ᴀ sᴜᴍᴍᴇʀ's ᴅᴀʏ - Nick Miller

ᴛʜᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴᴋsɢɪᴠɪɴɢ

"Nick!" Coach called, walking into the room. Nick looked up from his cereal with wide eyes. "We need to talk."

"Winston stays, end of discussion." Nick replied instantly.

"Nah, man. I got your Thanksgiving invitation." Coach replied, frowning. He threw the ripped slip of lined paper onto the counter in front of Nick, a scrawl in blue ballpoint pen listing the words:

Thanksgiving Feast

Nick and Cassy

Thursday, 8 PM

The Loft

"Did you make this?" Coach said, raising an eyebrow.

"Absolutely not." Nick replied. "Cassy made them."

"No, she didn't, because she has the doctor handwriting of a blind, armless lizard." Coach replied, pointing to a note Cassy had written for Nick and left on their fridge. He was right, it was completely illegible. Nick didn't even know what it said, he just figured he would suffer the consequences. "You guys are really serious, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Nick asked.

"Well, like, hosting stuff together, soon you'll be moving in together, we'll all have to come over to like Nick and Cassy's and then its like you're married, have kids, a gross old pool and a crusty dog named Bailey." Coach stated, as if it was common knowledge.

"What?" Nick asked, blanching.

"I don't know, you guys seem pretty serious is all I'm saying." Coach said, shrugging. Nick stared at the colourful cereal in his bowl, suddenly feeling nauseous. He liked Cassy. A lot. Like, a lot, a lot. But he wasn't ready for any of that. In no way. And if Cassy did, well... Coach stared at Nick before shrugging and retreating back into his room, leaving him to the crisis he was spiralling into.

-

"Nick, you want to go camping? For thanksgiving?" Cassy asked, looking up from her glass of wine. They were seated together, on her couch, legs intertwined, except Nick was sitting an odd distance away, trying to merge with the cushions.

"It might be a crazy Nick idea, but I kind of like it." He said with a shrug. 

"You told me you hated camping. And nature." She said, narrowing her eyes. "You said a fly was going to crawl into your head and learn all your thoughts."

"I am a man and men belong in the wilderness." He stated proudly. "It really means a lot, or whatever." Cassy raised an eyebrow.

"Well, as long as we're together, I don't care." She replied, smiling softly. She reached over to intertwine their fingers and Nick pulled back, brushing it through his hair. He tried to ignore the small look of hurt on her face.

Suddenly, Schmidt burst through the door, Winston hot on his heels. They both looked relatively upset and somewhat out of breath.

"You want us to go camping? What the hell?" Schmidt asked.

"Like we're animals?" Winston asked, scoffing.