C4 Chapter 4

“Let’s just go to check out.” Jason tells me. “I’m not ready for another one of your sessions.”

“Sessions?” I ask. “Excuse me, what I did in the cafeteria was for you.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t ask you to do that for me.” He retorts, and buries his face in the book. “It was so embarrassing.”

I look at him, offended. “Well, sorry for caring about you. I’ll stop then.”

Jason rolls his eyes. “Stop being so dramatic. C’mon, do you have your book?”

I nod and follow him towards the checkout. We wait in line for a few minutes, and then I smell something familiar-it’s that smell that makes my insides turn and my throat convulse. I try not to look back, but Jake does it anyway and greets Niall with a smile and a handshake.

Once Niall greets Jake, he looks at my brother and I, but he doesn’t say anything. How fucking rude.

“So you plan on actually doing the assignment Andrews gave us?” Niall asks, looking down at Jake’s book.

Jake is about to say something, when I interrupt him. “Excuse me? My friend is not going to get a bad grade just because you’re a lazy piece of-“

“Whoa, easy there princess.” Niall laughs, speaking the last word in a mocking manner. “I was about to ask him where I could get the book. Don’t get your panties in a twist.”

I see Jason grit his teeth, but not saying anything, which means he’s getting angry, but not to an extent where he’d start throwing punches. Not yet, anyway.

Jake tells Niall where he can find the book, and his sister asks him about her own English assignment, before they’re off with a wave in Jake’s direction.

“Ughh.” I exhale, trying to calm down. “I swear to God, if I have high blood pressure when I’m older because of him, I’m going to sue.”

***

Rosa wakes me up the next morning, telling me I have one hour until I have to get to school.

Three months have passed since I’ve been a senior and I hated every single minute of it.

Oh wait. No.

One day has passed and I’m already done with school on my last second day.

I put on a Grey top, jeans, my favorite white Zanottis, and a white leather jacket my mother got me yesterday.

As I put my stuff in my bag, I spot the two new Hermès bags on the table in the walk-in closet. There’s a light pink one, and a white one. Without thinking too much about it, I walk over to the white one and place it back in the shopping bag it came in.

Jason is already done with breakfast by the time I walk into the kitchen, so I grab an apple and what Rosa made us for the day, before we’re out the door.

We get to school on time with a couple of minutes to spare, so I tell Sophia I’ll see her in Economics, before I’m off looking for Louis. I probably look like a total snob carrying a Hermès bag in one hand, and a Hermès shopping bag containing a bag in the other.

I find Louis outside behind the building, smoking with Niall and Zayn.

“Uh…hi.” I say and weirdly smile at Louis, because I’m trying my best not to make eye contact with Niall.

“Hi.” Louis trails off, looking at me like he’s trying to find out what I want.

“So uh… my mother came back from America yesterday, and she brought me some stuff. And I’d really like for you to give this bag to your sister.” I say, showing him the white Hermès bag.

His eyes go wide and his mouth falls. “Oh my God. Are you serious?” he asks.

“Yeah. And please don’t view it as charity or anything, but I really don’t need another bag. And since your sister really wishes she had one, you can have it. As a present.”

“Well it was her birthday a month ago and I didn’t get her anything.” Louis smiles, taking the bag from me, and then hugs me tightly. “Thank you so much.”

I smile and pull away from him, just in time to see Niall rolling his eyes at me. I refrain myself from properly hitting him in the face, and instead choose to walk away with a smile on my face and my head held high.

“What did you do?” Sophia asks me when I sit down next to her in our Economics class.

“I gave Louis a white bag my mother brought me yesterday to give to his sister.”

Sophia looks surprised. “Really? That’s nice of you.”

I smile and shrug, just as the teacher steps inside and closes the door.

***

Louis’ sister comes over to my table during lunch, hugging me and thanking me for the bag, and asks how she could ever repay me.

“Just stay in school and be nice to your brother.” I tell her, before she’s off, back to her friends’ table.

“You’re unusually nice today.” Jake observes and takes a sip from his soda. “Is Jasper coming back today by any chance?”

I think about it for a second. “Actually, fuck. But it hasn’t occurred to me until now. Oh fuck, I’m going to have to shave again.” I sigh.

Even though Jasper and I are way past the shaving-before-we-have-sex stage of our relationship, I still like to feel like a baby down there.

“Is he coming to school today?” he continues and I frown. I know he landed last night at Heathrow but he hasn’t said anything about school. Knowing his parents though, they’ll probably make him come to school today. It’s weird, because I haven’t seen him in any classes yet, but there are still two more periods to go.

“I think so.” I nod and take a sip of my lemonade.

“Speak of the devil.” Sophia says in a singing voice and nods over to the double doors of the cafeteria.

And there he is, of course. My boyfriend of eleven months, Jasper Christ. His hair is messy as per usual (probably because he didn’t have time to comb it before his mother forced him to school), and he’s wearing one of his many band shirts with black skinny jeans and converse.

I smile instantly when we make eye contact, and get up from the table to run towards him. He picks me up and spins me around once before kissing me on the lips and letting me down.

