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John and Blyke had been getting closer recently. While John would NEVER admit it out loud, he was actually enjoying having another friend. Of course, Sera’s great! But she's got a lot of stuff to deal with, and she can't hang out with him as much anymore.
Luckily for him, Blyke had been a bit more conversational recently, and John actually responded with genuine answers instead of dismissing him like he used to!
Eventually, they started becoming closer, to the point of even hanging out with each other. Like right now!
Currently, Blyke and John were sitting on Blyke's bed and talking about whatever came to mind. Whether it be people, the safe house, teachers, grades, etc. Conversations came naturally to them, which was pretty impressive considering John’s social constipation.
"Have you studied for the test this week? Like, at all?" Blyke questioned, cocking his head to the side.
"At this point? I don't think ANYTHING can save my Math grade." John responded, staring at his wall.
"That's not an answer."
"That's all you're getting."
Blyke let out a huff of laughter, before turning to stare at the wall as well. He had taken off the sweater that he was wearing, and was now in a white t-shirt and a pair of grey sweatpants. They sat in a comfortable silence before Blyke stood up ramrod straight in panic, and whipped around to look at John.
"What time is it?" Blyke asked urgently.
John looked at his phone. "Uhh... it's about 5:30. Why?"
"Shit! I have homework I need to hand in before 6!" He shot up off the bed, forgoing his sweater, and raced out of the room. John heard the door to their dorm slam shut. John was now alone.
John let out a sigh, and collapsed onto his blankets. He was used to being alone, but lately he found himself enjoying it less and less. It was something about being around other people, joking with them and laughing with them. He liked it. To be fair, most people do like being around others and messing around, but to John this was still fairly new territory. He was doing better though. He was getting better. And that's all that he can ask for right now.
John stared up at his ceiling, kind of bored. He ended up pulling out his phone to play some music. Maybe a love song. He had been listening to them more and more lately. He pretended that he didn't know why he had a sudden obsession with love songs recently. Just like how he ignored the fuzzy feeling in his chest whenever he and Blyke would brush shoulders or hands when walking side by side.
But alas, his phone was at 3%, so he went to charge it instead.
He plugged his phone in and put it down on his desk. He turned to sit back on his bed, when he noticed that Blyke's phone had slid out of the sweater pocket at some point. John knew that going through someone's phone is generally a bad idea, but John was curious what Blyke's spotify looked like.
So he picked up Blyke's phone and got to the lock screen. The background picture was a photo of him, Isen, and Remi. It looks like Isen had stolen Blyke's phone in order to take the picture. It was kind of cute.
John swiped up and was met with a message saying he needed either a fingerprint or a code. Shit, he hadn't thought this far. The code was four numbers, so he created a list in his mind of important numbers to Blyke. He then decided to just put in Blyke's birthday. Surprisingly enough, it worked!
"Jesus, he needs a better password." John mumbled, getting to the homescreen.
To John's surprise, the background picture was... well, John! Blyke must have snuck a picture of him when John dragged him to the Boba place that John loved so much. In the picture, John had the straw in his mouth and was looking out the window to his right, a beam of sunlight illuminating his hair.
John stared at the photo of himself, before quickly going into Spotify. He went over to Blyke's playlists, and then went to the settings to order them from A - Z, because that's just how he liked to look at things. To his surprise, Blyke had made a playlist of almost everyone he knew! There was a playlist for Remi, Isen, even Arlo! And there was one for John too.
John's curiosity was piqued. He couldn't just close the app without at least seeing what his own playlist was compiled of. He took his earbuds out of his pocket, put them in, and hit shuffle play.
The first song that played was Lemon Boy, by Cavetown. John was a bit confused as to why this was in a playlist about him, but after listening to the lyrics he began to understand it a bit more. He knew that the song was originally about anxiety, but a lot of people liked to interpret it in different ways. Blyke must have thought of it as, like, a best friend song.
