A/n: NOT what you think. I haven't seen this at all, but someone might have done it... Idk... YOLO? Lol
I leaned against his chest, our fingers intertwined. "I love you," I whispered softly. He was warm and soft and it was easy to get lost in how it felt to be near him.
"I love you too," he responded just as tenderly. Just as sincerely. I fell asleep, his heart beat in my ear. I woke up the next morning, feeling secure in his arms. Thomas and I had been dating four years and every second was amazing. That's how it always was when Thomas was home. We were together and it was amazing and we were in love...
Except recently. His best friend Isabelle and he had been really close since they were younger. They played in a few movies together and they had been hanging out a lot recently and it seemed only clear to me that Isabelle totally had a thing for him.
He spent a lot of time with her, actually. Lunches. Early breakfasts when he had to go film and I couldn't come, or he didn't want to wake me that early. Dinners, sometimes, when I worked late. Not gonna lie, I read fan fiction before I dated Thomas. As a fellow lonely girl, I took comfort in it. I'd read story after story where the hot guy was in love with his best friend and she loved him and he realizes he loves her more than his current girlfriend and they break up. I'd read stories where the girlfriend had been a bitch, or done something bad to whoever they story was about, so that's ultimately why they broke up. But I'd also read ones that the girlfriend did nothing major, the hot guy just wanted his best friend more than his girlfriend.
I'd never, not once, thought of the girlfriend's feelings as I'd read, squealing as the two best friends got together. Now here we were, and I was her.
I made eggs and pancakes and when they were done, I put them on two plates and left them out on the counter. I leaned into my palms, bent against the counter, as I glared at my food, thinking. 'I love you'. He said it so easily. So sincerely. Did he mean it? He'd been blowing me off for Isabelle a lot recently. Did he still want me? He seemed so interested in her.
At first it hadn't bothered me. I understood having a best friend. But recently, the media kept talking about how coupley they were. Everyone shipped them and I had kind of become the middle man in the way of girls' OTP across the globe. I didn't know if Thomas noticed, but it had put a strain on our relationship that he didn't even try to kill the rumors or shut people up. He just... Let it all happen.
Had I done something wrong? Had I not done something? Maybe it was just all in my head and I was imagining the whole thing? I mean, it was completely reasonable that Thomas hung out with Isabella. They were co-stars on a popular show together. Even then, their characters didn't have a lot to do with each other, and they had no interest in each other. Isabella's character was actually into Phineas, Thomas' character, Ferb's, brother. I mean, I guess it didn't matter what their characters did though. They were in a kids' show anyway, and voiced cartoons characters, so no amount of logical thinking could mean anything. So Isabella voiced someone who liked another character... There was no personal connection in that. No physical attraction. But Thomas and Isabella hung out in the real world, beside just the show. They had real-world time. Characters in a show didn't mean anything in the real world anyway.
So maybe they were just friends, but maybe they liked each other, too. There was no way to know for absolutely sure unless I could read both of their minds, which I couldn't. Even if I asked, they could TELL me there wasn't and be lying. Or not yet see it, and then realize their feelings once I ask. I could make it worse by trying to see if it was bad at all in the first place.
Eventually I moved to the couch. Overthinking as usual, I just lay on my back and stared at the ceiling, unable to stop my mind from racing and creating mental images that made me ache in every part of my body. That was how Thomas found me when came home that day. My hands were in the roots of my hair, my fists tight, trying to work out a headache. My eyes were squeezed close and my lips were pushed together so hard they were in a thin, blood-less white line. My ears were covered by my headphones, which blared music as I tried to blast away the troubling thoughts. I wanted to trust Thomas, I really did. Something in side of me burned though, and I just COULDN'T. I hated myself for it, because trust was essential in a relationship, and he'd never given me a reason to doubt before, but the fact was - I did. I doubted him. I didn't know why, but in the end, I did.
I didn't hear the "I'm home!" Or the, "Love?" When I didn't respond. Nor did i hear, "L- Oh, there you are...." Or his, "Are you okay?" Afterwards. All I heard was the laughter of Isabella and Thomas ringing in my ears, past my heart ramming in my chest and the music blaring in my ears. I didn't feel him sit down next to me, only the heart break of him leaving me, the tears running from my eyes down my face.
All of my senses were filled with these overwhelming worries I couldn't control. Thoughts and feelings that swirled in my head, making my heart shatter and race at the same time, my stomach twist, and my fist tighten past what I thought possible; Pain from my tight chest and my hands pulling too hard on my hair. Suddenly the chaos of my mind and body were interrupted as a cool, smooth surface touched my forehead and I gasped as my music was lifted away, off my ears. I opened my eyes to see a familiar pair of smooth brown ones, and my insides calmed and my heart stilled and the world seemed to freeze around us.
Thomas. My Thomas.
"What's wrong?" He asked so quietly my ears almost missed it, more used to the far too loud music that had filled them moments before.
"Do you love her?" I didn't even deny it. I came undone, finally giving up, looking at him with a vulnerable desperation that I could no longer conceal.
"Who?" Thomas asked, obviously very confused.
My lips trembled and he took my hands. "Isabella," I whispered even more quietly. My voice cracked. "Isabella Melling. D-do you love her?"
There was a long pause, and the longer it went, the farther my heart sank. "Why would you ask such a ridiculous question?" Thomas asked so gently that I almost felt my mood lift. "Of course not. I love you. That's why I'm with you, and not her." There was another pause as I looked away and he cocked an eyebrow. "Why do you think that?"
I exploded. "The nights you're with her for dinner, so late that I fall asleep. The lunches you two spend together, just the two of you. The breakfasts you miss with me so you can race off and have it with her instead. All the filming and all the shit about you two being together everywhere all the fucking time! All I hear about from anyone is how everyone thinks that we're old news and you're so into her and you can't be oblivious enough not to know all about it, but you do nothing to stop it! Pictures and pop ups on each other's fan base and I swear to God Thomas if you do want her instead of me then just say so because I can't take it anymore. Everyone thinks you two are the next best thing since sliced bread, and your fans haven't exactly been sending me hate but hell if they don't take any chance to point out that you two are SO into each other, and sooner or later they guess you'll leave me for her. So much points to you two having feelings for the other, and apparently everyone agrees with me." Thomas' eyes had gotten wider and wider the longer I'd ranted and were now so large they looked as if they were about to pop out of his skull. "Why are you looking at me like that?" I demanded. His face softened and he leaned close, pressing his lips against mine. I didn't know how to feel, but I simply kissed him back, and he held me close.
When he pulled away, his look was so intense and sincere that my breath caught in my throat and I all but held back a gasp I could only just contain. "I love you," he whispered.
My eyes watered and he pulled me close again. "Say it again," I whispered.
"I. Love. You.I don't care what anyone says. " He ran a hand through my hair. "I'll make more of an effort to spend time with you and stop all the chat, but I swear, I love you. I love you so much it hurts. God I wish I could tell you how much."
We lay there for a long time and then he pulled me up and we got me all cleaned up. And that was that. It was solved.
He kept his word, too. He loved me, and it was a long time before I ever doubted him again, but never like that first time. Every time I did doubt him he always noticed now and proved before it got too badly that he was mine, and I his.
So I guess we weren't a cliche story. Guys and girls COULD just be best friends. Never was I more glad about a fact than I was about this one.