Chapter Text
There’s no sappy, romantic-comedy type moment.
No random conversation in the middle of Starbucks about the classic Alex is currently reading, no saving a slightly drunk Alex from an overbearing football player in the middle of a frat party, no eye contact through the library bookshelves when Alex pulls out The Encyclopedia of Political Economy from the shelf.
Instead, there’s a Human Brain and Behaviour mid-term Kelley needs to study for and a Tobin Kelley drags by the elbow into her and Alex’s shared apartment.
As with most things Kelley does, Alex doesn’t pay much mind to it.
---
Their first encounter goes like this:
“Alex, this is Tobin, Tobin, this is Alex.”
“Sup?”
“Hi.”
“Okay, Tobin and I need to go study for our mid-term. Don’t come into my room unless the apartment ceiling collapses or a ninja with a samurai sword tries to slice your head off.”
“Kell, those things have like a 0.0001% chance of happening.”
“I know. Which is why I said them,” Kelley replies as she turns on her heels and begins to walk toward her bedroom, Tobin following closely behind.
As Kelley is closing the door to her room Alex pretends to not hear Tobin say, “Dude. You’re roommate is like, super hot. Like, if-you-held-a-popsicle-near-her-it-would-probably-melt hot.”
---
The next time Alex sees Tobin, it’s at trivia night at the bar (that barely holds 30 people) near their campus.
Alex likes it here, she thinks. The food is mediocre and the beer on tap is always on the warm side, but Alex approves of the lemon in their water pitchers and the 80s music that the bartender likes to play late in the night.
Her, Kelley, and Sydney been coming here since freshmen year, (they’re only juniors now, but, you know, Alex thinks she sounds cooler putting it that way) when Kelley’s ex broke up with her through text at 3:30 a.m. and she needed to get drunk, this bar being the only place open.
Tonight’s trivia theme is sports and The Mighty Ducks (Kelley’s idea, not hers) are currently ten points behind Support Women’s Soccer, with one more question left. Alex audibly groans when she sees the topic of the question flash on the bar TV: baseball. Alex fucking hates baseball.
The group of guys two tables over (who Alex strongly suspects are I Like my Beer How the NFL Likes Their Violence… Domestic) cheer loudly, and go figures, they’re all sporting a baseball cap with their university’s logo on the question worth the most amount of points.
The question pops up onto the screen: Who achieved the most explosive start in MLB history? (Hint: His slugging percentage was .755 through his first 30 games) and just their luck, it’s not multiple choice.
“What the fuck is a slugging percentage?” Sydney asks, annoyance lacing her voice.
“I think it’s like, how many times they hit the ball.” Kelley replies, making a swinging motion with the little umbrella from the fruity cocktail a random guy at the bar had bought Sydney.
“That doesn’t sound right. Not at all Kells.”
“Got any better ideas?” Kelley fires back.
“Okay, name all the baseball players you know,” Alex interjects before Sydney can instigate Kelley further.
“Derek Jeter.”
“Babe Ruth.”
“Jackie Robinson.”
“That Asian guy. Yao Ming I think?”
“Cy Young.”
“Isn’t that an award?”
“How can there be an award without someone to name it after?”
“You guys are no help,” Alex mutters under her breath. Alex figures Babe Ruth is their best bet and types in the answer on their respective iPad before Kelley or Sydney can realize what she’s doing. They get it wrong.
“Who the fuck is Jeff Francoeur?” Sydney yells loud enough for the rest of the bar to hear, all 20 pairs of eyes on their table now.
“That is definitely not a real baseball player,” Alex is so focused on making sure that a way-too-drunk Kelley doesn’t fall over as she stands up to confront the bartender about this Jeff Francoeur character that she almost misses Tobin high-fiving three girls Alex doesn’t recognize.
Keyword: Almost.
