made my way toward the door. I grabbed the keys and was just about to head out when I remembered something and turned around. Taking the steps two at a time, I made my way back upstairs, went into my closet, pushed aside some of my piled clothes, and grabbed the box of Cherri’s things that I’d been hiding from Nikita.
Cherri was a bit of a sore subject between us.
My hope was that I could get the box back to Cherri without causing too many issues with either woman. With the box in my hand and nervousness sizzling through me at the thought of returning to school after everything that happened, I left.
2
Nikita
My breath billowed around my mouth in a cloud of opaque smoke. As my feet crunched through the snow, there was an ever-present chill on the tip of my nose and ears. At least, that would be my cover story for why they were glowing bright red in the wake of a “Good morning, my life” text from Nathan. He was headed to breakfast with Kyle, which was good. My face was the only one he’d seen for the past two weeks, and on top of that, I still hadn’t sorted myself out enough yet. I loved Nathan so much more than I thought possible, but there were more than a few reasons why I was struggling with that. It was good for him to see someone else and, hopefully, work his way back toward normalcy.
“Hey,” a dusky voice called out to me.
I looked up and rolled my eyes at the scene. Jaxon was there, but he was wearing his typical skinny jeans and black boots. He’d also donned a red flannel, half-buttoned, and a sleeveless, acid-wash jean jacket that certainly wasn’t enough to protect him from the cold of the snow all around him. At least he had a black beanie pulled down, hiding his black hair and covering his ears. He was sitting on top of a picnic table at a park not far from Postings Proper High. It was our favorite place to go when we ditched or just needed to meet up, and he had a lit cigarette balanced perfectly between his lips.
“You’re gonna freeze to death like that,” I called out.
He shrugged, and I laughed. If there was anything I’d learned about my best friend in the time since Nathan brought him into The Royal Court, it was that it took more than a few trivial discomforts to rattle him. His naturally tanned skin from his Filipino heritage was covered in scars and scrapes, which he considered trophies. He was the kind of guy who could easily survive if the world went ass up and we had to revert to caveman tactics.
I kicked my legs over the bench of the picnic table and climbed in to sit, ignoring the frigid feeling on my butt and legs as I did so. I laid my head down on Jaxon’s knee next to me. He bent over at the waist and gave me a gentle headbutt, and I snickered.
“By the way, I don’t like not seeing you for two weeks, so let’s not do that shit again, okay?” he huffed.
“Agreed,” I replied. “What’d you do with your time off?” He didn’t respond right away, so I looked up at him, and he flicked his head over toward the parking lot. I looked back over my shoulder at his black and green Lamborghini and noticed there was another person sitting in the passenger’s seat. Though totally bundled up, the short, pixie haircut was unmistakable. “Colette. Is she asleep?”
“Yeah. She needs it, so I didn’t wanna wake her up.”
“How did she end up with you?” I asked.
Jaxon snuffed his cigarette out on the picnic table and flicked the butt off into the snow. “She’s been calling me pretty much all winter break to sleep with her.” I raised an eyebrow, and he shook his head. “No, not like that. Literally, sleep. Just hold her and talk to her until she falls asleep. She only gets a few hours a night, so I’m doing what I can, but…” He sighed. “She’s not doing great.”
I carefully watched Jaxon’s face and noticed how sunken his eyes were and how weary he seemed. He was normally an aloof, unemotional kind of guy, but he seemed truly pained by the anguish Colette was experiencing.
“It’s kind of shocking,” I said. “I mean, it’s not like I thought she was totally unattached, but I didn’t