Nyctophilia // Rylan Fanfiction 👣

chapter I <3

October 27th, 2021

The wind pushed its strength into one of Dylan's Lenivy's windows. The young adult was snuggled up in the comfort of his blanket. The light of his laptop was the only light in his room.

There was an irresistible comfort to the bed. As soon as he got home from the hospital in August his mother encouraged him to get into college next year just so that he had time to rest after everything.

Dylan rubbed his eye, closing the laptop and putting it on the nightstand beside his bed. The room went dark and the void around him consumed. "Jesus." He mumbled, his eyes weren't used to the darkness of the night of course so he couldn't see shit for a little while. Afterward, he rested his head on his pillow. He stared at his closet door, awaiting the feeling of being tired.

He started to slip into that feeling, but his ring tone loudly, and rather rudely, awoke him up again. Dylan rolled his eyes and picked up without checking the contact name. "Hello?" He heard on the other side of the line.

Dylan was silent for a moment.
"Uh. Hi." He wasn't really in the mood for jokes. He hadn't been for the past week and a half. His sleep quality had been poor, nightmares were constant and he frequently would be jolted awake by them while in a cold sweat.

"It's Ryan, Kaitlyn gave me your number." Oh, no wonder the voice was familiar.

"For real? You didn't contact me earlier?" Dylan's eyes widened, he then rose from his bed and went to click on the light.

"Sorry, man," Ryan had a soft smile behind the phone, "But Uhm. Are you free tomorrow?" He asked.

Dylan clicked his tongue. "Hmm. I don't know, big guy. Let me check, 'cause my mom gave me something to plan out my shit. I put everything in it." He smiled as he put his phone in between his shoulder and cheek. "And why do you wanna know? You want to go on a date with me?" He asked smugly.

Ryan scoffed, but played along nonetheless, "Why? Do you want me to ask you about one? I would not be opposed to it, you know."

Dylan let out an 'ooh' but added no other commentary. He pulled the planner out from under his bed and set it on top of his bed. He flipped through it to the correct date, bookmarked it, and leaned to pull out a mechanical pencil from the drawer of his nightstand.
"Okay, I'm free, I think." He bit his lower lip. He sat on his knees on the ground facing his bed which was only an inch or so away from him. He turned the phone on speaker and put it on the bed.

"I wanted to ask you if..." Ryan trailed off, and was then silent for a second, "shit, sorry. I wanted to ask you if you were doing alright, I kinda forgot to ask."

Dylan blinked. "Oh. Yeah, about that. My wrist fully heeled, it took like six and a half weeks. How about you?" He asked.

Ryan sighed, "The knife wound, thankfully, didn't kill me so I have that going for me." He replied simply.

"Cool, cool." Dylan nodded

"Anyways. I was going to ask you if you wanted to come over to my house for the night. Or I could come over to yours. Either way is fine," Ryan sounded a little nervous despite his unintentionally monotonous voice. Well, Dylan thought that because he spoke so quickly, and he was stumbling over his words every so often.

Dylan snorted. "I don't care either way. You know how I am with decisions." He shook his head.

"Ah. Okay." Ryan replied he was silent for a little bit. "Is tomorrow fine with you? I know you're going to be hanging with Kaitlyn in two days so I just wanted to know because it might fuck your sleep schedule up." He explained.

Dylan blinked. "Man, you're recalling drawing out your sentences aren't you?" He teased, letting out a little giggle.

Ryan scoffed with the playfulness Dylan had. "Hmm... I'll just come over to your house. And hush, I'm just trying to get it all down," He replied, "but I am a little nervous." He admitted

Dylan shrugged, "that's fair. Tall people can be scary," he then let out a chuckle, "sorry, I'm not that tall, I know. But yeah, we haven't seen each other or even talked for two months.

"You're ridiculous." That was what he got in reply. Dylan smirked. "Thanks, babe." He replied he wrote staying the night in his journal, "What time will you come over?" He asked.

Ryan hummed, "Probably between five and six pm." He replied.

Dylan nodded, "Mhm mhm." He then fake gasped, "Ryan? Ryan. Ryan. Rya-"

"Bro, what? Stop saying my name it's making it sound weird."
"Uhm, well. It's a great coincidence that I got a message and your family thinks you should be nicer to your favorite dilly bar. You're so mean to me and they know about it."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "Sometimes I need to be mean to you." He replied.

"Damn. Bro, stop picking on me it makes me feel sad." Dylan closed his book after writing everything and flopped on his back. He grabbed his phone and rested it on his chest.

Ryan let out a small laugh. "No, I won't. It's fun too." He replied. Dylan smiled, "I have the perfect contact name for you." He smirked

"Oh my God, what is it?" Ryan asked, he was smiling, you could hear it in his voice. It was a distinct difference when he smiled as he talked rather than when he had his neutral face.

Dylan sighed dramatically and put on a sad act, "It's going to be 'dukey flinger' then there's going to be the straight face emoji at the end," He was fighting laughter, "after the time you pretended to throw a turd from the pool net at a kid. And then I knew... we were bound to be best friends for eternity..."

Ryan was silent. He soon spoke again. "How do you even still remember that? I swear you're so immature."

Dylan let out childish giggles at his reply. "You love me. And I suppose I just have a good memory," He replied with a smirk on his face. "Hey, what are you doing in those pauses?" He asked, he sounded genuinely curious about it.

"Erm... just spacing out," Ryan said, which was indeed the truth. "Hm. Can I ask you something?" He questioned. He made hums and used words such as 'like' a ton. So it wasn't too surprising.

Dylan nodded even if Ryan couldn't see him, "Yeah, sure." He replied, rubbing the side of his head. He was appreciative of Ryan's voice after a couple of months of not hearing it. It was refreshing.

Ryan sounded slightly concerned when he spoke this next sentence, "You sounded really out of it when you picked up, are you cool?"

Dylan hesitated with an answer. He wanted to make it thought out. "Just tired, Ryan. And I have not physically spoken to anyone outside of my family for a good week or so," he fidgeted with his ebony-colored phone case, "don't worry, Jacob and Kaitlyn insist I join them on their drives to Emma's house. But I just don't feel like it a lot of the time, y'know?"
"That's fair." Ryan shrugged. "You should probably head to bed, it's almost 1 am. Sorry for calling you while you were trying to sleep, I probably should have texted you." He released a small laugh.

Dylan felt warm inside. He loved hearing reminders to go to sleep when he forgot. It was just saying 'I care about you. "Awe you care about me?"

Ryan let out a soft, playful huff, "don't make me take it back, Dylan." He teased. He then let out a snicker, "But yes, of course, I do."

Dylan was the one going silent this time. "Are you sure I should? I don't want you to be awake this late all alone, that shit is boring." He said.

Ryan shook his head. "No worries about that. I'm going to sleep right after this. And even if I wasn't going to I would be listening to music or a podcast." He acknowledged Dylan's valid concern.

Dylan stared off after answering. "Yeah, okay. Thanks." He replied. Ryan broke the thirty-second silence between the two, "Ah- alright. Bye, goodnight."

"Goodnight, love ya, pal." Dylan nodded. It felt wrong saying 'I love you' to someone who was your best friend, but also someone who you loved to death.

"Yeah, love you too. Between five and six tomorrow, correct?"

"Mhm."