#can't believe i have an a/n section and still chat in the tags

[eventuallyfall-blog]

13 Envelopes

pairing: reader x lin summary: After graduating from UCLA, you would find any way to escape having to go back home. Lucky for you, your Aunt Jasmine Cephas Jones had organized a way for you to have the adventure you’d never gotten to have before. You’re ready to take her up on the offer. warnings: rpf (naturally), mentions of teen pregnancy a/n: thank you all for liking part i! we’re starting to go places now and this is Slightly Longer (by slightly i mean about 2k words longer). (previous part) (part 3) (part 4) (part 5) tagged: @defenestrate-yourself-please

According to Aunt Jasmine's instructions, the apartment was on 15th street and while you didn't know what to expect, you were expecting it to look so... residential. It was the only word you could use to describe the area with apartments everywhere and a corner store just a block away. It reminded you oddly of your own apartment area back in LA and that was enough to make you feel homesick and eager to get back home already. At this point, it felt like you were trying to be something you weren't. You weren't the adventurer like Aunt Jasmine and you didn't take risks like this. But you'd came all this way and leaving felt like it'd be a let down.

So you climbed up to the door, finding you couldn't open the front door. You gave a sound of annoyance, turning your head to note the buzzers. To your surprising, the name Pippa was written out next to one of the buzzers in the cleanest, largest handwriting you'd seen in a while. It reminded you of the nice girl with a big water bottle that had sat next to you in class who had always let you borrow her notes if you'd been out of class and had shown you how to apply the perfect wing. Instantly you liked this Pippa and instinctively trusted her. You pressed the buzzer and a sweet sounding voice answered. “I'll buzz you up.”

Pippa didn't even know who it was and she was willing to open the door to you. You took note of her apartment number and climbed the stairs up to her apartment and knocked on the door. The door opened to reveal a tall woman with long, dark hair and kind eyes. Her eyes went wide and instantly she threw her arms around you – much to your surprise. “You must be Y/N! Your aunt has told me so much about you,” she said as she pulled you in and you realized this must be Pippa. “I was beginning to think you were never going to show! Oh, your aunt is going to be so, so happy to see you.”

You didn't expect her to be this talkative nor did you expect there to be a room waiting for you. The room Pippa showed you was as big as your apartment in LA's kitchen and living room put together. Wasn't New York City supposed to be smaller? “Uh, it's nice to meet you,” you finally managed to get in as soon as Pippa fell silent. “Aunt Jas set all this up?”

“I helped. I got her the copy of the key to my place,” she said with pride. “Oh, I was supposed to give you this! Your aunt also says you should change that as soon as you get the chance. And before you open the next letter, I need to let you know that your aunt and I are involved in this musical and it's about to get crazy. I'll take you by rehearsals later – get settled in and changed!”

She pressed a piece of paper with four numbers scrawled across it in your Aunt Jasmine's handwriting – your mother's birthday. You never really thought of your Aunt Jasmine as caring towards your mother since she'd stopped visiting when you were fourteen after a huge fight with your mother. You couldn't really remember the details of the fight but it had been upsetting enough all the same. It was a sign that maybe your Aunt Jasmine did care about you and your mother. You pulled the key out from the envelope again – so this place is what the key was for, then. While you were exhausted, you were also kind of curious about the musical Aunt Jasmine was involved in. So instead you put your backpack on the bed provided, examining the space and finding that you had a bathroom to yourself as well. An unexpected perk. Letter number two could wait until you were clean and changed.

The plane ride had left you feeling a little grimy so you decided you might as well shower before you change. It gave you time to think over what was happening here. Overthinking was one of your best and worst qualities. While it had enabled to turn over those twenty page essays for classes easily it also paralyzed you whenever you do something that so clearly was just for you. It was easy to think how leaving California was a mistake, it was easy to see the cons and none of the pros. You supposed you probably should start thinking pros list. The shower time gave you a little time to think about the pros of the situation you'd thrown yourself into (with the help of your Aunt Jasmine).

Pro number one: you'd get to see your aunt, who you hadn't seen in years. And maybe seeing her again would bring you two closer together, which could be listed as pro number two. This was a new experience and that could help you in your writing. Which would make it easier to get a writing job somewhere, anywhere. That was a total five pros right there. You wanted to think of at least ten but that was all you could bring yourself to think of.

As for getting dressed – you weren't certain what one wore to rehearsals for a musical. You decided to go jeans and a simple t shirt, figuring Pippa would set you straight if you'd gotten it wrong. Letter number two had a cute little sketch of Lady Liberty on it and you wondered who did it. You couldn't picture Aunt Jasmine as an artist in the traditional sense of the word.

