Dance With the Devil

I called Nick that night, a little less than happy with his performance at lunch today. The phone rang three times before he answered. “Hey baby.” I should have expected; he knew that he pissed me off today, so now he’s going to try and sweet talk his way out of it.

“Hi.” I supposed a sounded a bit distant. I was still a little upset.

“How’s your mom doing?”

“I wouldn’t really know. She hasn’t been here since I got home.”

“You okay? You sound like you’re upset or something.” He knew very well that he didn’t have to ask to know I was upset. Nick and I had been together for a long time, so he knew how I sounded when I was upset.

“No, I’m not okay.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Maybe just the fact that you’re practically cheating on me with Axel.” There was a short silence on the phone, like he was confused, or just thinking of something to say.

“What are you talking about? I would never cheat on you, boy or girl.” I giggled with no humor.

“Oh, but you already have. You completely blew me off today at lunch. You always walk with me to my next class Nick, always. But today, who did you walk with? It sure as hell wasn’t me.”

“I didn’t know that meant that much to you Kar. I’m sorry, if I knew that you wanted me to walk with you, then I wouldn’t have walked with Axel.” I closed my eyes. I was getting a headache. Whenever Nick and I had an argument, it always went like this. He would play innocent and I would sound like the bad guy still being angry. I opened my eyes when I was reminded of another thing.

“It’s not just about that, Nick. You don’t defend me whatsoever when Axel is mean to me.”

“Oh come on,” He said quickly. “You know he’s just playing around when he does that.”

“It doesn’t matter if he is or not. It’s not exactly a compliment when someone calls you a whore. Please, at least tell him to lay off.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll tell him.” There was a silence, just after I sighed to myself. I didn’t want to stay mad at Nick; he just pissed me off so easily sometimes.

“I’m sorry I exploded on you. It just makes me feel like you don’t care as much about me when you ignore me for him.”

“Karlee, you’re the most important thing in my life. And you know I love you. I’m sorry that I make you feel ignored sometimes, I don’t mean it baby.” It’s annoying when I’m mad at him and he calls me baby, because it still makes me melt.

“It’s alright. And I love you too.” He laughed slightly over the phone.

“That’s my girl. Okay, well I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Love you, bye.”

“Love you too.” I said as I sighed. Every argument Nick and I have always leaves me feeling unsatisfied. And each time, I do the same thing; I talk to Aubrey about it. But instead of calling her, I was going to go to her house. I looked at the time, it was near 10pm. If my mom wasn’t home by now, she wouldn’t be home anytime soon. I grabbed my keys, and left.

I always loved driving at night; it was so much more calming than during the day. Aubrey’s house wasn’t far, but I still wanted to drive.

Once I came to her house, I parked in front of it and walked up to the door. And even though I was practically family here, I didn’t just want to walk in, even though I did have a key. I knocked on the door slightly; her mother answered.

“Oh, Karlee. I didn’t expect you at this hour. Everything alright?” I smiled at Mrs. Tanner.

“Yeah, everything’s okay, I just need to talk to Aubrey.” She smiled back at me, and moved out of the way of the door.

“Well, you know you’re welcome here anytime. Aubrey’s in her room. But I would knock first, you never know what that child is doing.” She gave me a sarcastic wink. I loved Mrs. Tanner.

“Will do.” I walked in and up the stairs. I came to her door and knocked slightly. “Aubrey?”

“Come in.” When I opened the door, I found Aubrey sitting on her bed on her laptop. Her long blonde hair was completely down, and her bangs were pushed to one side. She looked up, and seemed surprised to see it was me, though she did just hear my voice. “Karlee? What are you doing here?” I shut the door behind me and sad on her cushioned windowsill.

“Nice to see you too.” I said with a little dry humor.

“You know that’s not what I meant. I mean why did you come here right now?”

“Nick and I had a fight and—”

“Wait.” She cut me off. She closed her laptop, and moved from her bed to the windowsill with me. This was like story time for her.

“Continue.” I smiled at her.

“Well only if you insist. You know how today he blew me off to be with Axel?” She nodded. “I called him out on it. And get this, he said that he didn’t know he was ignoring me.” Aubrey furrowed her brows.

“I’m calling bullshit.”

“Then he says that he didn’t know walking with me meant so much to me. Well, yeah it does. I only get to see the kid in lunch. I would like to spend as much time with him as possible.” She shook her head at me.

“That’s ridiculous.”

“I mean, am I overreacting? I don’t want to be one of those crazy girlfriends that gets all pissed off every time that their boyfriend hangs with one of his friends.” She put up her hands in a stop formation.

“You’re not overreacting. And it’s not the fact that he’s hanging with one of his friends, it’s the fact that he’s ignoring you to hang with his friends. And that, you have every right to get pissed off over.” I loved talking to Aubrey; she always made me feel so much better, and so less crazy.

“And I told him how I hate that he doesn’t stick up for me when Axel starts being a dick to me. And then he defends Axel, when I’m the one being called the names. I understand they have a bromance or whatever, but I don’t want their bromance to affect my romance.” Aubrey smiled, and shrugged sarcastically.

“A bromance is a very powerful thing Kar.” I started playing with a piece of lint on her cushion.

“Yeah well so is a kick in the balls.” I looked back up at her suddenly. “I don’t see what’s so great about Axel anyway.” She looked away and giggled before looking back at me.

“Do you really want to ask me that?” I looked at her with a smile, but I was being serious.

“Actually, yes I do. I wanna know what you legitimately like about Axel.” She looked out the window as she spoke.

“I don’t know. He’s cute, funny, outgoing.” She looked back to me. “And he actually is nice to everyone but you.” I rolled my eyes.

“Aren’t I a lucky girl.” I said sarcastically. She playfully tapped me on the shoulder.

“Oh come on, remember what we used to say back in elementary school? That if a boy is mean to you, it means he likes you.” She winked at me. I pointed my finger to my mouth and faked gagging. “I’m just kidding. He’s going to be my husband someday anyway.” I laughed.

“He’s all yours, Bre. I would never go for a guy like him anyway.” She got up from where she was sitting and went back onto her bed.

“Well good. Hey, you wanna stay over? You’re already here, and we can just drive to school together in the morning.” I was about to say yes when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I pulled it out to see that my mother sent me a text telling me to come home immediately. I sighed and put my phone away. “Your mom?” I looked at her a little sadly.

“Yep. I apparently am wanted home right now. So I guess that’s a no on the stay over. Sorry, we’ll do it this weekend. Besides, I promised I would drive Nick tomorrow.” She waved me off.

“No trouble. I’ll see you tomorrow.” She said with a small smile.

“Bye, and thanks. I needed someone to talk to.” She winked at me; I smiled and walked down her stairs and out of her house. I got in my car and only imagined what awaited for me at home.