knj imagines

cold bones (part 2) || d. statham

"Excited for the New Year's party?" Will flopped down on the couch as close to me as he could possibly get and I shoved his shoulder to get him away, although it didn't do much good.

"I'm not going," I mumbled, turning my attention back to the computer I had been staring at for the last hour. Between online winter classes and trying to keep up with YouTube, I felt like all I did was look at a screen. And because of this I was perpetually in a bad mood.

He looked shocked and shook his head. "Of course you're coming! Probably with Dyl." His tone was teasing as he elbowed my side and I shoved him harder this time, making him pout and rub ay his shoulder. "What was that for?"

"Why do you always have to bring Dylan up? Why would I come with him?" My voice was raised and I dropped it to a whisper when I remembered Dylan wasn't that far away. "We haven't really been talking."

I caught Will rolling his eyes and waited for him to explain his annoyance with crossed arms. "When are you guys going to go back to normal? You slept on the couch with him for one night and now you're acting like you had some forbidden love affair."

A blush crept up my neck at the mention of the cabin. Dylan and I were so close before that happened and now we had barely spoken a word since we came home. The awkwardness was hanging thickly between us and I couldn't see us ever going back to normal.

As if talking about him made him appear, he walked into the room with his head down, looking at his phone. "Hey Will, do you have a video planned for this week? If not I was thinking maybe—" He trailed off when he saw me and mumbled a hello.

"Yeah I have a video planned, don't worry about it." Will looked between us and struggled to find a conversation topic that would take away the silence. "Tell (Y/N) she has to come to the New Year's party. She claims she's too busy but she can find time to unwind and have fun for one night, right?"

"She can do whatever she wants," Dylan replied, avoiding eye contact with me and becoming very interested in the floor. "I have, uh, stuff I have to do." He gave an awkward wave as he left and I pretended as though the whole encounter was normal.

I glued my eyes again to my screen until Will decided to close my laptop, causing me to ball my hands into fists in annoyance. I felt like I was about to blow up but I tried my best to keep my calm and see what he felt was important enough to interrupt me, yet again. "I'm sick of you guys acting like this. Just go talk to him so you can stop acting like high schoolers."

"And I'm sick of you acting like you know everything! I don't want to go to this stupid party and I'm perfectly happy with how my life is right now, so just leave me alone!" His eyes were wide at my outburst and I packed up all of my stuff in my bag with as much force as I could.

I felt bad as soon as I said everything, but I left without another word, feeling completely numb the whole way home. It was just the stress, I told myself. Once I got back in the groove of classes and I wrapped everything up YouTube-wise for the year I would be fine.

I worked the rest of the night, keeping my mind as busy as possible, but laying down to sleep at night everything came back to cloud my thoughts. Everything about life felt really heavy right now and I reached for my phone to call the one person I always called when I was stressed.

I hovered over Dylan's contact before tossing my phone onto the floor. I missed my best friend and knowing that he was there whenever I needed him. Maybe Will was right, we were being childish and nothing really happened between us that changed anything.

I sat up and clicked his number, waiting for his familiar voice to pick up but I got the voicemail. It happened three more times and each time my chest felt tighter and the tears burned my throat even more. I gave up and let my head fall in my hands, looking to my phone with excitement when I heard it vibrate.

It was only a text from Will asking if I was okay and I laughed. Not really no, everything is kind of falling apart. I ignored the text and decided instead to slip on my sneakers before I lost my nerve, driving all the way to Dyl's house and not stopping until my hand was raised to knock on the door.

Instead of doing that, I crumpled into a ball on the step. Why did I think this was a good idea? He didn't answer my calls which should have told me that he didn't want to talk to me but here I was crying on his porch. Apparently I had been making quite a bit of noise because I heard the door open behind me and a sharp intake of breath before Dylan's arms were immediately around me.

"(Y/N)? Are you okay?" Despite the panic in his voice I could tell he was barely awake and I shook my head pitifully. "I just saw all of your missed calls. What happened? Are you hurt?"

"No," I whimpered out, letting him pull my up and into his living room. He sat me on the couch before wrapping a blanket around my shoulders and hugging me close to him again. "I just feel like everything in my life is so messed up. And you're the one I usually talk to but that's messed up now too."

He sighed, not pulling away from me. "Why is it so weird between us?"

I shifted enough so I could look up at him and he wiped a tear from where it had traveled down to my jaw. "That stupid trip to the cabin ruined everything."

"But why? So what, we fell asleep on the couch together after I potentially almost died." I rolled my eyes at his dramatics as he continued. "It didn't have to be weird but we made it weird. Friends cuddle with other friends all the time and it isn't a big deal."

Not when one friend has a crush on the other friend that could potentially ruin everything, I wanted to point out but I kept my lips pressed together. It had only occurred to me in the past few days that this was what had been bothering me. The fact that I had, at some point, began to think of Dylan in a different way and I blamed it all on the trip.

It had never occurred to me before that Dylan could be anything more than a friend, but being close to him that night, and now on his couch, made me feel uncomfortable because it only fueled this stupid crush I had begun to entertain. I squirmed out of his grip and tried to walk away but his hand shot out to grab my wrist and hold me in place.

"Where are you going?"

"Home," I mumbled, trying to untangle myself from the blanket, which proved to be difficult with him still hanging onto me. "I should've never come here in the first place."

He frowned at the comment and shook his head quickly. "No, we are fixing this right now. Will was right, we're acting like high schoolers and I'm sick of it. I just wang my best friend back."

The phrase hit me like a ton of bricks and I collapsed back onto the couch, a new wave of sobs coming. "But that's the problem," I hiccuped, shoving him away when he tried to hold me again. "We can't be friends anymore Dylan because I ruined everything."

He froze beside me and his voice was barely above a whisper. "What are you talking about?"

"I let myself have a little crush on you and it just started spiraling and now every time I see you it just gets worse and worse. The cabin was just my breaking point and we can never go back to how it was before because it just feels different now."

"And would that be such a bad thing?" I peeked through my fingers at Dylan's face which was completely serious as he studied my reaction. "Maybe I feel the same way about you. I would marry you right now if it meant we could go back to seeing each other every day and not acting like the other person doesn't exist. I miss you, (Y/N)."

I slowly let my hands drop to my lap and he immediately grabbed them with his own. "Yeah, I miss you too," I whispered. He pulled me into another hug, tension still in my shoulders but the kiss he pressed to my temple made me melt into him. "This isn't weird?"

"Absolutely not. This feels completely right."

———————————————————————————and that is a wrap for 2020 (thank goodness!) thank you to everyone who read, vote, and commented on my little stories. the support and love I have gotten on here was definitely one of the best parts of this horrible year. I might be opening my requests back up, it just depends on how busy life is going to be. again, thank you so so much and here's to (hopefully) an amazing 2021! 🥂💛