icebreaker | nolan patrick

24

Fiona
Temple University , Philadelphia

I spent my spring break enjoying time with my family, and seeing Nolan the few times he had free time. It was similar to my Christmas break, just this time I wasn't sulking in sadness from a breakup. The last two weeks kinda made me miss my high school years. Everyone always talks about how high school is either the best or worst four years of your life, for me I think it was the best. I was living my life with few responsibilities, just having a good time with my friends and making the best of my freedom. I miss it, but college is definitely going well for me too.

I wish I could have seen Nolan more, though. Obviously I know he's busy with hockey and it's not exactly convenient to drive forty-five minutes each way just to see me for a few hours. He only stayed one night after he met my family, and then he was hastily leaving my house saying that he had things to do before practice. Texts were short and not many phone calls were exchanged between us but I'm sure everything will be perfectly fine once I'm back in the city.

My mom was currently driving me to campus, a carful of fresh, more spring-friendly clothes with us. We pulled up to my building, pulling out my two suitcases of new clothes and saying my goodbyes to my mom.

"Come back soon, we miss you!" My mom said, getting teary eyed.

"Mom don't cry! I'll be back soon, I promise," I encouraged, bringing her in for another hug.

"I know, I know. I have Lil, I'll be fine." She said, wiping her tears and pulling away, "Have fun and stay safe, I love you."

I walked up to my room, seeing that Maddie hadn't arrived back yet. I began to unpack my things, checking for texts from Nolan every once in a while.

After about an hour of radio silence, I decided to call him. It rang a few times, and with no answer I decided to leave a voicemail.

"Hey, Nol. I'm just calling to let you know I'm back on campus and thought we could do something. Just give me a text or call whenever you get this. Love you, bye."

I just sat on my bed, waiting for a call from him and scrolling through my social media. I did get a call, but I was disappointed when it was just Ashley. Obviously I love Ashley, but all I wanted right now was to talk to Nolan.

"Hey Ash, what's up?"

"Are you back on campus? Wanna grab lunch?" She asked me.

"I'm not really up for going out, do you wanna just order food to the dorm?" I responded.

We agreed to just order sushi to the room so we could talk about break. She went to Florida with her family so I didn't see much of her these past weeks.

"What's up? Why did you wanna go out?" Ashley asked me once she got to my room.

"I don't know. Nolan came and met my family at the beginning of break but we didn't really talk much other than that. I thought things were going pretty well but it has been kind of off since the thing," I ranted, not crying but feeling kind of down, "He won't even answer my calls."

"I'm sure it's fine. He probably just wants his space, it was really hard on him too. Maybe the space is good," She comforted.

Just then, he called.

"Hello?"

"Hey," He said.

"Did you get my message?" I asked, trying my best to hide my sadness, and also anger.

"Yeah, I did. What did you want to do? I've got plans around four."

I checked the time, seeing it was already two o'clock.

"Can I just come over?" I asked, there was this awkwardness in the tone of our voices that I couldn't figure out.

"Uh, yeah. Do you want me to pick you up?"

My heart dropped. Nolan never asks, he always just says he's going to. He doesn't like me going in Uber's. The fact that he asked may be a small detail but something is off.

"I can get an Uber." I said almost silently.

"Okay. See you soon."

And he hung up. No "I love you." No "Be safe."

"I'll text or call you to let you know how it goes." I told Ashley as I got ready and left to meet the Uber.

The ten minute Uber felt excruciatingly long, longer than it usually does due to the unsure felling that I had.

I slowly made my way up the stairs to his apartment. As I entered his hallway, I saw Travis leaving his apartment.

"Hey, Fiona. How are you doing? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"Yeah, same. I'm doing pretty well, how are you?"

"I'm good, just keeping up with games and stuff," TK said.

He had somewhere to be so we ended our conversation shortly after and I knocked on Nolan's door.

He opened it, his head covered in a baseball cap and his hair growing out, nearly past his shoulders. I wanted to tell him to cut it, but the feeling in the air didn't seem like that comment would help anything.

It was silent. Completely silent. I sat down on the couch, he was still in the kitchen. I looked over to him, he was leaning his arms against the granite counter with his head down.

"What the fuck is going on, Nolan?"

——

sorry it's been so long i had exams and now i'm spending time on spring break with da fam in florida!1!1!1

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ALMOST FORGOT THANK U FOR 2K !!!!!