𝓑𝓮 𝓜𝓸𝓻𝓮 - ᴍᴀᴛᴛ ꜱᴛᴜʀɴɪᴏʟᴏ

8.'Like' is kind of an understatement

"What color theme are we going with?" Nick asks me. We're in the party isle at target. It's the beginning of April, and just a couple of weeks till Madi's birthday on the 21st. I'm hosting a surprise party for her at my house. I've been going crazy planning and organizing everything. I've got pretty much all I need except for the decorations.

I look through the many color choices of balloons, backdrops, etc.
"umm, I was thinking maybe silver, white and like a rose gold." Nick nods his head in approval. "I like that, Madi would too." I grab a few packages of the balloons I need and other decorations. Once I've put everything in the cart Nick starts pushing it out of the isle. I follow behind him.

We're almost to the self check out when I remember. "Oh shit! I forgot I need to get her a card," I say. I run to the isle with the birthday cards. Nick rushes over with the basket, trying to catch his breath. "Damn girl, give me a heads up next time before you decide to speed off."
"Sorry Nick." My eyes scan through the cards. After a minute or two of looking I finally pick one and we check out.

In the car, I mark off some things on the party list on my notes. After I'm done I put my phone in my purse and start to drive out of the parking lot. "I'm gonna put on some music," Nick says as he connects his phone to the car. EVIL by Melanie Martinez starts playing through the speakers. "Oooh!" I say. He smiles and turns it up a bit louder. We start to sing along.

Once we get to my house I belly flop onto my bed. "My bed, I missed you so much." I roll onto my back. Nick sits down at the edge of the bed and pulls Scronchy onto his lap, my stuffed unicorn. I sit up and lean over to hug him. "I love you best friend," I say, my voice muffled as I bury my face into his shoulder. He wraps his arms around me and rubs my back. "Aww, I love you too."

I release myself from his arms and lay back against my pillows. "Do you wanna watch American Horror Story?" I ask. "Yeah sure," he says as he sits next to me. I turn on my tv. "Which season do you wanna watch?" I click on the Hulu app. "Murder House, obviously," he smiles. "It's funny as hell to see you fangirl over your man," he says, referring to Tate Langdon. I open my mouth in shock. "Get out of here, bro." I laugh. He laughs in return

During episode two we somehow started talking about memories of me, him, Matt and Chris. Eventually it led to me talking about just memories of me and Matt. I must have said something off or looked a certain way while talking about him because he cuts me off mid sentence.

"I know you like him," he says. I go dead silent. My cheeks heat up. I look away from him. "What? No I don't, why would you sa-" he puts his hand over mine. "Ellie I've seen the way you are with him. I'm not an idiot. And I noticed when you started acting different around him a few years back." I don't say anything. "And look how red your face just got." He adds.

I sigh and cover my face with my hands.
" 'like' is kind of an understatement," I finally say. He gently smiles at me. "Does he- you know-" he shakes his head. "No he doesn't know." I slowly nod, chewing on my lip. "Why haven't you told him yet?" Tears are threatening to escape my eyes. I try to blink them away, only causing them to fall down my cheeks.

"I'm just...scared." My voice is trembling. "I get that," he says. He rubs his thumb against my hand in a soothing way. I wipe my face with the sleeve of my shirt and take a deep breath. "I think you should talk to him. He'll understand, I promise." I don't know what to say so I just nod.