❛ SUPERMARKET FLOWERS ♪ ❜ - z. herron

thirty-nine: seeing her?

As Nate and I walk into my dorm room, I place my keys on my desk and gesture for him to sit down on my bed. Isa hasn't been here in a while; her bed is untouched. I got back a few days ago, and now we have our long-awaited talk. I sigh, sinking down next to him.

"How have you been?" I ask.

"Good. Going back home was fun, seeing family. They miss you by the way." He says, sighing into our awkward small talk.

"I miss your family loads, especially Nia."

I mention his little sister because I really do miss her. She was a few years younger than Keag and loved to journal. We'd spend hours working on ours when Nate was working or wasn't home. Come to think of it, I used to spend so much time at his house, just spending it with his family.

"I was gonna go see her but you know..." I say, gesturing between us.

"Yeah about us. I want us to work again, I'll try harder, I'll do better." He speaks, grabbing my hand.

"I believe you." I squeeze. My heart tugs as I try to cover my emotions.

This feels nothing like Zach's hand in mine. I don't feel any sense of security, genuineness, anything.

He lets out a breath, "Can we talk about something else?"

"Yeah, of course." I say, looking down at our interlaced fingers.

"I don't like your friends. Emerson is cool now, I guess. But the boys, I don't feel comfortable."

I look up, shocked by his statement, "I get you being uncomfortable. But, Nate, you don't even know them. They all want to get to know you for me but you don't even give them the chance."

"Yeah, but, they are a famous boy band. They're sleezly, I know it. They have girls falling at their feet. Doesn't one of them even have a kid?"

"Daniel gets excited by apple juice." I say bluntly. "There's a video of Corbyn asking if this girl pretends to be a cabbage in her free time. Zach's afraid of elevators. Trust me, they aren't sleezly. Plus, Jack loves his daughter, talks about her so often it gives you a headache. You would know that if you had just hung out with them." I take a breath in, "If you want to try harder, come out with me and meet them."

"Kira, I don't know." he says, trying to pull away.

"Nate, please, for me." I say, pulling him closer.

"Fine." He says.

I exhale in relief. "Tomorrow. Jonah and I were gonna have a marvel movie marathon but I can convince all of them to come out for dinner." I smile.

"Isn't that soon? I don't know if we should meet that-"

"Nathan Anderson."

"Okay, Okay. Tomorrow works just fine." He checks his phone, "But I do have to go. Send me the address and I'll meet you there." He kisses me, getting up.

"We're okay?" I say, kissing him back.

"We're okay." He squeezes my face, walking out of my dorm.

Time to go convince the boys.

*

I waste no time driving over to Zach's. As I open the door with my spare key, I start raving. "Hi, okay so guess what?" I stay, stepping in, but immediately turn around to close and lock the door. "Em, me, you and the boys. Tomorrow night, we are having movie night right? But I think that we should bring na.." I turn around to see someone on the couch. A petite blonde with intense winged eyeliner is sitting there stunned.