yall this was killing me during my completely silent 8am and i need to share

I have no words to say

Hi guys!! Here is a short imagine I've been working on. I hope you guys like it!

Warnings: None

Word Count: 3K

Here we are, back again

Fighting what’s in front of me

There’s so much to unpack again

But if I come to Italy

You and Joe had met back in 2018 while both attending college at LSU. He was the star quarterback, always being recognized when you two would decide to venture out for an ice cream date, movie night, or just a simple gas station run. You on the other hand focused on school, majoring in fashion and design. The first time you attended a LSU football game was when Joe became the football star. Now seven years had passed; you and Joe were living ten hours apart. He got drafted by the Bengals and you grew a social media following while living in New York City. Most of your content focused on thrifting, new fashion fades, makeup, and the New York night life. While the hours between the two of you definitely grew, the feeling that there was more to be discovered between you two never went away.

“The first day of training camp is coming up soon, right Joey?” You had your phone propped up on a cup while you made dinner for yourself.

“Next Wednesday. I still have a couple days all to myself.”

“I surprisingly got all my brand content done today so I’m free for the next couple days. Round of applause please.”

Joe set his Xbox controller down, taking a break from whatever video game he had chosen to wind down with tonight. “You never fail to amaze me y/n.”

You giggled while pouring yourself a glass of orange wine; your favorite during the summer time. “Catch me at ten different coffee shops and every local market you can find over the next couple days. Last time I had this much time off I spent it rotting on Tik Tok.” You saw that Joe hadn’t started playing his game again, instead he was watching you cook, admiring you. “What?”

“Nothing. Uh-you know you could always come visit. We didn’t get a chance to take our trip this summer so just a thought. No pressure y/n/n.”

A part of you wanted to go visit Joe but deep down you knew it wasn’t a good idea. Every time you went to see him the feelings you had for him grew. It got harder and harder to say goodbye and realise that he could meet someone in Cincinnati. Someday he might call you with the news that he met the girl of his dreams the night before and he’s on cloud nine. You’re always fighting what’s in front of you. 

“Y/n/n?”

“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about stuff.” Before you could even finish Joe cut you off.

“Like I said y/n no pressure; you just know I love having you around here.” You didn’t know what to say to Joe. You loved being around him and his home felt like yours too. You felt a tug at your heart to just say yes to him.

“I guess I could spare some time for you Joey. The coffee shops and markets will always be around.” You and Joe shared a smile through Facetime.

“I’ll buy your ticket. And I promise I won’t book a 6:30am flight again for you.”

“Maybe I should just buy my own ticket, Joey. You know I have the money to pay for myself.” Your cheeks flushed with a light blush. When Joe would buy you things it always made your friendship feel like more than friends.

“Never. You’re my girl.”   

I don’t know where the switches are

Or where you keep the cutlery

And I’ll probably crash your stupid car

And make your life a misery

Five days, five days you had to not fall deeper in love with your best friend. Joe arrived at the airport to pick you up with flowers in hand, a pretty boyfriend thing to do.

“Joey, I’ve missed you so much.” You had your arms loosely wrapped around his neck, careful not to crush the bouquet of daisies he bought you.

“Well someone is always too busy for me. Miss influencer.” Joe poked at your sides jokingly. The playful banter between you two picked up right where it left off.

You two made your way out of the Cincinnati airport. A warm wave of heat rushing to hit you in the face.

“This one’s mine y/n/n.” Joe stopped at a Range Rover; also your exact dream car. “Hellooo? Y/n?” Joe snapped his fingers in front of your face, snapping you out of a deep trance.

“You bought MY dream car and didn’t think to tell ME?”

“Well, uh, this car guy I know just happened to have this one for sale and it’s super cool. Drives really nice, you know.” Joe turned to point at the car nervously. “Well you wouldn’t know.”

You shot a dirty look at Joe. Buying your best friend's dream car is not a good move. 

“Can I drive it?”

“Yeah…y/n/n, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

This called for some fake tears and extra pouting. “Come on Joey. I’ve always wanted a Range Rover.” Your voice came out strained and whiney.

“I don’t know. You’re not familiar with the roads around here. It’s probably best if I just drive.” You could see the internal fight going on inside Joe's head. 

You threw in a last ditch effort, grabbing on to his bracelets and pulling yourself closer to him, “Come on Joey, just for me.”

“I-I guess one time won’t hurt.”

The feeling you got from starting his car the first time and seeing all of the screens start up for the first time was a feeling you wouldn’t forget. 

“I’m definitely posting this on my feed.” You turned to Joey with a shit eating grin on your face. His eyes rolled in response. You knew that social media wasn’t his thing; thus the reason he was only featured on your Instagram maybe 8 times. “Joeeeeyyy, you’re not getting out of taking this picture with me. I’m sorry, not this time.” You grabbed his arm pulling him closer to you; both of you were leaning on the console to get the “perfect” Insta pic.

