Work Text:
senior year
Every year, the Shadow-Solidaritys host a large New Years’ Eve party. They’re always the ones that host parties—after all, someone has to put their large, perpetually-empty house to use—but this New Years’ Party is planned to be a huge event, hosting three grades’ worth of people and a few dozen from other schools. It’s their last year, after all; they have to leave their legacy on Triple L.
As a result, before the party, Jimmy and Lizzie recruit their responsible friends (read: not Grian, Mumbo, or Scar) to put away all the valuables. Even though Joel wouldn’t consider himself a responsible friend, as Lizzie’s boyfriend of three years, he’s basically required to do what she asks. It’s practically illegal not to.
So, he pushes tables to the side and hangs up fairy lights around the living room. He helps Scott and Lizzie bring a white suede couch into the panic room (Who buys impractical couches? Joel will never understand the elite). He closes windows and locks the master bedrooms, and he’s about to take napkins out from the pantry when Lizzie texts.
BABE : come to my room?
And, well, Joel’s a good boyfriend.
ME : yeah of course <3
//
freshmen year
Honestly, Joel doesn’t even know why he came to the New Years’ Party in the first place. Everyone had told him it would be a night to remember, the party of the year; the seniors in his ceramics class told him that he had to go and made him promise to come. Despite all the hype and the insane stories (how many people got blackout drunk again?), he’s just … bored. So insanely, utterly bored.
Nobody he knows is here. The party is a has a strict no-freshmen-allowed policy, so even though Joel sneaked with his senior connections, none of his theatre friends are here. All of the sophomores he knows aren’t going or are grounded. The seniors that invited him here have disappeared to god knows where. His phone isn’t dead but he has no more data, so there isn’t anything to do until two, when one of the seniors promised to give him a ride.
He takes his phone out of his hoodie pocket, leaning against a wall. 11:24.
Two can’t come fast enough.
Joel watches the crowd of drunk people, seeing who he can recognise. There’s a few sophomores from the STEM school talking seriously in the corner (what nerds), and a junior that he thinks he’s seen around before. A pink head stands out the crowd, and Joel’s stomach flutters, turning his to the right. Is Lizzie here?
He pushes off the wall, dropping his soda onto a counter. If Lizzie’s here … he should talk to her, right? They’re friends! It’s not weird to talk to a friend when you see them at a party, right?
Yeah. Right.
He shoulders his way through the crowd, towards the pink hair. When he knows for sure it’s Lizzie, he taps on her shoulder. She turns around and looks down, well, nobody can blame him if his stomach flutters even more. Joel never thought he had a thing for height, but something about her pink hair and the inches on him makes him weak in the knees.
Lizzie looks down at him, before breaking into a smile. “Joel!” she says excitedly, and perhaps a bit drunkenly, before she throws his arms around him. “It’s nice to see you!”
“Nice to see you too,” says Joel, hiding a smile in her neck. “Is Jimmy here?”
She rolls his eyes, letting go of Joel. “God, no. He’s with Scott back home. I think they’re having a movie marathon. You know how Scott is.”
“Yeah, I do.” Joel pushes from foot to foot, feeling awkward. Lizzie only watches him, with a faint smile on her face. “Uh—so, how’d you get invited?”
“Swim team invited me,” she says, shrugging. “You?”
“Same. Wait, no. The swim team didn’t invite me, but a group of seniors did. Not that the swim team aren’t seniors, but … you know. The art kids in my ceramics class invited me.” Joel winces—when did he become so awkward?
She raises an eyebrow. “That’s cool.”
He fidgets with his hands for a moment of silence, before he says, “It’s loud in here, isn’t it?”
“What?” she says back. She points to her ear— I can’t hear you.
“It’s loud in here!” he yells louder.
“What?”
“It’s! Loud!—“ He yells, before he looks at her and recognises the small smile playing on her face. “Oh, shut up! You’re kidding me.”
She laughs again. “It was funny. It is loud, though—do you wanna go outside? There’s a porch, I think.”
Joel’s heart does a dance in his chest. “Lead the way,” he says, hoping that she can’t hear the excitement and terror in his voice.
She grins, before she leans forwards and grabs his hand, dragging him towards the door outside. Joel lets her drag him away, a smile on his face.
//
senior year
He walks into Lizzie’s room, pushing the pastel pink door open. Lizzie’s room is pretty, impersonally so, put together by an interior designer that her parents hired way back in freshmen year. The colour scheme’s pink, blue, and purple, a subtle ‘fuck you’ to her parents.
Her face brightens when she sees him, a smile growing on her face. Sat upon her bed, back by the pillows, Lizzie says, “Joel!” Her hair’s pink now, dyed back to its normal colour after a one month blonde fling.
Joel grins, moving forwards to sit in front of her. “Lizzie!” he says, mimicking her voice.
