I HAVEN'T UPDATED IN A MONTH I'VE BEEN BUSY I'M SORRY AHHHHHHHHHH

Jay's POV

When I asked Nya to a study date, this wasn't exactly what I had in mind.

"No, Lloyd, you can tell Wu to cancel every meeting for this month. And the next one. And all of them!" Nya yelled, throwing her phone on the bed.

She almost immediately ran to my desk, flipping through the pages of her book to find the one she had highlighted in its entirety.

She spun on her chair—making me wonder how she hadn't thrown up yet—her nose scrunched up as she mumbled the words out loud. Normally, I'd think this was cute, but now...

I grabbed the chair, stopping it from spinning and forcing her to face me.

"Hey, Nya. You need a break?" I gave her my best smile, my hands on her shoulders.

She shrugged them off, turning her back on me.

She glared at her computer screen, which had NinBook open, showcasing all her conversations.

"No, I need to take a break from Tox and Camille!" she shouted at these two contacts in particular.

"Well, to be fair, they aren't in Marine Biology..."

"The university announces the winter finals for everyone at the same time! They should know the date!"

"These two aren't the best of friends anyway... You trusted them with working together?"

I remembered these two from back in high school, more specifically, our Senior prom. Other than me chickening out of asking Nya out (especially since she was dating Lloyd back then), I could still recall when these two broke up in the middle of the gymnasium.

And lo and behold, these two ended up being Nya's roomates for the first few months, as she told me. That was before she moved in with Morro, of course...

"I trusted them with being reasonable people who would understand my situation and tell me about the finals!" she snapped at me. Okay, bad idea.

She continued talking, burying her face in her book. "Which also means that I have to go all the way to Stiix just to take them!"

"I'm sorry, Nya," I frowned, taking her hand, "I swear, if we see that... person again—"

"What, no! I couldn't give a damn about him," she rolled her eyes. "If I ever see him again, I'll make sure no one ever does," she looked at the ground, clenching her jaw.

I didn't know whether to smile or not, but a part of me really wanted to. After a few... not so successful attempts of opening up to Wu, Nya had been a lot more open about, well, everything. Her feelings towards... him had changed from ones of fear to ones of anger.

Now, an angry Nya was always scary, but I still preferred it over her flinching every time I tried to give her a pat on the back. And Kai certainly didn't mind her more... aggressive attitude towards him.

I was just glad she was doing better.

"I think you're gonna do just fine," I told her.

"Easy for you to say. You always slacked off in high school and got perfect grades!"

"Well..." Yeah, okay, that was kind of a talent of mine.

She just groaned and turned back to reading her textbook.

I decided not to piss her off more.

I looked behind me, past Mr Cuddlywump and out my bedroom's small window, seeing it was almost completely frozen.

Ever since Nya had come here in late fall, we had certainly been doing better when it came to temperature. Well, inside, at least. She knew how to convince Kai to turn on the thermostat or central heating during winter. I liked that.

The weather outside, on the other hand, not so great.

Mr Borg told me to close the shop for the week and work on the online store with Nya instead due to the heavy snowfall. I really resented it, but at the same time, it was good to get some time off from working in person.

It was the perfect day to go out as well. Maybe we could build a snowman, or make snow angels, or...

I turned to look at Nya.

... Study.

She needed a break.

"Hey, Nya..." my voice trailed off when I noticed one of the conversations on her laptop.

I remembered Nya telling Kai how NinBook was basically trash some months ago on the phone, saying she wouldn't be using it anymore, blah, blah, blah... So this must've been an old conversation.

"Yeah?"

Oh, right.

"Can I borrow your laptop? I think my exams may be coming up as well."

"Make it quick," she said, handing it over to me.

I looked at her, the pointer hovering over Morro's contact. Okay, she wasn't looking.

I clicked on it, noticing the messages dated back to June.

I went to the very top of that day's conversation, reading through it more focused than I would be in my studies.

Messages from November 17th

Where's my junk food?

Tox was having a
movie night @ our dorm.

I promise to bring some on
the way back though :)

Haven't u eaten enough of my stuff already?

There's only one thing you haven't eaten yet and u don't even want it

But we've been going to
the gym together. Up our
athleticism, remember???

I don't think I'm that bad

Yeah, keep telling urself that

I've gotta go anyway. @ my apartment at 9 and try to not pig out again

Yeah, cya

No response.

I didn't really know what to say.

"What are you doing?" Nya told me, making me jump.

I quickly closed the laptop, throwing it onto the bed with force.

"What the heck, Jay!"

"I wasn't doing anything!"

"Uh, yes, you were."

"Fine, I was..."

Think, Jay, think!

"I was looking for restaurants..."

"For... what?"

"Well, yeah," I cleared my throat, "I mean, it's a nice, snowy day and I was thinking that maybe we could take a break—"

"Jay, I have to study."

