never mine / / t.h.

eleven | real life

It had been three months since you and Tom had broken up. Your Instagram had stopped blowing up with people asking questions, which you were grateful for.

A few days after you broke up, Tom had reached out to you, wanting to talk. He told you that he was sorry that you two broke up, but he hoped that you could still be friends. You said that that was what you wanted, and eventually, things seemed to get better.

Of course, you still felt like it was your fault that you had broken up, but Tom seemed happy that the two of you weren't on bad terms, and you figured that that would have to do for now.

"Hey, Y/N." You looked up from your book and saw Tom standing in the doorway of your apartment. Your mom was standing behind him, her arms crossed over her chest, watching.

"Hey, Tom," you said, closing your book. "What's up?" He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I was hoping that we could talk. I think there are still some things that we need to iron out. Even after three months." He glanced behind him at your mom.

"Oh, yes." She looked around and grabbed a magazine. "I'll read this. You two go talk." She gave you a smile, which you couldn't bring yourself return. You stood up and followed Tom out of the apartment.

"So what do we have to talk about?" you asked, looking at Tom. He shoved his hands into his pockets.

"I just feel like we didn't completely end things on good terms," he confessed. "And I love you, I do, but it's as my sister. I mean, I can come to you with anything, and no matter what, you'd help me; the same goes for you: anything you need help with, I'm here. And I don't want that relationship to be ruined." The two of you stepped outside.

"It's not ruined," you said. Tom shook his head.

"But isn't it?" he asked. "I know this is a really crappy piece of evidence, but we haven't been on each other's Instagrams, we don't really text anymore, we seem to be giving each other the cold shoulder." He turned to face you. "I don't want that for us." You looked at him for a minute before breaking eye contact.

"Then what do we need to do?" you asked. He walked silently beside you for a second before answering.

"Did I not handle the situation right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, when I said that we needed to break up, did I do it wrong?" You shook your head.

"No, I don't think so." You smiled, hoping to break the tension. "That happened to be my first break up." Tom saw your smile and returned it.

"Yeah, same here." You walked in silence for a few more minutes.

"So what now?" you asked. Tom shrugged.

"I mean. . . I don't think things are going to be exactly as they were before," he said. You nodded, feeling a pit open in your stomach. "But. . . we're still friends, right?" You nodded again, more eagerly this time.

"Yes, we'll always be friends." Even though you wanted to be more than that.

Tom smiled at you again, the kind of smile that reached his eyes and made your heart flutter.

"Great." He started talking about the new Brother's Trust event coming up, and you listened, feeling like the relationship between the two of you was finally starting to heal.