fuck buddies; nick mara

twenty seven

Jade looked out the window through her puffy eyelids. her brown irises were trying to catch up with the passing scenery. 

nick's hand rested gently on hers. he would normally be touching her thigh, where his hand had found a home, but her smooth and supple skin  was covered by his grey sweatpants. he wanted his contact to be skin on skin. he wanted to be close to her. 

he stared at the road, a stinging sensation in his heart. all of the malice he felt was gone, all of his happiness being sucked away with each mile taken off of his gps; each mile closer he got to the airport. 

zion sat in the back, behind jade. his blonde dreads falling over his face and his hoodie strings pulled as far as they can go. he was beyond sleepy. almost too sleepy to function, but he'd never miss the moment to say goodbye to the girl that singlehandedly saved his band-mate and brother from himself. 

brandon sat in the middle in the back. he had yet to fall asleep due to the all-nighter he pulled, making music in the basement. his wavy hair fell lazily over his forehead and his rosy cheeks seemed to lack the pigment they usually had. 

edwin sat next to brandon, smiling as a hat covered his now red hair. he was sad, no doubt. but he always looked at the positive side of things. he was happy that jade was going to get to go back to see her parents, and to go to school. knowing jade like he had the past year, he knew she was way too driven to sit around and do nothing. especially in a fast pace city like la. he knew that college was the right place for jade to be. 

in the third row sat austin, ansley, and izzy, who had easily become jade's girl best friend. 

austin had his arm tightly wrapped around his sad girlfriend and he couldn't lie and say he wasn't sad too. jade fed him even when she was mad at him, and she kept ansley company. she also had the same love for animals that austin had, and that's hard to find. 

izzy sat, quietly crying. it's not something she does much, or ever, but she couldn't form words to describe the melancholy feeling that was slowly filling up the hole in her heart. 

'in three miles, your destination is on the right.' the robot said, making everyone tense up. 

jade frowned, petting simba as 'ivy' by frank ocean played through the speakers. 

they passed the places where jade made non-stop memories. where she made friends.

she would never be able to tell how amazing her life was this year. 

she came to this city with one friend in hopes of helping her out, and though things got rocky, she's leaving with a whole group of people she calls family. she found herself in this city- something she just wasn't able to do in texas. 

she breathed in nick's scent from the sweatshirt he gave her as they stopped at a red light. he looked over at her and the sun was starting to rise.  

her face lacked the excitement and the joy it usually carried. he hadn't seen her that way in a while. 

how was he supposed to be happy when the light of his life was slowly dimming out?

he didn't know. 

when they arrived to the airport, he parked and looked over at her, tears falling down his face. 

"i don't wanna get out the car." she says, turning to face him. 

"you don't have to." he says, just above a whisper. 

"actually- please don't." izzy chimes in and everyone laughs, though the aura in the car isn't very joyful. 

the laughter dies down and he turns to her, in complete awe.  "i can still call you mine, right?" he smiles, as if in disbelief.