#(although i like to think it was chloe who was around to piece jake back together when he found out his parents skipped town) | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

erin-bo-berin · 4 years

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Home Run

MASTERLIST

Happy Saturday! I’m back with a THIRD new fic in a row. I just couldn’t wait to post this one either. Requested by @andiebeaword, this fic was obviously inspired by the baseball scenes from 8x06. This was just so much fun to write and I liked being able to switch it up some and have it be like a huge BAU annual baseball game with past and current agents. It was interesting to be able to write about all these characters together, some of them never even being around at the same time on the show. Also, I had to use this gif cause Spencer’s huge smile in this scene will never fail to make me happy. Sit back, relax and enjoy a nice BAU ballgame fluff piece. Happy reading!

Spencer Reid/Reader

Rating: G (fluff)

Word Count: 2,634

It was the arrival of the annual baseball game that started it all.

Every year, the BAU held what was the most well known event outside the office; the baseball game was held on the first weekend in June, infamous for the most competitive game between all different members of the BAU, past and present.

Past members of the team came back every year to play. It was a nice, fun way to see everyone again.

This year was going to be a little...different.

“Guys, come on! You know why I never take part in this!” Spencer Reid whined, “I had to be exempt from any physical test just to get in the FBI!”

You chuckled at your friend and coworker’s expense. Standing next to you was Derek Morgan, another of your coworkers. Beside the two of you was a baseball cannon, loaded with balls for Spencer’s practice.

“Reid, you know Kevin Lynch can’t make the game this year due to a family commitment. We’re short one player,” Derek hollered back.

“I don’t even know how to play baseball!”

“Which is precisely why we’re here,” you retorted, “All you do is swing, hit the ball and run. It’s easy!”

“Easy for you,” he grumbled, lifting his bat again, “Okay, let’s try it again.”

“Don’t think, just feel it,” Morgan called.

“Feel it, feel it,” Spencer nodded.

The ball went shooting from the apparatus and you saw Spencer trying to follow it with his eyes. You crossed your fingers, hoping he’d hit it.

He swung.

And he missed. Again.

“Reid, that’s not feeling it!”

“I’m feeling like an idiot!” Spencer shouted back, exasperated.

“Come on pretty thang, go show your pretty boy how it’s done,” Morgan nodded to the home plate.

You cut him a warning glance, your cheeks reddening. You’d had a tiny crush on Spencer since the first day you met him.

Derek’s nickname for Spencer was pretty boy. When you’d joined the team, you became pretty thang. It was often his joke that Spencer was your pretty boy, which embarrassed you to no end. He definitely rooted for you two as a couple.

Despite all the relentless teasing, Spencer remained mercifully oblivious. You’d rather not deal with that embarrassment of your crush being exposed. Although if it was up to Derek Morgan, he’d shouted it from the rooftops for you ages ago.

“Kid, come here. Watch how she bats, okay?”

Derek put his arm around Spencer’s shoulders as you took your place behind the home plate, bat raised and ready. Morgan loaded another ball and it flew towards you.

A crack of the bat sounded as you hit it high in the air, watching it soar to the further end of the field.

“All you gotta do is swing your hips and hit it!” you called.

“If I had hips like that, I would,” Spencer retorted.

You knew Spencer didn’t mean anything by the remark, but you still felt a tad embarrassed at his focus on your body.

“Grab a mitt big boy, we’re practicing your catching,” Morgan called, running to grab one for you.

“Can’t wait,” Spencer mumbled sarcastically.

You chuckled, taking the mitt from Morgan and handing him the baseball bat.

“Don’t think I didn’t hear that remark of his about those sexy curves,” he teased you as he took your place batting.

“What’s that? You’re gonna take it easy on us?” you chuckled, purposely ignoring his remark.

Derek was a beast at batting and if he was going to bring his A game, Spencer was surely going to be in for it during his first outfield lesson.

“Oh never,” Morgan laughed.

“Guys you know all my unpleasant childhood sports memories happened like this,” Spencer protested.

“Okay, okay,” Morgan relented, “I’ll take it easy on you.”

“Thank you,” he huffed.

“Spence, since Kevin was right field, you’re going to be in the right field,” you said.

“Which is where exactly?” he asked, wincing.

You chuckled.

“Well, you know which way is right, correct?”

He nodded, pointing to the right.

“Then that’s where you’re heading,” you grinned, pushing him gently in that direction.

“Isn’t the right fielder where a team can hide their worst player without destroying their defense?” Spencer called, walking backwards to his position.

“You know that yet you can’t play baseball?” you asked, mystified.

“I know information about a lot of things I don’t do,” he replied.

“Good point,” you mumbled.

“Watch out pretty boy,” Morgan called, “Y/N’s a beast at playing center field.”

“As long as I have to play as little as possible, I’m fine!”

The ball shooter let loose another ball and Morgan hit it high in the air. Your eyes never left the ball as you sprinted to catch it, the ball falling perfectly in your glove. If it had been a real game, Morgan would’ve been out.

He whistled across the field.

“Now that’s impressive.”

You peered over at Spencer, who was looking at you, mouth agape.

“What?” you flushed.

“I just didn’t expect you to be able to do that.”

“I played a lot of baseball when I was younger,” you explained.

“How do you expect me to play like that?” Spencer asked, still stunned.

“We’re not expecting you to be a professional, Reid,” Morgan said, approaching him, “Just do your best and have fun. It’s a game for fun anyway.”

“Fun for you guys,” he grumbled.

“Okay, I’m gonna try to go easier on you, to give a little practice on fetching the ball,” Derek said, heading back to home plate.

“I’m not a Golden Retriever!” Spencer said.

You chuckled.

Derek purposely held back, sending the ball in the middle of your area and Spencer’s. He ran for it at the same time you did as you noticed it was close to falling towards the field’s fence.

You weren’t paying attention to your surroundings, only the ball. That was how you ended up running right into Spencer’s chest, falling backwards into the ground. You lost track of the ball, but noticed it fall to the ground a few feet away from you.

“Oh my god, are you okay?!”

He rushed to help you up, but you waved him away, apologizing.

“So sorry about that,” you chuckled, “I should’ve been paying more attention to where I was going.”

Like a gentleman, he offered a hand to help you up, which you ended up taking, trying to ignore the tingling on your skin that holding his hand produced.

“No, I’m sorry,” he apologized, “I’m not that good at this sort of thing. In fact, I suck.”

“Hey, no need to be so hard on yourself,” you smiled, “You’re doing just fine.”

“Unless you two are over there discussing how amazing I am, I’d love for you two to get back to your positions!” Morgan shouted.

“Nah, we were just discussing how we think you’d look in a toupee,” Spencer remarked, making you snort.

Your phone beeped and you reached in the back pocket of your shorts and pulled it out, seeing a text message from team member and technical analyst Penelope Garcia.

“Guys, we’ve got a case,” you announced to the two men.

“Hallelujah.”

Spencer practically sprinted off the baseball field making you and Derek laugh heartily.

“Just you wait, pretty boy!” Derek called out to him, “I’m sure you’ll surprise everyone this weekend!”

•

Saturday was a beautiful day.

The skies were such a clear blue, it almost looked artificial. The sun shone brightly without a cloud in the sky and the temperature was pleasant, without being too hot. Basically, it was the perfect day for a baseball game.

The game day also fell on a great day.

The team had just wrapped up the case that you and them had been called in on earlier in the week. It would be nice to have a relaxing Saturday afternoon with some baseball, good friends and plain ‘ol fun.

“Spencer!”

You waved him over, when you saw him.

“Hey,” he grinned, catching the mitt you threw him.

“We’re first in the field,” you explained, “You ready to play some ball?”

“Stoked,” he deadpanned.

“Oh come on, it won’t be that bad,” you chuckled, reaching up to place his baseball hat on his head.

“You’ll do great,” you assured him, patting his chest as you headed off towards your spot in center field.

Your team was made up of your fellow BAU team members including: Aaron Hotchner, David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, Jennifer Jareau, Luke Alvez, Penelope, Derek, Spencer and of course, yourself.

On the opposing team were friends and fellow coworkers: Matt Simmons, Tara Lewis, Alex Blake, Ashley Seaver, Stephen Walker, Kate Callahan, Jordan Todd, Mateo Cruz and Grant Anderson.

Last year, they had won. This year, you and your team were ready to take back the reigning title.

The crowd was filled with friends and family, here to support their loved ones.

There was Beth, Hotch’s girlfriend and Jack, Hotch’s teenaged son. Rossi’s wife Krystall, his step daughter Portia, daughter Joy—and her husband and son Kai—were also in attendance. Savannah and Hank were there too, Morgan’s wife and three year old son, cheering their favorite player on.

JJ’s husband Will and their two boys, Henry and Michael were in the stands as usual; they never missed this yearly game. All of Matt Simmons’ small tribe were also present and accounted for; wife Kristy and their two sons Jake and David, twin girls Chloe and Lily and their newly one year old final child, Rose Mary. Even Emily’s boyfriend Andrew Mendoza had shown up to cheer on his favorite girl.

Alex Blake’s husband James had come, taking a weekend off of his teaching duties so he could travel to D.C. for the game. Stephen Walker’s wife Monica sat with their two teenagers, a son and a daughter, already whooping and cheering for his team. Kate Callahan’s little family was there too; it was nice to see them since you hadn’t seen them in a while. Her husband Chris was seated with their biological niece turned adopted daughter Meg—who was now 18 and so much older than the last time you’d seen her—and their youngest daughter, now five.

Rounding out the group of loved ones was Anderson’s wife, her belly swollen with pregnancy.

If that sounded like a huge turnout, that didn’t even count the other members of the BAU and other departments of the FBI. The bleachers were absolutely packed. The game really was that big of a deal.

The game started out rather slow, which was pretty unusual for a game between both teams. With two incredibly talented teams, usually someone had scored by now, but in hindsight it also meant the defense of each team was incredibly good as well.

By the third inning, both Morgan and Hotch had hit two homeruns. You’d had a decent hit, but ended up striking out before you could reach third base.

In another inning, the opposite team had tied up.

Poor Spencer up to this point had struck out every time he was at the bat. You could tell he was incredibly embarrassed, but you kept encouraging him.

“Don’t let it get you down, Spence,” you smiled, after he’d struck out again, “You’re gonna hit it when they least expect it and knock them off their feet.”

He offered an appreciative half smile and you found yourself silently cheering him on throughout the entire game.

Surprisingly, his right fielding skills were pretty great. He had caught on quickly and was able to fetch the balls and throw them to any nearby basemen. He had actually struck out Kate, preventing her from almost scoring another point to take the lead.

“Woo! Way to go, Spence!” you hooted, clapping as best as you could with your mitt.

You saw his face flush and you knew it wasn’t all from the heat.

By mid game, the sun had started beating down on all of the attendees causing lots of red faces, sweaty shirts and bottles of water to be consumed. You were hot and sweaty like no other, but you were having the best time.

The fifth inning brought your team a three point lead which you’d contributed one of those points to and you were rather proud. You high fived all your teammates as you ran across home plate and came to the end of the line where Spencer was. He picked you up and spun you around in his excitement.

“Is it my imagination or is someone actually having fun?” you grinned.

“I’m definitely having fun.”

The last inning was the most tense.

It was tied 5 to 5 and Spencer was up to bat next. If he struck out, the opposing team had one last chance to come out ahead and win the game.

Spencer was a wreck, to put it lightly. He’d already struck out once and Morgan ended up calling a time out.

Spencer had been pacing and gesticulating wildly as Morgan talked to him, finally putting his hands on Spencer’s shoulders to calm him.

Whatever Morgan said to him, seemed to work.

You watched from the sidelines as he calmly walked back to the home plate.

Stephen was the one pitching this inning and he had a pretty good throw. But you believed in Spencer.

“Come on Spencer! You can do it!” you hollered.

You watched his posture change from nervousness to more confident. There had definitely been some sort of change in him.

The ball left Stephen’s hand and went flying Spencer’s way. You found yourself holding your breath and you actually flinched at the sudden crack of the bat hitting the ball.

Spencer seemed stunned for a moment as the ball soared towards the outfield, high above everyone’s heads.

“Run, run!” you and the rest of the team yelled to him, snapping him out of his daze.

Garcia was on second base and Rossi was on third. They went running as the other team scrambled to catch the ball in time.

Rossi crossed the home plate, causing loud hoots and cheers from the audience that continued on as Penelope made it home right behind him.

Spencer hit first base and second by the time Matt had retrieved the ball. You noticed Spencer pick up speed and whiz past third base, trying to make it in time before the ball reached the pitcher again.

The cheers grew louder as loved ones shouted their encouragement to Spencer in hopes he made it home.

He slid home moments before the ball met Stephen’s glove bringing the game to an end in a 5-8 win.

The bleachers erupted in screams, as did you and the rest of your team.

