Jack Barakat Imagines
Still Friends
Your POV
I was hanging out with my best friend Rian and we were watching something on TV. Cass wasn’t here, but she never really minded too much when I was over, so I figured it wasn't a problem. But there is a problem, you see. I really like him. I like him more than a friend, and I really want him as more of a friend. He’s taken, and I don’t even know if he likes me the same way. Probably not, you know, since he’s taken and all.
I kept taking glances at Rian. It’s what I do when I like someone. I hate it when people are obvious, but I don’t even know how to let him know how I feel. I scooted closer to him, and he didn’t flinch, so I laid my head on his shoulder. He leaned his head against mine, and I smiled. This was nice. Just me and him. No distractions. No girlfriends. Just Rian and I.
I decided to rest my hand on his leg, and he grabbed it in reaction, slowly stroking it. This was it. If Rian truly liked me only as a friend, he wouldn’t be holding my hand, right? He doesn’t do that, he wouldn’t lead someone on. Am I reading too much into this?
I sighed and Ri lifted his head to look down at me. “You okay there?”
“Yeah,” I smiled, returning his stare. “I’m really good.”
He smiled back at me. “Me too,” he said as he kissed my head. Head kisses. That’s gotta mean something, it just has to.
“Ri?” I asked him, lifting my head from his shoulder.
“Yeah?” He continued to hold my hand and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Do you like me? Do you like this?” I gestured to both of us with my free hand.
“What do you mean, hun? Of course I like you, you’re my best friend.”
I shivered when he called me that. Just one little word and I’m putty in his hands. His smile is undeniably beautiful. “I know that, I mean. Could I ever mean more to you than a best friend.”
Rian nodded in understanding. He thought about what I said before responding. “I think you could get there, yeah.” I smiled wide and bit my lip.
“Where would that put Cass?” I sighed, knowing that there wouldn’t ever be any easy way to get her out of the picture, but if he wanted me and not her, that’s gotta be clear.
Rian frowned at her mention. “I guess I’d have to see who meant more.”
“How do I get to be the person you want?” I asked quietly. I didn’t want to hurt Cass, but Rian is who I want. I know that there is no question about that.
“I don’t know, you’ll just have to see.” He shook his head, thinking about what to do. I sighed and leaned back down on his shoulder again. With his other hand, Rian began to rub circles on my arms making the tiny hairs stand up. I sighed and nuzzled in closer, trying to rid my mind of Cass’s face.
Cass had called me out to buy me coffee, and I was nervous the whole time. Did she find out what Rian felt about me? Did she know that I could easily take him from her? That sounded bad coming out of my mouth, but I wanted more than anything to be in her place. To have his strong arms around me whenever I needed them. To talk to him whenever I needed to hear his voice or see his smile. I wanted to be where she was. She could be his best friend, and I could be his girlfriend. If only we could switch places.
I waited for Cass to get our orders and chewed on my nail nervously. When she came back, I gave her a fake smile to let her know nothing was wrong. I don’t think she bought it, considering she didn’t return it.
“Y/N, there’s no easy way to say this,” she started.
“No easy way to say what?” I felt like I was getting broken up with, even though we had never dated.
“You need to stay away from Rian.”
“What do you mean?”
“I see the way you look at him. And I can see he’s starting to develope the same things for you. He’s losing his love, and I think I can get it back. But I don’t want you there to distract him of this. I don’t want him to fall for you, and I think I can get him to fall back in love with me if you were out of the picture.”
I didn’t really know what to say. She could pick up on what was happening? I didn’t want to be dishonest with her. “So you want me to leave Rian alone so you could have him fall back in love with you? Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Loyalty, friendship, any of those apply. I’m not saying you have to, I’m just saying it’s easier. I want us to remain friends. But I’d find that hard if you stole my boyfriend from me. I support your guys’ friendship, but I don’t support you two falling in love. I think I can make him happy. Do you want him to be happy?”
“Well, yeah, of course.”
“Then-”
“With me.” I interrupt her before she can continue. She sighs and sips her coffee she’s holding.
