The Last Good Thing About This Part of Town

“Well, thats it. We’re done! I finally did it.” Erika yelled into the phone.

It took me by surprise. I knew she was going to do it but it just didn’t feel real until she finally came out and said it. But I had to put aside all my confusion and shock and just be there for her, because she needed me.

“I’m so sorry Erika. Do you want to come over? We can lay in bed and you can cry and talk to me until you fall asleep.” I said

“No. You should get some sleep, tomorrow is really important for you. You need your rest”

“Well what about you? How are supposed to win tomorrow if you're gonna be crying yourself to sleep at 3 in the morning?” I asked, concerned.

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. Maybe I’ll just use my pent up anger towards him and use it tomorrow.” She said

“Okay, well call if you need me. Even if its at 3 in the morning, I’ll always talk to you.” I told her sympathetically.

“This is why you're my best friend. Love you, see you tomorrow.”

“Okay, love you too. Get some sleep okay? Bye”

“Bye” then she hung up.

I felt horrible that I wasn't with her. I knew I would have to find her breakup survive kit and force her to come over after the meet. After we both got our first boyfriends in middle school, then got dumped by them, we decided to make a kit to help us get over the guys that broke our hearts. We’ve only had to use ours once each, mine was after everything with Damien, even though we were never actually dating and hers was after her boyfriend her freshman year, they dated for about 5 months.

We both kept each others kits. Mine had a CD that consisted of songs that I was able to cry to, then another one that was supposed to cheer me up, a lighter that I would use to burn pictures, or clothes or anything, some of my favorite pictures that Erika and I had ever taken together and my teddy bear that my mom gave me when I was 2.

In hers, she had the same CD’s, a $15 gift card to Coldstone, so we could go get ice cream, and her favorite movie, Josie and the Pussycats.

I called Andy before I went to bed, like I always did. I told him that Erika finally broke up with Luis, and that I couldn’t hang out with him tomorrow night because I needed to be with Erika.

I definitely felt bad, but we basically spend all of our time together. And not just that, but I felt horrible that Damien was texting me. I know I shouldn't because I told Andy that I didn't reply, and I didn’t, but now he feels threatened, and I definitely didn't want him to feel like that.

“Is Damien still texting you?” he asked me.

“No. The last one I got was about an hour ago.”

“It’s like 11. Why the hell is he texting you at 10 O’clock at night?” He asked, sounding a little angry.

“I don’t know. He’s just desperate okay babe? I still haven’t replied at all, please don’t worry about it.”

“It’s just really hard not to worry about it. I know you told me you guys are done, but it just worries me that he’s single, and he told you he was in love with you babe. It just scares me that you have other options, and you can just leave me at any moment for someone better.” he sounded so heartbroken. All I wanted to do at that moment was kiss him and reassure him that I was his, not Damiens.

“I know its scary. But theres no way I would do that to you Andy, he may be in love with me I don’t love him I love you” I blurted out. And once I said it, it was out there and there was no taking it back. But I meant it. I love him.

“What?” I heard him say. I panicked. What if he didn't love me back? Was it too soon? Did he want to say it first? Shit, I ruined it by saying it over the phone. Say something, quick.

“I love you Andy.” I got a little chocked up saying it again. There was so many emotions going through me, that It was really hard for me to contain it. There was a small moment of silence and it scared me a little.

“I love you too Nicolette” I heard him say softly over the phone, and a sense of relief and pure happiness came over me.

“So now do you believe me. You have nothing to worry about. Seriously.” I assured him

“Yeah. I feel way more relieved now.”

“Good. And as much as I would love to talk to you all night, I have to go to sleep.”

“Yeah I know. I’ll see you tomorrow babe. Goodnight”

“Goodnight babe. And just because I love saying it so much, I love you.” I said with a smile on my face.

I earned a small chuckle from him “And I love you too. Get some sleep”

“Bye” I told him, then hung up. I fell asleep with a huge smile on my face. Although my day was kind of full of bullshit, talking to Andy tonight just made me forget everything negative that happened today.

***

I was really excited to go to school, because I wanted to see Andy obviously. But I also really wanted to tell Erika all about what happened last night but I felt bad telling her about it considering everything she's going through. So I decided I would just not tell her, not yet.

“Hey” She came up to me. She looked like her normal self, not tired and groggy like I expected.

“Hey. How are you?” I grabbed her and wrapped her in a tight hug.

“I’m alright, for now. I’ll let you know later tonight.” She said

I grabbed the Coldstone gift card and CD’s from her kit and waved it in front her “Well, after the meet, were going to get ice cream, go to my house, and cry to your breakup cd and watch Josie and the Pussycats over and over until we fall asleep.”

“Sounds good.” She said, taking the gift card and CD’s from my hand. “I almost forgot about these”

“Well I didn’t, and we probably would have done the same thing without them anyway.” I told her.

“I also want that lighter thats in your kit.”

“Are you sure you want to do that now? You guys broke up yesterday.”

“Yeah, the sooner I do it, the faster I can get over it.” She said

“Okay, then we’ll pick it up on the way to my house later” I told her. It was my favorite zippo lighter that I used to burn all of the things that reminded of Damien after he broke my heart. So it had to be that lighter, not just any one.

