for someone who works part time at a coffee shop, margaret was never really a coffee person. cj started noticing this a while after they became friends, but it became hard to ignore once they became roommates.
“if you work at a sandwich place, do you go home and make yourself a sandwich every day? no you don’t, because you’d get sick of them so fast.” that was always her reasoning, followed by a giggle which her roommate always found cute.
so what if cj had a crush on the redhead? who wouldn’t? everything about her, cj found herself longing after. her eyes that always lit up when talking about her goals and dreams, her numerous oversized metal band shirts, her short hair with wavy bangs that always fell in her face, her soft voice — yeah, she was whipped. she liked everything about her.
well, almost everything.
“margaret i am begging you, please drink more water.”
“my boss is having me work overtime so i’m in need of caffeine for today!”
cj rubbed her face, letting out a tired, exasperated sigh. “but do you really need three bottles of that crap?”
margaret looked at the tea bottle in her left hand and the two bottles under her arm. she was about to leave for work and had no time to put them in her bag. “and what of it?”
“margaret.”
she may not have been a coffee person, but she was definitely more of a tea person. more specifically, the bottled kind sold at grocery stores that come in different flavors like green tea, half tea-half lemonade, mango, etc. margaret’s favorite was the green tea with peach, and at this point it’s now flowing in her bloodstream.
“it’s not like they’re gonna kill me. i just need to stay awake for work.”
“...fine.”
margaret gave cj a gentle smile as she reached for the doorknob.
“at least take only two. put one back.”
she froze for a moment before letting her hand off the doorknob to put down the bottle in her hand.
“and leave the one in your bag too.”
margaret sighed as she put down all of the bottles to reach into her bag to get the fourth bottle she snuck in there.
“anymore?” cj said, raising an eyebrow.
“ceej, i swear to you, there’s no more.”
their apartment seemed to be dead silent for a moment before cj sighed. “you know that i care about you, right? like you can do whatever you want, of course, but you know drinking those and only those isn’t good for you. i don’t want you to, like, die.” she could feel her face getting warmer by the second.
margaret opened the front door, ready to leave. “there are worse things to worry about i guess, but it’s cute, that you care about me.”
“i’m your friend. it’s my job to care and worry about you.”
“i know.” margaret started to walk through the door before freezing in the middle of the doorway. cj was about to ask if she was ok before she quickly swiped a bottle from the counter and dashed down the hallway, laughing as she got closer to the stairwell.
“MARGARET-” she tried to go after her but decided, nah, let’s let her have this. she smiled softly before closing the front door.
-
margaret wasn’t kidding when she said she was working overtime. she usually got home around 5:30 but it was almost 7. cj had just sent a “when are you heading home?” text to her when she looked over to the kitchen and saw the green tea bottles from that morning.
since margaret drank those so often, would she taste like peaches if i kissed her?
immediately cj grabbed a pillow and started to hit her head with it because no, no, bad brain, she doesn’t like you like that, you’re going to hurt yourself if you keep thinking like that.
but cj couldn’t help it. she’s liked margaret for a while now and even though she knew that her roommate didn’t feel the same, her brain always had the thought of what if.
she thought of both their hands intertwined as they cuddled on the couch and watched 90s rom coms. she thought of going on dates and going to visit her during work. she thought of picking her up bridal style whenever just to see her laugh. she thought of kissing her freckles, her nose, her forehead, her lips that probably tasted like peach green tea.
cj screamed into the pillow her face was in because holy shit she was so gone.
she grabbed her phone to rant to one of her friends, eileen, about her bi struggles, because that’s what she always did. she ranted about her pining over her roommate, eileen talked about her and her boyfriend, it was an equal exchange of ranting.
ceej
oh my god eileen
im sokxnxdn
LISTEN
shes working overtime rn and im :(
I MISS HER SM LIKE,,, OK
i havent stopped thinking abt her ever since she left and hhhhh
LISTEN SHES JUST SO PRETTY N CUTE W/O EVEN TRYING LIKE???? HOW
MAAM PLS SPARE MY SOUL,,,,,
and shes super sweet and funny and her laugh is literally my favorite thing ever and
k gonna get SappyTM for this one im Sorry
but i never thought id become friends w her but now that i am im So Happy that we are because she’s such a good fucking PERSON and GOD
I FEEL AWFUL FOR WANTING TO DO COUPLEY SHIT WITH HER BECAUSE SHES AS STRAIGHT AS A RULER BUT LISTEN
and I KNOW that i ALWAYS TELL HER “hey margaret uhh Bls Drink More Water” but i bet her kisses taste like the tea she drinks and my brains short circuiting as we speak
alrighty u probably went to bed early gn ! sorry for ranting more than usual w/o u here :(
exhausted out of her mind for the last three minutes she spent typing at the speed of lightning, cj was about to shut off her phone when she got a text.
