We're Not Friends | 15
Same Night
Sunday
July 17th, 2022
"What if we don't work out?" Laura asks, the side of her face pressed against Ross' chest. Ross rolls his eyes at her words, even stops playing with her hair and instead gives it a gentle tug.
"Not even two full hours into making things official and you're already doubting us." After kissing for a bit once things were made official, Laura decided she wanted a lazy night with a movie or two. Since she doesn't have a tv in her room they decided to cuddle up on the couch together. It took all of a few minutes for Laura to be laying fully on top of Ross' body, with Ross' fingers tangled in her hair. Laura frowns.
"Seriously, Ross. What are we gonna do?" He sighs.
"We're going to take things day by day, Laura. I can't predict the future." He tells her. She's silent for a moment. "Thinking about the negatives only entices negatives to happen. Positive thinking, Laura. Manifest it." Rocky's girlfriend, Alex, is really big on positive thoughts and positive energy, along with manifesting, so it sorta brushed off onto the boys. Ross is kind of a slacker when it comes down to it, but he's trying his best with the whole thing. Jaz was into it when they were together, but Alex is a whole new level of invested in this shit.
"What if we just don't... click as a couple?" Now Ross quietly groans.
"Laura." He had a hint of annoyance in his voice. She lifts her head and rests her chin on Ross' chest. With their laying down position, they can't really make eye contact, so Ross keeps his eyes on the tv, Laura stares at his jawline.
"Be serious, please. I need the reassurance right now." She whispers. Ross sighs and looks up at the ceiling.
"If we don't click, which I highly doubt will happen, then we go back to being friends." He tells her. "At least we'd give it a shot." She goes back to pressing her cheek against his chest. "But our shot has to actually be worth it. We need to try."
"I know, I plan to." Laura replies, referring to the trying part. Of course she's give their relationship there all. She values Ross too much to give him anything less than 100%. "It might be weird at first, though. Like, how am I supposed to act around you?" Ross goes back to playing with her hair, causing a small smile to appear on her lips.
"Act yourself, you dork." She gently taps his chest. "The only thing that'll really change is kissing and... well, flirting, I guess? We kinda already flirt to begin with, but actually being together creates a whole new playing field."
"Great, how much more dirty is your flirting gonna get?" Laura asks. Ross smirks.
"You just wait, my dear." He whispers. They're both silent for a little while as they watch the movie. It's some comedy Netflix just added a week ago that stars Mark Wahlberg in it. Honestly, Laura paying more attention to Ross' heartbeat than anything. It's soothing her overthinking and overcomplicating thoughts of their new relationship.
"Hey, can we keep this kinda private for awhile?" Laura suddenly asks. "We can tell our families, obviously. I want our families to know, but I'm iffy on telling my cast mates and other friends for the sake of things not working out." She explains.
"Yeah yeah, of course we can keep it low-key." Ross says. "I wasn't planning on telling anybody besides my family. We can decide together when we're ready to expand the circle of people who know." Laura smiles.
"Okay, thank you." She whispers. "I swear I'm easy going and not high maintenance in a relationship." Laura adds. "I might be a bit much the first few weeks since it's me and you, but I promise I'll mellow out."
"I know that, Laura." Ross laughs out. "I have been friends with you for over a decade, you know." She smiles again.
"I know." She says quietly. "Also, if I'm awkward around you in front of our cast mates, don't be offended. I may friend-zone you a lot and probably won't go near you." Ross hums.
"That's okay. As long as you make up for it when we're alone." Ross semi-teases. She laughs quietly.
"I'm sure I can do that." It's silent again.
"Wanna FaceTime my mom and watch her freak out?" Ross asks out of the blue. Laura frowns.
"Is she still awake?" She asks, knowing it's nearing 11:00 o'clock. She doesn't want to wake Stormie up only to make her have a heart attack at the news of Raura becoming official.
"Most likely. She usually goes to bed around midnight." Ross tells her. She thinks for a moment.
"Okay." Laura smiles. Ross grunts as he reaches for his phone on the ottoman. They don't bother moving from their cuddling position and Laura just watched as Ross gets to her contact. "Are we just gonna like, have a normal conversation and see if she comments on how we're laying? Or are we gonna come out and say we're doing this."
