Naira: Wanna come over and help me pack?
Vic: Aren’t you only moving in three months? Why start now?
Naira: Because there’s so much cool stuff to look at! Pleeeeaaaasseeee!
Vic: Fine, but only because you asked so nicely. I’ll be there in 10.
Naira: Yaaaaaay!

Naira’s POV

Some weeks had past, allowing me to rethink all the choices I had made. I realised that having been in a relationship with Jaime was a complete mistake. No, I don’t say it because of how it all ended, but I just meant the relationship in general. I didn’t really think it was that good, to be honest. I’ll admit that he was a good kisser, but I never really felt anything for him. Go ahead and call me a bitch for leading him on like that, but it was true (plus, it wasn’t like he hadn’t led both me and Maya on). I just never felt that small sensation I got whenever I was around somebody I really liked. My mistake had begun at the very, very beginning. I should have just followed my gut and kept my answer to a no. The only reason why I changed my mind was, because I was actually afraid; afraid that I would be alone forever. It was such a stupid thing to think, I was only 23 for goodness sake! I just wished that I would have spent my time on somebody worth it, and not waste it on Jaime.

Oh well, I couldn’t do anything about it now. At least I was able to get over him in no time, while I wasn’t so sure Maya was able to do the same thing. She had to have really liked him if she pursued a relationship after having been friend for so long. To be honest, I would have been way too afraid to do anything like that. I was jealous of her having the guts to do stuff like that. Moments like that showed me how much Maya and I differed, even though we were the bestest of friends.

So, all that thinking had happened, but it wasn’t all that went down. I went out to look for apartments again, not really having liked any of the ones I looked at with Jaime. This time, I found the perfect living space. It had two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and the kitchen, living room, and dining room were basically all combined, and I could actually afford it. Luckily it was walking distance from the school and wasn’t far away from Maya and the others. So, yeah, perfect for me. The only problem was that I wasn’t going to be able to move in for another couple of months, because the couple living there at the time couldn’t move out before then. It wasn’t like i was in a rush, though. Staying with Maya wasn’t such a torture.

I, however, had decided to pack already. You see, I was basically still much like a child -- I’m pretty sure Maya has said that many, many times -- I got distracted by every little thing in my room. I had always been like that when I cleaned up my room, but I was still so much like it. Letting you in on a little secret, I almost wasn’t able to pack everything up in time for my big move to San Diego. Only after a couple of allnighters was I able to finish in time. I was determined not to have that happen this time.

But what fun would that be without a friend? Maya was out doing god knows what, and I was all alone in the fairly big house. Lucky for me, Vic and I had been becoming pretty close (yes, Maya still teased me about him). Whenever one of us had some boring errands and chores to attend to, we would just ask each other along. It had practically become a routine for us. Naturally I would ask him to help me with this as well. It would just have been stupid of me to try an do this all by myself; it would be a death sentence!

I had dragged Vic up to my bedroom as soon as he arrived, not even bothering to offer him a drink or something like the first time we were left alone together. By now, I knew he would just go ahead and act like this was his house, I didn’t need to be concerned about not being a good ‘host’. Also, I just really wanted to get started with all the crap I had lying around my room. There foresure was going to be weird shit lying around. I just couldn’t contain my excitement.

While I started looking at the mess at the bottom of my closet, Vic took his time looking through some drawers. He put on some shitty playlist for us to laugh about, and I brought up a large trash bag for us to throw away any junk I didn’t need anymore. At that rate it would seem like it would all happen so fast, right? No, no not at all. After the first initial things that were placed in plain site from it being recent were moved away, the good stuff started surfacing.

“What’s this?” Vic asked, holding up a dusty book, trying to make out the words on it without causing all the dust to fly through the air.

“I don’t know,” I frowned and got up from my place on the floor to take a look. It was only when I held the book, which had a black cover and red letters, in my hands that I realised exactly what it was. I let out a laugh, already wanting to read it’s contents, “it’s my senior year yearbook! Oh my god!”

“No way!” he chuckled, also getting curious about my past and what everything was like.

I nodded and climbed onto my bed, patting the space beside me for Vic to join me. He softly shook his head at my child-like manners, but still sat down nonetheless. Of course the first thing I did was turn to my yearbook photo. It was a tradition for my school to always add a baby photo of the people graduating, so it was probably only more embarrassing. Did I care? Not really, these photos were there to cringe at when you just saw them, but laugh at when you were older.

