I Don't Care if the Necklace Fits! I'd Rather Not be Kidnapped by Immortals!

Chapter Nine

Over the course of the next few weeks, I plotted my revenge on Nuri. Probably not the normal hobby every sixteen-year-old girl should have, but there wasn’t any way in hell that he was going to get away with ruining the life that had taken me many years to accomplish. All of the friends I’d made, the grades I’d achieved, the reputation I’d kept, all of it was down the drain entirely with a decision to go out to the car to get my purse. It was gone for good, with no coming back.
The thought really depressed me. Beyond my being here, in the eyes of the world, I was a fly on the wall. I was there, but nobody really acknowledged that fact.
“Triv…?” Ari called again, waving a hand in my face.
“What?” I asked, coming out of my deep thoughts. That was how I’d been for the past two weeks. Distant.
“You’re really starting to bum me out. You haven’t been yourself lately. It’s kind of sad-making.” He pointed out. I nodded.
“I’ve been thinking a lot.” I replied. At least it wasn’t a lie. Just because I was plotting my revenge against Nuri didn’t mean that he had to know about it.
“…You’re plotting against Nuri?” he questioned. Damn, I just blew it! I’d been trying not to think about it with them around. Constantly having to remind myself that if they were awake there would be no plotting. And if they were around I would sing lyrics in my head. It was a lot harder to do than it sounded.
“You guys really need to give me this freaking necklace so I don’t have to worry about this anymore,” I mumbled.
“I don’t even know how to deal with your… plots. So, I’m just going to pretend like I never heard it and move on with my life, hoping Nuri sees it coming. Or maybe not…” He said the last part under his breath.
“Ari…?” I called. He seemed to be thinking hard on something. At least he wasn’t going to tell the guys about my plots. That would have ruined it. He looked up at me and then turned around and walked down the hallway, not glancing back. I began to wonder where he was going. Was he going to tell them about my plans? I decided to chase after him and began sprinting down the hallway. I took one turn and slammed right into Nuri. Wonderful.
“Where’s the fire?” he asked. My worries of Ari telling Nuri about my plans vanished there.
“Don’t you have a job or something that you need to do?” I asked bitterly.
“Actually, I do. I’ve been off a lot lately. Business has been slow, so they won’t call me for a while.” He explained.
“Oh. Well what do you do?” I asked.
“I work in a pizza shop,” he replied. I tried to think of Nuri in an apron and chef hat spinning pizza dough and giggled.
“What’s so funny? At least I don’t work at Burger King.” He defended. I then imagined him with a Burger King apron and hat on selling fast food to zit-faced fatties. This made me burst out laughing even harder. At this point he started to get angry.
“What’s so funny about that?” He hissed. I wiped a tear from my eye and began to compose myself.
“I was imagining you wearing funny hats,” I replied. He chuckled a bit at my silly thoughts and then smiled.
“I like your smile,” I blurted. As soon as the words came out of my mouth I regretted letting them slip. He was already conceited enough.
“Thank you. I like your hair,” he replied, smiling wider. Really? No ‘I know you want a piece of this, baby.’ Nothing? Okay. I guess I’m cool with that.
“It’s long,” I rambled, trying to find something to say.
“I’m aware. It almost passes your waist.” He pointed out. It was true. In the months that I’d been here, my hair had grown a bit.
“It’s a pain to straighten.” I stated. It was true; it took me half an hour to straighten in the morning because it was so friggin long.
“But you look good with your hair straightened.” He replied. I gave him a quizzical look.
“Why are you being so nice lately?” I asked. He shrugged.
“I’ve been in a good mood lately, I guess.” He answered. I nodded my head and began to sing to myself.
“I’ve got your runaway smile in my piggybank, baby. Gonna cash it right in for a new Mercedes. You are worth a hundred thousand miles. But you couldn’t stay a while. I got your little brown shirt in my bottom drawer baby and your little white socks in my top drawer. You were always leaving your shit around. And gone without a sound,” I sang. I then took notice that Nuri had began to sing with me softly. I grinned.
