Discoveries | TMR | Three

3:3

Throughout all the hustle and bustle; securing the cars, transferring all of their belongings from those cars into the two houses, foolishly bickering over who gets which room and how many in each room, settling themselves in for the evening and huddling around a makeshift fire in the centre of the living room, Nick had not been given a second chance at explaining himself to Adeline.

Not that he could, though, for whilst everything had been up in the air, she had avoided his presence as though it were the plague.

Each moment he thought he might have had a chance to talk to her, every instance in which he could so easily corner her, she seemed to have done everything in her power to vacate the space. She had chosen to run rather than face the difficult conversation head on.

Perhaps he had said too much, or perhaps, too little.

Should he have not allowed her to exit the car so swiftly after Matt called upon them for help? Would it have helped if he had been more upfront in his statements, rather than fruitlessly tiptoed around the edges of what was truly on his mind? Could he have - dare he think it - barricaded them both in the car and forced her to hear out every single word he had wished to utter?

Should'a, would'a, could'a. It makes no difference now, for whilst he sits on one side of the contained flames, she sits on the other.

What he does not know, however, is that the reasoning for Adeline's evasion of him does not come from a place of avoidance, she just... did not know what to say, or do. She did not mean to freeze, to stutter or to stammer. She did not mean to hurt his feelings by rapidly escaping the stifling car in which they sat, no. The thoughts that raced through her mind simply got the better of her, and now, she pays for that shunning with the image of his expression engrained in her head, and the reoccurring glances he keeps sending her way.

Of course, he had selected to sit directly opposite her; with the fire being the only thing separating them, and of course, he had used this angle to consistently stare at her with puppy-dog eyes. Whether he knows it to be so or not, he looks... sad, anguished, and it makes her feel a million times more guilty for her lack of response to him earlier. She can see his jaw clench each time his gaze is intercepted by her, as though scolding himself for his lack of subtlety, and each time he does so, Adeline finds her own gaze stuck on him.

Stuck on his eyes, stuck on his face, stuck on the singular dimple that becomes prominent when he strains his features in such a way.

She feels immensely guilty for the way she so quickly shut down the conversation when Matt called for their assistance. She should have benched the topic, told him that they would speak on it at a later time, but she didn't. She longs for Nick's eyes to meet hers for enough time so she can, at least, try to convey some form of an apology. But alas, he does not, and thus began the cycle; the awkward game of him staring until caught, and her doing the very same.

"What's got your face so sour?"

A nudge of Matt's shoulder on hers brings her careening back to reality; like a thunderbolt from the sky, all of her thoughts are rapidly jolted from her mind. Adeline inhales a breath and darts her head to look at him, seeing the cheeky smirk on his face and only just managing to notice the sound of laughter barrelling from the circle around the fire.

"Nothing." She brightens her features accordingly. "Just... got lost in my own world for a second. I'm fine, though."

Matt's eyes flicker across the fire, only to narrow back in on her a second later. "Does it have something to do with what you n' Nick were talking about in the car earlier?" he asks. "Looked pretty serious."