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“Oh yeah. Who’s going to stop me?” I question tauntingly.
Nico sighs again, taking off his jacket and loosening the first two buttons of his shirt. He grabs the chair in front of the desk in his room and brings it over to the bed, before whirling it around and straddling it, blue eyes on me.
“So, have you decided?”
“What?” I ask distractedly, my eyes on his chest.
I’m not ogling him, although it is a nice view. I’m simply staring at the pendant dangling from his neck. It’s a simple leather cord with a small locket hanging on it. He always keeps it hidden under his clothes. I know he wears it everywhere.
The pendant means a lot to him. He’s never said it, but I think it’s his last link to his dead parents. Along with some other memorabilia that he keeps hidden away in a box. The first day he spoke to me, he asked me to help him retrieve the box from an alleyway downtown where he’d hidden it.
I was only twelve, and I’m pretty sure that asking for my help was simply a test. He wanted to see just how far I’d go for someone I shouldn’t have cared about. I surprised him when I agreed to do it. I didn’t tell my father. I simply asked my personal guard to accompany me there. He kept me safe while I found the box, and then I brought it back for Nico.
We’d been friends ever since.
“Hello, earth to Aurora,” he calls, snapping a finger in front of my face.
“Yeah?” I ask, my gaze meeting his.
“Where are you going for college, mi vida? Pay attention,” he says insistently. “Are you going to study art? I think you’d be pretty good at it. Or you could always choose something else.”
I groan softly, rolling around so I’m staring up at the ceiling instead of him.
“Maybe I won’t go to college,” I mutter.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Nico retorts.
“Why is that so ridiculous? You didn’t go,” I point out.
“Because I don’t need to. My future’s already set in stone, Aurora. Yours isn’t. You will go to college, figure out what you’re going to do in life, what path you’re going to take and I have no doubt you’ll succeed at whatever it is you set your mind to.”
I sigh, rolling back onto my stomach so I’m looking at him again.
“I thought we were going to take over the world together,” I say softly.
His expression tightens, “Plans change. Those were the ramblings of a sixteen-year-old who didn’t know any better.”
I scoff. “You’re being a coward, Nico. Which is stupid, because I know you’re anything but a coward.”
“Don’t start,” he says warningly.
“No!” I exclaim, sitting up in his bed. “Last year, when you left, I tried very hard to be understanding. You had orders, the Don gave you a mission, so I let you go. But don’t think for a second that I haven’t noticed the distance you’ve been trying to create since you returned. Why, Nico? Why are you doing this? I thought we were friends.”
His jaw clenches. “That’s the problem, mi vida. I thought we were friends as well.”
The statement doesn’t make sense. And he doesn’t seem inclined to clarify, but I’m not letting him off easy tonight. I snuck in here with a goal, and I’m not leaving until he looks me in the eye and tells me what’s wrong. Nico’s my best friend. I’ve known him since I was twelve, and he’s always been by my side officially, as my guard, protecting me from any danger.
Until last year when he suddenly informed me that he had to go away for a couple of months. The Don had given him a mission. He had to go to Mexico and infiltrate a drug cartel. It was dangerous, and I was terrified he wouldn’t return. But I also had faith that he would do whatever it took to come back to me, so I let him go.
“I talked to my father,” I start when it’s clear he’s not going to speak again. “After you left, I asked him why he sent you to Mexico. He said he didn’t. That you asked for the mission yourself. Which means you lied to me, Nico. Why?”
He stares at me for a couple of seconds, his gaze intense, before he looks away.
“Trust me, Aurora. You don’t want to know.”
“Trust me, Nico, I do,” I retort.
He still doesn’t speak, and I’m starting to get frustrated.
