warning- cussing

word count- 3.1k

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To say you were best friends with Lee Flynn and Elle Evans would be the understatement of the century. You had been friends with them since your older brother had teased Lee on the playground and Noah Flynn retaliated by giving your brother a wedgie. You had laughed your head off and walked over to the girl who was sitting on the slide introducing yourself and tell her how much you loved that your brother got what he deserved. Every since, the three of you had been inseparable.

When you had all reached high school, Lee and Elle created a rule about you

Rule 21: Y/N was off limits

Meaning that neither of them could try to get involved with you romantically. You weren’t in the know about the rules, except one.

Rule 9: relatives of your best friends are totally off limits. You had asked them about the other rules, but they wouldn’t tell you. They claimed that you wouldn’t understand or care once you knew, but you always had this nagging feeling in the back of your mind.

You had realized you had a crush on Lee when you were in the seventh grade, he had been flirting with the girl who sat next to him when you got this sinking feeling in your gut, you wanted to be that girl, the one who received that loving look in his eyes. You were angry that you felt this way, but you couldn’t help it, you had feelings for him.

Junior year had crept upon you and your friends very quickly, you had been so busy trying to ace all your AP classes that you were taking. You worked the kissing booth for Lee and Elle after millions and millions of pleas from the duo. You worked an hour and were given kisses from strangers, praying that one of them was Lee. But you never were going to find out, and that fact made you sad.

The weeks had passed, and Elle had become more and more distant from you and Lee, leaving the two of you to hang out and do things on your own. As much as you missed hanging out with your best friend, you enjoyed the one-on-one time you got with your crush.

“Elle is definitely the better dancer out of the two of you.” You said while you both stepped on the pad to the dancing game in the arcade. Normally you would take Lee’s spot and dance with Elle, but she hadn’t been there to dance with you, so it was just you and Lee.

“You take that back you liar!”  you verbally disagree with him, causing him to look at you and start running towards you. Your eyes go wide, and you try your best to out run the charging Flynn boy. You didn’t make it that far before a pair of arms were wrapped around you, pulling you into the person’s chest. You couldn’t help but chuckle as the sound of Lee’s laugh filling your ears. “Elle is definitely a better runner than you.”

“No shit Sherlock! I don’t play soccer.” You said before leaning more into his chest without realizing you were. His arms were still around you, laughing at the response. You both stood there for a moment before you look up at him, a fuzzy feeling started in your stomach. You felt the heat rush up to your cheeks in the form of a blush, Lee gave you a sly smile before looking at the clock on the wall. Lee pulled away before giving a quick swear when he realized what time it was.

“I have to meet Racheal, want me to drop you at yours on my way?” He asked while grabbing his phone and wallet from the booth they had been seated at. You forgot about Racheal, the girl who stole Lee’s heart by cutting you in line at the Kissing Booth. It made you mad to know that she stole your kiss with Lee, you couldn’t help but imagine what would have happened if it had been you to kiss him instead of her.

“Yeah, that’s fine.” You replied much quieter than you meant to. Lee obviously caught it and sent you a sympathetic look, one that made a pit form in your throat. It seemed like he genuinely cared.

“Are you okay Y/N?” He said putting a hand on your back in a concerned manner, causing a fuzzy sensation right where his hand was. You wanted to tell him the truth, that you wanted to be the one that got to go on a date with him. You wanted to tell him how lucky Racheal was to have him. But you couldn’t, he would never think of you as anything other than a friend.

