Chapter Text
Nine months had already passed since they broke up.
Nine whole months and Pacifica still hadn't gotten over it. I mean, who could blame her? Dipper Pines had been her first (and only) true relationship, and it had all ended because of one stupid argument. They were teenagers, after all. These kinds of things didn't last forever, and they both knew it. But she could swear it would be different with him. She could swear that they were in love, that what they had was forever, that he was the one for he—
Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a tray hitting the counter, making Pacifica jump and turn her gaze to the woman in front of her. "These orders ain't gonna walk themselves to the tables, young lady," Lazy Susan said, shooting her a look and immediately going back to the kitchen.
Pacifica sighed and grabbed the tray full of pancakes and coffee cups, stepping out from behind the counter to serve the customers. She had just handed over the last plate and given her usual tired smile when she heard the door chime.
Her dark green eyes were immediately drawn to the fluffy brown hair and the dorky cap that was always on top of it and that she knew so well. Her gaze trailed down to the cute freckled face she missed so much, and finally stopped at the short girl beside him and— wait. What?
Who was that? Pacifica didn't recall ever seeing that girl around town before, and now there she was, hanging out with HER ex-boyfriend. The nerve of some people.
Trying not to be rude (because she was mature now, obviously), she decided to go talk to Dipper and introduce herself to his "friend". Not before checking herself in her pocket mirror, of course. She fixed a strand of hair, reapplied a bit of lip gloss and nodded at her reflection. Perfect.
As soon as they picked a booth and sat down, Pacifica flashed her brightest smile and went over to their table.
"Hey, Dipper! Wow, long time no see, huh?" she said sweetly. "What brings you back to Gravity Falls? I thought you were busy with… you know, important things. School stuff or whatever," she said in a single breath, trying her best not to seem affected by his presence after so much time (and failing miserably).
"Oh, h-hey, Paz! I totally forgot you worked here during the summers! Haha," he answered, clearly nervous, and letting out an awkward laugh. "Well, Mabel and I are here spending the summer with Grunkle Stan. Like always. You know. The usual. Very usual."
Pacifica raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow, “Oh? And I totally forgot you guys did that, haha!” Liar.
"I-I figured she'd told you," he rushed on. “Since you guys are, um… close now. Like, best friends close?”
Mabel clearly hadn't told her, of course she hadn’t. And Pacifica could only imagine why.
"No, she must have forgotten," Pacifica replied smoothly, though her smile tightened just slightly. “You know how forgetful she can be.”
She finally turned her attention to the girl sitting across from him. She had tan skin and her dark hair was up in a loose ponytail. "Well, don't be rude, Dipper!" Pacifica continued, clenching her notepad in front of her apron. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your… friend?”
All that friendliness must have seemed strange coming from her, but she wasn't really in her right mind with all that jealousy.
Not that Pacifica was jealous!
Of course not...
She stared at the two of them, waiting for Dipper to say something, but he didn't seem to understand Pacifica's second intentions and the not-so-obvious-or-at-least-she-hoped-so uncomfortable feeling she had. Pacifica's icy smile held the silence for awkward seconds.
Dipper swallowed. “Oh, right! This is—”
He is immediately interrupted by the sound of the doorbell jingling again.
Pacifica’s gaze drifted toward the entrance as a flutter of curls, oversized sweater and shiny earrings burst through the diner doors. Mabel beamed as she made her way to the booth.
“Paz!! I was hoping we’d catch you here today!” she exclaimed, pulling Pacifica into a tight hug.
The blonde froze for a second, clearly caught off guard, before returning it. “Hey, Mabel! I missed you a lot too,” she replied, letting out a soft chuckle.
“Oh! have you already met Iris?” the enthusiastic twin slid into the booth across from Dipper, sitting next to the girl who remained quiet (and who Pacifica now knew was called Iris).
“Not yet,” Pacifica said smoothly. “Well, almost…” her eyes glanced at the boy beside her. He still wouldn’t look at her. If anything, he seemed more nervous each time she looked his way.
“What?” Mabel looked between them, her eyebrows lifting. “Dipper! You didn’t introduce them? What were you doing this whole time while I was parking the car?”
“I was just about to! But then you—”
“Anyways,” Mabel cut in cheerfully. “Pacifica, this is Iris. She's our friend back from California! She and Dipper had to partner up for a school project, so we figured we’d bring her along for the summer. They can work on it here, and we get to show her Gravity Falls. Win-win!” she said with a grin.
