Miles Away | Nick Mara

Forty Four

We stayed up all night. I few hours after my dad left. we had dinner. Chicken Alfredo and salad. Nick and I ate as fast as we could and left the table, running back upstairs to his room. Once everyone had finished eating, we went back down for dessert, then washed the dishes.

"This is the first time I've been away from my dad since..."

"Yeah." Nick smiled, handing me a plate after he'd washed it.

I sat on the counter next to the sink with a towel in my hand, drying everything that Nick handed to me. He'd brought his speaker downstairs and played some music in the background.

"I'm sure he's fine at home."

I nodded. "He looked happy here. Thank you."

"Well," he grinned. "I gotta be good to my future father-in-law."

My jaw dropped.

He laughed. "I'm just kidding. Kinda."

I smiled. "Hmm."

He smiled, handing me the last spoon. He turned the water off, dried his hands, then stood in front of me. His hands slid around my waist as I dried the spoon and put it in the drawer. He leaned in close, gently pushing his lips on mine.

"Oh get a room." Nick's mom walked in with a tub of ice cream in her hand.

We laughed and separated. I jumped down from the counter and stood next to him.

"Actually." She frowned. "Don't get a room. Not in this house anyway. Go watch a movie or something."

We laughed even more, backing away slowly before she could say anything else. After changing into pajamas, we headed to the basement. There were big bean bags and blankets thrown around all over the floor with a huge TV attached to the wall. I lay down in Nick's sweatshirt and sweatpants, snuggling into a blanket with a pillow over my chest while he set up the TV.

"What d'you wanna watch?" He asked, standing with the remote and clicking on Netflix.

"Pitch Perfect."

He turned to look at me in disbelief. I laughed and told him I was joking, and that we could watch whatever he wanted to watch.

"If my baby REALLY wants to watch a girly movie about singing and dancing, I will watch." He sighed, and played the movie.

"Wait." I laughed. "I was just tryna be funny. We can watch something else."

He shrugged. "Nah this is fine."

"Are you sure?"

He nodded and lay down beside me, pulling the blanket over his body. Only a few minutes into the movie, he was already laughing and enjoying the movie. I looked at him with a smile.

"Okay." He admitted. "It's not THAT bad."

"You're liking it more than I am."

He laughed, but agreed that he was. I fell asleep a few times, but was woken up each time by Nick's hysterical laughter. When it ended, he jumped up, saying that he wanted to watch the second one. I laughed.

But we ended up just talking until morning. We lay next to each other on the pillows and bean bags and blankets, and talked about anything that came up.

"My friends didn't like you at first." I said, playing around with the blanket.

He sat up. "What??"

I laughed. "They thought you were a player or something, and they said I should just hook up with you one night, then let it go."

He sighed. "Bruh."

I laughed. "Well, I mean, they like you now."

"Hmm." He pretended to be upset. "Why didn't you."

"Why didn't I what."

"Let it go."

I shrugged. "I was struggling, and you helped me."

He sat back down. "What do you mean struggling."

"I don't really know." I thought about it. "It wasn't just one thing. It felt like everything was kinda crumbling down around me. Friendships, family, college, and I don't know. It was hard, and I wasn't happy about anything that I had. But we started talking and it made me feel safe, like I don't know how to explain it. I had something to look forward to every day."

He pulled me towards him and kissed my forehead. I'd never told him this before. It didn't really seem relevant at any time. 

"I'll forever try my hardest to make you happy."

I laughed. "You don't need to try."