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“You know, when I woke up from my two day nap, I forgot that the last five months even happened, at first.” Pip said as she walked, Ravi next to her. “Half expected to hear Dad yelling at Josh for putting another one of his good shirts on Barney again. Half expected Cara and Lauren to ring the bell a few dozen times to get to school.”
Ravi gave her a concerned look, but she continued. “Then I heard the silence. No yelling. No doorbell ringing. No barking. And I knew. Last five months did happen. All the bad, all the good. Thinking of the good was what made me get out of bed.” She smiled tiredly. “Wasn’t easy, of course. My head was as heavy as Mount fucking Everest.”
Ravi chuckled. “Glad to see your sense of humor’s back. Now I know you’re at least somewhat back to normal.”
After two days of sleeping the Rohypnol off, Pippa had woken up to a blinding headache and three people in different corners of her room. Her mom and dad had immediately asked her if she was okay and handed her a glass of water with a basic headache pill. Josh had hugged her and told her that he loved her. She drank down the water and threw out the pill without her parents noticing. No more pills for her for now, at least.
Pip texted Ravi and told him that she was okay, and by the time she had freshened up and had a small bite to eat, he was in her living room, dragging her out for a walk, insisting that she could use fresh air. They went to the emptier part of town, where they could see no judging faces or whispering voices.
“I didn’t thank you, by the way.” Seeing his confused face, she blinked. “You know, for saving me that day. If you hadn’t thought to use the tracker, I’d-” She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. “I really thought I was going to die, and because of you, I didn’t. So thank you.”
“Don’t.” Now it was her turn to be confused. Wasn’t it customary to thank someone when they did something you were grateful for?
“No seriously, don’t. You’d have done it for me. And it’s nothing, compared to what you’ve done. Sal isn’t guilty anymore. We could never mourn him before, because if we did, we were considered monsters for mourning a murderer. But now he’s innocent. He was a victim, just like Andie Bell. And everyone knows it, thanks to you.”
Pip smiled. “It wasn’t just me, you know that, right? I wouldn’t have been able to do half the stuff I did without you. You were a big part of it. Stopped me from getting killed most of the time.”
“Of course, I couldn’t possibly forget. How you even survived without me before I met you I don’t understand.”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, because I was an absolute lunatic, was I?”
“Listen, you were way too good at blackmailing and breaking in for an amateur, so-”
Pip punched him in the shoulder and Ravi snickered.
They walked in comfortable silence for a while, and when nearing her house, Ravi said, his tone odd: “A lot’s changed since you knocked on my door with moldy bribery muffins, huh?”
“I’d be a little concerned if you didn’t notice. And they weren’t moldy, they were-”
“I like you.”
Pip stopped walking. She turned around, not having noticed that Ravi had stopped walking. “What?”
It was out in the open, and there was no taking it back now, Ravi knew. “I like you.” He repeated, letting out a breath.
“For how long?” she asked, her heart beating fast, not sure what else to say. It wasn’t as if she had been in this kind of a situation many times before.
He let out a noise of exasperation. “I don’t know, Sarge. There’s no exact time stamp on it, but I do.”
She walked up to him and pressed her mouth against his, pulling down his shirt collar to reach. Before he could react, she pulled away and stepped back.
“Oh god.” She managed. “I’m so sorry, shit, I should have asked first, I shouldn’t have done that, fuck-”
Before she could overthink herself into a panic attack, he bent down and kissed her, grinning, his hands on her cheeks. She relaxed into it, her arms going around his neck. Butterflies erupted in her stomach, warmth spreading through her body.
They pulled away, slightly out of breath, their foreheads touching.
“I like you too. A lot.” Pip said, breaking the silence.
A smirk broke out on Ravi’s face. “I think I figured that out, considering we just kissed, like twice.”
“Well, I wanted to say it.”
Ravi laughed, the sound bringing a flush to Pip’s face. She grinned. God, she fucking loved that laugh.