[ girl meets reality ]

the (lovely) affection

Daniel and Naia were already laying on their bed, and both of them were now not facing each other anymore, and Daniel was fidgeting with his hands while Naia finally had her phone before realizing the only texts she had were from Tiana and Lulu, asking her about her whereabouts and she replied with a short 'safe and sound', followed with a smiley emoji.

Putting her phone under the pillow, she began to fidget with her fingers too, before finally finding something to talk about. "Can you tell me about you? I mean, I don't know much about you." She was a bit nervous, but found herself relaxing when she saw him turning on his right side so he could see her.

"Okay," he smiled, "if I get to hear your story too." She nodded, and he sighed, before thinking of a place to start his not so interesting story line.

"Well, there's nothing much to say, but I'll try to make it seem cool," He chuckled, before scrunching his nose upwards, making Naia smile. "I was born in 1995, May 7th to be exact, and I stayed in Whiteland for fifteen years, and then my grandfather died and my parents decided to move here, in Southmud, and the old house actually belonged to my grandpa – so we sold it. Craig lives with my parents in New Valens where as I bought a small home here, since I'm studying nearby and the facilities are crap."

"Um, I studied at a normal school, took the science stream and I kind of aced it even though I didn't like biology or chemistry for shit, and I actually just recently finished my three years of architecture. Might be planning on finding a real job that involves what I study, instead of working as a repairman at some closed off shop that works through the telephone, but if it pays – I'll do it."

Daniel looked at Naia who was listening closely to what he was saying, and he liked how she heard him talking, even though she looked tired, and he didn't really have something interesting to talk about. But before he could stop, and let her do the talking, she began to ask him questions.

"What are your parents like?" she asked, her eyes fixed on his shirt.

"My parents are fine, I think – they're old and doing their own stuff. My mother loves travelling, and my dad doesn't, so she's off out and about with her friends and my father tends to stay home and watches videos on his phone, and yeah – Craig usually begs me to come home because he's bored, and I guess I always do because they're family, right?"

Naia nodded, loving the idea of his life – not that problematic or forced, like hers was.

"I think it's your turn," he smiled, amusement written all over his face, "I'm waiting, Naia."

"Okay, okay," she smiled, "I'm sorry in advance if I ramble and start going mushy or anything, just tell me when to stop."

"I don't think I'd mind, but please continue," he smirked, his finger reaching out to poke her nose.

"Yeah, right," she breathed, taking a deep breath before starting, "I was born on the 16th of June, and I was born in Kingsearth, just really never moved far away. And I have three older sisters, really different from who I am right now, and like the age gap between my third sister and I are like six years, so imagine how weird it was for me, since my parents started being this religious couple when I was born, and I felt like this stupid hamster who's being trapped in a maze for a project since they dragged me with them."

"It was bearable at first, I mean, I did pick the school myself, and then suddenly my parents were like maybe it's a sign that I wanted to be something different. And I was okay with it at first, but then I felt like everybody was expecting so much from me, and I struggled to make everyone happy. So when I was thirteen, they sent me off to this boarding school, still in Kingsearth by the way, and that was the start of something so impossible for me to do. It was beginning to feel like it was too much,"