Page 12 of From the Ashes
Nix shrugged. “I'll go to college. Whatever.”
“Whatever?” I shouldn't have been surprised. This is the way he always acted when we talked about our futures. “That's all you have to say?”
“I mean…going to college is what we're supposed to do right? Plus, it'll give me four more years to work on my stories. Maybe by then I'll have a good one.”
Ever since the day the wildfire came to Creekside, Nix had been writing. Something about the fire and our narrow escape spoke to him. I'm not sure what sort of inspiration he drew from those flames but whatever it was it stayedwith him.
At first his stories were simple little things, and most of them were easily recognizable as rewrites of our favorite cartoons or movies. But as time went on, they took on a decidedly romantic tone, probably to make up for the lack of romance in his life. Our town was small and that left Nix with severely limited options. Most of the time, that meant no options at all. So instead of wallowing in self-pity, he decided to write the sort of love story that he would want to live through. He even let me read a few of them now and then. But I'd have to see him finish anything. All of his projects typically ended after the two main characters had met. Since he had no experience dating, he really wasn't sure how to continue.
There was a part of me that wanted to help him, to give him the experience that he's so desperately craved. That webothcraved. But I stayed true to my convictions. I couldn't get involved with my best friend. It just wasn't a good idea.
“Oh my god,” Nix sighed, sitting up on one of his elbows. “Did I tell you that one of Jordan's football buddies tried to get me to come over and hang out the other day?”
“What? Who?”
“Patrick.”
“What the hell did he want?”
“I wasn't sure at first. But when I pushed him to explain himself the truth finally came out.” He turned those beautiful green eyes on me, a mischievous grin pulling his lips. “Apparently, he wanted toexperimentwith me and thought I'd be into it.”
My breath caught in my throat. A suffocating wave of jealousy gripped my chest. I must have made a face of disgust because he immediately began to laugh.
“Don't worry! I told him I wasn't interested.” He fell back onto thegrass. “It wasn't that long ago that he was helping Jordan bully us and lying to the principal about us trying to kick his ass.”
“So…youdon'twant to do anything with him?”
“God no! Are you kidding me? He's way too much of a dickhead to waste my first blowjob on!” Nix clicked his tongue in disgust. “He doesn't deserve me.”
“Damn right about that,” I huffed.
Nix sat up again, his index finger bopping me on the nose. I looked up to see a wide grin on his face, like he was a Cheshire cat.
“What?”
“It’s so cute when you get jealous.”
“Pfft! Me?! Jealous? Why would I be jealous!”
“Just look at your face!”
I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Or at least I pretended I didn’t. Besides, could he blame me? Patrick, while being a dickhead, was also one of the hottest guys on the football team. Even Jordan didn’t hold a candle to him. And now he wanted to experiment withmybest friend? Why couldn’t he just stay in the closet like he deserved? After years of bullying both of us, I wasn’t about to accept him as one of my own.
“Patrick is a dick,” I reiterated. “End of story. Hedefinitelydoesn’t deserve you.”
“You’re right,” Nix sighed, leaning back on the grass. “But I won’t lie to you… I was a little tempted.”
“What? Why?!”
“Because I’m seventeen and still a virgin. I’ve got needs, man.”
“Yeah…”
On that front, I totally understood where he was coming from. Being a teenager with my libido and hormones through the roof, but no opportunity to work it out besides alone in my bed just wasn’t cutting it. I wanted more than that and Nix did too. And I guess if I was being really honest, had I been in his position… Patrickmighthave looked tempting as well.
“What about you? Getting laid at all?”
I huffed. “I spend all my time with you. If I was getting laid, you’d know.”