Iris looked up at her and smiled, but Pacifica barely noticed.
A project. Of course.
Dipper was already leaning forward slightly, ready to explain, and there it was. That familiar spark in his eyes she knew so well. The one he always got when he talked about something academic. Something complicated. Something she used to pretend she understood.
“That’s nice,” she said lightly, taking away his chance to talk about it.
“And Iris, this is Pacifica. She’s an old friend and she started working here at Greasy’s a while ago,” Mabel continued.
Just an old friend.
Pacifica understood why Mabel wouldn’t mention the fact that she and Dipper used to date. No one wanted things to get weird, and to be honest, neither did she. Still, she couldn’t stop the small, burning sting of being reduced to something so simple.
“It’s nice to meet you, Pacifica! I absolutely love your hair, is it natural?” Iris finally spoke.
Her voice was calm and sweet, and Pacifica almost felt guilty for the jealousy building in her chest. The girl seemed perfectly kind.
Why was she blaming someone that hadn’t done anything wrong?
“It is,” Pacifica replied, smoothing a hand over her hair. “I’d sue nature if it wasn’t.”
Iris laughed, lifting a hand to cover her mouth. “Ahaha, you’re funny, too!”
Despite herself, Pacifica couldn’t help but feel a little better for making her laugh. Maybe she wasn’t so out of track, after all.
Dipper laughed too. Quieter, softer than Iris had. The sound was familiar in a way that caught her off guard.
When she glanced at him, she found him already looking at her. Not embarrassed. Not nervous. Just… looking.
She looked away first.
Her heart had no business reacting like that.
“So, would you guys like to order?” Pacifica asked, lowering her gaze to her notepad as she pulled a pen from her apron pocket. “I’m guessing pancakes with a lot of syrup for the cute girl here?” she added playfully, pointing her pen at Mabel.
“You know me so well!” the colorful twin exclaimed, placing her elbows on the table and resting her chin in her hands.
Pacifica winked and wrote the order down, waiting for the others to decide.
Iris looked up from the menu she had been reading. “I’ll have the blueberry pancakes, please. And could I get the syrup on the side?”
“Of course,” Pacifica answered, writing it down. She then looked at Dipper, pen hovering over the paper. “And you?”
Dipper opened his mouth, then paused. “Uh…” He hesitated, glancing at Iris for a second before looking back at Pacifica. “I’ll just have a coffee. And… the usual.”
Pacifica froze for a second.
The usual.
She knew exactly what it was, she didn't have to ask.
She wrote it down without looking up. “Got it.” Once she had everything, Pacifica excused herself and went back behind the counter to pass the orders on to the kitchen. The diner wasn’t loud, just the low chatting of the customers and the faint clatter of dishes from the back, and she was still close enough to hear.
Iris watched her go, then rested her chin in her hand and glanced at Dipper.
“‘The usual,’ huh?” she asked, a hint of amusement in her voice. “I didn’t know you had a ‘usual’ here.”
Pacifica’s hand stopped where she was setting the ticket down.
Dipper rubbed the back of his neck. “Uh, yeah, I mean… We used to come here a lot.”
“Kinda our summer tradition,” Mabel added absently, looking at her phone, but paying attention to the conversation.
There was a small pause.
Iris smiled. “Oh,” she said simply. “That's nice.”
Pacifica swallowed and forced herself to move again, pretending she hadn’t heard a thing.
The blonde waitress waited near the kitchen for a few more minutes before grabbing the plates and turning back toward their booth, smoothing her apron as she walked. By the time she reached them, her expression was perfectly calm again.
She set Mabel’s plate down first. “Pancakes with syrup in morally questionable quantities.”
“Thank you so much, Paz!!!” Mabel exclaimed, putting her phone aside and rapidly reaching for her fork.
Iris received her plate next. “Blueberry pancakes. Syrup on the side.”
“Thank you!” she said warmly.
Pacifica nodded, then finally turned to Dipper. She set the cup of coffee in front of him first.
“And…” She set the plate of bacon and eggs down carefully. “The usual.”
For a second, their fingers brushed when he reached for the plate.
Pacifica pulled her hand back a little too quickly, hoping the blush on her cheeks wasn’t too obvious.
“There you go,” she added casually, like none of it meant anything at all.
A loud voice suddenly echoed through the place: “Patricia! Get in here, I need your help with somethin’!”
