Miles Away | Nick Mara

Five

I was woken up the next morning by the boys, who ran into the room with Zion's speaker, blasting Lil Uzi Vert's songs on repeat. I covered my ears with a pillow at first, but couldn't help but laugh and join in as they started to dance and sing along. Soon, it turned into a pillow fight; we screamed and laughed as we chased each other around with a pillow in our hands.

Zion tried to build a fort around him using my duvet and the bed frame. After setting it all up, he peeped his head out of the top and "spied" on the rest of us and planned his "big attack". After spotting him, I joined him and crawled into the small space he'd made.

"We finna get you all!" Zion shouted at the rest of the boys.

They looked at us and laughed. But a few seconds later, they started to gather chairs and used my luggage bag as a defense wall. When they were ready, we began to throw pillows at them. Edwin screamed and fell over as a pillow hit his face. Brandon collapsed in laughter before throwing another one back. Austin pretended to give Edwin CPR while Nick lay next to him, fake-crying and blaming Zion for "murdering" Edwin. We couldn't stop laughing.

Within 30 minutes, we were all lying on the floor, catching our breath. Brandon stood up first, saying that he wanted to make pancakes. Edwin followed, then Austin, then the rest of us headed back upstairs and into the kitchen.

After gathering a few ingredients, they stood next to each other, facing the counter. Zion started his playlist on the speaker again while the others mixed the ingredients. I sat on a chair by the table and watched, not knowing what to do.

"IN THE KITCHEN WRIST TWISTING LIKE A STIR FRY" Nick yelled, singing along while mixing the pancake batter.

As we all laughed, Nick danced with the bowl in one hand and a spoon in the other. He walked towards me, mouthing along to the words. As I watched and smiled, he set down the bowl on the table and pulled me up by the hand, twirling and spinning me around. I screamed in laughter, becoming more and more dizzy.

Just as the song ended, Nick screamed. Before I realized what was happening, we were both lying on the floor. He groaned as he held the back of his head, and I couldn't help but laugh from beside him. We'd tripped over the chair leg and landed head-first on the floor. I'd fallen partially on top of Nick, so I wasn't hurting too much, but he lay on the floor in pain. Covering my hand with my mouth, I hid my laughter, trying to be sympathetic.

The rest of the guys had already collapsed onto the floor, screaming in laughter. After a while, we both stood up. Nick continued to groan and complain, but smiled at the same time. I apologized as many times as I could.

"It's not your fault." He laughed.

Wrapping my arms around his shoulders, I apologized one last time before sitting down on the chair again. He sat on the table, a few inches away from me.

"You didn't do anything wrong," he paused. "You never have."