Imagines and One-Shots (Book Two)

Attached (Ryan Follese) - Part 1

Ryan walked into work at the BuzzFeed office that morning with a nervous ache in his chest. He was scheduled for a video shoot after lunch in which the topic made him more anxious than he'd ever felt in his entire life.

It seemed like the morning drug on and on before lunch finally came around. Ryan ate as quickly as he could without making himself sick before throwing away his trash and heading to set. The moment he got there, his friend greeted him with her usual cheerfulness.

"Ryan!" Kayla beamed, "We were just waiting for you! Come on!" She led him to the table and had him sit down, letting Mandy, who was the camera person for this video shoot, make sure he was perfectly in frame and in focus before she gave everyone the go-ahead. "Okay, Ryan," Kayla chirped, "Just start off by saying what the video is." Ryan nodded, cleared his throat, and looked into the camera.

"I'm about to Skype the girl I had a crush on in elementary school," Ryan smiled, starting the video off.

"Okay, now kind of explain the backstory about her."

"Her name is Y/N," Ryan started, "We met on the first day of kindergarten in like, 1992, so that gives you a little indication as to how old I'm feeling right now." He laughed lightly before continuing. "I very distinctly remember sitting on this rug that had the alphabet on it, playing with some blocks before class actually started, and a woman had come in with this really cute girl. She was crying, you know, not wanting her mom to leave, and our teacher went over to try and get her to come in, but she wouldn't do it. So me being me, I decided to get up and walk to the door, and l just looked at this girl. Our teacher told me to go back to playing, but I think, in my mind, I was thinking 'not without her'. So I held my hand out and said 'you can come play blocks with me if you want' and as she was sniffling, her mom urged her to come with me, so she wiped her eyes and nodded. Her mom kissed her goodbye, saying she'd be back in a couple hours, and the girl took my hand and we played with blocks for like, 10 minutes until class started."

"How long has it been since you've seen her?"

"Well, I moved to a different state the summer before we started middle school, so I haven't seen her in almost...20 years now, I'd say," Ryan said.

"You ready to Skype her?"

"As ready as I'm ever going to be," he laughed.

Kayla hit the call button and placed the laptop on the table in front of Ryan. He took deep breaths as he waited for you to answer – you were obviously asked about this video shoot at the same time as Ryan, so you knew what was going on – and the moment you popped up on the screen, Ryan actually lost his breath.

"Ry!" you smiled brightly, your hands covering your mouth, "Oh my God, I haven't seen you in so long! I think I'm gonna cry!"

"It'll be like kindergarten all over again," he smirked slightly.

"Shut up!" you laughed.

"Hey, you were the one attached to me that entire first week of school!" he grinned.

"And for some reason, you didn't tell me to leave you alone," you winked, making him chuckle.

"I'd never tell my favorite girl to leave me alone."

"I'm still your favorite girl?" you teased.

"Always will be," Ryan smiled, "So you already know what this video is about, right?" You nodded and he went on, "Did you ever know I had a crush on you?"

"I think remembering all the stuff we did and how you didn't even care that I was pretty much attached to you for a while, looking back on it now, it's like, 'Oh wow, he totally had a crush on me', but at the time, I honestly don't think I had any idea. Because, you know, that was back when girls were told that if a boy is mean to you, he likes you, and you were never mean to me, so I always just assumed you didn't like like me. What about you? Did you know I had a crush on you?"

"You had a crush on me?" his eyes widened, making you laugh loudly.

"Well, there's that answer," you shook your head.

"Man, Y/N, we could have been each other's first boyfriend and girlfriend, first kiss, first breakup..." Ryan sighed dramatically.

"When time travel is possible, we should definitely go back and make sure that happens," you teased, sticking your tongue out at him. Kayla interrupted for a moment, telling Ryan it was time to wrap up the conversation.

"Kayla says I have to stop talking to you now," Ryan pouted, causing his co-worker to roll her eyes and smile.

"Probably just jealous she's not on this level of reminiscence right now," you snickered, hearing the girl laugh in the background.

"So I have one more question before we end this," Ryan cleared his throat, "Would you be surprised if I said I still kind of have a crush on you?"

"I wouldn't blame you," you shrugged, "Puberty was so good to me." He rolled his eyes at the comment, but laughed along with you. "You know, I'm actually flying out to LA soon for a job interview..." you remarked, "We should hang out or something..."

"Yeah!" he practically shouted, "If you need someone to get you from the airport, just call me and I'll be there."

"Thanks, Ry," you giggled, "I'll let you know. Well, it was nice seeing you again. I've missed you."

"I've missed you too, Y/N," he replied a bit quieter than he'd been talking that whole time. You both waved goodbye and he watched you disappear from the screen. He stared at it for a moment with a silly grin on his face until Kayla's voice brought him back to reality.

"How you feeling after that?" she asked him, beginning to close out the video.

"She's just as beautiful as I remember," Ryan smiled.

"If you guys get married, I expect to be the first to receive an invitation since this video was my idea."

Ryan simply laughed, rolling his eyes as he got up from his seat. The person working the camera turned it off, letting Kayla take the memory card so she could return to her desk and begin editing.

Throughout the rest of the day, Ryan wore that same silly grin, confident that everything with you was going to work out.

~

inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_POb3xhZYY