Paper Roads

9 | ♤ | Disoriented Realities

CHAPTER NINE
- Thornton

I HAD ENTERED MY apartment in perfect symphony to a text lighting up the screen of my phone.

Nik: I haven't seen your face in forever, I'm coming over

Fifteen minutes after that message was sent, my best friend enters my apartment in a hurricane of Burberry and her vanilla bourbon and jasmine scent.

Her arms are immediately around me and I return the hug with equal enthusiasm because Annika Carmichael's hugs are the cure to everything.

"We have a lot to catch up on, it's been ages!" She exclaims, taking off her coat and hanging it, looking as stunning as ever in her Burberry check trousers and a black boat neck body suit.

"We literally had dinner last night." I remind her, both of us taking our resident spots on my couch. I cross my legs and Nik stretches her long legs over my lap.

"You went sprinting the moment they placed our appetisers on the table, I think it's fair to veto that dinner." she throws back with that classic Annika sass, paired with her posh accent.

I digress "Fair enough. Hey, do you know if any classes are in Faculty Block's East Wing?"

Nik thinks about it for a second, coming to a conclusion quickly, she shakes her head "Nope, no classes there. Mrs Allen once asked me to meet her there, near the staff room and as far as I know, all it has other than that are some spare rooms. Why do you ask?"

I feel myself pull a face "Hmm, that's odd. I've seen Daniel go there a lot, I thought he had classes there but even then I wasn't convinced because we share almost all our classes."

"Scandalous, you think he's shagging a teacher?" she waggles her brows.

I scrunch my nose because first of all, ew and secondly I know him enough to know that even his flimsy morals don't stoop that low "That's disgusting, Nik."

"Alright, no illicit relations, let's focus on other more important things. Like what the bloody hell happened last night and where you were before I got here."

My eyes narrow on their own accord "What makes you think I was out."

"I don't know, maybe because you're not in bed right now? Hun, you only take calls after 1 on Sundays." she stands, walking over to the kitchen and taking out two cans of Pinot Blanc from my fridge before returning to the couch.

I take the can from her, playing with the pop top of the can while over analysing every single thing about the past couple of hours.

"Daniel and I kissed."

The sentence comes out in a rush and so does the white wine out of my best friend's mouth "Fucking hell Cynthia!" she wipes her mouth with a tissue "Why didn't you lead with that?"

I chuckle nervously "Well you see it wasn't an actual kiss." I fall back against the couch, covering my eyes with my arm as I recite everything. From the moment I picked him up at the club, nursing him back, freaking out and then breakfast.

"We were interrupted by some bigshot company owner Daniel is trying to win over or finalising a deal with I don't know the details, he talked for only a few minutes before telling Daniel that he'd be in contact which he was quite happy about."

I recall his grin, the sheer excitement in those eyes as he had looked back at me.

Nik listens to me like a keen student, nodding in encouragement for me to go on, cooing at the parts she finds sweet and even gasping for dramatic effect.