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Outside smelled like the faint smoke of post-BBQ. It was dark though, and they had ordered pizza, so it must’ve been from a neighbour of Beth next door. Rick shoved a hand in his pocket, leaving the laughter of his friends behind.
He found Beth slumped in the corner, sitting on a patio swing that he’d never seen her use. Her flutter-sleeve shirt ends covered her closed fists entirely. It was chilly out here, that outfit of hers looked magnificent and adorable, but it wasn’t exactly warm attire.
“Hey. I couldn’t find you.”
Beth straightened up, wiping at her face and faking a chirpiness Rick knew she didn't currently have. “Hey! Um, yeah, I needed fresh air so…”
Rick frowned. Beth looked away, out at the faint lights earthed into her backyard’s garden, but in the brief moment she had looked his way in the light casting outside from her kitchen, it looked like her cheeks were wet. He took a seat next to her. His weight added to the swing, and they swung back a little violently until the chains groaned and reacclimatized to their distribution.
“Are you okay?”
Beth nodded.
“Thank you for tonight. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you all came here just…for this.”
Beth shook her head. “Don’t be silly, Rick. It’s a big deal. A huge deal. It’s a full-ride scholarship…you deserve a party.”
“Then why aren’t you in with us celebrating?” Rick waited, biting his inner cheek at the silence. Impulsively, he wiped his hands on his jeans, hoping to rid away any pizza grease, and covered over her hand resting against the cushion between them on the swing. “…Beth?” Her breath hitched. A familiar ache resurfaced in his chest when she blinked behind those round glasses with a long, quiet look he didn’t deserve with those beautiful brown eyes. Instead of saying anything, Beth kissed him.
Rick’s hand cupped her face and he let out the breath he’d been holding. It had been a long week since they’d last done this. The only time they did this. When Rick opened the thick envelope in the mail, already in denial about the implication of its size, drove to her house and basically threw at her the acceptance letter as he rambled nonsense, unable to process more than the two screaming thoughts of he was going to college and he had to tell her. Rick couldn’t explain what had made him do it. Only that he had wanted to for so long, that by the time he had actually kissed her, it felt like it was normal. And she had melted into his embrace so flawlessly, kissed him back so surely, it was perfect and honest and sweet.
But there was a pain in Beth’s kiss now when she pushed against him. Rick felt it, tasted it in the salty tears on his mouth. Rick hummed to slow her down, moving to find her hands and squeezed them both. He pulled apart to gaze at her with concern, but his heart had yelped at their abrupt separation, so he leaned back in for those lips like nectar. Beth let out the tiniest of noises, and then her whole body shuddered, and Rick realized it was from the cold. Wrapping both arms around her, she tucked right into him, leaning her head against his shirt.
“I just got you,” Beth whispered. “But I know you’re gonna go.”
“…Go?”
Beth didn’t say anything. And then Rick realized that she had meant school.
That’s not for…Months.” September. Maybe August to move, but he didn’t want to say that. They still had to graduate…And survive.
“I know,” she sniffed and played with the rings on her hands. “But that’s the thing…It’s not going to take much time to fall in love with you.”
“Beth,” Rick said. He swallowed, knowing Beth could feel the sudden change of his breathing. “…I already am.”
“Then what do we do?”
The door swung open with a peal of laughter. Jennie stepped out in her black checkered shawl, the faint green light of her ring glowing in the night. She gasped upon stumbling into the two cuddled up together on the swing, eyes alit with a matching knowing smirk on her face. “I knew it!”
Rick felt his face warm and struggled to sit up with Beth in his lap as the swing jostled.
“Jennie—“ He started, sounding strangled.
“I won’t tell!” She promised. “I mean, everyone kind of already knows. It is your party that Beth threw for you and you’ve been looking at her all night like…”
“Like she lights up the room more than you and Court’s staff put together?” Rick supplied.
Jennie raised her hands. “You said it!”
“He did,” said Beth, sounding much more amused than the saddened Rick heard from her before.
“I won’t tell,” Jennie promised again. “But, you’ve been both out for a while so you might want to come back in soon.” She shivered. “Besides, it’s freezing, I was just going to step out to quickly call Todd, but, uh…Can I use your room instead, Beth?”
She nodded.
“Okay! Awesome! Bye!” Jennie twirled around and went back inside.
Beth sat up and smiled at Rick, this smile was real and beautiful like the one she wore when he knocked on her door and found her house full of their friends congratulating his still dumb-striking chance at getting into college. With a scholarship. After Matt. After jail. After everything.
“This is all because of you, you know,” Rick said breathlessly. Beth crinkled her brows together, shaking her head, confused. But it was true. He never would’ve turned around and given Courtney and Yolanda a second chance, never would’ve softened his heart, would’ve cured himself and learned the truth if it weren’t for Beth’s part in it. He explained it to her, her presence every step of Rick’s long, frustratingly rugged road to success. This family and love…and chemistry.
“It’s you,” Rick promised, pulling Beth from the chair. She was tiny when he looked down at her like this, but even under the Chapel’s flickering porch light, it was his favourite view. “I’m tired of pretending it’s not. That I don’t want this just as much, that it isn’t as important. Because it is. We are. And I think we know it.”
Beth raised on her tiptoes, and Rick bent down with a grin when she yanked him to her height to kiss him hard. “We do.”