#strangerfic

[sarahisslytherin]

𝐁𝐄𝐃𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒 || 𝐒.𝐇.

summary: your little sister refuses to go to bed without steve’s bedtime stories. contains: fluff and an annoying child. mentions of fem!reader. a/n: idk man it is what it is. requested by @strangerfics-9​.

steve is in his element, making some hot chocolate for you and your little sister while you slip into your pajamas. your parents are out for the night, leaving you to babysit. well, leaving you to call your boyfriend over to babysit. 

“aw, look at you.” he fawns over you as you join him in the kitchen. “in your cute little jammies.”

you roll your eyes and give him a playful nudge. “shut up, harrington.” 

“harrington, huh?” he chuckles as you wrap your arms around his torso from behind him. “this from the one who called me because you couldn’t handle your own sister.”

“she’s a nightmare!” you whine. “a little gremlin, she is!”

steve can’t fight back his laugh as he hands you a cup of hot chocolate. “well, she’s been an angel all day.”

“yeah, with you!” you point out. “she adores you, absolutely worships the ground you walk on. i don’t know what she sees in you.” 

“probably the same thing her big sister does, hm?” steve teases, pulling you close to where he’s leaning against the counter. “i guess good taste runs in the family.”

just as he’s leaning in to kiss you, he feels a yank at the hem of his sweater. to no one’s surprise, it’s your little sister. “stevie! let’s watch more movies!” she demands, wide eyed and completely adorable. 

steve glances at you, chuckling at her enthusiasm before looking back down to your sister. “sorry, kid. no more movies tonight. it’s bedtime.”

you expect her to comply immediately, the way she had all day whenever steve would say anything. but she doesn’t.

“if i can’t watch movies i wanna have another tea party!” she huffs with a small stomp of her foot, her brow furrowed and lips pouting. it almost breaks steve.

“we already had a tea party, hon. remember? you dressed me up in your feather boa and put all those butterfly clips in my hair?” he reminds her, and you snort at the memory.

“i’m so using that polaroid against you, by the way.” you snicker, distracting him for a mere moment before he’s being dragged into your sister’s room.

“kid, it’s time for bed!” steve tries once more, growing more frustrated by the second. 

“but i’m not sleepy!” your sister exclaims in response. steve is at the end of his rope now, his mind searching for ways to calm her down and get her to go to bed. 

“why don’t you tell her a bedtime story?” you suggest. steve turns to you with a thankful smile. “you know, like that one about the kids that saved hawkins once upon a time?”

“oh, yeah.” he laughs. “i got plenty of those stories. might need to change a few unimportant details but yeah, storytime it is.”

“yey!” your sister exclaims, grabbing her favorite stuffed animal and burrowing herself under the covers. steve clambers in as well, holding the covers up for you to slip underneath. and you do. how could you not when steve’s smiling at you, your little sister curled up beside him like something straight out of a hallmark christmas movie.

“comfy?” he asks, and you nod in return as he presses a kiss to your forehead.

“can’t wait to do this with our six kids.” you snort. “dustin the second, dustin the third, dustin the-”

“once upon a time…” steve begins, not before sharing a knowing look with you. a look that tells you there’ll be a lot of cozy nights exchanging bedtime stories in your future, and you honestly can’t wait.

taglist: @velvetcloxds​ @canibeoneofthepogues​ @padf00ts-l0ver​ @saintlike78​ @d22malfoys​ @scandalous-chaos​ @mystic-writings​ @wh0reforbucknasty​ @haroldpotterson​ @ughgclden​ @meromelo @hehehehannahthings​ @rafecameronswhore​ @meraki-lore​ @ericareyesmylove​ @bunnyweasley23​ @eichenhouseproperty​ @magicalxdaydream​ @imabee-oralizard​ @leahsficemporium​ @cupids-crystals​​ @natashxromanovfreads​​ @moonlitmeeks​​​

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

So, this is it... this is the last chapter. It took me ages to finish this multi-chapter, and I’m sorry about that, but there have been many things happening in my life, and well... shit happens. This one is specially dedicated for the Gaston to my Nina @silveranchor ... I love you so much. I have an idea to write my version of season 3 with Gastina, but I would like you to tell me if you want it. I, of course, am going to keep writing Soy Luna fanfics, I don’t care if the show is over, so I’m still here with some content for those still interested.

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 12 - ABOUT SHOCKING REVELATIONS AND FRAMED POEMS

Shit, shit, shit!

With an apology that he should be receiving and not giving, he stormed out the lockers room, leaving his friend Ramiro standing there, looking at his back with confusion. The Chilean had the amazing idea of interrupting him and Nina right after she told him she was Felicity, when he was barely recovering from the shock caused by her revelation, just to tell him something about some skating exhibition he thought they should go together.

He wanted to kill him.

But then, after he spent several minutes trying to explain the other guy that they could talk later (or never) about that stupid competition, that he was doing something very important at the moment, he turned around to look for Nina and tell her to go talk somewhere else, and realized she wasn’t there anymore. Where did she go? What if she thought he wasn’t happy about her being Felicity? What if he couldn’t explain her that his reaction was only caused by shock and not disgust? He needed to find her.

With his attention focused on finding her, he couldn’t see the person standing on his way until it was too late and he crashed into her. “I’m sorry, I…” he started to form an apology, but then his eyes recognized her face, and he couldn’t help but show his annoyance. “May you move so I can…?” he sharply said, and then made a gesture to continue his path, but she took his arm and stopped his escape.

“Gastón, please,” his ex-girlfriend begged. “We need to talk.”

“I have nothing to talk with you, Delfina,” he replied, his eyes still wandering around the rink, looking for Nina. “And I’m a little bit busy right now, so…”

She interrupted him with an exasperated snort. “Could you please leave your stupid pride aside for just a minute, and listen to me?” she burst out. “I’m trying to apologize over here, do the things right, but you seem to be more interested in whatever you are looking for, instead of giving me the chance to tell you what I have to say,” she continued. “I told Pedro this was a bad idea, but of course I had to leave him convince me-“

“Pedro?” this time it was him who interrupted her. “The drummer of the Roller Band?” he asked, confused. What does he have to do with all of this? He couldn’t understand it. The guy was really nice, and he liked him very much, so thinking about them being close felt a little weird, like he entered into another dimension.

“Seriously? I’m telling you that I’m trying to apologize, and that’s all you catch from my words?” Delfina rolled her eyes, and sighed. “Yes, Pedro from the Roller Band. We are kind of dating,” she explained. “You know Simón is Ámbar’s boyfriend, and one day they had this amazing idea of organizing a double date, and I wasn’t very into it at first, but then I started talking with him and we… well, we somehow started to like each other, and, you know-,” she shook her head, like she couldn’t believe how much she had told him about her relationship with the other guy. “Anyway, we were talking the other day, and he told me that he understood why I did what I did, but that you deserved an apology, so that’s what I’m doing right now, but you seem to not care at all, and I just can’t believe I really thought it was a good idea,” she complained.

Gastón decided to stop looking for Nina, just for a while, and listen to what Delfi had to say.

“Ok, I’m listening,” he said, and she seemed to be shocked at first, but then nodded.

“Look, I was mad at you for being so… well, for overreacting and breaking up with me because of such stupid thing,” she started.

“Stupid thing?” Gastón couldn’t believe her.

“Okay, it wasn’t that stupid, but that’s what I thought at that moment,” she explained. “Look, I thought you wouldn’t like me if I was… you know, like I always was. And you were so excited about those things I could barely understand about, that I started to pretend I cared about them too, thinking that you would end up liking me so much you wouldn’t care about those little white lies I said…” He frowned at her, and she rolled her eyes. “I get it, they weren’t little white lies. I know that now,” she looked at him waiting for his response, and when he nodded, she took a deep breath. “I should have known you were right about being mad at me, and that with those things I said I would cause you a lot harm. I’m sorry about that, I really am, and just so you know I’ve told the people I know that those are all lies, so I hope those rumors fade away soon,” she concluded, looking at him with a pout.

Gastón decided that there was no need to stay mad at her, to keep holding hard feeling towards the girl he used to like, so he put his hand on her shoulder.

“You’re forgiven,” he said, smiling down at her.

Delfi smiled back.

“Good,” she said, with relief. “Anyway, I will leave you alone now, so go do whatever you were doing.”

Suddenly, he remembered he was looking for Nina before crashing into Delfi, and nodded. “Tell Pedro I said hi,” he said as farewell, and skated around the rink, trying to find the shy girl at the sea of people. But, she wasn’t there.

-

After taking off his skates, he found Matteo and Luna at the couches of the cafeteria, sharing a milkshake and laughing about something, lost in their own personal bubble of happiness and cheesiness.

He approached them

“Hey, have you seen Nina?” Gastón asked at Luna, out of breath, and the girl frowned.

“I thought she was with you,” she said, with concern.

“She was,” he explained. “We were talking, and she told me the truth about felicity, but Ramiro came in and interrupted us.”

“What truth about Felicity?” Matteo asked, confused, but his girlfriend was too worried about her best friend to hear him. “And? Why did she leave?” she asked, reaching for her phone, and he shrugged.

“I don’t know, I looked for her after I got rid of Ramiro, but she was already gone,” he messed up his hair. “I searched for her all around the rink, but she is not there, and she isn’t here as well, and…” he led out a frustrated grunt.

“Ok, let me call her…” Luna dialed to her best friend, but it went to voicemail. “She might have turned it off,” she said.

“Is any of you going to explain me what’s going on?” Matteo asked again, as Gastón stood up and started to walk in circles. Luna sighed. “Nina is Felicity,” she explained him.

Matteo`s jaw dropped.

“Nina is Felicity?” he looked at Gastón. “Your Felicity?” he asked, and he nodded. “Oh my God, so you thought you were in love of two girls, but they were the same person? that’s awesome!” he celebrated, but then looked at Luna. “Wait, you knew about this and didn’t tell me? I told you everything about Gastón struggles, about how hurt he was, and you kept all this info for yourself…” He seemed to be mad, like he was going to start an argument with his girlfriend because of him, so Gastón intervened.  

“It wasn’t her secret to tell, Bro,” he said, and smiled at Luna. “You couldn’t give your best friend away, could you? she had to be the one to tell me the truth, and I understand that.” The girl nodded, looking at her boyfriend with concern, and he did the same. “You would have done the same for me,” he raised his eyebrows at the Italian, and he sighed.  

“Yeah, you are right,” Matteo kissed his girlfriend forehead. “I’m sorry,” he said, and she shook her head, and kissed his chin. “It’s okay,” she replied, with heart eyes.

Gastón had to clear his throat, or the couple would have started to make out right in front of him, with the intensity they were looking at each other, when he really needed them to help him. They glanced back at him, looking at him like they had just noticed he was still there, when it hadn’t been even a minute since they went into deep space.

“So… Nina…” he reminded them, and Luna seemed confused at first.

“Oh right, right! Well, she is not picking up her phone, let me see if she sent me any message,” she checked whatsapp, and jumped with excitement when she saw a message from her best friend, but then her happiness faded away as she read it. Gastón got very anxious. “She said she had to leave, that she told you the truth so she needed to be alone to think,” she explained him, and a resolution got into his head: he would go to her dormitory and tell her what he felt, he needed her to see that he was in love with her.

“Ok, perfect… then I will get a taxi and go to your dor-“

Luna interrupted him.

“She is not there,” she said, and he froze. He had already walked a couple of steps towards the exit. “Nina said she would spend the night with her dad.”

He hesitated for a second, but then nodded. Well, he didn’t expect to meet her parents in a while, but if that was the only way to talk to her that night, he would go to meet everyone in her family, even the dog, he just needed to do it.

“It’s ok, just give me his address…” he said, but Luna shook her head.

“I don’t know where her father lives,” she said, and both boys looked at her with confusion. Wasn’t her Nina’s best friend? She should know those things, both of them have spent so much time in each other parent’s houses that they have been unofficially adopted by the other’s families. Luna noticed their looks and sighed. “Her dad works in Miami,” she explained. “So, when he comes to Buenos Aires he stays in different places. If it’s just for a week or so he stays in a hotel, but when it’s longer, he rents some apartment. Sometimes he invites me to go have lunch with them, but I haven’t had time these days.”

Frustration took possession of him.

“So, that’s it? I can’t talk with her tonight? I will have to wait for other day?” he asked, and Luna shrugged. He already knew the answer to his questions.

-

He didn’t sleep, at all.

Every couple of minutes he rolled on his bed and looked for his phone at the nightstand, hoping she would turn her phone on, so he would get a notification to call her. But it didn’t happen, and when he walked through the campus to get to his own lectures, he was looking more like a zombie than an actual human being.

The coffee in his hand was his only hope to survive all day.

Gastón tried to call her again in the morning, but it went directly into the voicemail. He also tried to go to one of her morning classes, wait there for her to arrive, but she didn’t, and instead he had to endure having a conversation with that Xavi guy.

He deserved an award for being polite and not starting a discussion with said individual, even when with every word that came out of the Brazilian’s mouth his mood worsened.

He also called the moon-girl while waiting in line for his coffee, to know if Nina had called her or something, but she didn’t, and his concern increased.

His Economy lecture was the longest, and he almost fell asleep twice, but Ramiro got to keep him awake by giving him soft pushes with his knee every time his eyes closed. He would have thanked him, but it was all his fault in the first place, as everything would be fine if he hadn’t interrupted him and Nina at the lockers.

-

When he arrived home, Matteo was already there.

“Hey,” his best friend said, with a grin that was the complete opposite to the grimace that was his own face, and he knew his best friend enough to know what that meant.

“I guess you will be contemplating the moon tonight,” he replied, even if his mood wasn’t the best. The opportunity to make a pun can never be wasted. His best friend’s smile grew bigger, as he walked to the living room. “That’s exactly what I’m doing,” he said, taking his coat from the armchair. “We are going to watch a movie, and then to have dinner,” he told him, while putting his keys and wallet into his pockets.

Gastón nodded, with a soft smile.

He could be feeling like shit, but he was glad for his best friend, he deserved to be happy with his girlfriend more than anyone.

“Hmm, by the way,” Matteo said, after crossing the front door, peeking inside with half his body outside. “There’s something waiting for you in your bedroom,” he winked, and then left the place, leaving him staring at the closed door with a confused expression.

Did his mom send him cupcakes again? His progenitor was learning how to bake, and so lately she had been sending boxes with her creations so he had something sweet to eat while studying for his exams. And, as thankful as he was about her doing that for him, he had to admit that baking wasn’t one of her strongest abilities. The other day, for example, he had to eat half-cooked cookies just to make her happy.

Now he knows why Matteo ran away so fast.

Before entering to his room, he took out his phone from his pocket, looking at it, his messages still un-read, his voicemail still empty. He sighed, and opened the door, with his eyes still fixed on the screen, opening the chat with Nina, and writing a short ‘please, pick up my calls’, before sending it. The tone of an incoming message rang at the room, but it wasn’t from his phone, so he looked up, his heart beating so fast it felt like he was having a heart attack.

She was there, sitting on his bed, with her phone on her hands, and a shy smile dancing on her lips. And, for the first time in his whole life, he was completely speechless.

Nina stood up.

“Hello, Stranger,” she said, unsure. “I- I’m Felicity, we… we have talked with each other through the campus app,” she explained, and he instantly knew what she was doing, so a soft smile appeared on his own lips. He was too startled to reply, tho. “I thought you deserved to know who I was, so I came here to talk with you,” she continued. “I mean, you weren’t here when I arrived, but your flat mate told me that it was okay if I wanted to wait for you in your bedroom.”

Gastón let out a soft giggle, and she did the same.

“I will have to talk with him about security,” he said, when he found his own voice. “I mean, nothing personal, but you could be some serial killer.”

She nodded. “Yeah, I could be that,” she said, blushing when he got too close. “Or, maybe I have a master plan to kidnap you and never let you go,” her voice became a whisper when his fingertips softly brushed her cheek.

“How evil,” Gastón replied, lifting her chin, making her look up at his eyes. “But I would let you do it,” he added, with a soft smile, and for a while there it seemed like she had forgotten how to speak. Or breathe. He held her face in between his hands, and stared at her eyes with devotion, feeling like those hours without knowing about her haven’t actually happened.

After a while, she sighed.

“Gastón, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have lied to you, or left last night at the party, I just needed some time to think, to clear my head… I had never-”

“Shh… it’s ok,” he interrupted her, getting closer. “I know you were scared.” Putting their foreheads together, he closed his eyes, and took a deep breath to fill his lungs with her scent, to keep that moment forever with him. She put her hands over his and closed her eyes as well. “but I need you to understand that nothing has made me happier than knowing that Felicity and Nina were the same person, that I didn’t fall in love with two girls, but with two facets of the same amazing girl. That I’m in love with you, only you… all of you.”

