Reality And Us

Chapter Thirty Nine

Honestly, Nick was pretty anxious that moment. It wasn't as if anything big was going to happen now, was it? No, but that didn't stop him from nervously pacing around the living room.

His parents weren't home, he had made sure of that. No, that would've been awkward maybe. Anyway, right now he was alone. No one else was around, but that wouldn't stay like that for long.

Zane had an injury on his leg, apparently. Nothing too bad, but bad enough for the two of them not to do sports together. And, well, Nicklas being the idiot he was he had actually suggested just hanging out at his place. He was cursing his past self for this, because now he'd have to show the other the house.

What if Zane didn't like the colors? Or the smell? What if he thought of the decorations as weird? What if he disliked the place so much he didn't want to hang out there?

Nick was probably thinking too much about this. It probably didn't matter. But telling himself nothing bad would happen and that it was useless to overthink didn't help, not really, at least.

Suddenly he heard a ringing sound. Shit, Zane was there.

He moved over to the doorway, pausing for a second. He was incredibly unsure. Couldn't he just pretend he wasn't home?

He looked at the mirror in the corner of his eye, just for a quick second. Not that his appearance really mattered, but he wanted the other to think of him as good-looking. That would be nice.

Before he could start dwelling in his thoughts any further about this stuff, risking letting Zane wait and feeling very stupid, he went to the door. Took a deep breath, and opened it.

"Hey?", he mumbled, what in the name of god was he thinking when inviting the boy over?

"Hi!"

The two boys stared at each other for a while. Zane with his usual grin, everything about him was pretty usual for him. And Nick, well, he was staring awkwardly at the other's face, but he didn't really focus on anything. Just standing there, not really knowing what to do.

Usually he wasn't that weird, but he was stressed and anxious and just really trying to ignore the urge to hug the hell out of the boy in front of him.

Suddenly Zane began laughing, really hard.

Nicklas blinked heavily, what was happening? Had he done something wrong? Silently freaking out.

"I don't mind standing here all day, but are you sure we don't want to go inside where it's warm?"

Nick's eyes widened at that, what? He had forgotten for a moment what they were planning to do. He nodded hastily, moving out of the way, enabling the other to enter. He was pretty embarrassed, about showing this to his friend, about being so stupid.

Zane's eyes were shining with amusement and he looked beautiful like that, Nicklas noticed. He wanted to comment on it, and sure, some friends did compliment each other like that, but he wasn't the kind of person for that. That would be weird. Just weird. Why was he so weird?

They were entering the living room as the older of the two whispered with wide eyes, "Woah, your house is pretty!"

Nick shrugged in embarrassment. Had he really been obsessing over this for so long just to get that reaction?

"Thanks? I guess."

"No, really.", Zane said, looking directly at his friend, it was obvious the boy was pretty nervous for some reason unknown to him, "I like it. Whoever decorated this has taste."

It made Nicklas feel better, and at the same time he really wanted to laugh at himself for getting so worked up about something so irrelevant. His lips formed a grin and he didn't even notice.