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rkvriki · 8 months

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PAIRING ! rich jock!jake x mechanic!reader

SYNOPSIS ! Always having had this passion for cars and fixing them, you found the perfect summer job as a mechanic! Working in a mechanic shop where everyone that worked there was friends with each other was perfect until the friend that didn't work there showed up to get his car fixed.

WARNINGS ! i don't understand a single thing abiut cars or how to fix them it was all googled; jake has daddy-ish? issues; horrendously written angst; reader and jake get pretty heart broken but i cant write angst so its awful; reader thinks jake cheated yikes; curse words; drinking alcohol; reader and jake both have anxiety; reader talks about her past and not having many friends; slighlty suggestive talk but minor friendly! i think it's all, warn me if otherwise!!

word count : 18.9k lol PLEASE READ! so i want to warn everyone that reads this that this story is not my best. I wrote this during a huge writers block and I've never written something as long as this. I know there are flaws and things that could be better, so I'm all open to tips and advice on how to be better at this kind of stories. I would love to write more of this lenght fics even if my blog was not created for that but its a path i would like for it to take. I really apologize if this story doesn't reach your expectations, but I'm only starting so please be nice patient with me. i hope you enjoy this at least a little bit !

Summer jobs were a student’s worst enemy. The desperation of wanting money to go on a trip with friends led anyone to get the first job they could get their hands on. That’s how you end up at your friend's boyfriend's mechanic shop. Sohee told you about his shop when she found out you were looking for summer jobs to get money for your long-planned trip and knew her boyfriend was looking for employees. Everyone who knew you well enough knew you had a special love for cars and were good at fixing some car-related problems. Ever since you were a little child you were always running behind your father when he did some fixing around his car and as you grew up you learned a few things, enough to have friends call you occasionally to fix their cars. You were a little hesitant to accept this job, you had never fixed any big thing in a car and this job looked like it required more knowledge than you had, still after considering how much you needed the money you accepted your friend’s offer.

Sohee explained that only a few people were working around and they were all her boyfriend’s, Heeseung, friends. Heeseung, who ran the shop, does any kind of job around and fixes business and partnership offers, Jungwon worked during the weekends in class months and worked full time during summer break and usually worked in simple things like changing tires and cleaning the cars, Sunghoon who polishes the cars along with Sunoo who also paints and wraps them, Jay worked with changing heavy car pieces and finally, Ni-ki who was friends with all of them and the youngest amongst them all, was also doing this as a summer job and he was in charge of painting costume designs in cars. The 6 of them formed a friend circle along with another one, Jake – who didn’t seem to be working here since he most likely didn’t need to, seeing that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and has always been more privileged than the rest of them in Sohee’s words.

Putting on your jacket and grabbing your keys you made your way out. The weather was hot and you were already regretting putting a jacket on as soon as you entered your car and felt how hot it was inside. You started the car, turned the ac on, waited until you could breathe properly, and felt like you wouldn’t melt in the car seat. You grabbed your phone and pasted the mechanic shop address in the GPS app. It wasn’t too far from your house, which you were grateful for since it meant you didn’t need to wake up extra early to reach the shop in time. The drive was quiet, the traffic was low, and deep down you wished it was high just so you could have time to calm your nerves. The app indicated that you were a minute away so you looked around the street until you spotted a sign that read Gearbox Garage. You made a turn and pulled into the small driveway the shop had to park cars. You turned your car off and took a deep breath as you pulled your keys out and got out of the car. You walked to the front of the shop and it looked empty, making you think that maybe you should’ve given Heeseung a call before coming. Looking at the time on your phone, it marked 2:30 pm meaning they could be on lunch break. You walked into the shop and looked around, the shop was well organised for a mechanic shop, it wasn’t as dirty as you expected it to be but small oil puddles and thrown cloths could be seen here and there. There were only a few cars, not that you expected more since the place wasn’t the biggest. Taking one more look around, you saw a door with a sign that said staff only, you walked towards it and knocked, hoping somebody would open it and it would be Heeseung. You waited a few seconds until a tall man opened it with a sandwich in his hand and sauce and bread crumbs in the sides of his mouth. He looked at you with a confused expression as he leaned in the doorway.

“Um I’m here to talk with Heeseung, I’m friends with his girlfriend and she told me he’s looking for one more person to work here so-” you were cut off as the man walked away and shouted, “Heeseung hyung, there’s someone for you!” a faint coming could be heard in the distance as another figure started approaching the door. Said Heeseung appears in front of you. “So you must be the y/n Sohee’s always talking about?” he said looking at you with an extended hand, waiting for you to shake it. You took his hand in yours as you shook it, hoping he didn’t notice how sweaty it was from your nerves. “Ah yeah, that’s me! I’m assuming she told you how I wanted the job, right?” “Oh yes, she did tell me about it and I just need you to answer a few questions to know whether you can get the job is that ok?” Shit, smile and nod y/n. You quickly nodded at his words, hoping he wouldn’t ask if you knew how to do complex things. “I just need to know what kind of things you can fix or have done.” “Oh! I have done quite a few things, I’ve changed oils, fixed engine chains, changed batteries, changed tires and other small fixes.” you nodded and fiddled nervously with your fingers, silently hoping this was enough to have him accept you to this job. Heeseung nodded and slightly smiled at your words and extended his hand again. You looked at his hands and then at him and he laughed at your confusion. “Seems like you’re our newest employee, welcome!” you let out a breath of relief and shook his hand again. “Oh my god, thank you so much! I promise I'll try my best.” you said firmly as you offered him a smile. “No need to thank me. We really need one or two more employees so you’re big help right now. Anyways, you can start maybe tomorrow at 9 am?” “Oh sure, I can, see you tomorrow then!” Heeseung nodded at you and went back to the staff room as you made your way out to your car.

As soon as you sat in your car you immediately texted Sohee, thanking her for having such a nice boyfriend. You put your phone down and sigh happily. You got the job now, what could go wrong? Now you just need to focus on working hard and getting that money to go on that trip.

The sound of your alarm made you stir awake. You groaned as you stretched out and let your arms fall limp in bed with a loud thump. You closed your eyes as you let out a sigh, getting mentally ready for your first day at work. Getting out of bed, you made your way to the bathroom to take your morning shower. You turned the water on and let it warm a little bit before you went in. The warm water felt relaxing against your skin, an almost therapeutic feeling. As you washed yourself you started thinking about how would your first day at work, hoping you wouldn’t embarrass yourself in front of the rest of the boys and could get along with them. Now, it wasn’t like you had a hard time making friends, quite the opposite. Still, you were always a little awkward when you first met people, all thanks to your constant overthinking, never knowing if people enjoyed talking to you or not. You could say you had a pretty vast friend group but you weren’t as close with anyone as you were with Sohee. She has been your best friend for as long as you can remember. She’s been there for you anytime you needed and you for her. Sohee was the one who helped you come out of your comfort zone and try new things. Without her, you wouldn’t enjoy your teenage years as much as you did, hell, if it wasn’t for her you wouldn’t even dream of going on the damn trip.

You got out of the shower and stepped in front of the mirror, wiping some of the steam off of it. You started doing your normal skincare routine that, normally, would be a relaxing moment for you, but now you were only thinking about how you could be getting ready to head to the beach with your friends and drink a cocktail while tanning, and now you were only harshly rubbing the products on your face with irritation. Taking a deep breath you moved to your room to finish getting ready so you could leave the house as soon as you could. You looked in the mirror, taking in your appearance one last time before leaving the house, not that the way you looked right now mattered because you were more than sure that sooner or later you would be covered in oil and car fluids so you opted for your old overalls with an old shirt underneath.

The drive downtown was quiet and easy-going, still, there was some traffic since everyone started their work around the same time. The car’s clock indicated that it was 8:50, making you relieved that you weren’t gonna be late on your first day of work. Making the already familiar last turn, you reached the shop, parking in the lot it had inside. You got out of the car and instantly felt the slight summer breeze that ran through the morning air. Walking inside the shop, you could already hear some shuffling going on around the shop. As you got in further, you saw Heeseung who probably hasn’t noticed your presence yet from his crouched position, cleaning up some tools and putting them in a separate box.

“Good morning, Hee!” you greeted, startling him. He got up and turned to face you with a surprised expression. “Oh hey, y/n! Wasn’t expecting you to be this early, though.” He said, chuckling as he wiped his hands with a cloth. “Well, you know, didn’t wanna be too late on my first day of work, I guess,” you said, swinging yourself back and forth, avoiding his gaze, feeling kinda awkward with yourself for worrying so much about being on time. “Usually the other boys come super late since they come all together so you shouldn’t worry about being on time here. Also, we’re supposed to be all friends here, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself about working here, it’s all chill here!” Heeseung said, trying to reassure and comfort you. “I guess it’s just a matter of time for me to get used to it.” you clapped your hands behind your back as you finished talking. “Anyways, should I start working?” you suggested. “Oh, yeah. Actually, there’s a car that needs an oil change, so maybe you could start by doing that.” Heeseung said, pointing to a red car that was already up in the hydraulic lift. “Sure thing!”

You put on some gloves that Heeseung gave you and started getting to work. Changing oil was something you did quite a lot, it was one of the first things your dad taught you, something that was so hard for you back then is now a piece of cake for you. Having a passion for cars made learning things way easier for you. Obviously, this old passion of yours wasn’t seen as a good thing for some people. Some would tell you girls shouldn’t be working with cars as it was the role for the boys or that you should be playing with your dolls instead of getting in your dad’s way while he was fixing his car. Of course, your little kid self felt awful hearing such things, but your parents would always reassure you that it didn’t matter what they said and that it was okay to want to learn those things. As time went by, people stopped commenting less and less. As you grew up you learned how to stand up for yourself and you wouldn’t leave those people without a response, and with time they learned how to mind their own business.

As you waited for the oil to fully drain, you heard a car pull up in the parking lot and the rest of the five boys arrived together, just as Heeseung had mentioned previously. You got up from your kneeling position and turned to look at them as they all got in and greeted Heeseung. Their loud voices quickly filled the place that was once only filled by the quiet tunes from Heeseung’s playlist and the occasional clanking of tools hitting the floor. You went back to work as they all talked with each other and started getting ready to work. You heard steps coming in your direction, making you look back to where it came from, seeing Jungwon walking towards you with his dimples on display.

“Good morning, y/n! You know it’s weird seeing someone who’s not Heeseung working here this early.” Jungwon said as he walked towards you, chuckling to himself. Stopping what you were doing, you turned all your attention to him. “Guess someone needed to give him some company, no?” you said putting your hands on your hips. “Keep going like that and he might give you the “employee of the month” title,” he said, making you laugh at him. “Anyways, what are you doing?” he asked, nodding at the car above you on the lift. “Oh, changing some oil, was about to put a new filter on.” you said as you pointed at the car’s oil pan, “Shouldn’t you get to work as well?” you asked, raising an eyebrow at him, making him scowl at you. “Don’t remind me, Heeseung gave me a shit ton of cars to clean, got work for a whole week,” he said rolling his eyes. Jungwon walked away to start working on his cleaning duty and you put your focus back on the oil filter.

Soon enough, it was lunchtime and the seven of you were all gathered in the staff room. You were all talking about multiple things and something that came to conversation was how they had never seen you around campus.

“I mean, I guess I’m not necessarily a social butterfly and we might not even have classes in the same place, so that might explain why we never crossed paths.” you explained as you ate some of your tuna-mayo wrap you brought from home, they all hummed in agreement. “What are you majoring in, though?” Sunghoon asked you as he looked up from his lunchbox. “Oh, I study computer science!” “Oh really? Then you must know Jake? Jake Sim? He shares a few classes with comp sci students” Heeseung asked, surprised to know you were in the same major as his best friend. You hummed in thought as the name sounded familiar. “It does ring a bell but I’m not really adding a face to the name though.” You said slightly tilting your head to the side as you tried your best to remember who the hell was Jake Sim. “Yeah, let’s just say his attendance isn’t exactly the highest…” Heeseung said as he hissed quietly. “Oh… yeah that must explain why I don’t remember him then.” You said chuckling. “Don’t misunderstand it. It’s not like he doesn’t care about classes, I mean he kinda doesn’t, but he is much more focused on football.” Heeseung paused as if he was in deep thought. “Jake knows if anything school-related goes wrong for him he can just take over his dad’s business, which most likely will happen.” You hummed, understanding what he meant.

It wasn’t rare for jocks like Jake to skip classes and ignore the fact that they need to graduate. Still, some of them were lucky to have successful family businesses, like Jake was. His father was one of the most prestigious CEOs and businessmen of Seoul and even the whole of South Korea. He led one of the most famous costume software development companies around, starting in a small office in Seoul that, over the years, grew all over the country’s most famous districts. Jake obviously was following his father’s steps, deciding to follow the computer science field so one day he could take over his father’s business. Was this his dream? No. Did he really wanna be a future CEO? Also no. He was doing this solely because he knew his dad would never approve of his younger son pursuing a football career. His older brother, Jaewoo, was already following the business field and Jake was just expected to do the same as him and since the older sibling decided not to work in his father’s company, he was the last hope to keep the business going so he felt like he had no other option. He felt suffocated knowing that everyone had high expectations for him, having people constantly asking him if he was happy to know he would take over the oh-so successful business, to which he obviously smiled and nodded but deep down he felt mad, almost furious, that people only expected him to do that. No one ever asked him about football, even though everyone knew he was good and even the best in the team and could grow so much more in that field if it weren’t for people like them who only cared about status and money. That’s not who Jake wants to become, selfish and greedy.

The day came to an end, the sky had a pink and orange hue to it, creating a beautiful painting, pleasing and conforming to gaze at. You started organizing all the tools you had used, placing them in their respective place in the toolbox Heeseung had lent you. Distant chattering could be heard from the other boys playing around as they had also finished their work for the day. You were walking towards the bathroom to wash your hands when you heard someone call your name.

“Hey, y/n!” You looked back to see Sunghoon, who called you, and the rest of the guys looking at you. “Come out for dinner with us, we’re going to the barbeque place downtown.” “Um, I don’t know guys, it’s gonna get late and we have work again tomorrow…” You said, scratching the back of your neck, suddenly feeling shy, not being used to going out with people you barely knew. “Oh come on, to celebrate your first day being one of us! It’s on Heeseung tonight!” Ni-ki said patting the older man on the back, who was about to complain but quickly agreed with the younger one as he felt him pinching him. “Yeah, y/n, don’t even worry about coming late tomorrow.” Your eyes flickered between all of them until you decided to agree with them, realizing that maybe you need to loosen up a little and stop being such a pussy. You sighed, nodding your head at them “Ok, fine! But I’m not paying!” You said raising your hands. The boys cheered dramatically, making you roll your eyes but laugh nonetheless. “Anyways, I’m going home to get ready, just text me later with the address.” Everyone bid their goodbyes and you made your way back to your car, ready to go home.

As you entered your house, your mom came to greet you, kissing your cheek in the process. “Hey, dear. How was your first day at work?” she asked you, grabbing your jacket and putting it into the coat hanger at your entrance. “Oh, it actually went really well. Wasn’t expecting to work as much as I did, but I’m proud that I could do that much.” “Ah, you must be so tired, honey! Was the lunch I made enough? Oh, maybe I should’ve-” “Mom,” you said laughing “It was more than enough, don’t worry about it, ok?” you reassured her, rubbing her arms that rested on her side as she looked tense. “Anyways, they all invited me to dinner so I’m gonna shower and get ready.” You kissed her cheek and ran upstairs towards your room.

Dinner yesterday went smoothly. All your worries about not being able to get along with them were quickly thrown away when you found yourself talking with them like you’ve known them for ages. The night was filled with laughter, maybe because of the funny stories being shared or maybe it was the alcohol that everyone- except Ni-ki- had consumed. You were glad you were able to let yourself loose and enjoy the night to the max, you couldn’t remember the last time you had that much fun since you were always so busy with college and finals were kicking your ass. The last thing you remember doing that night was texting Sohee that you had gotten home safely and you had enjoyed the night.

Now you were waking up with the buzz of your alarm, opening your eyes only to close them right away when the bright sun rays hit your face. You sat up on the bed, feeling your head pound making you hiss at the strong feeling. You got up and walked to the bathroom scolding yourself to never drink on a work night again.

Driving to work today was painful, no matter how strong the medicine you took was or how much orange juice you drank, the pounding headache you got was not going away and the dark circles under your eyes also weren’t a very pleasant sight to see so you opted to wear a pair of sunglasses. You looked at the time and it marked 9:40 am, definitely not on time but no one could really blame you for being extra slow today and your mom also made sure to take a few more minutes from your time to scold you about being late out and drinking when you had work the next day.

Arriving at the shop, you saw everyone already there making you sigh, hating yourself for being the last one arriving at work. Walking inside you saw that no one was working, instead, they were all sitting at a table near the entrance, some of them laying their head down on the table and others drinking energy drinks to be able to go on with their day. “I don’t even know if it’s safe to say good morning.” you said sitting down next to them, plopping down on the chair, hissing at the quick movement that made the pounding sensation in your head stronger. No one was able to say anything so you were all sitting down in silence, looking at the cars driving by the shop. Any passer-by would think you had nothing to do when in fact there was way too much to do than any of you could.

“Remind me to never do this again, please.” Jungwon said referring to going out until late, making everyone hum in agreement. Suddenly, Heeseung gets up, clapping his hands and then rubbing them together “Let’s get to work. These cars aren’t gonna fix themselves.” Everyone groaned at the older man’s words, some complaining, saying it would be fair to take a day one, only receiving Heeseung’s glare in return. “Anyways, y/n, I know you just got here, but I really need you to do me a favour,” Heeseung said, turning to you. You stared at him through your glasses in response “Pretty please?” He said lacing his hands together, making you sigh and roll your eyes. “Oh my god, fine! What is it then?” You said putting your hand on your hip with a sigh. “I need you to go downtown to pick up a parcel at the post. It has some pieces that I need for the car I'm fixing.” You said nothing in return aside from an I’ll be back soon as you entered the car.

The drive back to the shop was awful, you were stuck in traffic for almost an hour and about to burst in anger. “If it wasn’t for Heeseung and his stupid parcel…” you said, talking to yourself. When you arrived back at the shop you were more than ready to throw hands at Heeseung, if the parcel weren’t so heavy you would be running in his direction. “I swear to God, Heeseung, if you ever, but ever make me go through all this traffic again, man, I swear on my life I won’t-” You stopped in your tracks when you saw what was in front of you. “Oh my good God, what in the good earth, I- oh my goodness.” you dropped the parcel on the floor as you approached Sunghoon who was near the entrance. “Hoon, please tell me I’m not seeing things and my eyes aren’t deceiving me.” You exclaimed, your eyes never moving away from the car in front of you. Sunghoon swore he never saw your eyes shining so brightly “Hoon, is this a freaking Ford Mustang from ‘69?” you said in a high-pitched voice as your hands made their way to your face, cupping your cheeks. It wasn’t until you heard a deep chuckle that you noticed a figure next to Sunghoon. You looked in the person’s direction and you were met with a beautiful, almost ethereal, face that was already looking at you, sporting a smirk, making you feel nervous under his strong gaze. Your eyes looked him up and down, noticing he was dressed in designer head to toe. His face was familiar to you but you couldn’t grasp any memory with his face on it.

“You like it?” he asked, nodding his head towards the car before you. You nodded at him with a hum, words suddenly stuck in your throat and you didn’t even dare to try and speak, fearing your voice would fail you. He chuckled at you, finding amusement in your shy behaviour. “You wanna touch it?” he asked raising his brow as his smirk turned into a beautiful grin. You felt your cheeks grow hotter than before and Sunghoon decided to intervene before Jake could keep going, sensing his suggestive undertone. “Ok, that’s enough for you two, geez!” he said rolling his eyes, before speaking again “Anyways, you can leave the car here and Heeseung or anyone will take care of it, you already know you’re in good hands here so no need to worry.” “Alright then, just call me when it’s done, yeah?” Jake said as he and Sunghoon dapped each other up before he left, not forgetting to wink and wave at you, to which you gave a small wave back. “Kids these days.” Sunghoon said sighing and shaking his head at you, making you frown at him. “Shut up!” you said slapping his arm as you walked past him to pick up the parcel you left on the floor.

You walked back inside the shop, finding Heeseung crouched on the floor as he cleaned some rims he just fixed. “Hey Hee, got your parcel here. Do you want me to put it somewhere or should I just leave it here?” you said as you approached his figure “Oh, you can just leave it in that chair, I’m gonna need that in a while.” he said getting up as he wiped his forehead with his arm. “By the way, Jake’s car, the one in the entrance, needs to get the left view mirror changed, he broke it while parking somewhere. So, since I'm working on this car and it’s gonna take me a while, you’re going to be the one fixing it.” Oh! That was definitely interesting and caught your attention. “Oh, sure, no problem. It shouldn’t take too long.” This was only great. Not only were you fixing one of your dream and favourite cars but you were fixing a hot guy's car.

Later that day you arrived home with a happy sigh. Even though you were feeling extra tired from the hangover and work altogether, you could only think about your new acquaintance, a hot one. It has been a long time since you’ve felt like this for someone or especially for a boy. After your most recent ex-boyfriend, you tried to focus more on yourself and your friends since he hadn’t allowed you to do so. Those were times that were long gone and you wanted to erase them from your memory as you moved on.

You had dinner with your parents and went upstairs to get ready to go to bed earlier than usual to recover those lost hours of sleep. You showered and did your usual night routine, being extra careful and allowing yourself to relax. As you sat in bed, you grabbed your phone, seeing multiple notifications, since you don’t use your phone during work, from texts from your friends and social media ones, but there was one that caught your attention. For a moment you thought you were having delusional visions, but as you clicked on it it took you directly to Jake’s Instagram profile and the top showed the Accept and Decline button. He had found his way to your profile and it had you giggling silently, making you feel like you were in high school all over again. It had been about 3 hours since he sent the request so it was safe to accept without looking like a creep. Taking a deep breath to calm yourself, you proceeded to answer your texts and update Sohee on the tea, so you called her.

“Sohee, I kid you not, he is so attractive, I can’t!” you heard her sigh for the nth time on the phone, feeling her eye roll through the screen. “Y/n, I’ve seen him plenty of times, and trust me, I know he is, but be careful, I heard some things about him, though.” “Don’t worry about that, it’s just a silly crush. I’ll be over it sooner or later.” Sohee sighed again and you could hear her moving around in her bed sheets. “Yeah, whatever. We’ll talk later. Heeseung is calling me.” After talking with Sohee you were left alone with your thoughts as you scrolled on your phone but you weren’t really paying any attention to any of the posts, as you were thinking about Sohee’s warning. You decided to put your phone down and go to sleep to calm the thoughts running through your mind. As you were feeling yourself fall into a slumber, you heard your phone buzz but you chose to ignore it. You turn to the other side, getting comfortable to fall asleep again but again, your phone buzzes making you sit up and grab it aggressively. You turned it on, the bright light making you squint your eyes as you turned the brightness down. You unlocked it, checking who was texting at this hour. You felt your heart pound, getting nervous, as you saw Jake had dmed you. You click on his text, not caring if it had only been seconds from his last text.

simjaeyun_: hey :) 11:37pm

simjaeyun_: ignoring me now mnh? 11:46 pm

youruser: stalking me now huh? 11:47 pm

youruser: didn’t take for the stalker type tbh 11:47 pm

Your heart started beating quicker when you saw how fast he started typing an answer.

simjaeyun_: then what type do you take me to be? 11:48 pm

youruser: well 11:48 pm

youruser: definitely the one who makes other people stalk you not the other way around. 11:48 pm

simjaeyun_: maybe you just caught my attention like that ;) 11:48 pm

youruser: oh? did i now? 11:49 pm

simjaeyun_: maybe, find it out yourself :) 11:49 pm

You looked at the texts, feeling a soft blush creeping on your cheeks as you hugged your knees to your chest. You decided to leave him on read, not really having an answer to his text but Jake himself wasn’t expecting to get one back. You looked at the ceiling, having lost all your sleep by now. You closed your eyes and sighed as you slid down your bed until you were laying down. You turned to the side, watching the moon from your window, which you usually left open since it helped you wake up. You closed your eyes, trying to sleep, as the image of the texts kept appearing in your head, keeping you awake for a while.

The next day you woke up, remembering last night's events, making you clutch your sheets closer to your chest. You sat up on the edge of the bed, as you sighed and rubbed your face with your hands, making your way to the bathroom to do your routine and maybe it would help you keep your thoughts away from him. You looked in the mirror as you brushed your teeth, glad to see your dark circles were already gone. You did your usual skincare routine and headed down to the kitchen to have breakfast, seeing your mom had made you some pancakes and a black coffee, which were placed neatly on the table where she was already eating.

“Good morning mom!” you greeted her with a smile as you sat in front of her. “Good morning, dear! Did you sleep well?” “Oh yeah, I did! I went to sleep earlier to recover from the hangover…” She sighed at your words as she gave you a warning look, reminding you of her scolding. “Is there a special occasion for you to make me breakfast?” You asked as you took a bite of pancakes. “Not really, can’t I be sweet for my daughter once in a while?” She answered and you squinted at her, knowing there was a reason behind it, she wasn’t one to do these things just because. “You came home smilier than usual. Anything special happened at work?” She asked, trying to sound as nonchalant as she could. You stopped your movement for less than a second but enough time for her to notice. “Um, not really, was just happy.” You said after taking a sip from your coffee and putting the mug down. “Are you sure it was just that?” She propped her elbows on the table with her hands intertwined, looking as if she was questioning you for a crime you did. “Yes, mom. I’m pretty sure.” She hummed, taking a sip from her tea. “Is that why you were squealing with Sohee on the phone last night?” You gasped at her words. “Mom! Were you eavesdropping on me?” You asked her shocked that she had heard you talking with Sohee. “Oh no, dear. You know I’m not one to do that. I just happened to be walking past your room and heard you all excited about a certain- oh what was the name?” She stopped, trying to remember “Oh! Jake! Yes, Jake. Now, you wanna tell me about that?” You blushed at her words as if you were caught doing something bad or she heard a secret of yours. “Mom! No!” You said getting up from your chair, leaving a small bit of pancake on your plate. “I’m leaving. I need to go to work. Bye, love you!” You started walking faster, rushing to the door after picking up your house and car keys.

You entered the car, thinking about the conversation with your mom, reminding yourself to be more careful when talking with Sohee on the phone. You reached the shop just on time, parking your car in your usual place, which by now, you claimed as yours. You walked inside, seeing Heeseung and Ni-ki talking about something about a car.

“Good morning guys!” you greeted as you put your lunch bag down. They both looked back at you, seeming relieved you were finally there. “Oh thank God you’re here.” Ni-ki sighed. “Yeah, what’s up?” You asked, intrigued as to what they needed you for. “So, we were discussing car designs for me to do in the car Heeseung is taking care of, but the problem is that we can’t agree on one design.” He started explaining as Heeseunf put his hands on his hips, rolling his eyes at the younger male. “So tell me. in between these which one is better?” He finished, showing pictures of different designs. You hummed in thought as you looked carefully at the pictures and the car behind them. “I think for this car these two thick stripes would fit the best, but that’s my opinion!” “See! I told you! You won’t listen to me. Y/n, he won’t agree with me, please help me.” Ni-ki said as he put his hands together in a plea. “Sorry, Hee. Gotta agree with him in this one.” Heeseung looked at you with a dumbfounded expression. “Don’t fire me?” You said shrugging your shoulders at him. The older man rolled his eyes, sighing as he finally gave in. “Fine, but only because it's two against one.” “Yeah, sure. Whatever you say hyung.” Ni-ki said leaving the area, you looked at him shrugging at him, “Kids these days.” he said under his breath in a mumble.

