Chapter 21

Esther and I were walking side by side in silence again.

I was trying to figure out what I should be telling her. Did I need to explain myself and give more context to my friendship with Vanessa and Tyler? I had to admit that Nik-with-the-Gang and Nik all on his own were two very different Nik's and Esther had never been around Nik-with-the-Gang.

We weren't talking and it worried me, and I wondered why I couldn't just calm down and walk in silence beside someone without assuming the worst possible scenario.

And why was I even overthinking this? We were just walking for god's sakes.

You really didn't grow out of being socially awkward, whatever I had been trying to convince myself of.

"So, are you still mad at your roommate? You mentioned it before," Esther eventually said, saving me from my useless internal freaking out.

Also, it kind of made me smile to realized she remembered our conversations, like this was a huge thing. I was really socially awkward. "Oh, yeah, no, we're fine now. We had a talk."

"You're really close with your friends," she said, and it sounded more like a statement then a question. She'd just seen me with Vanessa, so she was probably making up scenarios in her head.

"Yeah, they're more like family than friends really."

She smiled, nodding a little. "That's nice."

"I'm really lucky to have them," I agreed.

I wanted to ask her about her own friends and family. I wanted her to open up to me and talk about herself. She so rarely ever gave anything away.

I didn't ask her though, because I didn't want to pressure her. I was going to let her open up to me in her own time. I was already lucky enough that she wasn't walking ten feet away from me, and jumping anytime I breathed in her direction. I wasn't going to force her into anything.

When we got to the library, we set up our stuff at a table in a corner.

"So, Aeonic," Esther whispered, as she set down her binder with the stuff for our project.

I pressed my lips to keep from laughing. "Aeonic?"

She grinned. "I'm trying to think outside of the box, okay?"

I shook my head with a grin on my lips. "That's a little too outside the box."

"Picnic? Iconic?" she offered, keeping up with the same tactic.

I shook my head at her. I liked this little game of ours a little too much. I was going to be disappointed when it was going to end. "You're really determined."

"I don't have that much time left," she reminded me.

"I respect your determination," I told her softly, nodding.

"I swear if your name ends up just being Nicolas and you've just been screwing with me, I'm gong to be very mad," she warned me.

I grinned. "Okay, that would actually be hilarious."

"It would not."

"Rest assured. My name is not Nicolas. But it's also not as epic as Aeonic."

"If I ever fail one of my classes because I spent too much time trying to figure out your name, I will also by very mad."

"Should I just tell it to you now?" I asked her teasingly.

"NO!" she said loudly, and then her eyes widened, realising her mistake while some people around were staring at us now.

I covered my mouth with my hands to stop my laughter because I almost burst into laughter at her outburst.

"This is not funny," she hissed at me, leaning over the table.

"I wholeheartedly disagree."

We started to work after that.

We had to do a short analysis of every art piece we would put in our exhibit, so we worked on that since we had a few already picked.

Esther was still not sure where she wanted us to put this fake exhibit. I was letting her choose. It seemed to matter to her a lot more than it did me.

We worked in silence like that for almost three hours.

I barely saw the time pass.

Finally, I felt my stomach grumbled, so I closed my books, and stretched my arms over my head. "We really need to go eat something. I'm starving."

"It's fine, I'll eat back home," Esther replied, and started to pack her things.

"How far away do you live from the campus? Is it going to take a while for you to actually eat?" I asked, frowning.

I did not like the idea of her not eating.

"You don't have to feed me all the time," she said with a kind smile.

"I know I don't have to," I simply replied.

I didn't have to, but I wanted to.

"I'm fine. It's actually good if I take the bus right away, I won't be stuck in traffic," she said.

"We can eat and I can drive you home afterwards you know so you won't even have to take the bus," I pointed out.

"I'm fine Nik, really," Esther said, still with that kind smile. It shone in her eyes too.

I sighed, not happy about it. I worried about her. "Alright, if you say so."

We both got up and headed for the exit.

"Thanks for today. I think we don't need to stress that much with this project, we're really in advance," she said when we were out of the library.

I stopped walking, looking at her. "You're welcome."

She stopped too. "Alright, good bye. Have a nice rest of the day," she said and waved at me.

"You too Esther," I replied, smiling at her, and waving back.

She often called me by my nickname, but I rarely said hers out loud. It felt... nice to say it.

I grabbed a sandwich at the cafeteria and headed back to my dorm afterwards. I kinda wanted to take a nap.

When I came back to my room, Vanessa was still there, waiting for me by the door.

"Did you even leave?" I asked incredulous, taking the last bite from my sandwich.

"Yeah, I met up with Ty."

"And now he needs more stuff?" I asked, opening the door and letting her in.

"No, I wanted to come back to see you."

I bowed to her dramatically, "I feel blessed by this honour," I said, and let myself fall on my bed.

"So? You want to talk about it?" she asked, sitting at the foot of my bed.

I had my eyes closed and my arm over them, so I did not see her expression. "Talk about what?"

"Esther."

I cracked an eye open at that. "What's there to talk about?"

"What's there to talk about?" she repeated, mimicking my voice. "Are you fucking serious?"

I frowned. "Yeaaaah..."

She slapped a hand to her forehead. "Why are all my friends so goddamn dumb?"

I sat up, getting annoyed now. "What are you even whining about?"

Tyler walked into our room at that moment. "Aw, if it isn't my wife and my girlfriend."

Vanessa just rolled her eyes at him, kissing his cheek.

"What's up?" Tyler asked.

"Nik brought a girl back," his girlfriend replied.

Tyler gave me a creepy grin. "Oooooooh."

I rolled my eyes at the two of them. "It's not what you think."

"Are you sure about that?" Vanessa pressed.

"Look, we're just friends," I told my two friends, not looking at their incredulous grimaces.

"Don't make me slap you in the face," Vanessa warned me.

"And you should be scared, because her slaps are pretty effective," Tyler informed me.

"And painful," Van added.

"I have a friend. A genuine friend. It would be nice if you supported me in this," I told them.

"We're your friends," Tyler pointed out.

"And so is Esther," I told him, really not understanding how any of this was complicated to them. I was allowed to have more friends than them.

"Suuuuuure. That's why you never really mentioned her to us. Because you're just friends," Tyler said making air quotation at the just friends part.

"Out," I said, pointing to the door. "Both of you. If you're going to keep saying ridiculous things, we have nothing to talk a out."

Tyler pointed in my direction with his chin. "Slap him."

Vanessa grinned, leaning forward. I got up form my bed in one quick jump. "Get away from me. TYLER! Get your woman in line."

"Slap him. Seriously," Tyler just replied.

"I HATE BOTH OF YOU!" I yelled at them, pointing at the sternly, before just walking out of the room, while they called out my name.

Guess I was going to sleep back at my apartment.

If they were going to start saying ridiculous things, I wasn't going to hang out with them.