Alex doesn’t realize she’s staring at Tobin until Tobin waves at her, pointing towards Kelley and mouthing “Is she okay?”. She nearly forgets to answer because Tobin is wearing a white sleeveless tank top and Alex failed to notice how toned Tobin’s arms are the first time she saw her and Kelley has just fallen face first into her arms and Alex is still mad about trivia and oh god Tobin is walking towards their table.
Tobin easily picks up Kelley out of Alex’s arm (she probably can do it so effortlessly because of those muscular arms, Alex thinks) and makes eye contact with Alex.
“You think she’ll be okay?” Tobin asks.
Alex is too preoccupied making sure Kelley doesn’t hit the floor and end up with a concussion as she lets Tobin take her that she completely misses what Tobin says, “What?”
Tobin just lightly chuckles, “I asked, do you think Kelley will be okay?”
“Oh. Yeah. Definitely. She does this like, weekly. It’s very common for her. Not to make her sound like an alcoholic or anything. Does this make her an alcoholic? Oh god, have I been enabling her alcohol addiction this entire time?” And what the actual fuck. Since when did Alex ramble? Alex Morgan is most definitely not a rambler.
“I don’t think you’re an enabler Alex, if anything you protect her from contracting alcohol poisoning.”
Kelley manages to lift her head up from Tobin’s arm and lights up like a fucking Christmas tree (actually, she looks like one of those convenience stores with one too many neon signs), “Tobin! I have a very serious question; Is Jeff Francoeur an actual person?”
“Yes. He is. Best worst player in major league baseball.”
“There is no fucking way that that dude is a real person. If he had such a high slugging percentage, why isn’t he a household name?” Sydney chimes in, and Alex figures introductions are too cliché nowadays.
“I think Jon Bois can explain this better than I can,” Tobin says as Kelley drops (nearly) dead into her arms again.
“Who?” Alex and Sydney reply simultaneously.
“This guy on YouTube. Makes videos about pretty good stories in the sports world. I’ll show you his videos one day.” Alex just nods, the three of them falling into an awkward silence.
“Anyways, I better get back to my friends. It was nice seeing you Alex and…?”
“Sydney. It’s nice to meet you.”
Tobin hands Kelley’s limp body back to Alex and heads back towards her table with a wave/salute type thing.
“She’s cute,” Sydney states once Tobin is out of earshot.
“Her arms are so nice,” Alex states with a dreamy tone to her voice, “I mean. Yeah. She’s cute. I barely know her though.”
“You two seemed pretty friendly to me,” Sydney replies with a wink and a smug grin.
“We better get Kelley home,” Alex desperately attempts to change the subject.
Either Sydney is too gone to push Alex for more details or she really wants to go home, but either way she easily complies to Alex’s request, “Alright. I’ll call an uber,” As Sydney heads towards the front door of the bar, Alex quickly turns around and waves toward Tobin.
Alex stays inside the bar until Tobin notices her and waves back, a bright smile on both of their faces.
---
The next month goes a little like this; Alex aces her Statistics mid-term, she attends three football games with Sydney and Kelley (she only continues to show up for the pretzels), finishes half of her International Political Economy research paper and Tobin starts coming over to their apartment to watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine with Kelley every Tuesday.
Out of all the things that have happened to Alex in the last month, she thinks this is the best one.
It’s not like her and Tobin heavily interact or anything. Tobin and Kelley are too engrossed in their show to talk to Alex, but the weekly “Hi” and “Bye” is nice, Alex concludes. Sometimes Tobin stays late to study with Kelley, or sometimes she sleeps over because she’s too lazy to skateboard home. Tobin insists she’s perfectly fine on their couch, but Kelley insists that Tobin sleep on her bed and she’s damn near impossible to say no to (“It’s the Georgia charm,” Kelley had once said, to which Alex had rolled her eyes).
If luck is on Alex’s side and she doesn’t hit the snooze button, Alex will run into Tobin on her way out, hair mused and eyes tired, but bright.
Yeah, Alex thinks, the past month has been nice to her.
---
Alex loves Friday and not just because they’re Fridays and it’s the weekend. She loves Friday because that means it’s game night.