Morgan practically tackled Spencer in a hug, Spencer’s grin so big it rivaled the brightness of the afternoon sun.

You were right behind Morgan to greet Spencer. Morgan had just let him go as you ran up to him.

“Spence, that was awesome!” you cried.

In your excitement you grabbed Spencer’s face and kissed him hard, not even thinking of what you were doing until after you’d already pulled away.

He stood frozen and stunned, a smile on his face and you grinned, realizing you didn’t regret it one bit.

Everyone else had been too busy to see it, you assumed, so before the rest of the team swarmed him you called to him.

“You deserved that!”

Just then, the other six members reached him, swallowing him up in their excitement. His smile never left his face and his eyes flicked to you numerous times, an almost shyness to him.

You had assumed no one had seen the kiss until you overheard Morgan’s comment to Spencer.

“Way to go pretty boy! You didn’t just get one home run today, you got two!”

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paladin-lynx · 4 years

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SquipJere Week 2020, Day 3: Dance Dance Revolution

@squipjerebmc’s SquipJere Week 2020 Day 3: Dance Dance Revolution

Ships Involved: The SQUIP x Jeremy Heere (Technical Difficulties/Squipemy/Squeremy/JereSquip/SquipJere), Jake Dillinger x Christine Canigula (UpStage/ChrisJake), Jeremy Heere x Brooke Lohst (Puppy Love)

Setting: Canonverse, set in the time interval between “Loser Geek Whatever” and “Halloween”.

Trigger/Content Warnings: Implied child abuse; non-graphic mentions of vomiting; kissing and mentions of kissing

Author’s Notes: I actually had no ideas for this one at first, and then it turned into my longest piece so far for the week! I love DDR and games like it, so this was really fun to write, even if a lot of it is set-up. Enjoy!

Jeremy could only put off hanging out with Rich for so long. For someone who was once so eager to grab Jeremy and stuff him into a locker that was much too small for him, now Rich was way too enthusiastic about meeting up with Jeremy outside of school.

Unfortunately, it was still too early in their ‘friendship’ – could they really call it that? Was it possible to be friends with the guy who had been bullying you constantly for the past two years? – for Jeremy to feel comfortable going over to Rich’s house. Besides, he didn’t want to have to deal with Rich’s dad, who seemed like a nightmare. Jeremy would rather not have a beer bottle thrown at his head or be accused of being Rich’s secret boyfriend. Despite all the torment Rich had put him through, Jeremy couldn’t help feeling a bit bad. He could tell through their connection that Rich definitely didn’t have an easy time at home. Jeremy’s dad was an embarrassment at worst, but Rich’s was dangerous at worst, and nobody deserved that.

So instead of hanging out after school, Jeremy suggested that they do something on a Saturday. Rich, from what Jeremy could glean, tended to spend his weekends out of the house, usually with Jake. And Jeremy wasn’t exactly familiar with the ‘cool places’ in town they could go to, so he left that decision up to Rich and just prayed it would be something he could handle. There were only a handful of places that he ventured out to when he ventured out at all: the park, the old dumpy arcade, the grocery store, and the mall. The rest of town, despite living here for sixteen years, was something of a mystery to him.

Rich would definitely pick a place that would help Jeremy be deemed as cool, because Rich was cool. And Jeremy bet that Rich’s SQUIP was helping him pick, if it was anywhere near as bossy as his own.

So it came as a surprise to Jeremy when Rich said they should hit up the local Dave & Buster’s. It was like the old dumpy arcade, except less old and dumpy.

Jeremy’s SQUIP didn’t have anything against it, so plans were made. But of course because Rich was going, Jake was going and bringing Christine along. And because Jake was going, Chloe was going. And because Chloe was going, Brooke was going. And because Brooke was going, Jenna was going.

So suddenly this casual hangout with Rich felt a lot more daunting. Because it was no longer just with Rich, who was more than enough on his own for Jeremy to handle.

Nonetheless, the SQUIP urged him not to bail out. “That won’t look good at all,” it warned. “And this is your chance to be in an environment where your…geekier interests and their popular tastes overlap. You can’t give up this opportunity.”

And so Saturday came. The SQUIP convinced Jeremy to eat something before he left despite Jeremy feeling like if he put anything into his stomach, it would immediately come right back up. But by some miracle – or a certain supercomputer’s influence – he managed to get down a half-decent meal, and then off he went. The SQUIP told Jeremy to take his father’s car, since it was highly unlikely the man would notice, and it was of course more convenient than waiting for a bus or having to pay for an Uber.

Jeremy had never actually been to this place before, although from what he could recall it was relatively new. Or maybe it wasn’t, and he just hadn’t cared to notice it because he and a certain hoodie-loving ex-friend of his preferred the local arcade, even if it was more run-down and much less crowded. Or maybe that was why they preferred it.

Because as Jeremy set foot into Dave & Buster’s, he was immediately overwhelmed by the blaring music, the bright neon lights of the countless games, and the crowd of people mulling about.

“Oh God…” he mumbled, feeling his stomach turn.

The SQUIP flickered into existence beside him, giving his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “It’s a Saturday,” it reminded. “This was bound to be the busiest day.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that? I don’t…do big groups of people, you know that!”

“Maybe it’s time to change that. It may benefit you to have an audience.”

“An aud—”

“Heere!” Jeremy’s protest was cut off by a familiar voice and he turned to see Rich bounding up to him with the rest of the popular kids in tow. Great, he was the last to arrive, but maybe he could brush it off as being fashionably late, even though he was pretty sure he was actually a few minutes early. And it was then that Jeremy also realized that he had been speaking out loud to his SQUIP, and he received a small fizzle of static against his back as a reminder to think at the supercomputer while he was around his new group of apparent friends.

“Uh, hey, Rich,” Jeremy returned, fighting back the urge to smack himself for how lame of a greeting that was. “Sorry, I didn’t realize you were all here already. Hope you weren’t waiting long.”

Rich shrugged. “Nah, it’s chill. We were just wandering around checking out all the games.” He grinned and elbowed Jake in the side. “Jakey D here tried to use his fake ID at the bar and got caught.”

Jake’s cheeks flushed and he lightly shoved at Rich. “Only because you look like you’re still in middle school!”

Brooke covered her mouth to stifle a giggle. “It was only because Christine apologized and promised it wouldn’t happen again that he didn’t get himself kicked out.”

Christine smiled shyly. “I wouldn’t want the day ruined before it even started…Besides, who drinks this early in the day anyway?”

The others laughed, to Jake’s chagrin, and Christine absolutely beamed as it sunk in that she’d said something they actually found funny. Well, Chloe wasn’t really laughing, but she was hyper-focused on her phone – with Jenna not-so-subtly trying to snoop over her shoulder – so she might not have even been paying attention. Jeremy realized this place probably wasn’t really her particular speed, but she had come along because, of course, she had to keep tabs on Jake. They weren’t back together, were they? Jake looked like he was still very much with Christine. Or at least ‘courting’ her, if they weren’t actively dating.

And speaking of courting, Brooke chose that moment to saunter over and peck Jeremy on the cheek, making his face warm. “We’re glad you made it, though,” she told him. “And that we didn’t get thrown out and end up leaving you here alone!”

“Ah…” Jeremy gave a nervous chuckle and a little bashful smile. “Y-yeah, I’m glad you didn’t get kicked out. So, uh, what should we do first?”

And off they went. There was a good mix of kids and adults enjoying their Saturday, so Christine made a polite request that they watch their language – which was reiterated after Jeremy beat Rich in air hockey and gave a loud “oh fuck you, tall-ass!”, although Jeremy was pretty sure that the insult was actually more teasing than anything else. It had been quite a match to watch, considering they obviously both had their SQUIPs assisting them. Jeremy tried not to focus on the fact that his SQUIP had laid its hand on top of his to alter his movements when necessary.

Some of the games were rather well-known titles while others were so obscure Jeremy couldn’t help wondering if Michael would know them. They made their way around the entire collection, and to his own surprise Jeremy found himself actually having fun. He was better at the more classic arcade-style games but he still gave the rest a fair shot. Christine, who didn’t seem like she dabbled in video games very much at all, found out she was rather good at Temple Run and some knockoff version of Whac-A-Mole. Rich and Jake of course went right for all the shoot-‘em-up games where they could pretend to blow the heads off of zombies. Jenna was actually pretty talented at the various trivia and timing games, although Jeremy supposed that came from years of sticking her nose into everything. He was pretty sure Chloe didn’t touch a single game in the time they were there, and at one point Brooke tried to drag Jeremy into one of the enclosed games – it was a haunted house or something – to make out, to which he turned bright red and, despite the SQUIP’s insistence in the back of his mind, told her that they shouldn’t abandon the others or they’d get upset.

Jeremy was pretty sure after a couple of hours that they’d gone through almost every game in the building and he was about to suggest that maybe they grab snacks or something, but then Christine suddenly perked up and pointed. “What’s that one?”

They all turned – Jeremy thought he even saw Chloe glance up from her phone – to see a tall game station with a metal platform in front of it, and on the platform were brightly colored arrows.

Jake raised an eyebrow. “Is that DDR?”

Jeremy frowned and glanced around at the others before stepping forward to get a better look at the game. “No, I think it’s a knockoff,” he replied, looking up at the top of the cabinet. There was definitely a name there that wasn’t Dance Dance Revolution but it was in too many eye-straining fonts for him to actually make out what it said. His gaze swiveled back down to the arrows on the platform. “DDR has the arrows going left, right, up, and down, but these ones are on the corners.”

He realized a beat too late that implying he had played DDR before was probably not something he should divulge to the cool kids, but when he looked around for his SQUIP, he found it giving him a little smile and nodding in approval.

Before he could react, though, he felt a hard nudge at his back and turned around to see Rich snickering. “Well, go on, tall-ass! Dance for us!”

“What?” Jeremy immediately sputtered in a way he was positive was uncool and his face went bright red. “I-I’m not gonna dance!”

Chloe smirked at him, lowering her phone – why did she have to lower her phone now of all times? – and put a hand on her hip. “Come on, Jere. Since you seem to know about this kind of game.”

Brooke giggled. “It’ll be fun, Jer-bear.”

Christine clasped her hands together, grinning at him, her eyes almost shining. “I’d love to see how you dance, Jeremy.”

Jeremy’s gaze flicked around to each of them and he suddenly felt very cornered, sweat slipping down the back of his neck. However, a wave of calm swiftly fell over him and he released a breath he didn’t even realize he’d been holding. He peeked to the side and saw the SQUIP standing there, giving him a confident smile.

It reached up to gently tap Jeremy’s nose, which felt more like a tiny spark of static. “Come on, dear,” it purred. “Let’s dance.”

He knew there was no getting out of it now, so he sighed, pushing his hair back and shaking his head. “It’s not as if these games actually look like dancing,” he muttered as he plodded up to the platform. “They look more like your legs are spazzing out.”

The rest of the group quickly crowded around, eagerly watching as Jeremy stepped onto the arrows to activate the game and pull up the song list. He could almost feel the confusion as they looked over the options.

“What are these?” Jenna huffed out.

“It looks like Japanese,” Jake commented, tilting his head as if that would help him read the foreign characters better. Or maybe Jake could understand Japanese; Jeremy wouldn’t be surprised, considering how much Jake threw himself into extra skills at school.

Jeremy decided it was better to hold his tongue than admit that he actually did recognize some of these as covers of Vocaloid and Touhou songs. He was pretty sure a few on the list were actually Korean and not Japanese, but he didn’t recognize them regardless. He tapped his foot against one of the arrows to scroll through and see if anything looked particularly interesting.

The SQUIP suddenly held up a hand and Jeremy found himself frozen in place, blinking at the screen. The song title was in Japanese, but upon hearing the rhythm and a few of the words in the preview snippet, he recognized it as a Touhou song, although not one he knew well enough to recall the name of. And it sounded like a remix, nonetheless.

“‘Four Seasons of Loneliness,’” the SQUIP translated, smirking sideways at him. “Pick this one.”

Why?

He got his answer from Brooke: “Sounds hard and fast.”

Ignoring the snicker from Rich at the obvious joke, Jeremy selected the song and was about to begin the game when the SQUIP once again stopped him. With yet another smirk, it upped the difficulty to the max and Jeremy had to keep his jaw from dropping.

“Damn, look at you, J-Man, all confident!” Jake whistled, and Jeremy felt his blood run cold.

I’m going to embarrass myself, he lamented as he confirmed his selection and the loading screen came on. Not only was the difficulty at its highest, but it was set so that he’d have to use every arrow, not those just designated for a single player on one side of the two-player platform.

“No, you won’t,” the SQUIP soothed, appearing in front of him and taking his hands. Jeremy couldn’t help blushing as those familiar cool fingers curled around his already sweaty hands. “Just let me do all the work.”

