because I've found a new passion in writing Nigel × Hayley interactions

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Hayley wanted their happy moments to last for as long as possible. Stupid gossip didn't matter. They'd been going at this tango for so long and had finally managed to get together. Only their own opinions should matter. She knew that in the back of her head and had forcefully engraved it in her heart but she still couldn't help herself. The gossip forum was nothing if not addicting and that morning, bored with nothing to do after completing her assignments the day before and not having to turn up for a Saturday shift, she'd decided to scroll through.

She'd inadvertently stumbled upon two poll that had made her eyes turn hot with tears. Last year, there'd been a poll to rank the guys every girl wanted to date. Nigel had been top for that and second for the one everyone wanted to sleep with. He was freaking popular and he was hers. Though if she kept seeing posts like these then she might not feel that way for much longer.

This poll ranked his current relationship with her against his then relationship with Cassandra. People had envied it, she too, because they'd been nothing but perfect together. She didn't care for any other girl he'd dated after her friend, was only annoyed their relationship was far more than 'the girl he just broke up with because he lost interest' and all what that meant fot her.

The second poll was casting votes on how long their new relationship would last. The one with the highest number of votes, nearly seventy percent with more than half of their school's population, bet they wouldn't get past the end of the term which just had some short three weeks left in the term.

She frowned and left the polls, not wanting to hurt herself with the comments that followed. Instead, she went in search of who'd started this whole drama in the first place, quite sure students wouldn't just wake up to start nitpicking at their new relationship out of nowhere at all.

Her face turned blotchy when she did find it and saw the number of embellishments the original poster had used in describing her. Third-party? Who, her? She hadn't been butting in anybody's relationship. He and Cassandra had broken things of cleanly already. Too cleanly might she had.

Glancing past the staggering number of reposts, ten thousand and counting since no one wanted to be fucking productive anymore, she opened the comments section that had thrice that amount of comments and felt her blood beginning to boil.

@dramafirst.schoollater: i envy him tbh. he gets the thrill of sleeping with two best friends with no shade thrown at him

@psychedelic: omgg yes. how long do you think that'll take him?

@forthegame_7: two weeks? less? he's got the charisma thing going for him so honestly less

@psychedelic: one minute. i'm gonna start this poll

@thenutjobthatwas: is there like a stake for this shit? or are we just casting votes for votes sake?

@dramafirst.schoollater dropped a link

Fingers shaking, she didn't dare to touch that link with a ten foot pole. She began typing to vent her anger but soon thought better of it, backspacing and angrily tossing her phone outside. She curled up on her couch and just stayed like that for a while, forcing back tears until sometime later when her doorbell rang.

Declan? He hadn't mentioned he'd be dropping by. They hadn't really hung out much with him suddenly being cast in a new lead role for this movie they were preparing to push out by Christmas time.

It wasn't until she'd pulled open the door that she felt her blood freeze. Right. He'd said he was going to drop by if he could get away from home.

And here he was, now, on her doorstep, hands around a fluffy white teddy whose head covered most of his face.

"Hey, love," he greeted, adjusting the bear smiling that dopey smile that made her heart melt and her seem to fall in love all over again. "What's wrong? You look a little pale."

Hayley shook her head slightly, opening the door wider so he could get in. "What happened to sweetheart?" she teased, unable to help herself as she shut the door behind him and trailed after him to the kitchen. 

"Don't you find it an earful?" he asked, filling a glass of water and holding it as he stared at her.

"I quite liked it," she smiled, blushing when he arched a brow at her over the glass. "I like this one too though." She liked anything that came out of his mouth.

"Here," he said, carefully handing over the fluffy teddy. "Happy anniversary."

"Anniversary?" she echoed, cuddling it close. It was pure white, with frizzy fur, beady eyes and a smile as dopey as the one who'd gotten it.

"Yep," he commented, popping the p as he lazily pulled open her fridge. "One week."

"I like it," Hayley smiled, raising her free right hand to pinch at its nose. "I like it a lot."

"What are you going to name it?" he asked, having retrieved two pudding cups from the fridge and leading her out of the kitchen.

"Nic," she didn't even bat an eyelid uttering his own. "Isn't it fitting?"

"I think it might not need one after all," he snorted, handing her a pudding cup and glancing at the items littering the floor at the feet of her couch. "You're painting your nails?"

"Was planning on," she muttered, ignoring the phone that had made her depressed and picking up the tv remote. "Suddenly got tired after filing them though."

"I'll help you," he said, lowering to sit cross-legged at her feet and placing the second pudding cup at his side.

"You will?" she asked, glancing away from the channel she'd settled on to him.

"Sure," he said, grabbing hold of her left leg. "What color would you like?"

"You choose." She was too distracted by the feel of his large palm wrapping around her thin ankle to say much else anyway.

So he chose the lightest shade of pink he could find arranged in the rows and begun painting.

Hayley's gaze settled on him, taking in the sight of him meticulously covering her toes in coats of blossom pink. Eyes lowered in concentration, brows furrowed tightly at the center an all she could think was with so much care, wasn't it impossible to think his like for her was all a hoax?

She picked a throw pillow and hugged it to her chest, teddy bear 'Nic' falling against her shoulder. "You really like me then?" she asked.

"'course I do," his response came in a heartbeat.

"You don't just. . ." want to sleep with me? She swallowed the rest of that sentence down. She could never bring herself to utter it no matter how thick her skin was.

He was just staring at her, having set down the first completed foot. When she didn't make move to complete her sentence, he picked up her other foot.

