catching teardrops {nemi}

• independent

"hey, have you seen demi?" nick asked with great concern, she hadn't been to school all week so far, it was now thursday. the last time he seen her was last week, on friday to be specific.

he was asking one of the friends he seen her hanging out with the first day he met her. she looked up, "ever since you came around, i haven't seen her much to begin with." she let out a petty chuckle. she seen the look on nick's face and immediately felt bad, "have you texted her?" she sighed.

nick's expression said it all, "i, uh, don't have a phone." the girl looked like she wanted to laugh in his face, but maybe it was all just in his head. "i can text her for you?" she offered.

the young boy didn't want to be a problem, and whether or not he was already being a problem was crossing his mind as well but he was worried about his best friend constantly and he couldn't sleep because of it so he ignored his thoughts.

gotta do what you gotta do, he thought.

he nodded, "yeah, please. it means a lot." he tried to sound as casual as he could but she knew it wasn't casual, it was urgent.

he watched the girl pull her phone out of her back pocket and started typing away. he waited patiently as she finished, "alright, i sent it. we just have to wait if she texts back." her sentence was followed by the school bell meaning lunch was over.

Fuck.

"meet me back here after school, yeah?" she suggested. nick nodded in agreement and watched her walk away. he sighed and couldn't stop thinking, what if demi just texted back right now?

he felt helpless and useless. why did his parents buy joe a phone? between him and joe, why joe? he didn't fucking deserve it.

he ran his fingers through his curly poofy hair and just walked to his next class.

after school

nick sprinted his way to where the girl said to meet, eager to find out if demi texted back. he didn't want to seem desperate so as he neared his destination, he slowed down and caught his breath.

he seen the girl standing there looking for him, "sorry if you were waiting long, my teacher decided to hold us back 5 minutes." she shook her head, "its fine."

"did she text back?"

the girl nodded, "yeah, i texted her that you were wondering where she was and she texted back with her address, i think she wants you to go visit her."

nick's heart skipped a beat with relief. he grabbed his pen out of the side pocket of his backpack and started writing it down on his hand as the girl read it aloud.

when she was finished, nick put his pen back and stared at the address then back at the girl. "thank you, it means a lot." he gave a gentle smile and the girl responded with "no problem" or "you're welcome". he couldn't recall because quite frankly, he wasn't listening. as soon as he heard her say whatever, they parted ways and he quickly started his way to demi's house.

he knew this street because he's been down it a couple times. thank god. it was a pretty long walk so he was glad he brought his bike to school today.

he was about 10 minutes into his ride and wasn't really even paying attention to his surroundings. he didn't care about anything at the moment but demi. you could easily mistake him for being obsessed, but he wasn't. he just found someone in his life that he knew was there for a reason, and he did not feel like losing her.

the next 10 minutes went by fast, as he was riding down her neighborhood, he looked at each house carefully trying to find the numbers 211.

it was a dead end street so thankfully he didn't have to go through many houses. finally, the very last house was her house. he parked his bike on the sidewalk, not really caring if it got stolen but considering this neighborhood had neighborhood watch, he wasn't worried about it.