ᯤ ♡ .. I LIKE ME BETTER WHEN I’M WITH YOU ── PART 2 💌
pairing(s): pdh!laurance x reader
tags: to all the boys ive loved before inspired, fake dating, swearing, pdh, not proof read oops, part 1 here ~3.8k
a/n: loooong & awaited part 2 that has been rotting in my drafts for 2 months btw </3 never thought id see the day, thank u all for ur patience i pray this doesn’t disappoint PLS
After morning practice was over, you and Laurance both agreed to meet up during break later that day. The two of you sat by the bleachers outside, not as many people were outside, surprisingly.
“So,” You begin, “I think It’s safe to say that we need a contract for whatever this is.”
Laurance is leaning forward, his elbows resting against his knees as his head turns towards you, “A contract?”
You hum in response, pulling out a notebook and pen from your bag, “Mhm, we need rules.”
“Is that really necessary?” He lets out a soft chuckle, you huff at him. “It’s so we know where we stand on certain issues.”
“Alright, like what?”
You tap your pen against your chin, “Like for example, I don’t want you kissing me in front of everyone anymore.”
Laurance blinks in surprise, “I’m sorry, what?”
“What?” You repeat.
“How are we supposed to convince everyone we’re together If you won’t even let me kiss you?”
“You’ll live.” You wave him off. He gives you a look, leaning back and crossing his arms, you click your tongue at him, “Hey, you may be a pro with this kind of stuff—but I’ve never dated anyone before.”
Laurance groans, throwing his head back, “Why does that matter?”
“Well, It matters because, I don’t want all my firsts to be fake.” You shrug at him, “If I’m gonna be making out with someone, I’m gonna do it for real.” He snorts at your comment.
“Didn’t you kiss me first?” He reminds you. You sugh, “Fair enough.” You click the top of your ballpoint pen, opening a free page on your notebook as you start writing down.
“Alright fine, so you can kiss me, since you want to so bad.” You say sarcastically, however Laurance doesn’t argue against it before you move to your next point.
“Second—and most importantly, we cannot tell anyone that this is a fake relationship. No snitching. It’ll be too humiliating for the both of us. No secrets..” You continue to list everything down. “Anything else?”
Laurance hums to himself, “I could.. write you notes everyday?” He turns to you again, “If you’d want.”
“What, like small love notes?”
“You could call it that.”
You look up from your notebook, feeling your cheeks slightly heat up and your heart flutter, “You’d do that?”
“Of course.”
You purse your lips together, biting back a smile almost, while you write another rule down.
“Michi always wanted me to write her some—never did. But if I send some to you, she’ll go nuts.” Your smile drops, your hopes immediately vanishing at the sound of her name, keep your head in the game, you remind yourself.
“How romantic.” You say, rolling your eyes at him.
“Also, you have to come with me to my games and parties.” He points out, you huff. “Alright, then you have to pick me and my sister up and drive us to school.”
“Fine by me.”
“Everyday—til’ this deal is off the hook.”
He sighs, “Then you have to go to prom with me.”
Your freeze, glancing up from the notebook and looking at him. “Are you asking me out to prom already, Zvahl?” You snicker, “Isn’t it like, what—three months away?”
He squints at you, “Your point?”
“You seriously think this would go on for that long?”
“Who says it can’t?” He shrugged.
You sit up straight, tilting your head at him. You were surprised he’d want to continue doing whatever this is, when you were certain it wouldn’t even last three weeks—and you still stood by that, which was the only reason why you said:
“Okay. Deal.”
You write two lines underneath the so-called ‘contract’, scribbling down your signature on top of one before passing both pen and notebook to him, where he glances at you before writing down his signature in the other, sealing the deal.
Over the next few days, people began to pick up how inseparable you two were, noticing how you both had stuck to each other’s side almost all the time. You both had taken it slow at the start, but rumours spread like wildfire, hushed whispers and curious ears to the point where it had eventually reached Michi, and let’s just say she isn’t too happy with the news. You were most definitely not used to the newfound attention and constant eyes on you as you walked past them down the halls. You try to reassure yourself, It’s fine—it’s all for pretend, it’ll pass in a matter of weeks.. right?
