Sheets | ✓

THIRTY

My injured leg dangled off the side of the chair listlessly, feeling fat and puffy and constrained in the tightly wound bandages. After getting back home last night, Mum had immediately leapt off her supine position on the couch and shoved a bag of frozen peas on top of my throbbing ankle. As a nurse, she had taken one lingering look at the red and puffy ankle, quickly icing it and wrapping a bandage neatly around it, ordering me to take it easy as to not exacerbate the severity of the sprain. Although the pain had calmed down a little, it was still painful and throbbing, and when I re-wrapped the bandage this morning the skin beneath them was significantly bruised and hot.

Sighing as I nibbled on my small square of buttered toast, Jojo let out a concerned whine as she brushed past my bandaged foot. Seeing her eyes looking at my injured limb sadly, I cracked a small smile and rubbed the top of her head, her sad whines turning into a satisfied rumble. The momentary happiness only lasted a short while, however, as I recalled Jamie's words from last night.

After getting confined to the bed by Mum, Jamie had come in and pestered me about the group of people from the bowling alley, and in particular, Nico. My sister did not hold back on her less-than-stellar opinion of the group, and to be honest, I couldn't blame her. Isaac was a total dick-wad - even I knew that. As she dished out an expletive-laden monologue about how unsavoury Isaac was and how she would have to shower in boiling water and antiseptic to get rid of the nasty germs he left on her shoulder, I had nodded along, agreeing with everything she was saying. However, once she ran out of breath, her face red and eyes livid, she had moved on to the next target of her disgust.

Nico.

She first started talking about his tattoos; filthy and gangster-like, she said. I did not say anything, my lips held together in a thin line as I swallowed back my words. At first, I had thought his tattoos were a little scary, but these days I found myself looking at them fondly, and enjoyed tracing my fingers along the intricate lines of his dark designs. After expressing her disgust of his body art, she moved on to his piercings; she didn't have too much to say about the ones adorning his ears, but she did not hold back on his lip ring. Unhygienic, only on good-for-nothings who don't want to get a decent job. The thin line my lips made tightened and the corners of my mouth curled down. I was fond of his lip ring; it suited Nico's striking face, and when it pressed against my lips when we kissed...

My face had immediately flushed when the thought wandered into my mind, and Jamie mistook the change in colour for hatred, not embarrassment. Thinking I was getting equally as riled up as she was, Jamie's mouth kept moving, turning from a shotgun to an automatic rifle.

She then started calling Nico a violent thug, and this was when I had to physically bite my lip to prevent myself from snapping at my older sister. When she recounted how he had beaten Isaac, as much as it was satisfying to see that pig on the ground, Jamie was still adamant that anyone who physically hurt others was a menace and deserved to be put away. Maybe a few months ago, before I knew Nico Beckett - the real Nico Beckett - I would've thought the same thing. I did think the same thing. But now I knew that the Nico Beckett that Jamie sees was not the real one. The real Nico Beckett held me gently and kissed me softly, he cooked me pasta and took me on a picnic. That Nico Beckett doted on his grandmother and worked hard to support his family. 

That was the Nico Beckett that I had come to love.

When Jamie's mouth had opened again to say yet another vile comment about Nico, I had quickly blurted out that I was tired and wanted to rest, shoving Jamie off the foot of my bed with my good foot and burrowing myself under my blanket, face red and hands balled into tight fists. Jamie hadn't said anything, and just pat my good leg twice, before heading out and letting me rest. Before the door had even clicked behind her, I had already dialled Nico's number, holding the phone close to my ear as I pulled my legs up, curling into a ball. The moment Nico picked up, a husky 'Wes' wafting through the receiver, my tight shoulders had melted and everything drained away in a breath. We talked for a short while about simple things, both of us not mentioning the events of the evening, just listening to each other's voices before I eventually drifted off into sleep. When I checked the phone in the morning, I saw that the call had not been cut off for a while after I fell asleep, the thought making me smile a little.