Cool Kids [p. parker] || SLOW UPDATES

TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
( ACTING WEIRD )

"NICHOLAS STEVEN BERRY, TELL us everything! From beginning to end, everything included! Did you kiss? Do I have to fight him- was it a joke? Some sort of prank? Oh, my God, I'll fight him so hard-."

"'Nita, calm down," Nick hurried to stop Anita from going on a furious rant without even knowing what happened. She quickly shut up, mouth closing as she looked to Nick. "It wasn't a prank or a joke," he told her and Marty, who had been nodding along with Anita. "The short version is that we like each other, but we're not together."

"I want the long version," Anita whined, causing a few other students to look in their direction. She ignored them though, and crossed her arms as she pouted.

It was the Monday after Peter's and Nick's talk, and the Monday after Sharon Berry apologized for being so judgmental towards James, an entire weekend having gone by. It had been a regular Saturday and Sunday, nothing big happened other than the lizard making another appearance Saturday. Though, he hadn't been able to talk to much of anyone other than his parents considering that he spent the entire Saturday with his mom for Shabbot, and all of Sunday with both of his parents. So Nick was prepared for question after question that he would get from his friends, but he didn't feel like going through all of the details so early in the morning. He was about to tell her just that – that it was too early – when a short blonde raced up to the trio with a large grin on her features and her blue eyes wide with excitement. Nick let his head fall back and let out a quiet groan. "How did you find out?" He asked, looking at Olivia Green.

"Ned!" She exclaimed. "He and Peter talked after you left, and then Ned called me, and we both knew you two liked each other, so we were gonna gather up Anita and Marty here so we could set you two up, but now we don't have to!
Less work for us." Anita and Marty had amused expressions as they looked at Olivia.

"Well, we're not exactly together," Nick explained slowly.

"What, why?" Olivia quickly asked, but backtracked just as quick. "Wait, if it's personal, you don't have to tell me."

"I don't wanna feel forced to come out to my parents too soon," Nick said.

Olivia nodded. "Valid reason."

"Very valid," Marty agreed, "but I need my ship to sail already."

"Ditto, McFly," Anita said.

Nick chuckled. "Well, the ship is at the dock but the crew still needs to do some work before it does."

The school bell sounded, and instantly students were making their way to their homeroom classes, most grumbling and frowning about it. Olivia sighed and frowned at the three. "We'll talk about this later?" She asked, not exactly happy that their conversation was being cut short. They all nodded, telling her of course and that they'd see her had lunch, and then the blonde left, Anita quickly leaving as well since she had a long walk to her own homeroom. Meanwhile, Nick made sure he wasn't leaving anything he needed and Marty was just standing there as she stared in the direction Olivia went. Nick looked up at him at realizing Marty wasn't going anywhere, and was about to ask why when he noticed the faint redness on Marty's cheeks.