Now It's My Time to Strike Back

We walked slowly down the long hallway in silence, the tension between us clearly evident. I decided to speak first.

“Nick, wait”, I said, stopping abruptly, gaining his attention at my words and actions.

“What are we going to do?” I asked, rubbing my arm nervously.

“I don’t want to talk about it right now”, he said in a cold tone.

I bit the inside of my bottom lip before speaking.

“Look, I understand that, but we don’t have a choice. We have to talk about this”, I said, watching him as he furrowed his brows in concentration.

“So, what are we supposed to do? Just pretend it never happened like you said?” he asked, running a hand through his curls.

I took in a sharp breath as I thought the matter over.

“I mean, what else can we-”, I began, but he cut across me.

“I don’t know, Rose! I don’t know!” he said as he began to pace what little space there was between us.

A sigh escaped me as I watched him. After about a minute, he stopped as he stared at me.

“You know I don’t want to do that”, he mumbled, but I heard him.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes.

“Just do it! It doesn’t matter, really”, I lied.

“Really?” he asked skeptically staring at me intensely. I nodded in return as I tore my eyes from his gaze.

“We shouldn’t be friends anymore, Nick”, I said with certainty.

The kiss was too far and I refuse to be the other woman like Vic was when Nick and I were together. Life must hate me to put me through this.

“Wh-what?” he asked in a shaky tone.

“It’s clear, Nick. We went too far so we should just be roommates and nothing more”, I explained.

He looked at me with pleading eyes as I saw him be torn in two as he thought over and over again about the situation.

I opened my mouth to speak as he did the same, but another voice cut across me.

“Rosie!” Jake exclaimed happily, but stopped once his eyes landed on Nick.

He had just entered the door to our floor, a slightly shocked expression on his face before it changed to an angry one.

“J-Jake, um, hi”, I stammered.

“Hi. What are you doing hanging around him? Is he causing you any trouble?” Jake asked, glaring at Nick as he approached us in a few seconds.

Nick glared back, but I stepped between the two trying to think of a way of telling Jake without making things worse.

“No. We were going to meet Vic downstairs, but-Wait. Why are you here?” I asked wondering why.

Nick didn’t speak, but continued glaring at Jake knowing he thought the same thing.

“Rose, you know Mel and I couldn’t miss your first performance of the year”, Jake replied in a kind tone.

I stared at Nick as his face softened, but a hint of worry washed over it before it went blank again.

“O-oh? Really? Thanks for not telling me!” I exclaimed in a playful tone, slapping his chest with the back of my hand.

“Well, we had to surprise you somehow”, Jake replied with a chuckle, his eyes sort of dazed as he stared at me.

“Uh, well, we should get going”, I said, looking from Jake to Nick and back again.

Nick’s face showed nothing but pure cold-heartedness. He was angry; angry that Jake was here and that we didn’t decide what to do about our situation with Vic.

Nick’s voice interrupted my thoughts.

“Are we going or are we just going to stand here?” he asked more so to Jake than to me.

“R-right”, I agreed, waiting for Jake to start walking before Nick got next to me.

“We’ll just forget it, OK?” he whispered before I could say anything.

He left me speechless before following Jake, me following the both of them in the rear.

…

About ten minutes later, we were in the student lounge only to get tackled with a hug by Mel. A laugh escaped the four of us as a big smile was on her practically shining face.

“Hiiiii!” she said happily.

“Hi, Mel”, Nick and I said in unison.

“Hi, guys!” she replied, loosening her grip on me as she gave Nick a normal hug.

“So, why didn’t anyone tell me you guys were coming?” I asked, raising a brow at them.

“Well, we wanted to get back here since the meeting for me was changed to this week coming up. And Jake wanted to come since he didn’t want to be alone in Florida”, she said quickly.

“No offense, Rose, but your dad is kind of weird sometimes”, Jake joked.

I raised a brow at him, shrugging my shoulders as I brushed away the matter.

“Meh. I guess that’s where I get it from, you know?” I asked.

“So, are you going to rehearse?” Nick asked suddenly.

“W-what? In front of you guys, no!” I protested.

“Aww, come on, Rosie! You already let Jake and I hear it!” Mel whined.

“That makes me more interested in hearing it”, Nick added. Mel nodded her head feverishly.

My eyes landed on Jake as I saw him glare at Nick before turned away to make himself busy with other things nearby.

“Guys, don’t pressure her into it. If she doesn’t want to do it, then don’t force her to”, Jake said in a serious tone, surprising all of us.

All eyes fell on him as we waited for him to respond, but he never did. Nick and Mel looked at me with pleading eyes or at least Mel was causing me to cave.

