When I covered Nick and lowered the sound, I noticed his eyes were fluttering. I ignored it though, thinking that even if he's pretending to be asleep, it's for his own good. I get it if he needs the alone time.

But as I turned around and was at the door about to leave, I heard the familiar song getting louder clearly once again. He turned the volume back up.

I had no choice but to turn around and look at him. He was lying there with heavy eyelids barely supporting themselves up, looking at me and not saying a word.

I walked slowly towards him again, sitting on the corner of the bed and longing my hand towards one of the airpods. I took it out and put it away.

"I love that song." I barely forced myself to smile, yet he didn't return the reaction.

"I know," Nick's voice was a bit rough, "you introduced me to it."

If only I knew what was going on in his brain. This is not the Nick I'm used to seeing. He barely even said anything sad or serious before, and this was honestly too much for one day.

"What's happening, Nick?" My voice was concerned, curious, almost worried in a way.

He was silent. But just from his face I already knew there was something that came to his mind when I asked that question. He most definitely had an answer, and I was ready to do my best to fish it out at any cost.

"I just.. I just miss the old times." Whenever Nick was trying to be careful with his words, he stuttered.

"Old times?" I raised a brow, "It'll be just like the old times when George comes-"

"Not those times." He interrupted me, propping himself up on an elbow.

Instead of asking, I just looked at him with questioning eyes. And he took the hint and continued.

"When we texted a lot.. remember? Me and you."

I had zero idea what was going on and what was so enjoyable about me having no one else to talk to and just putting all my problems on him.

"Like 10 days ago?" I couldn't help but chuckle, "That's the old times?"

Me and Clay didn't talk for a month, and during that time neither did I speak to George that much.

There was a period where I just ignored every single call and message I got, regardless of who they were from.

But at the end of the month me and Nick had been texting non stop. I felt like he was the only one who understood my issues and problems, and he was, so that's how we spent so much time talking.

"Well.. yeah." He just realized that he referred that time to "old times".

"You liked seeing me so unhappy that I constantly had to rely on you to not go insane?"

I was just laughing at this point. And it wasn't a sarcastic laugh or anything, I genuinely found his words funny.

"Not when you put it like that.." he chuckled, "I just liked the parts where we did homework together, shared songs and.. I don't know."

"Did anything change? We can still do all that stuff together, right?" I raised a brow, watching him change his position once again, "We even did homework together this morning."

"Clay gets jealous now."

I let out the biggest sigh. I honestly thought we were done with this talk, and was so glad Clay was on the phone with George and couldn't overhear anything. I could imagine how bad he'd feel if he heard this conversation.

"What's your obsession with Clay? I really don't understand." I was trying to not raise my voice.

"I just hate his possessiveness."

"Is that why you're scared to touch me?" I got a bit frustrated from his words and spoke impulsively.

His expressions dropped immediately. I could tell he didn't expect such straightforwardness from me.

"I'm not scared to touch you.."

"You're extremely awkward and weird today. And only when I'm close to you." I frowned.

It started to make sense for a moment. Maybe he's uncomfortable because of Clay. Maybe he's scared that Clay's gonna get jealous if me and him get too close to each other.

But why's it happening just now? If anything, Clay was way more vocal about his jealousy before this whole thing happened. And Nick didn't seem to mind at all, he saw that as a source of making even more jokes.

"I just get uncomfortable when he's looking, that's all." Nick's voice was getting angrier.

"Why? Are you scared of him?" I should probably shut up.

"I'm not fucking scared of him, Liza," he used the long forgotten nickname on me, "I'll touch you if I want to, I don't give a shit about his opinions on it."

His negativity towards Clay was pushing me towards the edge. I was starting to think he had something else against him.

"Oh really? Clay wasn't in the park with us, was he? You were still acting weird as fuck towards me." I couldn't stay quiet anymore.

"What do you want?" Even though I was keeping a distance from him, Nick managed to lean close in a way that scared me, "I don't have a fucking idea about what's going on with me. When I figure it out, you'll be the first one to know it."

My heart was pounding from the fear of having him that close and speaking with such an alarmingly aggressive yet low voice. If Clay did this, I wouldn't even be scared, but Nick's not like this.

I quickly got up and took a step back. Nick sighed, cupping his face with both palms and exhaling from frustration.

"You're scary."

I was horrified from his outburst. The way his eyes stayed fixated on mine while he spoke with a calm yet so tense voice was something I'd never think someone like him was capable of.

"You were pushing on me. I'm sorry. I genuinely have no idea what's going on with me, please stop bringing it up." Nick's voice was back to normal, but it still held tones of aggression in it.

I looked at him up and once again, making sure he really had nothing to say and left the room.

Clay was still talking to George, but it was a matter of seconds till they hung up. I was not in the mood to match the happiness on Clay's face when he announced the news.

"George's flight's in a week from now!"