49

49
“Hey, Tristan. I’m bored.” Nikita said over breakfast. 

Tristan still ignored her like he had been doing since yesterday. Rising to his feet from the dining chair, he grabbed his suit coat from around his chair and wore it over himself. 

“Tristan. You’re definitely not going to ignore me forever, right?” She asked, her voice possessing a hint of fear at the possibility. 

“Hazel, I’ll be back early today. Try to hurry up and work so we can spend time together when you return. Love you. Bye.” He held my shoulders from behind to plant a kiss on my forehead. 

“Okay. Bye.” 

He took his leave and I immediately felt his absence around me. From my sideways glance, I could feel Nikita’s gaze fixed on me. I wasn’t interested in her hateful words again, so I didn’t bother to glance at her and continued eating. She still didn’t take her eyes off me and when I was starting to feel uncomfortable, I snapped at her, “what is it?!” 

She flinched, clearly surprised by my abrupt response. “Hazel, listen up.” Her tone wasn’t as harsh as I had expected, “I love my brother very much, but he seems to love you more than anyone else.” She pouted, jealousy glistening in her tone. “However, I met some new friends— they are strong Christians and they’ve been helping me with my anger management and helping me out with knowing what’s right and wrong through our conversations and the Bible. One of them made me realize that I've been a bad sister-in-law to you and made me realize that I wouldn’t want such treatment from my future husband's sisters,

“Indy has influenced me in dangerous ways I can’t even blurt out. I don’t know… this is very awkward but… I'm trying to be a better person and not ruin my life any further. I’ve even been able to get rid of being in the company of my previous terribly bad-influencing friends and I’m trying my best to associate with my new friends even more. Mom also had a good talk with me yesterday again and it hit me hard, so…” she stared around, biting her lower lip as she fiddled with her fork with both hands. 

“So… you want to be a better person?” I lifted an eyebrow at her. 

“Yes.” She sighed, rolling her eyes a bit. “But that doesn’t mean I’ll be too nice. Being bitchy still has its advantages, but I’ll try to minimize it. My bad actions are causing a rift between my brother and I, and even Mom.” Her forehead wrinkled in worry. “I’ll admit that I still don’t like you, but I can try. Maybe… I can start with… uhm… hanging out with you? Maybe we might have something in common.” She shrugged, dropping her fork. 

“Hanging out? With you?” I don’t know why but as well as feeling awkward about it, my stomach bubbled with excitement that this bratty teenager wanted to fix the hatred between us. 

“Yes.” She rolled her eyes again. “Don’t make this even harder for me. Hanging out with you was Mom’s suggestion.”

“Okay… I’m mostly busy but when I’m not, I always prefer to spend time with Tristan. You can follow me to the restaurant if you want.”

“To work with you?”

“Not really. I might have free time. Plus, you’ll receive free food and special attention.” I shrugged, stuffing the last piece of pancakes into my mouth. “You can also learn a few secret recipes, if you care.”

“It doesn’t sound fun, but I’ll try.”

“Great! Be ready in ten minutes.”

 

The drive to the restaurant seemed even longer. Nikita and I were trying to make a conversation. It seemed awkward at first, but we got along pretty well. 

“…then there’s Jax. He’s super hot too, but he’s really stupid and never misses a chance to flirt with every girl. I’m certain he has slept with almost a million girls.” She rolled her eyes, making gestures with her hands like a typical highschool mean teenager, “and there’s Antonio. He’s kind of a nerd. He’s super cute, gentle, nice, sweet, and mostly hot! He’s extremely tall and well-built for his age. Like… I don’t understand how someone can be that hot but is a sicko nerd. He’s great at basketball, football, any sports at all. However, every girl literally has a crush on him.” She pouted. 

“Including you?” I smirked and her face flushed red. 

“Uh… I don’t know. He's cute… I mean, he likes me too.” It ought to feel strange that Nikita was telling me all about her high school life and the amount of boys — seniors included— that had a crazy crush on her. 

“I think Antonio is perfect.” I shrugged. 

“I’m the most popular girl in my school. Wouldn’t it be weird if I choose Antonio over others?” She peered into my eyes like my answer was going to determine her fate. 

“The other boys just seem like motherfucking assholes. I’d definitely vote Antonio. He’s the only good guy. Plus, he’s hot.”

“But the others are the average high school bad boys everyone prefers.” 

“I'm experienced and believe me when I say these Badboys will only break your heart. They are nothing but scums. Antonio just sounds perfect. He might help you even more to be nicer,” I teased. 

“Hey!” She wore a playful frown. I laughed and she joined me. “I can’t believe I’m telling you these and depending on your advice. I've never been able to tell Tristan or Mom any of these. Tristan would blow up and warn me to stay away from boys. He can go as far as sending bodyguards to spy on me. That dude seems to forget that I’m 16.”

