Chapter 11: 10: College Friends. Friends Who Studied Together.

CHAPTER TEN: COLLEGE FRIENDS. FRIENDS WHO STUDIED TOGETHER.

June 4th, 2020

Gemma awoke the next morning with a pounding headache; her body still covered in the dark blue strapless dress from the night before. The natural light from her bedroom window was blinding her as she eyed the room for a sleeping Marcie, who was passed out on the air mattress beside Gemma's bed, also still wearing her outfit from the night before.

The time on Gemma's phone read 11:19AM. She didn't remember getting home last night. She didn't remember much from last night, at all, aside from taking more shots than her body could handle, per Marcie's bad influence.

Despite the pounding of her head, Gemma never slept in past 9AM. She forced her fatigued body out of bed, waking up Marcie in the process.

"What time is it?" Marcie asked, her voice groggy and thick with exhaustion.

"Almost 11:30," Gemma yawned. "I have no memories of last night."

"Me too," Marcie mumbled, her eyes still closed. "I made out with some hot guy and that's the last thing I remember."

Gemma tried to remember, but the last thing she could recall was watching her best friend grind on said hot guy.

"We should probably get out of these clothes," Gemma pointed to the clothes both herself and Marcie were wearing from the night before.

"Holy shit," Marcie groaned. "How the hell did we get back last night?"

"Probably an Uber," Gemma shrugged. "I'm gonna go shower. I smell like sweat and vodka."

"Mhm," Marcie mumbled, her head hitting the pillow on the air mattress. Before Gemma was even out of her bedroom, Marcie was fast asleep, again.

As Gemma sloppily made her way towards the bathroom across the hall from her bedroom, she was surprised to see Olivia standing in the mirror.

"Morning, sunshine." Liv joked. She laughed as she eyed Gemma's hungover appearance. "Remember how you got home last night?"

Gemma pondered for a moment, though her brain was coming up blank given her scattered memories of the night before.

"An Uber?" She questioned, though she had a feeling that Olivia knew the real answer.

"Nope. Jax and I picked you up. You texted me saying your Uber app wasn't working and thankfully Jax was awake. Mom won't let me drive past curfew, so Jax drove and I tagged along."

Gemma pressed her palm to her forehead in embarrassment. "Did I say anything embarrassing?"

Liv shook her head. "No. You basically fell asleep in the car ride back. Jax and I had to carry you upstairs."

"Sorry,"

"Don't be. It was funny seeing you like that," Liv smiled. "I'm just glad you're home."

♥♥♥

After a much needed shower that lasted way longer than Gemma intended, she felt slightly less hungover than before. Surprisingly, Marcie was awake and scrolling through Twitter when Gemma walked back in.

"Food," Marcie groaned as she placed her hand over her empty stomach. "I need food. Maybe McDonalds?"

"Don't you need to shower?" Gemma laughed.

"Food is more important. I'll shower after." Marcie shrugged. She changed out of her dress from the night before and instead wore a tube top and a pair of pajama shorts. Her hair was placed in a messy bun on top of her head and although she desperately needed to cleanse herself of the vodka and random hot guy, Marcie longed for an Egg McMuffin to help her hungover stomach.

"Fine. Let's go to McDonald's."

The two hungover post-grads walked slowly down the stairs, though Gemma quickly stopped in her tracks as she heard voices from below.

"Fuck," she mumbled. She put her hand out so she was blocking Marcie's path, so her best friend could also hear the voices from only a few feet away.

"Looks like there's some wedding planning going on." Marcie chuckled as Avery's squeaky laugh sounded throughout the Perry household.

"Go back upstairs." Gemma whisper-yelled. She wished she would have woken up a little bit earlier, to be able to avoid whatever wedding talk was happening on the floor below her.

"Ohhh no," Marcie shook her head. "I'm sorry, Gemma. I need food. We're gotta face Avery this time."

"Why can't you just go?" Gemma begged. She knew she was likely being dramatic, but did not care. She wanted no part of whatever was happening downstairs, and as soon as Gayle locked eyes on her, Gemma knew her mother would try to involve her in whatever wedding bullshit was happening.

