"Uuh.. huh?" I swallowed noticeably.

I swear I saw Nick shake himself back to reality. I literally saw him change his behavior in a way that made me think he was possessed.

"I... I don't know." He stuttered, looking surprised with himself.

"That was creepy.." I cringed, still wiping my hands but this time on my own clothes and out of anxiety.

"Why? Doesn't Clay tell you things like that all the time?"

I was getting so uncomfortable with every single word he said. I just didn't understand how could he change like this overnight.

"What does Clay have to do with this?" Honestly my voice was getting kind of irritated and I couldn't help it.

"I-I don't even know, I'm.. nevermind, it's just a thought." And he was back at stuttering again.

I sighed, already tired from this day firstly because it started at 5 a.m., and then because all of these weird behaviors from both Nick and Clay.

"But you didn't have thoughts like that yesterday, did you? Or the day before? Or ever." I was desperate to get to the bottom of this.

He stood there in silence for a little bit. It seemed like my words were having a big impact on him.

"Yeah.. I don't know," Nick breathed in, "I'm just mad at Clay I guess, everything about him annoys me."

"Why? You just woke up and chose to hate him?" I was just confused at this point.

"I didn't say I hate him. I'm just very mad at him." Nick shook his head.

"You were the one who told me to respect his issues and let him work on them. And now the poor guy's suffering from a serious head injury, he's not even acting like himself half of the time and you're selfish enough to keep being mad at him even after he tried to apologize?"

"You know that I hate when he does that."

"I literally found out about that just today," I shrugged, "all the other times he's done it, you've been accepting and playful about it, so I don't see what's your issue."

I was expecting him to put on a fight and continue blaming Clay, but instead with each and every single word that left my mouth, he got quieter and quieter, almost to a point where it seemed like my words were making him think.

"We'll just talk it out and I'll be okay, I'm just tired." He sighed, starting to walk as if he knew the way back.

I followed him, walking a bit faster so that our roles would switch - with me being in the lead. And after a few minutes of just walking in silence, we were finally infront of Clay's house.

I slowly pushed the door open, trying to minimalize the clicking noise it would make. But just as I did it, Clay pulled it open from inside.

"Hi." The way he said that was overly cute.

There was just something about his small voice that made me wanna wrap him up in blankets and just protect him at all costs-

and that's too much detail about how I feel about a grown man.

"Hi, how are you?" I smiled as we got inside, taking off my shoes immediately.

"I just woke up, a bit groggy." Clay helped me take off my jacket, realizing that it was stuck around my necklace, "There you go."

"Thanks." The smile I gave him was involuntarily wide and just warm.

Yet when I realized that Nick didn't even bother to say a word to Clay and just left to grab an apple and bite into it aggressively, that smile disappeared almost instantly.

The saddest part about this is that he doesn't even like apples..

Clay may have realized how distant his friend was being, so he changed the conversation in a way that would involve him.

"How was the walk, Nick?" He asked casually.

Nick took another bite of the apple, looked at the taller one dead in the eyes and spoke after a brief pause.

"Good."

All of the waiting and building up for such a dry answer. This is so bad.

"I just wanted to apologize for being a dick and jumping at you like that," Clay did the bigger move and just put everything to the side for the conflict to resolve, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

I was just standing there and holding my breath, hoping Nick would do the right thing and not ruin the moment. I don't know if the time passed more slowly from the anticipation or it was really taking Nick long to react, but I lived up to the moment to witness his reaction.

"It's.. ugh, it's fine.." He kind of rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat, not being able to resist to the wholesomeness of the moment, "I'll forgive you if you give me a hug right now."

And just like that I managed to become the third wheel again. But I didn't mind, considering the fact that they looked extremely cute. And I was just extremely relieved that Nick was back at his usual state.

I was standing there looking at them, wondering how long that hug was gonna last.

"Aww, no come here." Clay noticed my loneliness and motioned for me to join the hug.

"No thanks.." I realized how awkward a three person hug could be, and just decided to avoid it.

"Oh c'mon.." Clay's voice was disappointed.

"I won't hug both of you at the same time," I laughed, looking at them, "we're gonna look like a football team, it's awkward."

I couldn't help but notice how much of a sad puppy Clay resembled, "What about one by one hugs?"

And how could I say no to that. He was already standing there with wide open arms.

I hugged Clay happily, smooshing my cheek to his chest. I loved the hugs he gave so much, they were always warm and enjoyable. And his shirts always smelled like fresh detergent, a specific type that it felt like only he used.

When he let go and I turned to hug Nick, I noticed something was still off about him. He had his arms spread, yet just barely. It almost looked like he wasn't sure how to act.

I ignored it though. Maybe he really did have a tough day, who am I to judge him for acting weird when I do that too far too often.

Even though I wrapped my arms around Clay's torso every time we hugged (simply because he was a bit too tall), I had a habit of hugging people by wrapping my arms around their necks. And Nick was the perfect height for me to do that.

I swear I heard him sucking in a breath or just changing the pattern of his breathing, which made me kind of worried about his well being. Or it's just the fact that I was just close enough to his body to hear both his heartbeat and breathing, and that's what threw me off.

"Go take some rest." I spoke with a soft voice, almost close to a whisper, cause his ear was right beside me, and there was no need for me to be loud.