“Why,thankyou.”
Her knees bumped against his as he shuffled forward. Nina settled on her seat, carefully placing the bag on her lap so it wouldn’t slide off. A wave of deja vu hit him.
“You know I’m pretty sure this is the exact same train that I saw you on last time,” he laughed, but knew his joke wasn’t really that funny. Seth tended to joke badly in moments he felt a tad awkward in.
Nina raised her brow, her lips quivering in a way that saidyour joke wasn’t funny but I really appreciate the effort.
“Has anything changed for you in a month -”
“So, what have you been up to?”
Their words tumbled atop each other once again, yet this time, they both broke into chuckles. Nina brushed some strands off of her face, and she beamed at him, drawing Seth’s attention to her smile.
Bright, like before.
“You go first,” she said.
He cleared his throat, suddenly rendered unable to speak.
“Well - um - nothing has changed much in the past month. No, actually, that’s a lie. I got this casual internship at this indie gaming company. It’s just twice a week, and kind of rooted into my studies so it’s stilltechnicallypart of my course, but yeah. I just do some basic admin things for them, but it's still pretty cool. Helps me out, actually, because I’ve got to do a capstone project as my big assignment for the end of the year.”
Nina’s eyes widened in excitement, and suddenly, she reached out and slapped him against the knee.
“Dude, that’s amazing!”
She must’ve seen the surprised expression on Seth’s face because she immediately pulled her hand back.
“Oh gosh, sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you, but like, that’samazingnews.”
She wrung her fingers together, darting her eyes out the window, her cheeks growing that shade of red once more. A smile tugged at Seth’s lips, as he felt the ghost of her slap against his knee.
“How about you? I bet you’ve been promoted to CEO of a publishing company by now, right?”
A chuckle escaped Nina’s lips at this before shaking her head.
“Oh, that’s definitely the next step. But for now, it’s all going alright.”
He tilted his head, “Aw, why the solemn reply? You’re studying writing, that’s literally your dream!”
“Wellduh,but assignments can still suck a little.”
She sat backward, with a sigh.
“But either way, I feel like we’re both on the right path to achieving our dreams.”
“Who would’ve thought?” Seth agreed, nodding along.
“I knewyouwould.”
Seth raised a brow.
“What do you mean, you knew?”
Nina blushed at that, as if realising what she just said. She scratched at her ear and averted her eyes from Seth.
“Like, I mean, you were always so, like, good at school. And games.” she said, quickly, and Seth was reminded of the times when he’d have conversations with Nina, and she’d talk exactly like this.
What was it with Nina Mendez, and turning back time? He sat in his 13-year-old self as he was met with her flushed expression.
