Delinquent

2 | Drunken Retorts

Chapter Two: Drunken Retorts

A migraine was coming on and I was ready to beg Annika for Advil.

I had been lying down on her bed for over thirty minutes while she continued to talk about Colton and the juvenile system.

Since I had met her during freshmen year, she never knew about my friendship with him and I would like to keep it that way.

Considering she wanted to do a psyche profile on him and some of his potential jail buddies.

It was now Thursday, nearing three o'clock. You would think she got Colton out of her system when I came over on Tuesday, but nope. It was a never ending discussion about him.

"Nik, do you have Advil?" I asked once she took a breather from her rant.

She twisted herself around the chair in front of her desk while I sat up from her bed. "Sure, you feeling okay?"

"I've been better," I forced a laugh as I watched her rush to her bathroom. Only after a few seconds she returned with the bottle of pills and a glass of water.

One pill was four-hundred milligrams so I eagerly took one before drowning the cup of water.

I lied back down on her bed as I waited for the pill to take affect. Only after ten minutes did I start to feel the throbbing pain decrease.

"Feeling better?" Annika asked, and I nodded as I slowly began to sit up. I got a hold of one of her navy throw pillows before pressing it against my chest.

I crossed my legs as I turned to face her. Just as I was about to respond and say that I was, the front door opened, and we both turned to see her grandmother enter.

She had been wearing matching pink joggers and a button up shirt, but what caught my attention the most was the plate of cookies she brought in with her. "Girls, you have a visitor," she smiled.

Both of our brows furrowed and I was about to stand up with Annika to check it out when her grandmother placed the plate of cookies in front of me. "Here you go, Julia. It's nice to see you back here."

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Cowell," I smiled before taking a bite of the chocolate chip cookie.

Once she went back downstairs, Annika returned, but not alone.

"Hey, Lia!" Riya shouted, and my head whipped to their direction with furrowed brows.

"Hey, Ri. What are you doing here?" I asked, but when I saw what was in her hold, I cringed, knowing where this was going.

Instead of responding, she raised the acrylic paper pad in her hold before dropping her arts and craft briefcase on the white Ikea desk.

"I need to add another two portraits for my portfolio," she stated before turning around to face me.

"How long will it take?" I hesitated to ask. I had planned on leaving in an hour because I had to go buy my dad a gift for his birthday.

"Probably three or four hours," she confessed, and jaw clenched before slowly opening my notes app to fix around my schedule.

If I had known this was happening, we could have done it on Saturday, the day after Marcello's party.

"Okay!" She clapped her hands together before shooing Annika off of the chair in front of the desk. "Shoo. And Julie, come sit."

We both followed her directions, and within minutes, Riya was sketching me on her pad.

Annika slipped on her reading glasses while sitting on the ledge of the bed to stare at the sketch Riya was doing.