absolutely begging to hear more about college!lip who tutors reader and gives them shit like that is such a funny starting point for their dynamic (... also reader being one of those "minds that are brilliant and not wasted" that lip misses later even if our girl bombs physics II)
it’s because he’s in that stage where he thinks he knows everything. he’s egotistical and it’s infuriating. but the shit he knows? he knows.
you take the same class together, you listen to his comments on your work, which are usually snarky, and then some kind of compliment comes your way about your looks. he’s blunt. he flirts. he’s so fucking annoying.
it takes all your pride to finally ask him if he’ll tutor you. but it’s because your grades are shit right now and you can use his help. that would be the smart thing to do, which you need, since physics makes you feel so dumb.
he’s smug about it. he condescends. he smirks. he accepts.
he suggests to seal the deal with a kiss… and then an “okay, fine. no kiss. i’ll teach you, put those eyes away,” after seeing your sharp glare.
Summary: You’ve fallen for the smart college kid who frequents the bar your work in. The only problem? He has a girlfriend.
Warnings: fluff, angst, swearing
A/N: I'm sorry this is so late! Hope you guys enjoy, please let me know what you think and let me know if you would like to be tagged! I love you all! xxx
masterlist
Chapter Two
Dinner was painful, both physically and mentally, it was painful every time Heather reached across the table to hold Lip’s hand. It was painful every time your parents cooed and fawned over him, you could see it in their eyes that they disapproved of him. But, they wouldn’t say anything, nothing against their darling daughter’s boyfriend. The worst part was that Lip believed every word they said, couldn’t he tell they were bullshitting?
Lip looked at your sister with so much fondness in his blue eyes that it hurt to watch, but you couldn’t tear your eyes away from them. All you could do was sit back and drink your wine. The dreaded question came about halfway through the first course.
“So, how did you two meet?” your dad asked as he took a sip of his whiskey.
Your sister practically glowed at the question as she grinned over at Lip, “when he walked into my English lecture and sat behind me, kicking my chair the whole time,” she giggled.
You paused slightly and looked over at Lip who was hunched over his plate and you could see a flush starting to form on his cheeks. You remembered how much he had complained about having to take an English class and you talked him into it, telling him you would help out as much as you could. He’d met you first and he still chose her? It stung.
Just before dessert, you excused yourself to go to the bathroom, you had to catch your breath and force the tears back. You decided to text Jess.
‘I need to get out of here, gonna leave before dessert, have a glass ready for me? xx’
She texted you back a couple of minutes later, ‘you know it! Xx’
Taking a deep breath, you plastered a smile on your face and left the bathroom, both Heather and Lip looked up at you as you walked back in, “I have to get going.”
Your parents looked like they couldn’t care less, while Heather and Lip spoke in unison, “you do?”
You nodded, “yeah,” you smiled as you pulled your sweet sister into a hug, “I’ll see you soon, okay?”
Heather smiled, “yeah, next time I’ve got a day off we’ll go for lunch.”
You nodded, though you knew what lunch with your sister would entail, she would gush about Lip the whole time. The guy you had practically fallen for, “it was nice to meet you, Lip,” you gave him a tight smile.
He nodded but didn’t say anything back.
You glanced back at Heather, “I’ll text you,” you smiled before you walked out of the door.
Before you could get down the porch steps, you heard footsteps behind you, “Y/N, wait.”
You glanced over your shoulder to see Lip hurrying after you with a lit cigarette dangling from his lips. He was so gorgeous, it hurt.
“So, what? We have to pretend like we don’t know each other?”
You sighed as you looked at his face, “it’s for the best, after all, you’re just some guy that comes into the bar,” your tone was nonchalant and you had to play it like he meant nothing to you. A look of hurt flickered over his face and in that moment, you hated yourself.
“You know that’s not all we are, I wanted to make an agreement that we wouldn’t make things awkward. I know we both like a bit of a flirt,” he chuckled and stuffed his hands in his pockets.
The only thought in your head was that you had to protect yourself, “you realise that’s my job, right? I get more tips if I flirt with men.”
Lip raised an eyebrow, a response quick on his tongue, “but you never let me pay.”
You rolled your eyes, all you wanted to do was tell him how you felt. But you couldn’t, “whatever, Lip.”
Lip took a drag of his cigarette as he ran a hand through his hair, “I don’t know what I’ve done to upset you, but whatever it is, Y/N, I’m sorry.”
You shrugged as you kicked a stone onto the driveway, “I guess you’ll be wanting your sweater back?”
“What?”
He didn’t remember? “the sweater that you let me borrow when the heating was broken at the bar.”
“Yeah, Y/N,” he nodded, “I remember the sweater, why the hell would I want that back? I gave it to you, you look much better in it,” he chuckled.
“Thought you might want to give it to your girlfriend.”