“yeah, I’m fine.” You said, keeping your thought to yourself and your head down. “Can you just take me home?” He nodded and started to lead the two of you away towards his car.

~~~~~~

Lee had broken up with Racheal that night because ‘they didn’t click’ as much as you were mad at yourself about it, you were happy that they didn’t work out. But that wasn’t the problem at hand, the problem was that Elle and Lee weren’t talking anymore. You had been waiting in the car for them when you heard screaming and name calling.

You felt your heart speed up and the adrenaline kick in, you threw the door open and ran to where the source of the screams was taking place, only to find Lee being pinned down by his older brother in the grass and Elle a few feet away, yelling at them.

“What the hell is going on?” you said out loud, no one answered you or seemed to even acknowledge your being there.

“Noah, get off of him!” Elle screamed at the top of her lungs, making your heart hurt for her. Flynn climbed off Lee, the younger Flynn threw a quick hit at his older brother.

Lee held Elle’s gaze for a quick moment before grabbing your wrist and running towards his car. You felt a whirlwind of emotions fill your body as you heard Elle scream his name over and over again, begging him to come back, calling his name with so much pain and desperation in her tone.

“Lee, please don’t leave like this.” Elle said as you and Lee climbed in his car quickly shutting the doors.

“So much for rule number nine huh?” Lee asked through tear filled eye. It was then that you realized what had happened, Elle was in a relationship with Noah Flynn. You put your hand on Lee’s leg as a non-verbal sign of emotional support.

“I didn’t meant for this to happen.” The brunette to your right replied.

“You know, my whole life… Noah has gotten everything he’s ever wanted. The only things that I had that he didn’t was you and Y/N” he said before putting his hand on yours and squeezing it tightly, needing the emotional stability. “And now he has you too.”

“Lee…” Elle says, tears falling down her pale face. Lee gave your hand another light squeeze before continuing.

“It’s okay, you two deserve each other.” Lee retorted before releasing your hand and starting the car, quickly driving off.

You felt the wind rip through your hair, the sudden speed causing you to gasp loudly. You hand still firmly placed on his thigh. You noticed that he was speeding, recklessly swerving from lane to lane.

“Lee.” You said quietly, trying to get his attention. You noticed the tears still falling from his eyes and his knuckles turning white from his harsh grip on the steering wheel. “Lee,” you try again, this time a little louder. Still no response. “God Damn it Lee! Pull over!” you scream at him moving your hand from his thigh to slapping the dashboard. He finally listened, pulling over onto the side of the country road.

You both sat in silence, tears jerking from Lee’s face onto his already damp shirt. It pained you to see him like this, hurting in an extreme way. You wanted to reach out and hug him, but you didn’t want to over step your bounds.

“They- E=Elle and Noah they ha-“ Lee chokes out before collapsing into your chest, sobbing at an uncontrollable rate. Your heart ached for him, wanting to comfort him. You caringly ran your fingers through his hair, placing your mouth by his ear. You whispered soothing and comforting word to him.

“I know, they don’t deserve you. You’re going to be okay, you still have me.” You said, hoping that he knew that you were telling the truth, that you’d always be his.

~~~~~~

The next day, you and Lee were hanging out at the arcade when the most random question popped out of Lee’s mouth.

“Will you go to Prom with me?” Lee said before you had swallowed your drink of water, quite literally causing a spit take from you. You both had started laughing at your reaction before he continued, you started to clean the water up from around the table. “I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“No, I want to…” you began, snapping your head up as soon as he says that. But you knew you wanted it to be something else.

“then why didn’t you say yes?” He says, laughing nervously to himself.

“I don’t want to sound ungrateful or anything, but I always imagined going to prom with my boyfriend…” you couldn’t understand why the words had come out of your mouth, but they seemed to just keep rolling out. “It’s something I always thought about as a kid, slow dancing with my boyfriend, taking the cute yet cheesy photos beforehand.” You kept your head down, embarrassed that you didn’t just say yes to him.

There was a long pause, gears in Lee’s head turned. He visualized his brother and Elle, lips locked, and limbs entangles. He wanted Elle to feel the pain that he had felt because of them, do to this, the following words fell from his lips.

“Well. I’ll go as your boyfriend too.” You were shocked, you didn’t know if he was kidding or being serious. You felt your stomach fall in a pit of confusion and want.

“Wait, really?” you said, eyebrows raised in desperation.

