everywhere, everything | gracie abrams

i.

"GRACIE, PLEASE DO NOT BREAK THAT." gracie's dad said in the video.

"dad, i won't!" little gracie replied.

"we are going to our secret hideout!" gracie whispered to the camera.
"no boys allowed!" little aurora jumped into frame from behind gracie.

they arrived at their little treehouse, hidden behind the trees behind gracie's childhood home. "this is called the gracie aurora clubhouse and we built it from scratch!" little gracie explained, setting the camera down infront of the treehouse. the girls ran infront of the camera hand in hand, jumping up and down with wide smiles on their faces and teddy bears under their arms.

"cmon let's show them inside, cie!" aurora yelled, running up the flight of the stairs that used to seem so steep. gracie grabbed the camcorder off of the floor and ran to follow aurora.

they stepped inside and panned the camera towards a little table in the centre of the house, cluttered with teacups and pink plastic plates, small chairs occupied by stuffed animals tucked into the table. "these are our guests, mr. bear and mrs. bunny." aurora said, tapping the bears on the head as she mentioned their names.

"this is our drawing table," little aurora continued the tour. gracie showcased the silly drawings on the table, crafted with mismatched colours, whacky shapes and most importantly, love.

the video continued, showing the viewer the entire ins and outs of the cubby house, featuring 10 minutes of the girls having a tea party of their teddies. gracie sipped with style, sporting her pink heart sunglasses and aurora wore her fairy wings.
"shoot rory, the cameras gonna die!" gracie complained.

"aww, noo!"

"gracie! aurora! dinners ready!" gracie's mom called out from the kitchen window.

the girls grabbed their teddies and rushed down the stairs. "i hope it's mac and cheese!" gracie said as she struggled to turn off the camera, her little tongue poking out of her mouth.

—

the tv screen suddenly went black. "that was so cute!" gracie said, curled up with aurora on the couch. "how the hell did you even find this anyways?"

"i found the sd card in my closet," aurora explained. "i can't believe we've been friends for that long. longer than that."

gracie grinned. "i know right? that was eighteen years ago!"

"what can we say? we're best friends." aurora said, staring deep into gracie's eyes as gracie brought her into a tight hug.

truth was, aurora was falling in love with gracie. after all of these years, she never thought that it would get to this point, but she couldn't get it out of her head. every single thing she would do gave her butterflies. whether it be her smile, her laugh or her warm hugs, she couldn't escape the feeling of being in her presence.

she knew her feelings weren't right. she had a boyfriend. she would dream about the brunette, about everything she couldn't do with her now. she tried to block it out, but she couldn't help it. gracie was just so beautiful.

"things used to be so simple, huh? all we were worried about was our silly little clubhouse." gracie laughed.

"yeah... they were." aurora mumbled.

"rory, you okay?" gracie shook aurora slightly.

"yeah, yeah everything's fine, cie." aurora lied. in reality, she felt painfully guilty. gracie already had someone. someone horrible. or at least she thought. gracie seemed unhappy, but it wasn't auroras place.