Thick and Thin [l. hemmings]

thirty-six

"Yeah. and? I own the company, what is anybody here gonna do? Fire me?"

"You sound so entitled. Go do your work."

He groans, "I use the owning a business line all the time with girls. They love it."

"Yeah, but I know you. It was handed to you from your parents. I mean, it's really not that impressive."

"Well I don't tell them that part!" He exclaims, making me roll my eyes.

"Go do your work, Luke. I'll talk to you soon." I tell him, quietly laughing at him.

"Okay, fine."

We say our goodbyes and end the call, and I smile at my phone for a few moments before going back to my work.

The whole time I was trying to do my homework, Luke kept popping into my mind. It was worrisome. I didn't want to be thinking about him this much.

"Kels!" Nina calls, barging into my room, making me flinch.

"What?" I question, quickly turning to her.

"So, you know how you fucked Ashton?"

"We're not talking about this." I tell her, turning back to my laptop.

"But-"

"No."

"Please-"

I sigh, tuning to her again, "Nina! We don't need to discuss it. It happened, and that's it. It'll never happen again so there's no reason to talk about it."

"Fine. I was gonna go to the coffee place down the street to get work done. Wanna join?"

"Actually, yeah. It'd be nice to get out."

-

"So, now that we've worked for half an hour, who was the guy on the phone?" Nina asks as she shuts her laptop.

"What?" I ask, keeping my voice low as we sit in the middle of the coffee shop.

"Earlier. Before I came into your room."

"Oh. Nobody."

"You really have a lot of secrets, don't you?"

"No, I'm just private." I reply, trying to stay focused on my work.

"Okay. As long as you're okay."

"I'm doing okay, yeah. I'm good."

"Are you sure? You know you can talk to me."

"There's just been a lot going on. Between Michael leaving me then disappearing, things that happened in Seattle, and sleeping with Ashton, it's a lot. But I'm okay, I guess. I've been doing better than I thought I would."

"Are you sure you're okay about Michael?"

"It's my own fault he left me. I really don't want to get into it, but I understand. I deserved him leaving me. I hadn't been a great girlfriend for a few months. I do love him, he deserves so much more than me. It sucks... I'm doing okay though."

"Kels... I don't know what happened, but you shouldn't talk down on yourself like this."

I shrug, "I deserve it."

"But, you don't."

"God, I'd rather talk about how I fucked Ashton." I tell her, really not wanting to talk about the Michael situation. I don't want to tell her why we broke up. I don't want to tell her about Luke yet.

"Is it so weird? I wanna know!" She questions, clearly getting more excited.

"Nevermind, I don't want to talk about it." I quickly say, not wanting to talk about any of this.

"Well, what happened in Seattle?" She questions, clearly wanting me to talk.

"Listen, I'm not ready to talk yet. Some old things came up and... I- I need to figure them out on my own first."

"If you need to talk... I'm here. I know Ashton was giving you a hard time, and it might be weird now." She says, a smirk on her lips as she says the last part.

I laugh, shaking my head at her, "I'm done with this. I'm tired. I really need a nap."

"Nap here, I still have to finish the end of this essay." Nina replies, focusing back on her laptop.

I yawn, "Okay."

-

I sigh, when I'm woken up by somebody shaking me.

"You slept for a while." Nina laughs.

"Oh my god, I actually slept here?" I quietly exclaim, looking around the cafe.

Nina laughs, "Yeah. But I'm finished my work now."

"So we can go?" I ask, stretching out.

She nods, packing up her things, "Yeah, come on."

On our way back to our place, we're in silence for most of it. Until Nina finally speaks up.

"So, uh, did you know you talk in your sleep?" Nina asks, "I didn't know. We slept five feet apart for a whole school year."

"Oh, uh, yeah. It started after uh-" I pause, since I don't want to tell her it started after Luke and I broke up. "I- yeah. It doesn't happen often. Michael caught me sleep talking a couple times, when we were together."

"Well, I thought I should tell you that you muttered something about Michael. I don't really know what you said. Something about being worried."

"I mean, I am worried about him. I still haven't heard from him. I really need to just talk things out with him." I tell her.

"If you need to talk it through, I've said it a million times, you can come to me."

I sigh, really not wanting to tell her what really happened leading up to my backup with Michael. "Thanks, but, I think this is just something I need to talk with Michael."

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I'm giving up for now on trying to fix my laptop smh so here u go