Jeremy had thought that the SQUIP wanted him to become more independent. Then again, it had also recited his lines for him during play rehearsal so he didn’t have to take the time to memorize them. Maybe this was along the same lines. But this wasn’t going to be like when the SQUIP had led him in a slow waltz – honestly, he wasn’t even sure it had been a waltz, he didn’t know shit about dancing – around the imaginary Hogwarts Great Hall. This was going to be quick-paced – the BPM had been 178 and while Jeremy wasn’t a music expert, he was pretty sure that was fast – and in front of an audience.

So that was what it had meant earlier.

You predicted this, didn’t you? he accused, heart jumping as the first beats of the song came on.

The SQUIP laughed. “Perhaps. Now let’s give your new friends a show.”

The song opened and Jeremy felt like he couldn’t move, frozen with fear like a prey animal, but then suddenly the SQUIP gave his hands a little squeeze and his entire body started moving on its own. It wasn’t the first time the SQUIP had stepped in to autopilot his body but it had never been to move around like this.

He had to make sure to restrain himself from looking too surprised, because as far as the others knew – except for maybe Rich – he was doing this all on his own. So he just swallowed the lump in his throat and let his feet fly across the platform, hitting every arrow in perfect time. When he was on one side of the platform and had to get to an arrow all the way on the other side in less than a millisecond, he was suddenly over there, which he didn’t think would be possible. Even if someone was controlling his body, he was still in no way built to be a dancer. Or at least, a cool and popular one.

He looked up at his SQUIP, who was still holding his hands and grinning widely at him. When Jeremy peeked down, he saw that the SQUIP’s feet were moving in time with his and, unlike when they’d slow-danced and the SQUIP had been dancing in front of him, now their feet blended together.

One of the others whistled and whooped from behind him. “Go, Heere!” Rich called, and Jeremy could feel his excitement buzz through their connection.

And despite his earlier nerves, Jeremy found himself breaking into a grin, adrenaline pumping through his veins. To the others it would seem like he was intently watching the screen, but he was truly just watching his SQUIP in absolute awe. He didn’t even need to know what arrows to press because by the time they popped up in the game, he was already there and moving on to the next arrow.

The SQUIP even let him show off a bit – although could it be considering ‘showing off’ if he wasn’t the one actually doing it? – and threw in a few spins and jumps for flare, earning him more cheers from his friends. He would think that this entire display would be considered rather dorky, but his body was moving so fast that even if the game was childish, his so-called dancing was too unreal for it not to be impressive.

All that existed in that moment was him and his SQUIP. Even the music, upbeat and catchy as it was, faded into the background. It wasn’t like he could understand the lyrics anyway. Jeremy had had moments before when he’d felt unusually close to the SQUIP – he knew, in reality, they were always close considering that the SQUIP was inside his brain – but there had only been a few moments these past few months where he’d really, truly felt in sync with his own personal supercomputer.

And he liked how it felt.

Before he knew it, the song was over and he found himself striking a pose. He realized he was soaked in sweat, but he barely felt winded, although he had a sneaking suspicion that that was the SQUIP’s doing. He looked up at the SQUIP once more, who smiled and stepped back, dipping down to press its lips to the back of Jeremy’s hand. Jeremy was absolutely dumbstruck at the small but notably warm fizzle of static against his skin, but then the SQUIP’s form blinked out of sight and Jeremy found himself staring at the screen with his mouth open in shock.

The last notes of the song faded and his score flashed onto the screen, a chipper female voice declaring, “Yeah, I knew you could do it!” There were quite a number of ‘Perfects’ but also a good mix of ‘Greats’ and ‘Goods,’ as if the SQUIP hadn’t wanted to make it seem like Jeremy had achieved the impossible on his first try at this obscure knockoff game.

He stumbled as Brooke suddenly crashed into him in an embrace. “Jeremy, that was amazing! I had no idea you could move like that!” She put her hands on his cheeks and pulled him into a somewhat messy kiss, making his cheeks burn, but he didn’t get the same fuzzy feeling in his chest that he’d gotten before, when the SQUIP had had his hand.

“Ah…” He smiled shyly once they’d broken apart for air and his chest heaved, the exhaustion from his dancing suddenly setting in. “Th-thanks. I just kinda…went for it.”

Jake grinned, flashing him a thumbs-up. “Looks like all that DDR and dancing alone in your bedroom didn’t go to waste, huh?”

Jeremy tried to come up with a retort, but he quickly realized that more than just his small gathering of friends was watching. Quite a few of the other patrons were looking at him, muttering to each other about how remarkable that had been. He even heard one little girl squeal, “I wanna dance like him!” which earned an amused chuckle from her parents.

Jeremy gently pulled away from Brooke, rubbing the back of his neck. “Thanks, guys. Uh, you can stop staring now.”

It looked like the group wasn’t going to drop it any time soon, though, as they led him off to find a place to sit down. Jeremy couldn’t help peeking over his shoulder, expecting to see the SQUIP right by him as it usually was, but instead it had reappeared beside the dancing game, watching with a surprisingly fond smile as the little girl bounded over to the platform and started tapping away at the arrows.

Jeremy’s heart squeezed. Maybe he’d ask Rich if they could meet up here again at some point.

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justabigassnerd · 6 years

Text

One step at a time

Pairing - Rich x Squipped!reader

Word count - 2,554

Warnings - swearing, mentions of bullying

A/N - Ya girl got struck by inspiration the other day about a Rich x reader where it’s basically the plot of BMC but the reader is the one who gets the SQUIP. Not Rich and this is what emerged. Please feel free to send in more requests as y’all have great ideas and I want to get my drive back.

EDIT - I was unsatisfied with the original ending for this fic so I added some more onto the end (I apologise) but enjoy the new and improved ending : )

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When people mentioned iconic friendships at your school, people would say, Jeremy and Michael, Chloe and Brooke and finally you and Jake. But what people didn’t know that in freshman year before people even knew you existed and before you became popular, you were best friends with Rich Goranski. You and Rich had been friends since you first moved to New Jersey, your parents quickly became friends with his parents and you two were brought up together, you did almost everything together. When you started high school you two stuck together as much as you could to avoid harassment from the people who had quickly become popular and were starting to pick on people. You knew you shouldn’t have let it get to you because you had a friend like Rich to support you through everything but soon the bullying became too much and you started to search for ways to help improve your status in school, you caught wind of a pill called a SQUIP which contained a supercomputer that would help you with anything you wanted it to. You managed to get a hold of one and that night alone in your room, without telling Rich, you took the pill with some Mountain Dew to start your new ‘cooler’ life. The next day, Rich went to your house to walk to school with you like he always did, but when he knocked at your door your mum opened the door and looked at Rich apologetically.

“I’m sorry Rich, y/n has already gone to school, I thought she was meeting you at your house.” She says, Rich is taken aback at that, you always waited for him at your house or you would text him saying that you were coming to his if he was running late. Rich thanked your mother before turning away from the door and starting the walk to school by himself for the first time. When Rich arrived at school you barely noticed him for the entire day, at lunch he went to sit with you but when he saw you sat with Jake, Chloe, Jenna and Brooke he quickly turned around and tried to find somewhere else to sit. That’s when Jeremy and Michael noticed the short boy trying to manoeuvre his way through the crowd of tall teens with his tray and they took pity on him and invited him to sit at their table with them. The two had often noticed you and Rich hanging out together at lunch and wondered why you weren’t sat together now.

“I don’t know, she didn’t wait to walk to school with me this morning and now she’s sat with the popular kids, I don’t know what happened to her.” Was Rich’s only response to the question asked.

Now you are all in your junior year and Rich had watched as you and Jake grew as close as you and him once were and it broke his heart every time he saw you two messing about in the hallway together, Rich had always had feelings for you since you had been friends for so long and even though you suddenly stopped talking to him for no reason, his feelings never vanished. Rich now hung out with Jeremy and Michael, being grateful that they showed pity on the day you first ditched him and invited him to sit with them. The three got along well but Rich couldn’t help but miss you whenever he saw you in the hallways, but you acted like he never existed. One day, your SQUIP told you to approach Jeremy Heere and tell him about him getting a SQUIP of his own. You corner him after play rehearsal, which both you and Jake signed up for, and tell him about how amazing having a SQUIP is.

“So that’s why you ditched Rich? For a SQUIP?” Jeremy asks, you feel your heart pang at the mention of you old best friend, you would be lying if you said you didn’t have feelings for him but your SQUIP convinced you that you didn’t need him.

“I didn’t intend to ditch him, I only did it because my SQUIP said I had to, it said it was the sacrifice I had to make for popularity.” You say and although Jeremy is skeptical and angry because of what you did to Rich he’s still curious as to what a SQUIP could do.

“One more thing, getting a SQUIP is a one-way ticket to getting the girl of your dreams, I’ve seen the way you look at Christine.” You say, quickly making Jeremy flustered but also more interested in getting a SQUIP. You tell Jeremy how much a SQUIP is and he runs off excitedly. As soon as Jeremy’s gone you feel a shock travel down your spine.

“Stop thinking about Rich, you are more, and you are better, you don’t need him, he’s a link to y/n 1.0, must I turn on optic nerve blocking again?” Your SQUIP growls, making you nervous.

“Rich was my best friend, I just like seeing him, it’s reassuring.” You reply, avoiding looking at your SQUIP which has taken a physical form in front of you.

“It’s reassuring? You have friends, Jake, Chloe, Jenna, Brooke, they’re all your friends, not Rich.” The SQUIP says before demanding you go home. Over the weeks your SQUIP started to crack down on you, any time you thought about Rich, you got a shock, anytime you looked at Rich, you got a shock. It even started to turn on optic nerve blocking when you thought about Rich too much. Soon, the time came for Jakes Halloween party since his parents weren’t home. You had helped Jake organise the whole event and when the party started you were enjoying yourself, dancing with Brooke, Jake and Jenna while Jeremy had disappeared with Chloe somewhere, making Jake increasingly on edge and irritable. Jake soon went upstairs, followed by Brooke, leaving just you and Jenna. Upstairs, Jeremy had just escaped a furious Jake, who had caught Chloe kissing him on his parents’ bed. He locked himself in the bathroom and was shocked to find both Rich and Michael hiding in the bathroom. The two told him about how they found out about someone going insane trying to get their SQUIP out, Jeremy paid no mind to their warnings and tried to leave, being blocked by them both, since Jeremy was slightly intoxicated, his SQUIP was not working leaving him to make the most difficult decision of his life.

“Get out of my way, losers.” He growls at them before barging past and leaving the room. Meanwhile, you were downstairs trying to hunt down some Mountain Dew Red, your SQUIP had been tormenting you for too long and you wanted it to end, you yelled at people, shouting that you just wanted some Mountain Dew Red and all you got was drunken laughs and stares, since you were also slightly drunk your SQUIP had no control over your actions, leading you to a separate room away from the party and you find a lighter.

“I’m sorry Rich, this is for the best.” You whisper, before lighting a fire.

The next day, Rich and Michael go to school and they hear a large commotion coming from the area where both yours and Rich’s lockers are, leading them quickly over to that area where they see Chloe and Brooke sticking a large ‘Get Well Soon y/n’ banner on your locker.

“Wait, what happened?” Rich asked nervously, his heart beating ten times faster than it usually does out of fear for his best friend.

“Oh, you didn’t hear? y/n set fire to Jake’s house and she’s now in hospital.” Jenna says dismissively, as if she doesn’t even care about what she just said. Rich looks at Michael with tear filled eyes, his best friend was in hospital and there was nothing he could do about it. Rich spent the whole day staring at the clock, willing it to go faster. The second the bell rang to signal the end of the day Rich darted out of the school building as quickly as he could, and Michael gave him a lift to the hospital where he asked to see you. The nurse told him which room you were in and we located it as quickly as possible. When he entered your room, his heart shattered into a million pieces, he saw you laid on the hospital bed in a full body cast, he sat down on a chair next to you and felt some tears fall down his face. He felt so helpless, if he had been a better friend to you, you wouldn’t have gotten a SQUIP and you wouldn’t have burned down Jake’s house and you wouldn’t be in a hospital bed right now. Rich took your hand lightly and apologised over and over while he cried. Before long, your eyes fluttered open and Rich sat up straight, almost in shock.

“Rich?” You croak out, unable to believe that he’s by your side right now, after all you’ve done to him.

“It’s me, I’m here.” He says reassuringly, causing you to burst into tears, the guilt of what you did finally catching up to you, now that you no longer had your SQUIP you were suddenly aware of your shitty actions. Rich gently takes your hand again and rubs his thumb over your knuckles while shushing you gently.

“I’m so sorry.” You sob, unable to look him in the eyes after all you did to him.

“Hey, I don’t care what you did, I knew that wasn’t really you, it was your SQUIP.” Rich whispers reassuringly, soothing you. After you calmed down, you got the guts to ask Rich why he was here seeing you.

