KSI [sidemen]

Now You Have Me

[ A/n: What do you guys think of the cover?? I'm considering making ones to match for the other boys' books. Let me know! ]

From the booth by the window, you sat with your fingers curled tightly around your water glass. Your eyes were trained on the entrance to the restaurant, and you knew that your waitress' eyes were trained on you. You were probably keeping her from her break, telling her not to take your order yet since your date hadn't arrived. She probably thought you were pathetic, sitting in that booth alone, foot tapping and heart racing.

You thought you were pathetic.

This wasn't the first time you'd been stood up by your douche of a boyfriend, but–no, you hadn't been stood up yet. It had only been forty minutes; there was still hope. Wasn't there? You swallowed the disagreeing lump in your throat and held on tighter to your water glass.

"Are you ready to order yet, ma'am?" The waitress was back at the table, smiling sweetly down at you. You wished you had the capacity to smile like that. On the contrary, you were biting back tears.

You said, "Just a little more time, thanks. He hasn't called yet..."

She nodded once, went on her way. In her wake she left you an unobstructed view of the few tables adjacent to your booth, whose occupants averted their apologetic looks quickly once they realized you caught them staring. Oh God. Pity was the last thing you needed. Your whole world was burning; your eyes with tears, your skin with humiliation, your heart with betrayal. Time, in your case, was not healing; it was making your whole situation worse.

Maybe you should leave. Certainly, you should. There was nothing more to save you from the dull ache of abandonment, the slow burn of embarrassment. You got up from the booth seat, deciding at once that you'd rather escape with everyone's gazes on you than be caught crying over an asshole who you should've broken up with weeks ago.

But just as you decided to get up and prepared to make your less-than-glorious exit, a boy you've never seen before slid into the booth across from you noisily. As if you needed more attention.

Before you could even gawk at him, he was depositing his wallet and a pair of keys on the table and explaining loudly, "Sorry I'm so late, babe, traffic is insane right now."

The look of nonchalance on his face was the cause for the one of shock on yours. He arched an eyebrow at you expectantly, almost as though he was communicating with you without words, but of course you merely stared back at him, clueless. Who was this? And then suddenly he was leaning across the table toward you to leave a chaste kiss on your cheek and a fierce, embarrassed burn its a wake. Before he pulled away, before you could jerk back in shock, he was whispering, "I'm JJ. Just go with it, yeah? Whoever didn't bother to show up is a dick."

You hadn't thought you were in the mood for any more excitement that night. You hadn't thought that, after nearly an hour of waiting for your boyfriend, you'd want anything to do with the male species ever again. Certainly, you hadn't thought that you'd even seriously consider pretending to be on a date with a boy you didn't know, a boy who wore a charcoal gray beanie, a fitted navy T-shirt under a black jacket, and what was arguably the world's sexiest cologne, and yet there you were, weighing the consequences.

You were a good girl, deserving of a nice dinner on date night. And here was a boy, tall, dark, and handsome, who was willing to give it to you.

And if your boyfriend just happened to show up, then maybe him seeing you with "JJ" would act as some sort of twisted wake-up call. Not that you cared much about his feelings anymore; he'd stopped caring about yours weeks ago.

His short explanation finished, JJ straightened up, slipped off his jacket, and scanned the menu on the table, muttering, "Mm, salmon sounds good."

"Yeah, I..." Waves of hesitation seized you abruptly, and you almost backed out. What the hell had just happened? Well... whatever it was, you decided that this man–JJ–was right. Your boyfriend was a dick. And you weren't alone anymore. JJ was here. He was sweet and trying to save you, all the while being, literally, the cutest thing you'd ever seen. His smile was more than precious.

So, slowly, you settled back into your booth seat. "Yeah, you're right. Salmon does sound good."

+ + +

An hour later, you'd happily finished the meal JJ ordered for you, complete with the dessert he'd requested the waitress bring.

"Cheesecake?" you wondered.

"Yes, Y/n, cheesecake." Of course you'd told him your name during the course of your dinner, and your heart fluttered a little every time it came from his lips.

A devious glint in his eye, he held his dessert fork out for you to take, requesting lightly, "Feed me."

"Hah. You're kidding."

"I'm not. You know me, Y/n, would I joke about this?" Admittedly, you'd only just met JJ, but after an hour of sharing funny stories, exchanging crude jokes, and flirting subtlety, you did in fact feel like you'd known him for years.

With a smirk, you took the fork from his grip and dipped the utensil into the dessert. Casually, you poised your arm toward JJ's face, but just before he could lean in close enough to reach it with his mouth, you jerked it away from him and swallowed the bite yourself.

"That," you told him, "was for making me wait so long."

The look of shock that had been on JJ's face fell away and something much kinder seized his countenance. Gently, he said, "Well. Wait's all over. Now you have me."

His words went beyond what was literal, the fact that you'd been left alone for nearly an hour. They implied, it seemed, that you and JJ had been waiting for each other, and now that he was here, and you were with him, everything was okay.

You certainly felt like everything was okay.

After paying the tab (over which you'd bickered like schoolchildren), JJ walked you home and asked you out for real. You told him, "JJ, I still have a boyfriend."

He raised an eyebrow, hands stuffed innocently into his pockets. "But as of next week...?"

"We'll see what happens next week."

"You seriously aren't considering staying with that dickhead, Y/n."

You told him that you weren't sure what you were considering, even though you'd pretty much had your mind made up to cut things off with your boyfriend as soon as you next came in contact.

JJ probably supposed this, as he seemed to know you far better than someone who you'd only just met should, and suggested, "How about you take my number for after you delete that guy's? Just to fill the empty space, I mean."

You chuckled, accepted, and wished him a safe trip back to his house, feeling oddly fulfilled as you made your way inside yours.

+ + +

Hope you liked this! Should I do like a 12 Days of Sidemen type thing this year?