"Oh, come on, the exams are next Sunday. You can take a small break with me," I smiled.

"I'll take a break after my exams are over," she said, going back to her books.

I pouted my lip, looking at her with puppy eyes. "But your exams will be over next week. That's too late."

She buried her head in her open book,groaning as she told me, "go away, Jay."

"But—"

"No! We will just sit here and study, because I have freaking exams next week and I'm not even—"

A loud grumble stopped us both and I had to keep from laughing.

"... Hungry," she finally finished, grabbing her stomach with furrowed eyebrows.

"That doesn't sound like you're not hungry," I raised my eyebrows with my signature, 'shit-eating grin', as Kai likes to call it.

She looked at me in the eyes, her glare not leaving her face as she closed her book. "I'm driving the motorcycle."

"Absolutely not."

"Why not?"

"We're walking."

I sighed, having no other choice but to listen to her.

✧༺♡༻✧

"Just a salad, please," said Nya.

"But you hate salad."

"No, I don't," she said a little too defensively.

"Yeah, I know, but this restaurant only serves Soto's salad." I looked at the menu, pointing a finger at her rather accusingly. "And I know how much you hate it."

"One Soto's, please," she told the waiter, who simply nodded and left.

"Oh, come on."

She shrugged, turning to look at her phone.

I guess she wasn't in the mood to talk.

I turned my phone on as well upon hearing a ding, seeing I got a messaged from none other than Cole himself.

I scrunched up my nose at his text, but my disgust turned into a small smile once I saw the image.

Two girls were next to Cole, one blonde and one with dyed, pink hair with an added blue streak—a nice touch, in my opinion, both holding microphones and wrapping their arms around Cole's neck.

I did have a suspicion considering the colourful lights from what I could only assume to be Laughy's Karaoke Club, a... well, karaoke club quite close to Steep Wisdom, as Wu chose to rename his tea shop (you have me to thank for the name). I bit my tongue (well, thumb) to keep from texting my obvious assumption.

Today at 17:46

Guess who I met at
the club (she's got a
cute friend too ;))))!

Who?????

The blondie! Vania!
Remember her?

Oh! Right!

Vania was our friend from elementary; probably Cole's closest friend besides me. Well, she wasn't exactly my friend back then. She would constantly cling on to me (her and her friend Murtessa, that is, who would send dead flowers to my desk every day), but she was overall pretty nice, especially since she was a good three years younger than us (big difference in elementary, if you ask me).

I introduced her to Cole to get rid of her, and, well, I guess she had found her new hero. I thought she had moved out years ago though...

She'd grown to be quite pretty, really. She was a direct contrast to the girl on the right. No idea who she was, though...

"Oh, hey, that's Sel!"

I screamed as Nya popped out behind my shoulder, pointing at the pink-haired girl on the screen.

"You know her?"

"Yeah, she lives in Stiix. She's the daughter of the police chief."

I watched her as she was focused on my phone's screen. I gave it to her, turning to grab one of my fries.

That's when I thought...

Oh, Jay, you adorable devil.

Nya's POV

After giving him back his phone, I sat back down on my seat, ready to finish my... salad.

Yeah, sometimes being stubborn is not the best solution, as Wu told me last week. I guess I should've listened to him because it really wasn't my thing.

I mean, yeah, I did eat healthily most of the time, but it's always good to lose a little weight, right?

But then again, did I really need to?

I didn't know, really. One moment, you're happy with how you look, the other you see someone like Skylor who was literally every guy's dream. And Seliel didn't look so bad herself, but then again, when did she not look good?

I grabbed my fork, ready for yet another piece of lettuce. But instead of that, I grabbed a fry.

"Hey! What was that for?" I told Jay, gesturing at our now switched plates.

"I want to eat salad."

"But you hate any type of salad."

"It's always good to try new things," he sassed me with his forks, doing the signature 'cocky Kai shrug' that I oh so hate.

"Jay!"

"Just eat your cheeseburger and leave me and my salad alone."

"That's my salad!"

He picked up the bowl, twisting it around. "I don't see your name on it."

Suddenly, his phone rang again. But that time, I managed to grab it from him just in time.

"Hey, Jay?" Kai's voice said.

"Oh, hey. Are you back from Lloyd's yet?" I told him

"Yeah, yeah, I am, Nya," he said. "Wait, Nya?"

"No, no, it's Jay," he quickly grabbed my phone from me, putting it on speaker. "What is it?"

"You've got some visitors waiting here for you."

Ah, that explains his unusual politeness.

Still munching on his lettuce, he asked; "Visitors? What type of visitors—"

His voice was cut short by him choking on his bite. After gulping, he mouthed a 'thank you' and closed the phone on Kai's face.

He turned to me with a very, very awkward smile; one unusually unnatural for him.

He held my menu up to my face, raising his spoon. "Dessert?"