Fruit Roll Up- Nick Andopolis x Reader

Part Three

          I woke up the next day and had the sudden urge to dress up more than usual. Nothing too crazy but I wanted to look nice, not sure why though. I arrived to first period english and for the first time in the entire year I had somebody to talk to. Kim and I spent most of the day not paying attention and cracking on Mr. Odis, which I usually did anyway but only in my head.
          I finally got to fifth period, algebra, and saw none other than Nick Andopolis, we both noticed each other at the same time and he smiled at me. Was he even in this class? I'd never noticed him in here before. I sat two rows in front of him, not sure if I should say anything until I heard loud whispering coming from behind me. "Psst! (Y/N)." I turned around to see Nick leaning over his desk looking at me.
          "Since when are you in this class?" I finally asked him.
          "I transferred to this class second semester, I usually don't come in though."
          "Well why are you here now?" I asked again.
          "Well when I saw you come in I thought it wouldn't be that boring if I had you to talk to." He smiled and looked down a bit as if he was embarrassed by what he said. It was sweet though.
          "Thanks, but I'm afraid this class would be boring even if Jon Bonham was in here." I laughed and he looked a little surprised. I looked at the teacher then back at Nick. We both seemed to have the same idea.
          "Wait here." He whispered to me and put his hand on my shoulder as he passed me, he walked up to the teacher, and asked to go to the bathroom. I sat there impatiently for about five minutes, not knowing what he was planning, when a girl walked into the classroom.
          "There's an emergency phone call for (Y/N) (L/N) at the front office, it's from her mother." She said and my eyes widened a little. The teacher excused me and I walked out of the room following the girl until we reached the first staircase where I saw none other than Nick. He stood up after noticing me, thanked the girl who then left, and put his arm around my shoulder.
          "Let's gooo!" He shouted and laughed.
          "You jerk!" I joked and punched him in the arm. "You actually had me worried!" I chuckled.
          "Ha! Sorry. But it was worth it, we're gonna have a blast." He assured me and we approached the back exit of the school leading out to the bleachers. He opened one of the doors for me and poked his head out looking around for any teachers, then the same behind us inside. "Go, go, go!" He ushered me out the door and I broke into a sprint heading towards the main road. "Wait for me!" he called from behind me. I looked back to see him jogging not far behind, we exchanged a look of accomplishment and continued booking it until the school was no longer in sight.
          When I finally knew we were in the clear I stopped to catch my breathe, hands on my knees, my heart racing and slightly wheezing. Like I said I wasn't the athletic type. I would usually tap out after only a minute of running but I guess the adrenaline kept me going. Nick caught up to me and placed a hand on my shoulder. He was also hunched over catching his breath but was still more composed than me. "You.. alright?" He panted, each word between breaths. I only nodded in response, still too worn out to use actual words yet.
          We walked along the road side by side, deciding to go to Nicks house. Upon arriving he stood me in front of the closed garage door and made me cover my eyes. I did as I was told and fought the urge to peek when I heard the garage door loudly start to open, which startled me a little. "Okay you can open now." He said, sounding almost giddy. I uncovered my eyes to reveal an intricate set of various types of drums and even a gong. He went on to name every type of percussion he had there, most of which I had never even heard of, but I enjoyed watching him ramble, it was sweet.
          "Alright you have to play me something." I put my hands on his back pushing him over and onto the small seat in the middle of his mess of instruments. He smiled at me, obviously excited to play for me. He threw on his big headphones and without any warning began banging on the drums. His sound was overall very sloppy and without an exact rhythm, but i could hear the passion in it, so I didn't mind. I just sat and watched him play for a while, barely even listening to the sound, just watching him. The way his arms flexed as he played, the way he stuck his tongue out imitating rockstars. You could see how much fun he was having it almost made me jealous.
          When he finally wore himself out he lead me down to his basement. There was a small worn couch with a variety of blankets covering it, and the walls were decorated with lights tapestries and posters. I sat on one end of the couch and Nick laid down with his head next to my lap. His legs were so long he had to prop them up on the back of the couch. We smoked and talked for a while, mostly about music. We wandered onto the topic of life and what the meaning of it was. "I don't think life has any meaning, it's just whatever you make it to be and it's different for everyone." I went on. "Everything that society has deemed important is really just meaningless, it was all just made up at some point then everyone decided that was how it's supposed to be for some reason."
          "No I completely agree!" Nick exclaimed, looking up at me. "My dad's always bitching about my grades but I don't think he understands that I'm a drummer, I don't need good grades. They won't get me anywhere I wanna go anyway." His mood changed all of a sudden. "He says if I don't get my grades up he's gonna send me to the army."
          I was shocked. "He can't do that! Just don't go, there's so many other things you could do."
         "Oh yeah, like what?" He scoffed in disbelief.
          "You could join a caravan, or go backpacking through Europe, or even travel on tour with a band! It's can't be too hard to get hired as a groupie or a stage hand. Plus that would be a great way to get connections." I gave a few examples. He looked back up at me and smiled.
          "Yeah I guess so. Thanks, (Y/N)." He looked a little more relaxed now.
           I patted his head and said, "You'll be alright, Nick." I smiled down at him. We just looked at each other for a while in silence. He looked like he was holding back something, like he had an idea in his head but was unsure about it.
          He stood up quickly and rubbed the back of his neck, he looked a bit nervous. "I, uh, just remembered my dads gonna be home soon. He'll be pissed if he knew I skipped school."
          I thought for a moment. "Well schools almost over anyway, why don't we just walk a ways away, wait, then come back like we just got home from school?", I recommended. He agreed with my idea and we walked about 5 blocks away from his house. He didn't live that far away from me, just about a 20 minute walk. "Well, I guess I should head home now." I told him slightly dissappointed.
          "Yeah, uh, I'll see you tomorrow, (Y,N)." I expected him to walk away but instead he stepped closer to me. Unsure of what he was going to do I just stood there and to my surprise he hugged me! He tensed up a little when I hugged him back but quickly eased into it. It was a short lasting hug, but I could still feel his arms around me even after he let go. When we let go his face grew a shade of red, and he rubbed the back of his neck, his body fidgeting a bit. We awkwardly said our goodbyes and he turned to walk away, "See ya."  he said and waved.  I watched him walk away for a moment before turning around and walking home. My body felt hot and my heart pounded a little. I slept pretty good that night.