Chapter 14

Wednesday

Nick opened his eyes to the sound of his phone's alarm blaring in the boys' cold dorm. His vision was blurry until he blinked a few times to focus his sight before feeling a warm mass weighing down on his chest causing it to be a little difficult to breathe. He looked down to see Alex laying on his bare chest with his arms wrapped around Nick. His hair was tickling Nick's body as his head was resting just above his belly button. His large arms were heavy on Nick.

Nick's eyes went wide as he realised what was happening. A flush of red rushed to his cheeks as he choked out his words in a whisper.

"Alex, I can't breathe." The response of a grumble was all that was heard.

"Alex, seriously, you're so heavy." Alex gave a tight squeeze with his arms before holding himself above Nick. His eyelids were half shut and seemed extremely heavy. Alex blinked a few times before realising what he was doing. He looked up at Nick and stared into his tired grey eyes, his emeralds staring back. He gave a small smirk to Nick.

"Aww come on. I know you love me, Piano Boy."

"Less than you'll ever know," Nick said in response. Alex grinned at this statement and rolled onto his back on his side of the bed.

"Sorry for like, being all over you."

"It's fine," Nick said rubbing his neck. Alex grabbed his phone from the bedside table and looked at the time.

"We've gotta be at breakfast in an hour. I had a shower last night so I don't need one. You?" Alex asked.

"Yea, might as well."

Nick shut the dorm door behind him and looked down the hallway to see the absence of students. He breathed in a deep breath of the stale cold air the cabin was filled with which stung the insides of his nose and began down the hallway to the dining hall.

Nick arrived at the large room and stood in the doorway. He scanned the room to find some students still in their pajamas cradling cups of coffee to warm their hands. They had colour under their eyes not unlike that of the ocean. He looked over at his team's table to find Drew drinking coffee, Nathan on his phone and Alex writing on manuscript paper with sheets of music scattered around him. He looked up and smiled at Nick. He returned the smile and started towards the table as Alex was packing up the music and put them in a folder.

"What's that?" Nick asked as he sat down.

"Nanya."

"What's nanya?"

"None ya business," Alex said grinning.

"What are you, five?" Nick said rolling his eyes.

"Sorry, but you set yourself up for that one, Piano Boy," Alex said. "You better get some breakfast or you'll go hungry today."

"Sure thing." Nick stood up and walked to the buffet and served himself a plate of bacon and eggs. He sat back down next to Alex and began eating.

Just as Nick was finishing, Liam sat down on the other side of the table, his hair a total mess.

"What happened to you?" Alex asked.

"I slept on the floor," Liam responded while rubbing his neck in pain.

"And who's bright idea was that?" Nathan said sarcastically.

"Mine. I don't want to sleep in the same bed at Max. He's a douche."

"You're not wrong," Nick said as he put his knife and fork on his plate.

"So when is the day gonna start?" Liam said running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to fix it, even just in the slightest.

"Hopefully never. I really don't want to pick up rubbish around this joint. I bet there's snakes and bears and all sorts in that forest," Drew responded. Just as he said that, Miss Bradley stood out the front and called out to everyone for their attention.

"Alright, everyone. Today's rubbish collecting will be postponed until later. A bear has been spotted where we were to walk and is being taken care of by professionals." Murmuring began throughout the students.

"Until then, you will all stay inside the building and have free time to do anything you want. Just don't go outside. It should only take about 2 hours for the bear to be contained so sit tight and wait. And I repeat, DO NOT GO OUTSIDE." The chatter arose again from the students as they went back to their conversations that were interrupted by Miss Bradley.

"I told you so," Drew said with a look of satisfaction.

Nick's table stayed and talked until Liam left to have a shower to make himself more presentable. They sat and chatted about music and other things until Alex and Nathan got into a heated argument about who is the best violinist, Nathan vouching for Janine Jansen, while Alex was set on Hillary Hahn. Nick and Drew sat in amusement as they watched them give ridiculously illogical reasons to why their choice was better.

"Janine can play the entirety of Tchaikovsky's violin concerto entirely in tune," Nathan bragged to Alex.

"So? I can too!" Alex scoffed.

"Blindfolded."

"Yea, well, Hillary can play Paganini Caprice No. 24 while HOOLA HOOPING!" Alex shoved in Nathan's face.

