6. imaginary boundaries

                                    

                                          
♫ august - taylor swift

❝ but i can see us lost in the memory
august slipped away into a moment in time ❞

--
the next morning, gracie wakes up on her couch in her apartment. confused at first, she eventually remembers that amanda and angela came home with her to spend the night, so she made them share her bed. a very entertaining thought.
she sits up, light from her windows casting shadows on the blanket that she doesn't recall obtaining the night before. she takes a deep breath in and out. this is her favorite time of day; it's a quiet reset from the night before.
the night before. she racks her brain, thinking about the events that played out last night, but not remembering a lot. the warm glow of the morning sun reminds her of the warm glow of the holiday lights outside of the bar where she sat for a while, talking to jamie and then spencer.
oh god, what did she say to him?
her initial panic and embarrassment subsides as she suppresses the thought for now, not wanting to ruin the day that only just began.
her head doesn't hurt as bad as she thought it would considering the ungodly amount of wine she consumed last night. she notices a glass of water on the table in front of her, which she grabs and inhales.
"i knew you'd want that," amanda speaks softly as she exits gracie's bedroom, closing the door behind her.
gracie smiles at her, holding the glass coyly with both hands. "thank you."
"of course, sister." amanda walks around to the front of the couch and plops down next to gracie. "angela's just waking up too. i was thinking we could go get breakfast?"
gracie gasps in response. "that would be amazing, i'm ravenous."
amanda nods. "same. and, about last night... we need to have a debrief." she smirks knowingly yet subtly, which confuses gracie. maybe something happened that she's unaware of?
again, the thought of oh god, what did she say to him? pokes and prods at the back of her mind.
"okay, sounds fun!"
"you bet your ass it does!" angela emerges from gracie's bedroom, chipper as ever.
amanda eyes angela from the couch, laughing at her grand entrance. "you're quite dominant in the morning, you know that?"
"i think i've told her that exact thing before," gracie chimes in.
"yeah, yeah. talk about me like i'm not here, that's so awesome. can we go eat now?"
--
that same morning, spencer rises with the sun. though his head is pounding and fuzzy, he remembers everything. how could he not?
he rolls over to check his phone first thing. his cat notices he's awake and jumps onto his bed, waiting to be fed. "in a bit, cleo," he tells her.
scrolling x is like reliving the previous night. his timeline is plastered with birthday wishes to gracie from coworkers and fans. screenshots of instagram stories from the smosh cast have been reposted in virtually every corner of the internet.
there is one video in particular that is circulating everywhere.
last night, chanse had drunkenly recorded and posted spencer and gracie talking from across the room, forever encapsulating their close proximity, with the caption "spennser plan party good." spencer's heart dropped into his ass when he saw this, not wanting to imagine what fans were saying. he didn't want to be shipped with gracie. he didn't want anybody to think anything of their relationship.