No Place Like Us || e.d.

- 3 -

Nikki's POV

"When did you– when did you get back?"

"A few hours ago." I said awkwardly.

Please don't ask about the baby stuff. Please don't ask about the baby stuff.

"How've you been?" he asked.

"I've been doing good."

Quit lying to him.

"And yourself?"

"I've been doing good too."

"I'm glad." I smiled.

"What's all that for?" he pointed to the baby stuff.

Fuck.

"I'm really in a time crunch. I gotta go, but I'll talk to you later. It was nice seeing you again." I said and quickly walked away.

Ethan's POV

So it was her. She really is back. I just wanna know when she came back and why she was buying baby stuff.

"I got some stu– you okay?"

"She's back."

"Who?"

"Nikki. She's back in Jersey..."

"E, we've been through this, she's probably moved on and has a better life wherever she is."

"Grayson. I'm not being delusional. She was standing right in front of me. We had a conversation. It was literally like 2 minutes long, but she's back. In person. Flesh and blood." I sighed.

These past two years while she was gone, I just kept thinking, what if she's out of this city, not the state. Did I do something wrong? I always wanted to go over to her parents' house to see if she was okay and whatnot. I just never had the courage to. I wanted to give her space because I thought she needed it. Little did I know, she was gonna leave for two years.

Nikki's POV

"Mommy." Alissa walked out to the kitchen.

"Alissa, why are you still awake?" I dropped the bags and picked her up.

"The evil man was scaring me again." she buried her face into my neck.

"Baby it's okay. It's okay."

I walked back into the room and laid her back down on the bed next to Jason.

"Can you stay with me?"

"I'll be right here." I laid next to her. After a few minutes, she went back to sleep and I walked out to the kitchen to put everything away. I went to go change and get ready for bed, but before I could, the doorbell rang. I looked through the peephole. It was Ethan. I saw Grayson waiting in the car and I didn't wanna be rude. So I opened the door.

"Hey." I slightly shut the door behind me.

"When'd you come back?"

"A few hours ago." I stroked some hair behind my ear.

"Why didn't you call me?"

"It's too late to be talking about this." I just wanted to get out of this conversation. I shouldn't have opened the door. Nicole, what the fuck.

"How'd you know I'd be here?"

"You left for two years, and you rented out your apartment. And considering you just got back, I figured you'd be here, not a hotel."

"Oh." I didn't know what to say. This was so awkward.

"Why did you leave?"

Because the condom broke and I was pregnant with your kids.

"Ethan, I really don't wanna talk about this right now. I'm too tired. Please."

"Nikki–"

"Please."

"Okay. Well, good night. I hope you have sweet dreams." he stepped off the porch.

"Sweet dreams." I replied.

He turned around, "we're gonna have to talk about this eventually. We both know each of us needs closure."

"I know."

He turned back around and got in the car.