Angelwings22222 thanks for showing so much love for this story and making me crack up with your hilarious comments xD and also for fangirling over Dean's eyes with me ;)

SOMETHING NEW

    The parlour was just as Nova remembered, pastel coloured walls and soft-toned furniture, Ed Sheeran (and sometimes Aurora, or even Birdy) playing softly in the background and the sweet, icy scent wafting through the air.

    Nova figured this was a place you needed to visit during weekday mornings, when adults were still at work and students were still at school. A time when the chatter and the laughter wouldn't drown out the coziness of this place.

    "What are you thinking about?" Graham's voice was directly behind her, her tall frame allowing his breath to fan across her ears.

    "Which flavour I want," she lied easily. Then again, it wasn't a total lie. She was standing with her hands resting against the glass of the long counter, where an array of ice cream all in various colours greeted her.

    She didn't want to tell him that she'd been thinking of the interior and the setting; she stood out enough already with her love for romantic cliches and whatnot.

    She felt unfamiliar hands gently land on her shoulders from behind, the chilly air of the parlour getting cut off as warmth flooded in from the person standing so close to her.

    "Hmm," Graham said thoughtfully, the tip of his chin brushing against her shoulder as his eyes swept over the flavours. "I'm going to go with cookie dough."

    Nova felt the words blow against her skin before she heard them.

    "I can't decide on cookie dough or biscotti," she told him, focusing on her speech because everything else was going haywire. "I think I'm going to go with biscotti." That's it, just keep speaking Nova.

    "Good for you." It sounded like he was smiling. Why was he smiling?

    And then there was a sudden rush of cold air as he stepped away, his hands dropping from her shoulders and falling to his sides. With a quick smile, he walked towards the direction of the others.

    "Nova?" Addy's voice cut through the fog in her head and Nova turned to look at her best friend.

    "You okay?" Addy frowned. "You've been staring into space. Can't decide on the flavour?"

    "Biscotti," Nova said monotonously, heartbeats frantic. "Biscotti," she repeated. "I want biscotti."

    Something was happening.

    What was happening?

    Nothing that's supposed to be happening, Nova knew that much for certain.

×××

    "I can't believe I missed out on you telling Jasper off," Tyler laughed, looking at Graham who was sitting beside him. "The best shit always happens when I'm drunk."

    "He had it coming anyway," Graham muttered, scratching his ear.

    Nova found herself wondering if the gesture was a sign of his discomfort.

    Stop it, she scolded herself. This was getting absurd.

    Nova's eyes fell on his T-shirt since he was sitting right across her, and wondered what the print read today. It was a plain blue tee, with bold red letters that said: keep calm and keep the trenchcoat.

    "Like it?" Graham's voice startled her, and Nova's spoon fell into her ice cream bowl with a clatter.

    "Huh?"

    "The T-shirt," he said slowly, while everybody else went about their own conversations. "You were staring. And then smiling."

    What the actual hell? "Um, yeah," she laughed uneasily, "sorta, I guess. You wore something similar at my place. What's with the sudden printed t-shirts?"

    Graham watched her as he shoved a spoonful of his cookie dough ice cream into his mouth, as if contemplating her question seriously.

    "Its not sudden," he finally said. "I've always worn tees with Supernatural references." His gaze averted, "you're only just starting to notice them."

    There was that odd sense of guilt again; Nova couldn't quite place why she felt that way.

    Ping.

    The sound ripped through the delicate air surrounding Graham and her in that moment, harshly reminding both of them about a certain John Doe.

    Graham's face was impassive as he turned away and began chatting with Declan, the wide receiver of the team, leaving Nova to attend to her email.

    Funnily enough, even though a huge part of Nova did want to have an email conversation with the mysterious boy who kept putting a smile on her face, a smaller part wondered if maybe she would've liked to chat a little longer with Graham.

    She opened up her inbox on her phone, cracking a smile at the new image. It was a photograph of a sunset. The sun was hidden behind clouds but its rays were visible, sending strokes of deep pink and orange against the darkening blue of the sky.

[Such flawless beauty, yet it couldn't keep me hooked the way you do.]

P.s— tell me I'm forgiven, even if its a lie. Please. It'd be music to my ears. Or, rather, heaven to my eyes, since you would be typing it and not actually saying it... Alright, I'm going to stop rambling on now.

    Taking a deep breath, Nova began typing—

[email protected]
Relax, John. I don't bite, contrary to popular belief :P
I was just pulling your strings, wondering how far you'd actually go.
I'm touched. Really.
So when do I get to put a face and a proper name to the guy who's wooing me?

    She clicked send, and with a smile still on her face, she looked up — only to meet Graham's eyes that were already on her.

    And something in those eyes reminded Nova of the scene in Something Borrowed, where Dex told Rachel he couldn't call off the wedding. Because the right thing to do was marry Darcy, the person he'd first pledged himself to.

    Nova didn't know what to think anymore.

________________________________________

By the way, what do y'all think of Monica?