MASTERLIST
Sweet Seals For You, Always
RMH
Misplaced Lens Cap

if i look back, i am lost

izzy's playlists!

ellievsbear
Mike Driver

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wallacepolsom
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DEAR READER
taylor price
Cosimo Galluzzi

JBB: An Artblog!

祝日 / Permanent Vacation
No title available
occasionally subtle
art blog(derogatory)

tannertan36
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open

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@agnireed
MASTERLIST
POPE CODY
A FENCE AWAY ~ ongoing
intro 2 3 4 5 6 7
SAFE HAVEN 2
CLEAN SLATE
JACK ABBOT
PRAISE PERFECTION 2
PAPER THIN WALLS
SAMMY BRYANT
A GOOD MAN
BONDED IN GRIEF
RESISTING TEMPTATION
PRIVATE SHOW
STAN ROSADO
PRINCESS PROTECTION
DARYL DIXON
The Silence of It > One Two Three Four Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten Eleven Twelve Thirteen Fourteen
Walking Tension
Burdened
ok question before i start my new fic.. do you guys like when it’s from the characters perspective with his inner thoughts or from the readers
?
hatosy character
reader
TILL DEATH DO US PART
PAIRING ➩ jack abbot x wife reader
WC ➩ 5.1k
SUMMARY ➩ Before Jack was a widower, he was a husband. (your love story from his eyes.)
WARNINGS ➩ this story takes you through jack losing you as his wife! mentions of death and illness, vague talks of his time in the military and losing his leg, big talks of disability and trauma (ITS SAD!)
AUTHORS NOTE ➩ well.. gave you something spicy last time so here’s this! also taking creative liberties with the military/med school timeline because I don’t know enough about it but it’s a fanfic so who cares! hope you enjoy and sorry in advance
Jack Abbot was known as a lot of things.
He didn’t let most of them bother him, ignored the whispers of him being too strict of a boss that were somehow paired with criticisms of being too lax. The harmless quips about his dangerous hobbies that still burrowed their way deep into his chest or the occasional judgmental look he got from people when his leg caught on a step or stiffened behind him.
There was the care taking side of him, giving a granola bar in passing to a med student so exhausted they could barely stand and making sure to remind Robby everyday in the most casual way possible that he cared about him.
He could be cynical and sarcastic, a little hard to understand and almost impossible to gauge the mood of on those days he needed to end up on the roof to even attempt at grounding himself.
Jack was a veteran, a night shift attending, a friend and an enemy.
But he had absolutely no plans of ever being known as a widower.
There had been a new label for him as he entered his thirties, proudly wearing the badge of husband and announcing it to anybody who was around to listen.
“I’m just dropping off her lunch, I’m her husband.”
“My wife loves this flavor, I’m glad you keep it in stock.”
“Sorry I can’t tonight, it’s me and my wife’s anniversary.”
Jack was well aware that he was the luckiest man on earth to have married you.
It was straight out of a fairy tale and went against every single pessimistic bone in his body, truly love at first sight for the both of you.
He’d fallen ridiculously hard for you the moment you’d walked past him on campus, scarf around your neck and a pretty smile on your face as you waved at your friends across the field. You were warmth personified for him and he’d been so distracted, he took a football straight to the face.
Then you were suddenly a lot closer, kneeling down on the grass despite the fact you were wearing pretty white tights, face full of concern as your gloved hands hovered over his nose that was most certainly bleeding.
You’d gotten upset immediately and asked him over and over again if he was alright while he stared dumbly up at you from his place on the ground, only snapping out of it when you gasped that it must be broken.
He had interrupted and finally gotten the courage to speak, telling you he’s a med student and he didn’t think it was that severe, and nearly falling flat onto his back when your eyes sparked with interest.
You were inseparable from the moment you met each other, abandoning your friends who watched curiously as you helped him up and walked with him to the nearest corner store. You stood a little too close for his sanity after buying a cold drink, encouraging him to press it lightly to his face and giving him a pleased smile when he did so.
Jack decided that for the rest of his life he would do anything in his power to see you smile like that every day.
He was in your dorm room almost nightly with stacks of books between you, ankles tangling under library tables, and soft giggles leaving you as you leaned against his shoulder in the courtyard
There was no point in pretending to be friends for more than a few weeks, unable to keep your hands or eyes off of each other long enough for it to be believable. Everyone around you knew exactly what it was and so did the two of you, blushing softly when your friends teased you for being completely smitten but making no move to deny it.
Jack asked you to be his girlfriend after the first snow fall of the school year.
He had made a plan in his head that was far more romantic, including candles and cheesy rose petals his roommate had told him would definitely do the trick. He ended up just blurting it out outside of your dorm building, unable to resist when he saw how the cold had made the tip of your nose turn pink and the way your eyes shone as you wished him a goodnight.
There was a small disbelieving part of him that kept waiting for the honeymoon phase to end, but it never did.
Not when he felt like he needed a change in his career and started to get addicted to a more dangerous feeling, not even when he enlisted and you had to spend some excruciating time apart.
He had felt like the biggest idiot in the world most nights during that time, alone in his tent as he flipped through letters you’d sent him or when he was out in the field and kissing one of the many photos of you he kept in his uniform.
Jack had wrote you over a thousand times and in most of his writings, he ended up apologizing.
He’d tell you that he didn’t know why he needed to chase this thrill and he couldn’t really explain why his skin would start to crawl when he was safe for too long. He knew he was an adrenaline junkie and it wasn’t just an ironic phrase when he was actually in battle, your face the last thing he knew he would remember if anything happened to him.
Along with the heavy guilt of leaving you alone, waiting for another letter that wouldn’t come.
It kept him going every single day and he always reminded you that he would understand if you left him. There would be no anger if you didn’t want to spend the next few years loving a man you couldn’t see, couldn’t touch or hold on the hard nights.
Once, he had written to you saying that he almost hoped you’d meet somebody else while he was away. He had went on and on for too many pages about how he would be a happy man to know you were out there with somebody who could love you in a less painful way.
You’d gone silent for a week after that and it was the worst week of his entire life, unable to sleep or eat properly as the regret hit him hard.
He knew then, if he hadn’t already before, that he could never lose you. He couldn’t stomach you walking away from him or leaving you on this earth after he’d left it far too early.
Jack finally heard from you on the ninth day but it wasn’t through a letter.
You had somehow reached out to one of his higher ups and arranged a phone call, making up a lie that you had a family emergency just so he could hear your voice for the first time in many painful months. He’d tried his best not to cry in the office, face still dusty from the field training exercise he’d been yanked out of.
He had been terrified when they told him somebody was on the phone for him, fearing the worst.
You’d wiped the fear right out of him when you softly laughed and told him to make sure he kept his best poker face before launching into a full scale scolding for him ever even thinking about you leaving him for somebody else. He sat there and tried to hide a smile as you berated the mere suggestion, ending the brief phone call with a deep reminder of how much you loved him.
Jack knew that when the next rotation of sign ups came along, his name wouldn’t be on the list.
He was happy for the experience, the opportunity to further his degree in such a unique form of medicine, but he wouldn’t spend a minute longer away from you than he had to.
The bliss of knowing he’d come home to you shortly was ended about as quick as it arrived.
Not too long after your impromptu phone call, they were sent back out and things moved so fast from there on out that Jack couldn’t even remember the events that led up the accident.
He remembered lots of noise and then lots of warmth, yelling voices around him and the feeling of his limp body being dragged through trees and dirt. Then came the pain, both from his lower section and from his throat as he screamed it raw all the way back to the medical tent.
The final thing Jack remembered was just as he had thought his last moments would be like.
Your voice and your smile as you looked at him back in the college field, so far removed from the terror and pain of his current situation. You’d never have to experience a trauma like this as long as he could help it but he was scared the pain you’d feel when you got the call he died could almost be worse.
Jack laid there stiffly on the small bed, bleeding out on the dirty white sheets, and still only could think about you and how he hoped you weren’t alone when the phone rang.
It felt like years passed before his eyes opened again and now he was certain he had died because there you were.
Sitting in a chair next to his bedside with your head in your folded arms, tapping your foot anxiously and lightly shaking his bed from the movement. You were sniffing harshly like you’d just finished crying, whispering something under your breath that he thought sounded like a prayer despite knowing you weren’t religious.
He wasn’t surprised that if heaven existed his would start with you at the gates.
He only startled when he went to touch your hair lightly, straining his stiff fingers to try and even feel a strand, and your body shot up in surprise. Your eyes were wide with confusion and then your entire frame sagged in relief before you were standing up abruptly and starting to scream for the doctors.
The understanding that he wasn’t dreaming, wasn’t dead or in some sort of afterlife, only hit him when he saw you start to collapse with sobs.
Because Jack knew that you would never feel any type of sadness in any perfect reality he could imagine.
He didn’t necessarily process anything the doctors were saying to him now that he was awake, words about his amputation and what the healing timeline would look like going right past him as he stared at your face. You were holding his hand then, sending him gentle warning looks that were silently telling him to listen properly.
All Jack could focus on was you, the fact your hair was a little shorter now and your hands were still shaking as you squeezed his even tighter when the doctors started talking about his limitations.
There was still a lack of denial about his new disability until it started to affect your relationship.
Jack didn’t see himself as a traditional man in any sense, he didn’t feel like he needed to do things for you out of necessity but simply because you were the love of his life and he was devoted to you.
He didn’t realize how many little things he had taken for granted until he finally was discharged from the hospital and was forced to adjust to his new normal.
There was no more carrying you through the doorway after a wine filled date, racing with you along the shore of the beach and listening to you giggle when he caught you by the waist and brought you into the water.
It was a painful build of all the small habits he no longer could follow, an inability to take care of you in the ways he felt like he had promised you when you started to build your life together.
Jack felt like he was holding it together fairly well despite the obvious fact he was pulling away from you without meaning to.
He was spending more nights in his study as he prepared to go back to a more routine level of schooling, determined to live life as normal as possible despite the ache in his leg when he sat at his desk for too long and the dizziness his medications would occasionally cause.
There was the times he woke up with nightmares so realistic he’d shoot up in bed, sweat around his shirt collar and his chest heaving so harshly it would cause you to stir too. You’d wake up with him and not sleep again until he was able to, even if it took hours before he could remind himself he was safe in your bedroom.
So he started to sleep on the couch more often than not.
Jack could see the toll it was taking on you but he couldn’t get himself to let you get too close, scared you’d see what your future was going to look like now and decide it wasn’t worth it anymore.
He finally broke down one random weekday in the middle of a chilly fall, similar weather to the first time you’d met all those years ago.
You’d been having car troubles for weeks apparently and keeping it hidden from him, softly whispering that you didn’t want to burden him with any more bills. The hospital was sending letters nonstop, you both had debt from your schooling, and his disability checks were barely enough to cover rent and the groceries.
He didn’t even become aware of the problem until you stormed back in the house only a few minutes after you’d left it, tears running down your cheeks as you gasped and cried to him that your car wouldn’t start.
You had an important meeting at work that would undoubtedly land you a promotion, one that could really help you both live more comfortably. You’d been talking about it for weeks, preparing yourself endlessly and going through your presentation over and over with him each night.
Jack hadn’t hesitated to get up on his crutches and head outside with you, barely throwing on a coat before he was settling himself in the drivers seat of his truck and being hit with the realization that he hadn’t driven since losing his leg.
It was muscle memory to jump at the opportunity to help you, such a simple solution of just getting in his truck and bringing you to work before you were late.
You both sat there in silence, windows still wet from the morning dew and his chest beginning to heave painfully.
Jack drove a manual truck, something he hadn’t even considered since he’d been holing himself up in the house. You had no idea how to drive a stick shift and, not for the first time since his accident, he felt utterly useless in your relationship.
He’d cried for the first time since he had lost his leg in the quiet car, not because of the pain or because his entire life had changed forever, but because of the sole fact he had let you down again.
The therapy started after that, both physical and mental.
You’d climbed into his lap that day and did your best to reassure him that you didn’t love him any less, telling him that you would be with him for eternity in any circumstance, but your words hadn’t been enough and you both knew that.
Things were better after that, not perfect, but Jack was learning to cope with his grief surrounding his own body and you were able to get some pointers on how to be there for him in the littlest ways.
He didn’t think you needed any advice because you were as perfect as always in his eyes, spending extra time out in the yard with him the first fall he tried to rake the leaves again and softly massaging his stump and scars in a warm bath after a bad flare up.
You were still the love of his life and you were the sole reason he was able to continue it after going through something so awful.
There was a light at the end of his tunnel that he would chase forever, even if it was a little slower than he had planned for. You’d never wavered or made him doubt your love for him despite how much he thought he didn’t deserve it.
Jack and you got through the next few years with alot of effort and patience, feeling like you could finally take a deep breath when he graduated and then getting a clean start when he was relocating to Pittsburgh.
By then, his leg was a secondary thought to him despite his disability still being a big part of his story. He didn’t let it define him and he barely felt the need to inform people about it, feeling a surge of confidence as he entered his thirties and got to become more than the guy who had lost his leg.
Becoming your husband only made that so much easier.
Jack had never wanted to be anything more and he would have married you the day he met you if you were willing but he selfishly needed it to be perfect.
He didn’t want you to swear yourself to a broken man or one still doing the work to build a life for the two of you, he wanted you to hear him ask that question and be able to look around and see the stability around you.
And Jack was stable.
The house you two bought was beautiful with enough space to grow your family when you were ready, a topic you were talking about more and more through the years. You loved your job and felt secure and happy in your career and both of you had a perfectly healthy balance of work and life.
There was no extra shifts picked up or late nights that left your feet dragging as you came home because you prioritized each other.
Jack would get a wave of pride over him whenever somebody would ask him the secret to such a happy marriage, especially since he didn’t really have one to offer them.
He could only smile and pull you closer while telling them that marrying your best friend made it that much easier.
You were his soulmate, the only woman he had ever loved and the only one he needed for the rest of his life.
The rest of the world seemed to love you just as much as he did which was no surprise. Showing you off was his favorite thing to do, bringing you to every work function possible and beaming as he watched his coworkers automatically fall for your pretty smile and gentle nature.
He’d get pats on his back from Robby as he told him he was a lucky man and soft nods of approval from Dana who had a knowing gleam in her eye.
You’d sneak off with him to the roof of the hospital on his lunch breaks, the nurses affectionately rolling their eyes when they saw the two of you giggling together like teenagers ditching class.
Sometimes he still felt like the bumbling idiot back in the courtyard, so thrown by your beauty that he let himself get knocked to the ground.
You would lean against him as the wind blew your hair back, looking out at the city you’d made your home together with a fond look.
He could tell you were happy and that made it so much more magical for him.
Jack sometimes felt like he was bragging when he’d talk about your life together, his therapist even occasionally pushed him to really search deep down and find something to complain about.
She’d tell him it was healthy for marriages to have issues, that small disagreements didn’t mean you loved each other less. Jack would earnestly confess to her that he couldn’t think of a single thing he disliked about you.
You didn’t fight over money or snap at each other after a hard shift, there was no chance of infidelity or even wandering eyes, and your date nights were more frequent than not.
Your relationship didn’t grow stale and you didn’t get sick of each other, there was absolutely no settling and you hadn’t made adjustments to yourselves individually to fit better as a pair.
You just did naturally.
He was forty five the first time he noticed anything was changing about you.
There was lot of nights he spent in recent years thinking about how stupid he was, blaming himself for not realizing something was wrong before it was too late to stop it.
He’d sit in an empty exam room for hours and read through your old files, look at bloodwork papers and medication lists and try to figure out why he had missed the signs. He blamed himself more than anything despite the people around him begging him not to go down that dark path.
Jack was a doctor, and a fucking good one.
So how was it possible you’d gotten so sick right under his nose?
It was slow at first and then a suddenly drop off towards the end.
You’d complained about being tired more than usual so Jack pulled back on your date nights out and started to keep them centered around your house, movie marathons on the couch and home made dinners he spent hours perfecting.
Then you would drift off in the middle of conversations, still present and alert but your eyes a little dazed like you weren’t fully there.
He’d stroke your hand softly and say your name in a gentle whisper until your gaze went back to his face, a little confused and sometimes panicked before he quietly repeated himself.
You woke up and threw up once at the end of summer and Jack had been stupid enough to believe you were pregnant. You both were excited at the idea, rushing to the nearest pharmacy to pick up a handful of pregnancy test and standing anxiously in the bathroom as you waited for the results.
Your shoulders had slumped with disappointment when they all came out as negative and he’d been halfway through reassuring you that you could keep trying when you threw up again.
So you changed your diets together.
You started to eat healthier and really stretch out your walks so you could stay active. You’d laugh together about your old age, smiling in the bathroom mirror as you brushed your teeth side by side and counted your ash colored hairs.
You’d told him in bed one night how much you loved growing old with him. He stayed silent as he listened to you whisper about how happy it made you, how you weren’t at all scared of what it might bring if it meant you got to be together through it.
Jack couldn’t stop thinking about that exact conversation at your funeral.
He’d told himself beforehand that he wasn’t going to look at you, lying in that traditional brown casket that made his stomach turn. He wasn’t sure he’d even make it into the building, was certain he’d run out to throw up before the service began.
Robby had been there through it, hand tight on his forearm whenever he shifted like he was planning to leave and a supportive glance when he would start to sob randomly through the kind words people said about you.
Which there was only ever kind words.
His feet had naturally led him up to the front of the room after most people had already filed out of the doors. He knew Robby was still there, somewhere behind him and most likely keeping a watchful eye as Jack stared down at you.
The first thing he thought was that you had significantly less gray hairs than him.
Then he wondered if you would have made fun of him for that, probably kissed his softly on the cheek as you ran your fingers through his curls like you used to do.
You did it all through your doctor’s appointments, naturally comforting him despite the constant bad news you received.
The treatment wasn’t working. Your body wouldn’t respond to medication the way it was supposed to. You had a lot less time than you thought.
He thought the last one was particularly obnoxious to hear and he had wanted to interrupt and scream at the doctor, tell him that of course this was less time than they thought because you had figured you’d be together forever.
Jack had spent a lot of time thinking about leaving you behind. In his tent out in the middle of battle, when he laid there bleeding out and thought for sure he was dead, and almost every night before sleep when he registered the stiffness in his joints and the wrinkles on his skin.
He’d set up some plans for you just in case, money in different places and insurances on his life you’d scold him about if you knew. He’d talked to Robby and your family and just about anybody he could about making sure you were taken care of after he was gone.
There’d never been a time where he considered you would go before him.
Especially not like this.
With your hair only starting to turn colors and your face so youthful even under the powdery makeup and stiffness of your skin. Jack didn’t actually feel much pain looking down in your casket because he refused to even process that as you.
You’d died the second your eyes had fluttered shut in the hospital bed, holding his hand tightly and whispering that you loved him before you fell asleep. You didn’t wake up again, never kissed him good morning, and you certainly didn’t put yourself in this dress and enter this room.
Jack loved you so completely that most of him died when you did.
He was sure it wasn’t too apparent to the newest rotation of med students that came in only a few months after he lost you.
They saw a man who was short with his words and sarcastic, harsh when he was tired and so closed off he almost felt impenetrable. He was suddenly the boss you had to desperately seek approval from and the no nonsense type of doctor he had hated during his first few years of residency.
There was no comparison they could make but he could tell it was hurting the people around him.
Robby especially, who only knew the version of Jack that was loved by you.
The Jack that came to work each day with a lipstick stain on his cheek accompanied by a bright smile, a lunchbox full of love notes and cheesy heart shaped fruit you’d cut up for him. They remembered the Jack that paced himself during his shift to make sure he had energy for your dates and took long breaks when you stopped by to visit just so he could sneak a few deep kisses in before you’d go.
Your shared friends and conjoined families had no choice but to grieve both of you.
Jack buried you in the ground and then buried himself in his work to the point of exhaustion, picking up dangerous hobbies and neglecting his health.
He’d find himself up on that roof top most nights, both trying to relive those days you’d sneak off together and also trying to get as close to you as he possibly could. He wasn’t sure if that meant figuratively or if by putting himself on the other side of the railing and letting himself close his eyes and wait for a sign he should fall away from it.
You’d be furious with him if he did anything to himself so he didn’t but he thought about it almost constantly.
It was almost passive, just the lingering belief that he would be better off.
He’d be with you and that was all he wanted.
There was no room for anything else in his head, a constant rotation of what you would have done or said if you were here and then the pain when he had to remember over and over again that you weren’t.
He sold your house, far below its actual value and that was even tougher considering it was priceless to him. He figured if he didn’t get out of it then he would end up doing something drastic like burning it down just to escape the scent of you and the memories bouncing off the walls.
He could hear your laughter when he passed the living room and feel your eyes on him when he ate dinner alone, the echoes of dishes clanking as you bumped your hip against his teasingly and your shoes still sitting by the door.
Your toothbrush was dried out on the sinks countertop and your soap bottles hadn’t gone down an inch, unfinished laundry still sitting down there dirty in your basket and the last carton of milk you’d bought getting more and more rotten by the day.
Jack gave your car to your nephew next and then cried his entire drive home, pulling over in some random parking lot and then punching the buttons off his radio when a song you used to hum came through the speakers.
He’d gotten out of his truck and left it there, crooked and barely between the lines as he limped the six miles back home. It was dark by the time he made it and his leg hurt so bad he was positive it was bleeding but he couldn’t be bothered to check or take care of himself, throwing his aching body and heart down on the couch.
Robby had eyed him harshly the next day, the cuts on his knuckles and the obvious discomfort in the way he moved despite his shift not even starting yet.
It got a little easier over the years, bad habits sticking and personality shifting in the way someone’s did when they went through something horrible.
Jack Abbot was known as a lot of things.
But before his newfound labels, he was a romantic and half of a perfect relationship. He was a partner, a caring friend and the type of guy you could call whenever you needed a shoulder (or two considering you’d always be a few steps behind him).
Jack was a husband long before he was a widower.
Now he was sat in the emergency room, surrounded by loss and trauma as he twisted the metal band in circles around his finger, thinking that he would simply be a husband for as long as he could breathe.
i love your sammy fics. have you ever considered writing something with Terry McCandless - from Reckless? After the trial.
I loveee Terry lol he’d be so fun to write for so definitely would consider it whenever i find the time
Gurl let me tell you, you're becoming THEE Sammy Bryant writer, you write his guilt and shame so scrumptiously
an honor!!! i love sammy so much and getting his character right is so important to me
your elvis fic SOOOOO FUCKING GOODDDDD in my head i feel like they work it out eventually but she has to make it clear to elvis that things need to change, yeah she is selfish for keeping him a secret but at the same time it is not like she can prance around with a guy who runs with a rough crowd known for illegal activities. love them and ur writing is phenomenal
I agree! I think they end up totally fine and inlove lol they are one of my rare fic couples I think get a happy ending
ur actually such an icon your fics are AMAZE ur doing a service babe
SO NICE THANK YOU
I hate asking this because I have seen some annoying hounding asks you’ve answered, but I’m just wondering if you plan on ever writing for a fence away again? So sorry if you’re annoyed about getting pope asks!
nooo not annoyed at all and i absolutely do i just got a little distracted by some other characters but i miss pope and planned to pick it back up asap!!
PAPER THIN WALLS
PAIRING ➩ jack abbot x reader
WC ➩ 19k
SUMMARY ➩ Jack Abbot is the perfect neighbor who is always willing to offer you a helping hand. Until you ask him to take your virginity.
WARNINGS ➩ age gap (reader is early 20s and jack is 50), they have sex and all the things that sex brings along, jack might be ooc
AUTHORS NOTE ➩ Well for once I tried to deliver real smut for you guys so buckle up and leave me some feedback on this one if you like it! NOT PROOFREAD AT ALL and it’s probably obvious so be kind about mistakes lol I wanted to get this to you guys asap!
“I need a favor.”
Jack was used to you asking him for help, had been for the two years since you moved into the apartment directly across from his.
