Tides of Time | a. arlert

Chapter 10; messy

Armin and I woke up early so we had time to head back to my apartment so I could quickly pack before leaving. I was only there for one night so my bag was small but I did pack one fancy outfit since Pieck and Galliard had invited us all to dinner at their place.

While I listened to the soft music in the background and watched the birds flying over the hood of the car, I kept thinking of ways to make sure things worked with Armin. I didn't want everything with Colt and that whole breakup to have been for nothing or else I'd look so stupid. I also just wanted things to work with Armin, I loved him and I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him. I just had the nagging feeling to lay everything on the table or it would come back to bite me in the ass.

"So Armin?" I turned from the window to focus on the boy next to me.

"Ya?"

"So I know it probably doesn't matter since we weren't together but I feel like we should just clear things up." I vaguely said what I wanted to say but Armin cocked a brow at me with confusion so I was forced to continue. "Okay, what I'm trying to ask is how many people did you sleep with when you were away? I'd rather hear it from you than potentially hear from others when I least expect it."

Armin cleared his throat quickly as he was very obviously taken off guard. "I get the question but I don't really have an answer for you, I didn't sleep with anyone." My eyes opened wide as I started at him and waited for the punch line to what I thought was a joke but he didn't look like he was joking.

"W-what about Samara? You guys were together longer than we were and well..." I rambled out my words out of pure confusion. There was no way he didn't sleep with her at least once.

"Not even with Samara, she believes in no sex till marriage so I respected that. I didn't go to parties or anything either so sex was the last thing on my mind." I blinked rapidly at him since this all didn't feel real. I was glad he didn't sleep with anyone but now I had to answer my own question and it was much worse. "So what about you? I assume Colt but are there any others?"

"I uh- Colt was one but there were a few others at some parties..." I didn't want to fully answer even though it was my idea to lay it all out but now I felt like a massive whore. I got mad at him for the whole Samara thing when I was out sleeping with random people. Sure I didn't ghost him but it was still bad.

"Do I know any of them? Or just random people?" I looked away from him and out the window to try and avoid his gaze that was starting to grow suspicious. "You said to lay it all out and now you're scared? I won't be mad, just say it y/n."

I sighed, "three were just random people from parties, I made them use condoms so don't worry about that. The other person was..." I tapped my finger against my leg, trying to compose myself before saying who it was. "It was Nathan."

Armin almost coughed up the sip of coffee he had just sipped on, "Nathan?"

"It wasn't planned, he was having a concert nearby so I went, got a bit drunk with him at the after party and things just happened. It was just a one night thing, after that we went back to normal. That was just before I got with Colt so it's kinda recent I guess." I skeptically looked back to him but he didn't look mad at all, he just looked surprised.

I still held back some information but it wasn't relevant. I told him I slept with Nathan which was enough, I didn't need to tell him all the details of that one night because it was a lot I'm sure he'd rather not hear.

"You don't like him do you?"

I shook my head, "I love him because he'd my best friend but I don't like him romantically at all. I only like you, you know that." Armin's hand rested on my thigh with a little squeeze, "ya, I know."