best friends don't call each other baby ! garrett graham x childhoodbestfriend!reader
summary.á when your new roommate observes your 'friendship' with hockey captain garrett graham, she can't help but think your relationship with your childhood best friend is more than platonic
notes.á 2 year age gap (garrett is a junior and reader is a freshman) occ as garrett didn't go to boarding school (whoops!)
"Jesus, women. Is there anything left in your house or did you pack it all?"
You turn to look at your bestfriend, your eye's shifting down to the brown cardboard box he was lifting up into his arms. The box was nearly busting at the corners, threatening to break at any moment from the sheer weight of its contents.
"G, be careful. That ones really heavy" You gasped, reading the 'books' label you had scrawled onto the side during packing.
Your concern didn't phase him, Garrett not even bothering to look over at your dramatic expression.
"It's fine, baby. I got it" He spoke, rolling his eyes as he shifted the heavy box into one arm before reaching up to close the trunk of his jeep.
You huffed in reply, your eyes drifting down to his arms before you could consciously register it. His biceps strained against the fabric of his t-shirt, looking as if the fabric could rip at any moment at the sheer size of his arms. His tan skin glowed under the sun, the box you had to get your mother to help you lift seeming as if it weighed nothing to him as he held it with only one arm.
The sound of the trunk door closing snapped you back into consciousness, silently cursing at yourself for checking out the boy you had been best friends with since the in 1st grade. Thankfully, Garrett didn't seem to notice your clear ogling.
"Ok, We should only have to do one more round after this" He said, referencing to the fact you only had two more boxes of stuff left to bring up to your dorm.
You nodded in reply, your arms wrapping around your own cardboard box you were holding. One admittedly much smaller and much lighter in comparison to the one Garrett had.
He looked at you for a moment to make sure you were ready before he began leading you to your dorm building.
Garrett was two years older than you, being a junior while you were just a freshman at college. Meaning that he knew his way around Briar while you were still currently clueless on the layout of campus.
The age gap between you never bothered you and Garrett much, until it meant he was going to college while you stayed stuck in your hometown.
Saying it was a shock to your system would be an understatement, going from living a few doors away from Garrett to him moving hours away to Briar U.
But, the distance didn't mean he let you go, even though a small part of you thought the second he went to college he would forget about you.
He called you multiple times a week, staying on the phone with you for hours while you updated each other on your lives until you eventually dosed off on facetime. Thankfully, Garrett also came home to visit during the year. Once whispering to you as he fell asleep in your arms that he only came to see you, and not his father or friends from highschool.
You really didn't plan on going to Briar U.
I mean sure, you would have loved to ended up here because of Garrett, but he isn't the reason you ended up enrolling.
Ok, maybe his presence had a little, tiny influence on your decision to apply in the first place
However, you had received a full ride scholarship to Briar. And you knew you couldn't pass up on it, refusing to burden your Mom with college fees she would refuse to let you get student loans for.
Garrett almost squeezed you to death when you told him about your enrolment, hugging you so tight you could barely breathe.
Although he strongly, strongly encourage your apply to Briar, he would never admit to you how much he wanted you here, knowing this decision was yours to make without his influence.
Garrett had drove back home the night before the day you were moving to Briar to help out. Despite your insistence that it was definitely not necessary, he didn't budge, arriving to your house with his signature grin slapped across his face as he told you how excited he was for you to be with him at Briar.
Both his and your mom's car was packed to the brim with boxes, both of them rolling their eyes at your obvious overpacking.
Garrett wiped the tears that rolled down your face as you said goodbye to your Mom, you insisting that she didn't have to stay to unpack the rest of your things from Garrets car as you knew more time would only make the goodbye worse.
You were now trudging up the stairs to your dorm, your legs embarrassingly sore from having to go up and down them all morning.
"Garrett, you really didn't have to do this" You huffed as you finally reached your level and began walking beside Garrett who had been a few steps infront of you.
"What are you talking about?" He responded dumbfounded, scrunching his eyebrows in confusion.
"Help me move in. You've been lugging boxes upstairs all day, and you start classes tomorrow as well. Go home, please" You sighed, feeling terrible guilt about him helping you all morning and having to drive hours to and from campus.
"First of all, Rude. And that's stupid, of course i'm gonna help you. Now shush" Garrett replied, shutting down your unnecessary worry and pushing the door to your dorm open.
You rolled your eyes at his comment, deep down relieved he truely wanted to help and didn't just feel obligated to. Because, knowing Garrett, he would have just said so.
Your eyes drifted into the expanse of your dorm room, boxes filling your side of the dorm as the other half lay bare. Due to it being the morning, you knew your roommate probably wouldn't arrive till mid-day, about an hour from now.
