Chapter Text
It was a cooling summer day, one where the breeze teased you about the coming autumn, but was still tamed by the overpowering embrace of the sun. The town had just barely survived the ballad of Bill Cipher's Weirdmaggedon, and while everything had gone back to normal, Pacifica still carried a knot in her gut. A kind of nervousness she had never felt before. Here goes nothing...
"Hey Dipper!" Pacifica yelled in her all too assertive tone, prompting Dipper to freeze.
"Hey Pacifica," he turns towards her grinning, "thanks for the silver mirror, must've cost the newly 'impoverished' Northwests all they had left" he teased
"We might be relatively poor, but we're not you poor" she snapped, "but seriously, I just mean to say thank you for that night when you taught me I could break from my familial mold, it means a lot, and I hope the mirror can serve as a memento of that," her face reddening at her unfamiliar show of humility.
"Well thank you Pacifica, but you also taught me something that night, that people can change, even when they have a weird hypnotizing bell trigger built into them" he giggled and donned a confused look.
"Yeah thinking back that was pretty weird" Pacifica said, arching an eyebrow.
"Really weird, even for Gravity Falls" Dipper concurred.
Pacifica shifted awkwardly, she knew she had to drop a bit of a hint or else this really might be the last time she saw Dipper, but it felt so weird to. All her life she had been the prize, the one everyone was chasing, but this felt—, no, it was different. "Hey so I was wondering if I could have your number, like this summer has been pretty traumatizing and I was wondering if I could text you from time to time to help cope with it, y'know?"
"Sheesh," Dipper ran his hand through his head of curls, "I would love to, but I don't have a—" silenced by Pacifica thrusting a phone into his hands.
"Here take this, I even had our butler paint it blue with a little pine tree so it would match your hat," she beamed with delight.
"Dipper! We need to go or we're going to be late for the bus!" Mabel screeched from the shack.
"One sec Mabel!" Dipper responded, turning back to Pacifica, "Thanks Pacifica, your too generous, almost too generous to be a Northwest" he quipped, smirking.
"Shut up!" she pouted her face, but immediately relaxed it, "promise you'll text from time to time?"
"Promise."
Pacifica quickly hugged him, wrapping her arms around him. While his pine and old book scent she thought that this was where she belonged, next to him. She released him and said, "Talk to you later Pines," and began walking away before turning back around to give herself some plausible deniability about her crush, "and make sure you give my number to Mabel too."
"Sure sure"
She watched him walk away and wondered if he'd actually text her back. At least she'd have her answer soon, right?
————
It was the longest four days of Pacifica's life. She checked her phone every 5 minutes, no matter if she was being driven home, eating dinner, playing golf, or even showering, she was going to check her phone even if it was the last thing she did (If asked about the last one, she'll tell you she had a gut feeling). In fact, she would fall asleep every night with her phone hanging off the side of her pillow. Leading to some, interesting buttdials to sort out each morning (or were they facedials?).
To her, opening her phone was an inescapable hit of teen love, anticipation, and surprise she couldn't get enough of. Until the sinking feeling of seeing an empty screen hit of course. Was it actually empty? No, god no. But her inbox was devoid of the one person she really wanted to be in it. She would fall asleep with her phone strewn across her face, trying to pass the time doing whatever, and whenever she'd wake up she would frantically search for her phone until inevitably being let down by an Dipper-less messages app.
For someone who had easy access to everything she could ever want (except the unconditional love and affection of her parents), Pacifica felt powerless under the weight of having to wait for Dippers' response. In a moment of weakness, others would call it empathy, Pacifica felt sorry for each of the boys she had incidentally led on in the past. Alas she begged the universe, give me my karma, but not today pretty please.
Even through these trials and tribulations Pacifica held out, she was Pacifica-freaking-Northwest. Back to Back to Back to Back Gravity Falls Pageant Queen. Who was she to get worked up about a stupid text, that she definitely wasn't desperate to see.
Even though the wait nearly destroyed her, when it finally came, it was probably the happiest she'd ever been, probably even happier than she'd been after the Weirdmaggedon ended.
An unfamiliar 510 number had texted "Hi Pacifica -Dipper"
Upon reading the two completely inconsequential words, her heart skipped a beat. She was in disbelief, he responded! She was surprised at her excitement, both because she was definitely out of his league, so why should she be surprised he's texting back? But also because this was just the beginning of an uphill battle, consisting of finding reasonable excuses to talk to him. Despite the fact she was repressing the urge of sending assassins to his house for making her wait four days, she felt a strange mixture of happiness and relief.
Pacifica:
Hey Dipper
how was the trip back?
Was that too much? I mean now he really knows I care about him, but—
Ding
Dipper:
It was nice. -Dipper
Mabel found gumballs under our seat and forced me to eat one and now we both have mild food poisoning. -Dipper
but other than that it was pretty good. -Dipper
What a dork! Her heart fluttering as her eyes passed over each letter.
Pacifica:
You know you don't have to sign off every text like its a letter
I know its you silly
Dipper:
Oh
I'm kind of new to this whole phone thing.
I still like my pen and paper more.
Of course you do.
Pacifica:
How is the phone?
are you enjoying the internet
Dipper:
Its all really nice, especially being able to watch movies on long car rides.
But my parents had to get me a sim card before actually being able to use the phone, or I would have been able to text you earlier.
Pacifica stared at her phone in disbelief, kicking herself realizing those four painful days of were completely self-inflicted. For someone who tried to plan everything thoroughly, not giving Dipper a sim card was a massive oversight.
Ugh, whatever, at least he was texting her now.
Dipper:
Gotta go parents are making me and Mabel attend this school camp.
Dang it! Her heart dropped
Pacifica:
Cya later Dipper
Dipper:
Cya.
Four days of waiting for five minutes of texting? But Pacifica wasn't too mad, considering she was reading over their brief text exchange with the widest of smiles sprawled across her face. She was relieved that he seemed at least slightly interested in talking to her, one thing that worried her was that his texts were a little dry, but she chalked that up to his general awkwardness and unfamiliarity with texting. So far so good. For a moment, her thoughts exclusively swirled about Dipper, absorbing her bigger life worries, but alas her momentary bliss was cut short.
"Pacifica! Honey your going to be late for mini golf practice!" her mother called out.
"Coming!" Pacifica answered as she jumped out of bed, scrambling to throw on her white and purple golf set before diving downstairs where the chauffeur was waiting for her.