Now It's My Time to Strike Back

The entire time, Nick barely showed any real emotion besides the emotion he forced on his face for the Freshmen. My eyes kept wandering to his or at least, I tried to do that. Whenever he felt like I was looking at him, he wouldn’t even look at me.

We were currently showing them the empty dorms in the co-ed building when we reached the end of that floor, concluding the tour.

“Thank you guys so much for deciding to receive a tour of this campus”, I began as Nick said his part.

“We’ve really enjoyed your company, so, if you have any questions, you may ask them”, he said, flashing another fake smile.

“So, what did you guys think about the cheerleaders just now? One of them seems to know you guys pretty well”, a boy said.

He looked like he was around 14 and had blonde hair and blue eyes. I looked at Nick as he glanced at me, but stared back at the kid. He opened his mouth to speak, but a girl beat him to it.

“Are you and Rose dating each other?” she asked. This girl was a brunette and had sparkling blue eyes.

I froze, unable to say anything. Nick didn’t speak, either so after a few moments of silence, I decided to answer them, the boy first.

“Uh..Honestly, they did an OK job until the end, but y-yeah. The one that came to talk to us was my twin sister, Victoria”, I explained, not wanting to discuss the matter.

They broke out into hushed whispers before falling silent again as I answered the girl’s question.

“About Nick and I, no. We’re not dating each other”, I answered, turning on my heel before walking when another kid spoke.

“Why not? You guys would make such a cute couple!” a girl gushed.

I turned back to them, glancing at the girl who spoke, flashing me a small smile. I smiled back, laughing at the irony of the situation.

“Alright, guys, that’s enough”, Nick said gently with a chuckle, finally coming back from whatever he was thinking in his mind.

“You’ll be able to ask her more questions tomorrow when she performs her song, but that’s if you decide to come back tomorrow evening around 7-ish”, he added with a real, warm smile.

I blushed wanting more than anything to stare at him open-mouthed at the mentioning of that, but I straightened my composure as the kids gaped at me in awe. I twiddled my thumbs, smiling shyly for the first time at them as the group huddled around me once more, frantically asking questions as I moved them out of the building.

Well, that was awkward.

…

It was now 5 in the afternoon seeing as the Freshmen were gone leaving Nick and I alone in our dorm, finally. I walked with each step as Nick led the way, still not saying a word.

“Can I ask you something?” I asked suddenly once we reached our dorm, standing outside of it.

He nodded, still not looking at me.

“Honestly, why didn’t you tell Vic off? It wasn’t right-the way she treated you”, I stammered nervously as I felt the heat rise in my cheeks.

He shrugged, not answering me verbally again. I rolled my eyes, heaving a sigh before I tried once more.

“I mean, that was completely disrespectful! I would have said something, but I felt like it wasn’t in my place to do so”, I said, trying to urge him to speak.

He granted my wish, sighing before speaking.

“To be honest, I never expected Vic to do that, either, but what can you do, you know? I have half a mind to do it back to her, but I’m her boyfriend. I should take what I signed up for”, he said with a yawn.

I knew he was just trying to take the practical and positive approach, but I wasn’t going to let him live in his fantasy.

“No, you didn’t”, I began in a serious tone, “You didn’t ask for Vic to be like that. You thought she changed just like I did”, I defended.

I stared into his brown eyes as he stared into mine. He looked away after a few moments before speaking again.

“That doesn’t matter now, does it?” he asked, catching me off guard.

I didn’t expect him to say that. He changed his entire demeanor from positive to realistic and pessimistic in less than a second. What was wrong with him? Guilt began to fill me as I understood what he meant. He was beating himself up for choosing Vic, but what could I do? I couldn’t agree with him, but I couldn’t continue defending him, either.

I said the only thing that came into mind.

“My advice would be to talk to her about it. As angry as I was about you choosing Vic, I still feel as though to squash this mess between you two would be to tell her how you honestly feel. Th-that’s all I can give you”, I said in a slightly disappointed tone.

What lame advice.

“But how can I talk to her when she knows what she did was wrong? It’s not like she was unaware of her actions. She did it without a second thought”, he countered.

I walked closer to Nick, pulling his face towards mine for him to look at me and not away as I spoke as gently as I could.

“I’m sorry, but that’s how Vic is. I’m not going to tell you what you should do, so, all I’m going to say is your feelings are or should be important, too”, I said, smiling a little.

I felt the muscles in his face move upward as a smile appeared on his lips as well.

“Thank you, Rose”, he said, closing his eyes for a moment before he opened them again.

I flashed him a smile in return before I began to drop my hands from his face when he stopped them with his own, catching me off guard again. The familiar feeling came back as images of when we made love for the first time as well as the other memories we shared flooded my mind.

The warmth of his hands filled my own and soon enough, I found myself uncontrollably wrapping my arms around his neck as I pulled him into a hug. It was the only thing I could do without letting old feelings take over me. I was surprised for Nick to wrap his arms around my torso, hugging me in return.

We stood like that for what seemed like hours, clinging lightly to one another as the world disappeared from us altogether. But reality came back to me in full force when my phone rung once more as did Nick’s.

I pulled away first, answering mine as I took a step or two backwards away from him. My body felt cold leaving his, but I knew that it was the right thing to do.

“Hello?” I asked, expecting it to be Mel.

“Hey, Rosie. What are you up to?” Jake asked, making my heartbeat quicken.

The heat rose to my cheeks as I thought of the answer to his question, but didn’t say it. Instead, I made up something else.

“Just about to get some dinner with my new roommate”, I answered nervously.

“Oh, that’s cool. Mel told me you had one of those co-ed ones. Do you know who it is or no?” he asked.

I heard shuffling in the background for a moment, but watched Nick walk to my side of the room before he sat on my bed as he talked to whoever it was on the phone.

“Uh, yeah, I do, actually”, I answered, running a hand through my hair.

“Who is-”, he began, but Dad cut across him.

“Jacob! Time for dinner!” he called.

I sighed in relief as I mentally thanked God for the interruption.

“Coming, Mr. Sanchez!” he replied to my dad before speaking to me. “I gotta go. Just text me it, OK?” he asked.

“Y-yeah. Bye, Jake”, I said.

“Bye, Rose”, he said, pausing for a long moment before I hung up.

I walked over to Nick, but he was still on the phone.

“Vic, it’s not the fact that you were in front of your friends!... I know that, but what about me? I’ve never done that to you, so why do it to me?... Whatever”, he concluded angrily as he hung up, plopping his back on my bed as he sighed loudly.

We sat in silence for a minute before either of us spoke, an idea coming to me.

“Come on”, I said, pulling him by his right arm as I tried to pull him up (failing miserably might I add).

“Come on where?” he asked in an I-really-don’t-want-to-go-anywhere tone.

“Let’s grab a bite to eat”, I said, smiling at him before I gave him a knowing look.

He stared at me for a few moments before he spoke.

“Can we talk over dinner?” he asked.

“Yep. We can bring our food up here, too”, I replied with an even bigger smile.

“Alright”, he agreed, sitting up as he led the way out of the door, locking it behind us.