What I needed - Chris Sturniolo

~6~

"Chris you came!" Nick was glad to see the third brother, Nessa on the other hand, noticed a big drop in her mood. Marylou probably told him that the rest of them were at the diner.

The girl felt a little shy around Chris, or better, she felt embarrassed, knowing how she acted around him last night and how he had to 'take care' of her. She avoided eye contact and played with her rings, just focusing on that.

He took a seat next to Nessa, which took her by surprise. She couldn't get any words out. She wanted to tell him Jack was sitting there, but somehow she just didn't. Like her mouth was locked and couldn't open it. Chris switched his stare from in front of him to look beside him.

"Can I have my hoodie back at some point?" he suddenly said in a irritated and agitated way.

What the hell?

All the hatred came rushing back and all the shyness and embarrassment had left, remembering why she actually hated him again, and her voice suddenly had no problem coming out of her mouth.

"Sure, take it right away!" She took the hoodie of and threw it at Chris' face.

He had a proud smirk on his face which made Nessa angrier and angrier by the second.

"Thanks Ness" he said, emphasising 'Ness' knowing she hated when people called her that. She didn't like Vanessa, she didn't like Ness, it was Nessa and nothing else.

With a disgusted face, she turned his way and finally said what she had wanted to say "Jack was sitting there", almost sounding like and order for Chris to get up. Of course that wouldn't work.

"Oh well" he said while pulling his shoulders up before Bella came to the table with a big smile taking Chris' order.

Waffles.

He ordered the same thing as Nessa. It was weird that they had something in common.

Jack came back from the restroom and saw that his seat had been taken. Chris played it off, not even acknowledging that the other boy sat there before him, and just saying hi to his friend. Matt and Nick were both having their separate conversation so they didn't even notice.

Not wanting to sit next to the girl he liked and another boy, he sat next to Nick, opposite of the two.

Bella arrived with all the food and drinks. Chris looked weird at Nessa's order. Not only because they both had waffles, but also because..

"I cannot believe you ordered coke, disgusting"

Nessa rolled her eyes, noticing he had Pepsi. She never really cared that much. For her the 'original' was coca cola so that's just what she always asked for, but if they brought her Pepsi she would be fine with it as well.

She ignored him and just started on her waffles while chatting with the other boys.

———

A couple days had gone by. Nessa was in her room with Amelie, doing some homework and listening to music. She hadn't stopped feeling a bit weird, a bit off, since the night of the party.

She had told her cousin everything from the beginning of the party until lunch at the diner.
She told her how she got super drunk, how the creepy dude came up to her, how Chris helped her, how she woke up in Nick's bed, how Matt was talking to some girl, how-

"Who?" Amelie asked out of nowhere.

"What do you mean who?" Nessa didn't even know what she meant.