“Ugh. Fine. Damn! I left my acoustic!” I exclaimed.

“Just use one from the back”, Nick replied with a smirk.

I squinted my eyes as I quickly glared at him before grabbing an acoustic guitar from the stage near the instruments.

I took a deep breath before strumming a few chords before singing just a small snippet of the song.

…

When I was finished after 30 seconds, they gave me a look.

“No fair!” Mel said.

“Yeah, what Mel said”, Jake agreed.

“It sounds great so far”, Nick complimented, smiling a little. I blushed, a small smile forming on my own lips before responding.

“Thanks. There’s obviously more to it, but I’m saving that for tonight”, I explained.

“Uh, aren’t you guys supposed to meet up with Victoria?” Jake asked giving Nick and I a suspicious look.

Oh shit.

“Crap! We forgot”, Nick said, shaking his head at himself.

“Well, get along, then. Fill me in later”, Mel said, hugging Nick first and then me.

“But what about the-”, I began, but Jake cut across me.

“We’ll put it away, now get going!” Jake said shooting me a smile.

I nodded as Nick opened the door for me, leading us out of the lounge. Just as he did so, his phone rung with Vic’s ringtone indicating it was her.

He answered it swiftly.

“Hello?.. We’re sorry.. We were at the lounge… For Rose’s performance tonight.. Alright. We’ll meet you at your dorm… Well, there isn’t anywhere else since our dorm is off limits and-…I already told you why, Vic!... Ugh. We’ll find you…. Bye”, he concluded, hanging up his phone before an annoyed sigh escaped him.

“We’re just going to forget, right?” I asked, checking to be sure he wasn’t planning on changing his mind about it.

“Yeah. We’ll just forget”, he agreed reluctantly.

I knew how Nick felt, but there was nothing either of us could do. No matter what, Vic could never find out about me and Nick kissing each other.

By the time I was out of my thoughts, we’d already arrived to Vic’s dorm. It was room 112 on the first floor. Nick knocked a few times before waiting patiently as we soon heard a click of the door unlocking before it swung open a little, revealing Vic.

Her eyes were blue as though she’d been crying. She moved to the side to let us enter her dorm. We walked in, completely surprised at how normal everything looked besides her girly stuff here and there. I sat down on the floor as Vic and Nick sat on the bed. We sat in silence before any of us spoke.

“So, we know why we’re here”, Vic began, staring at Nick and I, then back again before continuing.

“You and Nick are roommates and I’m not comfortable with that. I feel as though you two are going to get back together or end up ‘making a mistake’ and I don’t want to feel that pain. It’d probably be karma coming back on me for causing you guys to break up, but I’m going to take as much of a precaution as I can to keep things at least civil between us. So, whatever you guys have to say, then say it. I’m all ears”, she concluded waiting for either Nick or I to respond.

Nick and I’s eyes met, but he spoke first.

“You don’t have to worry about that, Vic. I know you want some sort of ground rules from all of this so just tell us”, he said casually.

I looked just as shocked as Vic was, but she spoke anyway.

“Rule number one: I’m allowed in your dorm at least three times a week. Rule number two: You, Nick are to kiss me if you see me in the halls regardless if I’m with my friends or not. Rule number three: I won’t disrespect you, Rose, or her friends anymore”, she said, shocking all of us.

“Uh, excuse me?” I asked incredulously.

“What?” she asked with a smirk.

“He’s to kiss you in the halls regardless if you’re with your friends?! You know Nick isn’t very big on PDA!” I exclaimed, getting pissed at her.

“Hey! He’s my boyfriend and if we’re going to go public with the school, which I already have, then they should know he and I are a couple and not assuming that he’s with you”, she spat.

“Wait, everyone thinks I’m with Rose?” Nick asked in a slightly shocked tone.

“Yeah”, Vic replied in a low tone, calming herself. “My cheerleading friends all thought you were with Rose and not me, so I told them that you and I are together. I even told them about you being my sister, Rose”, she said, looking at me.

Nick and I stared at her incredulously as shock filled the both of us. I literally had nothing to say. I couldn’t tell if she was doing all of this just to keep Nick and to stop she and I from arguing or just her own reasons.

“I-I need to take a walk”, I said abruptly, standing as I headed to the door, but Vic’s voice stopped me.

“No, Rose! What’s so wrong about what I’ve done? You know I’m doing it with good intentions”, she tried, but I cut across her.

“I-I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I don’t want to hear anything from you anymore. Spam your PDA all over the school, but just stay the hell away from me”, I concluded before opening the door, closing it behind me.

I was pissed off.