AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I wasn't sure how long we watched the show, but I started getting sleepy soon enough. I didn't want to make the others leave though, so I tried to stay awake, and yet I failed. When my head started to feel too heavy, I rested it on the warm shoulder next to me, and I was out within seconds.
Seventeen
Nico
Last night, Star had fallen asleep with his head on my shoulders, and it'd brought back a ton of feelings and memories I'd pushed to the back of my head decades ago.
Once upon a time, we'd dated for a few years when Ryk had been summoned to the human realm. While both our feelings for each other had been real, we hadn't been able to keep our relationship going because we'd built it on Ryk's absence. When he came back, our relationship fizzled out like it'd never been there. Hell, I didn't think we'd ever officially broken up.
Now we were in a new relationship, one where we didn't just have Ryk but Dakota too. Everything was different, and yet I felt like I wouldn't be able to give my all to this relationship until I'd put our old one to rest properly. I wanted to talk to Star about it, but I didn't want to do it with Ryk around.
While Ryk had supported us in the past, I knew he'd felt hurt about it too, maybe because he'd had feelings for Star as well. Either way, I didn't want to bring it up around him, but I also couldn't think of a reason to get him out of the house long enough to talk to Star.
"Hey, guys?" Ryk said as he thundered down the stairs, and I looked up from where I'd been cleaning the TV screen—I'd noticed it was dusty last night—as Star raised his head from the now back-to-normal couch.
"What is it?" I asked as I straightened up, blinking when I realized he wasn't dressed in his usual paint-stained clothes.
"I was texting with Elva, and she invited me to hang out with her and Kali. Can I go?"
"You do realize you're an adult and don't need our permission, right?" Star teased, and Ryk rolled his eyes.
"Yes, I do. But do you realize you act like a dad sometimes?" he shot back, making Star smirk. "Anyway, I'm going. I'll be back before dinnertime."
"You're gonna be gone the whole day?" Star asked. "Awesome. I'll be able to finally sleep in peace."
Ryk narrowed his eyes at Star before snapping his fingers. A can of bright red paint appeared mid-air and turned over before Star could react, covering him with it. Of course, not a drop fell on Moon or Candy.
"Bye!" Ryk said and disappeared as Star swore up a storm. Shaking my head, I turned my attention back to the TV.
"I'm not cleaning that up," I said as I rubbed the cloth at a particularly stubborn stain.
"Don't worry. I wouldn't ask you to," Star assured me, and I sensed a stir of magic behind me and guessed he'd tidied it up. "Now I need to figure out how to get back at him. Maybe I'll magic his colors so they all end up being different colors when he puts them on the canvas."
"He'd probably like that," I said as I finished up and turned to him, and he chuckled.
"Ha, you're right. I'll figure something else out," he said with a determined look on his face, and I shook my head. Ryk and Star could act like such kids sometimes.
"Star, there's something I wanted to talk to you about," I said, twisting the dusting cloth in my hands as I tried to figure out what to say next. What exactly did I want out of this conversation? Closure? Assurance that Star had feelings for me?
"What is it?" he asked, giving me his full attention in an instant, his dark eyes boring into mine as if they could figure out what I was thinking without a word from me.
"Um..."
"Come, sit here first," he said when I trailed off, patting the space beside him on the couch.
Hesitantly, I joined him, sitting sideways so I could face him. The armrest dug into my back in my attempt to keep some space between us, but Star didn't mention it.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked, raising a brow at me.
"Us," I said simply since I couldn't find a better way to say it.
"Us?" His brows furrowed as he said the single word, and I sighed. "You're going to need to use more words, Nic."
Nic? It'd been a while since he'd called me that. For some reason, the name warmed my chest and made it easier to speak.
"Now that we're starting this new relationship, I thought we should talk about our last one and how we ended things. Or rather didn't," I said, and he winced.
"Shit, you're right. We left things on a really weird note back then. I'm sorry for the role I played in it," he said with a dip of his head, and I sighed.
