The Nerd [ongoing]

happiness (45.)

happiness

(n.) can be found in even the darkest of times, if only one remembers to turn on the light

I didn't get to see much of Ava in her little black bikini but fuck.

If I wasn't flustered before, I'd definitely be now.

I jump after Ava, maybe it'll cool me off a bit.

I've always loved swimming, I even loved my swimming lessons. I was always begging my parents to take me to a pool.

The begging turned down but I still ask if there's a pool if we're going somewhere.

~

This whole day felt like a fever dream. We spent the whole day swimming and eating. Two of my favorite things to do.

Right now I'm laying in the comfortable bed back at the hotel. Ava's laying in the bed next to me. She moves a lot in her sleep. A side effect from the nightmares maybe?

I can't imagine what it must've been like for her to go through all that stuff. I don't think I could've done it. And she's still standing too. I don't think she realizes how strong she is.

I think I should tell her about the mafia. She's telling me all this stuff and it makes me want to open up to her too.

But how would I even tell her? I can't just drop it like, 'I'm in a mafia, surprise'. That would be weird.

And how would she react? Being an underground fighter is one thing. The mafia is a whole other thing.

Maybe she already has ties to the mafia. The Arena is ran by 'my' mafia I think. Now that I think about it. I've seen Tim there a lot. Is he in the mafia too? And if so, does Ava know?

So many questions and no answers.

~

Today we're going to see the Eiffel Tower. The teacher made sure that it wouldn't be any fun by making sure that the tour guide was a 80-something year old man who loved to talk about the history of the tower. And his cats.

I look at Ava and see that she's keeping herself awake by making conversation with Reagan. I like how Ava is when Reagan is around. How much she smiles.

I shift my eyes from Ava to Reagan when I notice Reagan raising her brows at me a few times before looking back at Ava.

My face morphs from a smile to confusion. What did she mean with that?

The people around us suddenly start to talk louder and they almost seem to multiply. What's happening?

I look at Ava and she looks very uncomfortable. Her hands are fumbling with her sleeves and her eyes are flying all over the place.

I reach one hand out to hers, trying to calm her the way she did with me on the plane. When our hands touch she hastily pulls her own away and looks at mine. Then up at me. Then away.

"Sorry, I-I didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable." I try to make eye contact with her.

Her eyes connect with mine and her face muscles relax a little. "It's okay."

I give her a little smile before looking away again, trying to find any sort of person with authority who can tell me something about what's going on here.

Before I do, I feel a hand hesitantly but firmly grabbing onto mine. I try my best to remove the face-splitting grin off of my face but it's hard when she's acting all cute like this.

~

So apparently there was some sort of protest and due to that there were a lot of people surrounding the Eiffel Tower.

We had to go back to the hotel after that and now Ava and I are in our room, just talking, when she got a phone call.

"Seriously Tim?" Why would he call her? Isn't he staying here too? Couldn't he just come and talk to her?

"No, we can't just do that."

"Yes, I know your name is on this building but that doesn't mean-"

Wait. His name? But doesn't that mean-

"Let me just ask Hunter and if he's in, I'll text the others. Okay?"

She removes the phone from her ear and turns to me with a mischievous look in her eyes.

"Wanna go play hide and seek?"

~

I'm currently hiding in some closet that someone left unlocked on accident. It's not that good of a hiding place, I'll admit that. But I heard footsteps down the hall so I just opened the first door I saw.

I haven't heard anything in a while so maybe I can try to sneak out and find a better hiding place. Just as I reach for the door knob, the sound of quickly paced footsteps hitting the floor reaches my ears. I quickly pull my hand back and hold my breath.

The door swings open and a mop of brown hair runs in and bumps into me after closing the door. Did I forget to say that the closet was barely big enough for me alone? Let alone two people?

The mop of brown hair lets out a quiet 'oof'. "Hunter? Is that you?"

Ava. "How'd you know it was me?" She didn't even look at me when the door was open and there's no light here.

"I uh, I recognized your- scent I- I guess."

"You smelled it was me?" What?

"Yeah but it's not like that I mean-"

"No, you just took a big sniff of the air and recognized me right?" I tease her.

"I just- I mean I- I wasn't-" She struggles.

I chuckle softly. "I was just teasing you. I did put on a little too much cologne this morning so it's not that weird."

I can almost hear her eyes roll when she shoves me a little.

But since the closet was so full of cleaning supplies it made me bump into something and fall. I tried to grab onto something so I wouldn't land on the floor but the something fell with me. That something was Ava.

So now here we both are, on the floor. Ava on top of me.

I feel my cheeks heat up.

Ava is on top of me.

AND SHE'S NOT FREAKING OUT.

Not that I am though, what made you think that?

Did her face just get closer to mine? I can feel her breath on my face.

I can't take it anymore. I grab her face on both sides.

"Can I kiss you?"