You grabbed your stuff from where you had previously put it and took it into the staff room. Coming back to the area, you grabbed some gloves and put them on, ready to start working on Jake’s car. Heeseung had already put it in a space for you to fix it and besides it was a box with the side view mirror to replace to broken one. You’ve never changed a mirror before, but you remember one time when your dad did when your mom hit it on the wall while she was parking the car in the garage. It wasn’t much of a hassle, it was easy and simple. You opened the car’s door and you were met with the beautiful interior, which Jake had most likely renovated into a more modern one, but still had a vintage touch to it. The car smelled like a man’s perfume, probably his own, mixed with a leathery scent that came from the beautiful black leather seats with red details. Snapping out of your daze with the car’s interior you went back to work. You started by carefully taking out the mirror’s trim cover and removing the screws that were hidden.

As you were taking out the screws and putting them in a spare box, you felt a presence coming up behind you. Looking up, you found Sunghoon looking at you as he leaned on the car door. “Hey there!” you said as you kept doing your work. “Enjoying yourself, huh?” He said with a smug smirk adorning his face, making you roll your eyes. “Go away Sunghoon.” You said but still, you had a smile on your face. “It’s nothing special.” you finished. “You can’t be saying that when you acted how you did yesterday when you saw the car, practically fangirling over it. I mean, not to mention how you were fangirling over Ja-” “Shut up!” you said looking at him. “I wasn’t, you were seeing things.” Sunghoon laughed at your behaviour. “C’mon, no need to act shy now.” He started “You know, he texted me yesterday.” “Ok? And why should i care?” You said raising a brow at him. “He was asking me, or better, begging me to give him your Instagram.” You looked away from him as you felt your cheeks heat up. “I don’t know why he would do that!” You said, pretending to be interested in those screws. “Eh, you’ll eventually find out, I guess.” He said making you look back at him. “What is that supposed to mean.” You asked suddenly interested in what he had to say. He started walking away, his back turned to you “Nothing you should worry your pretty head about.” He answered, making you tilt your head, confused at his words. You sighed as you went back to working on that mirror.

It wasn’t too long after your conversation with Sunghoon that little by little everyone started gathering in front of the staff-only door to eat lunch. You got up and joined Jungwon and Sunoo, who was engrossed in a conversation about the latest tea about someone on campus. You were so focused on observing and listening to them talk that you didn’t notice an extra someone entering the shop until Jay mentioned it.

“Jake? What are you doing here man?” That made your ears perk up, but you pretended to still be listening to the gossip you were previously listening to. “Your mirror still isn’t fixed, so no luck for you today.” Heeseung said also greeting him with the handshake their group shared. You looked at them at the mention of the mirror, so it wouldn’t look as suspicious. “Yeah, I figured. Just wanted to join you guys for lunch.” He said raising his take-out bag. You heard someone gasp, looking you saw Ni-ki looking with heart eyes at the take-out bag. “Is that for us?” He said with his boxy smile. Everyone looked at Jake with hopeful eyes. “What? No, it’s mine! And no way in hell I’m sharing this with you guys.” Jake said in a warning tone. Everyone groaned and rolled their eyes at him “You’re literally no fun.” Sunoo said giving him a judging look. Jake simply shrugged as he looked around the room until his eyes met yours, making him bite back a smirk. Sunghoon, who was watching carefully and aware of the situation, nudged you slightly when Jake looked away, making you mouth a what? at him which he only answered with a smirk.

You all moved inside the staff room, sitting around the round table. Jake was sitting across from you and you were sitting in between Sunghoon and Ni-ki. Every time you looked up you would be met with Jake’s eyes staring into you shamelessly, making you bounce your feet nervously. Your eyes drifted towards Sunghoon and you were able to see the smirk he was hiding with food while looking between you and Jake until he finally noticed you looking at him, making him raise his eyebrows at you to which you answered with a shrug as you looked back to your food. You wondered if Jake was going to talk to you anytime today. Since he arrived today he hadn’t even spoken a word to you, not even a simple Hi, making you wonder if he was only the all-talk type through social media or if he just didn’t have the guts to talk to you personally, but still, he had no problem flirting and teasing you when you guys first met.

Lunch was over and you got back to work. Jake hadn’t gone away yet, lingering around the shop, mainly around Heeseung as they talked about things you couldn’t listen to. The sudden realization that you were working on his car hit and you wondered if he was gonna approach you in a way. Snapping out of your thoughts, you went back to finish fixing the mirror, already more than halfway done. You were putting everything back in place, with the mirror already replaced, when you saw Jake walking towards you from your peripheral vision. You felt your breath hitch as your shoulders tensed the closer he got.

“I see you finally got to touch it, huh?” He said, putting his hands in his pockets. “Oh! Yeah, I did.” You answered with an awkward laugh, feeling your palms getting sweaty. “Like what you felt, sweetheart?” Your eyes widen at that, suddenly feeling at a loss for words. You were more than sure if any other man would’ve said that to you, you would’ve cringed right away, but not when said man looked like Jake did. “I- well-” Jake started laughing, making you feel somewhat embarrassed. “I’m just playing around. You’re not that shy through texting.” He said reminding you of how confident you may have sounded through texts. “Well, I guess it’s not the same as talking face-to-face, right?” You stated, looking up at him in the eyes. His mouth opened to say something but closed right away. “Yeah, you’re right.” He took a breath in as he straightened his posture. “Anyways, is the mirror any close to being done?” He wondered. “Oh yeah, actually I just need to test it and it’s all ready for you to take it home!” You said while smiling at him, proud that you were able to do something new quickly yet carefully. “Oh really? You were pretty quick. Can’t say I’m not impressed, though, in a positive way, of course.” You giggled at him. “Thanks, Jake. I appreciate that.” He smiled warmly at you, nodding your way as he walked away from you, leaving you alone to finish your work.

It was almost time to go home when Jake and Heeseung approached you next to Jake’s car, where you were slightly bent over, as you were touching up some scratches near the mirror area with touch-up black paint. You finished the work, smiling proudly at yourself, as you turned around to face the two boys who were watching you silently as you worked. You sighed happily at them, adjusting the oversized overalls that you wore for work. “I’m officially done!” You exclaimed as you stretched an arm towards the car. Heeseung patted Jake in the back signaling him to get him and his car home. “You can pay me later.” Heeseung said walking away, knowing if he stayed Jake would insist on paying. Jake sighed as he looked at you. “Thank you for doing this, by the way.“ He said with a smile, making you shrug. “You’re welcome, Jake. After all, it’s my job.” You answered, looking down as you kicked non-existent rocks. Jake gave you a wide grin, watching your face, appreciating the way your lashes touched your cheeks when you blinked and how you bit your lip when you were nervous. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” With that, he walked towards his car. “Tomorrow?” You tilted your head to the side but you got no response as he got in his car. The engine purred as he drove out of the garage, leaving you standing dumbfounded. “Will I ever figure him out?”

Jake got home with only one thing, or rather someone, going through his mind. As cliché as it felt for him, he couldn’t understand what was in you that made him want to stay glued to you forever. He wanted to get to know you, know what you liked and disliked, and what were your hobbies. Did you have a pet? You didn’t really look like you had one. As soon as he entered his penthouse, he made his way to his room, falling into his bed with a thud, sighing as he felt his head make contact with his fluffy pillows. He still could feel his heart thumping in his chest, quicker than it ever beat. It felt weird, a good weird. He liked the feeling. One he only ever felt with his high school crush who had rejected him in his junior year. Jake groaned out loud as his arm fell to his face, covering his eyes. “What have you done to me?”

The past week was full of work. Everyone barely interacted, focused on getting everyone’s car fixed since it’s vacation season and everyone needed their car as soon as possible. Still, one thing everyone found weird was how Jake came to visit almost every day, something that never really happened through all these years everyone had worked there. Sunghoon always made sure to point out to you that Jake was always lingering close to you, making you give him annoyed remarks. Deep down you were glad he stood close to you as you got time to know him better and to your surprise he was more interesting than you ever thought a jock would be, no offence. You two would laugh with each other for hours until Heeseung needed to scold you to go back to work, hiding his smile as he watched you two playfully fight each other. His presence made work hours go by quicker and you started enjoying his presence a little bit too much, noticing the way your heart would beat a tad bit faster when you heard him laugh at something you said.

When you were done with work Jake would take you out and grab convenience store food for you two to eat in the park. It was in those moments that you both got vulnerable with each other, sharing all of your life stories, good and bad ones. Every night you call Sohee and rant about how scared you are of catching feelings for him, even though you knew you were already in deep, and she always reassured you that you shouldn’t feel like that as it’s only natural and what has to happen, will happen. Whatever you were feeling with Jake, is something you never felt with anyone before, as cliché as it can be, but your past dating history left a huge mark on you and you had a tendency to shut people out when they got too close, until now. The boys noticed a subtle shift in the way you and Jake interacted, but still, they only observed from afar, never intruding on whatever was happening between you two. It felt kind of weird for them to see Jake behaving that way around someone who wasn’t part of his friend group or more specifically with a girl, but deep down they felt happy seeing their friend finally letting himself loosen up.

The day at the shop was going smoothly, it was a bad day of work for Heeseung. There were no clients coming up and everyone except him was sitting around playing cards or just talking to each other as he finished fixing one car. You were sat at a table with Sunoo and Sunghoon, your hands covering your ears as they kept asking questions you didn’t wanna hear and less likely answer. “Come on, y/n!” Sunoo said pulling your hands out of your ears, making you roll your eyes. “I don’t like him, ok?” You sighed, “I literally met him, like, not even two weeks ago. I don’t even know him like that.” “y/n, you know damn well it’s not like that.” Sunghoon said leaning back in his chair. “Just admit you like him!” “Like who?” The three of you looked back to find Jake walking towards you with his hands in his pockets. “No one, I don’t like anyone.” You said closing your eyes as you propped your head in your hand. Jake looked at Sunghoon, as the latter smirked at him, making you glare not-so discreetly at him. Jake sat in a free chair next to you and the two other men thought it was a good idea to stand up and walk away, leaving you two alone.

“Bad work day?” He started. “Yeah, something like that.” You sighed, playing with a paper cup in front of you. “It’s just the end of the month and most people are on vacation by now so it was expected.” Jake hummed, an idea coming up to him. “So you have nothing to do, right?” You looked at him wondering why he was asking that. “Uh, yeah, I don’t.” You answered nodding at him. He got up, extending a hand to you. “Come.” He said as he smiled and nodded his head towards his way. You hesitated in grabbing his hand and getting up as he dragged you to his car. “But, the other we need to tell-” “Don’t worry ‘bout that. We’ll be quick.” Jake said as he opened his car door for you. You looked at the car and then at him, making him nod at you, urging you to get in. Jake sat in the driver's seat with a happy sigh. He looked at him, watching as you admired his car, gently touching the leather seats, feeling the wealth in your touch. You looked around the car in awe, making him giggle at your antics. You turned to look at him with a blush and a small smile, feeling shy he caught you as you admired his expensive car. He turned the keys, making the engine purr as you felt the seats vibrate with the loud sound. “Wow!” You said with a gasp “It feels so different when you’re actually inside the car.” You looked at him as he drove out of the shop’s driveway. “Yeah, I felt that too when I first drove it.” He said with a chuckle. “Where are you taking me?” You asked curiously. “You’ll see, princess. Enjoy the ride for now.” He answered as he chose a song to play for the ride.

You looked out of your window, seeing the sun almost setting, making the sky turn into an orange explosion. The ride was silent, a comfortable silence, and you found yourselves in an empty road, no words needed to be spoken as you admired the view ahead of you. You rolled your window down, laying your head on the edge of the door. Jake looked at you, admiring your hair that flew freely with the wind and how your eyes were shining in awe and you wore a smile. He looked back to the front and he bit a smile back, failing to do so as the corners of his lips curled upwards. Jake was now driving towards a kind of abyss. He stopped the car, turning off the engine. “Is this it?” You asked making him nod at you with a smile. You both walked out of the car and sat in its hood. You gasped at the view in front of you. You could see the whole city from above. All the tall skyscrapers looked tiny and the street lights were only small dots on a canvas. The sky above showed a pink and orange painting, and the sun had almost fully set.

“Jake” he looked at you, admiring your side profile “This is beautiful.” You finished, looking at him with a big grin, making him mirror your actions. You looked back ahead as you scooted closer to him in the hood of the car, feeling your shoulder touch his. Jake smiled to himself, not daring to look your way to avoid doing something he would regret. “Thank you.” You said looking at him, seeing how his eyes slightly widened. He looked down at his feet, feeling his ears get hotter “It’s nothing really.” “How did you even find this place?” You wondered. “This is gorgeous!” Jake finally looked at you, examining your face, sensing you were asking a genuine question and not just a rhetorical one. “Well,” He started with a sigh. “I usually come here to kind of unwind a little.” He said kicking some rocks on the floor. “It just tunes me out the rest of the world. I feel the best when I’m here.”

He felt the urge to keep talking as he felt you still looking at the side of his head. “Normally when I have a big argument with my dad I just come here and let everything out. No one comes here since it’s far from the city so now it’s my comfort place and I’ve never brought anyone here except for you.” He stopped talking, looking at you, seeing you with empathetic eyes. “Thank you for sharing that with me Jake.” You rubbed his back in a comforting way “I’m glad you trust me enough to tell me all that, I know it’s not easy to deal with those kinds of problems, even if I never went through them myself. I hope you know I’m a shoulder you can lean on when you need one. You shouldn’t keep those thoughts to yourself.” Jake felt his eyes getting teary as he heard you talk. “I really appreciate that, y/n. I just feel like you give me so much of you and I never really shared something really intimate, so I thought this would feel just right.” He said holding his tears. You smiled at him, pulling his arm, grabbing it as you leaned your head on his shoulder, looking back to the view as a comfortable silence fell over you two. Jake’s head leaned in yours and he felt a soft bubble form in his chest, making him close his eyes and take a deep breath in of the fresh air that danced around both of your hairs.

The sun fully set after a while. Stars started appearing in the dark sky. “Look,” You said pointing to the sky “The first star of the night. Make a wish!” You finished as you looked at Jake. “A wish?” You nodded “Alright if you say so.” Both of you closed your eyes and put your hands together as you made your wishes. Jake opened his eyes to look at you, seeing you with your eyes closed and a giddy smile on your lips. You opened your eyes, looking at Jake only to find him already looking down at you, the summer breeze made his hair move beautifully. “What did you wish for?” he asked “Can’t tell you, it won’t come true if I do.” Jake chuckled at your answer, making you do the same. You both stared into each other eyes, not daring to look away as if you were in some trance with each other's eyes, giving you time to appreciate each other’s features. You couldn’t understand how people could view Jake as a bad being. Since the moment you both started getting closer, he was nothing but a sweetheart to you and besides that, you saw how he treated the other boys as well, always being caring with them, giving them food when one of them didn’t have enough or going as far as secretly ordering take out for Ni-ki when he had forgotten to pack his own lunch. They didn’t know him in reality. If they had seen him with your eyes they would know he wouldn’t do anything to hurt anyone or anything purposely. They couldn’t see the sparkle in his eyes when he saw dogs playing in the park or the way his tongue would slightly poke his pouty lips when he focused on something. If only they could see him the way you do.

Your phone suddenly buzzed in your pocket, making you break the intense eye contact that seemed to last an eternity. You looked at the contact ID seeing it was your mom calling you, making you silently curse under your breath. “Hey, mom.” You turned to Jake, mouthing him a Sorry which he dismissed with a shake of his head. “Uh…” Your eyes started moving around nervously “I, uh, I’m with Jake, Mom.” You hissed, scratching the back of your neck. Your mom started going off excitedly about how she was right about him, making you roll your eyes, hoping the said man couldn’t hear what she was saying. “Um, Mom, I don’t- okay wait.” You turned to Jake with a sigh “You wanna come over for dinner?” You asked him, making him still for a moment. “Uh, sure, I mean, why not.” He answered shrugging, something you weren’t really expecting, but deep down you were kind of glad he had accepted. “Okay, he’s coming. Yeah, see you, bye Mom.” You hung up, standing up and looking at Jake. He only looked at you, not knowing what to say. “C’mon.” You pulled him off the hood “We got dinner waiting for us.”

You were driving back to the city, immersed in a conversation about various topics. “Also, I’m gonna warn you about my mom, she can be a little too much sometimes, so sorry in advance.” Jake laughed at your words. “Don’t say that. I’m pretty sure she means well.” He said looking at you. “If that makes you feel better about meeting her, then sure Jake, whatever you say.” Shortly after, Jake was pulling into your house’s driveway, making you feel nervous, the fact that he was meeting your parents finally sinking in. You don’t know why you felt like this, you two weren’t even dating. You walked to your front door and searched for the keys that were somewhere lost in your bag. Suddenly the door burst open, making you squeal in surprise as you almost tripped and if it weren’t for Jake you would’ve fallen on your butt. “Oh, what gentleman he is!” The door was fully open, revealing your mom who was now cooing at Jake. “Mom, don't.” you said in a warning tone, making her wave her hand at you dismissingly. “Oh, you must be Jake.” She said grabbing him by the arms “Come in you two.” She invited, making space for you to enter the house. “How was day, dear?” Your mom asked, making you break the mad face you were making at her with a small smile. “It was okay. We didn’t have any clients today which is not good for the shop.” “Oh, that must be really frustrating for you guys.” She said furrowing her brows in a worried way. “Anyways, let’s get to the kitchen. The food’s getting cold.” She smiled warmly at you two as she dragged you both to the kitchen. “Is dad not home?” You said with a small pout. “Oh no, he’s out for that company dinner he had. You know it.” You nodded at her letting out an Oh as you remember your father talking about it.

Jake tried to hide it, but as small as this interaction was, it was still a very domestic one. Those were the interactions he longed for but they never came to him. He felt a pang in his chest but your mom’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts. “Give me your plate, dear. I’ll serve you.” She said smiling warmly at him, making him mirror her expression. Your mom seemed so sweet and he genuinely wanted to enjoy this small moment.

The three of you talked comfortably throughout the night. Jake was able to get those negative thoughts out of his head for a while as he interacted with you both. He loved watching you talk with your mom, seeing the way your eyes light up when she says something that makes you laugh. Just watching that made him smile, which didn’t go unnoticed by your mom. Jake saw his phone light up on the table with a text from his dad asking him where he was and another from a contact he promised himself to never answer again. This made his whole good mood disappear and he just felt like going home. He felt guilty to do this but felt the need to be alone and forget about those texts.

“Everything alright?” you asked with a worried expression, just then he noticed he had his brows pressed tightly together. “Oh um, yeah, just my dad texting me.” He said smiling at you, guilt eating him up, but deep down he wasn’t lying, just not telling the whale truth, which made him feel shitty. “It’s getting late so maybe I should go. Thank you for the meal, it was really good!” He got up, grabbing his jacket from the chair. You got up as well and followed him to your front door as your mom stayed in the kitchen cleaning up. “Hey,” You said grabbing his attention “Are you sure you’re alright? You looked pretty tense back there.” You asked in a worried tone. He sighed, nodding at you. “Yes, princess. Don’t worry about it. I’ll text you when I get home, yeah?” You nodded at him and you bid your goodbyes. Before he could leave, you grabbed his wrist. “Thank you for today, really.” You smiled widely at him, making him chuckle at you “You’re welcome, princess. Good night.” You let his hand go as you waved at him before closing the door. You turned around to see your mom leaning on the kitchen door. You held your hand up “Don’t even start, ok?” you said not wanting to have that conversation. “Dind’t day a word, honey.” She said smiling at you. “Whatever. Goodnight, Mom.” “Goodnight, dear.”

You let yourself fall into the comfort of your bed with a sigh. You grabbed your phone, seeing a notification from Jake, making you quickly tap on it.

jake <3: thank you for tonight, princess :)

jake <3: sorry for leaving so suddenly. my dad texted me and you know how it is…

you: jake you don’t need to thank me

you: we were both glad to have you eat with us and dont worry about that i totally understand

you: im gonna head to sleep now. goodnight jake :)

jake <3: goodnight princess:)

The next day at work you felt kind of uneasy. The way Jake left your house yesterday left you with an unsettling feeling. You didn’t know what his dad had texted him and you surely weren’t gonna ask him, you were in no place to do that. It was already 5:30 pm and Jake still hadn’t stopped by the shop, something unusual since he always comes by lunchtime. You didn’t want to think too much of it and tried to convince yourself that he was just busy. As you were cleaning up a car you just finished fixing, you heard footsteps coming towards you, making you look to see Heeseung and Sunghoon. “Lover boy didn’t come today, huh?” Sunghoon said making you roll your eyes before turning to look at them, now standing up from your crouching position. “He’s not my lover and you know that damn well.” you said propping your hand on your hip. “Yet!” Heeseung says with a stupid grin on his face.

“Anyways, we’re going to this party tonight and we wanted to invite you so you better be there.” the older male said. “Uh, I don’t know, guys. I’m not really-” “Not in the mood, yeah we know. Same story and it’s not working today. You are going today, no excuses.” Sunghoon paused for a while “You know, Jake’s gonna be there.” he said with a smirk. You lightly tapped your foot on the floor, knowing you didn’t really have a choice other than going and if you ended up going you would see Jake. Not that you missed him, maybe just a little bit though. “Fine, I guess I can go.” you sighed, crossing your arms “Where and when?” Heeseung gave you the details about the party, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad with Jake there. Even if you were still kind of sour about him not coming, you were sure he had a good reason not to, right?

You walked up to your mirror, checking yourself out one last time before leaving. You lightly rubbed your finger under your lips, cleaning a lipstick smudge. You looked at your outfit, a simple lace, black corset-like top paired with some black leather pants and black heels. The top felt a little too revealing for you, but you decided to come out of your comfort zone for once and try new things. You felt pretty. Your hair was just right, your makeup looked flawless and your outfit was tight just in the right places, flattering your silhouette. Tonight was the night and you were going to enjoy it to the fullest. Sohee had previously texted you, informing you she would also be there with Heeseung, which made you less stressed about this party. You drove to the address Heeseung had texted you, the clock showed 11:45, a reminder that you were 15 minutes late. “Typical y/n, am I right?” you mumbled to yourself when you stopped at a red light. Taking one last turn, you saw a sign with the name of the bar Hee had told you. You parked your car and walked towards the entrance, feeling the biting wind hit your skin, making you regret not taking a small coat with you. You entered the bar and it was already almost full since it was almost midnight. You passed and pushed through the crowd of people Excuses me’s and Sorry’s leaving your lips as you did so. Finally, you were able to spot a tall ash blond who could only be Heeseung and walked towards him.

“Hey and before you scold me, yes I know I’m late.” you said as you and Sohee hugged before taking a seat next to Jay. “Wouldn’t expect any different from you.” Sunghoon said making you let out Shup up to him. You looked around and saw everyone there except for one person. “Where’s Jake?” you asked still looking around, failing to notice the exchange of looks between the four of them. “He’s- Well, he is with some guys from the soccer team, yeah.” Sungoon said, a nervous smile dancing on his lips, making you tilt your head at him “Weird.” you thought out loud. “But don’t worry!” Sunoo said, making you look at him “He’ll probably be here… soon.” “Okay?” you answered, looking at Sohee who was just as confused as you were. There was an unfamiliar tension in the booth and before you could think further about it Heeseung spoke up “No more talking. Let’s get the night started and get drinks!” Everyone got up, greedy to finally get some alcohol in their systems, maybe that’s what you needed. You reached the counter and Heeseung ordered tequila shots for everyone. The shots were gone as quickly as they came and everyone was thirsting for more so Sunghoon ordered six more of the same.

You and Sohee made your way towards the dance floor full of sweating bodies. You were buzzing inside with the little alcohol in your system and the lights were making you dazed in the best way possible. It had been a long time since you and Sohee hung out like this and you were enjoying this just as much as she was. You had your arms thrown over her shoulders as she hugged your waist and you both swayed to whatever music was playing. The boys were looking at you with pure amusement on their faces, never having seen you like this but they were glad you were enjoying this night so far. Your body felt hot from the heat radiating from everyone around you. You saw couples kissing and grinding against each other and it made your mind wander to Jake and wonder if you and he were ever gonna dance like that like it was just the two of you in the room with no one to interrupt you both. You and your best friend went back to the counter to order drinks for yourselves while the boys went back to the booth.

“Can I get two Pink Whitneys with Sprite, please?” the bartender nodded at you before leaving to prepare the drinks. “Was wondering if you could still party, y/n” Sohee told you laughing. “Oh, shut up. It hasn’t been that long.” You both turned back to the counter when you heard the bartender speak. “For the pretty ladies.” He said putting the drinks in front of you, both of you mumbling Thanks in return. You closed your eyes as you savoured the drink you hadn’t tasted in a long time. “God, I forgot how much I love this.” You said taking a big sip of the pink drink. “Brings back old memories doesn’t it?” Sohee said leaning back as if she was having a flashback. Even though you were a stay-at-home person, back in the first years of college you went partying almost every night since Sohee was a social butterfly and always made sure to bring you along to whatever party she was invited to. Every time Heeseung would host a party, he made sure to have a hidden bottle of Pink Whitney in a small fridge that only he and the boys knew of for you and Sohee. You laughed at her as you tilted the cup towards her for a toast. “For old time’s sake.” She clinked her glass with yours “For old time’s sake!” she said before finishing her drink in one big gulp as she did the same.

You two got up, making your way to the booth the guys were at. Your vision was starting to blur from all the drinks you had. Only had your low alcohol tolerance to blame. You were trying to walk through the crowd when you spotted a familiar brunette in the middle of it. “Look! Jake’s there, let’s say hi!” you said pushing Sohee towards his way. The grin you had on your face started to slowly fade as your steps got slower. The closer you got to Jake the stronger the pang in your chest grew. You squeezed Sohee’s hand trying to get her attention but she had already seen enough. You two stood there watching as a girl eagerly kissed Jake’s neck, his face was hidden since he was looking opposite from where you were. “Jake?” You felt a pull on your heartstrings and a whimper left your quivering lips when Jake turned his head to the side and made eye contact with you. His face wasn’t showing any emotions previously, quickly contorted with shock as a gasp left his lips, making him immediately push the girl away. Still, Sohee was quicker to pull you away from where you were standing. She was letting out some curses on her way to the booth, something that you couldn’t hear.

When you finally reached the other boys they all were looking at you with worried expressions. Their eyes flickered between each other and you were finally able to catch on what was happening when you arrived. “You guys knew?” you said with a choked sob. None of them were saying a word, making your blood boil when you got your answer. “You all fucking knew this whole time.” you screamed, pointing your finger at them accusingly. “How long has it been going on?” Jay was quick to speak up. “It was just today.” he started. “We didn’t know she was gonna be here and I don’t think Jake knew either.” You were starting to get even more confused “What do you mean she?” you asked shaking your head. They all looked at each other not knowing what to say. “Heeseung, did you know about this?” Sohee asked her boyfriend, and he quickly shook his head no. “No, i swear. None of us knew and as he said it was probably a not-so-pleasant surprise for Jake as well.” Knowing that everyone knew who she was and they weren’t explaining it to you was leaving you irritated and you just wanted to leave. “Sohee can we just go home.” you quietly asked and she ran a hand down your back in a soothing manner. “Yeah, give me your car keys, I’ll drive.” You both turned to leave, no words were exchanged apart from a Drive safely from Heeseung.

When you sat in your car you felt like something exploded inside you as you started sobbing uncontrollably. You hid your face in your hands as you started sobbing. Sohee reached for you, holding you in her embrace. “I don’t even know why I’m crying it’s not like we had something.” you said trying to wipe your tears but they just kept coming. “Y/n, it wouldn’t take a genius to see that something was going on between you two. I can’t honestly understand why Jake would be with someone else, especially her.” “Will anyone ever tell me who she is?” you said in an annoyed tone. Sohee sighed as she sat back in the driver’s seat. “That girl was Aerin. Jake and her were in a weird situationship, kind of friends with benefits but not quite that. They had that going on for almost a year but he eventually broke it off because he finally opened his eyes and realized how much of a bitch she was, even though we were warning him since the beginning.” she paused with a sigh. “She didn’t take it very well since she had always been possessive with him but we thought she finally had gotten over it, it’s been, like, a year and something?” she turned to look at you, seeing you with your head propped in your knees. She raised her hand to cup your cheek, brushing it softly with her thumb.

