chris sturniolo imagines!!

anxiety

in which chris calms you down

me bc my anxiety is worse than it's ever been before 😜
___

you shake your hands agressively, trying to get this horrible feeling to go away. no matter how much you breathe or how many times you close your eyes, you still feel like you're drowning.

you were currently sitting in the bathroom of some random middle-of-nowhere restaurant chris had begged you to go to. him, his brothers, and all their friends were having a little get-together to eat lunch. you didn't want to go, you had too much school work to take care of. but chris begged, and you being the pathological people pleaser you are, you gave in. but all the people talking at once was stressing you out, and thinking about the unfinished pile of work sitting at home stressed you out even more.

you were thinking about asking matt to drop you off back at home, but the three of them were having such a good time, you couldn't bring yourself to disrupt that.

so that's why you're sat in the bathroom, suffering in silence. well, what you thought was silence. madi had heard your uneven breaths when she went to check on you. she immediately recognized what was happening, and went to get chris.

she tried to alert him in a casual manner, so everyone else at the table would ignore them and not worry. but chris loved you too much, he automatically got that look on his face when he's worried. he thanked madi, got up quickly and rushed over to the single-stalled bathroom you were locked in. he knocked on the door gently, making sure to let you know it was him.

"hey sweetheart, it's me. are you alright?"

your hands stopped their flapping and you stood still, hoping that maybe you were just hearing things. you absolutely hated when chris saw you like this. it made you feel weak, like you can't do anything without him. but you let out a breath when you heard the knock once more.

chris feels the lock click under his hand and he pushes the door open slowly. he sees you sitting on the closed toilet lid, your eyes heavy, and your cuticles bleeding.

against all better judgment, he crouches down on the floor of the bathroom in front of you. "what happened?" his voice lowers a bit. "is it all the people?"

you shake your head and take a deep breath. "i don't know. theres just so much happening right now and it's making me nervous."

he nods. "can i touch you?"

you nod once, and he takes your hands in his. "remember what matt told you? 'don't stress about the things you can't control.' tell me what's upsetting you, and we can come up with a plan. sound good?"

"yeah. okay- um.. i don't know where to start." you chuckle nervously, and chris smiles warmly at your antics.

"that's okay. tell me why you ran off to the bathroom in the first place. start there for me."

"well, everybody was having different conversations with everybody else. there was too much talking and i wasn't really in any of the conversations so all the words were just filling my brain. way too much. and i have that paper due in three days but i'm nowhere near done with it, so i guess i'm worried about that too. and i didn't get any sleep last night so everything is elevated by, like, five." you rant, chris nodding along the way.

"that's a good first step, voicing the issues. when we get back to the table, i'll try and start a conversation with you directly. or if you want to just go home, i'll gladly call and uber and go home with you. and for the work, you're right where you need to be. you're golden, baby! you're perfectly caught up, you're right on track." he says, and you nod your head. "do you want to go home?"

you look down and nod your head. "yeah. i'm really sorry." you say guilty.

"hey, don't apologize. let's go, i'll call an uber for the both of us." he promises, taking both your hands and pulling you up and into a hug.

"i love you so much." you say into his shoulder. you pull away from the hug and turn to the mirror, fixing the mascara under your eyes.

"i love you more. now let's go." he orders an uber on his phone quickly and walks back out to the table with his hand on the small of your back.

"there you guys are! what were you two doing in that bathroom? actually you know what- don't answer that. i really don't want to know." nick says, putting his hands up in surrender.

"shut up, jackass. y/n is sick, im taking her home. i called an uber. matt, cover our food and i'll pay you back." chris says, keeping his hand on your back. madi glances at chris, but he softly shakes his head telling her not to worry about it.

"oh, okay. feel better, babe!" nick calls out, the rest of the table saying something along those lines.

"thank you guys." you say quietly, you and chris walking out of the restaurant and into the uber. he sits in the back with you, his hand resting on your knee the whole time.

the ride was short, no longer than 6 or 7 minutes. you didn't say a word, and neither did chris or the driver. the only sound filling the car was the radio playing late 2000s hits through the speakers.

"this is it right here." chris says, and the driver pulls over so you both can get out. chris pays the driver before thanking him and watching him drive off. you and chris both enter your house, kicking off your shoes and placing them along the wall on the rack. you two stay silent until you arrive in the bedroom.

"thank you for coming home with me. you know how i get. im sorry i ruined the night." you say quietly, plugging in your phone on your bedside table and getting under the covers.

"listen to me honey, you didn't ruin anything. it's perfectly normal to get overwhelmed like that. i'm so proud of you for talking to me, it's not easy to do that. now, we have a couple hours before matt and nick come back home. do you want to watch a movie or something?" chris says, holding your face in his hands.

"i love you so much. i hope you know that." you kiss him quickly. "and yes, let's watch the live action little mermaid, it's on disney+ now!"

he laughs lightly and kisses you back. "i love you so much more than you could ever know. and im so down, scuttlebutt went so hard."

you nod in agreement as chris turns on the tv. he moves his arm so you can lay across his chest. you do just that and curl up to him gratefully.

neither of you wanted to, but you both ended up falling asleep.

but not before watching the scuttlebutt, of course.
___
a/n- it's chrissssssyyyyyyyyy

GUTS GOES SO FUCKING HARD IM SHITTING

the grudge and ballad of a homeschooled girl are mine respectfully

but i'm actually dying it's been on repeat for the past two days i'm not kidding i haven't listened to anything else

i hope you enjoyed this one

xx
chrissy