Nobody's Son
Paring: Todd Stevens x fem!reader
Summary: Todd ends things between you two, so you end up going to a sorority party with your best friend. The theme: songs/artists. You dress up as Sabrina Carpenter and don’t realize that there is karaoke at the party…and you’re a “bit” tipsy.
Warnings: strong language, mentions of drinking and weed (just talked about), mentions of sex, fluff, a bit of angst, happy ending, Mitch…, a bit of OOC Todd, kind of rushed ending, okay grammar, use of f/n (friends name) and y/n (only twice)
Word Count: 5.3k
A/N: Hello! Sorry for the long wait, I didn’t intend for it to take this long for me to write (also college… that’s all I will say lol). I do hope that it was worth the wait, and I hope you guys enjoy!
I do not own any characters from ‘The Line,’ nor do I own the Sabrina Carpenter song.
‘Hey. I hope you’re great, but I think it’s time we took a break/ended things. Sorry.’
You reread the text a couple more times before it finally sunk in. Todd was done with you. You should’ve expected it, honestly. Everyone on campus that has either been to his frat, is part of it, or has interacted with him, knows that he is not one to settle down. He’ll screw a girl for a week (maybe two if he feels generous) then drop her unexpectedly. Last you heard, the longest relationship he has had lasted for two months. Poor Monica.
The two of you met at one of his frat parties about five-ish months ago. It was nothing special, but your best friend since high school insisted, you should go.
Now, you really wish you didn’t get tangled in this mess.
You told him after that night you both hooked up for the first time, that it was a one-time thing, but he had other plans.
“Hear me out, what if this became a regular thing?” He said, watching you from his bed as put your jeans back on. You turn to him as you buttoned them up and scoffed.
“Listen, I’m sure you have done this plenty of times before, but I don’t do friends with benefits.”
You put your top back on as you could hear the sound of his sheets ruffling. “Just, think about, darlin’.” You just smiled at his request before opening his bedroom door to leave. “Thanks, but I’ll pass.”
It wasn’t until a month later that you ended up seeing each other again at another party and hooked up for the second time. That’s when you decided to take him up on his offer. Some days you went to his, and most of the times, he came to yours.
“No strings attached” is what they all say, and “no catching feelings” is another. You sadly couldn’t help catching feelings for him for two months in at the ski trip in January. You denied it every time, saying that you really don’t have feelings for him, but deep down you knew.
You lightly threw your phone to the other side of the bed and placed your hands over your eyes. You could feel your throat go dry as your eyes started to get watery. There was no point crying over him because you both established one rule: no strings attached. So, why does this hurt so much?
Three light knocks interrupt your thoughts as you let you a weak ‘come in’ to the person on the other side. The door lightly squeaked open and shut as you felt that person sit down on the corner of your bed.
“Hey, are you okay?” You heard f/n ask. You nodded your head.
“You don’t seem okay. What happened?”
Finally having the courage, you take your hands off your eyes and looked at her as a concern look was on her face. “He uh, ended things with me.” You whispered. That’s all it took for her to wrap her arms around your shoulders as you started to cry in the crook of her neck.
F/n was the only one who knew about it. She was your best friend in the entire world, so of course you would tell her! You wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up telling the entire fraternity about you. You also wouldn’t be surprised if they already knew.
A couple minutes passed as your sobs become sniffles as you pulled away and grabbed a tissue from your nightstand. You wiped the remaining tears that collected under your eyes and blew your nose before throwing it away and laying back down.
“Did he explain why he did it?” she asked, lying next to you. You shook your head no. “He said we should end things.”
You heard her sigh. “What an asshole.” You chuckled a bit as you could tell she was trying to lighten the mood.
“I mean, I knew he wasn’t one for commitment, but it still stung because we have been doing this, whatever you call it, “friendship” for four months. I knew I shouldn’t have said yes to this.”
She scrunches her nose up in disgust as you told her that. “Listen, I may not really have liked the guy, and you obviously liked him, but maybe this a sign to find someone else?”
You both lay there for a couple more minutes before she got off the bed and looked at you with her hands on her hips. “Okay, let’s get something to eat. And after, we can get a sweat treat. How about that?”
