't want to make you think I was eavesdropping or anything."

"It's your house, Tobs, you walked up the stairs and you had every right to be in the hallway, you know that." Reese chuckles, scrubbing the glass cookie bowl harder to get the last bits of dough off the surface. "So you can say it, I'm not trying to trick you or anything."

Toby continues wiping flour off the counter. "I think it was something, well, when I walked in... oh jeez let me start over." He snickers at his own unnecessary stuttering. "When I heard you talking, I think the call was on speaker, and she said something about the fans thinking you were dating, and you said, why was it a problem, and then she was really quiet."

"Jesus, that's even a bit more of the conversation than I thought you'd heard," Reese raises his eyebrows. "So, for context, I'd sent her a message on Discord to ask about the Twitter drama with the pictures, and she apparently hadn't been checking her phone notifications and hadn't seen it yet."

"Oof." Toby shakes his head. "That's why I turned off my Twitter notifications, she probably just did that."

"I mean, yeah, her phone tends to run out of battery really fast, so she might have just silenced everything. So I called her, or she called me, I don't know, and we kinda argued about it and then... yeah, you probably know what happened after that."

"So it went from you two arguing over some stalker fan and a picture of her and a friend getting out, to you two jinxing each other confessing your love." Toby recaps what he knows.

"Oh my god, wait, how much of this conversation did you hear again?"

——

Amie hikes the paper bag up in her arms as Tom pays at the register, ignoring her phone's dial tone of her favorite song until they leave the store a few seconds later. "I should probably deal with her at some point," she mutters. "Can you hold this, Tom?"

He takes the bag and nods, pocketing his own phone. "Who is it?"

"My mom. She still doesn't know where I am, so..." she clicks the answer call button, ignoring Tom's surprised expression and summoning her most animated, sarcastic voice. "Hi, how are you?"

"Amie Lillian Norwood, where on earth are you?" Cait practically yells at the phone, no trace of panic or worry in her voice. It's only frustration, and Amie should have guessed.

Amie stops herself from yelling back spitefully, instead pausing before answering as she and Tom walk past the park on the way back to Toby's house. "Mom, chill, oh my god. I'm out buying groceries with my friend."

Tom cackles and buries his face in his hands, his next phrase less of a question, and more of a laughing accusation. "Amie, what the fuck are you doing?!"

Her mother just escalates her tone, clearly angry. "You haven't been here for three days, Amie. I've had to get to work late all this week because I have to drive the twins to school, and—"

"That's why you called me." Amie cuts her off, incredulity on her face. "Because my siblings, who usually depend on me and sometimes even hinder my ability to do schoolwork or have a job, need a ride to school. And you don't normally drive them, so it's now a tragedy."

"Yes, Amie, exactly, they always need you and it's really hard for me."

"What the actual fuck. You ask where I am so I can come home and do something you're supposed to be responsible for." Amie realizes for a second that it sounds like the twins are only a responsibility to her, but she continues ranting for the sake of telling off her mother.

Cait pauses, then sighs sharply. Amie doesn't let her say anything.

"If you really must know, I am in England, I will be staying here with my..." she pauses to find a word, since she and Reese haven't talked about everything yet, "my person and his friends for a month or more, because I got sick of missing him. And just as importantly, I got sick of my only social life having been with a mother who doesn't give a shit, and her boyfriend who only keeps me around because I do the chores."

She's attracting stares from other pedestrians, and Tom is egging her on, silently pumping his fists as they approach the neighborhood. The other line is silent again, not even a spiteful sigh this time, and Amie knows she's won. "So do you have your answer?"

Her mother simply hangs up the phone, and Amie knows that it's because if Cait had agreed with her, it would have hurt her pride too much for her selfish heart to bear. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! HAPPY 2022! Pls remember to vote if you liked the chapter <3