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Jessica holds her drink like a clutch. She can't remember why she thought this would be a good idea again. High school reunions tended to either be mildly interesting or absolutely awkward. This one was starting to lean towards the latter.
She says hi to all her old friends and catches up with the ones she fell out of touch with. A lot of them seemed the same. Many had children and families now. It was crazy to think Shannon had had kids. She definitely wasn't someone Jessica would have pegged as the motherly type.
Brad was bald now. He had shaved his head for some solidarity thing and then liked the look so he kept shaving it. Jessica doesn't think it looked very good on him but she keeps her comments to herself.
Then, just when she's contemplating leaving even though she's only been here for half an hour, she sees Morty Smith enter. Everyone from school remembers the odd little kid with the eccentric grandpa. But now the whole world knew him.
People crowd him at the entrance, eager to be a part of his vlog and ask if he'd consider a plus one on any adventures? She doubts Morty will film anything here tonight. He never got too personal into his life on his channel. She could understand that. It was hard being popular.
She overhears Brad apologize for how he acted in high school. He shakes Morty's hand vigorously.
Morty blinks rapidly, shaking his hand back. "It's c-cool, bro."
The most interesting thing that had come out of his fame, perhaps, is the fact he is a desirable now. There'd been an internet poll on hottest ranking YouTubers/TikTokers and Morty was in the top 5. He'd never made a reaction video to it much to everyone's dismay. Not that Jessica didn't think he was cute, because he definitely was, but hot? Not really. Still, even if he wasn't Chris Hemsworth levels of attractive, she liked that about him. She liked that he didn't have a six pack or smoldering eyes. He seemed more down to earth that way.
It takes a while for Morty to break away from the crowd. Jessica sees her chance, and approaches him at the buffet table as he's getting punch.
"Taking a breather?" She asks.
Morty finches, then relaxes when he sees it's only her. He returns her soft smile. "Yeah."
She tucks a hair behind her ear. Back in high school Morty's eyes would have followed the movement.
"I get it. I'm a news anchor. People recognize me on the street sometimes."
"Oh, I didn't know that. Congrats!"
"Thanks."
He looks her over, finally realizing what she was wearing. "Wow, you look great!"
She knew she did. Red always looked good on her. "You too," she replies.
Morty was deceptively plain. Without his channel, he would have appeared to be a normal, unassuming adult with social anxiety. She never would have guessed that he lived on a wish and a prayer, risking his life almost daily.
She wonders why they never got together back then. His crush had been obvious, and she hadn't been particularly opposed. She'd always thought he had a certain charm about him. He'd been awkward in a sweet kind of way. Time and time again she'd catch herself wondering "what if" whenever one of his videos popped up on her feed.
When she'd gotten the invitation to attend the reunion, she could admit that one of her first thoughts had been about Morty. People hooked up all the time at these events. Maybe he still had a small crush. Maybe she still stood a chance.
"Care to dance?" She offers.
Morty blushes. "S-sure!"
They go to the middle of the floor. Her hands wrap around his shoulders. He awkwardly puts his hands upon her upper back and no lower. Brad would have tried to cop a feel.
"Hey," he says, expression serious for a moment, "I wanted to say thanks for–for being nice to me in high school."
She tilts her head into question. “Nice?”
"I mean, you were kinda the only one. Everyone else ignored me or bullied me. It's why I had such a c-crush on you."
Jessica smiles. "Yeah, it was kinda obvious. Your face would get so red!"
"Yep." Morty pops the P with a nervous tic.
She looks slyly off to the side with a wistful expression on her face. "I wasted so much time on Brad. I honestly don't know what I was thinking."
Morty shrugs. "No one knows what they're doing in high school. It's part of being a teenager."
"Why, Morty Smith, when did you get so wise?"
They share a small laugh.
The song ends and they stand off to the side of the dance floor. This was it. It was now or never.
"I kinda regret not taking a chance on you,” she confesses.
Morty stiffens, cheeks going as red as they used to ten years ago. It was adorable. He'd always been adorable. She leans in, hands pressing on his chest.
"Morty...I…"
He turns his head away. Jessica furrows her brows.
"Jessica I, uh, I'm f-flattered but…"
"There's someone else," she guesses.
Morty nods.
A lump forms in her throat. Ah well, at least she tried. She steps away, giving Morty his space. She tries not to feel so let down but it still hurt.
She gives him a parting kiss on the cheek. "I'll be seeing you, Morty Smith."