“Oh my god! Look at me!” I burst out, pointing at the person I once looked exactly like. I had completely changed since then, and it was so funny to see the stupid fashion choices I had made. Of course, however, my love for sweaters had alway existed.

Vic put his chin on my shoulder to get a better look, “I think you look adorable!”

“In which photo? Mini-me or 18-year old me?”

“Hmm,” he pretended to think, “both.”

I shook my head at him, drying some tears from my eyes, “I was definitely not adorable in high school, quite far from it actually. Look at my hair, it’s way too long! It just makes me look like one of those sluts that bleaches their hair way too blonde, which I’ve never ever done by the way. And there’s just a bit too much eyeliner going on. Nope, not adorable. Baby-me, on the other hand, was still dressed by my father… who got the clothes from my grandma… Now that’s adorable, but then again all babies are.”

“I’d totally date you back in high school, though!”

“One, you’d be considered a pedophile while I was still going to school,” I scrunched up my nose, “and two, I was already taken, I’m sorry.”

“Oh, what happened to this high school boyfriend?” Vic looked at me curiously, actually wanting to hear me talk about my old relationships, something I always thought nobody gave a fuck about.

“Well, his name was Max and he had been my best friend since middle school,” I started explaining, but before I could get to the actual reason, Vic cut me off.

“Good start, but what could possibly go wrong with that?”

I rolled my eyes at him and punched him lightly for interrupting me before bringing my hand up to my head thinking about my past mistakes, “after being together for 3 years, he found out he was gay. So, yeah, in a nutshell, I lost my virginity to a gay guy.”

“Another reason why you aren’t like most girls,” he winked at me.

“Ha ha ha,” I deadpanned before closing the book right in his face.

After continuing to look through my stuff, which felt like hours, but only really took 20 more minutes until we found my old movie collection, we were sitting at the TV, watching some of the shittiest movies I used to think were amazing. There was some (only) half burnt popcorn in a bowl on the coffee table in front of us, and Vic and I were ranting about how stupid the characters were being -- yes, the movies were chick flicks; what else do you expect from the movies I watched in high school!

About halfway through the movie, I decided to try the popcorn one last time, but I immediately scrunched up my nose and tried to wash away the horrible taste by gulping down my drink, “ok, no. This isn’t going to work. I need normal popcorn.”

I grabbed the bowl and started making my way to the kitchen so I could throw it out and try to make good popcorn this time. However, Vic started looking at me with puppy dog eyes, “are you going to leave me here all alone?”

“You can come along if you want,” I told him as he held out a hand for me to help him up. I dragged him along with me to the kitchen while we let the movie continue playing. We weren’t really into the whole plot, so it didn’t matter if we missed a couple of scenes.

Vic sat down while I tipped the bowl into the trash can. He watched me climb onto the counter to reach up into the cupboard that held the packs of microwavable popcorn, not even bothering to offer help… not that he could, seeing as we were the same height, but still, he could have suggested that he would climb up to get it. However, he just grinned at me as I was obviously struggling to keep my balance.

“I’m going to ask you a personal question,” he suddenly said out loud, making me look at him, “how are you doing now that you and Jaime aren’t seeing each other?” He continued to wiggle his eyebrows in a suggestive way.

I frowned, turning around briefly to scavenge for the cardboard box, “I already told you, I got over it all in a matter of days.”

“No, no, no, I didn’t mean that, I meant the other part.” Once again he raised his eyebrows waiting for me to figure out what exactly he was trying to get me to answer.

“Other part? What?”

“Oh my god, Naira! Seriously!” Vic sighed in frustration, “the physical part!”

“The physical pa-- oh. Oh, ok. Yeah, no, Jaime and I never did anything like that,” I grabbed the box and started climbing back down, this time actually taking my time to read the instructions carefully, I wasn’t going to be the reason why Maya’s house burned down.

“Wait, what?” He looked so surprised to hear the new information that he wasn’t expecting.

“Exactly what I said, nothing to explain about it,” I put the unpopped corn into the microwave and turned on the right settings, “I’m actually quite happy that that’s how things went. So, to answer your question for before, I’m completely fine. Guys either don’t stay around long enough and I never had a one night stand, so I’m really used to it. The only stable relationship I’ve ever had is with my sweaters… maybe I should end that relationship too, I feel like it’s too one sided…”

“Well, ok. I think you look very cute in sweaters, though, but if you feel the need to change your style, go ahead. I’m sure you’ll look good in anything you chose.”

