Chapter Text
I was walking beside my best friend, Jake, to go to my house after we spent the day at the mall. The cool weather was taken over by the sun beating down on us as we walked down the sidewalk. We forgot to stop before the garden of bloomed chrysanthemums, causing me to inhale the pollen from the bright red flowers.
We made it a few seconds past the garden before I felt my throat tighten. My head started to spin as I grabbed onto the other boy's sleeve to try to balance myself.
"Drew are you-" He started before exclaiming, "Your lips are swelling!"
Parts of my face began to swell as Jake helped me sit down. He took out an epipen from my shoulder bag and began to set up the item. He took off the blue safety release and set up where to inject the epinephrine in my thigh. He swung the epipen into my leg and held it there for three seconds. He took it out of my leg and began to massage the area for ten seconds as he took out his phone to call the ambulance to make sure it wouldn't get worse.
Eventually, Jake got me home when the paramedics gave me the all clear.
"Don't scare me like that!" Jake whined to me as I unlocked the door. "I thought you were the careful one!"
I glared at the blonde beside me who looked down at me, unamused.
I sighed as the door swung open. "It's not like I meant to do that!" I argued. "I just got caught up listening to you being a chicken."
"Wha-Hey!" He exclaimed as I walked into the house, a grin creeping up the sides of my lips. "I am not a chicken!"
I placed my keys down and looked at him. I tilted my head and raised my eyebrow. "Oh really?" He looked away from me. "Then, if I may ask, why haven't you asked out Daisy?" I crossed my arms and leaned back against the wall, staring at the boy across from me.
His face dropped as he looked over at me. "I-" he started before shaking his head and giving me a fake annoyed look. "I'm just not ready!" He turned around and closed the door, sighing before continuing to talk about something that our other friends, Liam and Henry said.
I stopped leaning against the wall and followed the blonde up to my room. We played games for a few hours as I beat him at the twelve rounds we played before dropping the controller in my hand onto the beanbag I was sitting on. I turned over to look at Jake.
"Alright, what's wrong?" I asked bluntly as the boy's hazel eyes stared at me in confusion. I raised my eyebrow, "You've been acting weird since I asked why you wouldn't ask out Daisy earlier. Did something happen between you two?"
Jake's face dropped with understanding, before being replaced quickly with nervousness. He brought his hand up to scratch the back of his neck.
After a few moments of watching his nervous habit as he tried to mutter out an answer to my question, I stood up. I walked closer to the beanbag chair he was sitting on before grabbing onto his hands and holding them both out in front of us. I sat down right next to him as he moved to make more room on the chair.
I held onto his hands as I looked him in the eye. Our grips both settled for a gentle grip, easy to get out of if either of us got uncomfortable, but strong enough to support each other. His soft hands warmed up my cold, calloused ones in a comforting way.
"I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," he looked away from me as I noted the slightest change of color in his face. "There is no way he's blushing right now," I thought to myself before continuing. "If you really don't feel comfortable talking about it, we can drop-"
"I don't know if I like her." Jake said, cutting me off. His fingers tightened around the side of my hands.
My own fingers loosened when he told me. "Wait what?"
He sighed and looked up at me. "I mean, I-I don't know for sure yet!" he stated quickly before letting his face drop again. "I just..have my eye on someone else as well?" He questioned himself yet used it as a way to answer me.
"Oh," I looked at him with shock as he realized how tight his hands were placed around mine and started to loosen slightly. I put my fingers back into place as we returned to mutually holding onto each other's hands.
"Do I know who the other person is?" I asked softly. He inhaled deeply as he tensed up, resorting to me dropping the topic. "Ah-It's getting late, did you want me to drop you off or did you want to eat something first?"
"Just drop me off. I should make sure Milo is eating an actual meal and not chips and soda," he rolled his eyes at the mention of his younger brother.
I chuckled before standing up, our hands softly brushing as we let go of each other.
We got into my car before leaving for Jake's house.
"Sorry our walk from the mall was a nightmare," he looked at me from the passenger seat.
"Don't worry about it, neither one of us noticed that we were passing the garden. It happens." I stated simply. "Don't beat yourself up about it." I placed my right hand on his knee for a moment before bringing it back to the steering wheel and continued to drive.