For a while, they stayed in silence, with only the sound of their breaths filling the room, but then Nina opened her eyes, and with a light touch she asked him to do the same.

“I love you too,” she whispered. “Since the very beginning.”

They smiled at each other, just for brief time, before he bent down those millimeters required so their lips could finally meet.

It was a soft kiss, as sweet and tender as possible, he was afraid of going too fast and scare her off, so he was taking his time, enjoying the sweet taste of her lips like he had all the time in the universe to do so. He did. But then, her hands dive in his hair, pulling him closer, asking for more, so he let every measure behind and deepened the kiss, feeling like a million supernovas exploding inside his chest, like he had just found everything he could have only dreamed about before. He knew, since that very second, that he was the luckiest guy on planet earth, and the blindest, for not being able to see before that the love of his life was right in front of his eyes all this time.  

-

They were cuddling on his bed, her head resting on his chest, as he absently played with a lock of her hair. They were talking about everything and nothing at the same time, she told him about her crush on him when they were at school, and he told her about everything that came to his mind about those times, while stealing kisses, and keeping each other as close as possible.

He never wants to let her go.

But then, something in his room called her attention, and she fetched it from the library, having to get on top of him to achieve the task. He just smiled, knowing exactly what it was. “You actually framed it,” she said, showing him the poem, the one she sent him the night they met online.

“I told you I would,” he said, with a proud smile.

“Yes, but I thought… I thought you were joking,” she was sitting on his lap, looking down at him with the cutest surprised look, and he thought he just wanted to kiss her again.

“I would never joke about something like that,” he said, sitting up, putting his hands on her hips to keep her close. She might have only noticed their position, because then she became completely red, and bite her lip. “I was serious then, and I’m serious now: I love your writing, and I want to read more,” he added, brushing his nose against hers.

“More?” she asked, startled.

“Everything,” he corrected, and stole a peck, making her whole-body shiver. “I want to read everything you write, I declare myself your fan number one,” he gave her another soft peck, and she closed her eyes, taking one of her hands to his nape, holding the frame against her chest with the other.

“You will have to take that spot from Luna,” she told him, out of breath, and he snorted.

“The moon-girl? Easy pie,” he said. “I just need the astronaut to distract her, and that’s it, I win,” he giggled his eyebrows and she laughed. It was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard.

He took the frame from her hand, putting it back at the library, and then pulled her closer so their chests touched, and there was no millimeter in between them. “I love you, and I will always support you,” he told her, looking directly at her eyes, making her feel special. Loved. Her free hand caressed his cheek, softly, making him shiver. He never felt like this with anyone before, she had something that made every touch different, strongest, like he was Spider-man with his Spidey-senses activated. If that makes any sense.

“I love you too,” she replied, and then their lips met again.

And the rest of the world stopped existing.

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

I know, I’m taking like forever, and many might have already forgotten this multi-chapter, but as I said in the Simbar OS I published yesterday, I’ve been having disagreements with the muse, so writing have been very hard. Anyway, if things go as planned, I will be publishing a chapter of this AU every week until I get to the last one... that’s very close, indeed. Hope you like it. Word coutn: 3.7k / barely proofread, so expect many mistakes.

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 10 -  ABOUT UNEXPECTED JEALOUSY AND SKATING LESSONS

“Who’s that guy?” He asked, looking at Nina and the guy seated next to her, the one who was showing her something from his drawing block, making her blush and, eventually, giggle. They were too close, why were them so close? Why did he even care about it? Luna and Matteo, who were seated in front of him followed his sight­, and the short brunette smiled as soon as she saw her best friend and the guy who was with her.

“Oh, that’s Xavi.” She answered, looking back at him.

Gaston raised his eyebrows. He needed further information than just his name. That was ridiculous, by the way. Did she like him? Were they dating? And if so, for how long? Because he has never heard about that Xavi guy.

Luna, the girl who was 99.9% of the time clueless, seemed to notice those questions in his expression, and gave him an amused look. “He’s one of her classmates, they are working together at some project.” she told him, taking a sip of her drink.

That didn’t look like they were doing a project, he thought. They were too smiley and friendly, like if they were on a date. He wasn’t jealous, of course he wasn’t. He was just concerned about that guy’s intentions with his friend, because that’s what he and Nina are: friends, weren’t they? And friends get concerned about the people their friends are friendly with, or in this case, more than friendly. The burning sensation he had on his chest was just concern, he convinced himself.

“I don’t like him.” He said, without even thinking, after seeing the guy giving her a piece of paper, and her smile growing bigger as she asked something that seemed like ‘for me?’ and him nodding. When she hugged him he had to look away. Something broke in her hand, and he looked down to find the plastic spoon divided in two pieces.

“Well, you don’t have to like him, buddy.” Matteo replied, with a huge grin on his face, which that told him his best friend was jumping into conclusion, and was ready to get his pay back for all the months of space puns. “The guy is Nina’s friend, and I believe she is the one who has a said about it.” If stares could kill, those would have been Balsano’s last words. Luna giggled and looked back at her best friend, a proud smile drawn on her lips. He didn’t like that smile, not at all.

“Why do you say you don’t like him?” she asked, looking back at him.

“I don’t know,” he recognized with a shrug. “He doesn’t seem very trustworthy, that’s all.” His justification sounded stupid, even for himself. How could someone tell if other person is trustworthy or not just for his looks? A glimpse to his best friend’s face and he recognized the same silent question. He decided to change the topic. “Anyway, I guess you are going to the party, right?” he asked Luna, and she started jumping like an overexcited puppy.

“Yes, I’m going!” she said, the excitement in her voice was very obvious. “I was talking with the girls… with Jim and Yam, I mean. We are going shopping in a couple of days to get cool dresses and masks, they want to get everything black and white to be like the yin and the yang, which is very cool because of their names. But I still don’t know what to wear.” She added, thoughtful.

“We could match our costumes if you want.” Matteo suggested, and his girlfriend’s eyes lightened up. “Oh my God, that’s an amazing idea! We have to do it!” she replied, excited. “We can search for ideas later, maybe ask the girls if they have some.” she added, and gave him a kiss in the cheek.

“Maybe you can dress up as the moon, and my friend here as an astronaut…” Gastón suggested, with a grin, gaining a cushion crashing on his face. That didn’t stop his laughter, though. Matteo looked like he was about to kill him, his girlfriend as if she had suddenly become a tomato.

“You are going, right?” Luna asked him, after a while (and a very long sip of her drink), and he nodded. “Good! I need your help with something,” she leaned towards him and lowered her voice, like she is about to tell him a secret. Instinctively, he leaned as well. “I need you to convince Nina to go to the party.”  She whispered.

He frowned. “How do you think I could be able to convince her if you, her best friend, didn’t?” he asks, with sincere curiosity, because he already tried to do it and the result was her saying she had something to do, and running away. “Because she says she won’t because she can’t skate, but she is just scared, and I’m sure she might learn if she tried to do it. But well, I think she might consider to go if you tell her…” He interrupted Luna.

“Well, I already did that, and she ran away.” He told her, and Luna made a grimace.

“Maybe, if you insist…” the girl insisted. “She told me she had a terrible accident when she tried to learn, and now she think she is not good enough.”

“Yeah, she told me she broke her arm,” Gaston sighed. “But it was an accident, we all fall when we are learning, it doesn’t mean someone is not good enough, just that we have to keep trying.” He looked down at his drink, and stirred it with his straw.

He didn’t like Nina thinking that way about herself. She was an amazing girl, she was smart, she was nice, she had this amazing ability to capture real art with her camera, and she was very passionate about those things she liked. He was sure she would be able to learn how to skate in no time, if she gets to overcome her fear and put some effort on it. When they talked, she seemed reluctant to accept doing so, even if he promised he would never let her fall, so he had to find a way to convince her to give it a try. Maybe Luna was right, and he just needed to insist a little.

When that thought came to his mind he looked back at Nina’s direction, and she was walking towards them, firmly holding the other guy’s arm. The burning sensation on his chest got harder to deal with. He looked away, focusing on his drink once again, until he noticed she was standing next to him, then he innocently smiled up at them.

Had she invited this Xavi guy to hang out with them? Because if so, he had some work to do at home, and it would be a great opportunity to excuse himself.

Nina made the presentations, and when it was his turn to shake the other guy’s hand, he might have put a little bit more of strength on his grip than usual. The other seemed to not notice this, or ignored it, and only grinned as he looked back at the others. “I’m very pleased to meet you all,” he said. “Nina has told me great things about you guys.”

“Interesting, mostly because I’ve never heard about you before.” His mouth was faster than his brain… that he can tell. His best friend was holding his laughter, he was biting his lips and looking at the ceiling. Nina seemed kind of mortified. He shouldn’t have said that, but it was late to take his words back.

And a part of himself didn’t want to do it, anyway.

“I guess you don’t talk that much,” Xavi guy fired back, and he saw red. Was he challenging him? WAS HE CHALLENGING HIM? He snorted. “Or maybe we have much more interesting topics to talk about,” he replied, and at that exact moment Matteo intervened, asking the guy if he was going to stay with them, and sending him a warning glare. «Not the moment for this, bro» he could read on his face.

The good part: He wasn’t staying. The guy said he had to go to a lecture, and then left them alone, taking advantage of the farewells to kiss Nina's cheek. Luckily this time there was nothing on his hand.

Next time he and Nina met was at the lockers of the Jam & Roller, a couple of days later. She was putting her books inside her locker, and he was looking for his skates. He stealthily walked until he got next to her, and leaned on the lockers. “Hey,” he greeted, and the book slipped out from her hands, but he was fast enough to stop it before it crashed on the floor.

“Gastón!” she said, shaken.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he apologized, giving her book back. She was blushing. “It’s okay,” she replied. “I was distracted.” She explained.

“Yeah, I noticed that.” He felt concern taking over his other emotions. “Is there something that concerns you? Maybe I can help.” He offered, with a soft smile, and she looked at him with those cute eyes of her that reminded him to an innocent fawn, pink starting to cover her cheeks.

“It’s no -nothing,” she stuttered, and then bit her lower lip. For a whole second he fantasied with being the one biting that lip. WAIT, WHAT? He shook his head, shooing that thought. She was just a friend, and he liked other girl, he reminded himself. “It’s just…” she sighed and supported her back on the closed lockers. “The girls want me to go to the party, but I really don’t know how to skate, and if I rationality think about it I know the probabilities of falling again are very low, less than 15% indeed, but still… I’m just not the kind of person who skates, I prefer to write about it, but I also want to enjoy the party with you- you all, I mean, with Luna, and Jim, Yam… Simón, Matteo, everyone. I don’t want to disappoint anyone,” she sighed.

“I’m pretty sure you would make a great skater,” he replied, without hesitation.

She looked down. “Don’t say those things just to make me feel better,” she interlaced her own hands. “I’m sure I would fall all the time.” He put one of his hand over hers, squeezing them. She looked up at him, and he smiled.

“Hey, can I tell you a secret?” She nodded. “When I was learning to skate the floor became my best friend, I was always visiting it, I became an expert on falling,” he told her, and she giggled. What a beautiful sound. “We all fall when we are learning, Nina. The important thing is to have the courage to get up and keep trying,” he added.

“Hey! We could go and skate together now, I came to look for my skates anyway,” he suggested, after a few seconds of silence, and she looked taken aback. “And don’t tell me you don’t have skates as an excuse, because they rent them here, so we can ask Pedro to get a pair for you.”

“I don’t know, I…” He interrupted her. “I promised you the other day I wouldn’t let you fall, didn’t I?” he said, and she nodded. “I meant it, Nina, I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Please,” he pleaded, making his best impersonation of the cat from Shrek, hoping she wouldn’t be able to resist it.

 He still couldn’t believe she accepted to skate with him, that he convinced Nina to do such thing as putting skates on, but apparently the force was with him, because no other explanation could come to his mind.

He was a freakin’ Jedi master.

He already had explained her the basics, and she was doing amazing. He took her hands the whole time (which, being honest, was the best part of the whole process), and told her how to go forward, how to turn, how to brake. He even explained her the best way to fall (He wasn’t lying when he told her he had mastered on it), and showed her some nice dance moves he and Matteo have been practicing. She applauded them. They skated for a while, staying very close to each other (he promised he would, didn’t he?) and then went to the corner of the rink to drink some water and take a well-deserved rest.

“It was… it was amazing!” she said, very excited. “I didn’t know I could skate.” He nodded, that’s the only reply he could come out with, as her smile was so radiant, he got lost on it. She is gorgeous, he thought, and as soon as those words emerged on his mind he took a very long sip from his water bottle and looked back at the rink. Staring at her was messing with his head. They were just friends, he reminded himself. He liked another girl. But you can like two girls at the same time, don’t you? His brain told him. And Felicity wasn’t answering to his messages, anyway, so maybe it was time for him to move on.

He shushed those thoughts.

“See? I was right,” he grinned, and she smiled back at him.

Oh God, she had to stop it with that cute smile.

“Yes, you were,” she replied, a soft blush covering her cheeks. It was the cutest thing ever. He looked at her as she talked about going to tell her friends that she was going to the party, she couldn’t wait to see Luna’s face when she tell her she had skated without falling. She would need a costume, of course, and getting one at last minute would be hard. But, maybe she could ask to her mother’s friend to do one for her, or the other girls, Yam was very talented.

He found himself staring at her lips, and he reminded his earlier thought of biting them, but this time he just wanted to softly stroke them with his. Stop, his brain warned him, and he obligated himself to focus on something else, like the strain of her that fell over her face. He couldn’t stop himself and his hand gently put it behind her ear. The pink on her cheek suddenly became red, and when the realization of what he had done hit his brain, he almost choked.

“I… erm, we should go back to skating,” he said, taking his hand to his own hair, nervously messing it. She looked down at her feet. “I can’t, I have to go… I mean, I have a lecture.” She explained, and he nodded and accompanied her to the lockers where they could change into their shoes. He didn’t believe her excuse for a second.

 The realization crashed into him like a truck. But not any truck. This one was full of bricks, and was being driven at 120 kilometers per hour by a drunk guy covered in tattoos and a cliché name like Billy or Dave, who has an insane obsession with fast and furious, and that realized a little too late that the brakes weren’t working.

He was falling for Nina.  

He was truly jealous the other day. He was jealous of that guy being with Nina, of him giving her drawings, hugs, and kisses in the cheek, and about the possibility of her liking him back. Because the guy liked her, he knew that for the way he looked at her when she wasn’t looking. The burning sensation on his stomach wasn’t just concern, he was truly jealous. And that day at the rink… he wanted to kiss her. He wanted to lean closer, feel her warm breath caressing his face, take a taste of her lips, and possibly get lost on them until the end of times.

Well… fudge, he was in deep.

“Are you telling me what’s going on?” Matteo asked, offering him a can of beer, and sitting next to him on the couch. He opened it and took a sip, still not ready to put his thought into words. “You have been here motionless since you arrived from the roller. Did something happen?” He could feel the concern in his best friend’s voice.

“Something like that,” he sighed, and took another sip.

“Let me guess…” his friend grinned. “It has something to do with Nina, am I right?” sometimes it scares him to death how much his best friend knows him. If such thing as soulmates existed, they might be that, as sometimes a look is enough to be sure what’s happening to the other.

“Yes,” he wasn’t even going to try to keep this from his friend. “I believe I have fallen for her.” He sighed, and closed his eyes, taking his hands to his own hair. He only does that when he is really nervous.

“Damn it! It was about time!” Matteo gave him a friendly poke. “We have been speculating about this with the guys of the Roller Band for a while now. Simon was sure it would take you months to figure it out, but after your jealousy scene from the other day, I knew this day was close, and I was right!” he celebrated.

“You have been gossiping with them about me? What kind of best friend are you?” He felt betrayed, was Matteo replacing him with those guys? They had been spending way too much time together. “You’re a cheater, Balsano.” He could perfectly understand him leaving him to go with Luna, she was his girlfriend. The Roller Band, on the other hand, were nice and all but Matteo was HIS best friend. “I will tell Luna you’re cheating on us with the guitarist and his friends.”

Matteo laughed.

The disrespect.

“Luna asked me to get along with her male best friend and his bandmates, something about collaborating with the band in some way, so it’s her fault,” he explained him.

“I can’t believe it, this is betrayal,” he might be exaggerating. To be honest, part of him just wanted to postpone de actual topic of their conversation. “I will have a word or two with the moon girl, she will have to hear me,” he snorted. His friend laughed for a while, and then gave him a pat on his shoulder.

“Don’t change the topic,” he said. “You just admitted that you are falling for Nina.” Gaston sighed, he knew he couldn’t keep his friend from the topic.

