Part Four

Time flew by. It was already the day when the boys agreed to meet up.

Joseph sent Nathan his address and Nathan told him that he was on his way to Joseph's house. It made Joseph extremely excited and nervous.

"Has he arrived yet?" he repeated it to himself every time he looked out of the window.

A while later, Joseph saw a familiar figure across the street.

"Nathan!" he screamed as he opened the door.

"Hey!" Nathan crossed the road immediately and ran towards Joseph briskly.

"Hi Nathan. Nice to see you again!" Joseph said with a big grin while standing in the doorway.

"Are you ready to go now? We are going to walk there. Are you okay with that?"

"That's fine for me. But first, I need to get my stuff. Wait!" Joseph said before he went back in and got his bag.

"This time I'm ready to go." Joseph said as he closed the door behind him.

"Alright! Let's go then!" Nathan replied and Joseph followed him to their destination.

The two boys kept the conversation going during the walk. They both talked about their lives, their favorites and their dreams.

Although it was a long walk, to Joseph, it just felt like a couple of seconds. He really liked when Nathan laughed at his funny stories and his crinkles by his eyes when he smiled.

Things were normal until the two boys arrived at the park.

"Ian said he would be here. Where is he?" Nathan asked with crooked eyebrows when he saw the empty bench.

"Umm... Maybe you should call him?" Joseph suggested.

"Okay, I'll call him." Nathan said while taking out his phone to call Ian.

"Ian?"

"What?!"

"How could you do that Ian Kennedy!"

"That's... Ugh!!"

"Fine!! We'll do it without you then."

"Yeah, you better."

Nathan ended the phone call with a sign and he looked really pissed which scared Joseph a bit.

"What's happening Nay?" Harry asked uneasily.

"Ian will not be here. We will do the whole project together without him." Nathan said before he led Joseph to the empty bench.

"It's fine Nay. We can finish it together." Joseph said after sitting on the opposite side of the bench.

"Thanks Joseph. Let's get started." Nathan said while he took out his laptop from his backpack.

"Wait a second... What did you call me?" Nathan finally realized that Joseph was not saying his full name.

"Umm... Nothing?" Joseph said with a blush.

"Really huh?" Nathan looked at Joseph with a smirk.

"Maybe... Nay...?" Joseph tried to hold in his laugh.

"What kind of name is that!" Nathan exclaimed.

"I think it suits you pretty well, Nay!" Joseph was still trying to hold in his laugh.

"Fine, I'll call you Josy then." Nathan teased Joseph.

"Hey!" Joseph said with a pout.

"That's what you get for calling me Nay."

Nathan saw that Joseph was still pouting. He continued, "Fine... I'll stop calling you that then."

"No! Actually, I like it, Nay." Joseph replied before they both giggled like a little boy.

"Let's start our work now yeah?" Nathan opened his laptop and started doing research after a lot of giggling. Joseph took out his laptop as well and they both started to focus on the project.

Joseph peeped over his laptop to look at Nathan's serious face and his captivating ocean blue eyes during the project.

In fact, Nathan did know that Joseph was staring at him. He was just pretending that he did not know. The two boys searched for some useful information for the project and decided to discuss their ideas after grabbing some lunch.

They went to a restaurant nearby and ordered some food to eat. They sat face to face next to a window in a booth.

"Let's see what's on this menu." Nathan said before they both got a menu from the table. Joseph peeked over the menu to look at Nathan while Nathan was busy scanning the menu. Joseph felt like it was their first date and it made him feel butterflies in his stomach.

Although Nathan actually knew that Joseph was peeking at him when he was reading the menu, he tried to play it cool and did not question a thing. He kind of knew that the boy in front of his eyes might have a crush on him, but he did not want to embarrass himself for getting it wrong.

The two boys then went back to the park and continued their work after having a bountiful lunch. They started to discuss their ideas.

Nathan was the first one to share his research. He found an interesting story about the Minotaur. When he was presenting his idea to Joseph, Joseph was just admiring Nathan's cuteness instead of the ancient myth throughout his whole presentation.

When it was Joseph's turn to present his research, he did not let any chance slip by to take a glance at Nathan's mesmerizing ocean blue eyes.

After all the appreciation of each other's work, they decided to go with Nathan's Minotaur story.

Then, they made a power point together containing the description of the story and some background information.

They both looked at their finished work pleasantly after spending hours of time doing it.

"Okay, now that our work has been done, are you going home?" Nathan asked Joseph, with a smile and his eyes squinting.

"Umm... Yeah? Where else would I go?" Joseph answered with confusion.

"There's no one in my house tonight. Do you want to come?" Nathan asked as he looked at Joseph to see his reaction.

Joseph's eyes sparkle when he heard that Nathan invited him to his house.

"Yo... your house?" Joseph was so excited that he stuttered a bit.

"Yes. Wanna come?" Nathan asked.

"I don't have much to do at home and we don't have lessons tomorrow... So... yeah?" Joseph answered with a little blush on his face.

"OK then, my house is not that far away. Let's go then." Nathan said before the two boys headed towards his house.