"How's California so far?"
"I've been here for 2 hours, Kai. The only places I've been in so far is the spare bedroom Dylan gave me and the airport" I answer back, laying down on the mattress on the floor. "My set up and bed frame is gonna arrive in a couple days still so for now, I'm just sleeping on the floor with my bags cramped up at the side"
"How's Nick holding up?" Kai snorted, probably thinking he was still being dramatic about me moving.
"He told me to move to Cali with my brother so he better be holding up well.. So 4 months?" I quickly changed the subject not because I didn't want to talk about it, but because I know the conversation would lead to something I can't handle.
"4 months and I'll be in America!" Kai practically yelled out in excitement "We're moving to Florida together, right?"
"Yeah, I wanna introduce you to Wisteria and Erin in Orlando"
"Those are Nick's friends, yeah?" Kai asked before I see a flash of light come to their face.
"Are you playing games without me?! I feel so betrayed right now" I gasp dramatically as a look of guilt becomes present in Kai's face "Couldn't even wait a couple days for me"
"It's your fault you moved" Kai focused on their screen intently, sucking in a breath from time to time "FUCK"
"It's not like I had a choice anyways. I didn't have enough money to stay in Miami and I've been going through so much shit lately, it's good that I moved in with Dyl" I look at my phone to see Kai not even paying attention to anything I was saying "Get off the fucking game, would you?"
"Nick's carrying me right now, so no"
"Nick is playing with you?" This man had the audacity to ignore any of my texts in the past couple of days yet plays with my own best friend.
"Yeah, he said he told you about it so I don't know why you're still asking that"
I furrow my brows in confusion as I exited the FaceTime and went through me and Nick's messages. It simply consisted of me texting him at least once everyday in the last 10 days. No texts or response from him whatsoever.
"He didn't say anything to me about it so how would I know?"
"Doesn't he update you on like everything he does and you do the same? It was one of the main reasons why we aren't in a discord call 24/7 like we used to be" Despite Kai talking about things, they somehow kept their focus on the game. It really makes me question how good they are in multitasking.
"Well I've been busy with things so we aren't as talkative to each other this past week" I fiddled around with the string of my hoodie out of anxiety.
Kai knows me really well and most probably if they weren't playing right now, they'd notice every fidget or every sign showing my discomfort when they talk about Nick.
"Uh anyways, once I get my set up, let's stream the modded survival we were gonna do. 2 hours max and maybe an hour minimum so I have something to edit" I suggested.
"When are you getting your set up?"
"It's Monday right now so probably Thursday or Friday"
"What if we add Nick to our streams?"
"Stop fucking bringing up Nick and let's actually have a normal conversation without his name entering the topic every 2 seconds" I snapped at them.
I didn't really mean to but the mention of Nick so much since last week was getting on my nerves.
"Okay, I'm ending this game and talking to you about it"
After that, the FaceTime stayed quiet and Kai put all their focus into the game to somehow finish it faster. That was fine for me but when they started laughing at something then talking into the microphone, I knew Nick was talking to them.
-
Nick 🐼
hey we can just be friends yk?
-
hello?
-
i'm boarding already and ur friends
are here to say bye
-
i landed at cali :)
-
ur playing with kai?
why do they get to be friends with u
but i cant
-
I didn't get why he was ignoring me. I stated we could be friends and return things to back before we said we liked each other but he just simply nodded and went on with the day acting like I didn't exist.
He was being childish. I'm the only person putting the effort into going back to the way things were and he was just making things harder for himself by doing whatever he was doing.
"Nice game, I'll play with you some other time" Kai says into their mic as their screen darkens. "Now talk to me, Daph"
-
3rd person POV
"Nick? Where are you going?" Clay jumps up from the couch when he sees Nick all dressed up and moving quickly to the front door.
"Somewhere, don't contact me" With that, he slammed the door shut, leaving Clay and Wisteria dumbfounded on the couch.
-
It was later at night when both Clay and Wisteria's heads flick to their bedroom door at the sound of a door slamming behind it.
"Nick's home" Wisteria immediately feels a hand grip her wrist tightly before she could even stand up. "Shouldn't we go say hi?"
"He's not in a good mood right now so let's let him cool down for a bit"
"But he was gone for hours, I want to make sure he's okay"
Clay understood her reasoning and highly debated on whether to go out and ask his best friend if everything was okay or not.
That was until they could hear knocking come from his room.
"Is he using his hammer or something?" Wisteria asked innocently "What if he's building something?!"
