The Last Good Thing About This Part of Town

The next few weeks were really great between Nicolette and me, but things were just getting worse for Erika and Luis. The guys in my band really liked Nicolette, and Joe was certainly taking a liking to Erika, but she always kept distance because of Luis.

“Dude, she just needs to dump him. She’s totally supposed to be with me, not that airhead football guy.” Joe said, sprawled out across my bed.

“She’s not just gonna break up with him to go out with you. They've been together for like over a year, and even if she did, she wouldn't just date you right away.” I told him. “I know you're like in love with her but, come on, you can’t expect her to just like you because you want her.”

“It’s just so frustrating” He screamed

“Dude, get over it. You're gonna have to.”

“But I don’t want to” He whined

“Don’t want to what?” We heard a familiar voice standing in my doorway. We both looked up to see Nicolette standing there. She walked over to my desk where I was sitting and doing my homework, sat on my lap, wrapped her arms around my neck and kissed me.

“You guys are just making it worse” Joe said, getting both of our attention.

“Joe is just complaining that Erika won’t break up with Luis and date him.” I told her “In a nutshell”

“Ugh, just the name Luis is annoying. What kind of name is that?!” He said.

Nicolette just chuckled “Well, maybe your suffering will end pretty soon. It doesn’t look like they're gonna be together very much longer”

Joe shot up off of the bed “What are you talking about”

“Erika’s breaking up with him. She told me she decided that she was actually going to do it, its just a matter of when.” She told him.

“This is the best news I’ve heard all week” Joe cheered, raising his hands in the air and jumping around my room.

“Woah dude, I told you already. You can’t just expect her to date you right away. You need to give her some time before you smother her” I warned him.

“He’s right. It’s gonna be a messy breakup. I’m already preparing myself for the shit storm its going to be.” Nicolette defended, getting up off my lap and grabbing her backpack. “Babe? Can we study in the kitchen? We had to run hills today and I’m starving”

“Of course” I closed my calc book and grabbed my notebook, following her out of my door. “You coming dude?” I asked Joe, still sitting on my bed.

“Actually, I think I’m gonna head home. I told my dad I’d help him with, uh, something. I forgot what it was. Probably his car.” He said, standing up and grabbing his stuff. “I’ll see you tomorrow for rehearsal though!” reaching his hand out to me for a bro handshake.

“Yeah man, see you tomorrow”

“Bye Nicolette!” He said as he walked down the hall to the front door, with us right behind him but stopping before the door to turn into the kitchen.

“Man he really is in love with Erika isn’t he?” She asked me

“She’s all he talks about anymore, it’s actually really annoying.” I told her, opening my fridge and looking for something to eat.

“Well at least you don’t have to listen to Erika talk about hers and Luis’s problems all the time. And its just going to get worse when they break up.”

I handed her a bottle of water “So is that really happening? She's actually calling it quits?” I asked

“Yeah. I know its crazy cause they seem so perfect together, but she's not happy anymore. It’ll be a good thing for her.” She said, then took a sip of her water

“Hmm” I grunted, thinking about the situation. “So we have lots and lots of fruit, It’s all vegan stuff so the only snacks we have are basically fruit. I could make you something. I’m actually a really bomb cook.” I told her

“My man is sexy, talented, and can cook? How did I get so lucky?” She said, coming up behind me, placing her hands on my waist and kissing the back of my neck.

“I’ll take that as a yes to cooking.”

“Thanks babe. How about, just so we don’t waste any time, I’ll give you a law or a formula and you can tell me either what it is, or the name of it.” She said, opening her book.

“Ughhh, fine.” I complained.

I really hated calc. I hated math in general. I was fine at it but It didn't click with me right away. I was always more of a history person, but thankfully Nicolette was a math genius and she was always there to help me with my homework or study with me. She wasn’t even here to study for herself, because she was already going to ace the test, she was only here to help me study.

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“Babe, it smells so good. What are you making?” She asked me after giving me about 25 calc terms that hurt my head.

“Its a kale pasta. It’s my favorite.” I told her. “I thought I’d make you carbs since you have that meet tomorrow”

“You’re so sweet. And speaking of, it would be really amazing if you could be there. Its a really big meet for us, it’s a city championship and it’s really good competition before state. I know you have rehearsal tomorrow but it starts at 3 and its just down the street from the school. Could you maybe, just possibly be a little late for practice tomorrow?” She asked, using her cute little pleading face that basically made me say yes to whatever she wanted.

“I’ll be there” I told her, placing a small kiss on her forehead.

“Yay!” She exclaimed. “Look over here, I need to Instagram this moment of you cooking for me”

I held up the pan of pasta and posed like a chef the best I could, waiting for her to take the picture.

“Perfect. I’ll caption it, my sexy chef boyfriend” She said

“Make sure to use a filter that doesn't wash me out” I joked with her.

She just laughed, but then her phone dinged, indicating she had a text, and her laugh quickly died out and she rolled her eyes.

“Whats wrong? Who was that?” I asked, concerned

“Okay so before you freak out, I was actually planning on telling you this tonight. Promise you won’t do anything stupid?” She asked

“Depends. Who was that?”

“You have to promise.” She said.

“Okay fine. I promise. Now who was that.” If it sounds like I was being a jealous, over-protective boyfriend, its only because I was.

“Damien has been texting me trying to talk to me all day.”

I felt a surge of panic come over me, but was then quickly replaced by rage.

“I’ve gotten like 20 messages from him, and at least 6 in the past half hour.”

“What does he want?” I asked, obviously sounding angry.

“I don’t know. I haven’t texted back”

A sense of relief came over me when she said this.

“Are you jealous?” She asked, hopping off the stool and walking towards me. “It’s cute”

“Well, yeah. You have history with him. If it were anyone else, I would be protective yeah, but not necessarily jealous.” I told her as I wrapped my arms around her.

“You have nothing to worry about. Me and Damien are just that. History.” She grabbed my collar like she always does and pulled me down for a kiss. Once or lips met, suddenly I couldn't care less about Damien. Nicolette was mine and he was never taking her away from me.

She pulled away looking at the pasta on the stove. “Is it ready? I’m starving”

“Yup. Can you just grab some plates and I’ll get the drinks?” I asked “Top left cabinet next to the sink.”

“Of course!”