𝘖𝘜𝘛𝘌𝘙 𝘉𝘈𝘕𝘒𝘚 𝘐𝘔𝘈𝘎𝘐𝘕𝘌𝘚 + 𝘗𝘙𝘌𝘍𝘌𝘙𝘌𝘕𝘊𝘌𝘚

Us - Pope

A/N:
This chapter is inspired by the song "Us" by James Bay

⚠️ TW - slight mentions of abuse and suicidal thoughts ⚠️

Little background on this story:
When a kindhearted teenage boy just wants to love his best friend but, the poor girl has never known what love is.

May Contain: M/F, Feels, Fluff, TW, Angst?
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To everyone who didn't know the pair, you'd think that they were a beautiful young couple who were going to last forever. Those who knew them, Y/N and Pope were those kind of best friends that people envied and wish they had that kind of friendship. But no one knew them as well as they knew each other. Pope would even admit that he knows Y/N better than he knows himself.

It's one of those stories where one has never known what love is and thinks it's acceptable to be treated poorly whilst, the other came from a loving home and has known their whole life what love is and wants to give it to the other.

But will the odds be in Pope's favour or against him?

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Y/N'S POV:
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As I wake up from the alarm on my phone, signalling that it is 8am, I find myself waking up with a smile on my face as I had another dream about Pope. The dream entailed us skipping through a field of sunflowers and then at the end, there was a picnic and Pope told me he loved me. But my life is the furthest from a fairytale and Pope has and always will be just my best friend. My smile drops from my face once realisation kicks in.

As I go to reach for my phone to see, through the freshly cracked screen, if I have received any messages. I unfortunately cracked my phone last night when I was escaping my house after my lovely father had another episode whilst drunk and laid punches into me. Anyways, I received a dozen of messages from the pogues asking if I'm okay. I assume Pope must've informed them as to what had happened.

I found myself at Pope's front door last night after the incident and he kindly cleaned my fresh battle wounds and then insisted I stay in the guest room. Turned out that my dear old father had given me a black eye. How sweet of him, my birthday isn't for another month...

Once I have given myself enough pep talk to get myself out of bed, I find my way to Pope's room. When I enter his room, he is sitting at his desk, studying for his math's exam that is on Monday.

"Morning Po", I say with a yawn and a big smile on my face.

"Morning beautiful! How are you feeling? Your eye doesn't look too good", he responded with a smile, showing his pearly whites, until he looked at me and his smile dropped quick and was soon replaced with a mixture of anger and sadness in his facial expressions.

"Oh she'll be right! I've had worse remember!", I said with a positive tone and a smile on my face in hopes it would lighten the mood.

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POPE'S POV:
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"I don't want you going back there anymore... I'll talk to my parents and you can live here instead"

Seeing Y/N show up on my doorstep at 11:30pm last night like she had been hit by a bus, broke my heart. I just wish I could protect her from everything bad in this world.

"I don't know if I can do that Po... I don't and can't be a burden to your family", she responded whilst looking down, her very obvious fake smile falling from her face.

"What are you even talking about? You're never a burden and never will be one", I responded as I get up from my desk and go to hold her in my arms.

She just fits perfectly into them...

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Y/N'S POV:
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After holding me for a little while, making me feel safe, Pope lets go of me and suggests that we go for a walk alongside the beach before we grab breakfast at The Wreck.

Once we have gotten ready and made our way down to the beach, Pope grabs hold of my hand and this is the first time that I don't flinch or move away. I just keep a hold of his hand as butterflies erupt in my stomach.

"Po?", I nervously ask after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes beautiful?", he responds straight away whilst looking at my face as I look down at my toes that are curled into the sand.

"Do you remember when we were kids? When we would go to the cinema and when we started learning how to kiss? When we would run through the streets that I swear were painted gold. But now here we are... I never thought we'd grow up like this. I never thought that my mother would just abandon me with my alcoholic father. I never understood why people struggled to find reasons to keep on living until I started doing it. I never understood the idea of breathing and feeling hurt until I started feeling that... I never thought anything would turn out this way. I wish I didn't feel like this... however, if there is anything I'm grateful for, it's that I still have you. Pope Heyward, you are my light at the end of the dark tunnel and when I lose all hope, I just look at you and that keeps me going. Hearing your voice has always calmed me down and if there's anything in this world that I believe in anymore... it's us".

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This one is a bit sad but I did try to lighten it? I might end up writing a part two for this. Will Pope admit his feelings? Will he help Y/N get away from her abusive father?

Also didn't proofread this several times like I usually do so if there's any mistakes, please excuse them.

Thank you for reading 🤍