“You’re my best friend y/n/n, what you did doesn’t matter to me, I’ll always be there for you.” Rich says, smiling shyly at you, a faint pink blush washing across his cheeks.

“Ok, Rich this may sound really weird and stop me when you want but I need to say this, I like you, like more than a friend, since freshman year and I thought the SQUIP was going to help me gain your attention but it made me choose other guys, I’m sorry, I’ve just fucked up our entire friendship more than I already have-” You’re suddenly cut off by Rich pressing his lips to yours, you melt into the kiss and you longed to wrap your arms around him but you couldn’t since you were in a full body cast. When you pull away for air your smile at each other widely.

“So, would you like to be my girlfriend… thing?” Rich asks, scratching the back of his head awkwardly, you smile and nod.

“I would love to be your girlfriend thing.” Rich smiles widely and pecks your lips once more before starting to tell you about his two friends Jeremy and Michael who looked after him when you first got the SQUIP, you watch intently as he explains everything they did together and you wonder to yourself how you got so lucky with this boy and while things had been shitty for the last couple of years, having Rich back by your side again is going to help everything get better, one step at a time.

By the time you were finally better and ready to go back to school, Jeremy’s SQUIP had tried to take over the school but Michael managed to save everyone because of his love of old discontinued drinks. When you went back to school for the first time, you were petrified to say the least. You were covered in scars from the burns from the fire. Rich met you at your house and saw you tugging on a hoodie to cover the scars on your arms and he smiles kindly at you.

“If anyone says anything, just let me know, I’ll beat them up for you.” Rich says, winking at the end of his sentence causing you to laugh slightly at the thought of your boyfriend who is 5”5’ trying to beat up someone taller than him. You two head off to school and when you arrive you are greeted by Jeremy and Michael who welcome you back with large hugs despite you not knowing each other that well. When you entered the school, you felt the stares and the whispers as you walked down the hallway.

“Didn’t she set fire to Jake’s house? Who let her back in? She might burn down the school.” You felt Rich tighten his grip around your waist as he heard the girls snickering to each other silently. Rich glared at the girls and they just scoffed and continued chatting to each other. Once you both got your stuff from your lockers you head to your homeroom and the first thing you see when you enter is: Jenna, Chloe, Brooke, Christine and Jake holding a large banner that says ‘WELCOME BACK Y/N!’ your eyes widen and you cover your mouth in shock, tears welling up in your eyes at the sight of your friends welcoming you back so warmly even after what you did. When they put the banner down to greet you with hugs you notice Jake is on crutches with two broken legs, once you’ve hugged everyone you head over to Jake to make things easier for him.

“I caused that didn’t I?” You whisper, looking from his legs up to his face where his eyes have softened, and he pulls you into a hug.

“It’s not your fault, it was your SQUIP wasn’t it? Don’t you dare blame yourself for this, I couldn’t just leave you to die in that fire, I just couldn’t.” Jake says, tightening the hug slightly. You were shocked when Jake revealed that he rescued you from his burning house. You set his house on fire and he still risked his life to save you, you’ve potentially fucked up his entire athletic career because you setting the fire caused him to break both of his legs. You feel your eyes welling up with tears as you hug Jake back tightly.

“I’m so sorry Jake.” You say, squeezing your eyes shut and allowing some tears to seep out before you two release each other from the hug.

“It’s ok, I’m just glad you’re ok, when I first got you out of there, I couldn’t do anything because of my legs, I freaked out so bad y/n, but the main thing is we’re both alive and kicking.” Jake says, a smile working its way back onto his face. You step back away from Jake and Rich is right back your side again and wraps his arm back around your waist, causing everyone to notice it and bombard you with questions. You two answer as many as you can before lessons start, with the promise to your friends of explaining everything at lunch. When lunch rolled around, both you and Rich located your friends and sat with them, you let Rich explain the story as you watch as his eyes light up whenever he mentions you making your heart flutter, you thank god for a lot of things, your friends being one of them, and your amazing boyfriend Rich Goranski being the other.

#Be More Chill #be more chill imagine #rich goranski #rich goranski x reader #jeremy heere #michael mell #jake dillinger #jake dillinger x reader #christine canigula #the squip #bmc squip #squip squad #bmc musical #bmc imagine #bmc michael #bmc jeremy #bmc rich #bmc jake

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cleverbroadwayurl · 6 years

Text

Prince Charming (Jake Dillinger x Reader)

A/N: I told you guys I’d probably have a Jake Dillinger fic out soon! I lowkey pulled from my own life right now wowser but I’m still working on more content for you guys. There are just some pieces I want to make absolutely perfect, you know? I know it’s a stupid goal, but I want to be proud of my work. If you see an edited version of this later, that’s just me making it easier for you guys to read! I’ve also been thinking about a masterlist, so let me know if that’s something you want to see! I’m a little floopy on asking for requests because while I definitely want to write them for you, I don’t want to ask you to send them in, you feel? I’m also happy to write your possibly dark and angsty fic ideas. I just ask for no smut! My lil ace heart isn’t comfortable with it! I’m happy to write before and after, though! If you see something that you want taken down or literally anything, ask me or PM me.

Trigger Warnings: language, creepy boy, self depreciation, unedited writing

Fuck. How had you managed this? Saturday night, watching reruns of your favorite show on Netflix or whatever streaming site this was on, and hoping for this stupid kid to stop blowing up your inbox. How did you end up here? What was the instigator; the variable that made your night ruined by the annoying vibrations from your phone? Two words: Jake Dillinger.

Now it wasn’t that Jake was bad, well not anymore at the very least. After some, in the words of Phoebe Buffay: floopy, things that happened at the play, Jake had transformed from fake Prince Charming into the real deal. Fuck Prince Charming. Well, maybe literally, but hopefully not in the sense of like fucking him over. And you definitely hoped it would be you literally fucking him. It wasn’t like your shitty night was singlehandedly massacred because of Jake Dillinger: High School Royalty. It was you. Your fault. And it wasn’t that you fucked up, no not at all. It was those stupid stereotypes, those stupid thoughts, those stupid Disney movies that say you have to have a relationship with the perfect guy in high school or you’re a loser and no one will ever even remotely like you. And although you wanted to believe you didn’t believe in those stupid rules, there was always a part of you that did. So, you settled.

You settled for the kid who sat behind you in English. He was new in town, you supposed attractive, was now working with you, and had asked you out just yesterday. It was sudden, that’s for sure. You hadn’t even known him a week, and yet he had to shoot his shot. He asked for your social media, claiming that you had just “popped up” on his Facebook. You lied about not using Instagram, but felt bad because he probably just wanted friends. So when he asked for your Snapchat, you gave it. That was a major mistake. Now, your phone buzzed for what seemed like 7 times a minute. That’s a new message every 8 seconds or so. This was such a ridiculous punishment for settling. It wasn’t like this kid wasn’t being nice, but he wasn’t Prince Charming. Well, maybe not your Prince Charming.

After 15 minutes of new messages, you decided to open one. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. Some of them were okay. It wasn’t all trying to get into your pants or one upping you. It wasn’t all bullshit spewing from his little keyboard not 2 miles away. But you had to look at them at some point, right? Why not now?

Him: “You up?”

Oh my god. This was a mistake. He doesn’t stop, does he? It wasn’t like this was the first time he did this, either. He did it all the damn time. It was like he was drowning and you were his lifeline. Except that he was drowning in a pool where his feet could touch the ground, he just chose not to do so. He was clinging so hard, it felt like you were suffocating. Especially since 10:30 and later are deemed your time to recharge after a busy day. And of course it’s around 11:30, which is cutting exactly in the time when you want to be left alone. At least the one-upping stopped. He did try to tell you that there wasn’t a Phantom of the Opera book, but you’d confirmed, through your own mind and the internet, that there are actually two books. So, him trying to one up you on your interests was just a stupid plan. You’d block him if you could, but maybe he wasn’t trying to come off as a major dick, it just sort of happened. And you’d also have to work with him, both in English class and at work.

All this stupid settling shit started with you liking Jake Dillinger from afar like 3 years ago. How could you not? He’s beautiful, inside and out. And back then, he may have been being fake, but he still tried to show interest in everything, trying to be friends with anyone he could. It wasn’t his fault that Rich wasn’t a good person, Jake was caught up in his own plans and extra curriculars. He had a smile that could melt even the coldest hearts. He had arms that god would feel so good to be wrapped up in. He’s likable and sweet. He had a sense of style, even if that included his stupid orange shoelaces. He’s athletic and knows how to take care of himself. He has mature feelings; he even forgave Rich for burning his house down. Did Jake Dillinger even have a bad quality?

But because Jake probably didn’t have a bad quality, everyone was kind of all over him. From the popular, Chloe and Rich, to the not-so-popular, Christine and probably literally everyone else. Everyone was probably a better match for Jake than you were. Plus, between Chloe’s good looks and Rich’s compatibility between the two of them, you didn’t stand a chance. They were smart or funny or witty or whatever. And you were just a daydreamer. A daydreamer that Jake Dillinger doesn’t deserve. He deserves someone who will love him, treat him like the royalty he is. Not you, stupid daydreamer you, who thought that maybe, just maybe, Jake would notice you for who you are.

But of course, he didn’t. Like you said before, Disney movies have ridiculous standards for people. In a Disney movie, you probably were the biggest loser in the school. He was busy surrounded by more interesting people and his extracurriculars. It wasn’t like him not noticing you was a surprise. It was expected, fanfiction tropes aren’t often played out. That’s why they are exactly what they’re called: fiction.

So you went to the realist side of the situation: someone else. And that’s how you ended up sitting on your couch on Saturday night wishing that Jake Dillinger was texting you instead of this high schooler gone creep. After this guy asked you on a date, you’d said that if your schedules matched up, then maybe. That wasn’t a flat out lie, but most of the truth was you didn’t know if you wanted to actually see him as more than friends. But that didn’t stop him from constantly texting you. Like all the time. And it was never just easy questions that you could kind of fudge your way through. No, they were more like “what do you like to do?”, “around where do you live?”, “when you do work next?” and so many more. It was like he wanted to work all possible hours with you, which lead to the question of should I tell my store manager?

Soon enough, the weekend was over, and you trudged your way to school. The days kind of blurred together, until Wednesday. The only saving grace from that guy before was he didn’t have to guts to talk to you in person. That vanished as you saw him waiting for you at your locker. Fuck. You had to go to your locker, how else were you supposed to do your class work effectively. And you couldn’t just say “oh I forgot my textbooks at home”, because no one takes their textbooks home. They’re too heavy and too expensive to lose. There was no way out of this besides facing him and getting your stuff before class.

You took a breath and walked towards your locker. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. There were times when he was nice to you. Your footsteps echoed off of the walls, as if you were stomping around and yelling. The guy looked up and smiled at you. Damnit. You should’ve said no to him invading your social media like he did because now now he has the courage to talk in person to you. Jeez being at your locker was like an invasion of privacy; the same invasion he’d done on Saturday night.

“Good morning, (Y/N),” he smiled sickeningly at you.

“Good morning,” you mumbled back, hoping that that was the end of the conversation. But of course, with this boy, even your goodbyes had to be five minutes long.

“So, about that coffee date. Let’s go this weekend, yeah? I don’t work, and I think you said you didn’t either.”

“Oh, I’m not sure. My mom might want to do something.” It was a total lie, but maybe your mom could get you out of this situation. You’d also told him that you weren’t working on Monday. What a mistake that’d been; what a mistake he is.

“That’s fine. But I’m starting to get the feeling that you don’t want to go, even though you said that you enjoy talking to me and that you’d try to make it work.”

Two weeks. You’ve known this guy for two weeks and he’s already acting like a horndog. You didn’t even want to date him, hell you weren’t even looking to date. Your heart was so wrapped up with Jake Dillinger that you didn’t want to stray from him, even if you did end up hurt. You could say no, but almost immediately, your mind flushed with article headlines about guys who went crazy after being rejected. He was probably one of those guys, wasn’t he? He did have a weird clinginess with you and did feel like he had to be the more masculine one. He even asked about your fastest mile time and then compared it to his, saying he was faster than you. So getting away probably wasn’t going to work. One, he was definitely faster than you, and two, it was socially unacceptable to do so. The third thing came next, as he got closer to you, his face a mere 6 inches from yours, hand on the wall behind you. Your getaway was blocked; no way out.

Shit shit shit the world is closing in and god can he get any creepier the world is fading at the edges oh god why are the walls spinning oh no oh no this is bad this is very bad this is—

“Hey buddy, take a step back,” you heard a voice float loud and clear. It was strong, yet had a soft edge to it, a perfect contradiction. “You’re scaring them.” Prince Charming’s voice came again, this time taking a protective tone instead of it’s usual feel good one.

The boy stepped back from you, his arm wrapping around you. You could feel all the muscles in your body tense, eyes immediately darting towards him.

“Why don’t you step back, Dillinger. I know them a lot better than you do.”