You thought about her offer, before ultimately nodding your head. You knew laying here and being sad wasn’t going to fix the outcome. Once Todd made up his mind, there was no changing it.
Even though you still knew all of those facts, you couldn’t help feel sad about it at any chance you got.
//////
One week later
“And I told him, ‘Uh no, he clearly breached the duty of care because he failed to warn the invitee about the broken floor tile!’ so he rolled his eyes at me and actually shut up for once.”
You couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. “Sounds about right. That dude was in my Criminal Law class, and he got annoying at times.” You told her as you thanked the guy who handed you your sandwich and found a booth to sit at and enjoy your lunch.
It wasn’t until two minutes into your conversation did you noticed someone walking towards you from the corner of your eye. “Hopefully you ain’t talking shit about me over here.” Snapping your attention away from f/n, you saw that Tom came up to your booth with a friendly-sideways smile. You couldn’t help but smile back as you give him a side hug.
“Ha-ha, you wish.” You joke. “What brings you over here? Want to hear us complain about this one kid in our law classes who won’t stop contradicting everything we say?” F/n asks him.
He shakes his head. “Uh no actually, I–um—saw you sitting over here and wanted to see how you were doing.” You watched as Tom slightly adjusted his cap, making it a clear sign he was nervous about something. Then it clicked.
“Todd told you, didn’t he?” He looked down at the floor. “Yeah, sorry.” You only nodded your head and went back to eating your lunch. “I just wanted to make sure that you were doin’ okay.”
You muttered out a ‘thanks’ before giving him a small smile. He smiled back as he started a new conversation.
“Hey-o been lookin’ for ya everywhere!” Mitch exclaimed as he wrapped an arm around Tom’s shoulder. You had to roll your eyes inwardly when he showed up. This boy has been a pain in your ass since you met him four months ago.
He then makes eye contact with you as his grin got bigger before disappearing. “Heard from the grape vine you and Todd are done zo,” he says. “How are ya holdin’ up? I’m actually being genuine.”
You purse your lips and lightly glare at him. “I’m sorry, since when are you actually concerned about me and genuine, for that matter,” you start. “I mean for one, I’m surprised the word ‘genuine’ is in your vocabulary and two, last time I remember we talked, you were pissed I won against you during beer pong! You said to me that it was a “cheap shot” and how “I looked ugly in that dress and the color looked terrible on me”!”
Mitch looked away from you for a second before a hardened look carved on his face. “I was trying to be nice, and I did apologize for that night.” You scoffed and crossed your arms. “Oh, and since I am so nice, I wanted to let you know that Todd found another chick to mess around with.”
That made your body freeze.
Before you could say anything back, Tom ushered Mitch away to get food with him as he shot you with an apologetic smile. “What the fuck!” F/n whispered, taking you out of your thoughts. It was then that your stomach started to churn and you abruptly started packing up your lunch and leaving lower dining.
She caught up to you, as she lightly grabbed your arm to make you slow down.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to rush out of there like that.” You apologize. She only waves you off as you both start walking over to her car, which wasn’t parked too far from the building itself. Once the car was started, she drove back to the shared apartment.
“So, have you heard about the party that’s being thrown?” she asked. You looked at her, then back out the windshield. “The sorority party tonight? Yeah, I remember hearing word about it.” You told her.
“We should go.”
You scoffed and let out a breathed laugh. “Yeah, no way!” You argue. She pulls the car into a spot at the apartment and parks it before looking at you with her puppy dog eyes.
“Oh, c’mon please?” she begged. “Just this once! It’s song artists theme, and I already have an outfit picked out and I don’t want to go alone!” You give her an incredulous look. “Well, why not invite Grayson? He’s your boyfriend why don’t you ask him?” You ask back. “Ugh! He is going back home tonight, so he’ll miss it completely.”
You both sit in silence as you contemplate your answer.
‘Should I go and face the reality that a certain someone’s son will be there, or do I stay here and watch ‘Twilight’ for the umpteenth time?’ Finally, you made up your mind and looked at f/n. “Fine! But I don’t even know who I would go as.”
