Justin's loud sobbing woke us up from our trance.

"Cara!" He cried.

I scooted over so I could see the backyard. Justin's face was red and full of tears as everyone tried to cheer him up.

"What happened?" I asked.

"He fell from the swing." Brandon said, showing him his favorite toy to see if he would take it. "He hit his head."

"Cara!" Justin cried again when he looked up and saw me.

When he cried, he just wanted me. I sighed and glanced back at Nico. "I- I gotta go down."

"I'll come with you."

Sitting on the porch with him on my lap, I achieved to calm Justin down. Nico sat beside me watching the kids play. It was nice outside, the sun was still up, and there was a light breeze that made the temperature perfect.

Justin hiccuped as I rocked him back and forth in my arms.

"He already has a big bump." I whispered, taking Nico's hand and placing it on Justin's head.

Nico nodded, then looked down at him, who stared up at him with his big green eyes, his face covered in dry tears. "You're alright. You're a superhero."

Justin keep on staring at him. "Spider-Man." He muttered. I looked at Nico, widening my eyes.

He looked at me and smiled. "Spider-Man is the best, right?"

Justin nodded, a little grin making an appearance on his face.

I smiled up at Nico. "You'd be good with kids." I told him.

"You'd be good with them, too." He said, grabbing Justin's toy and giving it to him. He finally took it.

"Yes, but that's not why I don't want them." I stopped to rock Justin since he pointed at Oli and Oscar. I put him down and he ran away, cautiously watching them from afar. They had pushed him too hard before, now he didn't trust them but he still wanted to play.

"That's not why I don't want them either." Nico said.

"Then?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "I just don't think... this is a great world." He frowned.

"What do you mean?"

He chuckled. "It's okay, they're just thoughts. Wanna go get ice cream for everyone?"

Nico stood up quickly, running a hand through his hair and extended it towards me.

I grabbed his hand so he could help me up. "Okay."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We spent the ride to the ice cream parlor in silence. We still had to address the elephant in the room but I didn't know how.

Was I in love with him? I had never been in love, not even remotely liked someone. I felt weird every time I was around him. My heart started racing, my stomach clenched and I blushed. A lot.

But I also felt good. He made me laugh, he made me learn a lot. That was important for me. I liked that he taught me things. I had fun with him and he listened to me. Nobody ever listened to me. Like what I had to say was not important. With him however, I felt like I mattered.

His looks really helped. I wouldn't have thought of him as my type before I met him. I never liked anyone, but I did have eyes. I remember thinking some of the guys in the Olympics were hot. But they were usually blond and with darker skin. Nico had black curls and light skin. He was also taller and leaner than most guys I knew.

I didn't realize I was fidgeting until Nico stopped me from doing it by grabbing my hand. I glanced at him and he had a little smile on his face. "Now what? Left or right?"

"Uhm- right."

When he made a turn I instantly face palmed myself. Because of me and my incredible dyslexia, this car ride would be even longer than intended, and I couldn't bear the tension anymore.

"I- I meant the other way." I muttered.

Nico tapped the steering wheel. "Oh, you meant my other right! My fault." He looked around and sighed. "I'm sure I can do a half turn somewhere."

Staring out the window, I smiled to myself. Maybe I was. Maybe I was in love with him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yawning, I covered my hands with the hoodie I was wearing. I took a shower at Nico's place so I wore the dress from last night with Nico's hoodie over it. When I arrived home I changed clothes, but I kept the hoodie. It smelled like him and I liked that.

My mom and Jenna were talking and I was supposed to be listening but it was hard for me to concentrate, so I limited myself to nod. To be honest, I wasn't a big fan of conversations about what the color or the poop from a baby meant.

It was already dark, so I lit the little white Christmas lights around the yard. At the beginning, my family told me to put them down but now everyone loved them.

Nico was talking with my brothers. They seemed to really be getting on well now, they laughed loud and pushed each other, something my brothers did when they were excited. Grandpa tried to listen to them, although his eyelids were closing. I chuckled.

Nico caught me staring. He gave me a confused smile and I nodded towards my grandpa who was dozing off. He chuckled and took a drag of his cigarette. Then Brandon spoke to him so he stopped staring at me.

I was bored.

Incredibly bored.

Maybe I could sneak inside and do something more interesting.

Slowly getting up from my seat, I walked inside. The kids were already asleep, so I couldn't play with them. As an act of boredom, I went to the fridge, opening to see if there was something that could amaze me in there. My appetite had increased since I took a break from my meds but I still had to keep on a diet. I couldn't take a break from the athlete life.

"Boo."

I jumped in fright and turned around quickly, slapping the person behind me.

"Ouch!" Nico rubbed his cheek.

"Nico!" I placed my hand on my chest. "Don't ever do that again!"

