Chapter 21
I was sulking—HARD. My girlfriend broke my heart and my brother broke my arm. But I was doing what she’d asked of me…to leave her alone.
“Nick!” Kevin’s voice came from the other side of the door. I answered with a groan, which only grew louder when I heard him open my door.
“Kevin!” Suddenly, a warm body jumped on top of me. “ELVIS!” I was immediately awake. I sat up in bed and stroked his face with my un-casted arm. “Elvis? How…?”
“You’ve been in a nasty mood this past week. He flew first class with Frankie. I hope maybe they can cheer you up.” Kevin explained.
“Where’s Frankie?”
“Making cookies with Nisha.”
“Hey kiddo.” I said, upon entering the kitchen. Frankie and Nisha and the kitchen were covered in flour. The whole scene would have made me smile…except that I felt I had lost my reason for living a few days earlier.
“Making you cookies. Kevin said you’re sad and cookies always make me feel better.” Frankie explained.
“Thanks, Frankie.” I sighed. “But I don’t think cookies are gonna cut it this time.”
“What happened?” He tilted his head to the side, as if he was in total confusion at there being ANY problem cookies couldn’t solve. “Is it about a girl?” I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the image of Zee that had just popped into my head.
“Yeah, it’s about a girl.” Nisha gave me a sympathetic look.
“So, why haven’t you gone after her?”
“She told me not to.” But oh, how I wanted to. I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her that no secret should be able to come between us. Loving her defied logic…we’d known each other less than a year. But I couldn’t stop the way I felt about her any more than I could stop time from passing.
“Nick, why don’t you help Frankie finish up this batch of cookies? I have to run to the store to pick up something. Ok?” Nisha wiped her hands on her apron and then took the apron off. She put it on me and tied it around my waist. Then she was out the door.