Lip bit his lip as he shook his head, “I didn’t give it to her. I gave it to you,” his voice was so soft and sincere.”
“I gotta go, Lip. I’ll see you,” you smiled weakly and this time he let you walk away.
As soon as you walked into the bar, Jess saw the look on your face and she poured more wine into your glass until it was full to the brim. Without a word you walked behind the bar and gulped the wine down, almost finishing half of it in one go.
“I take it dinner went great?” she laughed, before you could reply or even make a face you spotted Ian, Lip’s younger brother walk out of the bathroom.
“Hi, Y/N,” he smiled as he sat at the bar and took a sip of his drink, “what’s wrong?” he asked with a laugh when you narrowed your eyes at him.
“Did you know your brother had a girlfriend?” you asked.
Ian shrugged, “I knew he was seeing someone, I thought,” he trailed off, biting his lip. He only answered when you raised an eyebrow in question, “I thought he was seeing you.”
You scoffed as you took another gulp of your wine, “close, he’s dating my sister.”
Ian’s eyes widened and Jess let out a gasp of shock as she rubbed your shoulder, “oh sweetie, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?”
You thought about it for a minute, were you okay? Eventually, you settled on a nod, “yeah I’m okay. A little hurt that he met me first and he still wanted her,” you thought back to the conversation you’d had with him outside the house, “oh god, I was such a bitch to him.”
With another large glass of wine, you told your friends what had happened outside the house and how you tried to make it out like Lip meant nothing to you. Ian smirked – it seemed like the first time Lip had been given the cold shoulder by a girl – while Jess gave you a disappointed look. The guilt only grew as you drank more wine and you knew that you needed to apologise. If he apologised would he forgive you?
When Jess went into the back to get more wine, Ian looked at you, “you know I am a little surprised that he’s dating your sister. Did you have a boyfriend when you guys met?”
“No, why?” you asked and Ian bit his lip, you knew he was contemplating how much to tell you, “oh come on, don’t do that! You can’t just start and not finish.”
Ian laughed as he ran a hand through his short hair, “god, would you just chill? Lip’s my best friend. Mostly, we tell each other everything and when he first met you he came home raving about how he’d just met the most beautiful girl in the world.”
You flushed, hoping it was true, “then why is he dating my sister?”
Ian shrugged with a sad look, “I don’t know, because he’s an idiot,” he chuckled, “look Lip cares about you, he’d never hold a grudge against you,” he smiled, answering your silent question before he checked his watch and slid off the bar stool, “I gotta get to work, how about you come over next Friday for dinner? Lip comes down from college.”
You scoff, “I’m not going if he’s bringing my sister.”
Ian grinned, “Lip usually comes over way before dinner. How about I text you and let you know?”
“That would be great,” you grinned and waved at him as he left the bar.
You decided that now would be a good time as any to call Lip, it would definitely be better to do it now before you got drunk and started another argument with him. Or told him too much. Shelving your pride, you selected his name from your contacts and called him. It rang for a little bit too long and you were worried he was ignoring your call. Just before you were about to hang up, he answered.
“Hey, Y/N.”
“Hi,” you smiled, relieved when he answered.
“So, what can I do for you?” he prompted you when you fell silent and you had almost forgotten why you were calling.
“I wanted to apologise,” you sighed, “you were right, we are more than just strangers, you know if you want I can tell Heather that we know each other? I’ll make up some excuse to why I was pretending like I didn’t know you,” you laughed.
“No, no, it’s okay. Don’t tell her, you were right, it would be best if she didn’t know that we already know each other,” he paused, “I accept your apology by the way, I’m sorry too.”
“I don’t like fighting with you.”
“Me neither,” another pause, “does that mean you’ll help me with the Gatsby essay?” you could hear the smile in his voice.
“Wow, just using me for my amazing writing skills?” you giggled, “why don’t you ask my sister? You guys can have a little middle school study date,” you fought hard to keep the bitterness out of your voice.
Lip laughed, “oh shut up! Besides, my plagiarising off of you is something special that we share, don’t want to ruin it.”
“Of course not,” you giggled.
“Listen, I gotta go but thanks for the call and I’ll see you soon, yeah?”
“Yeah,” you smiled, “bye, Lip.”
“See you later, Y/L/N,” he laughed before hanging up the phone.
You smiled, you were glad that you had managed to work things out, it didn’t mean you had to like it though. Though you supposed you’d better get used to it if you wanted to keep your relationship with Heather and your sister intact. You wondered whether Jess could introduce you to any cute guys.
You couldn’t sleep but you didn’t want to tell Lip. That was until you accidentally sent him a snapchat and he instantly called you.
“Why are you awake?” He said, giving you no time to even greet him.
Normally you went to bed around 10pm and it was already 2am. You hadn’t slept yet.
