His Muse

Possible date three

Nic grabbed the bowl of shells and started to pick through them and eat them himself. Bev told them that she was going to head up to her room while the bread cooled off, so Kieran waved farewell to her before letting his arm flop down onto his lap. "So Milo said he knows you and that you were worried about me actually signing up to take modeling classes."

Nic choked on the pea pod and coughed into his sleeve until he was actually able to breathe properly. He cleared his throat and Kieran suggested he grab a glass of water. "Cups are in the cabinet over the sink," he said as Nic pushed himself to his feet. The bowl of pea pods clinked onto the tile floor, and when he finally had some water to drink, Kieran continued.

"It costs a lot to take the class on it," Kieran confessed, picking at the seal of the pea pod to break it open. "But I'm thinking I'm gonna do it, ya know? It'd be worth it once all that's over with and I've got a modeling reputation down. 'Cause the classes hook you up with photographers and shit, and art teachers and professors get a list of our names and stuff to contact for figure drawing classes."

"And... you researched all this?" Nic said, voice hoarse at the thought.

"Yeah, I already signed up for it," Kieran snorted, smirking as he flicked a pea into his mouth and munched on it. "But I'm kinda nervous. Would you want to come to the first meet up with me? You wouldn't come into the room or anything—just hang out outside, work on homework or somethin'."

"Um..." It's not like this is my worst fear or anything! It's not like my heart is about to combust or anything like that!

"What, are you jealous or something?" Kieran said, and his voice turned far more serious this time around. It caused Nic to panic because he hadn't even considered that. He never even pegged himself as a jealous person. Was that the reason why his brain was on maximum overdrive?

Nic decided, "No, of course not. It's your decision."

The tension from Kieran's voice vanished instantly, and translated into his now relaxed shoulders. "Thank God. I was worried. So you wanna come with or what? It's on Saturday."

"Um, sure. I wouldn't mind," Nic said. If he wasn't jealous, then what was he? So what if other people saw Kieran naked. Pff, what a ridiculous concept. So what if people had permanent images of Kieran in the nude on their fancy DSLR cameras? Of... course Nic didn't care about that...

"You're not okay with it," Kieran commented, and before Nic could argue against that, he continued, "It's fine! It's fine. You're just a bit more traditional than I thought you were."

Nic scoffed and blurted out, "Traditional? I am not traditional—my Grandma would be considered tradition, definitely not me."

"Cool. So third date then?" Kieran suggested, and Nic was so startled that he fell quiet all over again. Weren't they... supposed to argue more on that topic? Nic had to admit, it was a bit stuffy of him to tell Kieran not to just go ahead and take modeling classes... But then again, maybe Kieran somehow knew Nic's brain was arguing against him now. Kieran didn't even have to do any of the work.

"Wait—third date?" Nic repeated. "Is... this a date?"

"Hell yeah. Want some banana bread?" Kieran pushed himself up and went to where Bev left the bread to cool off. Nic turned his head so his eyes could follow after Kieran, and the way he pushed up the sleeves on his black sweatshirt that read... Seriously, what the hell did his sweatshirt say?

"Mind turning this way for a sec?" Nic asked, and so Kieran did, dropping his hands to his sides so Nic could read, "'I hope that frog in your car is okay.' What the hell kind of sweatshirt is that? Where do you even find shit like that?"