Chapter 2

I woke up with absolutely no idea of where I was. I mean, I knew I was in the bed of some strange girl, but that was about as much as I could decipher. For all I knew I could be in another state. I wouldn't let it pass me. Lately any bad idea seemed like a fantastic idea to drunk-me.

The blond haired naked girl was sleeping soundly beside me. I thought about waking her up but then decided against it. What was the point anyway? Even if I had promised her my undying love last night, though I'm pretty confident I hadn't, I hoped she knew better than to believe a drunk guy like me.

I felt like even more of a dick than I already was.

Quietly, I got out of the bed and went on a scavenger hunt for my clothes. My boxers ended up being the most difficult to find—they were bundled up in between the sheets of the bed.

When I was fully clothed and ready to go, I looked at the girl. I thought about waking her up again. But what was the point. I had no idea what was her name. I had no idea at what point we'd met and what had happened exactly between us. And I was too much of a coward to deal with all of these question marks.

When I got out of her apartment and onto the sidewalk, I realized I was about three miles away from the dorms. I could have called a cab but I preferred walking back. It would sober me up a bit and help me clear my thoughts.

I lighted a cigarette even if I didn't really need to. I just wanted to make my bad breath more recent, to be able to put the blame on it.

I had started to smoke pretty much the weekend after my father had died. That weekend, I went to a club for the first time. I got drunk. I smoke outside the club with those club-friends you'd make when drunk and clueless. Smoking used to be more of a clubbing habit—it would be a good reason to step outside and chat with someone farther away from the deafening noise. It was a good way to start a conversation with a girl too. Light and cigarettes were prized commodities. For the last couple of months though, I'd find myself smoking more, lots of time when I'd be walking outside.

If my father could see me now, he'd die again.

If my mother saw me... I have no idea how she'd react honestly. I never knew her well enough to know.

I had no idea what I was doing with myself.

Dropping out of pre-med had seemed like the most logical idea after my father had died. My father had dedicated all of the effort he put on me into making me into the next him. He wanted me to be a neurosurgeon and to follow in his footsteps. My artistic inclinations, as he liked to call them, were in his mind just a fire hazard, a gateway to dwelling on dark thoughts and if I became too engrossed with art I would succumb to them.

When the bastard died, the best way to rebel had seemed like studying art and letting free reign to my artistic inclinations.

But now, after failing classes last semester, I had no idea what I was supposed to do. I had no idea what to do.

It was time like these where I needed Tyler to shake some sense into me and to tell me I was being a drama queen. If it wasn't for my best friend I really had no idea what would have become of me in the last year.

The first time I had met Tyler was when his not-yet-brother-in-law Blake had a cracked skull as a result from falling because of a seizure. Tyler's mother had called my father for a favour and flew him out of a retreat with other neuroscientists—which was really just an excuse to get away for a weekend and play golf, but whatever. My father had brought me along with him because he didn't like to leave me alone and with no mother to look over me and because he didn't trust anyone to babysit me, following him was my only option.

I was always following my father. That was how I ended up knowing so much about neuroscience and medicine. My father's idea of a bedtime story was reading his thesis and peer-reviewed articles. I was always reading about medicine. I'd spent time on retreats with my father, reading articles from all of the doctors there. I had no friend when I was younger.

I was always alone

I never fitted in. I was always too quiet. Too shy. Too weird. Too academically-focused. Too much of a daddy's boy.

So I spend all of my free time studying, learning about everything my father wanted me to know. It seemed like the only thing I was good at. I didn't know how to make friends but I could name all the bones of a human body.

So, when I first met Tyler and his family I'd been impressed.

At first, I thought that Blake guy had a huge family because there were just too many people waiting to see him, crying, worrying, freaking out. I'd sat with them, though a little bit afar. Apart from them. I was not a part of their group, of their family.

Tyler had spotted me.

"So, are you one of Blake's many groupies? Distant relative?" he had asked.

"My father is the neurosurgeon."

"Oh, nice."

"And you are?"

"He's my sister's boyfriend.

"He has a lot of family."

"No, actually, only just his parents are here for now."

"A lot of people care about him, then."

"Yeah, that's what we've been trying to tell him for a while."

"It looks nice to have people that care."

After that, without even noticing, without even trying, like Tyler knew how lonely I was without even having to tell him we became friends. And all these people that cared so much about Blake, I came to know them, I came to care for them even.

But even now I still felt alone. I was too much of too many things to really fit in anywhere. Too many tattoos. Too many girls. Too many issues. Too many bad thoughts. Too many scars.

Too screwed up.

There were no real ways to fix me, because I was born broken.

I stopped walking. There was a huge park on my left. I got off the sidewalk and started to walk on the grass.

I sat down when I was far enough from people that I wouldn't look like a poser and started to breathe slowly, focussing on only my breathing.

Whenever I started to think like that, to get into a bad place I would sit down, breathe and then I'd do yoga. I had my mother to thank for that.

It was one of the only thing I remembered doing with my mother. Whenever she would get into her weird moods she'd start doing yoga in the middle of our penthouse. Being the easily impressed little kid that I used to be, I wanted to stretch and stand like my mom, so she'd shown me the way.

Doing yoga with my mom. It was part of my best memories, but also my worst, because that didn't last for long.

