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“Mom, can I go to Linc’s?”
With a light ting, Mom placed a clean fork into the silverware drawer. “Sure, honey.”
All according to plan. After a silent and unfortunately obviously giddy fist pump, Scary rushed to make her way out of the kitchen.
“Oh wait, Ter, are you staying overnight?” Mom asked, not taking her eyes off of the silverware but still waving a hand to get Scary’s attention.
Warmth flooded Scary’s cheeks before she pushed it down. She’s stayed over at Linc’s hundreds of times, this instance won’t be any different. She definitely doesn’t have anything special planned, nope, not at all. Scary nonchalantly cleared her throat, replying, “Maybe. Probably. I don’t know.”
Mom nodded, clearly understanding that Scary meant a resounding yes. “Terry’s going to have to take you then, dear. I’ve got to be at work at seven so I need the car.” Scary groaned dramatically and stretched her torso and arms across the kitchen island like a beached squid. Not slowing from her task, Mom chided, “Do you want to leave Lincoln’s house early tomorrow morning?”
Scary blushed even harder at the implication of the images that came to mind, glad that her face was pressed against the cool vinyl of the counter. Deflect, deflect! “Terry can barely even drive. He got his license, like, last week.”
“He got his license two months ago,” Mom said patiently. “Go pack your things. Once Terry’s out of the shower I’ll have him drive you over.”
With a half-hearted scowl, Scary slowly dragged her body into an upright position, making her skin squeal against the counter in protest. “Ugh,” she complained, “fine.”
It was fine, really. Scary and Terry had gotten closer since everything with Willy happened. She even enjoyed his presence sometimes- maybe even wanted to spend time with him. Heavy on the maybe, especially when he got to drive the car and she didn’t. Even heavier on the maybe, when she had to show up to her crush’s house with her stepdad driving like some dorky nerd with no life and no license.
(Normal, the dorky nerd that he is, doesn’t have his license, but he gets a pass. He’s been through enough, Scary’s willing to drive him around for the rest of her life.)
(Taylor, the even dorkier nerd that he is, doesn’t get a pass. Even though he has his license and can breathe fire or whatever the hell he learned his demon DNA could do this week. He sleeps with body pillows. )
(Linc is a dorky nerd who drives like an old man but somehow it just makes him cuter. Funny, how that works. Maybe it’s the dimples.)
Twenty minutes later, Scary found herself sitting in the passenger seat of her Mom’s SUV with her stepdad at the wheel. Terry Jr. tapped on the navigation system and adjusted the driver’s seat, destroying Scary’s perfect setup for when she drove. After getting everything settled in the silence, Terry turned to Scary. “So. Ready to go see your pookie?”
Scary buried her face in her hands. “Oh God. Never say any of your Gen Z slang ever again.”
Terry put the car in reverse and started backing out of the driveway, resting his arm on Scary’s seat as he looked backward. “So you aren’t denying that Lincoln is your ‘pookie’?”
Scary spluttered profusely before huffing and turning to look out the window. “It’s whatever. He’s whatever.” Terry hummed in recognition but didn’t say anything back.
The two settled in the white noise of whatever classical station Terry had turned on as they made their way to the Li-Wilson residence. Scary was actually vibing with the music a little bit. It had a cool spooky goth aura to it, but there was no way in hell she would ever tell Terry that. Especially not today.
Today she was going to tell Linc that she liked him.
God. How gross and pretentious. Liking someone isn’t even a big deal, it’s, like, feelings or whatever. Scary had resigned herself to never bothering with feelings and love because she was way too goth for that, and then. Well, her world changed a little bit when Terry died and her mom was in mortal danger and she was emotionally manipulated by her step great-grandfather.
So, yeah, she had seen the world almost end, and decided that things could be much worse than Linc not liking her back- it just took her a while to build up the courage to tell him. It took her so long, in fact, that she still had zero idea about how to do it. She didn’t want to do the classic high school yelling-in-the-rain move, because Scary had had enough conflict between her and Linc and didn’t really want to relive those memories. She couldn’t ask him out to a school dance because there weren’t any for another two months. She didn’t want to just text him, that felt impersonal and boring.
She probably should have had a semblance of a plan before the drive to Lincoln’s house, but here she was.
“So… what’s up?”
Oh, right. She was driving to Linc’s house to confess to him with her stepdad in the car.
