i. I BET TRAVIS WOULD WRITE ME A COBB VANTH FANFIC

saturday, december 12th

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN YOU WON'T WRITE ME A COBB VANTH FANFIC?" Aurora asked, following her friend around their house.

  Rosie Soap was supposed to be at the airport any minute now. And instead of driving there, she was looking for her keys. "I mean—" She lifted up the couch cushions. "—I'm not gonna write—" She lifted the stack of old newspaper up off the kitchen counter. "—you a Cobb Vanth—" She checked her coat pockets. "—fanfiction."

  Ah! There they were.

  "But why?" Aurora whined.

  "Because for one: I'm gonna be late," Rosie said, opening the front door and gesturing for her roommate to follow. "And for another: I don't want to."

  "I bet Travis would write me a Cobb Vanth fanfic."

  "Then ask Travis to write you a Cobb Vanth fanfic." She locked the front door and checked it. "Fuck, my coat," she cursed, unlocking it once again. "You're gonna have to call him though!" Rosie called out to the porch. "He's not coming with!"

  "I will, I will," Aurora sighed. "You're a terrible best friend, you know that, right?" she told her as they walked to the driveway.

  "Yeah, that's why I'm Herc's best friend," she retorted.

  "Is that why he and West are hanging out right now?" Aurora raised her eyebrows.

  "They're probably kissin' or something, I don't know."

  The girls walked in silence as they made their way to the car, and when they got in, Rosie asked, "So what the hell is your obsession with Cobb Vanth, by the way?"

  Aurora's jaw fell open in fake shock. "Did you and I not watch the same Mandalorian episode?" she gasped. "Timothy Olyphant looks good in Mandalorian armor."

  "Naw, he was looking goofy." Rosie started the car. "You saw Boba's paint job, he was looking' good in Mandalorian armor...I mean, as he should, but still. You just got some obsession with Timothy Olyphant 'cause of Scream."

  "Obsession?" Rora laughed. "Says the girl who held her breath through the whole Loki trailer."

  Finally pulling out of the driveway, Rosie said simply, "That man is hot."

  They rode in silence to the airport until Aurora tried to start up a different conversation. "Are you nervous to see him again?"

  Rosie didn't answer, and yet, that itself was her answer.

  Rosie Soap and Awsten Knight had met in August of 2011.

  She had just recently graduated high school, and was given the opportunity to go to multiple schools in exceptional places. She also was given the opportunity to go to the University of Houston.

  Her parents and friends urged her to go to Europe, but one thing led to another and Rosie decided Texas was a better fit for her.

  She spent months wondering if she had made the wrong choice, but on her first day in the new state, she met a boy with a ridiculously ugly scene haircut and knew she made the right choice.

  It was years of flirting and obvious sexual tension, they crushed on each other too many times to count. And as 28-year-old adults, nothing had happened between them yet.

  It was years of bad timing and insecure significant others.

  "So, he's sleeping on the couch while he's here?" Rosie asked her roommate, finally breaking their silence.

  "Yeah, unless you want to blow up the air mattress."

  "I'll ask him what he wants to do." There's a pause. "How long are you gonna be gone?"

  "Just a day or so," Aurora answered. She was going to visit her sister, Cassidy to help her move in.

  Leaving Rosie and Awsten alone in the house.

  Well, no. That wasn't true. West would be there too, thankfully. And Herc.

  He was going to be there a lot, actually. Or at least, he should be. West Howard had recently "quit" his job at JCPenney, so he had a lot of free time.

  "No one fucking goes to JCPenney anymore except for like grandmas," he had said when asked why he quit. But everyone knew he was fired for smoking pot in the bathroom on his break.

  West didn't smoke much, because every time he did, something bad happened.

  Rosie lived by the same rules. The last time she had smoked was the summer of 2015. It was the graduation party, and West convinced her it would help her relax.

  She ended up telling Awsten Knight that she thought he was hot...and his girlfriend almost broke her nose.

  "It's Otto's birthday at the end of the month," Aurora reminded her, snapping Rosie out of her daze.

  "Yeah," Rosie replied, gripping the steering wheel a bit tighter.

  "We should mail him something. What does he even like anymore? I haven't talked to him in a while." She paused. "I'll ask Awsten."

  "Yeah."

Ever since 2021, Rosie Soap, Aurora Pine, West Howard, and Herc Kline had been itching to get out of Texas.

  The only thing keeping them there was school. So in 2015, when Rosie, Aurora, and Herc graduated, the four of them packed up their things and moved to Oregon. (Where Herc was originally from.)

  Awsten Knight had moved out of Texas after them, and now he was only a 15-hour drive away. Herc thought that was a ridiculously long time, Rosie thought it was nothing.

  Awsten thought it was ridiculously long too, so he doesn't drive to see them, he flies.

  Sitting in the Airport parking lot, Rosie bit at the inside of her lower lip; Something she only did when she was very nervous.

  And Aurora caught on. "So you are nervous to see him," she chuckled.

  Rosie wanted to say something like: "Of course I am! This is the first time in almost ten years that we've both been single at the same time!"

  But she didn't say that, she just sat quietly, waiting for him to come out to the car.

just finished draft 2 of my original wip like two days ago!! now i have to write an essay about how the character's healthcare system works and where they get their drinking water from