He didn’t mind offering you a lending hand when he saw you struggling to carry your boxes from your small run down car, it wasn’t an inconvenience to collect your mail if you ever had to leave town for a few days, and he really couldn’t complain about having to remind you to get your laundry from the unit down below because it held him accountable too.
It was such a common occurrence, you asking him for a favor, that he wasn’t too surprised to find you at his door. He only gave a soft sigh as you pushed past him to enter his apartment, offering you a lot more patience than he did the newbies at the hospital.
You were always sweet, maybe a little bossy at times, but it gave him some amusement in his otherwise strict routine.
Plus it was admittedly nice to feel needed.
You came to him when your apartment had a leak or your air conditioning went out, knocked on his door whenever it was raining and you’d forgotten an umbrella after locking yourself out, and you even sometimes popped over just to get his opinion on what you should wear out on a random night.
Everybody was always telling Jack he needed a hobby that didn’t involve putting his life on the line, so he rarely told you no and tried his best to brush off Robby whenever he asked what was keeping him so busy lately.
It would be hard enough to explain the dynamic he had with his much younger neighbor but even more so considering you were now standing in the middle of his apartment with a frustrated look on your face, hands on your hips as you tapped your bunny slipper covered foot.
“What is it now?” His voice was gruff and disinterested but you knew well enough that he would do whatever you asked and he was well aware of that too. Still, it helped him just a little to pretend to contemplate it for a second or two first.
“I need you to have sex with me.”
You said it like it was as simple as asking him to come over and check your water pressure, falling out of your mouth casually and landing heavily in the quiet room.
There was no need to pretend this time as he fell into a bewildered silence, raising an eyebrow in your direction and letting his eyes track you as you dramatically sighed and went to flop down on his couch. You’d demanded about a year ago that he got some pillows for it, along with a few other interior design suggestions.
He’d picked up four after his shift that night.
“Please say something.” You were turned around on the couch so you could face him over the back of it, arms crossed as you rested your chin ontop of them.
“I have nothing to say to that.” He shook his head immediately, that stern expression he used on an unruly patient or Robby when he got a little too pushy.
This just made you sigh again, loud and exaggerated as you turned back around to fully lay flat on his couch.
“Why are you even asking me that?” He didn’t want to pry because he knew you well enough by now to know you’d just be encouraged by that but his curiosity got the best of him, circling around to sit across from you on one of the living room chairs.
You didn’t sit up but you turned your head to the side to look at him, a slight frown on your face that he didn’t think was particularly genuine. Your personality was always something Jack admired, not getting a lot of time in his own life to be so bold with his emotions and carefree in the way he spoke and behaved.
He was serious and guarded where you were a walking billboard for spontaneity, coming to him crying about random problems after only half a week of living in the building.
It was mostly endearing but there was the more critical part of him that wondered how lonely you must be to be making friends and finding comfort with some random guy across the hallway, a much older one at that.
Jack knew he had a bit of a hero complex but it typically manifested in a more extreme way, quite literally jumping into battle to save lives or operating on them in their lowest moments. This dynamic with you was a new form of care taking and there’d been a handful of times he’d doubted his own motives.
“Because I have a date next week and I am a complete lost cause when it comes to all things intimacy.” You still had a theatrical flare to your voice, not facing him anymore and instead rambling straight up to his ceiling with your hands gesturing wildly.
He tensed up for two reasons now, one being the mention of a date and the other was your implication you didn’t have any experience.
“But you’ve had sex before.” It came out slowly and half like a question, half like an assumption.
There wasn’t any real reason for him to think that other than his own social expectations. You were gorgeous, one of the prettiest women he’d seen in a very long time, and had a naturally magnetic energy to you that even he couldn’t resist most of the time, platonically but also selfishly deep down, a little more than that.
He’d seen you go on a handful of dates in the last year or two, all guys your age that didn’t seem to know how to pick up a check let alone please you properly.
That’s where Jack’s problem stemmed from.
There had been almost no ulterior motive the first year he had known you, genuinely trying to be helpful and to be a good neighbor. He would get upset when his coworkers would call him anti social or make digs at how unfriendly he was because he hadn’t always been like that and he figured helping out the girl next door was a good first step to getting that part of himself back.
You’d told him after a few months that you had no family on this side of the country, completely starting fresh at a new company you’d applied to on a whim.
It was completely innocent.
Yes, you were undoubtedly beautiful in a way that made his head spin for a second when he first saw you. You had been standing near your car and fighting with a box, both by tugging at it and saying less than kind words in its direction like it could understand you.
Jack had hesitated for a handful of seconds before making his way over and offering to help, feeling this weird pull in his chest when you blinked up at him in surprise and eagerly thanked him.
Once you were in his life, you never left. And he made space for you effortlessly because, quite frankly, he had plenty of it to offer up.
About seven months ago was the first time he had ever seen you with a guy.
He’d been coming home from a long and rare day shift (covering for Robby so he could attend Jake’s graduation), dragging his leg behind him and praying nobody stopped him on the way to his apartment so he could crawl into bed for a few short hours before he had to do it all over again for his own shift.
The only distraction he would have allowed was you but you were clearly busy, standing in the hallway as he got off the elevator and touching the rather small bicep of a guy your age.
Jack hesitated, considered getting right back on the elevator before it could close on him, and then slowly walked to his door.
He had hoped you wouldn’t acknowledge him because his throat was already weirdly tight as he eyed you and the way you stared up at the man (boy, if Jack had to really label it) with that soft and curious expression you always had.
“Jack.” Your voice was full of excitement and he faltered, his key left in his doors lock as he turned to give you an attempt at a polite smile. “Covering somebody again?”
If this had been any other day then Jack would have invited you into his apartment to talk instead of lingering in the hallway. He would have ignored his exhaustion to pair his black coffee with the hot chocolate flavor you liked that he kept in his bottom drawer, complained to you about being tired and listened to you scold him for working too much when he didn’t need to.
But you were in a pretty dress that was clearly on its way to dinner and your date was giving Jack that possessive stare that guys fresh out of college thought was intimidating.
So instead he simply nodded his head and continued to unlock his door.
“This is Asher.” You continued abruptly as he turned his door handled, leaving it cracked as he stopped to look at you again.
He gave you a once over to make sure everything was okay, wondering why you were still insisting on talking to him when you were so clearly meant to be going somewhere else. You didn’t look too uncomfortable but you were watching him back just as intensely so he mentally stored the name and face of the guy anyways, just in case something happened.
“Ashton.” Your date finally spoke and his voice was annoyed and laced with immature bitterness, although slightly valid considering you had forgotten his name.
Your eyes widened, still boring into Jacks, and he smiled a little before giving you a small wave and heading inside.
Jack realized quickly after that encounter that his intentions were a lot less innocent than he had initially thought they were. He’d closed his door before immediately pressing his back against it, listening to the sound of your small heels leaving the hallway as you apologized to your date with a clenched jaw and a pain in his stomach.
The next few dates after that just confirmed what he had already realized from the first one.
He was attracted to you.
Maybe even liked you.
You talked to Jack about almost everything going on in your life, even things he definitely would not have cared about if it came from anybody else, but you never once brought up the dates. At first he had worried you had somehow noticed his weird demeanor that day in the hallway but Jack wasn’t very expressive in general so he figured you must keep that part of your life private for other reasons.
The attraction part was easy to accept mostly, he was only a man and you were clearly gorgeous. Although the age gap was something Jack couldn’t get himself to look past.
You were barely in your early twenties, over half his age younger and overly obviously so. You radiated youth, from your appearance and the way you spoke down to your hobbies and interests.
You were clearly a very young girl and he had felt like a pervert from the moment he saw you outside of that car for the way his body warmed. Jack hadn’t felt much attraction to anybody at all since his wife died, at first out of a lingering loyalty to her that barely faded and then just due to his busyness and his own mental blocks.
That was not a problem when it came to you and he had to give a genuine effort when he was around you to act normal.
You’d come over in tiny sleep shorts or a tight tank top that showed your hardened nipples through the thin fabric, join him for morning yoga in downright sinful leggings and he even was attracted to the stupid bunny slippers you wore.
But you were a young girl and he was a disciplined old man so he barely looked twice in your direction when you were bending over to get mail and he never once touched you, setting boundaries for himself and keeping them.
Which was why it was so hard for him when you slowly shook your head to his question about having sex before.
“What about those guys?” His eyebrows furrowed as he looked at you and you sighed like you were embarrassed, a rare emotion to see from you.
“We barely kissed.” You shrugged and finally sat up from your dramatic position on the couch. “Please Jack, I don’t have anyone else to ask.”
“I’m not sleeping with you.” He said immediately, slightly offended you were seemingly only asking him because you had no other options.
You looked completely dejected now but Jack knew there was no way he could possibly accept this request, for too many reasons but especially because of his own moral code. He also didn’t want to ruin what you’d had going on, enjoying your company on his hard nights and finding himself finally letting somebody in after so many years alone.
“Okay so no sex.” You say softly and you stand up when he does, following him as he walks into the kitchen and leaning against the counter to watch him set the coffee machine settings. “But can’t you show me little things.”
He sends you a sharp look that you return with a gentle pleading smile, bouncing in place a little like you think your cuteness is the answer to everything.
And it just might be because Jack sighs softly and turns his full attention back to you.
“Like what?” He knows him asking for specifics will give you hope and he can see it immediately on your face, brightening and taking a step closer to him that makes him tense.
“Maybe just telling me what guys like?” You suggest softly and the words coming from your mouth make him almost groan, keeping his face flat and emotionless as you speak. “And some kissing lessons.”
“You know how to kiss.” He shook his head at you and went to turn back to his coffee but your hand wrapped around his wrist to stop him, successfully keeping his attention on you. He realized that it might be the first time you’d ever actually touched him, skin against skin. “I’ve seen it.”
His posture tightens as he reminds himself of that fact, easily recalling the vivid memory of leaving his apartment to head to work and finding you coming home from a date and making out with a guy against your door.
You hadn’t noticed him at first but he had slammed his door harder than normal, shamefully intentional.
There’d been a pang of guilt when you jumped in surprise and separated from the guy who looked the douchiest out of all of them but it was hard to feel it when you have him a slightly grateful look on his way to the elevator.
You were blinking at him now, almost like you were realizing something, and he looked away in favor of glancing at the clock on the wall.
“Not a kiss that feels good.” Your voice was more serious now, sounding genuinely disheartened by the conversation and the slow unveiling of your inexperience.
He sighed again, just trying to get rid of the tightness in his chest, before shaking his head firmly and fully turning away from you to fill up his coffee mug.
“I’m not doing it.”
—
Jack thought about your offer for the next two weeks. Obsessively.
He waited to hear you bringing somebody else over, someone who had jumped on the golden opportunity to touch you for the first time when he hesitated. You didn’t seem to go on any dates but he supposed you wouldn’t have told him anyways.
The thought of you experiencing sex with some asshole you met off a dating app, nervous and unsure on what to do without guidance, was eating away at him.
Jack was a fixer, he liked to help you, and he had already accepted the fact that he was extremely attracted to you. It wasn’t like he didn’t recognize the jealously in his stomach everytime he saw you with somebody else, a type of anger he hadn’t felt since he was preparing to go into a real life war.
Subdued by age and a calmer reality now but it was still fresh hot anger that he couldn’t shake no matter how much he tried.
You came to him with this problem, not just for pointers and tips but you had actually asked him to be the one to take your virginity.
Virginity.
Jack couldn’t get the concept out of his head and while he hadn’t necessarily considered himself somebody who would care about that type of thing, especially not as he entered his fifties, it did bring a wave of heat over him whenever he thought about it.
You’d never been touched before outside of a few unsatisfactory make out sessions. You, the pretty girl with downright sinful choices of pajamas that consumed his day to day life so easily after he spent such a long time alone.
He thought about it endlessly until it led to him knocking on your door, a rare switch of the usual dynamic that left him feeling a little awkward before you answered.
The sensation went away when you looked up at him, eyes a little wide with confusion as you silently stepped back to let him inside. It was rare for you to be so quiet but maybe you could tell what he was thinking by the look on his face, maybe you were thinking about the same exact thing.
“I’ll help you.” His voice was gruff and flat, waiting until your door closed behind him before he spoke. Your face immediately lit up but he silenced anything you were going to say with a raised hand, your parted lips closing as you waited for him to finish. “But I’m not sleeping with you.”
You pouted a little at the condition but stepped forward after a few seconds, far too close to him for his sanity but he figured you’d be getting a lot closer soon so he forced his breathing to stay level.
Jack used to consider himself quite smooth, still a natural flirt when he joked around with older patients or teased Robby.
But he was completely thrown off of any existing game when it came to you. He didn’t even know he could still feel this way about somebody, the yearning and lustful feeling having been dormant for a long time before you moved in.
“I’ll take whatever you give me.” Your voice was soft now and he’d never heard you like that, maybe a bit of a whine when you impatiently asked him to help you with something, but never so pleading.
You’d shifted even closer as you spoke and he couldn’t help himself now that he practically had permission, his large and rough hand sliding over your waist to rest on the small of your back.
You sucked in a sharp breath at the feeling and he was suddenly aware of how much fun this was going to be if you were that sensitive.
“Not tonight okay?” He replied and his low tone made your eyes soften, nodding eagerly and hesitantly letting your hands land on his chest in balled up fist. “We can talk about it more later and work out some conditions.”
“You’re giving me rules?” You’d collected yourself enough to finally give him some of that familiar attitude, smiling slightly as you stared up at him. He rolled his eyes but let his hand tighten against your back, moving you forward and just trying to test your reaction to the touch.
You lost your smile immediately, shuffling closer until you were pressed against him as your eyes darted all around his face with surprise. It was clear you didn’t expect him to accept at all let alone this easily, despite his two weeks of contemplation, he wasn’t at all hesitate now.
“You need them.” He retorted and his free hand brushed some of your hair behind your ear, the first time you were ever really touching each other being this intimate was sending another wave of affection through him.
A few years ago, Jack couldn’t even get himself to look at another woman, let alone hold one so gently. Even with the slightly out of the ordinary circumstances, he cared for you and you trusted him and that was all that really mattered in his eyes.
“You’re mean.” You’re whispering it and his head tilts at the sound it, overly fond and curious how you can affect him so much just by changing the tone of your voice. “Kiss me atleast.”
It comes out a demand and his eyebrows naturally furrow at the sound of it, knowing immediately that will have to be one of the rules he gives you when you talk them over.
Manners.
He doesn’t respond for a second but you seem to understand before he even needs to scold you, lips parting in realization before they form a small pout and you unclench your fist so your palm is flat on his chest now instead.
“Please give me a kiss Jack.” You sound sweeter now and he would think it was an act, making fun of him for his sudden silent sternness, if it wasn’t for the genuinely pleading look on your face.
The knowledge that you listen so easily, even when he doesn’t actually say it, overrides his senses so much that he actually does bend down to kiss you.
It’s soft at first which you don’t seem to understand, immediately trying to eagerly make out with him like that’s all you really know. He moves one of his hands from your side to hold under your jaw, applying a little bit of pressure near your throat to indicate he wants you to slow down.
You melt against him at the touch but do as he silently communicates and relax a little bit, still moving your mouth a bit sloppily against his but learning to adapt to his slow and easy pace.
Eventually you get the rhythm down perfectly, lips moving together without anything extra added. You asked Jack to teach you so he was going to do exactly that, starting from the basics.
Your face was completely dazed when he pulled back, instinctively shifting forward to try and kiss him again and making a small disappointment noise when his hold near your throat tightened in warning.
“You asked for a kiss.” He said in a low voice, still close to your face so he could perfectly see the way your widened eyes shifted around his features.
He was a bit mesmerized by the way you looked now, so unlike yourself on any other day. It both made his guilt over being perverse grow and also solidified that he didn’t care how wrong it was as long as you kept looking at him like that.
“Get some sleep.” He waited a few seconds before taking the necessary steps away from you, taking a sharp breath as he turned and left your apartment.
His own door had barely closed behind him before there was insistent knocks on it, his head immediately hanging since he knew exactly who it was.
Your eyebrows were furrowed when he pulled the handle to reveal you in the hallway, standing stiffly and glaring up at him but not making any move to come inside. You shifted in place and let out a huff of annoyance as you seemed to search for the right words to convey what you wanted.
“Can you kiss me one more time?” You eventually settled on the blunt question, shifting closer so you were both halfway in his doorway.
While he had a foot inside his apartment still, you had one in the hallway. It left you standing too close for his sanity, feeling it slip almost entirely again when your small hand landed on his forearm and rubbed softly.
“What’s wrong?” He asked softly, sensing your frustration but not knowing where it was stemming from.
He cupped your face with one of his hands, letting the other rest back on your side. You stared up at him as he took a few slow steps forward, backing you up with each one until your back hit the doorframe and took a soft near gasp from your lips.
“Nothing I just…” You trail off as you pout, scanning over his face and then down his chest until you can’t bend your head anymore to look. “I want one more. Please.”
You added it as an afterthought but it was enough for him, pressing his mouth back against yours.
This time, apparently a very quick learner, you were able to meet his pace right away and your mouths moved softly together. Your arms went around his neck so you could fully cling to him as you kissed deeply, heads tilting and quiet pleased noises rumbling in your throat.
You only got louder when his tongue pressed lightly into your mouth, mostly just to test your reaction but unable to stop himself when you were eagerly matching the actions.
It was sloppy and a little too wet, sounds of your tongues tangling together filling the silent hallway and sending a sharp heat down to his gut. He liked how clumsy you were, growing addicted to the way you seemed to have no idea what you were doing but too desperate to stop yourself and ask him for his help.
Jack knew he liked feeling needed but this was a whole different beast, one that came paired with some light shame.
You weren’t innocent and you knew exactly what you needed to about sex but your body was inexperienced and it was getting clearer by the second, your little gasp when he kissed you deeper and the way you tightened your hold on him everytime he went to pull back and attempt to slow down.
You’re red in the face by the time he manages to get you to stop eagerly kissing him, still instinctively shifting closer when he moves back. He gives you a lighthearted sigh, occupied by the softest smile he can manage so he doesn’t actually hurt your feelings when he presses you back against the doorway with the hand that’s still on your hip.
“Time for bed.” He tries to keep his tone light but it comes out more authoritative than he had meant for it to, most likely driven by the way you automatically started to frown as soon as he held you away from him. “We can talk tomorrow.”
You clearly weren’t happy about that but you surprisingly gave him a soft nod, shifting your body until you were out of his entrance and closer to your own.
He watched you and your dazed face, slightly wobbly on your feet, as you disappeared behind your apartment door with a small wave.
-
Jack had started off his day rough the following morning, barely able to sleep after what had happened.
It was a completely split mixture of wanting you so bad it was driving him to literal insanity and feeling disgustingly guilty for even looking in your direction.
He almost considered calling Robby about it but he really didn’t need to hear the lecture that would undoubtedly come his way about the situation. Plus he figured that whatever Robby knew, Dana knew, and if Dana knew then it was only a matter of time before the entire emergency department was gossiping about Jack Abbot and his young neighbor.
The dilemma was so strong that he had almost completely forgotten about the fact he had told you that you’d talk today, although almost intentional.
He was halfway avoiding having to actually sit down and make this arrangement a reality, still having a hard time believing what had happened last night was even real.
He had just started to get changed for work when the knocking on his door started and he knew it was you immediately, standing still and hanging his head for a few seconds like he figured he could just wait you out.
It didn’t take long for his senses to kick back in and he was pulling on a plain black shirt before making his way over to the door, raising his eyebrows at you when he saw how irritated you looked.
You brushed past him immediately and he lingered with his hand on the door knob for a moment before closing it and preparing himself to face whatever wrath you were about to send his direction.
“You didn’t come over.” You immediately accused, finger pointing in his direction as you stood in the middle of his living room with an angry expression. “You didn’t even text me.”
He was already walking closer to you as you spoke and your defenses naturally crumbled at the proximity, especially when his hands were sliding over your ribs to both hold you steady and let him feel your breathing as subtly as possible.
“You can’t just kiss me like that and then ignore me.” You continue on but your tone is a lot softer now that he’s touching you, already getting that dazed edge to it he had heard last night.
“I didn’t mean to ignore you.” He shakes his head and frees a hand to tuck some hair behind your ear, your features have completely softened now at the movement.
Jack wonders for the first time if you might have feelings for him beyond trust and attraction.
For some reason, he hadn’t really considered the possibility before. You were practically his polar opposite and he had nothing in common with any of the boys you went on dates with.
But now, with you blinking up at him like you were hanging on to his every word, he let himself think it might just be likely.
“I figured you changed your mind.” Your words are a little slurred from the insistent pout you have on your face and he sighs again, gently leading you over to sit on his couch.
Your knees brush together as you scoot closer to him the second he’s settled on top of the cushion, your hand wrapping around three of his fingers and squeezing lightly as you wait for him to respond to your fear of being rejected.
“I didn’t but I want to make sure you understand what you’re asking.” His voice is low and nearing stern, the same tone he uses on the new med students who seem a little more cocky than they are willing to learn. He knows that’s not the case with you, knows you’re desperate for any expertise he can offer you, but he still wants you to pay attention and properly understand him. “There’s other ways for you to do this.”
“What, like other guys?” Your eyebrows furrow like the thought confuses you.
His stomach tightens immediately, sick at the thought of it, but he stiffly nods his head.
You’re shifting even closer immediately and he lets out a breath when you’re leaning over his knee nearly, closer to his face than before and scanning over it again.
“I don’t want another guy Jack. I just want it to be you.” You’re whispering now and he can’t stop himself from pressing a light kiss to your mouth, brief but necessary when his brain processes the lack of distance between you. That makes you smile finally and he suddenly feels very stupid for ever questioning you when you’re making a request like this.
“Tell me why.” He mumbles, easily sliding his hands around your middle so he can tug you over more and into his lap. You kiss him again once you’re settled in his lap, still quick like you’re both using it as punctuation during your conversation. “Why me?”
He wants to hear you give a legitimate reason, to undo the hesitance you gave him when you said it was only because you didn’t have anybody else to ask. That’d been weighing on him more than anything else, the thought that you had just settled for your older lonely neighbor who was clearly willing to help you with anything in spite of himself.
Your next kiss was much longer, deeper as you fully sink down in his lap and move your mouth against his desperately. He’d accept that alone as an answer, big palms rubbing over your back and sides so he can keep pulling you impossibly closer.
Your nose is rubbing against his when you pull back, the sounds of your breathing being heavier now making his head spin with the necessary impulsivity to keep making terrible decisions with you.
“You’d make me feel good.” The answer you’d landed on was much more devastating than he was prepared for, his eyes darkening at how confident you sounded in that fact. “I know you would.”
His hands tightened around your soft skin for a second, needing to take a deep breath to ground himself.
It takes a second for him to reply, tucking his face into your neck and inhaling sharply. You smell as sweet as you always do but it’s intoxicating to have it this close after so long, skin soft under his lips as he kisses you softly.
Your breathing gets shaky, arms looping around his neck so you’re practically hugging him. You’re warm on top of him and making the sweetest noises when he moves along your jaw, shifting in his lap to try and get his attention back on your conversation.
“You’ll do it right?” You ask softly, running your hand through his hair and tugging just enough to make him finally look back at your face. His eyes are dark and unfocused as he stares at your pretty features. “Jack?”
“Yeah honey.” He says back after another long silence, voice deeper than he’d ever heard it as he leans in to kiss you again.
You kiss for a long time, wiggling around in his lap when your tongues tangle together and you get to taste him properly again. It’s addicting for both of you, both of your hands running all over the other’s body like you’re trying to learn every part of it you can reach.
Eventually you’re fully rocking against him from your neediness and it takes a second for him to process it, snapped back to focus when he hears the way your whines are getting higher pitched. A near growl leaves his throat as he grabs your hips firmly, thumbs pressing into the bone so he can stop you from moving on top of him like that.
“Jackie.” You whine desperately, kissing him again and successfully distracting him long enough that you can start humping again.
“Stop baby I have work soon.” He scolds in between the sloppy kisses, lips and chin slightly wet from how uncoordinated you still are.
You make another soft noise and he’s confused for half a second before he realizes it’s because of the pet name, smiling softly from his fondness for you as you hide down in his neck for a second.
