Through the Dark

Chapter 27

On Monday morning as I entered school, Aiden and Finn came in view at once, standing in the hallway.
"Have you heard?" Aiden asked. "What?" I had absolutely no idea of what he was talking about.

"Thea and Nathan?" Aiden asked again.
"No! I did not hear anything. What happened?" I inquired with shock.

"As far as I know they had a long conversation the other night," Aiden explained. 

"They can stand each other's presence in the same room so we are guessing that it did not go as far as last time," Finn stated.

"What did they talk about?" my curious mind questioned.
"Don't know what but it has to be about the whole you-know-what thing," Aiden replied.
"Thea was saying how they had talked for hours straight," Finn added.

"Where are they now?" I asked.
"Thea went to grab something from class. Nathan did not come yet," Finn responded.

Addison came after a couple of seconds which resulted Aiden and Finn to repeate the whole thing again so as to convey it to Addison.

"At least it's better than last time," Addison said heaving a sigh of relief.
"That's actually a relief," Aiden added.
We all agreed with her.

The morning bell rang shortly after Nathan came to school. Addison and Finn commenced to go to their classes while the rest of us went to the court. One week was left for the basketball tournament to begin and we were all practicing our hearts out. The alternation of the atmosphere inside the school could also be well distinguished. Our coach, Mr. Cruz, became as serious as ever. Practice continued the whole morning and we were given break for a short time during recess.

"Our Principal wants the championship this year," Aiden stated the obvious. We were seated around a circular table.

"This year it's being held at our school for which we have more facilities. Not to mention that this year our team is stronger than it has been in a really long time," Addison mentioned.

"Yeah, I overheard Mr. Cruz say that this year both the boys and girls teams are in really good shape and that we have a really good hand in winning the champion's trophy for both the teams," Finn added.

"Mr. Cruz said that?" Thea asked with bewildered.

"In front of us all he ever says is that we need more practice or we would never get past round one," I added while frowning.

"That's what most of the teachers do isn't it?" Nathan asked. 

The whole time we were sitting there, I kept my eyes working and kept it busy by looking at Thea and Nathan's expressions. Both of them were sitting on opposite side of the table and made little to no conversation with each other. Both Thea and Nathan said that they were fine but there was an imperceptible tension between them. Even if Thea was hurting inside, she was doing a great job of hiding it. Nathan, on the other hand, was dull and did not talk much throughout the whole day.

I did not say anything out loud but as break time ceased I called Nathan and told him to accompany me to my locker. Aiden looked at me skeptically at first, but he understood what was in my mind within a fraction of second after which he enforced Thea out of the area.

"What do you need from your locker?" Nathan asked with a confused countenance.
"What happened between you and Thea?" I got into the point straightaway.

"So that's what it's about," he uttered.

"I know that both of you had a really long talk but what conclusion did you guys come to?"
"Nothing! Thea said that she wanted to do nothing," Nathan said and kept on moving forward while I stood behind for a second or two.

I quickly paced forward and pulled him by the hand, causing him to stop walking.

"Nathan tell me what happened," I implored.

"Thea said that it was best that we forget about it because if something goes wrong it will affect our friendship. She said that things could get worse easily and if that happened it would be very difficult to fix," Nathan said while he looked down at his feet.

"Honestly, I think it's best to forget about it. Thea's right though. If something happens this time it would get far worse than what had happened the previous time," he added.

"Do you actually love her?" I asked at once. Nathan looked up at me and grunted.

"It doesn't matter," he said and began to move forward again. Once again I held his elbow and asserted more forcefully, "Do you love her?"

"Yeah, I do," he gave in and sighed.
"Then do something about it you dumbass. I know Thea still has feelings for you even though she tries to hide it," I affirmed.

"But she said she doesn't," Nathan countered.
"After the way you rejected her last time do you blame her?" I asked.

"I was scared," Nathan announced.
"Last year when she asked me out, I was scared because I thought that we would not last. I did not want to end the friendship between us Vianna," Nathan stated with agony.

"Tell that to her and don't forget to mention that you love her. Not telling would just be a foolish move," I said.
"What if she rejects me the way I did last year? I had feelings for her even then but I was scared and said no. What if she does it now?" Nathan questioned.

"Even if she does that you won't sulk over the fact that you did not try. If she doesn't agree with you then you have to believe that maybe it was not in your destiny to be with Thea. But if you don't try you will blame yourself later," I expounded.

"Okay I'll tell her how I feel," Nathan gave in.
"Tell her quickly before it's too late or when you are 80 and you would be sitting in your armchair you would regret it," I added humorously.

Nathan at once pulled me into a hug. "Thanks Vee," he said which made me smile.

"You actually give the best relationship advice," Nathan added.
"And yet I'm the one who is single," I joked which made us both laugh.

Both of us went back to the court. Even though we got a scolding from Mr. Cruz for being late it was worth it because Nathan actually seemed to be in a better mood.

Aiden could see the change in his mood too and he winked at me from the other side of the court. Though he did not say anything else then, Aiden called me once we were given a five minutes break around noon.

"Nathan seems to be in a better mood," he stated as I nodded my head.
"What did you say?" he asked to answer which I told a summarized version of what had happened.

"You are a born wingman. First you help set up Addison and Noah. Then you somehow manage to convince stubborn Nathan about telling his feelings, which I could not do in the whole of the past 8 months since I have known it," Aiden fooled around.

"Next time hit me and Stacy with your cupid arrow," Aiden said which made us both chortle.

"Nathan said that he will talk. We still don't know what Thea's answer would be," I mentioned.

"We will charm-speak her into falling in love with our little boy," Aiden added and we both burst out laughing yet again.