She smirks at you and takes her seat belt off. “Oh, do I have the costume for you!”
/////
It was 7:30 PM by the time you and f/n made it to the house. She was going as Tate McRae while you were going as Sabrina Carpenter.
“Again, how were you able to find this costume this fast?” You asked her as you smoothed down the shimmery top. “My sister’s best friend was Sabrina Carpenter for Halloween, and she lives about an hour away from here, so I asked if I could borrow it.” She waves it off before placing her hands on your bare shoulders. “It doesn’t matter. What does is how hot and breath-taking you look!” You smiled at her generosity.
“You look hot as well, I mean I don’t know who else would be able to pull off purple straight-legged sweatpants and purple lace bra.” You complimented her. She lightly whacked your arm. “Okay, lets just go in.” With one more adjustment to your curled hair, you both start walking to the doors.
Inside Gamma Nu, the smell of alcohol and weed hit your noses as a sorority girl, dressed as Dolly Parton, walked over to you both.
“Hey girls, y’all look hot! Drinks are in the kitchen, to the left, and karaoke is on the right! Have fun and make sure you keep all booze and drugs from upstairs.” She then left to greet another group of people walking in.
“Karaoke?” You asked. F/n only shrugged and took your arm. “I guess so, but for now, let’s get some drinks, shall we?”
You nodded your head as she already handed you a full plastic cup of alcohol.
As the party went on, the more drinks you had. It made you feel the “liquid courage” flow through your veins as you look over at karaoke area.
“I’m goin’ do to that.” You yelled over the music.
F/n turned her attention to you and laughed, “What, sing “Tequila”? I think we’ve heard it enough!” You shook your head.
“Alright sexy people! Who’s up next?” The DJ asked the crowd. You looked at her and smirked. “No, you’ll see.” You went up there, whispered to the DJ what song you wanted, then he queued the song.
To make it more dramatic, you pulled out your phone and opened the last message Todd sent you as the song you selected started playing.
~~~
He knew he shouldn’t have gone to the party. He knew he should have stayed in the house, staring at the last text he sent her. Stayed in his room watching a movie to drown out the amount of regret that was coursing through his veins.
But was he going to admit it? Fuck no. Because there’s no way that he would admit anything to anyone, especially if it came to feelings for a person (or a certain woman).
To drown out his thoughts and feelings, Tom dragged him to go to the Gamma Nu party that almost every other frat boy and sorority girl wanted him to go to. He was expecting the minute he walked in, to have girl’s swooning over him and maybe getting as bold as flirting with him. He didn’t mind the attention, he just wished it were from a different girl.
What he wasn’t expecting was hearing a girl belting at the top of her lungs a song he’d heard more than once before. The two men walked over to join the crowd that formed. They got a good look at the makeshift stage to see the back of the karaoke singer. She was dressed in a sparkly purple halter top, short, sparkly purple pencil skirt, white go-go boots, and her hair curled.
The instrumental part started as she was swaying to the beat, causing an uproar of hoots and hollers as she seemed unfazed walking around the stage like she owned it. Just as the lyrics popped up onto the screen, she stopped in place and turned around. That’s when all the color drained from Todd’s face as he finally got to see who it was.
Y/n kicked her leg every time the slap noise came on, having more fun than she should’ve. It wasn’t until after she sang the last part of that lyric when she saw someone she wished she didn’t.
It hit her twice as hard as she saw the look on his face. The pale, awe-struck painted look. The pain she felt, the anger she suppressed, and the heartbreak she endured finally added up as she felt herself become more aware. And with a blank look in her eyes, she lifted the mic up to her mouth as she made eye contact with Todd and pointed at him with her unoccupied, manicured finger.
That boy is corrupt,
Get PTSD on the daily
He sure fucked me up
And, yes, I’m taking ‘bout your baby
She watches as he looks away from her as she puts her hand down. She replaced her serious blank expression with a smile, making sure to mask the anger and sadness she was feeling before singing (belting) out the last part of the song.
There’s nobody’s son
Not anyone left for me to believe in.