“I just don’t understand why he would do this, after all that we’ve been through.” You said feeling tears coming back, pooling in your eyes. “Sohee, I let all of my guard down for him, I told him my everything and this feels like history is repeating itself, you know?” You told her as memories from your history with your ex brought you a sour feeling “Y/n, whatever happened between you and Jeno is long behind, I thought we had already talked about this.” “I am over it, Sohee! But seeing Jake do this is just bringing all those feelings back. Six months right after I opened up to Jeno I find out he was cheating on me with the girl I shouldn’t worry about and now when I finally feel like I can commit to someone again, I see Jake like that, how is that fair to me?” you said turning into a sobbing mess again. Your whole body was shaking and Sohee felt her heart shatter seeing her best friend like this.

“Y/n, I know this really isn’t the right time to say this but I’ve known Jake for as long as I’ve been dating Heeseung and I can’t understand why he is doing this. This really isn’t like him, at all.” She rubbed your back “I’m more than sure he will explain himself to you soon. This just doesn't sit right with me.” You wiped your eyes as you sniffed “I don’t want to see him anytime soon, Sohee.” She smiled sadly at you. “I know, honey, But you know it will eventually happen right? It’s inevitable.” You nodded at her, knowing she was right. “Let’s go home yeah? You can stay at mine today. Don’t want you dealing with this alone.”

Sohee drove off as you stared out the window. Millions of thoughts were running through your head and you felt like it was about to explode. Eventually, you fell asleep during the ride and only woke up when Sohee softly shook you when you arrived. You both entered her apartment, being immediately greeted by her cat who was rubbing herself in your legs. You crouched down to her level, rubbing behind her fluffy white ears, making her purr. Oh to be a cat. Sohee gave you one of her pyjamas for you to sleep in and some makeup wipes, knowing you probably wouldn’t even bother to take it off. You both slipped into her bed, sleeping together like you two would back in the day. You laid back against the headboard as she texted Heeseung to update him. Your own phone buzzed on the bedside table. You grabbed it and saw a notification that normally you would be excited to answer, but not today. You read the texts Jake had sent you.

jake <3: y/n please

jake <3: i know what it looks like but it isn’t like that

jake <3: let me explain please

jake <3: you know id never hurt you.

You dropped your phone in your lap as you rubbed your eyes with your hands, starting to sniff again. You squeezed your eyes shut, trying to stop the tears as you sighed and leaned back against the headboard. Sohee looked at your phone and then at you, making her sigh. “Where did i go wrong? I must’ve done something really bad in my past life to deserve this.” “Y/n, cut the nonsense, you don’t deserve this, ok?” she said grabbing your arms and turning to look at her. “You’re gonna get through this with me and when you’re ready you’re gonna go back to work and maybe talk with Jake, yeah?” You took a deep breath before nodding at her. “Good. Now you’re gonna rest and tomorrow we’ll see what’s gonna happen.” She grabbed your phone and turned it off, putting it on her bedside table. She turned the light off and you let your head fall into the pillow with a sigh. You stared at the ceiling, trying to shake off all the thoughts going through your head until you felt your eyes closing on their own.

The weekend had gone by slowly. You had texted your mom after everything happened to tell her you were gonna stay at Sohee’s for a few days. All you did was mop around the house and lay in your friend’s bed all day, only getting up when you really needed to. You were sure you were sleeping more than 12 hours a day and still felt like the energy was drowning out of you. Sohee tried to get you to go out and encourage you to go to work to help you forget things but the anxiety you felt at the possibility of encountering Jake was keeping you from doing so. You knew that staying home all day and doing nothing until Sohee came back from work wasn’t gonna help you in any way and you honestly wanted to do something about it but you had no energy to do anything. You walked to the kitchen for nth time that day, placing your cereal bowl on the sink with an accidental loud thud, making you hiss. You sighed as you looked at the mess of plates and cutlery you had accumulated in the sink within just a day. “God, what am I doing.” You said talking to yourself. You stared into nothingness as you got in deep thought. Being like this wasn’t gonna take you anywhere and avoiding situations where you might meet Jake won’t either. So, you made the final decision that you were going to work tomorrow, no matter what. You looked at the clock on the kitchen’s wall and saw it was already 6:30 pm, so without any more self pity you walked to the bathroom to take a shower, determined to get back to your usual work routine. You stared at your figure in the mirror and almost apologized to yourself as you took in your messy and unkempt appearance. You entered the shower and let the warm water fall on your tense shoulders. Sighing, you let your head lean into the shower wall as your body shook with a sob when Jake filled your mind again. Had he tried texting you anymore after that night? You couldn’t really know since you had blocked him on your social media. Was he hurting the way you did? What had really happened? Maybe you were overreacting all this. You should’ve let him explain himself. Dumb y/n, so dumb.

Jake felt horrible. You really had to come near him at the wrong moment and see something that really wasn’t what it looked like. But he should’ve known the moment she texted him the night he was at your house she was serious. Why couldn’t Aerin just get over the fact they weren’t together anymore, as if they were ever actually together. In his head, it was starting to be too good to be true. As if he was ever gonna get lucky with someone like you. Of course, he had to fuck it up in any way. It’s all your fault, Jake. This was all you. Those words kept repeating themselves in his head as he laid in his bed as his whole body was filled with piercing anxiety. He didn’t know what else to do. He called Heeseung and said you still hadn’t gone to work that week.

The boys knew about the situation and Jake always tried to explain himself while he cried on the phone with any of the guys, even if they reassured him they believed him every day. He should’ve known better than to get involved with Aerin in the first place. He had always been warned about it so why did he still do it? Why couldn’t he just do anything right. The past few days were spent with Jake lying in his bed as he cried and cried for as long as he could. All the feelings he bottled up for so long left his body, making his whole self shake. When he finally was able to open up fully to you, he had it all taken away, knowing you had let your whole guard down for him. He knew you weren’t doing any better than him and that hurt him even more. Knowing he couldn’t be the one to hold you and comfort you was killing. Jake knew he couldn’t stay like this forever and all he wanted to do nothing more than reach out to you and tell you his truth but he knew he had to give you space. So he waits for as long as he needs to because he is not letting you go because of her, he wasn’t letting that happen.

You woke up at the same time as Sohee. The moment you opened your eyes you instantly felt a pang in your chest, knowing you had to go to work today. You threw your arm over your eyes as you sighed. Sohee looked at you as she rubbed her eyes to wake herself up. “Good morning.” she told you to which you only answered with a grumble making her chuckle at you. She got out of bed, opening her curtains, making you squint at the bright light invading the room. “C’mon, get up. You need to get ready.” You sighed again at her words before sitting up on the bed. After you both got ready for work, you sat down at the table as you had breakfast together. “So,” Sohee said mid-chew “are you ready for today?” You looked at her as you sipped on your coffee. “I mean, no. But as you said I can’t keep avoiding him and it’s better if we talk already than not.” You answered as your fork played with the blueberries on your plate. “You got this, yeah?” Sohee reached for your hand across the table. You inhaled as you felt your eyes water but you held yourself back. You nodded at her as you whispered a Yeah in response to her.

You left around 10 am which was the time Sohee usually left for work. As you made your way to the shop, anxiety started bubbling up in your chest, making you take deep breaths to try and keep yourself together. There’s nothing to worry about. If Jake ended up showing up at the shop you guys were just gonna talk, or maybe not. Maybe he will explain to you and assure you it was not what it looked like or maybe he wasn’t and it was exactly what it looked like. “Well, shit.” you said to yourself as you arrived at the shop. You parked your car, seeing everyone already there. You stepped out of the car, taking a deep breath of the fresh morning air breeze around you. You walked inside and there stood Heeseung and Sunghoon staring at you with warm smiles. “Hey guys!” you greeted. You walked towards them and Sunghoon pulled you into a hug, making you let out a shaky breath. “How’ve you been, dummy?” He asked, letting you go of his arms. “Well, y’know, not good. But! I’m here to change that and yes I’m going to avoid that conversation, if you don’t mind.” They nodded their heads at you, Right and Of course! were their only answers before you asked Heeseung if there was any work for you to which he assigned you to check a car’s engine and gasket.

You got right to work and you were glad you could distract yourself for most of the time. The car needed to get his gasket changed and it wasn’t an easy task so you needed to have your full focus on it. Working made the day go by faster and you barely had time to lunch as you were so immersed in the task you were assigned to do. Sometimes Ni-ki would linger around you, mostly joking around as you worked, keeping you company, which you were glad he did. If anyone had told you you would’ve ended up getting a summer job at a mechanic shop and befriending the six workers you wouldn’t believe it. But you couldn’t be more glad that you did, you had quickly made six precious friendships with six boys who were all you could ask for in a friend. As someone who never found befriending people easy, you were quite proud of yourself as you had found six treasures in only a lifetime. You knew you could always rely on them, and despite the age gap between the two younger ones, you still would trust them with your life nonetheless.

You felt sweat dripping down your forehead as you worked, making you get up from your bent-over position to wipe the sweat with your forearm, adjusting the strap from your overall that was slipping off your shoulder. “God.” You sighed loudly. Heeseung slid from underneath a car to check on you, “Everything ok?” he asked sitting up. “I guess. Just this thing is harder than I thought it would be.” You said putting your hands on your hips as you stared at the engine in thought. You knew this was gonna be hard, but one wrong move you would need to do it all over. Heeseung got up and walked to where you stood staring at the car. “I think you’re going on the right path. Nothing is looking wrong or weird so keep going.” He said patting your back “You’re doing well, you always do.” You chuckled at his words “You flatter me, Lee.” He laughed at your words “All for the best of my wor-”

His words were cut off by the roar of an engine. A familiar Ford Mustang pulled up in the driveway. Your breath stopped for a while until you felt Heeseung get his hand off your back. “I think I should go somewhere else…” You nodded at him, fully understanding why he was doing it. You pretended to go back to work, trying to convince yourself that Jake wouldn’t come over to you if you did that. You heard footsteps getting closer to you and you felt your breath pick up its pace. You got this. “Hey…” You heard the deep yet soft voice say. You looked up to see Jake smiling softly at you and you almost teared up at that. You tried to reciprocate the smile but you were sure it came out shaky. “Hi, Jake.” You said nodding at him. Your gaze drifted from his figure, trying to look at anything but him, as you fiddled with your fingers. “Nice patch!” He said chuckling, making you blush as you stared at the Care Bears patch placed upon your knee. “There was ripped so my mom put it on for me.” You said still not looking at him, making him mutter a Cute under his breath, which you almost missed. “Why are you here?” You asked, looking at his face, but you knew damn well why he was here. Jake took a shaky breath in as he leaned against the wall behind him, his own gaze now avoiding yours.

“I guess- No, I know and I need to explain myself to you.” He started, gulping his anxiety away. “What you saw that night wasn’t something anyone would expect that would happen. I mean, I should’ve had to be honest. The night I went to have dinner with you and your mother I told you I had received a text from my father. Which isn’t a lie, because I did, but you also deserved to know that Aerin had also texted me.” His eyes finally met yours with an apologetic gaze. Your face was contorted in confusion and you waited for him to explain it further. “She somehow found out that you and I had been hanging out and that there was something between us and she texted me some nonsense about knowing I still wanted and was using you as a rebound.” You stared at the ground hearing those words. “Was I a rebound to you Jake?” You asked quietly “No!” He answered with no hesitation “Of course not! And I hope you never felt that way because all I did for you was genuine.” his hand twitched, Jake wanted to reach out to you but he knew he still had further explaining to do. “Going on. That night I was supposed to go out with guys from my soccer team as well as the guys here but Aerin somehow was involved with some of the guys in the team and joined as well. The moment you started approaching me she threw herself at me and started doing whatever she was doing and before I could react and push her away you had already seen it.” His voice became shaky as he played that moment back in his head. “And I would and never will blame you for reacting the way you did. If I was in that position I would do the same, most likely.” Tears started falling from your eyes as you heard him talk.

Your chest was tight with guilt. You felt bad for what you did to him. He didn’t deserve to go through what you made him go through. You sniffed as you tried to wipe the stubborn tears that kept falling. Jake took a step closer to you, feeling his own eyes water at the sight of your miserable state. “Baby, please don’t cry.” The pet name left his lips before he could think about it but you didn’t seem to have heard it or mind it. “Jake I’m so sorry.” You said between hiccups of sobs “Please, please forgive me. I probably made you go through hell when you didn’t even do anything. I was so selfish.” Your cries got louder as you spoke and you didn’t even care if the boys could hear you. “Y/n, no! Stop apologizing. It was not your fault, ok? You aren’t the one to blame. You weren’t the one causing this, Aering was.” He said pulling you into his embrace. The knot on your chest broke as you finally felt his comforting touch and scent that you loved so much. “I would forgive you in a heartbeat if you had anything to apologize for, but you don't, you hear me?” You looked up at him, sniffling softly as you nodded at him. Jake cupped your face to wipe your tears as he smiled softly at you. “I’m sorry I made you go through all of this.” You saw the tears pooling in his eyes, making you cup his cheek.

“Are we ok now?” He asked, worry still lingering in his tone. You smiled widely at him as you furiously nodded your head “Yes! God, Jake, of course!” You said chuckling between sniffs. He laughed along with you as he stared into your eyes endearingly. Your breath calmed down as you both stared into each other eyes. None of you making a move to look away. Your eyes drifted from his eyes to his lips and you caught a glimpse of him doing the same. You don’t know who was the first to move but suddenly your lips were on his as you two share a long-awaited kiss. Your arms went around his neck as his hands were still cupping your cheeks. You leaned your head to the side to deepen the kiss. Jake let out a happy sigh into the kiss, making you smile against his lips. You both pulled away and you let your eyes look around the room to avoid his gaze. Jake laughed at you and you buried your face into his neck to hide the crimson red spreading on your cheeks. Jake pulled you off of him and held your hand as he started pushing you outside. “Let’s go.” He said nodding towards his car. “Jake I can’t I have to finish-” “Don’t worry about that. I’m pretty sure Heeseung won’t mind.” You were hesitant but still let him drag you to his car. “Ok- wait. Slow down, oh my God. Isn’t this kidnapping? Geez!” You said scowling lightly at him at the eagerness he was pushing you with. “Stop talking nonsense, silly.”

The boys finally gathered around the entrance as they heard Jake’s car leave with you both inside it. “Well, it was kinda awkward.” Jungwon said breaking the silence. Sunoo rolled his eyes, slapping the boy's arm. “What? It’s true!” He said raising his hands in surrender. Silene took over again as everyone tried to process what had just happened. “If all it takes to leave work early is to argue with my girlfriend then I’m down.” “Ni-ki, shut the fuck up.”

You were anxious for today. Even though Jake has been countless times at your house and had dinner with your parents just as much, you’ve never been at his house, let alone met his parents. But it would change today, Jake had called you today, inviting you to have dinner with his parents at his house. As much as you wanted to refuse, you knew you couldn’t, you couldn’t delay this moment any longer, sooner or later it was gonna happen and it was happening today. You didn’t know how to really feel about it. From what Jake told you, you knew his dad wasn’t the best person but you didn’t know much about his mom. You felt anxiety creeping up your body as you got ready for the night. You tried to look the most presentable you could for Jake’s parents, not wanting to leave a bad first impression.

Your phone buzzed in your bed, you picked it up and saw Jake’s text telling you he was outside. You looked at your reflection one last time before grabbing your purse and leaving. When you got outside you were met with the breathtaking sight of Jake leaning against his car, looking like he just came from a cliché teenage movie. His skin was glowing with the bright sunshine, complementing his skin colour to perfection. His full black outfit was hugging in all the right places, making him look like a runway model. Jake noticed your staring, making him laugh silently. “You know you can take a closer look, right?” His words made you roll your eyes, despite feeling your cheeks grow hot. “You’re so cocky, Jake.” You said as you walked towards him, stopping in front of him as you leaned in for a peck. Jake hummed against your lips, holding your face to kiss you deeper. You tapped his cheek and pulled away, eyeing him with a warning stare. “We have places to be, young man.” Jake sighed at your words and you both got in the car.

Throughout the car ride, Jake noticed your fidgeting hands and he knew you were nervous. He put his hand on top of yours, still looking at the road ahead of him. “There’s nothing to be worried about, y/n” He said in a quiet voice, making you look at him at the sudden words. You let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding, looking back to the road. “I know. It’s just- I don’t even know why I’m nervous.” You answered chuckling humorlessly. Jake gave your hand a squeeze, giving you a silent reassurance. “I know that from what I say about my dad he sounds scary but he can be nice sometimes and I’m sure he will be pretty okay with you, so don’t think too much about it, yeah? Besides my mom’s gonna be there so it won’t be as bad.” You nodded and smiled at him, leaning on the center console to peck his cheek, making him smile.

Soon enough, you both reached his parent’s house. You felt your heart starting to race as soon as you stepped out of the car. Jake walked beside you, grabbing your hand, holding it tightly against his. Something in him was telling you he was nervous as well and it made you look at him with worried eyes. You both stopped at the front door, looking at each other. Jake smiled at you, nodding his head towards the door, making you take a deep breath as you nodded back at him. He rang the doorbell, the sound echoing in the loud silence as you both waited impatiently.

The door finally opened, revealing a beautiful woman. She didn’t look any older than 45, her skin was smooth with barely any wrinkles adorning it, only faint ones that marked her joyful smile. Her hair had a chestnut tone to it and the perfectly styled curls reached her shoulders. “Jake, my love.” She said as she pulled the said man into her embrace. “I’ve missed you so much!” Jake smiled as he looked at her with a grin. “Missed you too, mom.” He said lovingly pecking her forehead. “Oh, goodness. You must be y/n, I’m Sooyoung! So glad to meet you dear!” She said pulling you in a hug, making you smile at her as you felt the nerves slowly leaving your body. “Yes, I am! It’s so nice to finally meet you!” You told her, as she held your hands in her’s. “You know, Jake sounded so excited to finally introduce you to us, he would always talk about you when he called.” You heard Jake groan beside you. “Mom!” “What? I’m just saying!” She said laughing at his son “Anyways, come inside. Dinner is almost ready!” She leads you both inside the house. “Do you need help with anything?” You asked her “Oh no, dear! Don’t worry, everything’s almost done. You both wait in the leaving room while I finish it.”

Jake took you to the living room, where his father sat on the couch as he watched whatever news channel was playing. He cleared his throat, making his father loom at you both. “Hey, dad. This is y/n, my girlfriend.” Jake said introducing you to the older man. “Hi, sir. It’s nice to meet you!” You said bowing slightly at him, wiping your sweaty hands in the back of your pants. Jake’s father got up, walking towards the both of you. His straight lips formed a slight smile as he pulled you into a hug, making you let out a surprised sound. “It’s nice to see the girl my son can’t shut up about. Can’t say I’m not surprised to see my son could keep up with a girl like you.” You felt shy at his words, not really knowing what to say. “Ah, I’m sure it’s not like that.” You said rubbing your arm anxiously. He then walked to Jake, shaking hands with his son, giving him a tight-lipped smile. “Hope you’ve been behaving well, son.” He said patting his son’s head. “Dad..” Jake said rolling his eyes. The three of you sat on the couch, Jake's dad’s eyes were on the TV but his focus was somewhere else.

“So,” He started. “Where did you two meet?” He asked, turning to look at you two. You looked at Jake and then at his father “We met at my workplace.” You said nodding at him. “You work?” He asked curiously. “Well, it’s a summer job, but yeah I do. Been there for about two and half months maybe?” You smiled at him, rubbing your hands back in forth on your thighs as you tried to ease the nerves. He hummed “And what do you do, may I ask?” “Dad, it’s enough questions.” Jake said but you stopped “It’s okay, Jake.” You said smiling at him. “I’m working at a mechanic shop, which I know it’s not usual as a summer job, but I enjoy it a lot.” His dad opened his mouth to speak but before he could do so, Sooyoung called everyone to the table.

You were all sat at the table peacefully, immersed in a casual conversation. “We should totally book a dinner with your parents y/n, Jake talks about how nice they are when he stays at your house. “ Jake’s mother suggested. “Yeah, I think that would be really nice. They would love it!” You told her, smiling at her as you went back to eating. You noticed Jake had been quiet most of the night, only talking when you were the topic of the conversation. It made you worried that he was behaving this way. You noticed the way his hands were trembling and you wanted nothing more than to comfort him right there and then. You put your utensils down when you finished the meal and one of your hands went to his tigh to rub it in a comforting manner. Jake’s movements faltered when he felt it. His free hand went down to where your hand was placed in his thigh and squeezed it in appreciation. You interlocked your fingers with his and his thumb started rubbing the back of your hand. Jake felt his heart warming up at your actions, looking at you as you spoke with his mother. He smiled, looking down at his empty plate as he tried to hide it.

Jake’s mom got up and walked towards the fridge. “If everyone’s finished, I made dessert!” She said as she put a homemade ice cream bowl on the table. She sat back down and the conversation went on. “y/n I almost forgot to ask! What are you studying?” Sooyung asked as she looked at you. her elbow propped on the table. “Oh, I’m majoring in computer science actually!” You answered with a smile. “I actually share a few classes with Jake.” You said looking at him with a smile, seeing him already looking at you. “Oh really! What a coincidence, isn’t it!” His mother beamed at you. Jake’s father scoffed beside his mother making you snap your head in his direction. “I’m surprised he actually attends classes.” He said looking down at his desert. Jake’s hand tightened almost painfully in your grip.

The tension in the room was thick and if you wanted you could cut it with a knife. Jake’s mother scolded him silently for speaking about it when you were present, but the man couldn’t care less. “Soccer, soccer, soccer. It’s all that goes through that head of his.” He said, finally looking up at his son, who stared at him with a stoic expression. “I work hard every day to give him a stable future and yet he doesn’t even think about pursuing that.” He said with an expression that could be read as disappointment. “Look at his brother. Working a high-paying job, a stable one, and yet, you can’t take it as an example to look up to. Do you really think soccer’s gonna take you anywhere in life?” He asked but he wasn’t really looking for an answer. Your heart felt like it could jump out of your chest with how quick it was beating. Jake’s face was emotionless but his hands were shaking as the force of his own father’s words hit him like rocks. It hurt you to see him take all this and you just couldn’t keep yourself quiet any longer

“You know,” You started “Jake’s really good at what he does best, even if it’s at soccer.” You gulped your nerves down as you continued. “If there’s something my parents never did was interfere in my future. They never once told me I should follow this or that, never. Because nothing was more important than them seeing me do something that makes me happy. If soccer is what he loves doing, then why not let him do that? I don’t know a thing about soccer or sports but if he’s known in almost every national university’s soccer team then he must be damn good at what he does. So why not support him in that? Even if it goes bad for him, which I must say I doubt, he’s going to graduate so there’s always a plan b. Have you ever considered your son’s happiness? I genuinely don’t intend to be disrespectful to you or your company, but is your business more important than your son? You have a son working in that field so why not make him take over it instead of Jake, who clearly doesn’t want to do it?”

You looked at Jake, seeing him look at you with tears pooling in his eyes, making your own eyes water. “Jake deserves nothing but to be happy. If you only could see how much he’s done then maybe you would love him a bit more.” You got up from your chair, the scraping sound made you slightly hiss. Jake understood what you were doing and did the same. “I’m so sorry about this, but I just can’t stand you seeing talk so low of your son. I hope you can reflect a little bit. Again, I’m sorry.” You turned to leave, Jake following behind you.

When the front door shut close, Jake instantly broke down, throwing himself in your embrace. His body shook with broken cries, making you screw your eyes shut as you tried to stop your tears. You held him tightly, rubbing his back in a soothing manner. “It’s alright now.” you said in a whisper, your hand coming up to tangle itself in his hair. When his cries died out Jake pulled out of your arms, looking at you. His hands cradled your face, as his eyes scanned your features. He smiled at you, making you mirror his expression. He leaned down as he pecked your lips and your hands came up to hold his that were holding your face. “I’m sorry for, you know, causing all that. I just couldn’t not do anything.” You said looking down. “Hey, don’t apologize. Thank you for that, really.” he said letting out a breath. “It’s better you saying that than me having another screaming match with my father.” He smiled sadly.

“I didn’t know you liked me that much, though.” He joked trying to lighten the mood. “Oh, c’mon Jake, seriously.” You said groaning at him, feeling your cheeks heat up. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” He said laughing. “Y’know, I like you that much too.” You felt shy under his gaze, suddenly not able to look in his eyes. “Do you really?” You asked as you kicked tiny rocks on the floor. “Yes, silly. Of course I do…” Jake tensed “Even more than liking, actually.” You looked up at him when he said that, seeing him biting his lips nervously. “What?” You asked, surprised as you felt your heart race. “I- sorry I shouldn’t-” “Jake.” You cut him off, laughing at him. He stared at you wide-eyed, his cheeks flushed and his ears red.

You threw your arms over his shoulder, making a slight force to pull him closer. You smiled up at him. “I love you.” Jake almost choked in his own spit, not expecting to hear those words coming out of your mouth. His mouth opened and closed as he tried to say something. He took a deep breath and put his hands on your waist, suddenly feeling like he was in high school again, about to have his first kiss. He leaned in to kiss you, moving his head to the side to deepen it. Both of your lips moving on their own as you shared a passionate kiss. Jake pulled away before he could go further, his forehead resting against yours as he giggled, making you laugh at his behaviour. “I love you too princess.” He finally said, “So much.” He pecked your lips again, and again, and again until you pushed his chest as you laughed at him. He grinned at you, as he grabbed your hand in his. “Let’s go?” He asked and you nodded at him. You both got in the car, ready to go home as some soft tunes played from to radio.

Jake had been trying to make his house a home for a long time, but maybe home was where you were.

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diorsluv · 1 month

Text

casual , part 7

“ you said ‘we’re not together’ ”

series m. list previous chapter next chapter

( socialmedia!au )

yourusername

liked by vivianliu, dylanduke25, and 100,299 others

yourusername i’m on that hot girl shit

view all comments

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username40 gimme sum of the hot girl shit babe 🙏

lhughes_06 yes queen be confident!! don’t let my douchebag of a best friend bring down your happiness

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→ markestapa 🍊🍓🍎🫐🍐🥭🥝🍏🍋

→ dylanduke25 fruit bowl alert

→ rutgermcgroarty 😟

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_quinnhughes i have a few friends who want to get to know you a bit better

→ yourusername wait a second..

→ _quinnhughes yes i know i never let you talk to guys 😑 BUT THIS IS AN EXCEPTION.

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→ jackhughes WAIT WHAT WE DIDNT AGREE TO THIS

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rutgermcgroarty yay

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_alexturcotte AYEEEE NICE

trevorzegras SHES BACK??

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username48 who’s gonna tell her she looks absolutely GORGEOUS

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liked by yourusername

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markestapa he has so much pride i apologize

→ yourusername 🤷‍♀️

→ yourusername you know how i am with my toxic men

→ _quinnhughes yeah you’re obsessed yourusername

→ trevorzegras LMAOOO

→ mackie.samo goddamn 😭

→ vivianliu stop don’t do her like that

→ _alexturcotte violation.

→ dylanduke25 💀💀

colecaufield hello i see those are the headphones i generously gifted you out of the kindness of my heart

→ yourusername i dont like where ur going with this.

→ colecaufield I DIDNT EVEN SAY ANYTHING

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→ jackhughes he wants you to go watch him play when they play the wings on thursday

→ colecaufield JACK.

