Living with the Player

Chapter 7

I am going to kill Nico Accardi if it is the last thing I do.

You see, I expected him to sleep for MAYBE a couple hours at most but, turns out, his late afternoon nap was not just a nap. When I tried to shake him awake, all he did was let out a disturbed moan and push me out of the way. I finally fell asleep on my floor with a couch cushion and sleeping bag at four AM but not without hours of him dreaming of receiving an award for hottest baseball player in the universe.

How do I know that he dreamed about this? Because every time I was on the brink of falling asleep, he would recite a new part of his acceptance speech out loud and give me a heart attack.

When 6:30 hits, my alarm blares and as much as I love my alarm song, the sound of it makes me want to die. My arm reaches out from the safety of my blanket, searching for the snooze button but is instead met with something wet.

I spring up immediately with a yelp as Nico starts to cry with laughter. My eyes latch onto the tub of water he so kindly placed my hand in.

"Nico!" I screech. "You are a CHILD."

He laughs even harder at my expression. Scouring the room for a weapon, I pick a pillow from the bed and am annoyed by the fact that it smells like him already.

"It's not funny!" I say between hits.

He puts his arms up to protect himself, recovering from his laughter. "Relax, Cho. It's not like you pissed yourself. Besides..." He gives me an angelic smile. "At least you're awake now."

I roll my eyes and start to clean up my make-shift bed, motioning for him to make mine.

"Seriously, Nico? I haven't seen that prank since I was a kid," I say.

He starts fluffing the pillows. "There's nothing wrong with acting like a kid sometimes."

"You're 18 and act 12," I say.

"You're 18 and act 43," he shoots back easily as I fix his crooked pillows.

I narrow my eyes at him and dust off my hand. "Right. Well, have fun finding your own way to school."

---

Twenty minutes later, Nico and I are walking to school together.

"That's a lot of coffee," he says as we begin our trek. Most people would take the scowl on my face as a sign not to talk to me but he stays unbothered.

I don't even like coffee, it stunts your growth, but this morning, I filled my travel mug to the brim. When I take a sip, the bitterness makes me grimace.

"Walk behind me. I don't want anyone at school to know about us," I say.

"Us?" he echoes suggestively. "Cho, this might come as a surprise to you but most people don't care about us."

I take a deep breath. "I'm too tired to deal with your lame jokes right now."

"Why? What's wrong?" he asks.

I stop in my tracks. "What's wrong?" I say. "I couldn't sleep all night because you were sleep talking and I have a huge physics test 4th period."

A shadow of guilt appears on his face but it's quickly replaced with an infuriating smirk. "So you were thinking about me all night, huh?" he says in a suggestive tone.

"Screw you." I pick up my pace but he speeds up with me until he's in front of me, now walking backward to keep eye contact with me.

"C'mon, Cho. I don't sleep talk."

I raise an eyebrow. "Really?" I lower my voice to mimic his. "Uh... I'd like to thank my totally awesome jawline and my two brain cells, Jeff and Biff, for this award. Yeah, rock on!"

He laughs. "That's not what I sound like."

"Trust me; I wish that I could unhear it," I say with a sigh, taking another sip of coffee. I try to convince myself that it's less bitter this time but it's really not.

"Just deal with it. I promise it'll all be worth it," Nico says.

"What do you mean?" I ask, eyeing him suspiciously.

He smiles. "I'm gonna have Brian begging for you back."

Immediately, I whip my head around to check for people in our vicinity. A sigh of relief escapes me as I confirm that no one else is there.

"Don't be embarrassed, Jennie. He should be the one embarrassed for losing you." He looks at me. "You're way hotter than he is."

A small laugh of disbelief escapes me and he grins. "Look at that. She knows how to smile."

"Laughing at you, Nico. Not with you," I say but there's no malice in my voice.

He shrugs. "As long as you're laughing."

A smile plays on my lips but it freezes as I catch sight of Samaya waving at us with a confused look on her face. Nico sees her too but just asks, "Your test is 4th period?"

I nod in response. Just the thought of it makes my head hurt.

"Ok. See you at home," Nico says mischievously before walking ahead, giving Samaya a head nod on the way.

The second he's out of earshot, she starts grilling me. "What was that?"

"What do you mean?" I ask even though I know exactly what she means.

She shrugs. "I mean... I just didn't know you guys were friends."

"We're not," I say. "We were just coming from the direction."

"Doesn't Nico live by the market?" she asks suspiciously.

"Oh... I guess he was just walking a different way today," I say. I hate lying to Samaya but I don't think it's my place to go around telling people that Nico got kicked out of his house. Or that he's sleeping at mine.

She makes it plain on her face that she doesn't believe me. "You know Nico," I say. "He'll just talk to anyone that'll listen."

"That's true..." she agrees warily.

"Let's go. I gotta pee before class," I nudge her. I don't think that my lie has convinced her but I brush it aside. In a week, it won't matter anyway.

---

After third period is a short break and when I arrive at my locker, my eyes catch something poking out from the bottom.

It's a note.

"Sorry for making you sleepy. Coffee's gross. Eat this instead and don't fail ur test."

It's accompanied by a sketch of what I think is a fat cat yawning and a pack of candy.

I catch myself smiling and nearly slap myself on the spot. There has to be some ulterior motive. This is Nico Accardi, for goodness sake.

Nodding to myself, I crumple up the note and stuff it into my backpack. 

A/N: omg this week has been so busy. I'm glad the weekend is near and thank u sm for reading!!