Pacifica sighs at the wrong name. Almost two years of working there and Susan still hadn’t gotten it right once.
She glanced back at the three teens and offered a polite smile. “Enjoy your meals. Call me if you need anything.” Then she turned and headed to the kitchen, leaving them alone at the booth.
The rest of the morning went by. Pacifica found herself walking past their booth more times than necessary, carrying empty plates and wiping already clean tables just to give herself a reason.
She caught pieces of their conversation as she passed.
“…if you move the constant to the other side, it simplifies the whole equation,” Dipper was saying, leaning over the table.
Iris tilted her head, studying the page. “Oh, wait. That actually makes way more sense.”
Dipper smiled. That bright, focused smile she remembered so clearly. He shifted closer to point at something in her notebook. Their foreheads almost touched, but neither of them seemed to notice.
Pacifica just kept walking.
A minute later, she heard Iris laugh softly at something Dipper said, and he laughed too.
She adjusted the stack of menus in her hands, observing their table from afar.
She’d never followed his explanations that quickly. Never laughed at the right moment without needing things repeated.
Maybe he’d just needed someone who understood him better.
Before Pacifica could stop herself, she glanced at them. Dipper was already looking at her.
For a second, neither of them moved. Then he looked down at the notebook again, but Iris didn’t miss it.
Her eyes went from Dipper to Pacifica, then back to the page between them. She didn’t say anything, but her posture changed slightly, straightening her back and giving him a bit more space than before.
“So,” she said lightly, tapping the edge of the notebook, “we were at the variable, right?”
Dipper blinked, like he needed a second to refocus. “Right. Yeah.”
Pacifica turned away before she could see anything else. She forced herself not to look back at them again until they got up to pay.
It was already 12:30pm. She was at the register counter looking at her phone, which she put aside the second she saw Mabel approach her.
”Hi again! I’m paying today!” the bubbly girl announced, already pulling out her wallet.
“Alright, but if you tip in glitter again I’m genuinely gonna crash out.”
”Ha-ha, very funny.” Mabel rolled her eyes. “I actually got a part-time job back in Piedmont now, so I’ll be paying with real money, thank you very much.”
She pulled out thirty dollars and handed it over, while the other two waited behind her. Pacifica laughed softly as she took the bills from Mabel.
”Look at you,” Pacifica said lightly. “All grown up.”
She handed Mabel her change.
“Keep it,” Mabel said immediately, waving her hand and then pointing at herself. “See? Responsible adult.”
Pacifica smiled, lifting an eyebrow. “Wow. Maybe things do change sometimes.”
Mabel leaned over the counter, lowering her voice. “Okay, so. Since I am now a financially independent working woman…”
Pacifica narrowed her eyes and leaned back. “Okay...”
“…you should totally come hang out with us today!”
Pacifica blinked, her fingers tightening slightly around the edge of the counter. “Hang out?” she repeated.
“Yeah!” Mabel grinned. “We’re gonna walk around town, maybe stop by the lake, maybe do something mildly irresponsible but super cool… You know. Summer stuff,” she shrugged.
Pacifica hesitated.
Not because she didn’t want to go. Because she did.
Her eyes flickered, almost involuntarily, past Mabel’s shoulder. Just enough to register Dipper standing a few steps back, hands in his pockets, pretending not to listen. Besides him was Iris, looking directly at Pacifica. Not in a strange way, just… curious. Friendly, even.
“I don’t know,” she said carefully, returning her gaze to Mabel. “I don’t want to, you know… intrude.”
Mabel frowned slightly. “You won’t be.”
There was a small pause.
The blonde waitress exhaled. “…I get off in an hour.”
Mabel gasped. “That’s practically a yes!”
Pacifica rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t stop her smile. “It’s a maybe.”
The brunette girl spun around dramatically. “See? Democracy wins!”
Dipper stepped forward this time, stopping just a few inches from the counter. “We’ll be at the Shack,” he said, hands still in his pockets. “If you, um… decide it’s a yes.”
No pressure.
Iris gave Pacifica a small smile. “It was really nice meeting you!”
It sounded genuine.
Pacifica nodded, keeping her composure in place. “You too.”
Mabel was already halfway to the door. “Three o’clock at the Mystery Shack! Don’t stand us up!”
The bell above the entrance chimed as they stepped outside.
Pacifica stayed where she was for a moment longer than necessary before looking at the time on her phone.
12:42pm. She still had one hour and eighteen minutes to change her mind.
Fuck.