Tragic Kingdom (80s/90s imagines)

70: Devon Sawa

The childhood crush that you just couldn't shake. It was classic. The boy next door, Devon Sawa. He was funny and cute. He was nice and had a nice smile.

He wasn't out of your league, as your friends kept reminding you. You hated the idea of being in or out of a "league" anyway. Dating wasn't baseball. Don't even start on the barbaric concept of "bases"-

Anyway...

He wasn't unattainable. That's what you reminded yourself every time he flashed you a smile and a wave when you saw each other just getting home or leaving. You reminded yourself of this every time he asked you about homework.

You were basically friends. You'd grown up together. You were sure there were pictures of you two in both of your families' photo albums.

So what was keeping you two from being together?

Well, that was what you were trying to figure out. Every time you tried to say something about your feelings, you chickened out. You had chalked it up to nerves, but it was like there was some lock on your ability to ask him out.

Study sessions were the prime time to try, but it usually went like:

"Hey, Devon, can I ask you something?"

"Sure thing. What's up?" And then he'd look at you, and the words drained out of you.

"Uh... you think I'll pass this test?" Insert nervous laugh here.

Then he'd laugh. "Of course. You always do."

And then you'd go back to studying.

Your ad-lib question may have been different each time, but it always ended the same: you still not admitting your feelings.

You decided this was getting to be too much of a thing. People did this all the time, so why couldn't you? You could, you decided. You would.

You paced your floor a while before glancing out your window. His car was in their driveway.

You checked yourself in the mirror, quickly running your hands through your hair and making sure you had presentable clothes on. Deciding it was now or never, you ran to Devon's house.

You stared at the front for for a breath. Then two. Three.

Knockknockknock.

Your heart beat was erratic. Your stomach wanted to remind you what you had for lunch. You swallowed and rapped on the door again. You slowed your breathing.

And wouldn't you know it, when the door opens, there he is. Smiling at you and everything. Just like you imagined.

"Hey, Y/n. What're you doing here?" he asked.

You tried to look considerably less nervous than you felt. You couldn't tell if it was working. "Hi, Devon. Oh, you know, I was in the neighborhood." Mentally slapping yourself, you cringed at your own words.

Luckily, he laughed. "Oh, haha. Yeah. Because you live next door. You wanna come in?"

"Actually, this will be fairly quick." Hopefully.

He leaned against the doorway, his arms folding across his chest. "Alright. Go ahead."

You nodded. Go ahead. Tell him. "I'm sure you totally knew this because I am not the most subtle person, but I just wanted you to know that I... I like you. I have for a really long—we're talking long—time. It just needed to be said. Sorry for bugging you!" You turned on your heel and began to walk away.

You made it to your own front door before your thoughts were anything other than "OH MY GOSHOHMYGOSHOHMY-" Of course, all it was then was "I can't believe how dumb I sounded. He probably thinks-" You realized you hadn't even seen his face when you gave your confession. You didn't know how his expression changed or if it did at all.

Before you opened your door, you heard your name.

Devon was behind you now, looking frantic. "Why'd you run away so fast? I didn't even get to answer or breath or anything."

You swallowed. It had felt like an eternity when you stood at his door, but in reality, you realized, it had taken maybe 5 seconds to apologize and leave. "Sorry. I- I got scared that you were gonna, I don't know, laugh in my face or something."

His concerned frown melted into a grin. "Are you kidding? I've wanted to ask you out for ages. I just didn't know how. And the. I thought you were going to say something all those times we were studying, but you always asked random questions instead." He stepped closer. "I really, really like you too."

"Wow, two really's? You must be sincere."

"I must be."

Against you better judgement, you decided to ask it. "What do we do now?"

"Well... uh." He scratched the back of his neck. "I guess I could ask you out."

"That sounds like a logical next step."

He cleared his throat. "Y/n, do you want to go out to eat sometime? Maybe this weekend, if you're not busy?"

"My calendar is clear. Saturday good for you?"

"Great. Do you like Johnny's?"

"Love 'em. Should I dress up?"

"Whatever you want."

The smile on your face couldn't have been any bigger as you swiftly planted a kiss on his warm cheek. "I'll see you then."

"See you then. I'll come get you around 6."

"I'll be expecting you."

"Good. It's not like I can use traffic as an excuse to be late." He started to back away, towards the direction of his house. "Saturday, 6pm, Johnny's."

"Saturday, 6pm, Johnny's. I'll write it down."

He left you with one last sweet smile before heading back to his own door.

Master of dumb endings is back at it again. I feel like lowkey, I'm fulfilling a request, even tho I'm not taking those, but someone asked for Devon Sawa and no one requests him ever, so I thought "eh, why not?" I feel like I need to work on more plots tho bc I revert back to the crush-confession-couple framework a lot.

Hopefully I come up with something better for the next one. Thank you for reading, as always. I appreciate that people still read this. M'kay.

~Mariah