I saw Andy out of the corner of my eye walking towards us, but I didn’t want to make Erika feel bad, so I gave him a ‘not right now’ kind of look. He understood and walked to his locker, But there was really no point, because the first bell rang and I had to go to first period anyway. So I quickly hugged her goodbye and met Andy in our usual seats in calc.

“How is she?” Was the first thing out of his mouth when I sat down.

“Better than I thought. It looks like she got a full nights sleep, which is good. But I don’t wanna talk about that.” I looked to him with a sad look. I was really sad, whenever Erika was sad, it made me sad and thats basically how our life worked.

He grabbed my cheeks and kissed my forehead “Okay, well we have this test so that’ll definitely get your mind off of it” then I heard the late bell ring and Mr. Martins started his usual morning routine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the test, which I finished pretty quickly, the rest of the day seemed to go by really fast. Granted I only had half a day because of the meet. Andy had to stay at school without me for the first time all year and he wouldn't let me hear the end of it. He kept texting me while he was in class and I was at the meet.

When school finally ended, he drove straight to the meet and found me. I was in the middle of my warm up but it was really a relief to see him. I was so nervous and Andy was the only person I wanted to see. Erika was favored to win and I was seeded to be in the top 5 and I was freaking out about it.

“Oh thank god you're here. I’m so nervous” I ran up to him when I saw him.

“Ugh and the last half of school sucked. I just realized that I have no friends in that school besides you.” He hugged me and tried to make me laugh.

“Well, I’m cooler than all those idiots we go to school with.” I said, grabbing his collar and pulling him down for a kiss, just like I always do,.

“True” He agreed, once his lips let mine.

Then I heard my team start calling me over to start heading onto the line. I gave out a sigh, because I only got to talk to Andy for like a minute, but once again, all my nerves rushed back into my body, and he could tell.

“Babe. Calm down. You're gonna do amazing like you always do. I’ll be at the end of the finish line waiting for you okay?” he assured me.

“Okay. Thank you for coming. It really means a lot.”

“I love you. Now go kick some ass” He told me

I just smiled and laughed. “I love you too” I placed another quick peck on his lips then joined my team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Erika was doing surprisingly well, considering her situation, and so was I. She stayed right behind the leader basically the entire time, and I was only in 3rd with her and the other girl in my sights the entire time. Andy really learned how to watch a cross country meet because he was doing a really good job of finding me and cheering me on.

At the end of the race, Erika ended up winning and I was actually really close to getting second, because the girl who was leading the entire time finally got tired, and fell back to barely beat me.

I was expecting Andy to be the first person I saw after I got out of the chute, but instead, I saw a face that I was not happy about. Damien.

I tried my best to avoid him, but he saw my walk the other way and chased me until he caught up.

“Nicolette wait, I want to talk to you” he said, running in front of me, making me stop in my tracks

“I don’t know if you could tell by all of the texts I didn't send, but I really don’t want to talk to you.” I sassed

“Look, I get it. But I’m not giving up. I love you and I know you love me. You’ll get tired of that boyfriend of yours soon, and that will finally give us our chance that is long overdue.”

I couldn’t even take him seriously. I was so dumbfounded by what he said that I didn’t really know how to react, so I just started cracking up.

“Why are you laughing?” He was so confused. “Stop laughing, its not funny” He was starting to get frustrated. I just started laughing harder. I couldn’t stop and I guess Andy noticed, because a few seconds later, he was standing right next to me.

“Everything okay?” I heard him ask cautiously.

I calmed down enough to tell Andy that we should just leave, but he didn't really go for it.

“Dude, are you bothering my girlfriend” I suddenly became serious in less than a second, because he was really jealous, and that made me uncomfortable.

“I just want to talk” Damien told him. His entire badass demeanor he had before was gone once Andy started talking to him.

“Andy Its’s okay” I tried to calm him down

“No, if he’s been bothering you, thats a problem.” he said, even angrier now.

“Dude, seriously I just wanted to talk. But if you have a problem with that, I’ll just wait until another time.” he said, slowly starting to back away, with his arm up in a small surrender stance.

“Theres not gonna be another time asshole. Seriously leave me alone, or Andy will keep you away from me next time”

I grabbed Andys hand and pulled him away. I was a little upset with him as well. I had everything under control, then he just made things super tense when they didn't need to be.

“What the hell was that. I had it under control, you didn't need to step in” I scolded him.

He looked surprised. I’ve never been mad at him before. “What are you talking about? I was just trying to help.”

“I don’t always need your help okay? I can handle some things on my own.”

“Why are you mad at me? I don’t understand.” He asked

“Do you trust me?” I asked

“What? Yes of course I trust you.”

“Then you will let me handle everything with Damien. I don’t want you doing anything stupid.”

“Well you sure told him I would be getting involved. And I will if he keeps bothering you, because you're obviously not doing a very good job of it.” We were both really angry, and stubborn. I didn't want to deal with this right now, so I just decided to walk away.

“Whatever Andy, have a good practice” And then I walked off to go find Erika. My day turned from absolutely amazing to absolute shit in the matter of 5 minutes, and it was all Damiens fault.