VALERIE

Fifty Three

* 3 weeks later *

Mia carefully scaled the steps up the tree to get to her childhood tree house, she was balancing a plastic grocery bag on her wrists which was filled with 2 sandwiches, a soda, a large bag of chips and a pack of cookies.

"Nick!" She called out, hearing her Nick smirked, he put out his cigarette on the floor and aimed the gun he still had from Florida towards the entrance of the tree house.

When Mia opened the door she dropped the bag, "What the fuck!" She shouted when she saw Nick aiming it towards her, he began to laugh a bit before tossing it onto a pile of his clothes.

"It wasn't loaded." He said as he adjusted his light blue jeans around his waist so the top brand of his boxers would show, Mia glared at him before picking up the bag and handing it to him, he winked at her before falling back onto a bean bag chair.

Mia sat down on his makeshift sleeping bag and quietly examined him as he took out the food, she had been allowing Nick to stay in her tree house since he was released on bail until his trial which wasn't that far away.

Watching him she realized how bad she'd be lying if she said he didn't make her heart beat quicker, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't happy that he and Valerie were over and she'd be lying if she said she didn't notice how destroyed Nick was.

He was acting like himself, but she knew something was wrong by the way he tried to hide it so hard with a cool demeanor, he'd laugh and joke but he was empty on the inside.

"You okay?" Mia finally asked timidly.

She watched as he put down his sandwich on top of the grocery bag.

He shook his head, "Not sure." He replied sullenly.

"Nick, you can stop torturing yourself now it's been weeks."

"But I said some pretty fucked up shit to her, I was just so angry that I lost control of my filter and just fucked everything up."

Mia got close to him and hugged him, he stayed quiet and then hugged her back,

"I miss her." He mumbled into Mia's hair.

Mia tightly bunched up her fingers and clenched her eyes shut, "It's okay."

"Hey."

Mia let go of Nick and they both looked at the entrance of the tree house, Johnny stood still and timidly with a flannel in his hands.

Mia licked her lips and stood up, "I'll just go." She murmured before disappearing down the steps and out of sight.

Nick stood up from the bean bag and took in a deep breath before pulling on a t-shirt.

Johnny held the flannel out to him, "I um, never returned it."

Nick gently took it from him with a frown stretched on his face, "Thanks." He mumbled gently placing it on the top of his suitcase.

"I don't expect you to forgive me." Johnny blurted out suddenly, Nick turned his back to face the guy who he still sadly considered his best friend. But knew better than to accept his apology, "Nick, I know I fucked up but, I came here to talk to you and sort this shit out."

Nick rubbed his face and very tiredly gave him a hand motion to continue.

"I pulled a stupid stunt, but you have to hear me out when I say that I was just fed up with it all."

"Fed up with what? I never did anything
to you."

Johnny sarcastically chuckled, "Do you know how fucking exhausting it is being your best friend? Do you know how much it hurts to always be compared to you by literally everyone? Even my own parents like you more than they like me."