His Crime

Chapter Two

Leaning my head on Nick's shoulder, I watch the empty swing set sway in the wind. As silence fills the surroundings, I close my eyes.

The waiting is the worse.

"Are you going to meet him?" Nick asks quietly, as if afraid of the truth. Sitting up, I turn my body to face him on the bench.

"Yes," I admit. "I need to. With everything that's happened in the past, it's the best thing to do."

Watching his eyes dim, I place my hand on his thigh. "I know. I'm just being selfish." He sighs, and then pauses. After a moment of deliberation, he says, "I won't be able to be near him. Seeing me will make him mad."

I laugh. "He said the same about you," I mention. He chuckles, a thousand memories flashing through his mind. A thousand memories I don't know. "What happened with you guys?"

Nick stares at me, pondering if he should say. "I was an evil little shit, wasn't I?" he jokes, referring to the brief history we share. Laughing, I agree. "I've been mad at him for so long, about him sending me to jail when he was the person I relied on, that seeing him go through the process of what I did, my anger went. For so long I was mad. I still am, because I know am the reason my friend disappeared and the monster came out. But you, you changed him. Turned him back into the person before I caused him trouble."

I remove my hand from his thigh and instead turn to my previous position. Leaning my head onto his shoulder, I sigh. "Nick, I'm sorry for whatever might happen."

He chuckles, placing his hand on my knee and rotating his index finger around the bone. "Don't be. Whatever happens is on him."

I sigh. "How did we end up here?"

"Well, Justin shot me in the legs instead of killing me when he had the chance, and as a guilt trip, I apologised to you about everything I did when he went off to prison," he comments, earning a laughter from me.

"Shut up. I didn't mean literally. But why can't you and Justin not just make up? Forget everything?" I ask, wanting the drama to be over before it even happens.

"We can't. There's too much history," he tells me as he grabs my hand and intertwines our fingers, resting his head on top of mine.

"Like what?" I urge.

"Like you. Like him. Like everything he and I did to torture each other," he reveals.

We sit in silence, stuck in that position. As I look around the small playground by Nick's apartment, I dream of the night Justin also revealed his relationship with Nick, of his career, of his past. The night Justin seemed to assure me he would never leave again.

I think back to the start of Justin's and I's relationship and wonder if it's worth it.

"Come on, we better go otherwise Erick and the gang will think I murdered you," Nick jokes, waiting for me sit up before standing up from the oak bench.

"Well, you are Justin's enemy. This whole relationship could be fake as an hoax to kill me as revenge," I address as I take Nick's hand. Pulling me up from the seat, he remains holding my hand as we make the opposite direction of his apartment, heading towards Erick's house.

"If that's true, you better be careful," he says daringly, leaning closer to me as we stop in the middle of the pavement.

I push his hand away from holding mine jokingly. "Whatever," I mutter, trying to suppress a smile.

His lips twitches as a smirk forms. "Come on," he moans as he begins to walk again. I follow behind him.

Finally appearing at Erick's house which stores a lot of memories, Nick stops his stride before he could reach it. "What are you doing?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows.