Leviticus: Return back home

Ch.23: Two cokes and no pizza

《RIVEN’S POV》

After they had agreed to meet up on Tuesday, they had barely talked. And Riven would have honestly preferred if they hadn’t at all, because everytime Nick had said anything to him he had said something hurtful.

Still, Riven stayed positive. He knew they would clear everything up today. 

“Hey, Nick.” He opened the door to the guy. 
Nick walked past him, not even addressing him. A great start, truly. 

“So, do you want anything to drink?” He asked. 
“A coke.” Nick said, as he sat down on the couch, his arms crossed. 

Riven nodded and walked into the kitchen to get both himself and Nick a glass of coke. He dropped some ice cubes in there and walked back to the living room. He took a deep breath before walking up to Nick and putting the glass down on the table in front of him.

 “I know you probably had dinner already, but tell me if you want pizza, I can order some.” Riven said, while sitting down beside Nick. 

Nick frowned, nothing about his expression showing even an ounce of kindness towards Riven. “I thought we were going to talk.” 

“Yes, of course, we are.” Riven said. He knew he was stalling a bit, but he felt nervous. 
He sighed. “I think this is just a big misunderstanding.” 

“I don’t think it is.” Nick disagreed. “I think this is me finally realizing something I should have known a long time ago.” 

Riven felt himself getting frustrated a bit. Nick just needed to listen, and then he would understand. But he also knew Nick lost some of his trust in him, if not most of it. So he needed to stay calm and make sure Nick would believe him again.

“I just wanted to say, I don’t think you know what really happened.” Riven continued
“Really? I don’t know what happened? I’m pretty sure I was there myself.” Nick scoffed. 

Shit. This is exactly what Riven didn’t want to happen. Nick was getting defensive and misunderstanding what he was trying to say. 
“No, it’s just... It didn’t happen like you think it did. I-”

Nick interrupted him. “I know what happened, Riven. I’m not stupid.” 
Riven closed his eyes for a second. Why was he being so stubborn?
“Nick, you don’t know-”

“Yes, I do! I’m so dumb that I didn’t see it before, but that moment made it all clear. I should’ve known all this time. I felt it, when I saw how you looked at M-” 

His voice broke, the pain in Nick’s eyes cut through Riven like a knife. 
“Nick, I’m sorry. I don’t know how to convince you that I’m not lying. I wasn’t lying when I told you I didn’t have feelings for Matt, or for anyone else. And I’m not lying now.”

Nick broke down, burying his hands in his face, softly sobbing.
God, Riven didn’t know how to convince him he had seen it all wrong, that he and Matt were just friends, that he didn’t have feelings for anyone.

Nick looked back up again at Riven. “I don’t believe you, Riven.”

His words took Riven’s breath away. He didn’t know how to deal with this feeling of the person he had slowly opened up to, slowly had started to trust enough to show him his true feelings, now telling him he didn’t trust him. If Nick felt like he couldn’t trust him, then who could?

“I don’t know why you keep denying it. This is driving me crazy, but I know you’re lying about your feelings.” 

Riven shook his head, too tired and defeated to continue fighting Nick. “This isn’t going to work out.”