Work Text:
Amity was an enigma. At least, she was to Luz.
She hadn’t known the girl with the e-girl ass hair (honestly, green? Why?) for that long, but when they first met on their shared creative writing course, they’d immediately been at each other's throats. She wasn’t even sure why; they’d just instantly seemed to hate each other.
Her accent didn’t help either. God, could you tell she was from the UK with her snooty tone and the way she refused to pronounce anything with a ‘t’ in it properly. Hell, Luz thought she’d been putting it on at first.
And she’d told her that.
…
Ok, that might be why they had a rough start.
But it was hardly Luz’s fault! Her accent was just so posh. She’d thought only
Bond villains talked like that.
Come to think of it, so does Bond.
They’d bickered over menial things all through the semester - the way Luz yawned, Amity’s loud sneezing, how Luz groaned when she stretched, how Amity tapped her pen when concentrating. It just went on and on and on and on. Eventually, everyone got sick of it, including Bump, their professor, who decided to take matters into his own hands. Both were forced into ‘study dates’, which he claimed would help them “get on better”.
For once, they’d agreed on something - the idea sucked. But, the fate of their place on the course was on the line, so they acquiesced.
And, surprisingly, it worked.
Somewhat.
They’d gradually opened up throughout things and came to appreciate each other more as they told about their woes and struggles. Luz of her upbringing with a single working mother, independent at an early age doing her best to give back to a mother who loved her, and Amity with parents who only gave a shit about her grades.
They hadn't become friends. Far from it. But they did start caring, and most of the menial jibes stopped. They still threw jabs at each other, but they had gotten less spiteful and more jokey in nature. Acts of care also broke them up - Amity bringing in spare nicotine gum when Luz began to stop smoking, or Luz bringing in more coffee than she could drink for Amity when she knew that the green-haired girl had been pulling an all-nighter.
So not enemies anymore. But not friends.
Frenemies. That word worked.
Which lead them to now.
“FISH AND CHIPS ARE SHIT!”
A McDonald's at half-past 1 in the morning.
They’d both been at a mutual friends party and, deciding the smell of hormones, sweat and alcohol wasn’t for them, had left seeking a better locale to hang out in.
McDonald's had cleared that. Just.
As they sat with 40 McNuggets (they’d had to order two 20s, but they were hungry ok), Amity had decided to mention the filet-o-fish, and that had somehow led them to start arguing about British cuisine.
“It’s fucking good, and you know it.”
Which Amity, being from there, was very passionate about.
“It’s literally the plainest thing ever! How can you like it!?”
“Just because you Americans can't make anything that won’t give you a heart attack taste nice doesn’t mean it hasn’t been done elsewhere.”
Luz gasped in offence. “How dare you say that about our food. Just because we don’t eat like we’re still in WW1!”
“You take that back, you short stack.” Luz stuck her tongue out in response, causing Amity to give her the finger. “At least I don’t think beans are good.”
Amity slammed her hands on the table and went to retort when a sudden chill went through the fast food place. Both girls turned to the automatic doors, which had just slid open.
Revealing a large family with several snot-nosed brats.
Oh no.
Both girls grumbled and went back to their nuggets, careful not to look over at the family as they shuffled in, the kids screaming nonsense as they ran over to one of the touchscreen kiosks. Luz stole a glance at the teen manning the till and, seeing he’d gone pale at the sight of the new customers, internally cringed. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Amity had a similar, if not worse, reaction. Luz understood why, remembering that the girl worked in a similar place after distancing from her parents. Amity had been desperately trying to get away from her family’s entitlement, so what was surely coming wasn’t going to gel well with her.
As the Karen looking ass of a mother finally waddled over to the kiosk to place her order whilst the father stood on his phone, apparently barely awake, Luz kept an eye on them discreetly. From their appearance and the time, she was pretty sure they must have been on holiday, most likely touring the US.
Why the fuck they'd come to Surprise, Phoenix, she had no idea. The place objectively sucked. Luz was only in Phoenix for the Uni nearby, with this McDonald's being closest to the party she’d gone to. If it weren’t for her laziness, she’d be back at her dorm eating.
Eventually, they finished placing their order as a receipt printed out, and their order number came up on the screen. As the family waited, the mother seemed to become more and more irritated, constantly checking her phone for the time. Eventually, the only other worker on the fast-food place’s floor, who was also a teenager about the same age as the first, came from the bowel’s of the kitchen with their order. The lady snatched the order without so much as a thank you and walked over to a table with her family in tow. Luz and Amity quietly sighed a sigh of relief at an apparent avoidance of conflict and returned to their conversation, albeit more muted.
As they started talking about Demon Slayer (the two constantly fangirled over Inosuke whenever he was brought up - it had been one of the first things they bonded over), there was suddenly a clatter from the family’s table. Both girls’ turned mid chicken nugget to see the woman had gotten up, a look of pure hatred on her face. Stomping over to the cashier, she began to scream at them, yelling obscenities over them putting sauce on her son’s burger when she “explicitly said not to”. When they apologised and offered to make her a new one, she doubled down, yelling about seeing their manager and getting them fired.
Finally, Amity had enough. She slammed her tray against the table and stood up, attracting the attention of everyone in the McDonald’s.
“WHY DON’T YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP, HUH!?”
What. The. Fuck.
