Chapter Text
Andi waddled slowly out of the Hobby Lobby, weighed down by the massive amount of supplies she was hauling out of the store. She knew Bex, Cece, and even Ham would disapprove of her going to Hobby Lobby of all places, so she had to go alone, leaving her to make the eight-block journey back to her house without any assistance. It’s just so cheap! Look at all the stuff I got! She justified to the nagging voice in her head.
Sure, she had only meant to buy a yard of fabric, but she got… distracted. Now, in either hand she was lugging half-gallon buckets full of pastel paint, her shoulders slouched from the tote bag full of fabrics and pins she had picked out, and a pack of markers was clenched between her teeth.
She had made it an impressive ten feet before she heard someone call out to her, she glanced over her shoulder nervously, fearing that her problematic shopping habits had been exposed. When she realized who it was, she tensed up. She gave a sandy-haired boy a disinterested once over before she continued on.
“Need some help with that?” A smirking TJ Kippen said as he caught up to her on the sidewalk, matching her slow pace as he walked beside her.
“Fuck off, TJ.” She called out through clenched teeth, not making eye contact.
TJ winced at the hostile reaction, awkwardly running a hand through his hair. He tried to shake it off with a soft laugh, but the confidence in his voice had been quickly stripped.
“I’m guessing you’re mad at me?”
She let the markers drop out of her mouth into her bag, then turned to look at him, putting on her most sarcastically saccharine smile.
“Why would I possibly be mad at you? Because you bullied one of my best friends for a year, or because you almost got the other killed?”
“…I’m guessing you have something to do with why Cyrus isn’t talking to me, then.”
“Yeah, TJ. Maybe Cyrus isn’t talking to you because I told him not to… Or maybe it’s because you pointed a fucking gun at him.
Bristling at the venom in her voice, TJ only managed to squeak out quietly
“…that’s not what happened.”
“I don’t want your explanation. I just want you to never talk me, or to Buffy, or to Cyrus. Ever again.”
“Andi, please, just-”
But it was too late, Andi had mustered all the strength her slim shoulders could provide to trudge past him as fast as she could. It was pointless to go after her, he knew. It was pointless to try anything at this point; he was certain. TJ felt hot tears well up in his eyes. Fuck, he cursed to himself as he heard a soft sob escape his lips. He hated crying, but he just felt so stupid right now, his body couldn’t help itself.
The sound stopped Andi dead in her tracks
For all her efforts, Andi was absolutely horrid at being mean. Despite being furious at TJ for putting Cyrus in danger, she had exhausted her capacity for coldness. Besides, she couldn’t just leave a guy crying on the sidewalk, could she? So, with a huff, she dropped her paint cans and spun back around to face him.
“Help me carry all this junk back to Andi Shack… and then we can talk.”
--
The walk back to Andi Shack was quiet, as TJ tried to compose himself. It wasn’t like Andi was dying to start small talk, so they were both thankful for the silence.
When they had finally got to Andi Shack, and TJ swung the thin wood door behind him, was when he felt the pressure build up. He set Andi’s tote bag down, and aimlessly began unpacking the mixed contents of the giant bag. He wasn’t sure what he was going to say to justify himself to Andi, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to take kindly to any excuse less than extraordinary.
“So.” She said sharply, her accusatory brown-eyed glare locked with his nervous green. “What’s your great excuse this time, TJ?”
“Andi, I’m sorry.”
“That’s not enough. And you know it.”
“No, it’s just… I’m sorry about everything, about what I’m about to say.”
This was enough to pique the dark-haired girl’s interest. She, gave him a nod to go on, and perched herself carefully on a countertop.
TJ told himself to breathe. He could do that much. He told himself not to cry, which was going… less than stellar so far. He told himself to just spit it out, to tell Andi the secret that he’d been holding for far too long. Nope, that was too hard, all of it was too hard. And all of a sudden, he was crying and suffocating and blowing his one chance to ever talk to Cyrus ever again. Through his tears, he barely managed to look Andi in the eyes.
“I like Cyrus, OK.” He blurted, in between soft sobs. “Like, like him like him. Like… gay, Andi.” He choked on the word gay, it sounded unfamiliar out loud, out of his own mouth. It was something he had only voiced in his mind before this point.
He saw Andi gaping, though she didn’t interrupt his rambling.
