Call Me Romantic (BxB)

Chapter 7

{ꔫ NASH ꔫ}

The front door swings open, and Nash steps into his small living room. His blue hair is messy, and it sticks to him since he's sweaty. Val is lying on the couch, crocheting a white sweater.

"You look so beautiful." Val jokes, her lips curling into her usual smirk before looking down at the sleeve of her sweater and refocusing.

"Wow, thanks," Nash mumbles as he stumbles to the chair and slumps down on it. It's never felt any better sitting down. Though Sienna would've yelled at him if she were here because she hates when people sit on her furniture sweaty. She was quite the clean freak to the point she’d clean if she was stressed. He sighs deeply letting himself catch his breath.

"What did you do?" Val asks.

"Run a mile."

He can hear Val snickering at how beat up he looks. Val is surprisingly very strong and fit so to see someone be this tired after one mile is probably hilarious to her. It’s Nash's hell though. He stretches his legs out as they still burn. He had already drunk all of his water halfway through. Why is running hard? He only runs in gym class or during the mile so it is very hard to go outside and do it by himself. After the second lap, he was considering quitting. It makes him feel good that he didn’t like it’s a little accomplishment.

His legs are going to be sore. He's so used to sitting down and doing things like painting. Unfortunately, he's forced to do some dumb sport he doesn't give two shits about. It wouldn't be good if his teammates would get mad because he's slow. Men yelling at him is too intimidating to him. Maybe that's because his dad died at a young age and was only raised by women so he never really had a man to yell at him. Sure ember yells but it is just different somehow.

His thoughts are cut short by his stomach rumbling, "Val, I'm hungry."

"Oh my god, what are you five? Go get Mom to take you somewhere."

"Mama and Mom are out on a date, remember?"

Sienna and Ember still have small dates. It's cute but Nash and Val don't see them as much as they liked to with work. All that romance shit makes Nash feel so icky. It's like everyone is in a relationship but him. For example, Nova is talking to Archie. Val has a loyal perfect boyfriend… And he only has two friends.

Val groans, "Fine."Where?"

"What's that muffin bakery we always go to? It's beside a gym and bookstore."

Val stands up, grabs her keys, and throws on her brown leather coat that has tan fur, it makes her look like a supermodel, "Don't let me get anything." She makes a wave motion with her hand as if to dismiss someone. Nash gets up as well scrunching up his face and wiping the sweat off his forehead. "Wait, what, why?" He was worried. He looks like a train wreck next to his sister who's the embodiment of Aphrodite.

"just don't."

Nash frowns. She's been getting worse and worse. First, it was not eating school lunch, which is understandable since that shit is gross. Then it spread to dinner, and she ate it in her room. She doesn't think he's that dumb, right?

"Val.."

"Don't, let's just go," she demands as she holds up a hand and steps outside, the glass door closed after her. Nash watches as she walks off to the car without him before he quickly rushes outside to the cold breeze once more.

     ———————————————

The cafe smells like fresh goods and fruits. It's rather small but has a cottage aesthetic. The owner is an older woman who lives a quiet life with her baked goods. Nash found it with Nova when they were walking around the town after school.
Well, first they stared into the gym at all the muscular men and then went to which bakery. Nova still calls Nash extremely gay for that, but he’d rather get teased than never see muscles.

The bakery has light wooden floors with windows for walls. The black wood tables are beside the windows as well that lead to the parking lot if you look beside you. While Val is still in the car, Nash rushes up to the man behind the counter and orders two muffins. Nash has always got the blueberry muffin and is the only thing he needs from here to be satisfied. He didn't care if Val wasn't going to eat hers; he'd find a way to make her. He then says with cash as the man gets the two muffins.

Val comes in and sits at a table by the window parking lot. Nash joins her with the two muffins; which are a bit cold. Can't complain though it's 30 minutes before they close and they've probably been out all day.

"I told you I didn't want anything," Val said when she looked up from her phone.

"And I don't care." Nash slides her over a muffin, but she just crosses her arms and stares at it.

"Val, please eat."

"I am!"

"I never see it."

She rolls her eyes and picks up the muffin, "I do.' She mumbles, it doesn’t sound very confident.  After she's done eating it, Nash smiles proudly before also engulfing his muffin. "Not so bad, right?" Nash cocks his head, trying to be sympathetic and vulnerable with her. He's never dealt with eating disorders or unhealthy relationships with food but he knows what it's like to hate your body. He’s not perfect at this but he will try again and again to get her to eat and be healthy.

She shrugs, lifting from the chair, "I'm going to the bathroom." Then she rushes off and closes the heavy bathroom door behind her.

"Oh, ok." He says to himself as he watches her walk off. He looks out the window hoping she’s not lying. It's already dark out since it's around 6 p.m., and it's winter. Nash thinks it's depressing how early it gets dark, but he also likes the stars and watching them. Winter is a sad session while summer is happy. It's funny how his mood depends on the weather and how he can go from hating nature to loving it.

All he can see is his reflection in the black mirror, the night sky making all his colors look darker. His strong blue hair looks dark blue. He leans against the window, the cold glass against his head; he can see better outside where the parking lot is, just a little bit. After a couple of long seconds, a car pulls up, and out comes a tall boy with brunette hair. He's yelling at someone in the car which makes Nash narrow his eyes but can't see from this angle. He's not nosy. Just bored. He also can't hear a thing; it's probably personal, but he keeps watching. The boy slams the car door, and the car speeds off a second later. The brunette boy watches the car and crosses his arms before turning around. He has a winter vest on with cargo black pants with a blue bag on him. The boy angles his head in the light of the bakery, he's tan and has rosy cheeks but it's too dark to tell his eyes. Nash narrows his eyes more.

Oh shit, Sam!

They make eye contact because Sam can see Nash staring at him like a creep in the light better than he can stare at Sam in the dark. Nash flinches and looks away from Sam to the muffin and cookies that are locked in by the table glass. Man, they've never seemed more interesting until now. Nash can't help but turn his head back to the window praying Sam is gone, and so he is.

Nash can imagine Sam was yelling at his dad since he heard Ophelia say he has bad daddy issues. It would only make sense. He knows sams a dick, but he also hopes he’s okay. By that time, Val had come out of the bathroom looking pale, "Ready?"

"Let's get the just out of here," Nash replies, standing up and rushing to the door.

     ———————————————