“You’re hard now, I can feel it.” You’re whispering right against his skin and a shiver runs over him at the lewd words falling from such a pretty mouth, high pitched and almost innocent voice making the sentence sound so much dirtier than it needed to be.
At first Jack doesn’t think you’re right, knowing himself and his body enough to expect he’s not stirring down there even if he wants you so bad it makes him feel insane.
He’s had issues with it for years now, a deadly combination of his age, his traumas, and the carousel of medications he has to be on for a variety of things he wouldn’t disclose to you out of his own pride. That was the reason Jack had stopped trying to hook up with people years ago, giving up on porn entirely when he’d have to spend an hour trying to get hard before he could even attempt to actually get himself off.
It was in the back of his mind when you’d asked him to help you with this but he figured this was about your pleasure, he wouldn’t need to be hard to get you off especially if he stuck to his guns about not actually having sex with you.
He was sucking in a deep breath to explain this to you in less detail, make sure you understood that he wasn’t hard but it had nothing to do with you or his attraction to you, when you gave a particularly deep and slow roll of your hips.
And the effect was completely undeniable.
A shudder ran over him, eyes dropping to his lap that you were still rocking on top of. Your tiny little shorts were so clearly pressing against the tent in his scrub pants, catching on it whenever you lost the energy to move properly as you let out another needy whine and hid back in his neck.
You were completely unaware of his current mental situation, baffled at how easily you’d gotten him to this state from just some sloppy kissing.
You must’ve thought he was ignoring you because you picked up your head to glare at him, a pout on your swollen lips.
“Sorry sweetheart.” He sighed and kissed you gently, rubbing your sides up to your ribs and coming back down right when he felt the swell of your breast against his fingertips. “I really have to go.”
“Let me suck you off.” You requested easily and his breath caught, nearly choking at how simple you made it sound. “I wanna learn and you’re so hard right now Jackie. Please let me do it.”
“That’s not the point of this.” He shook his head immediately and moved you by your hips so you were sat next to him and no longer settled in his lap, clearly upsetting you as you scrambled up on your knees and gripped his bicep so he couldn’t get off the couch yet.
“The point is to teach me things about sex and I’ll need to know this.” You counter, eyebrows furrowing in confusion at why he’s rejecting you.
He finds it a little amusing that you’re so used to him accepting your requests for things that you’re genuinely lost when he doesn’t immediately fold for you. It’s a bratty habit he should have corrected months ago but he can’t find himself caring too much, liking how dependent you’d become on him.
Jack has to contemplate this because he knows you’re right, stomach turning a little at the reminder that you’re going to use whatever he shows you on somebody else down the line.
That selfishly makes him want to cancel this whole thing and leave you completely clueless, hopefully to the point you decide to swear off sex with other men entirely. But he knows how stubborn you are and how stuck you get on something once it catches your attention, figuring you’d get on a dating app and find some idiot in finance to take your virginity as soon as he put an end to this arrangement.
So he lets you slip to your knees off the couch, taking his hesitance to decline again as a positive sign.
“Wait.” He interjects and you freeze, sighing in annoyance as you prepare for him to give another reason you can’t do it. Instead he pulls one of the pillows off the couch and slides in near his feet, your eyes softening as you shift so you’re kneeling on the plush cushion instead of the floor.
“How do I start?” You ask softly, eyeing the bunched up fabric in front of you with interest. He has to stare at the ceiling for a second, slightly losing it at the sight of you kneeling on his floor between his legs. “Do I have to get you ready?”
“No.” He says it gruffly and you tense again, his tone way sharper than he’d meant for it to be. “It’s… I’m ready baby trust me. Just give me a second.”
That calms you down immediately, enough that you rest your head on his knee as you try your best to be patient. His eyes go back to you at the touch and he watches the way you squirm against the pillow, clearly still riled up from the kissing and maybe even the thought of taking him in your mouth.
“Has it been awhile Jack?” Your voice is ridiculous now, clearly teasing him and developing this soft purr that almost irritates him.
His hand goes into your hair at the sound of it, tightening enough that you lift your cheek off his knee and stare up at him with wide eyes.
“Watch it.” He says lowly, using his free hand to untie his scrub pants as you eye the movement with fascination. Your lips part as you stare at his hand and the way his fingers twist the strings, he has half the thought to make you choke on the digits before you try and take anything bigger but your attitude has left him feeling just as impatient. “We’ve got to work on your manners if you want me to teach you.”
That makes you snap back into focus, frowning at his words and shaking your head as you straighten up on your knees.
“I have manners Jack.” You’re clearly trying to convince him, small hands smoothing over his thighs.
He starts to deny it but he’s cut off when you lean forward to nuzzle against him, face pressing right where he’s currently aching under two layers of fabric. His breath catches in his throat and he instinctively tightens the hand that’s in your hair, mumbling out an apology when you make a pained noise but barely loosening it after.
He feels like he needs to keep it there to have any sort of control in this situation, especially given the way you’re almost desperately rubbing your face on his lap.
“Should’ve told me you were this needy.” He half scolds as he shifts his waistband down lower, waiting for you to notice and pick yourself up just long enough to get his pants down.
You don’t give him long at all before you’re back to obsessing over the sight in front of you, eyes fully dazed now that it’s just his boxers separating you from putting your mouth on his hard length.
You’re clearly trying to be patient in an attempt to prove you have any sort of manners, a little pride rippling through him similar to the feeling he got when you had corrected yourself the other night to politely ask him for a kiss.
“You wouldn’t have done anything about it.” You say softly, not accusatory but confident in it like you know it’s true. You lean forward and kiss against the covered bulge, a groan leaving him. “You’re too good of a guy.”
“Clearly not.” He rasped just as you start to lose that faux patience you’re trying so hard to pretend you have, tugging at the waistband of his underwear and smiling softly when he lifts his hips off the couch without arguing. “And you know I never tell you no sweetheart.”
“Yeah?” You’re still trying to talk to him but now you’re completely lost in the sight of him half naked and sitting there with his legs spread in front of you, too desperate to even be intimidated by the size of him. “You would’ve let me do this months ago Jackie?”
He sighs and tightens his hold in your hair again, bringing you forward until he can feel your breath where he’s most sensitive.
Your eyes flicker up to him and the sight is devastating for how deprived he’s been, a pretty young girl like you sitting so nicely on your knees for the first time ever. He can barely even feel that guilt and slightly sick sensation, knowing how perverted it is that he could probably get off just looking at your face and thinking about the way he’s about to corrupt you.
“Stop talking.” He instructs gruffly and you nod eagerly, eyes back on his length and only now looking a little nervous as you swallow before your lips part in anticipation. “You sure you want to do this?”
“Want it so bad.” You don’t hesitate to answer and your voice is a little whinier, swaying forward like you don’t even realize you’re doing it.
Jack lets you move until you’re right there, eyes locked on your face as you give him a nervous look and try to take him in your mouth.
It’s awkward and you’re tense, expression full of hesitation like you’re waiting for him to tell you how to do it properly but he lets himself bask in this for a few seconds.
He knows it’s sick but he finds you the most beautiful like this, confused and desperate to please him without knowing how to. You go between sucking and licking at the tip of his length and while it feels good, no doubt about that especially after how long it’s been, it’s nothing compared to how clearly inexperienced you are.
Finally, he snaps out of his sick fantasies of watching you embarrass yourself trying to please him, and he decides to actually do what you’d asked and teach you something.
“Relax your jaw baby. Just take what you can okay?” His voice is low and gentle, hand loose in your hair but clenching into a tight fist whenever you brush against his sensitive skin with your teeth on accident or try to overachieve and take him deeper.
You do seem to calm down a little now that he’s finally speaking, shoulders slumping and your eyes fluttering shut as you get used to the feeling of him on your tongue.
You’ve barely taken him at all but he’s transfixed by the sight, perfectly content to sit here and cock warm your mouth until you were ready to move him down your throat.
He watches you closely as you pull back to take a few deep breaths, pouting a little at his length and hesitating before you’re touching him with your hand. It’s all experimental, tugging and feeling the skin against your palm while he grunts above you and tries to control himself.
It’s barely sexual on your end considering how fascinated you are by the new experience but he’s halfway losing his mind knowing this is the first time you’re touching somebody like this.
“I gotta go soon sweetheart.” He says and your eyes finally snap back up to him, turning a little red considering you’d been caught just staring at his length as you touched him. “You can play with me all you want after my shift.”
Now you’re full on blushing but you nod your head obediently and lean back in to take him in your mouth again, a little more confident now as you lick around the head and repeat movements whenever it draws a sound out from him.
Jack can barely stand it and he has to put both hands in your hair to keep himself from fucking up into your warm mouth, groaning from the effort it’s taking and considering telling you to get back on the couch before he goes too far with you too early.
You’re clearly just as impatient because you try to take more of him finally and immediately gag at the sensation, pulling back and frowning up at him.
“Help Jackie.” Your voice is whiny and has a little rasp to it now and he kisses his teeth at the sound, petting your hair back out of your face.
“I can’t help with that baby, you’ve just got to practice.” He tries his best to soothe you but you’re clearly frustrated.
“Can’t you just force my head down?” You’re rubbing his thighs as you speak in that ridiculously bratty voice, wiggling around on the pillow like the thought alone is exciting you.
He wants to say no, wants to tell you why it’s such a terrible idea for him to forcefully fuck your throat right before he has to go to work. There’s a million reasons he should be rejecting you right now but that sick voice in the back of his head is struggling to get the words out, especially when you go back to softly kitten licking at his length to keep him hard.
“Fuck you’re nasty.” He gruffs out and your eyes light up at the words, nodding your head and taking him back in your mouth as you keep trying your best to fit him deeper. “You want me in your throat that bad?”
You can’t talk now but your desires are obvious.
He eyes the way you’re shifting on the cushion below you, adjusting his foot the best he can so it’s between your thighs as you kneel. That seems to make you even more desperate, rubbing against him almost feverishly now as you try to focus on having him in your mouth.
There’s no option to do so when he brings his hands back to your hair, silently showing you he accepts your request when he moves his hips off the couch and keeps your face firmly in place so he can push deeper down your throat.
He feels you gag slightly around him but your eyes roll to the back of your head at the same time and you hump against his foot even faster so he can’t find it in himself to stop, thrusting slowly to make sure you don’t end up getting sick or feeling too sore by the time he’s finished.
Jack knows this is far beyond teaching, he’s not even speaking anymore and instead just using your throat to get himself off but you’re even more eager for it than him and he’d never deny you anything you asked for.
“This tiny little throat.” His voice is nearing a growl as he helps move your head up and down his length, reveling in the way you gag and drool around him. “You’re doing so good baby.”
The praise seems to do it for you more than anything else, rubbing your core against his foot so eagerly that you can barely focus on sucking him off. You’re getting too messy to control yourself, mouth slipping off every few thrust before you whine at the loss and immediately take him back in your throat.
Jack takes pity on both of you, both for his own sanity and because he can’t stop thinking about the fact he’ll need to leave as soon as this is done.
You’re clearly upset when he pulls you off, making a loud noise of disagreement that barely sounds like an actual word and frowning at him when he sends you a stern look and wraps his hand around himself instead.
You seem to forget your anger pretty quickly as you watch him touch himself, hips slowed down to a slow rock against his foot as you stare at his length and the way he’s making himself feel good above you.
Jack has to look away when he comes because he feels pretty close to forcing your head back down and making you swallow it, although half positive you’d actually enjoy that more than him judging by how eager you are to try things.
You’re laying your head back on his thigh while he grunts and curses, tightening his fist and going back to staring at your face just for a brief moment so he has a clearer picture to think about.
It’s quiet in the living room afterwards and he feels an odd sense of embarrassment, a rare vulnerability considering you’re still fully clothed and kneeling on the floor. He fixes one of those problems by effortlessly pulling you up by your arms, settling you back against the cushions.
He stands and pulls his pants up while he does so, knowing he’ll have to shower off before he can go to work and get a new pair of scrubs anyways.
There’s a second of hesitation before he goes to get you some water, leaning over your dazed frame and kissing you softly.
“Was it good?” You ask quietly against his mouth, hand tangling in his hair like you don’t want him to go anywhere without answering you first. “You stopped me.”
“You were perfect.” He answers simply and he means it, would probably feel the same if you had accidentally bit him though.
“I wanted to taste you.” You’re pouting again and every time he thinks he gets used to you, you prove him beyond wrong. He sighs and leans further against you on the couch so you’re fully sinking into the cushion below you.
“Next time.”
It comes out before he can stop it and he fully plans to backtrack but your eyes light up at the idea of him letting you do that again so he doesn’t, letting it linger for a few seconds.
“Not when I have to leave you right after. You won’t like it and I don’t want to hurt you.” He’s talking in the stern and no nonsense way he does at work, trying to make sure you understand even though you’re slowly starting to smile as he speaks and he realizes you’re probably not paying any attention.
“You won’t hurt me Jack.” You whisper and it’s so sweet he almost considers calling in so he can stay with you a little longer. “Not in a way I won’t like.”
That makes him scoff out a laugh, a rare sound from him and you look even more pleased at the noise.
“You don’t even know what you like sweetheart.” He says softly and brushes your hair out of your face, letting both his fingertips and eyes trail down your neck until he reaches your collarbones. “But I’ll show you.”
“You’ll show me?” You’re teasing him now, biting your bottom lip to try and hide your smile to no avail.
“Yeah I will.” He smiles too and kisses you again, a little too soft considering what you actually are to each other.
He eventually manages to get off of you long enough to get you some water, watching carefully as you take a few sips and rubbing your knee when you wince at first. He wants to feel guilty for making your throat sore but he can’t, sick enough to admit he just feels the urge to make you take him deeper next time to see if you’ll really let him.
You’re still laying on his couch when he gets out of his brief shower, having changed his pants and taken a few deep breaths while staring in the mirror to try and get ahold of himself. He needs to switch back to reality for atleast a few hours, become the weathered doctor who doesn’t lose his mind over a pretty girl asking for favors.
You set your phone down on your chest, giving him your full attention as he moves towards the door to tug his shoes on.
There’s no indication you plan to leave before he does but he can’t find it in himself to mind the intrusion, going back over to the couch to give you a kiss on the forehead.
“Staying here?” He says in a low voice and you nod eagerly, eyes locked on his.
He lets himself think about his entire way to work, the image of you being there when he gets home from a hard shift. It had been a long time since he had someone to come home to and having you across the hall was already a gift within itself.
Now you’d crossed a line and if he let himself forget the terms and conditions, the fact you were loosely using him just to end up with somebody else as the actual end goal, then he could pretend for a moment that you were the person he got to crawl into bed with when work was tough.
Despite how much he thought about you during his shift, every moment he wasn’t being bombarded with questions or saving somebody’s life on autopilot, you weren’t actually there when he came back.
He knew it before he even opened the door, confirmed by how neatly the pillows on the couch were placed again and the fact your glass of water was rinsed and put away in the dishwasher.
You’d made it look like you were never even there and he knew you still enjoyed his company, maybe enjoyed the newly added sexual dynamic even more, but that didn’t mean you wanted to comfort him after he lost a patient or help soothe him when his leg was bothering him from standing all day.
Jack had to remind himself of the part he was playing in your life currently and try his best to not be disappointed.
It’s two days until he sees you again and he thinks it’s one of the longest spans you’ve gone without talking in almost a year.
He’s just about to start really acting out of character by banging at your front door and asking if you’re avoiding him when he runs into you downstairs, freezing as soon as he enters the lowly lit laundry room to find you leaning against one of the washers and looking extremely bored.
You’re as beautiful as always, casually dressed in nothing but an old band shirt that hangs off your shoulder and a pair of shorts so small he’s pretty sure it’s just boxy underwear.
You don’t look up when he comes in until his leg slightly catches on the step, accustomed enough to the sound of the light dragging he sometimes can’t stop from happening when he’s extra tired.
It’s a relief to find that you don’t have any awkwardness on your face, no sign of being uncomfortable or upset with him.
Then he figures that might just be worse.
He would just about die if he had done anything that made you want to avoid him but the alternative seems to be that you just didn’t want to speak to him and that makes his chest sting.
There’s nothing but silence and the rattling of the old washer as it rocks back and forth on the cement floor, both of you seemingly having decided to not speak to each other first.
(sorry for the brief awkward spacing tumblr says this is too long)
It’s another five minutes of the now awkward stretch of quiet before you clear your throat, turning to face him where he’s fidgeting with his laundry baskets broken handle just to have something to focus on.
“So I went on a date last night.” You say softly, eyebrows raised like you’re genuinely interested in his reaction.
His stomach turns but it’s a relief to have you looking at him again so he takes it, swallowing hard and racking his brain for a response that’s appropriate.
“How’d it go?” He’s asking out of politeness but he’s silently praying you suddenly decide you don’t want to tell him about it. It wouldn’t even make him feel better to hear it had ended terribly, not wanting you to feel any type of negative emotions even if it technically was in his benefit.
He definitely can’t take any sort of mention of you being with another guy physically. He knows it’s coming eventually, it’s the sole purpose behind why he even gets to touch you, but he’s not ready just yet.
You’re quiet again and he really looks at you now, takes in the silent contemplation on your face and the way you tap your fingers on the metal of the washer for a second before pushing off of it entirely.
Then you’re in his space again and it’s like an instinctive move to cup your face, hand on your waist so he can lightly push you back against the machine he’d been in front of. You touch his chest, lightly rubbing in soft circles, and he wants to sigh in relief if that wouldn’t be so painfully obvious.
“Wasn’t a great time.” You whisper and your eyes are on his lips as you speak.
His eyebrows raise and his hand on your body tightens slightly at the same time he uses his thumb to press under your chin and make you tilt your jaw back.
“Why not?” He hates the thought of getting details but he needs to know some idiot from a dating app hadn’t done anything to hurt you.
You don’t answer right away, just standing there and letting your eyes scan over his features on rotation. You finally let out a small breath like you’re about to speak but it never comes, small hands moving to grip his biceps.
“Did he touch you?” He can’t stop himself from asking even though the question makes his voice come out low enough that your eyes flash with surprise for a second, snapping away from his mouth to meet his stare again like you’re looking for something in it.
You shake your head immediately, squeezing his arms and shifting against the vibrating machine.
He’s kissing you then and he tells himself it’s out of relief, the knowledge that you’re still untouched by anybody except for him instantly making this conversation easier.
You’re returning it right away and he’s pleasantly surprised by how quickly you caught on to the type of kissing he likes, his personal preference. He figures he should eventually tell you that not ever guy was going to like your constant licking into his mouth but for now he lets it be, wants you to be trying to please him specifically and not whoever you’d use these lessons with.
It’s ridiculously cute how desperate you get, only needing a few seconds of your tongue inside his mouth before you’re arching off the machine and making soft noises against his lips.
His hands are all over you as soon as he notices the state of you, sliding down to cup your ass with both palms and tug you tighter to his frame.
That makes you out rightly whimper, clumsily trying to hitch a leg around his waist and sighing in relief when he holds your thigh to keep it there. The wet sounds of your mouths fill the small room, body slightly shaking both from need and from the way the washer is vibrating against your back.
“Missed you.” You whimper it out when he pulls back to let you breathe, kissing down your jaw and tightening his grip on the soft curve hidden under your underwear. “Didn’t call me.”
“Were you waiting for me to call baby?” He asks softly, despite how much it had been bothering him, he would never want to make you feel guilty for not reaching out to him after what you’d done.
You don’t answer so he pulls his head out of your neck to look at your face, seeing the soft frown and the hesitation in your eyes.
“Hey.” He breaths out and pushes your hair back to get your attention fully on him, your body softening and completely leaning against his to the point you’d definitely fall if he took a step backwards. “I wanted to give you space. Let you decide when you wanted to continue this, if you did.”
“I don’t want space.” You counter and it’s a little past bratty but he’s so beyond fond of you that he can’t help but let the corners of his mouth turn up at the sound of it. “You’re supposed to take care of me.”
He’s not sure when your dynamic became this way but he feels it as much as you apparently do, knows it’s his duty to make sure you’re always fine and not needing anything he can’t fix. Now there’s the added element of making you feel good, touching you in ways you’re not used to and showing you what pleasure can be like, and he’s not taking it lightly.
“Then I’ll call.” He say softly and your eyes lock on his as you nod in agreement, his hand cupping your cheek so he can keep you still enough to kiss you briefly. “You want me to chase you and I’ll chase you.”
“Right now I just want you to kiss me.” You whisper and he doesn’t need to hear anything else.
You’re back to kissing and it’s feverish now, more tongue than anything and your hands groping each other anywhere you can touch.
He’s lifting you up off the ground just so he can press himself between your legs and swallow the soft needy noises you let out at the feeling, wrapping your legs tightly around his waist so he can’t pull away at all. You’re pressed back against the metal with his hands under your shirt and wrapped around your frame to make sure you don’t fall, thick fingers splayed out against your ribs.
It’s getting hotter in the room and it’s mostly due to the way you’re whining and trying to roll your hips into him, unsuccessful considering how hard he’s got you pinned back to the washer.
“Jack please.” You pant and pull away from his mouth, tucking into his neck and rubbing your soft cheek against his stubble like a needy cat. “Please touch me. Do anything.”
He’s grunting at the request and gently setting you back down on your feet so he can free up a hand, using it to push your shirt up to your neck. He’s not too surprised to find that you’re not wearing anything underneath and your surprised gasp swallows the sound of his low groan.
You’re whining lewdly when he leans down to press kisses against your skin, middle of your breast first to avoid putting his mouth where you really want it. You’re panting, chest rising and falling under his mouth, and tangling a hand in his ash colored curls to try and steer him where you need him.
He wants to smack your hand away and warn you to be patient but he wants you too bad to try and discipline you right now, letting his mouth latch onto to one of your hard nipples so he can hear whatever noise that brings out of you.
It’s loud and intoxicating, his head spinning a little as he keeps sucking and licking your skin, letting your shirt rest on the top of his head so he can use his other hand to roughly grope your other breast and make sure you’re getting equal attention.
“Oh fuck Jack.” You’re whimpering and trying to hump against nothing, back arching as you whine and hold him to your body like he has any plans of getting away from you. “T-that feels so good.”
“Come upstairs.” His voice is so rough it surprises himself, picking his head off your chest and letting your shirt drop so he can kiss you swiftly.
You frown at the loss of contact, rubbing your nose against his and still lightly petting his hair.
“Why not here?” You ask softly and he gives you a disapproving look that makes you sigh and rest your forehead down against his shoulder for a few seconds while you catch your breath. “It’s too far.”
He thinks for a moment before he’s adjusting his stance to pick you up off the ground, abandoning your laundry and his that both likely need to be switched out soon. He’d gladly let it sit and wash it again later if it means getting you up to his apartment as fast as possible.
You make a small surprised noise and cling to him, arms behind his neck and legs wrapped around his middle and he makes his way up the few stairs towards the elevators.
“Jack your leg.” The sight of the steps seems to remind you of his disability and he’d be more irritated by your worry if it didn’t sound so genuine.
You clearly don’t ever think too much about his leg restricting him, never shying away from asking him to lift heavy things or walk with you down to the store. You don’t treat him like he’s fragile or any less of a man for having limitations and he’s always liked that about you, same way he somehow likes your gentle concern even though it would have bothered him if it was anybody else.
“Think I can’t throw you around because of my leg?” He mumbles and you tense in his hold as he walks like you think he might be serious before you’re breathing out a laugh and hiding in his neck.
Jack finally gets back to his apartment, going crazy from the way you’d started to kiss his jaw and whine impatiently in the elevator. Your hands run up and down his arms like you’re marveling at the strength it takes to carry you for as long as he was, making soft needy noises and squirming around.
He can’t even care about the possibility somebody could see him with you, one of the neighbor he’d lived next to for years watching as Jack Abbot carries the much younger girl next door through his entry way as she whines for him to touch her more.
“Calm down baby.” His voice is soft once he gets to his room, setting you down on his bed and taking a few seconds to stare at you as you lay there and pout up at him.