Garrett closed the door behind you as you drifted in, placing the box you were holding down on your bed. He followed closely behind you in your actions, effortlessly placing the heavy box he had onto your draw.
He swiftly waltz over to you, standing behind you at your position stood at the foot of the bed. Bringing his hands to wrap around you at your waist, he held you close to his body as his head dipped to your shoulders, burying closely into the crook of your neck.
It was the night of your sixteen birthday party that you first noticed you and Garrett acted in a way that was closer than being solely friends.
He stared closely at you as you blew out your candles, his normally stubborn and blank face cracking into a grin and a twinkle in his eyes. He held you close in his arms as you two were hidden away in the corner of the room away from your guests, tucking your hair behind your ear and kissing you tenderly on the crown of your head.
It was only when your friends observed your actions with Garrett that you first noticed this was more than what childhood friends do. You denied their comments to the grave that you were more than friends.
Because you genuinely believed it, oblivious to the fact that you two acted like more of a couple than anything.
"Who brings books to college?" He teased, observing the label that was scrawled onto the cardboard, remembering the other 'textbooks and assigned reading' box he had lugged up earlier, signalling these books were simply for pleasure.
You could feel his breathe littering goosebumps on your skin, his teasing intertwined with soft chuckle that make his words vibrate onto your skin.
Ignoring his smartass comment, you turned around in his arms to look up at him, his dark curls creating what looked like a halo around his head. His hands didn't move from your body of course, only shifting slightly to lay warm around your waist once again, his hands pressing against you as he caged you into him.
He only brought you impossibly closer to his frame as you rested your head into his chest, sighing into his black shirt as he brought his head down to rest atop of yours. Your hands now wrapped around as well, feeling how his back muscles rippled against your palms.
"I'm so fucking glad your here with me now" His voice was almost a whisper, filled with relief. You could feel his lips press against the top of your head as he placed a tender kiss upon your hair.
You lifted your head to look up at him, finding his eyes filled with adoration swimming in the dark brown of his irises.
"Me too, G. Missed you" You replied softly, always quick with your the admittance of your feelings.
His lips up turned into a smile at your comment, bringing a hand up to your face and cupping your cheek, dragging his thumb softly up and down on your skin.
A soft silence fell around you as you rested in each others arms, a sense of relief filling you both at being together again.
"Ok, gonna go get the last boxes. You stay here, yeah?" While the words Garrett said left his mouth like a question, you knew it really wasnt.
You nodded at his words, untangling yourself from his arms and watching him grin at you once more before opening the door and striding out.
The room felt cold without his presence, the white bareness of your sterile dorm becoming more clear to you now.
Softly peeling off the tape off one cardboard box, you lifted your folded sheets up and placed them on the desk. Your fingers softly smoothed the light pink fabric, dainty flowers decorating the sheet.
After a few minutes, more than it should have probably taken you, you had got all of your boxes off your bed, reaching over to grab your matress cover.
The sound of your turn knob turning rang through your ears, the door creaking softly as it was pushed open.
Instead of Garrett returning, a girl stood in the door, holding an overflowing box and a suitcase handle in another. She squealed excitedly as she almost ran into the room, placing the box down on the bed on the other side of the room and dropping the suitcase to the floor.
"You're my roomate!" She said joyfully, pulling you into a tight hug before you could process it.
"I am!" You replied, laughing softly as you hugged her back.
She pulled back, looking at you. "And you're so pretty! We are gonna have the best year"
You smiled at her compliment, happiness flooding through you that you're roomate you were nervous about meeting was so kind.
"It's so nice to meet you" You exclaimed, introducing yourself with your name.
"You too! I'm Phoebe" She replied, grinning from ear to ear.
"I got here a bit earlier so i just put my stuff down on a random side, but we can totally switch if you want" You said, Phoebe replying instantly with a shake of her head "It's ok, i don't mind"
You two began to chat as you floated to either side of your room, eventually making no progress in packing and sitting together on your bed.
You learned that she lived only a couple of hours away from Briar, and her parents were crying so much this morning she sent them on a mindless task to the administration office so she could have a moment of peace.
You laughed at her bluntness, but was interrupted shortly after by the door of your room opening once more.
"Baby, we really gotta talk about your hoarding tendancies-" Garrett started, his voice floating into the room before he cut himself off at noticing your roomate had arrived.
You jumped up at his arrival, watching as he stood awkwardly in the doorframe, the last two boxes in his arms.
"Oh! Phoebe, this is Garrett. Garrett, this is my new roommate, Phoebe." You said, drifting over to stand near Garrett's side as you introduced one another.