“I missed you.” I say and smile against his lips.

“I’ve only been gone fifteen days babe.” He smirks and takes my hand so we can walk towards our table.

I smile. “I knooow, but still.”

He shakes hands with Jake and my reluctant brother, and then kisses Sophia on the cheek before he sits down in his usual spot next to me.

“How come you’re at school today? Especially since there are two classes left?” Sophia asks.

I try not to look at Jason’s annoyed face as Jasper explains her that his mother made him come to school, and that the football tryouts are today, and he wants to be there for the new guys; getting to know them and everything.

“Oh shit, I’ve got cheerleading tryouts as well.” I tell Sophia, who nods.

“At three in the gym.” She adds and I roll my eyes.

Changing into my cheerleading uniform and watching people bounce around for an hour is the last thing I want to be doing after school today to be honest. But I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to take over the co-captain position last year before Emily, the head cheerleader left, putting Jade and I in charge. And since my lovely cousin is on vacation until this weekend, I’ll have to overlook the tryouts and pick out three girls out of thirty. Thank God I’ll have Poppy there to help.

Once we finish discussing football and cheerleading, I proceed to question Jasper about his vacation, but I don’t really get the time because the bell rings, which means it’s time to return to class.

***

“I’m done with this. I resign.” I sigh at four pm later that day, when tryouts are over, and now Poppy and I have to decide whom to pick so we can hang up the list tomorrow.

It’s not that hard; watching girls do a three-minute routine and give them marks from 1 to 10, but I’d rather be watching my boyfriend play football than sit in a smelly gym wearing a short skirt and a matching crop top.

“You can’t resign, it’s not a paid job.”

I roll my eyes. “Fine then, I officially quit.”

“Nicki Palmer isn’t a quitter, come on. Besides, the choices are obvious. Lottie, Hannah, and Olive.”

“Olive? No way. She’s not coordinated at all. I’d say Jasmine.” I tell her. “She’s graceful and she learns fast.”

Poppy scrunches her nose is disgust. “Well, I didn’t like her.”

“Is it because of the Zayn thing?” I ask, throwing her a knowing look.

“No.”

It’s obvious that it is.

Poppy and Zayn had a thing half a year ago, when they dated for a few months until Zayn dumped her for unknown reasons (aka a new girl aka Jasmine probably), which left a really heartbroken Poppy for me to look after to make sure she doesn’t do something stupid.

“Look, I know you have a grudge against her and I don’t blame you, but I also don’t blame her. If anyone should be blamed, it should be Zayn, who was a dickhead. Let’s not take it out on her.”

She sighs. “You’re right. Besides, I’m over him now.”

I raise a brow. “What? When did that happen?”

“Right before summer started. I’m uh…sort of seeing someone else now.”

“What?” I ask, shocked. “What does ‘sort of’ mean? And who is someone else?”

“Well I’m not dating them per se, but we’re fucking occasionally. Like, twice a week or so.”

I dramatically place a hand on my forehead, as if I felt like fainting.

“Who is it?”

She looks hesitant to tell me. “I don’t think you’ll want to hear who it is.”

“Oh, come on. Does he go at our school?” My eyes widen and the corners of my mouth turn into a smile. “Is it a she?”

“No.” she laughs, shaking her head. “I mean, no it isn’t a girl. But yes he goes at our school.”

“Well come on, no one’s that bad. Unless it’s Niall, which would be-“ I stop when I see the expression on her face. “No.” I gasp.

She nods. I place a hand over my heart.

“No.” I repeat, this time louder. “You can’t. No. This-I’m going to be sick.”

“Oh, come on Nicki. Niall’s actually really nice. And there’s a lot to talk about with him. He’s never boring.”

My ears are on fire. My vision goes blank. My throat is filled with the lunch I ate three hours ago.

“Niall Harrison is not boring? He has a brain? I don’t follow.” I say, crossing my arms. “How and when and why?”

“Well, it happened at that party you missed that the seniors threw after exams. You know, you were in Bali with your family-“

I nod. “Yeah, I do remember.”

“Well, we got drunk and we had sex, and then we sort of met at another party a week later, and things escalated from there.”

“And now you’re friends with benefits.” I state, still hoping that it isn’t true, and that it’s sort of a pre-April Fools prank.

“Yeah, we are.”

“Did Jake put you up to this? Tell me honestly.” I plead.

She shakes her head. “Come on Nicki. I just wanted you to know, in case people find out. He’s really not that bad, honestly. I don’t get why you hate him. I mean yes, he’s sarcastic and witty and annoying sometimes, but he’s actually funny and nice when he wants to.”

“I’m sorry. I’m happy for you, obviously, but I can’t associate ‘funny’ and ‘nice’ with Niall Harrison. And this is the first and only time I will be using those words with his name in a sentence.”

She laughs it off. “It’s fine. I get it.”

After a few moments of silence, we decide on Jasmine instead of Olive, and then get up to walk towards the football field.

I turn my head towards her as we enter the girl’s locker room.

“Tell me one thing though.” I say.

“Hm?”

“Is his dick game strong at least?”