LACY SNIFFED SOMETHING COMING FROM HER KITCHEN, she turned away from her tv to see that smoke coming out of her oven. she darted towards the smoke that had gotten worse after opening the oven. she pulls out a burned chicken that didn't even look like a chicken anymore.
lacy groaned as she throws the pan onto the counter. she stands in the middle of her kitchen with her eyes closed, breathing in and out to keep calm even though she had nothing to eat now.
there was a faint knock at the door, lacy angrily marched towards the door to yell at whom she thought were just the annoying mormons who won't leave her apartment alone.
the door swings open to reveal sodapop curtis standing at her door, drenched in water from the rain.
"soda, you're gonna freeze to death, get in." lacy giggles as she pulls him into her apartment.
he stands alone as lacy walks away to find a blanket for him. she returns with a random red blanket she found in her closet, putting it over sodapop's shoulders. she leads him to the kitchen where he smells an awful scent.
"oh honey, you burned the chicken." sodapop sarcastically whines.
"shut up, i haven't been able to cook ever since i got back." she argues.
"lace, you've been home for almost two weeks now." he reminds her.
lacy rolls her eyes, "big deal."
sodapop begins to warm up from the hot temperature of the kitchen. lacy and him sat next to each other by the island with a glass of chocolate milk in front of sodapop. he loved how lacy had his favorite brand, something darry wouldn't buy because of meghan's strict diet.
he chugs the glass of milk in 15 seconds to impress the girl who had seen it over a million times but still loves to laugh at it.
"tell me about college, any hard classes or more mature boys?" sodapop began, holding his hands together.
lacy shrugged, "no boys but i still got myself through my classes."
"i thought you'd be with someone by now but i guess i was wrong." sodapop jokes but they didn't find it funny.
she releases a painful sigh as the silence between them grew louder.
"listen soda, i've been really thinking about it and i feel like it just hasn't been talked about enough."
"what are you saying?" he furrows his eyebrows.
"i'm saying that even after the day you cheated and we were done for, i just-" she paused, "it's just that you're still everything to me and i don't know why, it hurts to even feel like that because you really did hurt me."
her eyes started to water as she soon realized that he wasn't saying anything.
"don't look at me like that, please just say something." lacy begs.
"lace, you know i still care about you." he tells her as his hands hovered over her cheeks, "matter of fact, i still love you. it sounds crazy but i still do and i always will no matter what we do to each other."
"soda, i just don't know what i-"
lacy couldn't even finish her sentence without sodapop smashing his lips onto hers. she thought her first reaction would be her slapping him away and kicking him out, but she felt like everything was coming back to her.
lacy's eyes close as sodapop breaks apart from the kiss, she reopens her eyes. they stare at each other blankly. all she could do was sigh and stare until one of them broke eye contact.
sodapop walks away, wandering around the room.
"lace, i'm really sorry about that, i just didn't know what went on in my head." sodapop says.
"no, it's okay." lacy shook her head, "help me clean up the kitchen again?"
he shrugs as he didn't have anything else to say or do, "yeah."
the two didn't say a word to each as they helped each other to scrub out the grease from lacy's pan.
she felt hurt all over, she wished he hadn't kissed her the way he did, it brought back memories. her face felt hot and her eyes were extra glossy. sodapop looked at her from her side, he could tell she was going to cry.
as they finished, lacy put away the towels they used to dry off the dishes. sodapop leaned against the counter, waiting to say something.
"lacy, whatever is going on you can tell me." sodapop began, "even if it's about me."
she sighed, "it's about work. i'm that dally was right about my boss."
"what do you mean?" sodapop grinned, trying to sound sympathetic.
"i mean i think he's a creep, he was really touchy the other day when i went to go get him some coffee." she explains, "i sound stupid, i should stop."
"no, no. you don't sound stupid." sodapop reassures her as he got up, wrapping his hands around her arms.
"if anything happens, feel free to call me. even if it's in the middle of the night."
lacy smiles, "thanks soda."
he pecks her forehead before walking out. lacy stares at the door, wondering why he came in the first place.
𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒖𝒅𝒈𝒆.
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