Who: Allison A and Sav What: chatting over coffee Where: Madison Valley Tea When: early March Warnings: low
Savannah felt nervous, an emotion she rather hated considering. Once upon a time getting coffee with Allison would be a normal friend activity, although they’d always tended to be more of ‘the getting an alcoholic drink’ pair. She’d wanted to give Allison time and space to work through her feelings, when it seemed clear Allison didn’t want to hear from her. Which made sense to Savannah. She’d told Kol she’d played a stupid game and won a stupid prize. Which…she’d done. But, with the arrival of Q and breaking the ice with Kol, Sav wanted to at least try with Allison. If it went badly, well, at least the witch gave it her best shot.
She made her way to the coffee place and found herself starting a knockback spell over and over in her head to focus her mind on something else at the moment. Thankfully, she hadn’t finished the spell at any point.
One last deep breath and Savannah made her way inside, looking to see if she’d arrived before or after Allison.
It had taken a little while for Allison to forgive Kol for not telling her about what had happened, but she’d been able to because they had talked about it and been open and honest with one another. The thing about her relationship with Savannah was that even after it had come out, the other girl still hadn’t come to her and talked about it, and Allison honestly didn’t think it was her own responsibility to reach out to Savannah first. The more time that passed, the more hurt and disappointed she’d become, until ultimately she had considered their friendship over.
That didn’t mean that it couldn’t begin again, but she was planning on being cautious about Savannah, at least for the time being. She’d reluctantly shaved out an hour to meet her for a coffee, and once she’d agreed to the meeting, Allison would be there. In fact, she even got there a few minutes early and sat at a table, jacket slung over the back of her chair as she idly read from assigned by one of her teachers and sipping from a latte. Since she was early, Allison figured she might as well get a little homework done while she could.
In Savannah’s defense, she thought she had tried and when Allison shut her down, the witch thought she needed space, but maybe let it go on for too long. And then the extended olive branch obviously went over not well at all during the Holidays.
The witch would be a bit concerned if Allison just up and forgave her like nothing happened. She knew she needed to make amends and honestly felt pretty grateful the other woman agreed to meet her and didn’t stand her up.
After ordering a cappuccino, Savannah made her way to where Allison sat, drink in hand.
“Hi, Allison,” Savannah said, after she removed her own jacket. “How’s school going?” Well, no one could say the always upfront and confident brunette didn’t have her moments of doubt and this certainly felt like quite the opener. Great job, Savannah thought to herself.
Looking up when she heard the voice, Allison watched Savannah sat and closed her book to set it aside. “Pretty good, right now. I’m on track, and not falling behind anywhere, even when the Dome might try to do otherwise.” Power losses and other events always made classes and work interesting.
“What have you been up to?” If Savannah wanted to stick with small talk for the moment, that was fine with Allison. Anything more could wait.
Savannah offered Allison a smile. “If anyone can stick it to the Dome and stay on track for school, it’s you.” They might not be friends at the moment, but Savannah didn’t think Allison’s studying habits changed that much. “Although, I could do without the multiple power outages recently. You think the Dome could have waited until spring?” She felt for those unused to the cold or someone like Kaa who would literally freeze.
“I moved in with Adam. Not moving in because he bought the house with a previous girlfriend seemed…” Savannah trailed off. “Short-sighted. He loves the house and me, so asking him to move for me felt selfish and I’ve done enough of that since my arrival.” A shrug.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not being honest with you. You deserved to know and after my mom found out and I told Adam, I should have made sure you knew.” Regardless of her assumption that Kol would fucking tell his girlfriend, he hadn’t, not right away.
“But, I shouldn’t have let so much time lapse to talk to you either. I didn’t know how to approach you and you didn’t seem to want to hear it the first time I tried, so I thought I’d give you more space. Obviously, I chose badly.” Again, but the brunette didn’t think she needed to add what was obvious to both of the women.
“I try, at least. I’ve been here long enough to be used to a lot of what happens.” At least the stuff caused by the Dome, she was used to anyway. She smiled a little at Savannah’s words. “And it rarely gives us a break. Remind me to tell you about the time we had a literal sharknado happen.”