“Y/N,” she groans. “There’s no easy way to say this. And I can’t get it out of my mouth without sounding like a complete bitch. Please, just stay away from him for a while. If I can’t get him to fall back in love with me, and if all he can think about is you, then so be it. You can have him. But if he still wants me and he still loves me, then promise me you’ll drop this.”
I look down at my coffee. Suddenly I didn’t want it anymore. So either I stay away from Rian, and he falls in love with her, or I ignore her wishes and either lose a best friend, maybe two. I might have a chance with the first one. “Alright,” I sigh.
“You’ll do it?” She asked me with hope in her voice.
“Yeah, I’ll do it.”
“Thank you so much,” she sighed. I nodded and watched her leave. Well this sucks. I’m out of a best friend, and plans for today. What the hell do I do? Do I even have friends outside of Rian?
I got out my phone and looked through my contacts. There’s Alex? No he’s with Lisa, I should probably stick to single friends. All my friends that are girls are either ignoring me or not here. There’s Jack? I could text Jack?
I texted Jack asking if I could go over, and apparently that was fine by him. So I did. I arrived at his house holding an extra large pepperoni pizza. If he didn’t like it that was too bad for him because he made me get it.
I walked in, not bothering to knock. This was going to be casual, I refuse to believe this was formal. “I brought you your pizza you asshole,” I told him, dropping it in front of him. He was in a shirt and boxers. Didn’t bother dressing up. “Where the hell are your pants?”
“In my bedroom?” He told me, as if it should be obvious. “Why? Where do you keep your pants?”
“Shouldn’t they be on your body?”
“In what way is today a pants day? You’re lucky I bothered to put on a shirt.”
“You slept in that shirt, didn’t you?”
“It was cold last night.”
I laughed and went into his kitchen to find plates. I hadn’t been here very often, so I was opening and closing cabinets all over the place.
“If you’re looking for plates they’re in the cupboard above the stove.” Jack calls out to me
“Thanks!” I call back. I grab the plates and bring it over to him.
“Pepperoni?” He asks as I sit next to him.
“What?” I’m slightly offended. Who doesn’t love pepperoni?
“So basic.” He shakes his head and takes a slice out of the box.
“Says you.” I mock. “So if this is a no pants party, then do I get to take mine off too?”
“If you want, I’m not stopping you.”
I shrugged and took off my pants. It felt nice to be free. After what Cass had said in the cafè I felt constricted, like I couldn’t really breathe. It felt nice to breathe again. To have a friend again.
I had hung out with Jack a lot more these past few weeks. This had now been the fourth time I spent the night at his house. I never really spent the night at people’s places, but now here I am, in Jack’s bed at three in the morning. Jack’s arm is around my waist, and if this is what you call friendship, then what the hell was I doing before.
I poke Jack’s face to wake him up. Something about him made my stomach feel like shit, but my brain happy. I don’t know what he was doing to me, but it was causing some kind of reaction.
“Jack,” I whisper into the stale darkness. “Jack wake up.”
Jack grumbled before he turned to look at me, his eyes squinting with tiredness. “What,” he responded in a deep throaty sleepy voice. It kind of turned me on to be honest.
“Are you awake?”
“Oh my god Y/N.” Jack buried his head in his pillow. “Now I am. What the fuck do you want.”
“To talk.” I shrugged before propping my head up with my hand.
“Alright well now that I’m up what do you want to talk about?”
“Do you ever feel small?” I ask him, biting my lip.
“What the hell are you talking about? Are you high?”
“No, just think about it. We all feel like Earth is this giant planet, right? Well compared to the Earth, the sun is way larger than that. And then we’re in a solar system which is in a galaxy. A really large galaxy made up of other solar systems. And then that is in an even larger thing and think about what else that large thing is in. I just feel so fucking tiny. Like anything I do wouldn’t matter 100,000 light years away.”
“That’s messed up, I don’t want to think about that.”
