out of the blue | gracie abrams

XV

xv - daisies.

10th of June, 2023, Chicago

-9:56pm-

IT had occurred to Pippa later that day that Gracie hadn't given her a time frame as to when specifically she would be at Green Door, she had simply told her, 'tonight'. Pippa had tousled with herself all day as to whether or not she should take Gracie up on her offer. She had been reflecting. Perhaps she might have overreacted just a teeny, tiny, eensie bit about the whole fiasco. Minnie helped bring her back to reality.

"Hey Mousey?" Pippa called up from her spot on the couch to the loft where Minnie had been reading the latest Sally Rooney novel, "I'm going out."

"Okay. Call me if you need a ride home, okay?" Minnie offered.

"But you don't even drive?" Pippa questioned, frowning.

"Yeah, but I have a phone, and said phone has the Uber app installed," Minnie quipped.

Pippa only rolled her eyes, appreciating the gesture of her best friend nonetheless. She looked herself up from head to toe one last time in the bathroom mirror before she left the apartment, hurriedly turning her key in the lock and carelessly throwing it into her bag. Pippa didn't notice the clinking that announced their cascade to the floor instead of their intended destination, as it was masked by the swift tapping of her boots on the concrete floor as she raced to the elevator and slipped inside it just in time before it left her floor. Pippa waved a quiet 'hello' to her neighbor, the nice old lady named Lillian who lived down the hall and had upwards of a dozen cats, oblivious to the fact that she wouldn't be getting back inside her apartment that night.

-10:17pm-

Gracie sat at the back corner of Green Door, nursing a lukewarm glass of whiskey and staring boredly out the window as she slumped on the cushioned seat of the booth that smelled concerningly acidic. She had paced herself, knowing she would potentially be having a very important conversation with a very important person in the next few hours, and she needed to have a clear head as to not get herself into trouble again. Gracie's hope was dwindling that Pippa would ever show up.

She stared at the bouquet of daisies that rested in the seat of the booth next to her lap, the delicate white petals holding onto the centers of the flowers with everything they had in them. She had walked into the closest florist she could find the second Pippa walked away from her that morning. The worker had let out a gasp of surprise when their eyes met and dropped the vase in her hands. Gracie didn't know whether she wanted to laugh or feel bad for her, so she just agreed to a selfie instead and signed one of the florist's business cards as an apology. The poor thing was shaking the entire time as she was wrapping up the daisies.

Before Gracie could get any more lost in the labyrinth of her mind, a familiar face pushed her way through the heavy wooden door of the bar on the cue of the bell ringing. Gracie immediately sat up straighter in her seat, pushing her glass an inch further away from her on the table. She could see Pippa looking around the bar in search of her, so Gracie raised a hesitant hand in order to signal her presence. She grinned slightly when she saw Pippa recognize her.

"Hey," Gracie greeted, shifting her weight uncomfortably from one side to the other as she fiddled with the ribbon tied around the bouquet of daisies.

"Hey," Pippa returned.

The two girls only exchange awkward glances for a minute, the silence screaming in both their ears as Pippa carefully sat down in the booth to face Gracie. Pippa's fingers gripped ever so hard onto the ends of the sleeves of her leather jacket, she genuinely thought she was going to rip the material.

"I didn't think you were gonna come," Gracie finally admitted, desperate to kill the deadly silence that loomed over their heads with a scythe.

"I didn't think I was gonna come, either," Pippa sighed, the admission honestly more intended for herself to hear than Gracie.

"I um," Gracie reached for the bouquet next to her, lifting it above the table of the booth and offering them to Pippa, "Got these for you, as uh- as an apology. I'm sorry, I know you're sick of hearing it."

To Gracie's surprise - and relief - Pippa accepted the bouquet with a smile, breathing the daisies in and resting them gently in her lap.

"Thank you, Gray, I appreciate it," Pippa looked Gracie in her eye, needing her to know that she really did mean it.

Gracie felt her breath hitch in her throat. Of all her twenty three years on this planet, no one ever said her name the way Pippa did, and it drove her crazy. She looked between Pippa's two icy blue eyes, ever so often stealing a glance at her lips but then catching herself. Gracie realized she had gone quite a while without saying anything.

"I've contacted my label, they're doing everything they can to remove the song from the internet, but... You know nothing ever really disappears when it's on there," Gracie sighed, running a hand through her tangled brown curls.

She felt ever so guilty.

"Gray, it's okay. It's a good song, and people deserve to hear it. You should release it," Pippa declared, earning herself a confused look from the older girl.

"If you don't mind me asking, why the sudden change of heart?" Gracie questioned, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"I don't know. Minnie helped me realize it wasn't really that big of a deal and the world would get over it in a week or so and I can go back to just being Pippa, not Amelie," Pippa could only shrug in response.

"Oh," Gracie deflated, slouching once again in her seat.

"What?" Pippa asked, noticing her change in demeanor.

"Then I guess I'd be right to assume that you won't come with me on a picnic tomorrow?" Gracie mumbled, picking at the loop on her jeans.

"Gracie..." Pippa breathed out, knowing what she was going to say would inevitably disappoint the girl in front of her, "I can deal with this just being a week in my life, but I don't think I'd be able to handle it if it was all the time. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong idea last week-"

"No, Birdy- I mean, Pippa, you don't have anything to apologize for," Gracie quickly reassured, launching herself forward in her seat so she could say it better to Pippa's face.

Pippa stayed silent, looking down at the daisies in her lap. She didn't know why she had the sudden, humiliating urge to sob. She tried her best to choke it down, biting down so hard on her lip she could taste the iron as she broke her skin. Gracie so badly, so badly, wanted to reach out and grab her sweet face in her hands and tell her she didn't do anything wrong.

But she knew that would only make Pippa pull away more.

"We can still be friends, if you'd like? The kind of friends who talk over the phone but never see each other in person," Pippa offered, it was the best she could do.

"If that's all that you're comfortable with, then that's all I will ask for," Gracie confirmed with a curt nod.

But nothing could have prepared her for the shivers that ran down her spine when Pippa reached a soft, small, cold hand out to hers and grabbed onto her fingers. Gracie felt like she could break down right then and there in that little booth at the dark back corner of some random bar in downtown Chicago. She knew that that small showcase of affection and bodily contact couldn't have been in any way, shape or form easy for Pippa. Now, Gracie really felt like she could cry.

"Thank you," Pippa swallowed, hard, "For understanding."

Gracie wished she didn't have to just understand.

-✫★✫-

hello my lovelies!

its been a few days because i was busy trying to pretend like i was studying for my exams (i literally survive each day only thinking about taylor swift and gracie abrams)

but i got a new ipad today and IT HAS A KEYBOARD so i got excited and i wrote this lol

hope you enjoyed! please dont forget to vote and comment i love talking to you guys :((((

love you so so so much mwah

- 🍎