When Nate got invited to a "party"—his friends said it was a casual hang, but he begged to differ—10 hours before it began, and he felt conflicted. It would be tiring and most definitely messy, but he wondered if it was just what he needed. After the reoccurring nightmare, he had found himself having more moments of fear and sadness. Theodore had a large part in the whirlwind of emotions he felt. He hated going back and forth; no matter how much he tried to talk it out in therapy or with himself, he couldn't stop admiring Theodore, but also couldn't stop feeling as if he was utterly doomed. The only tool he found that helped the chaos of his mind—at least for a little while—was distraction. He would make more spontaneous plans with friends, hang out with his family more, and do extra credit assignments for his classes. Whether it was healthy or not, Nate immediately pushed himself to do something whenever the sense of utter dread came crashing in.
A party was the ultimate distraction. Unless he got a little too drunk, Nate could be easily entertained for a couple hours. Zivia assured him that it was strictly with people he knew and a few of their close friends. Whoever Nate didn't know, one of the quintuples voiced that they were a nice and fun person. The crowd consisted of 12 people in total—which made his friends determine that it was not a party, but he heavily disagreed—and all of them were close knit with one another in some way. Despite that Nate had a historically hard time making decisions, this one was fairly easy; going to a well-controlled, inner circle party would be the best distraction.
He had a hard time accomplishing anything for the day as he waited till the evening came. All he managed to do was eat, listen to some music as he lied on the floor, fell asleep on the floor for two hours, woke up, watched Bluey with his siblings, and fell asleep again on the couch before his alarm to get ready went off. The plenty of extra sleep had given him a burst of energy, which was highly appreciated and needed for the night's events. After fully waking up, he got ready in his "party outfit"—which was, in full transparency, a normal outfit with brown leather coat instead of his normal corduroy one. Altogether, his grandpa-esque knit sweater, black jeans, and black converse, didn't change. As he was trying to psyche himself up, Vincent had texted him that all his friends were outside, waiting for him. He ran past his family and said his goodbyes before walking out into the cool air, and into the warm car.
"Looking fly as hell," Vincent exclaimed. "I see you got the party jacket on."
"Don't call it that," Nate replied.
"Um, excuse me, you call it that all the time."
"Only I'm allowed to call it that. I feel like you're making fun of me when I wear it."
"I'm not making fun of you, I just-"
"What Vinnie is trying to say is that it's very endearing," Amiel stepped in.
Nate scoffed with a smile as the car pulled away from the curb. "Whatever."
"We swear," Amiel insisted. "How have you been?"
Nate froze; there was no way in hell he would tell them the actual, full truth.
"I've been fine. Busy."
The uncomfortable silence in the car told him that they were all suspicious, but even if they were, they chose not to say anything. They moved on.
"Well I have news for you guys," Leo spoke up. "Thalia has finally moved on. She has a new boyfriend."
The whole car let out sounds of joy. His evil ex-girlfriend would hopefully stay out of his life for good.
"I'm honestly super relieved," he continued. "I mean, it kind of hurt at first, but she's not my burden anymore. I don't have to put up with her being mean and awful."
YOU ARE READING
All Our Sensitivity
Romance"Are you always going to forget I can't see?" "I don't need to remember when we're kissing." "Weirdo." Nate was born blind. That was a fact. Nate was also gay. That was a fact that came much later after his six-month relationship with his best frien...
