Heartstrings

Chapter Eighteen: Video Games

Mallory

The rain was scattering to the ground, outside the glazed windows of Pavarotti's. Nina faced me, her hair soaked with rain, water trailing down her skin. She watched me sombrely, her eyes sad but resolved.

"I need to talk to you." Nina repeated, her rain-tipped eyelashes long and dark. I stared at her in utter bewilderment, my mouth parted. Only Tony knew that I was on a date with Reid. But Nina could have easily extracted that information from him.

"What do you want?" I asked, straight to the point. I stared at her worriedly, my red lips pursed.

Nina closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry I followed you on your date."

While Nina talked, her eyes avoided my own. Suspicion crept past my walls. Nina wanted to catch me without Reid, and her body language felt evasive. She was acting completely out of character. A sense of foreboding invaded my senses.

"It's fine." I brushed her apology aside. "I'm going to leave in a few minutes anyway."

As the words left my lips, I recognised my mistake. I regretted it when Nina seized hold of that information. "You're leaving without Reid? Did your date go badly?" she asked me quickly. I couldn't hear any pity in her voice.

I narrowed my eyes. "It didn't go badly. I just feel sick."

"Oh." Nina replied monosyllabically. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, looking at the wall behind me. Anywhere, but never at me.

I sighed, finally irritated beyond the limits of my patience. "Nina, what's going on? We both know that you want to say something. Spit it out."

I saw her temper flare. I knew that once Nina opened her mouth, she would burn me.

"I'm in love with Reid." she burst out. It was the last thing I expected to come from her. But once those words escaped Nina's heart, they hung in the air before us. Bright orange letters, screaming out into reality. Not an infatuation. Not a simple crush, but in love.

If I was confused before, this made the ground open from under my feet. It was an echo of Reid's accident, those few weeks ago. But this was so ridiculous, so idiotically stupid, that it felt like a joke. A torment. I was faintly aware of a ringing sound in my ear, but there was absolute silence in the wake of Nina's statement. 

Her breath shook faintly as she stood, staring me down as her chest heaved with exertion.

I broke the silence by laughing faintly. "You have to be joking. Reid? My boyfriend of a year?"

She nodded, and I knew in that fragment of time that this was the horrible truth. Nina avoided Reid before the crash because she was avoiding her feelings. Maybe she thought she was in love, but this was obsession at most. Nina wanted what she could never have.

She reached for me, looking terribly sad. "I was scared before, Mallory. I loved you, but I love Reid more. I'm in love with him."

I was frightened by the guarded certainty in her eyes. I couldn't tell if it was delusion or conviction that was driving her. "Have you told Reid that you love him?" I asked. I ignored the slow constriction of my heart, like a snake was wrapping itself around my chest.

Even if I thought Nina was crazy, I didn't know Reid's opinion of her. Ever since the accident, I lost that connection to him.

Nina opened her mouth to speak, then closed it in thought. Then, slowly, she nodded in confirmation, her lips tightened at the corners. My world crashed down around me.

Reid was supposed to be on a date with me. Before this date, he must have known that Nina loved him. Reid had a history of keeping secrets from me. He didn't tell me about Brent. It wasn't a stretch to believe that he was hiding Nina's secret. What if he returned her affections and laughed at me for mine?