The Submissive Assassin (BxB)

Chapter 34 - "You Win."

Nate stayed beside the opened door, folding his arms and leaning on one leg. There was no way his ex-boyfriend that traumatized his love life, had the audacity to waltz into his apartment as if they had been long lost friends. The only reason they had lost each other was due to Eric indecencies and it annoyed him that Eric acted as if it was a different lighter reason. When Eric saw the glare remain plastered on Nate's face, he removed his hands from his pockets and exhaled a long sigh.

"Nate, why can't we—"

"Leave, now." He pointed towards the hallway, motioning with his head as well. After his moments with Dante, he did not want his day to be now ruined by Eric who couldn't keep his rightful distance. Besides, how the hell did he know where Nate lived?

"I just wanted to—"

"I'm not repeating myself." Nate's jaw clenched even tighter before he spat, "I told you to leave or else I'm calling the front desk and telling them I have an intruder."

"Nate, I've apologized to you." It was Eric's turn to narrow his eyes, widening his arms at each of his sides. "I thought we were alright after our conversation during school."

Nate inhaled a sharp breath incredulously; he wasn't sure if Eric could really hear himself. "Yeah, to see each other at school for lunch, not show up at my house?"

"What's the difference?"

Eric had always been this way, arguing where he had no right to argue. At the end of the day, it was Nate's home, meaning he should be able to decide without a whole discussion who he wanted and didn't want inside his apartment. Of course, unless your name was Dante. "The difference is school is school and my home is my home where I enjoy having privacy and being alone."

"A dude just left your apartment, don't you lie to me." That made Nate's eyebrows raise instantly, realizing that Eric had seen Dante and that was definitely not going to result in any good. "Don't say it's for privacy and being alone—you just don't want me here."

Nate couldn't help but burst into a series of chuckles, raising his eyebrows. "I thought that was obvious?"

"I don't understand why though," he snapped, stepping towards Nate. "We can be friends, Nathan—"

"We can't be friends."

Eric threw his arms in the air. "Why not?"

"Because you hurt me, E." that was a nickname only Nate called him, and that was when Eric knew that he had finally been able to open Nate's emotions for him to talk. "And whenever I think about it, it hurts even more than it did when I found out."

Eric stayed silent for a moment, lowering his gaze. Even though he hadn't expected a conversation with him to reach this level of emotions, it made him realize something that caused his eyes to brighten as he returned his gaze on a confused Nate. He cleared his throat and said, "Nate, that means you still like me. At least in some way..."

Nate blinked. "What?"

"Every time you think about what I did, you said it hurts you." He shrugged his shoulders and folded his arms together. "If you didn't like me, you wouldn't be hurt by thinking of our past."

He felt as if he had been caught red-handed. Sadly, Eric had spoken nothing but the truth. The first time he had seen Jake in his first class, he had instantly been reminded of Eric. Even at times, he thought of the intimate moments they had and made him crave being touched, his body falling into a heat by his memories. Maybe he didn't flat out like him, but there were definitely old feelings still there that had hoped for them to reconnect.

But Nate was not ready to admit that. "I'm over you, Eric. I don't like you. Now," he pointed to the door again and tilted his head, "can you respect me at least to leave?"

"No." Nate rolled his eyes when he heard his refusal. "I'm not leaving until you agree that we're at least acquaintances."

Nate couldn't help but snort. "But I don't want anything to do with you—"

"We we're friends for months before we started dating." He stepped forward, narrowing the distance between the two of them. "And we were the best of friends, we couldn't go a day without one another and that's when we realized we liked each other. Why can't we go back to that?"

"Because you're only asking me this since we're in a new school and you have no one," he resisted, shaking his head. "We went to the same school and you never reached out to me after our breakup."

"I was mad at you." Eric shrugged his shoulders. "I really believed I didn't do anything wrong and we cussed each other out the last time we talk." When he saw Nate look away from him with his face overwhelmed with disappointment, he took a few more steps forward. "But I did...I did miss you."

The way his tone had grown quiet, lowered into a softness that Nate's heart couldn't help but skip a beat. He felt his walls beginning to break apart, wanting to attract Eric towards him, and it was noticeable by his folded arms falling to his sides. He looked down for a second before finally revealing, "I missed you too."

Eric could almost feel Nate letting him in again. He exhaled through his nose, shoving his hands in his pockets again. After a few seconds of silence, he cleared his throat and breathed, "I still think we can be friends, Nate. At least we could try...you can try."

Nate didn't want to let his walls crumble but he felt his resistance fall down on its own. He shrugged his shoulders and looked away. "I'm not sure, E."

"You don't have to be sure to give it a chance." He stepped forward again and Nate hadn't realized how close he had gotten so quickly. "To be honest, I don't think you'll ever be sure because of what happened between us. But it's just a friendship, nothing more."

He was tired of this continuous bickering, and he was tired of needing to put up a front he didn't fully feel. Of course he was still upset over how their relationship had crumbled, but Eric was right when he stated that there had been a small twinkle of hope for them to reconcile. Nate sent his fingers through his ginger curls, shaking his head stressfully and exhaling a sharp ragged breath.

He decided to let himself loose, shrugged his shoulders. "Alright, you win." Eric's eyes instantly widened with sparkles. "We can be around each other."

Eric tried to withhold his content but he couldn't, he giddily jumped before reaching forward and wrapping his arms around Nate's shoulders, tightly squeezing him. "You don't understand how glad I am right now."

Nate rolled his eyes. Although he didn't hug back, he did place his palm on Eric's side and tapped a few times, which counted as his embrace.