That afternoon was slower than usual, you’re already eager for the rest of the day to finally end. You held a handful of books in your arms, walking down the hall to put them away in your locker. You’re halfway down the stairs to the ground floor, the sound of footsteps from behind caught your attention before a shoulder deliberately bumps into yours rather harshly.
The figure passes by in front of you, stopping to turn to you. You don’t even have to guess who it was based off the tuft of lilac hair with yellow highlights and a set of dark purple ears and a tail, great.
“Oh,” Her tone was surprisingly low at first despite her usual high-pitched voice.
“Michi.” You greet her as politely as you could through gritted teeth as your eyes met her olive green orbs, she looks at you with no expression on her face.
A smile suddenly appears on her lips, evidently fake. “Don’t get too comfortable, Y/N. We both know he’ll come crawling right back.” She says suddenly, it’s almost eerie.
You let out a sigh, unimpressed. “To.. you?”
She nods, stepping closer that you could smell her candied perfume, “Yes. To me.” Her smile feels like a threat.
You hum, “You sure? I highly doubt that.” You challenge her, unsure where the sudden surge of confidence came from.
Her eyes carry a glint, scanning you up and down.
“Oh, I’m sure.” Her ears flick for a second, her smile not faltering once before she turns her heel without another word, leaving you stranded.
Weird, you think. You’ll never understand why Laurance would even want to win her back. It was almost too easy to make her jealous that you’d hope the deal would end as quickly as you caught—before you caught any feelings. Yeah.
You shake your head, continuing the walk to your locker to save your arching arms from the unreasonably heavy textbooks.
Once you finally reached your destination, you try to pry open your locker door with one hand, suddenly a folded piece of paper had slipped out which had immediately caught your attention, a routine that’s been happening everyday, yet you can’t lie when you say you look forward to what Laurence had written down this time. It falls to the ground, landing by your feet, your hand reaching down to pick it up.
You were quick to unfold the piece of paper, as best as you could with your one hand, eyes scanning the surprisingly neat and familiar writing.
To my totally real girlfriend, you looked cute during practice this morning. Don’t deny it. — L ♡
You couldn’t even help the small smile that appeared on your lips, which quickly disappeared when someone suddenly snatches the note from your hands. It catches you off completely guard, you blink in confusion, finally noticing that someone was right behind you, then the familiar scent of cigarettes and musk hits your nose. Just your luck.
“Gene.” You say, mentally preparing yourself before whirling around to face the troublemaker himself.
“Y/n.” He smirks at you, ‘course he does. The note sits in between his fingers. He moves to stand beside your locker, leaning against the one next to yours while looking down at you. You place your books inside your locker, wanting to get this over and done with already, “Give it back.”
“What, this?” He waves it around before reading it himself before you could stop him, “Aw, letter from your boyfriend?” He tuts, shaking his head.
A sigh escapes your lips, “Something like that.” You don’t seem too interested to be talking to him, that’s because you weren’t.
“You two make a good show.” He folds the note, you look at him in confusion. “Show?”
Gene gives you a look, shoulders dropping, “C’mon, Y/n. You two aren’t really subtle.” He says, “You may have fooled everyone, but you really didn’t think I’d buy the act, did you?” He chuckles, almost as if to mock you and you say nothing.
He hands you the note back, shockingly, “You really have a thing for love letters, I’ve noticed.”
You freeze, “What do you mean?”
His smirk widens, “Does Katelyn know about the letter you wrote to Jeffory too?”
Your stomach drops, head snapping to glance around the hallway, which was empty, thank Irene. Last thing you’d want is for anyone to see you and Gene together and hear you both, especially with you and Laurence already being the hot topic of the month, it would only fuel it even more.
You shake your head at him, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You mumble, avoiding his eyes.
“Didn’t think you were the type to be messy, doll.” He laughs, “First Laurance, Jeffory, even me? I’m flattered, really.” He snickers whilst you glare at him, but you don’t deny it.
