Just when everything seemed to be fine and normal, life decided that it hated me once again.
We didn't have school today. I don't know, some special in-service. Really, I just saw it as the perfect excuse to spend the day with Nikki. She loved volunteering at Fuzzy Friends with me, so that's exactly where we spent the entire day.
It was a repetitive cycle of feeding, washing, and playing with all of the dogs. At one point, one of the Great Danes, Richard, got a little too playful and took Nikki to the ground. We were playing monkey-in-the-middle with him, and she didn't throw the ball fast enough.
"Richard! C'mon, boy. Get off of her," I sniggered.
"You think this is funny, Roberts?" she breathed heavily from under the dog. Richard eventually moved when she threw the ball somewhere else.
"Yes, I really do." I stood up and offered her a hand, and she yanked me into the grass beside her and straddled me.
"Not so fun now, is it?"
"Actually, I could get used to it."
She scoffed and stood up, not offering me a hand in fear of what I might do.
"Grab your jacket. I want to take you somewhere," I told her. She gave me a confused look but obliged anyway.
After our long day, I decided to take Nikki out on a picnic. It was spontaneous and a little out of the blue, but Grandma had packed us both a lunch and there were blankets in one of the closets at Fuzzy Friends. And I kinda didn't want our day to end just yet. We walked hand in hand to one of the local parks and unfolded our blanket under a tree even though the sun was already setting.
The atmosphere was so serene... For like ten seconds.
"Brandon? Brandon, is that you?" I heard from the distance. Her uptight voice gave her away. MacKenzie walked towards us from a group of little kids, who I assumed were her little sister and her friends. "What an..." she glanced at Nikki with a sneer, "almost pleasant surprise."
"I can't really say the same about you," Nikki muttered before biting into her sandwich.
I roll my eyes at the both of them. "How's suspension treating you, Mac?"
"I honestly don't know why I didn't get suspended sooner. I mean, Mother and Daddy aren't the happiest with me, but I don't have to continually run into people I despise." She gave Nikki a pointed look, and Nikki defied her with the same one.
"You know, right now I'm trying to see things from your point of view, but I can't get my head that far up my ass," Nikki said. I choked on my water and started laughing until my face was red.
MacKenzie huffed and stomped on whatever food we had left. My laughs were cut short.
"Are you insane?" Nikki yelled. MacKenzie gave no reply and angrily sashayed away.
"Well, hey, I've got money for ice cream," I reassured. Who doesn't like ice cream?
We went to get a cone, and afterwards I walked her home.
*~*~*~*
Grandma pestered me about how my day went. She sounded like a teenage girl.
How was your day? Did she like the sandwich I made? How was the picnic?
Her questions were coming at a mile a minute. "Grandma! Jesus. It was great. Everything was great. MacKenzie kinda crashed our date... Literally. But it was perfect. And now I'm going to bed." She sighed in content. "I love you, Grandma."
"I love you too, dear."
I ran up the stairs to my room to avoid anymore potential conversation with my grandmother about my girlfriend. I closed the door behind me and fell into my bed.
My phone rang with a text. The inner girl on me got excited, hoping it was Nikki telling me she had fun or that she missed me. Whatever it was, I'd be happy with just about anything.
Unknown Number: Hello hot stuff
She'd never called me hot stuff before...
Me: Nikki, is that you?
Unknown Number: Not even close.
Me: Who are you then??
Unknown Number: I guess you'll find out soon enough.
Fairly creeped out, but fairly content, I shut off my phone and fell asleep with the weird texts and Nikki in my head.