Intermission
Some things are strange because they happen unexpectedly.
Others are strange because you have been waiting for them for so long that when they finally happen, they feel surreal.
For Prue, meeting Vaughn was the second kind.
They had been dating for almost three months now.
Three months of calls.
Three months of messages that somehow never seemed to end.
Three months of knowing his voice without ever hearing it beside her.
Three months of knowing his face without ever seeing it turn toward her in real life.
It was ridiculous how they still haven't met.
They had already fallen for each other through screens, and now they were supposed to figure out what happened when those screens disappeared.
The plan was simple.
A movie.
A nearby theatre.
Prue would come with her cousin.
Vaughn would come with one of his friends.
Everyone would pretend this was completely normal.
It wasn't.
Prue was nervous enough to check the time approximately every three minutes.
By the time she reached the theatre, Vaughn and his friend were already waiting outside.
She saw him.
He saw her.
And somehow, neither of them moved.
It was almost funny.
They had talked for hours about meeting.
They had planned the first hug.
They had joked about what they would say.
And now that they were actually standing in front of each other, they behaved like two strangers who had accidentally ended up at the same place.
Eventually, they went inside.
The tickets had already been booked.
The theatre was mostly empty.
Prue's cousin had other plans.
Apparently, sitting next to Vaughn was not negotiable.
"You're sitting together."
Prue stared at her.
Vaughn's friend stared at her.
Nobody argued.
They moved toward the back row, rearranging themselves until Prue and Vaughn were sitting together in one corner, while everyone else gave them enough space to breathe.
And then the movie started.
For a while, neither of them said much.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable exactly.
It was just... new.
She could hear the movie.
She could hear the air conditioning.
And occasionally, she could hear herself wondering whether he was as nervous as she was.
Then Vaughn leaned slightly toward her.
"You look prettier in real life."
Prue looked at him.
She wasn't sure if rehresed that.
She smiled, that's it.
Then, sometime during the movie,
he asked quietly,
"Can I hold your hand?"
Prue looked down at his hand.
Then back at him.
"Okay."
She placed her hand in his.
And immediately noticed it.
His hand was shaking.
Barely.
Just enough.
She knew he would deny it if she ever mentioned it.
But Prue knew what she'd felt.
So instead of saying anything, she placed her other hand over his.
Just for a moment.
His hand stopped feeling so tense.
Neither of them said anything about it.
They didn't need to.
They sat like that for a while.
The movie continued.
Every few minutes, Prue found herself looking toward the theatre entrance.
Vaughn noticed.
"You keep looking there."
"I'm just checking."
"For what?"
"Nothing."
He didn't push.
That was one of the things she liked about him.
The interval came.
The lights turned on.
The second the lights changed again, he pulled his hands away so quickly that Prue almost laughed.
They went outside for a while.
Prue was still nervous.
Not because of him.
Because everything about that day felt like it could somehow go wrong.
But nothing did.
They returned to their seats.
At one point, they were holding hands again when one of the theatre staff appeared through the back entrance.
He was carrying an incense stick, apparently doing some small ritual.
He looked at them.
They looked at him.
He left.
Prue's cousin immediately understood the situation.
"Maybe shift seats."
They did.
It was almost ridiculous how careful everyone was being.
They weren't doing anything wrong.
They were barely even talking.
Yet somehow, sitting next to each other felt like the biggest secret in the room.
Eventually, there were only about thirty or forty minutes left in the movie when they finally started talking properly.
The first real conversation of their relationship that wasn't through a screen.
And naturally, their first real conversation was about money.
Vaughn tried to give her his share.
"No."
"Prue."
"No."
"I feel weird."
"Keep it."
"I've never even spent anything on you."
"It's a treat."
"At least take our part."
"No."
"Please."
"No."
He tried again.
She refused again.
Eventually, it became a stupid little battle of who could outsmart whom.
He tried opening her hand.
She closed it.
She tried giving it back.
He stopped her.