He doesn’t stop there, “Let me guess, Garroth probably got one too, I wouldn’t be surprised—“
“Shut up, Gene. And no, he didn’t.” You snap, he only continues to feed into your annoyance, “What’s wrong, pretty? No need to be embarrassed.” He mocks you, crossing his arms himself as he steps closer.
“Can you just drop it?”
He hums in thought, “Hm, no. I’m having way too much fun with this.”
“How’d you even find out?” You ask, he stares at you, “Jeffory’s notebook, your handwriting isn’t hard to miss.” He sighs, you can’t even tell if it was a compliment or an insult that he recognises your handwriting, “Now, what would your best friend say?” His eyes light up, “Imagine what the whole school would say? Little Laurance’s girlfriend writing love letters to me and Jeffory. Headlines, for sure.” He adds, dramatically.
You pause, lips going dry. “You wouldn’t.”
“Would I?”
“Gene, please.” You plead, and he loves the look on your face.
“Relax, sweets. I’m just messing with you, I won’t tell anyone.” He tells you, you almost relax, “For now—Maybe until I’m bored.” Your shoulders drop.
“Swear you won’t.” You try again, but it’s hopeless at this point.
He leans down, “No promises. You’re too easy to annoy.” He ruffles your hair, messing it up before moving off the locker to finally walk off. You groan, fixing your hair and turning to his back, “Jerk.” you mumble to yourself as you watch him disappear into the empty hallway. The thought of him telling everyone about the letters sending shivers down your spine, you just pray he’s only doing it to rile you up—and he was doing a damn good job at it.
You turn to your locker once again, Irene above, could this day end already? Why does this keep happening?
You grab your bag from your locker before shutting it closed, “You tell me.” A voice causes you to jolt, your heart jumping out of your chest, finding Laurance beside you this time. Did you say that out loud?
“Laurance! You scared me.” You placed a hand over your chest, letting out a breath after you almost felt your heartbeat nearly stop. You notice that the hallway was making its way into becoming more crowded with students who have been dying to leave, you hadn’t even noticed the bell had rung to finish for the day. He stood by you, one hand in his pocket and the other to hold his bag that swung lazily on his shoulder, his smirk plastered on his face as he looked at you, “Did you like my note?”
“How long have you been standing there?” You ask him as you slid your arms through your backpack, hoping he hadn’t seen too much. He shrugs, “Long enough to see you and Gene, what’s his deal?”
“It was nothing.” You interject, “Just Gene being Gene.”
“It didn’t look like nothing—you looked uncomfortable, I would’ve stepped in if I hadn’t been so late.”
You sigh in defeat, “It was about his stupid letter, and that jerk knows that we’re faking it,”
“Shit.”
“He just didn’t buy it, and it wasn’t just that.” You continued, he noticed you seemed uneasy. “He knows about Jeffory’s too, he saw it while they were in class together.”
His smirk was now gone, standing upright, “Shit.” He repeats, tone rather alert.
“What if he tells Katelyn, Laurance? Even worse, the whole school will find out and everyone will think that I’m some girl who loves to bounce from one guy to another, and that I’m going after my best friend’s boyfriend out of all people!” You start rambling. “I’m not like that! I’ve never even had a boyfriend before!”
“Hey, hey.” He tries to calm you down by placing his hands on your shoulders, his touch steadies you, “Quiet down now unless you want the whole of Phoenix drop to hear you, deep breaths, babe.” He drops so casually.
You scrunch your nose at him, “Eugh, don’t call me that.”
His stupid smirk appears again, “Alright, babe.”
“Laurance.”
He snorts, “What? There’s no rule in the contract that’s stopping me from calling you names.” You let out a groan.
“But seriously, I’m sure Gene’s just doing that to tease.” He tries to reassure you, “but it’s Gene.” You reply, and he sighs, “—but it’s Gene.” He repeats, patting your shoulders in comfort.
