#ella bright

#you know it's a good ship when they BOTH get the staircase descent reaction moment

# besties OFF CAMPUS (2026—)

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Pairings: john logan x reader

Warnings: angst, unreciprocated love, love triangle, based off show not book. Not proof read.

Summary: Hannah, the sweetest girl you’ve met. How could you hate her? She listens to your problems and never judges. The first girl who befriended you in freshman year. The girl who boosts your confidence with compliments. The girl with sleek healthy hair, big angel eyes, and skin straight out of a skincare ad. The girl that has your crush’s attention. Your lacy. Based on the song “Lacy” by Olivia Rodrigo.

Ooh, I care, I care, I care, like perfume that you wear

I linger all the time, watching, hidden in plain sight.

Another night at Malone’s, bussing and serving tables at your night shift. Usually the town locals get replaced by frat boys and sports teams at the 7pm mark, and tonight was no different.

You had no other choice but to work during your time at Briar U, the tuition wasn’t going to pay itself. Plus the tips you got for being a charm wasn’t so bad either. Thursday nights aren’t so crazy, it’s not exactly ‘Friday night’ busy but people are starting to ease into their weekend spirit. Luckily when the evening rush begins you have your two trusted co workers to help.

Allie always took whichever customers you didn’t want to wait on. The girl does not fear social interactions. Not that you do, I mean you have to be social to work as a server but sometimes the social battery wasn’t fully charged. Working with Allie meant you could take it easy for the day if you were ever feeling down.

Hannah was a different story. Hannah had her regulars she liked to wait on, or people who requested her when you’d walk up ready to take orders. Thursdays after the school’s hockey team finished practice, they would all gather at Malone’s. Walking in through the doors ready to be greeted by Hannah. You served them once when she was out sick, and it was the most humbling experience. How could you blame yourself when they’re used to her knowing their exact orders down to who gets pickles on their burger and who doesn’t. Not to mention the countless “Hannah usually knows what I mean” and “Is Hannah coming in tomorrow?”

It doesn’t help that She’s dating the team captain. He’s always nice to you and never gets rude but trying to make small talk to build customer rapport is close to impossible. A man who respects his relationship is a man who’s respected by all but you’d think he’d at least give you a smile when you asked how practice went. Not that you cared anyway. Garrett hasn’t always been so open to conversations with anyone other than his teammates and hookups. He only started noticing you as a human once he started dating Hannah. She changed him into a more compassionate person, and thank you to her because without it, you would have just given this table to Allie and missed out on the generous cash tip, courtesy of Dean.

The rest of the boys were all in their own worlds, ordering their food, talking about practice or whatever school they were up against next. Not ever engaging in conversation the way they did with Hannah. To be fair she knew them on a personal level. They only knew you as the waitress from malone’s. The only boy you knew from the team was John Logan. The boy who sits next to you in statistics. The boy who asks you for your notes because your handwriting is “neater” than his. The boy who gives you a study method that helps you ace midterms. The boy who recognizes you from malone’s, three weeks into borrowing your notes. The boy who has conversations with you like a normal human being and not just someone who will bring him a refill when he demands. The boy who doesn’t know you’ve developed a crush on him just because he was nice once. The boy who asked you for your friend’s number two months ago, unaware of the situation she found herself in with his best friend.

Logan, the boy who smiles at you before saying “Tell Hannah I hope she feels better” quietly before slipping out the booth and following the rest of the team out the doors.

Ooh, I try, I try, I try, but it takes over my life

I see you everywhere, the sweetest torture one could bear

Once the two of you got familiar over stats notes and iced coffee, he started to trust you. Confiding in you and asking you for advice. He told you how he’s had a crush on Hannah since freshman year when she visited his family’s auto shop. Said he’d been building up the courage to talk to her only to be beat by his captain.

“He didn’t even know her name two weeks ago and now they’re dating?” He says, running his hands through his brown hair. Hair that you guess feels really soft just from the look of it. Hair that distracts you from anything else he has to rant about.

The worst part is you have to act like you support him. “Don’t worry, you say Garrett isn’t a relationship type of guy, maybe you still have a chance.”

