Colors Always Bleed Together [DUFN]

Chapter Thirteen: Complete Control

I trek back to the cafeteria to see Zack and Drew eating what I guess would be lunch. Zach waves from across the room and then focuses on his true love once more: food.

I wave back and survey the room. The table Nicki and I sat at is completely empty. Now that I'm paying attention, Drew and Zach are eating the remainder of the pizza I bought this morning. She must have given it to them once I left.

Which means she must be back in her own room. I wonder down the hallways until I find the door to her room. Through the light colored wooden doors, I hear voices. Knowing good and well that I probably shouldn't, my curiosity piques and I put my ear up to the door.

I can't make out any solid words. Only vibrations. I can tell for certain that one of them is Nicki but the other is not so clear. Whoever it is has a slightly higher voice and a mere southern accent that comes and goes with certain words. Must be Safire.

I knock and wait for a response. Before I even have time to lay my hand on the doorknob, I have permission to enter. I turn it and the door swings open.

Nicole sits at the head of the bed with her lap covered up, a smile on her lips as I enter. As I guessed, Safire is also in the room - laying beside her best friend and watching something I don't recognize on the television. She is wearing an oversized jacket with the sleeves rolled up; one I've seen Brent wear many times. Speaking of, he is also in the room. I hardly noticed him, completely silent in one of the chairs and typing away on his phone; believe it or not, jacketless.

I sit at the edge of the bed. "What are you watching?" I ask.

"Firefly." Safire answers.

I raise an eyebrow. "What's Firefly?"

"If you don't know the answer to that question, we can't be friends." She says flatly, never taking her eyes off the screen.

Brent smirks slightly. "I can fill you in on the first episode, if you'd like."

My eyebrows knit together. "You like Sci-Fi?"

"No." He mutters silently and tilts his head toward the girl wearing his jacket. I like her.

I roll my eyes. As if it wasn't obvious to begin with almost a week ago.

I turn back to Nicole and my phone vibrates again. I take it from my pocket and see I have three new messages. Two from Eddie and one from an unknown number. I open the unidentified one. "Brent made me do it." It reads.

I'm instantly more than a little worried. While the man comes across as silent most of the time, he can be the craziest son of a bitch you'll ever meet. I am almost completely certain whoever this is is talking about a murder or getting a fork stuck in the garbage disposal.

Five seconds later, I get another text from the same number saying, "This is Nicki, btw."

I lower my phone and look to her. "What did you do?" I ask with equal parts worry and annoyance. Like with the fork in the disposal, I have a feeling I'll have to clean this up too.

"You told him." Brent states. "You weren't supposed to do that yet."

"Sorry." She replies.

"What? What are we not telling Ryan?" I ask.

"I was supposted to keep texting you and freaking you out, but I think that first sentence alone worked well enough." She smirks.

"Thanks." I quip. "At least it wasn't another fork in the disposal."

Brent cracks up. The other two look confused.

"That's a story for another time." I look at my phone again to check the messages from Eddie.