CHAPTER NINE !

[ real life ]

- ❝ YOU LOOK PRETTY ❞ 💌

ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ !

the group sit in the living room, all watching astoria as she finishes typing before putting her phone down. she looks up at them and furrows her eyebrows, confused, when she sees that they're all staring at her.

"what?"

"you said there's cookies," luna says. "we're hungry."

"good to know you're here to see me," she says, rolling her eyes and getting up from off of the couch to grab the plate of cookies she'd made earlier that day. school today had been a drag, and she hadn't had any motivation to do her homework so she just painted her nails and baked cookies instead. on top of that, it's been awkward in their group all day. well, just with chris, since none of them really know what to say around him since his very public fight with harper in the cafeteria earlier.

personally, astoria thinks they're being a little dramatic. they know harper is a toxic bitch, so they shouldn't really be surprised about what happened earlier. maybe if the others had paid more attention, they'd have realized that their relationship is always like that, despite chris not telling them. not that astoria pays specific attention to chris, obviously! she just has common sense, which all of her friends seem to lack.

though she supposes she does understand where they're coming from, especially nick and matt. it's odd for anyone in their group to keep secrets, and it's especially weird to her that he kept how shitty his relationship is even from his brothers. okay, maybe he didn't want to tell them about it when her and mason were at his house, but that was a few hours after school, so he could've easily told them before that. the whole situation is a bit weird, to be honest.

it's only about to get weirder though, because chris is going to arrive soon. as much as she really didn't want to, astoria has invited him over too, hoping to ease some of the tension within the group. they all know he's coming, so they're preparing what to say to him in advance. what they don't know, however, is that harper is coming too.

now, it's not like astoria likes harper. in fact, she fucking hates the girl's guts, but she thought it would be good for everyone to get to know her, especially matt and nick. it must suck for your brothers, your two closest friends, to not approve of your girlfriend. so, as the nice person she is, astoria is saving the day and hopefully solving whatever stupid drama is still lingering between them all.

on the other hand, astoria hasn't forgotten the way harper spoke to her in english class yesterday, so she will be making no effort whatsoever to be nice to the girl. she couldn't give a fuck that it's chris' girlfriend, because it's not like she likes him, either, as much as his girlfriend would disagree with that. it's her house, anyway, so it's not like harper can do anything, and neither can chris. the thought alone makes astoria laugh to herself.

"did the cookies fucking run away or something?" matt shouts from the living room. astoria rolls her eyes, leaving her daydreams behind in the kitchen as she grabs the plate of cookies. matt's eyes light up as he sees her enter the room. she takes a cookie for herself before setting the plate down on the coffee table, watching as everyone instantly grabs one. nick bites into it and gives her an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"i fucking love cookies," skye says.

"same," kali says. "these are so much better than the shitty ones we get at the sturniolos."

"are you dissing our girl scout cookies right now?" nick gasps. kali laughs.

"we'll get lemon ups next time if you're gonna be that ungrateful," matt adds, and nick raises his hand to dismiss him.

"that's taking it a bit far, even for me," he says. "i'm not having those...things in my house."

"nick, they're just lemon flavored cookies..." astoria says, sitting down on the couch next to skye.

"imagine this, right now," nick says, handing his cookie to skye so that he can use both hands for effect. "satan, wearing an apron with a corny slogan on it, baking."

"why would i-" skye is cut off by nick continuing his scenario.

"you know what cookies satan is baking?" he asks.

"lemon ups," they all reply, in sync. matt sighs, shaking his head.

"exactly," nick says proudly, happy that he got his point across. he takes his cookie back from skye, giving him a smile. astoria is about to comment on the interaction, but before she can, the doorbell rings. she smiles to herself because she knows what's coming.

"it's chris," she says to no one in particular. they all already know. nick and matt look at each other, taking note of kali and luna's annoyed faces and skye's amused expression.

astoria gets up and answers the door. chris and harper are standing on her porch, and, much to her disgust, holding hands. chris gives her a small, anxious smile while harper glares at her. astoria doesn't even acknowledge her, but turns to him instead.

"hey," he says. "sorry we're late. we were just-"

"we were busy," harper says suggestively, and chris falls silent. he looks uncomfortable, but also confused by her words. astoria grimaces and moves out of the way so they can both come in, before shutting the door behind them. they stand awkwardly in the hall, and astoria nearly sighs at their incompetence.

"is this a shoes-on or a shoes-off household?" chris asks her awkwardly. astoria raises her eyebrows.

"i think you've been here enough times to know that," she responds, immediately noticing harper's sour expression when she hears this. it makes her smile. chris kicks off his shoes but his girlfriend just stands there with her arms crossed.

"i'm not taking off my shoes, that's weird," she says.

