drama club {boyxboy} {willxnico}

Peanut Butter

the day after Nico came back

"He's going to be here anytime so you both know the rules," I said, explaining it for the third time that day.

"Yeah, yeah," Leo expressed, letting his boredom shine through every word. "No mentioning of the crush."

"No being awkward," Esperanza copied.

"And the many others, dude, we get it," Leo said, rolling his eyes.

"Totally."

"I still don't trust you guys," I said, eyeing them suspiciously.

"What could we possibly do?"

"I don't know. That's the problem. I don't know."

"Relax, baby," Esperanza suggested. "We won't do anything bad, okay? I'm going to be working in back office."

   "Yep, well-" I was cut off by the sound of a car pulling up and the headlights shining into the garage. I yelped. "Act natural!"

   I ran to the door and opened it in time to see Nico and Hazel get out of the car. I smiled excitedly and turned back to see Esperanza and Leo leaning up against each other awkwardly. Oh god. Do they know what natural means?

   "Hey Will," Nico said, running up to me and sliding his arms around my waist. I hugged him back and out of the corner of my eye saw Leo making duck faces.

   "Hey Nico," I said back, flipping off Leo.

   We separated and Hazel walked in, fixing her curly hair. "Hi," she said nervously.

   "Hey."

   "Um, well, Hazel, you've already met them but Nico, this is the infamous Leo and his mother, Esperanza," I introduced.

   Nico bit his lip. I knew he got nervous around people he didn't know. So I widened my eyes at them to make the first move.

   "Yep, I'm Leo, destroyer of pu-"

   "Leo!"

   "pudding," Leo winked. "Also a ladies man. The girls are naturally attracted to me. What can I say?"

   "Ignore my son," Esperanza said, "I should put him in the dog cage."

   "Not again!"

  "I'm Nico," he said, quietly.

   "Well, Nico, I'm going to be in the back room," she  said. "make yourself at home. Punch Leo if he's annoying."

   He nodded and looked down at his feet. It was weird seeing him like that again and reminded me of when we first met. "Will?"

   "Yep?"

   "Hazel," he mumbled.

   I inhaled deeply, knowing I'd have to confront this problem. "Right. Hazel, mind if we talk?"

She smiled charmingly and nodded, "of course."

I grabbed her hand and walked into the rec room. I sat down on the pool table and motioned her to come sit by me. She hopped on top and turned to face me with a smile. "Hi."

   "Uh, hey, how are you?"

   "Good, good, yeah," she said, wrapping a curl around her finger. "Oklahoma is still...Oklahoma."

   "I can imagine."

   "Yeah."

   "Yup."

   There was an awkward silence so I cleared my throat and start fidgeting with my hands. "We should talk...about us."

   "Yeah, okay," she said, looking up sheepishly. "I probably shouldn't have...kissed you. There was a miscommunication."

   "Yeah, and I should have just came out and told you," I said. "I'm sorry for leading you on."

   "Oh, you tried to break it off. I'm not, Y'know, good at this stuff," she said, gesturing between us. "I just...would you date me? For real?"

   "In another life," I nodded. "Definitely."

   "What's wrong with me in this life?" she asked, biting her lip and my heart twitched. "Is it cause of my hair?"

   "What? No, Hazel. You're beautiful and so is your hair," I said, and I meant it. She was really, really pretty and talented. I remembered the first time I met her, she was so full of confidence. "You're talented. Amazing. Trust me."

   "Then...why won't you date me?"

   "Hazel, I-" I felt my throat clog. Geez, how could I tell her? Was I ready? Was it that big of a deal. "I don't know what to say."

   "It's okay."

   "No, it's not, you deserve-"

   "Trust me, Will, it is okay."

   "No, I-"

   "Will, listen to me," she said and put her hands on my shoulder, our eyes meeting. "I understand."

   "You do?"

   She nodded. "I know, okay. You don't like me like that. You like...boys."

   "How long have you known?"

   She shrugged and said, "On some level I've always known."

   We sat in silence for a second before she spoke again, "Actually I lied. I found out 2 hours ago. My friend texted me."

  We both laughed softly and it felt good. Hazel was genuinely a good person. She was also a great actress and a great friend.

"Shall we go back out?" I asked and offered my arm.

She wrapped hers around mine and smiled. "We shall."

We hopped off of the table together and walked out, only to see Leo talking to Nico in an almost-whisper. Nico seemed to be laughing his ass off and my heat fell. God damn it, Leo.

"What did you tell him?" I demanded.

Nico fell back on his laugh, continuing to laugh. Leo tried to dismiss his laughter and said, "oh, nothing."

"Leo."

"Look, okay, so I may or may not have told him about the peanut butter accident."

"The peanut butter accident! Leo!"

"What's the peanut butter accident?" Hazel asked and that only made Leo and Nico laugh harder.

"You don't wanna know."

"Oh, I totally do now."

"Nope."

"What is this? A parade of jerks?"

   Leo laughed harder. "It happened at a parade!"

   "Oh my God, if you don't shut up I will beat you!" I said, my face turning red.

   "Oh, come on, you know it's funny."

—-

   Short chapter. Oh well. More interesting and illegal stuff to come.