Chapter 17
Showing Aria into my room and giving her my shirt to use since she wanted a shower and had no extra clothes here and also because we couldn’t go shop for any new clothes for now, I headed out and into Nicole’s room.
Nicole was sitting on her bed with her Mac book opened before her. She was dressed in a T-shirt which I recognized as her twin’s cloth, a small pang hooked in my chest at the reminder of my missing brother, making me promise him I was coming for him in my head.
“Hey Nicoleeeeeeee,” I greeted as I closed the door gently behind me and made my way towards her bed. She stretched out her good arm and I pulled her into a hug the minute my butt hit her bed. She burrowed into the hug more, her right hand squeezing my sides tight which made me feel bad that she got shot at all over again, you wait until I catch those bastards. I stifled a groan when her body rested on my wounded arm too much, not wanting to cause her alarm.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
“How are you doing?” I asked after she pulled away.
She shrugged a little before glancing at my face then, “Are you hurt? What happened at the office today?”
“I’m not hurt, Nicole.” The lie slipped out my lips freely, lying a lot to her had somehow become a normality, since it was for her own good.
“Are you sure? You’re not supposed to be home until late noon on a Friday, and the time is almost 02:00pm and here you are.”
One thing about Nicole is her extreme smartness, which means most times, we have to add more lies to the original lie until it seems believable to her before she’d let it be, I can’t be surprised since her IQ is the same as her twin brother’s.
“I have to come take care of something, and you know everywhere isn’t safe for now, especially our house, which was why I asked Tristan to get you down here to keep us all safe, you especially.”
“But I don’t need extra care. I told you I’m old enough to be fully involved in whatever is going on.” Nicole argued, scowling at me- or attempting to, because her scrunched up face only screamed ‘cute’.
“You do, chipmunk.” I disagreed as I ruffled her brown curls because she hates when we do it so much, her bandaged shoulder disagrees with her also- she needs all the extra care in the world.
“Auden?”
“Yeah?”
“Where’s Nicolas? Did something happen to him too? Is that what’s keeping him away?” Nicole asked, her piercing blue eyes threatening to dig into my soul and uproot the truth herself if I wasn’t going to spit it out.
“No, Chim, Nicolas is busy at the moment, but he’ll be home tonight.” I replied, hoping to God that he was indeed alright and not bleeding helplessly from a gunshot wound.
“Too busy to come see his wounded twin? That’s unlike him, I know something’s wrong. He didn’t come home last night either.”
“You see, Nicole, Nicolas is doing something really important right now, but he’d come home to all of us tonight. Yeah?”
“So I’m not important?” Nicole asked, blinking continuously at me as she pushed her hair out of her face.
“I never said that.” I breathed out along with a tired sigh.
Why do girls always have to put words in my mouth?
“You obviously implied that. This is why I don’t like you, you’re always hiding stuff from me, all of you.” Nicole announced, glaring at me.
“Now she hates me.” I stated.
“I don’t, you know I don’t.” She argued.
I pulled her into a hug then loosened my hold when she groaned out in pain due to her wounded shoulder before pulling away and dropping a kiss on her hair. “I have a lot to do now, your twin will come see you tonight, and maybe when you clock seventeen, we’ll see if you can be let in fully.”
“Really? Oh my gosh I love you so much, Auden. I’m so sick of being in the dark every time my twin gets to be fully in it and…” Nicole started to gush out happily but I cut her off at a point.
“I said maybe.” I reminded her as I pushed up from her bed.
“I know! Which means I’ll be in it soon!”
I didn’t bother telling her that it isn’t so much fun being fully in it and is instead dangerous as hell, instead, I ruffled her curls to her annoyance and left her to her MacBook.
Walking a few feet to my room, I stepped into it and disposed of my suit jacket on the bed while groaning in pain a little as the fabric of the jacket glided over my wounded arm. The whole room smelled of my body wash which means Aria’s probably taken her bath. The bathroom door opened just as I sat on the bed to take off my shirt and out walked Aria.
Her hair was braided on the top of her head in a messy bun while my black shirt served as a small dress for her, stopping on her mid thighs. She clutched her former clothes in her hand and dropped them on the floor beside the bathroom door before walking towards me.
A gasp escaped her lips the moment her gaze fell on my left arm. “Oh my gosh, you’re bleeding right through your shirt.”
“I know,” I grunted as I unbuttoned my shirt and pulled it off my wounded arm slowly, wincing a little along the way. Discarding the shirt on the floor, I glanced at the wound and wrinkled my nose before facing Aria.
“Can you come take this soiled bandage off?”
I expected her to argue or give a stupid excuse, but instead, she sat on the bed beside me and gently unwrapped the soiled bandage with me wincing in pain. Discarding the bandage on my ruined shirt, she wrinkled her nose and prodded the sides of the wound gently before saying.
“The stitches didn’t hold the skin together well, you’d have to get in another stitches to stop the bleeding.”
I glanced at the wound, agreeing with her immediately. “Yeah, I know. It’s not like I’m a pro at stitching up wounds, heck I’ve only done it on other people but never on myself. I’ll just get Tristan to do it for me.”
I pushed out of the bed and Aria followed immediately, peering up at me, I resisted the stupid voice in my head telling me to take a quick peak at her exposed thighs in my shirt. Without heels, Aria’s head was reaching some inches down my chest, the scent of my shampoo drifted into my nose right from her hair, the urge to bury my nose inside it and take in huge inhales came out of nowhere, making me take a step backwards, now isn’t the time, Auden.
“Do you get shot at a lot?”