"One, I don't have a car!" Marcie groaned, her rumbly stomach becoming louder. "And two, I need food. I cannot wait, or I will projectile vomit."

"Maybe you need to vomit!" Gemma raised an interesting point. "Get the alcohol out of your system!"

Marcie shook her head. She was stern. "Come on, Gems." Marcie rolled her eyes, annoyed, as she basically tugged her best friend down the stairs. Marcie knew how Gemma felt about Avery and the wedding stuff, but in that moment, she was thinking of her own needs. Which happened to be an Egg McMuffin from McDonald's.

Before Gemma could resist anymore, Marcie practically pulled her down the remaining steps, making their presence known in the kitchen. Though Gayle and Avery's backs were to Gemma and Marcie, the two quickly turned around as Marcie grabbed Gayle's jeep keys off the kitchen counter. This entire time, Gemma stood like a scared cat behind Marcie, keeping her eyes glued to the floor to avoid eye contact with her mom and ex best friend.

Though when Gemma stepped further into the kitchen, she couldn't help but notice a third pair of feet in the room and before she knew it, her head snapped up. She locked eyes with no one other than Rowan Taylor, who was standing a few feet away from her in the kitchen of her childhood home.

"Gemma! Marcie!" Gayle piped up.

"Morning, ladies." Avery smiled as she sipped from the fresh cup of coffee in her hands.

Rowan stood frozen in his spot, awkwardly smiling at a clearly hungover Gemma and Marcie. "Feeling alright?" he asked, finding it difficult not to laugh at the fact that Gemma was absolutely wrecked from the alcohol she devoured only twelve hours prior.

"Amazing." Gemma gulped. As her eyes stayed glued to Rowan's, she wondered why his presence felt familiar. Though she ran into him multiple times during her at home stay thus far, she was confused about why his voice and presence felt more familiar than before.

And that's when it hit her.

"Are you drunk?"

"You know, I've been wanting to talk to you but not when you're like this."

"Like you didn't listen to me when I told you not to go to New York?"

Her run-in with Rowan at the bar only twelve hours before made Gemma's blood run cold. She could not remember a thing from the night before when she first woke up, but the way he was looking at her right now, with a knowing look on his face, brought her back to their entire conversation. Or lack of, for that matter, considering Gemma was quick to run away from him again when she had the opportunity.

Marcie was the first to break the awkward tension quickly arising in the room. "Gayle, can we borrow your car? We're going on a McDonald's run."

Before Gemma's mother even had the chance to respond, Rowan chimed in.

"I can drive you. My car is blocking Gayle's in, anyway."

Gemma was quick to decline his offer, as the memories of their conversation from the night before hit her like a ton of bricks. "No, it's okay - "

"I insist," Rowan interrupted. Marcie looked back and forth between Gemma and Rowan, confused, considering this was the first time she'd seen the two converse. What confused her even more, was the fact that Gemma did not try to decline his offer more than once.

Rowan was stubborn. And Gemma knew that. She knew that no matter how much she declined, Rowan was not going to let her have her way. She could keep refusing, though this would just cause a scene that she had no idea how to explain to the others in the room. Gemma was stubborn. But the one thing she learned from dating Rowan Taylor for two years, was that he was even more stubborn than she was.

"That's great! Row, you and Gemma can catch up a bit on the way there!" Avery smiled, causing Gemma's eyebrows to raise in confusion. Though she was too focused on what was soon to happen in the car with Rowan, to even think about Avery's statement.

"Yeah," Rowan nodded, grabbing his keys from the pocket of his jeans.

Gemma locked eyes with her mother as she followed Rowan out. Gayle had to know how awkward this was, given Rowan was part of the Perry family for two years.

Marcie, on the other hand, looked back and forth between Gayle, Avery, Gemma, and Rowan as this entire scene played out in front of her hungover eyes. She almost wondered if she was hallucinating the entire thing but figured no, she couldn't be. She wasn't drunk anymore.

"Catch up?" Gemma questioned as she trailed behind Rowan once the three were outside the house. "Does Avery even know we dated?"

