And I Told Them I Invented Times New Roman [billdip]

Follow You

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 8TH

Dipper sat at his writing desk, stooped over his notebook, holding an ink pen tightly in his hand. He had been sitting there, staring at the pages filled with scribbled out text for what felt like days, but in reality it had only been a few hours. It was nearing night time, the sun setting directly outside his window.

He flicked on his lamp and glanced at the clock on his laptop. It was 7:44p.m.

"Why am I so useless?" he grunted, burying his face in his hands, rubbing his eyes. He had shifted through several ideas, anywhere from writing a detective novel to writing about his experiences at Gravity Falls. There were crumbled balls of paper scattered around the floor surrounding him, each with scribbled out writing and doodles.

This is ridiculous, he scolded himself. Although he had catalogued several entries into Journal 3 prior to Ford's arrival, he still had fuzzy memories of the events of his first summer in Gravity Falls, and subsequent ones weren't quite the same when there wasn't a demon trying to take over the world. Dipper couldn't quite look at hexagons the same way again.

Dipper sighed, shutting his laptop and pushing his chair away from the desk. He looked out the window, watching the sun finish setting behind the pine trees in the distance.

I could use some fresh air, Dipper thought. He stood up from the chair and slipped on his boots and hat, exited the apartment, and locked the door behind him. He paused for a moment, feeling slightly uncomfortable leaving his humble abode, but reminded himself he needed to go touch some grass.

He jogged down the stairs two at a time and quickly exited the building. The summer breeze was nice on his skin, his flannel fluttering in the wind. Dipper was still unsure of his surroundings, having only been in town for a week and having left his apartment twice. He supposed that if he got lost, he has a phone with functional GPS, so he will be fine.

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he started down the street and became lost in his thoughts. Maybe I will come up with a suitable book idea.

Dipper tried to hone in on his memories of Gravity Falls, but it kept wandering to the night club from last week. The last seven days, Dipper had been completely unable to remove the thoughts from his mind. He had even started dreaming about the blonde man with golden eyes, and he felt like a complete weirdo. Seriously, who dreams about a stranger they danced with once?!

Making his way past some pine trees, he found himself in a nearby park. He had seen it the day he moved in, passing by it in the moving truck. He sat down on one of the benches, taking in the scenery. The park was empty, save for some of the local squirrels. Maybe I can write about the life of a squirrel.

Dipper scoffed at his terrible ideas, disappointed in himself that he couldn't even come up with a simple plot. Even if it wasn't vast, it could give him something to work off of, to build on. He didn't even have characters in mind, not even a setting, he had nothing.

He stood up from the bench and continued down the sidewalk. He wasn't too far from his apartment — maybe 10 or 15 minutes away — but was starting to no longer recognize the part of the neighborhood he was in. He turned his head to look at the trees, admiring their lush greenery, until...

"Whoa!" Dipper yelled, accidentally walking into someone who was running. They both fell to the ground, knocked back from the collision. "Shit, I'm so sorry."

"It's cool," the man said, laughing, as he pushed himself off the ground and brushed off his pants. Dipper instantly recognized the blonde man from the club. "Say, are you stalking me?"

"N-no, uh," Dipper stammered, trying to get off the ground but tripped over his own feet. The blonde man knelt down and caught him before he fell onto the ground again. "You uh— you don't live in a cornfield."

Dipper could almost hear Soos screaming in the back of his head, your jokes are terrible!

"Fair point," the man laughed once more. He helped Dipper to his feet, and Dipper felt himself blush at the contact of the other man's hands on his. "So, your name is... Dipper, isn't it?"

"Uh, yeah," Dipper nodded, scratching the back of his neck. "I guess you heard my sister yelling at me the other night."

"She's pretty hard to miss," the man commented. His smile was soft and inviting, unlike the smirk he had worn at the club. Dipper felt his anxiety lessen, but still felt a tightness in his chest.

"Y-yeah, hah, that's uh, that's Mabel," he responded. There was a moment of awkward silence before he broke it. "Sorry, for uh, running into you, again."

"It's cool," the man repeated. "My name is Bill, by the way."

Bill held out his hand and Dipper took it, shaking gently.

"So. You live around here?" Bill asked, starting to walk. Dipper followed.

"Yeah, I live in that building over there," he answered, pointing down the road. "613."

"Neat," Bill hummed. "New here?"

"Yeah, my sister and I moved here last week," Dipper nodded. "She lives on the first floor and I live on the third. It's the closest we've gotten to actually living apart, aside from college, I guess."

They continued their conversation as the walked along the sidewalk, and Dipper gradually felt more comfortable around the blonde man — he now knew his name was Bill. And Bill had known his name! And remembered it! That doesn't mean anything, Dipper. Slowly, they approached Dipper's building.

"You, uh, you don't have to walk me home," Dipper stuttered, feeling heat rise in his cheeks once more. "I didn't mean to interrupt your run."

"Nonsense," Bill chuckled, shaking his head. "I was almost done anyways, and besides, I live here too."

"Oh," Dipper responded, unable to form an articulate sentence. Wordlessly, he grabbed the door to his building and held it open, gesturing for Bill to follow him inside. Bill grinned at him, entering the building, and Dipper followed after.

"So, third floor, you said?" Bill asked, approaching the stairwell.

"Yeah, I'm room 303," he answered. Bill beamed at Dipper before turning towards the stairs and hopping up them two at a time.

"You know what's funny?" Bill called out, Dipper trying to match the other's speed, but failing miserably.

"What?" Dipper asked, catching up to him as soon as he reached the third floor.

"I'm 304," Bill smirked, pulling out his key and inserting it into the door directly across the hall. "See you later, Pine Tree."

Dipper stared in confusion as the blonde entered his apartment swiftly and winked at him, shutting the door behind him. I'm going insane.

Dipper pulled his key — pine tree engraved and all — out of his pocket and unlocked his door, closing the door and sliding down onto the ground against it.

"I'm screwed," Dipper groaned, burying his head into his hands.