Crash Into Me | ✓

twenty-two

"Are you sure you should be going?" Nikki held up another strappy shirt before tossing it into a pile full of other rejected outfits. "You can still come to my friend Raquel's house with me instead. Her dad has a boat that we can take into the bay and watch the fireworks from."

Nikki continued to move around her room at lightning speed, pulling shirts out of drawers and dressers off of hangers. I sat on Nikki's bed with my hands in my lap.

"Wow, a boat?" I said dryly, feigning excitement. "You make such a compelling argument."

Nikki shot me an icy glare before throwing another shirt in the reject pile. I had no idea how she'd already made such close friends, but then again, it seemed like pretty stereotypical Nikki. They probably met in the Starbucks line and bonded over chai lattes.

"Besides, everything's fine," I shrugged. "Brooklyn and I are fine. It's just a Fourth of July party at his house. It'll be mostly his parent's friends, anyway, and it'll be chill."

Hopefully.

I looked down at my fingernails. Nikki had painted them a vibrant, highlighter orange the day before going downtown for Ella's birthday, but I had already chipped them. "I think he's at least willing to try. I mean...we're trying."

Nikki sighed deeply and leaned on the doorframe of her closet. "Look Nat, I'm only saying this to you because I'm your sister and I love you, but you're being naive. Stupidly naive. Brooklyn is never going to get it. He's just one of those guys, ya know?"

"No, I actually don't know," I replied tersely.

"One of those guys that thinks he can just do whatever he wants to other people without consequence," Nikki sighed and shook her head. "Something seems off, Nat. Especially after that scene he made at the bar. I just don't want you getting yourself into something that could blow up in your face."

"Nothing's off," I bit back.

I clenched my hands together in a desperate attempt to keep myself from spewing anymore word vomit. I still couldn't bring myself to tell Nikki about the threatening texts I got. It was still too raw and fresh in my head. Something I hoped would just pass like a bad dream.

"I guess we'll see then." Nikki pulled down hard on another dress, sending the hanger it was on clattering to the floor. She held up the flowing, navy mini dress in front of her before nodding. "This is the one."

A silence hung in the air until Nikki sighed heavily.

"Please, just be careful," she said, looking up at me with her golden eyes.

My heart thumped so heavy in my chest, I could feel it in my ears. Nikki's knowledge of relationships and boys far extended mine, but there was always room for her to be wrong. After all, she didn't know Brooklyn. Not like I did.