Wait For It | a Hamilton fanfiction | wattys 2017

Chapter 167

They only spent a few hours at Disney- after all, they had a show that night, too.

Even though they still had plenty to do in one day, everyone seemed pretty tired on the way to the theatre, which was only about fifteen minutes.

Since Jessa, Lana, Carleigh, and Araella arrived at the bus about ten minutes before they were supposed to get there, they had plenty of time to kill before everyone else came.

Carleigh and Araella sat together, so Jessa and Lana sat together, too. Jessa sat in the window seat, while Lana sat in the aisle seat.

Jessa scrolled through her Snapchat for a while, checking out everyone's updates.

After a few minutes, she could feel a warm weight on her shoulder. She glanced over carefully. Lana had fallen asleep.

Jessa inhaled deeply and then composed herself before returning to her phone.

She tried to get herself back together, sort through the weird mix of feelings, and ignore how awkward the situation was, but she was finding it extremely difficult.

It didn't help when Beckett decided to post the picture of Jessa and Lana on his Instagram. Jessa got the notification because he tagged her in the post.

beckettcspencer: my favorite ship of them all @jessa.bradley @lanacarnell

Jessa was so close to yelling at Beckett. The only thing that was keeping her from doing so was the knowledge that she would wake Lana up if she did. Even so, she was angry. She had neither the energy nor the patience to deal with the backlash she knew she would receive.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as Pippa and Steven stepped on the bus, Jazzy threw herself at her best friend. Steven went to talk to the boys, avoiding the overly-hyper Jazzy.

"I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU GOT ENGAGED! HOW DID I NOT KNOW?!" Jazzy squealed.

"I thought Steven would have told you, but he said that it would have been basically just telling me," Pippa laughed. She felt extremely giddy. She still couldn't believe that she was engaged. "He knew that I would notice something."

"No, I knew nothing!"

"I can't believe that he asked me to marry him," Pippa admitted. "I still am in shock."

"That's exactly how I felt when I got engaged," Jazzy said. "It's an amazing feeling."

"I am so relieved to be rid of that god-awful ring," Jessa said, looking up from her phone while simultaneously trying not to wake Lana up.

"Thank you for not losing it," Steven added, sitting down and wrapping his arm around Pippa. "I never could have done it without you."

"Just be glad my backpack didn't get stolen or something," Jessa laughed.

"Well, at least Carleigh didn't drop the ring," Steven sassed.

"Hey, believe it or not, I can catch stuff," Carleigh pouted. "I sport. Occasionally."

"And what sport was that, exactly?"

"In my dance studio they liked to throw props at you, plus in shows they do that kind of thing," Carleigh retorted. "I am competent."

"Well, thank you to you, too," Steven said. "And to Lana, but she's sleeping."

"I'll tell her later," Araella promised. "Congrats, you two."

"Thanks," Pippa said, grinning widely.

"By the way, Steven, I almost got caught by Pippa," Jessa added. "I had to tell her that I was texting Carleigh about a giraffe named Steven who wanted to propose to a gazelle."

"Wait, really?"

"That's true," Pippa confirmed. "I didn't realize."

"That's why you don't look at people's phones!" Carleigh exclaimed. "But oh well. It worked out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Opening night passed in a blur for everyone. Pippa's excitement about getting engaged was contagious, so much so that everyone was bouncing off the walls.

The show went well, thankfully. Pippa may have flubbed some lines, but her 'Helpless' was just as amazing, if not more so, than it had been before.

Afterward, Jessa and Araella went to Araella's room.

A few silent minutes passed as they both took off their stage makeup and changed into comfy clothes.

"So, what's wrong, Jessa?" Araella finally asked when they were both situated with their blankets and snacks. "I know this isn't a normal get-together. Carleigh and Kaitlyn would be here, and Lana, if it were."

"I don't know," Jessa said, picking at the fleece on her sweatpants. "I don't know anymore."

"Is this about Lana?"

Jessa sighed deeply. "It feels like everyone knows about this," she said. "It's hard to get any time to process myself anymore, when everyone's so ready to jump in and shove us together."

"No one is pressuring you, Jessa," Araella said gently. "We want you to be happy."

"I don't know what makes me happy anymore," Jessa admitted. "Sometimes I think I know what I want, and then something happens that makes me question everything that I thought was true before. It's like time never slows down, even though I want it to."

"Maybe you just need to jump on the train, so to speak," Araella said thoughtfully. "Stop waiting for the next one and get on board. See where it takes you."

"What if it's somewhere that I don't want to go?"

"We all go places we don't want to go, Jessa. Even then, isn't the journey worth it?" Araella asked. "If you never get on the train, you'll spend your whole life wondering if you missed something important. If you jump on, you'll at least know."

"I don't want to screw anything up."

"I'm sure Lana doesn't, either. But she was willing to try, which is far more than you've done. No offense."

"None taken," Jessa sighed. "I know that I haven't really tried with her, but it's not what I ever expected would happen. I wasn't looking for a relationship on this tour."

"Do you really think that anyone really wanted some things to happen in life? Sometimes they hit you when you least expect it."

"You need to stop it with the deep metaphors, Araella, because I'm tired and I cannot process," Jessa interrupted.

"Okay," Araella laughed. "You didn't plan for Lana to get feelings for you, and I don't think you planned to develop them for her, either."

"Who said I had feelings for her?"

"Jessa, if you didn't have feelings for her, you would have shut her down months ago when she admitted her feelings. I heard your 'babes' slip up and I saw you today. You have to see it, or I will shove your face in it next time just so that you realize just how much of a couple you already are."

Jessa was caught off-guard. "Is it that obvious?"

"It's written all over both of your faces. You care about each other so much that you're willing to just pine for each other without even talking about it. Just shut up, get over your egos or whatever, and kiss already, and then go on your merry way. That's all I have to say about that."

"Well, I can't guarantee the kissing part," Jessa said finally.

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well guys, it's abby, and i was totally supposed to update this yesterday but life happened, ya know, so at least there's an update today. anna and i both started school, so maybe that'll mean a bit more of a stable routine for us, and we will be able to write/update more, but we are both taking ap classes and such, so who knows what the future holds tbh. thank you all for sticking around xxxxx