“Joe come on, smile with your teeth. It looks like I’m holding you hostage.”

“Y/n/n I’m smiling the way I always smile.” He looked at you through the camera, smiling with no teeth. “See, I’m a happy guy.”

“Joe. Smile. With. Your. Teeth.” You smacked Joe with every word; a couple giggles slipping out at the end.

“Okay baby, I got you.” Baby…. He never calls me baby. He makes this so hard on me. A blush crept up from your toes to your cheeks, making Joe smile. A smile with teeth.

“Alright, lets take this pic Y/n/n” Joe leaned in, leaning his head against yours. You swore you could hear his thoughts. You hoped he couldn’t feel how hard your heart was beating.

“Smile Joey” It only took you one try to get the perfect photo. They were leaning your head against his, smiles pressed against each other, he even smiled with teeth for the picture. “I hope you know I will be posting this later.”

“Whatever. Are you gonna drive your ‘dream’ car or are we going to sit in the airport parking lot forever.”

“Yes dad.” You let Joe have aux on the way back to his house; he obviously chose to play Kid Cudi. When you and Joe were together it felt like a minute hadn’t passed. He was your best friend and deep down you believed you were his. Obviously you had close girl friends in Chicago but none of them saw you in the light that Joe did. He knew how to make you feel good about yourself but he also knew how to keep you grounded when you started to gain a lot of followers. You did the same for him.

“Joe I’m pretty sure I’ve heard the song Immoral three times now. It’s my turn to pick a song” It was a stupid choice; you don’t usually use your phone while you drive. Actually, you never do because you never drive in Chicago. When you think back to this moment you’re not sure why you thought it was a good idea for you to look through your phone for songs to play but you did and you didn’t realize you were in the other lane with oncoming traffic coming. Your eyes were glued to an Apple Music playlist that you had created just for driving around; too busy to see the way you had drifted into the other lane with another car hurdling your way. 

A sudden jerk of the car took you out of your trance along with the sound of car horns. You looked up putting both your hands back on the steering when you saw Joe had pulled the car back into the correct lane and honestly, saved both of your lives.

“Holy shit y/n, were not not looking at the fucking road. Are you stupid?” You swore his eyes were burning holes into your head. You couldn’t bear to look him in the eyes, you already had tears building up.

Your words came out as less than a whisper, “I don’t know Joey, I’m so sorry. Can we just switch spots and you drive the rest of the way home.” At this point you had pulled the car over and wanted nothing more than to hide away in Joe's guest bedroom and see no one for the rest of the day. You hated embarrassing yourself.

“No, sit back down.” Joe grabbed your arm before you could get out of the driver's seat. “I-I’m sorry for yelling at you like that but you could’ve killed us. Kill yourself. I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if that happened y/n/n. You know that. Now keep driving, and BOTH hands on the wheel this time.” Joe was looking at you with a soft smile towards the end of his speech.

“I couldn’t live with myself if something happened y/n/n.” That’s the only thing you heard in your head the rest of the drive. You know what he meant by it, but still the confirmation Joey cared about you still made your heart race. 

Meet me on the mountaintop

I’ll be in the shallow end

And wait for you to call it off

Cause I don’t want a boyfriend

The sun had set over Joe’s beautiful, but very large, house he had bought right outside of Cincinnati. You two had kept yourselves busy today, grabbing lunch at a small cafe close to his house. After a much needed nap, considering you had a small amount of jet lag, the two of you went for a small walk around his neighborhood.

“So you really do have separation anxiety from Ja’Marr,” you lightly pushed Joe's shoulder and laughed. “You bought a house two houses down from him. Bromance at its finest.”

“I wouldn’t use the term separation anxiety y/n. I just like to keep my friends close”

“What about us? I live about 600 miles away from you. You must not have separation anxiety from me, just Ja’Marr I guess.” Part of you was just joking with Joe. Obviously work had pushed you guys to move so far apart; in college you couldn’t go more than 12 hours without seeing each other. The other part of you wondered if Joe wished you lived closer to him. You often had selfish hopes that the Bengals would someday release him and the New York Giants would pick him up, forcing him to move to your city.

“You know I wish we could live closer together y/n/n. We could relive our college days during my offseason.” Joey smiled down at you while the two of you kept walking through the beautiful neighborhood. He wrapped his arm around your shoulders bringing you closer to him. The second your bodies brushed up against each other you prayed he couldn’t feel how hard your heart was beating at that second.

