In A Song

October 29th

The bell rings. I gather my binder and pen, and run out the door. I didn't get much sleep last night.

"Nichole, wait!"

I look behind me, and find Collin rushing after me.

He corners me. "Nichole, what's wrong? You haven't texted me or anything, and you avoid me whenever you see me."

I bite my lip and try to find a way to explain.

•TWO DAYS EARLIER•

"So you've never heard of Underøath?" Thom asks me incredulously.

I shake my head.

He shakes his head from pity.

We sit in my dorm room, trying to finish cleaning. Thom's nice enough to try and help me. So far, there's not too much left to put away. This is nice and ordinary.

The music is blasting from my iHome, and we sing Love The Way You Lie, with Thom rapping and me singing the chorus. He's a pretty good rapper. I wonder why I didn't already know this.

It occurs to me that I haven't texted Collin all day. I grab my phone and drop the shirt I was holding.

Nichole: hey babe I'

The beginning of Come On Eileen starts, and I start moving the top of my body around, dancing to the music.

Thom gets up ad starts dancing ridiculously. I laugh, then throw my phone aside and start dancing with Thom, echoing Sam and Patrick from The Perks Of Being A Wallflower.

This is a perfect moment. I'm having fun with my best friend. Collin is a friend, and yes, is my boyfriend, but I realize that it's Thom who's been here all along. Artie was a friend like that, but he won't talk to me. Thom didn't ditch me for my life choices. He stayed there through and through. He's my true best friend.

I want to freeze this moment and rewind it over and over for awhile. Avoid the drama and hardships and be happy for a while.

The song ends, and I fall back on my bed, my chest hurting from my laughing. Thom must feel the same, because it's a long time before either of us can talk.

It'a me who says it first. "I had a great day today."

"I figured you needed to get away from everything for awhile."

"Yeah." I sit up. "Right, I'm going to clean some more."

Before long, everything is spotless. Quite miraculously, too.

Thom collapses on the ground and pulls out his phone, then groans. "It's gonna be a half hour before Zayn gets here."

"Well, you have to stay in here until then. The school will kill you if you just hang out outside," I say.

"That's what I was kinda doing."

He sits up on the bed with me. "You know, if you ever need to talk to someone other than your mom or pillow, you can always talk to me."

I nod.

"I can be like that gay best friend who you tell all your secrets to."

I giggle. "Thanks, Thomathan."

He pokes me on the nose, and I smile.

You know, I'm not really positive what made me do it.

It was so sudden.

Just a sudden rush of adrenaline and emotions, and a sudden blast of pretend liquid courage.

I kissed my best friend.

Right there in my dorm room.

Where his ex could walk in any moment.

He was surprised. You could tell, if you were there.

But he relaxed and kissed back.

I don't really know what happened.

I pulled back after about ten seconds. "I'm sorry."

•PRESENT•

I blink. "Nothing's up. I've just been on my-"

Collin stops me there. "Okay, okay. I was just wondering, because you've been acting really weird lately."

I nod. "Sorry."

He smiles, an obvious sign of forgiveness. He slings his arm around me, and we walk away calmly.

My lips burn morally for the lie. I don't ever want him to find out.

------------------

BOOM. WUT JUST HAPPENED.

Comment thoughts! Thom breaks up with Aria, questions his sexuality, then kisses his best friend! OMFG!

Three recent updates! I hope it makes up for the hiatus I took between around October to December or whatever.

Vote, comment, and share this story! Love you all! 谢谢！再见！(⌒▽⌒) -哎玛

(BTW I'm going to start signing off in Chinese because every author has a unique sign off thingy and I love my Chinese keyboard :3 )