Running Wild in the Night

Brian's POV

"Is it me or is Jimmy being antisocial," Zacky asked as we watched Jimmy walk outside during lunch, calling someone.

Lately, he's been ignoring us, spending a lot of time at home, never coming to practice, and is always calling someone during lunch. He barely even speaks to any of us and we're all getting worried. Jimmy's our best friend and it really annoyed us when he just started ignoring us. I mean, as of right now, Val, Matt, Zacky, Johnny, and I are all watching him pace around as he's talking on his cell phone.

"I wonder who he calls all the time," Johnny asked.

Zacky just looked at him and hit him upside the head. "This is getting ridiculous, he's always ignoring us," Matt said, standing up, "Jimmy!"

He looked at us and said something on his phone before closing it. "What," he asked, walking towards us.

"You never hang with us anymore," Val said sadly.

Everyone, including me, nodded in agreement. He just sighed as he took a seat next to me and said, "I know and I'm sorry. I'm just stressed and worried about something."

"Care to share?"

He looked at me and bit his lower lip. Jimmy stared at the table, debating if he should continue. "You can tell us," Matt said.

"My cousin's coming to live with me and my family."

"What's so bad about that," I asked.

"Nothing's bad about that it’s just I'm scared for Nikki. I mean, from where she was and now moving here......I'm scared that she won't be able to handle it."

We just stared at him, confused, as Val asked, "What do you mean?"

"Nikki was born in Van Nuys but lived her life in Colorado. Her mom died and her dad became very abusive to her. Nikki, in return, became a heroin addict just to escape reality. She also refused to eat just because she didn't want to be in the same room as her dad. I think she was anorexic as well as an addict. Crazy thing was that her dad thought she was insane and actually put her in a mental hospital. After my parents found that out, they fought for custody of her and won. Now she's coming to live with us. I'm scared that even though she's sober, she'll still have a hard time adapting to everything here so I've been calling her all the time."

We couldn't believe what Jimmy said. After he told all, I felt horrible for thinking mean things about him.

"Sorry for yelling at you, man. I didn't know," Matt said.

Jimmy smiled and laughed, "Its fine. Do you guys want to meet Nikki?"

"If that's okay," I said.

He nodded, "Yeah, I think it might be good for you guys to meet Nikki."

After school, we all hung around in Jimmy's house. His parents went to the airport to pick up his cousin. Jimmy just got up and looked at painting over the fireplace. "Nikki did this," he said, a bit out of it.

I looked at it. It was a painting of snow covered mountains with the sun setting behind it. Honestly, it was an amazing painting. "Wow, she did that," Val asked.

"Yeah, she did it before she was in the fucking looney bin. I wonder if she painted it when she was high."

I just stared at him, a bit in shock and a bit in confusement. I can tell he really does worry about his cousin. She, clearly, means a lot to him.

We sat there talking for a bit when we heard the door open. Jimmy instantly stood up as people began walking in. His parents came in and saw us. "Oh hi, everyone. Will you all be staying for dinner," asked his mom.

"Yes, ma'am," we answered at the same time.

"Good to see you all. Nikki, I'm going to put your bags in your room, alright? You can say hi to Jimmy and his friends," said his dad.

All our attention turned to the person behind him.

Black hair that fell pass her shoulders, dark green eyes, slightly tanned skin, and a figure to die for...... "Nikki," Jimmy said as he walked towards her, giving her a hug.

This was Jimmy's cousin?