just a little giggle
garrett graham x fem!reader
summary: after a bad day, garrett proves he’s the only one who can make you laugh
established relationship / grumpy x sunshine
warnings: reader’s a little mean to dean lmfao but she still loves him don’t worry, other than that just sappy fluff
word count: 1.5k
a/n: first ever garrett fic!!!! based on this request, lmk if you like it :))) also lmk if ya’ll want more garrett
garrett graham masterlist off campus masterlist
── ᵎᵎ ✦
there wasn’t really a particular reason for your current bad mood. the entire day had simply felt like a collection of minor inconveniences designed specifically to test your patience, beginning with an alarm you had somehow slept through and ending with the light rain that had started halfway through your walk from your car to the boys’ house. it wasn’t heavy enough to justify the umbrella sitting uselessly in your bag, but it had been enough to leave your hair damp around your face and the cuffs of your jeans wet.
the front door was unlocked when you arrived. you let yourself inside without knocking, immediately greeted by the familiar noise of the living room.
logan and tucker were sitting on one couch while dean had taken over the other, his legs stretched across the cushions despite the fact that there were several people in the house who might eventually want somewhere to sit. takeout containers covered most of the coffee table, and something played on the television beneath the overlapping conversations.
logan noticed you first and greeted you from the couch. you returned it while pulling off your damp jacket, your eyes moving briefly around the room before you could stop them.
garrett wasn’t there.
you told yourself that you were only checking because he was the reason you’d come over in the first place, but dean noticed anyway. unfortunately, dean noticed most things that had the potential to make him irritating, “graham’s upstairs,” he told you.
you looked at him, “did i ask?”
dean’s eyebrows rose, his expression caught somewhere between amusement and disbelief, “you were looking for him.”
“maybe i was checking for an emergency exit.”
“door’s behind you.”
“helpful. thanks.”
tucker’s quiet laugh followed you toward the kitchen while dean stared after you, probably wondering what he had done to deserve your hostility.
the answer was nothing, really. you actually liked dean. you just simply preferred him when he was being quiet, which meant you preferred him under circumstances that rarely occurred.
you had only made it halfway across the room when footsteps sounded on the stairs. you looked over and found garrett coming down, pushing the sleeves of his sweatshirt up to his forearms as he went. his hair was still slightly damp from a shower, curling at the ends, and his attention found you almost immediately. the smile that appeared was small and automatic.
you felt some of the tension in your shoulders loosen before he even reached you.
“hey,” garrett’s hand settled against your waist when he stopped in front of you, and he leaned down to kiss you. it was brief and familiar, his thumb brushing once over your side before he pulled away and took a better look at your face.
he knew you well enough not to ask whether you were upset simply because you weren’t smiling. he’d never been one of those people who assumed your neutral expression meant something terrible had happened, but his eyes lingered on you for another second, “rough day?”
you released a tired breath, “people are annoying.”
from the living room, dean made the mistake of involving himself, “she’s been here thirty seconds.”
you looked past garrett toward him, “and you’ve already made the list.”
garrett’s mouth twitched and you caught it as you looked back at him, “don’t.”
“didn’t say anything.” he didn’t need to. the amusement was already there, softening his expression as his hand gave your waist a brief squeeze before he let you go.
your mood wasn’t magically fixed. your jeans were still wet at the bottom, you were still tired, and dean was still speaking somewhere behind you. but, being there simply felt easier now that garrett was in the room.
you eventually ended up squeezed onto the couch between garrett and tucker.
dean had been forced to remove his legs from the opposite couch after several complaints, although he’d done so with the air of someone making a significant personal sacrifice. more food had appeared from the kitchen, and the television had been changed to a movie nobody seemed particularly invested in watching.
you sat with your legs tucked beneath you and garrett’s arm resting behind your shoulders.
the conversation moved easily around you. you participated when you felt like it and listened when you didn’t, perfectly comfortable with the fact that nobody expected more from you.
or, at least, almost nobody. because dean had apparently decided that evening that your relationship with him needed improvement.
you weren’t sure when he’d made that decision, but his first attempt came when he leaned forward to offer you some of his fries.
you looked at the container, then at him, “what?”
dean frowned, “i’m offering you one.”