“I do.” He wasn’t even going to deny it.

“Then, what are you waiting for? Go and tell her.” Gaston rolled his eyes. As if it was so easy. Matteo spent a solid month after recognizing he liked Luna before leveling up and telling her his lunatic status (it was puns season, best month ever), and now he expects him to go there and tell her? Just like that? “I can’t,” he said. “What if she doesn’t feel the same? What if she likes that guy from the other day? I don’t want to spoil our friendship, it has been hard to get her to open up at me.” He took another drink. “Also…” he sighed. “There’s Felicity.” His hand went back to his hair, messing it.

“What with Felicity?” his friend asked.

“I still like her,” he recognized, with a sight. He thought forgetting the other girl would be easy after she stopped writing him messages, but he still wants her, somehow, he’s still confused and afraid, afraid of never knowing the answer for the questions in his head concerning to the mysterious girl that one night answered his stupid “Hello, stranger” and that one day just didn’t, like she had never existed. Her messages, those he sometimes read, are the only proof he has that she really existed, that he didn’t imagined her.

“Of course you do,” his friend replied, giving him a soft pat on his shoulder. “But, in my humble opinion you should go for the real girl.”

“When has something of yours been humble?” he mocked, and his friend shrugged.

“That’s not the point,” he replied. “The point is that this unknown girl hasn’t done anything to meet you until now, and if you wait too long, maybe you will lose any opportunity with Nina.” Gaston felt the weight of Matteo’s words on his shoulders. “And before you ask: No, I don’t think she is dating that guy. Remember I thought Luna and Simon were a thing? That I didn’t tell her about my feelings because I thought hers belonged to her best friend? Well, I was an idiot who wasted a lot of time, and I don’t want you to make the same mistake. But Nina is a really nice girl, and she is less shy nowadays, so everyone is starting to notice her. And she might not be dating this guy at the moment, but she could someday, or there could be someone else, and you will be here regretting this during your whole life.” He sighed.

“I know, I know...” Gastón hid his face on his hands. “But, how can I tell a girl that I like her, when I still have feelings for someone else?” He asked. “I need to, at least, meet Felicity. I need to know if she is the girl my head imagined, the one I fell for, or if it was a stupid fantasy… that’s the only way I can move on.” He waited for any claim from his friend, but it never came.

His phone notified him about an incoming message, and he looked at the screen. It almost fell off from his hand when he read the name of the sender.

“It’s…” his heartbeat was so fast it could break his ribs. How can such a coincidence exist? A second ago they were talking about her, and now she sends him a message, after days of complete silence. “It’s a message from Felicity,” with shaky hands, he showed the screen of his phone.

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

This too longer than I thought, I’m so sorry... I’ve been in a very crazy time of my life, and inspiration was having vacations, or something like that. I hope you like this chapter, we are getting closer to the end, but I can’t tell how many chapters are left. I will try to update the next chapter soon, but I can promise anything, because when I do that I fail... horribly. This is 3k words, people.

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 9 - ABOUT FEELINGS OF GUILT AND MASQUERADE PARTIES

Nina was feeling guilty.

He had told her everything about Felicity, about his feelings for her, and she hadn’t got the nerves to speak out the truth. She had been thinking about it all day and night, rolling on her bed and looking at her phone, trying to figure out what to do. Part of her wanted to tell him the truth, she didn’t like to lie, and lying at him is the worst thing she has ever done. But, what if he felt disappointed after knowing she is Felicity? He said so many nice things about her alter ego, about how amazing that girl from the internet was, that she was sure she would never be able to meet his expectations. She would never be that girl he described, Felicity was far more interesting than her, even if they were practically the same person.

When the morning came she felt like the worst person in planet earth, and wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the year, but she is too responsible to do that, so she went to class trying to put aside her feelings and pay attention to the teacher’s words. Needless to say, this last thing was impossible, as her thoughts where still about him. The class finished, and she felt a hand in her shoulder, turning around to find the friendly smile of one of her classmates.

“So, partner, when do you want us to meet to do the project?” he asked, and she frowned with confusion. She didn’t know what he was talking about.

“What project?” she asked, and he giggled.

“That for which the teacher has just paired us, pigeon.” He was the only one to call her like that, since their first day of classes, because he saw her giving food to a bird just before entering to the classroom. Luna thinks that’s adorable. “You weren’t paying attention today, were you?” he added, seeming surprised, as Nina was one of the best students from that class. She blushed with embarrassment.

“I’m not having a good day, Xavi,” she explained, and he looked at her with concern.

“Is there something concerning you?” he asked, and she nodded. “You can tell me about it if you need to talk with somebody, you know that, right?” he added, and she smiled.

“Yeah, but it’s just me overthinking as usual, nothing to worry about,” she smiles. “You can explain me about the project we have to do as we walk to our next class, though.” She adds, as she picks up her backpack from her seat, and he agreed with a bright smile.

The rest of the day went like that: she swallowing her feelings of guilt, and trying to pay attention to her classes, disastrously failing at both things. By sunset, she was holding herself from running to her bedroom and hide there for as long as possible, but she had told her best friend they would meet at the Jam & Roller, and she is the kind to break promises, so she headed over there as soon as her last class from the day was over.

When she arrived her friend was already there, animatedly chatting with Simon about a guy from Mexico they both knew, who had called Simon to ask him about helping him with his music career now that the Roller Band was getting popular, having been a total pain in the ass back then.

“Such a jerk,” was saying Luna when she took the seat in front of her, as Simon laughed.

“You know I’m not the kind of person who denies help to others, but he totally deserved that no for answer, didn’t he?” he asked, this time looking at Nina, as if she knew the full story. She shrugged.

“If you say he isn’t worth of your trust, I believe you,” she replied, and he smiled.

“Thank you!” he gives her a soft pat in her shoulder, and then looks back at his best friend. “I was this close to hang the call without saying anything, but I’m not that kind of people, so I just told him that I was too busy for that before wishing him the best, even if I was using all the bad words I know in my head.” He told them, and then he got called from one of the guys who worked there with him so he looked at them apologetically. “I’m sorry, duty is calling,” he smiled at her. “Want to make an order?” he asked, and she nodded.

“A cold tea, please.” She replied.

“Okay,” he stood up. “Oh… by the way, tell Gaston he can come to the rehearsals whenever he wants. It was nice to have you two around the other day.” He said and then left.

Nina looked at her best friend, finding the exact face expression she had expected to find on her.

“You and Gastón dated and you didn’t tell me?” her friend claimed.

“We didn’t date, that wasn’t a date at all,” she replied. “We were paired to make some pictures for our photography elective, and he suggested to come here to snap his, that’s all.” She felt her cheeks burning.

“Interesting, tell me more,” her friend gave her a teasing smile.

“There’s no more to tell, we came here and ordered something to drink, saw the band’s practice, and he took his picture.” She told her, and her friend’s look let her know she knew she wasn’t being one hundred percent honest. She sighed. “Ok, we talked, and he told me about his failed meeting with Felicity.”

“With you,” her friend corrected her.

“Lately I feel like we are two different people,” she said, and her friend rolled her eyes.

“No, you are not,” Luna took a sip of her drink. “Felicity is you, the true you, is the Nina you show me every day when we are not surrounded by other people, and somehow you got to show her to Gaston through that app, and he fell in love with that girl. That means he is in love with the real you, and that’s something you are bent on denying.” Luna told her, and she looked away, too embarrassed to look at her friend.

“Gaston can’t be in love with Felicity, he only knows her from some stupid messages he got in a stupid chat app, nothing else. In a couple of weeks it will be all forgotten for him, and he will be dating some random girl from one of his classes, and everything will go back to normal.” She snapped, and her friend looked at her with concern.

“Do you really think it will be like that?” she asked, and she sighed.

“I don’t know, I just…” she looked back at her friend. “I don’t like to see him hurt,” she finally admitted.

“Then, you must tell him the truth,” her friend suggested.

“I can’t,” she replied. “Because then I’ll see disappointment in his face after knowing I’m felicity, and then I will be the hurt one.” Nina knew she was being selfish, he deserved to know the whole truth, and respond to it according to his true feelings, and she was denying him that only because she was afraid his response wouldn’t be the one she wishes.

Luna was going to tell her something else, maybe trying to make her change her mind, but then Simon arrived with Nina’s drink and so the Mexican kept her thought for herself, as her friend started talking about some party they were planning to do there in a couple of weeks.

“It’s for Halloween,” he explained, “but it will be more like a masquerade than a costume party. Ambar and her friends are organizing everything, she gave the idea to the manager the other day when she came to one of the band’s rehearsals, and she loved it. Those kind of events are very popular lately.”

“Masquerade on skates? Count me in,” said Luna, “and Nina too,” she added, and the shy girl almost spilled her drink.

“That’s not a good idea,” she said, shaking her head. “Last time I wore skates I broke my arm, and it was very painful,” she told them. It had been when she was at school, everyone there did skating and she felt like she could give it a try, but she was too shy to learn in a rink with an instructor and tried to do it by herself in a park. It didn’t end well, and for weeks her classmates joked about the many ways she could have caused that injury to herself, including a bookshelf falling over her. But it was better than them knowing it had been skating.

“It won’t happen again, I will teach you,” her friend told her, with puppy eyes.

“I’m sure if there’s someone who can teach anyone to skate, that’s Luna,” Simon supported her. “Come on, it will be fun.”

“And maybe Gaston will come, and so you can dance with your prince charming” her friend added, with a teasing smile.

“Are you and Gaston dating?” Simon asked, confused.

“No, we are not.” She firmly contradicted her friend, “Luna is only teasing, as usual.” She frowned at her, so she would stop talking about it, but she knew it wouldn’t work.

“Well, that’s a shame.” The Mexican guy said. “You two seemed to have such a nice connection the other day, I really thought you were a couple.”

“I know, right?! They are like super cute together,” Luna agreed with him, and for the first time in forever Nina wanted to throw something at their faces.

 Almost a week had passed by, but she hadn’t seen him much around the campus, as he seemed to be in a rush always when their paths met. His messages in Felicity’s inbox also stopped appearing, the last one being from the day after she talked with Luna and Simon at the J&R, and it was as short as hurtful.

«I don’t know what I’ve done so you don’t want to meet me». It read. «But, I guess this was either a bad joke or a series of unfortunate events. Reference unintended. Maybe I rushed you to do something you weren’t ready to do, or maybe I wasn’t what you expected, I guess I’m sorry for either of them. I just want to tell you that I’m tired of sending messages and not getting any word back from you, so this will be the last one, unless you decide to finish your silence vow and finally tell me what’s going on. Goodbye, Felicity».

She is sitting on the grass, her back against the trunk of an oak whose leaves were turning yellow and red, a book on her lap, and her hair falling free on each side of her face. But she is not focused in the book, not at that moment at least, her sight is at the screen of her phone as she reads his message again and again.

Nina had promised herself she wouldn’t answer, she wanted him to forget Felicity, and cutting any via of communication would do the job. After a couple of week he wouldn’t even remember her, that’s how time works, bringing new things to our lives so we can leave other aside. But she would still remember, and seeing him every day, knowing she owes him an explanation, would be the worst. The feelings of guilt would keep growing inside of her every time he would talk to her, and she would feel as the worst human being in planet earth, biting her tongue so she wouldn’t confess it all.

She closed the app, not feeling like being able to keep reading his words, because they hurtled more than she could handle, and because she has been this close to write a reply. Then, she put her phone inside of her backpack, and looked back at the pages of her book, trying to get lost in the imaginary world it painted in her head. It was an old science fiction novel, one of her favorites, and she had just heard somewhere that they would make a cinematographic adaptation of it, so she thought it would be a great moment to read it again. But her mind was somewhere else, so she has been spacing out for most of the paragraphs, having to repeat them more than once.

“A wrinkle of time, I love it!” his voice brought her back to reality, making her look up to find him smiling down at her, as a soft blush covered her own cheeks. Her heart skipped a beat. “It’s your first time reading it?” he asked, and she shook her head.

“It’s like my fifth time, to be honest,” she told him, putting a bookmark on the part where she had stopped reading, and closing the book. “This is one of my favorite books.” She added, and he seemed impressed.

“I didn’t know you were into this kind of literature,” he told her, as he sat in the grass next to her. She hugged her legs and looked at him with a soft smile on her lips. It was impossible to not smile when he was in front of her.

“There are many things you don’t know about me, Gaston,” she said, with an amused tone. Part of her was shook, she didn’t know she was able to talk to him like that, using a tone that could be easily considered flirting.  

“Believe me, I know.” He shrugged. “But I'm very committed on changing that.” As soon as those words came out from his lips, she looked down with embarrassment, feeling her face burning. He doesn’t know how much his words are able to affect her.

They stayed silent for a couple of minutes in which she didn’t allow herself to look at him, as he would notice the crimson color of her cheeks, but somehow she knew he was staring at her, his sight felt like a warm caressing on her skin.

“About the book,” he truly seemed invested in continuing the conversation. “I heard there would be movie.” She allowed herself to look back at him.

“Me too, that’s why I’m reading it again,” she informed with a soft smile.

“I should do the same,” he rubbed his nape, smiling at her. “You know? It would be nice to watch it together at the cinema when it comes out,” he suggested, and she was paralyzed by surprise, looking at him with her eyes wide open. “I mean,” he added, noticing just now what he had suggested, “We both like the book, and it’s better to watch this kind of movies with somebody who will enjoy them as much as you do, or that’s what I think. Can you believe Matteo fell asleep in Interstellar? I almost send him to sleep in the terrace after that.” She relaxed, with a slight giggle.

“Yes, I can. Luna fell asleep in our Star Wars marathon,” she told him.

“Dishonor!” he shook his head in disbelief, and they both laughed for almost a minute. “Well, at least now we know they are meant for each other.” He sighed. “I can’t believe that such an astronomy dork and his girlfriend, who’s named after not one but two stellar objects, can’t appreciate the awesomeness of science fiction.”

“The biggest irony in life,” she replied, and he smiled.

“I will never understand how things like that can happen,” he agreed, “at least now I have someone to talk with about these things, I don’t want to self-combust for keeping my thoughts about J.J. Abrams vision with Star Wars’ new trilogy,” he added, and she giggled.

“That’s a good topic, indeed,” She smiled, even if her cheeks were the brightest red.

They stayed silent for a while, he greeted at some guys that passed by and called his name, and she shamefully looked down and put a lock of her hair behind her ear when they joked about her being his new girlfriend. He had just sent them to fuck off, and rolled his eyes when they walked away laughing.

“Don’t listen to them, they are idiots,” he said with an amused tone, but he looked ashamed as well.

“It’s ok,” she said, not being able to look back at him. What if he sees in her eyes what she really felt? That she truly wished that those things the guys said were true? She hovered her hand over the grass for a couple of seconds, until she felt the emotions had diminished, to look back at him. “Have you heard about the party at the roller?” she asked, just because she needed a topic to talk about, instead of just staring and feeling like some kind of weirdo.

“Yeah, Matteo told me about it,” he said with a bright smile. “Please, tell me you are going, because I know he is going to meet Luna there, and he will just dismiss me as soon as they are together.”

She blushed, again.

“I don’t think I’m going,” she told him. “The party is with skates, and the last time I wore ones I broke my arm, and I don’t want that happening again.”

“It won’t happen again,” he assured her.

“How do you know?” she asked. “As far as I know, with my terrible luck, lack of expertise, and zero coordination, that probabilities are pretty high,” she looked down, not being able to look at his face, but then she felt his warm hand on top of her, squeezing it. She slowly raised her sight to find his eyes, his touch and the soft smile in his lips making her feel dizzy.  

“It won’t happen again because I’ll be right next to you, and I’d never let you fall.” He said, looking straight at her eyes, and she thought she could easily faint in that exact moment. 

[huffletiika]

Hello, Stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

It has been a busy week as I’m traveling, but I’ve been using every free time to work on this chapter, and I’m positive in the fact that this is one of my favorites. I’m really trying hard to keep up with my fics xD! which reminds me that I posted a chapter of my twins au last week, so if you want to check it, it’s HERE. Hope you like this chapter as much as I do. This is helping me to deal with show gastina these days.

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 8 - ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY LESSONS AND  MISSING CINDERELLAS

Gastón was in a really bad mood, the worst he has ever been, and everyone around him could sense it. He has gone from his classes directly to his bedroom during the last couple of days, avoiding unnecessary conversations, and being the best impersonation of the grumpy cat according to his best friend. ‘I’m sorry, I can’t’ what kind of response was that? There was no further explanation, even if he has been asking for it, she just kept ignoring his messages. 

