for all of my pretty and
all of my ugly too,
i'd love to see me from
your point of view.
THIRD PERSON.
"Working on a song?" Daniel asked as he walked into the studio with Jonah, looking over to Corbyn as he sat with his headphones around his neck and his face so close to the sheet of paper in front of him that it had almost looked like he was kissing it.
With no reply from Corbyn and the look of concentration on his face, Daniel peered his head over to the sheet and read out the big title in the centre of the page, "The date.. of a.. lifetime. Who you taking on a date?"
"Rosemary." He quickly replied, changing the orange marker for the pink as Jonah furrowed his eyebrows.
"You're planning a date... for a girl who likes to plan things." Jonah said, "and it's the date of a lifetime? Are you guys hooking up?"
"What? No." Corbyn looked up at them, "she had a shit date with this James guy and-"
"This James guy." Daniel interrupted him with a laugh, "the most jealous thing any man could ever say."
"What?"
"Sorry, continue." Daniel shook his head.
"She had a shit date with James." Corbyn glared at Daniel before he sighed, "and she made a joke about how our fake dates have not felt romantic to her, so I told her i'll take her on a date to show her that I am a good fake boyfriend."
"Oh, so it is still fake?" Jonah asked.
"What makes you think it's not?"
"The fact that you're planning it." Daniel said, "using her favourite colours."
"It is the date of a lifetime." Corbyn rolled his eyes and turned back to the planning.
"Will there be cameras there?" He asked, "are you getting Fletcher to come say hi? What's going to happen?"
"No cameras."
"...So is it still fake?"
"Are you going to post about it?"
"I'm confused by this, Corbyn."
"Same."
"Why are you both confused?" Corbyn turned back to them, "I'm showing her what a good date is like and how high her standards need to be, nothing confusing."
"Do you like her?" Daniel asked.
"Obviously."
"No, I mean do you like her? More than friends way." Daniel repeated his question as Corbyn stared at him for a few seconds.
"This isn't a real date." Corbyn said, dodging the entire question as Daniel raised his eyebrows at Jonah who replied with a shrug.
"So, what was the James guy like?" Jonah asked.
"Asshole," he laughed slightly, "I don't know what she saw in him."
"What did he do?"
"He left."
"...The date ended and he went home? pretty sure that's normal." Daniel nodded as he sat down beside the boy.
"He left while she was in the bathroom." Corbyn explained, "...after they hooked up."
"So he used her for a hook up?" Jonah asked as he nodded, "okay no, you're right, he's an asshole."
"I know." Corbyn raised his eyebrows.
Corbyn turned himself back to his planning of the date while Jonah and Daniel got to work on one of their most recent writing pieces, allowing the boy sat at the table to do his own thing instead of getting him involved in the band.
And soon, he let out a sigh and leant back in his seat while staring at the pen in his hand, tilting his head as he looked up at the two guys working on a song.
"It's hard to know how I feel about her." Corbyn spoke up and broke the silence between them as the two guys turned their heads to him, "she's my best friend, how would I even know if I'm feeling anything more towards her?"
"Do you think about her all the time?" Daniel asked, "like she's your first and last thought of the day?"
"It's always been like that, since last summer." He nodded as the two glanced to one another.
"Do you get jealous of the people she talks to?" Jonah asked.
"And have you since last summer?" Daniel nodded in agreement as Corbyn looked at them both.
"Yeah," he nodded, "and when we go on our trips away to do promo or song writing she's the first to see all the photos and she gets the first I miss you text."
"...You've felt this since last summer?" Daniel raised his eyebrows, "since.. June?"
"Maybe since early July." Corbyn said.
Daniel and Jonah stared at them with their eyes slightly widened before Daniel furrowed his eyebrows and let out a sigh, two of his fingers on the bridge of his nose.
"I don't know, it's weird." Corbyn leant back in his seat, "but she's my best friend so it's not unusual to miss her or be jealous, the last thing I want is some guy taking all my time away from her."
"Corbyn." Daniel looked at him.
