Half a World Away // Vinnie Hacker

*11*

Vinnie arrived at my door an hour later as he said. I still find it weird that anyone can just walk into this apartment building except delivery guys. It doesn't seem very safe. I walked over to the door and opened it, seeing Vinnie standing there in grey sweat pants and a black tank top. He's making it really hard for me to convince myself that we're just friends. I ushered him into the small apartment and he started talking, "sorry about this, I would've asked someone else but everyone was at the party or I live with them," he chuckled slightly. "No, it's ok. We're friends and that's what... friends.. are... for..." I really didn't want to say friend because in my experience every time I say friend it's just friend zone straight away, whether it's them friend-zoning me or them thinking I friend-zoned them. I don't even know why I'm thinking about this. I don't like Vinnie, do I?

He walked into my room with me following closely behind and sat on the edge of my bed and took his shoes off. I sat in bed and picked my phone up off the nightstand and opened TikTok. "You don't mind if I take this off, do you?" he said, gesturing to his tank top. I shook my head, "It's not like you don't walk around shirtless all the time anyway." He laughed and pulled the shirt over his head, revealing his tattoos and muscles. My breath hitched in my throat slightly but as soon as I realised I was watching I looked away and back at my phone. Vinnie came over and got under the covers of the bed, pulling his phone out too. He answered a few texts and then went on TikTok. I got three Vinnie TikToks in a row and then turned to face him, "Why are you suddenly all over my for you page?" I asked him. He laughed slightly and then faced me "because I'm just that amazing, no, I don't know". I turned my phone off and put it on charge and Vinnie copied my actions and turned off the lamp on his side of the room, leaving us in the dark.

//

I was woken up by my ringtone blaring from my phone sitting on the nightstand next to my bed. I opened my eyes, realising that I was lying on Vinnie's chest with his arm around me. I turned slightly and grabbed my phone off of the nightstand and put my head back down on his chest before I answered the phone. I would've put more effort into moving but it wasn't even 6:30 and Vinnie's grip was rather tight. Jess's face popped up onto the screen and then she started her endless babbling about god knows what. after a few minutes of talking, I think she caught on to the fact that I wasn't fully awake yet, "Oh, did I wake you up? Sorry, I thought you would be up by now. don't you usually get up at 6 when you have classes?" she rambled. "That was when I had a lecture at 8 in the morning. Different country," I grumbled. "oh, sorry, well you're up now," she started again. Vinnie sort of became more aware of everything, mumbling a morning, which immediately caught Jess's attention, I swear she has supersonic hearing or something.

"Was that Vinnie?! did you two hook up?!" she exclaimed, way too loudly for quarter past six in the morning. "No, we di-" I started but was cut off by a way too excited Jess, "No, it's ok I'll leave you two alone, I'll call you later" and with that, I was left with a dial tone. I put the phone back on the nightstand and closed my eyes again, resuming my previous position with Vinnie. I think if we woke up later than it was now we probably would have jumped off each other but it was too early for either of us to be bothered to move.

after roughly another forty-five minutes of just lying there, half-asleep Vinnie asked a question, "What time do you need to be in class?". His voice was deep due to it being morning and it just made it all that much harder to convince myself we are just friends. well, we are just friends but I'm not his friend. he thinks we're friends but I don't want to be friends, I think. I have no idea what I want, I just need to talk to someone about this. "Starts at 11 and finishes at 2," I replied.

"Oh, ok. I should probably leave at 9:30," he said. I felt his head turn and look at me. he brought his hand up to my face and moved some of my hair out of my eyes. I felt my cheeks heat up slightly, causing me to bury my head into Vinnie's chest and him to laugh lightly. after a few more minutes of lying there, we finally got up and moved into the kitchen to get breakfast. I pulled out some bread, butter and vegemite while Vinnie stood there looking disgusted. "Do you actually like vegemite?" he asked, his face twisting even more. "It's not my favourite thing but I'm feeling American today and I don't like it," I replied, causing Vinnie to laugh and then after realising what I said get offended, "What's wrong with being American?!" he exclaimed, causing me to laugh this time. "Nothing, it's just not me. I am not and never will be American," I shrugged, "Here, try some," I said handing Vinnie a slice of vegemite on toast. he looked reluctant but tasted it anyway, taking another few bites.

"That isn't even bad. How come when I had it, it tasted bad?" he asked, shocked. I couldn't help but laugh. I'm guessing when he tried it he had a massive spoonful of it but you're actually meant to take the tiniest bit and spread on buttered bread or toast or crackers or in a scroll, not eat it by the spoonful. "Did you try a whole spoon of it?" I asked, receiving a nod from Vinnie, "That's why".

I made two pieces of toast for myself and another two for Vinnie and then milo for each of us, reliving my Australian childhood. "I should've grown up in Australia," Vinnie said, earning a nod from me, "You've had a proper Australian breakfast, you've achieved tier 1 Australian". We finished eating and Vinnie hopped in the shower quickly while I went and got dressed.

I got dressed into a black bandeau with a skull mouth across it with a cropped fishnet top under, blue jeans and a black thong which I brought up onto my hips. I paired the outfit with silver necklaces, rings a black belt and a silver belt chain all with my black converse. I put on concealer, mascara and eyeliner and I left my hair out. I came out and saw Vinnie leaning on the bench, wet hair dripping, black jeans and a black tank top on.

I could have sworn we both stopped and just looked at each other for a second but it could've been my imagination or my brain buffering, I guess we'll never know.

a/n

aaaannd third chapter for today.

I'll try and publish a few in the next few days so you have some stuff to keep you occupied incase I forget again