TWO WEEKS YOU’VE KNOWN THIS KID. Jake’s gaze turned towards yours, his eyes softening and his smile slowly melting into his features. Your heart started beating faster as you felt your ears become warm. He met your height so you could see that he was trying his best to get you to safety.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” He asked, smile never becoming fake or leaving.

“…No,” you mumbled out. You could feel yourself longing to be in Jake’s arms instead of this creep’s. He gave you a look of understanding and hopeful comfort before hardening his features and turning back to the kid.

“You heard them. Hands off and leave them alone. I mean that,” he growled out. The creep rolled his eyes and sauntered off, mumbling something about how he’d message you later. You secretly hoped that Jake scared him off enough so he wouldn’t speak to you again. If there was one person who could get through to that boy so he would stop talking to you, it was Jake Dillinger.

You stood in shock as Jake Dillinger began to walk off, eyes still staring at the wall as you came back into reality. “WAIT!” You called after the tall boy, arm stretched out, desperate for him to come back. He stopped and walked back towards you, his soft smile returning.

“Thank you,” you managed to get out, adrenaline flowing in your veins. He probably would laugh and then walk away, as if royalty were praised for their hard work by their subjects. That’s what you were to him, right? Some random person that wasn’t even cool enough to be friends with the kid who nearly caused a school wide super computer apocalypse.

“It’s okay,” Jake smiled, “I always want to help people that need it. You really seemed like you needed a way out.”

You returned his smile, a light rosy color now covering your cheeks. Your hand ran its way through your hair before going back to your side.

“Yo Jakey-D!” A voice interrupted, causing the two of you to break eye contact. It was Rich, who immediately shut up and tried to find his way out of the awkward situation he put himself in. It wasn’t like he meant to cause a distraction between you and Jake, it just happened. He slipped out, but not before winking at Jake.

“I should probably follow Rich and see what he wants, but if that guy talks to you or you feel unsafe, come find me. I’d be happy to hang out with you sometime.”

All you could do was nod. Jake started off again and your heart sank. Your brain was screaming at you to take this chance, talk to him. Say that you’d really like that and ask to spend the day with him. He just said it wouldn’t be overstepping his boundaries, this was the opportunity to get to know him and maybe even date one day. The universe was finally throwing the daydreamer a bone, grab it goddamn it. But his back was already turned by the time you’d worked up the courage to say more than two words to him.

He stopped dead in his tracks and whipped around. A smirk painted his face, but that genuine kindness still lingered in his eyes. “Do you want to come with me? I don’t want you getting into trouble again.”

Your face probably looked panicked and hurt by him. You could tell because some of the happiness left his features. It was like you were slowly killing him, it was bleeding out and you were watching the life be sucked out of him. Well, that is, until you say something.

“I’d really like that,” you smiled back.

Jake’s playfulness returned as he held out his hand, gesturing for you to take it. You walked over and took it. He gave it a squeeze before letting it go and immediately striking up conversation with you, but this time you could tell that there wasn’t some secret motive behind it. In fact, he was very interested to learn that there were two Phantom of the Opera books (he’d have to tell Christine that later). He laughed at your jokes and even made some of his own. There were no awkward silences between the two of you, Jake knew exactly how to keep the conversation going. As you two rounded the corner before spotting Rich, Jake grabbed your hand for just a second, which made your heart flutter. His wide smile could be seen even from your portrait view of his face. Yeah, holding Prince Charming’s hand was pretty great, to say the very least.

Maybe Disney movies are more realistic than you thought.

#jake dillinger x reader #bmc x reader #bmc imagine #be more chill imagine #be more chill x reader #Jake Dillinger imagine

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pacman-tattoo · 7 years

Text

connect [rich g. x fem!reader x jake d.]

( Can you do a Poly Rich x Fem Reader x Jake fic? Preferably where the reader is a big geek and likes to cosplay. (Probably met when reader was doing the costumes for the play) )

ok but i love this

ok this also went from ‘big geek who likes to cosplay’ to ‘geek, likes to cosplay, does costumes for drama dept. and knows shit about theatre’ because i couldnt resist tbh

this is 10,000 words. brb gonna go die

pls dont expect this from me since this was just something that i got rly rly into writing and got rly carried away

warnings: uhhh none that i can think of other than general language but let me know if im forgetting stuff

Alright. You could do this. All you had to do was come up with costumes, take measurements, make everything by yourself, and have everything ready in time for dress rehearsal to begin - along with keeping up with schoolwork, going to Hobby Lobby (which, thank fuck you were getting a huge discount for, because otherwise you’d basically be destroying your own shit in order to make anything) to get everything you needed, and basically do everything your average person needs to survive. So basically, you were ready to die a bit more inside and start multitasking - and lose sleep, but that was normal. What wasn’t normal was the show you were doing costumes for. When Mr.Reyes mentioned doing Midsummer, you imagined you’d be spending your nights sewing costumes for fairies - not... zombies. But you forced a grin and told him you’d do your best, and clutched your sketchbook to your chest, the paper with the cast list and roles jammed in, and the script for the play sandwiched between binders in your bag.

This was fine. You’d go and watch one of their rehearsals to get an idea of how long everyone would have between costume changes, and Mr.Reyes would be speaking his vision to you as you would hastily scribble notes down, basically becoming a bobble-head as you tried to take into account everything. You’d start doing homework during classes, read online for whatever book and bullshit your way through any quizzes. Maybe you could copy some (or almost all) answers off of Christine if she’d let you. Then eventually you’d start spending your last class taking a nap with Christine in the drama room while the rest of the class did whatever - or working on whatever schoolwork you could if you weren’t tired.

The things you did for costume design.

Christine was the first person you measured. She’d been through this numerous times before, telling you her height and weight happily and smiling at you. Her smile fell at one point as you were measuring her chest.

“You might want to be careful, [y/n],” she said softly, “I mean, I don’t mean to be rude but...” She glanced over to where the rest of the cast sat, chatting among themselves. “I don’t think they know how this works?”

“You don’t sound rude!” You chirped, “they’re new to drama, right?”

She nodded. “I don’t mean to sound mean or anything - I just thought I should warn you that someone might take offense to you asking their weight? Sorry, I know that sounds kinda weird-”

“Nah, it’s cool, Christine,” you shrugged, “I’ll explain that this is just for me to know and that this won’t be shared with anyone else. Thanks for the heads-up, though.”

Christine only smiled. After her, you had Jake Dillinger next on your list. He gave you the information you needed without question, and you took to measuring. After the awkward silence began to creep in between you, he finally spoke.

“Do you do this a lot?”

You hummed as you looked up. “Measuring people?”

“Yeah!” He smiled, “like... costume stuff.”

You nodded. “It’s kind of my passion.”

Jake smiled at you. God, you knew how many people would kill to have Jake Dillinger even look their way - and here you were, tape measure around his waist without a second thought to it while you were fairly sure you had at least one pair of eyes on you. It didn’t click until half-way through measuring his inseam that some of these people probably have never seen anyone taking anyone’s measurements.

Well, this was going to be fun.

Next was Rich Goranski. He raised a brow when you asked for his height and weight, but the moment you were about to launch into your ‘I need to know this because it’s legit important for costuming-” speech, he shrugged and told you.

“You do realize how this looks, right?” He said, slightly smirking while you slightly slapped at his leg. “What?”

“Move your leg.”

“What?” He repeated, before moving his foot slightly, “oh.”

“How does this look, Rich?” You said, looking back up at him.

“You don’t know?”

“Enlighten me.”

After a pause, he only frowned. “Never mind.”

That’s what you thought.

Jeremy was fine. He might have been somewhat awkward for a second, his eyes kept flickering from a spot on the wall to you as you measured anywhere below his waist, but he was quiet and didn’t ask questions and let you work - taking any instructions without hesitation. Brooke was similar, although much happier and barely hesitated to give you her weight and height. Heck, she actually complimented you on your dress at one point - something you’d made earlier in the year. Jenna was similar, although much chattier - which was definitely fine. You actually liked it, compared to how quiet everyone else had been while you’d taken their measurements.

Then came Chloe. You’d known about her and Jake’s relationship in the past, so maybe that was why she’d been glaring at you the entire time you basically breathed around Jake. But she smiled.

“Height and weight?”

She hesitated. “Why?”

You sighed. “This will stay between you and me - I just need it for costuming reasons.”

Chloe clicked her tongue before answering your question. Barely half a second later, she spoke once more. “I saw Jake was talking to you.”

“And so did Christine and Rich and Brooke and Jenna.” You shrugged, “look, Chloe, if you’re trying to say there was anything going on - there wasn’t. I took his measurements, he asked if I do this a lot, and I told him I did since costumes are my thing. Heck, we haven’t talked before today, so if you’re worried about anything between us-”

“I’m not worried,” she snapped. “I just-” She frowned as she watched you fumble with the measuring tape, “I wouldn’t want you to get any ideas since Jake obviously has his eyes on someone else.”

You finally looked up after straightening out the tape. “We’ve barely ever talked before. I’m not going to fall in love with him after one talk.”

Chloe only stared at you for a moment, before letting you finish up your job. You shut the folder you kept, making sure all the papers were secure, shoving your measuring tape into your pocket, and snatching your bag from a chair. You thanked them for being patient, forcing your smile as you make a comment about how you’ll pick up supplies and get things done as soon as you can, only receiving a halfhearted response from everyone but Christine and Mr.Reyes, which managed to evoke something from both Jeremy and Jake, which in turn managed to get the rest of the cast to give you more than you’d expected.

Well, that really showed you how fickle people could be. Not that you needed it - but still. You weren’t sure whether it was Jake or Jeremy that made them change their minds, but you left without thinking too much into it.

You had work to do.

A week later and you’re already buried in your work. The contents of your room have practically been shoved into the closet as you invested all your time into each little detail in each costume. You spent your days either working on small details while in different classes, spray painting shoes during drama, or scribbling in answers to homework due the next period (or day, if you were lucky), courtesy of Christine. If you had a chance, you’d crash on the small, cheap couch in the drama room for a bit, and then you were back home and sewing and (rarely) burning your fingers on hot glue.

It was hell, but it was worth it.

The rustling of paper and plastic bags caught your attention, snapping your attention away from the warming glue gun, which wasn’t warming up fast enough for your liking. There stood Christine, admiring the different pieces of costumes that were strewn about - the bare bones of Brooke’s dress that still needed the bows fixed and lime green details, Christine’s own dress hanging on a hanger only needing tiny touch-ups, a shirt you found for Chloe that you had yet to touch, and one of Rich’s costumes already near completion.

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“You need a break. C’mon,” she said, sitting on the edge your bed, “I brought food... and more hot glue sticks.”

“Yes!” You smiled, hopping up. You shoved your backpack from it’s spot, sitting cross-legged as you took one of the Chipotle cups from her.

Christine sat on your bed, unfolding the bag as she hands you your usual order. You thank her and almost immediately break into your food. Sometimes you wonder how you ended up with such a great friend, considering she lets you copy off her work without question during your sleepless weeks and memorized your order (not that you haven’t done the same, but still). Then again, ten years of friendship have made the two of you this close. Sleepovers and doing theatre together until high school - when you decided you didn’t like doing it as much - and movie nights where the two of you screamed at stupid horror movies or shifted uncomfortably at random sex scenes or jammed out to movie musicals; all built up your friendship over the years, even if there were a few fights from time to time. In the end, you two were closer than anyone else you two knew.

“Jake asked me to come to his Halloween party on Friday,” she said as she opened the container containing her own order.

“And?”

“I think I might go.” She shrugged, “he’s so sweet, [y/n]. He suggested that we go as prince and princess.”

“That’s cute,” you smiled, “do you still have that-”

“Renaissance costume? Yeah,” she smiled, “it still fits! I mean, it was only a year ago, but still.”

“Well... have fun, I guess,” you shrugged. She stared at you.

“I was... actually going to take you with me? Jake said it’d be okay, and you’ve been pretty stressed about all the costumes, and I just thought you could use a night out-”

You traced circles into the condensation forming on the cup, awkwardly taking a sip. You did have a costume, so it wasn’t like you weren’t prepared. Albeit it be based off of a video game character, it was still something. “People are gonna say I’m a geek.”

“So? People know that I’m a theatre geek. Besides, if anyone says anything, at least you have the satisfaction that you made your costume yourself!”

You eyed the pair of long-fall boots in the corner of your room, the portal gun you’d ordered resting against them. Maybe you’d at least ditch the portal gun for Halloween - you didn’t want to risk damaging it, considering the house would probably be full of drunk teenagers. You looked back to Christine.

“I’ll go if we can have movie night on Saturday. Me, you, and a couple bags of discount Halloween candy,” you brushed a lock of hair behind your ear.

“No horror movies,” she said. You frowned.

“Fiiine. No Singing in the Rain.”

She was taken aback, “but [y/n]-” She paused, “actually, I have something better. I’ll pick you up.”

