It’s been five days since the river.
Nick and I were getting along well.
He was fine.
I was too, at least most of the time. Sometimes, I succumbed to depression.
Martin hasn’t called me. Neither has Millie. Did I have friends and a boyfriend in Portland? Or are they just memories I create in my head to avoid feeling lonely? Yesterday, I sent a message to Millie, but she didn’t respond. I tried calling Martin, but he didn’t pick up the damn phone. When I was alone in my room, I felt so abandoned, rejected, and forgotten.
Then there was Nick. Fortunately for me, he no longer got too close, which I appreciated, but he didn’t need to touch me for me to feel something anymore. Oh no, not even getting close; just looking at me made me nervous, as if he were asking me for something, and I doubted it was anything different from what I wanted. He only had to greet me in the mornings to make me smile like a fool and drool around him. Being with him was like being in an incredibly good mood all the damn time.
It left me heartbroken.
“The first three cards form the flop, the fourth is the river, and the fifth is the turn,” Nick explains to me as he throws the poker cards on the table to show me.
These days it literally hasn’t stopped raining; we were stuck indoors, not even the woman Olivia hired to clean the house could come.
One hundred twenty full hours with Nick. I swear I spent much more time with Nick than in the last few years with my mom, Millie, or Martin. I studied all day and only had a social life on weekends.
And the worst part? I didn’t get tired of him. Did that scare me? Sometimes.
“Do you understand?” Nick asked me after showing me all the possible card combinations or hands in poker.
To kill time, he decided to teach me how to play poker. I didn’t know how to play any board games except Ludo, but I’m pretty sure I had never touched any cards before today.
“Yes, I suppose,” I replied, paying close attention to the cards.
I stopped when Nick started laughing, almost cracking up. What?
“What are you laughing at?” I demanded to know, confused by his outburst.
“Your face… God, is that your face every time you pay attention in class? If I had studied with you, I would have made a ton of memes.”
I knew I puckered my lips and furrowed my brow when I was really paying attention to something, but he could have spared me and not said anything about it.
I got up from the dining room chair and headed towards the kitchen. When he stopped laughing, he could catch up to me if he wanted to.
I opened the fridge, and within two seconds, Nick was right behind me. He’s fast.
“Are you mad?” he blurted out as I grabbed the juice pitcher.
“No, I’m not mad.”
I poured the contents of the pitcher into a glass and sat on the countertop. It’s an action I learned from Nick. If my mom saw me leaning on a table or sitting on the kitchen countertop, she’d kill me.
I picked up the glass and took a sip. Nick stood in front of me. Not too close, but not far enough either.
“Oh, come on, I was just kidding,” he questioned, crossing his arms.
“I know, I’m not mad about that,” I assured him, inspecting the glass in my hands a little too closely.
“What’s bothering you then?” His voice was sweet. Too sweet. I loved hearing his voice.
“My boyfriend hasn’t talked to me since the prank you pulled in the bedroom that day. My friend doesn’t seem too interested in hearing from me either, and truth be told, even though being with you is amazing, I’ve wondered a few times these days if I’m so easy to forget,” I confessed, trying not to let my voice break in the process.
Nick didn’t say anything; he was in unknown territory or at least, that’s what I thought until he moved closer to me, placing his hand right next to my thigh and leaning in to be closer to my face. With his other hand, he tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, and I shivered. I didn’t blink for a moment, expectant of the next move he would make.
“Believe me. It’s not easy to forget Samantha.”
After saying that, he leaned in closer, and… the sound of his phone started ringing throughout the kitchen.
At this point, I would destroy that damn phone until it was in tiny little pieces.
I backed away from him before anything happened that I would later regret, and Nick muttered a curse under his breath.
In addition to the rain, Nick’s phone hasn’t stopped ringing these days. It easily rang ten times in an hour. I never asked who it was; it wasn’t my business, but I wanted to know.
I didn’t answer. I just let out a big sigh, and he ran his hand through his hair, exasperated.
I ran to my room with my heart in my mouth. He didn’t follow me; it didn’t make sense for him to do so; we both needed to calm down.
I lost count of how many times we’ve had to calm down since I’ve been in this house.
Hasn’t the floor been fixed yet?
It crossed my mind that I was here by my own volition, that he already had his floor fixed, but that would be stupid.
Right?