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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"Hell is empty and all the devils are here" (William Shakespeare).
|◁ II ▷|
I look around Nico's room as she hops onto her bed, smiling at the door where West is still on the other side, yelling. My fingers graze the wooden box near her record player, thumbing through the records. Her music taste is amazing. There's Edith Piaf, Ozzy Osbourne, The Beatles, Frank Sinatra...
I move over to her book shelf, drinking in each title. I smile to myself when my eyes land on the books I've gotten her.
I hear the bed creak, and footsteps near me. West has quieted to ordering low threats, giving us a little bit of quiet to talk. My eyes move over to the calendar hanging on her wall, and I chuckle at the complete detail in it.
"What?" Nico defends, now standing beside me. "I'm a busy person. I need to stay organized."
I point to a Saturday later this month. "This says, 'Clean room; study; finish chapter eight.' This is not busy. This is a to-do list."
"It's a calendar," she corrects me. "And it's important."
My eyes move over to her The Beatles poster on the wall.
"Yellow Submarine," she tells me, and I look over to see her eyes stuck on the poster, lit up. "I got it from Autographs downtown."
I hum. "Maybe we could go there sometime," I try to say nonchalantly. "You could show me this hidden gem of yours."
I don't look at her, scared of rejection. Instead, I change the subject. "It sounds like West has cooled down."
We both turn to the door. It's quiet, which is either a good thing or a bad thing.
"You think it's a trap?" I ask her.
She hums. "It's fifty-fifty with him. He could be waiting on us in a trap, but he has been hanging out with his Christian friends and the Christian girl he's been talking to. He's been telling me about 'turn the other cheek' and stuff."
We listen in silence, trying to hear past the faint buzzing of the townhouse.
Nothing.
Maybe...
I lean closer to Nico. "I'm gonna test it."
Nico gives me a look, trying to warn me through the mirth dancing in her verdant eyes. "Be ready to run just in case."