"you can leave then," astoria replies simply. "we don't wear shoes in my house."

chris shoots her a glare and she smiles sweetly at him, but judging by his unimpressed look, he knows it's fake. that she's being fake. somehow, him realizing that is even better than him being oblivious and thinking she actually likes harper. it's also slightly reassuring that chris isn't that dumb. her and harper liking each other? it was laughable really, even though he's not aware of their conversation from yesterday, and the general hostility that has hung between the two girls since sunday, when she had been waiting for chris on his porch while they were at mcdonald's.

harper huffs and kicks off her boots, linking her arms with chris' as the three of them walk into the living room. when the group see harper, all of their faces immediately drop, skye's mouth even falling open. nick rolls his eyes and pushes up his friend's chin to close it. luna covers her mouth and laughs. it's still really obvious.

"take a seat," astoria says, sitting back down in her spot. chris smiles at his friends, dapping up skye as she walks past, sitting down next in between him and astoria. harper stands there, blankly looking at the group. she walks towards the couch and stands in front of astoria, clearly waiting for her to move.

"can i sit here?" she asks, and astoria looks around.

"um, is there space?" she replies, knowing it's petty but she can't help herself.

"i don't know, but i'd kinda like to sit with my boyfriend, if that's alright."

nick and skye share an amused look at her use of the word boyfriend and astoria sighs, getting up. chris looks at her, but she can't decipher his expression.

"you can take my spot," she says to harper. "your boyfriend stinks anyway."

luna laughs at that and astoria moves to sit down in between her and matt on the floor. chris leans forward, taking a cookie from the plate.

"so, harper," kali says. "how come you decided to join us today?"

"chris invited me," she smiles, and astoria can't figure out if she's being genuine or not. "i thought it would be fun, especially if he wanted me to meet his friends."

"actually, it was ro-astoria's idea," chris admits. "she said i should bring you."

kali's head snaps around to look at her, and astoria shrugs innocently. harper is looking at chris, shocked.

"i thought you invited me," she said. chris swallows nervously, briefly glancing at her.

"it doesn't matter, as long as you're here," nick interjects, clearly trying to ease the tension in the room. chris gives harper a small smile, resting his hand on her knee. she doesn't look at him, but she puts her hand on top of his, and it's clear he's been forgiven.

"so!" luna says, gaining everyone's attention. "what are we doing?"

nick checks the time on his phone and shows it to chris and matt.

"it's like 6pm and i just realized we haven't filmed a wednesday video yet," he says. chris sighs.

"i just fucking got here," he grumbles.

"why don't we just film one here?" astoria suggests. "we can do a baking challenge or something."

"we have a whole plate of cookies though," nick says. "well, we would, if skye would stop fucking eating them."

"what? i'm hungry," his friend responds innocently.

"why don't we cook dinner then?" astoria suggests, taking the plate off of the coffee table, causing skye to throw up his hands in protest. "winner gets the rest of the cookies."

"deal," luna grins.

astoria smiles too. "i'm with you, lu."

"fuck!" matt says. "luna's the only one here who can cook."

"this is unfair. let's pick names out of a hat," kali says.

"that's fucking stupid," luna says. "it can just be me and rory, kali and matt, chris and harper, and skye and nick."

astoria smirks, nudging luna with her elbow. she grins back. kali and matt are looking at each with annoyed looks, both knowing that neither of them can cook. chris looks utterly defeated, and while astoria doesn't exactly blame him, she's not she why he would've expected anything else. like any of them would ever willingly be paired with harper.

"okay, um, none of us have cameras so everyone just film on your phones and airdrop me the videos later," nick says. they all nod and agree and get up, ready to start cooking.

"MATT! what the fuck are you doing?"

"i'm chopping vegetables, what does it look like?!"

"it looks like you're trying to murder that carrot," kali says, leaning over his shoulder to get a good angle of his atrocious chopping skills.

"poor carrot," astoria says sarcastically, breezing past the two of them to grab the flour out of the cabinet. "what has it ever done to you, matt?"

"shut up, rory," he says, putting down the knife and putting his badly chopped pieces of carrot into the pan. astoria laughs and walks back over to luna, who has started making the filling for their dumplings. her chinese heritage and intensive cooking lessons from her grandpa have made this cooking challenge extremely easy for them.

astoria is pouring the flour into her bowl when she looks up and starts watching chris and harper. his phone is propped up against the fruit bowl, it filming the two of them as they talk to the camera about what they're making. to her credit, harper seems to actually be a pretty good cook, and something about it annoys astoria in a way she can't explain.

chris looks at his girlfriend briefly, then back to their ingredients. harper skillfully stirs the bubbling pot on the stove, casting an irritated glance at chris, who is clumsily attempting to peel a potato. she watches him with distaste as the knife slips occasionally, the peels completely uneven.

"really, chris? it's just a potato. how hard can it be to peel it properly?" harper's says, her voice laced with sarcasm as she continues to chop.

chris glances at her, his face reddening with a mix of frustration and embarrassment. "i'm trying, okay?"