The backyard was the quietest place, for some strange reason. The music wasn’t threatening to knock pictures and paintings off of the walls, there wasn’t the blazing heat of a hundred teenager bodies - quite the opposite, in fact, and you were wishing you brought some sort of jacket - and the lighting was dim. Sure, it wasn’t dead silent - people littering the porch and lounging around the pool (or, if they didn’t care enough, they stripped down to next to nothing and jumped into the icy water before letting out a scream at how fucking cold it is), but it wasn’t too much. You sat in a porch swing, hugging a pillow and swaying back and forth as you wondered where Christine was. Maybe you’d convince her to leave a bit earlier than the two of you had planned, and you’d crash in her bed since fuck the couch, the couch is always cold.

The swing suddenly jerked back, sending you immediately gripping onto the back and arm. When you turned to confront the fuck that decided to throw themselves into the spot next to you, you were met with the familiar face of a certain boy who asked you if you realized how ‘this’ looked when you measured him. He sort of grinned at you, as you sink back into your spot, clutching the pillow closer to your chest. Just what you needed: Rich Goranski.

“Y’know, I didn’t expect to see you here,” he began suddenly, not caring to greet you, “but Christine n’ Jake both mentioned you were around here somewhere, so...”

“I’m taking a break.” You ran your thumb over the corner of the pillow. “From costumes,” you added on, “Christine’s making me.”

He nodded and smiled again. “Good. You deserve to let loose sometimes.” He paused, “who are you?” You looked at him, before he just gestured toward your body.

You glanced down to your costume. “Just a video game character.”

He didn’t respond at first, but the moment your attention drifted back to the pillow, he spoke. “That’s cool. I’m Jason,” he said, “from the movies? Friday the 13th?” The mask gleamed in the low light from overhead, and you could barely see the red streak peeking out slightly from underneath it, boldly standing out against golden brown.

You sort of smile. “I know. I like horror movies.”

“You do?” He sounded genuinely surprised. You didn’t blame him, honestly - especially with the reaction you had earlier when all he really did was sit next to you.

“Yeah. I mean, I get fucking terrified, but they’re still good.”

He chuckled a little, reaching up and pushing at the edge of the slipping mask, poising it back at the top of his head, “you wanna grab a drink?”

“I’m fine.”

Rich pressed his lips together, obviously not expecting you to reject his offer. He pushed back slightly, basically swaying the swing back and forth slowly. “You do costume shit often?”

You had to admit - you weren’t fond of his word choice. But you shouldered your thoughts, squirming uncomfortably against the wood, “yeah. Kind of my passion.” You nearly decided against it, but you were already speaking, “I made this,” you gestured slightly toward your outfit. “And the boots, too,” you tapped your fingers against the metal curving out of the back.

He didn’t speak, just staring. “Can I?” He reached out a hand. You slowly nod.

You barely knew Rich Goranski - at least, personally. He sprung up during sophomore year and was Jake’s friend, and has slept with numerous girls if the rumors surrounding him were anything to go by. Plenty of people didn’t catch his attention - you and Christine were never the object of his eye, as were many of your friends - but the ones that did seemed to be the popular, gorgeous girls that seemed fawned about by everyone. You heard about how he was one of those guys who’s focus was basically getting into girls’ pants and to watch out because his fingers like to roam or some bullshit.

But here he sat, right next to you, tracing over the detail of your boots. His attention didn’t wander to your thighs or chest or anything, and a smile tugged at the corners of your lips as he let out the softest gasp at the metal curve of the brace of the boots. Rich seemed genuinely interested, soaking in every part of what would be a complete cosplay if you had your portal gun - and heck, you kind of regret not bringing it if your boots were enough to stun him. For a moment, the cool Rich Goranski who makes stupid sexual comments faded away. For a moment, you saw someone else.

And within a moment, his hand jerked back and he was gone. He leaned back, gave you a half of a grin, and eased back into his usual cocky, too cool for this shit persona. “I’ll, uh, see you later,” he stood, the swing drawing back a little too quickly.

The swing threw itself forward, and you nearly fell out if it weren’t for Rich, quickly catching you by the shoulders, his fingers warm against your bare skin. He chuckled softly, tracing circles in your skin with his thumb.

“You alright?” He said softly. You dumbly nodded, movements slow as you leaned back. He smiled again, and for a split second, you swore you saw the fainted, thinnest pattern of a circuit creep onto his features, etched out across his freckled cheeks ever so faintly. “Good. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to someone as cute as you.”

His touch lingered a few seconds more before he stepped away, making another comment about how he’ll see you later. The warmth of his touch seemed to haunt your skin, the circles he traced feeling as if it had been tattooed there, just as a reminder that that was real and Rich had just been talking to you. You dismissed the thoughts quickly, standing slowly and stretching, bones popping softly. You’d find Christine and see if you two could leave. Passing out in Christine’s room sounded amazing, and the promise of sleep sounded like it might be able to wash off the ghost of a touch.

You eventually found her on the couch, talking to some kid in a cyborg costume - Jeremy? You remembered his face and his body too well, honestly, but his name seemed to slip your mind - albeit it looked more like he just wore a onesie to the party as a last minute option. You couldn’t really judge - he seemed happy. Whether it be from the fact he was talking to Christine, because who wouldn’t be happy talking to Christine, or because he was at this party or because whatever, you couldn’t be sure.

“Hey, [y/n]!” She smiled, “you remember Jeremy, right?”

Awkward kid that kept getting nervous when measured below the belt. “Yeah. Hi,” you said, sinking into the spot next to Christine, waving at Jeremy. He sort of awkwardly smiles - that sort of smile that’s just oozing with damn it her friend is here. The sort of shit you often saw in movies.

“Anyway, you were saying?” Christine said, looking back to Jeremy.

He stared, looking from her to you before deciding on whatever he was about to say. “I was wondering if, uh, you wanted to go out with me?”

Oh shit, he actually went for it. You looked to Christine, before snagging the keys out of your pocket after seeing how tense she had immediately grown. You whispered, “I’ll go get the car. Meet you in five.” And left the living room as quickly as you could.

Thirty minutes later and you’re almost to Christine’s house, listening to her ramble about how Jeremy used to be kind of a sweetheart in the past - he didn’t really talk to her, but he was “kind of adorkable” whenever she saw him. Awkward, but adorkable. And now he’s changed and he’s changed from a dork to a dick sometimes, being one of the popular boys who hangs out with Rich and Jake.

You ditched your boots in the car, following her into her house, listening to her now talk about the shit that Jake pulled and how she dumped him after seeing that he wasn’t over Chloe. Within the next few thirty, you had showered and had donned the comfiest of pajamas and crawled into bed next to Christine.

When you woke up, she was crying.

“It’s Jake.”

buzz

“They’re saying Rich burned down his house-”

buzz

“Jake had to jump out of a window-”

buzz

“[y/n]-”

You took her phone, it buzzing to life endlessly against your palm. Rumors were flying, blocked by your palm “hey, c’mon. Halloween candy, movie day. Singin’ In the Rain. Alright?”

Her arms were wrapped around you within seconds, her face hot with tears and buried in your neck. “... Yeah. Alright.” She felt your arms wrap around her, and you peek at her screen. Numbers she didn’t know, numbers you’d never recognize, kept spitting rapid-fire across the screen.

You shut off her phone. Sure, none of it was directed toward her, but jesus it was a lot to take in - especially because you knew where Christine’s mind was, even if it wasn’t an active thought. There went multiple roles - roles she and Mr.Reyes probably couldn’t handle alone. You traced circles in the thin fabric of her shirt.

“Everything will be alright.”

click click click

“He-ey, [y/n]!”

click click click

Was it rude to speed up when the other person was on crutches? Well... at least you had somewhat of a reason. You were Christine’s friend, and you still weren’t completely sure how she felt about him - so you’d play it safe and avoid him as best as you can. But you slowed eventually, turning to face him, smiling a little.

“Hey, Jake,” you said, awkwardly shoving your hands into the pockets of your dress, rocking slightly on your heels. “... How are you?”

He doesn’t seemed phased by the fact you were kind of ignoring him, but smiles ever brighter now that you are talking to him. “I’m great!”

For a second, you swore he didn’t even realize he broke both of his legs. “That’s good.” You sort of smiled, “where’s Chloe?” Fuck, why did you ask that-

“I’m... not really sure. Probably with Brooke,” he said, “hey, have you finished any of my costumes?”

“You’re still in the play?” You asked slowly, before he nodded.

“Yeah! It’s been pretty great, and I can still do most of my stuff, so... why not?”

You nodded slowly, “I’ll talk to Mr.Reyes about a costume parade tomorrow, since almost everything's done,” dear fuck, was that a lie, “and I’ll make any fixes necessary!”

Jake nodded, still smiling. He had no idea what a costume parade was, did he? Whatever - he was smiling and he’d learn eventually.

Time to buy as many energy drinks and stay up finishing every costume you could. Scratch that, finish every costume because you needed to. Would Christine probably get mad you were pushing yourself like that? Probably. Were you going to tell her? Nope. At least, not until after everything was done.

“Tomorrow I won’t be here to help you all with costume changes.” You announced, standing next to a rack of costumes backstage, “so I ask that you all please be careful and to help each other if possible. Yes, you might miss a cue since this will be the first time,” you ignore the look Christine gave you, “but I will be here specifically to help with the quick changes after that. I’ve spent weeks making these costumes with quick changes in mind,” you plucked Jeremy’s reversible off of a hanger, “which is why I’ve kept most things simple and things that don’t need much help getting in and out of. For example, this-” you hold up the jacket- “is what’s called a reversible.”

You slid your arms into it, it hanging slightly longer due to Jeremy being a bit of a string bean, “on one side, it looks like this. But,” you removed the article of clothing, flipping it inside out, “it becomes this when reversed. Hence the name: reversible.”

At the lack of questions, you went on. “I assume you all have been informed of the costume parade? Basically, all you all will be doing is trying on your costumes and I’ll be discussing any changes that need to be made. Understood?” You barely had any reaction, before forcing another smile and continuing, “good! I’ll be sitting out in the audience, so just come line up at the front of the stage when you’re all in your first costumes.”

At the lack of any protests, you were out n the audience, planted in a seat next to the kid who does lighting - Josh. He didn’t look up, eyes pinned to the phone in his hand as he switched from app to app, not really giving a shit. Eventually, after moments of dreadful silence, he looked over to yu and smiled a little.

“Costume girl, right?” He said, and you realized the smile had been more of a smirk, as if he was planning something. You shrugged off the thought - he wouldn’t be that stupid, messing with any of your costumes... unless he had a death wish.

“Yeah. Lighting boy, right?” You replied. If he wasn’t going to even ask your name, you wouldn’t use his.

But he chuckled. “Yeah. Right.” He looked back to his phone. “So I hear you and Jake are... something.”

What the fuck. “We aren’t? Where did you-”

“I dunno. I don’t just ask a cute guy’s best friend shit about how to woo him when I like him,” he shrugged, “I get my friends to do that shit so that I don’t fuck it up halfway through saying his name.”

“That doesn’t mean-”

He cut you off, “plus, not naming any names, but a certain someone kept blabbing about how Jake never shuts up about you sometimes.”

You rested your hands in your lap. How many times had you and Jake actually talked? Then again, how many times had he and Christine said a word to each other?

Jake was cute - you couldn’t deny that. But... did you really know him? At all? The question weighed down on you - and to no one but Christine, it was obvious you were distracted as you made small comments about each costume. You all but completely skipped over Jake, dealing with the thought that he was talking about you proving to be more difficult that you first hoped. Soon enough, you packed up your shit and left, practically dashing to the school parking lot, jamming your key inside the car and throwing your shit into the passenger seat.

Jesus, fuck, you needed to be alone. Just for the rest of the day. You had plans you had to take care of tomorrow.

The hospital was quiet, the only noise being the soft bustle of nurses and family members or friends and such. Your steps felt like they were echoing around you, your bag hanging low on your back as you searched for Rich’s room. Eventually you find it, knocking softly first before slowly pushing the door open and slowly walking in. The lights were dim and you almost left, only to end up lingering for a moment. Was he asleep? Or... had he not woken up?

The pale light of a cloudy morning flooded in the room, brushing over Rich’s features and causing the faintest glint of light to reflect onto the floor from one of the balloons. You felt like an intruder, standing in near silence as Rich breathed, burn scars creeping slightly up his neck and into sight. How badly was he hurt? Hell, how did the fire even start? He was fine when he was talking to you, wasn’t he? Fuck if you knew. Part of you was glad that you and Christine had left earlier - but still rested the pit of dread in your that maybe you could have stopped this or something. Maybe you could have helped him, even if you weren’t sure how. The gentle, doe-like eyes that greeted you as he stared in wonder at your effort, your sleepless nights, your patience - all wrapped up in a pair of fancy cosplay boots. His eyes were burned into your memory.

