Paris slowly walked up to the front door and knocked. He hoped and prayed that Nathan would come to the door. The two hadn’t spoken in two weeks since the event in the cafeteria. He didn’t know what to say to him, but if he did, Nathan wouldn’t give him a chance to do it. He avoided Paris like nothing else. Paris did not want to admit how deeply that hurt him, but it was obvious to everyone around him.
Paris had never let anyone hurt him before; it was always him hurting them. This was a foreign feeling to him and he knew he did not like it.
The door opened, but no one was there. He looked down and saw a young girl looking up at him.
“Sammie, you know you aren’t supposed to open the door,” a familiar voice from inside spoke and Paris tensed. Nathan walked over and lifted the girl into his arms before setting his sites on Paris and glaring at him.
“What do you want?” he asked coldly.
Paris sighed, “To talk to you.”
Grudgingly, Nathan let him inside. He walked to the kitchen, the girl sitting on his hip.
“So talk, Paris,” he said before setting the girl down and going back to chopping up vegetables on the counter.
“I’m sorry,” Paris said quietly, “I’m sorry for acting the way I did, treating you the way I did, and not realizing how it was affecting you. I just….”
“You weren’t thinking?” Nathan offered.
Paris snorted, “I was a little preoccupied.”
“With what?” Nate hissed, glaring down as he chopped a cucumber into slices.
“You,” Paris sighed, “I was so busy thinking about you that I didn’t even see you.”
“How sweet,” his voice dripped with malice.
“But you’re guilty of the same thing,” said Paris, “You were so busy being annoyed by me that you didn’t see me either.”
Nathan sighed and set down the knife, turning to Paris with his arms crossed over his chest, “It would never work. Us. I couldn’t handle this kind of stress all of the time.”
“You wouldn’t have to,” said Paris, “It wouldn’t be like this all of the time.”
Nate rolled his eyes, “You don’t know that, Paris.”
A small smile found its way to Paris’ lips, “Yeah, I do. I can feel it. We’d be so perfect together if we can just get past all of this preliminary stuff.”
Nathan frowned, “Preliminary stuff?”
“What’s your… favorite color?”
“Brown.”
“How about your favorite holiday?”
“Arbor Day.”
“Favorite movie?”
“It’s “Pretty in Pink”.”
“Favorite band?”
“Muse. Paris, why are you asking all of this?”
“Well, it’s stuff I’ll need to know. You said I didn’t know anything about you so I’m trying to fix that. What’s your family like?”
Nathan sighed, “Well my dad is a paralegal and my mom is a teacher. She’s trying to get her masters so she takes afternoon classes and most days I have to watch over my brother, Ben, and my sister, Samantha.”
Samantha waved at Paris from where she was sitting at the counter with a coloring book.
“Adorable,” said Paris, “How about what you want to do after you graduate.”
“Paris, this is doing nothing. Knowing a bunch of stupid things about me isn’t going to instantly give us a perfect relationship.”
Paris frowned, “You’re not even trying. You said you’d give me a chance to prove myself, but you’re just blowing me off.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” Nathan sneered, “You never really gave me a very good reason to be nice to you.”
“Well get to know me better. There’s no point in me knowing a bunch of stuff about you and you knowing nothing about me.” Paris growled, “It won’t work if you don’t let it. It won’t work if you think of me as nothing but the All-American Man-Slut. I’m a person too, Nate. But you wouldn’t know that because you don’t know anything about me either.”
“Whatever,” Nathan muttered, vehemently chopping up broccoli.
“You said you thought I was special,” Paris murmured, “You said that you thought I didn’t give myself enough credit and that I hold a lot of pain inside. Were you just making that stuff up to make me feel better or what?”
“I was an emotional wreck. I didn’t know what I was saying.”
Paris felt his heart break. He turned away from Nathan and crossed his arms over his chest, biting his lower lip to fight back tears. Oh, that hurt so badly. He wanted to crumple into a tiny ball and disappear from existence.
“I didn’t mean that,” Nathan said softly, “Paris, I didn’t mean that. I do think you’re special and all of that, but it’s not enough… It’s not enough…”
“It should be,” Paris’ voice was so shaky he could barely speak. Nate barely heard him.
“Samantha, go color in the living room, please.”
“OK!” The little girl quickly scampered away.
Nathan walked over to Paris and turned him around with a hand on his shoulder.
“So what’s your favorite color?”