“Shut up,” she replies fondly. She fiddles with something in her lap, tapping three times, and Joel looks down to see a pink heart shaped box with a ribbon tied around it, à la To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. “I have a gift for you.”
“Aw, babe, you shouldn’t have!”
Lizzie rolls her eyes, holding out the box to him. “Open it.”
“Alright, bossy.” He reaches forwards and undoes the bow, before he lifts the lid off. Inside, there’s a wallet, brown and leather and undoubtedly expensive. The initials JSB are engraved on the left hand corner, and when Joel flips it open, there’s a photo of Lizzie and him last year at prom in the ID section, three one dollars inside. “You got me a wallet? Why?”
“You always complain about yours falling apart,” she explains, placing the box on her lap. “And, well … remember our first kiss?”
“Yeah? New Years, freshmen year.” All at once, it hits him—this is their anniversary! He’s such an idiot. “Oh, sh—“
“Yeah, it’s our anniversary. I was gonna give it to you at midnight, but I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to find you … or that you’d be asleep. The Internet said that the traditional three year gift is leather, so….” She spreads her hands out. “Happy anniversary, babe.”
“Happy anniversary,” Joel echoes. “I didn’t know this was our anniversary—I thought it’d be on our first date! January 9th! I already have a gift!”
“Why would it be January 9th?”
“That’s when we decided to start dating!”
“Wait, you have a gift for me?”
Joel’s eyes widen. “No, no, no, I didn’t say anyth—“
“You got me a gift?” she croons. “Tell me, what is it? Hopefully it isn’t peonies—“
“That was one time—“
“I had to go to the hospital!”
“I hate you sometimes.”
She softens and grins, her façade breaking. “No, you don’t.”
“No, I don’t.” He leans forwards, cradling her face and holding their foreheads against each other. “I love you.”
She smiles. “I love you too.”
(“There’s another gift in the bag,” Lizzie says, later. Her cheeks are red and her lips are drawn into a smile, and Joel absent-mindedly taps three times on her hand. “It’s a card.”
“A card?”
“I’m not really good with saying emotions, so… I wrote it all down.”
“Oh my god,” says Joel faintly, because honestly, how did he get this lucky? “Are you trying to kill me?”)
//
freshmen year
They’re still outside when the countdown happens. They can hear the partygoers count all the way down to a new year, a new beginning, and Joel can feel the excitement and pressure in his bones. The two of them are sitting on a bench outside, since the porch was full of smokers, shoulders pressed together tightly.
When it hits five, Lizzie turns to him suddenly, placing her hands on his shoulder. Joel leans forwards and puts his arm around her, his heart fluttering, and she leans in to meet him. When it hits one, they kiss, and it’s not perfect, but it’s good, because it’s Lizzie and Joel. It’s a kiss with the girl he’s been enchanted with ever since he met her, a kiss that both of them wanted.
She pulls apart, a fond smile on her face, and Joel feels his heart slowing down. Oh god, he just had his first kiss! With his crush!
“Happy new year,” she whispers. Her eyeshadow catches the light, and all that Joel think is by god, I just think I kissed a goddess.
“Happy new year,” he echoes.
There’s another sparkle in her eye when she draws him in again.
//
senior year
During the countdown, they find each other. They always do.
The kiss is messy, too much alcohol and too large smiles clashing together. Objectively, it’s kind of a bad kiss. Subjectively, Joel thinks that he can die happy.
“Happy new year, babe,” Joel says when he pulls away.
She grins back. On his neck, she taps three times quickly. I love you. “Happy new year.”
//
freshmen year
They end up talking, her arm draped behind him and his jacket around her shoulders. They’re in the middle of a debate around Harry Potter characters when his phone rings, and he pulls away before he picks it up. “What’s up?”
“Hey, Joel—where are you?” says one of the seniors. “It’s two, man. We promised your mum we’d get you home.”
“Uh, I’m outside. Like, just outside the house.”
“Sounds good,” replies the senior. “I’m just gonna round the gang up and we’ll be out in a few minutes.”
“Thanks.” Joel hangs up, shoving the phone back into his pocket. He stands up and then faces Lizzie. “I’ll text you,” says Joel, shoving his hands in his jean pockets. “Do you—uh, do you wanna go to a movie? Soon? Tomorrow?”
“Jimmy and I are going on vacation tomorrow,” says Lizzie, looking as if she enjoys his fidgeting.
“When do you come back?”
“The 8th.”
“Then, we can do something on the 9th. A movie, and maybe dinner? If that works with you?”
She grins, her smile bright and bold and brilliant. “It’s a date.”
//
(also) freshmen year
LIZZIE: [a photo of joel’s hoodie draped across her bed] you forgot this so it’s legally mine now
LIZZIE: thanks joel xx
ME: I KNEW I FORGOT SOMETHING
ME (unsent): it looked better on you anyways