You’re the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen and his gut twists a little at the observation, a mixture of desperate unfamiliar need and the same guilt from before accompanied by a new layer of it.
He thinks of his wife for the first time in a while. He used to spend every waking second with her on his mind but she had naturally started to fade from his mind once he met you, something he hadn’t even noticed until you’d already been living across the hall for a few months.
You’d came over for the first time and asked him to borrow some ingredients, strolling around his living room and eyeballing the photos on his walls while he poured some sugar into a small tupperware bowl for you to take back to your place. You had turned to him with a curious face and asked him where his wife was, obviously confused considering you’d never heard of her before despite how frequently you and him small talked.
That was the first time Jack noticed how little he’d been thinking of her lately, not just in the painful mourning way he’d been suffering through since she passed but in general too.
Now he was waking up in the morning and anticipating the next time you’d knock on his door, focusing on his health again so he could occupy you on your walks and not picking up too many extra shifts at work just incase you needed something and he wasn’t there.
Jack was thinking about her again now as you laid on his bed but only because he couldn’t remember the last time he had wanted something this bad, trying to compare the feeling of you to how he felt in his marriage and still thinking it fell short.
He had loved his wife, undoubtedly, but he craved you in a way that almost felt inhumane.
“You’re being mean to me.” You say softly to break him out of his trance, having zoned out just staring down at you and the way your chest was rising and falling with every deep breath.
“I’m never mean to you honey.” He whispers back and finally moves to lay down with you, hovering over your frame and running a hand from your waist to your ribs as he kisses you softly. “I take good care of you, don’t I?”
It’s a bit mean to throw your words from earlier back in your face, especially as he lets his mouth trail down your neck. You make a whiny noise and grip his shoulders, nodding your head and shifting under him so your legs are spread further.
“Yes Jack yes, you take care of me.” You’re practically whimpering and he feels almost drunk from how easily you get this needy, pausing his soft kisses to shift up on his knees and tug your shirt over your head.
You’re the prettiest sight he’s ever seen and he can’t help himself from bringing his mouth right back to your chest, drinking in the way you gasp and moan while he’s licking and sucking on your nipples. His other hand is softly groping whichever breast he doesn’t have his mouth on at the moment and your backs arching off his bed, scratching his shoulders through his shirt.
“Please touch me.” You’re begging after only a few minutes of the slow torture and he lets out a sharp breath, shifting so he’s more to the side of you than on top.
You’re quiet when he rubs his hand down your chest and over your stomach, rubbing at the waistband of your underwear for a few seconds just to hear the way you pant before he’s smoothing over your thighs.
Your back is basically against his chest as he hooks your leg over his to make sure yours are nice and spread for him, kissing your neck softly when he rubs your hips above your underwear.
You bare your neck for him easily and he’s selfish in the way he marks you, sucking any part of your warm skin he can reach so you’re left purple and red all over. He wants anybody you see for the next week or two to know you’ve been with somebody else, to see the claim he laid to your body even if he doesn’t let things go as far as you want him to take it.
Jack doesn’t need to be asked twice to touch you, big hand leaving your hip so he can fully palm your core.
Your reaction is just the way he had hoped it would be, sharp gasp leaving your lips as you instantly buck up against his touch. You whine desperately when he goes back to rubbing your thigh instead, giving you a second to work yourself up to the point he wants you to be at.
“Jack.” You don’t even sound like yourself now and it’s intoxicating, so pleading and broken. “Please.”
“Please what?” He’s practically whispering, perfectly calm and the direct opposite of how broken you sound just from him lightly touching you.
He moves you so you’re fully between his legs, back against his chest as he cages himself around you to keep you from moving.
You’re practically shaking, whimpering and moving your hips against nothing with the hopes he’ll cave and end up touching you again. You’re distracting to look at, body bare except for the pathetic excuse of underwear shorts you’d been wearing under your shirt, like you’d just been hoping he would be the one to find you in the laundry mat.
He has half the thought to make fun of you for that, make you tell him exactly what you were thinking when you left your apartment wearing so little, but he doesn’t think you could handle him saying much at all right now especially not something so demeaning.
“I’m going to touch you.” He says gently instead and kisses the side of your head, letting his hand go back to groping your chest just to make sure you stay worked up.
Even though he doubts at this point he even needs to touch you for that to happen.
“Yeah yeah.” You’re nodding in agreement, seemingly pleased at his decision as you relax back against him and let him touch you freely.
His other hands back between your legs now, letting you get used to the feeling of somebody touching you where you’re most sensitive. He’s just rubbing back and forth, listening to the way you pant and pulling back whenever you start to try and shift against his hand on your own.
“You’re wet just from that?” His voice is a little mean now but you don’t seem to mind, trying to clamp your thighs around his hand but being stopped by the sharp swat he sends to your skin. You wince but move your foot back to the other side of his leg so yours stay open, pouting softly at the silent punishment. “Answer me when I ask you something.”
“I’m always wet around you.” You admit with an embarrassed tone lacing your words, squirming like you wish you could hide yourself from the way he’s staring down at your body. “Want you so bad.”
“I want you too.” He kisses the side of your head, still rubbing you with just enough pressure to make you feel the friction but not to actually get off. “Gonna make you feel so good, you’ve just got to be patient.”
“Stop being scared to hurt me.” Your voice is shaky but as firm as possible, trying to show him you’re a big girl and can handle a little bit of the roughness he’s so clearly holding back.
It’s obvious in the way he was grabbing your throat your first kiss, moving your body around easily whenever he needed to, and scolding you just enough for you to be able to catch the mean tone seeping in accidentally.
Jack clearly has a darker side to him that he’s not letting you see and it’s obviously frustrating you, wanting to be taken seriously.
“I’ll hurt you if that’s what you want sweetheart but not for your first time.” His words don’t leave any room for argument so you don’t even try, sinking back against his firm chest and letting out a deep breath when he shifts behind you and presses himself forward.
It’s not long before you’re not able to wait anymore and he lets you scramble to tug down your underwear, keeping his fingers lightly rubbing between your folds and watching as you struggle to get the fabric past his insistent hand.
Eventually he lets you pull them off and then he’s right back to touching you, bare this time. You both suck in a breath at the contact and you’re practically laying down from how far you’d slid down his chest, spreading your legs as wide as they can go and whimpering while he touches you.
“Do you touch yourself like this baby?” He can’t help the curiosity, the image of you in your bed trying to get yourself off stuck in his mind now.
You shake your head and frown, trying to twist your neck to look at him but being stopped when he uses his free hand to roughly grip your chin and make you keep your eyes on the way he’s touching you, thumb on your sensitive clit now while you roll your hips the best you can.
“No I…” You can barely think let alone speak, clearly struggling as you make a pained and desperate noise. “I get nervous.”
Jack sighs and collects some of your wetness on his middle finger before finally pressing it against the tightness of your hole, not pushing in just yet but teasing it with light pressure and letting you get used to the feeling.
“When you’re with somebody, they should always be this gentle with you at first.” He’s saying softly, remembering that he’s supposed to be actually teaching you something and not just getting you off because he desperately wants to.
You frown deeply as he starts to talk and he doesn’t really understand why, thinks maybe you’re still being pouty that he won’t get rougher with you.
He tries to distract you by finally pressing a finger inside of you and it seems to work for a second, another gasp leaving you as you instinctively clench around the intrusion. He groans, his length throbbing against your back at the thought of being fully inside you instead of just a finger.
“Fuck you’re tight.” He rasps and buries his face in your hair for a few seconds to try and collect himself enough to keep teaching you something, anything at all so he doesn’t keep letting himself think this is something it isn’t. “They’ll have to really get you stretched before anything okay? You need to remember that baby.”
It bothers him so much he can barely focus, the thought of somebody not taking their time with you. He doesn’t want to picture you with another man in general but especially not in a way that hurts you, leaves you too sore the next morning with nobody to take care of you.
He’s so distracted by his own thoughts that he doesn’t notice your face stiffening at first, body a little tenser against him even though you’re still softly squirming to try and get him to put his finger deeper inside you.
“Jack stop.”
He does so immediately and goes to pull out of you before you’re making a panicked noise and closing your thighs around his hand. He lets you this time, pauses all movements just to wait for whatever it is that you need.
“N-no don’t stop that, god please don’t stop that.” Your voice is breathier now like the thought of him taking his hand away from you makes your chest tighten. “Just… stop talking about anyone else.”
It takes him a few seconds to register that and then his hands moving again, enough for you to relax and spread your legs back open.
You’re both quiet now as he adds another finger, lingering in the weight of your request and what it could mean if anything. He’s half sure you only asked because it was pulling you out of the moment, maybe making you nervous to think about doing this again with actual stakes, but the way you desperately tried to stop him from pulling away lets him pretend it was for another reason.
He’s selfish in the way he touches you now, thick fingers moving in and out of you while you cry and whine, gripping at his forearm whenever it feels like too much. He likes the way your nails dig into his arm when you think you might be close, thighs clenching and shifting when his thumb gently circles your swollen clit and how your lips part in breathy cries of his name.
He especially likes that.
You come with moans of his name filling the room and nobody else’s after you’d specifically asked him to stop mentioning other guys. Jack knows it’s selfish, even a little sick and perverted, but he could probably finish just from hearing that.
He’s throbbing against your back and he’s sure you’d be able to feel it if you were able to focus on anything after coming, body shaking a little as you pant endlessly and fall limb in his hold.
There’s a lot of softness that comes after, kissing the side of your head and being gentle in the way he cleans you up. It’s torture to be between your legs and getting to fully appreciate the sight of you for the first time without be able to touch you more but he doesn’t want to overstimulate you so early on.
He does let himself think about that vividly though, kissing against your thighs and picturing when he’s going to be able to put his mouth on you.
You’re quiet above him, eyes a little tired but still overly soft as you run your fingers through his hair and watch him wipe you down.
Then he’s back ontop of you and kissing you softly, shifting your back so you’re laying back against the pillows and not sitting up. It’s soft and bordering on romantic which makes his chest tighten, hoping you have no plans to leave his bed anytime soon.
“You okay?” He asks quietly against your mouth and he can feel you smiling, still touching his hair with one hand and letting the other drift down to the back of his neck.
“Felt so good.” You whisper back and your voice is a little hoarse from all the whining you’d been doing, nose bumping against his and then rubbing on his stubble for a few seconds. “Can I take a nap here?”
“You can do anything you want.” He says immediately, no hesitation as he gets up to get you one of his shirts and help you get comfortable, jumping at the opportunity to keep you with him just like he wanted.
Jack typically has a hard time sleeping through the night in general so he definitely never naps, needing to be truly past the brink of exhaustion to ever rest.
Yet he finds it to be the most simple thing in the world to crawl into his bed with you after taking off his leg, kissing you for a few more minutes before he’s wrapping you in his arms and tugging you back against his chest. He’s rubbing your stomach softly, hand under the shirt he’s given you, listening intently until he hears your breathing even out and then drifting to sleep right after you.
—
It’s one of the highlights of his decade to get to wake up with you still there, warm and making soft tired noises when you feel him start to stir.
His room is dark now other than the slight illumination coming from the moon outside of his window, casting just enough light for him to be able to watch your eyes flutter open.
You give him a soft sleepy smile and instinctively lean in to give him a kiss.
It’s easy to pretend that you are more than whatever this is when you act like this, mouths moving together sensually as if you have nowhere else you’d want to be.
Jack groans softly when your tongue pushes into his mouth, meeting it eagerly with his own and moving so hes hovering over you. Your hands are on his back, spreading your legs below him to let him slot between them.
He feels like a teenager again from how quickly he gets hard, your soft body under his putting him under some sort of spell. His hips shift and you let out a needy whine, scratching his shoulders lightly like you’re trying to encourage him.
You’re still making out slowly when he starts to thrust down against you, slow rolls of his hips to give you just enough friction to start to get desperate.
You’re tugging at his shirt fabric and he takes only a second to sit up and pull it over his head, back on you immediately and kissing you even more frantically. He’s moving your own shirt up towards your ribs but neither one of you wants to stop long enough to take it off, only able to when you need a quick second to take a breath.
It’s the first time you’ve both been nearly undressed together and he feels the effects of it instantly, your chest pressing against his when he lays back over you. Your skin is soft and hot to the touch, those now familiar soft whines leaving you when he lets his hand knead at your chest again.
“Jack please.” You’re whimpering and he finally stops kissing you in favor of sucking at your neck, bringing those marks from earlier back to the surface. “Can’t you just fuck me?”
He groans at the words and has to tuck his face in your shoulder, still rocking his hips against you even though they stuttered when you said that in that whiny voice of yours.
“Trust me, I want to fuck you so bad I can’t even think.” It leaves his mouth before he can stop it, not wanting to reject you again without making sure you know how badly he wants you.
“Then do it.” You’re begging now and he picks his head up to look at you, eyes wide and a little frustrated like you know he’s going to say no. You gasp when he thrusts down even harder, biting your lip as you stare at each other desperately. “Please Jack? Want you inside me.”
“I can’t baby.” He growls and kisses you to give himself a second to think without you arguing.
You’re quick to forget you were trying to convince him of something because you’re kissing him back deeply, angling your head so his tongue can get further and further inside your mouth.
He has that sick and perverted thought again that he’s coincidentally training you to be the perfect girl for him, kissing in a way he likes and not knowing how else to do it. Jack is selfish and wants everything you do to be for him, wants your body to instinctively move and react how he taught you regardless of who gets you next.
The thought of somebody else makes him want to forget his morals and fuck you like you’re begging him, be the one to take your virginity and fill you up for the first time.
He starts to reason with himself that it would actually be a good thing because Jack would never let himself hurt you in a way you didn’t like, he’d make sure you felt good around him and came so hard you weren’t able to see straight.
There’s nobody else who could fuck you like he could so he’s almost convinced himself that it’s a good idea when your phone rings on the nightstand.
You both stop, you’re completely tense under him and he sighs as he kisses you one more time and rolls off of you.
He lays there on his back as you sit up to grab your phone, screen a little too bright in the dark room and causing you to wince. He stares at your pretty face under the light as you open it up and answer it, not thinking much about the interruption despite the small disappointment he feels.
His hand is on your bare knee and rubbing your skin is soft circles, soothing both you and himself by keeping the contact.
“Hello?” Your voice is as soft and sweet as always, a little confused sounding which makes his eyebrows raise. “Oh Carter.”
Jack tenses up at the sound of a males name leaving your lips, his hand freezing and falling still on your knee. You’re avoiding looking at him as you listen to whoever it is speak on the other line, a deep voice bleeding through the speakers just enough for him to hear but not enough to make out the words.
“Tonight?” Your eyes go to the small digital clock on Jacks side of the bed, having to glance over his body in the process. You meet his eyes just for a second before they’re darting away again and it makes the pit in his stomach grow in understanding. “Of course I didn’t forget. I’ll be ready by nine.”
You’re hanging up after a quiet goodbye and now it’s suffocatingly silent in the room.
You’re still sitting up with your legs crossed under you, avoiding looking at him like you’re not still wearing his shirt and covered in marks he’d given to you. He waits for a minute before he’s sitting up and running a hand over his face, on the opposite side of the bed from you and facing the wall so you can’t see his expression when he finally gets himself to speak.
“You’ve got a date tonight?” He rasps out, trying his best to sound unaffected even though it comes out low and tight.
“I forgot.” You whisper back and you sound further away now, a glance over his shoulder confirms that you’d stood up off the bed and are searching for the shirt you’d shown up in so you can swap out of his. “He’s taking me to some art show downtown.”
Jack stares at you as you move around the room, eyes scanning over your body when you pull his shirt over your head and neatly fold it before putting it on his dresser. It feels really final to watch you change back into your own clothes, turning to meet his eyes and letting out a soft sigh when you see he’s already watching you closely.
He hopes it doesn’t show on his face, doesn’t want to be too obvious that he’s probably about two seconds away from throwing up.
“Carter.” He says simply and now you really stiffen.
You stand there for a few seconds like you’re waiting for something, eyes a little expectant and then full on disappointed when he scoffs and moves to put his leg back on so he can stand up and get out of the room that’s suddenly suffocating.
You leave his apartment and all the warmth goes with you.
He stands in his dark kitchen with regret sitting heavy on his chest, wishing he had stopped you and asked you to stay with him instead.
He isn’t sure if it’s the fear of rejection or his own guilt that stopped him but he knew he couldn’t ask you to do that. You deserved better than him and his baggage, his late hours at work and his dangerous hobbies that he needed to keep himself busy with to not think about the things that sent him spiraling.
He couldn’t imagine forcing you into a life where you had to explain him to your friends and family, ignore the curious and judging looks from his own when they realized just how young you were.
Jack knew you were lonely, it was obvious considering how much time you willingly spent with him and it was bad enough he’d taken advantage of your desperation for connection and nearly slept with you.
He wouldn’t be able to forgive himself if he stopped you from enjoying your youth, having a fun late night in the city surrounded by artsy people your age and not stuck on his couch watching old reruns because he’s too tired after work to properly take you out.
Jack hates himself for thinking all this and then still obsessively wanting you.
So much so that he purposely lingers near his truck right around the time you’d told your date you’d be ready. In his defense, he did actually need a few things from the corner store, so he sat in the parking lot and waited until he saw you come down.
Your date met you at the entrance of the lobby but didn’t take your purse from you or the jacket you were holding, smiled at you politely but couldn’t be bothered to open the door of his car or even wait for you to get in before he did.
It made Jack sick to his stomach all over again, jaw clenched as he sat in the dark interior of his truck and watched you drive off with some asshole only an hour after he’d had you sleeping next to him, panting under him and begging him to fuck you.
Jack decides right then that it all needs to stop, not just the sex lessons but helping you in general. He can’t be that person for you without wanting more, he’s selfish and possessive over somebody that was never supposed to be his and he knows it’s not fair to you.
So he doesn’t answer any of your texts that night, stays quiet in his living room whenever you knock on his door and waits until he hears you leave for work before he goes to check the mail.
He feels terrible for avoiding you but keeps trying to convince himself it’s in your best interest.
Jack is half asleep when the silent treatment finally breaks.
He’d fallen asleep on his couch accidentally, a beer can too many on the table in front of him and the same movie he’d been watching beforehand starting to roll credits. He should have been in bed sleeping after pulling a double at work but he couldn’t stand being in there lately, tossing and turning and trying to catch the faint scent of you lingering on his pillows.
There was a second of confusion, not sure why he had waken up in the first place, until the sharp knocks on his door made him flinch.
He was standing up on autopilot to open it, wincing at how stiff and sore his leg felt from falling asleep with it still on.
Any thought of his pain was gone the second he opened his door and saw your face, tears on your cheeks and your eyebrows furrowed in frustration.
“I need to talk to you.” You said immediately and he ushered you into his apartment, not necessarily wanting to be in an enclosed space with you but recognizing your tearful voice was far too loud to have a conversation in the hallway.
“What’s wrong?” He said softly and takes a few steps towards you on instinct, cradling your cheek and staring down at you when you nuzzle against his touch. “Why are you crying?”
“Because you’re an asshole.” You seem to remember that you’re mad at him because you step away from his touch, pushing his arm back down to his side and storming further into his apartment.
He stands there completely frozen as you toss your purse onto the chair near the couch, your eyes scanning over the beer cans and the obvious indent of where he’d been sleeping.
Then you’re back to looking at him and he knows what he probably looks like to you. The exhaustion is obvious on his face, clothes a little baggier than normal from a lack of taking care of himself and a constant awkward shifting on his leg to keep pressure off of it.
“Why aren’t you talking to me?” Your voice cracks a little and he deflates, taking a few steps closer again even though he doesn’t think you want him to touch you. “Did I do something wrong?”
“What?” His face faces in disbelief at the idea you could ever do anything wrong in general, especially to him. “Of course you didn’t sweetheart.”
“Then why?” Your words are louder now and they linger in the tense air, face pained as you wait for him to answer.
He sighs and runs a hand over his stubble that desperately needs some maintenance, wishes he had the time to plan out everything he wanted to say to you so he doesn’t accidentally fuck it up more than he already had.
“I just… I can’t do it anymore.” He lets his hands fall to his sides with a loud defeated clap and shrugs his shoulders. “I can’t watch you go out with these idiots knowing they can’t take care of you.”
He hopes what he’s trying to say is an obvious to you as it is to him, not able to bring himself to actually voice the fact that he has feelings for you beyond helping out a neighbor.
“You didn’t stop me.” You sound devastated, head shaking like you don’t believe anything he’s saying to you.
You’re not crying anymore thankfully but you look so hurt and disappointed that it makes him physically ache, moving to grab your arm softly and guide you to sit down on the couch with him.
“I waited for you to stop me and you didn’t.” You continue once you’re sitting beside him, legs pressed together in a small amount of addicting content. “Isn’t it obvious by now that I only want to be with you?”
The words hit him so hard that he doesn’t even have time to process them, eyebrows furrowing as the need for more information pushes him to speak.
“Why would that be obvious? The entire point of this was for you to be ready for other people.”
You look a little embarrassed at his sound logic, staring down at your lap where your hands are fiddling with your fingers. He sighs and takes one of them in his, squeezing it softly until you let your gaze drift back up to his.
“I don’t want other people.” You whisper, staring at him with a small amount of hope in your eyes like you’re just waiting for him to understand. “And I don’t want you to be with anyone else either. I just figured… you wouldn’t cross that line without a good reason.”
Jack thinks it’s a little juvenile of a plan but he also knows you’re not wrong. He would have never touched you without the feeling of helping you out with something, no matter how much he had wanted you since the second you moved in.
That little lie was all he needed to get himself through the shame and guilt, the ability to pretend it was for a greater cause and not because he was sick and desperate for a girl half his age.
“Jack.” You sigh when he doesn’t respond for a few seconds, turning so you can face him better and press a soft kiss to the side of his jaw. “Stop thinking.”
“That’s a big ask.” He mumbles back but he gladly turns to give you a real kiss, holding your face in his hand and keeping your mouth against his.
You kiss until you run out of breath, pulling back from him but rubbing your nose against his and letting your small hands grip his forearm desperately.
“Then just be with me for tonight.” You try to reason with him in any way you can, rubbing his arm softly and blinking at him with those big pretty eyes that drive him so crazy.
He stares at you for a moment before he’s standing up off the couch and tugging you along with him, ignoring the little surprised noise you make in favor of lifting you up with his hands on the back of your thighs. You gasp and then giggle softly once he’s got you in the air, arms behind his neck and legs around his middle as he starts to walk you to his room.
“You’re crazy if you think you’re going anywhere after tonight.” He tells you once he gets you settled on his bed, kissing the smile off your face as he climbs over you.
It’s a direct mirror of the other night as you get each other undressed fully this time, kissing the entire time and tasting his tongue deep in your mouth when it starts to get more heated.
“You’re going to be mine.” He says firmly once he’s got you in nothing but your panties, making sure your eyes are locked on his when you hear it. His free hand is all over your body, rubbing from your smooth thigh up to your chest and cupping around your neck for a brief moment while he waits for you to respond. “If I fuck you then you’re mine.”
“I’ve been yours.” You whisper easily, like you didn’t have to put any thought into it.
He falters, hand tightening around your throat on instinct and then releasing the pressure when he sees the way your eyes light up with interest.
“Don’t be nasty baby.” He’s teasing, kissing the corner of your mouth and bringing your leg up so it’s around his waist and he can press himself against you. “Gonna be gentle with you for your first time. You deserve it.”
“I want you to fuck me.” You’re pouting and gripping at him impatiently, running your hand between your bodies to touch his stomach and fidget with the waistband of his boxers. “That’s what I want Jackie.”
“Didn’t ask what you wanted.” He grumbles back, not caring that it comes off a little mean because you whine at the sound of how rough his voice had gotten and he knows you like it.
He’s back to kissing you and it’s filthier than normal, more tongue and spit than anything else.
You’re as vocal as always, whining and begging impatiently when he gets your underwear off and starts to touch you again.
