breaking nia ~n.f.~

Chapter 6

She took his hand and they quietly slipped out of the bathroom.

Unfortunately, they bumped into Chloe, her lips puffy, with a boy who had a sheepish grin plastered on his face. Obviously, they had been getting hot and heavy.

"Nia and Josh?" She stifled a slightly drunken giggle. "I didn't expect that one."

Nia's cheeks burned.

"Well," the random boy said, holding onto Chloe's waist, "Good luck, Mia and Josh."

"Nia." Chloe corrected. Nia bit her lip until it bled.

As Chloe and her boy toy wandered off to God-knows-where, Nia leaned into Josh's shoulder, resting her lips against the surface of his ear.

"I'm so unimportant, that guy didn't even bother to remember my name." She said as they walked down the stairs. They weren't really going anywhere. Kind of just drifting around. Nia didn't drink, and neither did Josh, only when peer-pressurred. So really, there was nothing to do except walk, and talk.

"You aren't unimportant. You are human. That kid was drunker than my mother on New Year's." He sniffled. "God, I have to get the purge taste out of my mouth."

Nia squeezed Josh's hand even harder.

They approached the sloppily-prepared snack table, fear grinding into their works. Food. The silent killer of skinniness.

"Get a drink." Nia said dryly. He nodded, glancing painfully at the salted pretzels in a yellow plastic bowl.

He reached down into a container next to the table that was full of half-melted ice and bottles, and tried to retrieved a water.

"Wait, Ni. There's no water."

"What?" She had a look for herself. Coke. Beer. Those weird, wine cooler things. No water.

"That's so strange. How do you have a party and not have water?"

Josh scratched the nape of his neck. Water had little-to-no calories. Alcohol had lots.

"It's fine," He murmured, "I'll just some from the kitchen."

So there they walked. Maddie was in a circle there, playing spin the bottle with an half-empty wine cooler bottle. She looked up to see Josh filling his glass with water and grinned.

"Heyyyyy." She slurred, the bottle arriving at her knees. She leaned over to kiss a boy who was about double her age. With tongue.

"Mads, we need to get you home." Nia said, taking her wrist and pulling her up. Maddie frowned, protesting. "Hey, whadaya doin'? I was juth gawna kisth another boyyyy."

Nia had Josh take Maddie's wrist so she wouldn't run away. "You're drunk, Maddie." She stated firmly. "Also, heads up, me and Josh are sort of together now." She blushed. "Would you agree, Josh?"

Josh nodded, and happiness poured into Nia's body.

"Okayyy. But urra killjoy, yanno that?" Maddie said, as they turned into another room. "I kind ofth liked you, Josth." He nodded. "Cool."

They rounded a thankfully sober Paige, watching a rerun of Friends with her boyfriend, Brian. She smiled and waved when she saw them. "Hey, guys. Time to go?"

"Yep." Nia said, waving to Brian. "Maddie is drunk and Chloe is with some boy. Probably drunk as well. I'll going to find her myself." Paige nodded and kissed Brian goodbye.

And with that, Nia marched up the carpeted stairs.

She was always known as the responsible one. She didn't get into trouble, didn't sneak out at night to meet her (formerly nonexistent) boyfriend, didn't drink or smoke, and didn't really attend these sort of parties.

There were Chloe and the boy, pressed up against the wall, making out. Nia groaned. They moaned. "Oh dear lord. Chloe Lukasiak! Time to go."

They proceeded to kiss.

She tugged on Chloe's arm. Chloe shrieked. "Time to fucking go!" Chloe looked at her, disappointed and angry.

"I'm an adult, Nia. I can make my own choices."

"Well, do you want Kelly or your mom to know you're here?" She whispered. Chloe paled.

"Bye." She said to aforementioned mysterious boy, and this time, let Nia pull her down the stairs.

"Okay, let's go." Josh transferred Maddie's wrist to Nia, and Nia transferred Chloe's to Paige.

They walked home, awkwardly bringing the girls along, and trying to slip in. Silently.

"Shhhh." Everyone in the Hyland household was asleep. Nia nodded to Paige, who guided the girls to bed. She went to fetch them glasses of water and Advils for their morning hangovers.

Josh followed her into the kitchen. He got the glasses and filled them, she the medicine. But before going up, she walked over to Josh and hugged him hard.

"Thank you for tonight."

Josh kissed the top of her head. "No problem. Thank you. Your secret is safe with me."

"As is your's with me."

And up they went to tend to the girls.

(Author's note: sorry for a slow update! I had loads of homework. I'm also sorry that this is a filler chapter. Love you all, colleen cosette ♡.)