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The day Aryia uploaded "Doing My Best Friend's Makeup" on his channel, the stans went wild. Colby had never seen that many people fall in love with a new girl in the group so quickly. That alone made him bitter—he knew that if he was the one to introduce you to the Internet, the stans would've returned with your head on a spike. But, somehow, they loved you with Aryia. The amount of fan accounts that began cropping up after Aryia uploaded the video was, frankly, shocking. Colby didn't mind that, though. He loved that the stans loved you. It was all he could ask for. What he didn't ask for, though, was for so many people shipping you and Aryia together. It made his blood boil just thinking about it. He wanted that for the two of you, but he fucked everything up and now he wouldn't have the chance to see it happen.
Two weeks later, Aryia posted another video. Confusion bubbled inside of Colby when he saw the video in his subscription box. "Birthday Surprise for My Best Friend"? When the hell was your birthday? Why didn't Colby know it had passed? Why didn't Colby know the day at all?
He ignored the video for as long as he could. But, finally, after one month and seeing one too many edits of you and Aryia from that video, he finally succumbed and watched the video.
"Hi hoes!" Aryia said to the camera."Y/N's birthday is coming up in a few days and I'm not at all prepared for it. I didn't even know it was coming up until she said something literally last night. Clearly she didn't say something sooner because she didn't want to make a big deal out of it. So, obviously, I'm going to make a big fucking deal out it. First things first: before I can make her birthday the best birthday ever, I need to go get her presents."
Colby ground his teeth together as he watched Aryia go from store to store, taking great care in picking out gifts for you. And goddammit, Colby knew you would love them. So it was no surprise when your face lit up when Aryia presented the gifts to you at your apartment.
"Oh my god, I can't believe you even remembered this!" you exclaimed after unwrapping the final present, a copy of Walden by Henry David Thoreau. "I told you about this ages ago!"
"Well, you sounded so heartbroken when you realized you lost it," Aryia said, laughing as you pulled him into a hug.
The book wasn't lost, though. It sat tucked away in a drawer with the few other things you had left behind when you broke up with Colby. He'd meant to give it back—really, he did—but, he...He didn't know. He missed you so much, and you were right when you said you had to pack a goddamn suitcase to stay the night because he wouldn't let you keep anything in his old apartment. So, after you broke up with him and he found the book in his room, he held onto it for a bit longer than he meant to.
"You're so incredible," you said, pulling out of the hug. "Thank you, Ari."
"Wait, you're not done yet! You haven't even opened the card."
