Work Text:
Carla stared down at the small broken teddy bear in her hands. Torn up edges, one of the eyes fallen off, the nose missing, seams falling off. It looked like a childhood teddy some clingy teenager wouldn’t let go. A teddy bear stuffed deep into her closet amongst beginner explosives and weird trinkets she found in her old kindergartens. After all, she had to clear out her wardrobe by now, 2 weeks until she left for college. Left her town. Left her friends..
The bear's eye stared up into the girl's face, the small button seeming like a mirror into another world, creepy. Yet, it took her a while to put her finger on where it was from. Carla was in no way sentimental, in fact, a lot of the junk she had was mostly because she forgot to toss it out. But the teddy felt almost connected to her, a gentle spark she couldn’t ignite. Those times she tinkered with bombs and never quite got it right. The light she couldn’t just quite reach.
The teddy eventually found its way onto her desk as she continued to pack some clothes into a sticker covered suitcase, the moon cascading down as a soft light in her room, shining onto the jackets and jeans she shoved into the small case. The sounds of her family silenced, the only thing she could hear being the soft rock song she left on in the background. Her hands tired from the constant folding and searching through her bags, picked at nails and darkened knuckles from fights shining through her skin.
Carla hummed to herself as she zipped up her suitcase, putting some shoes and trinkets into the side pockets just in case, her gentle smile increasing as she properly finished packing her bags.. Then the bear. The bear placed next to her slightly broken laptop. The one underneath all her photos…
A sigh slipped from her lips as she brought herself over to her desk fully, taking one of the photos. It was of her and Monty as teenagers, around 14. Monty’s acne riddled face tightened into a scowl, Carla’s toothy smirk shining on the camera, her arm around his neck playfully. The memory rang in her mind, Penny holding up a camera. She took glances at some more. Jerome being covered in water from a waterfight, Cindy and Felix shopping in some designer store while Felix covered the camera Cindy posed for, the first time she played music with Austin, Bob adopting Penny, the time Lily and Billy got caught spying on a teacher.. Again.
Then, for the first time in a while, Carla laughed. Laughing at all the memories they’d made. What started out as a group of friends hating each other, ending in them being weirdly friends. Carla snickered while she shoved the photos into her backpack, briefly smiling down at them as she did. It was always good to keep memories from home. Even if the home was as shitty as it was..
Oh.
Her eyes darted to the bear, remembering exactly what happened. Carla stared blankly at it, before remembering just how shitty of a 5 year old she was, how shitty they all were. Eventually, after annoying eye contact with the stuffed creature, she snagged it off the desk, shoving it into a small bag, running downstairs to grab her coat and slippers. Yeah, it was 1am, but who cares.
Memories of her mocking Monty’s injuries, memories of her hurting Stevie, memories of her disliking Penny, memories of her shouting at Ted. It all flooded back as the rain hit her hair, the water softening and darkening her outfit. Her slippers flapped behind her, obviously getting wet as she turned a corner, running up to the house she easily remembered.
Something familiar is what she needed.
Carla wound up out of breath as she landed on her friends doorstep, despite hardly even running that far, but a bit too quick. She quickly regained her composure before grabbing the spare garage key under a small rock next to it, shoving it into the garage lock and pulling up the cover, her arms pushing it just as far as it would go.
Just so a rain covered Carla and a sleep deprived Monty could make eye contact. Carla huffing as she kept her grip on her bag, Monty staring at her, before nodding at her to come in, Carla doing so. A short moment went by as Carla hung up her bag and closed the garage door, awkward and thick. Carla sat on the hood of his parents car, Monty sat in his chair, trinkets and wire surrounding his paper covered desk.
“..Whats wrong?” Monty raised an eyebrow, pushing his glasses up properly, turning back to his mess of wires and paper as he cut her off before she could begin. “I thought you were ready to leave. I didn’t expect you to show up unannounced at midnight in my garage while I was working.”
The words stung for a second. Distant memories of Carla leaving her school group chats, not going to band practices and beginning to isolate herself before getting ready to leave for college flooded her mind as she leaned against the car more, the edge digging into her back. “I was getting ready for college. You know that. Long distance would be impossible and, yeah, we broke up, don’t be an asshole about it. I just–”
“You just what, Carla?”
The words hung quietly, Monty’s gaze lingering on Carla, the water in her hair dripping onto the ground around the car, Carla’s arms stagnant at her sides, her expression twisting, then, she reached into her bag, hands curling around the familiar item. She pulled it out quickly, before tossing it into Monty’s desk softly. “I just want to move on.”
.
.
.
Carla opened the garage door to leave, glancing back at Monty one final time.
Before she heard the chair scrape along the ground, hitting against the back of the car set in the middle of the garage. Carla turning around, seeing Monty eye to eye with her. Shaky breaths mixing between the two, each exhale visible in the cold night, rain mixing between the small distance between them.
“Carla, l’m-”
“Just shut up, and kiss me, nerd.”
Almost instinctively, Carla yanked at the collar of his shirt, kissing him before he had the chance to reply. Monty immediately leaning back into the kiss and cupping the side of her face, brushing into her wet hair next to her ear, Carla smiling into the kiss, missing the feeling she’d never admit to even having. Carla shifted her hands up into Monty’s hair, ruffling the ginger streaks through his hair, Monty trying to pull her closer despite the rain showering onto the both of them. The kiss felt like forever, the both of them wanted it to last forever.
Eventually, they separated, both of them staring deep into each others eyes for a solid second. Monty looking into those forest green eyes he always never got enough of, Carla staring at the freckles surrounding face that she could count and see as constellations in the sky all day.
“So.. We are doing long distance?”
“What do you think, idiot?”