Lights, Cameras, Go Nuts | James Cook
Request: Can you do Cook in a secret relationship with a softer reader however she has bad anxiety and he sees her having a panic attack and there's people filming and crowding around her and he kinda just goes crazy trying to get to her and he's just soft?
College was all new, new faces, a new place, new things to learn. It was so much change, almost too much at once. But (Y/N) told herself that she could get through this.
No, she knew she could. Her boyfriend believed in her, and even if she wanted to keep their relationship private for the moment due to judgement and her own fear of what people would think about her, she trusted him.
With her decision placed down, Cook respected her decision. Not many people would believe that he was in a relationship anyways, at high school, they mostly predicted that it was just some girl that was a fond shag to him.
But that was not true, or the point, Cook loved her, she was the medication that he sought after to calm himself down, and vice versa. They helped each other, both had issues of rising pulses, even if their bodies acted differently to them. The fact that their personalities were afflicting did not matter, it was the precise reason as to why they could cool each other off, they were fire and water, always able to diffuse the arising flames.
(Y/N) stood promptly as she shuffled through her locker, organising the inside so that it would be easier to extract her books from it through the oncoming year. JJ waited for her, talking as she multitasked by listening and sorting. She was friends with Cook’s friends, that was how their relationship worked, however out of the two that they shared, she always found herself to be closer to JJ over Freddie. It may have been because they related in the anxiety department, making them quick to understand one another, or maybe it was down to the hope that the boy always presented, that was reassuring too.
“She’s beautiful.” JJ sighed, as he watched Effy smirk whilst talking to Freddie. She was definitely different, there was a dark magnetism to her that seemed to pull most guys in. At JJ’s profession, (Y/N) looked past her locker door, catching a long glance at the girl that her friend was talking about, she was clearly into Freddie.
“Yeah.” His friend sighed, watching as Cook grabbed onto Freddie’s shoulders and ruggedly attempted to pull him back to the rest of their group. But she wasn’t ignorant to the mischief glinting in the girl’s eyes as she let her gaze flicker over (Y/N)’s boyfriend. It paralleled to Effy’s sinful wandering of the eyes at Freddie, the only difference was that Cook didn’t register nor care for it.
No matter if James was not reciprocating Effy Stonem’s intentional scanning, it still got to (Y/N), her hands wrung in worry. Was she not pretty enough, would Cook leave her for the girl that seemed to pull the heart strings of all of her friends? These thoughts were not new, they had occurred before, and they each ended the same way – in a panic attack.
A shortness of breath caught in her throat, tightening the veins around it and hurting the insides. As JJ spoke, (Y/N) got lost outside of his words, her focus loosening on reality and breaking. The boy was ignorant to it, that was until the girl slid down the wall of lockers and onto the cold floor.
It was all too much, this was just the start of everything. And with that much time on her hands, there was plenty of room for things to end, like her and Cook. That was inevitable, it was not going to be a shock if he found himself to be bored of her. She wasn’t crazy, her evenings were spent watching television and doing any school work rather than going out to loud parties and taking anything that seemed like it could be an antidote for adolescence.
The noise of her fall had echoed down the hall, drawing onlookers to watch her cry and struggle to breathe. JJ stood there, his hands shaking as he grew unsure of how to help. This was never his forteit, seeing as he had trouble with such circumstances himself.
Katie, one of the redheads removed her phone, taking a few pictures of the pathetic sight. “What a freak.” She whispered loud enough for everybody to hear, causing Katie to frown at her inconsiderate sister. Just because she was full of herself gave her no right to drag others down and mock them for things that were out of their control.
“Outta my way.” Effy frowned as Cook fled from her and Freddie, pushing through the small crowd to reach the suffering girl. She couldn’t help but creep closer, watching the scene as Freddie himself moved towards his friends on instinct. “Fuck off, the lotta ya!” He barked, pushing a boy who was trying not to snigger at the show that was ongoing. As he almost reached her, he took Emily’s phone, smashing it against a locker after seeing captions of his girlfriend stored in a file.
“Hey.” At the sound of his voice, (Y/N) opened her teary eyes, her breaths were audible, showing that this was real, it was another attack in the line up of the past ones. “Remember what you learned, hold your breath.” He knelt before her, grabbing her hands as he restrained himself from knocking the living daylights out of every soul around them.
“I- I -I”, She tried to tell him that she couldn’t, but her words were a loss from air, but having dealt with this kind of thing before, Cook clearly understood her.
There was one way that he could think of that would make her stop breathing for a second, but it would reveal everything that they chose to keep hidden. It was a price that he’d have to decide on for the greater good, the thought of everyone watching gave him certainty that their labels would be known around the entire campus. But did that really matter? People could think whatever, so long as no one spoke bad about (Y/N), he wouldn’t have to batter anyone to a pulp.
“It’s okay, love.” He reassured her, his hand resting on her cheek as she instinctively shut her eyes, trying to block out all of the judgemental and amused faces. “I got ya.” Cook spoke softly, pulling her face towards him and planting a rough, yet loving, kiss onto her lips, draining any trapped air from her lungs, advocating her breaths to regulate once more. “You good?”
In answer, (Y/N) nodded, a blush coating her cheeks as she buried her face into James’ chest, trying to hide from the insecurities that PDA gave her. At the sight, Effy tilted her head, catching the attention of one of her suitors, Freddie
.“I did not see that coming.” She stated, amazed at how some crazed guy could turn into a sweet treat of therapy. Cook was not what she had expected at all, he was too sweet for her liking, just as well she had already entranced Freddie.
