two updates in two days, no complaints, cool?

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"You're on the edge, stumbling and the road it starts to wind. But everytime a page is turned, a chance to make it right." -5SOS (Tomorrow Never Dies)

Zoey Willow Hunter

            WHEN I thought about spending a fun day with my friends, it definitely had a different ending than this one. I didn’t plan:oh, yeah. Oliver and Nico should definitely get into a fight, today, like totally.

The second Oliver’s fist collided with Nico’s face, my friends surrounded us. I watched as Nico staggered back, touching his bleeding nose.

“Oh my God,” I mumbled.

Nico’s eyes flashed with a hint of violence, “you don’t know how much you’re going to regret that,” he said, chuckling.

He faked punching Oliver’s stomach and the latter’s hands went automatically to protect his stomach. Nico took this as a chance to punch him in the face so hard, I could hear the sound effect of it, like in the movies. Oliver fell to the ground, holding his face.

As soon as Oliver stood up, he was stopped from hurting Nico anymore (or from getting his butt kicked by Nico) by Aaron, who held him back. Oliver’s eyes stayed on Nico as he screamed obscenities.

“Get off me!” shouted Oliver, succeeding in throwing Aaron off him.

He lunged at Nico, who easily moved out of the way. Nico took out his phone and car keys, handing them to me, with a smile. My open jaw closed as I tried to process exactly what was going on.

When Oliver ran back towards him, Nico hit his chest harshly, making him fall on the ground. Nico held his neck with one hand and pounded his fist into each side of Oliver’s cheeks. The sound of every hit made me realize what was going on and what I had to do.

I rushed towards them and cried out, “Nico! Stop, you’re hurting him! You’re going to kill him! ”

Nico didn’t even look up at me when he punched Oliver one last time, before standing up. His knuckles were bruised and he was breathing heavily. His nose was still bleeding and his shirt was stained with blood.

What he didn’t notice was that Oliver had stood up. When he saw him, he cracked his knuckles, which must have hurt. Oliver stomped towards him, a fist prepared to strike.

I did what I should have done in the first place and jumped in front of Nico, screaming at Oliver to shut up.

Instead, I got a hard blow to my face.

“Zoey!” Lucy and Xandra were by my side, trying to get a look at my face.

It was then that James launched himself at Oliver, tackling him to the ground. Joel and Diana stood between Nico and I and Oliver. I clutched my eye, feeling a pain comparable to—well, getting punched in the eye. My eye throbbed.

“Are you serious?” said Nico, any trace of “fighting” gone from him, except from his nose, “you punched her?”

Oliver’s eyes met mine and they widened, “Zoey, I—” He got on his feet, with James and Aaron still holding him back.

Nico grabbed his collar in his hands, “you don’t, ever, hit a girl. Ever. It only proves that you are a coward. I don’t care if you wanted to hit me, apologize. Or so help me I will end you.”

“I’m sorry. Oh God, I’m so sorry, Zoey,” said Oliver with tears in his eyes. His face was bloody and the space around his eyes was beginning to swell up. He was free again from Nico’s hold.

I couldn’t say anything; I was still in shock that I got hit. Of course, any smart person would have figured out that I was going to get hit anyway, by stepping into a fight.

“Get a first aid-kit and get yourselves home,” said Diana to Nico, “I trust you with her.”

Nico nodded, looking at me.

OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod, he was bleeding so much.

“Let’s go,” he said, giving Oliver a last glance. He put his hand on my waist and started walking with me.

“Wait.”

I got close to Oliver and looked at him dead in the eye.

“I’m not mad at you for hitting me. I’m mad at you for hitting Forrest. When you sober up and stop being so stupid, maybe there’ll be a chance of us being friends again.”

Once we were far enough from them, I began looking around for pharmacies or anywhere that would give help to Nico. His nose seemed broken and I felt like the guilt was going to eat me up alive.

“Are you okay?” he asked, stopping me.

I looked at him and I wanted to cry but I didn’t.

“I’m fine. I’m worthy of twenty men.”

He touched the skin around my eye and I winced visibly. “I’m going to ask again, are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I said.

“Are you sure?”

“Excuse me?” I said instead to an old man, “Do you know where there’s a pharmacy around here?”

