Worth The Risk

22

'I told you to stay away from her,' I began as soon as Nikki opened the door. At the sight of her puffy, blood shot eyes, I hesitated, before advancing further towards her. 'I told you that seeing you would affect her progress.'

I shoved her backwards and picked her up by her t-shirt, frustrated that she wasn't even trying to fight me off. 'Fight back!'

When she didn't answer, I let go of her. 'Is it because I'm not Normani? Is she the only that you want to hurt? Because congratulations, you broke her. You broke one of the most perfect and pure humans in this world.'

'I was at work, I didn't know that she would come to that store. I didn't know it was her purse at the counter, Finn just told me to give it to the girl with a gray jacket on.'

'What?'

'If it were anywhere else, believe me I would have done my best to avoid her. I've been in Houston since May, which is before you even knew that either of us existed and I didn't try to contact her once. Why would that suddenly change?'

I watched her walk over to her desk and pick up Normani's purse. 'Can you give this back to her?'

'You're not going to try and use it to go and see her?'

'I made up my mind a long time ago to never contact Normani no matter how much I want to, not until she decides that she wants to speak to me.'

'So even if she never says that she wants to see you, you'll never contact her?'

Nikki nodded, 'I have no right to expect anything from her after what I did to her. I need to get ready for class.'

'Okay,' I nodded, walking out of her apartment before I could even realize that I had left the purse. I went back to knock on the door again, but I heard her sobbing just before the music drowned out any other noise.

I drove over to Sam's house without realizing where I was going. He opened the door, and after seeing something in my eyes, he wrapped his arms around me. After his bear hug, we went inside and up to his room.

'What's wrong?'

'Mani saw Nikki yesterday. She's a mess right now. I could barely get her to actually eat the bacon that she requested. Then I went to confront Nikki.'

Sam smiled knowingly and I noted the sadness in his eyes. 'I can't tell if she's really changed or not either.'

'You went to see her?'

'I thought that Nikki might have had something to do with what happened to Normani. But she was in class, I checked with some of her classmates.'

I let him hold me as we lay down on his bed. 'I think what makes it worse for me is how she doesn't even fight back.'

'Okay, what do you want to do today? We can watch a movie, or go out for a walk? We can also just lay here if that's what you're more inclined to do.'

'I want to just lay here,' I answered, enjoying the feeling of his arms wrapped around me. 'The rest of my crazy family is coming down for the holidays. Do you want to meet them?'

I could feel his eyes on me. 'Really? You never want me to spend time with the ones that are already here.'

'Because they're crazy. Anyway, you don't have to. I know it's the holidays and you've got your own family to be with.'

'No I would love to, I mean you've met my whole family.'

I could already hear all the inappropriate things that people, especially my aunt Leilani would say to him. 'But don't say I didn't warn you.'