Damien & Nikki

Chapter 5

Liyah and Nikki sit outside on the campus yard going over their semester project.

Liyah taps her pencil against her face while focusing on the laptop in front of her. "If we add the connection of the statistical data from this article we can take up a whole page explaining the sources and we'd be able to use page three to wrap up our paper. Then we can start the physical part of our project."

Nikki lightly pulls up blades of grass absentmindedly picking them into pieces.

"Nikki, were you even listening?"

"Huh? Oh.. yeah. Page three, that's great." She mumbles.

Liyah claps the laptop shut and folds her arms. "Are you okay?"

"What do you mean? I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You've barely been paying attention this whole time. And this is a semester project." Liyah emphasizes.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry, I'm just distracted today."

"I can tell. You're making that face you make when you're bothered by something."

"Liyah you're starting to pry.."

"That's not my intention, I just need you to be present. This is about 70% of our grade and you know how Mr. Taven is."

"Right. You're right, tell me about page three."

"Okay, on page three for our conclusion we can circle back to our point and create a final statement that ends the paper and has people creating their own inferences in which our paper will be unforgettable. How does that sound?"

Nikki doesn't respond; she continues to pick at the grass.

"Earth to Nikki!" Liyah taps her rapidly.

Nikki jolts up. "I heard you!"

"No, you didn't! I need you to focus. What's going on?"

"Nothing is going on Liyah, get off my ass!"

"Excuse me? Nikki, don't play with me!" Liyah warns.

"You said you were going to respect my boundaries."

"I am! I'm just not going to do all the work or risk a failing grade because you aren't paying attention!"

Nikki rolls her eyes refocusing on the grass. Liyah sighs as she pulls her bag to her lap and reaches in. She pulls out a photo, extending it to Nikki.

Nikki looks up slowly and grabs the photo recognizing it almost immediately. "Did you take this from my room?!"

"I found this with my stuff when I got home. It fell out of my jacket." Liyah answers frankly.

"That doesn't make sense. Your jacket was on the bed. I kept this on my dresser."

"I dunno, I don't go snooping through someone's room for their stuff." Liyah shrugs.

"Harry..." Nikki mutters to herself.

"I'm gonna be honest, when I saw the date I was kinda upset you didn't tell me sooner."

"Liyah I didn't want to say anything because I wasn't ready to. Also, you tend to be judgmental about people I date or even try to talk to."

"I don't try to be, most times you can do better. That's all."

"That's not up to you!" Nikki snaps.

Liyah's eyes widen and her face falls.

Nikki lets out a deep sigh.