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Bede was invited to Gloria’s house for a get- together. Not exactly a party, but not simply 4 friends chilling together doing nothing. That knowledge alone made his heart start racing and for his body to start nervous sweating. Reminding himself that “this was just Gloria” and “it’s a party among her and her closest friends”, he knocked on her cottage door.
Postwick was a calm little town featuring its long dirty path to the Wedgehurst Train Station. He heard the soft sounds of various bug pokémon chirping and felt the cool winds against his cheek. Though his nerves were on fire and he was anxious sweating, the night calmed him down. Something about the stars reminded him to breathe. The town often reminded him of Ballonlea (minus the glowing mushrooms) the place which he now called home.
To his surprise, Marnie opened the door. She greeted him with a smile and gestured him inside Gloria’s home. It felt weird, coming into Gloria’s home but not having Gloria invite him in. Knowing that Gloria was unaware of his entry into her house, made him feel even more anxious and out of place.
Following Marnie to the living room, he stumbled upon a weird situation. Seated on the floor around her coffee table were Gloria and Hop. The weird thing was that Hop and Gloria’s hands were touching the other as they held them in the air.
“Whoa, Glo! Your hands are so small!” Hop exclaimed sounding rather too excited for something so minimal. He was pushing his hand against Gloria’s, making them sway from side to side as he compared them.
Gloria scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Ugh wha… your hands are just big, that’s the problem.” She pulled her hand away from Hop and crossed her arms, hiding her hands from everyone’s view. She dramatically huffed; Bede noted how cute she was when she was annoyed.
Bede looked at Marnie, not sure as what to do nor how to put themselves into this weird (and highly awkward) situation. Marnie looked at him and without saying a word, decided to sit beside Hop, across from Gloria. She waved on Bede to sit on the last side of the table… besides Gloria.
He knew Marnie knew, why else would she remain so stoic and calm in situations where Bede was flushing brightly (and obviously). She would always find a way for him and Gloria to be together. It happened at Marnie’s birthday party that Pier’s threw for her; it happened at the one unfortunate beach day and it will probably happen until Bede’s body rolled itself into its grave.
While watching what was about to unfold, Bede took the seat where Marnie was ushering him to.
“Aw Glo, lemme see your hands. I’m sure they are just average size” Marnie said as she was trying to persuade Gloria to unfold her arms. “Hop’s hands ARE big”.
Hop clicked his tongue in response.
Marnie leaned across the coffee table, holding her hand out for Gloria to compare. Bede just sat and watched. Was this something normal friends did on a Friday night?
Gloria finally unfolded her arms and reached across the table to compare with Marnie (she always was much softer with Marnie compared to Bede and Hop. Marnie used this knowledge to her advantage).
Within the first second of comparing them, Marnie knew she was wrong. Gloria’s hands were just small.
Upon seeing how small her hands actually were, Gloria’s withdrew her hand immediately.
“Oh wow, they really are just small,” Marnie said with slight shock in her tone of voice. On the opposite side, Gloria slid down onto the ground to hide her blushing face. A faint (but funny) “wahh….” was heard from her.
“Guysss, no fair. It's not my fault; don’t make fun of me pleasseeee” Gloria whined. “Can’t we just change the topic…”
“Nope,” Hop said. Somehow, he found amusement in Gloria’s suffering, “I wanna see how small your hands are to Bede’s now”.
“What?!” Bede really didn’t want to touch Gloria’s hand as he knew for a fact that he too would start blushing just as Gloria was now. But unlike Gloria, Bede would be blushing from something else and not just embarrassment.
Hop winked at him. Bede took a good 5 seconds before he realized what was going on. He glared at Marnie and she just responded with a small knowing smile.
Bede blushed. Only Marnie and Hop saw; he didn’t know whether to call himself lucky, that Gloria didn’t see, or unlucky, that both Marnie and Hop knew.
But that small wink and the fact that Gloria was already blushing and embarrassed gave him a little more confidence than he had before. He channelled all his smugness, cockiness and coy-ness and shifted closer towards Gloria. She was practically lying on the ground under the table now (in corpse pose lol).
“Aw come on Glo”, he used the nickname that everyone but him had used (he had never used it prior), “let me see your hands. Small hands are sooo cute.” He purposefully dragged out the “so”. Gloria’s face flushed more.
“If you know they’re cute, then you don’t need to see them” Gloria responded and huffed again, this time adding a pout.
Bede knew no amount of persuasion would get Gloria to lift her hand especially with Marnie betraying her just minutes before. Luckily one thing Bede was good at was hiding his emotions (relatively good at it) while being smug. He knew he would need to threaten her and he knew exactly how to do it.
Silence.
The tensions were rising.
And the threat came.
“I’ll tickle you”. 3 words yet it was the biggest threat on the planet. He knew she was very ticklish. He would never actually do it though. The idea of him dragging his hands across her bod- no, we’re not thinking about that.
“You wouldn’t,” she said through her teeth; she turned her face to his (finally). Upon that cute face was a death glare that could send someone to hell. But not Bede. Oh no, he was determined to make Gloria flush more or evaporate trying. Visiting Hell was not an option.
To coax her more, he started moving closer and made those “grabby” hand gestures that everyone knows comes before a tickle fest.
As much as Gloria wanted to call out Bede on his bluff, Bede moving closer to her made her give up. “OK OK OK WAIT” she hurried herself out from under the table, “Ok stop… o-ok jeez here.”
Bede won. Gloria held up her hand and hid her face in the other. Marnie and Hop (watching this cringe plot unfold) just watched and gave Bede a thumbs up.
Time stopped as he lifted his own hand to meet hers; he swore he stopped breathing. Her hands were indeed small, almost as small as a child’s hand. They were cute and dainty with her nails painted pink in colour. Her fingers hit way below the tops of his fingers. He could feel the warmth radiating from her hand. She was so warm.
He cooed. Gloria looked over still hiding behind her hand, peering out from between her fingers.
They heard a camera click. Surprised, they whipped their heads to the sound finding Hop holding his phone and Marnie looking at the image on the screen. Neither Bede nor Gloria knew what to do except gawk at their friends.
In the picture (which was later sent to Bede and Gloria without the other knowing), showcased their blushes on full display. The main thing in focus was their hands that were gently placed together. A small moment in time that was captured on that Friday night. Both Bede and Gloria saved that picture onto their phones.
Hop would showcase it at their wedding.