Kid in a Locker (REWRITING)

15. Definitely, Maybe

I forget to tell Nick about this boy sleeping on my couch in the living room. I forget to tell him when I get out of bed the next morning, and I forget to tell him when I see him at school the next day.

I wake up in the backseat of Romul's car, Nick standing over me with a small smile on his face. I groan and roll over, sitting up. He stands up out of the doorway and offers me a hand. I take it and he pulls me out of the car. Peter and Romul are standing outside the car as well, talking quietly amongst themselves.

Since last night, they had made up. It was a wordless agreement and happened somewhere between fixing up Troy's swollen left eye and watching an old Avengers movie. Their new found peace had taken away the boy sleeping on my floor, and at night I needed him. This time he couldn't sense that something was wrong. He was too busy repairing him own relationship with his brother.

"Rough night?" Nick softly asks. Today there is something different with him. His shoulders are lighter and there is a ghost of a smile on his lips.

"A little." I hold my pointer finger and thumb up in the air, leaving a small gap in between them. I wince as the harsh sunlight bouncing of the clouds and rub at my head, yawning. Last night was full of nightmare after nightmare. In the end I may have only gotten an hour or so of a sleep, but it wasn't good. I would wake up every few seconds or minutes believing I was in Germany and that it was happening again.

I couldn't understand why I was still having these feelings or thinking about him. It's been eight months. I believed that after a while they would go away, but here I am. And they're stronger than ever, tormenting me endlessly.

He tucks me under his arm as we walk towards the school, falling in step with each other. I glance back at the confused faces of my brothers. I'm relieved to find that Romul shows no signs aggression as Nick and I walk away from them.

I rub at my face. I yawn again. "What are we doing tonight?"

Today was Friday, meaning it was date night. He had been successful in keeping his plans for me a secret. It didn't bother me too much, but as the hours tick down until the date my curiosity starts to burn within me.

I would leave Peter to look after Troy while I am gone. He had promised that he would keep him occupied with Netflix and pretzels while his wounds healed.

Mom came home to see him and almost burst into tears. It was a miracle she could do what she did without having permanent tear marks tracing down her cheeks. She examined him and said that he wasn't fit to be moving around, especially not going to school. She didn't tell any of us what was exactly wrong with him, but by the way her face looked as she walked away from him, it was something serious.

"It's a secret." He teases, his eyes alight like a child's.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"What do you mean you don't know how to skate?" Nick shouts back at me from the center of the rink. He skates backward casually, his hands in his pockets as he does so. He grins at me while I stand by the gate, trying to hold onto the railings behind me nonchalantly but failing.

"Not everyone plays a sport where it's required." I shout back. I had never been one for activities that involved something being on your feet. Back in Germany I played lacrosse for the varsity team there for nearly three years before we moved. That was the longest we had stayed anywhere before.

Out on that field, I was in charge of every part of me. On the ice, there was too much uncertainty.

Of course I knew how to skate. I had lived in Germany, after all. Russia too, though for only a very brief period. My brother and I use to do it rarely but could do it enough so that we weren't falling over ourselves every minute. Out of the three of us, I was the best.