Nicholas Grey Must Not Die | ✓

11 | Caught

"Eye for an eye, remember when I told you. Wipe your pretty eyes, dry 'em on my shoulder. You ain't gotta try, try to get closer. Fifty-fifty here, let's make it, devise it"

~ Swap it Out (Journals)

  (THE WORD RAPE IS MENTIONED A FEW TIMES IN THIS CHAPTER, BUT NO DETAILS ARE USED AND NO DESCRIPTIONS ARE WRITTEN)    

This was it.

Finally, I was doing something that matters.

A week and a half after I convinced Nicholas to keep us a secret, I was finally taking matters into my own hands. 

His parents and lawyers agreed it would be better for him to stay home for the next month or so until they can deal with the legal situation. A tutor was assigned to keep him up to date on all things academic for the time being. He also kept going to basketball practices to prepare for the upcoming season, but he was pulled out of the football team since the season was current. His teammates all seemed to be super supportive, taking him out whenever they could to take his mind off things. It made me happy to know he had a group of decent people surrounding him, who trust him and believe in who he is as a person. 

I, on the other hand, always came over to his place whenever his parents were out. I'd bring tons of food and board/card games for us to play. Sometimes we'd watch movies or we'd just sit there and talk for hours on hours. I got him addicted to Criminal Minds and I'm not even ashamed to admit it. I had my best friend back; it was the best feeling in the world. And even better, he was my boyfriend now. I don't know. There's this fire in my heart that has been burning since the moment he kissed me. A flame that had gruesomely lasted four years of being unrequited and three years of loneliness was finally the full blown fire it was meant to be. I saw his smile and heard his beautiful laughter everywhere I turned. I missed him whenever I was away. I felt like I was going mad. But I guess that's the beauty of love, it's maddeningly sweet and utterly priceless.

I took that week and a half to carefully plan out how I was going to use my inside relationship with the girls against them. I detailed it out and went over it multiple times to make sure it was bulletproof. I participated in our group chats more during this time, making sure they didn't suspect anything of me. I was extra friendly, extra nice, and extra fake.

And that is why I'm sitting on the floor of my living room with all five of them, munching on Cheetos, as we waited for our Smashburger orders to be delivered. 

"Why do you have a camera in your living room?" Daisey asked out of the blue, nodding over to the coffee table where my cannon camera sat next to the TV, recording us in a perfect frame.

I grinned, fully prepared for this. "Oh that," I let out a fake chuckle, "okay don't laugh. My parents and I went to my nephew's violin recital and my dad promised my aunt he'd record everything. But the camera died halfway through. My dad swore he'd charged it to full the night before, but my mom didn't believe him. So I'm helping him prove he charged it by recording myself doing whatever until the battery gives out. If the time's the same as the time of the video my dad recorded, then he's exonerated," I forced out a chuckle full of ridicule, "they're just being ridiculous. You guys don't mind being on camera, do you?"

Okay, my excuse wasn't completely a lie. Some of it did happen. But my parents weren't stupid enough to have a serious fight over something like that. And my dad didn't need my help to exonerate himself; there was no need for him to prove anything about the camera. I feared the plan sounded too corny for anyone to believe. I mean, if someone told me this, I would laugh in their face.