11

Nicholas blows into his hands and then rubs them together. The late night wind sends a shiver racing through him and nips at the bits of exposed skin. He's cold because of his decision of not brining a jumper or a jacket along earlier on. But now it's too late for regrets because he very well can't go back to camp. Not when he finally feels at peace after the stressful day he's had. Not when the night sky is so clear and the stars are out, twinkling, shining down on him.

He hears twigs snapping nearby, and his first instinct is to tell the person off, whoever that may be. Probably Stella, he thinks — nosy, loud, caring Stella who really doesn't know when to give up, though.

"Ella, I'd leave me alone right now, if I were you," he calls out based on his hunch.

The crunching of leaves stops, but then he feels a drop in his gut — not butterflies, exactly, but something which tells Nick that the person standing behind him isn't his rowdy friend. He turns around and finds Valeria stood a feet behind him.

"Oh," is all he manages to say.

"Hey," says Valeria. If there were a pictorial depiction of the word timid, she would be it.

"Hi."

Val bites on her lower lip, shuffling from one foot to the other before finally deciding to take a few steps closer to where Nick is sat. She doesn't sit down beside him though.

"I-" she begins to say, but then stops as if she's mulling her words over. Nicholas waits. He can't decide whether he is silent because he's giving her space and is being patient, or because he doesn't know what to say either. Valeria shakes her head before nodding to herself decisively. "I'm sorry for being a knob-head," she says. A moment later her eyes widen a fraction and an unexpected short laugh escapes her lips.

"Look, I'm," she steps closer to him, stopping only when she's standing right beside him, "I'm sorry for having acted odd. I don't really know what had gotten into me."

Nicholas is about to talk, though he's not completely sure as to what he plans on saying, but still his mouth opens and words begin to roll on his tongue when Val speaks up again.

"Well... that's not true. I do know why I did what I did." She looks down to meet Nick's gaze before visibly swallowing. "I was afraid of getting hurt."

Now he finds a single word wrenched out from him, almost automatically. "What?"

Valeria looks down at her feet. A few strands of lose blonde hair obscure her face, and Nicholas finds a strange urge within himself — he feels like tucking away the strands of hair behind her ear, subtly caressing her cheek.

"I'm not sure what I'm doing here," Val says after a few moments of silence, filled only by the buzzing of bugs and the rustling of leaves. "Here on this trip, I mean. I've been on vacation for about a year and now I-I'm supposed to go back home. Back to London, you know. So that I can join my father in his business or... or continue studying business, starting with my masters." She finally meets Nick's curious gaze. "I'm supposed to start my own firm if I go with the latter option."

"Option?" Nicholas asks. He's too stumped to say anything else. This is the most he has learned about her, the most she has ever talked about herself.

"Ultimatum's more like it actually," Valeria says, laughing sardonically. She finally tucks that strand of hair away. "My dad had given me this ultimatum when I'd enrolled into University. He'd said that I had to tell him which option I'd be choosing and that if I do this, he'll... he'll allow me to spend a year on vacation." She smiles at Nick. "I'm out of time now. I'm out of time and all this time all I've done is run away from things, from life."

Valeria runs a hand through her hair in frustration, causing the lose bun to open, allowing locks of blonde hair to fall over her back in a haphazard manner.

Nicholas' eyes trace over each and every one of her movements. He doesn't know why she's talking to him about these things or how he factors into this equation of hers. But somehow, and for whatever reason which he himself isn't even sure of at the moment, he's glad that she's finally here.

"And then I meet you, here," Val speaks, pulling Nicholas out of his entrancing thoughts. "And you're the most infuriatingly complicated person I've ever met! And I can't help wanting to get to know you, you know?"

Nick presses his lips together, biting down on the urge to laugh.

"But then you turn out to be someone who seems to have an iron-tight grip on everything in his life. And I-I got envious... I guess. And I didn't know what to do after realising that I was envious of you," Val says, letting out a puff of air in a heavy breath. She looks at him, holding his gaze as if she's trying to search for answers to all her questions in his eyes only.

Nicholas feels shocked, to say the least. "I don't-I don't know what to say."

"Please," Valeria pleads. "Just say something."

"I mean," Nick says and then laughs a little, a laugh full of surprise and mirth, and now Val is the one who's confused. "I do not have my life figured out, Val. That's the farthest thing from truth."

He looks at her, his eyes bright, his lips quirked up at the corners in one of his rare smiles. How ironic, he thinks, that the girl whom he thought had everything in her life, got jealous of him because she thought that he had a clamp on his future.

Nicholas shakes his head, his smile widening just a tiny bit. "You don't have to be envious of me, Val. And you don't have to be afraid either," he says. "I won't hurt you."

~~~~~~~~~~

Hey guys. Soooo
Thoughts?

Also, I'm really sorry for the late update. Thing is that my internet has been acting up lately so I haven't been able to use wattpad. This sad bit included me not uploading and not replying to comments and such.

Anyways. I love you all. Always. ❤

-zainab