Bella's using Nico's guest pass at Meadows today – not that she really needs it because everyone knows she's Nico's girlfriend, and that automatically gives her an in.
She's been pretending to work out in the fitness center, but really, she's just here to chill with me. Jill's out today on vacation with her family, so I allow myself more free time than usual.
"How does this thing work?" Bella asks as she steers the elliptical back and forth.
"Exactly how you're doing it," I tell her, but she hops off. "That's it? You're done?"
"I'm tired, Rem," she huffs, grabbing ahold of her hips. "That was exhausting."
"B, you were on it for like 15 seconds. You should see the way Brooks runs on the treadmill. You'd freak."
"How do you work here and not get turned on by him? If that were Nico, I can't promise you that I'd keep it professional."
"Who says I do?" I wink.
"Naughty girl," she wags her finger at me and teases.
"Speaking of Brooks, have you seen him today? He usually stops by in the morning and drops off coffee, but he was a no-show and hasn't been answering my texts. I know that he and Nico went to Wade's party last night, but I haven't spoken to him since they were on their way there."
"I haven't spoken to Nico since then either. And now that I'm thinking about it, that's weird for us, too."
I look at Bella nervously. "You think they got home, okay?"
"Yeah, I track Nico's phone," she says, but I raise an eyebrow at her, so she feels the need to justify. "Give your relationship one more month and you'll be doing the same thing."
"So, he's home right now?"
"He was last night at like 2 AM. Let me check now." She whips out her phone and starts typing on the keyboard. "Hmm, looks like they're at Brooks'."
I give her a puzzled look. "I wonder what they're doing there."
"Maybe Nico went to pick Brooks up before coming here?"
"Yeah, maybe," I say, not really knowing what to believe.
"I'll text Nico now and ask him what his status is. Why don't you do the same with Brooks? Maybe they'll get the hint that if their girlfriends are texting them at the same time it means they're together talking about the fact that their boyfriends haven't called them yet and that they probably should."
"Good idea," I tell her before texting Brooks, "What's up?"
I soon get distracted when the fitness center phone rings. I round the desk to answer it, but before I do, Bella calls out, "I'm heading out. Keep me posted on Brooks and I'll let you know when I hear from Nico."
"Okay, I will," I say before answering the landline.
I don't hear much from Bella for the rest of the day, which concerns me. Brooks hasn't answered me either, which concerns me even more.
I'm on the verge of calling Bella when she beats me to it.
"Okay, now I'm starting to panic. Please tell me you've heard from Nico or Brooks," I frantically say into the speaker.
"I heard from Nico a few hours ago," Bella says.
"And you didn't tell me because...?"
"Because something's definitely up, and I didn't want to worry you at work. He's acting weird and being vague when I ask him about Brooks."
"What do you think is going on?"
"I don't know, but the good news is that Nico said to meet at his house in 20. Are you almost done with work?"
"Yeah, closing up now, actually."
"Okay, I'll see you there soon." I hang up, and don't even bother going into the bathroom to see what I look like. The only thing that I can think about right now is getting to Nico's house as fast as I can.
Dad picks me up from work and I'm fairly quiet the entire car ride over there because I'm trying to come up with valid reasonings in my mind as to why Brooks hasn't reached out to me all day or answered my texts.
"Stop biting on your nails, honey," dad remarks, but I don't listen, and the second that we pull into Nico's driveway, I make a beeline for the door.
Bella got here a few minutes ago and let me know that they're outside in the back of the house.
When I find them, I'm disappointed to see only Nico and Bella sitting on the chairs that overlook the pool.
"Where's Brooks?" is the first thing that I say.
"He's here. Inside," Nico answers, and Bella appears uneasy. Nico does, too, which definitely means something's up because Nico is usually the poker-faced one.
"Everything okay?" I ask with no patience whatsoever, but do you blame me?
"Yeah," Nico says unconvincingly.
I take a seat across from my friends and tap my foot against the tiled ground. I know I've only been waiting a minute, but it feels like forever, so I have to ask, "what's he doing inside?"
"He's just getting an ice pack," Nico says.
"An ice pack?" I ask incredulously. "For what?"
Nico doesn't answer because the glass doors slide open and out walks Brooks. He looks a bit disheveled, holding a white ice pack to his jaw.
I immediately stand up, not liking what I'm seeing.
"What happened?" I ask as I run over to him. I instinctively reach for his face, but then hold back when I realize that I probably shouldn't. I can't see what's under the ice pack, but I just know that it's not good.
Brooks reaches for my hand with his free one. "Hi, baby," he greets me, but ignores my question. He displays half a smile; the other half is covered by the ice pack.
"Hi," I say. "You okay?"
"Been better," he tries to joke, walking us over to the table.
We sit and I glance over at Nico, hoping that his expression will tell me something. Anything.
That doesn't happen and Bella's also unreadable.
"Is anyone going to tell me what happened?" I snap as I look around the table.
I hear Brooks exhale and I know that he's about to fess up when he removes the ice pack from his jaw.
"Oh my God!" I shriek, my hands covering my mouth when I look at him. Brooks has a huge black and blue mark right below his right cheek. "What the hell happened?"
Brooks gently slides the ice pack across the table. "I got into a little bit of a disagreement last night," he confesses.
"A 'disagreement'?" I repeat. "Brooks, you have a black and blue mark the size of my fist on your face. I'd say you got into more than a 'disagreement'."
He looks at Nico, who's sucking his cheeks in.
"Okay, okay," Brooks states, steadying his hands in the air. "You're right. I got into more than that. I got into a fight."
"Yeah, no shit. A fucking physical fight, Brooks," I shout. "Who did this to you?"
"It wasn't so much who did this to him, rather who Brooks did it to," Nico pipes up, and I look his way.
"Nico, man," Brooks glares at his best friend, "shut the fuck up."
"I'm sorry, man, but you've got to be honest about what went down."
"You saw this happen, Nico?" Bella interrupts.
"Yeah," he whispers in a disappointed tone.
"And you didn't put a stop to it?"
"You see Brooks' face right now?" Nico points. "That was me putting a stop to it, babe. Brooks could've kept going."
"Nico," Brooks shouts, "stop."
I hate everything that I'm hearing. And worse, I'm scared by it. Brooks wouldn't get into a fight this bad if there wasn't a reason for it. Fighting doesn't solve problems, I'm against it completely, but I'm not going to assume the worst until I know the full story. Maybe Brooks was protecting someone.
I turn to look at him, but he's too busy staring at Nico.
"Brooks," I say, waiting for him to look at me. Once he does, I continue. "I'm going to ask you one more time, and don't make me ask again after this. What happened? And don't say, 'I got into a fight'. That much is given. Who did you fight and why did you fight him?"
Brooks turns to face me completely. "He was making comments about you that were not okay with me. I let the first one go. The second one, I fucking forced myself to, but by the third comment, I was done. I lost my cool and saw red. No one disrespects you like that."
"In Brooks' defense, Rem, this guy had it coming. He kept picking and picking, like he was asking for a fight."
"WHO?" I shout. "Who did you fight, Brooks?"
Brooks looks at me, flaring his nostrils. It's clear that he's staying silent, so I look at Nico.
He's staying silent, too.
I look at Bella, but she's looking down, so I look at Brooks again, this time, placing my hand on his.
"Who, Brooks?" I press in a pleading tone.
His muscles relax after a few seconds, and he finally opens his mouth to speak. "Jimmy Daniels."