“But if you do, just think of all the possibilities we have of life. I think people are closed minded to think that Earth is the only planet to have life, don’t you?”
“These are the things you think about at three AM?”
“Yeah, basically.”
Jack laughed, and it was a tired one, so his voice barely resonated. It made me want to kiss him. Why do I always ending up wanting to kiss my friends. All my friends are so damn attractive what the hell.
“You’re cute,” Jack smirked and he booped me on the nose.
“I bet you’re cuter.”
“Y/N, you can’t compare people’s cuteness, it doesn’t work that way.”
“Well why not?”
“Because beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”
“Jack, don’t get all philosophical with me, now.” Jack laughed again and scooted further into his blanket we were sharing.
“You say that, but you were the one just talking about how small we are.”
“If we’re so small,” I start to say, leaning my head against Jack’s chest. “Then why do people think that anything besides love matters?”
“Human beings are selfish I guess,” Jack shrugged, slipping his arm around my waist and pulling me close. “Sleep, love.”
Here he was, giving me nicknames. If he was going to do things like call me love and stuff, how did he expect me not to fall for him. “I don’t want to,” I whisper.
“If you don’t sleep, then you can’t wake up next to me in the morning.”
“You make it sound convincing.” I shivered again. Jack’s words were making impressions. My heart started to flutter. “What if I still want to talk to you?”
“Then you’re going to have a hell of a time doing it, because I’m going back to sleep.” Jack kissed my head. Yep, definitely making it hard not to want him. The only thing that I could think about now is what about Rian? Does he still want me? Do I still want him? The way Jack’s making me feel isn’t helping my situation with Rian. Or maybe it is. Would this be what he’d want? Rian or Jack? Jack was safer and he felt right. Rian felt like something bad would happen. I guess I’ll have to see how he feels.
Rian’s POV
These past couple weeks with Cass have been amazing. She’s made me feel so special, and she’s told me that Y/N and I shouldn’t happen. I told her that I don’t know if they’d go away, but after these weeks, I don’t know if I can love Y/N anymore. She’s going to be heartbroken when I tell her.
I noticed Y/N had liked me before. It was in her eyes, I think way before she even noticed them herself. The way she looked at me as if I were the only person in the world she could ever possibly want is maybe what made me want her too. Cass was gone for so long that I felt Y/N was the only one to want me like that.
That was proved wrong when she went away and Cass filled her spot. So I was meeting Y/N at a restaurant to tell her that we can’t happen. That I love Cass.
Y/N was sitting at a table waiting for me to see her. I loved looking at her, but Cass is still on my mind, and I don’t feel the same spark. I sighed as I sat down.
“Hey Ri,” she smiled at me. Her smile was different, something about her changed. “You wanted to talk to me about something?”
“Yeah. Listen, Y/N.” I took a deep breath. “Our break away from each other has made me realize that I love Cass and I always will, and that it was a brief moment what you and I had. Does that make sense?”
“I figured it was about that.” She sucked on her drink, chewing on her straw. “I understand. Seeing you now, I don’t feel the same way I used to about you. I mean I still want to be your friend, but you don’t make me feel the same way. I get something stronger when I’m with Jack.”
“Jack? You’re seeing Jack?” This surprised me. I thought she’d be heartbroken to find out the news, but she just seems relieved. It honestly kind of hurt, but I understood it.
“Yeah,” she gave me a wide smile, and I saw that look in her eyes, the way she used to look at me. But now directed at Jack. “He makes me feel special, important, like nothing I do will ever draw him away. I can’t say it’s love, but I can definitely say it’s growing.”
“So you don’t want me anymore?” It felt weird to see that someone else was making her happy, but if she can be happy with Jack, this will help me to be happy with Cass. If she can let us go, then so can I.
“No, I want Jack.” She smiles sadly at me, probably wondering if I still wanted her. It felt good to know that this was mutual, and that there were no hard feelings at all. “Are we still friends, Ri?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “Still friends.”
