▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐎𝐍𝐄 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ʜɪs ᴀɴsᴡᴇʀ ꒱


❝ FIVE BUCKS SAYS THAT
CORY & TOPANGA ELOPE ❞

▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅▅

After the graduation dinner with her family (including Shawn), Juliet and her mother returned to their apartment to have a quiet night in. She slept soundly now that the stress of finals and college acceptance was behind her and three whole months of summer lay before her. Unfortunately, her sleeping in was thwarted by an early-morning knock on her door. The repetitive sound roused her and she stood groggily when it became clear that her mother wasn't going to answer it.

Pulling on her bathrobe, she made her way to the entrance while she rubbed her eyes to clear the sleep from them. When she opened the door, Topanga was on the other side with an urgent expression on her face. Despite not even being alert yet, Juliet knew what had happened. "You asked Cory to marry you?" At the other girl's nod, the redhead sighed and pulled her into the apartment. "Alright, we can talk about it as soon as I wake up."

Nearly an hour later, they were sitting at the breakfast table with eggs and toast as Topanga finished her story: "and throughout the whole ceremony, I just kept thinking about what Mr. Feeny said and I realized that Cory was my good reason not to go to Yale. So now we're engaged."

"I'm happy for you, Panga— really," Juliet told her as she placed her toast down on her plate. "But you guys are so weird."

"No more weird than you and Shawn," the blonde argued back lightly. "You two have been together almost as long as we have."

"But you've had a much more stable relationship. Besides, both Shawn and I are cowards. If it was anyone else making this decision I'd probably be totally against it, but you and Cory are practically the definition of marriage."

Topanga smiled happily, though her tone became stern. "You can't tell anyone, Peaches— not even Shawn."

"I won't, I won't," she promised. "I can keep a secret. Unlike you, apparently." A grin appeared on her face. "It's nice to know why he looked so scared at graduation though."

"He wasn't scared!" Topanga exclaimed. "He was just a little flustered!"

Juliet pushed her eggs around her plate with her fork as she thought. While the announcement wasn't a surprise, she wanted to make sure her friends had considered everything. "What about college?"

"Yale? I already told you—"

"No, not that. I mean, the stereotype for people our age is to have fun and meet other people. You know, not getting married. You don't think that one of you might want to consider. . . someone else?" At the other girl's sharp look, she shrugged. "I'm just trying to make sure you're completely-completely sure. I mean, if Shawn had asked me at my graduation, I have no idea what my reaction would be. Of course, I don't think he'd ever have the guts but that's besides the point."

"You don't think he would?" the blonde asked curiously before taking a sip of her juice.

She shook her head. "I mean, it took him five years just for him to ask me to be his girlfriend. If anyone's going to do the asking, it'll be me." She sent the other girl a teasing glance. "You know how much I look up to you, Panga." Her friend laughed quietly at the as she continued: "I know you just asked him but do you have any idea for a date yet?"

"I don't know," Topanga admitted, "but Cory's said before that he wants a traditional wedding with all of his friends and family present, so you better keep your schedule clear."

"Don't worry," Juliet assured her. "I wouldn't miss this for the world."

🌎🌎🌎

The redhead beamed happily beside her boyfriend as he shared his change of heart about going to college with the Matthews. She'd been ecstatic when he'd told her and her excitement had hardly disappeared. As he finished talking, she pushed up on her toes slightly to press a quick kiss to his cheek as she squeezed their clasped hands. While she would have supported him either way, this was always the side she'd favored. 

Shawn gave her an affectionate look as Cory and Topanga entered the kitchen from the side door. At their appearance, Mr. Matthews immediately greeted them with: "Cory, Shawn just told us the big news. Why didn't you say anything?"

"You told them?" Cory demanded, turning to his best friend.

"You told Shawn?"

"Of course I told Shawn!" he retorted before he addressed his parents: "aren't you angry?"

"Well, you guys have been together forever," his father answered. "Why would I be angry?"

The curly-haired boy started laughing. "Talk about a load off my mind, huh?"

"I think you and Shawn will be very happy together as roommates," Mr. Matthews finished.

"You and Shawn? What about us?" Topanga asked as she looked up at her fiancé.

"Topanga, I don't think that the school would allow you and Cory to be roommates unless you were married," Mrs. Matthews said.

"Here's where I'm dead," Cory murmured.

"I thought we were going to decide this together," the blonde protested.

"Well, I was going to discuss it."

"You knew about it too?"

Shawn's eyes widened as he tried to form a response to his girlfriend's question before he blurted out: "you didn't tell me!"

"You didn't tell me!" she returned.

"Hey everybody," Eric greeted the assorted group as he entered the house, completely oblivious to the tense atmosphere of the room. "Got this new roommate. She is fine!" He patted Juliet on the head. "Sorry Jules, but you're no longer the only redhead in my life anymore."

"Alright, I'd kind of like to know what is going on now," Mr. Matthews huffed as he stood from his seat at the kitchen table.

Cory stepped forward. "Okay, dad. Uh, see—" He chuckled nervously. "Topanga and I are, you know, uh. . . It's really kind of amusing if you think about it. Uh, see. . . what's going to happen is, um. . ."

