❝ it's exhausting, pretending to hate you. ❞
❝ you don't hate me? ❞
❝ we both know i don't. ❞
𝗜𝗡 𝗪𝗛𝗜𝗖𝗛. . .
what was believed to be a harmless prank
ends up causing two best friends to turn
into enemies overnight. to this day, 𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗮...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
CHAPTER SEVEN !
[ real life, social media ]
- ❝ I'LL STAY HERE WITH YOU ❞ 💌
ʳᵉᵃˡ ˡⁱᶠᵉ !
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
the atmosphere in the living room is strangely quiet. chris' parents and rory's mom are talking, and nick is going on a tangent to him about how birds are going to take over the world, but he's not really listening. he can tell nobody else is either, as matt is staring at the wall, rory is mindlessly pushing her food around on her plate and mason is nodding, but at the wrong times. chris feels bad, but he knows nick won't take it personally. even here, away from home, mason and rory obviously have a lot on their mind.
"what about like, fucking woodpeckers?" mason asks, glancing at his mom before he swears to make sure she's not listening. "surely they're harmless."
"those noisy little bastards are just as bad as the rest of them," nick counters. "i don't trust any birds."
matt laughs and shakes his head. rory doesn't even react, and chris wonders if she's even aware of what they're talking about.
"rory," he prompts, but she doesn't hear him. mason nudges her elbow.
"astoria," her brother says with a slight brazilian accent. he rolls the r in her name when he says it. she doesn't react again. "ria," he says, and she blinks and glances to him.
"hm?" she mumbles, now finally taking a bite of her food.
"you okay?" mason asks.
"uh-huh. yep. i'm great," she replies a little too quickly. her brother's eyes soften, but she doesn't even notice because her eyes are fixated on chris, who is giving her a suspicious look. he's not convinced, and she knows it. they hold eye contact, neither of them looking away or changing their expression. rory then furrows her eyebrows and turns away from him.
