Tom Holland Imagines

Tropemas Day 8: Childhood Sweethearts

A/N: On the eighth day of Tropemas, my Author gave to me: romance between kiddies, a suicidal uterus, total loss of memory, A BROKEN ELEVATORRRRRRRR! Cute pregnant couples, kids having coffee, Enemies-to-Lovers, and a cliche "One-Bed" storyyyyyy!

Young love doesn't last for life.

Of course it doesn't. I'd just hoped things would be different with Tom and me. What else can you hope for when you've been there for each other all eighteen years of your life? But of course, suddenly it's gone in an instant because we were meant for different things.

We were your typical Hallmark love story. Best friends since birth, lovers as soon as we knew what love was. Tom had always been my everything. But he wanted to act. He wanted to be known, loved, and respected for once. He wanted Hollywood and I wanted reality, which is why, I suppose, we lost touch in the first place.

When we graduated secondary, he wanted to leave. He said he had to if he wanted to make it. We fought for days before we finally ended it and we cut all contact afterward. In all honestly, if I'd known he was going to be at Haz's Christmas party I wouldn't have gone in the first place.

But I didn't know. I didn't know and Haz was still my best friend despite everything that happened with Tom and I didn't even associate the two of them anymore. Haz respected me enough to never bring it up. It was like it never happened. Besides, we were 25 now...whatever happened had happened when we were kids. No sense in bringing it up now.

I puffed hot air out of my mouth in one foggy blast as I knocked on Haz's door. I could hear music thumping from inside and I bounced on the balls of my feet, anxious with excitement to see the friends I'd left behind years ago.

Haz answered the door and engulfed me in a bear-hug. "Y/N!" he exclaimed, clearly tipsy despite the early hour.

"Hey, Hazza! Thanks for inviting me!" I laughed as I entered, setting the bottle of prosecco I'd brought with me down on the table.

"Are you kidding? It's not a party without you, Y/N/N! Come on in and socialize! We've all been waiting for you." He shoved me forcefully through the entryway and into the living room "HEY EVERYONE!" he shouted, "Y/N'S HERE!" My name was met with a raucous shout of approval and I blushed a deep red and waved awkwardly.

I was delighted to find most of my childhood friends in attendance. Some of them changed, some of them hadn't. I looked around, greeting everyone, but my eyes landed on someone in the corner...someone I thought I'd never thought I'd see again.

Tom stood there with a red Solo cup in his hand, talking to some guy I didn't know. My heart slowed to a beat a minute, as did everything around me, and my vision tunneled. Everything was blurry but him.

I'd seen him on screen. I wasn't ashamed to admit I'd been to all of his movies. It felt sort of like a way to keep track of him from a distance, make sure he was doing ok. I was proud of him...so proud I might burst. He finally got what he wanted. That made one of us.

And, boy, was he beautiful. He'd bulked up since I'd last seen him...no more skinny kid from Kingston. He'd grown his hair out too. It looked good. Suddenly, I felt very aware of myself. He caught my gaze and everything around me was back to fast-motion. I left my spot immediately, getting lost in the crowd. I didn't need to talk to him tonight. I didn't need any old emotions to resurface. Tom wasn't on this plane of reality anymore. He wasn't a person, he was a figure.

So, I made my way to the kitchen, where I was relieved to find some quiet. I poured myself a drink with the stuff on Haz's counter and swirled it around in my cup for a few minutes just to convince my brain I was being productive. In actuality, it was nice to recover from the shock without anyone around.

Until there was someone.

The French doors swung open and Tom walked in, rustling a hand through his hair. He looked exhausted. I assumed to come fill his drink back up, but when he looked up and saw me, his eyes widened and his jaw (his perfect jaw, might I add,) dropped open. He stopped in his tracks.

I must admit I reacted in the same way, but in order to kill the deathly silence, I waved awkwardly and attempted a little "hi." Unluckily for me, it came out a squeak.

"Uh...erm, hi," Tom responded. He warily approached me and leaned on the other side of the counter. The silence was back.

"It's...been a while. How've you been?" I asked quietly. I reminded myself I was talking to a Hollywood star, not my best friend. I had to. His eye contact took me back.

"Oh, you know...busy."

"Yeah," I chuckled, "Got everything you dreamed of, huh?"

"Pretty much," he answered. We looked at each other in silence for a minute. "You...you look good," he told me awkwardly.

"Me? Look at you!" We laughed, but more in a tone that suggested we felt obligated than genuine. After a few more beats of quiet, I threw caution to the wind. "Look, I'm really sorry about the way things ended. I was pretty selfish about the whole thing and you just wanted to follow your dreams. I...I'm proud of you." I nodded vigorously, more to myself than to Tom. I'd noticed a familiar choking in my throat and knew I had to get out of there.

"Thank you. I just...it's funny, I always thought I'd be sharing this with you." He scratched his neck and I smiled sadly.

"Well, it was nice to see you," I prompted. My voice cracked mid-sentence and I silently cursed myself but managed a watery smile.

"Yeah. You too."