"Did you hear what happened to me?"
"How did you get in here?"
"Why are you holding my hand?" These are all options, things I was expecting him to ask me. Instead, he said to me, "You have very small hands." My blush, which might have faded slightly if he had asked me one of the previously listed questions I expected, instead stayed bright red at this statement. I swallowed and nodded quickly. My forehead was covered in sweat now, and Nick wrinkled his nose and said, "Aren't you supposed to be in school right now?"
"Oh, um, yea." I closed my eyes, trying to distract myself so that I could speak clearly, "But, um, you should be too." I opened my eyes and his half smile appeared on his lips for another second. He chuckled again, "Yea, I guess I should." He yawned, obviously exhausted, and I said, "Oh, don't stay awake for my sake! You should rest." Nick didn't argue, leaning his head into his pillow and closing his eyes. I watched him as his chest lifted and fell over and over, and eventually the rhythm of his breathing tired me, and I leaned my head against the back of the chair I was sitting in and lulled off.
"Excuse me," a woman said, nudging my shoulder with delicate hands. Startled, I woke up quickly and took in the woman. She was small, probably little over 5 feet. She had long dark brown hair and little wrinkles between her eyebrows, indicating that they were regularly pulled together in aggravation. She had mesmerizing green eyes, identical to her Nick's, so guessed that this must be his mother. "May I ask..." she hesitated, and then said, "Who are you?" I blinked, laughed quickly, and sat up in the chair, my cheeks red again. "I'm Remi. I...um...go to school with Nick." Now the woman crossed her arms over her chest, "So do a lot of other people." I laughed quickly again, "I'm, uh-" it was my turn to hesitate now, and then I said, quickly, before I could think better of it, "I'm his girlfriend." I heard a cough, and looked over to see that Nick was awake. Not just awake, full on sitting up. Now he was choking slightly, as he had been drinking something when I told his mother...that I was his girlfriend. I looked back at his mom, shocked, and asked, "If he's awake, why didn't you just ask him who I was?!" Nick, who had stopped choking now, chuckled slightly again. Nick's mother ignored my question and turned back to Nick, "Is that true? Is this young lady your girlfriend?" Nick looked his mother straight in the eye, lost the grin, and nodded sincerely. My eyes were the size of golf balls. "Well," Nick's mother said then, turning back to me with a small smile, though her eyebrows were still drawn together, "Nice to meet you, Remi. Nick didn't tell me he had a girlfriend." She glanced back at Nick, and he looked down at his injured hands, but I caught the blush on his cheeks. And it shocked me as much as the last time I saw him blush. "Oh," I said, "Um, yea, well... we, uh, just... just started, like, going out. Or whatever." I saw Nick smile slightly, holding in a chuckle, and my cheeks remained as red as ever. "Huh," his mom said, once again glancing at him. "Well," she said again, "it's very nice to meet you. Nick's never introduced me to a girlfriend before." Nick scoffed and said, "That's because I've never had one before, mom." His mom drew her eyebrows farther together, "What about Lekisha?" He rolled his eyes, "I wouldn't call eighth grade going out a girlfriend." His mom shook her head, seeming like she wanted to defend that her son was appealing to women. I found this strange, but I said, to reassure her, "Well, I'm sure that's just a lack of him asking people out. He probably would've had a girlfriend if he asked anyone." Mrs. Angel laughed and Nick blushed again, looking away from me.
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