“I’m the first to fall and the last to know. Where’d you go?” I screamed the last part and Nuri began to yell the lyrics with me. We skipped down the hall singing.
“NOW I’M HEELS OVER HEAD! I’M HANGING UPSIDE DOWN! THINKING HOW YOU LEFT ME FOR DEAD! CALIFORNIA BOUND!” We screamed, skipping merrily down the hall. Out of nowhere, Nuri stopped singing and I went on like the idiot I was.
“I’VE GOT A FIRST CLASS TICKET TO A NIGHT ALL ALONE! AND A FRONT ROW—omph!” I was about to fall down the steps (again) when Nuri grabbed my wrist and pulled me back.
“You should really watch where you’re going, child.” He stated. I merely flashed my million-dollar smile at him and made my way down the steps. Carefully, might I add. Nuri followed behind me like a sick puppy would.
“Why are you following me?” I asked.
“So you don’t hurt yourself again.” He stated matter-of-factly. I nodded, knowing that even if I tried to put up an argument about it, he would simply point out that I’d almost fallen down the stairs again not even five minutes ago. It was over before it could even begin.
“Well I need a shower,” I said. He nodded. And respectfully waited outside the door while I screamed lyrics to Touchdown Turnaround. Ahh, well I’d hate to say it but he was being a gentleman. After Touchdown Turnaround ended, a song by Cascada came on and I heard Nuri screaming the lyrics from outside of the door. Looks like I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t sit still when techno played. I began dancing around in the shower, singing into a shampoo container.
“AND EVERYTIME WE KISS, I REACH FOR THE SKY!” I sang, throwing my hands into the air as I danced.
Once finished with my shower, I realized that there was no towel in here. I poked me head out the door to see if anyone was out there. I glanced both ways and saw the coast was clear. Deciding that standing here and dripping onto the tile wasn’t going to solve my problem, I came to the solution that I was going to dash down to my room. There were towels in that closet, I knew.
I opened the door and dashed down the hall. I took a turn, praying that nobody was around the corner. When there wasn’t I let out a sigh of relief. There was one more corner to turn and I was home free. I turned and could have screamed in joy when there was nobody there, either. I felt the adrenaline pulsing through my veins like mad. I ran even faster than I could to my bedroom. The door right before mine opened up and I ran right into it, sending the person on the other side flying back inside the room.
I screamed out and got up and dashed to my room, hoping nobody had seen me. I don’t think they did… I slammed the door behind me as I got into my bedroom, then locked it. I was breathing quick, painful breaths in. The door had knocked the wind out of me. How I’d been able to get back up and run into here like I did was an amazement. I don’t think I’d be able to do it over if I tried…
“Triv…” a deep voice said sheepishly on the other side of my door. I didn’t care for any apology he was going to pull out of his ass.
“Nuri, did you see anything?” I asked. It was silent for a moment and I heard him sigh. I groaned and slid down the door. So much for never having anyone see me naked since…
I shook the thought from my head and dried myself with a towel that I’d pulled from the closet. After towel drying my hair a bit, I tossed the towel to the side and rifled through the drawers to find some clothes. I practically screamed when I saw an A Day to Remember band tee. I threw it on over my bra and pulled out a pair of skinnies, trying them on. They somehow fit perfectly. I was proud of myself. These were 0s and usually I was a one. But then again, they were practically starving me up here.
After putting on the clothes and throwing my hair into a messy ponytail, I proceeded in unlocking and opening the bedroom door. I saw Nuri on the other side of the hall, looking at his feet deep in thought. When he noticed me, he stood up and began to babble.
“Victrivia, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Then again, if I’d known you were going to be running about the halls naked, I wouldn’t have come out, I promise you that. Honestly, I—” I pressed a finger to his lips, silencing him.
“Shut up. It never happened. Okay?” I offered, retracting my finger. He nodded and grinned.
“So…” he said, trying to think of a topic. The necklace flew into my mind first thing.
“So this necklace,” I mused, “when do I get it?” he smiled. Oh God. What am I getting myself into?