“Don’t stress about it, yeah? I’m here.” He murmurs only for you to hear while looking into your eyes.
You nod, it’s quiet between you two despite the loud chatter amongst others and his eyes almost have you in a trance, “Come on, let’s get your sister.” he jerks his head to the direction of the school’s main exit, walking off as you follow along next to him.
“There you two are!” A voice appeared from behind you, causing both you and Laurence to jump in surprise as you turned your heads.
“Katelyn!” You stammer, she walks alongside you, “Look at you two, all lovey-dovey in the open.” She says, “Saw you both talking, what were you two talking about?”
You and Laurance glance at each other, you swear you could feel the sweat running down your forehead.
“Um..” You mumble.
“History!” Laurance blurts out, Katelyn blinked in surprise, “History?” She repeated.
“Yes!” You back him up, clearing your throat. “You know.. cause.. we had a test coming up..?”
“—on the War of the Magi or something like that.” Laurance continued.
“Right..” Katelyn drags, glancing between you two before shaking her head. “Anyways, you.” Your best friend’s eyes set on you.
“Me?” You ask, pointing to yourself.
“Yes, you.” She repeats, nodding. “Jeffory’s looking for you, said it was something important.”
You freeze, and you notice Laurence tense up too.
“Oh!” You say, letting out an awkward laugh. “He wanted me to tell you that he’ll be out front near the stairs so you two can walk home together.” She continued.
You can feel your throat tightening up, many thoughts scrambling in your head. “Uh—“
Laurence cuts you off. “Actually, Katelyn. She’ll be busy. We have plans, don’t we, Y/n?” He spits out while nudging you, “I’ve been driving her home a lot lately to save the hassle, I’m sure Jeffory can wait.”
Katelyn blinks, once, then twice. “Plans?”
“Yeah, uh—a study date! For that test we told you about.” You silently curse yourself as you heard your voice crack while Laurance nods. “Tell Jeffory.. maybe next time?”
Katelyn glances between you two once again for a moment, her lips pressing into a thin line while she observes you both as if she’s trying to piece something together. She then shakes her head and shrugs, “Yeah, no, can’t blame you. You love-birds are always together now, I’ll tell him.” She nods.
“Great, thanks.” You put up a smile for her, and she soon waves you two off as you all step out of the school, once she was out of sight, you let out a breath you didn’t realise you’d been holding in.
“A study date?” Laurance asked, “What else was I supposed to say?” You ask him, he shrugs.
“I mean.. If you’re free right now, we can go to that diner from last time.” He faces you, eyes glistening with hope.
“Corner Cafe?” You ask, he nods. You could so go for a strawberry milkshake again.
“C’mon, it’ll be fun. My treat.” He says, who would say no to free food? A smile appears on your face as you nod, “Hm, deal. But first, let’s find my sister and drop her off back home.”
“Thanks, Joan. You’re the best.” You clap your hands together as the familiar waitress smiled at you and slid the glass of your all-time-favourite drink, your lips immediately finding the red-and-white straw as you hummed in delight, the taste engulfed your tongue. Laurence sat across from you, he chuckled at your reaction, “What?” You raise your brow at him, a pause, then he shakes his head as he popped a fry into his mouth, “Nothing.” He shrugged, looking at you.
“Oh!” You exclaimed all of a sudden, “I forgot to tell you this weird thing that happened today with Michi.” You say, fingers stirring around the straw in your milkshake, this caused him to lean forward, elbows against the table, “Yeah?”
You nod, “Yeah. Turns out this whole thing we’re doing might end quite early.”
He squints at you, he almost seems disappointed, “What do you mean?”
“You didn’t tell me she was quick to become jealous, it’s almost too easy.” You reply, grabbing a fry from his plate, dipping it in ketchup before placing it in your mouth.
Laurance gives you a look, clearly confused, “Uh, Elaborate?”
“She bumped into me earlier—literally right before you saw me at my locker—and she was all.. He’ll come crawling right back to me, don’t get too comfortable.” You mimic her high-pitched voice, he laughs at your imitation, “No, really?” He asks, “Dead serious.” You say, taking another sip of your drink.