He didn’t know if he had made something to scare her away, or if all this was a stupid joke, was she laughing at him right now? She could be talking with her friends about how she had managed to fool a guy to go to a date she never went to. The last time he felt offended about something was when Delfina spread those lies about him, and even then he didn’t feel half as vexed as now.

He rolled on his bed to get his phone from his nightstand to see the time, he had been on his bedroom since he arrived from his classes from the day before, and didn’t even leave it to have dinner. Now, it was almost 10am, and it was Saturday, so he expected to stay in bed for the rest of the day, even if he had signed up himself for the photography lessons. He just wasn’t in the mood to go, and there would be other classes, this was just the first one.

“Ok, I’m tired of seeing you act as a zombie just because some girl stood you up,” Matteo stormed into his bedroom without even knocking. “Don’t you have photography elective like in half hour?” his best friend shout, going to open his curtains.

“I’m not going,” he replied, covering his head with the blankets, but Matteo went to the bed and pulled them until they weren’t covering him anymore.

“Thank God you wear briefs to sleep,” his best friend said relieved, after throwing the blankets on the floor, and then went to open his closet. “Now, stand up and take a shower. I will make breakfast, so you better eat something before leaving. You won’t miss that class, I won’t let you stay in this state of...” he pointed at him, as he didn’t have any other way, rather than his appearance, to make his point clear. “I expect to see you at the kitchen in 15 minutes, less if possible, if you are not there, I will come back here and won’t be as friendly as I just have been to make you leave this stupid bedroom. Got it?” his friend threw on his mattress some clothes he had taken from his closet and, in the same way he went into the bedroom, he stormed out of it.

Gastón looked up at the ceiling completely motionless for almost five minutes, and then decided that he didn’t want to take the risk of having his best friend to fulfill his threat, so he stood up from his bed and went to take a freaking shower. He would go to his class, listen to whatever the professor said, and then he would be free to go back to his bed and stay there for the rest of the weekend.

God bless Sundays.

Matteo was on the counter serving scrambled eggs for the two of them, wearing a freaking apron that said Italians cook best, when Gastón went out from his bedroom and sat on one of the tall benches. He was wearing the clothes his friend had chosen for him, as he wasn’t in the mood to look for something else on his closet.

“Very good! One minute, and I would have gone back there for you,” his friend put a plate and a cup of coffee in front of him. He had the brightest smile ever, and Gaston kind of hated the guy at the moment for making him leave his bed, so he just replied with a shrug before starting to eat. “You are gonna thank me later,” his friend stated, before sitting as well, and starting to eat.

The photography classes where held at the arts faculty, a part of the university he rarely stood at, as his classes were mostly at the other side of the university, at the administration building. He sighed, looking at the building with sincere curiosity, he felt like he was in a different universe, like he had entered into an alternative universe. For that reason, he had it difficult to find the classroom, as they had a way of numbering them different from the one he was used to, so when he got to find the right one, he realized that the class had already started.

“I’m sorry, I got lost. I don’t know this building,” he excused himself for being late, and the professor just nodded.

“Take a seat,” he said, pointing at some empty chair on the right side of the classroom, so Gastón went there without hesitation. He didn’t want to have any problem with the teacher since his first day.

His sight went to the brown haired girl with glasses who was sit at the seat next to the one the professor had pointed at, and a smile grown on his lips for the first time in the last couple of days. Somehow, seeing her made him feel better. He sat down and winked at her, and she shyly smiled, before looking down to his camera, as if she was trying to find the entrance to Narnia on it lens. He tried to pay attention to the topic of the class, but somehow she got to distract him by just being there, so he found himself staring at the girl more times than he got to count. She didn’t see at him, not even once, she was very focused on each word the teacher told, and somehow it made him feel like some kind of creep.

“Now, get in pairs.” The professor asked, and that was the moment when Nina looked back at him and their sights met. Their classmates started to do the assignment, and they just stared at each other what looked like a century, before she broke the silence.

“I guess we will work together,” she said, and he nodded. He didn’t know anyone else in that class, and even if he did, he wouldn’t prefer to work with anyone else than her. “Okay,” she added after his response, and then looked back at the teacher.

Somehow, he had the feeling something was bothering her that day.

“Is everything fine?” he whispered, because the teacher was back at explaining the activity, and she looked back at him.

“Yeah, why?” Nina asked.

“I don’t know, I feel you kinda… distant,” he said, after struggling to find the right word. “Are you mad at me?” His question made her giggle, and then she shook her head.

“I’m not mad at you,” she told him. “I would never be.” She bit her lip after murmuring those last words, and looked away, a soft pink tone coloring her cheeks as she did so.

He stared at her as the teacher continued explaining the activity, barely listening to him, because for a moment he got this strange thought that she looked really cute when she blushed. Correction: she looked cute, in general.

Gaston forced himself to pay attention to the rest of the class, he even took notes of some tips the teacher gave them to deal with the focus option of the cameras, and when the teacher called it a day and dismissed them, he looked back at Nina with a soft smile. She was putting her materials in her backpack.

“Do you want to go and take the pictures the professor told us?” he asked her.

The activity they had to do for the next class was simple: they would have to go and find a place that inspired them, and then take a picture of their partner in that place. Gaston wasn’t still sure about the place he wanted to use for it, but for some reason going to scout locations with Nina sounded more appealing than going back to hide under his blankets, his best friend was right about how depressing he had been the latest days, and he didn’t want to go back to that state.

She stared at him, looking surprised.

“I–” she bit her lip, and then nodded. “Yeah, is better if we do that today… I guess,” she agreed, and then they both left the classroom together.

  “What do you want me to do?” he asked, making some fashion model pose laying his back against one of the shelfs, and she giggled.

They were at the library, surrounded by tall shelfs filled with books, as when he asked her about a place that inspired her the most she told him it would be there. He liked the library as well. Not as much as she did, though, as he usually went there just to get books to read them somewhere else. But he liked the smell of books, it was one of his favorites, besides the smell of wet grass. He also was starting to like the smell of Nina’s perfume, was it vanilla? He needed to know. For science, of course.

“Just… act natural,” she said, putting one of her hair tufts behind her ear. “Do what you would normally do in a library.” He thought about her instructions for a couple of seconds, and then nodded.  

He started to wander around the place, looking at the titles printed on the book molds, until he found one that caught his eye, and took it on his hands to read the description on the back. He smiled and opened the book, it was a science fiction novel, so he started reading the first page, getting so into it he didn’t remember Nina was taking pictures until she spoke again.

“I think I have enough picture to choose one for the assignment.” He glanced back at her after closing the book and putting it under his arm, he was going to take it with him, and she was focused on the screen of the camera, scrolling through the pictures she has taken. “You are a great model,” she remarked, and a cocky smile appeared on his lips.

“Of course I am,” he said, and she rolled her eyes in response.

You spend too much time with your best friend,” she replied, and Gastón couldn’t help but laugh at her words, even if they were at the library, and they were supposed to be quiet there.

As they were leaving the library he was thinking about a place to use for his picture, there were some places that inspired him, the rink at the Jam & Roller was one of them, but somehow he was sure she wouldn’t want to go there and put skates on. Maybe the cafeteria, he liked to go there and read, and somehow he felt that being in such familiar place would inspire him to take a great picture.

They turned around the corner of the library, and then he saw the beautiful garden he was supposed to meet Felicity at, and suddenly the smirk on his lips faded. Nina noticed it, and looked at him with concern and something else that he couldn’t fully identify, like if she knew what was at his head. Something impossible, as she didn’t know what had happened there.

“Gastón?” she spoke, and he took a deep breath, his sight still fixed on the place he stood while reading Felicity’s message. “What’s the place you chose? We could go there,” she urged him, pulling him by his wrist to get his attention, and so it did. He looked down at her hand on his wrist, and she released it immediately, as if just know she had noticed what she has done. “I’m sorry,” she said, crossing her arms. He was still confused by the whole situation.

“No, it’s ok… you’re right,” he said, shaking his head. “I thought about taking it at the J&R, is the only place that comes to my mind, so we should go there.”

She nodded, and they started walking towards said place.

When they arrived at the J&R the band was rehearsing. Gaston had promised Simon to go see him and his mates playing someday, so arriving there and finding them on the stage brought a smile to his face, as his classes didn’t allow him to accomplish his promise before. Simon noticed them as they walked to a table close to the stage, and waved at them. He did the same, before seeing the guy telling something to his bandmates and walking towards them.

“Hey, guys! What are you going to order?” he asked them, with a bright smile.

“I thought you were rehearsing with the band,” Gaston said, and Simon laughed.

“I am,” he shrugged. “But I told the guys to hold it for a while so I can get your orders. We are a little out of staff right now, but at the same time there are not many clients who come at this time, so it’s good for rehearsing.”

“We didn’t mean to bother you,” Nina said.

“You are not bothering, it’s my job… I get paid for this.” Simon smiled. “Besides, my best friend’s friends are always a priority.” He blinked.  “So, tell me, what you are going to order?”

“A frozen cherry lemonade would be cool” Nina answered, and then Gaston asked for an iced coffee. He needed some caffeine in his veins. He stared at Simon’s back as he walked towards the counter, and then looked back at her when he heard her voice.

“So… the picture?” she asked, and he shrugged.

“I will take it later, I just need the perfect moment,” he answered, with a bright smile, and then they stayed silent. “You don’t like very excited about me taking a picture of you, though,” he murmured after a while.

She bit her lip. “I don’t like to be in front of cameras.”  

“Why? You are gorgeous,” he sincerely answered, without even thinking. Her cheeks turned completely red, and her jaw dropped as she tried to say something, and failed on doing so.

Right in that moment Simon came back with their drinks, and then went back to the stage. Gaston looked at the guys as they started rehearsing, fascinated by the chords that came out of their instruments, tapping on the table to follow the rhythm.

“Can I ask you a question?” her voice made him look back at her, noticing the nervousness on her expression, which confused him. He nodded. "Are you okay? I mean, I’m sorry if I’m too… if I'm getting into something that shouldn’t concern me, but I heard Luna and Matteo talking, and he was telling her you were having a hard time about a girl,” she started talking too fast. “I know, I know… I shouldn’t overheard people, but it was an accident, and I got worried. I didn’t expect you to go to the photography class because of that, but you went, so I thought you were fine and Matteo was exaggerating. He is kinda extra sometimes, you know. But then when we were leaving the library you looked a little off, and I got-” she bit her lip, and he thought it was the most cute thing he had ever seen. “And I got worried,” she whispered, after a while.

He didn’t say a word, he didn’t know what to say.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she finally said, shaking her head. “I shouldn’t have asked you about this, it’s none of my business, just… forget I mention it, I–” He reached her forearm, and squeezed it, making her stop rambling. She looked down at where his hand was touching her skin, and blushed.

“It’s ok,” he said, releasing her arm. “I’m fine, I just have to get used to being rejected by a girl I like,” he shrugged. Somehow, it felt really strange to talk about Felicity with Nina, but he didn’t know why. “I’m pretty sure most people have to deal with it, so I guess I have to stop being a cry baby about it. Life must go on.”

“You like her?” she asked.

“A lot,” he admitted.

“Are you sure she rejected you?” she was looking sad, and somehow he felt guilty. He didn’t like to see her like that, and it was his fault for talking about his failed relationship with Felicity, he should change the topic.  

“Well, I told her to meet me at some place, and she didn’t show up, so that made it very clear,” he looked away. “And now, she disappeared like a modern Cinderella, without leaving any trace. At least, the prince at the tale got a glass slipper to try on every girl at the kingdom, but I’ve got nothing… she just evaporated into thin air.” he shook his head, and then smiled. “But it’s okay, I don’t want to bother you with this… stuff,” he sighed. “Let’s forget about it.”

She didn’t let him kill the topic. On the contrary, this time it was her hand that squeezed his arm, a she looked at him with a soft smile.

“I’m so sorry if you feel that way,” she told him. “I’m pretty sure that girl didn’t mean to hurt you. Maybe she is just too shy and felt overwhelmed by the situation, maybe she only needs a little more of time to show up… to find the courage to show herself in front of you without any mask. That’s the scariest thing to do for most of the people.”

“Yeah, you may be right,” he smiled, and put his hand over the one that was holding his forearm. “Thank you.” A soft pink covered her cheeks again when she looked down at their hands, and he had to use all his will power to let her hand go.

They spent the rest of the day at the Jam & Roller watching the band rehearsal, chatting with its remaining members every time one of them went to serve customers, until the moment Simon openly admitted that Nina had helped them with the lyrics of most of their songs, as he always looked for Luna for her advice, and the shy girl was always around to contribute with her writing skills. That was the moment when he took his picture, and it was so perfect he knew he wouldn’t need another take. It was her, looking down at her drink, her cheeks red because of the compliments, and a shy smile on her lips. She didn’t even notice he was taking the picture, until it was already done, and he was putting his camera back at its liner.

[huffletiika]

hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend. 

 I know it took me so long to update, but I’ve been traveling, and then Lutteo Ficweek happened and I had to be part of it this time, as last year I had a lot of problems during those days and couldn’t participate. The chapter is not proofread, so there could be some mistakes of redaction, but I hope there are not so terrible xD! Hope you like it.

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 7 - ABOUT IMPULSIVE DECISIONS AND SURPRISING DISCOVERIES

She feels her hands shaking as soon as she presses send. What the hell she just did? She just accepted to meet the guy she has been chatting with during the last couple of weeks, like meeting him in the real life, like a freaking date with a flesh and blood male human being. Oh God, what was she thinking? The reality is, she wasn’t thinking, she wasn’t thinking at all. After spending her whole life over thinking things, she chose that exact moment to not think, to be impulsive.

But, let’s explain what just happened so everybody can understand it.

Since the day before, when Rollertrack’s message appeared on her phone screen, she has been freaking out, like out-of-her-mind freaking out. She enjoys talking with the guy, she really does, and it has been nice to have someone with whom she could talk, without the complications of real human interaction. Something great to do when you have social anxiety, indeed, as you don’t have to really tell words with your own mouth to the other person, just write words on the screen on your phone and send them, something she was good at.  But he wanted to meet her in person, and at first she didn’t know what to do, so she decided to wait and have some time to think about it.

Many thing have changed in her life during the latest week as well. Having real conversations with the guy she likes without fainting and making a fool of herself has been an improvement she has to recognize herself. They have become closer and closer as the days have passed. He goes to talk to her about books and photography, he tells her about those things he likes, and she has slowly got used to his attention and kindness.

Long ago, when she used to stare at him on the hallways of the school as in love teenagers do, she convinced herself that her feelings would fade away as soon as she got to meet the guy. He couldn’t be as perfect as her mind pictured him. And she was right about one thing, he wasn’t that perfect, no one is, but knowing the real person with flaws and all that comes with being a human being didn’t make those feeling fade, it just have made them stronger.

But that doesn’t mean that there’s a love story starting between them. She is sure he just likes the fact he can talk with her about all those things he likes, that he doesn’t feel the same way about her, even if at first she had let her hopes grow. He is just being nice with her, enjoying to have someone to talk with as their best friends go full PDA in the couch in front of them, so he could ignore their presence. That doesn’t mean that she thinks he is being hypocritical or something, she cans see in his eyes that he truly enjoys their friendship, but that’s all, he could never see her as something more than a friend, and what Luna told her that evening has convinced her about that.

According to her best friend, she was talking with Matteo and Gastón when her boyfriend mentioned that the latest liked a girl who was ignoring him, and that it was making him feel miserable. He must like that girl so much to feel that way about it, so the possibilities of him liking her in the same way were back at zero, and that´s what made her open Rollertrack’s conversation and accept his invitation. She couldn’t just stay behind and wait for Gaston to change his feelings for her, he liked other girl, and even if said girl was ignoring him in the moment Nina was sure she would change her mind eventually, because if it was her she would give him as many opportunities as possible. God! Forgetting him would be hell.

RollerTrack: Yeah! Tomorrow afternoon’s great! What do you say about meeting at the garden next to the library? Not many people go there, so it wouldn’t be hard to find each other.

She bit her lip. The guy looked excited, and she felt a little better than before, because even if she wasn’t still much sure about this, he was making her feel like this may be a good idea.

Felicity: Yeah, that place would be great. How do you think we could recognize each other?

She waited for a couple of minutes for his response, her heart beating faster than usual, her hands shaking so she had to sit in her bed and put the phone in front of her.

RollerTrack: what do you say about telling each other a piece of clothing we are going to wear? For example, I will wear a green jacket. –she smiled.

Felicity: Yeah, that’s a good idea. I like green, by the way… I mean, it’s one of my favorite colors. I will wear a purple sweater. –she liked that sweater, her father had given it for her on her birthday, along with a book written by her favorite author.

RollerTrack: then, it’s a date.

She smiled.

Felicity: It’s a date.

