Love Bites

LOVE BITES Chapter 4 : Permission for Adulthood

A/N: Nikki and Brianna's outfits above/beside.

Chapter 4 : Permission for Adulthood

I put my foot on the edge of my bed and slid the navy sock as far as it would go up my leg, stopping at the thigh. I brushed my skirt, pushing out the creases, then inspected myself in the mirror dressed in my proper school uniform. My eyes were as blue as ever and my blond hair was tied back in a ponytail.

There was a knock at my door. "Nikki, im coming in."

I spun around, ducking to grab a soft toy off my bed and threw it at my older brother who walked into my room uninvited. "Alastair! You can't just walk into a girl's room whenever you want!"

He coolly leant to the side as the soft toy came rushing towards his face. It flew over his shoulder, bouncing off the wall in the hallway. "I did say I was coming in," he said calmly.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "But you didn't even give me time to respond," I argued.

He dismissed our conversation with an incline of his hand and instead held up a piece of paper. "Nikki, what is this?"

Immediately recognising it, I turned my back to him. "It looks like a note. That I wrote. To you. Yes?" He didn't sound too happy.

"Very good. Now please explain it to me."

I played with the hem of my school shirt, feeling his eyes on my back. "Well I thought I might not see you before I left so I decided to just leave a note on your door... or something." I shifted under his stare. "It's self explanatory, just read it."

"I did read it and here, I'll read it again for you." I rolled my eyes as he cleared his throat. "To Alastair, I'm going to a party tonight and will probably get back late so don't look out for me, love Nikki." I saw him in the mirror; he looked over the top of the paper, his ash mauve eyes scrutinising me.

"That's the plan. Brianna and I were invited to this party tonight and we said we'd go."

He just looked at me. "Absolutely not," he said and left the room.

What?

"Alastair!" I shouted, taking off after him. "I said I'm going and that means I'm going!"

He shrugged my hand off his shoulder. "When did you ever gain a liking towards social gatherings?"

"Um, since I realised I'm a senior and have never once been to a party? I'm almost invisible at school. Everyone goes to parties, I don't see the problem."

"You go to parties all the time," he remarked, eating the hallway with his long strides, "I let you attend your friend's party not long ago."

"When I was like 11!" I exclaimed, throughly my arms in the air. "The most we did there was play pass-the-parcel!"

"And that was a lifetime supply of fun."

I stomped my foot. It was a childish act, and was definitely about to contradict my next words. "I'm almost an adult, Alastair, you can't keep my locked away and control everything little thing I do!"

His figure halted in the hallway, his back rigid. "I've never locked you away from the outside world," he said dangerously gently. Alastair was never one to yell but I could tell he was fighting himself on something. Maybe I shouldn't have asked.