“Yeah but, I should have acted sooner, you know?” Soft eyes meet yours and you can’t help but to look away. You knew the feeling far too well to have him explain it to you.

“Yeah… I know.”

You liked a distraction from doing math but if she was all he was going to talk about then you’d do a million probability theories.

On a different occasion you’re sitting at the kitchen island in the boys’ house with Logan who’s digging through the fridge. “So sorry we had to meet here, I have a tight schedule today and don’t think I could’ve made it to the library and back to practice on time.”

“It’s okay, I’ve always wanted to see this place on a weekday for a change.” You giggle and flip your page. You clear your throat quietly “So, I was thinking tomorrow we could go over our formulas before class.” Voice trembling.

“Oh I would but Garrett wants us all to come out and support Hannah at her bar gig tonight” He says, leaning both his arms on the island top in front of you. “I was gonna sleep in.” He finishes.

“Oh right, no problem” you smile and look back down at the notebook with color coded math formulas.

“Do you know if she’d appreciate flowers?”

—

That night you found yourself getting ready to go support your friend. Scratch that, you were going because your crush was going. Not that you didn’t support Hannah, she was the most talented musician you know, you were really proud that she was getting recognition.

You sat at your vanity putting blush on your highest cheek point, and highlight under your eyes to give them a glow. Meanwhile the person you were dressing up for was probably doing the same for someone else.

You dropped your makeup brush in frustration, hands coming to catch your head as it shakes back and forth slowly. Unable to understand how you became the person he spills all his secrets to, yet you couldn’t do the same back.

One look in the mirror makes a tear slip from between curled lashes. You wipe them away, wishing it was his hands there to console you. Wishing he could just see how much you care about him. Care about him enough to endure the sweet torture of being friends with Hannah Wells. The perfect girl that poisons your thoughts, dreams, and hopes.

“Hey don’t be late okay?” You hear from outside your door. There stands Hannah with excitement written all over her face. You smile up at her, hoping you’d wiped all the evidence of your jealousy. “I wouldn’t dream of missing your big debut babe” you stand up to bid her Goodluck.

She extends her arms out for a hug, and you walk into what feels like a trap. A mosquito landing in a spider’s web. Though the trap wasn’t set by her. It felt warm and safe. You felt guilty for the way you envied her. Guilty for trapping yourself in the spindles of a love triangle the two other participants didn’t have a clue about. Guilty for thinking the trap would feel suffocating when the trap was just an innocent hug from your best friend.

Ooh, I care, I care, I care, like ribbons in your hair

My stomach’s all in knots, you got the one thing that i want

Logan asked you to meet him at the team’s training room to pick up your notes. You had a shift at Malone’s later so you had to get your notes back one way or another. And you took this opportunity to finally confess your feelings for him. Or at least just ask him out for something other than study sessions.

You find your way through the ice center, weaving through endless hallways until you saw a pair of double doors with a weight decal printed on it.

“So, this is tutoring?” You stop dead in your tracks at the sound of Logan’s voice. You creep up to the door enough to hear who he was talking to.

“What? No.. yes, he was just trying to prove a point.” Hannah’s voice rings through the empty hallway.

A new voice says “It kinda feels like i just did.” You lean a little forward to peek at them, realizing Garrett was the owner of the new voice. What are they doing?

“And now it’s my turn” Hannah says, walking towards Logan, wrapping her arms around his neck. The shock turns into hurt, the knot in your heart coming up to your throat.

“I’m gonna kiss you now.” She says, leaning in after hearing an “okay.”

They kissed. She kissed him. You slowly turn away, back against the door. Your body reacts before your tears do. Running back towards the exit, vision blurring as you replay the scene you just witnessed. Your best friend kissing your crush.

You shove open your dorm door and stand there in horror. Math notes long forgotten. The fear of having to explain to him why you didn’t show up. The anxiety of having to face him without being able to reveal your feelings.

Quickly reaching for your phone, you click on his name and type out an excuse before shutting your phone off and throwing it on the bed. Like you’d catch a disease from touching it any longer.

