Chapter Text
One month later
To everyone who passed Ryan as he stood against his car in the airport's pick-up zone, he looked like any other person waiting for someone to arrive. But on the inside, he was anything but calm.
You called him in a slight panic just before you boarded your flight to LA, telling him that your ride just texted you and told you they couldn't make it. He, of course, immediately told you he'd be there, chuckling lightly when he heard your relieved sigh on the other end. This didn't stop you from making sure he was okay with it though. He promised you that he was, having you text him what time you landed and that he'd be outside waiting for you.
He pulled up to the airport 20 minutes early, wanting to make sure to get a spot close to the doors so you wouldn't have to search for him. Honestly, he felt like he was going to throw up, knowing he was only minutes away from seeing his childhood best friend for the first time in 20 years.
The moment you stepped through the door, he lost his breath. Sure, you looked beautiful when you were Skyping with him during the BuzzFeed shoot, but something about the way you looked right now – dressed in sweats, hair in a messy bun, and no makeup on – had him speechless. If his crush on you hadn't already resurfaced during the Skype call, it definitely would have seeing you now.
You looked around for a brief moment before finally spotting Ryan. You instantly smiled, quickly going over to him. He pushed himself off of his car as you let go of your suitcase and carry-on bag, making sure they weren't going to fall over, before you threw your arms around his neck. You were hugging him so closely that he was sure you could feel his heart pounding against his chest as he hugged you back.
"You still own this old thing?" you giggled softly, your arm moving so you could poke at the beanie on his head.
"Hey, don't talk bad about it," he smiled, "My best friend gave it to me in fifth grade."
"I think I remember her," you replied, "She was a pretty girl back then."
"Pretty girl then, beautiful woman now," he said, squeezing you before you both let go of each other.
"Thank you," you smiled shyly, "And thank you for picking me up."
"You still have that irrational fear of taxis?" he smirked, putting your suitcase in the backseat.
"It's not irrational!" you protested, getting into the car after he opened the passenger door for you, "There is a one in 5,000 chance that I'll be kidnapped in my lifetime!"
"But that statistic isn't about people who drive taxis," Ryan countered after getting in the driver seat, "So, statistically speaking, I could be kidnapping you right now." He started the car and began driving, earning a sigh from you.
"Well, there goes me ever trusting anyone from elementary school ever again," you replied. Ryan simply laughed loudly, reaching over and placing his hand on your knee, patting it gently.
"All I'm saying is, the more afraid of everything you are, the less you're gonna go out and do something that could make you happy," he shook his head, "Like, what if there's a concert or something, but you have to take a cab to get there. Your soulmate could be there, but you wouldn't know because you were too scared to take the cab!"
"Ah, the classic soulmate argument," you rolled your eyes.
"Hey, you never know," Ryan shrugged, taking his hand back.
"What if I've already met my soulmate?" you returned, leaning your head back on the seat and looking at him, "How would I know then?"
He glanced over at you and smiled slightly. He didn't want to automatically assume you were talking about him, but then again, he couldn't remember the last time a girl looked at him the way you were at that moment.
"Maybe you should just take a chance," he replied softly, reverting his gaze back to the road in front of him.
"Well, he did agree to hang out with me while I'm in LA," you said thoughtfully.
"Did he?" Ryan grinned.
"Uh-huh," you chirped, watching the palm trees fly by the window, "He also said he had a crush on me when we were kids; I heard he still does."
"When you were kids, huh? Well, if he still feels that way, it sounds to me like he very well could be your soulmate."
"Only problem is I have no idea how to find him," you shrugged with a light sigh, "LA is huge; He could be anywhere."
"What's he look like? Maybe I've seen him around before."
"Well, now that I'm getting a good look at you, he looks a lot like you: brown hair, always wearing sunglasses but he's got the prettiest brown eyes hiding behind them." Ryan smiled, looking over at you upon stopping at a stop sign and peeking out from the top of the sunglasses on his face. "Yeah, like those!" you nodded, pointing to his eyes.
"You think my eyes are pretty?" he winked, turning his attention back to driving.
"The prettiest," you returned, a silly grin on your face.
"You know, I think I have seen him before," he mentioned, "How about his name?"
"Well, his name is Ryan Follese," you said, "He works at BuzzFeed – I don't know if you're familiar with it."
"Really?" he wondered teasingly, "My name is Ryan Follese and I work at BuzzFeed. I'm the only Ryan Follese there though."
"So you must be who I'm looking for!"
"What a small world – me picking you up from the airport and being the one person in LA you're looking for," he shook his head. You simply smiled, your head leaning on the headrest again as you looked at him.
It was silent for a moment until Ryan reached back over and took your hand. He tangled your fingers together and brought your hand up, pressing his lips to the back of it.
"I've missed you, you know," he said, his voice laced with seriousness as he moved your hand back down, holding it on your thigh.