Clay got up from his side of the bed and exited the room with Wisteria following behind him.
"Holy shit.." Clay looks at Wisteria in pure terror while Wisteria just looks back in confusion. "Maybe sleep in Erin's apartment tonight"
Clay grabbed her shoes and gave them to her, immediately scrolling through his contacts before ringing Erin.
"Wait, I don't get it, why would he get someone else to watch a horror movie with him when he can just scream and laugh with us?"
-
Daphne's pov
"Daffodil, what do you want for dinner?" Dylan peeked into the spare bedroom I was staying at. "I can order pizza"
"Pizza's fine. Just get me cheese since I'm not really in the mood for anything else" I said to him as I continue to have my arm on top of my eyes and earphones plugged into my
phone.
"Oh and I have a girlfriend named Sandy who constantly switches from sleeping here and at her house so sometimes you'll be alone here for like a night"
"How is this relevant to anything right now?"
"Fuck off, I'm being nice to you and I'm telling you this because she's coming over for dinner"
"Okay, my favorite part of the song is coming up so go. Shoo, it's my time right now" I gestured for him to go out of the room and he simply laughs while closing the door behind him.
I think of her so much, it drives me crazy..
I wonder what Nick was doing right now. He was playing video games and that's all I know so far. He was okay enough to play but I'm not too sure about being okay enough to talk..
I laid in silence as the music got to my head. The lyrics were were bringing me into a state of denial after just spilling everything to Kai.
I just hope she don't want to leave me...
Right as the lyric played, I jump at my ringtone blaring loudly and see Erin's name across the top of my screen. It draws a lot of questions in my head since it's supposed to be 1 am for Erin right now.
"Hello?"
"Has Nick ever told you he liked you? Or anything between those lines?"
"Yeah, why? is there something wrong?" The speed of her words were rushed and it was worrying me. "Erin?"
"Do you like him back?"
"What's going on?" I felt like my change of topic gave her an answer to the question but that was least of my concerns right now.
"Are you guys together?"
"Sort of? it was more of just a crush-crush type thing and we weren't in like an official relationship if that's what you mean"
"Well Daph, I think he moved on.."
"What are you talking about?" I sat up on my mattress, so much more confused than I should be.
"I'm saying Clay said he went out at around 8 pm without a word and then came back around 12 am drunk and with someone. Now they're doing stuff I don't want to imagine in his bedroom"
"Oh" I remember Nick explaining to me how he used very unhealthy coping techniques to overcome any stress he goes through. Getting drunk is one and of them most of the time, it ends up getting him in things he didn't want to be in.
"I'm sorry Daphne but I'm genuinely so mad at him right now. I know it isn't cheating but it's a fucked up move to have sex with someone else while talking to someone"
"Don't hold a grudge against him, he needs your help. Tell Clay that tomorrow morning, he needs to talk to Nick but not in a scolding type of manner" I began to explain to Erin how to get an answer out of Nick properly without any arguments being started.
It was a surprise to her how much I was defending him but I knew it wasn't his fault, it's mine. I was the one who ended things and he's just going through the pain of it.
"You're a strong woman, argue with him. You need to knock some sense into him because I know damn well I taught him things but it isn't working right now"
"Look I understand you're upset but what can we do about it? He's most definitely not going to listen to me now that he's drunk out of his mind and it would be better to spare the humiliation of getting mad at him for doing a what a normal man in his 20's would do"
"Okay fine, I'm sorry, I get your point and all but Clay's already yelling at him and that's why Wisteria is sleeping in our apartment right now. He doesn't want her to get overwhelmed by him screaming and yelling"
That was a lot to take in. It was stressing me out enough that Nick was drunk and the fact he's being yelled at while he's drunk is making it so much worse.
My experience with drunk Nick was really sweet and everything so it lead me to believe he was only like this when drinking as a coping mechanism instead of drinking for fun.
I really wished he would just answer my texts instead of drinking. This wouldn't even be a problem if he just wanted to stay friends.
"Can you maybe ask him to call me? He's been ignoring me for a week"
I knew Erin would eventually connect the dots and realize Nick was never sick and they'd get mad at him more but all I want is for Nick to talk to me.
"I'll try, he's been ignoring everyone right now so I'll try. I didn't think he'd ignore you though, he's been talking about you ever since you first visited here then suddenly stopped and ignored everyone"
"Take your time baby, connect the dots" I hear George whisper in the background.
"OH SHIT- NICK WASN'T REALLY SICK-"
-
a/n: :P