love ain't | nolan patrick

2 : an unexpected visitor

Alexa

As I made the three minute drive from my house to Nolan's, I was pleasantly surprised with the warm air flowing into my windows after spending an entire Canadian winter cooped up in my house.

Nolan was closing his front door when I stopped my car at the bottom on the driveway, dressed in his usual sports shorts and a flyers T-shirt. I swear that boy owns nothing except for Flyers shirts.

"Hey," He said as he strapped his seatbelt on and made himself comfortable.

"Did you tell Carrie I said hi like I asked?" I questioned sassily.

"Yes, I did as a matter of fact. She said you have to come over for dinner this week, and you don't have a choice."

"As if I would turn down the opportunity to have dinner cooked by your mother. You take her for granted," I answered, turning off of Nolan's street and towards a bakery in town.

"I used to, I can't deny that, but now that I spend most of the year living on my own, I don't."

Within five minutes we were at the small bakery that we would go to as kids after school, Lucy's Bakery & Cafe.

"So how's you and space cadet?"

Nolan somehow has another derogatory nickname for Collin every time he brings him up. I used to scold him but I lost that argument a long time ago.

"He's good. He's cooled down since our phone call last night, if you can even call it that," I responded, "I swear he's not usually like that."

"Yeah, usually he would curse you out. Last night he was feeling friendly."

"It's just because he doesn't like you. You've only seen his bad side."

Nolan ran a hand through his hair, giving me a questionable look.

"His good side must be a rare occurrence. I've had a lot of conversations with Collin and not once have I ever heard him say anything nice," Nolan said, thanking the waitress and she set our salad wraps down.

"He's a nice guy. I mean, you trust me right?"

"It's not that I don't trust you. I don't trust him."

I gave up on trying to reason with him, knowing that until Nolan gets over whatever his issue with Collin was, and vice versa, I would never be able to get through to him.

To be truthful, Collin wasn't as nice as nice as I made him out to be. Yes, he has a good heart, but he doesn't know how to express his emotions very well. Whenever he has a problem he just lets his anger build up instead of venting. That's why I'm so worried about the fact that he hasn't gone off on me for hanging out with Nolan.

Collin has never and wouldn't ever put his hands on me, but he does get very angry. Instead of aggression, he goes more for smoking his problems away. I've tried all I can to get him to refer to a different alternative but he never listens.

"How's TK?" I asked.

"He's good. He said that he's struggling back home without the Rico, but I think he'll be just fine," Nolan replied, taking a sip of his water.

"I still cannot believe you guys are so lazy that you had to hire a personal chef."

"I beg to differ. We are full-time professional athletes and this is just a way of staying in shape. It's been great," Nolan defended.

"Is it really that hard to put ham and cheese on two pieces of bread?"

"No, but the way he doesn't it makes it taste so much better. Plus, Rico makes a fire tilapia."

Nolan and I finished our lunch and decided to go for a walk through town, since he hasn't been here in months and it was such a beautiful day.

Strolling through the park, we reminisced on all of the memories the two of us, and my brother Zack, had made when we were kids.

One time, we were all playing wiffle ball and Zack happened to swing just a bit too hard. The ball went straight into my eye and I had a black eye for about three weeks after. Luckily, I was only five so it wasn't a big deal, but I'm convinced it did damage to my eye socket due to the chip of my bone just below my eyebrow.

"Shit," I whispered, seeing Collin's black sports car pass Nolan and I on the sidewalk.

"Well, if it isn't the green goblin himself," Nolan rolled his eyes and looked over at me, wondering what my next move was.

"Lex!" Collin called.

I took in a breath and turned around, plastering a smile on my face and giving Collin a peck on the lips.

"Nolan," Collin nodded, not looking him in the eye.

"Collin," He responded, also avoiding eye contact with either of us and looking around at the street shops.

"You didn't tell me you went on dates with your best friends?" Collin began, stuffing his hands in his khaki pockets and giving me a look.

I rolled my eyes and and glared at him, "What's wrong with me grabbing lunch with someone I haven't seen in months? It's not a big deal."

"I just think it's weird, ya know, how we were supposed to go out today and you ditched me, your boyfriend, for another guy."

"I did not ditch you. I told you last week that I probably wouldn't be able to hangout today because Nolan was coming home," I snapped.

Nolan was awkwardly standing two feet away from us, an unamused expression dancing on his face. He was looking at me as if to say, why don't you just break up with him right now?

I somehow got Collin to leave after a few minutes of bickering. Nolan barely spoke for the rest of the time before I drove him home. I could tell that that altercation had not made this situation any better.

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this is trash but it's just character development i promise it will get more interesting soon lol

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