He raised an eyebrow at Nico and I, “End of street. You and your boyfriend need treatment.”

No shi— Wait, boyfriend?

“We do, you’re right, sir. Thank you,” said Nico, letting his light hold on my waist go.

We walked the streets in silence, as the light completely disappeared. I took a deep breath and decided to confess how horrible I felt, just to let it out because if not, I might’ve melted in a puddle of culpability right there and then.

“I’m so sorry. I’m so so so sorry. I don’t know what got into him; I guess he just drank too much. I’m sorry he hit you and all. I hope you’re okay because if not I might die because I feel like I was the one who hurt you. I never wanted to cause you any pain, you know that, right? Oliver’s an asshole, I’m sorry he hit you.”

“Hunter?”

“But it wasn’t completely my fault, because Oliver was drinking and we all know how stupid he is when he’s drinking. I mean, he tells me he likes me. That’s cool, you know, even though I don’t like him anymore. But then he punches you. And that isn’t cool. I hope you’re okay, because—”

“Zoey?” The sound of my first name on his lips was so foreign I actually stopped talking.

“What?”

He held a hand to his head, “all this talking, I can’t—” He slowly fell to the ground.

I put a hand on my mouth and started shaking his chest. He opened one eye, grinning wildly.

“You’re too gullible,” he said.

Letting out a huge sigh of relief, I hit his chest. He supported his hands on the asphalt and got up again, smiling at me.

“You scared the crap out of me.”

“Aw,” he cooed, copying my actions from earlier and putting his hand on his heart, “you care?”

“Eh,” I said, “not really.”

Which was a big lie since I basically told him that I was terrified that he got hurt a few moments ago. I gave him his keys and we continued walking.

“Are you okay?” It was my turn to ask.

“I feel like Niagara Falls has turned red and is escaping my nose,” he held the tip of his shirt to his nose. I tried my best to ignore that his abs were showing and that several ladies, old and young, were giving him an eyeful.

I let out a small laugh, even though the situation wasn’t appropriate to laugh. “That’s what girls say when we get the monthly visit.”

“Which monthly visit?” He looked at me in utter confusion.

“The one when girls get cranky and we get hormonal.”

An imaginary person with no brain would look smarter than he did right now.

“Oh, you mean when you hate on the world?”

I nodded, “do you know what I mean now?”

“No,” he moved his head in a dumbfounded manner. Seconds later, his shoulders were shaking and I figured that he was laughing.

“What?” I exclaimed, a smile sneaking on my lips as well.

“Are you dumb or are you dumb?”

Dumb, my mind answered.

He continued, “No shit I know what periods are. Beth and I were together for a year, which means every month for 12 months, she got her monthly visit, as you call it,” he got a twinkle in his eyes,  “Although, she used to call it “STCW” : Surfing the crimson wave. At first, I actually thought she surfed in a weird red beach or something.”

“I like to also call it Shark Week.”

He grimaced, “can we now stop talking about how girls name what is coming out of their—”

“Yes, definitely,” I said. After a few seconds, I asked: “How was she: Beth?”

“You really want to know?” he questioned.

I nodded.

“It’s as simple as this: I was in love. She made me happier than anyone else could. Her smile, God, it was beautiful. Then, I guess she stopped loving me.”

“Why do you say that?” My heart hurt for him.

“Because she slept with my best friend,” he said, kicking a rock.

I sighed, “I’m sorry.”

He nodded, “so am I.”

Every human being had an ultimate weakness. It was an element that held onto their heart like a koala bear to a tree.

The weakness, when hit, generally caused ultimate damage. I guessed that Nico’s was love. In general, he seemed sad whenever he talked about losing someone he loved.

Pointing to a pharmacy, I jumped in joy once, trying to lighten the mood, “there we go!”

HERMAN’s stood out in red on the shop. I got in, grabbing Nico with me. A girl with long black hair in curls was texting on her phone, her feet up the counter.

“Excuse me?” I said, knocking on the counter.

She gasped and put her feet down, giving us a big smile.            

“Hi, how can I help—oh, hey there,” the pretty girl said to Nico, giving him googly-eyes. She had nice eyes, they were a pale blue that did nothing than add to her beauty.

“Are you blind?” I said, “Can’t you see I have a black eye and he has a bloody nose?”