“You are going to have a date,” her best friend was mouth-opened. “A date with a real flesh and blood guy,” she leaned closer and put the palm of her hand on Nina’s forehead. “Who are you, and what did you do to my best friend?” Luna’s disbelief was very alike to her own. She couldn’t still believe she had said yes to meet this guy.

“I guess I’m changing” it was the only response she could make, and her friend sighed with concern.

“Just tell me you didn’t do this because of what I told you yesterday about Gastón?” her friend was smart, she thought, but shook her head as response. Her friend, of course, didn’t believe her. “Don’t lie to me, Nina. I thought we were best friends.”

“We are!” she replied, and then sighed when her friend stared at her as if she expected her to speak out. “Ok, maybe you are right, at first I did it moved by a little of spite, but that’s not everything.” She hugged her own legs, which were covered by her long pajama pants, and rested her head on her knees. “I really like this guy, I like writing to him, and I believe I have to give me a chance to meet him and know if I feel something for him...” she wanted to believe her own words, but the truth is she knew she could never like a guy as much as she liked Gastón.

Luna nodded.

“Do you want me to go with you?”

Nina thought about it for a minute, then shook her head. “It’s ok, it’s going to be inside the campus so I guess I will be safe.” She answered. Truth be told, she was sure she wouldn’t be able to approach the guy if her friend was around. “But I guess I can text you if I feel like I need an excuse to run away,” she smiled, and her friend did the same.

“Agent 00 Luna on duty,” she said, doing a secret agent pose using her hands as guns, and Nina couldn’t help but laugh. Her best friend always had that superpower of making her feel less anxious with her jokes and comments. “Now, do you know what you’re going to wear?” her friend asked, getting up from the foot of Nina’s bed to go to her closet.

“I told him I would wear my purple sweater,” she replied, and her friend nodded.

“Good, I like that sweater,” her friend approved, and then started looking at her clothes. “What do you say about this dress? Is really cute, and it combines with the sweater.” Nina bit her lip.

“Isn’t it too much?” she asked. “I mean, is just the first date, and we are going to be at the campus, I don’t think a dress would be appropriate.”

“It’s totally appropriate,” Luna replied, walking back to the bed with the dress on her hands. “It’s just a summer dress, and it will look really cute with the sweater and some cute sandals, I could lend you some of my accessories.” She left the dress on the mattress. “As you said yourself, it’s a first date, you have to dazzle him from the beginning.”

Her friend smiled at her, and Nina couldn’t find an argument to contradict her.

“Ok, I will wear the dress.”

Nina looked at herself in the mirror, flattening the skirt of her dress with her hands. She was feeling her legs like jelly, and her belly like if she was almost throwing up, she has never been more nervous. Well, yeah… doing presentations for her classroom is as terrifying, but there she has notes and facts to focus on and avoid the awkwardness, here she was going to the battlefield without a plan or a help resource. It would be just her, just being her in front of someone she didn’t really know, and it made her feel too anxious to find some chill.  

She was going to make a fool of herself in front of him, she was sure, and he would be the one to make up some excuse to run away as soon as he felt bored. It would be shameful, but she is used to that, no guy could talk with her for more than five minutes before running away, except Gastón, but she was sure he only talks to her to get a distraction from their best friends’ public demonstration of affection, and she had promised herself not to think about him, not during that day at least.

It was kind of windy when she left the dorms building, so she was glad she got to convince Luna to let her wear tights under her dress, and that her purple sweater was warm enough. She was also glad that she didn’t have to walk a big distance, the library was just a couple of building away, something she liked about the place where she and Luna lived, even if sometimes she wondered if they could get a bigger apartment outside the campus, as the one her best friend’s boyfriend and his best friend had. She won’t mention his name today. They needed a little bit more of space, maybe having their own rooms, as sometimes Nina feels kind of anxious looking at Luna’s bed and seeing it undone at the afternoon. She also needed more space for her books, some of them were on the shelf her dad had built for her on the corner of the room, but the rest were placed on her closet and under her bed, and she really felt bad about having to let them there. She had had that conversation con Luna recently, and her friend agreed with her, but they hadn’t found any empty apartment close to the university that they both liked.

Nina sighed when she saw the library building, and then looked at her phone, checking if she was at the right time. She was scared, there was a huge hole where her stomach should be, but she couldn’t back down now. Feeling her hear racing on her chest she surrounded the building to get to the garden he had mentioned, and then she saw him.

He was with his back to her, the green jacket making him stand out, she felt some kind of familiarity while looking at him, as if she had seen him somewhere before. With trembling legs she walked towards him, she could feel her hands sweating, and her breathing getting harder. She tried to convince herself there was nothing to be afraid of, it was just a guy, a really nice guy she had spent full nights talking by message, so she just had to be herself and get the worries behind.

Then he looked to his right, and she saw his face.

Her heart stopped working.

“Oh my God, oh my God…” she hid herself behind a bush. Nina started hard breathing, and some black points appeared on her vision, was she going to faint or something like that? She couldn’t control it anymore. “Breathe, breathe,” she reminded herself, closing her eyes and hugging her own legs. Her mother had taught her an exercise to control her panic attacks, and so she tried to do as she had told her. It was all on the respiration, just focus on that, just try to make it slower counting the seconds while inhaling and exhaling. Just as she got to count to 10 between each action she opened her eyes again, and then spy through the bush just to see him looking around, and then down to his phone.

Gastón was RollerTrack.  

She turned around again, panic growing back on her chest, and she did her best to calm it down. Then a message appeared on her phone, and she talked the goddess she didn’t have a tone for messages on it. She looked down and read the words on her screen.

RollerTrack: Felicity? I'm already where we agreed to meet.

She didn’t know what to answer.

RollerTrack: Are you coming?

Nina looked back at him through the leaves, he was staring at his phone, probably waiting for her answer. She couldn’t write him back, not seeing at him, so she walked in a squat until she got to hid herself behind one of the corners of the library, before taking her phone out again.

Felicity: I’m sorry, I can’t. 

She wrote and then turned off her phone, she didn’t want to see his answer to that, not yet. Then, she ran back to her dorm and throw herself on her bed hugging her pillow. One part of herself, the most rational one, was telling her that there was no reason to feel and act like that, because if Gastón was RollerTrack, that meant he liked her, that she was the girl he was talking about with Luna and Matteo. 

She closed her eyes. But he didn’t like Nina, he liked Felicity, what if he is disappointed after knowing they are the same person? She wouldn’t bear it! It would be her worst nightmare. A tear fell down from her closed eyes, and she hugged her pillow tighter. She didn’t want to leave her bed anymore, how could she look at him since now knowing he was the guy she had been talking with all the time, that he was the guy who encouraged her to talk with his alter-ego during the party. She left a soft laugh abandon her lungs after thinking in such irony. She knew she should face him and tell him the truth, but not that day, that day she only wanted to curl in her bed and stay there as long as possible.

Luna arrived hours later. She saw her in bed and shout something about how she should always have her phone on, as she was freaking out thinking the guy from internet had done something to her, but Nina did as if she was sleeping and didn’t hear her. Her best friend didn’t try to wake her up. She would tell her everything about what had happened that afternoon, but maybe the next day, she didn’t know how to explain it in that moment.

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

Hope you like this one, Gastina is getting closer and closer ;) - Happy birthday @ac-ars <3

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 6 - ABOUT UNREPLIED MESSAGES AND CHOCOLATE MILKSHAKES

He looked at his phone for the seventh time in the latest five minutes, but it didn’t have any new notification, apart from the ones from his family’s whatsapp group, where his uncle had posted a picture of his dog, and everyone else was saying how cute it was. Gasping he put his phone back on the table, and looked at his friend, who was laughing at something he saw on his own phone.

“You have to watch this.” his friend said, showing him his phone screen, where a video of a cat failing to jump from a piece of furniture to other, shamefully falling in a basket with laundry, was playing. Gaston would laugh for it too, but he just wasn’t in the mood, Felicity hasn’t answered the message he had sent her the night before.

His friend noticed it, and raised his eyebrow.

“Is everything ok?” He asked, and Gaston shook his head.

“I wrote something to Felicity last night, and she hasn’t answered.” He explained, and Matteo laughed.

“Seriously? You’re like that because your imaginary girlfriend hasn’t answered your message from last night?” He took a sip of his milkshake. “Calm down, tiger. She must be busy, or maybe she forgot her phone. She will answer as soon as she sees it.”

He sighed.

“But, what if she already saw the message and I scared her? What if I screwed it all sending it?” He asked.

The day before he had been looking at the screen for hours, trying to decide whether or not he should write that thing he had wanted to ask her since the first night they spent talking to each other. He wanted to meet her, he wanted to know the girl behind those beautiful words he was so happy to read every day, the girl he was in love with. Yeah, it had been a shock to figure it out, because he had never felt something like that before, and this girl came and sneaked into his heart so quickly, he didn’t see it coming until it was just too late.

And he didn’t even know how she looked in person, but he didn’t even matter about it.

He wanted to know her in person, he wanted to hold her in his arms, and he wanted to tell her face to face how he felt about her, not through a stupid screen. That’s why he finally decided to write those words on their conversation, and send them. ‘Felicity, I need to see you.’ He had written. ‘Please, tell me we can meet, tell me we can go for an ice cream, a movie, or something else.’ He added, before pressing send.

He hasn’t had an answer yet, after twelve hours waiting for it, looking at his screen almost every minute.

“If so, you will have to move on and find a REAL girl to go out with.” His friend answered, shrugging.

“What if I don’t want to go out with any other girl?”

His friend laughed.

“Then you’re screwed, buddy.” He replied.

Gastón frowned at him, asking himself why on earth he had chosen this idiot as his best friend, but the question disappeared from his head as soon as a little brunette approached them and sat next to said idiot, kissing him before even greeting.

“Whoa!! You two, get a room!!” Gastón shouted, as the kiss went longer and more passionate than expected, and Matteo and his girlfriend parted away laughing.

Those two were like hiper-hormonal teenagers.

“Sorry, Gastón” Luna said, turning to face him, cheeks fully red, as if she hadn’t expected that kiss to become that intense. “How are you?” she asked, politely, and he took a sip of his own milkshake with a grin.

“Not as good as you two, I suppose.” He answered, and her cheeks went redder.

His best friend intervened.

“We were talking about Gaston’s disastrous love life.” The Italian said, resting his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders, with a cocky smile on his face.

He wanted to punch him.

“Seriously? Why?” The girl looked sincerely concerned. “Why is your love life disastrous? Is there something I can do to help?”

“It’s nothing…” He started saying, but his friend interrupted.

“It looks like the girl he likes is ignoring him.”

If looks could kill, they would have witnessed the Italian’s last words.

“Oh! That’s terrible, I’m so sorry.” Luna said, with sincere worry on the tone of her voice, and Gastón knew he would never be mad at her. With his best friend, on the other hand, he would have a full lecture about keeping his mouth shout as soon as they were alone.

“Don’t be, she may have forgotten her phone, or something like that.” He answered, using the same words his best friend had used before to encourage him. “By the way, is Nina here with you?” He asked, looking around. There were two reasons why he asked about her. First, to change the topic from his love life, and second, because he wanted to tell her about this amazing book he had read, and ask her if she knew something about it, if she had read it too.

Luna looked at him with a bright smile.

“Yeah, she went to the lockers room to leave some of her books. She was working on a paper for one of her classes before the time we agreed to meet, and she didn’t had time to take the books back to our apartment, so I suggested her to release some of the load there.” The brunette explained.

He nodded.

Since the conversation they had in the kitchen she has been more chill around him, they have been able to talk about some books and some movies they both like, and it have been a pleasant surprise to have someone with whom to talk.

While his best friend was moon landing, mainly.

“You know what we should do?” asked his best friend, after finishing his own milkshake. “We should go to the rink and skate for a while. With so many classes and so little time to skate, I feel that I am rusting a little.” He proposed, and his girlfriend looked at him, surprised.

“Did I hear right? Is the king of the rink openly admitting he is rusty?” she asked, and Gastón couldn’t help laughing.

Matteo rolled his eyes.

“I’m just saying I haven’t had much time to skate lately, that’s all.” He answered, and Luna smiled.

“Well, let’s go to the rink then.” She said, leaving a kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek, before turning to look at Gastón. “Are you coming with us?” she invited him, but he shook his head.

“Go ahead, lovebirds. I’m not in the mood to skate today and, anyway, I haven’t finished my drink.” He excused himself with a smile, and then looked at them while they were walking towards the lockers, before looking at his phone, and sighing after noticing there hasn’t been a response yet.

“Are you ok?” He heard a familiar voice talking to him, and he lifted his sight to find Nina.

He smiled at her.

“Yeah, everything’s fine.” He answered, putting his phone back on the table, and inviting her to sit on the chair in front of him.

She did so.

“Are you sure? You looked concerned.” She asked shyly, and his smile became bigger.

“Did I? Nah… it’s just that I’m waiting for a message from someone, but nothing to worry about, it’s not a life and death matter.” He said, and took a sip of his milkshake. “Is nice to see you, by the way, Luna told me you were leaving some of your books on the lockers.”

“Yeah, they were very heavy.” She answered, putting her chocolate milkshake on the table. “Where is she, by the way?” He saw her looking around.

“She and Matteo went to the lockers to put their skates on a couple of minutes ago, I thought you had crashed into them on your way here.” He said, and she shook her head.

“I was on the counter asking for a milkshake.” She explained. “Why didn’t you go to skate with them?” 

He shrugged as response.

“I’m not in the mood.” He just replied. “Do you want to go skate with them?” He asked then, he didn’t know if she skated or not, but he supposed she did as she was Luna’s friend, and she was the best skater he had ever known, besides Ambar and Matteo, of course.

“Are you serious? I don’t skate.” She answered, looking like if he had somehow offended her.

“You don’t skate? Really?” he asked surprised. “Why? I mean, you don’t know how to do it, or you don’t like to do it?” he asked, sincerely curious.

“I just don’t do it.” She said. “I mean, I’ve never tried, even if Luna have told me like a million times to do it. But, what if I fall in front of all those people? If they laugh at me? I just don’t like… you know, to be the center of attention, I prefer people to ignore me.”

He sighed.

“Falling is part of the process, everyone does it when they are learning.” He saw her bite her lower lip with concern, and this insane thought about how it would be to be the one doing it came to his mind. 

What the f-? He erased that though quickly, saying to himself that he may had gone mental. 

“But I guess no one can tell you what to do, so if you ever decide to give it a try, you can count on me as instructor.” He proposed, and saw her cheeks went from soft pink to bright red.

She looked really cute when she blushed.

They both coughed.

“Thanks, but-” She hesitated and shook her head. “Thanks.” She finally said, before drinking a little bit more of her milkshake.

He decided to change the topic.

“By the way,” He said, suddenly excited. “Have you read ‘the dark face of Jupiter’? I read it during the past two days and I’m mind blown!” He went into full fanboy mode, and she looked amused by that.

“Yeah, I read it a couple months ago.” She said with a bright smile. “Did you really read it in a couple of days? I can’t believe someone reads faster than me! It took me like five days to finish it, but of course, I had some other things to read, and when I read I like to make notes, so it takes some time.” She explained.

“You make notes? Wow, Can I read them?” He asked, and she nodded.

“I have them in the cloud, I can send them to you using my phone, give me a minute.” She said, taking her phone out, looking at the screen for a full minute with a shocked expression, before shaking her head and starting to search the file.

“Is everything ok?” He asked, concerned.

“Yeah, just saw a message I had forgotten about, but it’s nothing to worry about.” She answered, smiling at him. “What’s your number?” she asked, and as he dictated it, she typed on her phone. “Ok, I already sent it.” She said, and he looked down at his phone, reading her message.

He downloaded the file.

“Perfect, I will read it as soon as I get home.” He promised, and she smiled.

They started talking about the book, and then they moved to talk about other books they both had read, and then about some science-fiction movie that’s going to premiere soon, he even thought about asking her to go watch it with him. But it would sound as if he was asking her to go on a date, wouldn’t it? By the time their best friends went back to reunite with them, they were talking about a photography course they were offering to all the students at the university, no matter their faculty, he told her he was going to sign himself up for it, and suggested she should do it as well.

She told him she would think about it.

 -

“So, what’s going on between you and Nina?” His best friend asked, as soon as they entered to the apartment they shared, and he looked at him with confusion.

“Me and Nina?” He asked, falling on the couch. “Nothing, she is a nice girl, she knows a lot about the books I like to read, and we are good friends.”

His friend took a couple of beers from the fridge, and walked towards him.

“Are you sure? Because you looked very close on the J&R.” His friend gave him his beer, and fell in a different couch, putting some music with a remote control.  “Do you like her?”

