Myrtles and Marigolds | Lander One-Shots

☄️ Close Proximity ☄️

Genre: Fluff

Warning(s): Small mentions of anxiety

Context: This takes place the summer before the school year we see in the series, so Jake is not yet in the club. Also, I did not proof read this, so sorry for any messed up grammar and spelling TwT

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It was mid-July, and the summer before most of the club's junior year. For Sean it would be his senior, and Milly her sophomore. The club had been having a lot of sleepovers this summer in order to keep up rehearsal practice out of the school-year. Tonight the club had stayed over at Milly's house, a change of pace from Zander and Hailey usually being the hosts. Now they lied in the basement, all but two club members asleep.

Zander fidgeted around in his small makeshift bed crafted out of blankets and pillows, feeling an anxious pressure in his chest. He rolled over, looking at his best-friend that lied beside him, who had his face stuffed into a pillow.

"Luke, are you asleep yet?"

Luke slowly lifted himself up, propping his forearm, and let out a few tired mumbles in response. A watched a small part of his now ruffled auburn hair fall over his lazily closed eyes. Zander could feel his cheeks heat up looking. The pianist averted his gaze, distracting himself from his feelings as he always did around his crush. Luke had been trying to stay awake for Zander, but he was close to failure. The club's drummer had an especially hard time keeping himself up, and as much as he wanted to for his best-friend, his sleepiness was starting to outweigh his care.

Zander placed his hand onto Luke's left shoulder, gently shaking it. "I need you to stay awake..." he pleaded.

"I'm up-wake..." Luke attemptedly assured, but the fact that he was delirious to the point of making up words only discouraged the violet-haired boy.

"I get really anxious sleeping over at other people's places, and I know I'm not going to fall asleep tonight," Zander started to explain, trying to engage Luke in conversation. Zander had always struggled with sleeping over at others' places from a young age. He never even fully got used to sleeping at Luke's. It always seemed to be his house these things would happen, so he never had to. And Zander wasn't sure if this was irrationality or instinct, but he had this pressing feeling it would be impossible for him to fall asleep tonight. Moving from his thoughts, he continued explaining his worries, "If you fall asleep then I'm going to be up alone the whole entire night."

Lying down into his pillow again, Luke responded, "Then do a thing..." Luke's wording was starting to become more irrational with furthering tiredness, but Zander was pretty sure the butterscotch-eyed boy was telling him to occupy himself if he couldn't sleep.

"I can't just get up and do things at a house that isn't mine," Zander argued, "I do have my phone, but let's be honest: I'm not going to use that because I'm going to be too worried about the glare waking people up," Zander finished, tone angered by his own nervousness.

"Then try to sleep. It might happen."

"No it won't," Zander groaned, "My anxiety brain is going to keep me up."

"I'm tired..." Luke lightly whined.

During his rantings, Zander had ended up looking off to nowhere, but he looked back at his childhood-friend, and seeing him exhausted he felt guilt. "Okay, I'm being selfish talking to you and keeping you up," Zander admitted, "Go to sleep."

"Thank you..." Luke cooed, contentedly shutting his eyes.

Zander tried to let this event happen, but as soon as Luke's eyes closed, in his brain he had lost Luke, and his anxious worries amplified. He knew he should keep his mouth shut, but he couldn't help it, and desperately spewed, "But I really don't want to spend the next hours in the dark lying down in complete silence. Plus tomorrow I'm meant to-" Zander was going to continue, but he was cut off from sleepy mumbles and a pair of arms wrapping themselves around him. It took a second for his brain to catch up, but soon he realized: Luke was cuddling him. Feeling himself heat up, he flusteredly asked, "Luke, what are you doing?"