best friend simon riley who youāve known for over 20 years and suddenly when he thinks about you, the image in his head is anything but friendly.
he doesnāt know when it started. shit, it couldāve been there all along. but he was too deep in the grief of breaking up with his first love to ever notice.
she and him were great together until they both got complacent, said the wrong things at the wrong time, and things got rocky. she ended up breaking up with him to better her mental health and promised him that if she got better and still thought of him the same way, sheād come back.
and of course he waited for her while you stood at his side consoling him struggling to hold back your tears because why couldnāt he love you the way he loves her? when you realised she wasnāt coming back, you knew he wasnāt going to be okay for a long time.
you were selfless. you would take care of him to the best of your abilityāwatching over him as he cried and ranted about how he doesnāt understand, making sure he ate when he didnāt have the energy to, all of the things. over time, he got his past traumas figured out in therapy and was slowly moving on from her and he was differentāin the best way.
best friend simon riley who now, fast forward to today, 10 years after the factā¦
they say time changes things, but sitting across from you, he isnāt sure thatās true.
youāre still here. youāre still you. the same steady presence heās leaned on for longer than he cares to admit. and somehow, despite everything, despite all the ways life couldāve chewed you up and spit you out, it never did.
āyouāre staring,ā you tease, stirring your iced coffee with your straw.
he blinks, caught. āam I?ā
you nod, smirking. āyeah. something on my face?ā
he could say no. could make a joke, brush it off, shift the moment before it settles too deep in his soul. thatās what heās used to doingācompartmentalising, keeping things locked away because thatās what his job demands, thatās the man heās become. you donāt let yourself need people when you know you could lose them.
but instead, he finds himself saying, āiām just⦠thinking.ā
ādangerous habit,ā you quip, leaning back in the passanger seat of his car.
he chuckles, but itās hollowālike his mind is too full to focus on anything but the weight of realization pressing down on him. because somewhere along the way, without even noticing, heās fallen in love with you. not in the way he once thought he loved her, full of urgency and uncertainty, but something softer. steadier. a love thatās already rooted itself into the foundation of his life.
an: is this something chat