You gave a wobbly bow and handed the mic back to the DJ. You kissed him on the cheek, leaving a bright red lip print behind, and walked off as the crowd hollered at your little stunt. If you couldn’t feel the buzz then, you certainly did now. So much that it felt like everything you ate and drank that night was going to bubble out of your throat and onto the floor.
You grabbed your best friend as she cheered you on but confused as you rushed her out of there. It didn’t make sense to her until you found a bathroom and locked both of you in there to let out all the contents into the toilet.
She grabbed your hair to pull it back, trying to avoid having vomit clinging to it. Once you were done, you pulled your face out of the toilet, flushed it, and sat back against the wall, which you could hear vibrate from someone else singing on the other side.
“I saw him.” You said with a raspy voice. F/n sat on the tile floor and turned her body to face you. “Who?” she asked. “Who did you see?” You sighed and closed your eyes as you could feel the dizzy spell still taking effect.
“Todd.” You whisper.
You heard her suck in a breath. “Oh shit, I thought he wouldn’t come.” You open your eyes and give her your best incredulous look before closing them and groaning.
“Shit, true, sorry.” She then decided to get up from her spot. “Where are you going?” You asked her. She gave you a small smile before putting a hand on your shoulder. “I am going to get you some water, okay? I will be back before you know it.” F/n opened the door, but before she could shut it behind her, she locked it and left.
You maybe sat there for three minutes before hearing a soft knock on the door. You tell her to come in as your eyes are still closed. “That was one hell-of-a performance you put out there.”
Your eyes shot open as you whipped your head, realizing that it wasn’t your best friend, but rather the person you didn’t want to see.
“Oh fuck, what are you doing in here? No, you know what? I don’t care, just get out!” You told him, waving your hand around to shoo him off. You hear him let out a sigh before sitting on the floor with his back against the door.
“No, no, leave. I didn’t say you could—” before you could finish your sentence, you could feel another wave of nausea arrive as you sit straight up from your slouched position, and up on your knees before throwing up once again. You felt him grab your hair and gently pulled it back.
You didn’t want him to. You wanted him to leave before you regretted saying or doing something stupid.
Finally, the wave left your body, and you sat back onto your legs with your head down. He let your hair go and flushed the toilet before sitting closer to you.
“Why are you helping me?” You mutter.
“Because I want to, and I want to talk.” He simply replied.
You scoffed. “Right, well, I thought your text did enough of that. Besides, shouldn’t you be making out with your new hook up?” You asked him, having the energy to pick your head up to look at him. He looked away.
“We only hooked up once, but that was it.”
You roll your eyes. “Okay, I didn’t need to know that. If you just came in here to tell me about how you’ve been sticking your tongue down another girl's throat, then you can get the fuck out!” You could feel the anger starting to rise again as you wanted to stand up. “I don’t have time for this.”
Once you did get up however, you acted like a deer trying to run on ice. You wobbled so much to the point you were sure you would fall forward and crack your head open. But as long as he was here, he wasn’t going to let that happen as he shot up from his spot to grab your arms.
“Okay, first off you need to sit down before you hurt yourself,” he said as he gently moved you to sit on the toilet (which thankfully he put the seat down before hand). Much to your dismay, you melted into his touch and obliged. “Second, I didn’t come in here to tell you about her. I just wanted to make sure you were okay—”
You tense up. “Oh! So now you want to make sure I’m okay? You check in after deciding to break my heart while I spent most of last week moping and crying over you?” You blurted. It was too late when you realize what you just said. Too late to take the words back.
“Wait, wait woah, that’s-that’s not what—” You tried to stand up again, using the counter to help you this time. You wanted to leave, to escape this room before you did more damage to your heart and ego. But before you could’ve got to the door, he moves in front of you, blocking your path.
“Todd, I’m serious, I want to leave, let me leave.” You told him, but he shook his head. “No, I’m not letting you leave until you explain what you meant.” He insisted, but you already made up your mind. You shook your head and fought with him, pushing yourself closer to the door. “No wait, listen please, just—” he grabs both your biceps to stop you from moving.
You couldn’t look at him. Shame flowing through every fiber of your body.