→ yourusername AWWW OF COURSE I WILL (can you get me good tickets 🤨)

→ colecaufield i already got you behind the bench don’t worry

username14 i’m afraid you ABSOLUTELY ATE 💕

username55 mom and dad are fighting again

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edwards.73 nice

this comment has been deleted

edwards.73

liked by adamfantilli, markestapa, and 93,447 others

edwards.73 spent time with the #1 bro tn

tagged: markestapa

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dylanduke25 i always knew you had favoritism

→ edwards.73 it’s true mark’s my favorite

→ dylanduke25 YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO DENY IT

→ edwards.73 my mom said never lie

→ markestapa i love you too babe 🥰🥰 edwards.73

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username36 this is so frat boy

adamfantilli this is completely unfair

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username16 i’m waiting for you and rosie to make up

username5 ethan’s cheating with mark 😱

mackie.samo let’s address the allegations

→ edwards.73 hell no

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lhughes_06 why can’t you just stop beating around the bush for once

jackhughes i hope you know she cries herself to sleep every night

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username17 listen to the hughes ethan please 🙏

username3 i’m so confused what’s going on

vivianliu you should’ve spent tonight with her

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→ vivianliu i give up

colecaufield 👍

→ edwards.73 🙏

username45 ayeee that’s what we like to see

username90 whyd you post a mirror pic too

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_alexturcotte just makeup and makeout

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→ edwards.73 thought you were so against me what happened

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luca.fantilli am i #2 at least 🥹🥹🥹

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yourusername stop ignoring me please

username37 ethan and mark best duo ⁉️⁉️

username74 let’s talk about the fact that that’s a whole ass mural in a house???

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_quinnhughes stop ignoring her ethan

→ edwards.73 i’m not

trevorzegras should’ve invited me fr

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username16 this is so old chase atlantic coded

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rutgermcgroarty PLEASE she’s sobbing uncontrollably and i know it’s killing you too

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→ adamfantilli calm down rut 😭

→ colecaufield i see you’re a bit protective aren’t you rutgermcgroarty

→ mackie.samo why are we threatening each other

→ lhughes_06 okay why are his words effective but mine aren’t 😔😔

→ markestapa what the hell is going on

→ dylanduke25 FIGHT??

→ jackhughes more like a murder dylanduke25

→ vivianliu i stand by rut ‼️

username20 please just have makeup sex already i want the old posts back

→ username2 yeah i think they’re doing that 💀

next chapter notes ) soooo yes they’re a little toxic but i love my toxic men 🥴

tags: @dancerbailey3 @hughesfein @loveforaugust @alwaysclassyeagle @love4ldr @inhoodmood @bunting58 @crazycat-ladys-blog @smoooore @bunbunbl0gs @lilasianmeat

#ethan edwards #ethan edwards fanfic #ethan edwards fic #ethan edwards x reader #ethan edwards x y/n #quinn hughes #jack hughes #trevor zegras #alex turcotte #cole caufield #dylan duke #luke hughes #mackie samoskevich #mark estapa #adam fantilli #rutger mcgroarty #luca fantilli

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okkotsuus · 1 year

Note

Can you write the seeing your ex as your boyfriend qwith nagi, shidou, sae, and kaiser?

ex encounters (bllk pt.3) !

features: seishiro n. ryusei s. sae i. michael k.

contents: nagi and ryu are adults bc i need them to be out of blue lock. ig hurt comfort. established relationship. strong language. shidou is himself. violence (shidou). killing threats (shidou). banter. sae treats the ex like rin when he gets back from spain <3. theatrics (kaiser). being physically imposing (all but sae’s shortass). in the kaiser one the ex doesn’t try to get back with the reader. 2.2k words

tw for the exes: childhood lovers. overbearing. falling out of love. got beat up by shidou. narcissist. can’t take a goddamn hint. accusations of cheating. cheating. lack of trust. invasion of privacy (phone). yelling. throwing things. control issues.

pt.1 — pt.2 — pt.4

nagi would be one of two things: annoyed or just not caring. he’ll most likely go from not caring to annoyed if your ex continues to persist or gets too familiar.

you were waiting outside of the stadium for nagi, he had just had a game and you were driving him home because driving was ‘a drag.’ the game had just let out so there were crowds of people pouring out. when something brushes against you, you ignore it; thinking it was just someone who didn’t realize you were standing there while walking past. but when it becomes a repeated tap, you turn in mild annoyance.

y’know, your boyfriend’s soccer game is not really the place you would have expected to see your childhood boyfriend. well, you kind of planned to never see him again, as you had moved far, far away from that town for university. but life was a bitch.

“y/n, hey! didja see the game? that nagi guy was super cool!” he was the exact same, just a little sharper around the edges. but that didn’t mean you exactly wanted to see him, you weren’t friends and you didn’t want to be: plus you already had a boyfriend who you loved very much.

“yeah, he is.” you kept as curt as possible, trying to communicate how little you wanted to talk to him. but you did remember that he was quite pushy with something he wanted. and your memory tends to serve you right, including now.

“say, how about you and i go get a drink? i’d love to catch up with ya!” you hesitated, very much not knowing what to say. thankfully whatever higher power there is decided to be merciful on you and send reinforcements.

reinforcements in the form of your boyfriend, seishiro nagi. “hey, y/n- oh, who’s this?” nagi idly walked to you, allowing you to notice that the stadium had completely cleared out in the time that you had been speaking with your ex. your ex sort of just stares at him for a moment, vaguely starstruck.

“oh my god you know him? that’s all the more reason to get back together with you!” your eyes widen, surprised at his boldness. nagi just stares at the dude, standing closely at your side. he thinks the guy will just eventually go away; but you know better.

“actually, he’s my-”

“let’s go get that drink now, you can bring him too!”

“i’m their boyfriend, you’re annoying.” with that nagi drapes himself over you, resting his head on your shoulder. your ex tries to sputter out a response but the lidded glare that nagi shoots him from behind you quickly shuts him up, leaving him to stumble away.

you just giggle as nagi huffs, grumbling about “how pesky” that was. you turn to rest your forearms on his shoulders, tracing his sleepy face with your eyes. he presses a kiss to your hairline and decides to finally address you.

“glad i didn’t have’ta fight that hard for ya, would’ve, but it would’ve been so tiring…”

shidou would straight up kill the guy if you let him, like you have to physically restrain him or pspsps him back to you like a mf cat so he doesn’t actually murder somebody.

shidou had left you for just one minute to go “take a massive dookie” as he proclaimed so very loudly in the middle of the diner. you were exasperated, but remained in your seat while idly sipping at whatever drink he ordered; payback for publicly embarrassing you yet again.

while he was gone, your food came out, as per policy: it was brought out by the cook. the cook who had, by the spin of a wheel, turned out to be your ex. to be honest, there was nothing wrong with him, the two of you just mutually fell out of love. well, at least you thought.

because here was your ex chatting you up, holding the serving tray which was long emptied of the ordered food. “how’ve you been bab- sorry, y/n?” that’s suspicious. you just mumbled out a one-word response and continued sipping your boyfriend’s drink.

“what do we have here? some bastard swooping in on what’s mine while i went to take a shit!?” shidou’s loud voice booms from the other side of the diner, you began to rapidly chug his drink as payback for the scene you knew he was about to cause.

your ex sort of just gawks at him for a moment, most likely due to what had just come out of his loud-ass mouth. also due to his physicality: he was like a male model with his bigass, lion-esque eyeliner and dyed hair, not to mention the atrocious fit he picked out just because he knew you hated that shirt. shidou was a sight to see, you really wished you didn’t have to look at him, especially since he insisted on making your life a living hell.

shidou sort of lunged at the guy, you felt bad, you really did. but what were you supposed to do, jump in front of him and go “stop!! this isn’t you!!” you would rather die.

“I’LL KILL YOU FUCKER!!” you finished his drink and set it down, letting out a refreshed sigh as you finally decided to deal with your man-child roach boyfriend. he was currently shaking your ex by the collar, a bruise visible just under his left eye.

you grabbed shidou by the back of his collar and yanked, you hoped it would end up ripping that horrendous shirt but it sadly did not. shidou just looked at you, still shaking him.

“pspsps, drop it, don’t make me get the spray bottle.” immediately your ex was released. he kind of just sat on the ground next to the reeling man, who stared up at you through his antenna bangs with a deadpan. you were constantly done with him, but he was also constantly done with you.

“y/n, what the fuck?”

“shhh… good boy, now go pay the tab so we can just leave before the police get here <3” shidou just grumbled and went to go pay the astounded cashier while you wolfed down your food. if you were gonna risk an obstruction of justice charge at least you were gonna eat those damn hash browns.

shidou returned and you dragged him away from his food, which he had brought a box for. while he yelled about that you just kept pulling him out; which he let you.

“i’m not gonna apologize for defending what’s mine, yer mine and the world should fucking know it.”

sae would be so deadpan, to the point where you even begin to wonder if he actually cares. once he gets tired of trying to give your ex a hint he just tells him that he’s “lukewarm” and pulls you away.

the last thing you expected was to be getting hit on by your boyfriend’s opponent. the striker for the team that sae was playing against just happened to be your ex. what can you say, you like soccer players, no shame in having a type.

what you also didn’t expect was for it to be while you were literally standing next to sae, like: your ex sauntered up to you, saw you were with a guy, and proceed to try and rizz you up. it would be funny if you didn’t hate his guts. he’s and egotistic maniac off the field and he sucks on field. its like a child bragging about something their parents did; he gets spoonfed easy shots by the rest of his team.

“hey y/n, whatdya say after we win; you come back to my place? i’ve been meaning to try to ask you out again…” this was the fifth time now that he’s asked that, all of the other times you just dodged it or changed the subject. but you were seriously getting annoyed, and sae’s lack of interest was getting to you.

“no. i have a boyfriend.” he just scoffed at you, clearly not believing you.

“if it’s this guy, i’d expect better from you. unless you wanted to seriously downgrade after dating me!” he began to laugh so obnoxiously that you swear you were about to pop a vein.

a tongue clicked next to you and you saw your boyfriend glowering at the man, as if he were scum on the bottom of his shoe. “you’re lukewarm. i’ll beat you five to zero.”

with that, sae pulled you away from your fuming ex. his hand was gentle in holding yours, contrasting the chilling expression he had displayed on his soft features just seconds earlier. he leads you to your seat in the vip section and goes to warm-up.

sae proceeds to crush your ex 5-0, scoring every single goal. his team is a bit confused but guesses what’s going on when sae counts out the remaining goals to the opposite team’s striker like a countdown.

when the game’s finished, sae walked up to the divider and hops it, pulling you up by your hand and looking directly at the camera.

“this is y/n, they are my significant other, don’t hit on them unless you can beat me at football, like [ex’s name] tried to.”

kaiser would be more offended than you. this dramatic mf would create a whole scene, he’s the one freaking out about it and you’re trying to calm him down. i hate his bitchass.

you had known kaiser for a long time before you started dating him. you met him while you were still with your ex in fact. one thing that your ex hated the most was the fact that you knew him, claiming that he was always trying to ‘get with you.’

he even went as far as to go through your phone to try to find evidence of you cheating on him. but when he looked through your texts with kaiser, he only found our that you already knew that he was actually cheating on you, which was true. your ex had been hitting up others, one of them messaging you after he posted you on your birthday.

you broke up with him that night, because you were already planning to and because you were so mad he looked through your phone. he lost it. you had to shut yourself in the bathroom while he threw dishes and shouted, you called kaiser in tears and had to have him sneak you out of the bathroom window. it was the worst night of your life.

so now when he stands in front of you, while your hand is intertwined with the man who made him so insecure, you were prepared for whatever shitshow was about to happen. what you didn’t expect was kaiser to lose his shit.

“the hell you think yer doin’ here, can’t believe you dare to show your rat face in front of them again.” his voice is cold as he glares at them with his chin tilted up in disgust. you were more amused than anxious now, it was truly endearing that he cared this much.

“tch. i knew you were cheating on me with him, should’ve never let you talk to this bastard.”

“ex-fucking-cuse me?” kaiser was rolling up his sleeves to his elbows and beginning to approach your ex, who began to shrink back. kaiser was not the least intimidating person: his tall stature and lithe muscles coupled with his calculating cerulean gaze made a dangerous figure.

in an effort to keep the peace, you tug at the back of his shirt. he stops immediately and turns to you, gaze turning from hollow to warm so fast that it almost gives you whiplash. you can visibly see his pupils dilate as his gaze reaches yours, just that was enough to fall in love with him.

“c’mon mein Kaiser, don’t let someone like him bother you…” his form loosened, clearly in agreeance. you ex began to shout obscenities, but when the cruel blue gaze reached him again, it was quickly silent. he left in a storming rage, deciding to play it safe.

your boyfriend rests his hands on your hips and rests his forehead against yours, his lashes fluttering shut.

“can’t help it, meine liebe, anyone who dares to hurt you deserves the wrath of dein Kaiser.”

okkotsuus 23

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macfrog · 9 months

Text

hits different cowboy like me chapter twelve

oh, my, love is a lie! are we all ready? do we have our coping strategies in place? have we prepared ourselves for impending doom? then gather round, my dear children, for i’ve a tale to tell. and it’s a SORE one

pairing: dbf!joel x fem!reader

summary: still reeling from your fight with joel, you seek out an effective way to deal with it: a night of sambuca shots and no second thoughts

warnings: 18+ (minors dni!!!) alcohol + drug consumption (reader gets hammered), heartache, angst, unwanted touching, intended sexual assault, drink spiking, descriptions of blood and bruising, protective!joel gets into a quick barfight, more discussion of cheating(?), joel won't admit feelings, pain pain and more pain, age gap (reader is 23, joel is 48), cursing

word count: 10.9k

series masterlist | main masterlist | playlist

Joel takes a beat to answer. Like he’s waiting for your voice to fill the space, the way it usually would. What’s up, old man? How hard is it to copy an address right? Lois not as good at typing as she is at sucking your – “You, uh…you got it. Call me if there’s anythin’ you need. I’m home all night.” The call cuts before your dad gets the chance to say goodbye. Which doesn’t really matter, because he wasn’t talking to your dad. You know it, ‘n Joel knows it.

Of course he went to see Lois. He’s probably been seeing her for some time now. A nice lady, his own age, his line of work. You’re pretty sure she has a son, too. And your dad would love her, would love to think Joel was shacking up with some plant hire receptionist. She could turn your life around, son, he’d said. They fit together like a couple of jigsaw pieces. What the fuck would he have ever seen in you, past some young, tight thing for him to fuck? Just a placeholder. Just a time-waster.

A twenty-three-year-old; enough energy to keep him on his toes, cure his boredom. Fill his summer with something to do. And close enough to him, too, that he reeled you in with minimum effort. One stupid look at you – one stupid, stupid glance and you were hooked. High as a kite on him. All the touching, all the whispering. That fucking – the fucking bottle. The video. All of it, every second he ever spent near you – it all makes you cringe now.

And then, once the embarrassment of being played by your dad’s best friend passes, there’s the hurt. The aching. Fuck, the aching. The way your chest swells, feels like it might rip at the seams and burst open. The sting behind your eyes anytime you picture his smile, the way he’d look at you. The feeling of your throat closing up whenever you go to speak, windpipe constricting around any words that aren’t his name, and using them to choke you.

And it’s not like you can talk to anyone about it. Can’t have a heart-to-heart with your dad, have him make you a tea and sit him down by your window, ask for advice on heartbreak and getting over his best friend. You’ve been excusing your reclusiveness by telling him you’re on your period. That’s why you haven’t left your bed in four days.

It was just all so fucking believable, wasn’t it? So good, you thought you were dreaming the entire time.

And here he’d just proven you right. You dreamt it all up.

Has he fucked her yet? Lois. Is she one of the ten he told you about the other night? Has she touched him the way you have? Has he touched her, the way he did you?

Does she know how he sounds when he comes undone? How he looks? How he feels? Does she do it for him the way you do it? And what does he call her? Baby? Darlin’? Or something different entirely?

Now you’re wondering when he started seeing her, and then, if they have slept together, when the first time was. Whether or not you cross over with her. Maybe he went and fucked her after you argued. Let off some steam over at her place, while you sat in his house, smelling his shirts and reading his stupid fucking Alcatraz books. While you paced around, practicing the words you’d say to him when he came back.

All you wanted was for him to come back. You wanted him to come find you upstairs, take the book from your hands and lean his head down on your chest, mumble an apology into the material of your shirt and then kiss you, and kiss you again while he pulled the clothes from your body, and kiss you while you were naked underneath him, and kiss you while he rocked his hips into yours.

Oh, fuck. Fuck fuck fuck.

You think you hate her. You don’t even know her. Don’t know what she looks like, only heard her voice. She’s probably gorgeous. Probably a really sweet woman, helps out on the PTA, the type that stops to read missing dog posters so she can keep an eye out for them. Probably knows Joel well enough that she writes Sarah a birthday card every year. Just a real nice, Southern lady.

And you fucking hate her.

That’s not fair, though, and you know it. She didn’t do anything wrong. Joel’s the one who screwed you over – screwed you both over. Really, you and Lois are one and the same.

Except that she’s taken away the only thing to put a real smile on your face since you got home, and for that, you fucking hate her.

What had he said again? That night he drove you home from Sal’s, the night your dad asked him to stay for pizza. …said she’d like to go for a drink. I said maybe sometime. Maybe he’d organized that drink, in the midst of whatever you two had been doing. Thought nothing of it – you said it yourself: you were just messing around. Said it, like, three times to him. Good fucking job.

And that adds to the hurt. That neither of you seemed to care enough to call it anything more. Because now, sitting alone in your room, desperately checking your phone for a missed call or a text message from him, ears pricking at every sound your dad makes downstairs in case he’s answering a call from Joel or welcoming him in through the front door – you wish you had called it something.

Wish you had just fucking said it. Told him outright about the feelings you had. You were thinking about them enough – the thought circled your mind any time there was a moment’s silence between you.

Sometimes, the way he’d glance over to you, the way his hand would brush against yours, the way he’d say your name…he felt like…

Yours. He was yours. He was so fucking close to being yours.

You almost said it, once. Almost admitted it to him. Couple times you saw it flash behind his eyes, too. And it’s a damn good thing neither of you did say it, because it would’ve been a mistake. Would’ve been lies.

You don’t love him. You never did. You were in some fantasy, built by Joel. There ain’t no love between you. None from your side. And definitely none from him.

Definitely – none – from –

him.

----------

Anna’s been at you all week. She text you on Monday night, but you were about four layers of blanket deep in your bed, weeping into a box of dry cereal and listening to some sad girl playlist on repeat. You fished your cell out from under your mattress the next morning. Your dad had to call it to help you find it.

Anna: Frank’s again on Friday? Rodeo night round 2!!!

Tuesday, it was Please?? It was so fun on Sat. Cmon, Kara’s coming again. Sam’s working but that means free shots so.

On Wednesday, she tried a new approach. I’ll cover any shift you want.

Any two shifts……

Ok three????

Thursday, she started to get desperate. I’ll spill all your secrets to my dad if you don’t come. And you know he’ll tell them all to your dad lol

By Friday morning, though, she’d decided you had no say in the matter: you were going, and you’d be happy about it. And you didn’t have it in you to fight back.

She’s standing at the side of the mirror, scanning you from head to two.

“All black? Again?”

“I look good in black.”

“You look good in anything,” she agrees, turning to sift through your closet, “so why don’t we go for…?”

“No,” you clip, holding a finger up to the red dress in her hands. “No.”

“What’s wrong with it? It’s hot. C’mon.”

“Why do I gotta be hot?”

“I mean…is Mr. Miller gonna be pickin’ you up again, or…?”

You lob a previously discarded dress at her and she snorts, turning to slip it back onto a hanger.

Even his fucking surname sends a pang of pain through your body. Your heart jumps at the sound of it, like its hopes had risen for a second, but then it plummets with the realization that it’s not really Joel, and he’s still really gone.

You’re in a plain black slip dress, black denim jacket slung over your shoulders. Black lace-up boots, too. It’s like rodeo night, except without the fun and excitement of Joel waiting for you at the end of the night. It’s basically rodeo night’s funeral. And good fucking riddance.

Anna – always glittering, always in some sparkly getup – leads you out of your bedroom and down the stairs. Your dad agreed to drop you guys off, seeing as he’s out working later on.

He’s sat in his armchair, glasses on the tip of his nose, squinting down at the instruction booklet to that fucking Garmin he’s still wrestling with. He looks up and claps his hands once.

“Ready, girls?”

Anna nods eagerly and you lift your eyebrows, thinking about how Joel would laugh at the sight of his buddy still fighting a very obviously lost battle to a GPS. Then you think about how he’d tell you quietly, You look beautiful, darlin’, and ask you to text him when you got home safe.

And finally, you think about how much of an ass he is, and you blink the tears from your eyes before following the two blurry figures out to the car.

Anna snaps a couple selfies as the car winds out of the neighborhood, angling her phone to pull you into shot. The sun setting over the roofs of the houses dazzles your eyes. She tuts, tells you to Look like you actually wanna be goin’ out, and sends them to Kara, letting her know you’re on your way.

You’re watching her reply to a text from some boy she’s seeing when your dad’s ringtone echoes throughout the car, the name on the tiny digital screen the very last name you want to see right now.

Or maybe the very name you’ve been waiting all week to see. Just, on your screen instead of your dad’s.

“Hey, Joel,” your dad calls, and your body instinctively leans in to listen better. Drawn in like a magnet to just the sound of his voice.

“Hey, bud,” he replies. It’s like a punch to your chest. Hands around your throat. Salt behind your eyes. “I just got off the phone with Clark’s, they just dropped that equipment off at the site. Said there wasn’t nobody around to sign for it, so they just left it at the gate.”

“It’s a manned site, what do they mean there wasn’t–?”

“No idea,” Joel says, cutting across him. “Just said there wasn’t anybody to take the delivery.”

Anna’s head slowly turns in your direction, likely to take another dumb selfie or to ask some random question about your outfit, but you turn away, refusing to meet her hazel-eyed stare. Refusing to let her take your attention away from this phone call. From Joel.

Your dad sighs, runs a hand down his cheek. “I hope it’s still there when I get to it. Sure you gave ‘em the right address on Monday?”

“I wrote it down exactly how you text me it.”

Joel’s voice sounds flatter than normal. Less trademark Joel grumbly and more tired, deflated. A little irritated. It bruises your heart hearing him and not chiming in, not teasing him for potentially getting the street name wrong or something. Not letting him know you’re here.

Your dad does that anyway, though.

“Well,” he sighs again, hitting the turn signal, “I’m on my way to Frank’s – girls are havin’ another one of their wild nights out. I’ll head straight from there to the site ‘n make sure everything’s in place. Thanks, Joel.”

“You, uh…you got it. Call me if there’s anythin’ you need. I’m home all night.”

The call cuts before your dad gets the chance to say goodbye. Which doesn’t really matter, because he wasn’t talking to your dad. You know it, ‘n Joel knows it.

No. He was talking to you. He knew you’d be listening. Knew that conversation would mean much more to you than it ever could to your dad. And he knew you’d be hanging on to every word he spoke.

He’s home all night, which translates to: he’s only ever fifteen minutes away if you wind up needing him. If you end up wanting him.

You’ve spent the last four days purposefully stopping yourself from wanting him. Your thumb has hovered over his name in your contacts more times than you’d care to admit. Mostly at night, when your dad goes to bed and there’s eight hours of quiet – quiet you’d usually fill by annoying Joel, striking up a conversation at midnight when he’s about to sleep.

What the fuck would you even say if he did pick up? Would you be mad? Would you yell? Or would you just break down, sob a few incoherent sentences down the line to him and pray that he doesn’t hang up?

But then – would he even pick up? It’s not a thought you want to entertain much. That sound of ringing and ringing, and no gruff, Hey, baby, at the other end.

Your chest hurts. You take a gulp of air.

You’d happily have him never touch you again if he’d just come the fuck back.

Anna slaps your arm and Joel’s face is wiped clean from your mind. “C’mon,” she chirps, and nods out of your window.

You turn to see the faded blue brick walls of Frank’s, clusters of people outside clutching cigarettes and glasses, holding hands up to shield their eyes from the sunlight and tipping their heads back in laughter at one another. Kara stands among them, arms crossed, shoulders hunched. She waves when you catch her eye, stumbling out of the car in a daze.

Anna’s arm links through yours, almost violently, and she skips along the sidewalk to Kara, who joins your chain. The three of you stroll into the bar together and over to Sam, who smiles genially in welcome.

“Hello, ladies,” he sings, leaning in. “What can I do ya for?”

“Get us drunk, Sam!” Anna exclaims, rapping her knuckles on the bar top, and, for the first time tonight, you find yourself nodding in agreement with her.

Get me –

fucking –

hammered.

----------

You get your wish. Sam hands you a cold beer, and within twenty minutes you’re ordering a second. Anna and Kara opt for cocktails, some bright pink concoction that you don’t even bother to ask the name of, you just lean over the bar and tell Sam to make up a third.

And then there are the shots, two each, which are a hysterically terrible idea. You know it as you tip your head back, sickly taste of sambuca spilling down your throat and taking with it the very last of your good sense, apparently.

All the while, that phone call rattles through your head. Joel’s voice swings between your ears like a pendulum. His dry tone, the borderline contempt he spoke to your dad with. The thought of who he’s been with and what he’s been doing either side of that call burns like the drink in your belly, and forces you back up to the bar for another to wash him away with.

You rock against the dark wood, sticky with alcohol, and hoist yourself up onto a stool. “One peer, blease, sir,” you garble to Sam, one finger in the air. “Oh, wait…”

You throw your hand down onto the bar with a roar of laughter and lean back, forgetting there’s no back to your chair. It tilts back, and your hands fumble to grab the edge of the bar, but it’s too far, too late, and you land on the solid floor with a clatter – metal leg of the stool digging into your own.

“Fuck,” you hiss, dragging yourself back to your feet. A thin line of dark red blood cuts from halfway down your calf, streaming down into your boot.

“Are you okay?” Sam yells, stood frozen with the beer and bottle opener still in his hands.

“I’m fine,” you grumble, clambering to your feet. You don’t even convince yourself.

Sam doesn’t let go of the bottle when your fingers curve around it. He looks you dead in the eye and asks, “What’s goin’ on?” and you know he won’t let go until you answer him.

“Nothin’. I’m fine.”

Until you answer him truthfully, that is.

“I’m…It’s just…I got a lot goin’ on up here.” Your shaky finger draws a circle against your temple, and your eyes flutter closed.

“I can see that. Is this really a good ide–”

“Well, howdy, clumsy!”

The owner of whatever fucking annoying voice just shrieked through your ears slaps his hand down on your shoulder, almost toppling you for the second time in five minutes, and you twist around to find a pair of red, blotchy cheeks and almost equally red hair to match, stood before you.

“Hi…?” You squint your eyes to get a better look, the figure swaying with the room behind him.

“Hi.” He’s still smiling. Two huge front teeth, like a pair of overgrown Tic Tacs. “You have no idea who I am, do you? That’s…embarrassing for me.”

“Zack!” another voice screams over the bassline of the music. “Are you fucking coming or not, dude?”

A pale, jittery guy with a dark green t-shirt hanging off of his lean frame barges into the red-haired boy’s side, and a few seconds after his mouth stops moving, you register what he’s said.

“No – f-fucking – way,” you breathe, staring him up and down. His red flannel is tucked into his jeans, sealed by a brown leather belt. There’s a longhorn head on the buckle. “Zack? From Costco? What the fuck’d you do, stalk me?”

He laughs awkwardly, looking from you to over your shoulder, where Sam’s still holding your beer.

“Sorry–” you mutter, shaking your head. “I’m not at my best right now.”

“It’s cool,” he replies, grinning. “You look like you’re having a good night. I’m out with my buddies. This is Eric.”

Eric gives you a nod – his blond fringe jumps, and he jerks his head to sweep it back out of his eyes. “Nice to meet you,” he says, before rounding again on Zack. “Seriously, bro, he says he’s not waitin’ around this time. C’mon!”

“We were gonna head to the rooftop if you wanted to come?” Zack raises his eyebrows, pointing a thumb over his shoulder as Eric and another two figures make off for the stairs at the other end of the bar.

“Sure.” You blindly reach for your beer and Sam relents, letting it slip from his grasp. He calls your name as you trot off, and you turn for one second to give his worried stare a thumbs up, before swirling back toward the stairs. No second thought.

This isn’t the night for second thoughts.

The rooftop is quieter, less crowded. Background noise made up of passing cars, a siren in the distance, and the muffled music from downstairs. You wander over to where Zack stands with Eric and a couple others: a short guy with wireframe glasses, hands stuffed in his hoodie pockets, and someone you think you almost recognize.

