The end is near.

My physics exam is in about twenty minutes and need I say I don’t handle stress well? I’m shaking as Nick gives me a concerned look, my hand ruffling my hair every few seconds.

We’re both standing in the corridor near my examination class until the door finally opens. A rush of anxiety swallows me whole, and I’m so lost in thoughts that I barely hear Nick speaking, watching his lips move without sound just like we suddenly were underwater. Floating, far from reality, just to be pulled out in an instant as I feel Nick’s arms wrapping around my frail body. I then am able to take a deep breath as I bury my head in his comforting chest, my pulse adapting to his. After a few seconds though, I slowly realize what’s happening.

Nick is hugging me, in the middle of the corridor, where a lot of students could be watching. I put a little distance between us, my whole senses already screaming to get his warmth back against me.

"Aren’t you scared someone might see and assume that… you know…" I manage to say with an uneven voice.

"I didn’t think before doing it, I just felt you needed it. I don’t mind, though. People will talk no matter what we do."

I don’t need more of an answer in order to get a second hug, feeling the soft thumps of his heart through his shirt, breathing in his scent. When I finally release him, I feel his encouraging glance on me.

"Don’t worry, you’ll do just fine", he says as his hand presses my shoulder.

Without a word, I hurry to the classroom, a smile directed at Nick as I walk through the door. Somehow, his being here made me feel like I could accomplish anything.

•••

The first thing I notice as I leave the room after my exam is Nick, waiting for me. His face light up as his eyes cross mine.

"How’d it go?" he asks as I come next to him.

"I think I’m passing, but can we not talk about it right now?"

I’m drained. I gave everything, and my expression must give my tiredness away as Nick bursts out in a heavenly laugh. "Wanna go and grab something to eat to celebrate?" he asks.

"You realise it’s 16 o’clock?"

"Yes, but I also realize you didn’t eat anything all day out of stress… So, wanna go or not? I’m paying."

How on earth could I get such a wonderful friend? I realize that I am in fact hungry, and I grin stupidly, dragging him all the way to the little pizza place where we usually go.

I happily eat, earlier distress already forgotten as food is the perfect remedy to everything. My mood lifted a little, I can finally talk about the exam. I explain the mean parts and the not so mean ones, how I’ll probably get like a seventy but I’m not happy with it, how I’m scared I messed up the last part. He listens to me as I rage, complain, laugh. And with me he is mad at the trap the teacher set (that I fortunately avoided), he’s sad with me that I forgot how to do a little something I worked so hard on.

The conversation goes on and on, never dying all the way on the way to our place, only fading a few hours later as my sleepiness makes it hard to speak. He almost forces me to go to bed, pulling the covers all the way to my neck, tucking me in my bed as if I was still a little child. With what I think was a kiss on my forehead, I give in to sleep. Maybe it was just my tiredness making my dreams seem a reality.