“So, I could permanently choose to go nude, and you’d still think it’ll look good?”

Vic gulped and nodded, “more than just good.”

The microwave beeped to let us know the minute had passed. Burning my fingers on the bag, I hopped towards the empty bowl and poured in the fresh popcorn. To my surprise, nothing had burned this time and there was a big possibility that this was the most beautiful popcorn I had ever made. So, I happily skipped back to the living room, ready to devour it all. But it was already too late. The credits were rolling, leaving me completely confused.

“Awe, but I wanted to know whether what’s-her-name got together with thingy or that other dude!” I pouted as the background music continued to play.

“Who is ‘thingy’ and who is ‘the other dude’, because I’m pretty sure -- if my knowledge of chick flicks is correct --- she ended up with that one guy with the weird black hair. But, of course, there’s still a possibility of this not being a normal teen movie. However, that chance is one in a million, so black-haired dude it is.” Vic said with a serious look on his face before not being to take it anymore and actually burst out laughing.

Once again, I rolled my eyes at him for what felt like the millionth time already, “let’s just go upstairs and continue, I’ll bring the popcorn with me.”

Sounds easy, right? Well, not for me. As soon as we entered my room, I managed to find something to trip over, causing the popcorn to fly through the air and scatter all over the floor. Luckily, I was able to catch myself on Vic, who was standing just in front of me; at least I didn’t face plant, because that would not only have been embarrassing but also very painful. Vic held tightly onto me so I wouldn’t still hit the floor with a loud thump anyway.

“Well, this place was already a terrible mess, you just made it a whole lot worse,” he looked around the room with a disapproving look.

Me being me, I didn’t understand his sarcasm and thought he was actually being serious, “I know. I should have cleaned up. I didn’t, but I should have; I should have a long time ago. But I just can’t get myself to do it. It’s just that--”

“Hey, babe, I was just kidding.” After letting out a small breathy laugh, he helped me stand back up. We were only standing a foot apart from each other, but I could only think about him calling me babe. Yeah, I know, we always made jokes that had double meanings, but this just caught me off guard…

We slammed our lips together while I pulled on his shirt to bring him closer to me, and his hand had a secure grip on my waist. It was clumsy and desperate, nothing romantic about it at all. The force I had on him just my pulling him closer made us slowly walk back until my back hit my bedside table. I quickly reached out a hand behind me to hit off whatever was placed on the surface before the weight Vic was putting on me caused me to sit on it.

Ok, so Maya was right, Maya was definitely right. I had hidden feelings for Vic and I was discovering them while he was finding out about them as well. Holy shit. I didn’t think they would be strong enough to have started this and be completely ok with it. But, oh god, I was really ok with it. Everything felt more than ok. I didn’t care about all the times I told Maya off, this was exactly what I wanted.

Vic and I broke apart briefly so I could take his shirt off. My hands went right back to roaming and tracing his chest, while he went to close the space again, only this time letting his lips connect with my neck. My breathing was shaky, Vic’s kisses already making me feel immense pleasure. I blindly fumbled with his belt, taking a while to figure out how to unbuckle it, but actually managing to somehow do it. He stopped for a while to just look at me, his chest rising and falling rapidly, waiting for me to continue what I had started. I concentrated on unbuttoning and unzipping his jeans before he started kissing me again. This time it was his turn to let his hands wander underneath my shirt--

“Naira! I’m back home, Mike’s here as well!” Maya shouted from downstairs, the front door closing loudly.

I pushed Vic away as we looked at each other with wide eyes.

“Shit.” I mumbled, trying to find out a way to cover this all up, “I’ll act like I was just in the bathroom.”

“And I’ll, umm, I’ll just leave now,” Vic rambled, just as flustered as I was.

I nodded, not being able to think of a better plan. So, I rushed out of my room and into the bathroom, hoping Maya and Mike didn’t know what was going on. I quickly looked over my appearance to check if I still looked innocent enough. My hair was still up in it’s ponytail, I was fully clothed, I wasn’t wearing lipstick so there weren’t any smudges to clear away, and it didn’t look like Vic had left any hickeys on my neck. It seemed like I was good to go.

In the most casual way I could muster, I walked downstairs and said hi to the people who had just ‘very rudely’ interrupted. I told them I was in the bathroom, so that I didn’t come downstairs immediately, but they already seemed very sceptical about what I was saying. Did I miss something that gave it all away?

“Why was Vic here?” Mike smirked at me, trying to look through the terrible cover I put up.