“Nothing’s up. I’m totally fine,” Scary snapped as the car pulled up to a red light. Unfortunately, this gave her stepdad the opportunity to give her a look that said ‘I totally do not believe you.’
“What, ” she whined. Terry Jr. took the hint and shrugged, eyes back on the road as they started to drive again.
Right, back to devising a plan to confess to Linc. She should really have thought of this before today. Maybe if she asked someone who was actually in a relationship how they confessed so she could take-
Wait a minute. Her stepdad. Obviously Terry had succeeded, he was married to her mom. He could probably give her some sound advice- but was she really going to stoop to the level of asking her stepdad?
Yes. Yes, she was. All’s fair in love and war.
“I mean,” she started, “I guess… I guess I have, like, a question. For you.”
Terry Jr. looked like he was trying incredibly hard not to be smug. “Yeah?”
“It’s just, like,” Scary started, before turning in her seat to face Terry. “How did you tell Mom you liked her?”
“How did I tell your mother I liked her,” Terry repeated, thinking it over. “That’s kind of a difficult question to answer.”
Scary cocked her head. “Why?”
“Well, we met on a dating app, so the idea of romantic feelings was expected. She knew I was interested in her since I met her.” Terry paused, tapping the steering wheel. “Well, I guess not since I met met her. That was at a college party.”
“Woah, wait,” Scary said, hands up. “You and Mom met in college?”
“Yeah,” Terry said, a dreamy look in his eyes. Gross. “I think her roommate or friend was hosting the party and I went for the free drinks. She was really caring and so beautiful and I couldn’t stop thinking about her for weeks.” Terry pointed at Scary accusingly, keeping his eyes on the road. “Don’t you dare tell her any of this, though. She’ll call me names.”
“She’d do that anyway. Mom loves to tease.”
“That’s true, but still, don’t tell her. I don’t think she remembers it at all.”
“What? Mom met you in college and she doesn’t remember ?” Scary blinked with wide eyes.
Terry waved his hand dismissively. “She was drunk out of her mind, probably, and uh, taken. I think you came along not too long after that.” Scary made a face at the implication of her birth father. “I think that as far as she knows, we just met on a dating app. Maybe I’ll tell her on our anniversary,” Terry added as an afterthought.
Scary groaned and sunk into her seat. “Great. I might as well have taken advice from Romeo & Juliet.”
“Well, don’t do that, they both die in the end.” Terry chided. “But, what’s this about taking advice, huh?”
Whoops. “What did I say? Must have been the wind!” Scary said quickly with an incredibly fake laugh, turning back to face the window, somehow still low in her seat.
A silence stretched as the radio played a quiet, fast part of some concerto. “So,” Terry said with a deep exhale. He glanced at Scary before continuing. “You gonna tell Lincoln you like him?”
Scary’s face had never been so red. She kicked her feet, letting out a frustrated mini-scream before replying. “Fine!” she shouted to the roof of the car, “Yes, yes I’m gonna confess to Linc. It’s whatever.”
“Yeah, it’s whatever,” Terry added sagely. “If you want my opinion, though, I think he’s a good kid. You two work well together.”
Scary nodded and looked back to the window. Unfortunately, Terry Jr.’s opinion mattered more to her than she thought it did, because his approval made her feel lighter inside (gross). She didn’t really get any new ideas for tactics though this conversation, but she at least felt more confident about her decision.
“Shit!” The car jolted and broke Scary out of her mind palace. She turned to see her stepfather slowing down rapidly and pulling over to a turn lane. “I missed my turn.”
Scary laughed. “We wouldn’t have missed that turn if I was driving.”
“You wouldn’t be here if you were driving,” Terry said, whipping the car around a corner. “I’m keeping the car as collateral so you don’t stay at Lincoln’s forever.”
Scary huffed out a laugh and turned to look out her window. A few quiet minutes later, their car pulled up to the Li-Wilson residence. Terry Jr. parked across the street while Scary gathered her things. She sighed loudly and turned to her stepdad to say a quick goodbye, but instead, Terry reached out and hesitantly placed his hand on her shoulder.
“You’ve got this,” he said kindly. “Just tell him how you feel, he’s gonna reciprocate.”
Scary glanced at the house before looking back to her stepfather. “How do you know?’ she asked softly.
Terry squeezed her shoulder before letting go. “I just do. Dad instincts.” Before Scary could complain about the fact that he’s only been a dad for a little while and he really had no dad instincts at all, Terry started the car to get ready to leave. “Bye Scary, love you!”
