Lead You On

I quietly followed Joe up the stairs, tip-toeing even as he stomped up the stairs.

"Joe-" Nick hopped out of this room and stopped, eyeing me. I offered him a small smile.

"Hey, Nick. Have you seen mom?" I could hear the smile in Joe's voice, even though I couldn't see him. I loved how he smiled so often.

Nick looked at him, staring for a moment before nodding, "Yeah, in her room. Why?"

I licked my lips as he looked at me, searching for an answer, letting Joe answer for me, "Rio needs to stay over for a - uh - a little bit." he turned and glanced at me. I couldn't read his expression, so I looked away.

Without letting Nick process this he pushed past him, springing into his mother's room, leaving me standing alone. I let out a hollow laugh, looking at the door Joe had gone in - wanting to follow him - but spotted Nick's confused look.

"What is it?"

"Why are you staying over?" I immediately regretted asking.

If I told him the truth he'd feel all sorry for me. But we were already awkward enough and everybody seemed to be able to tell when I lied. I didn't want us to be even farther apart.

"Well," I bit my lip and decided, "I was having some problems, and I didn't want to stay at home, so I left and Joe found me. Finders keepers, you know?" I grinned and leaned against the wall opposite him.

He dropped the subject, and smiled easily too. I grinned wider at his smile, adjusting myself on the wall to look nicer.

I stood up straight , moving away from the wall. Why did I try to look better for Nick? I nervously scratched the back of my head, looking at him, waiting for him to say something else.

"So, I want to show you this great frozen yogurt place, maybe around four we can go there?" he looked down then back at me, his smile faltering.

I felt my eyes widen. It sounded like a date.

His smile slipped off his face and he began to talk quickly, "I mean - we can bring Kevin and Joe if you want, even Frankie, but you don't have to if you don't want to. You might not even like frozen yogurt! It gives brain freezes, which are never fun, and the toppings are kind of random-"

I slapped my hand over his mouth, laughing loudly as he stopped rambling. That was the most I had ever heard him speak. "Nick, I adore frozen yogurt. I'll remember. Four o'clock."

He smiled, blushing and looked down at his feet. I shoved him into his room, following behind him chuckling.

"Show me your digs, son." I lowered my voice to a deep voice and held up a peace sign in front of my chest.

Nick stared at me, a blush rising on his cheeks once again. I squinted as he stayed like that. tilting my head.

"Nicky?" He stumbled as I spoke it, stretching his hands out, motioning to his room.

"This is my digs." he blushed again. Letting out a nervous laugh.

I glanced at him curiously before taking in his room.

Why did he stare at me? Why was he acting so weird in the first place? Everything was like it had always been.

I remembered what he had told me earlier today, "How is it having diabetes?"

He looked at me, pausing for a moment before answering, his face carefully guarded, "It's hard at first. I couldn't accept it, and I was almost depressed. But it isn't too hard to handle. I just have to remember, because if I forget I could, you know," he stopped, looking down.

I frowned, looking at my hands and reaching for his hand. "Die." he looked up at me and I shrugged, "No use avoiding the subject. I've never been ill like that. I don't know if I ever will be."

He didn't seem to find this comforting, and didn't move.

I looked down, then decided to be spontaneous, "Let's go get frozen yogurt now. Come on, explain to me what you meant by random toppings." he looked up, I smiled.

He still looked down so I grabbed his hand and pulled him out of his room, dragging him down the stairs and bouncing out the front door.

"Alright!" I looked at him, he was lagging behind and a smile was edging up on his face, "I'm coming. Get in the car."

&&

Nick tipped his head back and laughed as I described everybody in Pinkberry to him in a cynical way. He found it funny how I added his American vocabulary to my accent.

"Look at that man. Does he have multiple tumors in his face, or is his mouth stuffed full of marshmallows? Those lumps are hideous!" I scoffed and held my hand in front of my eyes to block my view of him.

Nick snorted into his vanilla yogurt and pulled his hat down lower against his face as a few people looked over in curiosity. "You're terrible." he said, scolding me playfully.

"You like it." I grinned. He smiled at my sass. "Oh - what time is it?"

Nick pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. "Almost noon."

I rolled my eyes, "We sure did wake up early. Anyway, I'm meeting Joe for lunch. I would invite you - but I'm afraid you just can't handle this." I wiggled my eyebrows.

But at the mention of going to eat with his brother Nick had gone stiff and he simply stared blankly at me as I joked. He nodded, "Yeah. Sure." and stood up to toss his yogurt. I plucked it out of his hands and grinned at him before making my way to the trash can.

"Hey, why do your-" I turned, freezing as I saw that he was already outside the store, opening the car. I sighed, throwing the bowls and plastic spoons away.

Obviously, something about me spending time with Joe annoyed him. Probably because we used to spend so much time together, and now I was spending time with Joe. But if he wanted to spend more time with me all he had to do was ask.

After all, there is plenty of Rio to go around.

I dragged my feet to his car, slumping into the passenger seat and locking my seatbelt. Neither of us said anything on the way back to his house. I stared out the window, picking at the thread pulling loose off my shorts. As soon as his car was parked he leaped out, and I got out slower.

"Hey, thanks for taking me there, by the way, it was delightful - I had so much fun!" I yelled after him, but he ignored me, walking into the house without looking back.

I huffed.

How dramatic. I mean, sure I had kind of just blew him off, but I did go get frozen yogurt with him in the first place. I had made plans way before, and I couldn't just cancel on Joe.

This was out first official date.