No one bothers me for the rest of the night and I don't sleep well. I keep on waking up every other hour from the same nightmare that I've been having since the accident. Glancing at my clock I see that its five and I should start to get ready for school but honestly I don't want to go because I know for a fact that I'll have to face Nick. I decide to just get ready for school and haul my lazy bum out of my warm, comfy bed.
I've finished up and am now ready to go just one hour later. I glance over at my phone and see that I have a new text message. It's from a number I don't recognize but I tap on it anyways.
Unknown: hey it's Nick. I'll be at your house soon to pick you up for school. Make sure you have your stuff ready.
Ugh! Great now I have to rely on Nick as being my ride to and from school today. I hope I can convince Charlie to let me buy a car so I won't have Nick be involved any further.
Me: How soon?
Unknown: not saying cuz I know you'll make a run for it if I say
Of course he would say this. He just met me yesterday and he already knows that I want to make a run for it.
Me: Ugh! Fine I'll see you soon
As soon as I sent that I heard a car honk it's horn. I ran down the stairs with my backpack and ran out the house before Liz could stop me. Nick was just stepping out of his truck as I sprinted down the steps and ran for the vehicle.
"Wow! Where's the fire?" he asked sarcastically.
"Hardy har har. Let's go before my sister sees and calls me back." I say as I hop into the passengers seat. His face turned serious as I said that so he jumped in just as quickly as I had and pulled out of the driveway but not before I received a text.
Liz: you're in trouble. We'll 'discuss' your punishment when you get home
I winced at the threatening text and then I remembered that Nick was right next to me. I glanced at him to see if he had noticed and judging by his face he had.
"What did she say?"
"It's none of your concern."
"Lark just tell me!"
"No! You don't need to be dragged into this any further!" The truck jerked to the right as he pulled it over just then slamming on the brake causing me to jerk forward. I screeched out as the seat belt locked up and pushed into my already bruised ribs.
"Are you okay?" he asked. His face had turned from showing how pissed off he was to how concerned he was since I'm in pain.
"Does it look like I'm okay?!?" I ask loudly while glaring at him. I try to sit up but the pain in my ribs causes me to sink back down and clutch my side.
Nick reaches his hand over and gently lifts up the side of my shirt far enough to reveal some of my ribs. I watch him carefully as he does so because I know that what he's about to see isn't pretty. He becomes furious all of a sudden and his other hand turns white as he clenches it into a fist. "Did she do this? What kind of person does this to their little sister?!?!" he yells furiously. I flinch away from him as he yells and pull the fabric out of his grasp.
"Just drive." I tell him calmly not even daring to look at him since I can feel tears prickling my eyes. Soon enough we're on our way to school.
About ten minutes later we pull up into the school lot and pull into a parking space. Nick turns off the car and just sits there not doing anything. I clear my throat to gain his attention and his head snaps towards me.
"I should probably go get my schedule." I say sheepishly.
"I'll take you to the office and show you where your first class is." He gets out after grabbing his bag and comes over to my side and opens the door for me and helps me down.
"Thanks."
"No problem."
"Hey Destin!" We both turn to see who had yelled and saw a bunch of football looking jocks walking towards us.
"Hey guys." Nick says while doing that weird bro hug thing with the one that had yelled at us.
"Who's this?" one of them asked.
"Guys this is Larken. She just moved here. Lark these are the guys."
"Hi." I say shyly. One of the guys came over towards me, he was slightly shorter than Nick and not as attractive but still pretty cute. He came closer and pulled me close to his side and I yelped a little bit because he had grabbed the side that was bruised the most.
"My names Jax. If you need anything, anything at all just come ask us."
"Jax let go." Nick hissed through his clenched teeth.
"Relax man I'm just being nice to the new kid."
"Jax, she has an injured side."
"What? Really? What'd you do?"
"Jax." Nick said warningly.
"It's fine Nick." he looked at me surprised. "I hurt myself skateboarding. This time was worse than some of the others." I lie smoothly. I glance over at Nick who looks relieved and concerned. Jax removed his hand from my side, he started to lift my shirt to see but I swatted his hand away. "No looky." I say like a five year old as I glare at him.
"My bad." he says and raises his hand up defensively. I can't help but smirk at that.
"So Nick," I say as I turn to him, "Where's the office?"
"This way." he tells me as he puts his arm over my shoulders and guides me towards the school.
