By the time they got to the food place Astrid was already slightly annoyed, playing it off well by messing around with Tommy and Tubbo, but still, in the back of her mind, she was miffed.

The idea to go to Pizza Hut was Wilburs, as usual, he was the head of planning; working everything out to the last detail, making sure everybody knew the time to get there (*cough* *cough* George).

It wasn't that George was ignoring her, per se, but it was very obvious too - her at least - that he was purposely not looking or interacting with her. To the others, it probably looked like normal, after all in everybody else's minds they'd only ever met once, but Astrid knew better.

At one point she had hung back a bit to walk with George, who was straggling behind on his phone, but as soon as he noticed her he walked faster to join Wilbur, starting an animated conversation immediately.

Obviously, he was taking the secrecy to another level, but she shouldn't have been surprised, he had always been like that.

So when they finally got sat down and George ended up across from her in the group, she could tell he was trying everything to not look her in the eyes, not even through their ordering and receiving their bowls for the salad bar, Astrid had to shake her head at herself as she guessed what he'd order, obviously getting it right as they'd ordered Pizza Hut together many times.

"Right," Wilbur clapped his hands loudly, a smile on his face that said he was going to start a speech they all would have to listen to, Tommy sighed loudly, leaning back in his seat and resting his head on Tubbo, "thank you all for coming,"

"Ha!" Tommy laughed, his next word was obvious, but Phil covered his mouth before that could happen.

"Thank you, Phil" Wilbur still spoke in his serious voice, " as I was saying, I'm glad we could all be here, even if some were late"

Her eyes glance at the boy in question, a faux confused look on his face.

"Maybe you were early" he mumbled, crossing his arms.

"Sure, Gogy" the shorter shook his head at the other, "it's good to see everybody again and-"

"Can you wrap this up" Tommy looked at his naked wrist, tapping an imaginary watch, "the salad bar is waiting"

"No Tom-"

"I agree with Tommy" George cut in, a smirk on his face, well until Tommy sat up straighter with a gasp.

"Gogy!" A short regretting 'oh god' was heard from the man, "Gogy agrees with me, that means I'm right" with that he stood up, dragging Tubbo and Ranboo with him to the food.

Wilbur sat, a dumbfounded look on his face as he watched them go.

"I also agree with Gogy" Jack cut in, standing up too.

"Does nobody listen to me?" Wilbur put his head in his hands, a short laugh sounding from the table.

Astrid, along with Sophie and Niki, stood to also get their salad, getting there in time for Niki to scold the boys for throwing sweetcorn at each other.

By the time the boys and Niki went back to the table, it was just Astrid and Sophie left, Astrid still picking at the salad whilst Sophie stood with a full bowl, a questioning look in her eyes.

"Hey, do you think-" she paused, looking back to the table before she spoke again, "could I swap places with you?"

Astrid almost dropped the spoon she was holding.

"What?"

"You're sat across from George, right, and I want to talk to him, y'know" she wiggled her eyebrows.

Now, Astrid obviously knew about Sophie's small crush on George because of their last meeting, but she thought that had passed and was obviously wrong.

There was no reason for her to be jealous, she knew George didn't like Sophie, and after all, she was the one in his bed most nights - not Sophie, but still, something in her chest burned.

But she couldn't say no, that was too obvious, so she had to say yes.

It was almost worth it for the smile on her face, almost.

——————

Written: 15th July 2022

Published: 16th July 2022

I didn't know where to stop this one so