My Brother's Best Friend

Chapter 11

July 3rd.

I've been home for a week and I haven't seen or heard from Nick at all. I'm happy about that. A lot of anger returned when I saw his house for the first time in months, but I saw no sign of him. Tonight, maggie, ash, and I are going to a club. Definitely not my type of thing, but since I'm 19 I thought I should experience it at least once. I wear a black leather jumpsuit with black stilettos. Tonight I'm going for a fierce look so I put on black lipstick and have Ash give me a smokey eye. I wear my now short(er) hair down. Last month, I cut my hair so it came a little bit last my shoulders and dyed it to have more blonde in it. Before that, it was down to my butt and brown with natural blonde streaks. I wanted to change my appearance and start over. I started working out, got my second ear piercing, and new glasses. I'm almost unrecognizable.

-

We arrive at the club and Dangerous Woman by Ariana Grande is playing. I feel like it's the perfect song to make my "grand" entrance to. Yeah, it sounds really lame, but I felt like it was the first time I would be having fun after the incident with Nick. I get halfway through the club and stop.

"J, what's wrong?" Ash asks me. I just point a few feet ahead of us, my hand trembling. I see my brother and his friends in the VIP section. Including Nick. My brother looks my way and the other boys follow his gaze. I quickly turn away. I'm pretty sure he is the only one who recognizes me, but he understands I don't want everyone to know I'm here. He returns to his conversation when Tyler, one of his good friends, comes over to me. He means close to my ear

"I like the look," he whispers. I laugh a little at his remark and what he tells me next surprises me.

"Yeah, we forgave Nick. But I want you to show him how big of a mistake he made. Go over there and act like you're the best thing to walk on this planet. Put him in his place."

I smirked and replied, "I like the way you think, Tyler."

He smiled and turned to go back to his seat on the couch. I took his advice, and after taking a deep breath, I strutted over. A man standing my the ropes tells me it's for VIP only, so I push past him and sit next to my brother who quickly explains I can be here.

"So, um, can we help you? You look kinda familiar," Austin says to me awkwardly.

"Yeah, introduce us T," says Nick. This is the first time I've seen him in months and all I want to do is punch him. I'm glad no one recognizes me. Before Teddy can speak, I do.

"Oh, we've met before." I say. I give him a look that makes me look like I'm ready to kill.

I think that's what makes him recognize me.

"J." That's all he says.

"Actually, my name's Jenevieve. You can call me that from now on." I say rudely. He stares at me in shock. Tyler plays dumb like he didn't recognize me 5 minutes earlier.

"Wow. Y-Y-You've changed a lot. So,
u-um, what have you been up to? " He eyes a bloody bandage on my arm.

"Well, I've been traveling a lot. I've always wanted to visit all 7 continents and I have 2 left: Africa and Antarctica." I smile, proud of my accomplishments.

"And the bandage is from a dog bite," I say, acknowledging the fact that everyone was staring at it.

Even my brother didn't know that. I only told my mom.

"What?!" Teddy says, seeming concerned and spitting out his drink all over the person across from him, who happened to be Nick.

I laughed and explained the story. I was a veterinarian and an abused animal came in to get a check up and when I touched his head he didn't like it and bit me. Now, however, the dog was perfectly fine and going through training with me.

They all stared at me, wondering what happened to the girl they knew 6 months ago. Her appearance changed. She had her heart broken so she became strong. She started traveling more, experiencing the world far away from home. And that changed her a little. Okay, it changed me a lot. I became more adventurous, went outside of my comfort zone.

"Well, I'm gonna go find Ash. Oh and Nick," he snapped out of whatever trance he was in. Everyone waited to see what I'd say. "you might wanna close your mouth." I laughed and got up to find Ash. She was somewhere around here. But I knew it would be impossible to find her. Nick had just stared at me the whole time, not bothering to close his jaw even after I suggested he should.

After looking for ages, I felt like I was 100 degrees and I needed to go outside for some air. Little did I know, Nick was watching me and followed me out. He didn't approach me and when he did he scared me. It was pretty funny but I didn't laugh when it happened.

"Hey," a familiar deep voice said.

I jumped at it's sound but I didn't need to turn around to know who it was.

"What can I do for you, Nick?" He didn't answer so I turned around. He grabbed my arm which was a really stupid move.

"LET GO OF ME!" He didn't listen gripped me tighter.

"J, we need to talk." He replied.

"I said you're to call me Jenevieve from now on." I snapped. I had to force myself out of his grip. I finally did but I stumbled back into the street. The last thing I saw were bright headlights before blacking out.