“16 is still young.” I reminded her. 

“No way. I'm way too experienced to be called young. Tristan is just too overprotective of me. He already had about 50 girlfriends when he was my age.” She rolled her eyes. 

“I think brothers are just naturally overprotective.”

“Yes! My friends with brothers have the same story, but the ones with sisters, they even receive advice from their sisters. You’ll keep this between us for now, right?” 

“Definitely!”

“Great!” she smirked. “I can't believe I’m actually trusting you.”

“Me neither.” 

She smirked again. “Is that the restaurant?” she pointed out the window and I nodded in affirmation. 

We finally got into the restaurant. Nikita and I had more conversations while I worked till she was tired and left for one of the hotel rooms. When she was hungry, she returned to us, just in time for our break. 

“So… who makes the meals?” Nikita asked, staring between me, Sherri, and Mrs. Anderson. 

“We do.” Sherri replied, serving our meals. 

“Oh. And the cooks?”

“They are still in training, but they also make the meals and assist us.” 

“Oh…”

“Hazel,” Sherri called while Mrs. Anderson arranged our meals on a table. “I heard about your PTSD. Are you fine now?” her voice was low and filled with worry. 

“Yes. How did you know about it?”

“That's not important. I was wondering… your last attack… was it as a result of whatever you’re keeping from your husband?” She was whispering like she didn't want anyone else to know, but Nikita could obviously hear us. 

“Sherri, I said it's fine.” I tried to hide my discomfort with a smile. 

“Is the PTSD really that serious?” Nikita asked. 

“Yes. I had a friend who had PTSD. Her symptoms were terrible and whether or not she experienced any form of attack, it almost took her life. She wouldn't let go of her past and kept it all to herself. I have experience with these things and I'll advise you to just pour everything out to your partner or friend for better healing. A problem shared is half-solved.”

“I'm confused.” Nikita stared between us.

“Sherri, please stop it.” I frowned. 

“I’m sorry if I offended you. I was just expressing my concern. My friend's condition became worse. Remember that you can always trust your partner. I wouldn’t want your marriage to end up like mine.” 

“Sherri, stop talking!” I snapped. “What makes you think I'm fine with keeping things to myself? What makes you think I don't want to let Tristan know everything about myself? Please. Stop interfering. I can solve my problems on my own. Thanks for your concern.” I hollered.

“I’m s–sorry.” She quickly apologized and scurried away. 

Nikita stared at me with squinted eyes. I was expecting her to ask me a question but she turned around and left to have her seat for her meal. 

 

The day went by pretty great. The cooks were learning faster and we’re going to be fully trained in a short time. Nikita’s company was surprisingly very amazing and made my day less stressful. She had offered to help in the kitchen but almost ended up blowing the kitchen up. I had ensured she didn't do anything related to fire again. She learned a lot and spoke about a lot of things related to her high school, her life in general, her likes and dislikes— which I was surprisingly no longer part of her—, and I gave her more advice. 

It was time to go home but Nikita had insisted that she wanted to buy a dress and Tristan was certainly too mad at her to help her buy it , so here we were, at the cloth store, in the dark evening, leaving Sherri and Mike in the car. 

“Nikita, I'm tired. Hurry up.”

“Fine, fine, old woman, I'm almost done.” She rolled her eyes.

“I’m not old, I'm just tired.”

“Oh really? Then why don't we spend more time here? There are so many designer clothes we can buy.” She wore a deceiving adorable grin.

“I’m not going to waste my money.”

“It's not going to be a waste, I promise. Plus, you can always collect the money back from Tristan.” She held my hand to pull me to another section. 

“Nikita,” I groaned. 

“It won't take so much time, I promise.” She pushed her lips forward into a pout. 

“If that's supposed to be a cute face, then you’re failing at it.” I scrunched my face .

“It works for Tristan. You’re just so mean.” She huffed, turning towards a dress. “Oh my gosh! This would look great on you.” She pointed at a red floral dress on a mannequin; it was a strapless v neckline with a slit that was going to end by the middle of my thigh. 

“You think?” 

“Yes! I know Tristan loves these kinds of dresses. It'll suit you.” 

“Okay.” I tried to imagine it on my body and fell in love with it immediately from my imagination. “I’ll try it on.”

“Great!” She squealed. 

I took a step forward when someone behind me called, “Teressa?” 

My step froze at the sound of that voice and the name that escaped the person’s lips. There was only one person I knew that still called me Teressa. My hands felt cold and they began to shake as I turned around, my eyes locking with those honey eyes of the blonde I never thought I'd see again.

“Tiffany!” I called at the same time Nikita called, “Lucy?!”