His black V-neck looks like it might burst at the seams around his chest, swollen with muscle. Thick neck, holding up a square jawline, and a face heavy with features which mirror the broad body below.

And a thick smell of marijuana which follows his every move.

Zack shuffles to the side to let you into the circle. You shimmy in between him and Eric.

V-neck pulls a small metal case from his back pocket and fishes a cigarette out of it. Eyes start to shift around the group, the boys glancing over shoulders to check who’s watching.

“Are we…? Is that weed?” you blurt out.

“Shut the fuck up!” Eric hisses, jabbing his elbow into your ribcage.

V-neck eyes you down quickly. It’s the first he looks at you, and it puts a sickly feeling through your body. Sends the alcohol hurtling over itself in your stomach.

You raise your eyebrows and wrap your arms around yourself, your beer bottle against your lips. “Sorry, jeez…”

“This is Knox,” Zack mutters, as Knox lights the cigarette.

He takes one hit, inhaling deeply with his chin in the air, and passes it to the boy in the hoodie. Another cloud of smoke joins Knox’s, slowly dispersing above your heads, and then it’s Eric’s turn. With a cough, his fist against his lips, he passes it to Zack. Soon, the air around you is thick and white, and Zack’s handing you the joint.

You lift it to your lips and inhale. The feeling hits you instantly; your body feels light, your face warm, your eyes blink in and out of focus, watching as a blurry shadow begins to follow your hand when you pass the joint back to Knox.

A couple more circuits, and the roach is pressed into the ground by Knox’s boot. The group separates; Zack and his friends fall into some metal chairs around a table, sparking up a debate on the best Lord of the Rings film, and you float around nearby.

“You a friend of Zack’s?” Knox asks, downing what’s left of his whiskey.

“Hm…Not really. We met at Costco, ‘cause I was there to get some party stuff for my dad’s friend’s daughter’s– Well, she’s my friend, too, and she wanted this garden party, and my dad’s friend was like, What the fuck is a garden party? you know, so I had to go help ‘im get stuff for it, with my dad, who was kinda a buzzkill, but anyway…Z-Zack helped me lift some sodas into my cart.”

Knox nods once. Fingers locked tight around his empty glass. He’s staring you down like you’re fresh meat.

You purse your lips and stare back, but quickly get bored when he doesn’t speak, and you miss Anna and her selfies and her sambuca shots. As you’re about to wander back to the door, though, Knox steps in front of you.

“So, you’re here often, then?”

Your shoulder knocks into his. “Huh?”

“Saw you last week. You were pretty spaced, don’t know if you remember.”

The memory whips past your eyes quicker than you can catch it, frames lingering only long enough for you to see Knox’s thick arm linked with yours outside Frank’s, the smell of weed in your nostrils, and the bright lights of Joel’s truck. And then it’s gone, before you can get a good grip of it.

“I’m…I remember now. Yeah. No, I’m not here much, I just…Rough week.”

He nods again, and you suspect he hasn’t listened to a word you’ve said since he got you alone. “You want another drink?”

The way he’s looking at you makes you feel more and more nauseous. Makes you want to turn and run back downstairs, slot in beside Anna and Kara, bury yourself between their shoulders and stay there until they decide they want to go home.

It makes you feel the way it felt last week, when he halted you outside the bar on your way to Joel. And suddenly the memory is soaring in front of your eyes again.

Your hand on Joel’s elbow. The frown on his face. Whitened knuckles around the steering wheel. ‘s go, pretty girl. Pretty girl. Pretty girl. Pretty girl.

“Yeah,” you tell Knox. “Yeah, I do.”

You follow him downstairs where he nods to Sam at the bar.

Sam ignores him, instead glares at you. “Can we talk…?” he asks, but Knox cuts across him.

“Beer, right?” he checks with you, and you nod. “And another whiskey.”

Your friend hesitantly grabs the drinks, glancing up at you every five seconds in a question. You respond by nodding slowly, feeling your head bounce each time you do.

You lazily scan the room for Anna and Kara, who you spot in a booth over by the window. The spotlights overhead reflect in the sparkles of Anna’s dress; Kara’s holding the straw of her drink between her lips, bobbing her head to the music. You saunter over, twirling on your way.

“Where have you been, baby?” Anna calls, giggling when you fall against the booth, palms flat on the wooden table.

“Upstairs,” you mumble, and then feel a tap on your back.

“Forgot this,” Knox says, pushing the beer into your hand. “You wanna go dance?”

Anna’s face twists into one of worry, and you give her an apologetic smile and spin off, following the wide frame to a dark corner of the bar where he takes your wrist and pulls your body against his.

He’s not doing much dancing, rather, he’s just keeping a solid grip on your waist, watching as you rock side to side, taking a couple shallow sips of your drink. You pull on his arm, Fucking move, dude, but he only leans further back, until he’s shrouded in shadows and pulling you into them with him.

When he leans into your space and snakes a drunken arm tight around your neck, you don’t retreat. You lean in, too, and plant your lips on his.

It’s messy, it’s a little gross. He tastes sour, weed and alcohol on his tongue, and it makes you wish you’d never started kissing him. Still, you take it further. You open your mouth more, letting more of him in, soak your own tongue, wet your lips. You barely even feel it when his hands move south and cup your ass, and it’s only when he squeezes that you wriggle out of his grip.

“Sorry,” you mumble, taking hold of his sleeve to steady yourself. “Sorry.”

He shakes his head, says something short that you don’t hear, and you lean back against him, wrapping your arms around his neck.

He’s smaller, much shorter than Joel. Your shoulders almost match the height of his. But he’s more built, he’s bulkier, in an uncomfortable way. Like trying to put your arms around a giant balloon or something. There’s no softness, no enclosing feeling when your weight presses against his. Just the huge surface of his chest, the hollow feeling of two mismatched bodies unwillingly pushed together.

Not strong. Not safe. Not secure. Not him.

But you’re kissing him again, because it’s the first time in five days you’ve felt something other than your aching chest and heavy head. You’re kissing him because you feel unwanted and unloved and, even though he seems almost as hammered as you are, it feels good to have someone want to be on you.

You’re kissing him because you’re trying to pretend it’s Joel.

Only he tastes…well, disgusting, and he smells different. He’s sweating from the heat in the bar, and his arms aren’t placed somewhere to make you feel wrapped in his grasp, they’re placed anywhere that he can pinch, squeeze, or otherwise fondle.

Joel’s face swims in and out of your head; a smile as he pulls you in for a kiss, a smirk when he’s telling you off, soft eyes when he’s listening to you talk. It makes you want to throw up.

That might just be the drinks.

Someone taps you furiously on the shoulder, and you push Knox off your body.

When your eyes fail to meet Sam’s, he takes your wrist and drags you behind the bar, ripping the beer bottle from your grasp and almost launching it into the sink. It smashes, and the liquid pours down the drain.

“Hey, what the f–?”

“I’m gonna call your dad,” he yells, deafening to your numb ears.

“Do not fucking call my dad,” you slur, laughing a little. “I’m fine! I’m having fun.”

“You’re fucking wasted. And that guy – he’s bad news.”

“Does it matter?”

He shakes his head in disbelief. “Who even are–? What the fuck is up with you right now? Yes, it fucking matters!”

“Not my dad,” you repeat as you back away, staggering over to the booth where your friends sit.

Anna storms over to meet you, slipping her wrist around yours and bringing you to a halt. “Did Sam find you?” she asks. Her hands plant on your shoulders, and she dips her head until you’re eye to eye.

She’s blurry. She’s nothing but shapes, and movements, and noises. And she’s fucking pissing you off.

“Can everyone just – get the fuck off of me?” you groan, stumbling backwards, and Anna links her hands with yours to stop you from collapsing.

She pulls you back upright, leaning in close. Her head shakes, you can see that much. But her expression is cloudy, and her hands don’t let go of yours so easily when you try to pull away. The orb-like shapes in front of you mutter your name, only it’s not Anna’s voice, it’s his.

Anna’s babbling, panicked tone drives through your skull. “She’s been drinking, like, a lot, and I think she might’ve had some weed upstairs. But Sam said he saw –”

“C’mon, kid,” his voice says again, and there’s a heavy arm pulling you off to the door.

“Get – off – of – me.” You struggle in his grasp, pushing his body away from yours, fingers expecting to find the V-neck collar of a black shirt and instead finding –

Buttons. The edges of a green flannel shirt. And a soft cotton tee underneath. And then his scent washes over you: warm, sweet, earthy. Grounding.

“Joel…” you whisper, thick with fear and intoxication and need.

His jaw angles down, you catch one fleeting glimpse of his chin, graying beard, tight lips hidden beneath it, and then you’re shoving his chest again, attempting to push him as far away from your own body as he’ll go.

Only he doesn’t move.

“Fuck off,” you seethe, palms flat on his pecs. “Get the fuck away from me.”

He says your name in a hazy blur, says, “We’re goin’ home,” and you almost laugh in his face.

“I don’t f-fucking think so.”

“Yeah? Well, I do. Thanks, Anna, I got her.”

“Hey,” a fourth voice joins the chorus, “hey, you know this guy?”

Knox pushes past Joel’s arm, unlinking your fingers from his, and takes your shoulder with one rough hand. All your anger, all your rage at Joel, and yet, the second you’re separated from him, the only thing on your mind is having his hand back around yours.

Joel’s upper lip twitches, he stares at the back of Knox’s head and then scoffs, reaches by him again to take your wrist. You let him have it. “Come on,” he says.

Knox is rounding on him, holding Joel back with a palm flat to his chest. “I ain’t too comfortable lettin’ her head outta here with some random old man, dude…”

Shut the fuck up shut the fuck up shut the –

Joel’s jaw ticks. His expression falls blank, narrowed eyes looking up and down Knox’s frame as you tremble behind it, Anna’s steady arm around your shoulders.

“Take your hand off of me, and move aside,” he snarls, voice dangerous. You can hear the threat, and at the same time, the desperate attempt from within himself to hold off.

“Hey,” Anna reaches forward, tapping Knox’s shoulder three times with a glittery nail, “she knows him. It’s fine. He’s fine.”

“Nah, man,” Knox hisses back, “who the fuck even are you? You ain’t takin’ her anywhere.”

You step forward, putting yourself between the two of them, hands clumsily landing on each of their shoulders. “He’s a f…my dad’s friend,” you slur, eyes unfocused.

Knox isn’t listening. He hasn’t listened the entire fucking night. His eyes are set on Joel’s as he wraps a tight fist around your free arm, trying to pull you closer to him. Only he’s hurting you, and your fingers struggle to pry yourself free, so you look up at Joel.

You couldn’t see Anna’s expression. Couldn’t make out the worry on her face that her voice clued you in on. You could barely even see Sam, when he dragged you out of the dark corner of the bar.

But you can see Joel. See the shadow his brows cast over his glower, see his thin lips, see the tightening of his jaw. See the rage inside him like it’s an alarm beacon, flashing red from behind his eyes.

Knox tugs angrily on your wrist. “You just gonna let this asshole ruin your night?”

“Let go of m-me,” you murmur, suddenly feeling the bar’s eyes on you. Your face reddens with heat from the alcohol, doubled by your embarrassment.

When he hears you, Joel’s face contorts into one you’ve never seen on his face in your life. Fury, disgust and fury, twisting his lip and tugging on his brows. He leans in and rips yours and Knox’s hands apart, pulling you free and shifting you behind his body with as much effort as it’d take him to click his fingers. Your weak hand reaches out to take a fistful of his shirt, holding onto him at his spine.

The men square up to one another, Joel at least four inches taller and, despite Knox’s built form, far broader. Knox takes a step forward and Joel matches.

“Joel…” you whisper, catching Anna’s gaping stare over his shoulder.

“Hey, uh, Mr. Miller?” Sam edges in from behind Knox. “I’m gonna have to ask that you…don’t…do this, but if you have to, can y’all maybe move it out to the street?”

“Do I gotta do somethin’?” Joel asks Knox. You pull in closer to his back, trying to hide your face from the spotlight cast on you by what feels like thousands of drunken eyes staring directly at you.

Knox thinks it over for a moment. You can see Zack watching like a deer in the headlights from behind his buddy. He’s seen Joel before, and you know from the way his eyes stick on him that he recognizes him. Remembers how briskly he swept you out of the soft drinks section, how blunt he was about it.

The V-neck swells with the deep inhale its wearer takes, and then he shakes his head, sighing. Smug smirk thick across his lips.

“Nah, man. I didn’t think she was gonna be worth the fuck anyways, so.”

Joel clicks his teeth, gives his head one quick shake, mutters a resigned, “Alright,” then reaches back, and nudges you gently by the stomach until you’re safely out of reach.

And then he swings.

Once, catching Knox across the corner of his jaw, sending his face skyward. The crowd around the three of you gasps. Knox’s burly chest twists, and he staggers backward. His hands come up to clutch his face before Joel’s taking the collar of his shirt in his fist, reeling him in and holding him steady.

“Joel!” you yell, but he doesn’t fucking hear you.

His second blow lands square on Knox’s nose with a crack loud enough even for your numb ears to hear over the thudding music. Blood sprays from his nostrils and floods down into his mouth, smearing across his cheek as Joel’s knuckles ricochet off the square face. The crimson pours down his chin, spattering onto his shirt, bright and shocking against the stretched black material.

Joel lets him drop and he collapses onto all fours, coughing blood and spit and whatever the fuck else onto the dark floor.

“Fuck!” Knox screams, fingers trembling over his burst nose – thick, dark droplets running down his hands. “You motherfucker, you broke my fucking nose!”

Joel stoops down, takes the back of Knox’s shirt in two rough hands and hauls him up until he’s limp on his knees.

“I ever see you around here again,” he growls, “I ever find out you’ve been anywhere near her, as much as looked in the same fuckin’ direction as her, I’ll do worse ‘n break your Goddamn nose. You hear me?”

Knox whimpers, more blood dribbles from between his lips, and Joel throws him down. He turns back to you, massaging his knuckles with his thumb, and grabs your hand.

Your voice is weak with shock. “What the f-uck was that?”

“Just – come on,” he says, dragging you out of Frank’s without another word.

He leads your wobbly form down the street, past chattering crowds toward his black truck, opening the door for you and helping your unsteady limbs up into the passenger side, before he closes the door over and strides around to the driver’s side.

When he shuts his door – more of a slam – he sighs, head leaning back. His hand clenches and then relaxes, loosening his knuckles, hissing anytime the quickly-darkening skin stretches.

“Sorry,” you mutter.

“What you sorry for?”

You shrug. Your mouth trips over words. “…gettin’ you into a barfight.”

He doesn’t look over at you. Just Hms and switches the ignition on, pulling away from the busy curb.

“Where’s m-my dad?” you slur.

“Work. Site inspection, remember?”

You nod, turning back to the road when you start to feel motion sick. Your eyes feel like they’re spinning in their sockets, your stomach flips with the slightest turn. “He get that delivery?” you ask, letting Joel know you heard the phone call earlier.

His jaw turns in your direction. Letting you know he knows you heard it. “Yeah. He’ll be home in a couple hours.”

“Did Sam c-call him?”

“No. Why?”

You lean your head against the passenger window, the cold distracting your brain from the ache in your head. The streetlights sail by in a blur. The engine rattles through the glass.

“Asked ‘im not to.”

“Yeah? ‘n why’s that?”

Your head rolls back onto the headrest as you decide on an answer. I didn’t want him seeing me drunk and high. I don’t care about you seeing me drunk and high. I just wanted to see you.

“’s never seen me drunk.”

“Or high?”

You snort. “I’m not…”

When your head slants to the left to look at Joel, his face turns from yours. He was just looking at you, and you missed it. Probably had that look on his face, that Nice try, kid expression.

“Okay…” you admit, spiritless, “a little high, then.”

“Anna was the one who called,” Joel says. “Said you were hammered, some guy was all over you, ‘n Sam watched him put somethin’ in your drink. They couldn’t find you anywhere. She was fuckin’ hysterical.”

Your head bobs with the moving truck. “When’d he put someth…?”

Joel shrugs. “I dunno. But I believe it.”

So do I, you think. Knox was on you from the minute he saw you. Tight grip around your waist, your wrist, drawing you into him with beer and weed and whatever else he had in his pockets. The comment that had warranted him two bone-breaking punches from Joel all but confirmed the intentions he had in mind. And now you feel fucking stupid.

“I didn’t really…I only had a couple sips of it,” you hear yourself saying, head heating with embarrassment – an attempt to convince him, or maybe more yourself, that you’re not as dumb as leaving your drink to be roofied.

Your voice sounds pathetic, though, and Joel doesn’t say anything to make you feel better. Doesn’t say anything to make you feel worse, either – the silence does that by itself.

You bring your knees up to your chin, nestling a little into the seat. It could almost feel like nothing’s happened, nothing’s changed, except you’re intoxicated, and Joel’s hands are firmly by his person. Not on your thigh, or tangled between your fingers like they usually would be.

You study him. Stare at every part of him like it’s the last time you’ll ever get to see it, until the gentle curve of his nose and the glint of his watch face are burned into the back of your eyelids when you close them over. Face lit red from the brake lights in front, right hand sitting idly on his thigh.

He looks like your Joel. Almost. Just a little closed off. Distant.

But he came to get you, right? Damn near punched Knox’s lights out, took you by the hand, led you back to the safety of his truck. He came straight to Frank’s as soon as Anna called. And he’s taking you home. He’s looking out for you.

So why doesn’t he feel like your Joel?

Well. You can wager a pretty solid guess. It starts with L and ends with comma, Receptionist at Clark’s Plant Hire.

The dark silhouette of your house looms overhead as Joel pulls into your drive. Sure enough, your dad’s not home.

The engine cuts and your head drops, eyes fixing on your hands clasped in your lap. You know Joel’s watching you. What the fuck is he thinking about?

Fuck that. Don’t think about that. Let’s not dive into that pool of imagination.

“Well, thanks.” You do your best to smile, without really looking at him. Your fingers find the door handle and you tug on it, pushing it open and spilling out onto your driveway.

You hear Joel sniff behind you. “Need a hand?”

“I’m good,” you call back, only just managing to stay on your feet.

The cold air helps a little to waken you up, sharpen your senses, but the world around you is still a whir of dull color and shapelessness, and you wobble across to the house in a route of zig-zags, boots almost tripping over thin air as you go. When you reach your front door, you hear his truck lock and the shadow of him appears by your side.

“I said I’m good.”

“I ain’t leaving you, kid. You’re hammered.”

You roll your eyes and open your mouth to protest, but then he’s taking the keys out of your hand and unlocking the door himself, hand on your back as he ushers you into your own house.

“I’m f-fine,” you repeat, tripping over the doorway.

“Look it.”

You meander over to the stairs, and when your foot manages to find the first step, Joel says your name. Your gaze sweeps across the floor until it meets his boots, travels up his legs, and finally rests on his outstretched hand.

“Water,” he tells you.

“I’m fine,” you say, the word losing meaning the more you utter it. “I wanna go – to bed.”

He shakes his head, and then tilts it in the direction of the kitchen.

You groan, mumble something about him being such an asshole, and walk straight by his hand.

Joel doesn’t react. Just follows you and hits the lights, which burn your eyes when they flicker to life. You wince and point up to them.

“Off,” you bluntly order, and he grunts, stepping back to oblige. You’re plunged straight back into darkness.

You’re holding yourself unsteadily against the edge of the kitchen island, whole body swaying. The room is fucking spinning, the lights out back swirling with it in a blur of white motion before your eyes. You swallow dryly and turn around to focus on Joel.

He’s filling a glass over the sink. “What happened to your leg?” he asks over his shoulder.

You turn your knee, examining the dent in your calf where the stool leg cut into you. The dry burgundy stain like a backwards seam line on your skin, emerging from a bright red bruise slowly fading to deep purple.

“Fell off a stool,” you mutter, angling it in the moonlight streaming in through the window.

Joel Hms again. “You got anything to cover it?”

You shrug, having lost any and all energy to barter back with him. He slides the glass across the countertop to you, followed by a bottle of painkillers, then turns back to the open drawer he pulled them from and begins rummaging for a band-aid.

Your shaky hand lifts the glass to your lips. It’s cold and slippery in your grasp, drops of condensation running over your fingers like the blood from Knox’s nose had run over his. The more you tighten your grip, the harder it becomes to hold, until it’s sliding from your clutch.

“Easy,” Joel murmurs, appearing at the side of you and placing his hands over yours, holding the glass still.

“Your knuckles are bleeding,” you say, eyes focusing and then unfocusing on the marks at the base of his fingers, the dabs of dark red where the skin has burst.

He slowly lowers your hands until the glass is safely back on the counter, and then pulls away from you, drawing his swollen knuckles in to his body.

“They’re bleedin’,” you repeat, looking up at him.

“I know they’re bleedin’.”

“Let me see,” you step forward, “Joel. Let me–”

He catches your hands in his. Pushes them back down. Stares at the counter, sighs instead of replying.

Your eyes sting, filling with tears that crowd your already-blurred vision. The punch you feel to your gut brings you to your senses as if it drains you of every substance in your system all at once.

It’s like he’s broken up with you all over again. And it pisses you the fuck off.

“Fuck you,” you whisper into the dark, and he doesn’t move. Doesn’t lift his eyes, doesn’t even flinch. “Fuck you, so much.”

You’re staring him down, what little you can see of him in the pale light cascaded onto him through the shades. The crease between his brows, more prominent with the frown on his face; the line his lips form with the tight clench of his jaw.

Fucking look at me, you think. He can say something back – anything. You can stand and hiss horrible words at one another, yell at each other if that’s what he wants to do. Argue until you’re blue in the face, until the alcohol’s all dried up and the moonlight on his chest is replaced by sunlight. Just fucking look at me.

“You’re an asshole and a liar, you know that?”

“Yeah?” he asks, eyebrows lifting.

“Yeah,” you decide. “Just stringing me along this whole time.”

You blink away the tears before they can fall, making room for more. They’re forming rapidly, each time heavier, and thicker, and angrier. But fuck it, right? This is over. He’s done, and you’re done. Just ignore the pain of it, stick your finger in the wound and keep pushing until you hit bone.

“That guy you punched? He was all over me. All fucking night.”

Joel’s voice is toneless. He’s already over the conversation before it’s begun. “I know he was, kid.”

“We kissed.”

“I know that, too.”

“Had his hands all over me. ‘n if it hadn’t been him, it woulda been literally any other guy in there.”

The words are starting to bleed into one another in your inebriated state. Anger turning to rage turning to fear turning to shame turning to hurt turning back into anger.

“Woulda kissed any one of ‘em. Mighta let them take me home, mighta let them fuck me.”

His head gives an involuntary shake and he blinks. Like he’s trying to wash the thought away. The image of you under someone else, moaning someone else’s name, pulling someone else into your body.

“That piss you off? It make you hate me?”

And then he looks up. Finally, his gaze locks with yours. And his eyes are just as glassy, just as fucking full of tears as yours. He replies with the worst thing he could possibly come up with. It forces the breath from your lungs in a painful exhale.

“There ain’t a thing in this world that you could do that would make me hate you, you know that.”

And then your tears start to fall. Your façade breaks. Stone crumbles. Dam bursts. They fall onto your cheeks, searing on your heated skin, rolling down onto the front of your dress in dark splatter marks.

Through a sob, you choke out another, “Fuck you, Joel,” and then, when you catch your breath, “you don’t get to – to sleep with someone else, and make me feel like the idiot for it.”

He looks up at you with a dark expression, lips locked tight like he’s refusing to let something slip. He shakes his head, and then says, “Can we not have this conversation right now?”

You scoff. A drunken, angry scoff. “You don’t wanna talk about her? When’s a good fuckin’ time, then? When suits you and f-fuckin’ – Lois?”

He falls quiet. Presses his fingers into his eyes. Sighs. “Baby,” he says into his palms.

“’m not your fucking baby,” you whisper between your teeth.

“Baby.” He drops his hands. Looks you dead in the eye. “I did not sleep with Lois.”

You’re frozen to the spot. Your lips fall apart, coated in salty tears. You’re holding your breath, though you’re not sure what for. The room stops spinning for all of ten seconds until he speaks again.

“I didn’t. I know what that message sounded like. Know how you musta heard it. But nothin’ happened, nothin’ has ever happened. Nothin’ would ever happen,” he says, a little more animated, tossing his hands in the air.

You stare between his eyes. He’s still enough that your fucked brain can focus on them, can see plain as day – even in the dark kitchen, even through your cloudy tears and all of the poison in your blood – that he’s telling the truth.

“Ex-plain,” you say dryly, looking down to his lips.

Joel sighs again. “I told you I had work to do. Had to head over to Clark’s to order that stuff for your dad. Saw her there, said hi. ‘n that’s all.”

Your eyes slowly close over, wet lashes on hot, dehydrated skin. Your ears are ringing, your body aching. You breathe a sigh as what he says sinks into your slow, throbbing brain, and then lull to one side, slumping against the counter.

“You didn’t…you didn’t think this was worth tellin’ me on Monday?”

“Tried, baby. You were gone. You were so angry; thought it’d be better if I let you cool off.”

“You’re – a fucking – idiot,” you seethe, shaking your head. It’s starting to pound again, sharp pain right behind your eyes like they’re being tugged backwards.

“Well, tonight, I guess that makes two of us.”

You grimace at him. “Lettin’ me go for four fuckin’ days thinking that –”

“– thinkin’ that I would actually cheat on ya? ‘s that what you think a’ me?”

“What did you ex-pect? You didn’t exactly try to – c-clear it up.” You step back, lifting a hand to cup your forehead with a groan. A mix of frustration, pain, and exhaustion in the form of a slow-moving ache hauls its way from one temple to the other.

“Baby, I gotta get you to bed,” Joel says, stepping forward. “We can talk about this when you’re able to see straight.”

“I’m fine,” you whimper, but it’s the least convincing you’ve sounded all night.

“Kid–”

“Don’t fucking call me kid. Like it’s some pet name, like you give a damn about me–”

“You think I don’t give a damn about you? You think I don’t care?”

Your head wobbles in response. It sends the room hurtling again, Joel’s figure swimming in and out of your vision. You grab the countertop again in attempt to freeze him in place.

He tuts and turns his jaw. “You know how much sleep I’ve had these last few days? Not a fuckin’ minute. I ain’t slept a single night, worryin’ about you ‘n what’s goin’ through your head. Like I give a damn about you. I wish I didn’t give a damn about you, baby. Make my life a whole lot easier.”

“Then, show me. Fucking prove it to me.”

“Prove it to you how? Break some asshole’s nose in a bar? Take you home when you’re wasted?”

Yeah. And also, no. Not just that.

You seethe. “You know what the fuck I mean. Do something about it.”

“I can’t,” he says, raising his voice. “Can’t take you out on dates, can’t put my arm around you, can’t kiss you ‘less there ain’t nobody watchin’. I can’t do none of what I wanna do. This is – it’s fuckin’…”

“…impossible,” you breathe, thick and slurred.

Joel lifts his head then, sees the look in your eye. He sniffs. “’s pretty damn hard, yeah.”

You tip your head back, feel the weight of your tears and your eyes and your brain slap against the back of your skull, a nauseating pull at the nape of your neck. You’re defeated. Nothing left in you to argue, talk, even so much as breathe.

Your words drag between one another, each one beginning with the remnants of the one before it.

“Just - take me to bed.”

He’s standing inches from you, hands hovering over your own, hesitant or unwilling or fucking afraid to touch you.

You ball your fists against his chest and give him one tiny, ineffective shove. But he’s bigger, stronger, sober. He doesn’t budge. Accepting defeat, you breathe one last, “Fuck you,” and brush past him, staggering out of the kitchen.

Joel – water and painkillers in hand – watches you like a hawk going upstairs, arms braced for you to lean on anytime you begin to tumble backward. When you do, his hand brushes your elbow, and you whip it out of his reach and reel it back in to your body.

He settles you on the bed just like he did six days ago, after your rodeo night. Only he doesn’t kneel, doesn’t take your boots off. Just walks away, grabs a tee from your chest of drawers and hands it to you to slip into by yourself.