Jack can barely think straight when he’s back inside of you, fingers pushing in easier this time now that you’ve felt the intrusion before and know what to expect. You’re gasping and crying out immediately, unintelligible words that he blocks out in favor of focusing on how you feel when he’s stretches you out.
“Want it so bad.” Your near sob gets through to him and he hisses through clenched teeth at how wrecked you sound already, shushing you softly and kissing your cheeks to try and calm you down.
“I know baby I know.” He’s whispering but you don’t seem to be hearing him, spreading your legs further to try and make space for him to slot back between them instead of using his fingers.
Jack is just as impatient as you but he’s terrified of hurting you too early, although throbbing so hard in his boxers that it’s painful to shift around.
It’s not long before it’s too much prep for both of you and you’re watching him with your chest heaving as he gets himself undressed the rest of the way, leg going on the floor right alongside your underwear that he had slowly pulled down your body before climbing back over you.
Your eyes go down between your bodies where his leg is and he tenses for a second despite knowing you mean well with the concern you have on your face.
“Let me ride you.” You say softly and his chest tightens with that old familiar shame he was still actively working on ridding himself of.
“I can fuck you.” He says gruffly and your eyes flash with regret, pouting a little like you’re worried you’ve hurt his feelings with your thoughtful suggestion. He kisses the expression off your face, a long deep one followed by a few quick pecks to try and ease your mind. “Next time baby.”
He says it both because he knows realistically he has limitations, there will be plenty of nights he’s not able to rail you into his mattress like he wants to, but also because he knows he would die a happy man the second he got to see you bouncing on top of him and desperately trying to get yourself off.
You look like you want to argue but you’re stopped when he’s pushing your legs apart and moving between them, sharp gasp leaving you when you feel his hard length pressing against you finally.
“Fuck Jack.” Your voice is sharp and already a little pained just from the dull sensation of him lining up with your hole, a growl leaving him at the sound of your distress.
“Just relax baby.” He says as softly as he can even though his throat feels tight and raw, kissing you gently to try and get you to calm down enough for him to push in. “You’re too tight sweetheart.”
“I… I can’t.” You let out another sharp cry when he shifts forward, nails digging into his shoulders so deep it makes him wince and lower his head down on your shoulder.
Jack has to use every ounce of self control he can muster to not just fully push himself into you and feel that tight heat he’s getting a taste of, that same sick and selfish part of him that wants you in the first place begging him to just take you already.
Instead he takes a few deep breaths before he’s kissing you with more focus, going back and forth between softly rubbing your side and massaging your inner thigh to try and urge your body to relax and accommodate him.
It’s a torturous ten minutes, especially due to your soft whimpers and the way you cry his name whenever he accidentally moves himself deeper.
Then you’re finally calm enough, bare chest rising and falling with the deep breaths he’d instructed you to take.
“Want you inside Jack.” You’re whining in his ear, clinging to him tightly and almost suffocating him when he immediately takes your queue and pushes in. You tense up again at the brief surge of pain and then let out a satisfied cry when you feel how full you are, clenching around him so ridiculously that he almost needs to pull out to give himself a break despite barely starting.
You’re both too overwhelmed to speak much more once he starts to actually fuck you, deep thrust accompanied by filthy kisses to keep you from waking up the neighbors with how desperately you’re whining for him to keep giving you more.
It’s pure need on both ends, your hips eagerly rocking upwards to try and meet his thrust sloppily while he uses his free hand to roughly push down on your stomach and keep you in place.
“Jackie.” It’s nearly a sob from you now and he can tell you’re close from how much tighter you’d gotten, almost an impossible squeeze for him to keep fucking you through.
He’s grateful you’re so inexperienced because he doesn’t think he’d last long either, not with the way you look as you stare up at him with teary and trusting eyes.
“I know baby you’re doing so good for me.” It’s more of a growl than anything else but he can barely think let alone speak enough to keep encouraging you. “Taking me so well sweetheart.”
“I’m so full Jack.” You whimper and cling to him tighter, nearly pulling him fully down on top of you and knocking him off his balance. “Feels so good.”
You’re stuttering through your sentences and slurring each word, eyes a little dazed in a way that makes him need to squeeze his shut to avoid coming inside you just from that fucked out look you have.
It’s more sweet than heated when you actually do finally reach your peak, holding onto him still and kissing the side of his jaw softly with your face buried in his neck as you squirm and shake your way through your orgasm.
He stays inside of you for as long as he can so you’re not shocked from the sudden feeling of emptiness but you’re squeezing him too tight and he has to pull out as soon as you’re starting to relax. You whimper immediately at the lose and pick your head up to pout at him, eyes panicked like you’re genuinely distressed he didn’t finish inside you.
He shushes you gently and kisses your face over and over, rubbing your side as he lets you fully come back to reality before attempting to clean either of you up or get you dressed.
“Jack.” You’ve got the needy and frustrated tone he loves so much and he knows you’re not dropping it, meeting your eyes with a fond sigh as you glance down at where he’d came instead of inside you.
“Next time.” He promises again and he means it, fully intending to have that conversation with you ahead of time now that he’s got you like this.
Jack isn’t too opposed to the idea of getting you pregnant, not even sure he’s able to with the amount of pills he takes, but he has to push down that thought along with the rest of the sick ones he gets when he looks at your needy eyes.
You smile a little at the loose promise and tuck yourself back into his shoulder, soothing any concern he has about what just happened or how you’re supposed to operate going forward.
He’s undoubtedly the luckiest guy in the world to have you wanting him like this, feeling safe in his arms and desperate for him in the way he’d been for you since the second he laid eyes on you.
Jack was never the type of person to take the duty of taking care of somebody lightly and he doesn’t plan to let you down for even a second, kissing the top of your head softly and letting himself forget about any shame or insecurity just to hold you for awhile longer.
i loveee that you do open endings
yay!!! my fics will almost always be open endings so you guys can determine how you want it to end up! i always have my own version of how it is though if you ever want a more canon answer feel free to ask lol
‘hooking up regularly with elvis but not letting him tell any of his friends because that’d be bad for your reputation (he’s a loser)’
please please pleaseeeee can we have some more thoughts on this cause you’ve awoken something in me now
IN THE SHADOWS
PAIRING ➩ elvis schmidt x reader
WC ➩ 8k
SUMMARY ➩ Elvis knows he’s a fool for obsessing over the rich girl from high school but he can’t help but think it’s fate when he runs into you again.
AUTHORS NOTE ➩ this had a whole different ending that involved johnny and reader offering to pay off his debt and blah blah blah but it was meant to be a drabble and clearly was getting a life of its own lol so i ended it early and left it open to interpretation NOT PROOFREAD
WARNINGS ➩ idk if it even needs to be said but i obviously don’t condone the real life story this movie is based off. this is my own interpretation of elvis who is clearly alot less extreme than the version we see and the events of the movie DONT happen in this fics universe. reader is slightly awful sorry
Elvis hadn’t thought much about high school since he left it but he did think about you fairly often.
It seemed pointless considering how far removed he was from it all, an entirely different person now living a life style his graduating class couldn’t relate to in the slightest. He hadn’t gone to college like the majority of them, didn’t have daddy’s money to fall back on, and he definitely wasn’t working an office nine to five.
So whenever he thought back to the brick walls and skipping lunch to smoke below the bleachers, you came to mind.
Not because you and him were necessarily close, in fact he was pretty sure you’d only spoken to him a handful of times. You were simply somebody who was not easy to forget for a multitude of reasons.
It had been almost four years since he last saw you and he still had yet to find anybody he found as attractive as you were to him, so radiant in your beauty that he would go to classes just to get to stare at you.
His friends would tease him for being so infatuated by you but still refusing to talk to you but Elvis knew better even as a stupid teenager.
Girls like you did not bother with guys like Elvis.
You’d probably be really sweet about it atleast, like you always seemed to be regardless if you were interacting with the nerdier kids or giving pity laughs to teachers attempting to crack jokes and bond with disinterested students. He figured you’d be gentle when you rejected him, smile at him pitifully and tell him you just didn’t have the time for a relationship right now.
You wouldn’t mention the fact his jeans were a size too big after being handed down from his older brother, his shoes had holes in them that he’d duct taped over to keep his socks dry, and he lived on the side of town you weren’t even allowed to drive through in your friends fancy cars.
You were just as aware of all this as he was but you were just too good to bring it up.
Elvis thought about you occasionally, whenever he was at a party to sell and caught a glimpse of somebody with your hair color or watched a commercial that had a pretty girl on a beach somewhere tropical.
He wondered what you were up to after graduation, if you’d gone to college far away or maybe worked in that fancy office your dad did. There was nobody in his life that talked to you either so he had no real way of finding out any of this, left to wonder forever and zone out thinking about what might have happened if he tried to talk to you back then.
That’s what he was currently doing, inbetween crooked shelves in a dusty liquor store that probably lost its license to sell half a decade ago.
Johnny preferred it here because they gave him discounts, most likely due to that slight fear on their face whenever him and his group approached the counter. Elvis didn’t really concern himself with things like that, keeping to the back of the crowd and waiting to speak when spoken to.
Somebody Johnny knew had come in about half an hour ago so now they were all stuck waiting for him to decide he was ready to leave, leaning back against the fridge doors and staring down at his dirty shoes.
The chime of the door bell ringing didn’t catch his attention, neither did the soft clack of heels against the peeling tile or the sound of perfectly manicured nails drumming against glass bottles in the next aisle over.
Elvis only looked up when he heard the guys around him whistling and hollering obnoxiously, the barbaric way they attempted to catch the attention of a pretty girl. His gaze shifted around the convenience store with curiosity and then froze when he landed on you.
You were already at the counter with a singular bottle of vodka, rolling your eyes at his friends catcalling you and paying them no further attention. He was completely stiff as he stared at you in a daze, taking in your appearance and trying to decide if you were really standing there or if his almost obsessive daydreaming about you had finally driven him fully crazy.
But you were real, he knew that was true when he saw you pop your gum in the same way you used to when you were bored in class.
He’d almost forgotten about the small habit until he saw it again so he knew he couldn’t have made it up.
He still hadn’t moved by the time you turned around and that same stupid feeling was hitting him again as you started to walk away, sending one more glare in the group’s direction before you were faltering as you passed by.
“Elvis?”
Your voice was just as soft and honey like as it had been back then although he’d never heard you say his name before so he had very little to compare that sound to. A wave of shock ran over him and he cleared his throat as he stood up straighter.
“Hey.” He couldn’t say anything else and it came out a little breathy, his friends around him half mumbling in confusion and half fully making fun of him out loud.
You didn’t seem to mind the noise anymore although it was far more disrespectful things being said now than they’d been spewing when you walked past. Elvis had half a mind to tell you that it wasn’t because of you, explain that they always made fun of him like that, but he figured letting you know how much of a loser he was probably wasn’t the biggest turn on.
“It’s been a while.” You’re smiling and tilting your head at him, almost everything he’s ever dreamed of yet he’s silently willing you to just keep walking. “You look different.”
Elvis doesn’t think he does, doesn’t think you even believe that either but he just gives you a small nod and purses his lips.
If he wasn’t surrounded by the people he is now then he’d probably have the courage to try to actually talk to you. He’s not a stupid teenager with a crush now and he’s imagined this conversation in his head a hundred times in the last few years but he can’t get himself to say anything personal in front of Johnny, definitely not anything that would make it obvious how much he thinks about you.
You stiffen for a second at his silence before you’re glancing towards the door and smacking your lips to break up the awkwardness, giving him a small wave and tucking your bottle under your arm as you leave.
Elvis feels the cold of the refrigerator against his back as he slumps down, running a hand over his face and groaning from the embarrassment of the encounter.
“You’re a fucking pussy.” Johnny shakes his head at him, surprisingly not as degrading as Elvis had expected for him to be.
He finally seemingly deems it time to stop loitering around the small shop as he heads to the counter, the entourage of idiots following behind him mindlessly. He knows it’s hypocritical to judge considering he’s normally right there alongside them, most likely the one having to balance all the bottles that they buy.
That exact thought stops him from moving anywhere, taking a few seconds to let the hot skin on his shoulders linger on the cold glass before he’s moving towards the exit.
You’re just opening your car door by the time he makes it outside, sun setting now but still perfectly complimenting the pretty tone of your skin and the shine to your hair as you push it over your shoulder.
“Hey.” His voice cracks and it’s a little too breathy, the accidental loud volume making you tense for a second before you whip around and see it’s just him. Your shoulders relax just as he makes it even worse for himself and almost trips off the curb.
He lands a little too close to you and looks up at your face to see your eyebrows raised in light amusement. He considers turning around and going back inside to avoid humiliating himself further but he’s already here now, standing in front of you and your car that’s way too fancy for this neighborhood.
“I’m sorry about that.” He finally manages to get out and your eyes lose the humor, softening at the apology. “Those guys are…”
“Disgusting?” You finish the sentence for him and lean back against the drivers side door, a little thrill going through him when he realizes you plan to talk to him for atleast a second.
“Yup.” He agrees easily, wincing a little at the bluntness of it. He wonders if that’s what you thought about him too when you saw him standing there like that, surrounded by their hungry looks and gross calls.
He wasn’t a saint, he’d been twenty and trying his best to fit into a crowd that didn’t see him as anything but a joke. There’d been half a dozen times he’d yelled something obscene at a girl on a sidewalk and some things Johnny had asked him to do in private that he still didn’t like to talk about but Elvis didn’t think he was a monster.
And he especially didn’t want you to think that about him.
“So those are your friends now?” You ask curiously and he’s distracted for a second by how pretty you are.
Either he had somehow forgotten the full extent of your beauty or you had just gotten prettier and prettier with age. You were practically radiant and he knew for sure he had never been so stricken by somebody before, barely able to think of the words he needed to respond.
“I wouldn’t call them my friends.” He replied and he was a little shocked by how true that statement felt.
He could call Johnny in an emergency but he’d only end up throwing it back in his face later on, making him run a risky errand or adding on to his debt for his help. They didn’t have anything in common other than the mutual blackmail they had on each other and Elvis could barely stomach the rest of the guys at all.
You hummed softly in contemplation, eyeing him for so long that he started to feel hot around the neckline of his shirt.
Loud voices behind him made him sigh, knowing the others had finished up and were seconds away from being back in your proximity. You looked over his shoulder at them and clearly made the decision you wanted nothing to do with that, opening your car door and getting in.
Elvis felt the defeat hit him hard and clenched his jaw, taking a few steps back so you didn’t accidentally run over his foot and mentally cursing himself for somehow fucking it up so bad twice in a ten minute span.
Then your window rolled down right as he was about to start walking away fully, your pretty polished hand sticking out at him with a paper between your fingers.
He hesitated for a second in confusion, long enough that you impatiently shook it in his direction. He moved quickly to grab it, feeling your skin brush his and send a shockwave up his arm as he glanced down at the scribbled down numbers.
“Call me?” You said softly so the others didn’t hear and he was nodding immediately, earning a small smile from you as you rolled up your window and pulled away.
Elvis didn’t have much time to bask in the amazement he was feeling, hands on his back and shoulders shaking and slapping him obnoxiously as they mimicked his voice in a higher pitch and called him unrepeatable words for fumbling his chance with you.
A part of him wanted to shove the sequence of digits in Johnnys face just to tell him to fuck off but he didn’t, stuffing the paper deep into his jean pockets and shoving them off of him as he rolled his eyes.
-
Elvis hadn’t expected to even keep communication with you let alone to be where you were at.
You’d hung out a few times casually after he finally worked up the nerve to make use of the number you’d given to him, going out to eat together a town over or walking your dog in a park closer to your house after the sun had started to set.
It progressed naturally from there into something more and he figured he must be the luckiest guy alive to have caught your attention somehow. You were perfection to him, his sole focus was on making sure you knew how much he liked you and doing whatever he could to prove he was willing to be the person you needed him to be.
You were sweet and gentle with him always, kissing him softly outside his beat down car and clinging to his warm skin when you’d go to the beach together.
He knew it was obvious he was distracted to anybody else, barely spending any time at Johnnys place and only ever picking up his phone calls when the messages started to get threatening. He still had a debt to pay off and he wasn’t stupid enough to try and skip out on it considering Johnny knew where he lived but that was as far as their relationship went now that he had you.
You hated everything about his life style and you made it clear, scolding him constantly whenever it interfered with your plans and begging him to find alternatives that didn’t involve him breaking the law.
Elvis would do anything you’d ask, similar to the hold Johnny had over him but coming from a much warmer place.
You were currently in his apartment, somewhere you hadn’t come for the first few months of hanging out. Both because he didn’t invite you often out of embarrassment and because you didn’t like the side of town he lived on.
The other week you had ran into one of your friends while leaving one of the fancy grocery stores near your house, your hand that had been holding onto his arm falling down to your side immediately. You didn’t introduce him, didn’t even address him at all even when your friend was sending curious looks in his direction.
You started to ask to come over more after that and Elvis tried to convince himself it wasn’t a big deal, figured you were just private with your relationships.
It was hard to feel any type of hesitance when you looked the way you did, laying on your stomach on his small twin sized mattress while you flipped through a magazine. You were just wearing one of his old band shirts and your underwear, smooth skin of your legs on display as you kicked them back and forth in the air.
He was drying his hair with a towel as he left the bathroom, tossing on a tank top and crawling up beside you, nearly on top of you as he softly kissed the side of your face.
You smiled at him and set down the magazine, rolling onto your back so he could kiss you properly.
Elvis had imagined a million different scenarios with you in high school, a lot of them involving a lack of clothes, but actually being with you was so beyond anything he could possibly make up.
You were the most beautiful human he’d ever seen in his life and for some reason you wanted him, soft noises leaving your mouth when he started to really kiss you the way you liked. His hand smoothed over your calf until he could hook it under your knee and hike your leg up near his waist, shifting so he was slotted down between them and pressed against you.
Your hands were in his damp hair, mouths moving eagerly as the wet sounds of your tongues drowned out the humming from his run down fridge and the static of the TV playing in the living room.
It was easy for Elvis to forget the unfortunate state of his life when he had you here with him. He didn’t care how hard things got financially, what kind of trouble his debt brought in his direction, as long as he got to have you like this for just a little bit longer.
He slowed down the kisses so he could look at your face properly, pecks here and there that made you giggle softly as you rubbed his bare arms.
Your face was overwhelmingly fond as you smiled up at him, nose rubbing against his soothingly.
“I was thinking.” He says quietly and you raise an eyebrow and hum in anticipation, slightly interrupted when he can’t resist kissing you again for a moment. “Maybe we should go out on a real date. There’s this place downtown I think you’d like.”
He’s pressing his lips down against yours as soon as he finishes the thought and you respond enough that he doesn’t notice the way you’ve stiffened up. It’s only when he pulls back to breathe that he registers it, the confusion on your face and the fact your hands have stopped rubbing him.
“What?” He falters at the expression and shifts on top of you.
“Elvis you know we can’t go on a date.” You say and you sound so casual about it that his stomach turns, eyebrows furrowing as he goes to sit up so he can focus better.
“Why wouldn’t we be able to?” He questions and now it’s your turn to furrow your brows.
You also sit up, leaning back on your palms with your legs still straight out across his bed, head tilting in that same cute way you did back in school. You’re watching him for a long few seconds like you’re trying to decide if he’s serious before your lips part in realization.
He tries to ignore the way his heart is racing when you shift closer to him, kissing him softly and being patient when he doesn’t immediately reciprocate.
It doesn’t take long for him to fold and start to move with you, deepening the kiss and letting his hands slide back over your waist so he can tug you closer. Your shirt had ridden up while you’ve moved around and he takes advantage of it, palms under the fabric to rub against your ribs and back.
He’d be stupid to ever deny you anything, especially when it involves getting to taste your tongue in his mouth and feel your hands tugging him back over you as you settle down against the pillows again.
You’re desperate, more than he’s ever seen you be despite the fact you can barely go half an hour without touching each other when you hang out.
His leg slides back between yours as he hovers over you again, pushing your shirt up until it’s bunched around your chest so he can rub the span of your stomach with his rough palm.
You’d told him before how much you liked the feeling of his calloused hands all over you, compared them to the boys you’d been with before him that hadn’t worked a single day in their lives.
He had laid there in bed quietly while you kissed each of his scarred knuckles and asked him to tell you the stories behind the marks on his body. You didn’t shy away from any of the scary parts, kissed his jaw lightly when it was hard for him to get some of it out and stayed the night for the first time when you realized his mood was a bit heavier after saying it out loud.
Elvis had never had anything like you in his entire life and he was terrified to ever be without you again.
The thought made him tense on top of you, kissing you for a few minutes longer until he was slowing it to a stop. You frowned and cupped his jaw lightly but didn’t try to force it, eyes darting all over his face as you rubbed his stubble with your fingertips.
“Why?” He breathed out again, a little airy after the make out session. “Why can’t we go on a date?”
You sighed like this conversation was just an inconvenience to you and his stomach turned uncomfortably, like his body knew something was wrong before his heart could accept it.
“Because we aren’t dating Elvis.” You finally broke the illusion with the simple statement, voice casual like you weren’t shattering his entire world. “I’m not your girlfriend.”
He was already getting off of you before you could even get the second part of it out, standing off the bed and dragging a hand down his face roughly like he was trying to wake himself up.
You stared at him blankly while he paced in front of the foot of the bed, sitting up with your back against the wall. You waited patiently for him to get his shit together but the sight of your impassive face only made him spiral more.
“I don’t think I understand.” He said suddenly and you sighed again at how hurt he sounded, bringing your knees up to your chest. “What are you even talking about right now?”
“You know we aren’t dating Elvis.” You scoffed and gestured in his direction like it was somehow supposed to be obvious.
He stopped pacing to stare at you in disbelief, eyebrows furrowed and body frozen in shock.
“You’re here all the time, we talk all day long on the phone, and I fuck you like I’m your boyfriend so please explain to me how I should know we aren’t dating.” His volume is louder now, something he would never even consider around you on any other occasion, but the slap of reality is so harsh that he can’t even think clearly.
Elvis figures for a second that he should have expected this, could have prepared himself if he had just realized that this was clearly too good to be true. He’d known since he was a preteen that girls like you didn’t fall in love with guys like him and he wasn’t sure why he had somehow convinced himself things were different now.
Even now, looking at you and how beautiful you were as you sat surrounded by his mess and sorry excuse for a life.
You looked ten times more expensive than anything he could even dream of owning, simply sitting in one of his shirts and staring at him with those eyes of yours.
Elvis had been saving up for weeks to even take you to that restaurant he had tried to casually mention, studied the menu and the prices based off of what he knew you liked to eat and slowly took from the amount he would give Johnny so money wouldn’t even be a thought when he finally took you on a real date.
“Elvis.” You were sitting up on your knees and scooting down to the end of the bed so you could reach out and grab his arms, tugging him towards you and wrapping yourself around his middle.
Your face was buried against his stomach that was heaving from the breaths he was taking, the embarrassing urge to cry hitting him hard.
It takes a few minutes for him to relax enough to make any sense of things, sinking back down on the end of the bed beside you. You’re still sitting on your knees and frowning as you lean against his side, kissing his jaw softly while he stares blankly ahead at his crooked dresser drawer.
He has a hard time feeling upset with you, he actually can’t remember a time he’d ever felt anything negatively about you in his entire life. Not even the same jealousy and stomach turning bitterness he’d get towards the other rich kids at school, never for you.
You deserved every bit of easiness in your life and he’d willingly live the same sad existence over and over if it met you got to have a warm house with a full fridge and two loving parents.
But Elvis was hurt.
And embarrassed because realistically, he should have known this was what was happening and maybe he did deep down.
You never let him meet any of the friends you talked about constantly, kept the polaroid photos of the two of you at the bottom of your magazine pile, and you’d practically thrown yourself away from him that time you bumped into your friend at the store.
He hadn’t seen you during the day in weeks, you snuck out before he woke up whenever you slept over and you’d been conveniently busy whenever he had tried to see you during a time you hadn’t decided.
Elvis had decided a long time ago that he would take whatever he could get from you so he couldn’t really blame you for only wanting him in private.