“why?”
his frown deepened, “because i’m being nice?”
you continued looking at him until he slowly pulled the container back toward himself, “forget it.”
“thanks.”
beside you, garrett made a quiet sound suspiciously close to a laugh. you turned your head, “something funny?”
he shook his head, though his mouth betrayed him.
dean looked between the two of you, “i don’t understand what her problem is.”
“i don’t have a problem,” you said.
“you looked at me like i’d poisoned the fries.”
“i was considering the possibility.”
logan laughed from the other couch causing dean glare at him, “why is everyone encouraging this?”
nobody answered him as you settled farther into the couch, garrett’s arm slipping naturally from behind you to rest around your shoulders. his fingers moved absently against your upper arm while the conversation shifted away from dean’s grievances.
you had always found it surprisingly easy to be quiet around garrett.
when you’d first started dating, that had been the thing you worried about most. garrett was naturally social in a way you had never been. people gravitated toward him, and he seemed to genuinely enjoy letting them.
you, on the other hand, had spent years being told that you should smile more, talk more, make more of an effort to seem approachable. people regularly mistook your quietness for anger and your bluntness for dislike, and eventually you had stopped caring enough to correct them.
garrett had never needed the correction. he knew that your silence wasn’t always uncomfortable and that a bad mood didn’t mean you needed to be coaxed out of it. he could tell when you were genuinely irritated and when you were only complaining because you enjoyed complaining. most importantly, he had never treated your personality as something he needed to fix.
you liked that about him. you liked most things about him, unfortunately.
the movie had been playing for nearly half an hour when dean paused it. the room immediately filled with complaints, but he ignored them, apparently deciding that whatever he needed to say was more important.
you lost track of the story almost immediately. it involved an argument he’d had earlier that day, several people you didn’t know, and enough selective information that you were fairly certain dean was presenting events in whatever order made him seem the most reasonable.
when he finally finished, the room fell quiet and dean looked around expectantly, “so?”
you frowned at him, “you were wrong.”
his head turned toward you, “how?”
“generally.”
“that’s not an answer.”
“it’s the only one i have,” you shrugged.
dean stared at you in disbelief. you stared back, entirely unmoved by it, until garrett spoke beside you, “leave her alone. she’s had a long day.”
there was enough sincerity in his voice that you glanced toward him. dean did too, “doing what?”
garrett looked down at you for a moment, his expression completely serious, “mostly judging people, from what i can tell.”
the laugh escaped you before you could stop it. it wasn’t particularly loud, but it was immediate. you dropped your gaze toward your lap as your shoulders shook, already aware that garrett was smiling beside you.
across the room, dean looked personally offended, “seriously?”
your amusement faded slightly as you looked at him, “what?”
“i’ve been trying to be nice to you all night.”
“why?”
dean looked genuinely lost for a moment. logan let out another laugh at his friend’s inconvenience.
“see?” you said, gesturing vaguely toward him, “even logan thinks it’s weird.”
“that’s not why i’m laughing,” he spoke while another laugh escaped his lips.
dean looked toward garrett as though he expected some kind of explanation, but garrett only shrugged, his hand moving lazily against your shoulder.
the conversation moved on, but you caught garrett looking at you several minutes later. there was nothing smug in his expression. he didn’t act as though making you laugh was an achievement or some impossible task he’d accomplished. half the time, you weren’t convinced he even knew what he’d done.
that was probably why it happened so easily.
sometimes it was a comment made under his breath, meant only for you. sometimes it was the expression on his face when someone said something ridiculous. there had been entire conversations where all it took was looking at him from across the room to know you were thinking the same thing.
you weren’t sure what made him different.
maybe you knew his sense of humor well enough that you could hear the joke even when nobody else did. maybe he simply knew exactly what would make you laugh because he’d spent enough time paying attention.
or maybe you were just embarrassingly in love with him.
⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ: *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆ ⋆*･ﾟ
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