"I've missed you too, Ry," you murmured, squeezing his hand lightly. You both sat in silence – Ryan rubbing your skin with his thumb as you played with his other fingers.
After a couple minutes though, Ryan spoke again, realizing he had no idea where he was supposed to be taking you.
"What hotel are you staying at?" he asked you.
"Oh, I don't know," you shrugged, "I was just gonna try to find a cheap one or something."
"Well... You know... You could always stay at my place..."
"Ry, you don't have to-"
"I know I don't have to, but I want to," he insisted, "You shouldn't waste money on some cheap hotel when you can just stay with me for free. Plus, we're already here, so-" He ended his speech by shrugged as he let go of your hand to pull into an apartment building parking lot.
"You're not going to charge me?" you awed teasingly, "You're too kind."
"Shut up or I might," he laughed, winking jokingly at you. He got out of the car to open your door for you, finding you sticking your bottom lip out, making sure your pout was extremely prominent when he looked at you again.
"You wouldn't really make me pay to stay with you, would you, Ryan?" you asked sweetly. He couldn't stop himself from smiling at you, holding his hand out. When you put your hand in his, he pulled you to your feet into his chest, his arms wrapping around your waist while yours went around his neck.
"Never," he answered, pecking the tip of your nose, "But you better not tell any of my friends about this or else I'll have to stop making them pay when they want to stay with me." You giggled quietly, letting it taper off as you laid your head on his shoulder and stepped forward so your body was pressed right up against his, feeling him squeeze you a little tighter in the process.
You didn't want to let go of him, afraid this was all just some weirdly realistic dream that you would wake up from any second and he would be gone. You spent the last 20 years wondering how your childhood best friend was doing and what he was up to. Now that you were finally hugging him again, you never wanted to leave his arms because the last time you hugged him like this, he moved 500 miles away.
"Hey," Ryan said softly as he kissed the side of your head, "What are you worrying for? I'm here now." You sighed into his shoulder.
"Even 20 years later, you still know what I'm thinking," you murmured.
"20 years ago, I wasn't brave enough to tell you I liked you either," he countered. You finally released him just enough so that you could pull back to look at you – both of your arms still wrapped around each other.
"Didn't you think girls still had cooties back then?" you teased, making him roll his eyes playfully.
"It's not my fault," he shook his head, "If anything, it was yours for being so cute."
"Don't hate the player, hate the game, Ry," you smirked, "And, you know, you had some questionable hairstyles, but you were still adorable." You moved one of your arms to rest on his chest while your hand patted his cheek, earning yourself a real eye-roll that time.
"Listen, it was the 90s, okay? Those hairstyles were cool back then," he said defensively.
"Were they?" you smirked.
Ryan's hands immediately slid to your sides, tickling you roughly. You squealed loudly, your laugh unable to keep Ryan from maintaining his straight face. You grabbed his hands to make him stop, giggling softly as you caught your breath.
"I would hardly consider that a fair punishment for that comment," you informed him, "But a 'thank you' would have been appreciated."
"Why would I have thanked you?" he grinned, "You weren't there when I decided on a less embarrassing haircut."
"And whose fault is that?"
"Technically my mom and dad," he chuckled.
You gasped obnoxiously, hitting his cheek again, "Don't talk about my second parents like that!"
"You still calling them that?" he teased.
"Whatever," you scoffed, "You're just jealous they loved me more than they loved you."
"That's not even fair!" he whined, "Everyone loved you more than they loved me!"
"Your brother couldn't have cared less that I was around," you said matter-of-factly.
"Well, Jamie was 8 by the time we moved; He didn't care about girls at all," Ryan reminded you.
"Not true," you informed him, "He cared about Adrienne and Anna."
"You're asking to get tickled again," he stated, "You want me to do it."
"On the list of things I could even possibly want from you, tickling me isn't one of them."
"How about we talk about the things you could want then?" he grinned mischievously.
"A ride from the airport, a place to stay, a ride to my job interview tomorrow morning, maybe some pizza for dinner toni-" Ryan cut you off, his lips colliding with yours.
You smiled slightly as your eyes fluttered shut, your arms wrapping back around his neck and your fingers playing with his hair. He let out a small sigh as his own arms went back to your waist and pulled you into him – having imagined doing this for so long, he couldn't believe it was actually happening.
When you pulled away to breathe, you couldn't help but smile again.
"That wasn't on the list, but I'll take it," you shrugged.
"Shut up," he chuckled, pressing his lips back to yours.
"Hey, Follese! Couldn't wait until you got inside your place?" You pulled away once again and looked over, finding someone walking out to their car.
"You're just upset you have a roommate and have to go other places to see your girlfriend," Ryan shot back, his tone obviously playful.
"Fair enough," he nodded before looking at you, "It's nice to finally meet you. Ryan's been talking about you non-stop for the last month." Ryan's eyes widened as you laughed under your breath.
