New Girl ➼ (Nate Archibald) [COMPLETED]

Chapter 23// "It might be awkward!"

Chapter Twenty-three: "It might be awkward!"
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"I think I'm in love with you, Riley."

"You made me want to become a better man, Riley."

"Riley.. Riley.. RILEY!"

I gasped loudly when I felt a sudden nudge on my shoulder. Nate was looking over with concern.

"You were mumbling and moving around, are you okay?" He placed his hand on my thigh.

"I-I'm fine, it was just a bad dream," I shook my head and looked out the airplane window. We were landing in California.

Serena and Dan were with us at the airport before we left. They wanted to wish us luck on the nullification process as well as praying for our safety from Kai. While going through security checks, waiting, and most of the time on the plane– Nate was doing his best to not talk to me.

I wasn't sure if it was because of the fact I was engaged, Blair's intentions, or what almost happened yesterday. But he was giving me the cold shoulder again.

My parents absolutely adored Nate just as much as Hayden did. They were highly impressed at his sport participation and Mom kept commenting on how "beautiful his eyes are. It's like staring into the ocean."

Nate didn't seem to mind them. In fact he looked pretty happy being able to joke around with my dad without any fear. It was like he meant to be part of my family, seeing as they got along so well.

However, that was with them and not me. Besides him shaking me awake, we haven't spoken more than a sentence to each other. As we were leaving the plane and getting through the airport, there was a big tension between us that made me want to cry.

I couldn't just blurt out what was wrong– we were both jet-lagged and my family was in the same space as us. If anything, they'll make Nate and I hate each other by the end of this trip with their advice. I'll just have to wait until we got alone time.

"You ever been to Cali, Nate?" Dad looked into the rearview mirror.

My parents were fond of their collections of cars, therefore they tried their best to drive by themselves everywhere.

"Any different from New York?"

"Very different," Nate smiled, "I can actually breath and look at the healthy sky. I've been here once with my friend Chuck. Last year."

"Exactly how you remember it?"

"A little less hot."

The two of them started to bond over the weather–which I thought was going to awkward, but it wasn't– and sports, more stuff that no one else cared about. I didn't know why Nate wanted to tag along, since he refused to have a proper conversation with me.