I was hanging out with my best friend Rian and we were watching something on TV. Cass wasn’t here, but she never really minded too much when I was over, so I figured it wasn't a problem. But there is a problem, you see. I really like him. I like him more than a friend, and I really want him as more of a friend. He’s taken, and I don’t even know if he likes me the same way. Probably not, you know, since he’s taken and all.
I kept taking glances at Rian. It’s what I do when I like someone. I hate it when people are obvious, but I don’t even know how to let him know how I feel. I scooted closer to him, and he didn’t flinch, so I laid my head on his shoulder. He leaned his head against mine, and I smiled. This was nice. Just me and him. No distractions. No girlfriends. Just Rian and I.
I decided to rest my hand on his leg, and he grabbed it in reaction, slowly stroking it. This was it. If Rian truly liked me only as a friend, he wouldn’t be holding my hand, right? He doesn’t do that, he wouldn’t lead someone on. Am I reading too much into this?
I sighed and Ri lifted his head to look down at me. “You okay there?”
“Yeah,” I smiled, returning his stare. “I’m really good.”
He smiled back at me. “Me too,” he said as he kissed my head. Head kisses. That’s gotta mean something, it just has to.
“Ri?” I asked him, lifting my head from his shoulder.
“Yeah?” He continued to hold my hand and I couldn’t help but smile.
“Do you like me? Do you like this?” I gestured to both of us with my free hand.
“What do you mean, hun? Of course I like you, you’re my best friend.”
I shivered when he called me that. Just one little word and I’m putty in his hands. His smile is undeniably beautiful. “I know that, I mean. Could I ever mean more to you than a best friend.”
Rian nodded in understanding. He thought about what I said before responding. “I think you could get there, yeah.” I smiled wide and bit my lip.
“Where would that put Cass?” I sighed, knowing that there wouldn’t ever be any easy way to get her out of the picture, but if he wanted me and not her, that’s gotta be clear.
Rian frowned at her mention. “I guess I’d have to see who meant more.”
“How do I get to be the person you want?” I asked quietly. I didn’t want to hurt Cass, but Rian is who I want. I know that there is no question about that.
“I don’t know, you’ll just have to see.” He shook his head, thinking about what to do. I sighed and leaned back down on his shoulder again. With his other hand, Rian began to rub circles on my arms making the tiny hairs stand up. I sighed and nuzzled in closer, trying to rid my mind of Cass’s face.
Cass had called me out to buy me coffee, and I was nervous the whole time. Did she find out what Rian felt about me? Did she know that I could easily take him from her? That sounded bad coming out of my mouth, but I wanted more than anything to be in her place. To have his strong arms around me whenever I needed them. To talk to him whenever I needed to hear his voice or see his smile. I wanted to be where she was. She could be his best friend, and I could be his girlfriend. If only we could switch places.
I waited for Cass to get our orders and chewed on my nail nervously. When she came back, I gave her a fake smile to let her know nothing was wrong. I don’t think she bought it, considering she didn’t return it.
“Y/N, there’s no easy way to say this,” she started.
“No easy way to say what?” I felt like I was getting broken up with, even though we had never dated.
“You need to stay away from Rian.”
“What do you mean?”
“I see the way you look at him. And I can see he’s starting to develope the same things for you. He’s losing his love, and I think I can get it back. But I don’t want you there to distract him of this. I don’t want him to fall for you, and I think I can get him to fall back in love with me if you were out of the picture.”
I didn’t really know what to say. She could pick up on what was happening? I didn’t want to be dishonest with her. “So you want me to leave Rian alone so you could have him fall back in love with you? Why would I do that?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Loyalty, friendship, any of those apply. I’m not saying you have to, I’m just saying it’s easier. I want us to remain friends. But I’d find that hard if you stole my boyfriend from me. I support your guys’ friendship, but I don’t support you two falling in love. I think I can make him happy. Do you want him to be happy?”
“Well, yeah, of course.”
“Then-”
“With me.” I interrupt her before she can continue. She sighs and sips her coffee she’s holding.
