Nico Vaughan, the junior class "Nice Girl" wants to be free from her abusive and obsessive ex-boyfriend.
Valen Henford, the school's resident "Rich Guy meets Bad Boy" wants to spend his senior year with the girl he's been in love with for years.
W...
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"One day, someone will walk into your life and make you see why it never worked out with anyone else." (Shon Mehta).
|◁ II ▷|
I plop down on Nico's beanbag in the library, pulling out my phone and waiting. I hear her pant-legs whack together as she walks, and I look up to see a winsome smile on her face.
She's gorgeous. And her soul is gorgeous. She's just gorgeous in all planes of being. Even when I see her cursing out math.
"What?" She tilts her head, her smile shifting into something more muted.
I don't say anything and just shake my head, knowing that her smile has made a smile light up my own face.
She plops down beside me on the beanbag, not giving it up. I try to ignore the feeling of her body slipping into mine on the flexible beanbag.
"How was your day, fake-girlfriend?" I question with mirth.
She titters for a moment before the smile slowly melts off her face, her eyebrows becoming set down close to her eyes. "Well, it was good for the most part," she hesitates.
After watching her serious stare down with the floor, I can't let it go. "Hey, what's wrong? What happened?"
I refuse the urge to add "baby" to the end of my last question like my mom does with me.
She looks back at me, her eyes irresolute. "It's..."
She exhales. "You know how, um, Margo Lawrence has been messing with me some?"
I smile wryly. "Bullying you."
Nico takes a quick and audible inhale and exhale. "I don't know."
She unzips her bag.
"Nico, I know something's wrong," I say, and she pauses. "I'll leave it alone, but I want you to be happy. I want to help."
Her eyes and hands stay on her bag, frozen for a moment, until she finishes processing my words. "Okay. Well, um. It's just... drama."
"Drama?" I find myself snorting. "Everyone loves you."
Except Margo.
"Except Margo," she breathes out. "She, um, sort of got physical in class today. Some hair pulling and stuff. And a threatening note. She told me not to tell you or the teachers because she knows where I live—"