"She'll probably comment something right away." Ross presses the FaceTime button and the two stare at the screen as it connects. Stormie was quick to answer. She has a smile on her face, makeup free, and looking to be laying in bed.
"Hi, Ross Shor." Stormie says.
"Hi, mama." Ross replies, giving her a smile. Laura gives her a smile too, her face still pressed up against Ross' chest. Her face is starting to get hot from the nerves forming with this conversation. Stormie brings a hand up to her face once she notices they're cuddling. "Aw, you two are the cutest!" She gushes. "Cutest besties ever."
"Besties?" Ross questions, trying to hint at Stormie. Stormie doesn't seem to understand. Laura decides to go with Ross' hint.
"Besties, yeah." She starts. "You don't want to have a relationship where you aren't each other's besties." Okay, so maybe Laura's hinting was more of an obvious revelation, but Stormie still didn't seem to understand.
"Okay, you two are being weird." Stormie says with furrowed eyebrows. Ross can't help but laugh a little, which causes Laura to grin. "Honey, they're being weird." Stormie moves the camera in Mark's direction. He's sitting up in bed, too, but he's reading a book. Not to mention, they can see Vanilla sleeping in between them. Velvet, Velour, Valley, and the bunnies are somewhere in the bedroom off camera. Mark hums hums in response. "Stop it!" Stormie whines, looking back at Ross and Laura. "What's going on?! Why are you laughing!?" This only causes Ross to laugh harder. Laura even let's out a quiet laugh.
"Mama, we're giving a relationship a try." Ross tells her. Stormie's eyes widen.
"Oh my stars, are you serious?" She asks. "You two aren't messing with me, are you?" Shit eating grins are evident on both Ross and Laura's faces.
"We're not messing with you." Ross laughs out.
"My Raura heart is about to explode, you guys." Stormie breathes out, her hand on her heart. "I'm so happy for you two! You make the most beautiful couple!" She gushes. "Ooo, don't tell Rydel I said that." She adds. The three of them laugh.
"Don't be getting too excited, mom. We're keeping this quiet, okay? Laura's afraid we aren't gonna click as a couple, which I think is absolute bullshit, but I gotta respect her opinion, ya know?" Laura rolls her eyes.
"You make it sound like I don't actually like you, Ross." She mumbles.
"Oh honey, you two will click. I've been saying you two are meant for each other since you were itty bitty teenagers." Stormie tells them. Laura blushes the slightest. She's definitely mentioned it multiple times to Ross and his siblings when they were filming Austin and Ally. Never to Laura, though. That was back when Stormie didn't want to embarrass her son or Laura. Now she doesn't care. She'll embarrass either of them all day. Ross hums in response to his mom. "Oh my stars, I need to text Ellen. Wait, does she know?" Stormie asks.
"No, this literally just happened a couple of hours ago. You're the first person to know." Laura tells her. "I'm going to call her in the morning before I get to set. I'll tell her to text you after." Stormie grins.
"Ugh, you two are just too cute. Smile!" Ross and Laura both quickly smile (and Stormie) and within a second the words Mom took a screenshot appear on Ross' phone screen. "We're gonna have to meet up for lunch soon, too. I miss her. I miss your whole family."
"We miss your whole family, too." Laura says with a slight laugh. "It's been nice having Rocky and Ryland here. Oh, and Gordy. He was tiny the last time I saw him." Laura explains.
"I know, he's so tall, isn't he? All of them are so tall!" Stormie adds. "I am so making this my new screensaver. It's too cute not too." Ross rolls his eyes at his mom. "Hey, don't roll your eyes at me, Ross Shor. You know I can't help it. I love love!" She gushes, a silly little grin on her face. The silly little grin hasn't left her face since the moment they told her the news. "Ooo, before I forget. You need to call Sissy soon and talk her about the next time you can come home. She wants to wait to do the gender reveal of her little one until you're home."
"Mmm, I'll call her tomorrow when I'm waiting around on set." Ross promises.
"When are my other babies coming home?" Stormie asks. "It's bad enough we don't get you here, but now I'm missing three more and it's too much. I need my family close." Laura can't help but smile at Stormie's need for family time. Ross smiles, too. He loves his family time.
"They have a flight for Sunday afternoon." She smiles back at him. All of a sudden Mark appears in the camera.