Allison nodded a bit when she talked about moving in with Adam. That wasn’t too surprising, but she’d hold off on telling Sav about her own plans for the moment, wanting to see where this conversation would go, first.
As Sav apologized, the tension slowly eased out of her shoulders and she met her former friend’s eyes seriously. “Thank you for that. And you’re right, you should have told me, and you should have talked to me before this. I was really hurt - not only by Kol for not telling me, but because you never said anything either. I thought that we were friends, and something like that…I just wish you’d said something.” It had made her feel awful to find out that both of them had lied - or at least, withheld information - that as Kol’s girlfriend and Savannah’s friend, she’d deserved to know.
Savannah let out a groan and face palmed. “Of fucking course this place had sharknado. Of course.” The witch hadn’t been here quite a year yet, but she knew how fucking weird the Dome could be.
A sip of coffee and Savannah said nothing as Allison spoke. Of course she noticed some of the tension leaving Allison’s shoulders, but obviously said nothing.
She let out a breath. “I know. I don’t think I could have messed up more if tried. What I did hurt you and you didn’t deserve it. I know if we reversed roles, I would have been as hurt as you.” The witch pulled her hair back with an elastic on her wrist.
“I just wanted for you to know how sorry I am.”
“And that’s just the start. This one time, we were overrun with demons coming out of a giant hole in the ground. And another time, we had killer chickens that tried to peck us all to death.” She still sometimes relished chicken sandwiches specifically because of that time, and thought of revenge as she ate it.
Allison fell silent again as Savannah took in what she’d said so far, and then began to respond. It was her turn to be quiet as she listened, then nodded a little. “I get that you’re sorry. And I appreciate it, I just…want to take this slowly. Does that make sense?”
“...I mean, my one best friend has mini zombie goats, so killer chickens really shouldn’t surprise me at this point. And yet. Nick told me about the killer snowmen from when he first arrived.” And how lovely did those sound? Although she paused for a second. “Better, worse, or just different than the Upside Down Madison? The demons, I mean.”
She nodded. “It does make sense. I broke your trust and it’s going to take time to repair.” Savannah knew she’d messed up badly, but she missed Allison and wanted to take the time to try and be friends again. A sip of her coffee and Savannah’s foot subconsciously started tapping to the beat of a new spell she’d learned, the cadence a bit offbeat than most spells.
When she noticed the foot tapping, she looked sheepish. “Sorry. A new spell.”
“I almost forgot about the snowmen,” Allison said with a shake of her head. Sometimes, there was a lot that happened in town and it was hard to keep track out of all of it. “They were better, actually - I mean, they did wreck things for a while, but at least there weren’t any weird viney tentacles involved or alternate dimensions.”
She studied Savannah as she replied, then nodded. “It will. But you’re stubborn, so I’m pretty sure you’ll win me over again,” Allison said with a small smile, then picked up her own drink for a long sip.
“What kind of spell?”
Savannah hadn’t been here, so she only heard about it. She tried to forget about the Titanic, for obvious reasons, but mostly she managed to keep track of things. Probably easier when she hadn’t lived here quite a year yet.
She didn’t back down from Allison studying her and, when Allison spoke again, Savannah looked at her coffee, before she glanced back at the brunette. “I’m pretty stubborn, but I won’t push you. I’ll maybe start small with a text here or there, unless you want something specific from me.” The last thing Savannah wanted to do? Hurt or overwhelm Allison.
“An anti-poison spell. Not from home, so it doesn’t come as easily to me.” A pause. “I’m much better at spells like knockback or energy bolts.”
“Starting small is probably for the best,” she agreed, then finished off her coffee and set the empty cup down again.
“Anti-poison, huh? I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it,” Allison said, then gave a faint smile. “Now…I’m not saying this to end this early, but I really should get going. I have to be at work soon.”
Savannah smiled. “I will start small then.” She nodded. “I’ll talk to you later, Allison. Thank you for hearing me out. I hope you have a good work day.”