Reality And Us

Chapter Thirty One

It was incredibly cold, but that wasn't surprising news. Nick was wearing a scarf wrapped tightly around his neck, he buried his nose in it trying not to freeze to death. The air entering his nose and lungs was frighteningly frosty, the temperatures were at this month's lowest point.

The past few days had been moderate for a day in late November. It had been so moderate, the snow falling down from the sky hadn't even touched the ground before it had melted.

That day on the other hand was already displaying this typical colorless scenery, the first day that season to do so.

Just earlier Jamie and Stella had grabbed a bit of snow and poured it over each other, laughing like little children. Nick hadn't shared their excitement, snow was very bothersome to him.

He had woken up quite early that day, on accident after a nightmare, and after looking outside he had decided it would be nicer to walk to school. His bike would have to be used under these and even worse circumstances over the following months, but that day he had the chance to leave it at home without being late.

Besides, a thirty minute walk in the freezing cold could be quite refreshing, right?

Maybe not his brightest moment, honestly, but it had indeed been some nice time to think about stuff. More specifically, Zane.

When he had read what the older had texted him the day before it had blown his mind - this had really gone a lot easier than expected. Sure, there was still a lot to consider, but at least this problem wasn't that problematic anymore.

He had had lots of questions, ideas, worries he had wanted to share with his friend considering this situation, but yesterday the boy hadn't picked up his phone nor called back, and so Nick had decided to give the other some space.

The boy hated the effect Zane had on him. The older ignoring his messages and not calling back, even though he had had so much time to do so, it had made him weirdly disappointed. When he had called his friend, he had had this light anxiety rushing through his veins, had felt a certain excitement at being able to hear the others voice again.

And then Zane hadn't picked up. Sure, once was not that strange, but Nick had called both out of worry and curiosity more times than he'd like to admit, and every time the other hadn't picked up again he had grown so much more conscious, overthinking their last talk. If hearts would be able to pout his would have had done that.

This whole situation had led to him still being unsatisfied with the lack of information he was aware of concerning this topic. All of that clouding his mind the walk had been quite nice, just to clear his head. Even though he wasn't entirely sure how he had survived the cold of a November morning.

Now he was walking back, cursing his decision earlier once again. It might be afternoon, but it was nevertheless cold enough to make even hell freeze all over, and the scarf guarding his face from the cold wasn't doing its job good enough.

He couldn't wait to get home, to try and call Zane again. Hopefully he wouldn't come across as noisy.

Honestly, the boy telling him he would break up with his boyfriend was definitely something they had to talk about.

It made him very happy. That his friend would end that relationship. Of course, mainly because then the older wouldn't be bothered by a toxic boyfriend anymore, which was quite desirable. But he couldn't help himself being happy because he had been a tiny bit jealous of Lee, just a tiny bit though. He did know that Zane being single wouldn't equal to him having chances with the other, but still. It made him feel a way he probably shouldn't.

He disliked how those feelings of his stood in the way of their friendship, kind of at least, because he didn't think it to be good or helpful to be relieved about a friend being single, at least not because he didn't really want that friend to be with someone. That shouldn't even take a small part in this happiness he experienced, yet it did.