Miles Away | Nick Mara

Twelve

We unpacked until 7 o'clock. By then, we were all so tired; we started moving slower, our eyes began to slowly close every once in a while, we yawned every few seconds... It was hard work.

Edwin left early to go see Tiffany, but the rest of the guys stayed until the end. When we finished, we decided to get some takeout to eat on the new couch.

"I'm gonna order some Chinese food," Brandon said, picking up his phone. "We can go pick it up once it's ready. It's, like, three blocks away."

We all nodded and ordered what we wanted to eat, then turned on the TV and scrolled through the movies on Netflix. Around 20 minutes later, Brandon stood up from the sofa.

"The food's ready. I'm gonna go pick it up."

"Um," Austin said, awkwardly standing up and walking towards Brandon. "I'm gonna go... Help him."

"Ohh," Zion grinned. "Yeah, me too."

I stared as they left, confused. But when Nick started laughing from beside me, I understood. They'd all left in order to leave me and Nick alone by ourselves. He dropped his head, trying to hide his smile.

"That was smooth." I laughed.

He nodded in agreement. We moved to sit by the window, sitting on the floor and leaning against the window frame. He sat inches in front of me, looking out the window. I stared at him for a moment, looking into his eyes, careful so that he wouldn't notice. He picked up his phone after a while.

"I'm gonna play some music." He said, connecting to the speaker.

I leaned my head against the cold window, waiting for a song. A few seconds later, "Best Part" by Daniel Caesar surrounded the room. I smiled as we sang along.

"I remember this," I smiled. "We played this every time we were in the car."

He nodded slowly with a grin. He sat up and pretended to serenade me, making me smile and blush a little.

You don't know, babe
When you hold me
And kiss me slowly,
It's the sweetest thing...

He reached for my hand, intertwining my fingers in his, the warmth of his palm transferring to mine. The softness of his skin made me tingle. He moved closer, his legs crossed in front of mine. Our knees were touching; his jeans against my bare skin.

I sang along too, closing my eyes, moving my body from side to side with the music, my hand still in his.

You're the coffee
that I need in the morning
You're my sunshine in the rain
when it's pouring
Won't you give yourself to me

"It was like this when we first met," Nick smiled. "I still remember."

I opened my eyes to meet his.

"Yep," I said. "We were at Austin's birthday party, I only went because Miah was going. I wouldn't have been able to go if Miah hadn't invited me as her plus one."

"I'm glad she did." He smiled softly.

"But anyway," I said slowly, trying not to give in and smile. "A slower song was playing, I was sitting in a corner, watching Miah dance with Edwin, and you walked over and sat next to me, and started talking to me as if we'd been friends since way before."

"Noooo," he grinned. "I was actually pretty scared."

"What?!" I laughed.

"I saw a pretty girl in a corner, singing along to a good song, and I couldn't understand why she was alone," he shrugged. "So I spent, like 30 minutes, trying to come up with a way to say 'hello' without it being weird."

"Damn," I smiled. "I didn't know that."

"There's a lot of stuff you don't know."

I tilted my head. "Oh yeah? Like what."

He looked into my eyes. "Like... How badly I'm in love with you, Aubri Davis."