Warnings: Mentions of cheating & sex, some swearing 

Word Count: 1653

Five Years Earlier...

You knocked on Josh's door, your hands still trembling from the adrenaline. It had taken you close to half an hour to stop sobbing, and even now your eyes would occasionally tear up as your boyfriend's–well, ex boyfriend's–words rang through your head. For the time being, you had to be around someone you trusted to distract you.

Josh opened the door a few minutes after you knocked. He was wearing a backwards hat over his curly brown hair, and in his hand was a bag of chips. His eyes furrowed when he saw you, you hadn't exactly given him any kind of warning that you were going to be showing up at his front door.

"What are you doing over here?" Josh asked, throwing another chip into his mouth. "Aren't you supposed to be out with Y/E/N today?"

"About that..." you trailed off.

Josh opened the door wider and stepped off to the side, wordlessly inviting you in. The two of you walked upstairs and into his bedroom. You took off your coat and threw it over the back of his desk chair before flopping down on his bed. Josh took a seat in his desk chair and began to spin around.

"So what did he do this time?"

"He ended things because I told him I wasn't going to have sex with him. I should have known something was up when he said we should drive separately to the park."

"Wait, he broke up with you because you didn't want to have sex with him?" Josh asked, a dumbfounded look on his face.

You rolled your eyes and tried to ignore the knot in your stomach that had just tied itself a little tighter, "Yeah, it was dumb."

You bit your lip and looked down at Josh's carpet, trying to mask the tears that were already pooling in your eyes. He had never liked your boyfriends, so you hated to cry about them in front of him.

"It is dumb," Josh said. "But I get the feeling that you don't think it is."

You shrugged, "I mean, that's what you do in relationships, right? You have sex."

"I mean, yeah, I guess that's a part of a relationship in some cases. What's dumb about it is that he broke up with you about it. You were dating for, like, two months."

"Three," you corrected him quietly.

"Ok, three, but regardless of how long you're dating, he should respect your decision to have or not to have sex. It was an asshole move to break up with you over something like that."

"Here we go again," you groaned, rolling over onto your back.

"Here we go with what?"

"All of this." You waved your arms in his general direction. "I break up with a guy and instead of being comforting you just go off about how mean the guy was and how you never liked him in the first place. Can't you just be my supportive best friend for once?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize that wanting you to be treated right wasn't supportive of me," Josh retorted sarcastically.

"That's the thing!" you said, rolling back over so that you could face Josh better. "You say you want me to be treated right, but no matter who I date or how happy I am or how nice he is you find something to nitpick about him."

"You just haven't found a good guy yet! Every guy you date is one step above the last on the asshole ladder."

"Well then who am I supposed to date? Because you obviously have someone in mind."

Josh immediately shut down, the fire behind his eyes dimming down to near nothing.

"I don't know," he mumbled, giving a half-assed shrug of his shoulders.

"Exactly, so can we just go play video games and pretend this never happened?"

"Yeah, let's do that."

Present Day...

The bell over the door of the little café chimed, drawing your attention towards the door. Yet again, it was some stranger that definitely wasn't Josh. You sighed and turned back to your steaming mug of hot chocolate, idly running your finger around the rim.

It had been a few months since you had last seen Josh. You had both been so busy–Josh with the band and you with wedding preparations and your new job–that it had been hard to set time aside for you two to properly catch up. Despite this, the two of you still remained close and texted almost daily.

The door chimed once again, and this time you immediately recognized the bright yellow hair of your best friend. His eyes landed you and he waved as he got in line to order his drink. You turned back around and quickly pulled the compact mirror out of your purse, doing a last minute check to make sure your hair was in place and there was nothing in your teeth.

You looked back up just in time to see Josh grab his drink and start to walk over to where you were sitting. Your leg was bouncing nervously but you did your best to otherwise sit still, not wanting to look like an idiot in front of the entire café. Once Josh was closer, you stood up and hugged him once he had set his drink down.

"It's so good to see you again," Josh said as he hugged you.

"Tell me about it, it feels like a lifetime since we last got together."

The two of you sat back down at the table. Josh gently blew on his coffee to cool it down a bit before taking his first sip.

"So how are things going with you?" you asked. "From what I've heard, the band is really blowing up."

"It's insane," Josh smiled. "We're playing shows all over the place, planning huge tours, and making really awesome music."

"So what you're telling me is that you're only going to get busier and harder to spend time with?"

"Unless you have something you can do as an opening act for us, then unfortunately yes."

"I mean, I had some pretty mean recorder skills in elementary school."

"Don't remind me."

"Regardless, I'm so happy that you're living your dream, Josh. It makes all those weekends spent listening to you practicing drums worth it."

Josh rolled his eyes, "Don't act like you didn't have fun." You smiled and shook your head as you took another sip of hot chocolate. "Anyway, how have you been? You've been planning your wedding, right?"

"I was," you said, putting the stress on the second word.

"Oh no," Josh said. "What happened?"

"I had to go away one weekend for a training, but it ended early so I came home to surprise Y/EF/N. When I got there, I noticed another car in the driveway that I didn't recognize. Then I got inside and, well, you can guess what happened after that."

"He cheated on you?"

"Yeah, two months before the wedding."

"Damn," Josh said, leaning back in his chair with an awestruck look on his face. "You did always have a tendency to go for the douchebags."

"I know, and you never let me forget it."

"I was just trying to protect you."

"Well you did a pretty shit job of it, now didn't you?" you laughed.

"I guess so."

"Looking back, all the warning signs were there. I guess I just chose to ignore them because I wanted someone to love me and with how busy I am, I was afraid I wouldn't have time for someone else."

"You shouldn't have to sacrifice your dreams for someone else."

"Just because you shouldn't doesn't mean you won't have to."

"Y/N, you've always given things up for the person you were dating. It's time that you put yourself first and find someone that you deserve."

"Are you really still going on about this years later?" you asked, slightly exasperated. "I'm still convinced that nobody I date is ever going to be good enough for you."

"Do you want to know the reason that I've always hated the guys you date?"

"That's all I've ever wanted to know."

"It's because I'm in love with you and I have been since high school. For years I watched as you put all this effort into guys who didn't deserve to be loved the way that you loved them. Then, when you inevitably got hurt, they walked away fine and I watched and supported you as you slowly put yourself back together time and time again. All I wanted was for you to be truly happy."

"You love me?"

"Only took you seven years to find out," Josh half-smiled, looking down at his coffee.

"Are you embarrassed?" you asked, noticing the color in his cheeks.

He shrugged and avoided eye contact, "Yeah."

"You don't have to be," you said, reaching out and putting your hand on top of his.

He finally looked up at you, his face still bright red, "Y/N, I just admitted that I've been in love with you for seven years. Only idiots have feelings for that long when the girl isn't interested."

"Josh, I have feelings for you too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I was actually about to call the wedding off because I knew I couldn't marry Y/EF/N. Him cheating just gave me an excuse that didn't involve my whole family being mad at me. Even if you didn't feel the same, at least I wouldn't be married to a guy that I didn't truly love."

"I guess seven years of waiting really did pay off," he smiled, a look of disbelief on his face.

"I just have one question for you."

"Anything," Josh said, beaming at you.

"Do you approve of my new boyfriend?"

Josh shook his head, "For the first time in my life, the answer is yes."