All I Ever Asked (N.N.)

21. why

(unedited)
POV: IRIS EVANS

Day 4 in Spain. I'm feeling better. Trev and I went to a party we heard down the street last night and I ended up meeting a ton of new people. Mia Araya, Flora Garza, and Levi Marciel. They are all locals. I was honestly very nervous around them because they are such attractive people and I feel like I just don't fit in with them. They seem to like me tho since they've been texting me all morning.

"Iris, someone is here for you." I hear Nick yell from the door. Oh ya, Nick. We have been... well, awkward.

"Mia, hey..." I walk closer to the door. This is unexpected.

"Hey, you ready?" She smiles widely. Excuse me?

"Ready for what?" I question. I obviously have no idea what the fuck she's talking about.

"You're coming to the beach with Flo, Levi, and me." She looks like she's confused. I must have been pretty wasted last night if I gave her the address of the place i'm staying and agreeing to go to the beach. "You should bring the guy that answered the door too."

"Nick?" I furrow my eyebrows. Why Nick?

"Yeah. And you can bring that younger brother you were talking about." She grins. I'd feel kind of weird bringing Nick but it is what it is.

"Sure. Just give me a sec. You can come in." I open the door all the way ti let her in. I quickly rush over to the kitchen where Nick and Connor are talking. "You guys want to come to the beach?"

"Sure." Connor walks off to our room, probably to change into swim trunks.

"With who?" Nick questions. I find myself staring at him for a bit longer than I should have.

"Uhm, Mia and some other people I met."

"The girl at the door? Sure, I'll come." I feel a knot in my stomach as those words slip Nicks mouth. That well known feeling of jealousy.

POV: NICK NELSON

"God you are such a stubborn bitch." Connor rolls his eyes at his sister.

"Are they always like this?" Mia whispers to me.

"All the time." I shake my head and she giggles. Mia seems cool and it's nice that Iris is being social. When I look back over at Iris and Connor I see that Connor has ran off into the water with some other people we met while Iris sits on the beach watching. She's a watcher, and I love watching her watch.

"Iris!" Mia runs over to Iris, noticing she's sitting alone.

"Are you two dating?" Mia's friend, Levi queried. Is the tension that obvious?

"No. Just friends." I laugh awkwardly.

"Yeah, sure. So you'd be okay with me hooking up with her?" He gives an innocent smile. What the fuck? Why would any man just want to hook up with her? She's worth so much more than that. I can feel the anger starting to build up on my face. "Calm down dude, it was a joke. I have a girlfriend." He points to a girl I got told is Flora. "And now it's clear to me you guys are more than just friends."

"It's not like that." I come to my own defence.

"Whatever you want to convince yourself." He teases.

"Guys come on!" Mia yells. It seems as if she has convince Iris to go into the water. I quickly remove my shirt and run in after them with Levi following behind me.

"You're it." Connor pushes me and runs away.  Everyone tries to get as far away from me as possible. Iris is actually smiling. I missed this Iris. I run over to her by instinct. I reach for her waist to catch her since she's very hard to tag. The moment my arms around her torso and he body is pressed against mine I feel an odd sense of comfort that is interrupted when she slips away to go tag Connor. I can't live like this anymore. I need to tell her.   

POV: IRIS EVANS

"Thanks for inviting us." I grin at Mia. The sun just set and street lamps by the beach are the only thing keeping the dark away.

"We should hang out again soon." She pulls me in for a quick hug. "Bye."

"Bye!" I wave as Connor, Nick, and I walk back to the house.

"I'll race you!" Connor starts to sprint off. I literally could not care less, i'm not fucking running. I'm sure Nick is thinking the same thing because he just keeps walking beside me.

"Your new friends are pretty cool." He break the awkward silence between us.

"Yeah. They seem to like you." I try to force a smile. It seem that I can't smile around him knowing what I did to him. I don't deserve to be treated kindly by him. He is such a kind person and I just let him go.

"I think we could have made it work." He takes me by surprise. Such a random time to bring my biggest regret up, right?

"What do you mean?" I act confused, knowing damn well what he's talking about.

"Us. I think if we just gave it some time it could have been perfect." He doesn't make eye contact with me. He's obviously nervous.

"Nick, no relationship is perfect." I try to make his eyes find mine. I just want into look at me. I want him to look at me the way her used to, to touch me the way he used to, to talk to me the way he used to.

"I thought ours was perfect, even with the obvious imperfection." He finally looks into my eyes and it feels like falling in love all over again.

"What are you trying to say?" I furrow my eyebrows.

"I'm saying that i'm not over us." He stutters out.

"Nick, I broke your heart." I look away from him, feeling the embarrassment in my stomach.

"Yeah, you're right." Nick bites him lip as we walk up to the front of the house. "It was stupid of me to even say anything. Goodnight, Iris." He rushes inside leaving me outside with my gut wrenching feeling.