Chapter 4 - Upside down and I fall

Sorry for the delay and the short chapter. I came down with a very bad head cold just before school started so if I wasn't getting back into my school work, I was feeling miserable. This chapter is short (and the next one will be too since they are suppose to be one big chapter) but I decided on putting off on the ending until my cold clears up and I am thinking straight again. Thank you all for the nice reviews. They really mean a lot to me. Anyways, enough from me, read on!

XxxxX

Caitlin, Jonsey, and Nikki all stood up in the Khaki barn in silence. A few hours passed since the whole incident with Trisha and finding out Jen spread the rumor that Jonsey and Nikki slept together. Caitlin witnessed all of the fight and filled in the other two on how she found out, which only fulled Nikki's anger even more.

"So," Caitlin broke the silence. "What exactly did happen last night?"

Nikki folded her arms and leaned on the inside of the cash counter. "Jonsey's car froze up so he slept at my house. That's it."

"And Jonsey slept, where?"

"I was on the couch! All night!" He blurted out angrily. The whole rumor rubbed him the wrong way but when Nikki said she would never sleep with him, that was just the icing on the cake. Jonsey wasn't ready for sex, and he knew Nikki wasn't either, but just the way she said it really got to him. Almost like he wasn't good enough for her.

"Ok ok." Caitlin waved a hand in front of her. "I got it. I just wish Jude or Wyatt was here. They were both there when she said it."

"Really?" Jonsey unzipped his sweater, took it off, and laid it on the counter. "Then lets go get them. I want to know what really happened."

"Bring them back here. I want to know too." Nikki told them both.

Caitlin took her purse off the counter and put it over her shoulder. "Why not come with?"

She stood up straight. "I don't want to risk seeing Jen right now. Who knows how many different ways I could snap her neck. That and Chrissy said if I don't work until the end of this shift I could consider my job gone."

"Ouch." Jonsey said. "Ok, we'll be back in a little while. I'll leave my sweater with you." Nikki nodded and he pressed a light kiss to her forehead. She smiled weakly and the two of them left the store.

As soon as they left, Nikki grabbed Jonsey's sweater and ducked down behind the counter and sat there. She was tough but knowing that your best friend would say something like that to you hurt. A lot.

'Why the hell would Jen say something like that without asking me first? She didn't like us dating in the past but I thought we were over that. God I would love to have a chance to smack her or something right now!' Nikki took a breath. Violence wasn't the answer. She was better with her words anyways. They didn't call her the sharpest tongue in the mall for nothing. She sighed and cuddled into Jonsey's sweater. Everything sucked. Not even seeing Jonsey in a towel again could make this better.

Well, maybe a little better. But still, not the point right now.

She stood up and put on his sweater. It was a bit on the large side but she liked it. When everything felt like it was falling, Nikki always liked to be close to people she cared for, even if those people were backstabbing rumor spreaders who deserved to feel the other side of a baseball bat.

"Excuse me miss?" A girl poked Nikki out of a daze she didn't know she was in.

"Yeah, what do you want?" She snapped. The girl stared at her and pointed at a red shirt on the counter.

"Well I put a shirt on the counter and I have money in my hand. What do you think I want?"

Nikki glared at her. Her day was bad enough, she didn't need some preteen smart ass jumping at her.

"Listen kid, you've picked the wrong day to mess with Nikki Wong, got it? When I got up this morning, everything was fine but you know what? As soon as I got here I found out my best friend stabbed me in the back! Do you know how that feels!? DO YOU!?"

"Nikki!" Chrissy exclaimed from one of the clothing racks. She walked over to the cash counter and looked at the customer who didn't know if she should cry or call mall security. Chrissy rang up the sale and watched the girl leave then turned to a hard breathing Nikki.

"Listen Nik, I know what happened today sucked but remember, she's your friend and you should talk to her. Something like this isn't worth losing a best friend over."

Nikki cocked an eye brow like Jonsey does. "Your right but why are you being nice to me? You hate me."

"True. But your scarring the customers and if you go make up with your friend you'll be out of the store and I can make some sales." That was more like the Chrissy Nikki knew. Instead of snapping back, Nikki lied and told her she would and left the store. Getting a free break was awesome, but she still wasn't going to talk to Jen. Not until she calmed down some.

Nikki made her way to the food court, putting the hood of Jonsey's sweater up to avoid peoples gazes and sat at her usual table. Wyatt and Marlo were there writing a new song to they would have some fresh material for their next gig, when ever that was.

