Author's Notes: I hope you guys love it! I'm quite satisfied at the way this one turned out, so enjoy it! Have the brightest week ever!
Also, the pick-up line was courtesy and 100% based on Jack Falahee's answer here twitter RestingPlatypus/status/573941917274226688 (get rid of the spaces!). Rating is teen and up audiences because of a few curse words.
He knew he was screwed when he felt the urge to listen to Taylor Swift. And not the recent, even more badass version of her, but literally country genre and fluffy dresses Taylor Swift who sings songs like 'You Belong With Me'.
The deal was: Elsa was his best friend since they were five-years-old. He knew her better than he knew himself. Her favorite color was blue and she used to have an unhealthy obsession with winter, even though she always she got a cold on the first snow day. She'd raise her hand to the cloudy sky and shout, "winter!", just like everyone else did on summer. Happy, carefree and laughing too easily.
He knew her musical taste, and the chocolate she liked and the world problems that she cared about. And he loved all that.
(As a friend, he kept telling himself. Love is a bitch.)
Commitment combined with love was a bitch. It didn't last, and if it did, it was in rare cases, like Elsa's parents. They still cared about each other a lot and were still happy, it was clear to see. His parents, on the other hand, couldn't exchange more than 5 words without a snickering comment or a provocation. When Jack was little, his father took him to his place on the weekends, but now Jack just got the bus and went alone, in order to avoid any stupid discussions.
Then when he was 16, his mother met another guy. She got home from work happier, talking more about her day and about this dude named Nicholas, that came from North Dakota. Everyone just called him North—Jack had fun making a mental list of bad puns and jokes based on it.
That year, Elsa's family, Jack and his mom, North and his son, Peter, celebrated Thanksgiving all together. Jack's mom introduced North as her boyfriend. He didn't need to be genious to figure out what it all meant.
"I think he's staying." He told Elsa while they both observed North and Toothiana interacting. Jack's mom laughed while brushing her hand on his arm, and Jack drank the rest of his soda in one sip, for dramatic effect.
"Is that a bad thing? He kind of reminds me of Hagrid. That can't be bad, right?" Elsa wondered out loud.
"Yeah, I never noticed. He does look like Hagrid." Jack agreed and looked down. The girl realized, then, that her friend never answered the question.
"You should talk to your mom." She drank a sip of juice while he eyed her, an eyebrow raised. "You know, get to know him better before... I mean, you two are already a family. You should make sure all individuals agree with attaching another group to it, right?"
"Where do you get your vocabulary, woman?" He joked. Elsa had just poked her tongue out at him when Peter, a black-haired boy that was just a few inches higher than Jack, approached Elsa with a timid "hi".
Her response was immediate. Her mischieful smile turned into a polite one—reserved for strangers—, she straightened her back and extended her hand. "Hi, I'm Elsa."
But instead of just shaking hands as a normal person, his maybe-probably-future-brother-in-law kissed her knuckles, like a gentleman from those stupid romantic period movies Elsa loved to watch. Elsa's mouth opened in an "o", her eyes wide with surprise and slight panic.
"Tell me, Elsa," Peter continued, letting go of her hand. "Do you know how much a polar bear weights?"
"No. How much is that?" She said, her voice too soft for Jack's liking. (Or maybe her voice was the same and he had never really noticed.)
"Enough to break the ice. Hi, I'm Peter." He said, an apparently confident smile on his face. Jack wouldn't be able to explain how quick his relatively good mood was gone when he saw Elsa laugh; but it wasn't any laugh. It was the cute laugh, in which she covered her hand with her mouth and her cheeks got rosed, and she got all cuter.
Peter and Elsa talked for a long time, then, and it was hard to pay attention to the content of the conversation. Although he wanted to, Jack never added anything to it, and no one asked him to. Words never failed him, but at that night, he couldn't come up with anything clever to say. Nothing that would bring Elsa's attention back to him.
As soon as he noticed the path his thoughts were following, he realized just how selfish and unfair he was being. Elsa was not his property—of course not—, and he wasn't her only friend, just as he also had other friends. But the way she so easily ignored him in favor of a stranger alarmed him. He felt his heart fluttering in his chest.
His mother noticed. Her forehead adquired a frown when she looked at his expression. He had no idea he was pouting and glaring at the couple—that is, Elsa and Peter—every five minutes.
"Jack, are you alright?" She asked in a low voice. Jack was going through his growth spurt, so she didn't need to lower her head for them to be eye-to-eye.
"Sure. Why wouldn't I be alright?" He mumbled weakly, looking instinctively at the new couple when Elsa threw her head back and laughed out loud at something Peter'd said. Shit. That was true laugh. He was screwed.
"For goodness' sake, son." Toothiana rolled her eyes. "Don't over-dramatize things. How long do they even know each other?"
"That is the point."
"Jackson."
He sighed. "I don't know. An hour, maybe?"
"Yeah. And how long do you know each other?"
"Eleven years, I guess." He realized after doing some math. It was funny how it didn't feel like eleven years. It went by faster than he'd like.
"Yeah. I think it all makes it pretty clear that Elsa likes you a lot. She's not going to end the friendship because she found someone else, Jack." Toothiana watched Elsa for some silent long seconds. "That girl's heart is pretty big." She said. Then she shuffled Jack's already messed brown hair in a "you will be alright" gesture and left to the kitchen.