Honey bun,

If you're opening this letter, I'm assuming you made it to Pippa's safely. Which means I'll proceed forward as if you are at Pippa's. So, you might be wondering what prompted me to reach out to you after all these years and with no explanation whatsoever give you money and a plane ticket and expect you to drop everything and visit me in New York City. In truth, it's partly because I miss you and want to see you again. However, the biggest reason is because everyone deserves a chance at adventure and I know you rarely go on adventures.

I'm not sure why you don't, but whatever the reason, it's high time you had one. And I know you're probably wondering why I asked you to leave all your electronics behind in a world where electronics are becoming a necessity. Which is why this letter is mostly about explanations. For a lot of things, like why I never contacted you after the fight with your mother, what I've been doing since I last saw you, why I decided to give you an adventure. But first things first: why you couldn't bring electronics along.

Leaving behind everything you know is scary. It's the scariest thing you could ever do and it's even scarier without the security blanket electronics give you. It gives you a chance to experience the world in a way that feels brand new. I have no way of knowing if you followed that request or not and it's not like I'll be searching you to make sure you followed through. But I'm hoping that if you did follow through, you followed through all the way.

Now, for what I've been doing since you last saw me. I went to school, got a degree in acting, and have been working a few odd jobs here and there. That's really it. Nothing that could give me any excuse to not call or even send a letter – which is why I'm probably going overboard with sending fourteen at all at once. Which might be guilt talking, I'm sure. But it just felt like after all the things I said about your dad, you might not want to talk to me. I don't know how close you are to your father, but I stand by calling him a son of a bitch and I'm not sure why she stays with him. Hopefully that doesn't give you second guesses on staying.

I suppose now that you have the information to the bank card and the money, you could take it and go wherever you want. Which is why I'm going to change it up a bit here on the letter opening order so you feel a little bit more interested in staying involved with this adventure. You cannot open letter number three until I get to see you. Hope to see you soon!

All my love, Aunt Jasmine

With that, it was like the memories came flooding back of Aunt Jasmine's visits before they stopped after the fight with your mother. The firecracker who would take you on trips to the museums and bought fancy caviar for you to try “just once” and somehow always made sure she'd stayed in an amazing hotel for you to play princess in. How she'd take you to concerts and plays, insisting that culture was important for a growing child despite not being that much older than you. You didn't realize how much you'd missed all of it until you read this particular letter.

You found yourself having to wipe away tears and still unable to piece together why you could barely remember the fight Aunt Jasmine and your mother had. You vaguely remembered it starting with your Aunt Jasmine indeed telling your mother she didn't understand why she stayed with dad and mentioning your grandfather being willing to help. For your part, you didn't understand why your mother was so against your grandfather's help the same you didn't understand how your mother and Aunt Jasmine had two different mothers. He'd offered to help at multiple points in your life, floating in and out and eventually he just existed as an abstract concept, the only proof he existed being the movies and TV shows he was on.

Why your mother refused help from your grandfather didn't matter, however. You remember vaguely the fight being about how Aunt Jasmine always stuck her nose where it didn't belong and how your mother insisted she was happy still with your father. Your mother accused Aunt Jasmine of not having enough life experience to understand. Anyone with eyes could tell she was lying, though. The final nail in the coffin had been your mother accusing Aunt Jasmine's mother of being a whore. That was when she stopped visiting.

Pippa reappeared with a bright grin, taking you out of your train of thought. To your great relief, she was dressed just as casually as you were. You had dozens of questions for her – what Aunt Jasmine had been up to besides acting, how they'd met, what the musical they were doing even was, how much involvement did she have in this – but none of them ever reached your lips. Instead you followed after her, noting the trains that you two took on your way to the Richard Rogers theater. While you were expecting some level of amazement, you weren't expecting an actual Broadway theater. “Wait, this is on Broadway?”

You were stunned if only because you couldn't picture your Aunt Jasmine as a Broadway type. You could barely remember if Aunt Jasmine could sing, come to think of it. Pippa nodded absently as she led you through the stage door where there was a level of hurry that you'd never encountered before – even in UCLA where everyone was rushing to their next class or rushing to meet someone. You could feel the stress radiating off of the people as Pippa led you to her dressing room with a bright grin. “Your aunt and I share a dressing room with Renee. Renee's going to be excited to meet you – Jas won't shut up about how proud she is of you for your master's.”

Aunt Jasmine knew you had a master's degree and bragged about it to her friends – who were actresses on a Broadway play. That sentence definitely did not seem like a sentence you'd ever think or use to summarize part of your life but there it was. Unexpected and unprecedented. Everything about this was unexpected, really. At some point, it became far too much to just sit in Pippa's dressing room so you asked her where the bathroom was. She gave you directions and you got up and left – running straight into a man who looked like he needed a really good night's rest and dark, shoulder length hair. And unfortunately for you, he was carrying extremely hot coffee that ended up all over your favorite comfy shirt. And you couldn't help the loud swear that escaped your lips while he instantly went, “Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Here, let me help!”