"Alright, kids. As much as I love that you two are finally together after years and years of denying stuff," Ross rolls his eyes at his dads words. "I have an early flight tomorrow and don't want to fall asleep while flying who knows how many passengers." Stormie frowns.
"Aw, I forgot I'll be alone most of the day tomorrow."
"What do you mean? Rydel will be over all day." Ross chuckles.
"Goodnight." Mark says with a smile to Ross and Laura.
"Goodnight, my loves. I'm so so so happy and excited for you both. Sleep good tonight, okay? And don't forget to call Rydel, Ross. I love you both!"
"Love you, too." Ross tells her.
"Goodnight." Laura says. Ross presses the end button and sets his phone down on the couch by his hip. "I wish I could hug your mom right now." Laura whispers. "I miss her. I miss my own mom, too. And dad." Ross brings his hand back up and starts to mess with her hair again. She closes her eyes.
"I told you to talk to your crew and ask for a few days off." Ross breathes out.
"I know." She sighs.
"You should come with me to Rydel's gender reveal." Laura furrows her eyebrows. "I can ask Rydel tomorrow if I can bring a plus one."
"What if production doesn't give us time off? You've already taken so much time off since you've been here, your production crew probably hates you." Ross waves her off.
"I always take time off. They know music is a priority for me. Netflix is flexible. Plus, it could just be a weekend trip. Fly to L.A. late on a Friday night, fly back late on Sunday. That gives us a whole day to be with my family and a whole day to be with your family." Laura thinks over his words.
"You'd hang out with me and my family for a whole day?" She asks him.
"Obviously. I love your parents. I was just with your parents when I was in L.A. and I text your dad like, once a week." Laura furrows her eyebrows and lifts her head up to look down at Ross. He furrows his own eyebrows. "What?"
"You and my dad text?" She asks.
"Yeah." Ross nods. "We exchange beer and wine pictures. And he sends me food pictures and recipes. Ry actually made his chicken pasta thingy recipe the other day." Laura's eyes widen.
"I was wondering why it tasted similar to my dads!" She exclaims. Ross grins.
"Does that mean Ryland didn't make it the best? He's gonna be crushed." Laura rolls her eyes and lays back down, a smile on her face.
"Ryland's was great, but my dad's is definitely better. I've never met a better cook than my dad. I don't think I ever will, he's flipping Italian for goodness sakes. Nothing can beat a genuine Italian cook." Laura explains.
"Makes sense." Ross mumbles. "Hey, when's your call time?" Laura sighs.
"Nine. When's yours?"
"Fuck if I know. I should probably check." Ross picks his phone up and goes to the weekly email sent out to them. It's a overview of everyone's call time for the week (sometimes it changes) and anything else happening. "Fuck me, it's eight." Laura pats Ross' chest before getting off of him.
"Let's get you to bed now so you won't be cranky tomorrow, yeah?" Laura holds a hand out for him to take. He sighs and grabs it, nearly pulling her back down as he stands up. "Jeez, dude. I wasn't expecting to help you that much." She mumbles.
"My bad." Ross mumbles back teasingly. After doing their nightly duties; brushing their teeth, using the restroom, washing faces, etc., the two of them crawl into bed together. "Goodnight." Ross leans over and kisses her cheek. Laura frowns.
"Um, what was that?" She asks. Ross furrows his eyebrows.
"A cheek kiss?" He questions. "I give you one every night."
"Don't you think we can upgrade the cheek kiss to an actual kiss?" Ross smiles before leaning back over and kissing her on the lips.
"Habit." He whispers after pulling away. He leans back in and pecks her lips once more. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight." She whispers. "
The Next Day
Monday
July 18th, 2022
Ross watches his phone screen as he waits for his sister to answer his FaceTime. He's squints and looks around their filming lot, noticing a few production people walking around and eating by the trailers.
"Ayyeee it's my not-so-single brother!" Rydel exclaims once their call connects. Ross chuckles at the greeting. This morning his mom decided to post the screenshot she took of Ross and Laura last night to their family group chat with the text OH MY STARS RAURA IS OFFICIAL following it (a bunch of red and yellow hearts).
"Hey." He responds. "How's my unborn niece or nephew?" He asks.
"He or she is making me exhausted." She says with a slight eye roll. "I haven't been too terribly nauseous, just getting more frequent migraines and stuff. Still always hungry, but I don't think that's the baby." Ross laughs.