“That’s..” He’s searching for the word, “Off?”
“Off?” You repeat and he shrugs, “You’re telling me that doesn’t sound very Michi-like to you?”
“Well, yeah—I mean. I don’t think she seems the type to threaten other girls.” You roll your eyes at his response, “That’s because you’ve never seen her threaten other girls, she’s overprotective, especially over you. Do you even know your own ex, Zvahl?”
“I do! It’s just.. weird hearing it I guess.” He mumbled, his phone buzzes, vibrating against the table, once. Then it happens again—and then a third time, causing both of you to snap your heads down on the screen. You notice his lockscreen hasn’t changed, a photobooth picture of him and the meif’wa, speak of the devil, you’re not really surprised.
“You still have that as your background?” You mention, “Yeah, might need to change that one.” He scratches the back of his neck, “Let me guess, the notifications are from her too?” He nods in response.
“Mhm. I don’t know, she just annoys me sometimes.” He admits, “Like today, she ignores me at school, but then we leave and suddenly I have a thousand messages from her.”
You squint at him this time, “Oookay, have you been replying back?”
“Nah. I think I’ll probably just call her when I get back home or something.” He says with a sigh, his words causing you to blink at him in confusion.
“So, wait, you guys still talk on the phone then?” You ask, leaning back and crossing your arms together, “I mean, not as much as we used to. But yeah, I guess you could say that. Just sometimes here and there.” He replies, looking down as if he was caught.
Silence settles between you both, you stare at him saying nothing, completely lost as he eventually looks back up at you.
“What?” He breaks the silence, you sit back up, snapping out of your head and humming in response, “Hm?”
“Wh—you do this thing,” He gestures at your face, “You have this whole judgy face scenario going on.”
“Well, for one, I think it’s really weird that you’re still talking to your ex over the phone.” You slowly shake your head at him, “It’s not healthy.” You point out.
“Oh, I’m sorry, and you’re the expert?” He smirks at you, “You’ve never even had a boyfriend or a girlfriend before—“
You cut him off, “Well you have had only one girlfriend, and you’re completely and unhealthily obsessed with her. So that doesn’t necessarily make you The Bachelor.”
He laughs, “Okay, one: I am not obsessed with her.”
“Please.” You snort. “Then prove it, don’t call her tonight.” He sighs in defeat, “You know, for someone who’s quiet, you sure have a lot of opinions.”
“Really? Well, I guess that’s just because no one’s been honest with you before.” He laces his hands together, “Okay, fine. Then be honest with me. Why haven’t you dated anyone before?”
You stare at him before shrugging at him, “I don’t know, I guess no one’s ever liked me like that.”
“Lies.” He points at you with a whisper, waving his finger at your face, “Lies, I know those are lies, because I know for a fact there was that one guy that asked you out last year.”
“You’re keeping tabs on me now? And it was Dante, you know how he is. He asks out every girl he sets his eyes on!”
“Come on, L/n.” He whines, “Talk to me. No secrets, remember? Contract.” He reminds you.
You let out a sigh, pursing your lips together before tucking a loose strand away from your face. “Alright, so, love, dating and all that romantic stuff?” He hums as he listens in, “I love to read about it, it’s sometimes kind of fun to write about, and to think about it in my head.” You pause, looking down, “But when it’s real..”
Laurance looks at you, tilting his head, “What? It’s scary?” You look back up to meet his eyes, slowly nodding, “I guess you could say that.”
“How? Why is that scary?” He asks.
“Because the more people that you let into your life—the more that can just walk right out.”
Laurance only nods in response, absorbing your words. “Well,” he says slowly, “I think it’s funny that you say you’re scared of commitment and relationships.” He starts, “But you don’t seem afraid to be with me.” He points out.
You shrug, “Well there’s no reason to be.” You reply, he smiles, “Yeah? Why’s that?”
“‘Cause we’re just pretending.”
© fleuriae, 2025 — i do not own any of the characters mentioned .