Nikki Shay & Co.

Chapter 25

Once I got home, I called Billy. I needed a third party who could just listen to me. We hadn't talked in a month or two and from our conversations, he needed something to spice up his boring life.

"Hey Nikki! What's up? How's the boyfriend and everyone else in Hardridge?"

"Yeah, well you might need to come to my funeral soon. Karma is going to kill me."

"You're Hindu? And I don't think that karma is like that, anyway. But if you are Hindu, you'll just have to worry about your next life, or something like that."

"Thanks so much on your insight about Hinduism."

"I try. So, why is karma going to kill you?"

"I lied to Brett, like if he found out that I lied, he would be crushed."

"Is it about that Ben guy? Chris was talking about that a few days ago while we were playing on XBOX Live."

"What?"

"You're dating Brett more or less because you want him to enjoy Hardridge. Then when he moves, you and Ben will get together. You're pretty into Ben, but there's this girl Diana that he's replacing you with. She's a hot witch, blah blah blah. You think of Ben more than Brett, et cetera et cetera.

"You got yourself in a doozy. My suggestion, Nikki, is to take advantage of having a gentle boyfriend like Brett while you have him. And try to treat him the way that he treats you, but even better, if you really want him to enjoy Hardridge. Then around the time that he's supposed to leave, break it down to him. I'm sure he'll take it well. That's my opinion. And I think that I tend to have the best opinions. So take my suggestion and call me when you aren't going to talk to me about boys. Talk to you later, bye." And then he hung up just like that.

--

"Ben, if Nikki falls into those foam cubes one more time, I'm going to shave your head, or something!" Brianna screamed. Supposedly she got meningitis or something like that, which caused her threats to be less scary.

That was the fifth time that Ben didn't hold me for our Dirty Dancing move. He would lift me up and his arms would tilt back and I would fall head first into the soft grey foam cubes.

"Let's try this again. Remember Nikki, be light as a feather," Gene said.

I gracefully ran towards Ben and as soon as I got to him, he lifted me up by my waist. Thankfully I didn't fall. I stayed in the air for a few seconds and then Ben brought me back down.

"Good job," I told him. "What's next?" I asked the Cops.

"We're just going to run through it again with the music in the other room."

We headed off to the room with the hard wood floors. Once inside we got into our positions and the music started.

There's this thing about dancing, it's acting. Dancing is telling a story; and it has to be a believable story.

The story of Sweater Weather, created by Gene and Brianna, is about a boy who meets a girl who he believes is the girls of his dreams. However, by the end, he realizes that she's simply using him to get out of the cold weather.

"Spot on guys," Gene clapped. "We'll lock up, you guys can go." I grabbed my garment bag from the side of a wall and left, saying bye to Gene and Brianna.

As I walked out of the building, Ben followed me out and tapped on my shoulder.

"Can we talk?" He asked.

"You have about ten minutes until my dad gets here, go." It'd been nearly two weeks since I had talked to Billy and things were going well with Brett and I. I was focusing more on Brett than Ben. Even though sometimes when Ben looked at me with such an attractive look in his eyes when we danced, I didn't get as fazed as I normally would.

"Okay, so I broke up with Diana. Even though there were benefits, I couldn't deal with her flaunting our relationship around - especially in your face-"

"I didn't know that you guys were even dating." I continued to look out into the street, waiting for Gio to show up.

"And I'm sorry about what you saw in that closet."

"Thanks so much for bringing a memory back that I'd tried so hard to repress."

"Sorry."

"You really should be, especially since you sought out sex from a slut since you couldn't have me. I can't believe that you just stood there, Ben. You just stood there in shock. You didn't push her away or anything. And it disgusted me."

"How many times do I have to say that I'm sorry?"

"Maybe when you actually mean it."

"I wanted to talk to you so that we could rekindle our friendship, but you're just spitting in my face."

"I've been better since I stopped talking to you," I said softly. "So, maybe I don't want our friendship to be rekindled."

"Well it needs to be. Gene told me that they aren't getting what they wanted out of us."

"First off, you just wanted us to be friends again because of the dance? Secondly, what do you mean?"

"No, I genuinely want us to be friends. And they thought that it would be completely sexy, but all they're getting is something fake, lacking all luster."

"And they didn't tell me this because?"

"They knew you didn't want to talk to me." I didn't know how to reply. I didn't want to associate with Ben, besides the dances. Yet, I didn't want Gene and Brianna suffer because Ben and I sucked.

I saw my dad's silver truck down the block.

"My dad is here," I mumbled. I gripped my sports bag tighter as Gio's truck pulled up. When I got inside, Nick was driving the truck. "Where's Dad?"

"Him and Mom are grocery shopping," Nick answered as he pulled off of the curb.

"When do you think he'll move in?" I asked.

"I'm thinking a month or less," Nick answered. "I saw you and Ben talking."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Alright then."

--

"Nikki!" Ben yelled, grabbing my arm. I didn't know why I was at school twenty minutes before it started.

"What do you want, Ben?"

"You kind of left in the middle of our conversation yesterday."

"And?"

"Can you stop acting like a total b*tch to me?"

"Excuse me?" I yanked my arm from his grasp. Ben had no right to call me out of my name.

"Yeah, stop acting like a b*tch to me because I screwed up. And don't act like you're not screwing over Brett." I opened my mouth to reply, but Ben kept talking in an angry voice. "You're screwing him over because you want to be with me still and you don't want to admit it." He was right, I was just suppressing those thoughts. "And I bet right now that you want to kiss me," he smirked.

"Douche," I laughed as I pushed him away.

"I figured that an insult and a bit of truism would get you back."

"I considered beating you up by the way."

"I had a feeling that you would when I called you a b*tch... It's good to have you back Nikki Shay."

A/N:

I am so sorry for how horrible parts of this chapter came out to be. I was being lazy with the explanations of things. And sorry that it's short.

Anyway, don't forget to comment, vote, fan/follow and have a nice day!