Lost in the Middle

Ten

AN: Set during "Little Big Lies". I'm so excited to actually get to write these three in a relationship. I've been wanting to just write cute romantic fluff for them since I started this fic. Also if you've read literally any other poly fic I've written this is the first time I've actually written any sort of negotiations and it's actually kind of fun.

It's a few days after their rules and boundaries conversation and they're having a date night at Noah's house, there's a weird fluttering feeling in her stomach every time any of them call it date night, like the feeling of being on a rollercoaster right before the drop. It's their normal movie night, but now Richelle doesn't second guess how close she's allowed to be (not that it really stopped her before) especially since they're at Noah's. She's even managed to get in between them (her reasoning is she's the smallest). Whenever she's not having a bad sensory day she's a lot more tactile than people would guess. She rests her head on Noah's shoulder but she reaches out next to her to hold Jacquie's hand. Over the course of the movie she shifts a lot (she's never been one to sit still for long periods of time) but she always has contact with both of them, like she's afraid they'll disappear if she doesn't.

They're all standing in Noah's entry way, putting off leaving. "We should do a game night at Shakes & Ladders!" Jacquie suggests excitedly when there's a lull in the conversation.

Richelle sees Noah look carefully between them, "I'm not sure."

"Come on, Noah! It'll be so fun," Jacquie begs.

Noah still looks unsure, but he eventually relents. "I'll see if I can find a fourth person too, so we can have even teams."

They're still working out what levels of intimacy they're comfortable with. So when they finally make it out the door, Noah hugs her and kisses the top of her head, Richelle still tenses a little, but then she leans into him. As nice as the feeling is, it's going to take some getting used to.

Since Natalie had the day off (and therefore their car was free) Richelle offered to drive. She pulls into the driveway of Jacquie's house but Jacquie doesn't move to leave yet. Things are a little tense at home since Davis didn't make it onto the hip-hop or contemporary dances.

"Is everything okay? I know we just had our talk and everything, but you kind of got pulled into this, more than Noah and I at least. And you and Noah are my best friends and I'd rather keep you as my friends than as romantic partners if this implodes because we're not all completely on board."

"I want this," Jacquie starts. "So much, but my head needs some time to catch up to my heart. I've had such a huge crush on you since before we did our trio. But I tried to ignore it because I didn't think anything like this would be possible. It's barely been a week so it still doesn't really feel real yet."

Richelle nods, "It's funny because, you know I'm demiromantic," Jacquie makes a mental note to look that up later because it's certainly new information, even if Richelle doesn't realize that,  "so I need that close personal connection to develop a crush, it's why up until you, Noah was the only person I'd ever had feelings for. But I was much more willing to admit my crush on you to myself than I was of our friendship. I figured my crush would go away, but if I accepted that we were friends; I was scared to get attached. You probably noticed I don't have a lot of friends, some of that is by my own design, but a lot of people don't tend to stick around when I unmask around them. I'm autistic and I have ADHD so I have trouble connecting with people, and spending pretty much all my free time in dance doesn't help that." She's sort of looking in Jacquie's direction, but she's not looking at her while she's talking. That's something she's noticed over the past few months, even if Richelle doesn't like making eye contact she'll face the person she's talking to, and look past them, or over their head.

"I'm glad we're friends, or whatever this middle ground is. I don't have a lot of friends either and Davis seems to attract people wherever she goes." Jacquie reaches her hand over the center console. Richelle laces their fingers together and squeezes her hand. They sit in silence, listening to the music playing softly from the speakers. "I should probably go," Jacquie says after a few minutes. "Davis texted saying dinner was almost ready when we left Noah's."

"See you tomorrow," Richelle says as she leans over the center to hug Jacquie.

***

A couple days later Richelle and Jacquie are in Shakes & Ladders setting up Picture-Grams waiting for Noah to show up with whoever he roped into being the fourth person in their group. Once the game is set up Richelle drops into Jacquie's lap on the couch. If she hadn't made a habit of sitting in her friends laps over the last several years at TNS she would have been more hesitant. Jacquie automatically rests her hand on Richelle's hip and starts to trace patterns underneath the shirt tied around her waist.

"You realize you're not going to win, right?" Jacquie says, seemingly out of the blue. "I mean, Noah's probably going to bring Henry and Noah and I know each other way better than you and Henry know each other. We're definitely going to win."

Richelle scoffs and slides off her...Jacquie's lap—girlfriend doesn't feel right yet, but friend is also wrong—"Please, I've known Henry for two years, you've only been dating Noah for a few months. There's no way we're losing."

"Wanna bet?"

"Well, I know I'm not going to lose, so yes. Loser has to make dinner next time we're at my place?" Richelle carefully makes sure to not say "date night". Usually their date nights are more like date afternoons, but there've been a few times a movie turned into dinner after, usually only when they're at Noah's or Richelle's, because even though Jacquie knows about her celiac, or at least that she eats gluten-free she's not sure she trusts her dad or Davis yet.

"Deal," Jacquie sticks her hand out. "I was right by the way," she nods behind Richelle after they shake hands, toward the door where Noah's entering the restaurant with Henry.

Neither of them end up losing, Noah and Henry proposed switching up the teams (which Richelle has lots of unvoiced arguments against, namely the fact that it completely screws up the scoring, and it pretty much renders their bet pointless if they're on the same team) and it turns out they make a pretty good one.

"Do you think we'll be able to talk Noah into making dinner?" Jacquie asks when they're walking out to the car, leaving the boys to clean the game up since they set it up.

"We probably could, but I don't think it would be edible. He's a terrible cook," Richelle laughs. "I wouldn't mind cooking with you though. If you wanted to." Natalie would be speechless if she heard this, Richelle thinks, she hates having other people in the kitchen with her while she works, especially since their kitchen isn't that big. Even Natalie usually isn't allowed to help, but Richelle thinks that maybe she wouldn't mind sharing her space if she's sharing it with Jacquie.

AN: I keep wanting to put in time skips so I can write stuff where these three are more established but then there's like actual plot points that need to happen. Give it a few more chapters (around Regionals) and they'll finally get their stuff sorted.