“Yeah, I’d be honored to date a wonderful human like you!” He said, breaking the rule made by him and Elle when they were starting high school.

~~~~~~

The days where Lee didn’t talk to Elle, he had hung out with you. You guys went to movies, played at the arcade, went for pizza dates and cuddled on the couch talking about everything that happened to the two of you. You loved the feeling of being around Lee, he made you feel light-hearted and all kinds of smiley.

Lee had to admit that at first, he had started dating you as revenge on Elle, but he felt himself slowly fall for you. You made his stomach flutter when you leaned into his chest, hiding your face while you laughed at his smart remarks.

One day while the two of you had went to the arcade, you quickly suggested getting drinks, Lee gave you a couple dollars after arguing that you didn’t need him go with you, claiming independence. He gave you a quick kiss on the cheek before you rushed off.

When you got the drinks and started to walk back towards your boyfriend. You saw him and Elle dancing and laughing together, the sight made you smile with pure happiness. Them being back on good terms made your heart sing with content.

You placed the drinks down at the booth a little bit away from the dance game. You saw the two of them hug and smile at each other.

“I’m sorry for breaking rule number 9.” Elle says giving Lee an apologetic look. He nodded and replied to his best friend.

“I’m sorry for breaking rule 21.” He said keeping his head down, refusing to look up at the brunette girl facing him.

“So, you… and Y/N?” Elle said, causing you to snap your head up. They were talking about you and a rule, did that mean they had a rule about you? You see Lee nod, confirming your suspicion. “Did you do it to hurt me? Or because you actually like her?”

There was an awkward pause before Lee took his gaze off the dance pad to the wall décor across the way.

“At first it was to hurt you but then I realized that I love Y/N, I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t want to, but I did.” You felt the world stop and your heart along with it. A pit formed in your stomach and you felt your face contort in pain. You hadn’t experienced anything like this before, you knew your body was fine, but it felt so broken.

Without realizing it, you noticed you were crying by the tear that fell down your face. You reached a shaky hand up to wipe the traitorous water away, you watched the liquid  dissolve back into the grooves of your finger. 

You quickly got up when you felt more tears falling from your eyes and ran passed the duo to the bathroom. You heard Lee call after you, obviously from seeing you move passed him with a tear stained face.

“Y/N, babe!” He yelled, running after you and causing heads to turn in his direction. It only made your feet carry you quicker. Once you reached the bathroom door, you threw yourself into it. Slamming it shut. You fell to the floor, knees to your chest and head placed against the wall. The pain over took you, you cried more than you ever thought possible.

“Y/N…” you heard Lee’s broken voice say from the other side of the door. “Please let me help you, let me hold you. I hate seeing you hurt. Please…”

You’d have never heard him like this before, he seemed almost as broken as you felt. And that made you mad that you were more worried about that then how your heart was breaking. You quickly got onto your feet and threw the door open, seeing Lee stand almost exactly where the door was less than a second before.

“You know what, you don’t get to say that. You have no right when you started this whole ‘relationship’, if you can even call it that, you wanted to hurt someone else. You didn’t even like me! You didn’t know that I’ve liked you since I saw you flirting with Suzie Ellis in seventh grade. You didn’t know that I used to tell Elle about how much I wanted to tell you about my crush on you for five years. I liked you even when Racheal cut in front of me in the kissing booth and started dating you. I fell for you based on a lie, and I can’t help but not be mad at you. I want to be, I really do but I can’t be. I’m sad, broken even but I still love you.” You said while the tears rolled from your eyes onto the floor.

“Y/N, I love you too, as hard as that might be to believe I really didn’t mean to start this out with a lie. I know it sounds bad, but I really do like you. I want to be with you. I never in my life thought that I would be dating my childhood crush and taking her to prom.” You went to interrupt him, but he held up his hand. “Please let me finish. Elle and I both made a rule that we wouldn’t get involved with you after a few years of knowing you. I loved watching you laugh, fall in love with your passions and succeed in everything that you tried. I didn’t really know that I was in love with you until you had held me while I cried over Elle and Noah. You soothed me and proved to me that you were always going to be there for me and I loved you for it. I really do love you.”

He looked at you with a look of love but sadness. He wanted to pull you into his arms and show you that he wasn’t lying anymore. He needed you to believe him.

“I hate you, you idiot.” You said before wrapping your arms around him and holding him there. Lee slowly pulled you closer to him, nestling his head into your neck.

“I love you too.”

~~~

You and Lee walked into the Prom, hand in hand, both wearing blue as your accent color. Elle followed closely behind in an orange-pink dress, it flattered her skin tone and fit her figure perfectly.

The lobby of the prom was filed with different photos that sparked your memories, causing you to laugh. The one chick, whose name you couldn’t remember, gave a speech about remembering things that happened this year and making prom great. You didn’t really pay attention if you were being honest, you just stared at Lee as he smiled at the words falling from the teens mouth. You loved looking at him like this, happy and smiley.

Suddenly a door was opened, and everyone began to file through a hallway, pictures displayed all along the walls. You saw a picture of Lee and Elle laughing at something, bringing a large smile to your face seeing your best friends captured beautifully. You watched and admired the photos as they passed, until the pictures ended, and you saw the kissing booth standing exactly as it had in the fund raiser. Lee released your hand and went over to where Elle was and they both gave a quick bow. You hollered for the duo as they basked in the glory of the cheers.

Lee shared a look with you before walking over to the booths stand, grabbing the blindfold that was placed there. He held his hand out, offering it for you. You felt a smile find it’s way onto your face and a fuzzy feel place itself in your chest.

“I know we never got to do this last time, but it should have been you. Hell, Y/N, it was always you.” He said loud enough for the crowd to hear you, giving off an audible ‘awe’ in response. You laughed and mimicked the crowd and blushed as he put the blindfold on. He leaned in, you slowly doing the same until your lips met. His lips were soft, as they always were when you kissed. You both leaned over the bar to close the space between your bodies. When you both pulled away to breathe, you looked at each other with love-stricken gazes. “I love you so much Y/N.”

“I love you too Lee