Like Catching Lightning

Chapter 39

A/N: That fan art though ^^^ 🥺🥺🥺

"okay....." i mumbled to myself, my fingers somehow already finding their way to my ring. "this is it. it's time to go." 

my eyes scanned the mostly empty LAX. it was way too early in the morning for most people to be here, but that didn't stop ezra and nick from booking me one of the earliest flights of the day that they could. it was easy to say i already had a pounding headache and my eyes were still basically screwed shut with sleep. i was 

✨t i r e d✨

physically, emotionally, and possibly outer-skeletroieyily...... whatever that's supposed to mean. 

i pulled my hoodie over my head as i caught the eye of a few teenagers girls, but none of them really came over to bother me. that's what i love about my fans; even though they gave me so much torture when i first got in the business about 'using nini' (which i understand how it could look like that, but i would never do that), they saw how much that effected me and hurt me, and since then they have kind of laid off. i've never really been ambushed before, and most of the fans i meet are pretty polite. 

that doesn't stop me from being cautious though. 

"RICHARD BOWEN!" 

welp, so much for cover. 

a small smile drew on my face as i watched ezra and nick run crazily over to me, their morning coffees in hand with sleep still very prominent on their faces. once they made it to me, they were panting wildly, but were wearing large grins. 

"oh what?" ezra asked, trying his best to catch his breath. "you really just though we were going to let you leave without saying goodbye?" 

"we could never do that to our first born son." nick added, reaching in to give me a tight hug.

i laughed, reciprocating the hug with just as much enthusiasm before going to hug ezra. "i'm going to miss you guys." i confessed, pulling back. "but i promise that i'll be back soon." 

ezra raised an eyebrow, pointing his finger towards me. "and with the girl?" 

my smile faltered slightly. i truly couldn't help it that my insecurities were skyrocketing whenever i though of seeing nini again. i mean, it's been four years of zero contact with her. what if..... what if she's got someone else?

"i-i don't know guys." i muttered, raking my hair through my messy morning curls. "what if she doesn't want to see me? i mean, she probably hates my guts for not keeping in contact with her, whether it was an accident or not. she probably stopped waiting for me ages ago and already has someone else. this is probably a mistake..." 

"uh, no, she definitely wants to see you." nick cut in, not even thinking twice about his words. 

wait how would he know?

i sent a confused look nick's way just in time to see ezra jab him hard in the ribs. 

"OW!" nick shouted, turning to ezra with anger. "what the heck was that for?" 

ezra glared daggers at nick, somehow communicating with him in their little foreign way something i didn't know, causing nick's eyes to widen in realization. 

"ohhhhhhhhhhhh." he gasped after a couple second, glancing at me with a nervous smile. "i-i mean she probably wants to see you, i wouldn't really know oranythingitsnotlikeiveevertalkedtoheraboutyouorlikeaboutanythinghahahahhahahahaha isn't that funny! ANYWAYS, you guys were tight and stuff, she probably wants to see you again."

i raised my eyebrow in pure confusion. combining a bunch of words into one BIG word and saying it really quickly was nick's nervous habit. he always did that whenever he said something he wasn't supposed to or was caught using ezra's favorite coffee mug (which was a lot more than you would think). so why was he doing that now?