15 minutes before 8 p.m. (the official start time of game night) Kelley casually says “I invited Tobin.”
Usually, Alex wouldn’t mind the extra company, Sydney sometimes invites Dom if he doesn’t have a soccer game, Kelley has brought over many hook-ups that show up once or twice then stop coming (no pun intended) and Alex had once brought over a guy she met in her first year psychology class, Servando. Turns out, he sucked at charades and had only shown up so she’d sleep with him.
So, the extra company doesn’t bother Alex (Sydney and Dom have some weird telepathy shit going on and always vote to play Taboo and win, so she needs a new partner anyway), but Alex would’ve liked an earlier warning so she’s not wearing a stained U.S. Soccer t-shirt, gym shorts and has her hair in a lopsided bun when Tobin walks through the door, boxed wine in hand.
“I fucking love you,” Sydney exclaims when she sees the wine, running to the kitchen to bring out the plastic wine glasses Alex had won at orientation freshmen year.
Alex doesn’t register the girl who walks in behind Tobin, until she hears Tobin’s voice. “Guy, this is Moe. Well, Morgan Brian. Moe, this is everyone; Kelley, Alex, Sydney’s the one who ran to the kitchen… but I don’t quite know who that guy is...”
“Dom. Sydney’s boyfriend. Nice to meet you,” Dom says in his accent, and Tobin looks impressed.
“You’re on the varsity soccer team, right?”
“Yup. Leading goal scorer, actually.”
“Oh, shut up. You’re tied with Jordan Morris for most goals. Don’t listen to anything he says,” Sydney reprimands, walking back into the living room with the wine glasses in hand. Dom just rolls his eyes lovingly, going to help Sydney pour out the boxed wine.
“So, how do you two know each other?” Kelley asks, gesturing between Tobin and Moe.
“Well, little Moe here went to the same high school as my brother. She’s a freshman, isn’t that just the cutest thing?” Tobin says, taking on a teasing tone.
“Oh my God- “
“-Don’t use God’s name in vain.”
“I remember when I was a freshman. Good times. Good times.” Kelley says, a distant look in her eyes, like she’s reliving all of freshman year in this one moment.
“Yeah, California is a lot different than Georgia.” Moe replies with a sort of shy demeanor.
“Wait- Georgia? No fucking way! I grew up in Peachtree City!”
“Really? I grew up in St. Simon’s Island. Wow,” And that’s the end of that, Alex observes, because Kelley is dragging Moe by the arm and they’re off to the kitchen to prepare snacks while excitedly talking about life in Georgia.
Alex and Tobin kind of just stand in silence at the entrance, before Alex starts chuckling to herself.
“Is it my socks?” Tobin asks, looking down at her feet, “because I forgot to do laundry and these neon striped socks were the only clean ones I had left...”
“What? No.”
“Oh. Then what’s so funny?”
“It’s just, Morgan’s first name is Morgan right? And my last name is Morgan right? So it’s like our combined names would be Alex Morgan Brian.” Now that Alex says it out loud, she realizes just how lame it sounds. Surprisingly, Tobin starts laughing along with her.
That’s how the rest of them find Tobin and Alex, hunched over laughing about names (of all things).
---
Alex recommends Monopoly. Kelley, Sydney and Dom have to physically tackle Alex to the ground and pry the box out of Alex’s hand.
“What’s wrong with Monopoly?” Tobin innocently asks.
“Alex literally turns into the devil while playing this game. One time I bought a property she had been ‘eyeing for a while’ and she started throwing all the extra houses and character pieces at me. I had a bruise on my right cheek for a week” Sydney recalls, a shiver travelling down her body.
“It’s not my fault you all suck at it.”
“That’s not the point!” Kelley, Sydney and Dom all yell.
---
They decide to play Pictionary, and it’s #RelationshipGoals (Dom and Sydney) versus The Georgia Peaches (Kelley and Moe, naturally) versus Jeff Francoeur’s Biggest Fans (Alex’s idea).