Popping open the passenger side door, Scary started getting out of the car. For the first time, she felt awkward about not telling her stepdad that she loved him back (which, ew gross, feelings). Maybe she’s just feeling gushy today, or maybe it was their heart to heart in the car, but she responded with a non-committal, “Yeah,” as she stepped out. As she slammed the door shut, she noticed Terry looked quite proud of himself.
Okay, she’s at Lincoln’s house, she can do this. Terry wasn’t really much help, but maybe she could ask someone else about confessing.
Praying that a neighbor or mailman passed by, Scary started to cross the road, but stopped when she heard a voice behind her shout, “Hey!”
She turned to see that her stepdad had rolled down the passenger side window. “Keep your mom and I updated on the pookie!” he said with a shit-eating grin.
“Ugh,” Scary groaned as she sped walked away. “Go to hell!” she said without looking back.
“Again?”
“Again!”
Scary was already halfway up the driveway by the time Terry Jr. had left. Well, there goes that plan. She’ll just have to go in blind or maybe look up some tips online while Linc was in the bathroom or something.
Pulling her tote bag further up her shoulder, Scary knocked on the familiar front door. There was a brief pause before Marco Li-Wilson appeared with a pleasant smile on his face, towel in hand like he had just been drying the dishes. “Scary, hi! Good to see you. Come on in, let me grab Lincoln for you.” As Marco turned to call for Lincoln in the direction of the stairs, Scary was struck with an amazing idea.
“Actually, um, Mr. Li-Wilson,” Scary started. She looked around to make sure no last minute neighbors walked by as possible targets, before turning back to Marco. Guess he was her only choice. “Is it okay if I talk to you about something first?”
Marco’s brow furrowed as a concerned look came over his face. “Of course, sweetie. Here, Grant’s working in the backyard right now, we can take his office.” He gestured to follow him, Scary trailing along behind.
Marco closed the door but left it cracked as he took a seat in Grant’s spinny-chair, dish towel now laying across his shoulder. “Is everything alright?” he started.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine,” Scary said quickly. “I just…” Wow, she hadn’t considered how awkward this would be. Telling your friend’s father that you were in love with his son was not on her bucket list.
Scary wrung her hands. “So, uh. I have feelings. For Lincoln.”
Marco’s eyes slowly widened. A grin appeared on his face as he jumped up from his chair and froze. “Really?!”
Scary took a deep breath. “And today, I want to tell him that I like him.”
Marco started bouncing up and down and punching his fists in the air. “Yes, yes, yes! Oh, Grant is going to freak out. Oh my god.” Marco seemed to remember that he was the adult in this situation and sat back down hurriedly, but his leg continued bouncing. “Right. Yes. Okay. That’s wonderful to hear, Scary.”
This was not the response Scary was expecting, but she wasn’t mad about it. She was suddenly very happy that Marco was the one that opened the door and not Grant. “Yeah, um, so, I want to tell him, but I have no idea how. So, I was wondering… how did you tell your husband that you liked him?”
Marco exhaled deeply. His washrag had fallen to the floor, forgotten. “Oh,” he said, hand moving onto his heart wistfully, “I wish I could be more helpful, but unfortunately we confessed over text! Grant and I started as online friends and dated online before ever meeting each other in person. And, y’know, when Grant and I met in person for the first time I was in a tough situation, so sparks weren’t exactly flying. But, afterwards, he took me out to the nicest restaurants I've been in and we would hang out playing video games for hours each day. Oh, one time we went to this PC café in Los Angeles, and-”
Scary started tuning out Marco and nodded politely. Great, more unrealistic expectations from another perfect love story. If Linc’s own parents had such a sweet confession, how was she ever going to live up to that?
“But, anyway, I digress,” Marco said, his voice finally fading back into Scary’s focus. “I’m so sorry once again, I wish I had better advice for you two.” Marco stood up and picked up his dish towel. As he reached for the door handle, he said, “Just be yourself. Not to give anything away, but I think Lincoln will respond the same no matter what.”
Scary made a face before stepping out of the room. Whatever that meant. “Right,” she said, “I’m gonna head up and see Linc now.”
Marco nodded and gave her a thumbs up. “Good luck!” he whispered.
