Chapter Text
Toni watches as small flurries of snow drift out across the runway at Minneapolis-St. Paul International, dread fills her stomach as she paces in front of the window. She’s been constantly checking her phone and searching the crowded gate for Martha, who’s supposed to be meeting her here for their flight.
Two of her best friends are getting married at the end of a ten day vacation in Kona, Hawaii, and even though Toni is over the fucking moon for Leah and Fatin, there’s a strong feeling of dread and anxiety when she thinks about what going on this trip entails.
It’ll be the first time she’s seeing Shelby since their breakup over a year ago, and yeah okay, time heals all wounds or however that bullshit saying goes, but based off the way things ended, Toni isn’t sure an eternity could do the trick. And the only good thing about all of this is that she has twelve hours of flying to prepare herself for the inevitable reunion.
Toni hears an announcement for their connection flight to Phoenix.
“Good afternoon folks, Flight B7314 to Phoenix will be boarding in one hour,” the announcer speaks out over the intercom. And with that, she sighs, sitting down in a chair and letting her head rest against the cold airport window.
She pulls her phone out of her bag to send Martha another text, thankful that the girl had agreed to switch plane tickets with Shelby. Ten days on an island with Shelby already sounded like torture enough, let alone twelve hours on a plane.
3:02pm: umm where the hell are you???
She sits there for almost forty-five minutes will no sign of Martha, her anxiety increasing when they announce that the flight will be boarding in fifteen minutes.
3:46pm: ???
Toni lifts her head up from her phone, eyes frantically searching the airport gate for a pair of brown eyes, except her eyes land on someone else entirely. Someone she had notplanned on seeing this soon.
Green eyes meet hers from the other side of the gate and a look of shock appears on Shelby’s face. Her blonde hair is up in a messy bun, and she’s wearing comfy plane clothes, sweats and a University of Minnesota hoodie. Toni’s hoodie. She had wondered what the fuck had happened to that. If Toni wasn’t so pissed off she’d probably notice how Shelby still somehow looks beautiful, her face makeup free and her cheeks pink from the chilly air outside.
Shelby’s approaching her when Toni’s phone goes off and a text from Martha appears on her screen.
3:51pm: Don’t be mad. I thought you guys could use this time to talk. Catching my connection in Denver now. See you in a few hours. Love you :) <3
Toni rolls her eyes, “She fucking parent trapped us,” she whispers under her breath.
Shelby is almost in front of her now, her mouth beginning to open like she’s going to say something.
When she finally reaches Toni, Toni cuts her off before she can say anything, “Marty screwed us over. I’m taking the aisle seat,” she says, hastily slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading straight for the boarding line.
She ignores the small feeling of guilt creeping into her stomach, knowing very well that Shelby hates flying and the window seat makes her nervous. In a world where they were still together, Toni would take the window seat no problem, holding Shelby’s hand while the plane takes off.
But what did Toni care? They weren’t together anymore.
….
It’s mid-January and the snowfall is light for Minnesota this time of year, so Toni has opted to walk to class instead of taking the campus bus. She soon realizes that that was a big mistake because not even five minutes into her fifteen minute walk, she feels the cold wind stinging her cheeks as her brown, curly hair whips across her face.
Growing up in Minnesota, Toni should have been used to the cold, so she wasn’t sure when she started to become such a fucking pussy about it, but soon enough she finds herself ducking into the small coffeeshop that’s tucked away behind the science building. The place is small, with a few tables scattered about. Toni often forgets the place even exists, and as her eyes scan the room there’s only a couple of students typing away on laptops, half empty cups of cold coffee on the tables, long forgotten.
“Hi there!” a cheery voice speaks out, drawing Toni’s eyes to the front counter.
The voice has a thick southern accent which sounds veryout of place all the way in Minnesota. Though the accent is long forgotten once Toni’s eyes land on its owner; a girl with a perfectly high blonde ponytail, bright green eyes, and a wide grin is looking back at her expectantly.
Toni opens her mouth to respond, but her voice catches in the back of her throat, causing her to croak out a weak “Hi,” that sounded more like a breathless whisper than anything else.
Her cheeks flush a deep red as she clears her throat to try again, “Sorry. Uh, hi,” she said, shaking her head slightly as she walks closer to the counter. And Toni wonders to herself when the fuck she became such a mess around cute girls. Except this girl wasn’t just cute, she was beautiful.
The girl smiles again as Toni approaches the counter and before she can really say anything else the girl looks at her and says, “Texas.”
Toni looks at her, eyebrows scrunched together slightly, “Sorry, what?” she asks.
The girl laughs lightly, “Texas is where I’m from,” she says.
Toni looks at her, still confused before she continues, “The accent. It catches people off guard sometimes…though ya’ll do kind of talk funny up here too,” she says.
Toni’s eyes widen slightly at the realization. The accent. Right. The thing is though, she hasn’t really thought much of the girl’s accent once she saw the mouth it was attached to. Her plump, pink lips and perfect white teeth was all Toni saw. She found herself looking down at those very lips before trailing her eyes back up the girl’s face. She’s met with an expectant look and Toni knows right away that she has missed something, her face growing more red (if that was even possible).
“Sorry, what?” she asks, cursing internally for being such a fucking idiot.
“I asked what I could get ya?” the girl repeats, smiling in a way that Toni knows she’s been caught.
“Right. Small black coffee, please.”
She watches as the blonde grabs a cup and a sharpie, “Name?” she asks, looking up and meeting Toni’s eyes with her own. The green of her eyes is actually really fucking startling. They are so bright and she has little wrinkles by the corner of eyes, and it made sense because Toni is pretty sure she has not stopped smiling. Normally, this kind of friendliness would seem nauseatingly fake to Toni, but it doesn’t feel that way right now. This girl is a complete stranger, but everything about her feels so genuine.
“Toni,” she says, smiling a little because she’s pretty sure she’s coming off as pretty fucking rude right now. She pays the girl and she goes about making her coffee as Toni moves to stand awkwardly at the other end of the counter.
“So Toni,” she starts as she hands over the hot cup, “I haven’t seen you before. You don’t seem like the students we get in here, the pre-med majors coming in for their first of many caffeine fixes of the day,” she chuckles.
Toni laughs too, “Yeah well that’s not really me. I’m a social work major, first year.”
She nods understandingly, squinting her eyes slightly before she said, “Yeah, that fits.”
Toni blushes for what feels like the hundredth time, “What about you?” she asks.
“Nursing, so I guess I shouldn’t really be making fun of the pre-meds,” she says, and it the first time since Toni has walked into this place that the girl looks a little bit nervous.
Toni squints her eyes like the girl had before and says, “Yeah, that fits.”
And the girl makes this sound, this loud, joyous, unapologetic laugh, clearly not caring about the glares she receives from the other patrons.
“I’m Shelby,” she says once her laughter fades out, and she says it like it’s an invitation for Toni to say something more. Of course she doesn’t.
Instead, Toni swallows nervously, bites her top lip and says, “Well, Shelby…thanks for the coffee.” And before Shelby can say anything back, Toni is hightailing it the fuck out of that coffeeshop.
The cold air is a welcome relief to the blush that still colors her cheeks. She spends the rest of her walk to class replaying their interaction, cringing at how awkward and embarrassing she was, swearing to herself that she’d never show her face in that place again.
God, she can’t wait to tell Martha about this later.
But what Toni doesn’t know is that she’d be going back there every day from then on, even days when it’s a fucking blizzard out and she doesn’t even have class, just to buy a coffee she could easily make in her dorm room, all to see a cute blonde she wouldn’t end up dating for another two years.