This Is The Story of a Girl...

Emotions Fly

The gang talks and talks some more. Mostly about school and gossip and drama. High school is a drama filled time of life. It's insane. Jace keeps his arm around Stella the whole time. She will squeeze his hand every so often and he'll squeeze her side and her hand back in response. Sarah keeps looking at Jace and Stella has caught her doing it a few times now. A red flag pops up in her mind, but she tries to ignore it.

Everything seems the same as it used to be. Everyone here in Jace's basement, Stella in Jace's lap, everyone laughing and gossiping about random people. Everything is good. It seems like the past year didn't even happen.

Stella's cell phone buzzes, it's Nick. "Hey guys I gotta take this. I'll be right back!" Stella says as she detangles herself from Jace.

She heads upstairs and goes to sit in the dimly lit kitchen. She presses the 'talk' button and says, "Hello?"

"Hey! I didn't think I'd get ya. How's it going up there?" Nick's masculine voice seeps through the speaker. Stella smiles at his warm voice flooding her eardrums and plays with the yarn in the table cloth.

"It's going good. I'm hanging out with some of my old friends. How is your day so far?" Stella answers calmly.

"Oh that's good. I'm glad you're spending time with them again. And my day is going good. I'm going to go pick my parents up from the airport in a bit. They decided to come home tonight instead of Monday night, something about a storm." Nick informs. He pauses and exhales slowly. "So are you coming home tonight?" He asks carefully, hoping for a good answer.

"I'm not actually. I'm staying here for the night. I'll come back tomorrow night. I'm going to stay with Jace." Stella says cautiously.

"Wait... I thought Jace was your ex..." Nick says questioningly.

"He is. Um, we're trying to figure things out." Stella says softly. "I don't really know what is going on." She pauses to take a breath. "I want to be close to you. I love talking you to, and I love listening to you. And we have a lot in common, like Tom Petty. And I really do want to be close to you, you're a great guy. I could use a couple friends at home." Stella finishes and prays that he feels the same way.

Nick takes a couple long seconds to respond, "You just take the time to figure out what you want. But for the record, I do like you. So don't take too long." He pauses and she feels him smile through the line, "I just want you to be happy, and I want to help you. And I love talking to you too. I could really use someone to talk to who knows pain like I do." He says reassuringly.

Stella smiles and says, "I'm really happy we're on the same page. I'm coming home Sunday. I think I know what I want." She giggles.

Nick laughs and says, "Sunday, gotcha. I can't wait. But I should get going, their flight lands in an hour and it takes about a half an hour to get there. I'll see you Sunday night, maybe we can grab a coffee and talk or something." He says nicely.

Stella nods and replies with, "Okay, that sounds good. Drive safe!"

"Thanks! I'll see you later." Nick says. The line drops and Stella pushes the 'end' button. She smiles and for the first time she feels that everything is just fine.

Meanwhile Stella is talking to Nick in the kitchen Jace quiets everyone down. "So guys, I think we need to have an intervention for her. Or something. She needs help." Jace says thoughtfully. He is on the verge of tears and Sarah notices it.

"Yeah, I agree. I could feel her freaking organs when I gave her a hug. It was like hugging a piece of cardboard." Riley says.

"Yeah, she needs help. I mean what happened? She was fine when she left." Sarah questions.

Jace looks down and shakes his head. His dark hair falls in his eyes and he says, "Apparently these group of assholes started making fun of her and stuff. They called her fat. So she felt the need to lose like twenty pounds. Fucking pricks." He clenches his fists and continues with, "I'm so worried about her. It's gotten to the point where you can see her ribs showing through her shirt. I'm afraid she is going to really hurt herself."

Sarah gets up and sits on the arm rest of Jace's chair and rubs his back. She hugs him and says, "Jace it's okay. We'll help her. We all love her and we all care so much about her." She stops and shushes his heavy breathing and says, "Right guys? We'll do our best." Every one nods and gives 'yes' and 'yeah' answers.

Jace looks up, tears in his eyes and says, "Man. I still love her guys. The whole time she was gone there wasn't a day that went by where I didn't think about her. It just sucks that she feels that in order to be pretty she needs to be a skeleton." He pauses and says, "But we'll never be together again."

"Oh you're going to make me cry! Stop it!" Sarah jokes. Everyone laughs and Jace smiles. He inhales and exhales to calm himself down.

He hears footsteps on the stairs and whispers, "Okay, I'll just start it and then follow my lead okay?" Everyone nods and begins chatting again like nothing changed.

...

Poor Nick :(  Who will she pick? And what are her friends going to say to her? The pressure is building! Comments, anything, pleaseeeeeeee!