Chapter Twenty-One

 He was suspicious of her, expectant of any wrong doing and AJ’s captious behavior
had spread to him. She realized that she had been nursing the thought in the back
of her mind for a long period of time now and  she didn’t know what she was
supposed to do about it.  Nick was her long-time confidante and she had no clue
why it was getting so hard to trust him as she did with her highschool secrets as in
before.   Staring at his face on the cover of Seventeen, familiarity from his face
hitting her, she felt remorse; regret.  They had both gone through a lot together in
the past and had helped each other out in so many ways, it was hard to imagine her
life without him yet now, things had changed.  How to fix them?  It was upon her
shoulders because he had incessantly tried to make amends and she incessantly
gave him mixed signals.  
“ What are you up to?” Nick came into the room, half his usual stagger gone with
the lack of good-spirit within him.
“ Nothing much.  What’s wrong?” She asked as he sighed and plopped down next to
her on the sofa.  
“ I don’t know.  I’m having a bad day.”
“ You’ve been up for two hours, how could you be having a bad day?”  He looked at
her critically and let out another sigh.
“ Please, April, could you spare me some of that sarcasm for today?”  She pursed
her lips and continued to flip through the magazine in silence.  Neither of them
spoke and only when his cell phone rang did he stir.
“ Hello?...Yeah, fine...Uh-huh...Ok, sure...Four o’clock, Tuesday, got it...Nah,
nothing important, just one of those days...Yeah, I’m sure...Ok, thanks...I
know...Yep, thanks, J...Allright, talk to you later,” He hung up and glanced at April
who was half as engrossed in the article before her than she let on.
“ Are you mad?” He asked apprehensively.
“ Why would I be mad?” 
“ Because you sound mad.” 
“ So do you.” 
“ I’m not mad,” Through gritted teeth, he stretched some patience out.
“ Fine.  Neither am I.” 
“ Jesus, April, it’s not like I said a damn word.  Why can’t you act like you give a
shit about me?  It’s all about you-”
“ Why are you getting upset?”
“ Because it’s true.  Do you realize that whenever you are the least bit upset, I care
but when the situation’s reversed, you don’t?  You haven’t even asked me what’s
wrong.”
“ What’s wro-” She asked shortly and he glared at her.
“ This isn’t a fucking joke, April, why can’t you take me seriously and pull that stick
outta your ass for two seconds?”
“ I don’t understand why you’re so goddamn pissed off.”
“ Because you’re supposed to be a friend, remember?  Did you forget that along the
way?”
“ God, Nick-”
“ You know what?  Forget it, forget I said anything.” He snapped, heaving off the
sofa and a few seconds later, walking out the front door...






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