Chapter 8
*A couple of months later*
*Nat*
I came back from well, picking out another wedding dress, took two seconds, I was like Okay, fine mom I want that one. And we tried it on and now it’s mine. Yeah. I walked up to the apartment, well it’s supposed to be ours but now it’s the apartment. I walked in and smelled the musk of beer, great Nick’s been drinking again. Not like he can’t. He can, he’s 21, his birthday was a few weeks ago, and it seems that all he’s been doing is drinking, watching some sports, and goes to work. We never talk anymore, the last time we actually talked was when I found out I had to marry this guy.
His name is Joel, he’s well, nice. Ahem. I hate him, we have to go out to dinner every Friday and talk or whatever, my dad thinks we are but we’re not, just kind of sitting their eating. After I found out I had to marry Joel, I got accept to a photograph school, I took it under my father’s wishes not to. But oh well.
When I walked into the apartment, Nick looked up at me, and then back at the screen. Something I’ll never understand.
“Hi.” I said softly.
“Hi.” He said back and went to screaming at the t.v again.
See, we don’t talk anymore, all we do is wake up saying ‘good morning’ to each other, ‘bye’ when we leave for school/work, and ‘hi’ when we walk in. Sometimes there is a ‘good night’ but that’s very strange that we actually do.
I hate this apartment’s smell, beer, it makes me sick. I can’t drink it, not like I haven’t but still, Nick decided to drink it all the time since he could. Never asked me once if it was okay, but that’s alright.
I walked into my room, now it’s more or less a dark room for pictures, I was developing them when my mom called me to go look for a dress so I left. I hung the old ones and put new ones in the little boxes, then I wanted to clean my camera, but it was to dark in there to clean it. So I walked out into the living room, and the smell. EWE!
I walked in there with all of my stuff and looked at Nick who was just sitting there watching the screen.
Then an idea popped into my head.
“Nick?” I asked. He looked up from the screen and said. “Yeah?” damn, no sweetie, or what’s up baby, I miss that. “Um.. Could I use your room to clean my camera stuff? I would do it in my room but it’s dark and I need light and here it’s all dirty and then...” He then cut me off. “Yeah go on ahead.”
“Thanks.” I said and started to walk towards his room. Then I turned back and looked at him.
“Nick?” I asked again. “Yeah.” He said not looking at me. “You got a pen in there for me to use?”
“Yeah, there’s probably one in my desk drawer.”
“Alright, thanks.” I said and walked into his room.
I walked into the room, I put my stuff on his bed and went to his desk to get the pen. I opened it and saw some bills in there that I haven’t seen. Then I looked at his check book, it had it all the checks that payed for the stuff in there. I started to look at all the bills. I never even got the chance to look at all this stuff, and he’s paying for them?
“Nick!” I yelled, I didn’t want him to be doing this, he works and so do I, so why can’t I help? No answer, “NICK!” I yelled a little louder. Then he came walking to his door, a beer in his hand.
“What?” He said looking at me. He wasn’t drunk, I could tell, it was the first beer.
“Put that beer bottle down, and sit here and tell me about these bills.” I said.
He did what I told him to do and sat down.
“What about them?” He said. “Nick, when we moved in here we agreed to pay for everything here, now why haven’t I seen these bills? I mean I want to help wherever I can. So tell me why haven’t I ever seen these bills before?”
He looked at them, and sighed. “Nat, I felt bad to come to you for it, Your paying for school, working and going threw all this shit, I don’t want to you pay for things that you never even used.”
“What are you talking about Nick? I use the phone, here’s the phone bill. I used electricity, here’s that bill. So what don’t I use Nick?” I asked. He looked down at them. “I don’t know.” He said shyly.
“Then why in the world am I not paying for them Nick?” I asked, with anger in my voice.
“DON’T GIVE ME THIS SHIT NAT! I DID IT TO BE NICE, BUT FINE IF YOU WANT TO PAY FOR THE BILLS, FINE, NEXT TIME I’LL GET THE MONEY OUT OF YOU. HAPPY NOW?” he yelled at me. And walked out... Nick yelled at me. I sat there and was for the first time in my life...I'm scared of him.