"Hey Nikki." He looked up from his paper and sipped his coffee.

"Hey Wyatt." She muttered.

"I heard what happened." Nikki looked at him and Wyatt told her everything that happened when he was with Jen and Jude this morning.

"So she just blurted it out?" Marlo asked.

Wyatt nodded. "Yeah, and she came to see me about 20 minutes ago to."

---

20 minutes ago

Wyatt and the band was rehearsing a new song Connie heard a few days ago on the radio she wanted to try. There was a killer drum solo right near the end that would be awesome to preform if only she could get the beat right.

"That's it, take five everyone." Marlo put down her bass. They been playing the same song over and over for the past hour and they were getting a bit exhausted from all the repetition. Marlo and Connie walked out of the room while the other two members followed.

"Wyatt you coming?" she asked, poking her head back in the door.

"I'll be there in a minute, save me a seat ok." She smiled and closed the door. Ever since this morning, after Jen's public display of panic, Wyatt found it hard to concentrate. Sure, there was a possibility that two of his best friends were sleeping together, but something did not add up. He couldn't put his finger on it but this wasn't right.

He laid his guitar on the stand and walked out of the room shutting the door behind him. Before he had a chance to turn around, Jen came up to him from behind.

"Wyatt!"

He jumped. "What is it?" He turned around to see Jen, still looking panicky.

"I need you to talk to Jonsey for me."

"Why? He's your stepbrother, not mine."

"But." She paused. This had to be worded right or else Wyatt wouldn't do it. He was stubborn like that sometimes. "He's a guy. And you know how me and him don't get along very well when were home."

Wyatt sighed. "Listen Jen, just ask Nikki yourself. Every time something happens, or you or Caitlin thinks something happened, you have to come up with some crazy plan to figure everything out instead of just asking the person directly. I personally don't think they did. It just don't seem right to me."

Jen put a hand on her hip. "Alright I will. And I'll prove to you that this time im right."

"Oh really?" He smirked. If Wyatt was right, which he was pretty sure he was, he could win a nice bet out of this. And Jen loved making bets so this was an easy win. "Fine, I bet if they aren't sleeping together, you have to buy me coffee for a month."

"And if they are, then you have to clean the bathroom at my house for a month." They grinned and shook hands on it. It wasn't great that they made a bet about something like this, but if Wyatt can find a way to get free coffee then he will.

---

"You made a bet?!" Nikki glared at him.

"Sorry Nikki, but it was an easy win, right?" Nikki nodded, confirming that nothing like that happened between her and Jonsey. Wyatt smiled and finished his coffee.

"Cool. So how you going to fix all this?"

Nikki put her head on the table. "I don't know. I haven't even seen Jen yet."

Jonsey walked up to the table with his arm around a crying Caitlin.

"Caitlin! What's wrong?" Marlo looked at her sympathetically.

"He...he broke our date!" She sobbed and sat down next to Nikki who kept her head down. She wasn't surprised and she didn't really care right now.

"I'm sure he has a good reason."

"Nope." Jonsey sat on the other side of Nikki and lightly rubbed her back. "Trisha was flirting with him." Caitlin wiped her tears away.

"Ok, I can cry later. Right now we have to help Nikki and Jonsey." She wiped her mascara off her cheeks with a tissue from her purse then put it on the table.

"Right, but what can we do?" Jonsey asked, keeping his hand on Nikki's back.

She sprung into an upright position and Jonsey withdrew his hand. "I know! Kill Jen" Everyone gave her a funny look. "What? It sounds like a good idea to me."

"No, what you need to do is get the heat off of you." Marlo told the group. "Something like this happened before in my old group of friends back in the 9th grade."

Caitlin, who was looking into a hand mirror and re-applying her eyeliner, looked up at her. "Really? What happened?"

"One of my old friends thought they seen me do something and they accidently told someone else and it just got out of hand from there."

"What did you do? Beat them up?" Nikki asked. Marlo shook her head.

"No. I did the same thing your going to do." She smirked and everyone leaned in to listen to the plan.

XxxxX

Ok, one more chapter to go after this one! And I am already planning another 6teen story (maybe two if I get my idea down) after this one is finished. Probably something Jude related since he didn't have much of a part in this story so far. Oh well, in the next chapter everyone will play a part. Doing what? Well, that's a surprise for next time.