Stop thinking about the past, just empty your mind Nik...

"There you are." I opened my eyes and saw Vanessa walking towards me. "As Cinderella lost a shoe again?"

"Real funny." I took the bottle of water that she handed me, like she had been expecting that she would find me and that I would need it. I took a big gulp, wiped my mouth and asked her, "Where's your puppy?" Puppy was what I called Tyler sometimes. I loved my friend but he couldn't deny the fact that he acted like some kind of love sick puppy around his girlfriend.

I sort of got it though. I mean, sure, Vanessa was a babe, with her Scandinavian blonde hair and her clear blue eyes and her huge rack, but that wasn't what made up most of her charm. It was the way she cared about the people around her, and the way she didn't let you bullshit her. It was the way she would literally kick your ass of she felt like you needed it, but the way she was always, always there when you needed her. It was the way her and Tyler acted together. I kind of wanted that for myself.

"Been looking for you," she answered and sat down beside me. "You didn't come home last night and you weren't picking up your phone this morning." I fished my phone out of my pocket after she said that and realized the batteries were dead. Big surprise there.

I drank more water while she texted Tyler I assumed. I didn't look at what she was writing. After she was done with her phone she threw it beside her on the grass and looked around, taking a big breathe. "This is a nice spot."

I shrugged and pulled at some weeds. "I guess."

"How are you holding up?"

I raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at her. Really? That's the conversation she wanted to have? "With college?"

"With life in general."

I snorted and chuckled at the same time, but not because it was funny, because it was sad. "I'm still here, aren't I? That should be good enough of an answer."

I found myself lighting a cigarette after admitting that. I really needed to kick the bad habit. It was getting worse and worse.

Van gave me a sideway glance, rolled her eyes at me a little and then took the cigarette from between my fingers and took a drag too.

It was my turn to roll my eyes at her. Vanessa had started to smoke a couple of years back to get her voice more raspy when she sang. She had smoked for about a month and then stopped but now and then she'd take a drag from mine. And this was a fact that Tyler was completely unaware of. Actually, I think none of her friends knew. I was the only one she had confessed this sin to.

I took the cigarette back and raised my head to the sky, enjoying the warmth on my skin. I smiled a little with my closed eyes.

If I fess up all the dirt I had on my friends to their significant others I'd definitely end up buried in someone's backyard. The Eaton estate actually had a loooot of good spots to hide a body.

"BABY! THERE YOU ARE!"

I didn't even need to look to know that Tyler was running towards us. I saw a couple of people in the park stare towards were he was though in wonder.

Lunatic.

I smiled and stomped my cigarette, while Vanessa mumbled a "shit" under her breathe.

"Gum?" I smirked at her offering her my pack.

"Stop smirking at me you tool, you're no better."

"That's a lie and you know it Goldilocks"

"Shut it, Nikki."

I shuddered at the nickname. Ugh.

By then Tyler had pretty much reached us and thrown himself in my lap. "Baby oh baby, my bed was so cold without you last night," Tyler fake cried, running his hands over my face.

"Van, do something with your puppy, I think he's broken."

She rolled her eyes at me again and just ignored us.

"Dude, seriously, I love you but if you don't want to lose your bet with your dad, you need to keep it in your pants," I reminded him.

"Aw, damn it..." Tyler realised, sitting up and away from me. "Meh, whatever, I got myself another lap," he added and then turned to Van, "Baby, oh baby, my bed was so cold without you last night."

"Tyler, dumb-bum, I was in your bed last night."

At that Tyler grinned and I laughed. "Oh, yeah right. Mmmhhmm."

"You two are gross," I told them, still chuckling and chugged more water from the bottle Van had given me.

"We're gross?" Tyler asked outraged. "Have you smelled yourself? It's a mix of cheap perfume, stalled cigarette and bad decisions. Oh and eatable underwear too."

"No, dumb-bum, that last one would be you," Vanessa joked.

"Please, like I need an incentive to go down there"

I stood up with my arms raised. "And I'm out. Mom, dad, that's way too much information."

"Aw, look at our pretty baby getting flustered," Vanessa teased, pinching my leg because my cheeks were too far away now. "Come on baby daddy," she added, slapping her hand on Tyler's thigh, "let's go feed our starving child. Sunday's brunch day."

"Yes Chief!" Tyler replied, and stood up before offering his hand to Vanessa. She smiled at him and stood up too.

"Come along boys!" Vanessa told us waving us forward.

I followed behind them as they goofed around each other, and smiled a little.

My parents might have screwed me up and then died on me but at least I had gotten a replacing set and those two were doing a much better job so far.

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Hey guys! Sorry if I uploaded this a little late. I was working all day! :S I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter too, and getting to know Nik a little better. I'm really super excited to share more of his story and I'm really glad of the response I've gotten so far! Keep commenting, I love reading your comments! :D

Also, I wanted to remind you that if you're in New York on October 1st, and you have free time, you should definitely check out #NYCWattcon. Many Wattpad favourites (myself included) will be there for a whole day of Wattpad awesomeness. You can get all the info and your FREE ticket here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/nycwattcon-a-day-of-all-things-wattpad-tickets-26972273797

Thanks for reading and see y'all next week! :D