"Janine has more followers on Instagram."

"Hillary has more on Twitter."

"Janine played with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra."

"Hillary is friends with TwoSetViolin," Alex said in satisfaction. There was a pause from Nathan who was staring at Alex with a look of anger but was actually hiding surprise behind that facade.

"TwoSet?" He said through gritted teeth.

"If you were a real Ling Ling wannabe you'd have seen the videos of her on their channel. Interesting...." Alex mocked.

"Okay, you got me. I've only seen a few of their vids." Nathan said giving up. The whole table was now laughing at their pointless feud. Drew got out of his seat and let us know he was going to the common room to find his girlfriend Amelia before he left the dining hall. Alex got up to go to the bathroom and get something from his dorm. He didn't say what it was but he still left casually. Nathan and Nick looked at each other with the same odd look of confusion. Then they started laughing lightly.

"Hey, Nick?" Nathan said.

"Yeah?"

"You're actually a pretty cool dude. I'm sorry for joining in with the others in making you feel like shit. I have no clue how you managed to put up with everyone. And I'm sorry for throwing a compass at you when you tried playing piano last week," Nathan said with remorse. Nick actually was surprised at this apology. No one at his previous schools ever stopped to apologise.

"Wait. That was you?" Nick questioned. Nathan nodded slowly with a frown of regret, "Man, that gave me a cut on my forehead!" Nick laughed. Nathan looked up at him with wide eyes of surprise at Nick's laughter and a smile slightly began to form.

"So, you're not mad?" He asked hopefully.

"No, of course not! You guys are like my only friends so how can I be mad at you." Nick said with a sincere smile which forced Nathan to smile too.

"I guess I'll have to wait and see what you can do on the ivories on Saturday night right?" Nathan asked.

"Yup. I have something planned. I just hope I don't freeze like last time."

"I hope so too." Nick and Nathan sat in comfortable silence as their faces concentrated at the sound they could hear in the nearby hallways of dorms. It was a messy sound. The boys were alone in the dining hall and tried their best to figure out what the heck it is.

It began to get louder and instruments could be made out playing a song. A combination of violins, clarinets, flutes, oboes, violas, trombones and trumpets could be heard. The sound was increasingly louder until a long line of people playing their instruments marched past the doorway of the dining hall. They were all messily playing All Star by Smash Mouth. Nick and Nathan looked at each other and burst out laughing as they ran to the door to look down the hallway to see a line of ten people all soldiering down still playing. When they reached the end, they snaked around so that two lines were formed and continued back towards Nick and Nathan in the doorway. As the line went down the other hallway, Nick spotted Alex poking his head out from their dorm door. Nick decided to join the line at the end and marched with the others until he met Alex at the room. He dropped his arms to his side as he stood in front of Alex. He shook his head with a laugh and grabbed Nick by the shoulder to pull him inside and shut the door.

"How awful," Alex said flopping onto the bed. Nick walked around to his side and laid down with his hands behind his head.

"Could be worse."

"I suppose," Alex sighed. There was a short silence where the only thing that was heard was the boys' breathing until Alex sat up and reached below his side of the bed to bring up his laptop.

"Netflix?" He asked looking at Nick.

"Uh..." Nick said confused.

"Come on... I have Brooklyn Nine-Nine episodes downloaded," Alex pleaded.

"Fine." Alex sat closer to Nick to the point where their shoulders were pressed up against each others' and sat the laptop on their inside thighs. Nick blushed feeling Alex's body warmth so close to him again, but he didn't mind. They watched the beginning of season 7.

"Ooo I haven't seen this season yet. I didn't know it came out already," Nick said excitedly.

"It's really good."

They sat in comfortable silence, laughing at the occasional joke and the 'title of your sex tape' lines that Jake constantly says. It's a great show that they both loved. I mean, who doesn't like it?

After two episodes, Nick noticed something had changed. Nick and Alex's head were leaning against each others. Nick blushed brightly as he realised Alex's soft hair on his and perfect face just next to his. And don't even get me started on the arm muscles Nick can feel against his upper arm. Not buff like he was on steroids, but built. 'Damn' was all Nick could think.

Nick quickly snapped out of his trance and focused back on the laptop and calmed himself down.

They stayed like that the entire time they watched the next episode until someone knocked on their door harshly making the two boys jump...