The days flew by so quickly that Dorothea didn't even get to look around. Suddenly it was December, and the rain was pouring down outside. Dorothea sat in her living room and watched the cars drive by on the busy road below her. She wondered how Gracie was doing and if she was okay.
The Abrams girl had been invited to none other than Taylor Swift's birthday party, and she'd been freaking out ever since the invitation reached her. Dorothea knew this could possibly spark either a panic or anxiety attack; Dorothea had noticed that with Gracie, those two were quite similar — almost identical.
Out of boredom, she picked up her phone and opened Instagram, just to see what her acquaintances were up to. Gracie's profile picture popped up at the top of her screen, surrounded by a colourful ring. Dorothea tapped it, curious to see what a Taylor Swift party looked like.
Her heart dropped at the picture on her screen.
Gracie, standing with a guy, his hand on her waist, and their lips connected in a deep kiss.
Dorothea wanted to scream and cry and yell. She was confused; felt lost. Her and Gracie kissed two times on Gracie's birthday, sure, but they also kissed after that. In fact, the last time they shared that form of intimacy was only a week ago, when Gracie came over to watch Don't Worry Darling.
And now she was kissing some dude at Taylor's birthday party and posting it on her public Instagram.
𝙈𝙚: 𝘥𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘶𝘺 𝘪𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘦'𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘪𝘴?
Dorothea anxiously awaited an answer, chewing the inside of her cheek to atoms. She zoned out, staring at the grey sky outside, her mind going a million miles an hour.
𝙊𝙡𝙡𝙮: 𝘯𝘰 𝘪 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘥 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸, 𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘯'𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘸𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸? 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘣𝘰𝘺𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥?
Dorothea had the same exact question. Her and Gracie had grown very close, and so far, they'd shared a lot about themselves. Gracie knew things about Dorothea that only Leonora knew, but she hadn't even had the thought to tell Dorothea about her new boyfriend?
Normally, Dorothea wouldn't be this upset. Gracie shouldn't have to tell her everything — not at all, actually. But when you spend the last two months macking on someone, telling them about your new partner is kind of the polite thing to do.
Or was Dorothea overreacting? Would other people even mind this? Was she being weird again?
She opened Instagram again and rewatched Gracie's story. The guy was tagged. Callum Dawson, rising actor, apparently. He had a good number of followers, but Dorothea had never heard of him. Not as an actor or as the boyfriend of her best friend.
If Gracie even were her best friend, maybe Dorothea had read their friendship entirely wrong. Maybe Gracie didn't actually care about her as much as she claimed to. Dorothea did it often, caring way too much for someone who didn't care back.
And right at that moment, her only wish was for that to never happen with her and Gracie. She wouldn't be able to recover from that.
Dorothea spent the rest of the evening wallowing in self-pity and repeatedly opening Instagram to check for updates from Taylor's birthday party. There'd been no new posts of Gracie and Callum, only one where they were talking in the background of a HAIM sister's selfie.
Leonora had called her, and they'd talked for a while. Dorothea had voiced her concerns about Callum, but she'd refrained from spilling the tea about her and Gracie's shared intimacy. It had left Leonora quite confused, seeing as not a lot of Dorothea's sentences made sense when she couldn't say anything that could cause any suspicion.
"I mean, if they break up, we probably get a new album; I could use new Gracie songs," Leonora shrugged, seemingly unfazed by the whole situation. She was just happy for Gracie, but she didn't know what Dorothea knew. She couldn't know what Dorothea knew. "But then again, I really want a Gracie love song soon; there's definitely a lack of those in her discography."
Dorothea let her sister ramble on about what Gracie should and shouldn't do in the future of her music career. She didn't listen, though. Her mind was in a whole other world, one where Gracie was making out with Callum right in front of her.
She begged and prayed to be let out of that world. That was a nightmare of a place.
"Nora, I gotta go, sorry. I'll see you tomorrow at Olly's. Oh, and tell her that she better not eat the ice cream I put in her freezer the last time I was over. Don't you two burn her house down, and please make sure to get some sleep; I can barely deal with you two as it is, let alone overtired; that's a certain suicide."
Dorothea didn't let her sister answer before she hung up the phone. She ran to her freezer and picked out her favourite ice cream; Strawberry, from Blue Bell. Her friends always bashed her for how basic that was and how she needed to develop some more mature taste buds — whatever that meant. But Dorothea had always brushed their comments off. Strawberry ice cream comforted her in a way that nobody and nothing else could.
Except for maybe Gracie, but that ship had been burned and sunk and destroyed by some ugly actor named Callum. Who the fuck names their child Callum?
Dorothea rolled her eyes at the thought of that stupid guy, and then she hopped onto her couch and buried herself between pillows and blankets. She didn't turn on the TV, and she didn't grab her phone. She just sat in silence and thought. About everything and nothing.
Being alone with her thoughts seemed like a scary territory to enter, but somehow it also seemed like the only right thing to do. Take some time to understand exactly what it was that she was feeling as strongly as she seemingly was. It had to be done, no matter how terrifying it might've sounded.
Author's Note
Short chapter bc I am losing inspiration again
Next chapter will be the last one in a while; my exams are starting next week and I'm stressing out
Mwah mwah!
@hearthands
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SWEET NOTHING , Gracie Abrams
Fanfic» I find myself running home to your 𝘚𝘸𝘦𝘦𝘵 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 « Gracie Abram...
