Return What Was Lost

Chapter 12

Julian discovered quite quickly this was not the case. All week he tried to keep up with Nikki. He tried to be more positive, he tried to act like everything was fine. The two of them hung like normal but Julian couldn't shake his demons. He did his best to act all healthy and happy but it didn't work. Because at night, when he was lost in his own thoughts, he felt exactly the same: empty.

"Are we crashing or enjoying Archer's party?" Brady asked as he entered Cole and Julian's room.

"Passively appreciating the free beer," Cole said from the bathroom.

Brady laughed but then noticed Julian's glum expression.

"Apparently not all of us will be," he said.

"Maybe I can get out of going," Julian mumbled.

"Fat chance of that," Cole replied. "Nikki is waiting for us to meet up with her and Avery. You don't want to ditch your girlfriend do you?" he asked, teasing him slightly.

Julian rolled his eyes, but got up from the bed. He did not want to hurt Nikki's feelings, he still felt kind of bad about last week's dance. He picked up his Metallica shirt and put it on. Once he was ready, the boys went to the girl's dormitory. They only waited a few minutes until they saw Nikki, Avery, and to Julian's surprise, Emmet, coming up the path. What was he doing here?

The girl's greeted them and Julian finally realized why Emmet was here.

"Cole, this is Emmet, he is one of Avery's best friends," Nikki said, introducing them to the other.

Julian did not like that they were setting Cole up with the guy who bought drugs for Avery. Although she seemed to trust him and Nikki seemed to like him as well.

Julian looked up at Avery and noticed a silver chain around her neck. There was a stingray pendant on it. It looked familiar to him. Julian suddenly remembered that Avery had spent half her childhood wearing that silver necklace. In fact, her father had bought Julian a similar one but with a shark on it. Julian was annoyed that he couldn't recall if he even had his or not anymore. Avery must have caught on to his staring as she tucked it under her shirt when she caught his gaze.

Julian looked away as they began walking down one of the paths that would take them to the other side of the mountain where the party was. Nikki walked by his side and Brady and Avery walked close to them so they could give Emmet and Cole some privacy up ahead.

"Can you set me up with someone?" Brady asked Avery.

Avery shrugged. "Got your eye on anyone?" she asked.

"Well, I can't say it in front of Aldine," Brady replied. "He might sleep with them too."

For once, Julian wasn't bothered by the comment, he could tell Brady was joking and in relation to all of Julian's other issues, it wasn't that a big a deal. However, Nikki disagreed, she smacked Brady's arm.

"You need to get over Maya, " Nikki chided. "It's been long enough, and besides Julian is not going to cheat on me."

Brady's jaw dropped. "Wait, so you two are actually...? Okay, well that changes things," he muttered.

Julian kind of tensed up. He hadn't really put a label on him and Nikki, but it was pretty clear she had. He flinched as she reached for his hand. Julian did not like it when people touched him without warning. He needed to be comfortable first, still he felt bad when he noticed Nikki's expression. He tried to calm down and then he took her hand.

"So, do you have any hot female friends?" Brady asked unaware of what had just happened between Nikki and Julian

"What?" Avery asked, snapping her head in Brady's direction suddenly.