Southern Boy Charm | ✓

Chapter 38

4 Months Later

"If I study anymore my brain will literally fall out of my head." I drop my head into the Psychology textbook in front of me. My desk was a mess of scattered papers, snack wrappers, and empty coffee cups. If someone said that a hurricane had wrecked the area, I would have believed them in a heartbeat.

"Just one more final," Nick says from the desk across from me. His workspace is much neater than mine, which probably reflects the fact that he's the only mentally sane out of the two of us at the moment. "After that, we're home free."

Even his words of encouragement can't cure my frustration. While this is supposed to be the light at the end of the tunnel, my final exam for the semester before I get to go home for a month-long winter break, I am anything but motivated. I open my phone instead for a distraction and nearly cry when I read the time.

"Nick, it's two in the freaking morning. We have been studying for thirteen hours straight! I mean look around us," I gesture to the empty study room in the common area of our dorm building, "We're literally the only ones stupid enough to be here!"

"I'm not the one who decided to procrastinate studying for my exam until the day before the test," he says. "The only stupid choice I made was studying ahead of time and still agreeing to endure this all-nighter for moral support."

I glare at him through squinted eyes. "Well, I'm not the one stupid enough to turn down going on a date with the freaking teacher's assistant! If you had done your job as a best friend, you could have secured me a copy of the final so that I wouldn't have to do all of this!"

"I'm sorry, but nowhere in the job description of best friend did it mention embezzling tests."

"Well, maybe you should learn to read."

I drop my head back on my book. I've never had the feeling hard paper feel so soft. It makes an excellent pillow. Maybe if I should just take a five-minute nap. Then I'll be more energized after. I'll totally wake up. I snuggle deeper into my book.

The sound of an airhorn nearly makes me fall backwards out of my chair.

"What the hell!" I yell, looking up at Nick. He wears a mischievous smile on his face, an airhorn in hand.

"You said that if you fall asleep I have the right to use it." He sounds it again, and I don't know if it's the abundance of caffeine, the lack of sleep, or the sugar from eating two-and-a-half boxes of cliff bars, but I leap at him from across the table. I grab for the airhorn, but he pulls it away just in time, waving it victoriously.

I squint my eyes. Game on. I wait a second, allowing him to think that he won before throwing myself out of my chair, circling around the desks and lunging towards him. He jumps out of his seat, trying to escape, but I jump onto his back, wrapping my arms around his neck with an iron grip. He tries to shake me off, but it's to no avail.

"Hand over the air horn!" I yell. He tries to struggle out of my grip.

"Jesus Christ, how are you so strong!" he says through panted breaths.

"Give it to me!" I repeat. After a few more seconds of prolonged struggling, he lets out a sigh of defeat and hands it to me. I smile sliding down his back to the ground. "See, was that so hard?"

He shakes his head in disbelief. "To think that I got us reservations at Francisco's tomorrow just for you to act like this."

My jaw drops. "You did not."

His face erupts into a smile. "I sure did."

Francisco's is an Italian restaurant right outside of campus. Everyone says that it has the best chicken alfredo in all of Georgia. Nick and I had wanted to go all semester, but the hefty price of fifty dollars a plate didn't really vibe with our broke college student aesthetic.

"I figured we could use a break from our usual at Vita La Vida. And don't worry, the food will be my treat."

I throw myself into a hug with him. I can't believe that he would pay all that money for me. Throughout this semester, Nick had showed me that not only was he a good friend, but he was an amazing one. I literally don't know how I would have gotten through without him.

His arms wrapped around me make me feel so safe and warm that I instinctively rest my head on his chest. I could stay like this for hours, just the two of us. I don't ever want to let go.

Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I had said yes that night outside of Vita La Vida. If I had just told him that my feelings for him were still there. What would we be like now? I know that my reasoning was valid. He had broken my heart, and it would have been foolish to have let him prance back in for a second round. But I know Nick now, the new Nick, and do I really think that he would hurt me?

I look up at him, wanting to get a closer look, but his eyes are already on me. His eyes carry an intensity that makes a shiver run down my spine. We hold each other's gaze, and I don't even realize that I'm holding my breath until my body forces me to take a deep breath of air. I see his eyes look down to my lips, and when his gaze returns to mine, his pupils are darker. Before my brain can even process his actions, however, he pulls away from me.

"Should we get back to studying?" he asks. His voice sounds different, scratchy almost, and he quickly clears his throat. My body still can't string together a coherent sentence, so I instead nod my head as we sit back down in the desks. I stare down at my book again, and while our interaction erased all signs of fatigue from my body, I'm now faced with a new distraction, because what, in God's green earth just happened between us?

And more importantly, why am I mad that it ended?

~~~

I know that this chapter is a little short, so I expect another within the next few days! If you guys enjoyed, please comment and vote!

-K