Cool Kids [p. parker] || SLOW UPDATES

FORTY-EIGHT

Nick shrugged as he grabbed a few random shirts and walked back to his bed, tossing them onto the mattress and looked at them, moving his phone so it wasn't under the shirts. "I guess, yeah. I'll talk to Uncle Ryan. Wouldn't it be easier to just ask him yourself, though? Don't you have his number?"

"No."

"He literally babysat you and Mitch up until a few years ago, James."

"That doesn't mean I have his number!"

"I mean... It should."

"Shut up."

Nick let out a quiet laugh, and their phone call continued for a couple more minutes after Nick promised to ask Ryan about checking up on Brooklyn Rogers. When it ended, Nick plugged his phone into a charger and went back to finding a nice enough shirt, eventually slipping on a white t-shirt and a jean jacket that he was pretty sure used to belong to one his friends, he didn't know which, and then searched for his shoes. Slipping them on after finding them, he grabbed his phone and checked the time before going downstairs.

"Hey, Dad, I'm- oh." Nick froze as he entered the living room, his eyes landing on his mom. She had apologized and he had accepted it, but her sudden departure after he came out still happened, and he wasn't about to lie about how he had grown used to not seeing her casually sitting in the living room. He looked around for a second, confused and shocked, before looking at her again. "Hi, Mom. Why are you here?"

Sharon smiled and stood up from the couch, walking over to him. "Your dad told me you had a date," she went on to explained. "I decided to come to make sure you didn't need any help with anything, since I wasn't before."

"I probably should have warned you," Dan said as he walked into the living room as well. "But you were busy talking to James. Decided to not interrupt you two."

Nick slowly nodded. He was still a bit confused, but he was smiling, not mad for once at seeing his mom. The smile did falter a bit, though, at James' name, eyes quickly darting back to his mom after looking to his dad. He was expecting a negative reaction from her. But there wasn't one.

"I'm glad you two are staying in touch," she said.

Before Nick could say anything back to her, or hide his surprise well, the doorbell rang. "Oh, that's Peter-."

"Hold on, let me fix your hair," Sharon said quickly and grabbed his elbow to pull him back.

"Mom," Nick whined. "You're gonna make the curls frizz."

She gave him a look. "No I'm not. You need a hair cut, by the way. Also, I need to meet Peter."

His eyes widened drastically. "What? No!"

"Not now, sheesh. Another day, obviously."

He let out a small sigh of relief and gently swatted her hand away as she tried to fix his hair some more. He stepped away from giving her a quick hug, and dodged his dad's hand as he tried to ruffle his hair. Shouting a bye, Nick rushed down the hall and to the front door, making sure he had his phone before answering it, ignoring anything and everything embarrassing that his dad was shouting at him.

Nick froze for a second time after stepping outside, his greeting to Peter immediately trailing off quietly at seeing him. Peter wasn't wearing anything drastic, it was just a simple off white sweater, jeans and some converse, but he still looked so good, and Nick didn't know whether to feel angry about it or not – because Peter could look good in anything and it can be a bit infuriating at times. And Peter's hair was done nicely; parted and gelled a bit to the point where the waves weren't noticeable.