Legally Blonde - Bob Floyd x reader
In which Bob doesn't realize he has nothing to be jealous about.
Warnings: High School AU! Jealous yet very oblivious Bob, and he has no gaydar whatsoever
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The moment the cast list for Legally Blonde went up at lunch, the entirety of the Dagger Squad- nicknamed that as they all grew up on Dagger Road- cheered so loud that several teachers peeked outside their classrooms to see what all the ruckus was, closing their doors again when they saw it was just the Daggers.
By the look of it, one would assume all of them had gotten leading roles. But really only one had even auditioned, and she had in fact gotten a lead.
Jake grabs her by the shoulders and hugs her tight, like a proud older brother. "Knew you'd get it, pipsqueak!"
She laughs and shoves him off, stepping up to sign her name next to her part on the cast list.
They all hug her or ruffle her hair, giving excited congratulations.
"Guess I'll be spotlighting you this year," Bob grins, a shy, pretty thing as he hugs her.
Bob has been the main spotlight operator since sophomore year, after being trained for it during freshman year.
"Guess you will be," she agrees, enjoying the warmth of him through his flannel shirt.
"Jeez Bob, stop hogging your girlfriend, some of us want to hug her too!" Natasha teases.
Bob lets go of her as though he's been burned, cheeks flushing red as he mumbles, "she's not- we're not-"
Javy claps a hand on his shoulder. "She was joking, Bobby. Calm down."
Her cheeks warm too, and she playfully pinches Natasha as she pulls her into a tight hug.
"Who's playing the other guy? The main one, what's-his-face?" Bradley asks.
"His name is Emmett and he's being played by..." she scans the cast list, "Ethan Peterson. Oh, he's good! That's not surprising."
Bob feels a striking jealousy bubbling in his chest at the idea of another guy getting to be her love interest. Not that he himself has the confidence to have auditioned, but still.
And that jealousy unfortunately only got worse. Bob snapped several pencils while taking lighting notes, watching Ethan drape his jacket over her shoulders before Chip On My Shoulder, watching her doll him up for Take It Like A Man, and especially the first time they sang Legally Blonde together. Sitting in his room studying for his AP
Calculus test, Natasha sitting on the floor going over notes her coach gave her about their recent soccer game, he feels like he's slowly losing his mind.
He sighs deeply and Natasha groans. "Okay, what is up with you? That's your fourth deep sigh in the last five minutes."
"Nothing, I'm just tired." He lies, closing his textbook with a huff.
"You're really bad at lying, you know?" Nat says, watching him take off his glasses and aggressively rub his eyes, a habit that only shows when he's irritated, which isn't very often, so it's obvious when he is.
"'M not lying," he mumbles, flopping back on his bed.
"You are. Now tell me whats got you all irritated and huffy." He lifts his head to glare at her, but his eyes are all squinted due to not having his glasses on, which really dulls the effect of the glare.
He sighs, sensing her disapproving look.
"I hate that stupid Ethan guy."
"Okay...and do we have the why for that?" Nat prompts.
"...no." "Bob." "... fine. It's because he gets to be up there and have his jacket on her and hold her hand and- and kiss her, and i hate it and I hate him."
"So you're jealous. And do you realize this is because you're in love with her, or are you still denying that?" Natasha asks, delightfully blunt as always.
Bob makes a choked noise, sitting up and shoving his glasses back on his reddened face. "I'm not!"
Natasha blinks up at him before moving over to his nightstand, picking up the framed picture there, and handing it to him.
In it is the two of them at homecoming, dancing, his hands on her waist, her arms draped over his shoulders, both looking at each other like they're the only people in the room. Mickey had seen them dancing and snapped a picture that was immediately sent to the group chat, and apparently printed and framed by Bob not much after. "...this proves nothing." He says, hugging the frame to his chest.
Natasha glares at him, much more effectively than his earlier attempt.
Bob breaks easily with that, tilting his head back to the ceiling as he quietly admits, "Okay it proves a little."
Natasha makes a sound and Bob groans. "Fine, okay, yes, I'm jealous because I'm in love with her! But can you blame me? I mean she's... perfect. She's funny and she's smart and she's so endlessly kind and don't even get me started on how pretty she is..."
Nat smirks, pleased that she finally got him to admit it. "There we go. Now, all you have to do, is get it through your strikingly thick skull that she's also in love with you."
"Wh- no she isn't!" His cheeks feel like they're on fire as he gapes at her.