eye lean
thought you'd like to know mg’s on her way :) i had to leave early but she messaged me like 5 minutes ago that she left work.
wait.
ceej
wh
wait i thought i sent you smth uh
eye lean
what was it?
wait, ok, so if she didn’t see it then who…
before cj could finish her thought, she got another text notification.
ceej
alrighty u probably went to bed early gn ! sorry for ranting more than usual w/o u here :(
roomie ♡
cj?
cj felt like ice water had been dumped on her. still processing what just happened and unsure of what to do, she locked her phone and just sat there, unaware of her own breathing, her mind being only white noise but also running a million miles an hour at the same time.
the ding of her new text notifications seemed to snap her out of it.
roomie♡
i’m almost home
i swear i’ll be there soon just
fuck please hold on
no no no no she had to get out of there right now.
at that moment, cj bolted from the couch towards the door to get the hell out. she swung the door open, only to freeze right in her tracks.
because margaret was just on the other side, hand out in front of her like she was just about to reach for the doorknob herself. cj made the mistake of making eye contact and, fuck, margaret looked just as frantic as she was.
almost scared, but also, determined maybe?
cj also noticed how heavily her roommate was breathing, her face absolutely flushed, as she leaned against the doorframe to catch her breath.
did she run home?
“cj, i.. on my god my lungs are on fire i’m sorry,” she put her bag down as she still stood wheezing in the doorway.
“margaret, i’m so sorry, i-”
before she could finish, margaret leaned up from where she was standing so that she was once again face to face with her. the panicked look on her face was replaced with something unreadable. cj thought she could tell what her roommate was thinking just by the look on her face, but now she had no idea what was going on in her head. margaret took cj’s face into her hands and looked straight into her eyes, not daring to look away.
“you have no idea how much i also want to do coupley shit with you.”
huh?
“you have the nerve to call me pretty when you’re literally the most beautiful person ever. god, every time i see you i have to try so hard not to just grab you by your shirt and kiss you breathless and each one of the little freckles on your face. literally every single one of them, cj!”
wait, huh?
“i’ve liked you for ages and always thought you had a thing for eileen’s boyfriend’s friend so i never thought you’d ever like me back. i just.. you’re such a good friend of mine and you make me so happy and i want nothing more than to be yours.”
just like that morning, the apartment went completely silent.
“...cj? hello?”
yeah, at this point, cj was out of it. how else were you supposed to react when your crush tells you that she likes you back? she never thought this would ever happen so obviously she wasn’t prepared for this at all.
she snapped out of it once margaret started to rub her thumb across her cheek, her hand suddenly becoming cold from how hot her face felt.
margaret giggled. “did i break you?”
“only a little bit,” cj managed to say, even though she probably sounded like a nervous wreck.
margaret, no longer looking nervous herself, had the softest, most fond look on her face, like everything she truly ever wanted was right in front of her. “i like you so much, cj.”
fully breaking out of her nervous spell now, cj slowly wrapped her arms around margaret’s waist and pulled her closer, a smile making its way onto her face. “i really like you too.”
“gee, i would’ve never guessed.”
“one minute into dating and you’re already clowning me. i don’t think anything’s really changed."
margaret raised an eyebrow. “dating, huh?”
“i-i mean, unless you want to? i just assumed-”
“does this mean i can kiss you right now or do we save that for the first date?”
oh.
it took a second for cj’s brain to catch up and process the fact that she’s going to kiss margaret. “not until i kiss you first.”
with cj’s face still in her hands, margaret pulled her close and separated the space between them. there were no fireworks, no slow motion or even time stopping. just cj’s heart erupting as she kissed her back in the, for once, comfortable silence of their apartment.
the kiss felt like an eternity, until it became two, than three, and really once you start kissing someone you really like kissing, it’s hard to stop.
they ended up both parting as they both still stood in their doorway, taking each other in.
margaret was the one who broke the silence. “i believe i beat you to it.”
her brain once again malfunctioning, she responded with the first thing that came to mind, “you taste like peach green tea.”
margaret just laughed (and cj’s brain kept short circuiting because that’s just the effect margaret’s laugh has on her) and smiled brightly. “i thought you didn’t like my bottled crap.”
“while i do think it tastes nice,” cj said with a defeated sigh, “i’m begging you to please drink more water.”
“i know, i know.”
-
“i also rant to eileen about you.”
“oh do you?”
“all the time during work. she’ll probably be ecstatic once she finds out she never has to hear us unknowingly pine over each other anymore.”
cj just hummed in agreement, pulling margaret closer on their couch as the movie they were watching plays in the background.
“cj?”
“yeah?”
“don’t think i’m forgiving you for calling me straight as a ruler.”
“ok yeah, that’s my bad.”