"NEW GUYS AND PANCAKES"
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a/n: im curious, how did you find this story?? Just looking, tiktok, or something else?
also commenting and voting helps me update and I love reading them, so pls don't be a ghost reader!!
Cali didn't know what it was about kitchens that attracted people she didn't feel like talking to.
Starting with this morning, if Cali knew Nicole was in the kitchen when she tried to leave, she would've tried to be more subtle with her exit. But instead of slipping out the door, she found herself to eating breakfast with the girl.
"Cali come sit!" Nicole spotted Calista in her not so subtle way, out the door.
Calista dreadfully turned around to join her out of respect for letting her stay over, but once she fully stepped into the kitchen, she spotted someone else sitting with Nicole.
He looked up with a pause, meeting his dark eyes with hers, "long night?"
"Huh?" his eyes flicked up her hair and she instantly understood, it most likely looked like a rats nest and on top of that she was still wearing the same clothes from last night, "Yeah you can say that." she fully joined them, grabbing a bagel before she sat down.
The conversation Nicole and the stranger were having died down completely, leaving Calista to feel curious in silence. After grabbing the spread and a knife she looked up in curiosity only to figure out he never looked away from her, this time his face held a sense of recognition paired with a smile—that he was doing a bad job hiding—She looked between him and Nicole, "do I know you?"
The smile that he tried sooo hard to hide took over his face, "No," he dragged out the word, "but I did watch your cover of Summer Nights and I gotta say I don't think that I'll ever forget it."
Calista felt her cheeks heat up at him mentioning her performance. "Glad you enjoyed it," the line came out way less confident than she would've liked so she focused on the bagel instead of his dark curls and weirdly symmetrical face.
Seeing her embarrassment, he continued to then mockingly sing her part, "Summer lovin', happened so fasssttt," she looked up to see him hold up an invisible microphone as he made his way across the kitchen to put his plate in the sink.
"Ok ok you can stop now before I scoop this onto your head," she chuckled but wasn't joking as she held up the container.
Nicole watched the two in amusement before she couldn't take the singing anymore, "Cali," she cut his mini performance off causing them to exchange looks along with Calista's grateful one, "meet Reed, my cousin."
Calista narrowed her eyes, looking between the two, it was then when she noticed their similar features. Reed was taller but they had the same complexion and a similar mid face. "I actually see the resemblance." the cousins laughed but she wasn't trying to be funny. Cali then turned toward the sink where he was leaning on watching her, "I've never seen you before."
"I guess I'm the new guy huh," he smiled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Reed seemed like a nice guy, it was still a bit embarrasing that her first implression was her singing, but she felt that with Reed it left a better impression than this morning would've.
Before Calista could respond, Nicole cut in, speaking to Reed, "You know what, you should totally come for the forth! We're all having this get together, right? And you can meet everyone."
They both turned to Cali who hesitantly agreed, not sure of what the others would think, "I guess thats a good idea," she shrugged, "You know to meet everyone officially."
"The Fishers too, like Conrad and Jere," Nicole added.
"Oh yeah," Reed gave Nicole a look that caused Cali to quizzically look between them, "those guys."
Cali narrowed her eyes at that, "What do you mean abo—"
"Ok yes!" Nicole exclaimed, "It'll be fun."
Something told Cali that it would be more interesting than fun, but what she found more interesting was Belly who seemed to be waiting for her in the kitchen once she got back home.
Calista needed nothing more than to get out of her own head, so she took a day for herself on the beach. Once she came back inside—after minutes of leaning her head on the steering wheel—Calista found Belly hovered over two plates of mickey mouse shaped pancakes.
Again, she had no idea what it was about kitchens that attracted the people she didn't want to talk to, but before she could dwell on it, Belly hesitantly initiated the conversation,"I heard you pulling into the driveway."
Glancing up, it took strength for Calista to even nod. She continued through the kitchen just to set her keys down on a hook, and when she turned to exit, Belly cut her off, "Wait!"
Calista kept walking.
"Cali please," Belly let out a bit quieter than the first time, letting out a sigh of relief once seeing the girl stop in her tracks, Bells timidly nudged the plate of pancakes towards her knowing it would take a lot for Cali to refuse.
Calista stared as Belly grabbed the candles and stuck one into her own stack. She glanced at Cali then motioned her toward the counter.
One step was all she took, it was more than enough to catch ok to what Belly was doing. The lighter flickered on in Belly's hand, and she lit the candles, "I wish for us to become friends again," then blew them out, "and a do over."
Calista's face was full on tension, she should've known to expect something like this from Bells, "you know, because you told me your wish it's not supposed to come true right?"
"Oh," Belly nodded, her eyes stuck on the counter, "Well—"
"As cheesy as that was, I do need to apologize to you." Calista continued, "Not for anything I said, I meant that, but I need to apologize for when I said it, I should've waited until after your birthday."
Grabbing the plate to enjoy the pancakes in her room, Calista noted that it was the first time she didn't feel completely empty about the situation.
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On the drive home from his boat meeting with Cleveland, Conrad had time to reflect, and in that time, he noticed that he was angry. Like suffocatingly angry at Belly. Out of everything, he needed to talk to Cali, again... without stealing her phone.
The thought of Calista had the unexplainable effect to calm him down, and speaking of her, his mind went back to the fact she was the main topic of his day.
"Where's my favorite rope instructor?" Cleveland questioned the boy making his way down the dock. The last time his favorite instructor tagged along, all she did was banter with Conrad, but Cleveland would be lying if he said it wasn't hilarious.
Conrad playfully rolled his eyes along with stifling a yawn, "she needed her beauty sleep."
"Hmm," Cleveland nodded his head, but couldn't keep his curiosity unanswered, "So..."
Conrad stopped what he was doing to look up at the older man, "...So?"
"What's going on between you two?"
Conrad looked at him for a couple seconds until moving his attention back toward the boat, "you wouldn't believe me if I told you."
Cleveland gave him a shy smile, "I'm a writer, so let's take that chance."
After an hour of including the main details, starting from the summer before, Cleveland was shocked to say the least. Once Conrad finished all he could say was, "Geez, let me borrow that plot."
Both of them completely forgot about knots and boats halfway through the explanation, and their session turned into advice hour.
"So what's stopping you from going for her now? You both know the truth and have feelings still."
Conrad shook his head, "I don't know how she feels about me now." Cleveland gave him an unconvinced look, but Conrad continued, "and I don't know, it just feels messy now. It's like—I want to talk to her but, as you know, we were pretty upset with each other for awhile and said some harmful things."
"My completely honest advice for you is to just be honest. Tell her everything you've been wanting to get off your chest, you could even write her a letter, but you need to tell her or else nothing will change. Even I could tell that you guys care about each other and I would hate for that to go to waste."
Conrad wanted to go through every hypothetical situation, he wanted to drown Cleveland in the many 'what if's,' but every singe time he only saw the scenarios where he was completely honest as successful.
He knew Calista valued honesty in others, he knew many things about her. As he sat on the boat silently, he found himself combing through his mind to remember all the things she liked.
"You know what," Cleveland cut in noticing the conflicting emotions on Conrad's face, "let's go somewhere else where we can figure this out."
The day with Cleveland helped Conrad immensely. Grateful for the older man, Conrad sent him a text confirming that he would go through with what they talked about.
Pulling into the driveway, Conrad felt a new sense of determination that he'd never felt before. He knew his exact goal, and that was getting Calista back.
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- cleveland knows what's up. I always felt like he would give either the best or worst relationship advice, no in between
- interacting really helps me to update so please keep it up, I love everyone who comments and it's so fun to see
- I do owe another chap soon so look out for that