Miles Away | Nick Mara

Forty Six

We arrived in California at nearly 5:00 in the morning. We went back to his house in a taxi. Nick suggested I sleep over and leave in the morning since it would take longer to go to my house than his. I agreed. The car ride took almost an hour. We opened the door and walked in, my eyes still tired and half closed.

As soon as we closed the door, the light flicked on, and the boys ran out towards us in their pajamas, yelling with big grins on their faces. They tackled Nick, wrestling him to the ground, and Edwin picked me up and threw me onto the sofa. It woke me up immediately, a sharp pain in the back of my head. I groaned. He leaned down in concern, asking if I was okay. I pretended to be in more pain than I was, just to make him more sorry.

"Wait yo." Edwin paused. "You good?"

"It hurts."

"Are you serious??" He stood up in panic.

I jumped up, laughing as I pulled him into a headlock. He gave a sigh of relief before trying to wrestle me off of him. Nick grabbed me by my waist and pulled me away. After a few more minutes of messing around, we decided to go to sleep. I headed upstairs with Nick to his room while the other climbed back into bed.

I woke up again around an hour later and ended up finding my way downstairs in the dark to grab a glass of water. Zion sat on the kitchen floor by himself, scrolling through his phone with a cup against his lips. He looked up as I walked towards him. He handed me the glass, filled with water. I sat across from him, leaning on the cabinet as I took a sip.

"Why're you here?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Couldn't sleep."

I nodded, sitting in silence. A few moments later he spoke again.

"I'm glad you're back."

I smiled. "Me too."

I hesitated before asking. "What happened with him and Kaylee."

Zion looked at me blankly for a moment. "That's not relevant anymore."

"Z." I sighed. "I wanna know."

He set his phone down. "They hooked up. He didn't start it though. She went up to him while he was talking to some guy at the party. He was hella drunk and out of it, but they were, like..." He paused. "Making out in the kitchen."

I nodded slowly. "That's it?"

"People said they went upstairs to one of the rooms but I didn't see anything."

"Oh." It didn't upset me. I wasn't mad. I didn't know what I was.

"You don't understand how bad it was." He said. "It was bad the first time y'all broke up, but this time was worse. You got back together and it gave him hope, or whatever, and then you dropped him again."

"I didn't drop him." I sighed. "Well, I mean, I didn't mean to."

"He was messed up, man."

"My mom died, Z. I couldn't not go back. He wasn't coming with me, and he knew I'd be gone for a long time."

"Okay. And?" He laughed a little. "It still hurt. He loves you bro."

I sighed.

"And you left so easily." He shrugged. "Like yeah, your mom passed away and that sucks, but you just picked up and left. You didn't even say bye to him properly."

"Yeah."

"It wasn't fair to him."

He smiled and sat up. "But you're here now. So get your stuff together and make him happy."

I laughed with a nod.