“Y/N,” she groans. “There’s no easy way to say this. And I can’t get it out of my mouth without sounding like a complete bitch. Please, just stay away from him for a while. If I can’t get him to fall back in love with me, and if all he can think about is you, then so be it. You can have him. But if he still wants me and he still loves me, then promise me you’ll drop this.”
I look down at my coffee. Suddenly I didn’t want it anymore. So either I stay away from Rian, and he falls in love with her, or I ignore her wishes and either lose a best friend, maybe two. I might have a chance with the first one. “Alright,” I sigh.
“You’ll do it?” She asked me with hope in her voice.
“Yeah, I’ll do it.”
“Thank you so much,” she sighed. I nodded and watched her leave. Well this sucks. I’m out of a best friend, and plans for today. What the hell do I do? Do I even have friends outside of Rian?
I got out my phone and looked through my contacts. There’s Alex? No he’s with Lisa, I should probably stick to single friends. All my friends that are girls are either ignoring me or not here. There’s Jack? I could text Jack?
I texted Jack asking if I could go over, and apparently that was fine by him. So I did. I arrived at his house holding an extra large pepperoni pizza. If he didn’t like it that was too bad for him because he made me get it.
I walked in, not bothering to knock. This was going to be casual, I refuse to believe this was formal. “I brought you your pizza you asshole,” I told him, dropping it in front of him. He was in a shirt and boxers. Didn’t bother dressing up. “Where the hell are your pants?”
“In my bedroom?” He told me, as if it should be obvious. “Why? Where do you keep your pants?”
“Shouldn’t they be on your body?”
“In what way is today a pants day? You’re lucky I bothered to put on a shirt.”
“You slept in that shirt, didn’t you?”
“It was cold last night.”
I laughed and went into his kitchen to find plates. I hadn’t been here very often, so I was opening and closing cabinets all over the place.
“If you’re looking for plates they’re in the cupboard above the stove.” Jack calls out to me
“Thanks!” I call back. I grab the plates and bring it over to him.
“Pepperoni?” He asks as I sit next to him.
“What?” I’m slightly offended. Who doesn’t love pepperoni?
“So basic.” He shakes his head and takes a slice out of the box.
“Says you.” I mock. “So if this is a no pants party, then do I get to take mine off too?”
“If you want, I’m not stopping you.”
I shrugged and took off my pants. It felt nice to be free. After what Cass had said in the cafè I felt constricted, like I couldn’t really breathe. It felt nice to breathe again. To have a friend again.
I had hung out with Jack a lot more these past few weeks. This had now been the fourth time I spent the night at his house. I never really spent the night at people’s places, but now here I am, in Jack’s bed at three in the morning. Jack’s arm is around my waist, and if this is what you call friendship, then what the hell was I doing before.
I poke Jack’s face to wake him up. Something about him made my stomach feel like shit, but my brain happy. I don’t know what he was doing to me, but it was causing some kind of reaction.
“Jack,” I whisper into the stale darkness. “Jack wake up.”
Jack grumbled before he turned to look at me, his eyes squinting with tiredness. “What,” he responded in a deep throaty sleepy voice. It kind of turned me on to be honest.
“Are you awake?”
“Oh my god Y/N.” Jack buried his head in his pillow. “Now I am. What the fuck do you want.”
“To talk.” I shrugged before propping my head up with my hand.
“Alright well now that I’m up what do you want to talk about?”
“Do you ever feel small?” I ask him, biting my lip.
“What the hell are you talking about? Are you high?”
“No, just think about it. We all feel like Earth is this giant planet, right? Well compared to the Earth, the sun is way larger than that. And then we’re in a solar system which is in a galaxy. A really large galaxy made up of other solar systems. And then that is in an even larger thing and think about what else that large thing is in. I just feel so fucking tiny. Like anything I do wouldn’t matter 100,000 light years away.”
“That’s messed up, I don’t want to think about that.”
“But if you do, just think of all the possibilities we have of life. I think people are closed minded to think that Earth is the only planet to have life, don’t you?”
“These are the things you think about at three AM?”
