Lakewood: The Next Chapter

The plot thickens

"Malia, I was tired," Luka said as I looked at him, unamused.

"You were snoring in my ear," I countered. Luka shrugged. I shook my head as I leaned on my crutches.

Luka wrapped his arms around my waist as he leans in to kiss me. "Do you feel better?" He asked.

"I suppose," I groaned.

"Look, how about I take you to the cabin this weekend so that you can relax? Maybe then the nightmares will stop," Luka reasoned.

"It's ten degrees outside," I reminded him.

"That gives us more chances to snuggle." He wiggled his eyebrows as I chuckled. My boyfriend is a nut, sweet, bust a nut.

While Luka helped me, Damon had issues of his own in the form of his feelings for Niko. He found Niko hanging with Taylor and sighed.

"Why don't you admit that you care about Niko?" Jasmine asked Damon.

"It's not as easy as you think," Damon replied.

"It's complicated when you make it that way. There's nothing wrong with having feelings for your best friend," Jasmine reasoned.

"There is when you're not into guys," Damon told her.

"It's one guy, and no one says it makes you gay to have feelings about one guy. That's the problem with society, they're so quick to slap a label on love," Jasmine explained.

Damon looked at her and knew both her and Abby are right. The only person worried about labels is Damon. My friends are weird, then again, I have my issues.

While Damon wavered about Niko, Niko decided to let Taylor down about them.

"Are you breaking up with me?" Taylor asked, confused.

"Well, if you mean we stop dating and hanging out, then yes, I'm breaking up with you. It's not you; it's me. Correction, it's you," Niko said as Taylor looked at him incredulously. "I'm going to go now." With that, Niko walked away.

Okay, so Niko didn't let Taylor down gently. He crushed his hopes and dreams. Again, my friends are weird.

Abby walked down the hallway when someone jerked her into an empty classroom. "Ack!" She exclaimed as she rubbed her arm, wondering who the hell felt the need to pull her arm out of the socket. Abby looked to see Niko standing there, grinning like a fool.

"Why are you looking at me like that? It's creepy," she told Niko.

"I broke up with Taylor," Niko grinned.

"Yeah, good for you. Do you want a cookie?" Abby asked.

"No, I don't want a cookie unless you got a chocolate chip," he replied, holding up a finger to emphasize his point. Abby looked at him, weirdly. "Forget the cookie, help me with Damon," he begged.

She looked at him and shook her head. "Damon is having some existential crisis and refuses to admit his feelings. How the hell am I going to help you?" Abby asked.

"You're Damon's twin. Use your telepathic powers and make him like me," Niko reasoned.

"Uh, no, it doesn't work that way. I swear people are insane thinking that," Abby groaned.

While Abby and Niko debate if she should help with his quest to win Damon, we had another issue with a killer on the loose. Yeah, none of us knew the killer was roaming around free as a bird.

That was a problem.

********
Dad walked into the file room and checked storage containers to see if he could find anything that would help with the current situation. After checking many boxes, he stood there, thinking.