"I'm sorry!" He exclaimed. "Just wanted to say goodbye!"

"You're leaving?" I asked, calming down my breathing.

"Yeah, it's getting late." He twisted his mouth. "You're coming tomorrow, right?"

"Where?"

"To Martina's party." He said. "It's during the day, so I'll say we get there at about 1 pm?"

"Okay." I nodded.

"I can come pick you up, I know where it is."

"Okay." I nodded again.

"Can I...?" Nico turned his head towards the door. We heard some steps approaching us. Nico quickly grabbed my face and planted a kiss on my lips. When I was able to react, he had pulled away.

"Hey... guys." Brandon appeared by the door, flicking his eyes from Nico to me suspiciously.

"Hey. Just saying goodbye." Nico ruffled my hair. "So, yeah. Bye."

He walked away, bumping into Brandon and got out of the house.

"What's up?" Brandon asked.

"Nothing." I shrugged, the tingling sensation on my lips still there.

"Are you okay?"

"Yep."

Brandon frowned. "Hmh." I thought he would stop there and let me be, but he walked inside the kitchen, sitting on the table. "So, are you guys a thing now?"

"I'm not having this conversation with you."

"I'm your big bro, so deal with it." He crossed his arms over his chest.

I rolled my eyes. "I- I don't know."

"Did you guys have sex?"

"Brandon!"

"Cara, I need to know. I just don't want him to hurt you."

"He won't." I shook my head.

"How do you know that?"

"He's not like that." I frowned. "He's not like..."

"I know, I know. He's a good guy." Brandon nodded.

We stayed in awkward silence for a few moments. "Can I go now?"

"Do you like him?"

I glanced up at him, biting my lips as I fidgeted with Nico's hoodie. "Yes, and I know what your next question will be, and I don't know." I smiled tightly at him.

Before I got out of the kitchen, Brandon gripped my arm, his dark green eyes meeting mine. "When you do, you know."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Bonjour, bébé." Nico smiled when I got into his car, handing me a paper cup.

"What is this?"

"First I ordered you coffee, but then I remembered, you don't drink coffee. So now there's two coffees for me and a tea for you." I smiled, driving the cup to my lips. "It's probably cold, I don't know what I was thinking."

It was, but I wasn't going to say anything. "It's perfect, thanks."

Nico gave me a little smile and started to drive. He was wearing these black sunglasses that made him look mature and mysterious. I wanted to kiss him again but I don't know if I was allowed to. I didn't know what were the rules now, I didn't know which court the ball was in.

"I- I like your shirt." I said, fidgeting with the empty cup. Since it was cold, I drank it rather quickly.

Nico glanced down at his plain white T-shirt with a confused expression. "Thanks, I guess." He laughed. "You look good."

"My mom made me wear this." Another summer dress for the beautiful day, she said. My legs were too nice to hide. This time it was green, with little flowers as a pattern. I didn't like feeling so girly, it wasn't very comfortable and I couldn't open my legs or do a back flip with it. Not that I was going to do it today, but what if I had to?

"Your legs look amazing." Nico glanced down at them.

Okay, maybe this dress wasn't so bad.

I smiled to myself.

We stayed in silence the whole ride, songs I didn't know playing on the radio. He sang along and tapped the steering wheel at the beat of the music.

We stopped when we arrived to a gray gate that lead to a huge white modern house.

"Why are we here?"

"It's here."

I opened my eyes wider. "Wow."

He stopped the car and turned his head to me.

"Listen, Cara. I... I don't want this to be awkward between you and me, so if you let me say just a few things for a second, that'd be great."

I nodded, turning my body towards him. I wanted to put a leg up but I couldn't with this stupid dress, so I crossed one and rested it under my other leg, lowering down my dress in the middle with my hand.

"Look, I know I dropped quite a big bomb yesterday. I... I don't expect you to feel the same way. I've liked you for a long time now. I've never felt this way for someone, so it's still kind of new for me. But I know... I know I'm in love with you. I guess it was a matter of time that my feelings got stronger. Again, I don't expect you to feel the same way, I just..." Nico gripped the steering wheel harder with one of his hands. "If you like me, that's just enough for me. I just wanted to..."

"I like you." I said, as if that was the only sure thing I could say at the moment.

"Great." Nico chuckled. "That is great." He was nervous, his thumb playing with the ring on his pinky finger, his bottom lip hidden inside his mouth. He turned his body to me. "I just wanted to... I'm sorry, I don't know what's wrong with me." He laughed nervously. "I'm usually super straight forward." He swallowed. "I wanted to... you know, see if you wanted to be with me."

I frowned.

"I'm asking you to be my girlfriend."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm having the worst day ever and it's only almost 11 am here. Hope you're having a better day than me.

Thanks for reading! Don't forget to vote and let me know what you think in the comments ✨