"Goodbye, Aaron," Ryan murmured, only making you laugh a little louder.
"Bye, Ryan!" he replied innocently, getting into his car and driving to wherever he was off to.
"So," you said after a few moments of silence, "Non-stop, huh?" Ryan paused before releasing you to open the back door to get your suitcase.
"So pizza," he cleared his throat, "(Favorite topping) still your favorite?" You didn't answer him – you just simply smiled and followed him toward the building and to his apartment.
~
The next morning
You woke up to the sound of ducks quacking repeatedly. You groaned into the chest your face was pressed against, hitting Ryan's stomach through the blanket with your palm.
"Ry, turn that thing off!" you whined, turning onto your opposite side and covering your ear with your hand, "It's too early!"
"Woke you up though, didn't it?" Ryan chuckled after he turned the alarm on his phone off, his voice coming out gravelly from obviously having just woken up. He leaned over and pressed a kiss to your shirt-covered shoulder before taking your hand off of your ear and moving it down to your waist as he kissed your cheek.
"But the duck alarm, Ryan? Really?" you frowned, finally turning onto your back.
"I can't help that it's the only one that ever actually wakes me up on time," he grinned, "Now you get dressed so we can stop by Starbucks on the way to your interview."
"Are you bribing me to get out of bed?"
"No," he stated matter-of-factly, "If I were bribing you, I'd use kisses instead."
"You're right," you nodded, "I'd rather have coffee." Ryan responded by throwing himself on top of you and peppering your face with kisses.
You squealed before laughing, squirming being about the only thing you could do since he was literally on top of you. You managed to free your arms out from under him, grabbing his face and pushing him back slightly.
"A nice way to wake up," you affirmed, pecking his lips, "But that still won't get me going like coffee will."
"We'll see about that later," he smirked, kissing you again before getting off of you and going into the bathroom so you could get dressed.
~
"You know where you're going?" Ryan asked you after you both got into his car.
"Yup," you chirped, "I'll tell you when to turn." He nodded and pulled out of his parking spot.
The closer Ryan got to the BuzzFeed office, he would glance over at you more often. He was confused as to why you hadn't told him to turn at any point, and when he pulled into his work's parking lot, the confusion wasn't eased much.
"You know you never told me where to turn, right?" Ryan cocked an eyebrow while putting his car in park. You finally looked up and out the window and shrugged.
"That's okay," you replied, grabbing your coffee cup and unbuckling your seatbelt, "We're here." You got out of the car, Ryan quickly mimicking your actions.
"Wait..." he said slowly, "Your job interview is for BuzzFeed...?"
"Mhmm," you hummed, taking his hand when he came around the car.
"And you knew that when we Skyped?" he asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"
"You didn't ask," you shrugged again.
"Well, you're asking to be tickled again," Ryan finally laughed, poking your side.
"I most certainly did not," you let out an involuntary giggle, pushing his hand away from you.
"Maybe you asked for it telepathically then because I definitely heard it," he said.
"Maybe you're picking up signals from some other girl then because it definitely wasn't me," you grinned.
"Hey, Ryan!" you heard a voice as Ryan led you inside the building.
"Hi, Kayla," he smiled back at the girl standing with someone behind the front desk.
"You're Y/N, right?" she asked you, "You were the one he Skyped during a video we made last month?"
"That would be me," you grinned.
"Well, it's nice to finally meet you! Ryan's been talking about you all month."
"Thanks, Kayla," he murmured.
"Well, it's not like it was a secret, Ryan. You've been telling everyone she was coming to town since the moment she told you," she replied, making you laugh.
"So you've been telling your neighbors and your co-workers?" you smirked lightly, squeezing his hand.
"You know what? This isn't about me," he shook his head.
"It may not be about you now, but we're definitely going to be touching on this later," you snorted softly. You let go of his hand, hearing him let out a quiet whine in protest as you looked at both Kayla and the other girl sitting at the desk. "I have an interview with Joel Greengrass at 9," you said.
"You applied here?" Kayla asked with a wide grin.
"He thought he got rid of me 20 years ago," you said with a teasing tone, nudging Ryan with your hip.
"Well, I'd be happy to take you to his office!" She walked out from behind the desk and started to lead you away, but quickly froze when she realized Ryan was following. "You know, Ryan, I'm pretty sure you still have a couple videos to edit," she said coyly, "Maybe you should try to get one done before lunch." They both looked at each other for a moment before he caved.
"Don't you dare embarrass me," he said accusingly.
"He's right, you know," you told her, "He's never liked having anyone help him with things." Kayla laughed loudly while Ryan grabbed your hips and leaned down to whisper in your ear.
"Find my desk when you're done," he murmured before kissing your cheek and letting go of you, "Good luck." You shot him a sweet smile, going off with Kayla as Ryan watched you, thinking about how grateful he was you were back in his life.