without you ✰ ybnk

dieciocho

stephanie

"you wanna go to the mall?" i asked nick who was laying on my bed, scrolling away on my phone. he looked up at me and shook his head.

"come on, we can finally get your belly button pierced like you wanted, i'll pay" i offered. his mouth twisted to the side like he was thinking about it. he then sighed and got up. i smiled widely knowing that i finally got to him.

ever since nick broke up with tay he hasn't been acting the same. when he found out that zion had a girlfriend of 4 years after him and zion had been talking for about a year, he pretty much acted like it never even happened. so this change in attitude is very foreign to me.

but i ain't letting my bestie sit up in the house being sad all day long.

"i'm ready" nick said stretching his limbs out. i nodded and grabbed my moms keys and we left out.

.

nick and i went to footlocker first because i needed a new pair of shoes since school started in like a week or two. as we were leaving the store somebody yelled something from behind us,

"yo stephanie!" the voice yelled out and we immediately stopped walking."nick who the fuck is that?" i asked nick to look because i was too afraid to.

"have you been texting joe back?"

i groaned throwing my head back, "no.. it's him isn't it?"

nick nodded. it took everything inside me not to run away from the boy. it's not like i didn't like him or anything but i just still feel uneven about fucking with one of kentrell's closest friends.

i know i have every right to since kentrell pretty much treated me like shit but i'm a nice ass person so this isn't sitting right with me.

"say slime why you ain't been answering my texts?" joe said when he finally reached us.

"you texted me?" i asked, acting confused.

"yah like four times"

"oh shit my phone bugging" i lied right through my teeth.

i looked over to nick who was just standing beside us swinging his leg back and forth, looking at the ground. "i'll text you later, bye"

"wait" he stopped me before nick and i could walk away.

"yes?"

"i'm not here with anybody so maybe y'all could keep me company"

i looked over at nick who nodded his head, smiling at me. i knew he wanted this to work so i'll do it to make him happy.

"ok well we're getting something to eat" i spoke and walked to the food court.

soon enough we got our food and settled down at a table in the middle of the food court. i started making conversation with joe and he was surprisingly a very good conversationalist.

i looked over to see nick's eyes fixated on something behind me. i followed his gaze to see tay walking towards us with some boy. i doubt he saw us because he was on his phone. they made their way past us which caused nick to let out a breath of relief but he won't be relieved after what i'm about to do.

"tay!" i called out which caused nick to widen his eyes. tay turned and searched for me and when he finally found me i waved. he gave me head nod and waved back.

his gaze landed on nick who still had his back towards him. he sighed and walked away with the boy.

"go talk to him" i encouraged nick. he quickly shook his head, "i'm good"

i rolled my eyes, "if you don't go i'm not paying for your piercing"

"okay then don't" nick rolled his eyes back and going on his phone. i sighed, "nick"

"bro i'm not talking to him first and he looks fine without me" nick exclaimed.

joe decided to cut in our conversation, "aye look, anybody could look fine but you don't know how he really feeling unless you ask him"

we both looked at him, "my fucking bad dr phil"

joe chuckled and leaned back in his seat, "i was just saying"

"bro this don't even involve you"

"nick stop being so mean"

"you don't even like-" i gave him a stern look because i knew exactly what he was going to say, "you know what, nevermind"

nick packed his food up and picked up all his bags. he stood up, making sure he had everything. "i'm going to get my shit pierced then i'm going home, love you steph" he said to me.

"love you too"

nick pushed his chair in and walked away, i frowned. his attitude is horrible and it had to be fixed immediately because this ain't it.

i guess joe noticed my expression because he placed his warm hand on my clothed thigh. i looked at his hand, his nails catching my attention.

guys who take care of their nails are one of my weaknesses. joe's weren't horrible but they could've been better. if these fingers are going to be inside of me, we need to clean em up.

"lets get our nails done" i suggested. i looked at joe who was on his phone. once he realized i was looking at him, he looked at me. "you serious?". i nodded.

"bet"