Reality And Us

Chapter Twenty Nine

The obnoxious smell of coffee was lingering in the air, but Nick had already gotten used to it ages ago. He disliked it, but he could ignore it. The place was too cozy to forget about it just because they sold a disgusting drink.

Stella's chin rested on her hand as she stared down at the papers in front of her. A sigh escaped her lips knowing that they wouldn't be able to stop anytime soon.

"I hate this bullshit.", Jamie exclaimed, staring at a book, "It's so unfair that we have to learn French!"

The boy had never been exactly talented at learning languages, and honestly, his capabilities at talking French were extremely limited. Who could even memorize so many different irregular verbs and stupid tenses and useless vocabulary?

Stella lifted her gaze and rolled her eyes, "Come on, it's not that hard. Actually math -"

Nick interrupted her, "Both of you are shitty, I get it, now be silent. I'm reading."

He was reading a very interesting article on his favorite website, Wikipedia, searching for mistakes. There weren't a lot of things more satisfying than looking at reliable sources, spotting a wrong information and then, correcting it to make sure nobody will end up misunderstanding a topic so easily. Or in general, adding new and obviously correct data. Bless the free WiFi in this cafe.

But it really wasn't very easy to focus while having to endure people next to you complaining about irrelevant stuff.

"You've got it easy, you're good at this ugly subject.", Jamie huffed, "Not everyone is good at languages. How do you two even do it?"

Stella shrugged, "Almost everybody in my family's speaks multiple languages fluently."

"That's because it isn't difficult."

Jamie shot Nick a glare and focused back on his book.

"You're mean. Stop being mean.", Stella exclaimed. That really wasn't nice, it wasn't as if her boyfriend was responsible for having problems with certain subjects.

The boy rolled his eyes at his friend's statement, were they suddenly five year olds? He really liked both of them, but sometimes they were unbearable. Especially when he was trying to focus.

"Anyway, you know Elisa? Her and I were out in town yesterday, and we bought this super cute hoodie. And nail polish that compliments it very well!", Stella began to talk, knowing how much it annoyed Nick hearing about this kind of stuff. But hey, his fault for being such a killjoy.

Nick looked up once again from his phone, "Since when do you go shopping with those girls?"

If he wasn't mistaken Elisa was a girl who usually sat at one of the tables his teammates kind of reserved for them. And he really didn't remember his friend to be interested in such superficial topics such as which clothing goes well with which. This new information distracting him from the fact he was supposed to be annoyed at them.

"Dunno, I just like that.", the girl answered, and just as she was about to add another sentence, the sound of a ringing phone stopped her from explaining this matter any further.

Nick looked at his phone.

Seeing the caller ID made his heart jump a little bit, Zane was calling. He caught himself wanting to grin, and made sure not to. He did forget his want to correct other people on the internet though, and answered the phone right after standing up, to leave more easily. A bit privacy was nice when calling someone.

"Hey.", he said, greeting the other, already away from his friends.

"Nick."

The voice of his friend was distant, unbelieving. He sounded uncomfortable, confused even, unsure. There was some certain kind of cold, a seriousness. Nicklas adjusted his position, this uneasy feeling settling in his stomach as well. There wasn't the usually friendliness.