The Introvert and the Football Player

Chapter Seventeen

Nova's POV:
It didn't matter how hard I was trying. I couldn't make him want to stay with me. "I don't love you. I never did. You were just a way for me to let off  steam." He said. His words cut through me like razors. "You don't mean that. You love me I know you do." I whispered. He looked at me with pity as he walked towards the door. I tried to go after him but my feet wouldn't move.

"NO!!" I screamed out. I patted my bed around me; it was only a dream. I struggled to control my breathing, but this dream was no different from the usual ones. I could never see who the boy was that didn't love me but I always knew the voice. Jerome Barnes had said that to me two months after he left. I missed him terribly for months afterwards, and that's when the dreams started. There were only five minutes until my alarm went off so there was no point in trying to go back to sleep.
I had spent the rest of the weekend talking to Bo and doing homework I missed because we went out Friday night and Saturday. There was a nagging feeling about going back today that I couldn't shake. Everyone knows that they'd kissed and everyone knows that Bailey and Jason are an item. But what were her and Bo? Were they strictly friends or were they progressing to something more?
"You were up before your alarm this morning." My mom said. She knew me better than anyone and she was the only one who knew about her nightmares. "You heard me?" I asked. I usually was quiet when I dreamed. "No but Radly and Tommy did." She answered sighing. "They came into my room scared for you."
Radly and Tommy were twins. Radly was the baby girl and Tommy the baby boy of the family and I had one brother who was older than me. My parents always joke and say that the twins were never their intentions but I knew for a fact that they wouldn't trade either one of them.
My older brother, Wesley, was a Marine. When I became a freshman he had just shipped out to Syria to help suppress the rebellion there. My mother blames his departure for my "brief period of insanity and rebellion". Wesley was shocked when he heard of some of the things I had done, but he never judged me. "I don't know what you're going through but no matter what it is, I got you baby sister and I'll be home soon." He had told me. That was when I had begun dating Jerome; I was still innocent.
"Go get ready Nova. You don't want to be late." My mom told me as she cleaned up the dishes from her breakfast. I had planned on going in the sweats I was wearing and just pulling my hair up, but it would give my mother a heart attack if I did. "Yes ma'am." I said as I left the kitchen.

Bo's POV:
"Are you gonna see your girl today?" My little sister asked me. "I hope so princess." I told her. My little sister was my everything. I was 14 when she was born. Lauren Arianna Smith was born with Autism. She was already their world and I didn't like it. When my parents brought her home, I wouldn't go near her. She grew older and I still wouldn't mess with her.
One day she was drawing one of her many pictures that she always drew and as I watched her, I couldn't understand why I didn't like her.
"What are you drawing?" I asked.
"My family. See there's mommy and daddy and that's you and me." Lauren told me. Everyone had smiles on their faces except for me. "Why am I frowning?" I asked with a frown. Lauren looked up at me with her brown eyes as if to say look at what you're doing now. "Because you never smile. You are always mean." She answered. "I'm not mean." I defended myself. "You are. I always tell mommy and she says it's cause you are a brat." She told me.
I smiled at Lauren as she drew a picture on the dry erase board in my bathroom. I put it in there after she drew all over my mirror with dry erase markers. "You need to dress nice for your girly." She told me as she looked up at me. I planned on just wearing sweats and my old beat up tennis shoes, but Lauren looked like she wanted me to challenge her this morning. "Yes ma'am!" I said in a voice that I only used for her and walked out of the bathroom.

******
"'Cause, girl, you're perfect
You're always worth it
And you deserve it
The way you work it
'Cause, girl, you earned it -shit
Girl, you earned it, yeah"
I sang along to the radio. This weeknd guy was as good as Nova said. She practically talked on and on about his new album and how good it was. She talked so much about it that I had to go find out for myself. I pulled up to Taylor High as "In the Night" started playing. Everyone was going to be asking so many questions today. I didn't want to hear about how Bailey was dating Jason and I don't care about all the questions about me and Nova. It was our business.
-I have to take my little brother to the doctor so I'm gonna be late. Don't wait for me, I should be there by lunch 😘. Nova texted me and she used a kissing emoji.
-Okay darlin'. See you when you get here 😘. I answered back and with my own kissing emoji.
I had 20 minutes until the bell for first period rang and I wasn't feeling staying here until then. I pulled out of the lot as quick as I had pulled in and drove to get some breakfast.

Nova's POV:
Tommy's doctor's office was slow. My mom called and told them I'd be bringing him in since she had to go straight to work. I was up to my neck in these stupid forms and Tommy was complaining the entire time. "Nova it's cold in here!" He whined. "What the hell am I supposed to do about it?" I snapped. My hand was cramping and I was on page 6 of 9. Tommy sighed and looked up at the tv that was showing Dora the Explorer. "Can we change this? It's for babies!" He whined again. "If we were at home we could, but we aren't at home." I told him. Tommy sighed again and laid on my lap. This I could deal with on any normal day but I had all this paperwork to fill out and he wasn't helping.
I finally finished all of his paper work, but I was cranky. "You better be sick because if I find out you're lying you have to do my chores for a month." I told him. Tommy looked scared as hell but I didn't care. I had my boy waiting for me to show up to class and I was stuck in a children's doctors office.

When what seemed like 2 hours passed, they finally called Tommy's name. "Here goes nothing." He told me as he grabbed my hand. Tommy hated doctors, and he had a good reason to. Our Aunt Radly was sick with terminal cancer a few years after Radly and Tommy were born. She was the only one who had been able to call my baby brother "Thomas" instead of Tommy. And he still won't let anyone call him that after he saw her right after she'd passed. "It's okay squirt." I told him and gave him a reassuring squeeze and led him back to where the doctors wanted him.