>I have been hanging out with Naser at lunch, again. The days returning to their normal flow sans Naomi. As normal as it can be as the underlying tone still of me not wanting to be a blemish on Naser and him still harboring a bit of longing feelings to me. We do our best to not fall into that pit, dancing around the topics of relationships.
>He's busy again, today and today again I end up dragged into band business. I find it a bit hard to be in their presence, Trish ticking me off to no end and Reed like a hurt puppy, wanting to be forgiven for crumpling under almost no pressure. I can't hate him but I don't know how friendly I can be to the guy.
>It's this or eating alone. I sit down and Trish happily greets me.
>"Nona! My girl!" I put on a plastic smile for her.
>"Hey." I'm a bit stiff.
>"You good?"
>"I'm alright."
>"Fang's been telling me Naser's minding his own business, finally. I take it I can thank you for that?" I grit my teeth.
>"Trish." Fang is a bit short with her.
>"Ah right, sorry. Hope you two work out." It hurts to hear her words.
>Trish returns to regular chatter with Reed, talking about nothing in particular. Fang leave the conversation to talk to me.
>"So, it happened?"
>"Yeah."
>"He's been distant recently. I appreciate being left alone finally but... is he okay?" I appreciate Fang actually giving a shit about her brother. Unlike a certain purple triceratops.
>"Uh...sorta." I shrug. "From what he's been telling me he's at least not dying from stress now."
>Fang squints at me a bit.
>"You two aren't..."
>"No." I shut her down.
>"Oh." The conversation threatens to die. Fang waits a while, looking down, before speaking.
>"Hey, actually can I ask a favor from you?"
>Anything is better than another conversation reminding me exactly who I can't be with.
>"Sure, shoot."
cont.