Finding Him

Chapter Twenty Two

~Dex~

I've always wondered what moment I would honestly describe as being the very best moment of my life. The first thing I thought when Nikki told me that she loved me was, honestly, "Holy shit, is this real?"

The second thing I thought, however, was, "Is this the best moment of my life?"

At that point, I thought it was for sure the best moment of my life. My thought was only reconfirmed as each hour passed under the stars and Nikki was still beside me. I kept waiting for her to vanish like she did so many years before. Nervously, I kept glancing at the waves to see if they if they had gotten more violent. For all I knew, Nikki could slip into that water and I could lose her again. If I lost her again, there would be no hope for me; I'd go insane.

I was wrong, though. That wasn't the best moment of my lie. Don't get me wrong, it's probably the second best moment of my life. Hell, any memory shared with Nikki is high up on my list of my favorite moments.

The best moment of my life was yet to come.

My living room is decorated with streamers and bright pink balloons. A banner that reads 'Happy Birthday' has been carefully strung across the stairway's banister. My niece is turning one today, apparently a huge celebration.

I always disliked the expression, "You only turn [insert age here] once!".

My thought process was more along the lines of, "No, duh. You only turn every single age once. You get older everyday, why make a big deal about getting older just because its one whole year?''

I wasn't complaining, though! My whole family was getting together and we were planning on barbecuing and surfing on the beach. Sandra is also the cutest thing alive. Her hair eyes were strangely inherited from her father despite my sister's whole dark-eyed and dark-haired dominant gene thingy. Weirdly, she somewhat resembles Nikki with her dainty bone structure and greenish-blue eyes.

Just as I finish tying the last bouquet of balloons to the banister, a loud burst of music explodes from inside the kitchen. Thanks to my electronic geek father, not only did we have a theater in our basement, but we had speakers installed into the walls of every room in the house.

"Dex! Come down here!" Nikki yells. Her call is nearly drown out by the music, but I know that girl down there, and she can scream much louder if she so desires, so I bound down the steps two a time.

You don't keep a princess waiting, right?

Pushing open the door to the kitchen, I am met with a wall of sound. A good wall of sound, for Madonna's "Like A Virgin" is playing full blast.

"Does both knowing and semi-liking this song cost me my man-card?" I yell into the kitchen, where I can barely see Nikki in a cloud of flour and heat- she was assigned the task to bake the cake earlier this morning by my commander-in-chief-of-all-household-events mother.

"Nope, it makes you a dweeb though!" She yells back, coming out of nowhere to smear flour all down my nose.

"You're the one who's in love with the 80's!" I laugh, using the sleeve of my favorite red hoodie to wipe off the flour.

"And I don't deny that! Let your inner dweeb come out, babe! I love dweebs!" She yells, a glint of amusement in her eyes.

God, I love this weirdo and her love for the 80's.

Laughing, she grabs my hand and awkwardly twirls me into the center of the kitchen. Her blond hair is tied back into a ponytail which whips around her head in a perfect gold halo each time she spins very dancer-like around me.