At some point, he realized as he was going to help (in the loosest definition of the word, you supposed) by dabbing at the stain on your chest. For your part, your cheeks flamed as you realized this very attractive man had his hands hovering right over your chest with a napkin. You grabbed the napkin and dabbed at your shirt yourself. “Not that I'm against you touching my chest, but I feel you should probably buy me dinner first,” you managed to get out, a lot shakier than you would like. At least he had the decency to be just as embarrassed as you were. Some guys were so indecent by not being embarrassed when you were. This was made worse by remembering how your Aunt Jasmine was definitely far better at flirting than you. Broadway actress, better flirter, better at keeping her curls in order, better at applying red lipstick... it was entirely unfair to compare yourself to your aunt, you knew. However, you also felt it was fair since she was only two years older than you as well – it was like comparing yourself to a sister. “I'm sorry about running into you and making you waste your coffee, though.”

“It's... fine,” he got out and you took note of how dark his eyes were. Like black holes, sucking you in and making it impossible for you to escape. That was also unfair. “I'm sorry, I don't recognize you. I thought I met everyone on the crew.”

“Oh, I'm not on the crew,” you said, realizing he must be involved with one of the plays going on at this theater. “I'm Y/N – Jasmine's niece.”

A flash of recognition crossed his face. “Oh,” he exclaimed, pulling you into a large hug that you weren't expecting. He gave nice hugs, you noted with a slight pang of panic. Attractive and gave good hugs was an unfair combination, you decided. “I'm Lin. Your aunt talks about you all the time. I didn't realize... I just thought you'd be younger.”

He was definitely blushing, you noted. “Uh yeah,” you said, realizing that it was kinda screwed up that your mother and Aunt Jasmine were so far apart in age. You rarely thought about it until someone pointed it out, actually. You didn't want to think about the reasonings behind that and Lin didn't need to know everything about your screwed up family. “Well, I'm not. Actually, do you know where she is? I'm supposed to meet up with her.”

Lin nodded quickly. “We just finished rehearsing Say No To This – she's still on the stage talking to Anthony. Here, I'll walk you there. I don't want you getting thrown out by security just because they don't recognize you. Did you not get a guest badge?” You shook your head, wondering what on earth he was talking about. You quickly realized this musical was a much bigger deal than Pippa previously implied. There was a lot of people here but somehow they were all involved in the project. Lin managed to fill the void with hundreds of words, talking at an insanely rapid speed and you couldn't bring yourself to admit you were having a hard time keeping up with him. So you tuned him out.

There Aunt Jasmine was on stage and of course she unfairly outshone you even in just a tank top and dance pants. And suddenly you were nervous – it'd been so long since you last saw your aunt. What if she didn't recognize you? What if you had nothing to talk about? Of course, these fears were ridiculous considering Pippa seemed to recognize you right off the bat despite never meeting you – why wouldn't your own aunt? When Aunt Jasmine finally glanced over at you, a large smile appeared on her face and she abandoned her conversation with who you figured must be Anthony to run over to you and pull you into a tight hug. “Y/N,” she half yelled. “Oh gosh, girl, it's been too long!”

Somehow, her recognizing you was worse. You were heavily aware of everyone looking over at you and your aunt. That was the thing about Aunt Jasmine – she tended to attract a lot of attention. You wanted to give a scathing reply asking whose fault that was but nerves got the better of you. “I missed you,” you said instead and it wasn't even a lie. “It's good to see you again.”

Aunt Jasmine was grinning as she led you back to Pippa and her's dressing room. You supposed that it would be nice to catch up with Aunt Jasmine proper. Almost ten years without seeing her. And as your Aunt Jasmine recounted stories of meeting the cast, stories about the cast in general, and stories from her own college experience, you realized what you missed most about Aunt Jasmine. Whenever you saw Aunt Jasmine, you were guaranteed to come home with a story. She and you had mostly grown up together. Eventually, you found yourself sitting in her and Pippa's dressing room recounting your twenty-first birthday to them in laughter. “So my good friend Lissa goes and flashes the bouncer so the whole group could get in despite me going we should just go somewhere where everyone can get in,” you said, fond memories of Lissa resurfacing. “And it was so dumb, because we ended up having to leave early anyway because it turns out that Katy couldn't hold her liquor at all so we didn't even get to see the band that we went to see play!”

Pippa had her hand over her mouth, doubled over in laughter. You'd barely noticed the time flying by until someone knocked on the door. “Hey, Renee is here so Lin wants you guys to come rehearse the Schuyler Sisters,” the person said. “Oh and, Y/N, you're welcome to stay and watch.”

And it was then that you realized: you could open the third envelope now. Yet at the same time – you were truly curious to see what your aunt was doing in this play. Schuyler – why was that ringing a bell? You supposed there was only one way to find out.