SUMMERTIME ↣ NICK ROBINSON

07.

NICK found himself sitting once again in his desk with an empty mind. It was like his brain had been squeezed, leaving him with no ideas at all. He looked over at the Word document in his computer and at his notebook repeatedly, tapping his pen on the wood before bringing it to his lips.

He was still stuck with the boring man who wanted to fix a motorcycle.

Nick silently thanked God as his phone buzzed, distracting him from the atrocious reality that he hadn't done anything to his story. He answered the call and furrowed his eyebrows at the first thing he heard.

"You lucky bastard." said Garret on the other line.

"I love you too." Nick said.

"You don't know who has a crush on you."

The comment instantly made Nick look up from his lap to the light blue wall in front of him while his eyes widened at the sound of 'you' and 'crush' on the same sentence.

"Who?" asked Nick, drowning in his own curiosity.

"It starts with an N and ends with ova," said his cousin, reminding him of an annoying ten year old girl.

"What?" Nick asked standing up quickly as the excitement filled his body, his sweaty ass leaving the chair.

"Nova! Tall, blonde, pretty green eyes, sounds familiar?" said Garret.

"Shut up, how do you know?"

"Well, she basically told me." stated Garret, as if it was obvious.

Nick took a deep breath, shutting his eyes close and holding in a smile, failing as his lips curved and broke into a big grin.

"What exactly did she say?" he asked.

"Uh, well, I recall talking to her after your drug incident," began Garret, and Nick scrunched his nose at the reminder of that night "and she said that your dorky attitude was cute or something like that."

"Only that?" he asked, feeling a little too pushy.

"Don't you feel like a girl talking about this?" Garret asked, suddenly distracted by the fact that they were gossiping about his cousin's crush.

"Garret," said the brunet on the line.

"Well, I don't know, that's all she told me." there was a long pause, and Garret could almost feel Nick's exasperation on the other side "But if you still doubt me, you can ask Hailee."

Nick nodded, thinking hard about how we would come up to the girl –who he barely talked to, despite being in the same group of friends– and start asking questions about the blonde to which she was basically glued to. After chatting on the phone about nonsense and Nova, Nick finally hung up and went back to the sad reality as he sat in his chair again.

He typed and deleted the sentence over and over again, then went to his notebook and brainstormed a lot of scenarios and ideas, typed and deleted, brainstormed, typed and deleted until it became a chain.

Finally, Nick had given up. He was too tired trying to fix something that had no repair; that something being his creativity. This was the first time he had experienced a writer's block, an author's biggest nightmare.

He threw his pen, losing it somewhere in his bedroom, and cupped his own face in his hands. He closed his eyes as he huffed, letting the frustration finally get to him. While his eyes were closed, all he could really think about was how he was going to even tell his mother he wanted to drop out from the contest. He could already picture the disappointment and worry plastered in her face, and how Nick wouldn't have the heart to tell her while looking at her eyes, so he would instead look the other way.

Nick's head shot up as his phone once again buzzed against the wood, he picked up and he swore his face lit up just as the screen did.

From: Nova

Can we hang out?

NICK panted as he slammed his skinny ass down while Nova looked at him with a fun smile on her face. Since Nick got Nova's text, he immediately rushed out of his house and to his mom's car, driving to Nova's place to pick her up. Finally, she had decided to go to the main park of the city, choosing to pick the highest seat she could find in the grassy field; much to Nick's dismay, that seat was at the top of a hill.

Nick wasn't an athletic boy. Yes, he was thin, but it was mostly because he was really tall and the meat on him had spread all over his body. He also liked to think that the strength he had was given to him in some sort of pity from what lived above.

As he sat with his back against the sun, he closed his eyes and took deep, steady breaths before the wheezing old dog sound came out from his mouth.

"You okay?" asked Nova with a smirk, leaning in slightly so she could get a better look of Nick's face.

Nick opened his eyes and glanced at her before smiling awkwardly. "Yeah, I am. It's just I'm not really into sports."

Nova laughed; she clearly had noticed Nick wasn't the sporty type when he looked at the hill Nova wanted to sit at. She couldn't deny his expression was funny, but sometimes you have to go through a little roughness to get to the top.

They sat in silence for a while, but not the awkward and uncomfortable silence Nick was used to whenever he sat with someone he liked. He thought about how she could sit there so calmly and how they would bond without an exchange of words. Maybe that was her talent. Maybe Nova's talent was luring people in with just how she was, quiet or loud.

Nick heard how a small gasp escaped her lips, and when he turned his neck to look at her, she was already staring at him, with a bright smile. She almost looked like a kid at Disney.

"There's a museum near, I believe they have an exposition on lights or something like that," she licked her lips slowly while her eyes dripped in excitement "want to go check it out?"

Nick couldn't just say no.

So after driving around for fifteen minutes, the finally found the museum. They entered the main hallway, which contained a fountain with a statue in the middle of it of an angel with its wings spread wide while it held its hands against its chest and looked up. Nick stared at it long, until he was pulled by Nova. They reached two big black doors which read 'LIGHTS' in white letters and Nova didn't hesitate to push them open.

Once she did, a small dark hallway with small light bulbs glued to the wall appeared in front of them. Nova just stared at the hallway with a smile, while Nick stared down at her and smiled by just looking at her face. He slowly reached her hand, intertwining his fingers between hers. Nova looked up, and saw how Nick smiled at her, his eyes wrinkling as he did. She held in a big smile, pressing her lips together and pulled his hand, dragging him with her.

When the dark hallway ended, they entered a big room, filled by lights and people. In the middle of the room was a fake tree with light bulbs hanging around its twigs, lighting the center of the room while all around there were all sorts of things covered in lamps. Statues, the walls, signs, even the painting seemed to be full of them.

Nick and Nova walked around, stopping to admire everything closely and snapping some pictures. Still, with all those art pieces in the room, to him, she was the biggest master piece.

↣

WHAT is life I literally had a writers block for like two weeks? anyways here is chapter seven FINALLY and I'm just so glad I got to update and I finally had an idea, plus I feel like Regina Spektor's "Us" really goes with this chapter tho.

Sorry for the long wait again!

-pixelsoull