The second song that played was Heather, by Conan Gray. Interesting choice. John couldn't really understand why that song was in here. It's a lovely song, he won't deny that. But the song is about loving someone who loves someone else. There’s not much room for interpretation there. Blyke might have just put it in the playlist by accident and not noticed. As he listened to the song, he noticed that there was a slight chill in his room.
The third song playing was Sweater Weather. This song was another strange choice, but it also reminded John of Blyke’s sweater, which was still on the bed. He decided to put it on. Blyke wouldn’t mind. John’ll just take it off once Blyke gets back. The sweater was really warm.
The fourth song that played was Would You Be So Kind. By Dodie. Why were there so many songs in this playlist?
John spent the next 20 minutes like that. Listening to various love songs on Blyke's phone while wearing Blyke's sweater. Some of the songs were sad, and some of them were hopeful. And through the tender melodies, John felt a touch of happiness in his heart. To know that someone felt this way about him made him feel prideful in general. But the fact that it's Blyke that created this playlist. Blyke who related to these songs. Blyke who liked him back. That made the fuzzy feeling return to his chest 10 times over.
Blyke eventually got back to the dorms almost at around 6:45. He had thankfully run fast enough to get to his teachers office and hand in his homework on time. However, on his way back he got caught in a conversation with Isen and Remi, who had wanted to chat with him about the Safe House. As much as he had wanted to leave, he knew that the safe house was important.
Soon the conversation had come to a close, and Blyke continued his walk back to his dorm. When he opened the door to John's room he saw John curled up on his bed with his earbuds.
"Is that my sweater?" Blyke asked, eyeing the familiar piece of clothing that was around John's shoulders. And then he looked closer at what John was smiling at.
"IS THAT MY PHONE?!?" Blyke lurched forward and tried to grab it from John. John managed to hold the phone out of reach, and looked at Blyke with a dumb grin on his face.
"...what do you know..." Blyke whispered, fear present in his expression.
John turned the phone to Blyke so that he could see what John was listening to. It was the song Line Without a Hook, from his playlist that he made for John.
"Oh my God..." He muttered, absolutely mortified.
"You should really change your password. I got it right on the first try." John said, taking the earbud out of his left ear.
Blyke put his face in his palms and groaned into his hands.
"These are some pretty good song choices by the way. Although I do have to question Strawberry Blonde. You realize I’m not blonde, right?"
"Shut upppp." Blyke grumbled.
"Talking to the Moon, Love Like You, Can't Help Falling in Love, The Bro Duet-"
"OKAY. I GET IT. YOU CAN STOP NOW" Blyke yelled, face almost as red as his hair.
John giggled in response, a lovely pink dusting his cheeks as he scrolled through the list of songs, analyzing each and every one. There was about 18 hours of music on the playlist.
"Give me back my phone." Blyke demanded, reaching out to try and grab it.
"Only if you send me this playlist." John said back, holding the phone out of reach.
"In fact..." John trailed off as he quickly sent the playlist to himself as Blyke lurched forward again.
"HEY!" Blyke exclaimed, managing to grab his phone this time.
John laughed maniacally as he rolled off the bed and grabbed his own phone to look at the playlist that he just sent to himself.
"I hate you..." Blyke grumbled as he walked out of the room, "Wait a second, give me back my sweater!"
John shut the door in Blyke's face. Blyke could hear soft laughter from on the other side of the door.
Blyke was, for lack of better words, really fucking embarrassed. Nobody on this earth was supposed to see ANY of those playlists. And the fact that John, the boy that Blyke has a crush on, was the one that saw these playlists made it even worse.
Blyke went into his own room and collapsed into his bed in a heap of embarrassment. After a while of basking in his own despair, he heard the 'ping' of a notification going through his phone.
He looked at the notification and saw that John had sent him a link.
Hesitantly, he clicked the link, and went to a Spotify playlist labeled Blyke <3.
Blyke looked at some of the songs on the playlist. They were all love songs. Happy ones. All of them. Less than 5 minutes later, there was a knock on his door. He opened it up to see John standing in front of his room, grinning.
That night Blyke fell asleep with a smile on his face, and a black haired boy in his arms.