You don’t even have to open your eyes. You know which one he’s given you. Can tell from the feel of the material, the cracked lettering on the chest, that it’s his Rangers shirt, the same one he put on you the first night you slept together. Smells more like you than it does him these days, but feels just like he always does. And as he waits a safe two-feet from you for you to change, no hands reaching out to help, to fix your hair, to stroke your cheek – you think the shirt will just have to do.

Everything he does is close enough for you to recognize him as Joel, and yet distant enough for him to be someone totally different. Every move he makes is pre-determined, all outcomes already analyzed and mapped, all risks carefully averted. It’s like he’s walking a minefield.

He hands you a couple of pills and helps with lifting the water to your lips. Then he sits at the end of your bed and applies the band-aid while you drag a makeup wipe clumsily over your face.

His thumbs linger on your fucked leg, rubbing over the padded dressing a few times after it’s stuck on, gentle and slow. Eyes never leaving the spot your skin broke open. And then, when you’re done with it, he takes the makeup wipe and quickly runs it down your calf, cleaning the dry blood from your skin.

Touch as delicate as though he were holding a rose – fingers brushing over your body like you might tear or fall apart at the slightest movement. When he’s done, he makes his way around to the opposite side of the bed.

“There’s a sleeping bag in the hall closet if you’d rather take the floor,” you tell him, rolling back and pulling your knees to your chin.

“Nah,” Joel says with the groan of a near-fifty-year-old man, kicking his boots off and propping his pillows up. “We’re close enough by now.”

He pulls the flannel from his shoulders and tosses it to the end of the bed, then slips in under the covers beside you, clasping his hands on his chest. His entire body a perfectly polite distance away.

Your wrist lifts, weak and limp, and your fingers ghost across his red wine knuckles. He winces a little, but he doesn’t move. Instead, he watches as you trace the curves of his hands, surfing the valleys where the bone drops, then back up to the peaks where the blood breaks from his skin.

“You didn’t have to…” you whisper. “He was just some dirtbag.”

He sniffs. Replies to you in his head, translated through the look in his eye. Wasn’t all about the dirtbag.

And you know it. Knox was just an asshole who took the hit for the last four days. Sure, he deserved it. But his big, ugly face and the uglier words which happened to tumble out of it were simply a punchbag full of sand; Joel’s fist hammering into it was as much about defending you as it was about punishing someone, anyone, the first fucker who wound up on the wrong side of him, for everything that had happened.

He's angry. At himself and at you and at this entire fucking mess. And you’re angry. At yourself and at him and at the very same thing. The two of you lie side by side in the dark, both broken and bruised and bleeding. You let out a small, pathetic sigh, and Joel echoes it.

His eyes close over and you stare at him. Stare at the faint lines on his face that slowly fade as he relaxes more, falls closer and closer to sleeping. Watch his chest slowly rising and falling, and his hands moving up and down with it. His entire body is still. Like it’s the first calm he’s had in a while. The first time he’s been able to settle.

And you stare at him. For hours, feels like. You stare at him until sleep, or alcohol, or something stronger coats over your vision and sweeps him out of focus.

----------

The wall opposite your window is lit with a single stripe of bright, nauseating orange, the sunrise staring in between your drapes. There are birds screaming outside. Your head is still throbbing and your throat feels like splintered wood and the other side of your bed is empty.

He can’t have left long ago. The mattress is still warm under the sheets he’s folded back over. His shirt is sat folded on the pillowcase.

You grab it and haul yourself out of bed – head still spinning, you trip out of your room.

He’s gotta be in the kitchen. He’ll be standing at the counter drinking a coffee, he’ll mumble a Mornin’, then pull you in and kiss the top of your head. He’ll ask how you’re feeling and if you want some breakfast. He’ll be Joel again.

“Joel…?” you call, rounding the bottom of the stairs toward the kitchen. No response.

The clock on the oven reads 5:57. The kitchen is deserted. When you loop around the island – as if he’d be crouched behind it or something – you notice an empty mug sitting in the sink, trails of black coffee at the bottom.

Your shaking hands cup around the ceramic. It’s cooling, but it’s warm.

He’s been in here.

“Joel!” you yell. Come out, now, this ain’t funny anymore.

You hear the squeak of wheels rolling to a stop outside and flee over to the living room windows, daybreak burning your eyes when you peer through the shades.

You’re frantically searching, going blind with the bright rays singeing your corneas, pacing back and forth between each window to get an angle on the street that will show you his truck. Show you him.

You don’t even notice the sound of keys in the door, or the rattle it makes as it pushes open.

“Hey, kiddo.”

You whip around. The owner of the voice lifts a hand to his puffy eyes and rubs them, yawning.

“H-hi, Dad.”

You look fucking insane. Hair all over the place, makeup haphazardly removed, Joel’s flannel shirt hanging from your fist. Wearing nothing but a long tee, a blood-seeped band-aid on your calf.

“Good night?” he says with a sleepy chuckle. “I am pooped. You want anythin’ before I head up to bed?”

You shake your head, but he’s not looking. Rubbing his eyes with his knuckles.

“Alright, I’m gonn–”

“Where’s Joel?”

Your desperation has reached a new high. Your pride, a new low. You just want him back, don’t care who knows or thinks or suspects what. Just come back.

“Huh?”

“Joel? He brought me home and I woke up and he’s gone.”

“He – Well, I…I suppose he’ll be at work, hon. He can’t stick around here all day.” He smiles weakly, and then swivels on his heels.

“He text you?”

He sighs, his back still turned. “What has gotten into…? Here.”

Your dad twists and throws his phone toward you. It lands on the carpet at your feet. Then he turns back and begins climbing the stairs.

“See ya in a few hours.”

When he turns the corner on the landing and his footsteps fade out of earshot, you bend and your fingers clutch his phone.

He has one unread text from Joel.

You unlock the phone with a click and open up the message thread. Your half-drunk, half-sleepy eyes flit across the screen, leaning back against the arm of the couch to read every word he ever sent your dad.

Joel: She’s in bed. Sat with her for a bit to make sure she didn’t roll onto her back. She’s a little worse for wear. I got a job up in Waco I need to be at in an hour, so I gotta head.

You scroll further back.

Joel: She okay?

Joel: Sarah says she hasn’t heard from her in a few days. We can come over for dinner tonight if you reckon that might help?

Further back still.

Joel: Sure, not doing anything anyway. Sarah in Nashville. Tell her to text me when she’s ready to be picked up. Hope she enjoys her rodeo night 🤠

Joel: Table booked for 6. Get you both at 5:45. Looking forward to it.

You scroll until your eyes hurt.

Joel: No answer. She’ll be home soon I bet.

Joel: You ever seen Grey’s Anatomy? Pretty good TV

Joel: Your daughter available tonight to help me put up stuff for Sarah coming home? I fear what might happen if I attempt it myself

You read the final message, the first thing he sent your dad after you got home. Six days in. He’d driven you home from work.

Joel: No problem, wouldn’t have her walking home in the rain. Was nice to see her again. She’s a sweetheart.

You’re laid back across the couch, your legs hanging over the armrest. You drop the phone to your chest and stare up at the ceiling, suddenly feeling a lot more sober.

She’s a sweetheart.

Your throat tightens around a sob. Like a fist clenching around your neck, crushing your breath to nothing. Your eyes well, tears slowly flood across your vision and then spill over, running rapidly down to your ears and seeping into the fabric of the couch. You’re still silent. Still unable to open your mouth.

You’re doing everything you can to hold back. To stop it from happening. But your chest feels like it could burst, and your eyes are screwing shut tighter and tighter, and your body curls up like an animal succumbing to a mortal wound, and then –

Then, you break.

It forces its way from your throat, hammering against the sides of your mouth before it’s escaping, tearing away from your lips and hurtling skyward. A deep, violent exhale. Broken, and painful, and heavy.

There’s no one to hold back for. Just you, sat in your living room, clutching the flannel of a man who doesn’t want you anymore.

Your breath stammers, shudders against the palms of your hands as your fingertips massage your eyes. You’re crying like a little kid, and it’s not making you feel any better, but no matter what you do, it won’t stop.

And you don’t know why. You tell yourself that: I don’t know why I’m crying. Almost laugh when you think it through to yourself: sobbing at 6AM over someone you were sleeping with, for all of, what, four weeks? I don’t know why the fuck I’m crying.

Except – you do. You do. And you’re totally, completely, undeniably fucked.

You sigh and close your eyes.

You are – fucked.

----------

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cherryblossomwriting · 3 months

Text

Exploring Depths

Summary: Harry is a gynaecologist and gives you a vaginal examination

W.C: 1427

Warnings: Smut, Cheating, Fingering, Inappropriate relationship with a gynaecologist (this is not how a vaginal exam works in real life guys so please beware)

Tags: Gynaecologist!Harry x Patient!Y/n

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

“Fuck, you're so tight. I’m gonna cum so hard, baby,” your boyfriend moaned while positioning his cock in you. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, making it seem like he was in heaven, sadly you weren't feeling the same, not even close. Jack and you have been highschool sweethearts. He was a great boyfriend and you loved him, however, there was a small problem… he could never make you cum. So you tried to dodge every time he tried to initiate sex, it just seemed boring. You were a virgin when you got together with him, however, Jack has had multiple girlfriends before, so you never understood why he couldn't make you orgasm. You have tried to hint multiple times, but he just didn't seem to care. “Did you come, baby,” he asked you. “Yeah, so hard,” you replied with fake sweetness. You were tired of faking it, at this point.

Later that day, you decided to confront him. You know communication is the key to a successful relationship. “Hey, babe. I wanted to talk to you about something,” you said in a soft voice. You don't know why you were nervous. “Yeah, what was it?” he replied back, he couldn't even care to switch off his phone to give you his full attention. “Ummm, earlier today, when we were having sex. Ummm, I faked it. I didn't actually cum. I think we should work on it,” you were trying to not make him feel bad. “There is nothing to work on. My previous girlfriends never seem to have that problem. There is an issue with you. I think you should go to the gynac and have yourself checked down there,” he said without any care for you.

You couldn't believe it, youll have been dating for almost 6 years now and he couldn't even care to address the problem you were facing. His answer made you really doubt yourself. “Is the problem in me?” you were thinking to yourself. You quickly booked an appointment with the local gynac so that you could have the issue identified and solved ASAP.

You had the vaginal exam appointment today and to say you were nervous was an understatement. You quickly got dressed and drove down to the clinic. “Miss Y/N, you're down in room 21, Dr. Styles will be with you in a moment,” the receptionist spoke with a heavy voice, making you even more nervous. You have never visited a gynac until now so this was all very new to you. You opened the door to the room and sat on the small stool, waiting for the doctor to enter. “It shouldn't be that bad. I mean they are professionals of course. It's like showing another woman your vagina, I mean it's nothing she has never seen right?” you kept reassuring yourself. Little did you know that Dr Styles was not a woman but rather a man sculpted from the bare hands of the Greek gods. When you saw him enter the room, it seemed like all the air in the room had been sucked by a vacuum cleaner. It's like you forgot how to breathe. “Why is he a doctor, he should be a model or rather should be put in a museum where people would have to pay to even get a glance of his godly face. His beauty is worth being preserved,” you were thinking to yourself. “Are you the doctor, I thought it would be a female?” you asked him. “No need to feel uncomfortable Love, I am a professional,” he said in a thick British accent. When you thought this man couldn't get any more attractive, he smirked and you could see his beautiful dimples popping. “You can remove your clothes, including your undergarments and wear the paper drape,” he said while putting on the gloves. Fuck his hands were so veiny and big. You were shocked as to why he wasn't leaving the room, but you thought that's how it's supposed to be so you removed your clothes and wore the drape given to you. You were completely naked inside. “Okay now get on the table and put your legs up on the stirrup,” he said while getting the equipment ready and pulling a stool to sit between your spreaded legs. “Umm, before you start i just wanted you to know that this is my first time at the gynac,” you squealed with a nervous voice. “Don't worry darling, I know what I am doing,” he replied back in his masculine voice.

He pulls your gown above your hips and lubricates his hands with the gel. He slowly spread your lips open with his fingers. You shuddered due to the sudden cold feeling in your private area. You noticed a slight smirk appear on his lips. He removed his hands from your vagina. “Now love, tell me why you are here. Are you facing any problems or is this just a regular check up?” he asked. “Umm, whenever my boyfriend and I have sex, Iamnotabletocum,” you said in one breath. “What darling I didn't catch the last part,” he replied back with a smug face. “I am not able to cum,” you said with reddened cheeks. “Ahhh now I understand what the problem is,” he said. “You don't have to worry, let me check if there is an issue,” he continued.

He touched your lips with his gloved fingers again. “Hmmm someone seems excited,” he said nonchalantly. He could see your pussy glisten in the bright light. You couldn't explain how shy you were, there was something about him that made you so turned on. Not even your boyfriend has ever made you so horny. He inserted a finger in your tight hole and kept pistoning it. You coughed out due to the sudden intrusion. “It's all part of the procedure, calm down,” doctor styles interrupted. He inserted another finger in you and then another, till he had three fingers in you. “Hmmm… you have a very tight vagina Y/N,” he said. The way your name just rolled off his tongue made you even more wet. “Okay, I have done most of the tests, now for the final test, I have to conduct an orgasm test,” he said. “An orgasm test, what is that Doctor,” you asked with genuine curiosity because you have never heard of such a test. Your innocence and the way you called him doctor made Harry hard. You could see a huge bulgy tent forming in his pants. “Was he getting turned on by this?” you asked yourself. “It is a test that will confirm whether you are able to orgasm or if there is a problem that we need to work on,” he explained. He again inserted three fingers in your hole, slowly pushing them in and out of your vagina. He then pressed his thumb right on your clit. The combination of the movement of his fingers in and out of your vagina and the circle motion of his thumb on your clit was driving you crazy. He continued the movements. A smirk plastered on his face. “Fuck, doctor, I think Im gonna cum, shit,” you moaned out with pleasure. “There we go,” he said while pumping his fingers in you. You orgasmed so hard, you think you might have gone to heaven and back. All the built up frustration just leaving your body.

You opened your eyes to see Doctor Styles covered in your juice. “Did I just..?” before you could complete your sentence, he interrupted. “Yes, you squirted Y/N. Now you know, the problem isn't you but rather your inexperienced boyfriend who probably doesn't even know where the clit is.” he answered with a devilish look in his eyes. “Thank you so much Doctor Styles,” you said. “Oh no worries love, I love taking care of my patients,” he said with a wink. You still can't believe you squirted, you have only seen that happen in porn and honestly you thought the feeling of squirting was overhyped until you experienced it yourself. You quickly changed into your clothes. “So Y/N I will see you after a month for your next monthly checkup? Gotta make sure all my patients are healthy and satisfied” he asked with mischief in his eyes. “Of course Doctor, Thank you” you replied and left the room. Only if you knew, you would have visited a gynac much earlier. You knew this wasn't the end to the pleasure you would experience with Doctor Styles.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

Hope you'll liked this piece!!!

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Also, I am open to requests, so let me know if you want me to write about something in particular:))

Lots of Love

xoxo

#harry styles #smut #writing #female reader #harry styles fandom #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x reader #harry styles smut #gynaecologist!Harry Styles #spicy content

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starieq · 2 months

Text

“Lovin her seems tiring..” Part 2

Taggies/ warnings; Pro!HeroKats, cheating, fingering, creampie, blowjob, ridding, cumming, squirting, swearing, mention of sex toys, dirty talk, titty fuck, drinking, drunk messaging, dry humping.

part 3!

After that crazy call with your boss, you went right into making reservations so you don’t get yelled at the next week of work.

Wait. Is his girlfriend coming? Should you call and ask? Would he be mad? Do you reserve two rooms? One for you, and one for him? Of course you would! Why wouldn’t you? Don’t make this weird y/n.

You had a lot of what if’s. But, you wanted to be brave and call your hot headed hot boss.

ring, ring, ring.

“The hell ya want now? Thought i made myself fuckin clear.” He grumbles into the phone.

“U-uh,” you stutter. “S-so, is uhm, Kira coming like she usually d-does, or..-“

“No. Just make two rooms. One for you and me.”

“Okay! Thank you for letting me know. B-but i do have a question Mr. Dynamight.”

“Lay it on me.” He says calmly? Wow, you’ve never heard him so calm before.

“So, why I’m I coming..?” You ask a little scared.

“Need ya to come with me cause you’re my damn assistant and you should do as I say. See ya next week y/n.”

He hangs up. God, his voice was so sexy. You couldn’t get enough of it. At least his bitch of a “girlfriend” isn’t coming.

You go to work the next week after your short weekend. You get packed to go to Tokyo, and you plan to maybe go to Tokyo Disneyland since it’s not like your gonna be on patrol with him, right?

Right?

You make your way to the bus station to get to the Dynamight agency. It was snowing and a horrible day to wear a white high waist mini skirt with a cute flower cardigan. At least you have a snow jacket and shoes in the office.

You pay for your ticket and get on the bus. The bus station was pretty packed, you cant be late today. You decided to go on your phone to see the news, until you get a text from your boss.

:Dynamight🧡💥: I need ya to get to the fuckin office now. Go to my office when you’re here.

:y/n: sorry! Bus station is a little full today. I’ll get there as fast as I can! :D

You see the Dynamight agency and run out the bus as fast as you could. You knew Bakugo was a hot head and the last person you wanna piss off. It was kinda hard to run in the thick snow with uggs on, but you couldn’t care less. You NEEDED to get to your boss.

You open the large doors and greeted the front lady that at gives you little candies.

“Thank you Mrs. Hellen!” You wave goodbye and pop the candy in your mouth. You get to the elevator and press floor 8. As you get on, you notice you have a big whole in your tights. Fuck. Those were new too! Damnit.

You gracefully walk to Bakugo’s office and hear grunting on the other side of the door.

You knock on the door and you hear Bakugo startle and race to get up. You’re not sure what he was doing, but your little dirty mind thinks something else.

“What-“ he looks down at you. “Get in here,” He pulls your wrist inside his office.

“Good morning to you too, Mr. Dynamight.” You give him a warm smile and he falls back on his chair.

You notice his face is a little red and his cheeks are slightly puffed. You couldn’t help but also noticed a bulge in his hero cargo pants.

“Ay, eyes up here sweetheart.” He says with a a smug smirk.

“O-oh sorry. I was just thinking about my uh, hole in my tights.” You said. Nice save, you think to yourself.

“Uh huh.” He says turning his chair so the back faces you.

“So Mr. Dynamight-“

“We’re leaving tonight, did ya pack your shit?” You noticed he clenched his jaw when he span his chair to face you again.

“Yeah.. uhm, are you going to pick me up or-“

“Yeah. Text me your address when I leave.”

“Ok.. thank you for your time.” You spin on your heel to leave. You opened the door and took slow steps.

Well, guess you should start working.

@bakugounextswife

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specialagentlokitty · 3 months

Text

Eddie Diaz x reader - what’s important to you

Please... Ok imagine Eddie from 911 going on a couple dates with reader who also speaks Spanish and finally introducing her to Christopher... Like would Eddie be nervous, would reader be nervous, how would Christopher react? - @azeal-peal 💜

A/N: italics will be Spanish

He had met you through Hen, it was an accident, you just happened to on a night out at the same bar that the team were out on a night out at.

Hen introduced you to everybody, and when you friends went home with guys, you stayed with them just happily talking away.

Eddie couldn’t keep his eyes off you that night, you were beautiful, you were dressed up nicely, but not too revealing, just enough to turn heads as you walked through the door.

And he realised you didn’t need to be on a night out to turn heads, because when you walked through the doors of the station his eyes immediately found you.

“Hey, have you seen Hen?” You asked.

Eddie snapped out of his daze.

“I Uhm.. I think.. what?” He stuttered.

He wasn’t actually listening, and he gave you a sheepish grin which you returned with a small laugh and a bright smile.

“Hen, she said she was here but I can’t find her.”

“Oh I actually think she’s with Bobby right now, but you can wait up there if you want.”

He pointed to the upstairs part of the station, and you grinned brightly.

“Thanks Eddie!”

“You remember my name?” He asked confused.

He remembers telling you his name, but that was a few weeks ago, he wasn’t expecting you to remember.

You stopped on the stars and smirked.

“I remember the name of everybody, especially good looking firefighters.” You winked.

He smirked a little bit, following after you up the stairs, getting a bottle of water from the fridge and he brought it over to you.

You took it, offering him a sweet smile.

“You think I’m good looking?”

“You could be poster boy for the recruitment campaign.”

He laughed a little, looking away.

“Well, thanks. Nothing compared to you though, you could enter a world beauty contest and win by default.”

“Oh yeah?”

He hummed a little, directing his gaze back at you.

“Does that line win over all the ladies?”

“I don’t know, did it win over you?”

“Depends on what you’re thinking.”

“Well, I was thinking a nice dinner, maybe a movie?”

“Oh he makes his move, bold choice Mr firefighter, are you sure it’s the right one?”

He grinned a little at you.

“After work?”

“I’ll get Hen to give you my address, don’t be late hot shot.”

You got up, giving him another wink as you walked over to your friend who had just come up the stairs.

Eddie was right on time for you date, and it went amazing, so you asked him for a second date the following week.

Every week for two months you two would go on a date, just slightly getting to know one another.

Today was no different, you were walking around the pier with him, your hand in his as you walked over to a few of the stall games.

“I bet I could beat you.” He said.

“Oh you’re so on!”

Eddie smiled softly at you.

He learnt pretty quickly when you got really happy or excited about something you reverted to Spanish, and he had once heard you arguing with Hen in Spanish because he had to translate.

He paid for both your games, and you began throwing the balls at the targets, seeing who could knock down more cans.

He was winning at the start and he gave a cocky grin.

“You’re all talk.”

You scoffed a little.

“You wish, I was just biding my time.”

Tossing the final ball in your hand, you threw it, knocking over all but one of your cans.

Eddie stood there in pure shock, and he stared at you.

“Oh no, that’s cheating, come on!”

“I’m just that good Eddie Diaz, suck it up!”

You picked your prize, and he picked another, taking yours from it so he could carry it around for you.

You were grinning from ear to ear.

“You can keep that by the way.”

“What? But you won it.”

You smiled a little at him.

“Give it to your son, I remember you saying he was really into superheroes right now, I thought maybe he’d like a huge iron man plushie.”

Eddie smiled down at you.

“You remember that?”

“Of course, I remember everything you say. I know he’s really important to you.”

“Not many people are interested in seeing a guy who has a kid.”

You paused and so did he, turning around to look at you.

Walking over, you reached up, placing your hand on the side of his face, running your thumb along his cheek.

“Eddie it doesn’t bother me you have a son, I’m dating you for you, if you have a son that’s nothing to do with me. He’s your son, he’ll always come first, and I expect you to always put him before me. I’d be pretty pissed if you didn’t.”

Eddie turned his head, kissing the palm of your hand, then he leant down, connecting his lips with yours in a passionate kiss.

You moved your hand to the back of his head to hold him there, leaning up into the kiss, and you finally pulled away.

“I’m in this for us Eddie, however long that may be, and nothing will scare me away.”

He smiled, brushing his nose against yours before he kissed you once more and fully pulled away.

“I want you to meet him.”

“Yeah?”

“He’s the most important person to me, and I really like you, I like what we’ve got going on, and I really want you to meet each other. Is that okay? Because if it isn’t you don’t have too.”

“Yeah, I’d love that. Just me when.”

He gave a nervous smile.

“How about today? You can give him this toy?”

“Really?”

“Is that okay?”

“Hell yeah, let’s go!”

You grabbed his arm and began dragging him back to the car.

Truth be told you were nervous about meeting his son, you knew how important Christopher was to Eddie, and you wanted to make a good impression.

But at the same time you didn’t want to impose on them either, you didn’t want Christopher to think you were taking his dad away or trying to change anything.

Eddie was nervous about introducing the pair of you, he really liked having you around, he wanted to have you around his apartment, cook for you, get you involved with much more instead of seeing you once a week.

As you guys reached his apartment you were nervously holding his hand while he unlocked the door.

“Buck?”

The man came padding around the corner and you offered a wave which made Buck grin.

“Oh I’m so getting out of here.”

He grabbed his jacket and jogged out of the apartment.

“Wait here.”

Eddie kissed your cheek, wondering over to the couch and he crouched down in front of his son, hugging him gently.

They spoke quietly and finally Eddie gestured for you to come over and you did.

You sat next to Christopher.

“Hey, I’m (Y/N). It’s really nice to meet you.”

“Are you my dad’s girlfriend?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I got something for you.”

You held the plushie out, and the boy took it, laughing a little as he held it tightly in his arms.

“Do you like my dad?”

You smiled at Christopher brightly, nodding your head, looking over at Eddie who had walked over to the kitchen.

“Oh yeah, I do. But I know your dad loves you a lot. So I was hoping maybe we could be friends.”

“Who’s your favourite superhero?”

You hummed a little bit, leaning back on the couch.

“That’s hard, but I think it has to be Hawkeye. I think he’s really cool.”

“But he has no superpower.”

“That’s what makes him super cool, he’s got no powers but he still saves people, he kinda reminds of of your dad..” you whispered.

Christopher beamed brightly, looking at you and he leant back at as well.

“My dad has been really happy.”

“Yeah?”

Christopher nodded a little bit.

“Where do you work?”

You began to tell him everything, answering all of his questions and when Eddie turned around he wore a soft smile as he looked at the pair of you.

You two seemed to be getting along really well, and he couldn’t ask for anything more

#911 imagine #911 fandom #911 fic #911 fanfic #911 x reader #911 x you #Eddie Diaz #eddie diaz x reader #eddie diaz x you #eddie diaz imagine

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dearestgojo · 11 months

Text

Geto x reader

Warnings: 18+. Angst. Cheating. Betrayal. Infidelity.

Wc: 961 | JJK Masterlist | Main Masterlist

There were things you'd come to expect from Suguru throughout your short courtship. Things he himself had set up from the very beginning. Like him opening every door for you, a warm cup of tea waiting for you whenever you visited his apartment, or the extra pair of flats he kept in his backseat for whenever you got tired of wearing your heels on dates. But for him to tear your heart to shreds, now that had been somewhat of a surprise.

The signs had been there, and you'd just chose to turn a blind eye to them. The fact it took him twice as long to respond, the lingering scent of rose-scented perfume in his car, and the barely there look in his eyes when you were together. Yet, despite being aware of them, it didn't stop your stomach from twisting. It didn't stop the tears from burning the edges of your eyes while you fought to hold them back. Or the knot that formed in the back of your throat, lodging itself there for you to feel the dull ache every time you swallowed. You had chosen to ignore all the little cues because some part of you had hoped that you'd simply been seeing something that wasn't there.

You had been too trustful. And from past experiences, you should've known better.

He'd promised not to hurt you ever, yet here you were, sitting silently in front of him with your heart bleeding on the table as he kept talking, as if everything was the same. Even when you barely replied, humming or nodding when needed, he continued as if the very thing you need to live; hadn't been ripped from your chest and was now beating loudly in front of him. It made your insides burn with anger.

The nerve of him to look at you with his cunning face, smiling softly at you when he'd been wrapped in the arms of someone else hours earlier. And just not any other person, but one of your friends that had once listened to you vent about past heartaches. Discovering that was like taking a knife to your already exposed heart.

Clicking your tongue to the roof of your mouth you pick up what's left of pride, and stood up from the table, interrupting him in the middle of a sentence when your chair squeaks along his floorboards. He looks up at you for the first time the entire evening, actually looks at you, eyebrows furrowed and lips pressed tightly together. His dark eyes flow you into his small kitchen, watching as you put your cup into the sink before you slip into the pair of rubber gloves and start washing it. He watches the way your movements are stiff, the muscles of your back tight, and how your silence rings throughout the room, slowly seeping its way into his own bones. A sudden shiver runs down his spine.

"Are you okay?" he asks, picking up his half-full cup of tea, making his way over to you carefully, "You've been quieter than usual."

You look at him over your shoulder, the look on in your eyes making him stop like a deer caught in headlights. To anyone else the smile you give him would've been sweet, a normal smile any girlfriend would give their boyfriend, but Suguru feels uneasy, guilt swelling in his chest, because there's a knowing layer to the way your lips curl.