After enough ridiculous attempts, Vaughn finally won.
Prue kept the money.
He looked satisfied.
"Finally."
They laughed.
And somewhere between the stupid argument about money and the movie ending, the nervousness began disappearing.
They were no longer two people meeting for the first time.
They were just Prue and Vaughn.The same two idiots who had been talking every day for months.
Only now, they were sitting beside each other.
He asked her for a kiss.
Prue froze.
"Um... no."
He smiled.
"You're shy."
"Maybe."
"That's okay."
Then, after a pause:
"Cheek?"
That, she could do.
She leaned over and kissed his cheek.
He smiled.
Then he turned his other cheek toward her.
"One more?"
She laughed.
"Fine."
Another.
Then another.
Somewhere along the way, Vaughn apparently decided that two wasn't enough.
Prue counted.
Seven.
Seven cheek kisses.
They left that theatre happier than they probably should have been.
Later, he would tell her that even though he hadn't gotten the kiss he'd asked for, he was still happy about those seven.
And Prue couldn't help smiling whenever she remembered that.
Before leaving, she remembered something.
She opened her arms for a hug.
He stepped toward her.
The hug itself was almost painfully normal.
Not dramatic.
Not cinematic.
Just two people finally meeting after months of waiting.
And then Vaughn stopped.
Prue looked at him.
"What?"
He glanced somewhere behind her.
"There's an auntie staring at us."
Prue stared at him.
He let go.
"Seriously?"
"Yeah."
She was offended.
Not because the hug ended.
Because after months of waiting, a random stranger had apparently won.
She never asked him for a hug again.
At least not first.
He could do the asking from then on.
They were about to leave when her cousin called them back.
"Wait!"
They turned.
"You haven't taken a picture!"
Of course they hadn't.
They were too busy being shy.
Her cousin forced them to pose "why are you acting like you're forced to take pictures with your neighbour's gf !!? Keep your hands and ,
SMILE BOTH OF YOU!!!!"
They finally clicked a few and ended up loving it later .
Before leaving, Prue called Vaughn's friend.
She hadn't spoken to him much all evening.
"Hey."
He looked at her suspiciously.
Prue held out the money.
"Give this back to him."
She handed it over and immediately ran away with her cousin before Vaughn could protest.
By the time Prue reached home, the day was already replaying in her head
The fact that the person she'd known through a screen now existed beside her.
For the first time, Vaughn wasn't a notification.
He was real.
And somehow, reality was even better than the version she'd imagined.
She didn't tell everyone.
Aurora knew.
A few people knew.
But Valerie didn't.
And neither did Ryan.
It wasn't because Prue wanted to hide Vaughn.
She simply knew them.
Valerie would eventually tell Pace.
And Prue didn't want another round of explanations, accusations and unnecessary drama over something that was supposed to be hers.
Ryan was different.
She knew he'd have an opinion.
And she wasn't sure she wanted to hear it yet.
Eventually, though, she told him.
Not immediately.
Later.
She expected at least some excitement.
Instead, Ryan barely reacted.
"Oh."
"That's it?"
"What do you want me to say?"
"I don't know. Something?"
He replied
"How's your family?"
Prue stared at the screen before going back to typing.
"Ryan."
"What?"
"I just told you I finally met Vaughn."
"Yeah."
"And you're asking me about my family?"
"Because I care about your family."
She rolled her eyes.
"You're weird."
"Truth and Dare?"
She laughed despite herself.
"You're changing the topic."
"No."
"You are."
"Truth or dare?"
And somehow, that became the conversation.
It wasn't that Ryan was angry.
He wasn't jealous.
He simply didn't seem to like what Vaughn represented.
A new version of Prue.
A version of her life that didn't revolve around the same people she'd always known.
And that was the first tiny crack.
Neither of them noticed it.
Not yet.
Because Prue was still too busy thinking about the boy whose hand had shaken in hers.
And Vaughn was still too busy thinking about seven cheek kisses.
For that night, that was enough.