“I missed you.” It was at that moment when you looked at him with wide eyes. “Missed me, or the sex?”
He opened his mouth, but before saying anything, the door swung open and you both turned your attention to f/n, who was standing there with a red solo cup with what you are assuming is your water.
You take this time to rip your arms out of his grasp and walking out, grabbing the water from her hands. She trailed behind you as you made a beeline towards the front doors, wishing you just stayed home instead of being here.
~~~
Todd stood there for a couple more minutes after they both left before he turned to look at himself in the mirror. He had pieces of hair falling in front of his face, his shirt was a bit wrinkled, but most of all, his eyes were wide.
‘You check in after deciding to break my heart while I spent most of last week moping and crying over you!’
It replayed repeatedly. He never thought the girl, whom he was friends with benefits with, liked him back. And he just fucked it up, again.
Without a second thought, he rushed out of the bathroom to catch up to you, but it was too late. You had left, and in this story, Cinderella didn’t leave a shoe behind.
“Shit!”
/////
It was Sunday when you finally decided to get out of bed. Saturday was eventful as you spent most of your morning complaining about your hangover, being “chewed out” by f/n, and then finally ending the day with chicken and pasta and watching ‘The Princess and The Frog.’
You spent most of that day replaying what was said, or what you remember. You remember parts of you singing karaoke, but you barely remember seeing Todd. You do remember Todd coming in the bathroom, but it was only before f/n opening the door did your brain decide to give you the last sentence you told him.
God, you felt stupid.
But now as you sit in the parking lot at Target, you want nothing more but to spend some money. There was no point on trying to figure out what you could’ve said, or what you forgot. It’s been a couple of weeks since you last went for groceries (and non-essential items), so you thought, what better time than to do it now?
As you were going through aisle after aisle, you finally made it to the chips/candy isle. You put in a bag of chips for yourself and a variety pack for your roommates. As you were grabbing a bag of chocolate dipped pretzels, you caught a glimpse of a red crew neck. Before you could even investigate, you walked away and started heading to the book and albums aisle, but fate had other plans.
Your name escaped a person’s lips as you knew who’s voice it belonged to and ducked into the cereal aisle. You could hear the footsteps stop right behind you. You took a deep breath and turned to face Todd. No matter what aisle you ran into, he probably would’ve followed you anyway.
“What do you need, Stevens?” you asked him. He took off his ball cap and ran his fingers though his hair before putting it back on and answered, “I was hoping I could—you know—talk to you?”
You furrow your brows. “Um, we are talking.” He chuckles (something that you definitely shouldn’t be enjoying right now) and looks at you. “No, uh yeah, I mean in private.” This made all the words you had ready, slip from your mind as you look at the shelf. ‘What did he want to talk about? What was he going to tell you?’
You shake your head and start to walk away. “If you want to talk, fine, but we are doing it right here and right now.” You tell him.
You hear him grumble a bit before matching your pace as you make it to the book aisle. “Fuck it, fine. I want to talk about what was said on Friday.” He starts. You look at the shelving of books before taking one off it and reading the back. “Okay, what about it?”
“I want to talk about what you said.” You froze. “What did I say?” you whisper. You could feel him get closer as the book was gently pried from your hands.
“I don’t know,” he whispered in your ear. “Maybe the part on how I broke your heart?” You snap out of your daze and quickly turn around to face him. Your lips were only a couple of inches away from his.
“Listen, I was incredibly drunk that night, and I could barely even remember when I made it to the bathroom.” You say, taking a small step backwards. “Maybe I was just speakin’ out of my ass because sometimes I do that when I get drunk.” You tell him, but he doesn’t believe you. “Bullshit. You end up speaking what ever comes to mind.”
Shaking your head, you place the book back on the shelf and quickly turn around to start walking away from him. You stop dead in your tracks as he grabs your arm, making your sweet escape fall through the cracks.
“Todd, let me go.” You demand, but he doesn’t budge.
“No. Tell me the damn truth. Did you mean it when you said I broke your heart and spent that week moping and crying?”
You shook your head. “No, I didn’t.” You lied.