“Talk to me.” You whispered softly, rubbing his chest as you spoke and still kissing his skin like you’d be able to coax the words out of him.
“Why?” He tried not to sound so hurt and bitter but it laced the word, shaking his head and starting to shift away from your touch. “I don’t even think there’s a point in talking about this.”
You make a sudden dejected noise when he tries to move so he stops immediately and leans against you, his heart burning even more at the thought of upsetting you even though he’s seconds away from asking you to leave just so he can cry without feeling pathetic.
You cup his face with one hand and turn it so he’s facing you, kissing him softly as soon as he’s looking in your direction.
He can’t resist you, never has been able to, so he’s eagerly returning the gesture.
The kiss is heated and desperate despite the mood of the conversation, your leg sliding over his so you’re sitting in his lap instead. He sighs against your mouth and holds you tightly as he flips you both over so you’re back in the middle of the bed with him on top of you.
Your tongues in his mouth, hands tugging at the bottom of his tank top like you’re about to rip it off and you’re making these sweet little sounds that drive him crazy.
The combination of it all makes him inclined to tell his feelings to fuck off and just keep letting you use him in whatever way you need. He debates his choices and imagines a future where he only gets to see you when you decide, in the dark of night where nobody has to know you’re screwing around with a scum bag like Elvis Schmidt.
He wishes so desperately that the idea was less appealing to him but the alternative is somehow bleaker, to not have you at all and to go back to living by himself without the warmth and light you brought to his empty life.
“I love you.” He breathes it against your mouth without meaning to, wanting for you to know it if this is the last time he’s going to have you like this. You don’t stiffen or push him off of you and he figures it’s because there’s no surprise on your end.
You know Elvis loves you because of course he does.
You don’t say it back but you don’t stop kissing him and he decides right then and there that that’s enough for him.
It’s pathetic and he is well aware of that but he’s madly in love with a woman universes out of his league so he figures that’s pathetic within itself already.
You stay with him that night and come back again the next, almost every day for three weeks while he tries to forget about the idea of a real future with you.
He subtly adds the money he’d stolen back to his payments to Johnny, figuring he might as well keep working off his debt if he can’t take you on a date like he had planned.
Everything goes back to normal, or whatever normal was now, and you seem relieved that he doesn’t bring up the concept of being together again.
Elvis thinks he’s just beginning to get used to it too when a silent rule is broken between you.
He hadn’t known you’d be at the party because you called him hours ago saying you couldn’t come see him until later tonight because you were helping your mom with something around the house.
Maybe if he had some warning then he would have asked Johnny for a different task, gotten himself stuck in some shady apartment packing up inventory instead of strolling into a nice house on the good side of town with a backpack full of party favors.
Johnny didn’t typically send Elvis to deal and especially not at parties, telling him he scared off the customers or didn’t have the necessary social skills.
They were short handed enough that the job fell in his lap and he was so determined to get his mind off of you that he had accepted.
Except there you were.
Standing in the corner in an outfit straight out of his dreams and laughing with a girl he didn’t recognize, carefree and at home surrounded by other trust fund kids and the knowledge of a safe neighborhood outside the walls of the house.
His jaw tenses and he makes a mental note to be in and out as fast as possible, plan immediately halted when one of your friends locks eyes with him.
He vaguely finds her familiar and then sighs when he realizes it’s the girl from the grocery store who had eyed him suspiciously after you dropped his arm like he was diseased. Clearly she remembers him too because her lips curl up into a smirk before she’s nudging you and the other girl you’d been laughing with.
Whatever she says makes you freeze and you’re clearly hesitant to look in his direction.
He’d seen you with a lot of different expressions.
Soft and teasing was the most common one, sometimes irritated when you scolded him about his life style, and lost in pleasure when he was on top of you or between your legs. There was a handful of times he’d even thought he’d seen something more on your face, something closer to love than was probably true.
This one you had now was completely foreign to him. Your eyes were wide and your mouth parted in shock, panic going over your features when you met his eyes and only worsening when your friends started to drag you over.
“I know you.” One of the girls was speaking in a slurred voice, presumably the one from the store but he wasn’t sure because he was staring at you blankly.
You looked almost embarrassed, another new emotion and he felt the low heat of anger building in his stomach.
“Yeah?” He waited a few seconds after speaking to finally look at the girl next to you. “And how do you know me?”
She giggled obnoxiously, nothing like the soft one you’d give in his ear when he touched your sensitive skin or told you an embarrassing story to get you to laugh.
Her glassy eyes went to the backpack hanging off one shoulder before she was touching his arm. You tensed at the movement and he almost scoffed at the ironic reaction, the light show of jealously like you hadn’t given up any type of claim on him when you practically broke his heart a few weeks ago.
“You run with Johnny.” She said in a softer voice and he figured it was her attempt at being seductive. His eyes went back to you and found them to be pleading now. “I heard you’re a good salesman.”
He was confused for a second before she glanced at you and burst into a fit of giggles again.
Realization hit him hard and he felt like he was about to throw up when he understood what she was saying, why you were looking at him like that.
You’d clearly lied to her after being caught with him in the parking lot that day and the thought that you’d rather her think he was selling you drugs than just admitting to being with him made him nauseous.
It was more believable for you to be using hard drugs than to be actually enjoying his company, reducing him to a low life dealer so easily just to save your own reputation.
“So can we get some?” Your other friend was speaking up when he didn’t reply, tone bored and drawn in that strange way the wealthier girls all did (you as an exception).
“No.” His voice was flat and rough and surprise was passing over your face when he finally got the nerve to look at you again, never hearing him speak so sharply.
“What?” The grocery store girls high tone was back, eyebrows furrowing at the denial like she’d never heard the word before. He figured she might not have and got a little satisfaction from potentially being the first one to deliver it.
“Come on Elvis.”
Any smugness he was feeling was immediately sucked out of him at the sound of your sweet voice, a little more detached than normal like you were playing the part of somebody who didn’t know him as well as you did.
A painful pit in his stomach tightened at how desperate you looked, clearly wanting him to just go along with it and give you guys the drugs so he could leave and not make this turn into something more complicated.
He didn’t have a way to reply to you, couldn’t get himself to pretend he didn’t know you and definitely wasn’t going to hand you anything that could ever harm you. He tightened his grip on the backpack strapped and turned to push back through the crowd.
There was a thought in the back of his head about how Johnny would react to him bailing on the party, wasting the opportunity to sell to a bunch of dumb rich kids who didn’t know the difference between good shit and overpriced dirt.
But he knew he had to get away from you, so brainwashed by his love for you that he didn’t want to slip up and make your friends suspicious for your sake.
He was halfway across the lawn and back towards his car when he felt himself tugged back, defensiveness hitting him hard and then immediately fading when he turned to see you.
You had followed him, friends left behind inside and a guilty look on your face.
“Since when do you do drugs?” He snapped and you sighed at the sound of his voice, frustrated and hurt.
“I don’t okay?” You took a step closer to him and he immediately shook his head and put his hands out to stop you. “They wouldn’t shut up about it and they thought I had a hook up with you but I wouldn’t have done anything.”
He glared at you for a few seconds, almost unable to recognize the person in front of him.
“Don’t do that.” You moved closer again and this time he let you, folding the second your hands touched his face and pulled him down for a soft kiss. He knew you were only doing it because you were hidden in the shadows of the trees around you, far enough away from the party full of drunk people who wouldn’t pay any attention to two silhouettes kissing.
There’s a tense silence when you pull away and for the first time, he thinks you feel it too by the way you keep holding him like you know it’s the last time. The roles have reversed for once with you being the one who’s afraid you’re losing him.
“I can’t do this anymore.” He says it as softly as he can and tries not to backtrack the second your breath catches. Your hands tighten around his skin where they’re resting on his arms, forehead pressing against his shoulder as you start to shake your head when he tries to pull away.
“Elvis don’t.” You’re almost begging and he feels even more confused at the sound.
He knows you like being around him, you clearly enjoy the sex, and he’s seen parts of you he’s pretty confident you don’t show to anybody else but you’re still the one who refuses to let this be more.
So how can you stand here and beg him not to leave you when you’d just pretended he was a stranger like he wasn’t the one who knew you best in that house full of people.
“Tell your mom I say hi.” He knows it’s a little more than petty to throw your lie back in your face, both of you fully aware your mom has no idea he even exists, but his hurt has turned into anger at least for a brief moment and he’s using the momentum of it to make a decision he’d never be able to push through any other day.
Your face falls as he moves away and you go to grab for him again but he’s already out of reach, getting into his car and trying his best to not look out his mirror and run back to you as you stand there in the yard and watch him drive away.
—
The two weeks without you is torture to him.
He doesn’t even remember what his life was like before running into you again because there was nothing ever worth holding onto.
You’d been the only good thing in his life and now he was wrapped right back up in bad habits, passing out at Johnnys parties and waking up just to go on another bender in an attempt to drown out any thoughts of you that managed to creep through the haze.
He dreamt of you every night and he couldn’t even stomach the smell of your shampoo on his pillowcases, resorting to sleeping on his shitty couch and dealing with the pain in his back it would bring.
It’s even worse to sit there and think about the fact you probably aren’t bothered at all, maybe a little lonely now that you don’t have him at your every beck and call but he decides there’s no way you’re as destroyed by this as he is.
He only starts to rethink this when he wakes up to hard knocks at his door, a groggy glance at the clock on his living room coffee table tells him it’s far past midnight and he feels a sense of dread wash over him.
“Elvis?”
Your voice yanks him out of his sleep, pleading and breathy from behind the wooden barrier.
He’s on his feet immediately, getting tangled up in the small blanket he’d had thrown over his leg and nearly tripping over some empty beer bottles as he rushes to the door. You’re turning to walk away once he rips it open, both of your eyes wide as you look at each other.
“I’ve been coming for three days.” You breathe out and push past him to enter his apartment. He stands there for a second, still a little dazed from sleep and from seeing you outside his door. “Where the hell have you been?”
Elvis doesn’t want to explain the fact he’d been sleeping at Johnnys, too drunk or high to get himself home and not really wanting to be surrounded by reminders of you anyways. He stays quiet as he locks his door to turn and face you, staring at him as you wait for him to answer.
“You could’ve called.” He says calmly, voice a little too soft as he moves to go and sit back on the couch.
He buries his face in his hands, rubbing at his skin to try and get himself to wake up fully.
“You blocked me.” You accuse and his head shoots up at that, searching the messy coffee table for his phone and grabbing it once he spots it.
He goes to search for your contact but finds the answer sooner than that, the lack of service making it obvious what the issue was. He knew he had been out of it since you split up but the fact he hadn’t even remembered to pay his phone bill makes him feel sick, sighing and setting it back down without saying anything else for a long moment.
“Why are you here?” He sounds a little hopeless, definitely defeated and you come and join him on the couch although keeping your distance.
“I just… I needed to see you.” You whisper and your eyes stay locked on him.
He finally really looks at you, taking in how tired your eyes are and the messy state of your hair. You were still the most beautiful girl he’d ever seen but you were far less polished than normal, maybe a bit more affected than he had assumed you’d be.
“Are you sleeping with someone?” You ask suddenly and he freezes at the question, sending you a sharp glare that doesn’t ease your curious eyes. “You haven’t been home.”
“And that’s what you jump to?” He scoffs and you roll your eyes, scooting closer to him until your knees touch his thigh. You lean the side of your body against his couch cushions and only just now seem to notice the pillow from his room on the arm rest and his throw blanket on the floor.
“Why are you sleeping on the couch?”
“Did you come here to ask me twenty questions about my sleep habits?” His voice is sharper than he’d ever taken it with you and you flinch a little at the sound of it.
He falls silent from the guilt of snapping, sinking further back into the pillows and wishing they’d just swallow him whole at this point.
“I said I needed to see you.” You repeat and now you’re even closer, dangerously so considering he feels himself immediately and instinctively leaning towards the sound of your voice and the warmth of your skin.
Relief wracks through him when you’re finally touching him, just a soft hand on his chest as you rub it gently but it’s all he needs for the excruciating pain of the last few weeks to melt away. You’re like a calming palm to both his heart and the actual physical anguish he’d been feeling in your absence.
“I miss you Elvis.” You’re whispering but it lands like a scream and his eyes flutter shut just in time for you to lean in and kiss the corner of his mouth. You’re like a siren and he is so beyond willing to drown if it means you don’t leave his couch just yet. “You miss me too right?”
“You miss getting fucked.” He assumes and he wants to open his eyes just to see your reaction to that, to know if there’s any truth to the statement or if you’d be offended by him thinking that way.
But he can’t handle both looking at you and feeling you kiss his mouth lightly again so he keeps them closed for a few more seconds.
“That’s part of it.” You agree with a hum and he hates how easy this all seems for you, feels like he might be wrong judging by the state of you but wishes you’d just say it. “No one makes me feel like you do.”
He tenses at that and you stop kissing him so you can stare at him, eyes meeting when he finally opens his again.
“You tried with someone else?” He makes no attempt to sound less hurt than he feels at the idea.
Thankfully you immediately frown and start to shake your head, holding his face in your hands and pressing a soft kiss to his lips like an apology.
“Of course not.” You say and he relaxes at the quick answer, nudging his nose against yours until you kiss him again. “I wouldn’t do that Elvis. I… I do care about you.”
“You care about me.” He repeats it and you nod, holding eye contact. “I love you and you care about me.”
You sigh now and let him go, shifting away so you’re both sitting with your backs against the couch as you stare ahead at the muted TV.
“Does it make it any easier if I tell you I love you?” You ask blankly and he doesn’t really have a good answer. He selfishly feels his heart start to race at the words even leaving your mouth even though the context isn’t exactly romantic. “Because it makes it worse for me.”
“What can be worse?” He says back and he can feel you staring at the side of his face, only turning to meet your eyes when you don’t respond for a while.
You look sad, the first thing he notices after he has the looping thought about how beautiful you are. You even look pretty like this, eyes full of something he doesn’t understand and a small pout pulling your lips downwards.
“I don’t want to not see you Elvis.” You whisper and turn your body back in his direction, knees pulled up to your chest and looking so small and vulnerable as you finally have this conversation for the first time. “It kills me to not see you.”
“That’s exactly my problem. You see me and I don’t get to see you.” He isn’t sure how to explain it and all he can do is hope you understand what he means, judging by the way your face falls he thinks you just might have grasped the gist of it.
Elvis sits around like a dog waiting for your attention, comes when you call and sulks back to his cage until the next time you decide he’s worthy of praise again. Even now, weeks passed and he’s the one who walked away this time but he still is fully aware he’d do anything for you.
He would fall right back into the same cycle that was killing him before so you didn’t decide he’s wasn’t worth the effort anymore.
You’re shifting again and he lets you crowd his space, holds you gently when you rest your head against his chest and curl up in his lap. Your body relaxes to the point you let out a deep breath of relief, one that makes it seem like you’ve had just as many sleepless nights as he has.
He tries to not let himself hope that’s true because he doesn’t know how much more disappointment he can take from this.
“I want to see you okay?” You finally whisper, hands clenching into fist and bunching the fabric of his shirt up in them. He rubs your back and sighs, lets the words seep in and continue to foster that love for you he can’t get to die down no matter how hard he tries to stop nurturing it.
Elvis doesn’t need to hear you say that you love him back, will live the rest of his life in the shadows with you and never dare to complain again.
He can be happy, as long as the day ends with you like this, curled up on his chest and making promises you have no intention to keep.
almost done with a long fic but taking drabble or hard thought request in the meantime :p
tell us stan and reader have a happy ending
Opening ending so if you believe that then… yes but… personally i think they never see each other again LMAO SORRY EVERYONE
this is literally making me feral he looks fucking animalistic lordddddd like this is the pope that pounds into you from behind anywhere he feels like it
look guys it’s me
PRINCESS PROTECTION
PAIRING ➩ stan rosado x reader
WC ➩ 13.8k
SUMMARY ➩ You’re convinced the boy next door is your soulmate and the feeling hasn’t faded even after ten years apart
AUTHORS NOTE ➩ yay i love this one even though the ending was a struggle! Stan and reader are both 18 in the past section and 28 after the time jump! pls note that any crying or upset from reader at the end isn’t because of regret she just loves him so much so she feels sad T-T NOT PROOFREAD!
Stan had spent almost his entire senior year trying to rid himself of labels.
He wasn’t sure when he started to hate being labeled as a jock, something weird and foreign tightening in his chest when he overheard a joke about him failing classes or every time he was completely overlooked when it came to anything academic.
He knew he wasn’t a genius but he wasn’t stupid and he wasn’t only good for throwing a ball around a field.
There was a week period where it felt almost constant and he’d decided by the end of it that if he could only be one thing or the other, then he didn’t want to be a football player anymore.
It came with a sort of instant regret, hours spent laying flat on his back and staring at his bedroom ceiling just wondering if he had done the right thing or not.
He only got to self wallow for the first half of the night before he was hearing familiar soft taps at his window, growing louder and more consistent when he tried to ignore them at first. Eventually he was groaning and pulling himself out of his mattress and self pity, making his way over to the window sill and yanking it open with a scowl.
Your expression was the opposite, smiling brightly at him like you always seemed to be.
Stan had liked being your neighbor when you were growing up because being an only child in a seemingly endless suburbia was overly depressing. You’d moved in when he was around the age of eight and you had been on his front porch asking his parents if he could come out and play before your mom had even gotten the first box out of the moving truck.
You liked to play together despite how different you were.
It helped Stan was secretly a lot more sensitive than he’d ever let his dad or friends at school see and he could easily get lost in your imagination fueled games instead of roughhousing or getting dirty. You’d run around the woods near your neighborhood with sticks for swords, cardboard crowns you’d spent hours making the night before and royal titles you would strictly refer to eachother as.
He had never felt as important as he did back then, being the strong and loyal knight who would protect the kingdoms princess against any and all things evil.
Then he had turned sixteen and it started to be less fun to have somebody you went to school with right next door. You’d be able to overhear his parents fighting late into the night, watch him sweat as he was forced to do chores outside in the hot sun, and his mom even invited you to his grandmas ninetieth birthday where her dentures fell out during the candle blowing.
Your entire neighborhood was cookie cutter houses that were a little too close together and lacking a lot of privacy.
If you stretched enough then you could reach out your window and be able to graze his with your fingertips. Or, in the method you preferred, easily toss a few loose marbles at his glass until he talked to you.
“Stop looking so grumpy.” You were still smiling at him as you rested against the windowsill, propped up on the wood with one of your legs dangling outside.
He hated it when you did that and he told you as much almost every single time up until you teased him about caring for you. After that he just decided to let you do whatever you wanted.
“I’m really not in the mood.” He meant for his voice to sound harsher than it came out, similar to the tone he’d used on his mom when he got home or his coach when he’d pressed him about quitting because he was just lazy.
Stan always had a really hard time being mean to you.
“I heard about football.” Now you sounded more serious too, still soft and overly concerned for something as trivial as a high school sport but you knew it was important to Stan so it was important to you.
He preferred it when you were bubbly and a little empty headed, your flat face always giving him a bit of anxiety deep in his stomach.
Back when he was a little younger there was this thought in the back of the head that he just didn’t like to see you unhappy. Maybe even some left over bravado from his days as a knight that would willingly jump in front of a dragon to protect you, cover your scraped knees with the last of his band aids even if they had his favorite characters on them. He had decided that was ridiculous around the same time you stopped hanging out as much.
“Yeah.” His response was short, clipped and making it obvious to you he really didn’t want to discuss football anymore today. “It’s not a big deal.”
You were quiet for a long few seconds and he thought it might be the biggest gap of time you’d gone without speaking in his presence, always filling any silence with excited rambling or nonsensical questions.
“I think you’ll be good at whatever you do.” You said back simply and you said it so confidently that he faltered for a second to look at you, the way you were watching him and so easily hanging halfway outside the window like you didn’t have a care in the world. “Goodnight Stan.”
You were pulling yourself back in the window and closing it softly, your pink curtains following immediately after. He stared at the side of your house for a bit before closing his own with a sigh and dragging himself back to bed.
There was large gaps of times you didn’t talk to each other at school but you were at his window almost every night, and occasionally he was the one knocking on yours.
He’d come to you when his parents separated for the first time and you’d clung tightly to the fabric of his letterman jacket as you helped him into your room that same night. Maybe you were able to see the despair from across the small gap between your houses or maybe the fact he had even reached out first was enough for you to know something was really wrong.
You didn’t talk much but you did hold him for a while, arms wrapped around his neck as you let him cry against your shoulder.
Anxiety had filled him the entire way to school the next morning thinking everyone would suddenly know that Stan Rosado was not as tough as he seemed but nobody looked in his direction, nobody except for you smiling softly across the hallway as you waved in greeting.
Stan didn’t think you were dumb necessarily but you didn’t seem to put any thought to all of the trivial things him and other people your age did.
You never got upset over a bad grade and you always had this light giggle that would fill the classroom after your teachers bad puns, a slight confused look around when nobody else would laugh. You asked too many questions during simple conversations and occasionally he’d peak over at your test and see you were just doodling between the questions instead of actually filling them out.
But still, despite what others said behind your back, Stan didn’t think you were dumb.
You always seemed to know exactly what to say and you were endlessly patient where others would lose their cool, level headed and mature when he’d honestly expect you not to be.
And you had the most active imagination he’d ever experienced in his life. He remembered sitting in piles of leaves as you stood in a makeshift cape and told him engaging stories of universes he could barely comprehend and he also remembered getting the same feeling when you’d stand in front of your English class and read your poetry.
But you’d shut down whenever somebody asked you something serious and get this big smile on your face, shrugging your shoulders and twirling your hair like it was supposed to be obvious you wouldn’t have an answer.
If he was being honest, Stan really didn’t understand that part of you.
Your perfumes were always so sweet he could tell you were in a room before he saw you, heeled shoes clicking through the hallways as you hurried to classes you weren’t going to pay any attention to, and clothes so bright he sometimes felt a little dizzy if he looked at you for too long.
Which he always seemed to be looking at you.
Atleast ever since you had suddenly become very very very extremely pretty, seemingly overnight if you asked him. It was like you transformed from just his childhood friend in the neighborhood, content with mud on your cheek and spending your days arguing over who gets to ride your shared bike next, to something entirely new.
Stan never thought you were ugly even though he didn’t really think about that stuff much at all until high school.
He knew that the role of princess fit you extremely well.
But now you were distracting and he clearly wasn’t the only one who thought so. Almost every guy on the football team talked about you, especially since you had joined the cheerleading squad. He’d watch the nerdy boys ogle you as you passed in the hallway and flush bright red whenever you’d wave or smile in their direction, girls giving you judging looks for dressing up each and every morning like you were going to a magazine photo shoot.
He got the weird urge to defend you in those moments, to inform them that you had been wearing flowing skirts and glitter heels long before high school.
But instead Stan would face his locker and pretend he didn’t know you at all.
He wasn’t sure why he almost felt embarrassed to be seen with you. The feeling didn’t go away even though he was fully aware he’d be a source of envy if he ever responded to your attempts at conversation with something actually engaging instead of just shutting you down with a short reply and walking off before you could continue.
There was a very cruel part of him that wanted to tell you what everybody thought of you just so you could prove them wrong.
You weren’t stupid or trying to get better grades with your short skirts and your soft giggle was as real as anyone’s could be.
Sadly gossip held a power over high schoolers like nothing else so you entered your senior year with the far fetched reputation of the stuck up bimbo.
He would get a weird feeling in his stomach when he’d see you eating alone at lunch because he knew how much you liked to talk during meal times. The same sensation building up anytime you’d cheer at a football game and not have any girl friends to laugh and small talk with to fill the gaps between routines.
They all liked you in their own ways, lust or jealously, but you felt untouchable to the general public and you were possibly too optimistic and naive to try and correct it by yourself.
You never acted like anything was different when you were back home at your windows.
Sometimes he’d wait for you to bring it up, to ask him why he ignored you in the hallways or acted like he’d never heard of you when you were paired for an assignment.
But you never did.
You’d smile at him and ask him how his day was like you weren’t around for almost all of it, sitting a few rows over and doodling in your glittery journal instead of actually taking any notes.