“He was helping me pack,” I shrugged like it was no big deal, hoping it seemed like something I would normally say.

“But you’re only moving in three months, why would you start packing now?” This time is was Maya who decided to ask the question.

“Because I get distracted easily. Vic and I found my old high school yearbook, which is always great to laugh about. Oh, and we found my old terrible movie collection, so we watched one, which is why the TV is still on. I actually burned some popcorn…”

Mike shook his head at me, but I wasn’t sure if it was because of the terrible crime I had commited by failing at something so simple, or if it was because he didn’t believe a word I said. “But why was he shirtless and why was he doing his best to keep up his pants, which he could have easily buttoned up and used his belt for?”

“I don’t know,” I tried to cover up, but I really wasn’t ready to improvise for something like that, “I already told you, I was in the bathroom.”

“Are you sure?” Maya smiled smugly, studying my face closely.

Dammit. I forgot she could easily read me like a book. Why did she have to have a degree in psychology and know me so well? Couldn’t I just get away with something for once? It was so much easier when my oblivious dad caught me doing something I wasn’t supposed to do. But then again, this wasn’t really something I wasn’t supposed to do… it was something I did, but it wasn’t bad or anything…

“Stop asking me questions!” I whined and ran out just like Vic had done a minute or so before me.

Fortunately, Vic was just driving past, and saw me standing outside. He stopped right in front of me, and I quickly ran to the passenger side and got in before he could roll down his window to ask me what I was doing. I was barefoot and didn’t even think about bringing my keys, so I was going to be stuck with Vic for a while until I was ready to face Maya. It didn’t seem like Vic was better off, having still been in the same exact state as Mike had described him and I had left him. Luckily, he got the message, and he quickly drove off before either Maya or Mike could catch up with us.

“They were interrogating me,” I murmured not even caring about where Vic was planning on taking me, “I probably gave it away by running out.”

“So what?” Vic laughed, waiting at a stop sign while another car crossed the road, “let them know. We both freaked out at the beginning, but now I think about it, it really shouldn’t matter. I mean, it’s not like it would have been a one time thing… right?”

“Well, I hope not,” I smiled shyly and looked at my hands as if they were the most interesting things in the world, “wait… you don’t mean a friends with benefits deal, do you?”

“No, of course not!” he scoffed and grabbed one of my hands in his own, using his thumb to run over my knuckles, “I want all the emotional bullshit as well. I was actually going to ask you out today, but then it happened the way it happened, so yeah, I think now is the only real time for me to ask. Will you go out with me sometime?”

I nodded, my shy smile turning into a big grin, “yes, I’d love to.”

We drove around together for a bit longer, before I decided it was time to go back home and get the whole talk with Maya over with. I just hoped Mike wasn’t there anymore -- they were as close as a couple, yet they weren’t one; Maya was the one teasing me about Vic, I was the one supposed to be teasing her -- his older brother would just have to explain it all to him. There was no way I was the going to be the only one trying to tell them what went down.

Maya was already waiting for me in the living room as soon as I got back. I had kissed Vic goodbye before taking a deep breath and opening the front door, hoping it was unlocked. While I would have preferred a talk without any prejudice, Maya already had a sly smile on her face and a cocked brow. It was going to be difficult to tell her.

“Running off with Vic, are we now?” She chuckled, probably thinking of every possible scenario that could have happened between me and Vic (well, every might be exaggerated, because she would probably only think of the ones she really wanted to happen).

“Yes, Maya,” I went to take off my shoes only to be met with my barefeet again, forcing me to actually look at her, “We went to an abandoned house, took loads of drugs, had unprotected sex, and now I’m pregnant.”

“Ok, very funny,” she jumped up from her spot off the couch and came rushing over to me, “But you have to tell me everything! What happened? Did you guys confess your undying love for each other? Did you guys-- Did you guys-- oh my god, something must have happened between you guys! Wait… did I interrupt something? Oh my god, I’m so sorry! But you have to tell me everything! I’ve been rooting for you guys since forever!”

“No, I won’t tell you everything. But I will tell you I have a date on Friday,” I giggled and ran off to my room.

“Naira!” Maya whined.

Notes

So excited to write this that there had to be a time skip since all the drama xD
Was it too soon? I hope not, because it's kinda late to change that. Let's see where this takes Naira and Vic!
And, yes, I realised this is pretty long, especially for how long my chapters normally are...
Now, let's see what will happen with Maya ;)

- aweirdkindofyellow