You remembered the agreement you both had in the beginning, like a light switch being turned on: ‘No Strings Attached.’
You knew he was going to make this a mockery of you and scold you for falling for him. He’s going to get mad at you and you weren’t ready for the rejection that came with it.
“Okay, just like how I missed the sex.”
You turn your head around to look at him as you felt your heart break. At first you thought he was just bickering with you, but the look on his face said otherwise. Guarded, blank, and maybe regret? You both were frozen, unable to bring yourself to move. It was at this moment did you realize that his grip on you loosened.
“Do you mean that?”
You felt him take his hand off your completely as he kept silent. “Todd, tell me, please.”
Without another word from him, you took it as a ‘yes’ and nodded your head before giving him a small smile and leaving to go to check-out.
Now more than anything, you wanted this day to end. As you got to the check-out, you could feel the tears gathering in your eyes as you lightly wiped them with the sleeve of your hoodie and started scanning your items to place them into the plastic bags.
You got to your car after placing the bags in the back and just sat there. You knew it was too good to think about the possibility of him liking you back. You were just a warm body to him, and nothing else than that.
You didn’t even realize you started to cry until you felt a tear fall onto your lap. Quickly wiping your eyes, you start the car up, only to get startled by the sound of knocking on the passenger side window.
“Open the door.” Todd said.
“No! Why should I? You made it noticeably clear that you wanted nothing to do with me and that you just want me for sex!” You yelled back, not even bothering with rolling down the window.
“Dammit, y/n, just open the door! I am not about to have an argument with you outside of a Target!”
“Ugh, alright!” You unlock the doors as he opens it and gets in. You both sat there in silence, not knowing what to really say. “Have you been cryin’?” You look away from him and shook your head.
“Darlin,’ listen I—” You put your hand up from stopping him from talking.
“Don’t call me that,” you start as you turn your head back to him. “We both had our fun, okay? So, let’s just leave it at that. You didn’t want anything serious, and I respected that. Maybe this is really for the best if we just go separate ways.”
“I’ve had feelings for you since January.” He confessed.
You paused, shocked at what he said. “What?” You whispered.
Everything that you told him went in one of his ears and out the other.
“It didn’t happen during sex. It happened when it was just us and the bottom of the ski range.” He continued. “Sure, the sex was amazing, but what was more amazing was being there with you and to see you smile. I didn’t want to admit that to myself because I have reputation with girls and myself revolving around the frat. I’ve had these feelings since that lady told me to ‘wrap my arms around your beautiful girlfriend.’” He paused for a second and looked at me as if to ask me if he should continue.
You nod your head.
“Then after the trip, we went back to our school routine. And it wasn’t until two weeks before I broke it off was when I finally confessed to myself that I was really falling for you, and I didn’t know what to do. So, I cut it off thinking maybe being away from you would help stop the feelings.”
The car fell silent for a while, as you were soaking up everything that was said. After what felt like forever, you finally confessed, “I have fallen for you since that day as well. I also didn’t want to admit to it because I didn’t want to risk losing what we had, so I kept it secret.”
You turned your attention away from Todd as you looked out the driver’s side mirror to watch people either walk out to their cars or go into Target.
You felt his hand grab your right one from your lap and intertwine it. “What if we tried this?” He asked. You looked at your hands together.
“I don’t know,” You started, then looked up at him. “What if you end up only really liking me for sex?”
He smiled and squeezed your hand. “I wouldn’t. What I said back there was stupid and I didn’t mean any of it,” He said, “but I would like to try this with you.” You could help but smile back at him. “So, no friends with benefits? No strings attached?” You clarified. He only nods his head with the smile still etched on his face.
“Absolutely.” He spoke.
You hum in acknowledgement. “Okay, I’ll hold onto that.”
He chuckles and brings your interwoven hands to his lips, lightly kissing yours. You blush and look away as the affection caused your heart to skip too fast. He said your name lightly as you hum in response to look at him.
“Would you like to go out on a date with me, as my girlfriend?”
You smiled.
“Yes Todd Stevens. I would love to go out on a date with you as your girlfriend.”
~~~