“Rude,” she said, wrinkling her nose at me, “but sure. I’ll get the first aid-kit.”

Nico turned to me when she walked away, swaying her hips a bit too much.

“Please,” he said with a straight face, “do try to contain your jealousy.”

“Me?” I scoffed, “Jealous? Of who, her? And for who, you? Clearly the punch affected more than your nose.”

He patted my head, “you’ll always be in denial.”

“I can’t be in denial of something that isn’t true.”

Did that even make sense?

Pretty-Girl came back with a first aid-kit. I could swear that she unbuttoned her shirt a little and her hair was messier than before. She pointed to a stool and placed the first aid-kit in front of her. Nico sat down first.

“Take off your shirt,” she said.

Seriously?

“You’re straightforward,” said Nico, flashing a grin.

She rolled her eyes, but that didn’t stop her from blushing. “No, just because your shirt is bloody.”

“Right,” he said, taking off his shirt.

Why does he have to be so hot? Why couldn’t he be, oh I don’t know, without abs?

She grabbed a cloth and dabbed it in water. Cleaning up the blood on him seemed to take an eternity. Pretty-Girl, whose name was Melanie, wasn’t a shy-starer.

“Uh, Melanie?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t think there’s blood on my stomach.”

“Right, but see, I was checking just in case.”

Shut up, I wanted to say.

She gave him a packet of ice, adding a little extra smile in there. Nico was clearly enjoying the attention very much, even winking at her when she told him that he was okay now. Nico put on his bloody shirt, ignoring Melanie’s protests that it wasn’t good to walk around with blood on his clothes.

Melanie practically threw me an identical packet of ice, telling me that I’ll be okay.

“Thank you for helping me,” said Nico, taking her hand. He lift it and put a little kiss on it.

Barf.

“Thank you!” she said, her cheeks becoming as red as the blood that was once on Nico’s shirt.

He turned around, smirking. He started counting down with his fingers.

3,2,1.

“Um, wait! Can I give you my number? In case you need any extra help,” she batted her eyelashes. Grabbing a pen, she quickly wrote her number on his hand.

We left and started to walk towards the building where his car was parked. I stayed silent. He was content.

“Hunter?”

“Yes?”

“Were you jealous? You were jealous,” he said in a baby voice, “Admit it.”

“Shut up, I wasn’t jealous.”

“It was hilarious,” he cracked up, “you looked like you wanted to strangle her.”

I hit his shoulder, giggling. “Shut up, Forrest. Maybe the alcohol did get to you a little.”

He put his arm on my shoulder and we continued walking. Wind blew in my hair and the coldness of the ice pack on my face didn’t make me feel any warmer.

“Hunter?” he said for the second time.

“Yeah?”

“It was drunk and sloppy.”

“What was?”

“You kissing me.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat up, “sorry about that.”

“I wasn’t done. It was drunk, sloppy and it tasted like tears.”

I took the ice pack away from my eye and looked at him, “sorry, again.”

He nodded in a way that meant “it’s fine.”

“Forrest?” I said.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you, for making Oliver apologize.”

He smiled, “you’re welcome. He was being an arseface.”

“I know. Are you really okay, though?”

Nico’s eyes seem to sparkle in the moonlight. “I’m great, actually.”

“Good,” I said.

A silence settled in. It wasn’t the uncomfortable kind, like the one he and I used to have when I first started delivering mail with him. It was the kind of tranquility that was filled of thoughts, but they weren’t worrying.

“Hunter?”

“Hm?”

“The kiss wasn’t all that bad.”

A light, bubbly laugh escaped me, “great. I’m glad you feel that way. I’m happy I still can kiss when I’m drunk.”

“I never said you were a good kisser,” said Nico, “just that the kiss wasn’t horrible. I don’t want you to feel even more guilty than you do right now.”

“Aw,” I said, “you care.”

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 I LITERALLY LOVE THIS CHAPTER. I was so excited to write it!

 Sad news: from now on, no more updates on Wednesday or in the middle of the week. School starts next week for me and as I am in my 4th year of Secondary school, aka grade 10, aka sophmore year.

 Updates will be in the weekends. :)

 THANK YOU FOR 1 MILLION! you get a hug from nico :) NO OTHER STUFF.

he belongs to someone else ;)

 love , yas