Scary faced the familiar stairs of the Li-Wilson household and headed toward Lincoln’s bedroom. It was never hard to find- a painted wooden soccer ball hung on his door, with 'Lincoln' scrawled in his distinct 7-year-old handwriting. The door was cracked, but Scary knocked anyway.
She heard something clatter to the floor as steps rushed towards her, the door opening to reveal Linc in his classic sleepwear soccer jersey. An adorable grin spread onto his face as he realized Scary was there.
“Hi, Scary!” he said enthusiastically. “Come in, come in.”
“Hey,” said Scary, seeing that the loud noise had been a book that was flung off of Lincoln’s bed, now lying on the floor. “Doing some light reading?” she joked, setting down her tote bag and gesturing to the book with a nod.
“Oh! Yeah,” Linc said, scratching the back of his head. “I wanted to finish reading before you got here, but Grant asked me to help him with dishes earlier, so I just got to it now.” He picked up the book and flopped back onto his bed, flipping to the correct page.
They hung out all the time on each other’s beds, and maybe it was just Scary’s mushy-gushy feelings, but today felt different. Something felt intimate about her designated spot next to Linc, where the pillows were pre-moved out of her way. She unlaced her boots and settled next to Lincoln, resting against the headboard. Were they always this close?
It’s fine. Everything is fine, it’s whatever. “What are you reading?” she asked to distract herself.
Lincoln turned the book so its front cover faced her. “It’s this collection of stories for my gothic literature class. You took that before, right? Last year?”
Scary nodded, touching the cover gently and just narrowly missing Linc’s finger resting against it. “Yeah, um, I did. You must have a different teacher, though, we just got PDFs of the stories.”
Lincoln hummed, moving the book back to prime reading position. Their shoulders were closer than before. Scary was going to explode. “Probably easier than carrying around this big book.” He made a confused face, looking way cuter than he should. “I don’t even remember which short story this is, it’s all too many fancy words for me.”
Scary pursed her lips before leaning in closer to the pages, bumping shoulders with Lincoln to get a better look. She glanced over the page, taking absolutely none of it in before leaning back to her previous position. “Looks like the Cask of Amontillado to me.”
Lincoln snapped. “Right! Right, yeah, that’s it.” He turned to face Scary (why was his face so close to hers-) and smiled. “I’ll finish this up and then we can actually hang.”
“‘Kay.” Lincoln went back to reading. Scary knew she had a great opportunity. She could tell him right now if she wanted to. Ask to talk- Lincoln would put down anything to listen to what she had to say.
But that was frightening, that everything could be real, so she resigned to closing her eyes and leaning her head against his shoulder.
A few moments passed before Scary felt Linc poke her in the leg. “Scary? You okay?”
Scary blinked open her eyes before getting a face full of Lincoln. He was right there. Wow. Totally normal or whatever. “Yeah, I’m fine. Just resting my head.”
“Oh, okay,” he said, visibly relaxing. He looked around nervously before setting his book to the side. He reached across her body, hand slipping from her leg onto the bed and essentially trapping her against the headboard. Oh my god oh my god oh my god. “Y’know, I have a few pillows if you want-”
Linc seemed to realize the position he was in. Scary had realized long ago. This is the perfect time. Tell Linc you need to tell him something. Just say it. Linc made eye contact with Scary before he quickly glanced down and back up. He pursed his lips. Oh my god, just say it. Stop being a wimp.
A deep, quiet breath. “Linc-”
“Can I kiss you?”
Sirens. Blaring, loud, screaming sirens going off on full blast. He wants to kiss her? This was not in the plan. There wasn’t a plan, but if there was, this still wouldn’t be in it. What is happening.
Lincoln glanced down again. “Please?”
Oh, right, Scary had frozen and hadn’t responded. She nodded quickly before letting out a breathy, “Yeah.”
Linc smiled for millisecond before placing his hand lightly on the side of her face. He leaned in, pressing his lips to hers. Scary closed her eyes, resting her hand over Lincoln’s on the bed, searching for a connection.
A couple seconds later, Linc pulled back, laying a little twisted on the bed next to Scary. He was absolutely beaming, and Scary had a feeling she was too.
Scary squeezed the hand she was still holding. “Um, can we-” she stuttered out, “again?”
Linc nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, yeah, please.”
Scary fully turned herself to face Lincoln, shifting so he wouldn’t have to be twisted anymore. Her hands were quivering- whether with giddiness or nerves, she didn’t know. She held his face with both of her shaking hands and pulled him in, Linc gladly moving with her. As they kissed, Linc trailed his hands along her arms until he reached her palms. Linc pulled back and stared at her wistfully.
