blindsided

•chapter one•

•nicolette's town, pinelilly, above•

i lean the side of my face into my cold palm as i pretend to act interested in what lacy is saying. i catch bits and pieces of the run-on sentence that never seizes from her mouth as i skim over the words in my book from under the table. as my eyes skip along the words and my finger flips the crinkled pages, lacy's voice becomes more excited.

"okay, so friday it is!" she cheers and my head snaps up to look at her. a confused expression clear on my face, her smile falters as she lets out a sigh. "you weren't even listening were you?"

i throw her a sheepish smile and carefully place a bookmark down to mark my page. i throw the book back in my purse and lacy begins talking about what we're going to wear for whatever she has planned. to be quite frank with you, im probably not interested in what shes saying anyways. somehow she always finds the three of us a free pass to go to whatever we want whenever and wherever. parties, clubs, dances, fights, you name it, lacy is there on it. thats lacy nemens for you though: the social light of it all. always smiling and making sure you are too.

"so i was thinking, should i wear the black pumps with that or the red ones? the black ones would continue the streak of black but the red ones would add a pop of color you know?"

just as im about to tell her that im not really the one to come to for fashion advise, the spunky red haired girl plops down in the seat beside me.

"definitely neither. they're both way too dressy for whatever shenanigan you're talking about. i'd go for a pair of sturdy chucks if i were you. that and both pairs are kinda ugly. "

ladies and gentlemen may i introduce to you my brutally honest best friend, maleana barbados. even her name lets you know that she's always up for a good time. her curly red hair bounces around as she passes out the food she's brought us. it's always been like this; every day one of us bring the three of us lunches from one of the local fast food joints. today is wednesday, so it's maleana's turn. im on monday and lacy is on fridays.

maleana tells us about her run in with the ever so annoying holten gansey, one of the town's 'bad boys' as she passes out the food she's brought from pappi's, the local pizzeria. they're hated by the boys, adored by most girls, and feared by most in our little virginia town. as for maleana and lacy, they're nothing but a couple of pricks. maleana is the only one brave enough to stand up to them and lacy tolerates them by not talking to them. but to me, they honestly scare the hell out of me.

the leader of their so called 'gang' is ronan kole. i've never actually seen the kid considering he's suspended for two months, this month being his last. his dad was a mafia leader and brought in "the bitches and the riches" as maleana likes to say. he's been kicked out of and transferred from over eleven schools around the country for behavioral issues, fighting, drugs and alcohol. lacy even told me that he competes for money in fighting illegally at a run-down arena. rumor has it he's on a thirty-two fight winning streak. i shake my head to rid it of the thoughts of the boys.

"so, i'll pick you up at eight on friday got it?" lacy confirms.

"uh, i can't. i have to study for the ap biology test on tuesday. " i bite my lip as two faces of discouragement bore down at me.

"no, i don't care what your excuse is this time. whether you're faking a sprained ankle, claiming your goldfish that i know you don't and never did have died, or studying for a test. you're coming and that's final. "

"what? no but seriously i need to-"

"nope. "

"but-"

"hu-uh. "

"what if-"

"no way. "

i groan and throw my head back. the truth is, i've never had to study for anything in my entire life. its just that a new episode of my favorite tv show, blindsided, comes on at eight and i was not about to miss the whole jackie and ron mix up that disappointedly ended in a 'to be continued...' last week.

"what are we convincing little nici to do now?" jake, my best guy friend and also lacy's boyfriend questions.

"it's a surprise. " lacy replies before pecking her boyfriends lips. nathan, maleana's brother and jake's best friend plops down in the seat next to me.

"did you see how good condos looked in that jacket today? leather does him justice. " nathan comments before stealing a piece of chicken off of my salad. to be honest i've never really eaten a whole lot since the whole ordeal with my parents.

"we're all going and there's no way out of it nicolette. " lacy points at me and i sigh in surrender.

"wear something cute. " maleana says and winks before joining lacy in a chorus of giggles.

this is going to be a long weekend.

••••

hey guys! how did you like the first chapter? who's your favorite character so far? thank you for reading and remember to vote, comments, etc.