Never Too Late

Lacey's Point of View

School went pretty quick and before I knew it, I was sitting in my room doing a take home test. I heard a knock on my door and then it opened. Mikey was standing there.

"Dinner is done," he said.

I nodded. "Okay, as soon I'm done with this I'll come down."

Mikey nodded and then left. I finished the test about ten minutes later and closed my laptop. I headed downstairs and could hear everyone talking about something. I grabbed a plate and some food and sat at the table. I started to eat when I heard Lucy say some names to what seemed like colleges.

"Wait, SCAD and RISD?" I asked jumping in "This is the first I'm hearing about this. How far away are they?"

“I looked it up, and the Savannah College of Art and Design is like twelve hours away. And then the Rhode Island School of Design is like five hours away, I believe," Lucy explained.

It took a few moments to let that sink in. Mikey and Gerard were still going on and on. I couldn't believe Lucy was going to leave me next year. Sure, I knew she was going to go to college, but now it was real. It felt like a punch in the stomach.

“Is anyone going to ask me what I actually want, or no?” Lucy finally butted in.

"Well, what do you want?" I said, well, more demanded.

"Honestly..." Lucy started, "I’m kinda leaning towards RISD. Not that your school doesn’t sound awesome, Gerard, but I don’t know too much about it yet. And I know Rhode Island’s far, but their painting program is amazing, and-"

I didn't want to listen to this bullshit anymore. I pushed back from my chair and stormed up the stairs. I slammed my door shut and collapsed on my bed. I let out a huge sigh and closed my eyes. I was trying to take everything in and I couldn’t handle it. I needed out of this house for a least a night. I grabbed my phone and texted the one person I could trust. I got up and packed a bag with some clothes in it and packed up my backpack. I was almost done when I heard a knock on my door. It opened a few seconds later and standing on the other side was Lucy.

"Can we talk?" she asked.

"Not in the mood to talk right now," I replied.

I grabbed my bags and headed downstairs. I felt my phone go off indicating that my ride was here. Gerard was in the living room and looked at me.

"I'm going to Nick's for the night,” I said. “I need some space.”

Gerard was going to say something but Mikey stopped him. I opened the door and walked outside. I walked over to Nick's car and got in. The ride over to his house was pretty quiet. We pulled up to a small gray house. Nick put the car in park and we both got out. We walked to the front door and he unlocked it. The inside was pretty big for the size of the house. He had basic furniture and such, but you could feel the coziness just standing there.

"I can show you to one of the guest rooms," Nick offered.

I nodded and we walked down the hall. He had photos of his family hanging up in the hallway. He turned off to the left and walked into a room. It was about the size of my room at my uncle's but a little bigger.

"There's a bathroom attached and everything you’ll need in it,” he said. “Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything. I’ll let you settle in a bit. My room’s two doors down whenever you’re ready to talk.”

Before I could say anything, he left, closing the door behind him. I decided to put my stuff down and change into some comfortable clothes. I grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a tank top. I pulled my hair up into a bun and sat on the bed. I hadn't even said anything to Nick since he picked me up. The least I could do was thank him. I decided to take him up on his offer and go talk. I walked down the hall and found his room. He was sitting on his bed with one of his many guitars. I knocked on the side of his door and he looked up.

"I figured I should say thank you for coming to my rescue tonight," I told him.

"Lacey, you don’t have to thank me, it’s what friends do," he answered.

"Yeah, but you don’t even know why I asked you to get me or even what’s wrong,” I pointed out. “I feel like I’m invading your space.”

"You’re fine. If you don’t mind me asking what is wrong?" he asked.

I sighed and he put his guitar down and patted the side of his bed. I walked over and started to tell him everything that had happened.

"It just sucks,” I said. “Like she didn't even bother to ask me what I thought.”

"Well, it’s her choice in the end regardless, Lacey,” he replied. “I’m sure she wanted to tell you but wanted to wait until she was ready too.”

I let out a groan and laid down on Nick's bed.

"I know, but she always tells me everything,” I said. “It’s not like her to keep secrets from me.”

Nick laid down next to me. "She'll talk when she's ready, just give her time."

I knew he was right and that I’d overreacted to the whole thing. I decided to let it go for now. We started talking about high school and other bullshit, and then how Nick missed his family and how they were supposed to come up for Thanksgiving but he wasn’t really sure. The conversation died down after that. It was starting to get late so I decided to head to bed. I said goodnight to Nick and headed back to the guest room.

"Lacey, wait," I heard Nick say.

I turned around and before I could say anything he kissed me. I pulled away in shock. I wasn’t sure what to say or do at this point.

"I’m sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he said, looking embarrassed.

He turned around but I grabbed his hand. He looked at me with those beautiful eyes and I couldn't help but have an urge to kiss him. So that’s what I did. I knew he was surprised because it took him a couple seconds to kiss me back. He backed me up into the wall and things got heated from there. I wasn’t sure when we ended up on the bed but we did. Things escalated from there and after we were done, we both went to sleep. The only thought that was haunting me was that I hoped this wasn’t going to make things awkward for us.