Rock, Paper, Scissors

32: He has a girlfriend!?

Back at home, we went on with our normal life, or, I should say, our new normal life. Since becoming friends with Nick and Tyler things have changed. I found myself wanting to go out and hang with them even though I've always been more of a homebody, but I found a new amusement in school parties and lunches with friends. I could tell that my parents were starting to worry about me and thinking that they may have given me too much freedom, but at the same time, they were happy to see me being a "normal" teenager. So, despite being torn, they let me enjoy myself as long I kept up my grades. I couldn't ask for more.

Our group had a regular schedule now: having lunch together at school, hanging out together after school on Tuesdays and Fridays, tutoring with Nick two times a week, and, if we didn't have exams or if Nick didn't visit his grandmother, we would go to the occasional parties thrown by some of the popular kids at school. I was so distracted by my "new" way of life that I almost forgot about my therapy session once.

"Shoot!" I blurted when I saw the time. I sprung up and picked up my bag. We were hanging at Nick's house, as usual, playing games, being distracted, so distracted that I completely forgot I had issues to solve. I haven't thought of that day since my last session. Part of me was happy, it felt that maybe therapy was working, while another part was making me feel guilty. Guilty that I was forgetting what happened, that I was forgetting him, and my fault in what had happened.

"What's wrong?" Noah asked.

"I have the–" I stopped as soon as I realized the words that were about to come out of my mouth. I've kept this secret for so long, only to almost blurt it out like this, as if it was nothing as if it hadn't haunted me for years. This was all Nick's fault; it started the day he took me to the rooftop, and I told him everything. I let my guard down since then. I lost my words, I was late, embarrassed so I only told them, "I have to go."

"I'll drive you there," Nick offered, and without another word, we left the house. I got in the car thinking about the thousand questions they must have, clenching and unclenching my fists as I wondered how I would answer them.

Nick grabbed my fist, his eyes never leaving the road. "Don't worry, you don't have to explain anything if you don't want to."

"That would be hypocritical of me..."

"Everyone has secrets. I'll just tell them you had to go visit some family or something. Don't worry." I nodded. He was right, I didn't have to admit to anything, not like that. I would tell them though, I had to when the time is right. And just like that, whether it was Nick's words or his soothing touch, I felt all of the tension leave my body.

I didn't realize he knew exactly where to take me, without having to give him directions, until we reached the clinic. I almost asked him how he knew and for how long, but I was already late, so I just thanked him and left the car.

The next day I was nervous to see my friends, worried about their questions, but they didn't even mention it. Nick had sold them a good lie and I silently thanked him for that.

While waiting for the teacher to come for our history class, I scribbled the first question I had on a piece of paper and slid it on Nick's table. He read it and let out a sigh, so I looked at him with an apologetic smile. He got up from his seat, grabbed his things, put them on the free side of my table, and sat on the free spot next to me. My heart flip-flopped at the gesture, not out of fear as it would have months ago, but for something else, I couldn't explain. I guess we were sharing a desk now.

He flipped his notebook to an empty page and wrote on it. He said that when he first saw me on that street, that day we had ice cream, he didn't connect the dots, but he thought something was up since I was so keen on hanging out with him. While he was eating his sad scoop of vanilla, he thought about it, but only realized what I was doing on that street after our talk on the rooftop. He never mentioned it because he thought that if I wanted to talk about it I would. Once again, I found Nick being considerate.

"Thank you," I wrote on the corner of the page, followed by a smiley face. Throughout the rest of the class, we kept talking through words scribbled on our notebooks. He sarcastically complimented one of my doodles, saying it was a great piece of abstract art. In response, I doodled a bunch of flowers and stars on his notebook, followed by a manga-style angry face. He let out a deep, low laugh, and took his pencil to draw what I guessed to be a boy and a girl smiling together. Apparently, there was something he wasn't good at. I knew he couldn't be perfect, nevertheless, that awful drawing made me feel more than the most exquisite form of art I've seen, and I couldn't help but smile.

A few days later we decided to spend the afternoon watching movies. Nick had a huge screen in his house so there was no doubt when we chose the place to do it. However, since it was a spur-of-the-moment type of thing, we only realized we didn't have snacks after we were at his house, and who says movies says snacks. There's no way around it. So, we left Nick in charge of choosing a movie while we went to a haunt for unhealthy food.

I, of course, had a very strong need for ice cream, so I forced the guys to accept my request, and added some to the basket. We ended up with much more food than we needed.

We went back to Nick's house, only to find the living room empty. "You had one job man!" Tyler said out loud when he realized Nick had failed his mission.

"I'm going to get him," I said while the boys were trying to decide which movie to play. I went up the stairs, knowing that he was probably in his room, brooding since he couldn't go see his grandmother that weekend as he wanted to.

"Hey Nick, we're back with the food. Tyler's not happy with you," I said as I burst into his room.

I stopped. Still holding the doorknob, frozen, as I saw Nick holding a girl in his arms, dearly. They both pulled apart swiftly, as if they had been caught up doing something they shouldn't be, and looked at me, lips parted in surprise.

"I'm so sorry!" I exclaimed as my cheeks burned. "I didn't mean to disturb you. I should really stop barging in people's rooms like that, I'm really sorry, I'll just leave, please proceed," I babbled and quickly left the room closing the door behind me.

I leaned my back on the door, still holding its knob with both my ends, and let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding. After recomposing myself, I swiftly went back to the living room.

"Please proceed?!" What the hell was wrong with me? Who says that? I'm such an embarrassment for the human species. Was that his girlfriend? He never mentioned anyone or being in a relationship before, but then again, he's extremely reserved. And she was so pretty with her luscious dark hair and green eyes... no wonder he would fall for her, even when he could have any of the girls I've seen flirting with him. She was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen.

"Hey guys, I think Nick is busy, huh, maybe we should go," I said when I got to the others.

"Busy with what?" Tyler asked, slightly annoyed.

"There was a girl in his bedroom," I said in a shy voice, knowing very well my cheeks rosed up.

"What?! That's my boy!" Tyler sounded like a proud father. "Unexpected sure, but still happy for my man. Well then, I'm not staying in the way of that and I guess you won't either. Want to go to my place?"

We all agreed to it, we didn't even stop to think. The guys grabbed the food and I wrote a note to let Nick know about our change of plans. At that moment I was really glad I had a bunch of ice cream to eat, I was going to need it.