[16] talking about her

°°°
"Minds are like flowers, they only open when the time is right."
- Stephen Richards

Euphoria seemed to create a home in my body ever since the night of the party. In any cases did I ever consider Clarity Stevens, the gray eyed beauty to kiss me fully on the mouth. But my whole body - no every single nerve in my body - was full of pure bliss.

When I thought of the kiss as I wiped tables clean two days after the fact, I couldn't help the stupid grin that'd find its way to my lips. Even my parents had noticed that my mood was cheerier than usual. David, of course, just smirked knowingly at me. I didn't utter a single word about the kiss to anyone - not even Flynn or Mia. Heck, neither of them knew of her since I've yet to tell them.

"Honey, you missed a spot," advised my mom as she passed by with a tray full of burgers and fries.

"Mhmm," I hummed, my thoughts elsewhere, and wiped the spot she had indicated.

Clarity and I didn't speak much after she and I shared an intimate moment under the stars. And truthfully, I was beginning to wonder if that was a good thing or not. But another reason - or excuse - was that Nina had drank too many shots and was way too drunk to function, so Clarity sat in the back with her while I got the passenger seat. Of course, I was dropped off first at my house and I was thankful for all the times I'd helped Morris that it wasn't that hard for me to sneak inside my house.

"Don't forget we're closing early since Tucker and Naomi are coming over," said dad, following me to the back room. Tucker and Naomi were old college friends of my parents. They'd only been to the house maybe two or three times to watch a football game or a cook out. Most of the time when they'd come over, I'd only stay in the same room with them and my parents to eat or watch the game for a few minutes before leaving.

"Okay," I said, almost bumping into Robert, one of the waiters, as he zoomed by with soft drinks. Just like Tucker and Naomi, I didn't talk to him much. He was in his late thirties with long black hair and big glasses that slid off his narrow nose frequently. Mainly, he chatted with my dad or Claire.

Speaking of Claire, I think she didn't work next until Tuesday and today was Sunday. But I didn't know her schedule by heart so I could be wrong.

Later on that night when my parents were with the guests, I was up in my room laying on the floor as I stared up at the ceiling. I brought my fingers to my lips. It was weird that not long ago my lips had touched Clarity's, it seemed too precious, almost too good.

I picked myself up from the floor and went to my window. From across the street, I could see the house that Clarity had stormed out of that one night. Was she inside that house right now?

Probably not.

She was probably hanging out with some of her friends and having fun while I'm stuck in the house, as bored as can be.

To try to make myself not so bored, I call Flynn. He might be playing video games, so he might not answer. If he doesn't I'll just call Mia, she's more than likely either on Netflix or listening to some band she likes. Flynn didn't answer so I called Mia.

She answered after a few rings, "Nolan?"

"Hi, Mia." I said back. I sat down on my desk chair and flipped through a book of poems by Edgar Allan Poe.

"Hey, what's up?" asked Mia. I heard rustling noises on the other line and knew she was eating food.

"Not much. You?"

"Netflix," she mumbled out as she took a bite of whatever food she was eating.

"Oh, okay. Well, I should probably go and let you watch it then."

Mia protested, "No, it's fine. I'm kinda glad you called. I've been on Netflix all day and stuffing my mouth full of junk food." I smiled. That was typical Mia.

"Well, I've been working all day and my parents have some friends over."

"Ooh, are any of them cute?" I could picture her wiggling her eyebrows as she said that.

I laughed. "You sound just like Flynn."

"So? If there's a hot person there that you know of, I'll be there."

"Well, they're married. Plus, they're both too old for you, Mia." I could hear loud laughter from downstairs. I heard the deep rumbling voice of Tucker talking again after the laughter died down. I couldn't pick up what he was saying exactly, but it must've been funny.

"What a shame," she sighed. "Most of the shows I watch usually always have romance in it." She let out another sigh, "And I realize I have no love life."

"Well, you never know who could like you and you're just blind to it," I said, meaning Flynn. Mia and I were very comfortable around each other - she was like the sister I had always wanted. We were close, but we didn't spend every moment around each other, and that was alright.

She snorted, "Yeah, okay, Nolan." It was so frustrating to see that she was completely blind to Flynn's feelings for her. I really wanted them to just confess their feelings; but I know it's more complicated than that.

"I'm serious, I'm sure there is someone out there who likes you," I closed the book of poems and propped my feet up. She didn't give herself enough credit; she was beautiful. I mean, yeah, she didn't look bad on the outside with her chocolate skin and big brown eyes. But she was kind to people and made jokes and had a contagious laugh.