His mom's message sank in. He was being not only ridiculous, but also stupid. Of course Elsa wouldn't leave him. She was just interested in whatever Peter had to say. Even if they became friends, it didn't mean Elsa would go away. That was his mantra for the rest of the evening.
(But that inicial flirting still bothered him more than he was ever going to admit.)
Things got better, though. Elsa sit by his side during dinner—Peter on the other side of her—and she included him in the conversation. Turned out they were talking about their future careers. It seemed that karma was finally out to get him for all the pranks and jokes, 'cause Peter wanted to get in politics, just as—surprise!—Elsa.
He was actually thankful when the night was over and he was inside his room, door locked. Without his mother noticing, he took all her Taylor Swift CDs from the living room to his bedroom. He played the first one and jumped straight to 'You Belong With Me'.
"Tonight it's just me and hardcore sad romantic music." He murmured as the song started.
He sang along some of the songs, knowing them by heart due all the times his mother yelled them around the house in her tentative of singing. Enchanted, Love Story, Mine, Red, Wildest Dreams. In the end, he fell asleep feeling miserable and more lonely than ever.
On the next morning, her mom put two full mugs of coffee on the table when he went down the stairs.
"Son," She said. "We need to talk about last night."
"What do you mean, last night?" He asked, taking his mug of coffee and looking around, still disoriented with sleep.
"Jackson, I understand that heartbreak is powerful and so is Taylor Swift." Toothiana said, very seriously. "But next time, can you not shout the lyrics when your dear mother is trying to sleep next room, please?
"I didn't shout." He defended himself.
"You sing just as horribly as me. Sorry. And about the actual heartbreak..." But she never finished her sentence, 'cause there was a weak knock on the door. They recognized it; it was Elsa's.
Jack opened the door for her, and they went to his room once he had drunk the coffee.
"Wow. I didn't know you were a Swift fan. Going through hard stuff on the field of love, my friend?" She said with playful eyes, obviously kidding, when she saw all the CD cases over his bed.
Yes, he wanted to say. 'Cause not only you're the best thing that's never been mine but also you belong with me and—
And I kind of love you in ways a friend shouldn't. That was what he wanted to say.
"Jesus Christ, Jack, what hap—What, is there an actual person?" She bounced on her feet and brought her hands together in small claps. "Who is the lucky bastard who has your affection?"
You. "Huh, a girl."
"Cool! Do I know her? Is she from school?" Elsa bit her lip and tilted her head to the side, probably making a mental list of all the girls Jack had ever interacted with.
"Yeah, she kind of is." He frowned and closed his eyes. "But it's not th—that big of a deal, I mean... I guess I'll survive it?" He opened his eyes to find Elsa smiling at him, but with a sad expression, as if she also felt his pain.
"Yeah, love can be a bitch." She sit over his messy bed and looked up at the ceiling.
In his mind, Jack sighed, dreading his duty as friend. In the real world, he sat by her side in silence and looked up too.
"So... You really like him, right? Peter?" He gulped.
"Peter? What—Oh, no, not Peter." She laughed through gritted teeth, nervously. "I told him right away that I wasn't, huh, interested in him like that. He's a good guy, though."
Jack watched his friend, her sad smile, and voiced his thoughts. "Then who is it?"
She bit her lip and looked at him, distracted.
"Who is it what?"
"You have... An unrequited crush, too, right?" He asked in a voice too low for his standards.
After a second of hesitation, Elsa nodded and looked away. "It hurts." Before he processed the information, Jack nodded too.
"It hurts." He agreed.
They stayed quiet for some minutes, none of them having the energy to do anything but to drown silently into their feelings. It wasn't a comfortable silence. It was heavy, charged with thoughts too loud on both teens' minds.
"Jack?" He turned to his best friend, biting his lip, and Elsa gulped. "It's—It's—" She breathed in deeply and closed her eyes. "It's you."
The room fell silent with the revelation. Too silent. Elsa opened her eyes slowly and faced her friend, who was wearing the most adorable expression of confusion—and hope—ever.
"It's me what?" He asked. Elsa snorted and rolled her eyes.
"It's you that I'm in love with, you idiot!" The girl groaned out of frustration and crossed her arms. Here she was, using all of her courage to declare herself and Jack was still slow as fuck to get it. "Now can you please say or do something useful?" Like breaking my heart and lending me those Taylor Swift CDs, she thought.
Various possible responses ran through Jack's mind in that moment. "Sure", "like what?" (he was just really slow in the morning), "I love you too", "we should get married and have kids, then. And a dog. Maybe two, but you probably wouldn't allow it, but can we? Have two dogs, I mean?".
Instead, he didn't hesitate in getting close to his friend and kissing her as he daydreamed of doing so many times. His hand held that soft blonde hair of hers, and he felt her sigh. She held his face, bringing him closer and closer, feeling his warmth.
They weren't sure for how long they kissed, but they were both giggling, drunk with happiness, when it was over. They layed down and talked about their feelings, casually kissing a random part of the other's face or neck—Elsa was especially sensitive on her neck, for Jack's delight.
It finally sank in that he could kiss his friend's neck. He could kiss every inch of her and love her, hold her hand and make her laugh and introduce her as his girlfriend. Elsa loved him back. Elsa loved him back. There was literally nothing he was more grateful for, in that moment. Simply for the chance he had of loving her, and he was sure, even at a young age, that he'd do it forever.