Finding Him

Chapter Twelve

~Dex~

"Mom, stop freaking out! I'm fine!" I groan, clenching my jaw as a searing headache comes on. OK, so maybe I'm not perfect, but I'll live!

"Dex, I'm pressing charges! Oh, when I get my hands on the brat who did this, let me tell you they're going to be paying a lot more than medical costs!" Mom shrieks, typing away on her Blackberry like nobody's business.

She tosses her silky coffee colored hair over her shoulder and straightens the hem of her black suit. My Mother; the hard and steely lawyer with a perfect record and the beauty of a dark-haired angel. She gets what she wants, whether by beauty or brains, it doesn't matter to her.

I lean against the cold hospital walls and push the ice harder into my skin. It brings momentary relief to the pain before beginning to burn. My nose throbs and my lip burns; I needed three stitches for my lip and now the issue was my nose.

I just want to know if my nose is broken or not! Honestly, I don't care if it is, I just want to go home. Not to mention when I get all this crap out of the way I can begin to decipher why this even happened in the first place. I mean, I don't think Will would be that angry about me kissing Nikki would he?! I would be pretty pissed, but... who am I kidding I would beat the living crap out of me if I were Will.

"Mom, don't press charges, I deserved it," I say, licking my bloodied lips. Mom whips around and points her phone at me, her blue eyes look into me. Mom is good at that, it's like she can can look into your soul.

"What did you do?" She asks, her eyes threatening me to answer her. She was all about that perfect lifestyle; perfect kids, house, husband, job, etc. Everything needed to be in her control at all times, period.

If I had a girlfriend, I was to take a picture and show her. If she approved of her looks, I was to bring her over for dinner, if she dressed appropriately then dinner would proceed, and then the big test came; personality. It was all about image, and if something was imperfect it was not allowed. I was not to drink; except wine at fancy dinners, I was to use my full name, Dexter, when we were in public, I was to go to a top-ranked school and get all A's, etc. She was a good Mom, but her obsession with image drove me insane.

"I kissed Nikki, and her boyfriend beat the crap out of me," I say, trying to level my voice to match hers.

Mom's face fluctuates as she processes her emotions. I flinch as it changes from anger, to rage, to sadness, to something I wasn't expecting; fondness.

"Did you say Nikki? As in Nicole Larson?" Mom asks, her raised arm dropping to her side. Her eyes soften and her pursed lips smooth out into a flat line before twitching up at the corners. Mom was always fond of Nikki, she treated her like the daughter she never had. Once, when Nikki was eight, she was having lunch at my house when she accidentally called my Mom, 'Mommy'. That was all it took, Mom was all about Nikki after that. Nikki was her daughter after that moment. She would give Nikki presents, invite her over for the holidays, take her shopping, do her hair, etc.

I remember one Christmas, Nikki was over with her Mom. Mother took me aside and pretended to order me around before taking my face in her hands and saying, "That girl, Nikki, keep her around Dex. She is perfect, Dexter, remember that."

That, ladies and gentlemen, was the day I fell in love with Nicole Renee Larson. I remember how I walked back into the living room with a stunned expression on my face. Nikki was sitting beneath the Christmas tree, her hair braided down her back and her blue ruffled sweater was wrinkled in the front from bending over the presents. I just watched as she examined the presents and set them into piles, for her and for me. She smiled as I got closer and motioned for me to sit down. It wasn't some big moment, it was just that; me sitting down next to her and her smiling at me as Christmas music played over the radio.