Love is for Show

18 - I'll Think About It.

My arms stretch above my head and I glance to the side and out the window with my head rolling against the back of their way too soft sofa. To my surprise, the sun is already way past setting as it would be pitch dark if it weren't for the city illuminating the night's sky.

"How did it get so late?" Aiden yawns out and throws his legs over Elias' who doesn't even blink as he simply rests his hand atop his ankle and starts running his fingers along his skin. They're so comfortable with each other...

I shrug and make a move to stand up, "who knows, but that's my cue to start heading out,"

Glancing at my dimmed phone beside me, I take note that its way past dinner time and right on cue my stomach rumbles. We may have had a bunch of snacks all afternoon, but man am I craving an actual meal right now.

"Why don't we eat something before you go?" Axford suggests from his own corner right beside Elias who's still looking down at his phone.

"No need for that, I can just grab something on my way back and-"

"It's pretty late already though, don't you want to maybe stay the night?" Aiden's voice, sounding rather meek despite the room being quiet now that the TV and the stereos are off, grazes my ears and I feel my heart skip more than a beat. Immediately, I shake my head.

"No! Nope- I'm fine, thanks..." I mumble back and glance over at the only person in the room who hasn't spoken a word to me in the past however many hours I've been here. She sighs and looks up from her typing fingers on her phone to spare me a scowl.

"You heard him, he doesn't wanna stay,"  she gets up and walks around the sofa. She glowers down at me as she walks past, her previous smiles suddenly seeming like a hazy dream.

"See you around, Nathan." To my surprise, she masks it well and ends up growing some sort of grin on her lips before she walks away.

I hear a deep sigh come from somewhere as I get up and I turn to see Axford rising from his seat, handing Elias another blanket which he distractedly throws over himself and Aiden who's almost fast asleep.

"Sorry about her, she's..."

I shake my head. "It's alright, I'm gonna leave, okay?" I don't know what compelled me to phrase that as a question, but it almost felt like I was waiting for something. I don't have a clue what though. All I know is that my heart sank a little as if a stone was thrown right onto it at Axford's small nod at my 'question'.

I feel the trickle of a breeze graze along the nape of my neck and I suck in a sharp breath the moment my first step makes its onto the pavement and out of that stifling building. How in the world do I still end up coming back here is one of the world's greatest mysteries...

Aiden and I grew up closer to the outskirts of the city. It was rural, quiet and the kind of area where someone's business was everyone's business. I honestly used to think it was too quiet. When my parents started getting into screaming matches, I hoped that some sort of sound, or anything really, in our small town would distract me. — Even if only for a moment.

As bad as it may sound, it was almost as if Aiden and I were each other's distraction. Yes, we adored being with each other. We loved being friends. Or, I did, at least. But when push came to shove and we started growing apart, the days became longer and slower without him. I had nothing to look forward to and I knew that my dependence on having his presence with me was too much for my heart to bear.

So, I left.

With a heavy sigh, I plop down onto the carpet in front of my couch and glance out the window observing the difference from the view I was just looking at not even an hour ago. Catching my lip between my teeth, I follow a strain of light leading to my coffee table, where just beneath it, my most prized possession lies. The only thing that brought me anything close to excitement in recent years.