Collision

Chapter 26

We watched her retrieving back. After she was out of hearing distance. Nicholas patted my shoulder before removing it and laying down. As I also removed my elbow letting it droop over my knees. He rested his head in his hands, closing his eyes. "You can thank me later" he said nonchalantly. I gaped at him and stood up, towering him. I was too furious to get distracted by his appearance. 

"No way! You only did that to get on her nerves, and now she is going to come after me! She must be jealous!" I screeched. He opened one eye before opening them both.

"She'll have to get past me. She knows that, trust me" he said winking. I furrowed my eyebrows wondering what he meant by that. I sighed in defeat and went back to my spot and laid down. 

The music was blaring now, the drunken crowd was becoming rowdy and the day was turning to night. I rolled to my side and looked at him. "You know you can go with Natalie, don't let me stop you" I said softly. He turned his head to face me.

"Prefer it here" he said huskily. It was only then did I realise how close our faces were. I blinked quickly and looked up at the sky. 

"Me too" I said quietly. Not sure if he heard me. After of about a minute of silence I broke it. "You know, we still haven't started our English assignment" I heard him curse under his breath.

"Forgot about that" he sat up. "Where's your phone, I'll add my number". My heart stopped for...approximately 5 seconds. I gulped, got up and pointed towards the huge teal block (thanks to the waterproof case), placed next to my bag, calling out the 4-digit code. "Thanks" he said as he started tapping his number under my contacts. He passed it to me and he retrieved his from his pocket. I saw he had multiple missed calls. Popular boy, isn't he? He ignored all the calls and asked for my number instead, I gave it to him. Never in a million years did I think I would have to do that. "Okay, either I'll text you or you text me. We need to meet somewhere so we can finish this". He looked at me and gave a small smile. "I've been sort of lacking in English recently. I need to bring my grades up, no pressure". I cocked my head and raised an eyebrow. He shrugged. 

"Do you know what you want to be?" I asked as the question popped up. He mused on the question.

"To be honest I have no idea. I love basketball, always been a passion. You know, maybe even a cop...varies. Although I do know I want to do something that I enjoy" he said. I nodded in agreement.

"Well, how about your parents? Do you have the same interest as them?" I asked. 

"Not really. My mum's a doctor and my dad's in the IT department" he said. I looked at him and beamed. He gave a wary smile, not sure why I was so happy.

"My mum's a doctor too!" I said excitedly. Not sure why I was so excited. He gave a surprised expression and leaned back on his hands, still looking at me. I brought my stretched out legs back to sit in a cross-legged position.

"Which hospital?" he asked intrigued. 

"Eastern General Hospital" I answered swiftly, now that my mood resumed back to normal. His eyes widened and he smiled.

"Same as my mum" he laughed. I gaped at him. What a coincidence! 

"How about your dad? What does he do?" he asked turning towards the shore. My mouth dried up. Should I tell him? I took a deep inhale of breath.

"He was a professor" I said trying not emphasize the word 'was' . He was still looking at the shore but I could see the slight raise, then lowered his eyebrows with understanding. He looked towards me.

"Was?" he asked, keeping his voice neutral, although I could tell he knew what was coming.

"He had lung cancer. Died." I spoke, my voice slightly faltering towards the end. I tried not to let any clear emotion of grief show, but I let it cross my face for a fraction of a second before covering it back up with a blank expression.