"Like tomorrow?" You ask, looking at the time again, surely he didn't mean now.
"I was thinking about meeting down there in like 20 minutes." He says once again.
You had your doubts about sneaking out your bedroom window to meet a guy you barely knew, underneath a bridge in the middle of the night. But nothing was scarier than the dreams that you'd been having so you agreed and got out of bed.
He told you to bring something warm since it was kind of cold out so you stuffed a small blanket in a backpack along with a bag of trail mix and swung it over your shoulders. You were bundled up in pajama pants, fuzzy socks, a large college sweater, and a beanie to conceal your crazy bed head.
Luckily your parents hadn't installed a security system yet so you were able to slip out your window without setting off any alarms.
You made your way down the street and along the tree line by the road on your way to the river. Sure you were scared that any kind of wild animal could come emerging from the trees but you used to go on late night walks like this with your Dad as a child so you weren't too scared.
Carefully you made your way down the slight hill, down to the water which you could hear quietly streaming over the rocks. Grayson lived closer than you did so you assumed he'd gotten there before you, but you didn't see him. Did he prank you?
Not being able to find him you turned on your heels to walk home. "Wait, Y/N! Sorry, I'm late, my brother was awake and wouldn't stop asking me where I was going." Graysons voice echoed quietly, running toward you down the hill.
"I thought you stood me up." You admit and he chuckles shaking his head.
"Never!" He answers finally making it to you without slipping on the icy ground.
"Why did you want to meet under here?" You ask, sticking closely to him, the farther he moved into the darkness.
"It's quiet down here and relaxing during the day so I thought it would be at night too." He explains sitting down on a rock and setting his bag down between his legs.
You spent a little while talking and getting to know one another, wrapped up in the blankets both of you brought. "I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted." You yawn and pull the blanket tighter around your frame.
"Me too." Grayson replies, yawning himself.
Neither of you wanted to leave the peacefulness of the river so you bravely lay your head on his shoulder. He didn't seem to mind and just leaned against the smooth, cold cement.
-
"Y/N wake up." Graysons voice mumbles, shaking your shoulder. You slowly woke up and realized it was early morning, the sun was just rising above the horizon. "We fell asleep." Grayson mumbles, sitting stretching.
"We slept through the night...?" You ask, astonished that you were able to actually sleep without your terrors. He even looked shocked by the fact and grinned widely.
From that day forward you made it a usual thing to call one another and meet up under the bridge to get decent sleep. No one knew except for the two of you and that was just how you liked it.
Once you got older, your secret meet-ups got riskier. Some nights he'd sneak into your room and others, you'd sneak into his. You never got caught though, but eventually, you let Ethan in on your ongoing secret when the twins moved out to live on their own and you started showing up at the early hours of the morning.
In the beginning, he assumed you guys were friends with benefits but after a while, he came to accept the fact that you were genuinely just using the other in order to sleep. Dating never crossed your mind, Grayson was practically your best friend. You assumed the same thing applied to him.
You had just stuck your hairbrush in your bag when your phone buzzed, it was a text from Grayson that said, MEET ME AT THE RIVER. You hadn't been down there in years, and you knew it was covered in brush by now, but you agreed and sent him a thumbs up.
Instead of driving you walked to the river which took about thirty minutes now that you lived farther away. To your surprise, the brush was cleared and you could see a tent pitched under the bridge.
Your first thought was that someone was living under there until arms wrapped around your waist and hoisted you up above the ground, making you squeal out. Graysons loud, unique laugh echoed, making your wiggle from his grasp and smack his chest. "You scared me you ass!" You scold, but he kept laughing.
"Come on, I wanna show you what I did." He says grabbing your hand and helping you down the hill. Snow was falling from the sky but luckily the bridge blocked the flakes.
Grayson pitched the tent.
"What's all this?" You ask, looking into the tent that was full of blankets, pillows, and sheets.
"We're camping!" He announces. You thought he was joking but the look on his face was genuine. "Come on, get in." He ushers, throwing your bag inside. You laughed and crawled onto the fluffy blankets that were surprisingly warm for the weather.
Grayson followed you in and zipped up the door before joining your side. "I know this isn't ideal, but this is where our friendship started." He reminds you, pulling a few blankets over your bodies, bringing the feeling back to your legs that you had lost on the walk over.
"You're a dork Dolan." You giggle, wrapping a fuzzy throw around your shoulders.
"But you wouldn't have it any other way." He says, fluffing up a pillow and laying down to get comfortable. You agreed and lay beside him, rolling onto his side like most cold nights. It had actually been a while since you were genuinely frozen, and it felt nice to be close to him again.
Grayson stroked your hair with his hand and watched the top of the tent that was barely visible in the dark. "I missed this." You whisper wrapping your arm over his torso.
"Me too, we should start doing this a lot more." He replies. You just nodded and rubbed your feet together like you usually did in order to get tired.
Once the night grew later, your eyes started to droop. "Goodnight Grayson." You whisper hoarsely and kiss his cheek, nuzzling your head into his side and falling asleep.
Like usual Grayson was awake before the sun and scrolled through his phone.
"Morning." You mumble, not bothering to move from your comfortable position.
"Goodmorning. How did you sleep?" He asks, turning off the screen and dropping it beside him.
"Really good actually, I was warm. How about you?" You ask, rubbing the sleep from your eyes and sitting up on your elbow.
"Same here, you're like a little heater." He chuckles, pinching your cheek. "You want to help me clean this up and get some breakfast?" He asks, sitting up.
"Later. Right now, I want more sleep." You yawn and push him back down on the pallet he created. He laughed and got back in the position you were originally in.
"You know, I've been thinking and I think since we can't sleep without the other, that we should just get married." Grayson says, pulling a blanket closer to you.
"I'm down." You laugh, but you totally weren't joking. Even if you two weren't dating, never talked about it, you could picture a future with Grayson.
He was your safe place.
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I literally woke up from a nap with this idea so please don't judge me. It's short but I love this concept and if you didn't notice, in this version the twins aren't famous and still live in NJ.
- RENEE (:
Safest Place | G.D.
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