"You been on the forum lately?" Hayley pursed her lips, wanting to scoop another of her pudding but turning up empty with her spoon scraping the bottom of the cup.

"Not lately," he said, then glanced up at her. "Did they say something?"

Hayley watched him get torn between carrying on with painting her toenails or abandoning that in favor of getting answers from his phone. She felt a bit warm when he just continued with the one task he'd set on, lips a grim line of dissatisfaction.

She should have continued watching her film but she could do that anytime. It wasn't everyday she could get to watch her boyfriend paint her nails for her.

"I'll do it all the time if you want," he said, setting her second foot down. "No longer watching your film?"

"Seen it plenty already," she said. 

"I like the film," he commented, out of the blue. It was the one Saxon had been reviewing and he'd had to coax him into just watching for watching sake. His twin liked it and had found a role model in one of the lead actors so he sort of liked it now too.

"Really?" she beamed wide. "My friend, Declan, acts in it. He's the second main character."

That was his twin's role model but after recalling the guy's snooty attitude when he'd tried to get Hayley on the phone, he soon decided he didn't really like the film all that much anymore.

"I'm done," he announced. "What do you think?"

Hayley took a glance and felt the corner of her lip twitch. "It looks. . ." she trailed for lack of a good fit. "Tasteful." It wasn't. It looked horrible, some of the coats coarse and getting on the skin around them. But still so horrendous it even became a little cute in her eyes.

"You don't have to lie to me," he said, capping the polish with a roll of his eyes.

"I like anything you do for me," she reassured, lowering the upper half of her body and pressing a kiss to his lips.

Nigel was only half-appeased and only starting to get into the kiss when her doorbell rang again. He let her disentangle from him, pouting, as she ruffled his hair and went to check who it was.

"Cass?" Hayley blinked at the sight of her friend, brown waves up in a bun and dolled up in a pretty floral dress.

"Hays!" she lunged herself in her arms, squeezing the life out of the other before righting herself again. "I've been trying your line since forever. What have you been up to?"

Hayley herself didn't get a he chance to since Nigel soon sidled up behind her, eating out of her leftover pudding cup.

"You guys make me sick," she snorted. "I thought you'd be out of the honeymoon phase already. Shame on you both."

Hayley rolled her eyes as she watched her groan and shift past them, eyes widening as she took in 'Nic' on the couch, soon rotating around him and taking pictures from every possible angle.

"How long would it take you to get ready?" Cassandra suddenly asked, mid-take.

"Get ready for what?" Hayley wondered, lost.

"You were supposed to accompany me to pick up some clothes," Cassandra huffed, widening her doe-brown eyes pitifully at her friend. Then she tossed a snooty glance at Nigel. "Some boyfriend was never in the picture."

"Then I'll be quick?" she said, coming to pick her anniversary present from the couch.

Cassandra was about to send her off with a thumbs up when her gaze lighted on her friend's toes. "What sort of knock-off pedicurist did you patronize?" she asked, lip curling in distaste.

Hayley grimaced and extricated herself out of the bickering that was sure to take place in three. . .two. . .

"Hays!" Cassandra screamed when Nigel launched the throw pillow from where he was, smothering her in the face. "He hit me!"

Hayley couldn't help her smile as she deposited the teddy in the center of her bed and changed into a grey long sleeved shirt and a jean skirt with pretty pearl buttons, having taking a quick shower before she found the posts that nearly led to her mini meltdown.

"Hays!" Another scream. "He's smothering me! He's going to kill your best friend and dispose of her body!"

Hayley snorted since she hardly sounded on the verge of death yet but picked a purse after securing on her sandals and went to set apart the bickering duo.

Cassandra was red-faced when she came to take cover behind her friend. "We can finally have some time to ourselves," she said, hugging her arm. "Tell him to get going."

Nigel sneered at the shooing motion she made with her hand. "I'm coming too," he said.

"You are?" Hayley was surprised to say the least. 

"I am."

So, they all went together to the mall, Cassandra pouting all the way. In the end, she sulked all through the outing since she'd made most of her selections online during the week and now had to be forced through endless amount of PDA as her best friend solicited the opinion of her boyfriend.

She went out for a bit to get a milkshake to slurp on and was pleased to see they were finally done and ready to go.

"Hey!" Nigel snapped at her when they were headed out of there and for an eatery.

Cassandra turned her head around, pointing at herself.

He rolled his eyes and tossed her his phone. "Take us a picture," he said. "Make it a good one."

Cassandra's lip twitched. Her status had fallen even more and she'd been relegated to behind the scenes as photographer. "I'll make sure to cut you out," she snorted, earning a glower. Hayley gave a soft beam at their antics, eliciting her quick click of the button.

She walked over to hand him the phone and they journeyed over to the eatery, Hayley going to place their orders. "What are you up to?" she queried at his sneaky behavior, leaning over and watching him make a post on his hardly used Instagram and then repost on the forum. "You saw those polls then?"

"Yeah," he'd taken a look while she'd been changing in one of the dressing rooms. "I think the school could do without the whole gossip forum in the first place."

Cassandra nodded, then brought the straw of her milkshake between her lips again.

"Hey," she greeted, handing Nigel his burger and fries with a big grin.

"Thanks, love," he said, pecking her on her lips.

Cassandra slurped loudly at her drink to remind them there was still a third party here but when all she got in response was their flirting in even more intensity, numbly took her own tray and left them to it.

Hayley took the seat next to Nigel, sharing his fries with him. She'd gotten the notification for his post and then repost while their orders were being laid in the trays and couldn't help feeling one big, warm-hearted mess.

Opinions abounded by the minute. But his was all that mattered.