"Definitely not the baby, Rydel." She grins.
"What can I say, I love food." Ross leans against the building. "That photo of you and Laura mom sent this morning is the absolute cutest photo I've ever seen." He smiles at his sister. "Tell me everything, dude! I didn't even know you liked each other again!"
"I mean, the liking each other is pretty recent." He shrugs. "At least realizing we like each other is. Pretty sure my feelings came back right before we slept together the first time." Ross admits. "Rocky, actually, made me realize it a week ago, I think?" Rydel's eyes widen.
"Holy shit, that is recent. Mom mentioned you just made it official last night. When did you two talk about your feelings?" Ross holds back an eye roll. Rydel wants to know everything and Ross knows it. It isn't unusual. Rydel likes to know everything. In detail, though, and that is what irritates Ross sometimes. But can't complain about this. Not only has she been the biggest Raura shipper since the beginning, she's also pregnant and hormonal and he doesn't want to upset her.
"Um, she found out I liked her on Saturday..." Rydel's eyes widen. "She was talking to this guy and then kept commenting about how cute he was once he left and I may have gotten a tad jealous so she sorta just... figured it out?" Ross questions.
"Jealous? The Ross I know never gets jealous." Rydel says with furrowed eyebrows. It's true, Ross isn't really the jealous type.
"Yeah well, guess she's different." He shrugs. Rydel puts a hand to her heart.
"Aw, you're a softy!" She gushes. "Did She tell you right away that she liked you back?" Ross shakes his head.
"No no, we didn't talk for the rest of the day." He starts. "She seemed upset so I slept at my place. We met up last night and hashed it out. She was scared so she didn't say it back." He explains. "We're good now, we're giving things a try. Told her if we weren't comfortable or whatever we could go back to being friends. It helped ease her about the whole friendship being lost thing." Rydel sighs.
"Yeah, I see that. The whole ruining your friendship thing is scary." Ross' eyes widen.
"Well shit, you would know." He mumbles, referring to her and Ellington. Rydel notices the slight worry in Ross' face.
"Hey, I don't regret mine and Ellington's relationship. Our relationship was amazing and he taught me so much about who I am and what I want. He led me to Capron. Obviously our friendship wasn't as solid as we thought or else we'd still be on talking terms today. I mean, look at you two. You liked each other as teenagers yet you got over that and still stayed friends." Ross nods his head.
"Yeah, you're right." He says quietly. He kicks a rock on the ground and thinks for a moment. "I just really want it to work out with her. It's Laura, ya know? My Laura. And I really really really don't want to fuck it up." Rydel gives him a soft smile.
"Communication is key, Ross. Dad told me that so many times once Capron proposed. Dad can help you with anything, talk to him about this stuff." Ross nods his head at his sisters words. His dad does give the best advice. "You have to bring Laura to the gender reveal, Ross. From the sounds of it she's gonna be an aunt and she needs to meet her future niece or nephew." Ross grins.
"I was hoping you'd say that." He chuckles. "You should shoot her a text about it, though. She's feel more comfortable f the mommy-to-be invited her."
"But you're the uncle-to-be, that's close enough." Ross gives her a look. "Okay okay, I'll call her later today." Ross smiles.
"Thank you." He says quietly.
"No, thank you for adding another badass woman to our family. She's gonna fit right in." Ross playfully rolls his eyes. "We find out the gender at our appointment on the twenty-seventh, so if you two can coordinate a time to come home for the gender reveal before right around my birthday that would be greatly appreciated." Ross nods his head.
"We might just make a weekend out of it and not take time off." Ross shrugs. "Fly down Friday night and fly back Sunday night." He adds. She frowns.
"That sounds exhausting." Ross chuckles.
"Good thing neither of us are pregnant." She laughs at him. "She's done filming at five, I think. Your best bet would be to call her around six." Rydel nods her head.
"Okay, that's perfect." Ross sighs as he sees a text from Jaz.
"Just got a text saying I'm holding my scene up." Rydel's eyes widen. "Guess I'm hanging up now. Bye, Rydel. We will figure out a plan by this weekend."
"Okay, bye, Ross. Love you!"
"Love you, too."
• aye another chapter!!! hope you guys liked this one :) if you did pleeaseeeee vote, comment, and follow me! this chapter was fun to write :) •