Southern Belle

Ch. 29 Fixing Loose Ends

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Approximately two hours after Elise and I had been eating almost every food in my kitchen, Nick chose to make his appearance. Slightly disheveled, he slumped into the room and eyed us suspiciously. We were both sprawled out on the floor of the kitchen with bags of candy surrounding us.

We were fat asses.

"I thought you were going to put her in her place," Nick asked in awe, still peering at us like the world had ended. He ran a hand through his hair; he yawned a couple of times in between the words.

Elise gulped, attempting to push a few pieces of chocolate down her throat. "I did-- we came to the conclusion that I'll always be a badass bitch, and there's nothing that she can do about that."

Rolling his eyes, he pointed to Elise and then pointed towards the living area, indicating that it was her time to leave. In response she shook her head, but he kept repeating the same action until she got up, brushed the crumbs off of her dress, and headed for the other room.

And left me with the devil.

"I'm not in the mood to be yelled at," I warned, rubbing my swollen stomach from eating all of this junk. On top of being bloated, I had a pounding headache caused by the stress and lack of sleep.

He smirked slightly. "Go cry me a river."

Pouting, I leered him over before throwing another few pieces of chocolate chips into my huge mouth. The food would help me restrain my insults while he completely bashed me. "Go," I said while eating, "ahead and start."

The smirk was wiped off his face, and a serious mood filled the atmosphere. "I'll start with this: why the hell would you think that it was justifiable to completely ruin my cousin's reputation? You know how much she means to me, and yet, you still tried to destroy her!"

Okay, I thought the first question might've been easier than that. How the hell was I going to answer that without throwing myself onto the train tracks?

I brushed the crumbs off of my sweatshirt before standing up to meet him eye-to-eye. Eye contact was one of the most important things in arguments since eyes could tell someone's true emotions, even if they worked so hard to hide them.

"I didn't try to destroy her," I hissed, my hands clenching at my sides like crab's claws. "I just wanted her to understand that you can't be terrible to other people without consequences. And plus, I even tried to stop Meg at the gallery!"

His eyes rolled; his teeth grounded back and forth. Pushing up the sleeves of his sweater, he eyed me before he started pacing around the perimeter of the kitchen. Even though I had excellent hearing, I could barely hear what he was mumbling to himself.

"Look," he said a little louder with force, "I'm sorry that I kissed Missy. She just showed up out of nowhere, asking to just talk, and I-I-I couldn't help my actions. The testosterone blocked my critical-thinking capabilities."

Go ahead and blame it on the testosterone.

"Well, you could've--"

He placed his right hand in front of his body, indicating for me to be quiet. "Let me finish. I'm only saying this once."

"Rude much?"

A large huff escaped his lips, and his arms crossed. My conscience was telling me to shut up, but honestly, annoying him was way too fun to pass up. "What I'm saying is that I know that I was wrong to tell you that I would give up my flings if I knew that I couldn't--I admit that. On the other hand, what you did was wrong too. You knew that someone was going to publicly humiliate Elise, and yet, you did absolutely nothing. What if she attempted suicide for a second time because of your little stunt?"