Luz could only stare as Amity’s usually prissy posh accent was replaced with a thick Irish accent. She could vaguely hear the lady begin to sputter, trying to get together a coherent sentence against the nerve of being challenged for her entitlement, but Amity cut her off.
“OH, DON’T YOU SPUTTER AT ME, YOU FAT KAREN LOOKING ARSE. I’M TRYING TO EAT MY FOOD PEACEFULLY WITH MY FRIEND, AND ALL I CAN HEAR IS YOU’RE PATHETIC WINING OVER SOME CHEAP MAYONNAISE. THIS IS A FUCKING MCDONALD’S, NOT GORDON RAMSEY’S KITCHEN. SO WHY DON’T YOU ACCEPT THE NEW ORDER OR PISS OFF OUT THE DOOR BEFORE I MAKE YOU!”
…
Silence.
The lady stood there for a few seconds until her brain caught up to what had just happened. She went to retort, but one glare from Amity got her to back down, and she meekly asked for a new burger which the employee rushed off to make. Satisfied, Amity sat down with a sigh, reaching for a nugget before stopping when she saw Luz’s face of complete and utter shock. “What?” Amity said, snapping Luz out of her trance.
“You’re… Irish.”
…
“What?”
Luz slammed her hands on the table, a look of complete shock still on her face. “Since when have you been Irish?”
“What the fuck do you mean ‘since when’? When I was born, you fucking dumbass!”
“But you said you were British!”
“When the hell did I say that?”
“Wha - you’re literally from the UK!”
“Yeah, northern Ireland.”
“There’s a second Ireland?!”
Their conversation continued this way, Amity essentially having to explain her life story as Luz sat dumbfounded that Amity did not, in fact, come from a massive country estate in England, but instead came from a fairly less extravagant but still well off family in Belfast. Eventually, the conversation moved back to more focus on her accent.
Specifically, the fake one.
“So, wait,” Luz spoke through a mouthful of chicken, making Amity grimace as the Latina spoke. “How come you put on that weird fake accent?” Amity didn’t answer, instead poking at one of the few nuggets left. Luz just shrugged and went back to her food.
“It’s embarrassing.”
Luz looked back up at Amity, who was now staring out the window, her chin rested on her hand. She was purposely not looking at Luz, which made her hard to hear. “I’m sorry? Didn’t quite catch that.”
“I said my accent is embarrassing. Everyone I’ve spoken to has made that clear enough.”
…
“I don’t think it is.”
Amity looked back at Luz, who was now also avoiding eye contact, instead now staring at her lap. “Huh?”
“I don’t think your accent’s embarrassing. It’s actually kinda nice.”
…
“Oh.”
…
They ate in silence after that.
~ ~ ~
The next day, Luz woke up to her alarm with a slight pain in her back. Stretching to pop the aches out, Luz scratched at her back as she made her way over to her mirror, running a hand through her messy hair. Luz actually felt alright, minus the aches from sleeping on her shitty mattress. She’d been expecting to at least be nursing a slight hangover, but she felt more refreshed than in a long while.
Come to think of it, she hadn’t actually drunk last night, had she. She’d been stopped from doing so when Amity dragged her-
Amity.
Luz held her head in her hands at groaned, running her palms across her face. Last night had ended… awkwardly, to say the least. And all because she’d opened her fat mouth and actually complimented the mint-haired girl.
God, what was she thinking?
The one constant in their relationship was that they did not compliment each other. Insults and the like? Sure. Did they quietly support each other? Maybe. But they had never complimented each other.
Letting out a final sigh, Luz resolved to get on with the day, walking around her tiny one-person dorm and picking out clothes for the day. Once she’d fixed her hair, she made her way down to the co-op below to grab something to eat.
As she ate her microwavable sausage roll, typing away at her laptop on her newest piece of writing for her course, she heard the chair next to her slide out and a thud as something was chucked onto the table. Luz looked up from her screen to see who’d decided to join her.
Green.
Oh no.
Amity sat down with a sigh, unwrapping a Panera Bread breakfast roll and biting into it. This was the first time Luz had ever seen morning Amity, and it was a shock. Her usually well-brushed hair fell out in a mint and auburn mane, and her ordinarily formal attire was replaced with sweatpants and a baggy hoodie. As she swallowed, she glanced over at Luz. “Hey.”
Luz was snapped from her trance as she realised Amity hadn't been putting on an accent. Her natural accent was less notable than the night before, but it was still there. Swallowing, she spoke.
“Hey.”
Fuck is that all?
Amity nodded and went back to her roll, whilst Luz went back to her laptop after a second of trying to think of something to say.
“You’re hair looks nice today.”
Luz glanced back up from her laptop at Amity, who still stared at her roll, although her face had now gone slightly red. “Thanks… you look comfortable today.”
And like that, the spell was broken. They fell into casual conversation, mainly about the work they'd been set, before going onto other topics, like how Amity wanted to dye her hair lilac (Luz definitely hadn't immediately promised to help.)
As they talked, Luz came to a realisation. They weren’t really frenemies, were they? Frenemies didn’t share their latest theories about their favourite anime, or complement each others hair, or offer to buy the other coffee for help with work. So, what were they?
Friends. That’s what Amity had called them last night, right?
Yeah, friends worked. They could stick with that.
...right?