Tobin and Alex get destroyed. Tobin’s inability to draw combined with Alex’s impatience is a recipe for failure. The minute Tobin’s pen hits the paper Alex is yelling out possible answers, not even processing what Tobin is actually drawing (and really, how is Tobin supposed to draw an Olympic sized swimming pool, the Calgary Stampede and a Velociraptor?).
To the shock of Sydney and Dom, the Georgia Peaches end up winning the first round. Sydney grumbles on about her and Dom (who have been dating for a year and a half) losing to two people who literally just met each other an hour ago.
“It’s that Georgia connection,” Kelley offers as an explanation, Moe nodding in agreement.
All Alex does is roll her eyes.
“Honestly, I’m more surprised that Alex isn’t throwing a tantrum right now,” Dom points out.
“I had fun. That’s all that matters.”
“What the actual fuck-”
“-Tobin, did you spike the wine?”
“Dude, I want whatever drugs you’re taking right now.”
“Wait, what? I’m not on anything right now.”
“Okay, let’s say I believe that. Which I don’t, by the way. Where is the real Alex and what have you done with her body?” Sydney questions, shining her phone flashlight into Alex’s face.
“First of all, I have not been abducted. Second of all, I would whoop your butts in Monopoly any day, so Pictionary is irrelevant to me. Third of all, get that light out of my face.”
Kelley, Dom and Syd stare at Alex completely and utterly perplexed and since no one recommends another game, Moe and Tobin quietly set up Pictionary again.
---
The finals scores look something like this:
The Georgia Peaches: 3
#RelationshipGoals: 1
Jeff Francoeur’s Biggest Fans: 0
Tobin makes a joke that her and Alex have gotten the same curse that Jeff Francoeur has, which makes the consecutive losses a little more bearable.
When the boxed wine runs out and Syd can’t stand to look at the Pictionary board again, Dom decides to turn on the TV. There’s a Premier League game re-run on TV which immediately has Tobin sitting upright, full attention on the game.
“If Tottenham win this, Arsenal gets bumped down to third. Tottenham can’t win.” Tobin says to Dom with a very serious face.
“Do you really think they’re going to lose to Aston Villa?”
“Miracles can happen.”
Miracles can’t happen. Tottenham comfortably wins 4-1, and Tobin is sulking.
Alex slides into the spot on the couch next to her and offers her a beer. “Thanks.”
“No problem. So, soccer huh?” And it’s not like Alex doesn’t know soccer, she likes Barcelona and she loves Messi, but Alex really doesn’t want to look like an idiot in front of Tobin.
“Yeah. Arsenal mainly. Women’s soccer is important to me too.”
“Explains your trivia night team name.”
“You remember that?” Tobin asks, impressed Alex even remembers that night at all.
“Of course. Jeff Francoeur is that easiest forgettable guy to remember.”
“You know; I still have to show you that video.”
“Mmm, you do.”
“Maybe on Tuesday when I come over.” A half-asleep Tobin states.
“Tuesday sounds good,” is the last thing Tobin hears before she passes out on Alex’s and Kelley’s couch.
---
Alex has never pined over someone.
Her first ever boyfriend in 7th grade had stared at her from across the schoolyard for a solid three weeks before his friends had pushed him into her and he had clumsily asked if they wanted to be boyfriend and girlfriend. They had never spoken a word to each other before, but she said yes anyways. He’d buy her candy and hold her hand around the schoolyard and give her his sweater when it was cold.
From that moment on, Alex had decided that pining was a waste of time.
---
There is no pining over Tobin.
Alex doesn’t search up Tobin’s Facebook profile every day, pathetically waiting for any sort of update. She doesn’t go out of her way to hang out with Tobin, never offers to walk Tobin to class on the mornings after Tobin has slept over. She doesn’t stare at Tobin longingly whenever they’re together.