“Yeah, basically.”
Jack laughed, and it was a tired one, so his voice barely resonated. It made me want to kiss him. Why do I always ending up wanting to kiss my friends. All my friends are so damn attractive what the hell.
“You’re cute,” Jack smirked and he booped me on the nose.
“I bet you’re cuter.”
“Y/N, you can’t compare people’s cuteness, it doesn’t work that way.”
“Well why not?”
“Because beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”
“Jack, don’t get all philosophical with me, now.” Jack laughed again and scooted further into his blanket we were sharing.
“You say that, but you were the one just talking about how small we are.”
“If we’re so small,” I start to say, leaning my head against Jack’s chest. “Then why do people think that anything besides love matters?”
“Human beings are selfish I guess,” Jack shrugged, slipping his arm around my waist and pulling me close. “Sleep, love.”
Here he was, giving me nicknames. If he was going to do things like call me love and stuff, how did he expect me not to fall for him. “I don’t want to,” I whisper.
“If you don’t sleep, then you can’t wake up next to me in the morning.”
“You make it sound convincing.” I shivered again. Jack’s words were making impressions. My heart started to flutter. “What if I still want to talk to you?”
“Then you’re going to have a hell of a time doing it, because I’m going back to sleep.” Jack kissed my head. Yep, definitely making it hard not to want him. The only thing that I could think about now is what about Rian? Does he still want me? Do I still want him? The way Jack’s making me feel isn’t helping my situation with Rian. Or maybe it is. Would this be what he’d want? Rian or Jack? Jack was safer and he felt right. Rian felt like something bad would happen. I guess I’ll have to see how he feels.
Rian’s POV
These past couple weeks with Cass have been amazing. She’s made me feel so special, and she’s told me that Y/N and I shouldn’t happen. I told her that I don’t know if they’d go away, but after these weeks, I don’t know if I can love Y/N anymore. She’s going to be heartbroken when I tell her.
I noticed Y/N had liked me before. It was in her eyes, I think way before she even noticed them herself. The way she looked at me as if I were the only person in the world she could ever possibly want is maybe what made me want her too. Cass was gone for so long that I felt Y/N was the only one to want me like that.
That was proved wrong when she went away and Cass filled her spot. So I was meeting Y/N at a restaurant to tell her that we can’t happen. That I love Cass.
Y/N was sitting at a table waiting for me to see her. I loved looking at her, but Cass is still on my mind, and I don’t feel the same spark. I sighed as I sat down.
“Hey Ri,” she smiled at me. Her smile was different, something about her changed. “You wanted to talk to me about something?”
“Yeah. Listen, Y/N.” I took a deep breath. “Our break away from each other has made me realize that I love Cass and I always will, and that it was a brief moment what you and I had. Does that make sense?”
“I figured it was about that.” She sucked on her drink, chewing on her straw. “I understand. Seeing you now, I don’t feel the same way I used to about you. I mean I still want to be your friend, but you don’t make me feel the same way. I get something stronger when I’m with Jack.”
“Jack? You’re seeing Jack?” This surprised me. I thought she’d be heartbroken to find out the news, but she just seems relieved. It honestly kind of hurt, but I understood it.
“Yeah,” she gave me a wide smile, and I saw that look in her eyes, the way she used to look at me. But now directed at Jack. “He makes me feel special, important, like nothing I do will ever draw him away. I can’t say it’s love, but I can definitely say it’s growing.”
“So you don’t want me anymore?” It felt weird to see that someone else was making her happy, but if she can be happy with Jack, this will help me to be happy with Cass. If she can let us go, then so can I.
“No, I want Jack.” She smiles sadly at me, probably wondering if I still wanted her. It felt good to know that this was mutual, and that there were no hard feelings at all. “Are we still friends, Ri?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I smiled. “Still friends.”
@SecretsDontMakeFriends
RIGHT SOMEONE POINTED THAT OUT ON MY WATTPAD VERSION AND I WAS LIKE ???? how did i do that I'm magical
9/19/16