FIX YOU.
꒰ real life  ꒱
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IT'S six in the morning when jackie begins her shift at ms lennon's diner. she slowly makes her way down the sidewalk toward the little building, yawning as she turns the corner. blake doesn't work until noon, so she's the only employee until them. plus, customers don't really start coming in until brunch. there will be a few stragglers, but normally she only serves one or two people in the early mornings.

as jackie nears the diner, she sees ms lennon outside. the little old lady is struggling to walk out the door with an a-frame outdoor menu. she's got one leg extended to prop the door open, but can't move very well with her arms full. jackie jogs over to her, taking the sign out of her hands.

"thank you, dear." ms lennon says with a wavering voice.

"of course." jackie replies easily, setting the menu on the ground right outside the door. it displays today's special, which is a serving of pancakes that comes with whipped cream and strawberries in the shape of a smiley face. the words are written in slanted cursive. jackie knows ms lennon's handwriting isn't that neat, so she assumes one of the afternoon employees must have written it for her.

as she finishes setting the menu up, she turns to follow her boss inside. ms lennon shuffles around to open the diner — flicking the lights on, replacing the sign with one that says opened rather than closed, and simply just getting the place up and running. as she does, jackie walks behind the counter and grabs her apron off its hook, pulling it over her head. blake always ties it in the back for her when he's working, even though she insists she can do it herself. the memory makes her smile.

as she pins her name tag to the material of her shirt, jackie leans against the nearest wall. it'll be a while before a customer comes in. she might as well get comfortable. seeing as there's nothing else for her to to do, jackie ends up lost in her thoughts — mostly using this time to think about last night's events.

mabel texted her, informing jackie that she had gotten home safe and was staying at her older brother's house until everything settled down with her crazy ex. jackie agreed that was a good idea. then, they spent a while getting their contacts set up — names, profile photos, etc.

after mabel had left to go to sleep, jackie was alone with her thoughts once more.

blake was asleep in their shared bedroom, and willie was hardly any help. all the cat wanted was to sleep and cuddle, which isn't very good company when she needed someone to talk about deep things with.

in the end, jackie ended up getting super high last night. she doesn't smoke very much, only doing so when she feels the need to shut her brain off. she knows its a bad habit and she's trying to quit being so reliant on it, but she didn't think one night would hurt. plus, she hadn't done it in months.

knowing blake hates the stench of weed, she crawled out to the fire escape and made herself comfortable on the bony metal. as she looked out at the bustling city below her, the thought of the triplets remained in her head. they were here. for all she knew, they could be in one of the cars driving below her right at that moment. the more she thought about them, the more she would try to smoke her thoughts away.

blake woke up when she was stumbling back through the window into the apartment. he had been rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, getting up for some water, when he saw her misstep and crash onto the floor loudly.

he ran over to her side, helping her up. jackie was too high to care, laughing it off and standing up on her own. she swayed a bit as she stood, trying to walk without aid.

blake wasn't very pleased to see her so stoned. but he knew about wilson, and he knew she only smoked when she was struggling with moving on. so blake didn't say anything to complain. he brought her back to bed, even though he was still half asleep. then, he stayed with her until she drifted off.

jackie woke up this morning to an empty bed, and immediately felt guilty. she got home from the club at about five, and managed to wake up blake, knowing he had classes at seven. she texted him an apology, but he insisted it was fine.

"ooh!" ms lennon's excited voice pulls jackie from her thoughts. she's back in the diner, leaving last night's events behind her. ms lennon continues with a grin, "first customers of the day!"

jackie turns toward the people walking through the door as the bell dings. seeing as there's nobody else in the diner, they decide to sit at the counter on the barstools. they both appear to be in their twenties, which is rare considering most of their customers are older. not that jackie's complaining. she loves old people.

the duo is one girl, one guy. one girl has long black hair and eyeliner that makes her eyes pop beautifully. the guy has dreads and a frown on his face, glaring at the girl stubbornly. they look up at jackie as they sit side by side in their respective stools.

"what would you guys like?" jackie asks with a smile, gesturing toward the menu hung up behind her. the menu is on an old chalkboard that ms lennon refuses to get rid of. the meals are writing in the same slanted cursive as the a-frame out front.

"brynn." the guy turns to the girl. "did you ask matt what he wanted? i forgot to ask any of them. i'm fucking starving."

the girl — whose name jackie assumes is brynn — rolls her eyes at him, "no. i didn't ask either. i'll text the group chat."

she pulls out her phone and begins typing as the guy continues to read the menu with squinted eyes. she sets her phone down and nods at jackie, symbolizing that she now has the orders. jackie smiles at her, pulling out a pad and pen from her apron pocket.

"can we get two of your special, please? the one outside?" brynn asks. jackie nods, writing down the order as she continues to speak. "aaaand, uh, a number five short stack?"

the guy stops staring at the menu and glances at the girl. "that's only three people, though. which one is gonna starve?"

"i'm sharing with matt." she tells him matter-of-factly. "anyway, worry about yourself, jace. do you even know what you're ordering?"

"joke's on you, i can't read cursive." the guy — jace — tells her with a smug grin, as though he just won the argument. jackie has to turn around and pretend to be doing something else to avoid laughing at him.