One of the rare times you approached him at school was on the final game of your senior year, finding him during halftime. He was resting against the gate on the less crowded side of the field, away from the bleachers and curious eyes of students who knew he should be playing instead of standing around watching.
He almost didn’t come but he figured he should be around to see it and also his mom had not so casually mentioned to him that you and the other cheerleaders each got a solo performance section to celebrate your final season.
That explained why you looked a little nervous as you jogged over to him, big bow in your high ponytail and your cheer uniform looking as bright as the day you had gotten it.
Stan liked when you wore your uniform, it reminded him of the way you used to play dress up and walk an imaginary runway made out of cardboard for him, showing off your different costumes and princess dresses.
“Hey.” Your smile was just as cheery as ever and he could hear the soft rattling of your pom poms as you pressed against the gate right where he was standing. You would have been touching if it wasn’t for the metal between you. “You came.”
He had the instinct to tell you that he hadn’t come for you and he was just checking in on the team, maybe bitterly hoping they wouldn’t be as good without him, but the excited expression on your face took that idea away as swiftly as it came.
“Yeah you were really good.” He replied instead and apparently it was uncharacteristic for him to compliment you because now you were really beaming, dropping the poms so you could reach over the gate and touch the sleeve of his jacket.
There was a split second where he wanted to look around and make sure nobody was watching but he decided how stupid that was too, just like the reflex to disappoint you and tell you he wasn’t there to see your performance.
Stan had already quit football and he knew most of the school was talking about it, or at least that’s how it felt. He didn’t really care what anybody thought about him at this point but he realized he still didn’t want you to be upset with him.
“I’m glad you came Stan. I know it must have been hard.” Your frown was immediate and if it was anyone else he would have thought you were making fun of him but not you, of course you weren’t.
He was suddenly overly aware of the fact you were clinging to his jacket and how nice you smelt, floral and feminine in a way he had only experienced while being forced into shopping for perfume with his mom.
It was like he was hit with the realization that you weren’t only just extremely pretty but he was also very attracted to you. You were still watching him with those soft eyes of yours, blinking up through long lashes and tilting your head in that cutely confused way you always did when you didn’t really understand something (more often than not).
“It wasn’t.” He answered back. “But it was worth it.”
Things shifted quickly after that and he was feeling very stupid for the way he had treated you in his teenage years.
He couldn’t believe he had ever seen you smile at him in the hallways and ignored you, your presence now a stable for his mornings. You walked to school together most days, arms brushing and laughing softly as you joked and caught up on the things you didn’t talk about hanging outside your window.
You were every where all of a sudden, bringing him a snack in the library during his study period and waiting for him by his locker before lunch time.
Stan was very knowledgeable to the power you held now and he wasn’t minding it nearly as much as he used to. Maybe he had just needed to grow out of that stupid teenage rebellion phase or maybe it was possible football and the guys on the team made him even duller than he already was but regardless of the reason, he was glad he had gained his senses back.
It was an honor to be seen with you, to feel the glares from the other guys when you’d hold onto his arm and smile up at him like he was the single most interesting person around, even without the title of being the star quarterback.
He’s currently feeling the jealousy in the hallway around him as you lean back on his locker, pressing a piece of paper against his chest as you explain its contents.
“If it’s stupid you don’t have to come.” You’re saying and you have a lack of confidence to your tone which is rare from you.
He takes it from your hands and flips it over so he can read it, scanning the details and a brief description of a poetry club performance that day a few hours after school is over. His eyes go back to yours and you’re bouncing in place a little as you anticipate his reaction, nervously biting your lip.
“Of course I’ll come.” He says easily, soft even, and you immediately relax which makes him grin.
Your hand is back on him now without the paper in the way, resting on his bicep right where his shirt sleeve stops and his bare skin begins. Stan, not for the first time, remembers just how beautiful you are, and feels his arm heat up under your touch a little.
“Really?” You’re smiling brightly and squeezing him gently. He lets his hand rest on your side and tries his best to be casual about it even though he’s getting increasingly distracted by your skirt the longer you stand there. “Stacy said you probably wouldn’t want to.”
He scoffs at that, shifting and feeling the way his shoe brushes against yours. He’s not very fond of any of your cheer ‘friends’ and especially not that one although he’s a bit pleased that you talk about him with them.
There’s a part of him that knows it’s hypocritical considering how he acted in recent years.
“Of course I’d come.” He shakes his head in annoyance and now you’re thankfully back to smiling at him. “Stacy’s a bitch to you.”
“Stan.” You smack his arm lightly in scolding as your eyebrows furrow, rubbing it soothingly after when he apologizes under his breath. “Don’t be rude.”
“I’m not trying to be but she really could be nicer.” He tries to reason with you and you give him an attempt at a stern look even though it just makes you look like a frustrated bunny.
“Keep that to yourself tonight okay?” You suggest and he reluctantly nods even though the soft rubbing you’re doing to his arm makes him feel like he’d agree to anything at this point. “Will you come over beforehand?”
Stan is quick to accept the invitation and then he spends the rest of the school day thinking about obsessively.
He used to spend alot of time in your room, movie nights or sleepovers when his parents were out of town. It was just you and your mom next door and he always liked the energy your house had, similar to the one you carried with you daily.
It was warm and peaceful, relying on natural lighting and soft orange lamps instead of the bright whites his own mother was so fond of. He hadn’t been over in a long time, since that night his parents separated and even then he was too busy crying on you to really process the fact he was in your bedroom alone.
Now he was overly aware of it.
Your mom had looked ecstatic when she saw him at the front door, pushed aside lightly by you as you appeared and took his hand. You dragged him up the stairs towards your bedroom and he tried not to flush as she warned you to keep your door open while he was inside of it.
She had a similar energy to you so he knew she was only joking, laughing a little as she said it like she found herself more humorous than the people around her did.
But it still planted the idea in his head.
Stan didn’t think you saw him like that at all and he wouldn’t really blame you considering he hadn’t been the biggest charmer since you were kids.
Sure, you were pretty much always touching him in some way and you spent almost every single day with each other for a portion of time, but he couldn’t tell if that was simply because you had been friends for so long and you were a bit lonely under the facade of the glitter and shiny lip gloss.
Your room smelt as good as you always did, candles in random places and your clothes strewn across your vanity chair and along parts of your bed. You were clearly in the middle of trying to pick an outfit and he was thrown right back into your childhood games, sending you a fond look to see you were already watching him with mild embarrassment.
“Don’t judge me.” You shake your head as you let go of his hand and he laughs a little as he shifts closer. “I bet your room is worse.”
“It’s cute.” He reassures you and you get that little pout that you like to pull out and weaponize at will. “And you’re not wrong, mines a disaster.”
For every band CD he has next door, you have a pile of magazines. Your cute pink decor is the complete opposite of his darker aesthetic and he almost laughs at the absurd amount of pillows you have on your bed.
You’re shifting closer and despite how typical it is for you to evade his space, he’s for some reason highly aware of your bedroom door being open and your mom being right downstairs in the kitchen.
His breath hitches a little when he feels your fingers playing with his, wrapping them around each others occasionally as you stare up at him.
“I’m a little nervous for tonight.” You admit and he softens, momentarily forgetting his own inner turmoil.
“You’ll be perfect.” His response sounds strictly genuine because he means it, knows you’ll get up on any stage and captivate an audience with what you’ve wrote. “And I’ll be right there if it’s scary.”
You sigh softly and shift closer, the small space between you nearly gone now. You’ve stopped playing with his fingers and are full out holding his hands, squeezing them and rubbing his knuckles with your thumb
“I’m so glad you’re coming.” Your voice drops to a whisper now and he suddenly feels very nervous, heart racing as he stares down at you and tries to not let it show on his face too much.
But you are impossibly beautiful and he’s once again remembering that he’s in your bedroom with you, practically alone and able to have enough warning of either of you heard your mom come upstairs. He’s just starting to think he’s delusional and seeing things that aren’t there when your eyes drop down to his mouth.
You’re kissing him before he can even catch his breath from the shock of the look, soft and hesitant as you rock up on your tiptoes and press your mouth against his.
You pull back immediately to give him a second, maybe thinking he’s going to reject you or just wanting to check his expression.
There’s not much to see because now it’s his turn to move in and kiss you much more eagerly than you had him, releasing your hands so he can hold the small of your back and tug you closer to him. Your arms go around the back of his neck as you respond to the pace perfectly, mouths moving in sync like you’d kiss each other a hundred times before.
It feels a bit like coming home, his chest warming when you make a soft noise and lean against him further like you can’t help yourself.
You kiss for a long time, heads tilting and his tongue teasing your bottom lip until you’re letting him in. He really starts to feel it then, a low heat in his gut from the taste of you as it deepens and gets more sloppy.
He had imagined a lot of things with you and kissing was a frequent one but this was something out of this world entirely, the softness of your body and the smell of your hair when you kept pressing closer and closer so you didn’t have to stop kissing for even a second.
“Leaving soon sweetheart.”
Your mom’s voice from downstairs was sobering but not even enough to make you stop right away, giggling against his mouth and kissing for another long minute before you were reluctantly pulling away.
The back of his neck was hot as you beamed up at him, bouncing in place excitedly and squeezing him in a tight hug almost like you were thanking him for kissing you.
Your poetry performance was amazing, only stuttering once before your eyes found him in the front row and you visibly relaxed. You took a deep breath and continued and he felt a feeling of pride that was entirely unfamiliar to him before now.
Stan wasn’t a football player anymore and he still wasn’t exactly a model student but now he had something more important to focus on.
He got to be your boyfriend.
He had officially asked you a few weeks after your first kiss with a dozen more filling the gap, lying in his bed and staring at his ceiling together when it just slipped out.
You’d rolled over onto your stomach so you could see him properly, smiling brightly and telling him how you’d like nothing more than to be his girlfriend.
And he could tell you meant it even though he figured there was a million other things you should probably be more focused on. You never paid much attention in classes to begin with but you’d practically sworn off any of the little studying you would do to spend time with him after school, ignoring your less annoying friends when they’d invite you over on the weekends.
Stan felt a little guilty that your life seemed to suddenly revolve around him and then a little worse when he realized maybe it always had.
But you still never brought up those years he treated you like any other peer in the hallway.
You’d been dating for a few months when he finally decided to ask you about it. You were on a camping trip with him and his extended family, spending time about two hours from home at the small log cabin his dad had obsessed over building when he was younger.
Stan had been having a perfect trip with you, feeling almost out of body from how amazing you were. You got along with his mother since you were a child, filling the slight desire she had for a daughter occasionally when you’d come over and ask her to do makeup or nails with you.
Even his dad, a hard ass who he truthfully wished would’ve followed through with the brief separation from his mother, seemed to adore you and Stan wasn’t confused on why.
You were sweetness in human form, smiling at him while you cooled off in the lake and holding hands during hikes. You’d kiss him softly each night under the stars before retreating to your own room (his mom was quick to inform him you wouldn’t be allowed to sleep in his bed).
Now you were currently curled up in his lap outside as you both silently watched the fire, the crackling of the burning wood the only sound outside of your quiet yawns and the animals in the woods around you. His parents had gone to sleep an hour ago but it was the final night and he wasn’t quite ready to go inside yet which meant neither were you since you had a tendency to go where Stan went.
That was one of the reasons he felt the sudden urge to have the weighted conversation with you.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry.” He tried to whisper but his voice broke the silence loud and you sat up a little in his lap to face him and furrow your eyebrows in soft confusion.
“Why would you be sorry?” You cupped his jaw and leaned in to kiss him which distracted him immediately, kissing you back and getting lost in the sensation for a few minutes before he pulling off to get back on topic.
“I wasn’t nice to you at the start of high school.” He said and his hand went to the small of your back to rub soothingly incase you got upset but he was yet to see you anything other than positive and almost ditzy.
Even now, this soft pout of yours was the closest thing to an unhappy expression you’d ever shown. And he knew you were more concerned about him feeling the need to apologize than over what he was apologizing for.
“You weren’t mean either.” You reasoned and he knew you were right but that didn’t make him feel any better about it.
“I just didn’t want you thinking I believed all those things people said about you.” He says softly, brushing some of your hair behind your ear and getting a little lost in the way your eyes sparkle at him, saying a bit more than he had meant to in his distraction. “I knew you weren’t dumb or shallow and I didn’t defend you when I should have.”
He realizes his mistake as soon as you tense up in his lap and anything he had thought about not seeing an upset look on your face before was thrown out the window. Your expression had completely shifted into one of confusion and then hurt.
“People think that about me?” Your voice sounded so pained that his entire chest tightened with regret.
Stan for some reason hadn’t realized that you weren’t aware of the terrible things people said about you behind your back. He should have known considering you always thought the best of everybody, trying your hardest to be friends with the bitchy girls on the team and missing the social cue of them laughing every time you turned your back.
The first time you hear the cruel labels came from his mouth and he couldn’t feel more guilty about it.
“I think I want to go to bed.” You whispered softly as you kissed him briefly and slid off his lap, wandering off to the cabin before he could shake the stupid out of his teenage brain and follow you.
Things changed about you after that and Stan felt terrible over it.
You didn’t treat him any different, still so soft and attentive, but your demeanor in general shifted. You’d stopped wearing such bright colors, spent less time on your hair in the mornings, and even started to study instead of hanging out with him after school.
He was proud of you for wanting to focus on your academics but he hated the reason for it and it was breaking his heart to watch you suddenly obsess over getting good grades and focusing less on things you enjoyed like dressing up and writing your poems.
Even now, pressing him against the brick wall beneath the bleachers, you seemed distracted.
He almost felt bad for still letting you kiss him the way you were when you were so clearly somewhere else mentally but you liked to kiss about as much as you liked dolling up and he was still an eighteen year old boy she wasn’t able to resist you when you got like this.
Your mouth was eager as it moved against his, tongue tangling with his and your chest pressing him harder into the wall as you made out. He liked you so much more everyday and he was more than happy to be nothing but the guy you kissed when you were stressed out, his hands rubbing up and down your sides.
“I have to go.” You pecked his lips repeatedly as you spoke and he frowned. “Study group at the library.”
“Can’t you stay with me?” He requested softly, kissing your neck and keeping you held tightly against him so you couldn’t pull away just yet. You giggled lightly when his hand pressed against the small of your back, playing with the back of his hair and sighing softly. “Come have dinner at my house tonight. My mom said she misses you.”
“I can’t Stan, I have an exam on Monday.” You explained gently and the words still felt foreign coming from you.
He wanted to tell you that you didn’t need to get good grades to prove yourself to anybody but especially not him, you were perfect as you were without keeping yourself up late with too much coffee. But he didn’t, young and too immature to say something meaningful even when he meant to.
Instead he was just kissing you again to try and distract you and it seemed to work thankfully, especially when he was letting a hand slide down off your back to where your tiny skirt turned into the smooth skin of your thighs.
You made a pleased little noise when he was rubbing the back of it for a second before going back up and cupping your ass gently, lifting you off the ground enough that you were falling fully against him.
The kiss heated back up after that, even more so when he kept groping and squeezing your flesh over your panties. You and Stan hadn’t done much yet even though your kissing sessions often got pretty intense, wandering hands and desperate noises that he definitely could have gotten off to if he wasn’t so focused on keeping his cool and impressing you.
It was sometimes torture having such a pretty girlfriend and especially one who dressed like you, barely in any clothes at all the times you tugged him across the windows into your bedroom.
“Stan.” Your voice was whiny and he had to suck in a breath to calm himself down, kissing your neck again a few times before stopping to let you speak. “Don’t get me all needy before I meet up with the group.”
“You’re always needy baby.” He reasoned and smiled down at you, kissing the corner of your mouth as you rolled your eyes and lightly smacked his chest in scolding.
“I mean it Stanny.” You sigh softly but don’t step away from him at all and immediately melt into another round of your tongues rubbing together.
You keep kissing for another few desperate minutes, his hand that’s under your skirt lightly bunching up your underwear and tugging it upwards so it applies some pressure to your core. The noise you make into his mouth is heavenly and he swallows it eagerly.
Finally you do take a step backwards and he lets you even though his chest is rising with sharp breaths and his jeans feel a lot tighter than they had a few minutes ago.
“You’re evil.” You smile at him but peck his mouth one more time, thighs rubbing together for a second and he audibly groans at the movement. “I’ll come over after we are done okay?”
He nods his head eagerly and lets you slip away from him, another mistake to add to the list he looks back on in the future.
You don’t come over that night and you don’t even answer your window when he lightly knocks against it. The next morning you tell him that you’re sorry and you fell asleep after studying but it becomes a pattern quickly.
You stop walking back home with him after school because you get a tutor, dinners with his mom are completely out of the question since you never have the time anymore, and you fall asleep during almost all of your late night calls despite it being the only chance you have to really speak to each other uninterrupted.
Stan can’t be mad at you for wanting to focus on school especially with graduation in less than a few weeks but he misses you more than he thought possible and he still feels the guilt for slipping up and making you feel this insecurity in the first place.
The end comes in the same exact way you began.
You’re laying in his bed together after your final exams, staring at his ceiling and thinking about he almost positively failed the majority of them. He thinks he’ll still be able to graduate and it’s a little relief to know you aren’t having the same anxieties.
He expected you to seem a lot lighter now that you didn’t have the weight of studying on your shoulders anymore but you’d been tense all day long.
He feels like an asshole for missing the version of you that would giggle and ask him common sense questions, knowing that’s his own insecurities coming into play. That’s not something he’d ever say to you but he’s still thinking it now as you lay next to him and hold his hand tightly.
“I have to tell you something.” You start softly and his head turns to the side to look at your profile and the way your eyebrows are a little furrowed as you stare holes into his ceiling.
It’s like he can sense it before you even start, before the words college and accepted leave your mouth. His chest tightens and aches when you finally look at him with that sad expression, lip quivering a little as you wait for him to react.
Stan had heard you talk about colleges in passing but he wasn’t sure you were actually serious, especially about the ones further away. Your small town had a tendency to keep people trapped in it and he wasn’t ever planning to have to cope with you leaving, another big mistake of his was not taking you seriously.
“That’s far isn’t it?” He whispered back and you hesitated for a second before nodding, rolling onto your side so you could be closer to him when he let out a shaky breath.
Stan wanted to tell you that distance didn’t matter and he would stay with you even if your relationship dwindled down to two phone calls a day but you were already so busy the last few months and that was just high school, still in his time zone and right next door if he desperately needed you.
You were going somewhere that he couldn’t even travel to by car, where letters and care packages would take a week or more to reach you.
He knew what the outcome realistically was and he was sure you did too considering how upset you looked.
“I love you.”
It filled the quiet room and you sucked in a sharp breath after he said it. He didn’t confess it because he thought it would make a difference in you leaving or because he wanted you to feel bad about him being left behind in your town but more so because he didn’t know how to properly convey how proud he was of you.
Your hand squeezed his and you gave him a soft smile that didn’t quite meet your glossy eyes.
“I love you too Stan.”
You spent the night laying together in mostly silence like you were too scared to say the wrong thing, eventually kissing him deeply as if you were attempting to apologize and making love for the first time in his quiet bedroom that felt suffocatingly small all of a sudden.
—
High school wasn’t something you put much thought into now that a decade had passed by.
You’d spent a few years feeling like you were completely lost, missing how simple things were when you were in your teenage years and thinking you were much further behind everyone else at your university than you actually were. But eventually you gained your footing in the new city and started to feel like you actually fit in.
You made friends that would never have thought there was a time you were widely regarded as stupid, talked to people from all walks of life who were shocked you’d been a cheerleader like it hadn’t been your entire brand back then.
And you had a rotation of non serious boyfriends who would never know about the freckled boy who lived next door to you.
You spent the first few years thinking about Stan every day, calling him a handful of times every few months and trying to catch up but eventually the pain of the distance outweighed the benefits of hearing about his life back home. It would leave you shockingly bitter when he’d boast about a promotion at his job, a sick feeling in your stomach anytime he sounded happy and god forbid when he’d casually mention the name of a girl he worked with.
Stan was trying his best to be normal with you despite the fact you had broke up the week you moved away, the night full of tear flavored kisses and quiet confessions that felt much more serious than high school sweethearts.
He was more than that in your eyes and always had been, even before you started dating each other. You’d always found comfort in the boy next door, your first friend in town and the only person who ever seemed to really understand you underneath all the pink fabric and hairspray.
You’d been hurt when he had accidentally told you about your reputation but not because you felt like he insulted you. It was more so the fact he didn’t necessarily seem like he had disagreed, maybe a little pleasantly surprised that you weren’t completely shallow.
Still, you paid more attention after he had slipped up with that.
Sometimes he explained things a little slower to you like he thought you needed more help understanding basic concepts. He’d praise you when you did something simple as if you had exceeded his expectations and you knew in his mind it was all innocent, genuine pride and him just trying to make things easier for you, but it settled weirdly in your chest.
You didn’t think that he thought of you as nothing but an eye candy girlfriend but for some reason you thought that of yourself.
But you still had let your entire life revolve around him since you were little, doing your best to catch his attention when it was fading away and getting focused on other things like the rotation of sports he did or his parents separating. Stan always felt like something you had to put a lot of effort into and you were ecstatic when it was finally returned.
You’d never been happier than the months you were together before he brought up the gossip surrounding you. It was the brightest days of your life, the last time you can remember living and not caring about anybody’s opinions.
It took a long time for him to leave your system but you still thought about him every time a certain song came on the radio or the trees started to brown for fall, thinking of him and his letterman jacket draped over your shoulders as you kissed outside on the football bleachers.
The small of the beach reminded you of him and so did hot coffee, anybody with a similar curl pattern or that little squeak to their voice when their volume increased. Stan was a passing thought that never fully faded even when it had been almost ten years without seeing him and a handful since you’d as much as heard his voice.
Your mother had moved with you when you left for college so you had no real reason to ever be back in that small town you grew up in, your childhood house sold and your existence practically erased.
It gave you a small satisfaction to know you were probably one of the few in your graduating class that had branched off into the world, gone further than those girls who thought you were good for nothing but applying lip gloss in English class.
You were turning 28 soon and it had been months since you thought of Stan yet he was still the first one on your mind when you opened up your email and saw the most recent notification.
‘Come join us to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of our class of ‘98.’
A high school reunion back in your home town, hundreds miles away and full of memories you still hadn’t fully shaken.
Your first instinct had been to send the email straight to the trash and forget you’d ever seen it but then you thought about Stan again.
The vague memory of his face alone was enough for you to pretend the mean girls and judgmental peers didn’t exist, turning your laptop off and sucking in a deep breath as you really contemplated making a trip like that just to rub your amazing life in the faces of some bitchy high schoolers.
And admittedly, you got a little flutter in your stomach at the idea of seeing Stan again.
You didn’t know if he would even be attending, had no clue if he was still living in the town or even in the country. You got the sickening thought that you weren’t even sure he was still alive but your mothers still kept in contact occasionally and you were sure she would’ve been somebody who got a call if anything had happened to him.
As soon as your mind went to him, you knew the choice was made for you because now you were spiraling down the same hole you’d been in your entire life.
You’d taken the time off work and asked your mom to apartment sit for you before the night had even ended, sending back an RSVP email and booking a flight immediately after.
—
Stan wasn’t really sure what he was expecting when he arrived at the reunion but it certainly wasn’t this.
The gym looked exactly the same as he remembered it, smelled familiar and was decorated with streamers he was almost positive had been used at his prom all those years ago.
He hadn’t gone far from home at all in the last decade, only about half an hour from where his dad still lived in his childhood home. His mom had finally gone through with the divorce and took her retirement funds to a much warmer climate, a bit bittersweet but he was too relieved for her to really feel upset.
The faces around him were either familiar because he hadn’t lost touch with them, frequently seeming them when he was in town grocery shopping and going out for drinks after work with a few of the guys from the football team, or because they really hadn’t changed all that much.
Ten years felt like a much longer time than it actually was. There was a handful of wrinkles, some protruding stomachs and a couple of babies being balanced on hips, but other than that it felt like he was thrown back in time.