"I'm fine," you answer, but you aren't fine. You and Suguru both know that now, the only thing either of you is unsure of is who will address it first.

Letting out a heavy sigh you turn to scan at the wall above the kitchen sink, eyes surging with tears for the nth time today. You thought you could do this. Come here and face him. Give him a piece of your mind. But doing that would be like admitting you had fallen for the same tricks you'd said you'd never believe again. That'd you'd let yourself once again be sweet-talked into a man's arms and bed.

Suguru closes the distance between you and him as your sniffles start, cup left and the end of the counter when his strong arms engulf you. "Hey what's wrong?" he asks, feigning like he doesn't know what's troubling. The look in your eyes and your smile were giveaways that you'd likely found out already, but if he started apologizing now he'd be confessing to the crime. And Suguru didn't want to face the fact that he'd dragged out this break-up far longer than needed simply because he liked having you around. He'd also have to admit that, for the first time in his entire dating history; he'd cheated. He was standing with the very men he'd said he'd never be. His arms tighten around you and he pulls you deeper into his chest, murmuring into the crown of your head, "I'm always here for you."

The anger that's been bubbling inside of you suddenly spills over, and you're pushing your way out of his hold. Pushing him back into the counter, his elbow bumps into the cup causing it to fall over and shatter as it hits the ground. There's an exchange of words you barely recall before the sound of the door slamming rings in your ears. You hardly even recall how you made it back home two hours later when you're crying into your pillowcase. Or how you ended up wrapped in the warm arms of your roommate.

All you remember three days later as your delete messages and unanswered calls, and block two numbers, is the hoarseness of your throat as you yelled and the shattering of your heart as the door closed behind you.

#jjk angst #jujutsu kaisen angst #geto angst #geto x reader angst #geto suguru angst #jjk x reader #jjk x reader angst #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader angst

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mrsarcherofinfamy · 4 months

Note

Hi there!! I'm not sure if you are in an angst mood if not totally fine. Please do not feel obligated to do this. ❤️

You and Damian broke up. The two of you still love each other but stubborn people be stubborn. One day after a house show, you are asleep, and Finn calls you begging to come to a bar to get Damian. The archer of infamy keeps asking for you since you used to be the designated driver.

Against your better judgment, you pick D up and take him to your hotel room. The next morning, he wakes up, and the two of you start arguing (maybe about something they often fought about). In the heat of the moment, one of you admits your feelings to the other. The two of you finally calm down and start to work through their problem and get back together.

I hope you like it!! I tried my best!! 😊

●Damian Priest x Reader●

________________________________________

Laying in bed, looking at the picture of me and Damian sitting on his nightstand on his side of the bed, I start tearing up. Me and Damian broke up about two weeks ago because he thought I was cheating on him with JD. Me and JD were discussing the surprise I had planned for Damian. I lay on my side of the bed, looking down at Damian's side of the bed, and wipe my hand across the bed. I pull the blanket up to my face and shove my face into my pillow, tearing up thinking about him. I start to cry myself to sleep.

________________________________________

*about half hour later*

I am laying in bed sleeping when my phone starts ringing really loud. I gasp sitting up real fast and look over at my phone. I grab it seeing Finn's name come up. I sigh, roll my eyes and answer the phone.

"Yes? What do you want?"

"Woah... hello to you too Y/N."

"What do you want Finn? I'm trying to sleep."

"Well you are gonna have to come pick up Damian."

"No."

"Y/N. Please. He keeps asking for you since you were always the designated driver."

"Why can't you drive him?"

"I've been drinking too. But not as much as him."

"Where is Rhea? Or Dom? Or JD?"

"I don't know. Y/N. Seriously. He is only asking for you. Please. You need to come get him. I'm afraid he might fight someone soon."

"Finn. I haven't seen him in over two weeks since we broke up. I really don't wanna come get him."

"Y/N. Please. Cmon. He only wants you to pick him up. Please. Don't make me keep begging you. I'll give you gas money to come get him. Please."

I sigh and roll my eyes at him standing up.

"Fine. Just this one time. And I'll take him to his hotel room and he is staying there."

"We will see how long he stays there since his hotel room is across from yours."

"I'm not coming."

"Y/N. Please!"

"Fine. Send me the address and give me a few to get changed."

I hang up on him and toss my phone on the bed. I grab one of Damian's big sweatshirts that I took from him awhile ago and put on some leggings. I put on my sneakers and my hat on backwards. I grab my keys and my phone and head out of my room. I stop and look at the address Finn sent me. I walk down the hall, down the stairs and out to the parking lot. I get in my car, putting the address in my phone and head off to go pick him up.

_________________________________________

*at the bar*

I park outside the bar against the curb and call Finn. It rings a few times and he doesn't answer. I sigh and roll my eyes. I look over at the door and I see Damian stumbling out of the door with Finn trying to hold him up. I unlock the door and wait for them. Finn opens the door and helps Damian get in the car. I roll my eyes not looking over at them.

"Thank you Y/N!"

"Yeah yeah."

Finn closes the door and I put the car in drive pulling out of the parking lot. Damian puts his hand on the back of my neck and starts lightly scratching. I grip the steering wheel starting to feel tears swelling up in my eyes. He used to always do that when I would drive just to help me focus and be calm. We get back to the hotel and I park the car getting out. I walk over to his side, open the door and help him get out of the car. Damian slings his arm around my neck looking down at me.

"You are........really....beautiful."

I look up at him for a quick second feeling more tears starting to form than start helping him inside of the hotel. We make our way to my hotel room and I unlock the door helping him inside to the bedroom. I sit him down on the bed and go to the kitchen to grab him a water and a little snack like I would always do for him. I walk back into the bedroom seeing him taking his shoes and pants off. I sit the water and snack next to the bed and walk over to my side of the bed. I grab my pillow and blanket and walk out to the living room. I take off my leggings and my hat and put them on the little desk. I keep Damian's sweatshirt on and lay down on the couch getting comfortable covering myself up with my blanket. I lay there feeling tears start streaming down my face trying to fall asleep.

_________________________________________

*the next morning*

I am sitting on the couch watching the TV still lightly crying from last night. I hear the bed start creaking and I quickly wipe the tears off my face. Damian comes around the corner stretching in the door frame. I look over at him real quick than back at the TV. He walks over to the kitchen and opens the fridge door.

"Wait.... where did my food go?"

He looks over at me on the couch and slams the fridge door shut. He walks over to me standing over me.

"What are you doing in my hotel room?"

"Ummm... this is my hotel room."

He looks around the room than looks back at me confused.

"Why am I in your room?"

I gulp and finally look up at him.

"Well.... Finn called me last night."

"Of course he did. You trying to sleep with him too? I wouldnt doubt it since you went for his best friend."

"No.....He called me because you were asking for me to come pick you up. Because I used to be your designated driver. And he was afraid you might fight him or someone else."

"Yeah I'm sure. What did I tell you when we broke up? I told you to never talk to me again! To never help me again! And to stay away from me! What don't you understand!?"

"IM TRYING OKAY?!"

He stands there looking at me with a shocked face. I stand up infront of him looking up at him, my eyes swelling with tears again.

"Fuck my feelings! They are fucked! But one thing that I'll always be sure about is my love for you! It hurts seeing you backstage almost everyday looking all happy! I would NEVER cheat on you with your friends or anyone! I fucking love you and I can't fucking stay away from you! Okay?!"

I sit down and start crying again pulling my knees to my face. Damian sits down next to me on the couch and puts his arm around my body pulling me into him.

"Y/N."

I continue crying into my knees and he pulls me closer starting to rub my back putting his head ontop of mine.

"Shhhh."

I sniffle and look up at him. He starts wiping the tears from my face looking back at me.

"Y/N. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for accusing you of messing with my friends. I'm sorry I hurt you like this. I promise I have been faking it about being happy. I'm not happy. Ive been really depressed since we broke up. Finn, Dom and JD have been basically yelling at me for the last two weeks about how I am an idiot and you weren't cheating on me. They said you were actually setting up a surprise for me."

I look up at him some tears running down my face. He starts wiping them away.

"I was planning a surprise party for your birthday. I wanted it to be special."

"You were? Really?"

I look at him seeing his face getting really concerned and upset.

"Yes I was. But now that your birthday has passed, that ain't happening."

"I.....I.....I'm so sorry. I was and still am so scared of losing you."

I look up at him feeling my eyes being very puffy. He looks at me very upset and his eyes starting to tear up.

"I still love you with everything in my heart and soul. I really miss you."

"I miss you too."

He puts his hand under my chin, pushes my head up towards him and kisses me lightly. I lean in kissing him back. We slowly start kissing each other and I run my fingers through his hair. He pulls back looking me in the eyes. I look up at him slightly smiling.

"I love you Y/N."

"I love you too Damian."

#wwe fanfiction #wwe imagine #imagines #wrestling imagine #writing #wwe x reader #wwe fluff #wwe fics #wwe fic #wwe fanfics #wwe #damian priest fanfic #damian priest x reader #wwe damian priest #damian priest imagine #damian priest #charley's fics

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runnning-outof-time · 5 months

Note

Could you do "your more fun to miss" with John maybe angsty fluff but whatever works for you and your brain 😁

Thanks for sending this one in, anon!! And I need you to hear me out on this - I KNOW that the gif is of Joe Cole as Sean Wallace in Gangs of London, BUT this could ALSO be Modern!John Shelby … which is what I was going for in this blurb. I figured I’d think outside of the box for one of my John stories since no one is really reading them anyway… But if you are reading them…Enjoy! :) …oh and again, I just focused on the face he’s making rather than what the woman talking to him looks like - I felt the face really matched the situation haha. Ok, I’m babbling now..on with the story!

I’D LOVE TO KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! - YOUR COMMENTS & REBLOGS HELP ME WRITE!

Part of my 3.5k Celebration - find more stories here!

More Fun to Miss

Modern!John Shelby x Reader

Warnings: language, drinking, insinuations of cheating

Word Count: 1165

Summary: (Y/N) lets John have a piece of her mind when she sees him (against her wishes) for the first time in three weeks at a club.

“Don’t look now…” (Y/N)’s friend, Kara, began, making she sure had the woman she was addressing’s attention before continuing, “but that man has literally been eye-fucking you all night,” her grin grew as she finished her statement.

(Y/N)’s brows furrowed at her friend’s comment. Then she looked over her shoulder to see who she was talking about. The first thing that came to her mind when she located said man was fuck.

“What? Do you know him or something?” Kara asked upon seeing (Y/N)’s reaction to her observation.

“Yeah, I do,” (Y/N) answered with a sigh.

Kara looked over her friend’s shoulder to take another glimpse of the man before turning her attention back to the conversation. She bit on her bottom lip to conceal her grin as she debated whether or not saying what was on her mind would anger (Y/N) or not. After a few moments, she thought ‘the hell with it’. “He’s hot as fuck,” she commented, her grin in full view now.

“I beg to differ,” (Y/N) disagreed, sipping on her drink and hoping she didn’t look too disgusted.

“Well he’s been staring at you literally all night.”

“Yeah, that’s because he knows me too.”

“Care to share the details?” Kara’s eyebrows raised in intrigue.

“I’d much rather move to a different table,” (Y/N) responded, grabbing her drink in one hand and her clutch in the other before she stood from the table they were sitting at.

“(Y/N)! Wait!” Kara called, scoffing before she hurried to grab her things and catch up with her friend.

(Y/N) silently cursed the fact that the club was rather packed, which made it hard for her to find another open table. At this point, she’d much rather leave the place than go back to where she’d been sitting.

Her path was soon blocked though, and the second she looked up, she had to muster all of her restraint not to throw her drink in the man’s face.

“(Y/N)? I thought it was you,” the cocky shit that was John Shelby wasted no time in making conversation. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” he asked with a grin.

“It’s been three weeks, John. Get the fuck out of my way,” (Y/N) dismissed his pleasantries, hoping that he could tell by the glare she was wearing that she wanted no parts of talking to him.

But, of course, John didn’t catch onto it. Or maybe he did and decided to continue the conversation in spite of her. “Three weeks too long, darlin’,” he commented, his eyes raking over her figure, “I’ve missed you.”

“You found him, (Y/N)! I knew you’d taken off for a reason!” Kara chimed into the conversation before (Y/N) could respond with a snide remark.

“I didn’t find him, he blocked my path, Kara,” (Y/N) muttered to her friend, hoping that she’d catch onto her facial expression and help her out.

“You’re a friend?” John asked before Kara was able to get a good look at (Y/N)’s face, succeeding at pulling her attention to him.

“I am! Who might you be?” Kara asked, her grin growing by the second.

“Oh she didn’t tell me about you?” John’s eyebrows raised in surprise, “I was sure she would’ve.”

“No, she didn’t, and I’m rather confused as to why,” Kara responded, frowning at John before she sent (Y/N) a glare and elbowed her side. This set (Y/N) off even more. You’re supposed to be on my side!, she menatlly screamed at her friend.

“Why didn’t you tell her, love?” John now directed his surprised gaze at (Y/N).

“Because contrary to your belief, John, you’re really not someone I’d scream from the rooftops over,” she spat back, eyes shooting daggers at him.

“The noise complaints we got from my nieghbors beg to differ, baby,” he cracked back, his words dripping with smugness. I outgha just throw this fucking drink at you, (Y/N) thought as she stared him down. If looks could kill, he’d be flat on the floor by now.

“I bet they come knocking for every girl you decide to take home to fuck,” (Y/N) decided against making an even bigger scene, keeping the glass gripped firmly in her hand as she snapped at him, “and they probably complain pretty regularly considering you take a different one back every night,” she paused, seeing the surprise return to his eyes. It egged her on even more. “You thought I didn’t know, huh? Thought I hadn’t caught on to it? Why do you think it’s been three weeks and I haven’t answered a single one of your fucking texts, John?” she let him have it, taking her frustration out on him all while getting more frustrated by how he was looking at her.

It seemed like he hadn’t actually heard a word she said, because he was too busy flicking his eyes down to her lips, watching them as she unleashed her anger on him while his grin grew smugger with each word said.

“Oh shit…” Kara’s voice was full of surprise as she looked between the two, the dots finally getting connected in her mind. “That’s why you wanted to go…” she said to (Y/N) then.

“Yeah, that’s exactly why I wanted to go,” (Y/N) answered her friend in a huff, finally breaking eye contact with the man she’d been standing toe-to-toe with. “And I’d like to leave now,” she added, her desperation returning as her anger started to make her feel sick. This was certainly not where she wanted to have this conversation.

“I’ll take the glasses back,” Kara told her, gently taking the glass that (Y/N) had had a white-knuckle grip on from the moment John stopped her. (Y/N) didn’t even realize she’d been holding it that hard until she moved her fingers and they were sore from the tension they’d been under.

The end was in sight now. All she had to do was wait a few more moments for Kara to return. Then she would be away from John Shelby forever.

But of course, John Shelby couldn’t let her get away without one last word. “Like I said, (Y/N)…I missed you,” he said to her, looking her over one last time - as if he was committing her to memory because he knew he’d never cross paths with her again. I hope my memory fucking haunts you, she thought to herself as she thought of one last thing to leave him with.

“Yeah, well you’re more fun to miss,” she sneered at him, looking him over once more also before she pushed passed him to the exit. Kara would have to find her outside because she didn’t want to be in his presence for one more second.

More fun to miss, indeed…although she wasn’t sure if she’d even miss him.

…ok so that was more angsty than fluffy, but the prompt took me on a ride and I had a bunch of fun writing it. I hope you don’t I strayed from your wishes slightly, anon!

**tags in reblogs so that hopefully the notification gets sent out

MASTERLIST

#john shelby #john shelby x reader #john shelby x y/n #john shelby imagine #john shelby blurb #john shelby fanfic #john shelby fanfiction #peaky blinders #peaky blinders x reader #peaky blinders x y/n #peaky blinders blurb #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfic #k’s 3.5k celebration

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mrs-monaghan · 2 months

Note

https://www.tumblr.com/parkparkjeon/735238713773359104/yay-since-your-anon-is-open-i-thought-i-would

I just read this ask and its answer also and i want to know your opinion on this because I found this ask shocking. I know we don't know jikook or any other member personally but the image we have been seeing of them for years... especially jimin's...I find this ask disturbing a little. Pls give your opinion on what you think about this.

(sorry that I'm sending you this Again but i really want to hear your thoughts on this...i love the way you talk about jikook that's why..and this ask disturbed me a little...hope you can give your opinion soon!! Thankyou)

Hey anon! 🖐🏾

First of all, happy new year 😁😁 My greatest apologies for not answering "soon" but real life called.. you get it. I finally got my present that I had been waiting for, for 9 months

She has been a blessing and I'm so loving my new job of being her mom 🥰🥰 she has latched onto "shot glass of tears" which is now my cheat code. Might share the video I took. Maybe 😁😁

Anyhu, back to your ask

There isn't much to say here coz its a bunch of bullocks! Honestly. First and foremost, RM literally spoilt that Jimin elbowed JK in his sleep. Or was it the other way around? 🤔 he asked them if they were still MMAing in their sleep and Jikook told him off for spoiling. NOT TO MENTION, Jimin also added how he's used to JK snoring coz of the days they spent together when shooting. So I'm pretty sure that insinuates they were sleeping together during their making of the vlogs. So this Jikook anti is already wrong about them sleeping together. (I'm blocked by op so I didn't care to read her answer)

I wont address them saying Jikook are distant because anyone still claiming that by now is just pathetic. As for honorifics and skinship this person just wants to see and hear what they want. Have addressed honorifics before here here and here.

As for skinship, DeNile is a river in Egypt 😂 and this anon is in denial. Or refusing to acknowledge that JK has never had anyone else's ear in his mouth. That Jimin has never bit anyone else's neck. That Jikook have only tried to hide they were holding hands with eo. They don't hide when it's with other members. Jimin has never had his foot on any other member's crotch. JK didn't need to get nervous when he felt Jimin caressing his foot in BV2. Gosh, this list keeps going.... but u get my point.

Skinship with Jikook sometimes gets sus AF!!! Hell, even this butt slap was sus

Even though JK lives for slapping people's hinds, he doesn't massage or squeeze other butts.

Jikook have never and will never be like other ships... And that's coz they're not a ship. It is what it is.....

#jikook is real #if jikook isn't real then neither I'm i #ask shaz #bts ask #jikook #kookmin #minkook #jimin and jungkook #jikook antis #the fuckery #about me

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sosa2imagines · 6 months

Text

I had my dance and now I'm where I belong. Part 2

----------------------------------------------------- Warnings- Angst, cheating and little bit of fluff ----------------------------------------------------- Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 -----------------------------------------------------

After you left the tower, you checked into a hotel and once you enter the room you called Nat who along with Wanda and Sam were waiting for your call. When you were done with the call loneliness crept in slowly you started to freak out and the emotions you were hiding since the confrontation till now all came out, you dropped to the floor and cried your heart out. After a week you got the news the happy couple made it official how one cheater got another cheater you told your reflection in the mirror smiling for a bit then crying again. It was true what you told yourself Bucky does not know that Sharon had cheated on Steve and that's the reason he broke up with her and you had promised him not to tell anyone. All of your dreams crushed and thrown out the widow because he couldn’t keep it in his pants. Every single day was painful the hurt was too much years of love gone just like that.

One month later. "Hello?" "Friday where is everyone?" "Captain Rogers welcome back Mr. Barnes is in his room and the others are in the common room" "Thank you Friday" Steve was nervous he knew everyone would bombard him with questions on his decision to leave and come back again but at the moment it all can wait he needed to see his love his best friend you first he wanted to tell you everything even the dance he had. So he rushed to Bucky's room knowing you would be there but god he was so wrong he wished he had knocked on the door but he didn't and because of that he was dumbfounded by the view "Bucky? Sharon? what's going what the hell why are you guys Sharon for god sake put your shirt on" Sharon roll her eyes. "Where is Y/n?, Bucky tell me dammit" Bucky was scared of what Steve's reaction would be so he went with the little white lie "We broke up I'm with Sharon now" "What? Broke up? why? you guys were so good, why did you guys break up? And Sharon no Buck you are hiding something" "Steve you have no rights to interfere in our lives they broke up deal with it" Sharon was quick to answer. "I'm not talking to you so shut up!" Steve yelled. "Don't yell Steve, she is right you left us ok you don't know what happened so accept this." Steve was shocked by Bucky's behavior he had never seen Bucky standing up for you like he was for Sharon he immediately knew something was wrong he left the couple behind and went to search others. "Where is Y/n?" "Steve?" Sam rushed to hug his friend, Nat was teary eyes seeing her bestfriend back. "Steve you are back" she hugged him as much as Steve was happy to see them and grateful for them welcoming him back he couldn't stop thinking about you. "Nat please I'm sorry if I'm sounding rude" Nat shook her head finishing his sentence for him "Y/n left for some alone time Steve, she was suffocating here" "Yeah man everyday she was dying here" "What happened after I left?" Sam and Nat told him everything Bucky did and how Tony does not fully know the truth that you hid for Steve's hard work of making him trust Bucky. Steve's heart broke even in pain you didn't think ill of Bucky. "Where is she?" "I'll give you the hotel address and don't worry we let her leave only on the condition she calls us everyday" "Thank you Nat if she calls don't tell her I'm coming to her" Nat nod at him and Steve left for you.

Your head was a mess, your emotions were all over the place you spent the nights crying asking yourself why. You did call the team daily not wanting to go back soon, you locked yourself in your hotel room trying to wrap your head around the entire situation. The love you had just went down the drain like nothing. You had your doubts but we're blinded by his love and now paying the price it's been almost a month you barely ate and slept cold showers did not felt cold. You were lost in your own world when someone knocked on the door and thank god you opened the door you were shocked eyes glossy as soon as you whispered "Steve" he was quick to hold you in his arms as you cried and fisted his shirt, when Steve saw the state you were in his heart broke. He couldn’t help but feel guilty after all he was the one to introduce you two only for you to suffer. "Why did he do this to me Steve why?" Steve kept rubbing your back to comfort you "Everything hurts Steve please make it stop take my heart out I can't take it no more Steve please help me stop this pain" Steve's heart broke completely he blamed himself if he had not left you would have not been in this situation but that does not mean he didn't learn from his mistake seeing you beg him to stop your pain Steve silently promise to protect you and heal your heart he swear he will not let anyone hurt you not even his best friend Bucky on that day Steve decided you are his and when the time is right you will know about his love but for now you needed your best friend and that's what he was going to be. After crying for hours in Steve's arms he finally managed to put you to sleep Steve's own eyes were teary he was angry at Bucky, angry at himself he was facing back and forth until his eyes fell on your personal diary he knew it was wrong but he had to know so respectfully he skipped all the parts and just saw the last few pages he was fuming in rage how dare Bucky pack your bags and tell you to leave the audacity to lie to him, he put the diary back in its place and texted Nat to come over. As soon as Nat came Steve told her to look after you and he will be back quickly. Steve for the first time broke traffic rules drove like a madman he literally ran up to were Bucky was and as soon as he saw him Steve's mind flashed your image the hurt and pain you were in the words in your diary he was fuming in rage "You bloody liar" with that Steve punched Bucky hard on the face, Bucky was shocked Steve punched him again and again calling him liar and a cheat Sharon didn't dare interfere Sam had to hold the captain back only after Sam talked about you Steve stopped but not before warning Bucky for the last time " You stay away from her and mark my words Bucky you will regret this" All Bucky could say was sorry and how he is happy with Sharon, Steve chuckled at his stupidity "one cheater got another cheater no wonder you two make quite the couple" with that Steve left a very confused Bucky alone with Sharon in the tower.

As for Steve Rogers he had his dance and now he is where he belongs that is with you and the first step towards your happiness was to shift you from the hotel to his apartment in Brooklyn time to take you home.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------(to be continued, also thank you all you guys are awesome lots of love to you all, initially it was supposed to be a one shot but it turned out into a series the next part might be last depends on how the story goes take care and feedback is appreciated 😊❤️) ----------------------------------------------------- Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

----------------------------------------------------- TAGLIST- @vicmc624 @sapphirebarnes @cjand10 -----------------------------------------------------

#chris evans characters #sebastian stan characters #bucky barnes angst #steve rogers fluff #steve rogers x reader #bucky barnes x reader angst #steve rogers x reader fluff #bucky x reader

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lumi-nescentt · 7 months

Text

Rumour Has It

Part 3 - You're Losing Me

Pairing: Jenson Button x Reader / Mark Webber x Reader

Warnings: jealousy, arguing, swearing, mention of cheating, mention of accident and more toxic behaviour from Mark

Words: 6.9k

Summary: Friendship be damned, Jenson is done hiding his feelings for you when he knows he could make you happier. The choice you had made in 2009 suddenly seems to present itself again. It's your time to decide if you stick with it or let yourself be whisked away by the kind Brit who looks at you with nothing but adoration.

A/N: it breaks my heart a little to make Mark the bad guy but it had to be someone. Still love him outside of this silly story tho :) This was supposed to be the last part but someone asked for a part 4 so I wrote it hehe

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 4

Jenson had been gone for most of the day just like usual, or at least what started to feel usual to you. He had told you he’d most likely be back for dinner but said that you didn’t have to wait for him.

Since your conversation about your relationship with Mark, you had tried to keep yourself busy and that meant you spent a lot of time cooking. The opportunity to eat with Jenson just gave you the perfect excuse to spend even more time in the kitchen. You were so focused on getting the potato dish right that you almost missed your phone ringing. Seeing Jenson’s name on the screen, you picked up instantly.

-“ Hello love, am I bothering you ?” he asked, praying he wasn’t

You looked at the dish in the oven for a second before answering.

-“ Not at all, is everything alright ?”

-“ Nothing to worry about but the car kind of got into an accident and it’s pretty much done for so I was wondering if you could come pick me up ?” Jenson admitted with a sigh

-“ What do you mean, accident ? Are you alright ?”

-“ It was nothing bad, I just had to avoid a deer that crossed the road in front of me and the side of the road was slippery so I slid and hit a tree.”

-“ You hit a tree ?!” you almost screamed, feeling your heart race in fear

-“ I’m fine, love. You can come see for yourself if you want to pick me up or I can call for a cab if you don’t feel good to drive and I’ll see you in 30 minutes.”

-“ Just give me a second to get ready and I’ll be there, no need to call anyone else.” you blurted quickly, wanting to see him with your own eyes

-“ I’ll send you the address, okay ? Drive safely, I won’t die before you get there, I promise.” Jenson tried to joke

-“ Maybe wait a little bit before joking about it, please ?”

-“ Sorry.”

-“ It’s okay, I’ll see you soon.”

Right after hanging up, you grabbed your keys in a hurry and climbed into your car, driving a little faster than you normally would have.

The drive to the address Jenson had sent you seemed to stretch on forever and when you finally pulled in front of the garage he had been waiting at, a sigh of relief left your mouth. You tried to look around for the Brit but all your eyes found was Jenson’s car or what was left of it.

The once pristine rental car was gone and instead all you saw was a wreck. The bonnet was bent at a strange angle and one of the wheels was turned into the car. The windshield was completely cracked just like the passenger’s window which was partly shattered.

Before you could even realise what you were doing, your car was parked and you were walking towards the remains of his car almost in a trance. You tried hard to stay calm but all you could feel was fear and tears escaped your eyes before you could stop them. Your hand came to rest on your lips, a weak try to swallow back the sobs that were making your body shake slightly.

You were so affected by the image of the car and imagining what the crash must have been like that you didn’t even hear the sound of footsteps on the gravel before you felt a hand on your waist, making you turn away from the car.

-“ Hey love, it’s okay. I’m okay, I promise.” Jenson shushed you, wrapping his arms around you as you buried your head against his chest “ Come on let it all out, I’m here.”

Jenson let you calm down a little before he dared to move again, caressing your hair with one of his hands until your breathing was back to normal.

-“ Can you look at me, please ?” he asked softly

-“ I’m scared.”

-“ Why ?”

