As the weeks passed, Nick kept to his word about wanting to be friends. He ate with me, or should I say, dragged me to his table every lunch and even invited me over to his house a couple times to play video games. I still had this feeling Nick was hiding something from me though, that he had ulterior motives to his sudden friendship to me. I wanted to talk to him a couple of times about it, get him to divulge his reason but I was never the persuasive type and would have probably ended up with nothing gained.
But whatever his intentions were, it was hard to decipher. Nothing he did seemed to point to any gain on his part, which just further baffled me. He was the one making the effort to get to know me, not the other way around. I hadn't completely trusted him, but with each passing day I could feel my walls coming down.
Not just Nick too. I felt myself growing closer to his group of friends, Kate and Tray in particular. What with Kate's similar personality to Dean, it just helped fill the void that Dean once occupied. Tray on the other hand was the laid back, chill kind of guy, so much like my own personality that it was no surprise we clicked. Nick was also a headache at times. Even after me telling him not to, on more than one occasion I might add, he still called me cute on a daily basis, which only added to my confusion.
Yeah on one hand I was suspicious about Nick, and on the other hand, I found myself growing attracted to him. Not to the point of wanting to kiss him or anything, hell not even to the point of wanting to hold his hand, but attraction there was no matter how little, and I hated that fact. In the past, Nick's seemingly horrible personality cancelled out any physical attraction I had towards him, but since he became my 'friend', little flecks of attraction had started to form.
So here I was, at lunch as usual sitting with Nick and his friends, although I guess you could say that they're my friends now too. Seeing that football season has started most of them talked football most of the time, something I didn't mind being left out of. I wasn't a sports person.
"Not really a sports person huh." Nick said, turning to face me. I shook my head in acknowledgment. "Then what do you like to do?"
"Anything and everything."
"That's specific."
"I go with the flow. I do whatever I feel like doing at the time." I said.
"C'mon, surely you have hobbies." He pressed.
"I guess video editing but you already knew that."
"Oh right, you're like the best editor in school. I forgot about that. You made that video once, for English class." He said. I had to think back, recalling the stuff that I did for school. I finally recalled the video, one I did for English class back in sophomore year. I was surprise Nick even remembered it. "It was pretty good."
I raised an eyebrow at him, "Don't patronize me." I deadpanned. That video was far from good and I wasn't being critical on myself. What was supposed to be a short, funny skit became one of the most awkward teen videos the world had ever seen. I can't even remember what it was about anymore, just that it was bad in retrospect. "That video sucked balls. In what way was it good?"
"Really? I thought it was kinda funny, in an awkward kind of way." He said.
"Yeah you thought it was funny cause of how bad it was."
"No, I don't think so...Tray" He called to Tray who turned to him. "Remember that video we saw in English class sophomore year."
Tray thought for a while but shrugged his shoulders, unable to recall.
"The 'so bad it was funny' video. The only video I made in sophomore year." I said. His face brightened as he recalled, not before his brow furrowed.
"Wait, you made that vid? But...it was so bad...no offense." Tray said.
"Non taken. It was a train wreck." I looked to Nick and raised an eyebrow at him.
"Well at least it shows how much you've improved?" He tried, and I shook my head smiling. Kate came bouncing in, taking a seat across me. I noticed that for once she didn't give Nick her routine lunch kiss on the cheek. I looked to her then to Nick, both of whom returned my glances. "What?" I asked.
"You're the one that gave us that look first." Kate retorted. I played dumb and watched as Kate looked to Nick, sharing a look. It was clear something was up, and I knew they knew I knew. I watched as Nick and Kate had a silent argument with their expression, something they did on a regular basis, a little trick they developed from years of friendship. Kate took a deep breath, I assumed after they came to a silent agreement on the matter, whatever it was.
"Okay guys." She called, making everyone at the table turn to face her. "Yeah so uh...Nick and I have something to tell you guys...so...um Nick?" She said, chickening out and waiting for Nick to save her, to which he rolled his eyes.
"Kate and I are no longer a couple. We broke up yesterday on mutual terms." He said, without so much as a blink. Everyone was silent, unsure of what to say. Even I, who suspected something was up didn't expect that they would have broken up. "It's really no big deal and don't worry, we're still friends if that's what you're wondering. We talked yesterday and we just decided that our relationship was going nowhere past friendship. So we broke up."
"But...you guys were together for two years. Why the sudden decision?" A cheerleader from the end of the table asked.
"We just...I guess figured we weren't for each other." Kate said.
"And what brought about this? You guys like someone else or something. We all know you can read each other like that and all." Tray asked. Kate visibly blushed at the comment, but it seemed only I noticed. So it was Kate who has feelings for someone else. I looked to Nick, whose expression was indifferent.
