Undone: A New Adult College Bad Boy Romance (Mature Young Adult Fun Contemporary Romance) (3 page)

“Or what? You can’t do anything.”

As he leaned against her once more, she shut her eyes tightly. She could feel his breath on her neck. A finger trailed her cheek. She shivered. As she opened her mouth to scream, she heard a hard grunt.

Fiona’s eyes flew open in time to see a blur of bodies on the ground. At first she thought it was James. She looked closer. Nick was on top of Henry, his fist going into his nose as Henry tried to roll away on the ground. Nick wasn’t letting up though and Fiona was afraid that he would kill Henry.

She grabbed his shoulders, pulling him back. “Get off of him! Come on, let go!”

Fiona finally managed to pry him away from Henry who lay moaning on the ground. She pushed Nick before she turned back to her ex-boyfriend’s writhing body. Leaning forward, she bent over him with a frown on her lips.

“Now, did we learn a lesson?” She asked. “I remember why we broke up in the first place, you’re a jerk. Stay away from me.”

Henry tried to talk, but Fiona was done listening. She caught up with Nick who was stalking away down the street. Wrapping her coat around her more tightly she stepped in front of him.

“Get out of the way. This isn’t the time,” he growled.

“Excuse me? This isn’t the time? I don’t know if you remember this or not, but you stood me up tonight. Then, you come out of nowhere, fists flying. Now, I’m supposed to just go back to the the club and pretend I didn’t see you or something?”

“I don’t care what you do,” Nick said as he walked away.

Fiona’s mouth fell open. Usually, she would have just turned and left. With the alcohol still inside of her, she wasn’t about to do that. She walked around him, pushing her hands into his chest.

“What the hell is your problem? How are you mad at me?” She asked.

Nick stopped. “I’m mad at you because the minute I couldn’t get to the phone, you decided to get friendly with your ex.”

“You have no idea what was going on there,” Fiona said as her brave resolve began to crack. She wiped her eyes quickly. “I wasn’t getting friendly with him, I told him I liked someone, that I couldn’t be with him like that. You’re a jerk Nick, just like the rest of them.”

Fiona began to walk back towards Infinity. The place would be shutting down in half an hour anyway. Then she could catch a ride with James back to the dorms. She felt a hand grip her wrist. Nick’s fingers curled around her arm, but she wouldn’t look back at him.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know what was going on. I just saw you and I…” He took a sighing breath. “I really like you too, Fiona. I guess I got a little jealous when I saw you there with him.”

Fiona turned around slowly. “You got jealous? If you were so jealous, why didn’t you show up tonight?”

“I had something personal to do that came up. I wasn’t expecting it. I would never stand you up,” Nick said as he moved closer to her, his fingers caressing her cheeks.

“What was so important?” Fiona whispered.

“I’ll tell you at another time, not tonight.”

Fiona nodded her head slowly. “Then take your hands off of me. I don’t want to see you again.

Nick stood in shock as she stormed away from him. She slipped back into the club. When she found Aubrey, her friend immediately knew that something was wrong. They found James before they exited the building. Fiona didn’t care if she ever saw the inside of Infinity again.

Stumbling into the dorm, Aubrey and James had to help Fiona into her bed. Fiona lay there, the room spinning as she tried to keep herself from losing her dinner. Once James said good night, Aubrey perched herself on Fiona’s bed. Her long, brown legs dangled over the side as she rubbed Fiona’s back.

“Why do i keep running into assholes?” Fiona mumbled. “I try so hard to find a nice guy. They’re all the same.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t try,” Aubrey said softly.

“I wasn’t trying when I met Nick. I told him no when he asked me out. I don’t think it matters, the universe hates me.”

“Don’t cry, it’ll be okay.You’ll find someone soon.”

Fiona shook her head. “I won’t, but that’s okay. I’m going to focus on my studies from now on. I’ll leave the dating to you and James.”

“Shhh, you’re very drunk and very tired. Go to sleep and we’ll figure it all out in the morning. Okay?”

“ ‘Kay,” Fiona mumbled into her pillow already drifting off.

Fiona’s phone exploded over the next twenty-four hours until she was forced to shut it off. She didn’t want to hear Nick’s apologies, didn’t need his excuses. He showed up to the dorms twice, flowers in his arms. Fiona had sent Aubrey out to deal with him, she was too busy trying to study.

After she’d nursed her hangover the next day, the only thought in Fiona’s mind was passing her exams. She laid her books out around her desk, her notebooks filled with writing were propped in front of her as well. She had big dreams. Her biggest was to be a prosecutor, but she didn’t want to stop there. Eventually, she wanted to be a judge. She couldn’t do that with subpar grades.

“You know, eventually you’re going to have to tell Nick that you don’t want to see him,” Aubrey said as she pulled over the chair from her desk.

“I’ve told him, he doesn’t listen. I really have to study,” she mumbled as her eyes ran over the questions on the page.

Aubrey sighed. “I’ll help you.”

After they’d studied for a while, Fiona’s eyes began to hurt. She rubbed them before she found a bottle of pain pills. When she sat down again, Aubrey cleared her throat.

