Sign Language (BoyxBoy)

Chapter Eight - Closer

Hiiiiiiiii, I know it's really really short, but at least it's something, and since my fatigue is slowly fading, I hope to be updating this a bit sooner now! Sorry for the long, long wait, and I hope you enjoy the Nars-time in this chapter, definitely more to come in chapter nine!

Nick's POV

Three weeks after the somewhat awkward prom night, our little group of friends had fallen into a comfortable routine. Lars and I saw each other in class every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and even though it had been slightly uncomfortable still the first week, we soon went back to fooling around and not paying much attention to whatever the teacher was trying to tell us. He hardly asked Zanna to join him in class anymore, since my signing got remarkably better due to spending so much time with him and Silke. On Thursdays, we didn't have class and I spent most of the day catching up with school work, writing essays and doing research in the library, sometimes Lars would join me there but he didn't like the library very much. Usually he'd just borrow the books and take them home.

Even though we spent a lot of time together, I still felt I didn't really knew him. He was a nice guy, and we always had a lot of fun, but I had a feeling that he didn't truly show himself to anyone but his sister and Silke. It hurt a little, if I was honest. I considered him one of my best friends by now, but apparently I was the only one who thought so.

He came over to my place sometimes, and I had been to his house when Zoe had invited me, but he hardly ever was around then, and he was never the one to invite me there. I never heard his voice again either. I knew he didn't like to talk a lot, Zoe and Silke had explained me why, but that too hurt. I thought he trusted me, I knew I trusted him. I wasn't sure why or what, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that Lars was hiding something from me. I had caught him looking at me with a somewhat dreamy look in his eyes sometimes, but a second later he would snap out of it and act like the sarcastic guy I'd come to know.

Tonight was another one of our Thursday nights at the pub. Zoe and Silke always went clubbing afterwards, sometimes I'd go with them, but Lars never came along after that one time he got mad at me for kissing Silke. Another thing that was never brought up again. He was just a big pool of mystery and I would love to find out what it was all about, but he kept me at a distance when it wasn't all about having fun together.

I thanked Zoe for bringing me a beer and we all raised our glass before we drank. The girls were deep in conversation about something I didn't really understand, it seemed to be something about one of their classes but I didn't care enough to try and find out what it was. Lars was seated next to me, his arm resting on the back of the sofa, his eyes trained on a couple of guys that stood near the bar. They were handsome, I had to give him that, but they were also drunk and flirting with a couple of blonde bimbos who obviously weren't able to hold their booze.

I tapped his shoulder to draw his attention and smirked. “Really Lars, those two?”

He shrugged and grinned. “They don't need to have brains to be a good fuck.” he signed and I chuckled.

“Didn't know you were that type of guy.” I winked and he just shook his head.

“Why would you care what kind of guy I am Nick.” I bit my lip, unwilling to show how much that had hurt me. Because of course I cared. More than I wanted to care, actually. I didn't want to feel this way about anyone, not after just splitting up with my girlfriend for years. And not about him. Every fibre of my being sensed that he was bad news. He had a secret, or multiple secrets and he obviously wasn't waiting to be saved. “But why don't you tell me something about yourself? Why did you end up here? Zoe told me you were actually supposed to be in Sweden.”