-“ I don’t want to see you hurt.” you sniffled against his chest, gripping the back of his shirt

-“ I can assure you, what you’re imagining is way worse than what it actually is.”

-“ You promise ?”

-“ Yes, now come on, let me see your pretty eyes, love.” he smiled as he felt you slowly step away from his embrace and raise your head “ There you go, atta girl.”

Once you were fully looking at him, Jenson stayed silent as you inspected his face. He didn’t flinch when your hands delicately cupped his cheeks to turn his head to give you a better view of his whole face.

You scanned every inch of his skin, your breath hitching when you came across the two cuts on his face. The smaller one was on the upper corner of his lip and didn’t look deep. It was more like a scratch than a cut. What worried you was the cut on top of his left eyebrow that looked worse. It was a bit swollen and it worried you.

Jenson could sense you start to panic so he tried to distract you by speaking again.

-“ See ? I’m perfectly okay. I’m still as handsome as ever.”

-“ That’s not perfectly okay, Jenson. You’re hurt. Did anyone check that ?” you questioned, pointing at the cuts

-“ I borrowed some antiseptic from the mechanic here so it’s all good.”

-“ No it’s not.” you shook your head, taking his hand in yours before dragging him towards your car “ Come on, we’re leaving.”

-“ I’m fine, y/n.”

-“ You were in a car accident, I don’t care if you say you’re fine. I’m taking you to get checked by a professional. I’m not asking Jenson. You can get mad or yell all you want, we’re not going back home until I know nothing’s wrong for sure.” you affirmed strongly

-“ I’m not mad at you, I just don’t want you to worry about me too much. If going to the ER reassures you, so be it.”

-“ Really ?”

-“ Of course. I can see that it really bothers you and if seeing a doctor is what it takes for you to feel better then I don’t see why I’d object.”

-“ Thank you, it would definitely make me feel better.”

-“ Ok then let’s go.” he said as you started driving towards the nearest hospital

-“ Jenson ?”

-“ Yes, love ?”

-“ I’m glad you’re okay.”

-“ Me too.” Jenson smiled, patting your knee softly. Before he could fully pull his hand away, you linked your fingers with his over the centre console.

Jenson didn’t say a thing, afraid to break the moment, but he couldn’t stop the smile creeping on his face or the jolts of electricity that erupted on his skin from where you were touching him.

After an hour and a half at the ER, Jenson was finally good to go. His cuts had been cleaned and the doctor had told you exactly what was needed for them to heal correctly. Jenson had had to contain his laugh when he saw you type everything the doctor said on your phone, your brows furrowing in concentration. He found it adorable.

You had been so focused on making sure you didn’t forget anything that you hadn’t even heard when the doctor had told Jenson he was lucky to have such a caring girlfriend. He didn’t correct him, enjoying for a second the idea of the two of you together.

It was easy to pretend Mark wasn’t in the picture when you were sitting in the car together, Jenson making jokes constantly to try and make you laugh or smile. When he finally made you laugh for the first time since the accident he couldn’t help the wave of feelings that just took over him.

He was still as into you as he was in 2009. He would even say that his crush had turned into something more. He had feelings for you and somehow that just made his brain short circuit and he had to open his mouth.

-“ God, you’re beautiful.” he muttered out of nowhere

-“ What ?” you asked, unsure if you had heard correctly

-“ Sorry, I didn’t really mean to say that out loud.”

-“ Oh… Okay.”

-“ But I do think you’re beautiful. Actually, you’re probably the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.”

-“ Wow, that’s–” you took a sharp breath “ really flattering, thank you.”

-“ I would’ve told you sooner but I wasn’t sure if it was going to make you uncomfortable or not.”

-“ It doesn’t, at least not now I think.”

-“ Can I ask you a question ?” Jenson asked, his eyes fixated on the road in front of him

-“ Sure.”

-“ Why did you end up picking him that night ?”

-“ What night ?”

-“ When I won. When we kissed.”

-“ I didn’t think you remembered that.”

-“ y/n, I had been wanting to kiss you for months. There was no chance I’d forget, no matter how drunk I was. It really meant something to me.”

-“ I suppose I was a bit insecure so I didn’t see why you’d like me and when people told me you probably didn’t mean for it to happen, it was easier to believe than you truly liking me.”

-“ Who told you that ?”

-“ I don’t remember…” you tried, unsure

-“ y/n, please.”

- “ Seb told me you had tried to kiss him once and Mark told me you’d probably forget since it didn’t mean anything to you.”

-“ Fucking prick ! I mean I did try to kiss Seb but only as a joke. What Mark said is complete bullshit though. I can’t believe he said that.”

-“ I’m sorry.”

-“ Why are you apologising, love ?”

-“ If I hadn’t been so insecure I would have saved us both a lot of trouble. You wouldn’t have been hurt by my rejection and I wouldn’t have gotten cheated on.”

-“ Don’t worry about my heart, it’s still there and that’s all that matters, alright ?” you hummed softly before he continued “ There’s nothing you could have done about what he did because no part of it is your fault. Nothing you could have done or not done can justify him cheating. You hear me ?”

-“ If you say so.” you muttered, relieved that you were finally at your house

-“ I need you to believe it.” when you didn’t react, Jenson spoke again “ Look at me, y/n.”

-“ What ?” you whispered as you turned to face him

-“ Mark is a bloody idiot for not realising that he had the most perfect girlfriend anyone could ask for. It’s on him for doing something stupid, not on you.”

-“ I think you think too highly of me.”

-“ And I think you think too lowly of yourself, love.”

-“ I don’t know what I’m doing with him, Jenson.”

-“ Give yourself some time, it’ll become clearer. Feelings don’t disappear like that, even if he hurt you.”

-“ I hope so because I’m tired of feeling like this.”

-“ I know love, I know.”

When you finally got inside the house, you suddenly remembered the dish you had left in the oven and Jenson watched with a smile as you ran towards the kitchen and got carbonised food out of the oven. You complained a little but soon enough, Jenson’s laugh made you crack up and all the tension accumulated during the day left your body.

After eating takeout, you tried to convince Jenson to let you drive him for his last 2 days in England. It took a lot of talking and a few puppy eyed looks but Jenson finally caved in. With your new purpose in mind, you went to bed with a smile on your face for what felt like the first time in months.

Since you were going to drive anyway, you decided that treating yourself to a little shopping and a good restaurant would be the perfect way to spend your day while Jenson spent time with his family. With that in mind, you dressed up a little, wanting to feel good.

Plus, Jenson had dressed up too, wearing a crisp white shirt with grey dress pants so you somehow felt like you needed to make some sort of effort.

When Jenson saw you ready to go, he didn’t keep himself from checking you out and complimenting you. He really thought you always looked good but there was something about the past few days that made you slightly glow. He thought maybe it was from being in your own element, truly at ease in your own home which was something he never got to see.

Or maybe it was the effect of a certain British driver that had reminded you what it felt like to be wanted and to feel valued.

The drive to the reception hall where the family event took place went smoothly. The conversation between you and Jenson flew easily and it almost made you regret not spending that much time with him while you had him close.

It seemed like your thoughts were heard by something bigger than yourself because as soon as your car pulled into the driveway, Jenson’s mother was getting out of the hall to greet her son.

When she saw that he wasn’t alone, she insisted on you staying over with Jenson. She claimed that since you had taken the time to drive all the way there, the least she could offer to thank you was to invite you inside.

You tried to tell the older woman that she didn’t need to do that, that you had plans and that it hadn’t been a bother to drop off her son but she wasn’t hearing a peep. You tried to turn towards Jenson for support but you were only met with a side smile and a whispered please. You knew there was nothing else to do other than accepting so you parked the car under the watchful eyes of Jenson’s mother.

Seeing that you were a little stressed, Jenson promised not to leave your side unless you were comfortable enough which did make you relax a tad. Ever the gentleman, Jenson held his arm out for you to take before following his mother inside.

As soon as the two of you entered, everyone's attention snapped to you and for a second the room fell quiet before erupting in chaos again. For the next 20 minutes you were introduced to family members after family members. You couldn’t believe how many people could fit in the whole room.

You foolishly thought you were done when Jenson guided you towards his table so the two of you could sit but the table he was guiding you towards was filled with people. You knew some of them only by name, having seen them in the paddock a few times.

The Brit held your chair out for you under the watchful eyes of his sisters before taking the seat next to you with a reassuring smile. As soon as the two of you were settled one of his sisters, Tanya if you remembered correctly, turned towards the two of you with a smile that looked exactly like Jenson’s.

-“ So, how long have you been dating my brother ?”

-“ Tanya, please.” Jenson pleaded before someone else intervened

-“ Sorry about her, she’s such a gossip she tends to forget manners. I’m Samantha, it’s nice to meet you.”

-“ Nice to meet you too, Samantha.” you smiled, relieved to escape the previous question

-“ Sam, you’ve already met her. All of you have. This is y/n, we sort of work together.” Jenson explained with a tight smile

-“ Oh but that’s just great, a little workplace romance.” Tanya spoke again, clapping her hands in delight

-“ Tanya, stop. She’s taken. She’s with Mark.” Jenson glared at her, urging her to drop the matter as the name of the Australian burnt on his tongue

However, it seemed like his sister had something entirely different in mind and there was nothing he could do about it.

-“ Oh, she’s that y/n. The one you’ve been pining over for what, like 5 years now ?” Tanya added as you felt Jenson slump in his chair

-“ So you’ve been pining over me, huh ? Who knew ?” you teased the Brit, poking him with your elbow as the table erupted in laughter

Taking advantage of the fact that the whole table was distracted, Jenson used the moment to turn his head towards you and brush his lips against the shell of your ear as he whispered.

-“ You think you’re being so sly and so funny with your little comment but I can see you blushing, you know ?”

Before you could think of something to answer, Jenson had moved away and acted like nothing happened. He only snuck a few glances your way, smiling proudly as he saw the slight blush on your face he knew he was the reason for.

Once the nosy questions were shut off and all the introductions made, the attention slowly slipped away from the two of you and you were able to sit back and enjoy the flow of the conversation, adding a few comments here and there.

It seemed like not having everyone’s attention gave Jenson a boost of confidence because right as the starter was brought, you felt Jenson’s chair slide closer to yours. You gave the Brit a questioning look but all you got in return was a flash of his boyish smile.

Knowing you wouldn’t get another answer out of him, you slipped back into the conversation and soon enough another one of Jenson’s sisters, Natasha, was asking you about your job. The two of you fell into a passionate conversation about what motorsports journalism was and how being a woman in this industry was like for you.

You had thought that only Natasha would be listening to you but after hearing how passionate you sounded, half of the table was now listening to you. You truly seemed in your element there and it made Jenson’s heart clench a little, his head filling with what could have been and what ifs.

When the main course came, Jenson’s mother poured you a glass of wine. You were about to refuse, saying you had to drive, but Jenson just motioned towards his glass full of water, telling you that he could drive back to your place himself. Smiling to him, you accepted the wine.

It seemed like the more you drank, the more you started to lean towards Jenson. You weren’t drunk, not even near it but wine made you feel more at ease and it seemed like you just wanted to fall into the Brit’s embrace as time flew.

By the time dessert was brought out, Jenson’s arm was resting on the back of your chair, his fingers lightly grazing your shoulder from time to time.

The first time, Jenson hadn’t meant for it to happen but when you didn’t seem to flinch or push his hand away, Jenson found himself wanting to do it again. The more he did it, the more intentional the touches started to feel. After the fifth time, your hand moved towards your shoulder so it could rest on top of his.

Jenson tried not to be startled by the touch but everyone, except you who couldn’t see his face, saw how surprised he was by the sudden contact. After his initial surprise washed away, Jenson’s face lit up and he couldn’t stop the bright smile that plastered his face or the way he sat a little taller on his chair, a little prouder.

Like he had promised before entering the lion’s den, Jenson hadn’t left your side at all since you came in but after a meal that almost lasted two hours, Jenson finally had to use the bathroom. That obviously meant leaving you alone for a few minutes but he was sure you’d manage so with a quick squeeze of his hand on your shoulder, he dragged himself away from you.

As soon as he was out of earshot, you could feel Tanya turning her attention back on you with a devilish smile.

-“ For someone who’s dating Mark, you sure look quite comfortable with my brother…”

-“ What can I say ? Your brother is a charming man.” you answered with a tensed smile, not wanting to talk about your relationship with Mark

-“ Isn’t Mark jealous of you two ?”

-“ Excuse me ?” you asked, feeling your voice go a little higher

-“ I mean surely he wouldn’t be okay with seeing his girlfriend getting all cosy with someone else, especially one of his friends.” Tanya insisted as the whole table fell silent

-“ Tanya, that’s enough. This is none of your business and you’re just being rude now.” Jenson’s mother intervened, offering you a sorry smile as her daughter scoffed and escaped to the bathroom

When Jenson came back, he could sense that something had happened so he asked if you wanted to go dance with him. Glad to have an excuse to flee the half sorry, half judgmental stares you were getting, you agreed and followed him towards the dancefloor, wrapping your arms around his neck as the two of you swayed to the music.

You danced in silence for a few minutes before Jenson finally dared to ask what happened. Not wanting to cause any family drama, you refused to tell him at first but after he insisted, you finally explained what his sister had said.

-“ I’m sorry, love. If I had known she’d ambush you like that, I wouldn’t have left.”

-“ It’s okay, you needed to go to the bathroom and I’m a big girl, I can handle myself. Plus your mom actually shut her down just before you came back.” you reassured him

-“ I’m not surprised, my mom really likes you.”

-“ I don’t know what I did to deserve it because we barely know each other but that’s really nice.” you smiled, feeling your cheeks grow pink

-“ With how often I talk about you, I’m sure she feels like she knows you quite well.”

-“ You talk to your mom about me ?”

-“ I think we’ve established that I talk about you almost just as much as I think about you, which is pretty much all the time.” he smiled honestly

-“ Are you trying to flirt with me Jenson ?” you smiled back, holding in a small laugh

-“ Maybe, is it working ?”

-“ Keep trying, pretty boy.” you grinned as Jenson blushed from the nickname

-“ I’ll definitely do that if it means you smile at me like that and call me pretty boy again.” he whispered as your favourite song started playing

-“ Now shut up and let’s just dance, alright ?”

-“ Yes ma’am !” Jenson laughed with his full chest at your bossiness

It seemed like the sound got you drunk on something stronger than alcohol because as soon as the Brit stopped laughing, you locked your eyes with his and pressed your lips against his cheek, right above the corner of his mouth. Jenson stood still for a second, entirely forgetting where he was, before his face split into a warm smile and his grip around your waist tightened, pulling you closer.

Before you knew it, it was already time to go back home. Saying goodbye to everyone individually took forever but you found out you didn’t really mind it when Jenson’s arm was securely wrapped around your waist, keeping you against him.

The last people you said goodbye to were actually Jenson’s mom and sisters which made you tense a little. Jenson could feel you starting to slip away from his hold but he just pressed a kiss to your temple, assuring you that everything would be alright.

His mom embraced the two of you in a warm hug and kissed your cheek, making you promise to come see her again. Natasha and Samantha hugged you too, offering you sincere smiles and saying it had been a pleasure to get to know you better. Tanya just said goodbye to you at loud with a knowing look on her face as she stared at Jenson’s arm.

Contrary to how you had expected yourself to react, her stare only made you get closer to Jenson, even daring to wrap your own arm around his waist. Sensing what you were doing made Jenson look at his older sister with a smug grin before finally directing you towards the exit.

The drive back was pretty quiet, the only sound in the car being the music playing on the radio. There was something electric in the air, a tension both of you could feel. It made you feel more confident, more bold and apparently Jenson too. About halfway through the trip, you looked down as you felt Jenson’s hand rest on your thigh while his focus was still on the road in front.

His hand stayed there for the rest of the ride, his thumb occasionally stroking your leg softly. Even when he pulled into the driveway and turned down the engine, neither of you dared to move for a minute. Jenson was the first to do so, turning so he could face you. Feeling the intensity of his stare, you turned back to face him and knew exactly what was going to happen.

His body inched closer to yours over the centre console, stopping centimetres away from your face. His eyes were looking straight into yours and you were almost afraid to breathe. You dared to come a little closer, stopping millimetres away from his lips as you felt his breath fan on your lips. His hand came to cup your cheek as you both closed your eyes.

No one moved or made a sound before you finally spoke.

-“ I– I can’t Jenson. I’m so sorry.” you whispered, resting your forehead against his

-“ It’s okay, love. There’s no need to apologise. I shouldn’t have initiated it.”

-“ It’s not okay though. He’s been a shit boyfriend for more than a year now and I still can’t do this to him. Even though I know I deserve this.”

-“ Feelings don’t just magically disappear y/n but they will go away at some point.” Jenson answered with a hint of sadness in his voice as he pulled away from you

-“ But that’s the thing, I don’t think I have feelings for him anymore. Or at least what I feel for him is not love anymore, it’s so far from it.”

-“ Then what’s stopping you ?” the Brit whispered, hating how hopeful and desperate he sounded in that moment

-“ We’re technically still dating. I don’t want to stoop to his level or else how could I dare to be angry and resent him for what he’s done. No matter how much he hurt me, I don’t want to do the same thing to him.”

-“ God, you’re an amazing person, you know that ? There’s so many people who wouldn’t have hesitated to get back at him.”

-“ I think amazing is pushing it but thank you.”

-“ y/n ?”

-“ Yes ?”

-“ If you end up leaving him and once you’re ready, would you be interested in going on a date with me ?”

-“ Ask me again when I’m single and you’ll get an answer, pretty boy.” you smiled, kissing his cheek before finally getting out of the car.

The last day you spent together was full of stolen glances and quick touches that held a new meaning now. You didn’t know when you’d get the courage to break up with Mark but you knew that once you’d get out of this, something better could be waiting for you and that was enough to keep you holding on for now.

The goodbyes at the airport had been harder than you expected. Despite seeing him in around a week, you both knew you wouldn’t be able to reach this level of intimacy and privacy anytime soon and that was something you couldn’t ignore.

On top of that, you couldn’t really hug him properly or kiss him on the cheek if you didn’t want to risk being recognised so you had to settle for a quick side hug and a wave before you eventually had to go back to your now empty home.

The days you spent on your own before Mark came back flew by and before you could properly think of what you were going to do about your relationship, the Australian was back.

From the moment the door to your house slammed, you knew something was wrong. Mark’s steps were heavy and you could sense the anger emanating from his body despite being in another room.

You knew that whatever it was that made him feel this way, Mark would find a reason to lash out on you again and that would lead to another heavy argument. You were tired of it even before it actually started so instead of waiting in your room until you inevitably had to face him like you usually did, you decided to get it over with immediately.

You slowly made your way to the living room where Mark was slumped on the couch, a hand over his eyes.

-“ Hey, did you have a nice trip ?” you asked, wanting to test the waters before actually diving into the heavy subjects

-“ Yes.” he dryly answered without looking your way

-“ Do you want to eat something particular tonight ? I have to pop to the shops anyway.”

-“ I can make my own food, y/n.”

-“ I know you can, I was just trying to be nice but I see how it is.” you sighed, turning away from him

-“ Don’t play nice when I’m here if the second I leave you’re going to stab me in the back.” Mark snarled, finally removing his hand from his face to glare at you

-“ What are you talking about ?”

-“ You know damn well what I’m talking about so stop acting all innocent. At least have the balls to own up to your shit.”

-“ I’m not in the mood to play guessing games, Mark, so either spit it out or let it go because I’m not dealing with you if you’re behaving like this.”

-“ Dealing with me ? You’re the one who came to talk to me, not the other way around.”

-“ Yes because I could feel your foul mood from upstairs the second you came home.” you snapped back

-“ And whose fault is that, huh ?”

-“ We haven’t seen each other in weeks Mark, I don’t see how I could have had an effect on your mood from that far away.”

-“ I don’t know, maybe because you’ve gotten quite cosy with Jenson and lied to me about it for months when I asked you if you were into him.” he spat, his face distorting with anger

-“ I haven’t lied to you for months, don’t make me into something I’m not.”

-“ What are you not ? A liar, a cheater, a whore or all of those ?” he growled, his face dropping in shock at his own words

-“ What did you just call me ?” you whispered, feeling tears pricking your eyes out of anger and hurt

-“ You heard me sweetheart, don’t make me repeat it. It won’t end well for either of us if I do.”

His words hit you like a cold shower and you suddenly felt a laugh of disbelief bubbling in your chest before you let it out.

-“ That is so rich coming from you, Mark. God, I’m so stupid.”

-“ You think this is funny ?” the Australian asked, getting even angrier

-“ I think it’s hilarious how you’re acting like I’m the devil incarnate and you’re the victim in this.”

-“ Because I’m not the one who’s in the wrong here.”

-“ Are you sure of that ?” you let the question hang in the air as Mark stayed silent “ Correct me if I’m wrong but I seem to remember quite clearly a beautiful day in Australia where you shoved your tongue into someone else's mouth.”

-“ I–”

-“ Who’s the cheater, now ?”

-“ Don’t twist this around, we’re not talking about me here. We’re talking about you and Jenson.”

-“ Oh you don’t want to talk about it ? But you seemed so eager to talk about me…” you teased him as you pouted “ You know what’s funny, Mark ? Leanne tried to confront you about it when we found out and I convinced her not to because I naively thought I could still save us but I don’t think I want to anymore. I deserve so much better than this.”

-“ Leanne knows ?” he asked, the colours draining from his face

-“ She was the one who had the idea to follow you so we could know where you’d been going all these times.”

-“ You’re lying.”

-“ You want to call her and ask her yourself ?” you dared him

-“ It’s not the same anyway. Jenson is my friend. The both of you stabbed me in the back because you two can’t keep it in your pants.”

-“ You’re unbelievable, I just told you I knew that you cheated on me and instead of at least apologising, you still blame me for something that never even happened.”

-“ You kissed his cheek, y/n. I saw a picture of it. The two of you were at some sort of wedding and you seemed pretty cosy with each other.”

-“ I don’t see why I’d have to explain to you but for your information, the kiss on the cheek is all it was. Nothing else. So before you come into my home and insult me, maybe you should put your own house in order.”

Mark just scoffed, not finding anything smart to retorque.

-“ You know what ? I think we’re done here. I’m tired of this whole thing, I’m tired of arguing with you and you’ve got no right belittling me like that when you’ve been nothing but awful to me for the past months.”

-“ So that’s it then ? You’re leaving, just like that ?”

-“ Yes, Mark. I’m leaving someone who had the nerve to cheat on me and then accuse me of cheating. I’m leaving someone who doesn’t trust me in the slightest or has any feelings for me other than resentment.” you sighed, leaving the room to go pack your suitcase that was almost done for work anyway

It didn’t take you more than 30 minutes to pack anything that you could need in the time you’d be away. When you went down with your suitcase and a backpack, ready to leave the house you had shared for years, Mark stood up from where he had been sitting on the couch and he looked at you with puffy eyes.

-“ Can we talk ?”

-“ I think we’ve talked enough, Mark.” you stated, matter of factly

-“ Don’t go. I’m begging you, y/n, don’t leave me.” he pleaded, his voice breaking up

-“ Don’t make this harder than it already is. I’ll come pick up the rest of my things once I come back from Abu Dhabi.”

-“ What am I going to do here without you ? This is our house, the house I wanted us to grow old in. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I’ve been awful to you.” he muttered

-“ I have to leave Mark, I can’t keep on living like this. I thought what we had could be saved but it’s too late. We’re not good together anymore.”

-“ I’m sorry…”

-“ I know.”

-“ Goodbye, y/n.”

-“ Goodbye, Mark.”

Before your resolution faltered at the sight of the Australian in tears in what had once been your happy place, you closed the door behind you and went to your car without looking back.

You drove without a real plan, only knowing that you had to leave. After driving around for what felt like hours, you found yourself at the airport with no other idea than going to Abu Dhabi two days earlier than you were meant to.

You hopped on the first flight you could and 7 hours later, you had landed. It was just past midnight and you had no plan on where you would be sleeping. Even if you had, the reality of what had happened started catching up to you and you couldn’t help the wave of sadness that hit you suddenly.

You knew there was probably another solution but right now all you wanted was to see a familiar and comforting face so you pulled out your phone and called Jenson. The phone rang a few times and you were about to hang up when the Brit picked up.

-“ y/n ?” he asked, his voice still obviously laced with sleep

-“ I shouldn’t have called, I’m sorry Jenson.” you mumbled, sniffling quietly

-“ Are you crying ?”

-“ I’m okay, just a little shaken up. Don’t worry.”

-“ What did he do ?”

-“ It doesn’t matter anymore.”

-“ What’s going on ? You’re scaring me a little, love.”

-“ I did it, I left him.”

-“ Are you okay ?” Jenson asked, trying not to feel too happy about it when you clearly weren’t alright

-“ As okay as someone in a foreign country with no plans can be, I suppose.” you tried to joke

-“ Where are you right now ?”

-“ At the airport.”

-“ In Abu Dhabi ?”

-“ Yes.”

-“ I’ll be there soon, don’t go anywhere okay ?”

Before you had the chance to answer, Jenson had already hung up. 30 minutes later, the Brit was in front of you, hugging you so tight you were afraid you’d run out of air. Before climbing back into the car, Jenson cupped your face between his hands and inspected your face with attention, making sure you were fine.

The little smile you gave him seemed to make him relax a little but he still refused to let go of you so you spent the whole drive to his hotel with his hand wrapped tightly around yours. He only let go of you when you entered his hotel room.

You started to move towards your suitcase to open it but Jenson stopped you, shoving one of his t-shirts in your hands and motioning for you to go change in the bathroom. When you came back out in his clothes, Jenson had made a bed out of the extra covers right next to the bed.

You went to lie down on the makeshift bed but Jenson glared at you with a smile, taking you hand and guiding you towards the bed. You didn’t get the chance to protest before he wrapped the blanket around you and turned the lights off, promising you to talk in the morning if you wanted to.

The sound of Jenson’s soft snores soon filled the room as you lied wide awake in this foreign bed that smelled just like Jenson. You tried to think about anything else, to focus on Jenson’s breathing but all you could see when you closed your eyes were Mark’s teary eyes as you had left.

You let the sadness wash over you as you sobbed as quietly as you could in the pillow. As quiet as you were, Jenson woke up and was by your side in seconds, rubbing a hand up and down your back as he sat on the corner of the bed. Before you could stop yourself, your arms wrapped around his shoulders and you buried your head in the crook of his neck, holding onto him as you cried. Seeing you this wrecked made Jenson’s heart clench as he protectively wrapped his arms around you, returning the hold as he settled next to you on the bed.

When your crying finally stopped, you finally fell asleep and Jenson didn’t dare to move, afraid he would wake you up. The next morning, the two of you were still wrapped into each other when you finally told him about your last argument with Mark.

Jenson didn’t say anything, just nodding from time to time and humming along when you needed confirmation that how you had reacted was totally normal and valid. Once you were done, he didn’t say much other than he was proud of you and that he thought you were really strong.

The weight of his words settled on you and suddenly everything Mark had said seemed to hold less meaning. You were still not entirely over that relationship but you desperately wanted to move on and Jenson was right here, holding you and comforting you after years of having to see you with one of his closest friends.

The moment just seemed right and you slowly looked up at him, watching his face carefully as your hand came to rest behind his neck, slowly bringing him closer to you. When your faces were only inches apart, you looked at him again, asking for permission silently.

Jenson barely nodded before you closed the gap between the two of you and pressed your lips onto his. The kiss was full of affection, the two of you carefully finding each other again after getting lost for years.

Jenson seemed afraid that the kiss would break you while you needed the kiss to help you heal, to help you find yourself again. After a few seconds, the Brit seemed to understand how important this was to you and he kissed back with just as much passion, letting himself get lost in the feeling of years of admiring you from afar, years of loving you.

You were still far from okay and only time could help now but having Jenson next to you was something you were now sure you wanted, almost needed now. The Brit was more than happy to stay close to you until you figured it all out, until you were finally ready to be with him, no matter how long that took. After all, he had already waited 6 years for you, he’d gladly wait some more if he knew you’d be his at the end of the road.

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