Say It

twenty four

friday | the bay

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Someone was banging on the door. I could hear them—there were two people—but I was half asleep and couldn't find the energy to open my eyes to get up.

    I threw the cover over my head and proceeded to fall back into a much deeper sleep. The banging stop, but then my door swung open.

"Nia Reneé!"

    I immediately sat up and was looking directly at my mother—and Jace. My eyes began adjusting to the light as my mom rambled on about why I was still sleep at this time of afternoon.

I was a confused. I looked over at the clock on my night stand to see that it was almost two in the afternoon.

   "Shit." I cursed.

"Really Nia?" My mom glared at me.

   I sighed, and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "Sorry."

"Why haven't you been answering my calls? They go straight to voicemail and we both know what happened last time when you did that." She sat on the bed.

   I briefly glanced at Jace who was just leaning against the door with his hands in his pockets. I missed him a lot, but I was not ready for an intervention.

Looking back at my mom, who was still waiting on a response, I shrugged. "Therapy was rough. I just came home yesterday and slept."

    She grabbed my hand and squeezed. "Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

I immediately shook my head no. "I'm fine, mom. Just a rough day, that's all."

   "Well, don't scare me like that again." She frowned.

I sighed, wrapping my arms around her neck for a hug. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

   She squeezed me tight and ran her fingers through my hair. "It's okay. I'm just glad everything's fine." My mom pulled away slightly to kiss my forehead. "Jace said he hadn't heard from you either."

I looked at Jace. "I texted you yesterday morning."

   "Oh." He said with no emotion. "Forgot."

"You need to be preparing for Milan." My mom spoke up.

   I groaned and shook my head. "I forgot all about that." I sighed and threw the cover off of me.

"Well, I'll let you get to that." She got up off the bed.

   "Wait, what did you want?" I looked at her.

She shook her head. "I just wanted to hear your voice."

    I could tell that she'd been worried sick. I felt kind of bad. She kissed my forehead again before saying goodbye to Jace and leaving. After the door closed, silence fell over Jace and I.

I could feel his anger. I'm not sure why he was mad at me.

   "I'm not goin'." Jace spoke up causing me to look at him. "I'm not goin' to Milan."

"And why not?"

    He shook his head. "It's just best I don't."

I scoffed and got up out of my bed to go to the bathroom. "Okay Jace."

   I watched him as he looked around the room. I lifted my brow, wondering what he was looking for. Jace started moving things as if he knew something was in here.