In fact, Alex doesn’t even have her phone number. Tobin and Moe spend so much time over at their apartment that there isn’t a need for Alex to have Tobin’s number (that is, if Tobin even has a phone. Alex has never seen Tobin with a phone in her hand, she’s always using Kelley’s or Moe’s phone when she wants to search something on google).
---
Alex doesn’t know what’s going to kill her first; finals that are coming up in less than two weeks or Kelley’s incessant need to play Christmas music all throughout the month of November.
When Kelley plays Baby, It’s Cold Outside for the twelfth time that evening, Alex is out of her desk chair and about to stab Kelley with a plastic butter knife she found on her floor, when she hears a knock on their front door.
“It’s open!”
That’s how Tobin finds her, at the threshold of Kelley’s bedroom door holding a plastic knife an arm’s distance away from her body.
“If you wanted to kill Kelley, you could have just said that Georgia is the worst state to ever exist. I said it to Moe once and she stopped talking to me for a solid two weeks. It was basically like she died.”
“But this would be permanent.”
“Not really. That knife isn’t long enough to penetrate enough skin/muscle for her to bleed to death or reach a major organ.”
With sulking shoulders, Alex walks to the kitchen garbage to throw away her choice of murder weapon.
“Ooooo! I love this song!” Tobin exclaims as the opening notes of All I Want for Christmas is You are heard through Kelley’s door.
“Try having to listen to it for 4 hours straight,” Alex mumbles.
“You make a good point. I still love the song though,” Tobin says, before she starts singing along to the song.
“Is that the Tobin Heath I hear?!” Kelley yells as she rushes out of her room in a too large tie-dye shirt, boxer shorts and calf high socks.
And she somehow has a more active sex life than me, Alex muses.
“Dude! You’ll never guess who gave me what!” Tobin exclaims as her and Kelley do this weird fist bump thing.
“Christen Press gave you her number.”
“What? No. You know I don’t like her like that.”
“Well, you should.”
Tobin rolls her eyes as a response. Alex’s eyes mildly light up at their interaction.
“Anyways, she gave me her Human Brain and Behaviour notes and her Neuroscience Laboratory notes,” an excited Tobin claims, pulling various sheets of paper out of her beat up brown canvas backpack.
“If I could, I would kiss you right now,” Kelley says, with a look of amazement on her face.
“Who says you can’t?” Tobin replies with a jokingly seductive face.
“You’re right. I’d rather kiss Christen though. How’d you get these off of her anyways? Brett said she’s a stickler and doesn’t even let her own dog look at her notes.”
“I saw her down in the marketplace buying coffee and struck up a conversation. It’s amazing what happens when you’re actually nice to women.”
“Yeah, not having sex with said women is totally amazing.”
This time, both Tobin and Alex roll their eyes.
“I’m gonna go photocopy these,” Kelley says as she does some sort of moonwalk-electric-slide-hybrid into her room.
“Sometimes I wonder why I’m even her friend,” Tobin states as Kelley closes the door to her room.
“That makes the two of us,” Alex replies.
Tobin makes herself comfortable on the couch and Alex really should go back to studying for her Intermediate Macroeconomics final that’s in two weeks, but Tobin turns on the TV, flips to the Arsenal game and well, Alex really can’t say no to soccer (or Tobin, but that’s not really important).
---
Their school has one more football game before finals start. Alex kind of wishes it was actually cold this winter (damn you, global warming) so she could bundle up in the super cute parka her grandma had bought her last Christmas (her Grandma lives in New Jersey and could not comprehend the fact that Alex didn’t need a parka to survive California winters, but she appreciates the sentiment anyways).
According to the guy standing next to her on the bleachers trying his hardest to get her attention, their school has only won one football game this season. Alex kind of expects it, since the last three football games she attended the team lost by at least 30 points each game. The guy (Alex didn’t bother to learn his name), spends the entire game trying to explain football to her. She refrains from rolling her eyes or expressing a less than nice comeback every time he starts a sentence with, “I don’t know if you know this, because most girls don’t” and makes it all the way to the end of the first quarter before she wants to rip his eyeballs out of their sockets and knock all his teeth out.