"This isn't how I planned this conversation but after last night, I guess it'll have to do." Rowan sighed. He unlocked his car, waiting for Gemma to get in but she stood her ground just outside the passenger door.

"Last night?!" Marcie questioned. While she was making out and grinding on the hot guy, she wondered if this was what Gemma was up to, considering she didn't see her for a lengthy period of time. "The fuck happened last night?"

"Oh shit, how rude of me," Rowan turned towards Marcie. "We haven't officially met, but I'm sure you know - "

"Yeah, yeah," Marcie waved her hand back and forth. "I know all about you, Rowan Taylor. I'm Marcie. Now what the hell happened last night?"

"To answer your question," Rowan turned back towards Gemma. "She thinks we were just friends. College friends. Friends who studied together."

"You didn't think to tell your current fiancé, A.K.A the woman you're going to marry, about your long term ex girlfriend?!" Gemma was practically yelling. For this being her first real conversation with Rowan in over seven-hundred days, she was weirdly confident and not nervous. It was likely from the adrenaline stemming from her confusion of the whole how-the-hell-did-these-two-even-get-together situation that coursed through her mind multiple times in the days she'd been back home in Michigan.

"Never got around to it," Rowan shrugged. For this being his first real conversation with the first girl he ever loved, whom he hadn't spoken to since their breakup in 2018, he was also weirdly confident and not nervous. It was likely stemming from his confusion and realization that holy-shit-Avery's-old-best-friend-Gemma-is-my-Gemma-and-not -some-crazy-coincidence.

"How?" Gemma asked. "How long have you two been together, for you not to tell her this kind of information?"

"I'd like to know too," Marcie chimed in, as she watched the movie-like conversation play out in front of her. This wasn't her business, and she knew that. But she was nosey.

"We should get in the car," Rowan opened his passenger side door. Before Gemma could say anything else to try and confirm the millions of questions running through her brain, she listened. She opened the passenger side door and entered the car, with Marcie sitting in the middle of the backseat.

"We uh - " Rowan gulped. "We've only been together for eleven months. Engaged for two. Never really got around to completely covering my past."

"Wait, what?" Gemma almost laughed but felt her heart break a little at the same time. Rowan's confession meant one thing: he was only single for one year. He started dating Avery just a little over a year after Gemma broke up with him. It shouldn't bother her; he was free to date whoever and whenever he wanted. She just figured it would've taken him more time, considering she never dated anyone after him, despite convincing herself that she was fully over him.

"You're the last person who should be judging, Gems. Especially after what you did to me." Rowan groaned as he kept his eyes focused on the road.

"I just - don't understand." Gemma was at a loss for words. She wondered if Rowan wanted to marry her after only nine months of dating.

"Don't understand what?" Rowan asked, though he knew what Gemma's lack of words meant.

"Why get married after only nine months of dating?"

"Because -- " Rowan gulped. He hesitated, though played it off as if he was fully focused on pulling into the drive through of McDonald's. "We're in love."

Gemma did not have a chance to respond before Rowan pulled up to the speaker and began ordering. He ordered a few different breakfast sandwiches, though with all the newfound information Gemma was just given, she wasn't hungry anymore.

Despite the small talk Rowan made with Marcie on the way back (asking about New York and how she likes Michigan) Gemma stayed silent on the entire three minute ride back to her house.

"Gemma - " Rowan could tell Gemma was bothered, though he didn't understand why she was. She broke up with him. She ended the relationship. He understood that it may have been weird for Gemma to see her ex boyfriend with her ex best friend, though he did not believe she had a reason to be bothered by it.

Gemma would never admit to him that she was bothered. She couldn't quite understand why she was -- but hearing the words we're in love fall from Rowan's mouth, struck a nerve she didn't even realize she had. And despite Rowan saying her name, Gemma just grabbed the bag of food and quickly exited the car before the conversation could continue.

This wasn't necessarily the closure Rowan wanted, but he knew this was the only closure he was going to get.

♥♥♥

a/n: the plot is THICKENING

still trying to figure out the cast of this story, or at least who I see the characters as. maggie lindemann is totally marcie. still trying to figure out the others :) if u have any suggestions comment them below!