“I-.” He hesitated. “I don’t, I mean… she is cute, and funny, and I like talking with her about books and stuff, but don’t you remember I like another girl whose name is Felicity?”

“A girl you have never seen in real life, and… are you sure that’s her name? I mean, it’s just a nickname.”

“Well, she may have a different name, but that’s not the point, I’m sure as hell she is THE girl, mate.” He said. “When I’m talking with her is like if we are meant to be, like she’s my soulmate, we are made for each other in a way I can’t even put into words.”

Matteo laughed.

“You are in love with a girl you have never seen, buddy.”  He shook his head. “You should slow down a little, seriously. Has she answered your message?”

“No, but-.”

“See?” his friend interrupted him. “If this girl were so into whatever you two have, she would have answered already… Leave it! You would have met in person so long ago, you are in the same university, for God’s sake! Is not like she lives in the other side of the pond so she wouldn’t make it to have a cup of coffee with you.”

Gastón sighed, he hates when his best friend is right.

“If I were you, I’d discard the fantasy girl, and look for one in the real world, and it looks like you’re enjoying to spend time with Nina a lot.” Matteo added, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Oh, come on!” he threw a cushion to his friend, laughing. “Is my mom paying you to find me a girlfriend, or something?” He asked, and his friend started laughing as well.

“I swear she isn’t!” His friend replied, in the middle of laughter.

His friend was right, he liked to spend time with Nina, he even loved to talk with her about books and nerdish stuff, but somehow Felicity overshadowed any feeling he would develop towards said girl, for him, Felicity was everything he had ever dreamed about, even if he identity was still a huge question mark.

They didn’t go back to the topic during the whole night, Matteo stayed at the apartment as his girlfriend had a dinner with her adoptive parents and her birth grandfather, so they just watched the game and drank beers until very late.

They were celebrating a goal from their team when a new message arrived to his phone, so he stopped jumping around to look at the screen.

Felicity: I’m sorry if it took so long for me to answer, I wasn’t sure about what to say. But you’re right, it’s time for us to meet, so… how about tomorrow afternoon? Is that time right for you?

He went motionless, in total shock, so it wasn’t until Matteo asked him what was going on that he reacted.

“Felicity said yes!” He screamed, so loud he was sure all their neighbors heard him.

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

Sorry for no updating that fast, real life can be a b**ch. Anyway, I’m lazy... so I didn’t make a proof read, so if you find any mistake, my bad. Hope you like some gastina in your dash. 

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 5 - ABOUT BUBBLY CHAMPAGNE AND MILDLY HONEST CONVERSATIONS     

“Just… don’t say it.” she asked when she met her best friend outside the bathroom, where she had been hiding for the last twenty minutes. She knows what the Mexican girl is going to see, and she doesn’t want to listen it.

“Ok, I won’t say a word” Luna answered, with that bright smile of her. “But, let me tell you something important: Matteo told me that Gastón thinks you hate him.”

She felt taken aback.

“What?! Why?!” She asked, stuttering.

“I don’t know, let me guess…” her friend answered sarcastically. “You run away every time we meet him, you don’t even say ‘hi’ looking at him, you don’t really talk to him… do you want me to continue?”

Nina frowned.

“You are spending too much time with your boyfriend” she said, and then sighed. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him you were just shy, that’s it.” Her best friend replied, and looked around, like if she was checking there was no-one there. “Do you really want him to think you hate him?” her best friend asked, looking worried.

“I prefer that, than knowing I like him.” She answered, in a shy whisper.

What would he do if he knew it? Like, she REALLY liked him, to the point of drawing their initials surrounded by hearts in the back of her notes when she was at school, or saying to herself how nice Nina Perida sounded, and fantasizing with him stopping talking with his friends on the hallway, and walking directly towards her to give her one of those kisses you only watch on the movies. Nope, she preferred him thinking she hated him than knowing the truth, he would laugh at her if he knew it.

But RollerTrack told her to give it a try, and maybe she could just try not to run away every time he is close, and even exchange some words, there was no need for him to know her feelings.

She didn’t know what to do.

“There you are, girls.” A male voice behind her made them jump. “I’ve been looking for you all around the house.” She peeked over her shoulder, and found Simon looking at them with a bright smile. “Do I interrupt something important?”

“No!” Nina answered, some decibels above her normal voice due to panic.

“It doesn’t look like that.” He pointed out. “Are you okay, Nina? Can I do something for you.” Added, with a worried voice.

“It’s nothing, we were just talking about girl’s stuff, you know.” her friend intervened, with a bright smile. Bless her. “Why were you looking for us? Did something happened?” She asked, to change the topic.

“Don’t worry, nothing happened.” He answered, still smiling. “I just wanted to spend a couple of minutes talking with you. I mean, it’s your birthday, and I’ve been with Ambar all the time.”

“Oh, it’s ok… I’ve been with Matteo.” Luna shrugged with a smile on her face. “But, if you want, we can go back to the party, and spend some time together there.” She suggested, and Simon nodded. “Are you coming with us?” she asked her, and Nina shook her head.

“I’ll go get something to drink on the kitchen, and meet you at the party later.” She said, and even if Luna narrowed her eyes on her direction, didn’t say a word to try to convince her otherwise.

Again, bless her.

She just needed a couple of minutes alone, so she could put herself back together, before trying to follow her new plan: stop running away.

 The kitchen was empty. 

Luna’s mother was nowhere to be seen, maybe spending some time in the party, as the dinner had been already served. And the rest of the employees were possibly there too.

She sighed, and walked towards a tray with several glasses of champagne served, taking one of them on her hands. She is not that into drinking alcohol, but is just a little bit of champagne, and that’s nothing compared with the time Luna had convinced her to take a full shot of tequila.

Her throat still burns at the memory.

She took a small sip from her cup, then other. She leaned her back on the kitchen counter, and began to look fixedly at the bubbles that flowed from that liquid, until someone came to the kitchen, getting her out of her thoughts.

It was him.

She felt her legs shaking.

“Uh, I’m sorry.” He said, as she did everything on hand to avoid his sight. “I just wanted something to drink and didn’t want to bother anyone from the staff” He added, and she just nodded.

What else could she do? She felt as if the words were stuck on her throat, talking was not an option in that moment.

“Are you ok?” He asked, as he walked inside the kitchen, and she went back to look at the bubbles on her drink.

“Yeah, yeah… I’m ok.” She tried to sound as chill as possible, and then took a long sip from her drink. She can’t do this, she can’t talk to him. It had been a huge mistake to think otherwise.

She had to go. Now!

“I… I promised Luna I’d meet her on the living room after finding something to drink, so…” she said, and then tried to walk towards the exit, but his voice made her stop.

“Look, I’m sorry.” He said, and she couldn’t help to turn around and look directly at him.

“For what?” she asked, curious.

“I don’t know, whatever it was that I did for you to hate me.” He replied, looking tired.

“You did nothing.” She answered, without hesitation.

“Then it must be something you heard about me.” He continued. “Look, if it’s because of the things my ex-girlfriend was saying after we broke up, none of them are true. She was just being salty about how it all ended, I’m not that kind of guy, I…”

She raised her hand to stop him.

Yeah, she knew about the rumors Delfina was spreading about him, everybody knew about them, but she didn’t believe any of those things, not even for a second. She knew him, they hadn’t talked at all before those stupid comments started to spread around the campus, but somehow she was sure about the fact he couldn’t do such things.

“I don’t hate you.” She said.

“Then, why are you avoiding me?” He asked, taken aback.

“I’m just… I don’t…” she didn’t know what to say. “I’m not good at social interaction in any kind of way, I feel too much anxiety, and so I rather avoid talking with people… in general.” She explains.

Well, she is not being a hundred percent honest, but at least she’s no lying about her anxiety problem.

“But you talk with Luna, and you don’t look any anxious while doing it.”

“Well, she is my roommate, and my best friend.”  She explains.

“And Matteo?” He is trying to break her argument.

“He is my roommate’s boyfriend, he spends more time in my apartment than myself.” She explains. “And, anyway, he only focus on Luna when we are talking, and that makes it lot easier.”

Again, she wasn’t lying on this statement.

He sighed.

“So, are we cool?” he asked, after a minute of hesitation.

“We are.” She said, with the glimpse of a shy smile dancing slowly on her lips. “Now, can I go to meet my best friend? I mean, it’s her birthday, I should be with her.”

He smiled.

“Yeah, of course.” He got a glass of champagne for himself. “May I go with you? I mean, my best friend must be there where your best friend is, it’s well known he can’t help orbiting around her all the time.”

She would be having a panic attack about him suggesting walking besides her for a period of time, leave it, she should be freaking out because they have been alone talking on the kitchen, but that pun made her giggle and forget about any of her worries.

It wasn’t even funny, but somehow, coming from him, it was.

What was wrong with her?

“I guess you are right.” She said, her cheeks turning red. “We should be going, then.” She added, and started walking to the living room, feeling too conscious about him walking a couple of steps behind her.

“But, can we do something before heading back there?” she heard him say, and she turned around just to find him just a few steps away from her. Her face went full red. “Can we start over?” He extended his hand. “I’m Gastón.”

She felt her heartbeat raising, as she knew she had to touch him.

“Nina” she answered, shaking his hand, and she felt an electric current going through her skin as soon as their hands touched, so she quickly parted away.

 “Tell me everything”

Her best friend looked like a very excited Chihuahua, bouncing around the small apartment they shared near to the campus, after shouting the door behind them.

“There’s not much to tell.” She said, taking off her jacket. “He approached me when I was at the kitchen getting something to drink, and we talked, that’s all.”

Luna rolled her eyes.

“I need details! What did you talk about? Because you looked very friendly when you met Matteo and I at the living room.” She insisted, while leaving her presents on the table. Matteo’s one was the only one she was wearing, a very cute bracelet with some nice pendants: a roller skate, a moon, a sun, a milkshake, and a strawberry. Nina asked herself how would it be to have a boyfriend, she has never had one.

“He asked me if I was mad at him.” She explained. “And I told him I’m not. Then, he asked me why I was avoiding him, and I told him I’m just shy. Something that, for the record, is true.”

“I’m not saying otherwise.” Her friend said, with a huge smile.

“I know, but I needed to point that out.”

“Ok.” She smiled widely. “So now you’re friends” Nina didn’t like the tone her friend used for that question.

“I think we are more like acquaintances.” She answered. “I mean, I’m going to try not running away when he is around, and I guess it wouldn’t kill to say some words to him, answer when he asks me something.” She answered, but the truth is she was freaking out.

How could she talk with him without him figuring out about the massive crush she has on him? She needed to be very careful not showing her feelings towards him. 

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend. 

 Ok, so I know I’m taking too long to update, but in my defense this has been a crazy month. If you don’t believe me ask @lifesruiner​ xD! This one, as Gastón would say, is puntastic. Yeah, is kind of short, but I promise next chapter will be longer. Oh! and this one has Lutteo and Simbar included ;)!

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 4 - ABOUT VENGEFUL EX-GIRLFRIENDS AND EXTRAORDINARY PUNS

And she ran away, again.

Not that he was expecting something different, to be honest, but part of him wanted to know what he did to make her loathe him that much. 

Did he say something that offended her? If so, he should apologize. Or did someone told her something bad about him? Some friends told him Delfina was dirtying around his reputation after they broke up. Talk about bad losers. If so, he should clarify everything to her, tell her it was all a lie, he was really worried about what she could have listened his ex-girlfriend say to treat him like that.

Don’t get him wrong, is no like he would need everyone to like him, that’s more a Matteo thing to do. But the girl is his best friend’s girlfriend’s best friend, so it would be nice to have someone to talk to when they meet on the campus, as his best friend gets totally eclipsed when his girl appears. 

He would prefer to burn his own eyes by looking directly at the sun for hours, than those cheesy dorks being all over the other. Also, because as his best friend has pointed out, the girl was studying his dream career, so talking to her about books must be really interesting.

“I’ll get a drink, mate” he told Matteo, smiling at him and Luna. He didn’t want to stay there with the couple, they needed some privacy, and he urgently required to avoid being the third wheel.

He wandered around the hall of the mansion after getting a drink from one of the people of the catering, there were some faces he merely recognized from high school, but no one he could put a name on, except for Ambar and the guy she was dating, who he knew was Luna’s best male friend.

He wasn’t in the mood to talk with them, as the blonde (who once he called his friend) was her ex’s best friend, and he was sure she had to do with everything Delfina had said about him. In fact, he believes she was the one the black-haired got the idea from, but it was talking to them, or becoming part of the furniture. And, even if the latest looked like a pretty great idea in comparison, talking with them could also give him answers about whether his ex-girlfriend had said something to Nina about him. Again, not that it was a big of a thing for him, he just needed to know if she had something to do to say behavior from the other girl.

He was paranoid, ok?

“Hey” he greeted as he approached the couple, and received the perfectly drawn eyebrow of the blonde girl raised in his direction in response.

“So, are you back at talking to me now?” she asked, without caring to greet him first.

His boyfriend was more polite.

“Hey! Gastón, right?” he said, raising his hand for him to shake it. “Nice to see you again, dude.” he added, with an apologetic smile.

He shook his hand.

“Nice to see you too” Gastón answered, and then looked at the girl. “You were the one who stopped talking to me after I broke up with Delfina, Ámbar. And then helped her to make up who knows what terrible things about me, and spread them all over the campus.” He reminded her, and she rolled her eyes, as her boyfriend gave her a ‘you shouldn’t have done that’ look, she answered with an ‘I know’ one, he had never seen in her before.

Dating this guy must be changing her, he though.

“Ok, I’m sorry about that, it wasn’t our best idea.” Did he just get an apology from Ambar? “But Delfi is my best friend, and she was really hurt and mad at you. I’d do anything to make my friend feel better, you would do the same for Matteo.”

He raised his eyebrows.

“I didn’t have a date in months because of your friend’s way to feel better, and you know nor I or Matteo would have done something like that.” he replied.

“You broke up with her by phone” she tried to justify her actions.

“She LIED to me, more than once” he reminded her.

He is one of those people who hate lies, so as soon as he knew Delfina was pretending to like the same things as him so he would date her, when in reality she loathed it all she said she loved, he felt heartbroken. Yeah, Matteo had tried to make him see that if she did all that was because she must really like him, but boy he hated when people wasn’t honest with him, and if she lied about those things, how could he know she wasn’t going to do it again about other things? He wasn’t able to trust her anymore, so he ended the relationship.

Maybe he exaggerated, but that’s how he is.

And yeah, he broke up with her by phone, but it was because he couldn’t see her while doing it, he didn’t want her to put her best hurt puppy face, and make him feel like he was the villain, or feel like he should change his mind about it.

“So, I heard you like my band’s music.” Simon made his best to change the topic.

“Yeah man, Un Destino is such a hit.” He decided to catch it. “I have it on my phone, and I’m always listening to it. When are you guys launching your record? I’m waiting for it like since forever.” He added, and the other guy widely smiled at him.

“Soon, man. That’s all I can say. Our manager won’t let us tell the date yet, but you will know soon, we are going to do a lot of promotion for it.” He answered, with a proud smile.

Ámbar was looking proud too.

“We wanted to play something here tonight. But we all had shifts today at the Jam & Roller, and the boys decided to cover mine so I could come over to my best friend’s birthday.” Ámbar poked him with her elbow, and he laughed. “And spend some time with my girlfriend, of course.”

“What a shame, I wanted to see you playing live.” Gastón said.

“You can come over and see any of our rehearsals at the J&R” Simon proposed, and he accepted. He loved music, and the band was really nice, he loved their lyrics, mostly.

After a couple of minutes he decided to leave the couple alone. He didn’t ask Ámbar about the thing that made him talk to her at first, as he didn’t want to make the other guy feel uncomfortable by going back to that topic, and also because he figured out that if Delfina’s vengeance had something to do with Nina’s behavior around him or not, it didn’t matter, he would still have to talk to the girl first.

He tried to approach the girl during the dinner, but it was impossible, as she managed to sit as far as possible from him. Then, during the birthday song, he gave it another try, but she avoided him again, saying something about going to help Luna’s parents, and disappearing.

Again.

He decided to give up, he wasn’t going to talk to her during that party, so he had to try to do it next time he sees her on the campus.

He dropped himself into one of the armchairs and took of his phone.

Opened his conversation with felicity without even thinking about doing it.

Was she enjoying her night?

RollerTrack: Hey stranger, how is your night going?

He typed and sent the message, not even expecting her to answer soon, maybe she was dancing around with her friends, and would only find his message the next morning.

Her respond came just a couple of minutes later.

Felicity: Not so good :(

RollerTrack: Why? –he asked, worried.

Felicity: I don’t know if I should tell you about it, it’s about a guy.

He felt a bit of jealousy.

