#thread:nate02

[rhia-falla]

who: @n8-shaw​ when: about half an hour after arriving where: pre-finals dorm party

She spotted him almost immediately, her gaze gravitating back to his whereabouts as she wrestled with her inner turmoil. At this point, her staring almost felt inappropriate, yet Nate’s eyes seemed to strategically avoid the space she occupied. Surprisingly, she’d mostly kept to herself thus far, sulking in the corner and taking heavy swigs of the bottle in her hands. Their distance became grating the more she dwelt on it, until her frustration boiled to the brim and threatened to burn everything within reach.

With a sort of irritated determination, Rhia practically charged toward him, her stormy eyes betraying the prissy, half-smirk on her lips. “Good tah see ya’mate,” she greeted, the slight slur making the Australian trill almost unintelligible. Her smirk twitched, threatening to break and expose her hurt. “Missed you at Ollie’s,” Rhia observed, the words almost pointed as her eyes darted across his face. She didn’t understand the point of his punishment, she couldn’t comprehend whatever lesson he was trying to teach her in being so distant with her. She wanted him back, but the two hadn’t even hung out since she returned.

[rhiannonfalla]

rhiannon ⇾ natey baby

rhiannon: hey

rhiannon: r u mad at me? ;(

[lucent-luca]

The small trace of nicotine burned the back of their throat, but Luca was insistent on not making a scene of their discomfort. He took the blunt, holding it up to his lips despite being beyond his normal capacity of being high. “Shit, man. Everyone’s been there,” Luca said. He took the hit and his throat seemed to reject the puff of smoke, and he almost immediately coughed, his chest heaving with the motion. “Aye,” Luca mused with a smirk, reaching out to nudge Nate’s arm and pass back the blunt. “That doesn’t sound too bad either,” they joked, letting their mind drift to that sort of attention. Perhaps he should have held more sympathy for the other, but as he saw it, there was no trouble with Nate’s current situation. “Okay, so you’ve had a taste of both... Who was the better time? Main shawty or the side piece,” Luca asked, leaning back in their chair.

who: @lucent-luca​ when: last weekend of january where: mutual npc bro’s room bc nate hates both his and luca’s roommates rip

Nate handed the blunt he had been smoking over to Luca, snorting a laugh as he pulled out his phone to glance at his text messages, before tucking it back in his pocket, kicking one leg out and slumping further into the couch. His red-rimmed eyes glanced up at Luca, shaking his head. “Nah, mate, you have no idea. I accidentally fucked my exes best friend,” he said as he jumped back into the conversation, some sorta discussion about how much drama girls could be. “I thought I was about to be jumped by the pair of them,” he added, grimacing slightly as he thought about the look on Parker’s face when she had jumped to conclusions about what had happened between him and Ophelia.

[rhia-falla]

n8-shaw​:

Nate just looked down at her, his expression passive as he met her eyes. “Really?” he asked, tone completely flat. He wouldn’t go further into it - wouldn’t volley back irritation with her accusations when she was the one who disappeared for weeks, when she was the one who seemingly had forgotten how texting had functioned the entire time she wasn’t on campus. He shook his head after a long moment where they both were just looking at each other, glancing down into his beer, swirling it in the cup rather than continuing to face Rhia. “Some of my teammates,” Nate answered, before he shrugged a shoulder up, cup lifted to his lips for a long swing. “It’s a party, Rhia,” he said dryly. A house party at that - one of the few social events Nate didn’t mind going to. “Not sure why you’re acting like it’s a big deal.” 

.

“Yeah, really,” Rhia swat back, mimicking Nate’s tone. Her hands came to rest on each side of her hips, her pose sharp and offensive. “So what is this payback?” she seethed, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. She smiled again, and her nose scrunched in a flippant display of aggravation. “Lead me on just to shun me for what I did to you? Is that it?” she accused, quickly letting her growing bitterness boil over and derail her attempt to win him over. “Your teammates. Right. Would I know them?” Rhia asked deliberately. 

His cold rejection of her inquiries made her stop dead in her tracks. She regarded Nate as if he just spat at her, his dismissal utterly humiliating. At one point in time, when they had still been close and he still regularly responded to her texts, she would’ve accompanied him on a night like this. Especially a night like this. The last hoorah of the semester; a temporary goodbye for some and a non-distinctive celebratory occasion for others. Even when he was... wrapped up with others, she’d always found herself at his side.

And Nate couldn’t help but make it extremely obvious he was ignoring her. She couldn’t win this battle for his affection. She wasn’t certain when, but she was starting to suspect he’d already decided she had no chance of redemption. Rhia tore her glare from his face, turned on her heel, and stormed away instead of acknowledging Nate’s response.

-

Half an hour passed though Rhia couldn’t recall the time for the life of her, but she could count the shots she’d taken. Though she had yet to feel their toll, thanks to the earlier break with Ollie by her side. She sipped from yet another mixed drink in her hand, rapidly catching up since the buzz had worn off. She regretted the words that came out during their earlier exchange, but she also wasn’t keen to apologize for them.

Instead, she wanted to test another impulse of theirs. Nate was slouched on one of the couches in the common room. She waited until she felt tipsy enough to strut up right beside him. Rhia swayed toward him, masking her doubt with an air of temptation. She stood above Nate for a prolonged moment, helplessly adoring his pouty features with a dreamy sigh. She sat beside him, like everything was okay, like she hadn’t messed up earlier in the night. Her legs crossed and laid over his lap, and Rhia leaned back to claim the space as her own. She kicked up a high heeled pump, and her right hand ran delicately twirled the tail ends of his hair. “Hello again,” Rhia enthused sweetly. “Come here often?” she teased, glancing to the side before lifting her cup to her mouth.