Honey and Spice | ✔️

Chapter 19

Ryder

I twirl Nathan's ginger hair in my fingers while he lies in my lap reading a book. Nathan is so beautiful, I keep forgetting that he's real. His beautiful doe eyes, his cute button nose, his soft, dark orange hair, his perfectly kissable lips. . .

"You're so beautiful," I say and Nathan looks up from his book.

He smiles shyly and sits up. I take his hand and kiss the back of it while watching a blush bloom on his pale freckled cheeks. I sit closer to him and wrap my arms around his waist.

I kiss the top of his nose. "How did I get so lucky to have you?"

He smiles and leans his forehead against mine. "I think I'm the lucky one here," he says.

I laugh softly. "I think we're both lucky," I say and I cup his face.

I lower my lips to his and feel his soft, soft lips on mine and I instantly melt on the spot. He wraps his fingers around the back of my neck, pulling me closer to him. Man, this feels so good.

It feels so good to have Nathan.

I run my fingers through his hair as his thumb traces my jawline.

"I'm so glad to have you," I say and I can feel Nathan's lips form into a smile.

"Ryder. . . Ryder. . . Ryder. . . RYDER!!!!"

I jolt up and my forehead comes in contact with something hard.

"Ow, shit. My forehead," I groan, falling back on my bed.

"Sorry, bro."

Huh? I open my eyes and look around. A familiar figure looks back at me from the foot of my bed, rubbing his forehead too.

"Nick, what the fuck?" I squint at him, confused.

Nick starts to say something but then I hear someone else say, "Mae in the house!"

And Mae enters my room. She looks around my room like a museum curator, nodding her head approvingly at my band posters.

I think this is part of my dream - a really weird part of it. But my forehead hurts from the contact with possibly-dream-Nick's forehead, so I'm second-guessing everything. (My nightmares are worse than this anyways.)

But the dream just now. . . it felt so real too, and I actually felt his soft lips on mine. I sigh inwardly. I really am hopeless.

Then Mae reaches out to touch my autographed Metallica poster. (Well, it's actually Aunt Cam’s, but she gave it to me for my 14th birthday.)

I sit up now, letting my blanket fall. “Hey!” I growl. "Keep your hands off that.”

"Oh," she replies, then looks at me instead. "That's one toned-ass body," she states, changing the subject.

I grumble again and show her the finger. “Fuck you, dude.”

“No hetero, bro.” She laughs and waves me off.

"How did you guys get in here?" I ask sleepily.

Nick shrugs. "Spare key under the mat."

"Then why are you guys here? It's, like, 1 pm on a Saturday," I say, checking my phone for the time.

"We're going on a field trip to the mall!" Mae says excitedly.

I lie back down, pulling my blanket over my head. "Woah, we're halfway there," I sing as off-key as I can, "Woah-oh! I don't fucking ca-are!"