#18 in TeenFic
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❝Don't,❞ he pleaded softly, offering her a tiny smile, ❝please don't make me a promise you will never be able to keep.❞ He released a quiet but deep breath, leaning forward even more, tilting his body towards her, until thei...
NICK walked into Howard's class, his eyes zeroing in on the few empty seats at the back of the room. His feet automatically began to move towards one of them but the few sheets of paper leant to him by a certain blonde seemed to suddenly weigh as heavy as concrete, dragging him away from the direction he was heading.
He'd left the rest of the notes back in his locker but brought the ones on professor Howard's lectures along with him. He figured he might need them this class.
Nick's eyes found the face he was looking for. He didn't have to think twice; the force pushing him towards her was far more domineering than the part of him that was telling him to leave things as it was. Especially after yesterday.
To hell with caution.
He strode towards her, purpose in his every step. And as he neared her, Nick took in the oval shaped face that was tilted to the left, causing her dark blonde hair to fall to one side and exposing the slender curve of her neck. Her eyes, that were normally filled with mirth, were disturbed and lost in serious thought.
He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake the worry out of her. It didn't suit her. He liked her laughing and blabbering away instead.
She must have heard his footsteps, or felt his eyes on her, or even just sensed his presence because her eyes suddenly snapped to him.
First they looked plain confused, then they widened as if realising something.
"Someone sitting here?" Nick asked once he came to a stop right beside the empty seat that he'd occupied last time they were seated together.
She continued to stare at him, as if not believing her own eyes.
"I'll take that as a yes," Nick said lightheartedly, placing his books on the desk and moving in next to her.
"Don't," Bree said quietly that he almost didn't hear her. Almost.
"I'm sorry?" he frowned, not understanding.
"You don't have to," she said, looking right into his eyes, always one for being upfront about matters. "That's why I gave Dale the notes instead of you, okay? So that you don't have to feel like you owed me or something. You don't have to do this," she gestured towards him sitting next to her, "I get it. You prefer keeping to yourself, and Chase is a dog that nobody would want on their scent."
"Bree, that's not why--"
"And I'm also sorry for Claire," she cut him off, "I don't know what she said that made you so mad and to ditch classes for the rest of the day, but I know she's never going to apologise so I'll do it on her behalf, okay?"
He stared at her, not knowing what to say. "You don't have to apologise..." he trailed off, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that she apparently didn't know anything yet.
Was that relief he felt wash over him at the fact that she didn't know?
"Someone has to,” she sounded tired to Nick's ears. "Sorry about Chase too, really. He'll back off, though, once he sees... Well, frankly, I have no idea what he saw in the first place but he'll back off when he figures we're not hanging out all that much. Or at all for that matter."
Nick was beginning to grow wearier and wearier of Chase as time went by. Today seemed worse; his name popped up everywhere... along with a girl's name... Melody or something. Nick had heard the name somewhere before and he couldn't recall when or where.
However, when he saw Dawson's girlfriend walk through the classroom door, Nick suddenly remembered. They'd been speaking about a Melody Campbell during lectures when he'd told them off, hadn't they?
Wait, wasn't there a Melody in his basic Aerospace Engineering class? The evening one? And hadn't she been gone for days?
Nick's head was starting to ache due to all the dots staring him right in the face but him having no inkling whatsoever on how to connect them.
Then again, this wasn't his business. It wasn't his problem; he had enough on his plate. More than anyone should.
"So you can leave," Bree murmured quietly. "Just go."
"It's okay--"
"Can you not, please?" her tone was slightly frustrated now and Nick felt his own annoyance rising due to being interrupted twice by her. "I don't need something happening to you like it did with Mel because of me. I'm just so exhausted from everything today and I can't take anymore! I'm really tired out of my mind right now and I don't need the guilt to top it all off."
Nick felt his eyes harden as he looked at her, anger bubbling on the surface of his consciousness.
"Suit yourself," he said in a clipped tone but she didn't even flinch. She wasn't even looking at him, keeping her eyes trained on the large whiteboard in the front of the class, dismay all over her face for some reason unknown to him. "Next time I extend you a goddamn olive branch, I'll remember to kick myself first."
But when he whipped around and reached for his books to get out of that chair, his eyes fell on the seats that had been vacant and realised they were all occupied now.
Seriously? Someone up there must have it in for him.
Nick sighed in defeat, and just slumped back in his seat, making sure to keep a considerable distance between them. The tension was so thick, he felt like he could cut through it with the blunt pencil that was lying on the top of his foldable table.
The atmosphere felt strained, rather than awkward.
He was mad at her, but when time passed and he relaxed into professor Howard's slow but captivating drawl that kept the students hooked onto his every word, Nick found that she was actually being pretty reasonable.
And it wasn't like Bree was saying anything selfish; instead, her every word seemed to prove that she was putting his interests first. She was just respecting what he'd wanted in the first place.
It was amazing, really, how his perspective could change for the better if he only just calmed down and thought things through without getting caught up in the heat of the moment.
He wanted to sneak a glance at her through the corner of his eye but he fought against the stupid urge.
And if anything, Nick had steely, unflinching resolve.
But if there was something he didn't know yet, it was that Nick's resolve was capable of crumbling to dust when it came to her, to Bree Salvare.
So he did end up sneaking a glance at her, tuning out of the lecture, for a few seconds that seemed to be an eternity of its own.
Bree's eyes instantly shifted from the lecturer to Nick's too, unasked questions swimming in them. And he didn't know why, but he felt his lips stretching into the smallest of smiles.
Surprise flickered across her plain brown eyes but eventually, her mouth curved upwards into a smile too.
And that seemed to speak more volumes than words would have ever been able to.
