Granted Wish

Chapter 26

Our conversation is ended as Nathan parks his car and gets out of the driver seat to come check onus. "Are you okay?", he asks with a smile, helping all three of us out and onto the solid ground. "Yeah.", I mutter as I step aside for the girls to join us. "So how about some ice cream? I planned on showing you the city itself another day, since I won't be attending training every day.", he explains, leaning against his truck. "You guys practice every day?", I ask, surprised at their huge commitment. "No, but we try to at least skate a few times a week, next to our actual training as a whole team.", he continues, ruffling through my hair gently. "Okay, I was about to say.", I grin, earning one from the other three as well.

"Then let's head to our favorite shop, ice creams on me.", Nathan announces to which Kaylx fist bumps up into the sky and simply charging towards the crowded streets before being completely out of sight. "This girl.", Leslie shakes her head as I look over to her for answer concerning that behavior. I decide to drop it as we follow the general direction in which she ran, slower of course.

The shop we arrive at does remind me of the one in my town, the one Nathan took me after my first confrontation with Claire. It's small and barely furnished but still cute with it's little tables and metal chairs. And it's nice and cold in here. Kaylx is already sitting at one of them with a huge bowl of different flavors of ice cream forming a rather big mountain. She grins at us with a smug look her face while stuffing spoon after spoon into her mouth. Leslie pulls me to the counter, where we each looked through the different types to get while Kaylx got a little speech from Nathan who most definitely wasn't amused by her amount of ice cream.

We left the shop soon after, each one of us holding a cone, except for the black haired girl, who is still holding her blue plastic bowl with about half of the starting amount. I take Nathan's other hand, enjoying my chocolate chip ice cream with the other. Leslie leads us through partly crowded streets with many different shops, restaurants and cafés. The town itself seems pretty old, a few really run down houses next to half vintage looking ones. It's a nice mix and a great place for sightseeing, I bet it has some sort of story to it.

We come to a halt at a little park surrounded my bushes and trees that blocked the sun with nice shade to sit on the many benches and picnic tables. Deciding for one of them, we claim the only free one that's left, with the girls sitting opposite from us. Kaylx is already done with her ice cream and I'm amazed she hasn't suffered a brain freeze yet since she basically devoured that thing.

The shade is really nice and even though we're not in the direct sun it's still pretty damn hot.We also didn't stay all that long and after everyone finished we had a few minutes of basic conversation before starting to head back to the car. Kaylx on Nathans back to what I assume a nap, since her eyes were closed and no one dared to talk to her. He lays her on the backseat as we reach the truck, Leslie and I getting back into the bed of it.

After dropping the two girls off, we headed back home and believe it or not but there's a slight hint of red on Nathans chest and shoulder area, the i***t forgot to use sun cream again. I decided not to say anything though, I don't want to be like a mother or anything. Bertha warmed us some food from yesterday up and we both ate in mostly silence. But what did creep me out was Dian still sitting in the living room and some what staring at me with a blank expression. Really don't know if I should be concerned or not.

Nathan and I went back upstairs after helping with the kitchen and putting the dishes in the dishwasher. So now, I'm standing in front of our shared closet, wondering what I should wear later for the little get together. "What Are you going to wear?", I ask, turning around to face him. He simply shrugs, his eyes fixated on his phone. "Hm.", I let my gaze slip over the pieces of clothing before closing the door carefully and shrugging as well. There should be enough time to figure this out later. "I'll be outside for a second.", he states, getting up right as I decided to join him. "Okay.", I mumble as the door falls shut behind him. Weird.

My watch vibrates soon after and a message from Leslie pops up.

Jesus, Dean is most likely going to crash our party.

My eyes widen. After what had happened today at the ice rink I'm do have a bit of respect for that guy. I still sort of want to talk to him, maybe figure out what was going on between Nathan and him when they were together. But it's also none of my business.

Can I ask you something?

Leslie should be able to give me at least a little bit of intel, right?

Go ahead!

I sit down on the couch, taking a deep breath before typing my message.

Don't judge but do you think something made Dean quit figure-skating? What if the whole father-left-them-thing hit him harder than you guys thought it did?

My fingers are shaking slightly as I hit send waiting for her reply which seemed to take forever. I really don't want to defend Dean's actions, but I just can't shake off the feeling that most of the things he did weren't that voluntarily.

We all know that it got him pretty bad since he's gay himself but wasn't able to come out to his mom. You know, since his dad left them for another man. But we were careful with him, worried about his mental health. That must have been around the time when Thanny came out to us. I'm still not sure if Dean ever even loved him or if he just used him to cope with his own feelings (Or Whatever he wants to call his instincts).

This did hit harder than expected.

So you think it was just some sort of distraction?

Distraction... it sounds so harsh!

No not necessarily, he wanted someone to love and be affectionate with him. At least that's what I think.

I close my eyes for a second, letting all of this sink in for a second.

Is his mother homophobic?

Yeah, but I can somewhat understand her. She was left with nothing since she used to be a stay @home mom. Had to manage everything on her own.

God, I feel so awful for the two of them, both Dean and his mother. No one deserves to be dumped for someone else and then having to basically fight to survive.

Do you think we could help him? Even though it's been a few years since all of this happened.

No.

Her answer made my heart sting but I can also understand her.

This guy blew up enough chances and 'we forgive you' s, it's his own fault for not taking the help we offered him. Thanny help up with his s**t way too long and the crap with threatening him to stay in their relationship is just prove enough that Dean's f****d up.

My jaw clenches at her continuation.

Threaten him how?

Was Dean violent? Did he ever hurt Nathan?

I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything in the first place. Please forget this conversation.

Why does everyone keep avoiding this subject?

Okay, thank you though.

No problem.

I place my phone next to me and simply stare up at the ceiling. All of this is so complicated and even though I may be more of the outsider here, I still want to know more about this whole situation but we left it at that.

The door opens again And Nathan re-enters the room, smiling at me with worry in his eyes. "Are You okay?", he asks, walking over to me. "I'm fine.", I assure, grinning at him and the mess of hair on top of his head. He must have been stressed and constantly running a hand through it. Did something happen while he was outside? I stand up from the couch but immediately being pulled against his chest by two strong arms around my waist. One of his hands starts to gently caress my cheek, the other one placed on my hip.

"Are you hungry?", he asks but his eyes said something totally different. I shake my head as I slowly tip-toe up to meet his lips, connecting them with mine and letting him take control of it. I never even noticed but Nathan's a few millimeters taller now, his lips not in perfect reach for me anymore. He bites my lower one and tugs at it carefully, making me open my eyes and look at him. There are so many emotions running through his eyes, burning in the green fire and I can't even tell what must be going through his head with all of the things that happened the past years.