RollerTrack: It’s ok, you can tell me. –he sent, and then looked at the dots on his screen, noticing she had erased her message a couple of times, before sending it.

Felicity: I just… I like this guy from long ago, and he is here at the party. I knew he was going to be here, but I was hoping he wouldn’t notice me, but he did, and I’m not capable to talk to him, so I’m hiding on the bathroom so he can’t find me. –he sighed while reading her words. –Yeah, I know. I must sound pathetic.

RollerTrack: You don’t. But, why are you so afraid? If I was him, I’d like you to talk to me. You are a really nice girl.

Felicity: I’m just not good at talking with guys, and I don’t want to make a fool of myself in front of him, it would be a disaster. What if he laughs at me? I wouldn’t be able to look at him again, I’d feel really bad.

RollerTrack:  If he laughs at you then he wouldn’t deserve you. –he wrote, feeling angry at this guy he doesn’t know for making this amazing girl feel that way. -And, anyway, you can talk with guys, you’re talking to me right now and… shocking news! I’m a guy.

He wasn’t looking at her, but in his head she was laughing at his joke.

Felicity: It’s different, I’m not really talking to you, I’m writing some words on my phone and they, by the magic of technology, end up appearing on your screen. You know? That’s the reason why most of the people feel more comfortable sending text messages than calling, or even approaching each other in person.

He smiled. She was such a geek, and he loved it.

RollerTrack: Well, if you ask for my humble opinion, I believe you should give it a try. Just imagine you’re talking to me, show him the amazing girl who is able to talk with a total stranger about science fiction at the middle of the night, and if he doesn’t appreciate it, then he doesn’t deserve you. –He regretted it as soon as he pressed send. What was he doing? Sending her to the arms of another guy? Stupid, that’s what he was. But he wanted her to be happy, and if talking with this idiotic guy made her feel that way, then he would encourage her to do it.

Even if he was, by the time, burning in jealousy.

Felicity: You are right, I guess. –He read. -Thank you, you’re an amazing friend. –she stated, and he sighed. Frienzoned by a girl via text message, this must be karma.

They said goodbye and he put his phone down, just on time to see his best friend approaching him, with a drink on each hand, offering one to him as he sat by his side.

“Talking with your imaginary girlfriend again? Dude, that’s pathetic.” Matteo mocked, and he frowned at him.

“She’s not my imaginary… anything. She exists.”

“Yeah, on your phone screen.” His friend replied, and gave a sip to his drink. “Anyway, I wanted to apologize. I made you come here, and I've been with Luna all the time, and let you alone. I hope you're not bored, or something, that being the reason why you’re talking with your phone.”

Gastón laughed.

“Don’t worry, buddy. I know you go moon walking when she is around.” Pun in the conversation about Luna? Check. “Is not like I didn’t know that would happen when I accepted to come, anyway. And, indeed, I’ve been talking with some people.” He drank a little from his glass.

“Yeah, I saw you talking with Ambar and the guitarist.” Matteo shrugged. “Everything fine?”

“Well, she apologized about that thing she and Delfina did.” Gastón told him. “So yeah, everything fine. I guess dating the guy is doing great for her, not that you weren’t a good influence.” He added, fearing his best friend would misunderstand his words.

“Shut up, I was the worst influence.” His friend laughed. “We weren’t for each other, that’s it. Both of us were messed up, we couldn’t do well for the other, even if we understood each other pretty well.”  

Gastón nodded.

“And I’m glad she is with the guitarist, as you said, dating him is doing great for her as dating with Luna is doing great for me.”

Oh, there it was, Gastón though, that ‘moon landing’ smile his friend put when he talks about his girlfriend. Wouldn’t it be great to feel something like that for some girl? He sure was envious of that, he hadn’t feel something like that for anyone, not even for Delfina when they were dating, and when he starts having feelings for a girl, he just sends her to some other’s guy arms.

He is an idiot.

“Talking about Luna, where is she?” he asked.

“IDK, she said she needed to go to talk something with Nina, and then abandoned me.” Drama-tteo made one of his exaggerated dramatic grimaces, and Gastón laughed.

“Oh boy, you’re screwed.”

His friend frowned at him.

“I bet you, one day you will fall in love with a girl, and ‘screwed’ will be a small word to describe how you will feel about her.” His friend said, and Gastón rolled his eyes. Yeah, as if he could be more lunatic for a girl than the Italian.

He reminded himself to add that pun on the list for future conversations.

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

So, I know time has passed, but I have been relly bussy lately with so many things to write, I just let this aside. But well, here is the second part of my Gastina AU, hope you like it. Also, didn’t make proof reading, sorry. It has a lot of Gastteo, some Lutteo, and a mention of Simbar xD!

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 2 - ABOUT ANNOYING BEST FRIENDS AND DEPRIVED SLEEP HOURS

“You look like shit” said his best friend walking to the counter, sitting in front of him, and leaving a cup of coffee for him to take. “Don’t tell me you stayed awake all night studying for the test, because I remember you told me yesterday that it was a ‘piece of cake’ when I offered my help”.

Gastón sighed, before taking the cup in his hands.

He felt so tired he couldn’t even keep his own body straight, his eyes were closing all the time as if they weighted one hundred pounds, and the concert of yawns has been live since he had to leave his bedroom to go to the kitchen.

“You had a date” he reminded him. “And, anyway, it IS a piece of cake... I didn’t stay awake because of that” He took a sip of his coffee, and smiled with relief.

He hasn’t been able to sleep, he tried to do it, but when he closed his eyes he began to think about the conversation he had had with Felicity, and to ramble about her identity. He didn’t know all the girls studying in the university, but knew a good number of these, and although he tried to put the words of Felicity in each of them, he couldn’t find any match.

“Thanks for the coffee, by the way”. He added, looking to his friend with a smile on his face.

“You’re welcome” Matteo said with a grin. “So, if you weren’t studying for the test, why did you stay awake all night? You look like you really needed those sleep hours” He added, taking a bite of his breakfast.

“I was talking with someone” He answered, and saw the knowing smile growing on his friends face.

Oh no, here we go again.

“Oh! Now that I remember, I came back from my date with Luna and heard some laughing coming from your room” he said, “everything makes sense now, Economic Theory couldn’t be so fun” he added, teasing.

“You like Maths” he reminded him.

“Yeah… but you don’t, buddy” his friend replied. “The only reason you are on Economic Sciences is because your parents think Literature is not a making-money degree, and because you are the only one who will take care of the family business when they are too old for it”.

He made a grimace.

Yeah, his parents weren’t in a good mood when he told them he wanted to study literature. ‘Are you joking?’ his dad had asked him immediately, and her mom’s face was icy. That later, came with a lot of words about why that would be a bad idea, because ‘you can read and learn that stuff by yourself, that is a hobby, not a career’ and ‘you will one day heritage the family company, how could we leave all our hard work to someone who is not our son?’ that, followed with a ‘I won’t pay for a literature degree’ that sent him directly to the Economy faculty.

“Anyway,” Matteo changed the topic. “Who is the girl you were talking with?”

“How do you know it was a girl? I could be talking with… I don’t know, some guy from one of my elective classes.” He replied, and Matteo openly smiled.

“Because, my dear friend, I would have known if you were cheating on me” the Italian answered, full of himself. “Who is the girl? Do I know her?”

“No, I mean… I don’t know… I don’t even know if I know her myself” he answered, and Matteo looked at him, really confused.

“Explain yourself, because I don’t get it”.

“Ok, long story short, yesterday I heard to some guys at the cafeteria talking about this new app that was created on the campus to meet people, is like a random chat that connects you with other person who have similar hobbies and tastes as you.” He explained, after taking a sip of his coffee. He needs his caffeine, man.  “And well, you know I don’t usually meet people with whom to chat about books and video games and…”

“All your nerdy stuff, yeah” Matteo interrupted, and laughed when he saw Gastón frowning at him. “Sorry, go ahead”.

Gastón sighed.

“Well, I thought it would be nice to give it a try, so I downloaded it… and ended up talking with this girl whose username was Felicity, and even if at the beginning it was a little awkward, we then started to connect, and were talking about a lot of things until very late. I didn’t even noticed the time had passed, until she pointed that out” he explained.

“Awe, you fell in love” His best friend mocked.

“I didn’t…! I mean, I just met her. I don’t even know how she looks”.

“That’s easy to know, what’s her real name? I can search for it on the University’s database”. His friend offered, and he made a grin.

“I didn’t ask her her name, I didn’t think about doing it”.

Matteo laughed.

“Are you sure it’s a girl? I mean, it could be an old fat hairy guy with pedophile inclinations, or worst, some teacher”. He was having the time of his life.

“It’s a girl, I’m sure”. Gastón replied, without hesitation.

“If you say so…” Matteo looked at him amused, before drinking some of his own coffee. “Well, if we are not going to continue the mysterious girl topic, and you are free next Friday, can I ask you a favor?”

Gastón knew his friend enough to know nothing good could come after those words, but he was so curious about what Matteo was going to ask, he just sighed.

“What can I do for you?” he asked.

“Well, you know, I’ve been dating Luna for a couple of months”

“Congratulations”

“Thank you”. He didn’t mind being interrupted, he was even smiling. Gastón never thought to see his best friend so happy about a girl. “Well, she wants me to go to this birthday dinner at her aunt’s, and I know Ambar will be there, and it’s going to be awkward even if she is now dating the guitarist guy, so I need some reinforcement by my side as I don’t know much Luna’s friends.”

“You want me to go?” he interrupted him, and his friend nodded. “But its Luna’s birthday, I mean, she is really nice but I don’t know her that much”. He didn’t want to be that kind of person who goes to a party without being invited.

“I asked her about it, and she said it was fine.” He replied. “Come on, buddy, it will be fun, and I will pay you for it… I can make your next algebra paper-work” he put his very convincing pretty please face, and Gastón rolled his eyes before accepting. Only his best friend would start dating the niece of his ex-girlfriend’s godmother. 

Thinking that phrase felt like a hell of a tongue twister.  

“And Luna has a friend who studies literature, maybe you can get along with her, talk about your nerdy stuff” Matteo winked.

“Are you talking about Nina? Because I’m pretty sure she hates me” Gastón replied, rolling his eyes.

“Why would she hate you?”

“I don’t know, but she always ignores me, or runs away in the exact moment we meet her and Luna on the campus, last time it was even ridiculous, she said she was going to look for a book in the library, but she had it on her hands.” He snorted. “I know it was the book she said, because I was going to ask her about it before she invented that dumb excuse”. He added.

“Luna told me she is shy” Matteo tried to justify the girl’s behavior.

“Yeah, but she talks to you normally, I have seen you”. He rolled his eyes. “She hates me, I tell ya”.

“Well, you could try to ask her about it in the party” his friend suggested, and he shrugged, before finishing his coffee and saying goodbye.

He had a test to do.

Felicity: Hi, are you there?

He was looking at his phone, trying to decide if he should or not write to Felicity, when the message popped up on his screen, surprising him.

Roller Track: I am, indeed. –he typed. -How are you, stranger?  How was your day?

He waited for a long minute before her answer appeared.

Felicity: It was ok, I guess. How was yours? Did you get to stay awake during your test? I have been worried about it all day.

He felt the smile softly growing on his own face.

Roller Track: Luckily enough, I did. My roommate gave me coffee this morning, and I got to sleep when I arrived home after the test.

Felicity: And the test? Was it hard?

Her worries for him were making his chest feel warmer.

Roller Track: All fine, it was the easiest, I’m sure I got a good grade. And you? Did you get to meet on the library with your classmates? Did you prepare your presentation?

Felicity: Yes, we did. Do you want to read something funny? I thought I was late, but I was the first to arrive to the meeting, all my classmates were late, but we got everything done. The only problem will be the day of the presentation.

He frowned.

Roller Track: Why?

He saw her writing something, and then erasing it to start again. He had never been that focused on those stupid dots at the corner of the screen before.

Felicity: Because our teacher wants us all to participate in the presentation, and I’m not that good when talking in public, I feel like I will have a panic attack being there, in front of all my classmates.

Gastón read the words on his screen twice, and felt a new kind of empathy for this girl growing on him, like if he knew her from before.

Roller Track: Hey! I’ve been there. When I was a child I had scenic panic too, once I had this spelling bee contest, and I totally froze. –he wrote. –because of that, I thought I wouldn’t be able to do anything like that without embarrassing myself, so when my best friend suggested me to try for the school’s musical I thought it would be the worst idea ever, but then I gave it a try, and it was amazing.

He had never told that story to anyone, but he felt he could trust in her.

Felicity: Were you the lead?

He read those words and laughed.

Roller Track: Nah, my best friend and his girlfriend from that time were always the lead, no one could beat them on that, but I got a solo, the drama teacher liked my singing voice and wrote a song just for me to sing.

Felicity: Impressive.

Roller Track: I know. –he smiled. –but hey! We were talking about your presentation, and my story had a moral. I’m pretty sure you will nail it, just remember the guy who froze on his spelling bee contest but got to sing on a school musical, you just have to focus on one person, and talk to him or her. Maybe a friend, as teachers are usually intimidating, I always try to avoid their sight.

He pressed sent, and waited for her answer, getting a little be desperate when it didn’t come as fast as he wanted.

Felicity: Thank you. –she wrote, after the longest couple of minutes of his life. –I have to go, I must meet with my best friend, she wants me to go with her to buy some things, and I don’t want her to think I forgot about it.

His smile faded.

Roller Track: It’s ok. –he wrote. –Go with your friend, enjoy your afternoon, I’ll be fine by my own.

Felicity: Are you sure?

Roller Track: Yeah! don’t worry about me, little stranger. –Her concern made him recover his smile. –I have to do some homework, anyway.

Felicity: Ok. Talk to you later?

Roller Track: Yeah, I won’t go anywhere. –He finally wrote, and after their goodbyes he let his phone by him side on the mattress, and closed his eyes.

He lied, he didn’t have any work to do, but he didn’t want her to feel bad for letting him and going to meet her friend to go shopping. Who would she be? Again, a conversation between the two of them had ended, and he didn’t get her name. He didn’t even thought about asking her about it, maybe this anonymous thing was what made things so easy, there was no need to rush things.

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger.

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

Take it as if I’m trying to make up for two months without any update xD! Eclipse chapter coming soon, too. 

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 3 -  ABOUT SPARKLY DRESSES AND LIFE-LONG CRUSHES

Nina was looking at her phone, reading her last conversation with Roller Track again and again, as if she wanted to memorize it. Was it real? Did she meet a nice and supportive guy who really liked to talk to her? And that spelling bee story, it was so cute, and so encouraging, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to do a decent presentation for her class, but what he told her gave her hope.

“Stop, girls!” Luna’s voice made her jump, like if she had been caught red handed, and put her phone down to look at her best friend, surrounded by Jim and Yam, who were showing her an immeasurable number of dresses and accessories to wear on her birthday. “It’s just a dinner in my aunt’s home, not a brunch with the queen!” she said, with a tired voice.

Yam, who was studying to be a fashion designer, looked at her with an offended expression.

“But it’s your birthday, so you have to be the most beautiful girl over there” she said.

“More beautiful than Ambar, specifically” Jim Added.

“Indeed” Yam was holding a dress in front of the short brunette. “Come on, try this one.” She said, and practically pushed Luna to go inside the changers.

Nina softly laughed.

She knows how hard is to deal with Jim and Yam, she was the one to introduce them with Luna indeed, as they went together to the same school, and kept in contact when it was the time to go to university. Those girls were her only companion during her solitude era, before meeting Luna on her first day at campus, when she had the good luck to be put in the same dormitory as the other girl.  They usually let her pair with them on group activities, and encouraged her to do things as spending time with them on the most popular roller skating rink (even if she usually stayed only on the cafeteria area), but it wasn’t until she met Luna that she got to open her shell completely to someone else than her parents.

And that’s kinda sad.

What surprised her the most was the fact Luna was indeed the long-time lost niece of one of the richest women in the country, Ambar I’m-too-perfect-for-you-all-peasants Smith’s godmother, who had to go to live in Buenos Aires after discovering her past.

She would have freaked out being on her place, but for her luck, she was one hundred percent sure she was the daughter of her parents, even if they might have a competition about who  could embarrass her the most in front of her almost un-existing group of friends.

“That one is perfect!” Yam’s words took her out from her own thoughts, and made her look at her best friend, who was in a very beautiful (yet not Luna’s style) dress. She smiled, putting his phone on her purse, and walked to meet the other girls.

“I think Luna might prefer something less…” she tried to find a good word that wouldn’t make the fashion design student feel devalued. “Ambar-ish” her gaze met her friend’s, who mouthed a ‘thank you’ on her direction.  

The Blonde and the red-head frowned and looked at her dress with a knowing gaze.