“Maybe you should talk to him,” she said looking down at her notebook.

Fiona looked at her as if she’d grown a second head. “What could you possibly be thinking? Besides, you’re the one who said he had a temper and he dropped out and all kinds of things!”

“I know I did, but you clearly like him. You can’t stop thinking about him.”

Fiona scoffed. “How do you figure that?”

Aubrey pointed a finger at the page that Fiona had been taking notes on. When she was thinking on a question, she had written Nick in the margin of her notebook. Fiona picked up a pen, scribbled out his name.

“No idea what you’re talking about. Let’s get back to work.”

Monday afternoon, Fionna walked out of her classroom. She wandered over to a table where she buried her head in her arms. She had felt so confident before she’d gotten the packet of papers, but the moment it was opened, her heart had sank. The questions looked like the were written in a foreign language. She heard someone sit across from her. Taking a in a deep breath, she was prepared to ask them to leave her alone. She didn’t want to sit with anyone at that moment.

When she lifted her head, Nick sat across from her. He pushed a cup of coffee over to her along with a chocolate bar. Fiona wanted to still be mad at him, some parts of her were, but she was too tired. Her fingers gripped the coffee cup and the chocolate.

“What’s this for?” She asked as she opened the candy.

“I remembered you had your exams today, figured you could use this stuff,” he sipped his coffee, “that and I wanted to apologize for being a huge jerk.”

Fiona bit into the bitter dark chocolate and smiled. He even remembered the kind that she liked. She let the candy melt on her tongue as she considered his words.

“You still haven’t told me why you didn’t show up that night.”

“I can show you. What time are you done with your exams for sure?”

Fiona glanced at her phone. “I should be done around five.”

“I can pick you up at six?”

“This isn’t a date,” she said slowly.

“There will be no date until I’m forgiven,” Nick said with a smile.

Fiona kept a straight face. “You better have a really good excuse,” she said as she pushed back her chair and gathered up her books.

“The best excuse,” he replied. “I’ll see you at six.”

Fiona walked towards her next class. When she turned the corner, she peeked around to see Nick still sitting there. He had a grin on his face that made her smile.

The next two classes had exams that were just as hard as the first two. By the time she walked out of the last one, she was ready to go to bed for a month. Fiona made her way back to her dorm, where she promptly curled up under her blanket and fell asleep.

“Hey, wake up.”

A voice cut through Fiona’s dreams. She shook off the dream that she’d been having as she opened an eye. Nick’s face was so close to hers that she yelped, her heart speeding up. She sat up quickly.

“What time is it?” She asked, her voice drowsy.

“It’s seven. You were supposed to meet me an hour ago.”

Fiona yawned. “I’m sorry, I just passed right out.”

“Does this mean we’re even now?” He asked.

“You’re not getting out of showing me this great excuse,” she said as she climbed out of the bed.

Nick grinned. “I don’t intend to get out of it.”

Fiona tamed her hair in the mirror before she slipped into her boots. She shrugged into her coat, wrapped a scarf around her neck. When she was done, she waved Nick over.

“All set, let’s go.”

Nick took the lead as they walked to his car. He popped the door open for her before she slid inside. When they started driving down the road, Fiona turned to him.

“Is it far?”

“Not far at all.”

Fiona nodded. Her eyes kept sliding over to him as they drove. He looked nervous, the way he kept fidgeting with the collar of his jacket. She raised an eyebrow. What could he possibly have to show her that would make him nervous?

They pulled up in front of a white brick apartment building. Once they stepped out of the car, Nick led the way to the door. He unlocked it before they headed up a flight of stairs. When he reached the top, he unlocked an apartment door before stepping inside.

Fiona had expected a quiet, dark apartment. She had been expecting a bachelor pad, but that’s not what awaited her when the door opened. The smell of cooking food filled the space. Every light in the house was on. Fiona stepped inside slowly as she glanced at Nick, but he was looking around the apartment.

“Jenna?” Nick called as he slipped out of his coat. He turned to Fiona and helped her out of hers. “Jenna!”

“Nick is home, Nick is home!”

Fiona looked at Nick with wide eyes. He grinned, shrugged. A little girl ran into the living room, her blonde hair tied into two streaming pigtails. Nick scooped her up before giving her a tight hug. He kissed her forehead making her giggle.

“Who are you?” The little girl asked.

Fiona was at a loss for words. She stuttered over her words, but she couldn’t seem to find the right ones. Relief flooded her when Nick spoke up.

“This is my friend, Fiona. Say hi.”

The little girl waved. “Hi! I’m Jenna.”
 

Fiona smiled. “How old are you Jenna?”

“I’m four and a half!”

“Jenna, didn’t I ask you to pick up your toys?” A woman walked into the living room with an apron tied around her waist. When she spotted Nick, she smiled. “Hey, we were just going to eat dinner soon. Are you joining us?”

Nick turned to Fiona. She nodded her head quickly. The nervousness that Nick had displayed since they’d gotten inside of the car seemed to disappear. He smiled.