“Um.” You didn’t know how to answer. You had walked something scary and were too afraid to turn off the lights, “Why are you awake?”
“I’m grading for Youens. You should be asleep. Now, why are you awake?” He asked again, his tone firming on you.
“I watched something scary and I keep almost having a panic attack if I turn out the lights or if I try to sleep because it’s all I can think about.” You sighed. You knew it was ridiculous but the other episodes of the show hadn’t bothered you this much.
“Hold tight.” He said and hung up the phone. You knew what that meant. He was walking over to your dorm from his. It wasn’t far and you normally spent the night together but he had work to do tonight.
Sure enough, a couple minutes later your door opened and Lip walked in holding papers. “Hi.” You said meekly.
He shut the door and locked it. He walked over to you and kissed you, “Don’t be scared anymore, baby.”
You smiled lightly. You knew you still wouldn’t be able to sleep but at least you’d have Lip with you.
You patted the bed next to you and he sat down with his papers. You laid your head in his lap and grabbed your book.
“Thank you.” You murmured, gazing up at him.
“Don’t thank me.” He said and leaned down to kiss you before he went back to grading papers. “Try to sleep if you can. You have work tomorrow.”
“I know. I know.” You smiled but you were still too afraid. It was a little bit better that Lip was there now.
i think the physics department at chicago polytech should do what my college major used to do and offer extra credit to students who go to department events so we have an excuse to send college!lip and reader on a first date to the planetarium (reader does not think its their first date no sir but christ alive we need those points)
i have never ever been to a planetarium, but this sounds like it would be so cute )))):
lip explaining some of the exhibits??? going on and on about what each thing does and how it works??? and reader encouraging him by asking lots of questions, doing it on purpose because of how he lights up.
stars in his eyes? LITERALLY??? and he keeps looking at you when you’re in awe so fondly.
Whenever I do physics homework I remember about college!lip and try to understand this shit a little more to make him proud (I failed three exams)
At the end of the day, all I need is him teaching me physics or talking nonstop about what he's learning in his classes
I love my smart ass bf 😻
me, but i would honestly do it from spite because a man can not be smarter than me (he can, but i’m competitive lmfao)
but i could see the glimmers of him coming out. the way he would get so passionate. overexplaining out of his genuine interest. and there’s no other way to put it.
you’re trying to understand his genuine interest, and you are smart, so maybe he can also show you the beauty of it and his connection in it.
i think he, like any, needs to be understood where he often feels on his own.
college!lip and reader first kiss in the snow the snippet had me shambles!! she must have been floating up those steps to her dorm, but i wonder if she like caught herself and remembered who he was and tried not to get too attached.
like, sure, maybe she’s the one he stays up talking to, and she’s the only one on campus who would know he has dimples cuz he's always smiling with her, and she’s the one who reminds him of why he wanted to do this college thing in the first place… but that could mean nothing!!
coincidentally, i think they would've also reached maybe my favorite stage of any lip relationship, which is when he starts bringing her along for side quests (i.e. “hey karen do you want to come with me to salvage a water heater?” “hey mandy do you want to watch me fight robots?” “hey mdl do you want to go to a tee ball game?”). i love you, hijinks phase, romance is NOT dead!
YOU INCLUDING MDL LIKE IT’s cANON IS SENDING TF OUTTA ME 😭
but yes, we have reached their adventure portion. she learns more about his punk side. letting him to convince her to sneak off and ditch classes, make out in a close or two, get back at some professors who scorned him, attending college parties.
he shows her around the south side. but always with his hand firmly on hers because he knows how overwhelming it can be to someone who’s not familiar. she falls asleep with her head on his shoulder on the train )))):
l4l, i have meditated on it and i think it could be fun if reader was the one the make the first big move with college!lip. she actually does end up sealing the deal with a kiss like he was "joking" about at the start😭 and she has so many good opportunities for it! maybe she finally gets her first paper/exam back since lip started tutoring her and she's so overjoyed she just has to go for it. maybe she kisses him goodnight after he walks her back to her dorm late at night, and his hair is full of snowflakes. maybe she just gets bowled over by how cute he is when he's telling her about magnetism!
the snowflakes in his hair )))): his pink cheeks and pink nose )))))):
i kinda like the idea of him yapping about magnetism on the way and then she just feels like the moment is right. it’s cold. he’s close and warmth is coming off him. and she has yet to tell him about the good grade she just scored thanks to his tutoring.
snd she just feels it. grabs his face and pulls him in for a deep kiss. he’s surprised since he’s mid-sentence, seconds of it showing from how he stands there and lets himself feel it. and then his eyes shut and he pulls her closer, his arm slinging over her back, hand flat on it as he melts into it.
“i got a b on my paper,” she says with a smile, explaining herself.
“s’good. knew you could do it,” he mumbles.
barely heard cause he’s speaking fast and going back in for another kiss.
