Chapter Text
Sometimes life isn’t fair. Sometimes life really isn’t fair. Sometimes you get stuck in a deadend bartending job in probably the worst Irish pub in the city and are forced to watch the prettiest girl you’ve ever seen in your life get macked on by the guy you’ve been slightly in love with for the past year. On a daily basis. And on top of that, sometimes you get stuck with a stupid nickname like “Sister” because you’re the sister of one of the guys that works at the only other Irish pub in town. Sometimes life sucks.
“Hey, earth to Sister,” Tucker says, waving a hand in front of her face from the other side of the bartop and jolting her out of her little unpleasant reverie.
“Hm? Yeah, sorry. Zoned out there for a second. Started thinking about that one cashier at Walgreens again, honestly,” Sister lied effortlessly. It was a learned skill, really. If you seem slightly vapid and out of it, then people learn to underestimate you. Or at least in this case, they stop bothering to find out what you’re really thinking because they think that you aren’t.
“The hot brunette one?”
“Yeah, yeah. Short hair and huge tits,” she says, further clarifying.
“Is that why you two have been picking up so much inane drugstore shit on your way to work recently?” Carolina asks, appearing from seemingly nowhere and draping her arms over Tucker’s shoulders with a playful smile. She actually kinda towers over both of them; Sister actually has to look a full foot up to look her in the eye. Which, honestly she doesn’t do often. Looking at Carolina too long is like looking at the sun, you almost get blinded by how totally hot she is.
“No,” Sister replies, at the same time Tucker guiltily says “yes”. Carolina just laughs and presses a kiss to his temple.
“Guess some things just don’t change, huh?” she says with a chuckle that twists something in Sister’s chest. That’s weird, that usually doesn’t happen. “Anyway, Sister, we were wondering if you wanted to come with us to the fireworks show tomorrow, since the bar is gonna be closed anyway.”
Now, that sounds like an innocent enough question, but Sister sees what she’s really asking. “Hey, do you want to third wheel me and Tucker for a couple hours until you feel bad about yourself and make an excuse to go home?” They’ve tried this same thing before, and they always try to make it seem like it’s not what they’re doing, which is the frustrating part. Like, sometimes they almost feel like real dates, but then she realizes that oh no, wait, Tucker couldn’t have meant anything by loaning her his jacket that one time at the fair like something out of a fucking movie because Carolina is literally right there, talking about something really smart and interesting and Tucker is looking at her like she’s the fucking stars in the sky. Carolina with her fancy Air Force college degree and six pack abs when Sister has…what? A high school diploma that she just barely scraped together and a face that half the time she swears is a monster looking back at her in the mirror. She’s better for him anyway, but goddamnit, she wished Carolina would stop rubbing it in her face all the time by inviting her out like this.
“Nah, I’ve got some stuff to do at home. Why don’t you ask Church, I’m sure he’d love to go,” Sister replies, trying to sound as nice as possible. Still, something in Carolina’s face changes into almost…disappointment, maybe? Weird.
“Oh, um, okay, no problem. I guess we’ll just go alone then, since trying to get Church to go anywhere that isn’t straight to work is a fucking nightmare, and Caboose is a fucking nightmare, and Wash is, well…” she trails off.
“An asshole?” Tucker offers, which makes Carolina laugh again.
“Pretty much. I was trying to be nice about it, though.”
“Nah, fuck that guy. And not even in a fuck that guy way.”
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Sister wakes up to a text message alert blinking on her phone, which is nothing new. She’s actually kinda surprised to see that it’s not from the Walgreens clerk (who she’d hooked up with yesterday) but actually from Carolina.
‘Lina: Hey, do you want to see a movie later?
‘Lina: Tucker has to help Church move or something today, so I’ve got a ticket and no one to go with, & I figured I’d ask.
Kai: yeah sure
Kai: for what movie?
‘Lina: The new Terminator thing?
‘Lina: It’s supposed to be garbage, but I figure even if it’s bad it’ll probably still be good.
\/
Sister showed up to the theater a few minutes earlier than she probably was supposed to, and yet, there was Carolina, leaning against a wall outside and looking like a goddamn goddess even in a sweatshirt and yoga pants. Thank god for yoga pants, though, like, honestly.
“Hey-o,” Sister says, and Carolina jumps a little, almost dropping her phone.
“Oh geez, didn’t realize you were here,” she says sheepishly, pushing a loose bit of her hair behind her ear and blushing. God, that was actually really adorable.
“I mean, I wasn’t trying to be quiet.”
“Well, yeah, but I was distracted! Tucker keeps texting me about how annoying it is to help Wash move.”
“I thought you said he was helping Church move,” Sister asks, actually kinda confused. Something just doesn’t seem right here…
“No, yeah, they’re uh, moving in…together?” Carolina says with a slightly strained smile.
“Yikes, that sounds like a catastrophe in the making. Probably a bigger catastrophe than this movie we’re seeing,” Sister segues, and Carolina almost sighs with relief. God, she was being really weird today, what was up with her?
The next few hours are…weird, to say the least. If she didn’t know any better, Kai would call it a date, but she does know better, so she knows that that can’t be it. And yet, all the motions are there. The “oh, this theater is pretty cold, do you want to borrow my sweatshirt?”, the “don’t worry about paying for anything, I’m buying today”, even the classic yawn and stretch move that only gets used by nervous middle schoolers and apparently retired fighter pilots.
“That wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” Sister says as they leave the theater, blocking her eyes to keep the harsh sun out of them.
“Yeah, it wasn’t so bad. Kinda cool, actually,” Carolina agrees.
“Oh, I should give this back…” Sister says, remembering that the huge jacket she’s wearing isn’t hers, and making a move to take it off. Carolina just puts a hand on her shoulder, though, and she pauses for a second.
“Nah, you keep it. It looks cuter on you than it does on me, anyway,” she says with a laugh that makes her whole face light up. That…god, that was so cute, how does she keep doing that? “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, right, Kai?”
Well, that’s it. That’s all it really takes. Hearing her real name in the voice of literal angel from heaven Carolina Marie Church makes her heart start to go haywire. Which makes things…complicated. To say the least. Because now not only was she majorly in love with half of an unobtainable, out of her league couple, she was in love with both halves. Good going, Sis.
“Y-yeah, I’ll be there!” she mumbles, before giving an awkward wave and walking as fast as her legs would carry her without looking like she was actively trying to run away.