You should go. Maybe you could come back in a few hours and maybe Rich would be awake-

“.... [y/n]?”

It was broken through a yawn, but Rich had definitely called your name. You turned away from the door, and his eyes were on you, squinting as he tried to make out your features before he suddenly smiled at the sight of you. You sort of smile awkwardly, walking in but pausing a the light switch, reaching up only to be stopped by Rich.

“Don’t. I... like it dark in here.”

Whatever. His decision, right? Your hand fell back to your side slowly, and eventually you walked over to his bed. You hesitated to speak at first, but finally settled on the only question you could muster up, s you wrapped your fingers around the straps of your bad awkwardly. “... How have you been?”

He frowned slightly. Oof. Probably not the best question to ask. He answered with a soft, “I’m here.”

“A lot of people miss you,” you said, cautiously sitting at the foot of his bed, ready to move back up if necessary. He doesn’t say anything about it. “If anyone wanted to find your locker, they could. A lot of notes and shit are all over it,” you forced a smile. “It’s really sweet, honestly.”

He doesn’t respond at first. Rich just sat there, eyes on you as he tried to think of something - anything - to say. Gone was that cocky, flirtatious exterior for a moment. He was unsure, trying to muster up any words. “What have they been saying about me?”

Holy shit, Rich Goranski has a lisp. You sort of smiled at the thought - what a cutie. “Different shit. I... think there’s a couple people try to curve the rumors, but-”

“Yeah. I get it.” He frowned.

“Rich?” You were going to regret it, you knew it, but you couldn’t shake the desire to ask. “What happened?”

He doesn’t answer again.

“The play’s going well,’ you said, breaking the silence.

“Good. Is... Chirstine mad about-”

You cut him off quickly, “no! Definitely not, dude. No one could be mad at you.”

“What about Jake?”

“Jake’s... Jake. He hasn’t been holding anything against you, honestly,” you said slowly.

“How’s Jeremy?” He suddenly asks.

“Jeremy? He’s... still Jeremy, I guess.”

“Alright.” He paused, studying your face. How tired did you look? Fuck, you knew you should have put on something - just enough makeup to cover the bags under your eyes at least. “Have you been sleeping?”

You tensed at the question. Maybe not as much as you should... Fuck, you downed a energy drink just an hour ago to give you the strength to live through Sunday and not sleep until five in the afternoon.

Apparently, your silence was enough of an answer. “Go home and sleep,” he said softly, “I’ll still be here, i-if you want to come back-”

“Yeah. I’ll be here the day after the show.” You stand, “we can talk more then, alright?”

He nodded. He wanted to say something, but he left the words unsaid as you slowly leave the room. He looked over to the bear sitting on the table next to his bed, and frowned. “Fuck.”

Jake missed one of his cues the first night you helped him. Could he help it? He had a cute girl helping him in and out of his costumes. He liked the way you’d gently smooth out a wrinkle in a shirt or the way you’d smile after making sure everything was right. Was it stupid that he thought about your fingertips running across his chest as you blindly found the edge of his jacket, and that the fact your arms were around him for barely a minute drove him crazy? Fuck, he wasn’t sure, but you were cute and it distracted him because you were so serious about this and he didn’t wanna mess up but how could he focus when he had a cutie like you hanging around him, specifically there for him. Everyone else was fine on their own for the most part - maybe you had to zip up Brooke’s dress and help Jenna at least once, but other than that, you were the center of his attention.

Was it bad that he really liked that? Fuck if he knew.

He was going to ask you out. Sbarro? Sbarro. Sbarro was a good option - who didn’t like pizza? He at least knew you did, considering one night Mr.Reyes ordered pizza for all of you before the second run through of the night. Then again, maybe Sbarro wasn’t a good idea then - you’d probably be tired of pizza. Maybe just the mall in general - he’ll try to pay for you if he can and maybe you two could just talk and maybe there wouldn’t be someone to steal the attention away with their performance art.

Did that sound needy? Fuck, it probably did. He’ll have to figure out how to ask you out. Hopefully Christine didn’t say anything to you - then again, she didn’t seem like the person to, and... she was oddly okay with him subtly bringing up the idea of dating you.

"I can’t believe it,” you hissed softly, “I spent weeks making costumes - and now Jeremy doesn’t even fucking show up!”

Jake frowned. You were pissed.

“I mean, Jake, you broke both of your legs and you’re here. I just... I don’t know,” you murmured. Your gaze fell to the floor, your arms crossed across your chest as you held back tears. You worked so fucking long and Jeremy just straight up blew off the entire play. Now Mr.Reyes had to make time to get through Rich’s changes, and Jeremy’s and-

Jake’s hand was on your cheek. “Hey,” he cooed softly, “it’ll be alright. Jeremy will be here - he wouldn’t blow off something this important.”

You looked up at him and he was blown away. God, you had beautiful eyes. “You think so?”

“Yeah!” He smiled, slowly tearing his hand away from your cheek, gripping the handgrip tightly. He hesitated for once, unsure about the timing, but decided hes go for it. “Hey, [y/n]? I was wondering if maybe you’d-”

“Jeremy!”

The two of you looked up as Jeremy strolled in, usurping your attention away from him. He could tell it was taking everything to prevent yourself from marching over to him and chewing him out. Maybe he’d tell you after the show - give you time to calm down since you were practically burning, hatred oozing out of every pore. He watched as you stared, watching Jeremy talk to Christine, holding up something before watching her turn and walk away from him.

“Places for scene two, people!”

Jake left you standing alone, seething as you stared down Jeremy. If looks could kill… Jake left you after a few moments, hesitating slightly.

You kept staring at Jeremy. Something was off. He seemed… anxious, uncertainty beginning to practically drip from every inch of him, his hands still clutching some pink shoe-box he had drawn out of his bag. What was wrong with him? He used to be different - acting cool and so sure, save for Halloween night. He moved, intending on running out on stage - something that’d ruin the show for sure - and before you could stop him, Mr.Reyes was already there, hand curled around his arm, fingers digging in and likely leaving bruises. He spat something in his face, only to push him back, exiting onto the stage.

“[y/n]!” He said, voice shrill as he grabbed you by the shoulders. “You haven’t drank from that beaker, right?”

You’re confused, staring him down. “Dude, that’s a prop - I’m not going to-”

“Good! Fuck, I need you to go out there and take the beaker-”

“Jeremy, that’d ruin the show for Christine, I can’t-”

“No, you don’t understand-”

“I’m sorry that some of us care about the show! Seriously, call time was an hour ago and you’re late-”

“[y/n], I wouldn’t-”

You were caught off guard by the sound of Brooke’s voice becoming rougher as she spoke her lines, filled with an newfound passion. You looked back to Jeremy. “What. Did. You. Do.”

He tensed immediately, “I need you to get that beaker.”

You nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

He tore away from you. You’d apologize to Christine later, as you crept into the shadows of the curtains, putting on the headset, hearing soft humming.

“Josh?”

He’s immediately quiet, “huhwhat-” and, you assume, scrambling to sit up. “What? You aren’t supposed to be on here-”

“I need a blackout on stage.”

“Uh… it’s not the end of the scene? I mean, I’d do it but I don’t have a death wish right now since my life’s been pretty baller-”

“Fuck, Josh, I need-” The door swung open, and in strolled some nerdy looking guy with glasses and a red hoodie, holding up a bottle of red soda. You nearly snapped at him if it weren’t for the relief that immediately washed over Jeremy. You grew silent as you watched the two talk, Josh questioning everything as you then watched Jeremy go near silent before beginning to attack his friend - Michael, you were pretty sure. You whipped off the headset, tossing it down as you went to try and stop him.

“Jeremy! What the hell-” You managed to say, only to be met with the cold wooden floor seconds later.

He had shoved you away, before he tearing himself away from Michael. “It’s taking over my body,” he said, “I need your help - I’m sorry!”

Michael was immediately after him, managing to somewhat hold him down. He nearly spoke to you if it weren’t for the familiar click of Jake’s crutches - and maybe it was better than he ask Jake, considering how Jeremy flailed against Michael’s grasp and considering you probably wouldn’t have been able to do shit with Jeremy writhing like that.

“Jake! This is gonna sound weird but -” he was cut off for a moment, tightening his grip around Jeremy’s wrist as he struggled, “if I hold down Jeremy, can you make him drink this Mountain Dew Red?” He didn’t wait for an answer before tossing the bottle over to him, immediately returning to the task of keeping Jeremy down.

Jake stared at the bottle, eyes catching a glimpse of you. He looked back to Michael, “actually… that doesn’t sound weird at all.”

Pain overtook him, spiraling through his head as the bottle slipped from his grasp. His head hung low with his face scrunched in pain, before it suddenly evaporated from his features, and he looked up. He felt…

Pretty fucking amazing, honestly.

“Jake?” You said softly, standing as you stepped over. “Are you alright?”

When he looked back up to you, you recognized everything. The familiar, faint circuit pattern you swore you had seen on Rich seemed to disappear within seconds. And he smiled at you, unnerving you completely as he reached up and gently brushed a strand of hair out of your face.

“[y/n], I feel boss.” He didn’t stop smiling. Dear god. “No,” he said quickly, “I feel more than that. Here, watch-” He said, throwing down his crutches. You nearly scrambled to pick them up if it weren’t for Jake stopping you. “Don’t. I don’t need them anymore.”

Jeremy piped up softly, staring at the phenomenon before him. “It… healed your legs?”

Jake only chuckled softly, “no! But I can’t feel the pain anymore - it’s awesome!” He smiled, “you could be like this too, y’know. Painless,” he lowered his voice as he looked to you, “happy. [y/n], you could be pretty boss with-”

“What’s wrong with me now?” You said, staring at him.

He seemed at a loss for words for a second. “Nothing! But you could be more-”

“Jake,” you tore away from him slightly, “I’m fine with the way I am. I don’t need,” you motioned toward his head, “whatever you have to change me.”

He seemed rejected. The moment Brooke and Chloe walked in, however, you had stumbled into his arms, scared from the sudden appearance. He didn’t feel content, though. There you were, in his arms, warm underneath his touch, and he didn’t feel as good as he should feel.

The voice in his head snapped at him. Kiss her, was spat into his ear, or... get her the Mountain Dew yourself. She’ll be much happier if you-

Then you were gone, out of his arms as you moved out of the way of everything - trying your best to avoid anything. Everything. You were fucking terrified and it showed in your eyes and in the way your arms were folded too tightly across your chest as you only took in everything that occurred before you. Michael had sprinted out after seeing the bottle resting at Jake’s feet, the pool of red soda hiding in the bottom. When the other four circled around him, you broke out of your spot, shoving past them.

“Michael!” You had cried, arms ending up around him as the two of you fell back. When the group parted around you, you were awkwardly squished against him, both of you completely disheveled. You didn’t notice Jake’s eyes pinned to you, the voice in his head cooing it’s bullshit as it mocked him because look at her, she’s all over Mell - she probably likes Michael because Michael Mell is a loser who likes video games and Michael wasn’t like him-

When Christine walked backstage, she was positively glowing. You went to say something, only to realize there was something so fucking wrong and that wasn’t Christine. She was too rehearsed - as if every step had been laid out in front of her, every motion planned down to the exact millisecond, her smile plastered onto her face as she approached Jeremy. She said something to him, and he just stared in awe. You balled your fists, Michael’s hoodie becoming crumpled in your hands. He reached up, fingers brushing over your arm.

“[y/n], right?” He said softly, “look, fuck, I’m sorry-”

You watched Christine lift the bottle to her lips, drinking. And then she screeched. One right after another - Chloe, then Brooke, then Jake, Mr.Reyes, then Jenna - and finally, Jeremy. And then they all collapsed around you, leaving you and Michael to cling to each other as you two let out a scream.

Well. You two were fucked.

A month later, your friend group had grown from just Christine and a couple other people to include not only Jake and Rich, but the rest of the play’s cast. Jeremy and Michael were giant nerds and you actually had plans to go to a con with them, them maybe also in cosplay if they could pull something together in time. The three of you spent the day sending endless selfies to the group chat of you all in last minute cosplays. At some point you fell asleep in the backseat of Michael’s car, and when you checked the group chat later, found a picture with “she slep” underneath it. You expected to see some sort of comments from anyone else, but only saw a “let her slep” from Christine. You shrugged it off.

At least, you did until Rich was sitting at the end of your bed one day, watching you sew a dress for a Zelda cosplay you’d been planning for months. It was only in the bare bones stage, but he was entranced with your fluid motions. He was supposed to be focused on math homework, pestering you with questions over content if he needed it. Heck, that’s why he was there - you were going to tutor him unless he waved you off, telling you to work on your cosplay and he’ll ask questions if he needs it. But he ended up getting through two problems before he gave up, watching your face as you furrowed your brow, humming softly as you continued to work. Fuck, the amount of concentration you had was adorable.