Thankfully, Tobin taps her shoulder and asks if she wants to come with her to the concession stand to get a pretzel.
Alex opens her mouth to say yes when mystery dickhead says, with all the arrogance in the world, “I think she’s perfectly fine here. I’ll have a pretzel though.”
“I’d love a pretzel. Let’s go,” and Alex is dragging Tobin through the mass of bodies on the bleachers before he has a chance to pull Alex back towards him.
“I’ve met some questionable guys in my life, but I gotta say, that guy is disgusting,” Tobin states as they’re waiting in line for a pretzel.
“Every single time I would point out something happening in the game he’d explain it to me as if I didn’t know what was happening. Like, I was the one who noticed it first. Of course I understood what was happening. He spent a good half of the first quarter ‘explaining’ the difference between a field goal and a punt. It was pure torture.”
“Want me to text the girls and see if they can relocate?”
“Wait – you have a phone?”
“Uh… yeah… it’s 2015, of course I have a phone…” Tobin confusingly says as she pulls the silver iPhone with a cracked screen out of her back pocket.
“I’m sorry, it’s just, I never see it in your hand. I genuinely thought that you were one of those weird non-progressive people who reject everything about modern technology. Do you have a laptop?”
“Of course I do. How would I survive university without a laptop?”
Alex has no time to formulate a reply because they’re suddenly at the front of the line. She thanks God (“don’t use God’s name in vain,” imaginary Tobin says to her subconscious) that she doesn’t get another opportunity to make a fool out of herself.
Tobin orders five pretzels and ten cheese sauces. The poor student who’s in charge of the concession stand looks at the two of them weirdly, and Alex vaguely recognizes the girl as someone in her statistics class. She thinks the girl’s name is Francesca or Francine or something along those lines and she gives a small wave of acknowledgment when she comes back with their order.
Alex makes sure to make eye contact with Francesca/Francine/Whomever when she drops a $5 bill into the tip jar.
---
Kelley, Sydney and Moe end up relocating to a spot on the far left of the field and no name asshole is out of sight, much to Alex’s relief.
Their school is losing 45-3 by the end of the third quarter and all five of them decide to leave in order to 1) avoid the embarrassment and 2) beat the traffic leaving the field (Alex wonders why so many people are still watching this sad excuse of a game, but she figures everyone’s too drunk to notice how bad their team is losing).
As they’re walking toward the parking lot, Alex spots the one guy she never wants to see again in her life in line for pretzels.
“That dick better get his own pretzel,” she hears Tobin say as Tobin’s moving the left side of Alex’s body in order to prevent him from seeing her.
Everyone else is extremely confused, but Alex brushes her hand against Tobin’s, hoping it’s enough to express her gratitude.
---
First semester finals pass by without a hitch (well, if you don’t count Alex crying over her Intermediate Macroeconomics textbook two nights before the exam as a hitch), and to celebrate Kelley buys the two of them a dozen vanilla and double chocolate cupcakes from the bakery down the road and texts a guy named Neil for his Netflix password (Kelley blocks his number after he tells her the password and asks if Kelley wants to Netflix and chill later).
Alex isn’t a strong believer in fate or anything, but she thinks that running into Francesca (Alex can confirm that this is, in fact her name) right before their statistics final is a sign from the forces (or man, as Tobin would say) above.
It turns out, they have a lot in common. They both love pretzels, Francesca has this cute Barcelona beanie that Alex is extremely tempted to steal, and Francesca has a roommate who is almost as ridiculous as Kelley.
They’re down to their last two cupcakes and final ten minutes of Forrest Gump when Alex’s phone lights up with a text notification from Francesca.
Unfortunately, Kelley gets to her phone before she can and is in full interrogation mode the second she reads the text.
“’I can’t wait either’ with a cat heart-eye emoji? Really Alex?”
“What!” Alex feigns ignorance.
