Emo Trinity x Reader (Book 2)

Ryan Ross x Reader - Never Walk Away Again

Summary: A few months after a big fight Ryan spots you, his best friend in the crowd at a show.
Reader: can be read as any gender (no pronouns used)
Warnings: reader got cheated on (not by Ryan!), break-up (also not with Ryan), maybe slight emotional cheating on reader's side, but not really
Word count: 2 853

The lights made it almost impossible for Ryan to see beyond the first few rows of people standing packed together in front of the stage. Ryan had expected the small venue to maybe be half full, but it seemed he had been wrong; it was almost sold out. Blinking against the light, getting ready for the last song of the night, he stepped closer towards his mic, fiddling around with the capo, adjusting it on the neck of his guitar.

"Okay, we've reached the final song," he spoke into the mic, trailing off at the end. "The lights make it really hard to see all the way to the back, but I just wanted to thank you all for coming out here tonight to see us play. It was a pleasure and an honour to do so, and I'd love to meet you guys later at the merch table."

The audience cheered, making Ryan smile, as the drums began picking up the beat for the last song. Ryan had barely played the first few chords, when his eyes, wandering through the room, spotted someone he had expected to never see again, surprising him so much he almost would have missed the next chord.

You were standing at the side, leaning against a wall, not dancing like others, just watching, just listening. Ryan's heart beat in his throat, as he glanced at you again. There was no doubt: it was you, his best friend, who he had not seen in months. Well, you were his best friend. If you still said the same about him was something he did not know. He could not blame anyone but himself if you did not.

You had been friends for years, and it had not taken Ryan long to fall for you back then. But he had never told you, never acted on it, because he knew you were in a relationship, and he did not want to risk the friendship that connected you. For years he had lived like this, meeting you for movie evenings, going on walks, to concerts, out drinking or shopping, always knowing in the end it was not him you were going home with, but instead you would return to your boyfriend John. It had killed him a little bit, every time.

When about half a year ago he had found out John was seeing someone else at the side, he had been torn up about what to do. For over a month he had tried to convince himself that it had not actually been John, but some random guy who just happened to look like him, who Ryan had seen, but when it had happened again, when John and some model-like chick had begun half-way making out in the next booth over from where Ryan was having breakfast with some friends, he had decided to confront John.

John had never liked Ryan, something Ryan was well aware of. John had the tendency to want to control who you had contact with, and Ryan knew that some of the meet-ups you had cancelled had been cancelled because John had made a drama out of you meeting him. Ryan also knew that John thought himself to be above Ryan, looked down on him. So when Ryan had caught up to John outside the diner and told him to come clean to you about the chick he was seeing, or Ryan would tell you, John had only laughed at him. He'd never have the guts to do it anyway, he had said, and that you would never believe Ryan. Ryan had insisted, had given him a two week deadline, making John roll his eyes.

When three weeks later Ryan and you had taken a walk through the park, and you had told him how good things were going with John, he had burst out that John had been cheating on you. In hindsight Ryan really did not know what he had expected you to do. Cry and hug him, thanking him for telling you? Certainly not. But if he was honest, he had not expected you to accuse him of being a liar either. You had asked him if he was trying to break John and you up, and why. Ryan could not even admit to himself, that maybe a small part of him wished you would break up with John and instead take interest in Ryan, but he told himself he just did not want you to live with a lying, cheating piece of asshole longer than you already had.