"I just like being around her, I don't know." He said, "hard to know what my actual feelings are, she's my best friend and I want to make her happy."
Jonah looked over at Daniel and slowly shook his head as a way to end the current topic of conversation, watching Daniel nod and smile slightly before they turned back to the song they were working on and Corbyn continued with the planning of the date.
And as Corbyn remained silent for the next half hour, he listened to Jonah and Daniel talk about what sounded best in the song and Daniel slowly grow more and more irritated over it.
"Let's just take a break." Jonah suggested, "i'm hungry, let's order in some food."
"Good idea," Daniel nodded, the pair looking over to Corbyn as he was still continuing on with his plan for their date, his headphones now over his ears and his phone beside him.
"They'd make a good couple." Jonah said as Daniel looked at him.
"Risky." He shook his head.
"How?"
"If something went wrong then it's a friendship ruined," Daniel replied, "i've never seen a more loyal friendship in my lifetime, I don't want them to ruin that over a mistake."
"A mistake like what?" Jonah frowned.
"What if they hook up?" Daniel whispered as they both glanced to Corbyn, "like... a drunk hook up? A mistake that's ruined their friendship."
"They've been drunk together before and nothing has happened." Jonah shook his head.
"They weren't fake dating then." Daniel said, "if something were to happen between them, it would've happened by now."
"What makes you say that?"
"All his events are in her calendar," Daniel gestured to the boy, "she's at every event of his even if she has to cancel her own, they sleep in the same bed when they stay over, Jonah. It would've happened by now."
"I think it'll happen." Jonah shrugged and smiled just as Corbyn removed the headphones from his head and stood up, walking over to where the two guys had been sat.
"Does this seem like a good date to you?" He asked, placing the sheet of paper in front of them as Corbyn leant on the table behind them, "be honest."
Jonah raised his eyebrows quickly at Daniel while they both looked down to the plan, closely reading every detail he made as Daniel began to slowly nod in approval while he smiled at Corbyn.
"You like it?" He asked.
"I think she'll love it." Daniel replied as Corbyn let out a small sigh of relief.
"I'm glad you included my suggestion of that Spanish dancing." Jonah said.
"She really wanted to do it." Corbyn shrugged.
"Are you doing a plan to give to her? You know she loves her plans." Daniel said through a small laugh as he handed the sheet back.
"It's proof that I planned because I know she'll ask about it, if I give her the plan she'll look at the details and see where things could go wrong, she's not reading the plan." He shook his head, "I want to make sure the date is perfect and actually the date of a lifetime."
"Rosy will love it." Jonah nodded, "I'm sure, she'll probably thing the date is all over the place but she'll have fun."
"Yeah these plans are all entirely different from each other." Daniel laughed, "you're going from Spanish dancing to an Italian restaurant, way to confuse the poor girl."
"She likes Italian food." Corbyn argued, "why do you think she makes so much pasta? She'd marry an Italian just for the food if she had the chance."
"I think she'll be more concerned on the restaurant being a chain or independent business." Jonah replied as they both looked at Corbyn.
"Family run business." Corbyn looked at them with a smile, "she'd refuse to go if it wasn't."
"Has she been there before?"
"No." Corbyn shook his head, "but I have a PDF of the menu on my phone to show her so she doesn't need to freak out beforehand about not knowing what they do."
"...Surely she knows if she loves Italian food that much." Jonah frowned.
"Rosy doesn't like to waste their time." Daniel turned his head to Jonah, "she has to know what she wants because if not she'll panic and stress out."
"And a stressed out Rosemary causes everyone to be stressed out." Corbyn nodded.
"Where is she tonight?"
"At her store." Corbyn glanced down to his phone, "she's catching up on the hours she won't be able to do over the next few days because of other plans."
"I wish I had that kind of discipline on myself." Daniel frowned.
"Trust me she blows my mind every single day." Corbyn shook his head and smiled, placing his phone down before pulling his chair up beside the two guys, "anyway, what are you working on?"
A/N
this chapter was so 🥺 mr corbyn is conflicted