“Don’t play dumb Al, when a girl texts you any sort of cat emoji, it means she’s down to get sexy. Trust me.”
“No offense but, why should I trust you? The longest relationship you’ve had lasted four months and she texted you ‘It’s over’ at 3 in the morning then proceeded to block you on everything. She even blocked you on YouTube.”
“Okay, relax. That’s still a triggering time for me.”
“You slept with your lab partner the morning after. Not even the night after, the morning after!”
“To be completely fair, my lab partner was hot.”
“You’re insufferable.”
“This Francesca ‘purple heart emoji’ doesn’t seems to find you insufferable. In fact, she finds you more than sufferable, ‘You’re the cutest girl ever omg!!!’ Really? Does she want to fuck or does she want to be your mom?”
“Kelley! How’d you even unlock my phone?!”
“I was over your shoulder and saw you type it in when you were sitting on the couch one day. And I’ve been meaning to confront you about this, but, your dog’s birthday? Seriously, Al?”
Alex crosses her arms over her chest and returns her attention back to the TV, trying to convince herself that if she ignores Kelley for long enough she can pretend Kelley isn’t even there.
“I support you putting yourself out there and talking to women, but what about Tobin?”
“What about Tobin?” Alex truly has no idea why Kelley is even mentioning Tobin.
“I thought you two had like… a thing,” Kelley says tentatively.
“What? We’re just friends,” Alex replies a little too fast and a little too defensively. “
Okay. Whatever you say, but for the record, I think she likes you.”
“No she doesn’t. Now give me back my phone.”
“Are you going to send her nudes?”
“I don’t think Tobin would appreciate unsolicited nudes.”
“I was talking about the other girl blowing up your phone, but I mean Tobin probably wouldn’t want nudes either, or maybe…” and all Alex wants to do is smack off the smirk plastered across Kelley’s face.
---
Alex is packing her suitcase for her family’s annual Christmas break vacation to Florida, when Francesca strolls into her room, claiming that Kelley let her in, not before checking her out though.
Alex seriously wonders if her pupils will get stuck at the back of her eyes one day because she rolls her eyes way too much.
For a while Francesca just stands beside Alex at the side of her bed, helping Alex roll clothes (Alex is such a sucker for efficiency) into her suitcase.
Once they finish packing, Alex has this sudden now-or-never feeling. Francesca is easy to talk to and her eyes are a nice green that contrast her dirty blonde hair and Alex figures that if she were to kiss anyone in this moment, it’d be her.
So she does.
It’s a chaste kiss that doesn’t last more than five seconds and there’s isn’t another one following.
Francesca leaves the apartment with a wave and “Have a nice vacation,” and that’s the end of that.
Alex is just upset that she forgot to ask Francesca where she bought her Barcelona beanie.
---
When she lands in Florida and powers her phone back on, there’s a text from Kelley (‘buy me something cute or else i'm eating all the trail mix’), 274 messages from the group chat that consists of her, Tobin, Kelley, Moe and Sydney (Kelley and Moe discussing ways to meet up in Georgia over the break, Alex rolls her eyes because they could easily talk in a separate chat) and shockingly, a text from Tobin (‘did u know tht a trainer gave his athlete rat poison during the 1904 olympic marathon??? btw, wanna so skiing?’).
There’s no text from Francesca, but it’s not like Alex was expecting one anyways.
She decides to leave Kelley on read (because it’s one of Kelley’s pet peeves) and text Tobin back.
Alex: Where would we even go skiing? San Bernardino mountains?
Tobin: idk. probably portland or something
Alex: I’m in Florida for the week, but once I get back we can plan something.
Tobin: sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet, enjoy ur vacation!! get kelley one of those ugly hawaiian shirts pls i want her to look dumber than she already is
Alex: Will do.
And that’s how, exactly ten days later, Alex ends up squished between Moe and Syd in an old Toyota with Tobin driving and Kelley sitting shotgun, winter jackets and suitcases packed and heading to Portland.