Across the Pond

Chapter 59

When we pull up to Stevie's house, the first thought that comes to mind is: why did I agree to this?

There must be, at least, 100 people here - a half of which are pretty much wasted right now. I've never been to a frat party before, but if I had to guess, I'd say it's something similar to what I'm currently witnessing. There's a keg stand happening in one corner, beer pong happening in another, and girls in crop tops grinding up against guys as some random dude wearing a backwards hat plays music from his laptop.

While the outside of Stevie's mansion is pretty spectacular, I'm unable to describe what the inside looks like because it's dark, crowded, and kind of messy with all of the pizza boxes and alcohol bottles laying around.

"You thinking what I'm thinking?" Remi shields her mouth with her hand and asks me.

"If it's something along the lines of 'what are we doing here?' then yes."

"Great. Good to know that we're on the same page."

"B?" I hear someone call out, which is a damn shame because I'm fairly certain Remi was just about to propose that we get the heck out of here.

"Brooks?" I say once I turn around. Luckily, he's alone.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, looking very shocked.

"What is he doing here?" Remi asks right after.

"Uh," I look at Remi and say, before shifting my body back to Brooks. "Uh, we were invited."

"By who? I wasn't even invited," Brooks says. 

"The host himself," Remi chimes in proudly.

"How the fuck do you know Stevie?"

"Hooked up with him once or twice," Remi shrugs. "Geez, what's with the 21 questions?"

"It was 2. And...bite me, Remi."

"You wish," she snarls.

I'm not in the mood for their weird, flirty banter right now, so I turn to Remi and ask her if we should grab a drink. When she says yes, I let Brooks know that we're heading over to the bar.

"B, wait," he tries and stops me before I can run off, but it's too late. I'm already pushing people out of the way with my hand. "B, hold up. There's something that I need to tell you."

But I just keep going.

"What was that about?" Remi asks once we make it to the bar.

"Who knows? You don't think Nico's here, do you?"

She looks around the room before she can answer me confidently, and then turns back to face the bar. "Nope. Plus, I don't think Nico would even come to this. He hates Stevie."

I can't help but chuckle. "Does Nico hate every Sherman boy?"

"Pretty much," Remi presses her lips together and states before ordering us both a seltzer. We agreed that we weren't going to drink tonight.

"I say we take a lap around the room just to show face and call it a night," Remi proposes. "Thoughts?"

"You don't have to ask me twice," I tell her, and just as we're about to make our way around the room, I see something that I wish I hadn't.

I freeze in place, my mind asking itself repeatedly if what my eyes are seeing is real. The only reason why I finally move is because Remi walks back to me and nudges my arm.

"I thought you were right behind me," she says. "Why'd you stop?"

When I don't answer her, she looks at where my eyes are pointed, and then freezes, too.

"Son of a bitch. I'm going over to him," she tells me, but I stop her with my hand.

"No, don't. I don't want him to know that we're here. Let's just go."

"Bella, he needs to know that you're here, seeing what you're seeing."

And what I see right now is Nico sitting on the couch with a blonde-haired girl perched on his thigh. They're both holding red cups in their hands, but Nico's also smoking, what I'm assuming, is a joint. He looks out of it. Really out of it. So much so, that I almost don't recognize him.

"I don't care enough, Rem. Please, can we just leave?"

"Well I care, and I'm not going to let him get away with this. I'll be right back."

"Remi, no!" I shout, but when I go to clutch her hand, she's already out of my reach. I quickly follow her, but stand off to the side once we get closer to Nico in the hopes that he won't see me.

"You disgusting piece of shit," I hear Remi shout. Nico jolts so hard that the blonde-haired girl almost falls from his lap.

"Remi? What are you doing here?" he asks.

"I should ask you the same question," she says. "Or rather, who are you doing here?"

"Where's Bella? Is she here?" he ignores her question and asks, immediately glancing around the room.

"Would it matter to you if she was?" Remi looks at the blonde-haired girl and then back to Nico. "You sicken me, Nico, you really do. You don't deserve Bella."

Nico gets up, which consequently makes blondie get up. "You're right, I don't," he says. "Why do you think I ended it?"

"You're such a liar," Remi shakes her head and states. "You ended it because you're too chicken-shit to let anyone into the reality of your fucked-up life."

"Where is she, Remi?" Nico asks again, but all she does is chuckle.

After that, Nico doesn't say anything, but everyone else around them is watching. Waiting. And that's when Remi looks at me.

Remi's right. I shouldn't hide. Nico needs to know that I'm here, which is why I take a few steps towards him.

"Bella," his eyes widen the second that he sees me, but I don't respond. All I do is look at him for 10 seconds too long.

"You ready to get the fuck out of here, B?" Remi asks me.

I move my eyes away from Nico and to Remi. "More than ready," I tell her.