If he looked closely, he could see the way her eye twitched. "This is genuinely worse than trying to get Jake and Bradley together. Like actually. You are somehow denser than Jake Seresin."
"Hey!" He whines, "that's so mean..."
"It's honest, that's what it is."
Three nights later, after a rehearsal that has Bob even more irritated than before, everyone is spread out around Jake's living room.
Jake is curled into Bradley's side, Javy is managing to take up an entire loveseat and about to be dragged out of it by Mickey and Reuben, Natasha is on the other end of the couch that Jake and Bradley are on, which leaves Bob on the floor, not wanting to get stuck that close to the couple that will absolutely spend half of the movie making out and not wanting to have to squish between the three now sharing the loveseat.
"Where's little miss leading lady? She too good for movie night now?" Javy teases.
"She had to run home for something after rehearsal." Bob says, his voice clipped and irritated in a way he isn't usually.
"What's got your panties in a twist, Floyd?" Jake grins from the couch.
"He's jealous that Ethan gets to play her love interest when really he's in love with her and wants to be the one all over her," Natasha snitches, not an ounce of loyalty in her when it comes to getting these two together.
"Natasha!" Bob exclaims, sounding utterly betrayed.
"He's... what..?" A voice says from the doorway, everybody freezing before slowly looking at her standing there, a bag of snacks hanging on her arm.
Bob looks like he's considering making a break for the door, Natasha has her mouth covered, the rest of the boys all sharing similar looks of shock.
"I... have to... go... somewhere that isn't here...." Javy says, nearly running out of the room, quickly followed by Reuben and Mickey.
"Oh would you look at that, Callie needs me! Gotta go!" Natasha squeaks, booking it out the doorway and out of the house.
Jake wordlessly drags Bradley out of the room, up the stairs to his bedroom, leaving the two alone.
Bob looks very, very close to jumping out the nearest window as she remains shocked, stiff as a statue in the doorway.
"I... I'm so sorry- I shouldn't have- have told Natasha all that- I didn't think-" the poor boy looks seconds away from combustion, stumbling through some semblance of an apology.
"Bob, stop." She says firmly, causing his mouth to snap shut.
He still looks near tears as she crosses the room and sits beside him on the floor.
"So... you're jealous of Ethan..?" She starts, the sentence feeling agonizingly slow, as though she doesn't quite believe that these words are being said.
"Because you're in love with me..?" She continues.
"You think there's something between him and I?" She asks, surprisingly gentle, compared to the annoyance Bob was expecting to face.
"I mean, he looks at you like... like he likes you," the words feel juvenile as he says them, but he forces them out anyway.
"Bob, honey, that's called acting. What isn't acting is the fact that he's dating Dominic. You know, the guy playing Nikos? In There Right There?" She looks a little incredulous now, but still remarkably calm.
Bob blanches at that, his eyes widening, jaw dropping a little bit. "He...is?"
"Yeah. Very, very openly. And maybe if you'd been less busy getting stuck in your own head, you would've noticed that and not been so unnecessarily jealous. There's nothing between me and Ethan."
Bob blinks hard, once, twice, three times.
"Yeah, oh. Bobby... I've liked you since seventh grade. I just never said anything cause I figured you weren't interested..." she admits, fidgeting with a loose string on her hoodie- upon closer inspection, Bob realizes that thats his hoodie, one she'd borrowed months ago but never returned for whatever reason.
"You- you thought I wasn't interested? In you? I thought you wouldn't be interested in me.." he says, voice wavering ever so slightly.
"Bob. You're my best friend. You're the first person I wanna talk to every morning and the last one I wanna talk to every night. You're always there for me no matter what, you make me feel like... like I'm the most important person in the world... and you're really, really cute." Bob can feel his face burning red hot, his heart racing.
"You are the most important person in the world to me... you're my best friend, you're the only person I've ever actually wanted to be with because you don't make me feel... weird, for being a- well, a nerd. Every time you look at me i feel like the luckiest guy on Earth just cause I got a second of your attention. I... I love you..." The last words come out barely above a whisper, but she hears them anyways.
"I love you too, Bobby. More than anything."
His eyes flick down to her mouth, and then back to her eyes. "Can I-"
He doesn't even finish the sentence before her lips are on his, gentle but messy, teeth bumping slightly, making them both giggle into it.
When they pull back, they're both warm in the face, soft, dazed smiles on their lips.
And when a week later, he rushes down from the light booth after bows on opening night to give her the biggest bouquet of flowers any of them have ever seen and a sweet kiss, none of the other Daggers are surprised in the slightest.