She says it to be all mysterious and cool but truthfully she just goes to the bathroom to touch up her makeup. She takes her time, trying to manage her emotions. It'd been a bit of a long shot after all. She should have known someone else already snatched him up.
When she comes back out, a familiar glowing green portal lights up behind Morty. Eager on-lookers turn to look. It wasn't like it'd been back in high school where portals were a common occurrence and therefore un-noteworthy. Rick used to constantly steal Morty out of class. It wasn't anything out of the ordinary. But now Morty and Rick were celebrities in their own right.
Everyone clambers around the glowing portal in eager anticipation. Jessica hopes her former classmates have the common decency not to ask for selfies–or god fforbid–a trip through one of the mysterious portals.
Neither of those things happen though. Rick Sanchez comes running out, hair smoking as if it were on fire. Before the portal can close behind him, a large beast comes barreling out of it.
People start to scream as multiple long furry limbs wave in the air. Adrenaline kicking in, Jessica ducks for cover under a table. Her pulse pounds in her ears as she watches the chaos ensue.
Morty leaps into action, pulling two people down as the monster jumps overhead. The DJ screams and runs. The music plays on without him as Lady Gaga fills the auditorium.
It happens quickly. Jessica barely has time to even think about perhaps recording this for a news segment before Rick and Morty take the monster down. In one fell swoop, it falls lifeless onto the floor. The disco ball on the ceiling reflects in the monster's cold, hard eyes.
Jessicas's heart thumps loudly in her chest. Everyone else has already cleared out. It was always best to get the fuck out of the way when something happened around Rick or Morty. She should probably leave too now. Even though the monster looked dead, there was no telling if there were weird mutant babies ready to burst out of its stomach, or if it was just pretending to be dead or some other thing. One could never be sure of one's own safety around Rick and Morty. It was part of the reason why people liked them so much–the danger of it all.
Jessica peaks out to look at Morty. He'd looked so cool and confident. Ah man, she really wishes she could have had a second chance with him…
"What the fuck was that??" Morty rounds upon his grandfather. His stutter is momentarily gone in his anger.
"What?"
"Don't ‘what’ me, Rick! These people could have died!"
Rick clicks his tongue. "Jesus, Morty, it wasn't intentional! I didn't have time to plug in any coor–errrp–any coordinates! It just defaulted to a random location!"
"It defaulted to my old school's gym?" Morty asks incredulously.
Jessica knows she should leave. She didn't really do the whole eavesdropping thing anymore. She was a better person than that now. But old habits die hard. And Morty was rather intense this close up. His chest was still heaving from helping kill the beast. His hands waved erratically in the air, eyes alight in fury. He made a rather handsome spectacle like this. Suddenly she can see why so many people thought he was drop dead gorgeous.
Rick grumbles. "No, dummy! It defaults back to you!"
Morty stills. "...oh."
There's some awkward shuffling and a clearing of a throat.
"Soooo, since this little shindig is over, you wanna go get some pizza?"
Morty frowns. "Don’t think you're off the hook! You still need to clean this up!"
He gestures to the dead alien. Rick whips out a gun and disintegrates it.
"Done!" He says.
Morty blinks. Then he deflates. He shakes his head and laughs. "Okay fine, let's go get pizza."
The Lady Gaga song ends and the next one on the playlist starts up. Its beat is slow and romantic.
Rick gets a sly look on his face. He grins over at Morty. “Well since we're already here we might as well dance first!”
He grabs Morty's hand and tugs him up against him. Morty protests at first but then chuckles and relaxes into it. He buries his head against Rick's shoulder. They sway around the room in a lackadaisy manner reminiscent of a dance but not quite. It's about a minute before Rick speaks again.
“Why did you even want to attend this thing?" Rick asks, his voice is softer than she's ever heard it. "It wasn't like you actually liked high school."
Morty shrugs. "Thought it could be interesting."
Rick smirks. "You just wanted to show off how successful you are now. Admit it!”
Morty frowns. "What? No!"
Rick is already laughing. "Hey, you should be proud! Whole world knows your fucking name now! Why not shove these people's noses in it?”
Morty rolls his eyes but he's smiling back. “I guess it felt a little good.”
“I knew it!”
As they spin around in a reminiscent dance only the two of them know, Rick opens a portal and they spiral on through.
Finally alone, Jessica stands up from under the table. She's not sure what she just witnessed, but she doesn't think it's any of her business.