“Sooo..how has your love life been? I know you wanted to take a break from dating after you and Katie broke up. It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” 

You thought you could see Joe's face harden at the question, wondering if you ruined the night with one question. It sounded like he took a deep breath before answering, “Yeah, no time for love here. To be honest, I’m not sure if I ever want to get married or be in a serious relationship like that again. It takes up so much of my time, time I feel like I don’t have right now. You get it though, who was your last boyfriend? Bryce, no, Thomas.” Joe didn’t make eye contact with you at all so he couldn’t see his words were hurting you in every way possible. “I don’t know, I just don’t need a girlfriend. What I need is to focus on work and being in the best shape possible for next season. Maybe I just haven’t met the right person.” The last sentence was a blow to the heart, words you never wanted Joe to say. 

You felt angry that he couldn’t see how much you loved him. How stupid were you to think that he loved you the same way. He probably saw you like a little sister, nothing more than platonic. 

“I get it. I don’t want a boyfriend either.” Those words were the biggest lie you’ve ever told.

But we could be nice to each other

Nice to each other

Wrong for each other, right for each other

And rise to each other

Rise to each other

Cause, you know, I’ve done all the classic stuff

And it never works, you know it

So we can say we’ll never say, the classic stuff?

To show it 

It had been three days since Joe told you his heart is not open to a relationship, making it very clear he’s focused on work for the coming years. Everytime you looked at him over the past few days there was a dull ache in your heart. All you wanted to do was pour your heart out to him and tell him how much he meant to you; and not in a friendly way. 

“Alright y/n/n, are you all packed. I have your exact coffee order waiting in the car.” Joey smiled at you from his front door. He had woken up early this morning to go and get your favorite coffee as a goodbye gift. He took a couple steps towards you, “Here let me carry your bags. You can have any food in the fridge if you're hungry or we can stop somewhere on our way to the airport.”

“Thanks Joey.” Your words came out as a whisper, tears welling up in your eyes. Joe had already turned his back to you, not noticing the few tears slipping down your cheeks. You didn’t want any of his food, honestly, you didn’t want anything from him right now. You wanted to fly home and forget that this entire trip happened. All you needed was to disappear back into your life of skyscrapers, thrifting at small stores on the west end, or meeting up with your other fashion influencer friends.

“You ready?” Joe walked out from behind his car, watching you exit out his front door.

“Yeah, don’t wanna be late.” You were such a liar. You just wanted to escape the fact Joe didn’t see you as anything more than a friend. 

The car ride into the city felt extremely claustrophobic. You didn’t know if you were the only one feeling it or if Joe could feel the tension between you two. The past three days had been fun, but it definitely wasn’t normal. You didn’t sit close to him when you two watched movies, on walks you made sure to stay off personal topics, and at night you always said you were tired around 9 PM. Such a big liar. You would lie awake until 1 or 2 AM, just hoping he would realize you hadn’t fallen asleep and maybe he would realise something was wrong.

As Joe pulled up to the Cincinnati Airport, a part of you no longer wanted to leave him anymore.

Unbuckling his seatbelt, Joe turned to look at you, “I’ll help you get your bags out. Couldn’t let the NYC influencer break one of her nails.” At least he didn’t feel the tension.

You stood on the curb, keeping at least 5 feet of distance between you and Joe. Scared you would beg him to let you stay for another week, or worse, confess that his words the other night really hurt you. Too busy in your own thoughts, you didn’t notice Joe bringing all your bags up to you and standing right in front of you.

“Well, I guess this is goodbye.” Joe looked down at you, something in his expression told you he had more he wanted to say. “You know, I could come see you in a couple weeks. If you’re not at one of your events or something.” 

“Oh, yeah, maybe. I’ll check what I have going on when I board the plane and let you know.” You knew that the next time you were leaving NYC was in two months, he could come visit you. “Thanks for letting me stay, Joe.” You quickly reached down to grab your bags, not once looking into his eyes. You also couldn’t bear to give him a hug goodbye, too scared it would make the shield you’ve put up for too long break.

You had made it half way to the entrance when you heard Joe call out your name. “I-I…I just wanted to say I had fun this weekend. Thanks for coming, y/n/n.” You knew that’s not what he wanted to say, you could tell by the slight downward expression he had on his face. You couldn’t let yourself dwell on what he wanted to say to you.

After checking your bags through security and making it through TSA, you sat at your gate and enjoyed a sandwich you had picked up at a small shop by your gate. Mindlessly scrolling through Instagram, just trying to get your mind off Joe. Why couldn’t he just be honest with me? Tell me how he really feels? And as if the universe was reading your mind, a notification from Joey B came through your phone.

SHOTGUN ~ (joe burrow x [f] reader)

uhhh tbh never written blurbs or anything like that before! so if this is bad, i apologize ^^ but i saw a post about shotgunning with cigar!joe and thought i’d write about it. hope you enjoy! also yes, this is set in an alternate reality where the bengals won the superbowl.

word count: 1.1k

warnings: cigar!joe, shy!reader, smoking (obviously), suggestive, cut off smut (allusions to it as well), MDNI, exhibition if you squint?, joe praising the reader, joe likes ass…that’s about it! + a small tee and ja’marr cameo.

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