"Nikki, you see there was an accident.." Rodrick shook his head in disapproval as he stood in front of the bathroom mirror.

"You remember Chad right? Funny story about Chad and your guit- gaaaah!" Rodrick groaned and lightly hit his head against his reflection on the mirror.

Just the day before, Chad, his genius guitarist, decided it was a great idea to reenact something he saw on TV by smashing Nikki's guitar to smithereens. Now Rodrick was left to pick up all the pieces, physically and metaphorically. From the way Nikki spoke about her guitar when she had brought up her hobbies when they were doing that lame project, it seemed she really did care for it. She had mentioned it being a gift, Rodrick thought. He couldn't really remember or focus on anything but an apology. He felt like he owed it to her, seeing as he had asked her for it to begin with. But, Rodrick was never good with apologies. He always said the wrong thing and felt like an idiot doing so.

"Nikki, there's no easy way to say this, but-"

"Rodrick! Hurry up!" Greg yelled from the other side of the bathroom door. "You're not the only one in this house, you know!" He banged his fists on the door, waiting for Rodrick to open it.

Rodrick swung the door open and pushed himself past Greg. He wasn't in the mood for harassing him, not today. His stomach was hurting, but he knew it wasn't because he was nauseous. His stomach was clenching tight as he left the bathroom and went straight out the door, ignoring his mother's call for breakfast. He wasn't hungry. The pain in his stomach only increased the closer he got to school in his van. His muscles were even clenched up and he felt his mind go numb. He was surely going to see Nikki, that he knew was true.

It almost felt like butterflies were fluttering against each other, slapping one another with the harsh movements of their wings. Rodrick knew this was mainly because he was nervous, as he had always felt that strange feeling when he was anxious. But it had never been this harsh before.

Rodrick wished his locker wasn't so close to Nikki's, otherwise he might have been able to escape her wrath after he told her what had happened. Rodrick expected for Nikki to walk up to him and ask him about something unrelated. But his body was just pulling himself towards her. He didn't feel entirely in control of his body as he walked up to her while she stuffed her backpack in her locker. He noticed that she had to tiptoe to put in on the provided shelf in the worn out locker and a slight smile appeared on his face. He tried to shrug it off, but he couldn't do it.

Nikki turned to Rodrick, a small smile on her lips as she saw him. "Good morning Rodrick." She greeted in a sing-song kind of voice. She seemed happy, which was an improvement from the day before. Whatever was going on with her was surely passing, he figured. "You need something or..?" She asked as she noticed a zoned out expression on his features.

Rodrick scratched behind his ear and ran his hand through his messy, uncombed hair as he began to speak. "What're you doing later?" The words had just blurted out of his mouth. It had just come out! He pressed his lips together with his brows furrowed as he waited for a response as he leaned against the locker next to her.

Nikki seemed taken back as she clutched a binder and a textbook to her chest. Her eyes had a glimmer of joy in them and her small smile had been eagerly replaced by a large grin, exposing her pearly white teeth. "No, I'm not.. Why?' She couldn't hide the excitement in her voice, no matter how hard she tried.

"Maybe we can, I don't know, go somewhere?" Rodrick crossed his arms as he looked from her eyes, to the tiled floor.

Nikki bit her lip, but the curve of her smile was still evident. "Yeah, definitely!" She nodded quickly. "We can go to the park near my house!" She was already exposing her enthusiasm over what she saw a as a 'date'.

"Sure, sure.. Six?" Rodrick couldn't believe what his lips were uttering.

"Yeah.." Nikki nodded, giggling gleefully. "My mom lent me her car today, so.. You can just drive to my house at six and we'll just.. walk from there?" She suggested, in which Rodrick nodded a yes to. "Okay! Well, uh, see you in class!" Nikki could feel every aspect of her body glowing with happiness. Her body had tightened with complete excitement! She couldn't even completely feel her legs moving as she walked to pre-calculus.

Rodrick continued to lean against the locker, completely amazed at what he had just done. His mouth hung slightly open as he thought. Didn't they say that when you spoke freely, without thinking of what you were saying, it meant that whatever you said was what your heart really wanted? Rodrick felt his heart racing at what felt like over a thousand miles an hour.

Rodrick had never seen Nikki in the kind of light he had now exposed her to. She had just been a friend, a girl he could count on.. for answers anyways. The two picked at each other light-heartedly. But over the past couple of weeks, he had seen a totally different side of her, a side that he hadn't seen at school. She liked the same kind of music as he did and she even played an awesome instrument. She had grown easy to talk to and her jokes were.. actually funny. Now that he had done the deed of asking her out, everything about her was different.

As he remembered her in his mind, he could easily recognize the shine in her eyes whenever she accomplished something. The way her hair flowed and followed her every movement gracefully. How her laugh was, how her voice orchestrated itself..

Rodrick leaned with his back against Nikki's locker, banging his head on the metal exterior. He had a date with Nikki tonight. He smiled lightly as he brought himself off the lockers to head off to class, empty-handed.