Not About Angels ➳ A TBNRFrags/PrestonPlayz Fanfiction

False Hope ➳ Chapter 34

Preston's POV

February 9th

Once again, I'm at the school early. And once again, it's empty.

I walk down the familiar hallway, hearing my footsteps echo off the walls. I still have my hands in my pockets as I turn the corner. And as usual, I see Nick sitting alone on the floor against the wall. She has her earbuds in, but she recognizes my presence when I near her.

"Hey," I greet and she smiles.

"Hi," she quietly responds.

"Are we being quiet again?" I tease and sit down beside her. She softly laughs.

"How was your weekend?" She asks a bit louder. I haven't spoken or texted her all weekend; the last we spoke was last Friday.

"It was great! Nothing really happened with me on Saturday, but I went to go watch Kaitlyn's game on Sunday." I reply. Very vaguely, I though I heard her voice at the sound of Kaitlyn's name. Something about this seems off.

I turn to her and she's looking at ground. I face is only inches from hers; I could lift her chin and kiss her if I wanted. Though I spent all weekend with Kaitlyn, I still love Nick. She's been my number one. Kaitlyn does listen intently to when I talk about Nick; she says that she has to meet her sometime. I'm surprised they haven't considering our schools are so close together. But then again, they're both really shy.

Nick's eyes are unreadable, but I could swear I see... sadness. Pain.

"Are... you okay?" I ask her gently. She looks up at me, and her eyes looks kind of glassy. "Are you crying?"

"No," she smiles, "I'm just tired." Something tells me that she's not telling the truth.

Before I can make sure about her statement, she begins to get up. "I just have to go to the bathroom quickly," she states, quickly opening her locker. I wonder why she has to get into her locker to go the bathroom.

She smiles at me-I could tell something was up-when she shuts her door. As she walks down the hallway, I though I could see the glint of something silver within her fingers. But when I blink a few times, it's gone.

Maybe it was just me.

-

February 10th

Nick has barely been speaking. She's been looking paler than her usual olive skin. She sits with me at lunch, but doesn't get the usual serving. When she does, she usually doesn't finish it. I don't want to ask her if she's dieting; apparently it's rude? I learned that the hard way.

"Do you want my banana?" I softly ask to the shy girl beside me. Nick declines with a simple shake of her head. Quinn looks up at my voice. He was sitting across from me and some other guys. Mariah also sat here, and surprisingly, Nick didn't have a problem.

"C'mon you're barely eating anything!" I accuse, a bit too harshly than I would've preferred. Nick looks up at me, her eyes full of hurt. "I-I'm sorry," I stammer, "I'm just worried about you."

"I'm fine, Preston," she snaps. By now both Quinn and Mariah are both look at us. Nick finally realizes and shifts uncomfortably in her seat. I glare at Quinn; hopefully he picks up that I'm telling him to stop staring at Nick. But of course, he doesn't realize.

Not bearing to take attention, Nick shoots up from her seat. "I'll be right back." She says.

Soon, she speed walks out of the busy cafeteria, her head down, towards our lockers. I look back at Quinn and Mariah.

"What the fudge, guys?" I declare. Mariah frowns and Quinn shrugs, though he has a guilty expression.

Wanting to give her as much space ss possible, I decide against going after her. She's been really out of it lately. As long as she's not depressed.

-

Nicola's POV

12:41pm

I feel depressed.

I know I'm not; there are people with actual depression out there and I don't think I am one of them.

But, hey: life is full of diappointments.

I have one day. One day to live it up. No, I'm not offing myself. But it's one. Freaking. Day.

I ran off to the bathroom yet again today. Why did Preston have to drag attention to me about not eating? I'm just not hungry.

God, that kid is so protective.

Maybe that's why I love him so much.

I never noticed it before, but I do love him. He's always there for me, and despite his stupid mistakes, he never fails to make me feel loved. Before lately.

Because too bad he likes Kaitlyn.

I fidget with my blade between my fingers. I'm leaning against the bathroom wall, sitting next to the familiar toilet. Overall through the past five days, I've made seven cuts across my wrist. I've covered it with paper towel each time, but the physical pain takes my mind off of my emotional pain for a short span of time.

Soon, I decide not to cut. I don't want to deal with the blood right now. I get up and look at myself in the mirror. My skin has definitely gotten paler over the week. It was one of my wishes to be paler, but this doesn't seem right.

I've been eating probably half to 3/4 of my regular portions of meals. I just haven't been as hungry lately. I've devoted more of my time to writing; I just need to get the words out. It does help, but not as much as drawing. But I can't draw right now; it internally hurts too much.

My thoughts vanish when the bathroom door opens. Swiftly, I slide the blade into my pocket. In walks Mariah. Maybe she came after me? It does help the pain, but I'm not too close to her.

"Are you okay?" She asks. I nod and smile-an easily fake smile that looks so real. She smiles back and pulls out her phone.

"Ugh," she groans, "come take a selfie with me." She holds her arm out for me to take.

I hesitate. "I don't know..."

"Oh, come on, Nick!" She insists. "No harm is being done here!"

I sigh and walk over to her, smiling ino the front facing camera. She names a photo and giggles.

"Cool!" She squeals and links arms with me as we leave the bathroom.

Outside, I see Prestom eagerly staring at the two of us, relief flodding his eyes. He probably would've thought I had another panic attack. No, I haven't had one for quite a while. And I still have only had two: the inital scare and the one from one and a half weeks ago.

When I replace myself back into my seat. Out of tiredness, I find myself leaning on Preston's arm. Instead of moving away or pushing me, he accepts the pressure, even leaning on me as well.

And it was in that moment that I actually had hope that he might choose me over Kaitlyn.

But of course, there's always false hope.

-

Continue in Chapter 35...

[A/N so this story has been really long so far; how are you guys liking it?

I have decided to end it off at around the 40-45 chap mark... around that. Maybe sooner, depending on how the story progresses because I have a goal with this story but I'm just winging the stuff in between. And it's really frustrating cause I was stupid and set this story in Canadian winter when I need rain! Nuuu!

My face when this chap is probably just over half the size of the next one :) WATCH OUT WATCH OUT WATCH OUT

But thanks for making it this far!]