Andrew Wells (flymonkeysfly) wrote in btvsal, @ 2010-02-20 17:06:00 |
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Current mood: | calm |
Starting Over
Who: Andrew and Cassie
Where: Shooting Star Comics
When: Friday, Feb. 19, Afternoon
Somehow, things just didn't seem the same at Shooting Star Comics since everything had happened with Lucy. Not that she shopped here or anything, but Cassie kept expecting the girl to breeze in with Sugar Fairy Shooters for her employees, or just to giggle about boys, or... or anything. And now there was just a gaping hole where her presence would be. And somehow the little area that housed both Shooting Star Comics and Chloe's Sugar Shack seemed... like a ghost town, regardless how many people were actually there. Cassie just sighed to herself, sitting behind the counter and flipping absently through a magazine.
Andrew was in the back, putting away a new batch of comics that had just came in. Since the funeral, Cassie had been extra quiet, which wasn't really like her at all. Then again, how she was feeling wasn't exactly shocking. Lucy had been one of the first to reach out to her in LA. Still, he didn't want her to retreat into herself completely. After he finished, he walked back to the front. "You OK?" he asked her.
"Huh?" The little blonde asked, startled a little, before focusing. She processed what he said and gave a sad little nod. "I miss her, Andrew. She made me feel so cool, so... special. And it's like... I can already feel Camille and her buddies circling me like sharks in the water again, and now the one person I had who made them not seem so important is gone. It just seems so unfair, Andrew...." She sighed, shaking her head. "We'd talk about the future, and she'd get so excited talking about marrying Ash one day, and what her dress would look like.... and now she'll never get to have that."
He sighed. "It is unfair what happened to her," he said to Cassie. "It's unfair that she won't get to marry Ash and walk down the isle of a church in a white dress." And that she got buried after sitting in a church in a dress. "I don't really know what to tell you about that, other than Lucy wouldn't want you worrying about those girls at school or to be sitting around being sad about her."
"I know that. She wanted me to be happy. God... she spent SO much time trying to help me find happiness, help me get over being such a shy little nerd, you know?" And it still showed. The makeover Lucy had given her was still evident, as was her fashion sense. "I don't have a lot of friends, you know? And she made me feel... important."
"You are important," Andrew said to her. "Lucy may have shown you that, but that doesn't make it change just because she's no longer here." He just hoped that he could get through to her about that.
"I know. She... made me see that. I just wish I had a chance to make her know how much of a difference she really made in my life. Because she was there for me when..." she shut up then, not about to bring all that crap up again. "And thanks to her... even though Jason broke up with me.... I mean, yeah, it hurts like heck, but... I know I'll get through it."
"Well, I think she knows," Andrew said to Cassie. The last thing that she had said had caught him a little off guard, though. "Wait, Jason broke up with you? Why?" He hadn't known about that, although that would explain why he wasn't at the funeral.
"He..." she sighed, and just shook her head, going silent for a moment. "He was nice enough about it. He couldn't take it. Being with me was... kind of ruining his reputation. He's trying for a football scholarship, you know? And how can he concentrate on playing his best when he's constantly taking crap for being with me?"
Andrew rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything bad about the guy. That wasn't what she needed to hear, anyway. However, maybe it was because he'd never HAD a reputation to really worry about, he just didn't understand why he'd break up with her over that. "Well, then it's his loss," he said to her finally.
"Yeah, I know. He'll likely end up with someone like Camille, who has one original thought for every five we normal people have." Cutest part there was how casually she said it. Not bitterly, or sadly. Just... matter of fact.
"Then he's an idiot." Well, he had tried to not say anything bad about the guy, anyway. "Sorry, but that's just my opinion if he'd rather that over you."
"Well? I tried. I tried to make him happy." She blushed, thinking about a few of the ways she'd tried, actually. "I guess I just wasn't what he wanted right now in his life. I think I'd be a lot more upset if it didn't seem so... unimportant compared to losing my best friend." And there it was. It just slipped out. Sure, a while back, Dawn and Andrew had been her best friends.... But Andrew had unintentionally broken her heart, and Dawn had her own issues to deal with. During all that... it was Lucy who had stepped in, become Cassie's best friend.
He nodded. He understood completely that, while they were still friends, they weren't anywhere near as close as they once was. It stung a little, but, well, it wasn't unexpected. "I guess it is kind of secondary to loosing Lucy," he said to her. He hadn't been close to Lucy, but she had been there for Cassie when he couldn't, and he'd love her forever for being able to do that. Besides, he wasn't sure what he'd be like if he lost Dawn, Lucy, or Gwen, and, you know, actually KNEW it this time.
The little blonde reached over, and squeezed Andrew's hand. Smiling softly to him. "I never got to thank you for showing up at the... the funeral. It really meant a lot to me. It was hard to hold it together, you know? But you made it a lot LESS hard." She didn't want to use the word 'easier'. Somehow it felt... inaccurate.
He smiled back at her. "I was glad to do it for you," he said to her. He wished she had let him know all of this before, but he was also just glad that she was willing to confide in him at all, considering how screwed up their relationship had gotten.
"Andrew?" She asked with a sigh, looking at him wistfully. "You think we can ever... get it back? Our old closeness I mean. "Mini-Galactus hungers for closeness."
He seemed to think on it for a second. "I think so," he said to her after a moment. "I just know that I never want you to feel like you are any sort of second choice again."
"I appreciate that. I mean, I'm not Ami. Or even Gwen. I'm not some hot, built warrior-woman who can kill things with her bare hands. But..." She sighed and gave a nervous little laugh. "I know we're good together. Whether dating or as best friends... we're a GREAT team, you know?"
"Well, I don't want you to be Ami or Gwen," he said to her. It was true. He liked her for HER, after all. "You don't need to be some warrior women, and, I don't know if anyone's reminded you lately, you are beautiful." He smiled and blushed a little. "Still, you're right. We do make a great team."
Cassie really WAS a beautiful girl, but thanks to Lucy's influence, now she truly LOOKED it. Instead of just looking like a cute little dork, she looked like a beautiful young woman. She couldn't help but smirk, having noticed that he and Gwen sort of... mutually cooled off. She knew those two were just friends that hit... a fit of neediness at once. "So, is anyone in my way right now? Cos I think you mighta finally come to your senses about us."
Two friends that hit a fit of neediness at once seemed to describe what Gwen and Andrew had been perfectly. They had cooled off a little on both of their parts. If he had known that she had recently went out on a date, he would have just congratulated her and moved on, actually. Simple enough. "No, there's no one in your way," he said to her with a smile on his face as well. "I think I have finally come to my senses, I think."
"Good." She grinned, doing a little twirl. "Never did get to ask if you like my new look... Lucy? Was a miracle worker."
"Well, Lucy had a lot to work with at first, anyway," Andrew pointed out to him. "You do look great, though."
"God... She was the prettiest girl I've EVER seen, Andrew. I actually almost had a mild girlcrush on her when we first started hanging out. I just can't believe she's gone. She's gone, and people like Camille are still around." Ouch. Was that mean? She didn't mean it to be... It was just how she felt.
"Another reminder that life is not fair when people like Camille are still around when Lucy is gone," Andrew agreed. It was kind of mean, but that didn't mean that it was wrong, you know?
As if having a sudden idea, Cassie poured them each a huge glass of Pepsi, and handed one to Andrew. Raising her glass, she smiled sadly. "To Lucy. May we see her again someday."
He raised his glass as well. "To Lucy," he said back to her, clinking his glass with hers.