"Hello" Garrett said shortly, barely polite as he came back to your side after placing the boxes on your desk.
"Hi" Phoebe replied, waving at him softly with her hand
"He's just helping me move in" You started, breaking the heavy silence "I promise you he will not be in here often" Garrett rolled your eyes at your comment, knowing you didn't want to make your new roommate uncomfortable with the thought of him always lurking in your dorm.
She laughed at your comment, walking over to her suitcase and packing more things into her draws.
"I'm just gonna walk him out, be back in a sec" You said, grabbing Garrett's hand as Phoebe replied with a wave of her hand to signal 'no worries' as she continued unpacking.
The door of your room shut with a click as closed it, turning to Garrett infront of you.
"Isn't she so nice! I'm so relieved." You exclaimed to him.
He nodded at your comment, reaching down to your other hand so he was not holding both infront of him. "See, i told you. Didn't need to be so worried" His voice calm as always.
Whenever you were around Garrett, you noticed he always needed to be touching you in some way. Whether it was simply holding your hand, resting his palm on your lower back, or holding you in his arms.
He watched as your lashes fluttered softly against your cheek as you blinked, your smile so radiant he thought it would probably put literal angels from the heavens above to shame.
Your eyes floated down to his watch, reading the time and sighing to yourself. "Garrett, you're late to practice."
"Nah, can't be late. They don't start without me" He quipped, your eyes rolling at his arrogance.
"Thank you" You said softly, pulling him into a hug that he gladly reciprocated, wrapping his arms tightly around your frame.
"For what baby?" He replied, the less than casual but ordinary nickname rolling off his tounge smoothly
"For helping me. For being there for me, always" You breathed out, refusing to look at him as you spoke.
You felt his his hand come down to your face, bringing his finger under your chin and tilting your head to look up at him.
"Hey, don't do that. Don't thank me for that" He whispered, his voice soft and sincere.
Garrett brought his face down to yours, resting a searing kiss onto your forehead. "Always be there for you"
You smiled softly at his words "You're the best bestfriend a girl could ask for G"
His body tensed under yours so subtly you didn't notice, a soft "Yeah" falling from his lips at your words
"Ok, go to practice now please Mr. Graham" You said, jokingly pushing him away, oblivous to how his face had fallen slightly at your words.
"Call me later, okay? Need to know you're all good" Garrett said, you nodding softly at his comment.
"See you, Baby." He said, walking away as you replied with a small bye, watching as he neared the end of your hallway before taking one look back at you and grinning.
You found yourself sighed at the interaction, bringing your hand up to the doorknob of your room and walking in before shutting the door behind you.
"You know Garrett Graham!?" Phoebe almost shrieked, all composure from before dissipating as her tone made you jump in surprise.
You laughed, slightly shocked "You know Garrett Graham?" You mimiced back, only your tone was one of genuine confusion.
"Uh, Duh. Of course i know Garrett Graham. I don't think there's one person at Briar who doesn't. I think i saw almost 10 posters of him walking in to campus today alone" Phoebe said
You knew how popular Garrett was. It had been like that since Middle school. People parting way for him in a crowd, whispers as he walked past, eyes glued to him for no apparent reason anywhere he went.
It wasn't any different at Briar. Especially since Garrett was the captain of the Division I Hockey Team, and had a grin that could make your knees lock and your heart beat out of your chest.
You noticed the way girls watched him as he walked through the hallway of your dorm building. Conversations that had stopped the second he walked past, but never taking his eyes off of you to notice.
"Oh, right. Yes." You replied, not knowing what to say in the moment. Phoebe's face quickly morphed into one of horror before she replied in a ramble. "Oh my god. I'm so sorry, that was weird to say. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable"
"No, no. It's fine" You replied in earnest, laughing softly to lighten the mood.
"I'm just in shock that my roommate is dating Garrett Graham" She said, genuine in her words as turned back around from standing in front of you.
You nearly spit out your metaphorical drink at her words, your eyes widening. "Oh, um. Garrett's definitely not my boyfriend."
Phoebe quickly turned at your words, her face written with confusion. "Shit, sorry. I shouldn't have assumed" She said honestly, cursing herself for saying another thing that probably offended you.
"No worries, we're just close friends. We've known each other since we were little"
Her eyes glinted curiously at your words, raising an eyebrow but not saying anything more.
You squinted your eyes at her expression "What?" You asked, dumbfounded.
Phoebe looked at you more seriously now, staring at you as if she were looking into your soul. "Sweetheart" She started, a mischievous, knowing look on her face.
"Best friends don't call each other baby."