That night, you weren’t at Malone’s. Logan thought since you couldn’t make it to the training room then he’d bring them to you at work. It wasn’t out of his way and you’d need them to review for the exam tomorrow. Plus he’d wanted to catch you up on his crazy day. Hoping to let his feelings poor out in confidence; his crush kissed him.

He was disappointed to find Allie, neck deep in customers, no y/n in sight. Weird. Did you lie about having a shift tonight? I guess he’ll just give you the notes in the morning.

Walking into class he saw you were already sitting at your desk, calculator and pencil neatly placed on the table. He sits next to you, handing over the notebook. “Here’s your notes, I hope you looked them over the other day, you’re kind of out of time.” He chuckles.

“Out of time, yeah” you take the notebook, avoiding eye contact, eyes glued to the desk.

He figured you were just nervous, but didn’t want to ask or make it worse for you. Not showing up at the gym, or your shift. He’d just hoped you were ready for the exam. It wouldn’t be fair if he passed using your notes and you didn’t. Especially after he didn’t use them to his advantage after what happened at the gym. He was too excited to even think about stats. Though, he can’t help but think that you could have used the notes during that time.

I guess he’ll just have to wait and see how you do.

—

A week has passed since what you witnessed. You’d been ignoring him ever since. How could you face him when you were going to ask him out? Just to see it blow up in your face.

Logan📚: hey! Grades are uploaded what did you get?

Delivered 12:45pm

Logan📚: all good I hope 🤞

Delivered 12:56pm

You stared at the screen, unable to form a single response. The test was easy, you’d gotten a 98. You were almost as pissed off about those 2 points as you were about the situation you found yourself in.

The urge to ignore him won, how could you act like everything was normal when it wasn’t. But you couldn’t tell him that either. You’ve been trying to get over him for the past week and it was working, up until his message.

He never texts you, not even for other exams. His messages are rare, only when he sets up times to meet in order to give your notes back. Like that day at the gym. Great, there goes a week of progress.

The Thursday night rush hour was rapidly approaching, dread filled your mind as the hours got closer to 7pm. Each swing of the door was accompanied by a bell ringing. You fought hard not to look over each time it rang. It’d be too awkward if the first contact in a week was your eyes.

Hannah was working tonight so their table was hers. You hadn’t even noticed when they walked in, too busy swiping the same smudge at the bar.

“Hey, you’re alive” you hear from behind you, slowly turning your head to meet the eyes of the man you’ve been working so hard to ignore.

The way he smiles at you makes your heart ache. Sweet puppy dog eyes stare back at yours. “Oh hey, I’ll let Hannah know you guys are here.” The blood from your heart rushed to your cheeks. Or at least that’s what It felt like.

“Come on wait a sec, is everything alright?” He asks, concern all over his face. “I haven’t heard from or seen you since last week, is this about the exam?” His head tilts, questioning your actions.

“What? No, I passed.” Grabbing the empty glass to the left of him, walking around to the other side of the bar. “Is it because I didn’t give back your notes on time?” He persisted.

“Logan, i don’t know what you’re talking about.” Your tone comes off defensive. There was clearly something wrong, he just couldn’t figure it out. I mean, why would he? Was he supposed to read your mind? You busy yourself with more tasks behind the bar, actively avoiding him as he stands right in front of you.

It was hard to not be mad at him, but it was unfair to be too. Still you couldn’t look at him. His face transitioned from concern to defeat, the weeks worth of worry on his part clearly was in vain, not like you’d share your secrets with him anyway. At least that’s what he thought.

Your dismissiveness pulled at his heart a little bit, the trust he had in you to keep his secrets slowly reverted into regret. Had you just been nice to him for a study partner? Someone to keep you on track when the homework was too boring? Someone to buy you iced coffee to keep you awake during study sessions?

He hesitates before speaking. “I guess I’ll see you in class tomorrow” eyes trying frantically to lock with yours, only to be met with avoidance. He moves towards the team, who’s already seated and going over strategies for the next game. Looking over his shoulder to catch you looking back, only for a second, before you grabbed the last of the empty bottles and turned towards the kitchen.

He felt hurt, you guys weren’t even really friends, just classmates coming together for convenience. That’s what it felt like in the moment.