“Yeah, is kind of pinky” said Jim

“Maybe we can find something green, it will look nice with her eye’s color” both girls smiled simultaneously, and ran to find more dresses on the store.

Nina and Luna sighed, before starting laughing.

“I feel like I’m some kind of master project for them” Luna said, looking uncomfortable in that dress. “Thank you for coming, by the way, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have survived being alone with those two”.

“You’re welcome” she replied, with a soft smile.

“I guess I will have to wait for them wearing this” Luna sighed, pulling down the hem of the dress. “You were right, this one is so no me, and if I was alone I couldn’t have said no to them about wearing it on the dinner”.

Good Luna, too nice to say something that could disappoint a friend, Nina thought.

“Well, at least you could have let Matteo open mouthed” she said, raising her eyebrows, making her friend laugh.

“Oh God, that would have been so embarrassing” Luna’s cheeks went red, and Nina was so nice to avoid pointing that out. “Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you something… just, don’t freak out”.

Nina looked at her, suspicious.

“Why would I…?” she asked, and Luna looked kind of nervous.

“Well, you know I obviously invited Matteo to my birthday dinner, I mean, he is my boyfriend, and I really want him there to cope with my aunt’s mood and so…” Her best friend rambles.

Nina laughed.

“I know you invited him, it’s the right” she said. “Why would I freak out about it?” she then asked, being sure she wouldn’t like the answer.

“Well, ok… Matteo asked me if his best friend could come with him, and I told him it was ok.” Ok, now she was freaking out, she could feel her breathing speeding, and her hands shaking. “I just want him to feel comfortable about going to my aunt’s mansion, I know he used to go there when he was dating Ambar, and I don’t want it to be awkward for him”.

Nina took a deep breath.

Gastón was Matteo’s best friend. She knows him since they went to the same school, but she was pretty sure he didn’t even know she existed before their best friends started dating each other. She have had this massive crush on him since those days at school, but he was one of the most popular guys there, and she was just… just her, the nerdy invisible girl from a lowest year who no-one cared to notice.

For her, everything was right when he didn’t noticed her presence, she was just a shadow passing in front of him on their way to classes, there was no need to talk to him, at all.

But then, Luna met Matteo, and the Mexican and the Italian started this flirting thing between each other, making his life-long crush to notice her for the first time, because both guys were always together.

And everything would be cool if she wasn’t… well, if she wasn’t her. Because every time he talked to her she wanted to reply, but there was always that knot on her throat that made it impossible to say something on his direction. And there were also her heartbeat that went like crazy on his proximity, and her shaking hands that made her make up the most stupid excuses to run away from him, and his stupid oh-so-perfect eyes.

Luna knew all of it, she had to confess when her friend asked about her behavior in front of said guy, and constantly tried to help her to cope with her anxiety problem around Gastón Perida, but nothing Luna could do could change the fact she will never be able to talk to him without embarrassing herself.

“I’m SO, SO sorry…” her friend was saying, and she shook her head.

“Don’t be.” She said, taking a deep breath. “It was the right thing to do. I mean, if Matteo asked you about it, it’s because that’s something important for him, and he is your boyfriend.” She smiled, even if her whole body was shaking.

“Are you sure?” her friend looked worried.

“Yeah, your aunt’s house is huge, I’m pretty sure I won’t have to talk to him… I could keep myself occupied with Jim and Yam, or with Simon.” She said, forcing a smile.

He friend didn’t look that convinced.

“But, what if you try to talk to him? I mean, he seems nice, and according to Matteo you have some things in common.” Her friend suggested, with a bright smile.

“We having something in common? I don’t think so, Luna.” She said, sighing. “And even if we do, how would I know? I can’t even say a word when he is around, it’s like if my whole body turned off when he gets closer, I feel so dumb.”

Luna smiled.

“Turned off? I think it’s the opposite” said her friend, fooling around, and she felt her own cheeks turning red.

“Don’t say that!” she exclaimed, looking around, because her anxiety made her thing someone could be listening them, even if they were completely alone on that part of the store.

Jim and Yam appeared in that exact moment, the blonde was holding a gorgeous sparkly green dress, and the redhead had a pair a silver/green heels hanging on her fingers, they looked completely proud of their choice.

“Try this one!” shout Yam, putting the dress on Luna’s hands, and pushing her to go back inside the changer. Jim followed them, telling she must use the shoes too, to make a good effect because of her height.

Nina smiled, forgetting for a minute or two about the topic she and her best friend had been talking about recently, but then sighed thinking about the short brunette’s words. Would they really have something in common? And if so, could she finally stop acting like an idiot in front of him? Life was easiest when she was at school and he didn’t know she existed.

The week days passed fast, she had been talking with Roller Track all nights before going to sleep (she had to put an alarm so they wouldn’t forget about the time again), about so many things she could barely remember everything. It was so nice to talk to him, doing it let her forget about the fact she would see Gastón that Friday on Luna’s birthday dinner.

Her best friend’s words were stuck on her head, she must try to talk to him, or at least try not running away every time he is close.

Yeah, as if it was easy.

Roller Track: Everything fine?

His question made her sigh.

Felicity: Yeah… just getting dressed, I will go out tonight.

Roller Track: What a coincidence! Me too. –she read. –Well, I suppose I should leave you alone, so you can get ready without some guy bothering you.

She couldn’t help laughing.

Felicity: You are not bothering me.

Roller Track: Yes, I am. –How could a guy she doesn’t even know make her feel so good? Talking with him was so easy. –So go get ready, have fun tonight, and try not to break so many hearts.

She laughed again.

Felicity: What if they break mine? –she had to ask.

Roller Track: I would hunt them down and make them pay, little stranger. No one breaks the heart of my favorite girl during my watch.

Was she blushing?

Felicity: How could I be your favorite girl?

Roller Track: How could you not? –she bit her lip. –Now, stop talking with me and get ready, we can continue this conversation tomorrow.

She sighed. She didn’t want to stop talking with him, because doing it felt safe, contrary to the idea of going to Luna’s dinner and talking with real-life people. But he was right, she was kind of late, Luna had already gone to her aunt’s, as she had to help there.

Felicity: Ok, read you tomorrow… Have fun tonight.

Roller Track: Thank you, stranger.

She saw her best friend, jaw dropping to the floor, because she looked drop dead gorgeous. Jim and Yam had made an amazing job! That green dress popped up her beautiful green eyes, and the makeup was on point, sparkly but soft at the same time. She, besides her, felt like the ugly duck.

“Don’t say that, you’re gorgeous too” her friend replied.

She had said those words out loud, apparently.

She looked at her own clothes on the mirror, a high waisted red skirt with a white black-dotted sleeveless shirt completely buttoned up, and a cute red necklace under the lapels. There was nothing special on her look, or maybe she was so plain the outfit couldn’t help her look better.

“I’m not, but it’s ok… you’re the birthday girl, you must be the beautiful swan.” Nina answered, with a bright smile.

They were on Luna’s bedroom at her aunt’s mansion, a place that looked nothing like a room that would have belonged to her friend, as it was plain white, without any picture or personal belonging. The only colorful things on that room were those Luna had took there to get ready for the dinner, whose were all spread on the bed.

“Shut up, you just need a little bit of color in your lips” said her friend, looking at her makeup bag, taking a bright red lipstick out. “This would be great”.

“I’m already wearing something on my lips” she replied.

“Transparent lip balm doesn’t count” Luna put the lipstick on her hand, with a bright smile. “And about your hair, just let me…” she released her hair bum, and let it fall softly on her back, just grabbing a pair of strands with a pin.

Nina looked at herself on the mirror when her lips were painted, and felt kin of different, like if she was a different version of herself.

A better one.

They went downstairs when one of the maids told them there were some guests arriving already, and Nina stayed behind with a soft smile, looking at her friend while she greeted those who came to celebrate her birthday.

The first to arrive were Ambar and Simon, she was looking spectacular as always, and Simon was wearing his usual kind of clothing, but at least his girlfriend convinced him to keep his beanies in his drawers. Jim and Yam came after, the second one bringing her boyfriend with her, and then Nina’s heart rate started to go wild, as she saw Matteo and Gastón coming on their way.

OH GOD, OH GOD.

Gastón was looking so handsome she wasn’t sure how her legs were still holding the rest of her body, and he was looking at her, he was freakin’ looking at her. At first, she thought it was just a coincidence, he may be looking at someone else and she was on the way of his sight, but then it became pretty obvious he wasn’t looking anything else than her, and she felt the anxiety growing on her chest.

She had to go somewhere else, NOW! Otherwise she could have a panic attack right there, in front of him and everybody.

Matteo hugged and kissed his girlfriend as soon as he and his friend were in front of them, and Nina couldn’t do anything else than awkwardly looking at her own feet, being conscious about the fact Gastón was looking at her in that exact moment.

Is like if his sight could make her skin burn.

“Hey, Nina.” Gaston’s voice made her lift her head and look directly at his face.

Big –HUGE– mistake it was.

Her legs started shaking, and her throat felt completely dry, while her heart made a personal goal to break her ribs cage.  

Say something, anything! Her brain screamed.

“H-hey.” She Stuttered.

Ok, one word… is ok, you can do this.

“How are you?” He asked, and she looked at her friend trying to find some help, but she was still very distracted with her boyfriend, so she had to look back at Gastón.

“F- fine…?” why did she sound like if she was making a question. “I’m fine, thank you.” she repeated, trying to sound more secure. Why is this so hard? She should have been over that high school crush from long ago.

She looked back at her friend, who finally had parted away from her boyfriend’s arms, thank God! She smiled.

“Hey Matteo” she greeted the guy, and then centered her attention on her best friend. “I will go to the kitchen to check that thing with the drinks you told me, so you don’t have to worry about it.” She lied, and her friend frowned at her knowing what she was doing, but didn’t say a word to stop her.

So she ran away, again.

[huffletiika]

Hello, stranger

GASTINA / UNIVERSITY AU

There’s a new app at the campus that allows you to chat with some other student it matches you with according to your hobbies and likes. Nina logs in this app to prove Luna wrong and ends up talking all night long with a very interesting stranger. Little she knows this guy is Gaston, her high school crush, who is also Matteo’s (Luna’s boyfriend) best friend.

Happy new year, everyone. I know I haven’t finished my “twins” AU, but as I’ve been traveling during holidays, I didn’t have much time to write... and now, is january, and I got this idea to write a Gastina AU, and I HAD to do it. 

[Other Chapters]

CHAPTER 1 - ABOUT PHONE APPS AND INTERESTING STRANGERS

Felicity: Hi?

Roller track: Hello, stranger.

Nina held her breath, her heart beating so fast she was sure it was going to make a hole on her chest, while watching those words appearing in the screen of her phone.

What on earth was she doing? She is not the kind of girl who chats with strangers via internet. Leave it, she is not the kind of girl who chats with people… at all. Except, of course, Luna Valente (or Sol Benson, which is her birth name), as she is her roommate and her best (and only) friend, and the reason she was doing this absurd thing.

It all started when Luna told her there was a new app in the campus, one you download on your cellphone, and allows you to chat with other students, that the app selects specially for you according to your likes. The thing is, it doesn’t allow you to know who the other person is, there are no pictures, no names, no biographies, and the only thing you know is that he or she liked the same things as you.

She told Luna it was a stupid idea, that she would never use an app like that, but the next thing she knew, she was downloading the stupid app, just because Luna told her she was just afraid of it.

And there she was, laying on her bed, having a mini-anxiety attack, just because a guy nicknamed Roller track (seriously, how could she ever like the same things as a guy called roller track, when she is not even able to stand still on rollers?) said hello to her.

Roller track: Are you still there?

Nina jumped when the question appeared on her screen, and she had to take a deep breath before answering.

Felicity: Yes, I’m here.

Roller track: great! For a second I thought I had to talk with myself, and sincerely, I’m not that good a talker.

She grinned, he was funny.

Felicity: You are doing great by now.

Roller track: Believe me, you will get bored soon.

Felicity: Maybe you’re the one who is going to get bored, I usually cause that effect.

Roller track: Oh well, let’s bore each other to death! The first one to say any excuse to stop this conversation loses.  

Felicity: Deal.

And then, around 3 A.M., they were still there, talking about nothing and everything at the same time. He started asking her about the things she liked, and then they were having a deep conversation about poetry, philosophy, famous and not so famous authors, photography and music. She even sent him one of her old poems! She had never done something like that, she doesn’t like to show her work, she is way too insecure for that. But they were talking about their favorite poems, and she told him she usually writes, and he asked her to send something, and she did it, just like that, she didn’t even have a second of hesitation, and that has been the most insane thing she had ever done.

Is she going crazy?

He loved it. Or, at least, that was what he told her. He insisted that she should publish her poems somewhere, but she told her she wasn’t sure about it, that they weren’t that good.

Roller track: Don’t say that! I wish I could write something as good as that! I mean, it’s awesome!

Felicity: You’re just saying that to make me feel better with myself, but I’m not that good.

Roller track: No, you’re not good, you’re freakin’ amazing. SERIOUSLY!

Felicity: Come on!

Roller track: Well, don’t believe me if you don’t want to… but I promise you, I will frame your poem in my room.

Felicity: You are crazy.

Roller track: yes, I am. Thank you.

By 4:30 A.M., after talking non-stop about several books, Nina finally looked at the clock, and had to cover her mouth to stop herself from screaming and waking up Luna, who was sleeping on her bed some meters away.

She didn’t even notice at what time she came back from her date with Matteo, or if she talked to her or not, did she ignore her best friend? She hopes she didn’t.

Felicity: did you see the time?

Roller track: Oh my… is it that late?

Felicity: Sadly, it is.

Roller track: Shit… I have a test in four of hours.

Felicity: And I have to meet with some classmates at the library around eight, we have to prepare a presentation for one of our classes.

She saw on the screen that he was writing something, and then erased it.

Roller track: So, I guess we have to go sleep.

Felicity: Yes, we have.

Roller track: I don’t want to.

Felicity: Me neither.

Roller track: But we HAVE to.

Felicity: It has been already said.

Roller track: Tell me we will talk again, little stranger.

Felicity: We will, I promise.

Roller track: Perfect! Have some rest, and good luck with that presentation of yours.

Felicity: And you with your test.

Roller track: If I don’t fall sleep on my desk ;)!

She covered her mouth again, this time to silently laugh, and sent her final “good night”, before closing the app and letting her phone on the nightstand.

And she tried to sleep, she really did, but her mind was too busy thinking about roller track to allow her to do it. What would his real name be? Did she know him? Was he in any of her classes? Would he be disappointed to know who she was? She just wanted to chat with him again. 

[naomi-nightshade]

@yuna-dan @decortothecore-blog @meandmymeatzzz-blog @minihowie @stacckkyyyyy @fairylightsthief @jaded-j4de @always-have-high-hopes @baybeeslime @sopapilla8 @peach75 @enby-frienby @lexylyn-blog @pointless-place @ashthegaytrash @theintrovertediguanagirl @popcornphangirl @kathyorihara @tea-coffee-cats-law @introvert-say-what @fleur-de-violette @strangerfate @peachyyleaves88 

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[naomi-nightshade]

@yuna-dan @decortothecore-blog @meandmymeatzzz-blog @minihowie @stacckkyyyyy @fairylightsthief @jaded-j4de @always-have-high-hopes @baybeeslime @sopapilla8 @peach75 @enby-frienby @lexylyn-blog @pointless-place @ashthegaytrash @theintrovertediguanagirl @popcornphangirl @kathyorihara @tea-coffee-cats-law @introvert-say-what @fleur-de-violette @strangerfate @peachyyleaves88 

Ray-Ban Sunglasses

[naomi-nightshade]

@yuna-dan @decortothecore-blog @meandmymeatzzz-blog @minihowie @stacckkyyyyy @fairylightsthief @jaded-j4de @always-have-high-hopes @baybeeslime @sopapilla8 @peach75 @enby-frienby @lexylyn-blog @pointless-place @ashthegaytrash @theintrovertediguanagirl @popcornphangirl @kathyorihara @tea-coffee-cats-law @introvert-say-what @fleur-de-violette @strangerfate @peachyyleaves88 

Ray-Ban Sunglasses

[naomi-nightshade]

@yuna-dan @decortothecore-blog @meandmymeatzzz-blog @minihowie @stacckkyyyyy @fairylightsthief @jaded-j4de @always-have-high-hopes @cryptidkiwis @loki-in-hogwarts @sopapilla8 @peach75 @enby-frienby @lexylyn-blog @pointless-place @ashthegaytrash @theintrovertediguanagirl @popcornphangirl @kathyorihara @chemicalsenpai @tea-coffee-cats-law @introvert-say-what @fleur-de-violette @strangerfate @peachyyleaves88 

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