… Adorable? No. No, you weren’t adorable. Well, you were, but you and Rich were only friends. He liked Jake, didn’t he? Jake was cute and tall and kind of interested in him except neither of them made a move toward each other because… because.

Because Jake was conflicted. Rich didn’t know it, and neither did you, honestly - but Jake often sat between the two of you, his heart aflutter in his chest as he realized almost daily that he was absolutely smitten with the both of you. But he was convinced you didn’t like him - you liked Michael because Michael was kind of a dork and you were kind of a dork and why wouldn’t you like Michael? Michael didn’t try to convince you to change yourself. Michael didn’t try to convince you that you could be better if you took some… weird thing that caused a voice in his head - hell, he still wasn’t sure what happened that day. But he remembered what you told him, burning with anger as you recounted the shit he said to you only to realize that wasn’t him and profusely apologize.

Jake liked you. Jake liked Rich.

Rich liked you. Rich liked Jake.

You liked Jake. You liked Rich.

Fuck.

And there you sat, Rich’s eyes practically burning a hole in your back as you worked, not knowing that you were busy shoving thoughts about how soft his hair looked sometimes and how you kind of wondered what it’d be like to kiss him out of mind. He didn’t know your fingers fumbled and that you sort of ended up nicking your skin - not terrible, but breaking the skin enough that there was a bead of blood as you hissed. You heard the clatter of Rich’s binder hitting the floor, breaking up as he’s beside you within seconds, taking your hand in his own.

“I’m fine,” you mumbled, “sorry-”

“Fuck, hold on- where are the band-aids?” He said. You stared at him, before softly chuckling.

“I’ll be fine, Rich. It was just a little nick.”

He stared at your finger, before his eyes met yours after a moment of hesitation, “you sure?”

You couldn’t help but smile - was he worried about you? “I’ll be fine, dude. Unless you wanna kiss it and make it better or some shit,” you laughed softly.

Dear god, did you not know how much he wouldn’t mind doing that? Even as fucking joke, it was probably the closest he’d get to kissing you honestly. He couldn’t fucking help staring at you and wondering what it’d be like to smash his lips against yours and run his hands through your hair or what it’d be like to explore every inch of your skin. His thoughts kept running elsewhere and you chuckled as your attention wandered elsewhere. What were you-

“You should probably clean up your binder, Rich.”

He followed your line of sight, only to find that his math binder had snapped open upon hitting the floor, papers askew. He sort of smiled, the warmth of his fingers leaving yours as he walked over, picking it up and throwing it onto your bed. He carelessly snatched up his papers, not caring whether shit got folded or crumpled as he shoved it all into the open plastic - he’d just fix it later, probably.

“Did you finish your work?” You asked softly, bouncing on your heels. He looked to you, swiftly nodding -which was a lie, but you didn’t know that.

Before you knew it, he shoved his messy folder back into his backpack and left you, making up some excuse about how he needed to get home or whatever. He was gone before you could protest in any form, not giving you a chance to muster up any possible excuse for him to stay a bit longer.

And you had to wonder. What made him leave so quickly?

“So… let me get this straight. You like Rich.”

“Mmhmm.”

“But you also like Jake?”

You turned over, resting on your stomach as you watched Christine look through her closet, trying to find a cute shirt. “... Yeah.”

“Why don’t you tell them that?”

“Christine-”

“No, [y/n],” she said, “tell them that you like both of them?”

“Christiiiine,” you whined, “then I’m gonna ruin everything because they probably don’t even like me or - if they did, I can’t have two boyfriends, can I?”

“Who says you can’t?” She shrugged, pulling out a black shirt with flowers on it. “It’s called polyamory-”

“I know about polyamory,” you cut her off, “but I don’t know about Rich or Jake- I mean, they’d probably laugh at the idea, right?”

She frowned as she looked back to you, “why don’t you just… ask them?”

“Christine-”

“Just… try?”

What you didn’t know was that Christine knew. Jake and Rich trusted her enough - and honestly, who didn’t trust Christine? She was an angel and you often considered yourself blessed to be her best friend, honestly. Jake came to her days before you did, mentioning something about how you were cute and vaguely mentioning Rich in the same, love struck way. Rich, on the other hand, had been blunt - asking her for advice straight out only to be told the exact same thing she told you: to talk to both of you.

The situation was this: you definitely weren’t going to make the first move. That means you had to actually mention the idea and kind of confess your feelings for the both of them and essentially make the first move, which was just a thought that absolutely terrified you. Rich wasn’t going to say anything either - more out of the fact he wasn’t sure how to bring up the idea that he’d basically be down for banging both of you (without saying it like that, since he wasn’t sure how you’d take it considering he was... kinda serious about it) without blurting it out. And Jake wasn’t going to say anything, mainly out of the uncertainty about how to bring up the topic at some point.

So that left Christine with the decision that she’d try to push the three of you together, with some help. She may have vaguely mentioned the idea to Jeremy, and eventually managed to convince the rest of the group to get on board with this little scheme. They’d find a way to push the three of you together, since it was beginning to get blatantly obvious that there were mutual feelings between the three of you.

One day, you and Jake and Rich ended up at the mall all at the same time, the rest of the group nowhere to be found. Then one-by-one, texts came in, an excuse given to why the rest of them weren’t there. Sure, it was weird, but Rich won you and Jake stuffed bears out of a claw machine after betting that he could beat the machine, and the three of you ended up getting pretzels so the trip wasn’t a waste at all.

One night you ended up sitting in Jake’s hotel room with both of them, watching some crappy movie. You forgot about the homework due the next day, the impending weight of a test in a few days or weeks, the world outside passing by. For once, you were content. Rich was happy, his head in your lap as you absentmindedly messed with his hair - which was definitely as soft as you thought it would be, honestly, what is his secret? And Jake had rested an arm around you, pulling you closer to him slightly, his other hand resting near Rich’s. You’d barely remember the movie, as you sort of sunk into Jake, his warmth lulling you to sleep. Rich looked up as he noticed you slowing to a stop, your head resting on Jake’s shoulder. He couldn’t lie - he was pretty sleepy too, but the sight of you snoozing away was adorable.

The next morning, you woke up tangled up with Rich and Jake, the awkward imprint of a zipper going down one of your cheeks, and Rich’s arms around your waist and his face pressed against your back. You didn’t want to move - the both of them sleeping soundly. So you didn’t - or at least, you avoided moving as much as you could. You only listened - the rise and fall of Jake’s chest underneath you, his breathing soft and quiet, and Rich at your back, shifting in his sleep, snuggling closer to you. Everything felt tranquil, as if the world wasn’t bustling outside with the business of morning. As if the only three people that existed were you and Jake and Rich. You smiled a little - because, well, that was a thought. Eventually you shut your eyes and somehow managed to realize one thing.

You loved both of them.

The group was conflicted. Because on one hand, the three of you were extremely close and seemed like everything had been resolved and that this was happening. On the other hand, none of you said a word about any of it. No announcement that hey we’re all dating, that’s cool right of any sort, no kisses, nothing that would give anything away. Because, apparently, you three weren’t dating. No matter how much Rich’s hands rested at you and Jake’s hips, sometimes squeezing gently to get any sort of a reaction from the both of you - usually a gentle nudge from you while Jake would become slightly flustered and glance down to Rich. You had the habit of bringing the two of them little things more often than anyone else - setting down one of Rich’s favorite energy drinks in front of him on the days he needed it, or bringing them both coffee and muffins in the morning. Jake would get invested in what you or Rich was doing - plans, current problems, anything and everything.

So then there was a bet. Christine said you weren’t dating officially, and Jeremy sided with her. Jenna had bet that it was just a secret. Michael shrugged and said it hasn’t happened - and after a moment, Brooke agreed. Chloe didn’t bother to look up from her phone, hanging onto every word.

“Why would they hide it from us?”

“I dunno, maybe they’re just nervous-”

“Rich would have blurted it out by now, and [y/n] tells Christine everything.”

“Exactly!”

“[y/n] doesn’t tell me everything. She still has her secrets and I have mine-”

“Christine, we all know that’s bullshit.”

“Oh my god, they’re dating,” Chloe said, breaking the conversation up, “and Jake’s not going to say anything about it yet because this is new to him. Rich respects that, and [y/n] obviously wants to tell Christine but she doesn’t want to ruin everything. Let. It. Go.”

The first time Rich had kissed you was after a convention. You had just gotten back to your house, fumbling with yours keys when he had turned you to face him, smashing his lips against yours. Your keys hit the ground, your hands finding their way into his hair and he tugged you closer to him. It was sloppy and quick, but you didn’t care. Thirty minutes later, you were curled up with your head on his chest and dressed in the softest pajamas, looking up at the phone in his hand as he texted Jake to get his ass over here.

The first time you and Jake kissed was the following morning as the two of you were up before Rich and the house was empty, so breakfast seemed like a good idea. Besides, Jake had bragged enough about his boss cooking skills, it was time to put them to the test. So while Jake searched your fridge for ingredients, you sat on the kitchen island, humming as you watched him. At one point the two of you began making small little comments toward each other, before Jake ended up standing between your legs, forehead against yours. You had closed the distance, pressing your lips against his for a quick, gentle kiss.

A gentle kiss that ended with Jake all but on top of you, hungrily kissing you. Rich swinging into the kitchen was what broke you two up. He chuckled, made some comment as he walked over, getting a quick kiss from Jake - and then another from you - before the three of you teamed up to make breakfast.

And by team up, you and Rich watched Jake make pancakes.

The group found out one day when you had accidentally sent a selfie into the group chat, Rich in the background with a dog that was definitely too big to be called a puppy, captioned with “jake our bf is paying more attention to this puppy than me and i dont blame him” and then a quick “ hurry up and get here before we buy a dog love you” before you shoved your phone in your pocket. You realized your mistake the moment there was a symphony of buzzes and chimes, and you saw literally everyone but Jake or Rich.

“Rich?” You croaked, pulling his attention as your nerves bundled themselves tightly, your hands shaking, “Rich, fuck-”

He was up and to you within seconds, “babe? You alright?” He said softly, only to look to your phone once you held it up. “Wait-”

“Rich, Jake didn’t want us to say anything and I fucked up and texted the group chat and not him a-and he’s going to hate me-”

So Rich did what he could: he called Jake, and within the next hour, the three of you were sitting on the bed in near silence. Phones kept buzzing will calls every so often - Christine being the most predominant of the names that popped up. Jake wrapped an arm around you, pressing a kiss to your forehead. He wasn’t mad - you didn’t mean to and he saw how upset you were over the entire thing. Sure, the three of you probably would have waited a lot longer to say anything to the group, but at least that wasn’t a problem anymore, right? That picture of Rich was cute.

Speaking of Rich, he had been the first one to break, checking his phone. After all, everyone could learn to love the real Richard Goranski and his lovers. Instead of happiness or anger, you and Jake were met with Rich’s silence. When you looked, you saw why.

First came a chorus of “i knew it” in varying forms, before then there was the realization that none of you had responded. Then the chat turned to love: Christine beginning with saying she supported you three, and then there was just messages upon messages of how they supported the three of you, that they wouldn’t go parading this around the school because who the fuck would do that, that they’d all be here when you all finally decided to say something.

You had to wonder how you came to have so many people like this in your life. First Christine, who you had years of friendship solidifying your bond stronger than steel. Now you had two boyfriends who you adored more than anything, a constellation of pure love developed between you three as you had nights where you three would just sit around and watch dumb movies and eat pizza while making stupid jokes, or dates around the town where the three of you played Pokemon Go and argued about who’s team was better over lunch. The days where you and Rich would find Jake at work, making jokes about how he worked at Dick’s Sporting Goods (one time of which Jake responded with how Rich is “sporting goods,” which ended that conversation as you laughed and Rich grew flustered) or when you started working at Pinkberry and you had both of them with the rest of the group “bothering” you during work. And dear god, how you loved the rest of the group. They all supported you all, refuting any rumors before they could really take off (especially Jenna and Chloe, the two being extremely fast to stomp out anything before they could really start blazing). The three of you had undying support from them: something you all were grateful for. Heck, you had noticed that Christine had put stars by your, Jake, and Rich’s names. When asked about it, she smiled.

“You guys are a constellation. That’s what poly relationships are called!”

For the first time in months, you realized how loved you were. Jake had pressed a gentle kiss to your neck, arms around your torso. Rich pressed a soft, quick kiss to your lips, arms wrapped around you and Jake awkwardly as the three of you laid in near silence, the soft chatter from the TV filling the room.

“Hey... Rich? Jake?” You mumbled, “I love you.”

They had both smiled. “We love you too.”

since people wanted me to mention them:

@love-doesnt-discriminate @fly-like-a-grayson @heatherchandlxrs @linslovelylocks @1two-player-game1

sorry if i forgot anyone!!! this is just based off of the list i have

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