Lincoln held her hands tightly in his. “They’re shaking,” he said softly, voice breaking the slightest bit. He pushed back her sweatshirt sleeves and pressed a kiss to each palm.
“I’m nervous,” she breathed. Scary linked her hands with his and pulled them down between their laps.
“About me?” he asked.
“Yeah,” Scary said, nodding. “I wasn’t sure how to- what to-”
“Scary,” Linc said seriously, “You could’ve done anything and I’d think it was the best thing ever.”
Scary blinked in thought, humming, before letting out a small laugh. “Huh. That’s what Marco said.” She looked up to see Lincoln staring back at her with wide eyes. Oh shit. “Wait- no- I mean-”
Linc’s surprise melted into a giddy smile. Scary tried to pull her hands away to hide in them, but Linc just brought them closer to his chest. “Aww, you told my dad you liked me?”
Scary threw her weight back in an effort to free herself, but just ended up bringing Lincoln down with her. “Shut uppp,” she whined, rolling around with Linc.
Linc wrapped his arms around Scary’s neck and leaned in to kiss her cheek. “No, no, no, I think it’s cute!” he said. Linc rolled them so they were on their sides, facing each other, as Scary looped an arm around his waist. Crazy that she could do that now. “You didn’t already know?” Linc asked.
“No?” Scary said, getting comfortable. “How would I know?”
Linc shrugged, or as best he could laying down on a bed. “I mean, I wasn’t really subtle. Taylor and Normal tease us all the time.”
“I figured that was just them being silly,” Scary said. Scary brought a hand up to prod around Linc’s face just because she could. She poked him in his adorable cheek and nose and chin until he took her hand and pressed a chaste kiss to her finger. “When did you start liking me?” she asked.
“A while ago,” he started.
“How long ago is ‘a while’?”
“Literally the day you tried to kill me.”
“What ?” Scary yelled a little too loudly, considering her face was in Lincoln’s face. “You’re kidding.” Linc shook his head, eyes looking at her so lovingly that she might combust. He was totally serious. “Why the hell did that prompt this?” she said, gesturing to their joined hands.
“Well, for starters, you’re pretty, and smart, and really good at writing music and poetry,” Lincoln said unabashedly.
“Don’t say that,” Scary whined, hiding her face in Linc’s neck.
“I’ll keep saying it,” Linc responded. “Get used to it.” He laughed gently and Scary felt it in her core, his throat humming with the sound. She felt Linc lean back and a hand guided her chin up so she could see his face again. “That day, specifically, though,” he said, “I realized that after everything that happened, I still wanted to protect you with my life. We needed to talk about all of that, obviously, and we did, and I’ll tell you again and again that I forgive you until you believe it, but anyways,” Linc tilted his head, “I’ll be here for you even when you aren’t here for yourself. That’s the oath that I swore to myself that day, and I haven’t broken it yet.” Linc leaned in for a gentle kiss, sweetly pressing his lips to Scary’s. She was glad he had kissed her. Scary was about to start crying.
“Did you have that written down?” Scary joked after they pulled back. Linc was polite enough to not mention the tears in her eyes.
“Nah,” he said. “I’m just thinking about you, like, 24/7.”
Scary laughed, rolling herself back into Linc’s neck. Sniffing slightly, she leaned back to meet his eyes. “For the record, by the way, I like you too. A lot. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I have like, way too many poems about you.” Lincoln opened his mouth to ask something, but Scary covered it before he could get anything out. “You’re not gonna read any of them, by the way.”
“Nooo,” Linc whined. “Please? Just a few?” he asked, his eyes getting wider and lower lip pouting.
Scary sat up and splayed her hands across his face to avoid his pleading expression that would definitely win her over if she stared too long. “No,” she said firmly. She sighed, before adding, “but maybe I’ll let you read a few that I write in the future.”
“Yes!” exclaimed Linc, punching up like he was celebrating a goal.
Just then, there was an abrasive chhk noise in the room. Linc sat up too, looking around, before the two heard a pair of garbled voices come from Lincoln’s baby monitor.
Grant, Grant they’re going to get married and have the perfect life, I’m telling you Grant this is a match made in- MARCO THEY CAN-
There was a loud click before the light on the monitor turned from green to red.