tavia and salem stood on the front steps of the boys' house. salem waited as tavia found the key to their house, inserting it into the keyhole and twisting it, unlocking the door.
"guess who's here!" tavia yelled, her words echoing throughout the noisy house.
in an instant, matt's footsteps could he heard running down the stairs. soon after, he showed up with a big grin on his face. he kissed tavia before pulling away, "hey."
tavia smiled at him, reciprocating his words.
the sight of the two warmed salem's heart, and she absentmindedly smiled.
matt finally noticed salem, "ciarán's up in his room." he winked at her.
"tavia, do me a favor and beat up your boyfriend for me? thanks." salem flashed the couple an innocent smile before running up the steps.
she searched for ciarán's door. standing in front of it, she took a deep breath before knocking on it.
a faint, "come in!" was heard, followed by multiple coughs.
so he was serious? salem thought before twisting the doorknob and peeking into ciarán's dark room.
ciarán sat up slightly, seeing salem. "c'mere." he said, sitting up fully, making grabby hands at her.
salem rolled her eyes, "so needy." she said, but she still closed the door behind her and climbed onto his bed.
"come closer." ciarán said in a slightly raspy voice, which salem found attractive, but she didn't want to come closer.
"you're gonna get me sick." salem refused.
"i thought you had the stronger immune system?" ciarán countered, referring to their text messages.
"there's still a chance you could get me sick."
"fine." ciarán crossed his arms, turning away from her, choosing to ignore her.
"don't act like that, cici. you wanted me to come over for a reason." salem pleaded.
before her head could even process it, ciarán had grabbed ahold of salem's more petite body and pulled her toward him. salem let out a yelp during the affair and almost fell onto ciarán.
"hey there." ciarán said, as if nothing happened.
"you son of a bi—"
ciarán cut her off, "shh, you know you wanted that too."
"yeah, sure, whatever." salem got under the covers next to ciarán. "did you invite me over only so we could mope around together?"
ciarán rolled onto his side to face salem, he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. "well, yeah." he finally said.
"why not make the most of it?" salem suggested, looking around ciarán's room, trying to think of something fun they could do together.
"i'm all good as long as you're here." ciarán admitted, grabbing her waist and pulling her closer.
salem got a good look of ciarán's face, and she wasn't embarrassed that she was staring because he had his eyes closed.
"such a cute nose." she mumbled, poking it.
the interaction caused ciarán to peek at her with one open eye.
"yours is cute too." he said, pressing his nose against her's.
salem smiled, thinking about how cute ciarán was, and how close their faces were. ciarán was about to inadvertently close the gap, but was interrupted by his door creaking open.
"hey cici, are you feeling—oh, sorry! my bad." it was kevin. he scratched the back of his neck, his cheeks growing pink. he went to close the door, but salem stopped him.
"hi kevin! you didn't interrupt anything." salem clambered out of bed, which made ciarán let out a groan at the loss of her warmth. he sat up so he could see what they were doing.
"hey salem! it's nice seeing you again." kevin smiled.
the kindness radiating off of kevin made salem mirror the expression. "you should hang out with me and cici."
ciarán heard salem's idea and his eyes widened. he wanted to spend his day of being sick with salem, and only salem. kevin was his best friend, but he thought he'd be too much of a third wheel.
"i don't wanna interfere."
"you're not! right, ciarán?" salem turned around and looked at ciarán for his approval, which he better give.
"right." ciarán tried his best to sound enthusiastic, but it was kind of hard, considering he was sick and even though it sounds bad, he didn't want kevin stealing salem's attention.
"are you sure?" kevin asked for reassurance, tugging on his sweater sleeve.
"yes, i'm sure. now, do you have anything fun we could do?"
"i have korean face masks."
"i fucking love face masks!" salem exclaimed.
"i'll go get them."
while kevin went to go get the face masks, salem sat down on the edge of the bed next to ciarán.
"do you mind?" she asked, moving his hair out of his eyes.
her gentle touch made him forget about his aggravation, "no, no, no. i think it's good that you're trying to become friends with my best friend."
salem grinned, "that's your best friend? well, that's my new bestie."
"i'm your new bestie?" kevin laughed, walking back into the room with the face masks.
"yeah, forget about cici. he's lame anyway." salem teased.
ciarán frowned, "i'm not lame!"
"you know salem, he's mean to me. he calls me doanhead and makes fun of me for stanning bts." kevin went along with the joke.
salem gasped, shaking her head. "i can't believe you, ciarán." she turned toward kevin, "how about we forget about him and get outta here?"
"no!" ciarán cried. he grabbed ahold of salem's arm to prevent her from going anywhere. "don't leave me."
salem giggled, "chill, i wasn't going anywhere."
ciarán let out a sigh of relief, and he glared at her. "stop playing with me."
kevin let out a low whistle, "watch out salem, he might bite." kevin said, which made salem chuckle.
suddenly, salem got a bright idea.
"you know how you promised you would watch that 70s show with me? how about we do that?"
"can i watch too?" kevin piped up.
salem glanced at ciarán with puppy dog eyes, "of course you can." ciarán said, trying not to sound disappointed.
"yay!" salem threw her arms around ciarán and whispered in his ear, "thanks for being so open-minded."
ciarán looked at her with pure affection in his eyes, "it's nothing, really. i like seeing the people i care about the most get along."
at this, salem smiled, realizing she had found herself someone who she could confide in without regret.
a/n:
this dude told me he liked me and later on in the day i saw him in public and was just like *cricket noises*