"Whatever you say," she said. "So do you have any love interests right now?"

"Um," I felt the heat in my cheeks, "I-I don't think so."

"Oooh, tell me," she said excitedly, already aware of my unconvincing lie. "Who is it?"

I sighed. I haven't told anyone about her. I don't know why I haven't, maybe it was because we first met at the police station where Morris worked or maybe Clarity was too amazing and I didn't want to share the knowledge of knowing her with anyone else. But I told Mia all about her, from the very beginning to where I'd first seen her to when we had kissed. And she listened, the whole time without any interruptions.

"Well, wow," she breathed once I was done. "I don't know what to say, man. You seem to really like her. And you freaking went to an insane party"

"Yeah, well, it wasn't that insane," I said. "I-I just don't really know what to do, like, do I just ask her what's going on between us? Or maybe she doesn't even like me like that, you know, since it was a in the moment thing and she's so perfect-"

"Stop thinking like that, you goof. Listen, I think you should see her again and both of you discuss the kiss. Or maybe you two don't need to discuss it." Mia was saying. "And, heck, if you wanna just kiss her again. The worst thing that could happen is if she rejects you, which seems unlikely since she kissed you first, so."

"Alright. Thanks, Mia," I said and meant it; I really did. I was glad I had someone I could talk because I really needed to let all of it off my chest.

I could hear a smile in her voice when she said, "No problem." And we were silent for a little but it didn't matter because I was comfortable around her and we didn't need to always fill in the silence with small talk.

"We should do something tomorrow, you know," she spoke up after a little bit. "You, Flynn, and me."

I furrowed my eyebrows, "Like what?" Even if we could do something, I'd have to check my schedule at the diner to make sure I wasn't working too late.

"Maybe go to the park or something," suggested Mia.

"Yeah, we could," I said, and sat up. Digging through my drawer, I pulled out the folded piece of my schedule mom had made for me - to remember, even though she could easily tell me since she usually made the schedules for me. "Okay, I'm off work at 3:30. Is that alright with you?"

Mia agreed and we talked on the phone for a little while longer before finally going to sleep.

°°°

Flynn was watching Mia. She was laying in the grass, her head in his lap. She was plucking petals from flowers and humming a song I couldn't quite figure out what it was called. A few kids were playing at the park, giggling and smiling. They seemed to be taking advantage of the beautiful weather today.

Flynn yawned, "I could go to sleep right now." His head was resting against the tree, his eyes half closed.

"If you do, don't trust Nolan and I to wake you up when we leave." said Mia, grinning at him.

Flynn rolled his eyes, "Knowing you you'd do something to me while I was asleep."

She grinned wider, "Probably."

"So has anything exciting happened lately?" Flynn asked us, opening his eyes and looking around.

Mia sat up, causing a small frown on Flynn's face. But she didn't notice because her eyes were trained on me and a smirk was on her lips, "Nolan's got a crush."

"Mia!" My eyes widened. Just because I had told her did not mean I wanted to tell Flynn. Once he knew, he'd never drop it. My face felt hot and my stomach did this weird little flip.

All too soon, Flynn's eyes widened and a knowing look crossed his face, "Ooh, really now? Who is this lucky girl? Or is it a boy?"

My face felt hotter than before. I shot Mia the hardest glare I could manage.

"What?" She gave me an innocent look. "He deserves to know as much as I do." And I guess he did, but I'd rather told him on my own terms rather than Mia blurting it out.

Yeah," jutted in Flynn, crossing his arms.

"Ugh," I covered my face with my hands. "She's just, uh, a girl." Okay that was a lie. Clarity just wasn't a girl. Clarity is so much more than that.

"Do I know her?" asked Flynn with a nervous glance at Mia.

"No," I mumbled. "Can we please talk about something else?" And maybe I was selfish, but I wanted to hold her so closely to my heart and I didn't want to talk about her so much.

"Um, no," Flynn said. "If you have a crush, I wanna know. I want to know all about her."

I scowled, hoping they'd drop it. But Mia only made a 'aww' sound and commented on how red my cheeks were getting.

So for the next fifteen minutes we talked about Clarity.

oh goodness I haven't written this book in such a long time I'm sorry :/

Please don't hate me

Buuut at least I've updated now, right?

This is kinda a filler-ish. It's kinda a major part for Nolan though - he's finally opening up to his friends (about girls). It may not seem big, but he's kinda a keep-it-to-himself guy.

Although there's no Clarity in this chapter she might be in the next one :)

Hopefully I won't take so long to update next time