Topanga walked over to him as she fiddled with her fingers anxiously. "Cory and I are getting married."

"Are you out of your minds?"

Mrs. Matthews' response was much calmer. "Why?"

"'Cause they love each other," Shawn answered.

"And they've been married since kindergarten so they might as well make it official," Juliet added.

"You can't even clean up your room," the older man pointed out.

"I'm gonna get to it!"

"You'll wait until you finish college," Mrs. Matthews stated firmly.

"Of course they'll wait," her husband agreed.

"They haven't decided anything," the dark-haired boy put in supportively.

"Whose idiot idea was this?"

"Mine," Cory replied. "It was my idiot idea. It's my idiot life and I have the right to decide if I want to be a married idiot."

"I asked Cory to marry me," Topanga stated.

The curly-haired boy's eyes widened slightly. "Please don't yell at my fiancée."

His mother sent the blonde a displeased look. "Topanga, I thought you had more sense."

"I asked Bobby Peplowski to marry me," Morgan announced. "Then he kicked me."

"Have you thought of the responsibilities you're gonna have?" Mrs. Matthews talked over her daughter's remark.

"I'm sure they have—" Juliet began only for Shawn to gently grab her arm and pull her aside.

"Okay, Julie, let's just stay out of this."

"No. These are our friend, Shawnie. How can we not be a part of this decision?" she asked.

"They're not like us, they're hopelessly in love," he explained and quickly tacked on, "differently than how we are. Not everyone can be Cory and Topanga."

"Yeah, I know," the redhead agreed. "As long as you don't say 'Romeo and Juliet' I won't poke you."

He gave her an amused look as the argument continued: "we have paid for your food, your clothes, your phone, your car insurance—"

"You think you can handle all that?" Mr. Matthews finished the sentence.

"You know what? You two got married when you were my age, right?"

"I was a dope!" the man exclaimed. He turned to his wife with a guilty expression on his face. "I take that back. What I mean— what I'm trying to say is think of all the things in life that you'll be missing out on."

"Dad, Topanga and I—"

"No. No, you think you know what you want from your life, huh? You think you've got it all figured out. Well, things don't always turn out the way you plan. So, if you're going to do this, you better prepare to make sacrifices."

"What sacrifices did you make, Alan?" Mrs. Matthews asked in a chilly tone.

"What?"

As the older Matthews' disagreement persisted, the redhead turned to her boyfriend. "Five bucks says that Cory and Topanga elope."

Shawn grinned. "You're on. You think that I don't know my best friend? Get ready to lose, Julie."

"Please. You think I don't know how stubborn Cory can be?" she returned. "The first ice cream of the summer's going to be on you."

The dark-haired boy wrapped a comfortable arm around her shoulders. "It was gonna be on me anyway, babe. Are you free tomorrow?"

She felt her face warm and quickly looked away. "Well, now I'm busy."

🌎🌎🌎

When it was discovered that Cory and Topanga had left the house without anyone noticing, they migrated to the porch so Mrs. Matthews could pace around the yard. Juliet took a spot by Shawn as they leaned against the fence and Mr. Feeny came outside when he saw them.

"Oh, it's all my fault," the older woman lamented. "I came down way too hard on them. I made them do it."

"I'm the one that jumped all over them," Mr. Matthews spoke up from his place on the outdoor couch. "Cory stood up to me like a man and I just shot him down."

"No, no," Shawn said. "Cory came to us for advice. He wanted me to tell him to wait. I told him to go ahead and get married."

"I wasn't much better," the redhead admitted. "It seemed like a great idea until it lead to this mess."

"You can't tell Cory and Topanga what to do," Mr. Feeny told them. "I've been trying to do that since first grade. I remember when I tried to separate their desks. She kicked me, he bit me, someone threatened to fail the class and I remember some little punk kept saying 'leave them alone, they should get married!'"

"We were cute then, huh?"

"Precious. In fact, I happen to remember another pair who acted quite similarly on a certain school project. The point is, your advice came from a good place but Cory and Topanga aren't in the first grade anymore. They made their own decision and I think they'll be fine because they've been well brought up."

"And well taught," Mr. Matthews added.

"Well, I've done the best I can," Shawn stated.

With a heavy sigh, Mrs. Matthews sat down next to her husband. "Alan. . ."

"What's wrong?"

"I wish we could be at the wedding." 

A/n: as some of you might have noticed, I've shifted Juliet's face claim over to Karen Gillan for the last two acts. 

Similarly to the BMW canon, I've decided to include more adult themes for the rest of the book and I feel more comfortable using an actress who is closer to Rider's real-life age especially since he's now in his forties. While I normally don't put much stock in warnings, I know that there are some younger readers so I will say this: there is absolutely nothing graphic but more mature themes will be addressed from now on. This includes implied/referenced sex as well as physical relations outside of a relationship. While it certainly won't be in every chapter, I understand that this could make someone uncomfortable even when it's only hinted at.

If there's something that you'd like me to do to make this change more universal, please let me know! I'd like everyone to keep enjoying the same content I've been putting out, just with older tones. 

[written jun. 2021]
[edited jun. 2022]