Ever since middle school, my brother had these two best friends; Paul and Jonah. After my dad passed, things between them started getting a little rocky but they still managed to stay close and all. Anyways, I heard my brother on the phone one day and all I knew was that something was going on because he sounded really stressed out, worried and scared. I overheard some of the conversation and I figured it was about money. Obviously the first thing that came to my mind was something about drugs," she muttered. "A few months passed and he was getting more distant; which was weird and abnormal because we had always been so close. One night I was going to sleep over at Serena's but then she got sick and wasn't feeling well so I went home but when I walked home, I heard bickering so I listened in- which I know I shouldn't have been doing but I did and that's when I heard Drew, Paul and Jonah arguing about something that had to do with money -,"You owe us," Paul muttered."You told me we w
"Hey," Seth smiled slightly as he sat down at the booth across from Nicole. "Is everything okay? Why'd you want to meet here?" Nicole bit her lip nervously as she felt a lump starting to form in her throat. "Well I just- uh, I was hungry. Didn't want to eat alone," she shrugged nonchalantly. Seth raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Is that so?" Nicole shrugged, "Yea, what else would it be?" She chuckled nervously. Seth narrowed his eyes at her. "You seem a little jumpy," Nicole shook her head. "I'm fine." "That's a lie, now tell me what's going on," Seth's said sternly as he gave her an unamused look. "Okay," she muttered. "I was just.. I wanted to know .. If you - maybe wanted to come down to my beach house this weekend," she quickly stammered out. Seth gave her a confused look as his eyebrows furrowed. Nicole bit her lip as she gave him a hopeful smile. Seth sighed. "Sure," "Really?" Nicole mumbled out quickly as her eyes widened. Seth shrugged, "there's no harm to it. Are
"You know, we all could've fit into one car." Seth chuckled as he messed around with the radio stations.Nicole bit her lip and mentally cursed at Jason who had forced her to drive alone with Seth in one car while the other four guys carpooled in the other car together.Nicole was driving while Seth was in shot gun. She took this as a chance to admit her feelings to him but she just couldn't find the words to do it. Every time she opened her mouth hoping to grow a pair of balls and come clean about how she felt, her shoulders would feel like there were millions of bricks falling down onto them, that made it almost impossible for her to even start to form a single word about how she was head over heels for him."Yeah, I don't really know how we decided on this seating arrangement but at least the ride isn't too far," she agreed, chuckling awkwardly in attempts to cover up how out of place and uneasy she felt right now."So, how have things been?" Seth asked, changing the subject. He ti
6 years later Nicole's eyes slowly opened, her head throbbing with pain and mouth feeling so dry that she could barley open it. Confusion was all that she felt. She blinked her eyes a few times before they finally adjusted to the lighting. She looked around, confused and scared. Anxiety quickly filled her whole body and she was ready to panic. She didn't know where she was, what was going on, or who she could call for help. Her mind was blank. She didn't even have a single thought to form because she was at utter loss. she couldn't remember anything properly which only caused her anxiousness to increase. She felt like she was in a dream. All she wanted to do was be able to fall back asleep and wake up, back to normal with her brother and cousin cooking breakfast before she had to head to school while her mom got ready to leave for work. She felt so misplaced and uneasy. Confused and as if her body was slowly floating away and there was no way she'd be able to start swimming becaus
I know this might be a terrible idea and you might want to throw me off the balcony after I tell you, but Ash and I talked. It won't be hard for us to help you get this job... it's not some cashier job or something, it's a serious job that could help you open up some roads in the future," Celia let out a large breath when she finished her abrupt rant to Nicole.Nicole narrowed her eyes at Celia, seeming a little skeptical. "It sounds pretty decent so I'm not exactly understanding why I'd throw you off the balcony.""Well you see..." Celia started trailing off instantly, a sheepish smile on her face."Celia." Nicole muttered sternly, raising her eyebrows."Okay, okay," Celia exhaled. "This job... might sort of be at... uh, at Seth's company." Celia slowly stood up and started walking backwards, afraid of how Nicole would react.Nicole's eyebrows instantly raised at the sound of his name. She gave Celia an 'are-you-serious' look. "Please tell me you're kidding and this is a revenge pran
"Actually, I have a favour to ask."Seth slowly nodded his head, his face blank. He motioned for the girls to take the seats across from his desk, "Take a seat."Nicole and Celia made their way over to sit down while Seth sat down in the large chair on the other side of the desk. He intertwined her fingers together on top of his desk, "What can I help you ladies with?"There was no expression on Seth's face, what so ever. His face was completely straight and blank. Nicole was speechless, stunned and confused. There was no reaction from Seth, he was barley even looking at Nicole. Again, she was stuck in a spot where she didn't know how to react at all. She felt completely lost, not understanding why he hadn't said anything to her. How could he not recognize her?In some ways, she wasn't surprised that he didn't recognize her. Nicole barley recognized Celia when she first walked into her hospital room. On top of it, Nicole had cut her hair very short, just brushing her shoulders. She ha
"So, are you ready for your first day?" Asher asked excitedly as him and Nicole got into his car and headed to the office."Not really," Nicole muttered honestly. "First of all, the thought of having to see Seth is eating me up inside. I feel like everything around me is falling down and I can't do anything because I'm literally stuck in the middle with everything around me crashing down. Aside from that, the last things I remember are having to deal with high school drama, like not knowing how to face people at school because Jason and I broke up or whatever... and now I'm actually stepping into the real world as an adult and I have never even experienced having to worry about anything aside from midterms." Nicole exhaled a deep breath when she finished her worried rant. She was freaking out.Asher let out a breathy chuckle which he knew wouldn't help but seeing her this freaked out was quite amusing to him. It reminded him of all the times in high school when she was freaking out ov
"Hey, do you need anything?" Nicole asked as she walked into Asher's office and shut the door behind her.Asher sighed, "I hate to ask you to do this but could you drop these files off in Seth's office? I have a meeting in about two and a half minutes and I still don't know where half of my files are," he groaned as he rummaged through his desk, barely looking at Nicole as he ransacked his desk to find his files.Nicole let out a breath before walking over and opening one of the drawers in his filing cabinet, "I set a reminder on your laptop to remind you an hour earlier- which it did because I heard it when I walked by. Here are the rest of the things you need for the final meeting to ensure everything with the Steven's deal today will go smoothly," Nicole said as she handed him some files. "I may still not know the difference between current assets, debt and liabilities but I am organized. Now, you have less than two minutes to get to the meeting room so I'd scramble if I were you."