Pinky Promise

FIVE

ANA

"Claire texted me this morning," Nate told me the afternoon we were sitting in my room. He sat cross-legged on my bed while I tried to tame my hair.
"So she dared."
"You knew about it," he asked in astonishment. I could see his surprised face through the mirror.
"Yes", I confessed, "she asked me if it would be okay to write to you even though you're not together anymore".
"Hmm. For some reason, I do find it strange that you are friends." I shrugged my shoulders and asked him to hand me the brush that was next to him on the bed.
To be honest, a year ago I wouldn't have thought that it was possible to be friends with Claire either. We were two completely different people with different interests. At the time when Nate and she were together, we had forced ourselves to talk to one another, and that only in the presence of our parents. As soon as we were among each other, we had either ignored or bitched at each other. Nate had even tried to bring us closer, but unfortunately in vain. When they separated before his year abroad, I was even happy not to have her around anymore. This one day at school, however, had changed everything between us. I don't think I'd even mind if she and Nate got back together.
"Do you think you two will get back together?" I said my thoughts as I started braiding my hair into two farmer's braids.
"I honestly didn't really think about it," he stared at his hands and kneaded them lost in thought. "A lot has happened in London. Before I left when I broke up with Claire, I wanted to close with the whole story. And I think I did that, too."
"Don't you have any feelings for her anymore?"
"No, it's not like that. I was serious about her back then. And I will always care about her well-being, but a lot of time has passed and I think it would be wrong to start a relationship with her again."
"Because your emotional world has changed."
"Exactly. She's a great girl and that's why I really don't have a problem with you being friends now," he said and looked at me through the mirror. "Unless, of course, you guys are banging each other, I wouldn't be able to deal with that," he added laughingly.
"Shit! If only you'd said that earlier,' I said and then cashed in a pillow against my head.
"Great, now I have to start all over again," I complained. Through his throw, I had let go of my braid, which had disintegrated. I sighed annoyed and showed my lovely twin brother the middle finger of my right hand. He just laughed and threw himself back on the bed.

"Did you have a thing with anyone in London?" I asked him after braiding both braids and turning to him. He sat up again and grinned broadly.
"Roman. His name is Roman. We had an on-off thing during the year."
"Do you like him?" He said nothing but just nodded a grin. "Were you together?"
"We weren't a couple."
"Not?"
"No. In the beginning, we couldn't even stand each other, he thought I was a conceited American and I was convinced that he was an arrogant, rich snob. And then some weeks after I had arrived there, we both sat and a few more in the room of his roommate and him. I discussed with a guy, Noah, because he couldn't understand how one could be into both women and men. And then I said that I was and Noah said then-"
"Let me guess," I interrupted him, "I think you're cool, bro, but I'm still not into you," I said in a deep voice, trying to imitate the British accent. Nate laughed and agreed that Noah had sounded like that.
"Roman then more or less stood up for me and made it clear that I'm not into Noah just because I'm into guys. Then we started talking and from that moment on we spent almost every free minute together," he smiled and dreamily looked into the void. It made me happy to see him in this state. "At some point, it turned out that he was Bi as well and then one thing developed into the other and yes."
"What's he like?"
"He's super intelligent and has great humor; he's one of the funniest people I've met in my life. You would laugh yourself to death after 5 minutes with him. Besides, he is really attractive and self-confident, but the healthy form, you know, not that arrogant, narcissistic way. You can talk to him about anything; serious topics but also about complete bullshit. We often sat deep into the night and talked about everything. He's really cool."
"But you weren't a couple", I asked confusedly. He was just raving about this Roman and the way it sounded, they were really close, but they weren't a couple. That didn't make sense to me.
"Nope," he replied. "We never talked about what exactly we were, we just spent time together. Of course, there were phases in which we were much more than just friends, but they passed as quickly as they came. I can't explain to myself what that was. But it's over now anyway," he sounded disappointed, but it was clear that he had already come to an end.
"Why didn't you tell me anything about him?"
"Why didn't you tell me about you and Claire," he replied and raised an eyebrow.
"Touché"

I hope you like it xx
(PS: Who has read my last book can be happy about the next chapter ;) )