Page 8

Bella, Age 15 / Nico, Age 16

He did it again when I wasn't looking. Nico dug into my chocolate chip pancakes when I turned away to ask Benny for more syrup. The guilty expression on his face when I looked back at him was the dead giveaway.

"Nico, are you kidding me?" I teasingly ask, dropping my shoulders. "I haven't even taken a bite, yet you've managed to get 2."

"I'm hungry, BC. Brooks beat my ass at soccer this morning and my metabolism is going off. Plus, I can't help that I'm a growing boy."

"Growing boy, my ass," I mimic him, playfully rolling my eyes. "You're 6'2, Nico, you're not getting any taller."

"You know what? Here," he says, pushing his plate toward me. "You can bite into my breakfast burrito before I do as payback. I even ordered it without onions just in case you wanted to try it."

"You did?" I gulp at his thoughtful gesture, but then quickly compose myself. "Uh, yeah, sure."

Nico watches me take a bite of the burrito with a smile on his face and then I quickly grab the napkin in front of me to wipe at the hot sauce that's dripping from my mouth.

"Good?" he asks, continuing to smile, but I'm too busy chewing, so I just nod.

"Here you go, Bella," Benny interrupts when he stops at our table to hand me a bottle of maple syrup.

"Thanks, Benny!" I say.

"Benny," Nico calls out, beckoning him with his hands. Nico instructs him to bend down so that he can whisper something into his ear. I have no idea what Nico's saying, but Benny starts smiling.

I cock my eyebrow at Nico when Benny walks away and then ask, "What did you do?"

"Nothing," he smiles mischievously, biting into his hashbrowns, and I pout at him.

"Nico," I cross my arms, demanding an answer.

"You'll see."

Nico and I are talking about Columbia University, Nico's dream college, when Benny approaches with a new stack of pancakes.

"One special order of chocolate chip pancakes for Miss Bella Cooper," he says, setting down the plate in front of me.

I notice Nico's eyes gleaming, and then I look down at the plate. There's a heart made from chocolate chips on the top pancake.

"For you, BC. Because I stole yours," Nico says, and I feel a massive smile form on my face. 'My pancakes or my heart?' I want to ask, but keep the question to myself.

"Interesting," I say, looking over the pancakes.

"What's that?"

"Out of all the designs you could've gone with, you went with a heart..."

Nico's lips curve upward, but I won't look into the meaning of his gesture until he tells me with words why he did it. Sure, he asked for a heart, and sure, the twinkle in his eyes right now tells me that he genuinely wanted to do that, but I need words. I need validation. Simply because he's never given it to me. Nico has never told me what he feels for me. For all I know, this is a friendly gesture. And until he tells me otherwise, that's what I'm going to believe.

The only thing that I can do right now is hope. As I sit here, I hope that he did this because he wants me the same way that I want him.

"I love you, BC, you know that," he tells me. Okay, we're getting somewhere...

"I love you, too, Nico," I excitedly say. I can feel my heart racing at the possibility of him saying what I've wanted him to say all these years. These seconds that pass us right now feel like years, and the anticipation is driving me crazy. Just say it, Nico, c'mon.

"You're my best friend, BC. No matter what," he says.

I stay silent, waiting for him to say something else. I don't care if we have to sit here in silence for the next hour, I will not speak up until he follows that with something else. I'm tired of him calling me his best friend. Why can't he say more than that? Why?

"You okay?" he asks with a chuckle and it takes me a few minutes to give him a slight nod.

"Uh. Yeah," I say, clearing my throat when I realize he's not giving me more than that. "Yeah."

Nico squints his eyes at me and then reaches for my hand. "Hey! What do you say to a little photo booth fun, huh?"

Last year, Melly's got a photo booth installed in the back of their restaurant. They hang the customer photos on the bulletin board behind the register. Nico and I have yet to do it.

"Um. I'm not really in the mood right now," I say, but he tugs at my arm.

"C'mon, BC. It'll be fun. Plus, we need more pictures together."

"You hate taking pictures."

"Not when they're with you." He keeps his eyes fixed on me. "Please, BC."

"Fine," I huff. "But if I look like crap, the photos are going in the garbage."

"I doubt that's possible, but deal," he says, reaching out his hand, and we shake on it.

Nico excitedly leads us to the photo booth and the space is so small that he's forced to pull me onto his lap. It almost doesn't feel right; us being this close to each other when we had the conversation we just did.

"You okay?" he asks me, but the thing is, I'm more than okay. This is exactly what I want.

"Yeah," I say so low it comes out in a whispered breath.

The timer on the screen says that we have 5 minutes until the flash goes off.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Our first picture is of us looking at the screen and smiling.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Our second picture is of us looking at the screen and making a kissy face.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Our third picture is of Nico sticking his tongue out and me holding up a peace sign.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

Our fourth picture, and my favorite picture, is of Nico kissing me on the cheek. And me naturally smiling.