Although his focus was a bit all over the place because there was only one person he was really interested in seeing tonight.
He wasn’t sure you were going to come at all, last he knew you were still across the country and doing extremely well for yourself which his mom loved to remind him. She also couldn’t help herself from throwing out the fact you were possibly still single despite knowing Stan had completely blew any chance he had with you a decade ago.
But he still spent the entire evening half listening to conversations and watching the gym doors so he would be able to see you as soon as you entered.
Hours of sipping bad punch and listening to throwback songs passed and he realized you weren’t coming. Of course you weren’t coming, you probably had no time to spend on their little boring town that you were always much bigger than.
Stan excused himself from talks of football highlights and loser jocks bragging about their office jobs, heading outside the back exit and sucking in a deep breath of the night air.
He could see the bright lights of the football field off in the distance and he was half tempted to make his way down there, deciding against it as he pulled a pack of smokes out of his jacket pocket.
He had barely started lighting it when he heard the soft clicks of heels coming in his direction, his body tensing in anticipation like he somehow already knew exactly who it was before he even looked up.
You froze when he did, your eyes meeting as your lips parted in surprise.
You looked as beautiful as the day you had left him standing in the airport with teenage tears streaming down his face. It was like you hadn’t aged a day other than the new maturity in your gaze and the slight sharpness where old baby fat had softened you before, the bright colors you used to wear a bit duller now but still just as fashionable as always.
Stan couldn’t move, couldn’t catch his breath and definitely couldn’t stop the cigarette from fumbling out of his fingers and landing in a puddle near his feet. He broke his trance then, cursing lightly under his breath and glancing down at where it was sinking under the water.
You were closer when he looked up again and had a slightly amused look on your face, sending a wave of anxiety down his spine that you were possibly judging him before he’d even gotten to say anything embarrassing.
“Those are bad for you.” Your voice was the biggest change about you so far, deeper and much more mature now. You’d lost that airy tone that he liked so much, especially when you’d giggle and say sweet things to him.
“Bad habit.” He said back and now it was your turn to look a little thrown, eyes flashing with a hint of surprise that made him feel a little better.
Stan had taken good care of himself in the last ten years, not wanting to be one of those guys who peaked in high school and spent the rest of their adult lives talking about how much potential they had. He was still lean and fit, shoulders a little broader now and chest fuller. His voice had deepened both naturally over time and from his admittedly terrible habit of smoking.
The light rasp clearly shocked you but your expression was neutral again swiftly, barely noticeable if he wasn’t paying so much attention to your face.
And it was still a very pretty face.
“Didn’t think you were coming.” He continued when you didn’t reply and your head tilted, leaning your shoulder against the brick wall his back was pressed to.
“Figured it would be a good break from work.” You shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal, like you hadn’t had to rearrange your entire schedule and get on a plane for hours just to make it to a town that barely had a motel you could stay in.
“What’s work for you now?” His body shifted so he was fully facing you and you let your eyes drag down his frame without any hesitation, a light heat filling him at the action.
You looked at him like he still belonged to you and there was a big part of him that agreed with that. He’d never been able to keep a girlfriend for more than a few months and he knew in the back of his mind that he was accidentally comparing them all to you.
From the way you loved him wholeheartedly and your kind nature that couldn’t be replicated down to the more trivial things, the way your perfume smelt and how his skin buzzed with electricity whenever you touched him.
Standing here with you, feet apart and barely even speaking, was the most chemistry he’d felt since the last time he was with you.
He always felt bad when he would eventually break up with the women he’d been seeing, giving them a cheap excuse about not having the time or feeling like he wasn’t in the right place for a serious relationship. They’d look at him like they knew it was something else, a few of them outright asking him if there was another woman.
That was hard to answer.
Technically there wasn’t, he hadn’t even heard your voice in years, but he still remembered the way you kissed him and your prom photo was hidden in the top drawer of his dresser to this day.
Stan had always believed the concept of one true love was something silly, a fairy tale and more fitting for one of your made up stories than reality, until he tried to move on from you. It was like his heart refused to forget you no matter how hard he tried to get you out of his head.
“I write children’s books.” You say softly and he snaps out of his whirlwind of thoughts, posture softening at the revelation.
“That’s amazing.” The pride is obvious in his voice. “Truly, that sounds perfect for you. I bet they’re fantastic.”
It’s so sincere that you’re a little visibly taken back for a second and he wonders why. Maybe you had not expected him to be happy about your successes or it was possible it had it just been a long time since somebody had complimented your work.
“What do you do?” You’re quieter now.
He sighs automatically and his hand goes to rub the back of his neck awkwardly, a habit he’d had since he was a preteen that makes your lips curl up a little at the sight of it. There’s a split second of silence where he considers lying to you but he knows immediately how stupid that would be.
“Nothing interesting. Worked my way up to owning a mechanic shop a town over.” He shrugs as he answers like he’s trying to convey to you he knows it’s nothing to boast about before you can form that opinion on your own.
“That’s great Stan.” You sound so earnest that he has a hard time doubting you even though it’s instinctual that he does. His name leaving your lips distracts him momentarily from any job insecurity he might have though. “It’s nice you’re still local.”
“Is it?” His eyebrows raise and he scoffs a light laugh. “I’m sure you’re already bored of our town again compared to where you live.”
You watch him for a few long seconds, scanning over his frame again slowly and he hopes you can’t see the way he visibly shudders under your gaze.
“It’s got its benefits.” You’re nearly whispering now and he has to really take a breather, wondering if he’s reading your tone wrong or if you might be flirting with him subtly.
There’s a moment where you’re both just watching each other like you’re trying to figure out what the other’s intentions are. He has a feeling, maybe a little too optimistic, that you had come here for the same reason he did.
He can’t think of anything else you’d be traveling down memory lane for, pretty positive you hadn’t kept up with anybody from high school after you left so abruptly.
His gaze went down to your hands, pretty and adorned with a few pieces of jewelry but empty in the spot he had hoped they would be.
“Not married?” He still asked just to be safe even though he knew deep down he wouldn’t have cared if you were, not with the way you were looking at him now. You shook your head slowly, bottom lip pulled between your teeth like you were trying to resist an amused smile. “No boyfriend?”
Now you faltered a little and he felt a flare of jealously that had no real basis. You weren’t his anymore, hadn’t been for a long time and it would be stupid to expect somebody as gorgeous and amazing as you to still be single after all these years.
Still, he selfishly felt a little beyond hostile at the thought of you having somebody you were going home to. Even worse, picturing you underneath anybody who wasn’t him.
“It’s not serious.” You said as a loose confirmation and it came out a little quickly, like you were trying to pitch an idea to him.
“Does he know that?” He pressed but he was shifting closer to you and smiling, just a little bit smug at how quick you were to reassure him about your boyfriend. You hesitated but shook your head again and then let out one of those light giggles he had missed so much, beyond relieved you were still capable of them.
Stan wasn’t sure how it had escalated to the point where he was right in front of you, his hand sliding to the still familiar position on your waist. Yours landed on his chest and you rubbed softly, eyes locked in the swell under his shirt like you were appreciating the new definition that came with him being a grown man and not a teenage boy.
“What’s his name?” He was asking in a whisper and his nose bumped against yours, clearly teasing you now with both the action and the gesture.
“Stan don’t.” You said back and it was breathy, a little shaky like you were already slipping away from any control just from a little touching. “I don’t want to talk about him.”
He didn’t blame you for the state you were in and how quickly you got there because he felt like he was absolutely insane, never once thinking he would ever be in a room with you again let alone holding you like this. He figured he had to be the luckiest guy in the world to have such an undeniable chemistry with a girl like you, drawn to each other even after a decade.
“Why not?” His hands slid up your sides now, noticeably rougher from years of blue collar work. “You don’t love him?”
Truthfully, you didn’t.
You had been with Alan for almost three years and you still felt like you were preforming every time you were together. The same act you put on for coworkers and book companies, everyone you interacted with your entire adult life other than the person standing right in front of you.
You’d refused to let him move into your apartment when he had asked and luckily he was head over heels for you and willing to live apart if it’s what you wanted but that was just one part of keeping him at an arms length.
You told him you loved him because it felt like an obligation when you’d been together that long but it left your mouth tasting like tar every time you had to say it.
“It doesn’t matter if I love him.” You whisper which is an answer within itself and your breath hitches when he cups your face.
“I’ve never loved anybody other than you.” He says immediately after your statement ends and now the heat in your stomach is replaced with a nearly painful amount of longing and despair. “So it does matter to me.”
You can’t bring yourself to say something like that to him because unlike Stan, you have a lot to lose when you leave town again in two days. It’s the same dilemma you had when you broke up in high school, unwilling to settle for a boring suburban life even though you felt unfulfilled anywhere without him.
So you didn’t speak at all, instead pressing your mouth against his gently.
It was slow at first, like trying to remember an ancient language, but it didn’t take long for your bodies to remember just how in sync you naturally were. You kissed him deeply and he returned it eagerly, still holding your face as your heads tilted to taste more of eachother.
You felt like you’d come back to yourself finally, that weird feeling that a piece of you had been missing suddenly voided just because you had Stan’s hands on you and his lips moving against yours. You smoothed over his chest until you were holding his shoulders and then down to his biceps, squeezing softly in experiment as the kiss got more desperate.
There was a lot of time that passed before you pulled away from each other and it was hesitant, soft kisses still being pressed as you tried to stop. They were lingering and insistent, entire body tingling with butterflies that had been dormant for so long you thought they’d died off.
“I’m sorry if this makes things hard for you but I missed you more than you could possibly imagine.” He was whispering it against your mouth and pressing another light peck to the corner of your lips, your eyes nearly teary from the sincerity of it.
“I promise you I know.” You said back and his eyes flickered back to yours at that, looking a little shocked that you returned the sentiment so easily.
“Where are you staying tonight?” His hand that was on the small of your back pulled you a bit closer and you took a break from the eye contact to halfway nuzzle into his neck.
It was ridiculous how familiar he smelt after all this time, a scent you probably couldn’t have described in the slightest only a few hours ago even though it lingered in the back of your mind. You’d been searching for it and not able to come close to the real thing until now, surrounded by it as you clung to him.
“The motel off Main.” You answered in a muffled voice, the fabric of his jacket pressed against your throat as you hooked your chin over his shoulder. He rubbed your back softly as you practically hugged him, both of you dizzy with relief that you weren’t alone in your feelings.
“Stay with me.” It was a statement and not a request but you sighed softly and pulled back just enough to shake your head and be able to blink up at him again.
“I can’t do that Stan.” You touched his cheek gently, a little transfixed by the stubble you could feel that wasn’t there in high school. He was such a man now, the image you’d held onto of that boy you loved so much slowly blending with what was in front of you. “You know I can’t.”
His gaze saddened but he kissed you again, short and sweet but still more passionate than any amount of sex or intimacy you’d experienced with anyone else after him, including your boyfriend of three years.
“Tell me why.” He practically begs against your mouth and now you really feel like you’re going to cry. “Give me a good reason and I’ll drop it, I swear I will.”
“It’ll already kill me to leave again.” You say instantly and now you have to take a few steps back because you don’t think you’ll follow through on the rejection if he’s touching you the way he is, so gentle and familiar like he still knows his way around your body. “Just with this alone. It would be so much worse if I spent the night with you Stan and you know that.”
“Worse than you leaving now?” He asks and takes a step closer which results in you moving backwards again.
He says your name like a plea and reaches out to grab your hands and stop you from going any further away, squeezing them gently as they connect and hang in the space between you.
“One night with me.” He tries again and you can almost hear the younger version of him in his voice, higher pitched and a little less confident as he begs for you to sneak out with him to go star gazing. “We can go to the motel, you don’t even have to see where I live.”
You flinch at that even though you know that would actually make it a lot less painful for you. You don’t want to see the life he had built in your absence, the bed he had other women sleeping in and the pictures on his walls that showed all the years he had lived without you around.
As much as you tried to fight it, there was little convincing needed before you were giving him a soft nod and a parting lengthy kiss before swiftly walking away to your car before he could say anything else to you.
You cried the entire drive to the motel and you found that it was mostly out of relief.
You’d been almost positive you’d see him here so it wasn’t necessarily about that but more so how you felt so assured to know the connection you still had to him wasn’t just in your head. You weren’t some silly woman obsessing over a high school sweetheart who had never paid her a thought after adulthood.
Stan had missed you too, he couldn’t love anybody after loving you and he was begging you for even a few more hours together.
You got yourself together just as you got to the motel, thankful that he was still a few minutes behind you so you could go to your room and splash some water on your face and try to look presentable.
You figured you looked normal by the time he knocked on the door and you were opening it but his face fell immediately and he was stepping in to pull you into a tight hug. You returned it and took a deep breath against his chest, holding his back like it was a life line.
“Please don’t cry.” He whispered against your hair and you felt struck by how easily he was able to read your mood. “I don’t want this to hurt you.”
“I’m happy. I promise.” You said back as you clung to him but he didn’t look like he believed you when he pulled back to see your expression more clearly.
You stared up at a him for a few seconds before you were listening to your desires and kissing him.
Stan was kissing you back eagerly despite his wants for conversation, knowing this could comfort you just as much as anything he could say would.
Your hands were eagerly pushing his jacket off his shoulders and then sliding under the fabric of his shirt before it even hit the ground, tugging it upwards without breaking the kiss. You made an impatient sound when he had to pull back for half a second to get the shirt fully off but then your eyes dropped down to scan his bare chest and you seemed to forget all about kissing him.
You rubbed over his stomach with your nails making a shudder rip through him as his own hands went to the bottom of your shirt too.
He selfishly wanted to see you undressed for him, needed to feel your skin pressed against his so you could get as close as possible.
There was this urge to take his time and really appreciate every inch of your body that was overtaken by your mutual desperation to just be with each other already, to have you underneath him and full of him to the point you weren’t going to ever want to be without it again.
You immediately understood his want as he tugged at your shirt and pulled it over your head too, your hair flowing softly over your nearly bare shoulders as your hand went behind your back to try and unclasp your bra. He pulled the straps down onto your arms as you did that so that when it finally released, it fell off your body easily.
He was mesmerized by the sight of you, so beautiful and so much more woman than he had experienced before. His hand was on you immediately and you made a softly shocked but pleased sound at the groping, followed by a genuine whine when he kissed across your chest alongside his exploring hands.
Stan was gentle with you because he loved you too much to ever make you uncomfortable but there was the primal urge still lingering under the surface, the need to throw you on the bed and make you regret leaving him there in your frozen town.
Instead he kissed his way back up to your mouth and lifted you off the ground enough to carry you over to the bed.
You watched him once he laid you down on your back, sitting up on your elbows so you could observe the way he removed your heels and gently set them on the floor.
“Stan.” You said softly when his hands rubbed over your thighs to get inside of your skirt, innocent for now as he simply felt around for the waistband of your tights and started to pull them down. He stopped halfway to raise an eyebrow at your interjection. “You’re so sweet.”
“I’m trying to be sexy.” He countered but it was with a light smile and you laughed at his retort, the sound better than anything else he’d ever heard.
He continued to pull off your tights but he left the skirt on for the time being as he finally climbed over you and kissed you again, softer this time.
“Yeah that too.” You mumbled against his mouth. “But you’re sweet.”
“Other guys weren’t sweet to you?” He can’t help himself from asking even though he really hates even thinking about you with anybody else, hand brushing your hair out of your face to soothe both you and himself.
“Don’t want think about other guys Stan.” You scold softly, blinking up at him and looking so beautiful he almost feels dizzy. “Didn’t think about them then either.”
That settles low in his gut and he feels that heat, having been slightly lessened during the soft conversation, come back with a vengeance. He’s sure his eyes must have darkened at your gentle confession because you’re suddenly looking all over his face, your chest rising and falling a bit quicker now.
“Yeah?” He whispers and you nod immediately, leaning up to try and kiss him again and making a disappointed noise when he doesn’t let you. You fall back against the bed with an impatient sigh. “Tell me what you were thinking about.”
You both knew exactly what you had been implying but he just wanted to hear you say it directly. You eyed him for a long few seconds before you were cupping his face and bringing him down closer to you.
“I was thinking about you Stan.” You said it so softly he barely caught it.
“You were still thinking about me when they fucked you?” His voice is low and he finally kisses you although much slower than you were craving, clearly still teasing you even though you’d told him what he wanted to hear.
You tried to deepen it but he wasn’t allowing you, the hand he wasn’t holding himself up with softly rubbing up and down your side.
It was clearly frustrating so you didn’t respond at first, instead shifting your body underneath his so your hands could slide between your chest and tug at his belt buckle. He surprisingly let you do it, only stopping you after you’d gotten it unfastened.
“I want you to talk to me baby.” He said sweetly and kissed the side of your mouth, trailing down your face until he was sucking marks into your neck.
You hadn’t gotten a hickey in a long time and the slightly juvenile showcase of possession made your stomach twist with even more desire, remembering how you used to feel when he’d mark you like that. It made you smile a little that he still had the same habits when it came to your body.
“You still make me nervous.” You confess and it’s a dizzying mix of sweet nostalgia and an intense level of need shooting through you as you stare up at the ceiling of the motel room, wishing so bad you were back in that childhood bedroom of his so you could stop yourself from ever making the decision to leave him behind.
“I don’t remember you being nervous.” He’s back to looking at you now, your neck feeling colder now from his spit on your skin. His nose brushes yours as you let out a breath of anticipation. “I remember you driving me crazy.”
“Don’t lie.” You’re kissing him again and thankfully he lets you, tongue licking into your mouth just in the way you like. You respond to it eagerly, holding onto his back as he shifts and lets his core fall between your spread legs so you can feel him pressed against you better. “I could barely think the first time you touched me.”
He shifts his hips at that and the way he swears under his breath makes you think it was purely instinctual, your throat tightening at the same time you spread your thighs more around his frame.
Your skirts bunching up on your waist the more you move but you ignore it, reaching back down for his dangling belt right when he kisses you again.
He uses his free hand to help you get it out of his belt loops, tossing it somewhere to the side of the bed and immediately sitting up so he can get your skirt off finally. You giggle a little when he taps your hip to signal he wants you to lift them, biting your lower lip and smiling as you watch him pull it down your legs.
There’s a shaky breath that leaves him as he takes you in entirely, sitting up on his knees and scanning over your frame for a quiet gap of time that makes your heart race painfully.
“You’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.” He says softly but there’s a clear desperation in his voice, calloused hands rubbing up the soft skin of your thighs under he’s going over the fabric of your underwear and stopping at your lower stomach so he can go back down. “Nobody could ever compare to you.”
You’re both quieter when he finally gets himself to the same level of undressed as you, laying back down over you and kissing you softly as he helps spread your legs again for him to fit between.
He’s so gentle as he moves you, the same type of affection he’d given you back when you were teenagers and experiencing so many firsts together. Stan had been just as nervous and inexperienced as you then but you never would have known by the way he took care of you, talked you through it and comforted you when it felt painful or too unfamiliar.
It makes your eyes well up in tears at the same time a soft whine leaves your mouth, his body shifting so he’s pressing right against your core. You’re already so sensitive just from the build up and kissing him, being with him again like this, so the feeling of how hard he is against you nearly sends you to insanity.
You’re grateful for the fabric barrier between you to help keep you a little bit stable but it’s not doing much, automatically chasing after the feeling with your own hips until he’s giving you what you need and slowly grinding down against you as you kiss deeply again.
It’s not going to take you long to be ready for him, willing to bend over and let him take you as soon as you saw him standing outside the school if that’s what he wanted from you.
There was no time to even feel pathetic about your devotion to him never wavering, that same want for his approval that you’d carried around since you were a kid still so prominent in your heart. Luckily, even after all the years, he never made you feel like you were stupid for wanting him so desperately.
After only a few minutes of the soft desperate grinding and your tongues tangling, filling the motel with gasps and wet noises that made your stomach tighten, he was tugging off your underwear without breaking the kiss.
You only pulled away once his boxers were off, glancing between your bodies and sucking in a sharp breath of air at the sight of him.
“You okay?” He said in a whisper and your eyes shot back up to lock with his, full of concern and an emotion you were scared to name.
“You know what this is to me right?” You said quietly back and your voice shook a little from the overwhelming feeling you were getting the longer you looked at him. “I need you to understand before we do anything.”
He watched your face for a few seconds before he was kissing you sweetly.
“I love you more than what is possible.”
His voice was barely audible as he spoke but the words landed just as heavy as they did the first time he spoke them to you. You’d felt the same sensation then, a burning desire around your chest and a comfort in knowing he felt the same way about you.
You liked that he was never too full of himself to tell you it first, to make sure you knew how much he cared about you any second you started to doubt it. Stan wasn’t just responding to your confessions out of obligation but making them himself in earnest.
“I’ll be okay with whatever this is for you because I just want to be with you.” He continues on and you almost want to tell him to stop before you really start to cry. “Even if it’s only for tonight. If that’s what you can give me, then I will take it.”
“I wish I could give you more.” You whisper back and your voice is tight and pained, he furrows his brows and shakes his head at the sound of it. “I’d give you tomorrow and the next day. I’d give you the rest of my life and those ten years we lost if I could.”
“Don’t think about it sweetheart.” He says softly and you try to let that comfort you but it barely even scratches the surface, although a bit soothed when he kisses you again.
It’s deep and distracting and so him that you barely register the fact he’s shifting and pushing into you slowly until it hits you all at once, that full feeling and the light pain from being properly stretched for the first time in a long time.
You’re trying your best to keep up with the pace of the kiss to distract yourself from the slight burn, both where he’s rocking into you softly and deep in your chest. You can almost feel yourself reconnecting what that version of you you’d left behind a decade ago, the character you’d adopted in your adult life dying off to make room for the rush of memories feeling him inside you brings.
Stan is as gentle as he was back then because he still loves you just as much, more if it’s even feasible.
There’s a part of both of you that could easily be unearthed, that feral need and intensity you feel every time you’re near him from the sheer chemistry you have together. But you’re grateful he’s deciding to make love to you instead for tonight, kissing your cheeks softly when he realizes you’d finally started to cry.
He stops moving for a few seconds just to make sure you’re okay and that immediately makes you grip tightly onto his arms and shoot him a panicked look.
“Sorry baby, just checking in.” He says in a tight voice, nearly a groan as he buries his head down into your neck now that he knows you’re alright.
You wrap your arms around his back, practically hugging each other as you whimper and softly whisper that you want him to keep going.
He’s just as sweet when it’s over, even as you lay there on your side and let the tears fall freely. He keeps checking on you every few seconds, wiping you down with a warm rag after he unsuccessfully attempts to convince you to take a shower.
Eventually he settles for making sure you’re cleaned up before he’s pulling his shirt over your frame which causes you to visibly relax a lot more. He waits beside you, softly rubbing your back until you’re finally sitting up and crawling into his lap.
He breathes a sigh of relief when you kiss him softly and lean against him comfortably, clearly grateful you’re alright.
“I love you.” You finally whisper it after you’d sat in silence for nearly an hour, just holding eachother and pretending this didn’t all end when the sun comes up. “I’m not sure if that’s enough but I do love you.”
“You could stay with me.” He says back and you wince immediately, knowing he was going to suggest something like that but still wishing he wouldn’t have anyways. “I have plenty of space and…”
He trails off and you don’t think he can even see your expression with the way you’re pressed into his chest, maybe just realizing within himself that there is no point in trying to convince you to stay.
You and Stan are both overly aware of how this is going to end, torn between feeling like this was a mistake because of how much worse it was going to hurt now and understanding this was something you needed to do.
Loving Stan was not something you were ever going to get closure to because it was never ending, deep in your veins and apart of your soul from the moment you knocked on his front door. He’d been your person long before you’d gotten together, starting from the second he stood up on a boulder and announced to the entire forest that he would protect the princess with his life.
There was no keeping you safe from the pain of losing him again but you couldn’t possibly regret getting to have him for one more night, even if it was the last one.
Soooo… Andrew pope Cody for when?
i promise soon just been busy!
THANK YOU FOR FEEDING US MORE SAMMY
of COURSE