stitches and parties (a Kio Cyr fanfiction)

"hey, you want a pixie stick?"

You know when they say friendship between boys and girl didn't exist? Well that's bullshit. And Ryan and Kio were the living proof of that.

They were friends, best friends even, since middle school. Nothing could separate them because they were that close.

She sometimes wondered what their friendship would've turned out to be if they actually got together in high school. Because of course, she was a weak girl. He was attractive, cute and had every one under his feet if he wanted to.

One day, she had been so confused and told him she liked him, in the hope that he would reciprocate her feelings. Safe to say he didn't. And it broke her heart. He laughed awkwardly, scratched the back of his neck and looked at her apologetically only to say "I'm sorry" before running away. She cried herself to sleep, blaming her heart for ruining the only friendship she cared more about than the relationship she had with her dog Luna.

Living in front of your best friend's house has its perks. Meaning you can sneak out and join him at any hour of the day or having sleepovers and study sessions if they wanted to (not that they really studied anyway, it often ended up in watching for the nth time A Walk to Remember and Kio crying and pretending that he's a tough guy when in reality he's a softie). But it also meant bumping into your best friend the next day of your sudden confession and not knowing what to say.

It lasted a day. The moment they arrived at the bus stop, neither of them could take the awkward silence anymore and they hugged each other until Ryan asked for air because he was crushing her ribs. They chuckled at the situation and pinky-promised themselves to always be there for each other and most importantly, to stay friends.

The ended up graduating high school and going to college together. They obviously wanted to rent an apartment together but their parents thought it maybe could wait until both of them secured their diplomas. On top of that, they had two different lives. Kio was all about partying (cliché but hey, it is what it is) and Youtube when she was more focused on sports and developing her music. That's why she had a part time job at some local music shop that sold old vinyls and CDs for the nostalgic ones when he occupied most of his free time by making videos with all of his friends to grow his channel. But something they shared was their passion for learning and that's exactly why both of them ended up in the same courses of Economics and Sociology.

So maybe they didn't live together, but they mostly saw each other in classes and made their priorities to at least dedicate a day of their week -Wednesday- to time only for themselves. They found themselves on Kio's couch (because his fat was bigger than hers) browsing through channels or playing video games (she sucked at it) or just having sleepovers, just like the old times.

And, after spending this much night in their first year of college in Kio's couch and bedroom, she got acquainted with Quinton. Quinton Griggs, History major, captain of the hockey team, fuckboy but most importantly, Kio's roommate and best friend in college.

If you only go by this description, it's the typical guy that Ryan hates: he boasts about himself, is overly confident and think he can have any girl just by staring at her like he's going to devour her. And frankly, that's exactly what he did when he first saw her. Until Kio told him to stop because she was his best friend and not some girl he could fuck around with and just toss in the trash when he didn't want to. Ryan argued that she was a grown ass independent woman and that she could -thank god- take care of herself. After that, Quinton stopped going for the obnoxious way and started having discussions and tried to know her, as normal strangers would do. And she found out he was intelligent and a softie inside.

He would often be the one welcoming her in their house since Kio was rarely in her dorm. When she waited for him, Quinton would bring snacks and start discussing about her day or the assignments she had for the week. He was surprisingly very helpful when she worked at their flat. And, what started as innocent conversations turned out to be her staying at their place when Kio wasn't there or coming even though she knew he wouldn't be there.