“And he doesn’t like me back because I’m and idiot. God, I’m so fucking stupid! I just wanted him to meet my friends, so he could start hanging out with us, you know? Because I wanted him to see me be cool and funny and nice, and shit. Something more than just a dumbass he has to be nice to. But, I told Reed and Lester that I really wanted them to make a good impression, and I guess they thought it’d be a good idea to… I was just so excited that Cyrus was going to be there I didn’t even think to make sure they didn’t do something stupid. I swear to God I didn’t know, Andi. I didn’t even touch it. And now, he’s never going to talk to me again, and it hurts more than anything. He even thought that I could be a good person. But, I guess that I’m too much of a fuck up for a guy like that.”
A part of TJ couldn’t believe he had just said that. To Andi Mack, none the less. He wasn’t used to wearing his heart on his sleeve, but he didn’t regret what he said.
He aimlessly fiddled with a strip of silver ribbon he had plucked from the bag, “I was even planning on telling him too, you know” He smiled, a bitter one filled with heartbreak. “Sometime before the end of the year. But I was so worried it would mess up our friendship. I guess I fucking did that just fine on my own.”
There was a long silence while Andi waited, making sure he was done speaking. When he looked up at her, she closed her gaping mouth, and tried to figure out what to say.
“TJ… Wow, I had always just thought you were just this awful person who tricked Cyrus into being friends with you, but you… actually have emotions.”
TJ grimaced at the… compliment? It was something about the genuine shock in her voice that made TJ want to throw up. He really had been awful to her friends, so she had no reason to believe he was anything less than super villain.
Andi realized immediately that this was not the right thing to say to a crying boy who had just come out to her, and she started correcting herself frantically.
“I mean! TJ, it’s great that you opened up to me. I’m really proud of you… seriously. And, I promise, Cyrus will forgive you; you guys will be friends again.”
A short pause, then.
“But… do you forgive me?”
There was hesitancy in his voice, like it was a total toss-up in his mind. Andi slid off the counter to walk over to the boy. She gave TJ a hug, which he readily accepted, trying to stop his tears from falling again.
“Of course. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t know.”
--
After that, TJ stuck around for a bit. Aimlessly helping Andi put her shopping spree away into the crannies of Andi Shack, meticulously pulling off each Hobby Lobby tag before stuffing paintbrushes and markers into different color-coded cubbies. After a few minutes of silence, Andi felt bold enough to start talking.
“So… When did you start liking him?”
“What?”
“Cyrus, I mean.”
“Well, no shit. Who else would you mean.”
“So...?”
“It’s not like he even likes me back, anyways.”
“That’s not the question, TJ.”
TJ thought about it. Or, rather pretended to think about it, so it didn’t seem like he had agonized over that exact question for months. Which he had, of course.
“Let’s see… It was more and more over time. But, I think it started a little bit when I first met him. Remember? When Driscoll agreed to tutor me; and, in exchange, I had to get Underdog that-”
A soft gasp cut his sentence short. He had been rifling through the bottom of Andi’s bag, putting away the stray bits and bobbles that had fallen to the bottom, when he picked up one glittering enamel pin that Andi had bought for her denim jacket.
“muffin?” he whispered. Of all the pins he could have grabbed, somehow the one in his hands was in the shape of a sparkling chocolate muffin.
Andi’s eyes went wide, and a smile took over her face as she shrieked, “THE UNIVERSE!” as a flustered TJ tried his best not to take this as a sign.
After an hour or so more of organizing and chatting, and a little bit of bracelet making: of trying to make up for all the time that TJ and Andi were destined to hate each other, TJ finally grabbed his bag and started to leave, when Andi piped up.
“It’s not over yet, you know… I’m the nicer of two walls keeping Cyrus from talking to you.”
TJ anxiously fiddled with the half-completed friendship bracelet he’d struggled to make, he nervously chuckled.
“Driscoll’s not going to be that pissed, is she?”
“Oh, you’re totally screwed. Buffy’s going to literally kill you if you try to talk to her.”
“Yeah, uh, I was kind of hoping you could help out with that part.”
“Hell no! Buffy and I aren’t exactly on the best terms right now; and, me being ‘Team TJ’ probably isn’t going to help that.” She sourly chuckled.
TJ barked out a laugh at that too. It was a bittersweet one, but it was the first laugh they had allowed themselves to share the whole evening. These past few weeks- hell, his entire life, he always felt so alone. And for once, while chuckling with his newfound friend in a weird shed at her grandma’s house about a girl who was fond of neither of them at the moment, everything started to feel a little more normal. As he left Andi Shack, in the fading sunlight of the late afternoon, TJ Kippen started to feel approximately one third better.