"oh my fucking god." brynn groans. "how did i get stuck with you? literally anyone else would have been much more tolerable."

"whatever." jace says, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

"i'm just going to order you the special." she tells him, not giving him a chance to argue or anything before she waves jackie over again. "sorry, uh, can we get another one of your specials?"

"of course." jackie agrees, scribbling it down onto her paper.

brynn and jace turn to each other and continue their conversation — which is growing to become more and more of an argument than anything. as they carry on with their conversation, jackie pulls a stack empty cups out from under the counter. she slides them over to the duo across from her.

"there's a fountain drink machine over there. you can fill your drinks while i go get your guys's food." jackie points over their shoulder to the dispenser in the far corner.

they thank her before standing up and going over to the machine. she turns on her heel and goes back into the kitchen. she was expecting to be making the food all herself, and was preparing herself for the customers' anger when they realize how long they have to wait. but when she goes into the kitchen, she sees ms lennon standing over the stove with a pan.

ms lennon tries her hardest to stay involved in the running of her diner. but as the years wear on, she's been getting less and less helpful. it's still nice to see her up and moving, though. most of the time, she stays sitting at one of the booths filling out papers.

she has an office, but she refuses to stay cooped up in there. she claims that she'd be missing all the fun. however, jackie fails to see what's fun about serving old people with dementia all day. she loves her job, of course, but it'd be so much easier to stay in an office than out in the diner itself.

"three specials, is that right?" ms lennon asks with a smile that shows off her rows of yellowing teeth. jackie's taken aback as she glances down at her paper before nodding. "and a number five?" again, jackie nods.

"you don't have to help out, you know." jackie tells her as she moves to take the pan out of her boss's hands. ms lennon frowns, handing her the pan with a disappointed expression.

"yes, i know, dear." ms lennon says as jackie takes over the cooking, flipping the eggs over to cook the underside.

it only takes a few more minutes before the eggs are completely cooked, ready to be relocated to a plate. she moves to grab a plate, but sees one already stacked with precooked pancakes. ms lennon must have cooked those while jackie wasn't looking. she shakes her head fondly at the old woman as she takes the plate into her hands and exits the kitchen.

brynn and jace are no longer at the machine but they're not at the counter, either. they're standing side by side, admiring the decorations on the walls. old newspapers, license plates, and the grandfather clock.

brynn notices jackie and walks back over to the counter, leaving jace by himself to stare at the clock in awe. "i love how this place is decorated." she says giddily.

"i agree," jackie smiles, "i wasn't the one who hung everything up, but i always tell my boss that how much i like it."

this begins a really long conversation between the two girls, talking about random shit. brynn prefers energy drinks over coffee, but all of her friends disagree. jackie prefers pancakes over waffles, but her boyfriend thinks otherwise. see, random shit. they get along really well, and jace joins in every now and then to add his opinion, but brynn brushes him off dismissively.

in the end, jace just resolves to fiddling with the corner of one of ms lennon's decorative napkins. the girls keep talking together, getting more and more comfortable. eventually, jace shamelessly butts into the conversation when he hears the girls begin to complain about men.

"i'm friends with only boys." brynn whines, complaining. "i'm scared that i'll turn into one if i continue to be deprived of spending any time with girls."

jackie laughs, "i felt the same way in high school. i only had one girl friend at the time, and it drove me insane. they just feed off of each other, getting worse and worse."

"yes!" brynn shouts, seeming happy that someone finally understands her. "also, when they-"

"okay, that's enough." jace interrupts, drawing the line. "brynn, i don't know how you can complain so much about men when that's all you do all day."

"you guys just give me more and more things to complain about." brynn shrugs. "it's not my fault."

"well, keep me out of this conversation, because i don't count." jace says, defensively. "i'm gay so i'm technically a girl."

"um, no. to be a woman, you need to go through womanly pain once a month. and, if i recall correctly, you don't go through that." brynn says. "actually, you should count as double man. you are one and you like them."

"you like them, too! does that make you half a man?" jace exclaims. brynn just rolls her eyes as though she's already settled her decision to be final. jace turns to jackie, desperate. "tell her i don't count!"

jackie just shrugs, laughing too hard to form a coherent sentence.

they continue to argue about this as jackie hands them their to-go bags of breakfast. and, furthermore, they continue debating all the way out the door as they leave to meet up with whatever friends had been waiting for them.

jackie catches a glimpse of one of their friends, and her heart drops. there's three of them. one is too far out of sight for her to see. the other has a familiar tuft of brown hair sitting atop his head, leaning in to press a kiss to brynn's forehead. the third has blonde hair, but a familiar face.

when jackie saw brynn's boyfriend, she thought she'd seen one of the triplets. but when she saw the other guy with blonde hair, she knew she must have been mistaken. the triplets she knew were brunette.

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their separation arc is killing be because OH MY GOD. THEYRE SO CLOSE BUT SO FAR. UGH. but bare with me ,, it'll be worth it in the end #swearsies 🤞🤞

anyway i love ms lennon with everything in me & i stand by that full heartedly 🥰 same with brynn even though ik some of u don't like her and think she's too mean to everyone but cmon now she's the mean mom of the group , she has to keep them in check somehow 🙄🙄