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#WILLEX WHOOOO
reggies-eyeliner · 4 years
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Breathe - (Platonic) Alex x stressed out!reader
Summary: (Female Reader, but feel free to request for any and every other gender!) Y/N feels more stressed than usual, trying to balance home life and school life, and her coping skills aren’t going very... well. She gets a little help from a special someone who guides her and helps her live in the present moment.
Warnings: Anxiety, stress, school, cursing, what more can I say? Also the gays because Willie and Alex own my heart lmao
Word count: 1.9k
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Requested: Yes! By anon :)
~
Whenever Y/N tried to get an assignment done, it went a little something like this: first she tried to get everything done by creating a small basis of a tool list. She was still feeling bloated, tired, hot, and sticky, but she went with it and continued to waste 10 minutes on making her to-do list aesthetically pleasing. After that, she thought, “Hmm... maybe I do want to take a break,” but she doesn’t anyway, so Y/N gets out her assignments, lays them all out, and just as she’s about to get started: hey, I wonder how many people can relate to me on xyz, and then she’d get distracted on social media.
Y/N would spend an entire 40 minutes on her phone before she remembers, “MY ASSIGNMENT IS DUE,” so she flips it back out, gets started, but can’t seem to get that guilty feeling of not doing her work out of her head, so she slightly uses that as an excuse to take a break. Only, she don’t take a break and end up rolling out of her chair and going on her phone again, and she still feel just as (or even more) exhausted. Then that’s when the guilt really starts seeping in, and Y/N realizes that she has another extra-curricular class so she gets ready for that, but by the time she’s done, there’s only 30 minutes before the due date-- so she start crying and gives up.
And that’s just a short summary of it.
It was dawning the last few weeks of exam months, and Y/N had been cramming all of her assignments over and over again, constantly getting burnt out and not moving up from her seat, even though she wanted to. It was as if she was glued to her chair, unable to move and constantly on the go at the same time. The stress of having to deal with so many things at once was one of the most overwhelming things that she’s ever had to experience, even though she knows those feelings come-and-go at times--- but this, this was so much worse than what she ever thought. And she believed that she was in literal hell.
There was a constant feeling of “I need to do this, I need to do that,” but it wasn’t that she didn’t want to do it-- it was that she physically couldn’t. Y/N knew that she couldn’t blame her brain for not doing the assignments, but sometimes, she felt like she had to. All the time. The constant feeling of overwhelming stress finally got to her when she opened up her classroom page to find yet another technical issue and the entire page crashed, leaving her with a due date within 10 minutes. It was currently a quarter before midnight, and she had been living on caffeine pills and sugar for the past week or so.
“𝟓𝟎𝟐 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐲.”
The assignment was due in less than 20 minutes, and now everything was going wrong. Great.
If I had only not gone on my phone... why did I go on my phone for so long? I should have just stayed put, I can’t believe myself, what am I even doing? This isn’t fair, this isn’t far, but is it fair? I did deserve this, but-- I also feel like I don’t, I worked so hard to get here, but what if I lose it? What will everyone think? No, no, this can’t be happening. I fucked up again. Oh no. No. No.
The thoughts came in like a raging, wild waterfall that was out of control and poured out, overflowing in her brain that pooled her thoughts, with tears that eventually spilled over. In the dorms nearby, Y/N could hear Reggie snoring sound-asleep in this room. Everyone in the band was still asleep like nothing was wrong, and overall, it just... wasn’t fair. How come they were sleeping? Why did they get all of that rest, while you were stuck on this stupid assignment that literally meant nothing to you-?
In frustration, Y/N suddenly wasn’t sure how she was supposed to react. She felt like she couldn’t cry-- more like she wasn’t allowed to cry. Her problems weren’t as bad as other peoples’, so why on Earth was she stressing out? It wasn’t her issue, why was everything always going wrong for her? No matter what she ever did, she always seemed to lose. Y/N pulled her hair and threw the nearest thing onto the floor in the darkness of teh night, when she heard a high-pitched echo from the sound, when she realized she had just smashed her laptop onto the tiled floor.
“Shit-” Y/N cursed under her breath and instantly ran over, her entire body and hands trembling over the cracked screen. In hopes of some sort of miracle, she turned the power button on, because maybe, just maybe it could turn on.
One second.
Two seconds.
Three seconds.
Nothing happened, nothing turned on, and in that moment, Y/N wanted to scream. She wanted to scream because she had so much pent-up frustration and anger, she wanted to scream because no one ever seemed to check in on her, she wanted to scream because she had worked so hard to try her best but every single time nothing ever went well for her. Her head was pounding and her eyes felt like they were being weighed down by boulders.
But she took a deep breath and staggered over to her desk to turn on the lights, and-- wait, why was everything spinning? That’s weird, that’s never happened in the room before. Why is that moon upside-down? What’s going on...
~
“Y/N!” a loudly-whispered voice rang.
