The Introvert and the Football Player

Chapter Eighteen

Nova's POV:

We were at the doctor's office for almost 2 hours just for them to tell us that my brother had a cold. I wasn't going to make it to school in time for lunch with Bo and Valerie, so I was just going to go home instead.
-Tommy has the bug, no school for me today (: I texted them both.
"Nova I'm hungry!" Tommy told me as we walked out to my car. "You're sick. There's no way you want to eat." I told him. My baby brother looked at me as if I had just told him that I was going to never let him eat again. "But Nova-" he began. "We'll go to McDonald's before I take you home." I said cutting him off. The kid literally ran to my car after I told him that. "Where are you gonna go after you take me home?" He asked me. "Nowhere Tommy." I told him. Bo didn't get out of school until 2:30 and it was only 1:00.
I turned on the radio to keep him quiet as we made our way to McDonald's. Tommy belted out the lyrics to my favorite The Weeknd song, and I quickly changed it to a song he didn't know.
"You used to call me on my cell phone
Late night when you need my love
Call me on my cell phone
Late night when you need my love
And I know when that hotline bling
That can only mean one thing!" Tommy sang. "Since when do you listen to Drake?" I asked. Tommy was still trying to sing along, and he knew all the words. I sang along with him as I drove to McDonald's. "What do you want squirt?" I asked him, turning down the radio. "I want nuggets and fries and a Dr. Pepper." He told me as he still hummed Hotline Bling.

******
Two Years Earlier:
"You are one cool chick Nova Sparks." Emily told me as she smoked her weed. I smiled at my new best friend and said "You are too dude!" We were both high off our asses, but neither of us cared. "Your phone's ringing." She said. It was Jerome, and I quickly ignored his call. "Lovers spat?" Emily asked me. She was the only one who really knew the extent of mine and Jerome's relationship. She knew we weren't the perfect couple we displayed at school, and she didn't judge. "Some girl was hanging all on him after he got out of gym today." I told her. "She basically told him she'd suck his dick if he left me." Emily scoffed at my words. "Fucking whores. Everyone knows you have Jerome wrapped around your fingers." She answered. "I know I do but I hate seeing everything that walks drool over him. He's not even that cute!" I said as I fell back onto her fluffy blue chair. "Babe, your boyfriend is a dime. Just saying if I wasn't your best friend and Billy wasn't my boyfriend, I'd suck his junk too." Em told me honestly. "I'm tired of fighting with him dude. It's like every night one of us is angry at something the other did." I complained. "That's just it though. If y'all weren't arguing I'd be worried. Y'all have been together long enough to where y'all ain't scared to blow your shit. And brutal honesty is better than lies." She told me. It was her phone that started ringing this time and it was Billy. "Hey baby doll!" She gushed into the phone. "That's my cue to leave." I said as I got up from the chair. "Bye Nova! Remember what I told you!" She called to me as I walked out. "I got you." I called back. Deep down I knew something was about to change but I couldn't name what it was. It was just going to be bad.
**** 
Present Day:
"Hey Em." I said. It was so quiet here that I could hear the wind howling through the trees. "I miss you so much pretty girl. I miss seeing Billy too." I kept talking. "Y'all would be proud of how I cleaned up my act after you guys left." I whispered. It has been almost 3 years and this wasn't any easier. "I'm sorry I didn't grab you to keep you from falling." I said as I began to cry. "And I'm sorry for saying I didn't know you when they questioned me. I knew you and you were amazing. Maybe if I would've said I knew you I could've helped them catch who did this to you." I told her. Emily's parents tried their best to figure out what had happened to Emily and who was involved, and they involved the police frequently in their search. Only her boyfriend Billy knew what happened, and everyone knew he wasn't about to tell what happened. It was as if he knew Emily wouldn't want to be remembered as a victim.
I walked out of the cemetery as quietly as I came. Nobody knew of my visits to Emily's grave. In a way she was still apart of some secret double life that I didn't want to give up.