"clearly," she retorts, her eyes glinting with an irritating superiority, astoria thinks. "maybe if you actually paid attention instead of getting fucked distracted all the time you'd be capable of doing a simple task like this."

astoria wonders if either of them remember that they're on camera, as harper rolls her eyes and chris' grip on the knife tightens, frustration bubbling within him.

she tries her best to ignore it, returning to pouring the flour into the bowl, but her attention is brought away from the task as chris walks away from his girlfriend and over to her.

astoria's eyebrows raise as she looks at him, watching as he brushes past her, furrowing his eyebrows as he clearly looks for something.

"what are you looking for?" she asks him, and he turns, his expression softening slightly as he looks at her. astoria almost flinches at the sight.

"uh, broccoli," he says, and astoria points to where she'd left it out on the counter next to him. chris thanks her quietly, though much to her surprise, he doesn't go back to harper. instead, he stands next to her as she tries to go back to measuring her ingredients, but she can't focus with him standing right there.

"what?" she demands, turning to look at him once again. chris narrows his eyes as he looks at her intently.

"hey, rory, you've got a little something on your cheek," he says, trying his hardest not to grin.

"i do?" she says, turning to the camera to see what it is, but chris covers it with his hand so she can't see. astoria sighs, turning back so that she's facing him again.

"yeah..." he says quietly. "right...there!"

he quickly dips his hand into the bag of flour and smears it across her face. she yelps and moves away from him. she turns to the camera to see herself in the screen so that she can clean her face.

"chris! what the fuck?" she says, and he only laughs. she frowns, trying to wipe it off.

"hey, don't wipe it off!" he tells her. "you look pretty."

astoria's jaw drops and she pretends to gag. "ew, what?" she asks.

"yeah," he grins. "pretty fucking ugly."

"ha ha ha, you're hilarious," she mumbles, and astoria now also reaches into the bag and coats her fingers in flour. she puts her hand behind her back and waits until chris turns back to her. then, she reaches up and runs her fingers through his hair. he realizes instantly what she's done and sighs, glaring at her. she giggles.

chris turns then, making direct eye contact with harper. he freezes, knowing it probably looks really bad that he's messing around with astoria when he's supposed to be with her, but he doesn't say anything. he only clears his throat and looks away again.

"i should probably get back to cooking instead of wasting all of our ingredients," he says to astoria, who senses his discomofrt and just nods. chris walks away just as luna approaches her.

"rory, i finished the filling," she says to astoria. "you done with the dough?"

"pretty much," astoria replies, showing her friend the bowl. "can you roll it out? i'm shit at that."

"sure, if you film," luna agrees, taking the dough out of the bowl and putting it down on the flour-coated counter. rory picks up her phone and pans the camera onto luna, who looks up at her and sticks out her tongue.

"i swear to god, all i've been able to hear the entire time is kali and matt yelling at each other," she says. astoria laughs and nods.

"i'm scared to eat their food," she replies. "i'm not sure it's even gonna be edible."

"i doubt it," luna shrugs. "i don't think kali has ever stepped foot in her kitchen before."

before astoria can respond, skye and nick come inside from the garden. nick holds the plate proudly.

"look!" skye exclaims. "we made fucking mini burgers!"

"shit," matt sighs, shaking his head when he looks at his and kali's meal.

"since when can either of you cook?" chris questions.

"skye can barbecue, apparently," nick shrugs, and skye laughs.

"i can't take all the credit," he says. "nick did run to the store to buy some burger buns."

astoria gives them a surprised look.

"how the fuck did you get there?" she asks. nick looks sheepish.

"um...i stole your bike," he says.

"you mean my fairy princess bike from when i was twelve?" she says, crossing her arms.

"yeah! that one!" nick says.

"oh my god..." chris chuckles. harper also cracks a smile.

they all stand in awkward silence for a moment.

"is everyone almost done?" astoria asks. she looks at luna, who has now finished filling all of the dumplings. how she did it so quickly is fucking crazy to astoria, but she's not complaining.

"let's say ten more minutes," nick says. "then we're all gonna sit in the living room again and try the food."

"fuck, we've gotta hurry up," matt says to kali.

"maybe if you hadn't spent so long cutting those fucking carrots we'd be done by now," she retorts. he doesn't respond, and everybody laughs.

chris and harper are the first to stop and focus on their meal again, this time with a quiet conversation rather than that awful silence from before. astoria rolls her eyes at the two of them, trying her best to ignore her unwanted thoughts and organize the dumplings onto a plate once luna is done steaming them. the least she can do is help with that after her friend basically did everything else. the two of them admire their work. astoria's about to comment on it but she's interrupted.

"time's up!"

double update bc i felt bad that i literally left falling to rot for like 2 months so here you go!

i can't even explain how much happier i am with this fic now like i love it so much more and i hope you guys do too <3

━ ava ᥫ᭡