Oblivion- a Dan Smith Fanfic

PART ONE

"I guess you got stuck in here too, huh," he smiles. His voice is low and musical, with a light lilt that makes my heart skip a beat.

"Yeah, I..." just the sound of his voice makes me forget what I was about to say. "My friend kind of left me.." I laugh at my pathetic attempt at conversation.

"I didn't mean to scare you earlier, I noticed you were drawing with your eyes shut and I guess I've never seen someone do that before,"

I feel the heat rise to my face and I try to laugh it off but I can tell he thinks he's upset me.

"Not like that- I mean- I just thought it was really cool how you can draw something like that with your eyes shut. Are you from Durban then?" Durban? What is he on about? I stare at him.

"Your drawing..." he gestures towards my sketchbook. I look down at what I've drawn and shrug.

"I guess you could call it a city... I've never been to Durban though, it can't be that. It was just an image from my mind," I say, confused.

"No, I'm pretty sure that's Durban. My parents are from there, and I recognize that bit. See there, that's the beach where my grandma used to take us when I was a kid. And that there, that's the apartment block where my cousins live." he grins.

"You can have it, if you like," I smile.

"Are you sure?" I nod vigorously. "Thanks, I'd like that. I'm Dan, by the way. What's your name?"

"Nem,"

"Nem? Is that short for something?" I blush again and look down. "Come on! I bet I've heard worse!" he winks. I shake my head.

"Please? Pretty please?" he looks at me with those puppy dog eyes and I just can't say no.

"Nemesis," I mutter.

"Hey, it's not that bad. Daniel's worse! How come you're called that anyway? Isn't she the goddess of revenge or something?" he seems confused.

"Revenge, retribution and justice..." i recite automatically, like my mother always taught me. "It's kind of complicated..." I don't know how to begin.

"You don't have to tell me... I mean if it's personal..." he's worried he's intruded too far.

"No, it's fine, I just haven't told anyone in a while..." I search for the words.

"When my parents met they were really young, they'd just left Uni. They liked each other from the moment they met, and they were dating for ages until my dad proposed. They had a huge white wedding, and everyone envied them- apparently they were the couple everyone wanted to be. After a few years of being happily married, my dad had an affair. Just a tiny one, but my mum went crazy. She was so angry, she refused to sleep under the same roof as him for months. My dad felt awful and begged her to forgive him, he would've done anything, but she wouldn't listen. One day, she turned up and said she'd forgiven him and wanted to get back together. Of course he said yes and everything seemed to have gone back to normal. Neither of them wanted children, so my mum would always be on the pill or something. Then one day my mum told him she was pregnant and that she wanted a divorce. Turned out she'd never really forgiven him, and she was just pretending so she could get back at him and land him with an unwanted child. She called me Nemesis cause I guess that was kinda the point of my existence. After the divorce I was sent to boarding school and I moved out when I turned sixteen. Not that they even noticed whether I was there or not. I haven't seen my mum since then and the last time I saw my dad he couldn't even remember my name. I guess I'm better off alone. They're definitely better off without me anyway," I look down, unable to meet his eyes.