Robbie Kay Imagines

Pictures

"Are you okay up here?"

I sat with my legs crossed on the floor, pictures spread out in front of me. The attic was dusty and cold, but I'd been sitting here for so long that I barely noticed it.

"(Y/n)?"

"Huh?"

I turned to look at my best friend, Robbie, who's head peeked out over the top of the attic door.

He seemed worried, and I realized suddenly that I must have been up here for a while. I'd only been supposed to get one box.

"Sorry, I got distracted," I said, gathering the pictures together to put them away.

"Don't worry. Just making sure you didn't hit your head or something."

Robbie climbed up into the attic further. He had to bow down to walk over to me, and I quickly pulled some pictures away so he wouldn't sit down on them.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, smiling. "Just got pulled down memory lane for a bit."

Robbie took the pictures I was holding out of my hands and rifled through them. They were pictures of us as babies, children and even awkward teenagers. We'd been friends forever, and since I'd lived with my grandmother my entire life, she'd been the one there for it.

She had a bit of a photography obsession. Often, she'd appear when I least expected it, blinding me with the flash of her camera.

"Cute," Robbie said, looking at one of the pictures.

It was us. We were maybe five, sitting in a bathtub together. We were both smiling gap-toothed smiles, covered in foam and water.

"Oh my god, look at those bangs." I pointed at myself, grimacing.

"C'mon, you were a cute kid," Robbie said, nudging me.

I picked up another picture. In it, we were thirteen. His sisters were in it as well, taller and better-looking than us. I was smiling a big smile, braces on show and hair messy and awful. Robbie looked tall and thin and awkward, growing too quickly for his mass to keep up.

"Awful. Just awful," Robbie said, quickly putting it away.

I chuckled, and he gave me a look.

There were so many pictures. Way more than I figured any sane person would have kept. Pictures of us at the community pool, pictures of us at BBQs. Pictures of us taken without our knowledge, playing video games or just hanging out, and pictures we'd posed for.

And...

Oh. Shit.

"Your gran took this?" Robbie asked. His voice was soft, and he was clutching the picture in two hands, staring at it as if wondering how it could exist.

"I don't know. I guess so."

I was staring at the picture in almost the same way.

It was us, sitting on the couch... kissing.

How did this picture even exist?

It had happened only once. We were sixteen. It had been awkward and stupid, and when I'd kissed him I'd immediately reeled back, apologized and told him to forget about it. I'd known even then that I shouldn't have done it. He'd never feel the same way.

Besides, he'd been dating that Lara girl back then.

My grandma must have been about to take a picture and captured the exact moment our lips had been pressed together.

Robbie looked surprised, but he was kissing back.

I'd never noticed that back then. I'd been too mortified at myself.

I coughed.

"That's. Um. I never realized she saw that. She never said anything," I said.

My cheeks felt hot. I'm sure I looked like a tomato.

"She... kinda mentioned something to me, I think?" Robbie said. "I put it off as teasing."

"What did she say?" I asked.

"That she always thought we'd end up together."

"You put that off as teasing?" I asked. "That doesn't exactly seem like her kind of joke. Or a joke at all. She'd usually way more... y'know. 'no funny business' or 'will you two stop flirting in front of my cats'."

"I don't know, (Y/n). I didn't really get what she was talking about. I just assumed it had to be a joke."

"But-"

He cut me off by kissing me.

After a moment, he pulled back, looking at me intently.

"Why'd you do that?" I asked. I sounded breathless.

"I wanted to remember what it felt like," Robbie said.

"But why?"

Uncertainly, Robbie pressed his lips together and looked away.

"Because I'm in love with you."

I was slack-jawed, not at all sure how to respond. I opened my mouth, ready to just blurt out the first thing that came to mind, when-

"What're you kids doing up there?" my grandma shouted.

She couldn't come up to the attic anymore, that's why I had gone up to get the box. I guess now we'd been up here for so long she'd gotten worried.

"N-nothing, Gran! We'll be right down!" I shouted.

"No funny business in my attic!"

"Grandma!" I shouted back, annoyed.

"Just saying!"

Robbie and I gave each other a look and laughed.

"That's her kind of joke," I said.

I began to look around for the box with the old sewing machine, which I had come up here to get. Robbie was still sitting behind me, in the same spot, looking at the pictures.

"Got it," I said after a while, picking up the box. "Let's go down."

"(Y/n)?" Robbie asked, getting up as well. "Things aren't... weird now, are they?"

"I don't know," I said. "Maybe we have to kiss some more to figure it out."

Before he could answer, I began to climb down.