"Oh, these are great," Nico says, looking at the photo strip once we've stepped out of the booth.

"Oh my god, I look ridiculous," I laugh.

"You look great," he tells me. "C'mon. We're hanging these front and center."

I could eat at Melly's for the rest of my life and never get sick of it. I think it has to do with the fact that this is my spot with Nico. Therefore, it holds meaning to me. We've been coming here since I was 7 and Nico was 8. Mom used to pick us up from camp and bring us here for an afternoon snack. Mom was always picking us up. From everything. Because Gillian was barely around; always running some sort of errand.

And then when we were teenagers, Nico and I would ride our bikes to Melly's every Sunday. We even have our own booth. Well, technically it's not ours, but Nico refuses to sit anywhere else when it's taken. We literally had to walk out of the restaurant one time when someone else was sitting there. The hostess had offered us another booth, but Nico was insistent on the one in the back. Our booth.

Now that we're in a lit-up room, I can see Nico perfectly. His short brown hair is combed through, and even though he looks the same, there's something different about him.

"You've been lifting, haven't you?" I ask him. His body is athletically lean, but I can see the muscles through his sleeves every time he reaches for something on the table.

"You telling me I look fit, BC?" he asks as he leans his body forward.

"You always look fit, but I don't know," I squint my eyes at him, "something's different about you."

"You think?"

"Yeah. Whatever it is, you look great. And I really am happy to see you." I reach for his hand and he covers it with his.

All of a sudden, Nico bursts out laughing.

"What?" I ask him, but he continues to laugh. "What is it?" I can't help but laugh in response to him laughing.

"Remember the time we came here and you spit your entire chocolate milkshake onto Benny?"

My laughing turns into cackling when I think of the memory. I had ordered a milkshake with my grilled cheese sandwich because I needed something sweet. As I was taking a large sip of the milkshake and our waiter Benny was filling our glasses with water, Nico decided to crack a joke. Long story, short, I ended up spitting a mouthful of the chocolatey, icy liquid onto Benny's apron.

"It wasn't the entire milkshake. More like a quarter," I continue to laugh.

"Oh my God, I'm crying," Nico says, wiping at his eyes. He's laughing so hard that there are actual tears falling. "Damn, BC, we've had some good times together, haven't we?"

"The best," I answer.

We stop laughing, and funny enough, Benny approaches us.

"Well, well, well, look who it is. Good thing I have a backup apron in my locker," Benny teases.

"Hey, Benny," Nico greets him with a wave.

"Nico, Bella," he tips his head at the both of us. "How are my favorite customers doing tonight?"

"Shhh, Benny," Nico sarcastically says, covering his lips with his index finger. "The others can hear."

"You think I give a crap about them?" Benny asks, swinging his hand down. "Please." Nico and I smile at each other and then look up at Benny. "We've missed you, Bella. It's not the same when you're not around." Benny then bobs his head at Nico. "He's not the same when you're not around."

"C'mon now, Benny. Don't ruin my reputation," Nico jokes, lifting up his collar.

"I'm sorry, Nico, but the girl deserves to know."

You hear that, Nico? I deserve to know. No, I need to know.

"Don't listen to him, BC," Nico tells me otherwise, shaking his head.

"No, this is great." I clasp my hands together and rest my chin on top of them. "Tell me more, Benny."

"Look, I don't care what anyone says," Benny continues, "blondie doesn't hold a candle to you."

Blondie?!

For a second there, I thought I heard wrong. But then I look at Nico and he's practically at a loss for words. I shift my attention back to Benny, but he looks just as speechless.

"Blondie?" I voice the thought in my head out loud. I might sound jealous, but I don't care.

"Benny!" the hostess at the front calls out, and Benny looks relieved.

"Be right back," he looks at us and says, but we both know that he's not coming back.

I give Benny a half-smile as my thoughts continue to spiral. I look at Nico, who's running his fingers through his hair. He does that when he's nervous. Which means that he's nervous right now.

"What was that about?" I ask him with a chuckle. I'm trying to keep my tone casual, but I'm freaking out inside. And the expression on Nico's face right now isn't helping.

I lift my head up from the table and notice Benny standing behind the register, looking at us. I can tell that he feels bad for saying something that he probably shouldn't have, but he clearly did because he assumed that it was something Nico must've already told me. Which makes me even more upset. Why would Nico wait to tell me something that everyone else supposedly already knows?

"Nico?" I press when he takes long to answer me.

He lets out a deep breath as he head remains dipped down. He finally picks it up and makes eye contact with me. His usual cool and collected demeanor is now anxious, and it's making me anxious.

"Remember the text that I sent you? The one that said I had something that I wanted to tell you."

"Yeah?"

I wanted to lie. In that moment, I wanted to pretend that I had no idea which text he was talking about...because I knew. I knew that whatever he was about to say next was going to wreck me inside.

"Well...," he begins.

And guess what? I was right.

It wrecked me.