Another Broken Girl

Chapter 42

"I was thinking of hanging this one up in the living room." she sighs.

"You should. It's breath taking." I sigh as well.

"You are an amazing painter." Jay speaks up.

"Oh please, don't compliment me. Compliment the paint brush." she says. Nikki always said that she believed that it was the paint brush that deserved the attention, and the paint brush is the one who truly painted it.

"Hey, is Ali here?" Leo asks coming down the stairs to the basement.

"Yeah! She's here." Nikki yells back.

"Hey there." I say as Leo finally reaches us. He smiles and gives me a hug and quickly gives Nikki a kiss on the cheek then looks over to Jay.

"Hey." he says holding out his hand.

"Hey." Jay says shaking his hand. For some reason, it feels like there's a little tension between them.

"So, do guys want to stay for dinner? We're having chicken." Nikki offers.

"No, we got to get on our way." Jay says.

"What are you talking about?" I whisper to him.

"Oh, come on. Just stay for a while. It's just dinner." Nikki says.

"No, how about next time?" he says with a smile.

"Ok, well let me walk you to the door." Nikki says.

Nikki and Jay start to walk up the stairs, but Leo and I stay down. We don't move or lose eye contact with each other.

"What was that about?" I ask as their footsteps are no longer to be heard.

"Somethings wrong with that kid." he says.

"There's always been something wrong with him." I laugh taking a seat on Nikki's art stool.

"No, I mean wrong, wrong. He seems off." he says taking a few steps closer to me.

"I've gotten that too." I sigh.

"Well, I don't like it." He says now leaning against the wall with his hands in his front pockets of his jeans.

"Yeah, yeah. Well, I got to go according to Jay, so see you later." I say hopping off the stool.

----

"So, what was that about?" I ask as we walk to my apartment.

"What do you mean?" he asks kicking a small rock.

"You and my brother. You seemed to be a little cold to him." I admit.

"I'm just tired. You did make me run out of the park." he says.

"That was like ten steps." I laugh.

"Yeah, well that was 10 too many steps for me. Anyways, bye." he says as we get to my apartment.

Once I go into my apartment I straight away lay down on the bed. It's still bright outside, but I feel like it's already time to sleep. Just as my eyes are about to fall, I hear knocks on my door. I unwillingly walk to the door and open it to see Hunter with his phone pressed up against his ear.

“Here.” Hunter says handing me his phone.

“Who is it?” I ask confused.

“Luke.” He says. I feel surprised at the fact that they have each other’s numbers, and let alone that he’s asking to talk to me through Hunter.

"Hello?" I mumble into the phone.

"Hey." I hear him say.

“What is it?” I ask.