She blinked once, and then twice. Ever since knocking on her bedroom door and barging his way in Nick Radford had been quietly pacing the floor. Maybe quietly wasn't quite the word she was looking for. Every time he would turn, Nick would pause and rub his face or run his hands through his hair, imperceptible mumblings or huffs making their ways past his lips.
"Um, Nick?" she finally spoke, breaking the (almost) silence. "You want to sit down before you wear a hole through my floor?" she tried to joke, hoping he would tell her what was going on. The possibilities floated through her mind. Was it Courtney? Were they back together? Did he regret breaking up with her? She knew he was still angry with her for how she had accidentally caused it in the end. She really hadn't realized Courtney was right there behind her, but he just didn't believe her about that. Courtney was avoiding her too now, probably hating her guts for keeping it a secret because Nick had basically begged her to.
Finally, he plopped down on her bed right next to her. The sudden dip and movement of the mattress threw her off balance and she managed to pull Nick right down with her as she fell backwards, thankfully still onto her soft bed. She let out a little "Eep!" squeaking in surprise as she shut her eyes tight while they fell.
Grace blinked her eyes back open, only to find herself barely inches away from Nick. His jaw clenched and she could see him tense up while he stared directly into her eyes. His eyes softened the more he looked into her eyes, and when he opened his mouth to speak, she was sure he was going to comment on how hard her heart was beating. It felt like it would burst right out of her chest any second.
"Grace." his voice was softer than his eyes, "I- We really need to talk." he finally averted his eyes and pushed himself up so he could sit on the bed. Easily she pulled herself up to, following his lead. Their hands brushed in their attempts to adjust themselves and get comfortable. "Um." he flushed and moved to pull his hand back, "Sorry."
"No!" she turned her hand to catch and keep his with her own. "I mean, no, it's okay. It's nice." she reassured.
"Uh-" he ran his other hand through his hair, "Yeah." he cleared his throat, "Yeah, it is."
Grace couldn't help the smile from forming on her lips. After all, who wouldn't be happy to find out their best friend liked to hold their hand?
"So," she paused, "Are you ready to tell me what's going on with you today?"
"Grace, I-" Nick took a deep breath, to strengthen his resolve to do this, to tell her, today.
"Some guy stopped by my house to see my dad today, and at first I was really confused about what he was talking about. Then he gave me his card and told me to tell my dad that he had found some things in his inventory he thought he would like and that he should contact him." He met her eyes, "My dad was meeting with a jeweler. Our parents are dating now and my dad was meeting with a jeweler. Grace, do you know what that means?"
She squirmed, trying to place her discomfort with their parents' happiness. Deep down in her heart and in the back of her mind, she knew exactly where this discomfort was coming from. She knew ever since she thought Nick was going to ask her out. She had been surprised when he asked for advice in talking to Courtney, and then disappointment followed. Grace wasn't used to feeling unsure of herself, and so she had followed the trail of disappointment and even confided in Abigail. It was a rather startling revelation, and one that she had kept between herself and Abigail who was sworn to secrecy.
"Yeah." she murmured when he kept gazing at her. "Yeah, I do."
"What are we gonna do?" he asked through clenched teeth. "I-" she paused, "I guess we just have to pretend to get along and like each other?" she dug her nails into her palms. The truth of it was that even if she truly liked Nick, she was also pretty sure he hated her guts. This is what he wanted to hear, right? But then why was he still holding her hand she wondered, looking at it intently.
Out of the corner of her eye she could see him open his mouth like he was going to say something but then closed it. He did this a few more times while he finally settled on what he wanted to say. "Who's pretending? I might have been mad at you, but I would never have to pretend to like you." he ducked his head to try and look into her eyes which were frozen on their hands. "Because I do." Looking back up she met his eyes. "Grace." he licked his lips and took a deep breath. "I really like you. Like, I really like you." he admitted nervously with a gentle squeeze of his hand. "That's the problem. That's what's wrong." He shook his head slightly and Grace found herself wanting to run her fingers through his hair to see if it was as smooth as it looked today. "If our parents get married, we'll be siblings. Siblings. And there is no way I can look you in the eye, call you my sister and just be your brother. No way."
"I-" she started, and he stopped her. "Hold on, can I finish? I don't think I have the guts to if you stop me now." Closing her mouth, she waited. "I can't do that because I want to be with you. For as long as I've really known who you are as a person, I've wanted to be with you. If I was just braver, I'd have asked you out long before my dad even thought about asking your mom out, let alone ask her to marry him." With a deep sigh he finished, "I guess I just, you deserved to know about all of this. Even if you still hate me for the complete jerk I've been to you lately, I get it. I'll leave you alone. I just needed to tell you."
"I-" she started again, but paused, still reeling a little bit from his admissions. While she paused, he took it as a hint to get out of there and started shifting to get up. With wide eyes she reacted, instinctively choosing to show him how she felt. Grabbing at his shirt she pulled him closer and closed her eyes before softly kissing him.
After a few seconds she pulled back and watched him open his eyes and look at her incredulously. "I could never hate you, Nick." she emphasized. "I think I've kind of been wanting the same things, but then there was that whole thing with Courtney, and I honestly didn't even realize that was what I felt until she told me why she said no in the first place. I-"
"Wait, why did she say no?" He looked curious. The reason clearly had to do with Grace.
"She said no because she thought that I liked you." Grace admitted, "And that was when I realized she was right. I do like you. In fact, I really like you."
The pair sat in silence as they accepted their feelings, just holding hands. After a while Nick spoke up again. "So, what do we do about our parents?"
"I-" she scrunched up her nose. "I guess maybe we just tell them. I mean, I don't want to hurt them, but we can't exactly let them go through with this when we have these feelings. It wouldn't be appropriate for them to be married and have children who are dating."
"Right."
"Right."
"How are we gonna tell them?"
"Right." she drew out the word with a grimace. "I don't even know." she sighed. The pair blinked at each other before plopping backwards on Grace's bed. "We'll deal with it later." Nick's arm was around Grace's shoulders as she leaned into his chest and he leaned into the stacked pillows at the head of her bed.
"Yeah. Later." he agreed. The emotion filled conversation exhausted the teenagers and they both yawned. It didn't take long for them to slowly drift off to sleep, still cuddled up together.