Love & Loss

Chapter 3

Khloe's POV:

I carefully dug through the bag, triple checking that I had grabbed all of my art supplies.

Nico was right when he said that we would be mostly bringing my stuff.

The only things of his that were in here were only the things that I wanted him to bring.

And then, of course, my dress and a handful of other clothes that I liked enough to want to bring with me.

I leaned back away from the bag, sitting on my haunches.

Giving it once last glance over, I decided that we had indeed packed everything that we needed, and zipped it up.

Xander and Doe had already taken Marcus down with the intention of getting a limo for us, so they were just waiting on us at this point.

I stood up, spotting Nico standing in the doorway of his closet, looking over the entirety of the room before his gaze fell on me.

"Do we pack everything we needed?" he asked before he began walking towards me.

I bent down and picked up the bag before responding.

"Yup! We got everything."

He began to nod before he suddenly stopped with a look of realization on his face.

"Not everything," he said barely enough for me to hear it before he changed his course to his desk.

I shifted the bag so that I was holding it in both of my hands at my middle before tilting to the side a bit to try to see if I could figure out what he was doing.

He shuffles through many papers on his desk before he finally pulled out one victoriously.

I rose a brow as he turned himself towards me, turning the paper towards me as well.

I couldn't tell what it was until he took a couple steps closer.

Once I made out what it was, my face flamed with embarrassment.

It was the picture of a dream catcher that I had drawn only a couple of days after he had bought me.

"Do we really have to bring that?" I asked, slouching my shoulders.

Nico chuckled at my protest before gently taking the bag from me.

"Yes. I like it," he said, zipping open the bag and sliding the paper between the pages of my sketchbook so it wouldn't get wrinkled.

I pursed out my lips.

I didn't, but I guess I rarely ever liked anything that I drew.

"If you like it so much then I can re-draw it." I offered, mostly for myself.

A smile grew on his face as he zipped the bag back up.

"You can if you want, but I think this one will forever be one of my favorites." He said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I honestly don't know," He began with a laugh, " I just can't help but smile whenever I see it."

I just stood there, not really sure how to respond to that.

I mean, I couldn't argue with that even if I tried.

Nico seemed amused by my silence, stroking my hair as he walked passed me.

"You ready to go?" He asked, setting his hand on the door.

"Yeah," I breathed out, suddenly aware of the collar around my neck.

Nico opened the door as I approached it, motioning for me to exit first.

But just as I was about to, I turned back one last time.

This was it. We were leaving this behind.

I slowly looked over the room, recalling all of the things that happened prior.

The first day I came here, memories of drawing on the window sill, dancing in the middle of the room for hours on end, the tears shed and smiles given.

"You sure you're ready?" Nico asked patiently, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I let out a small laugh.

"yea sorry its just-," I stopped looking at the open door.

I didn't want to risk someone hearing this.

Nico got the message and shut the door.

"its just kind of weird leaving this behind. All of these memories of us," I pointed to the couch that I had slept on the first night I was here, pulling out my fondest memory "I mean my first kiss was right over there and now I'll never see it again."

I wasn't necessarily sad about this, well maybe a little, but my excitement was greater than my sadness.

Making new if not better memories at this new place was what I was most excited about.

I jumped out of surprise as I felt Nico's hand on my hip, pulling me tight against his tall body.

My eyes met his confident gaze.

"I'll kiss you in every square inch of our new room if it'll help make up for it." he offered proudly.

I swallowed hard, trying desperately to keep my cool.

I nodded nonchalantly, earning a titter from Nico

"Yea I think that will do for now."

~~~

Marcus closed the door to the limo as soon as Nico and I entered.

Though, the sight we saw as soon as we actually looked at the scene in front of us caused us to completely freeze.

Xander and Doe both froze as well, both of their eyes wide as if we had caught them doing some sort of act.

Xander stood, one knee resting on one of the seats as he held open one of the other seats that apparently had a compartment within it.

He held a partially eaten granola bar between his lips, the remnants of the rapper slowly sliding off of it as the seconds passed.

Doe, on the other hand, stood still with a bag of mini cookies in her hand.

"What the hell are you doing," Nico asked, breaking the silence as soon as the limo was set into motion.

Xander excitedly grabbed the bar from his mouth before answering.

"Dude I got us the best limo ever! There's so many snacks in here! And the other side has all kinds of drinks!" He said eagerly.

I found it amusing how he was so excited over a detail like this, and as I looked up, it looked like Nico was too.

Usually, Nico had a look of annoyance whenever Xander did... well anything, really.

It was nice seeing him have a different demeanor towards him these days.

I barely even had time to process the sound of Nico setting the bag on the leather seat beside us before I felt the gust of air as he sped past me.

He ended up sitting comfortably on the complete opposite side of the limo, the granola bar Xander had now in his hands.

"Good job Xan," he bit into the bar, " You actually did something right for once."

I failed in suppressing my giggle as Xander looked at his now empty hand.

"wha- Hey!"

Nico smirked, intentionally showing off his fangs, almost like he was inviting Xander to a challenge.

Xander slowly stood on both of his feet, shutting the compartment and gesturing for Doe to sit on top of it.

"You really want to do this in a limo?" Xander asked, his posture showing that he was preparing for anything.

Doe and I glanced at each other, unsure what to make of this situation.

Eventually, I just sat next to the bag and observed, figuring that this must be a brother thing.

Nico took another bite, "I'll kick your ass anywhere Xander, especially when we have nine hours to kill."