Morning Shift

Suffocation

When Nicky woke up to three missed calls from Priya, his first thought was:

what the hell could this bitch possibly want?

And after taking his sweet time to fully wake up and call her back, he didn't get any answers. Instead, he was met with one of Priya's infamously deafening "happy screams."

"What the hell was that for?" He demanded, his voice still ridden with sleep and therefore not as intimidating as he would've liked it to be.

She screamed again, but this time Nicky pulled his phone away from his ear so his head wouldn't explode into a million pieces. When he brought it back to his ear, she was already gushing about who knows what.

"Priya. You're not making any sense," he told her.

He heard her take a deep breath, then quietly ask, "what happened on your walk home last night? You're welcome, by the way."

"Nothing of importance. Mostly consisted Jonah being an idiot, but that's not news, is it?" He joked, ignoring the last part of what she said. There was no way he was going to thank her for the cold he surely caught.

"I heard different," she sang. He could hear the smirk in her sickly sweet voice, which made him cringe.

"What'd you hear?"

"Well," she began, "Jonah called me this morning very distraught. He said you like some guy at his school with tan skin and pretty eyes?"

Nicky didn't respond, most likely due to the fact that his jaw was on floor. Distraught? Why was Jonah distraught over the fact that Nicky liked a guy?

"He seemed fine with it, Pri. I didn't think he'd be all weird and homophobic about it," he said, hoping the grogginess of his voice would mask the fear that was creeping up his throat and burrowing in his gut.

Priya paused for a long while before saying, "he's not getting all worked up because you're gay, dumbass. He's freaked out because you like someone and it isn't him."

Nicky furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. "It is him."

"I know that, but Jonah doesn't."

"Why would he care if it's him or not?"

"Nicolas, are you actually dumb?"

Nicky shook his head, then realized he was speaking over the phone. "No. I just don't get it," he said.

She whispered something that sounded like 'you're the worst person ever in the world,' before continuing. "He likes you, Nicky! Isn't it obvious?"

Nicky laughed out loud. "Bullshit."

"He was so jealous, he couldn't sleep. He was torn between happy for you and sad for himself and I had to sit through it all," she told him, working her dramatics as usual. "Can't you just tell him and put the poor kid out of his misery?"

"No," Nicky insisted, "no way."

"C'mon. I know you're trying to put up all these walls so you don't get hurt and I get that, but what I'm telling you is nothing bad will happen if you just go for it. Take a chance with him, Nicky. You've got a solid shot."

Nicky was torn. Sure, maybe he had a good shot, but was it worth it? Risking his solid friendship for a possible, short-lived romance? It seemed dumb to him to throw everything away like that, but shit, it was tempting.