Y/N groaned, mumbling under her breath and rolled over. Everything sounded like she was underwater, a weird, gurgling sound. Y/N assumed she was dreaming, so she pulled her hoodie over her head and slumped back.
“Y/N,” the voice exclaimed in a hushed tone.
Another mumble. Couldn’t that voice tell that she was trying to sleep?
“Hey, hey, wake up,” the voice continued. Y/N didn’t respond and groaned slightly. “Y/N?” a little... gentler this time? A softer tone? Who...
Suddenly, nothing sounded weird and the low hum of the heaters powered back on as Y/N tried her best to open an eye. She could tell by the faint smell of rain and cinnamon that she was still in her dorm, but who was there? They sounded gentle, sweeter, more... cautious?
“Hey, Y/N, you awake?”
She rubbed her eyes. “Al-” Y/N choked, launching into a coughing fit. “Alex?”
He laughed slightly. “That’s right. Good to know you’re brain is working,”
Working? Brain? Good?
Oh shit.
Y/N immediately stood up, staggering from moving so quickly and mumbled, “I-I need to finish my assignment, it’s almost, it’s almost done-”
“Woah, woah, slow down, y-you need to get some air,” Alex said, hoisting her by the shoulders with his hands.
“I don’ need air, I needa ‘inish the assignment, it’s due in-” she slurred, but turned into a panicked gasp when she whipped around, asking, “Alex, what time is it?”
“Y/N,” he said gently. “that’s not important, you just passed out, you need-”
“No, no, no, no!” she said, mumbling slightly. “Is-- is my laptop still working? Is it still-”
“Hey, I need you to breathe-”
“Alex, can’t you see that I can’t? I have so many things to do, and they’re all due so soon-- if I don’t ace this, if I can’t finish this music piece and somehow get all this shitty math stuff correct, I need to work hard. I need to be productive. I-”
Alex’s face suddenly softened and he nodded, letting her speak more.
“I also really, really need to get this done! If I don’t get it done, I can’t pass this class with you guys, which means that I can’t get a decent degree, and I also can’t do anything without the constant guilt that you guys moved on without me! I want to, I want to relax, I want to breathe, I want to just stay in someone’s arms forever and they’ll tell me that I’ll be fine-”
In those seconds, in-between her times of rambling, Y/N barely noticed that Alex had pulled her outside to the rooftop (which wasn’t very high) and wrapped his arms around, pulling her into the softest hug.
She stopped mid ramble. “Wh-what... what are you doing?” she choked.
“It’s going to be okay,” Alex said slowly, almost as if he were testing the words out.
“S-say... say that-t... again,” Y/N trembled.
“It’s going to be okay. I need you to breathe, is that alright with you?”
It was almost as if Alex had become an entirely different person as he slowly let go of her, then he grabbed onto her shoulders and said, “breathe with me.”
“Inhale,”
1…
2…
3…
“Hold for four seconds,”
1…
2…
3…
4…
“Exhale for five,”
1…
2…
3…
4…
5…
Y/N breathed in and out as they both continued to do that for what seemed like 10 times. Alex also seemed like someone new, not the same out-of-sort and confused guy, but he didn’t seem like a teacher either… like an older brother, someone who guided her no matter what.
“Where… who taught you that method?” Y/N asked, trying to stop her voice from trembling.
Alex immediately broke into a smile so wide that he had smile lines as he stared up into the sky. “Willie taught me,”
Y/N slightly smiled. “He did, huh?”
“Yeah, he’s… he’s pretty beautiful,” he continued to nod with that same old dorky expression.
“Beautiful, huh?” she said, trying to match his tone.
“I mean-- uh, pretty good. At that.” Almost instantly, Alex flushed and changed the topic. “A-are… are you feeling better now?”
“Definitely a lot better than before, but... how did you know you had to do that?”
“W-well, when I saw you rambling, I saw myself, so...” Alex shrugged slightly, his eyes undoubtedly playing along the slightest bit. “And since I never really... well, had parents to comfort me while growing up, and Willie was the first to help me, I assumed that you’d might need some help, too.”
Y/N couldn’t believe her ears. How could there be such a sweet, loving, kind and gentle person right in front of her? His smile was genuine as he nodded slowly again.
Y/N grinned gratefully, shifting her weight from toe-to-toe. “Thank you so, so much, but I- I’m just a bit stressed about my laptop, and…”
“Hey, hey, hey,” Alex stopped her before she could continue. “Don’t get caught up in your thoughts (he learned this quote from Willie), just take another deep breath and your head will be clearer. It’ll-- It’ll sort things out. Listen, we can always go to the counselor, she’s on her night shift right now. We can see if we’re allowed to borrow the school’s laptop for now, how does that sound?”
“I…” you nodded. “Thank you… so much, Alex.”
He turned his head and smiled back. “You never have to thank me for anything,” he turned his heel and waved. “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up!”
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