Chapter 4
Once again, her thoughts turned to Lorraine. Her long, always beautifully curled, flaxen hair which seemed to adorn her porcelain, cream-coloured skin. Her eyes, framed with gorgeously long lashes, were a bright, unique shade of blue with tiny golden flecks. These thoughts made her forget about the harsh pounding in her head and the retching slowly started to ease.
She inwardly sighed as she went to sit on the chair and draped Lorraine's old hoodie around her shoulders. This created the instant calming effect that Nikki desperately needed.
Noticing the time on her alarm clock, she suddenly forced herself out of the chair, almost wincing at the loss of Lo's imaginary touch. One thing she really needed this morning was a long, hard run to clear her head. This was what she'd always done in the army, to calm her nerves, and she'd never really dropped the habit she guessed. She was already running late though so, instead, she'd had to settle for a quick, cold shower, the sharpness of it sobering her up, followed by a strong black coffee to finish the job.
Ring ring ring ring ring.
Her mobile rang causing the brunette to jump and nearly spill coffee all over her blazer. Vix's name flashed up on the screen. Her breathing increased. Nikki had no idea what to do so just ignored it and eventually the call stopped. She wearily got up off the chair and emptied the remainder of her coffee down the sink, unable to drink anymore as her thoughts uncontrollably turned to her betrayal on Vix.
Ring ring ring.
Nikki knew she had no choice but to answer it this time. She didn't want Vix worrying about her because of Her awful mistake. Gingerly, she picked up her phone from the table and pressed the accept call button.
"Hi vix" she greeted her with, trying to sound as normal as possible.
Vix replied with "Hiya. You okay?" In a concerned tone.
"Yeah. I'm just leaving the house now" Nikki gritted her teeth having noticed from Vix's tone of voice that she had obviously failed to sound normal.
"You didn't answer your phone" Vix informed Nikki, having wondered why.
"Yeah do you know what sorry i-i think it's bust. I-it's l-like j-just. Er going to answer phone" Nikki stuttered.
"Oh. Okay," Vix replied, trying to sound surprised, "I've got my jewellery making class today. Remember?"
"Hum, yeah yeah. I can meet you in the car park. Eleven?" Nikki asked.
"That would be great Nik". This caused Nikki to wince, hearing Vix use 'their' nickname.
"Alright. Yeah i'll see you later."
"I Love you"
"I love you too" replied Nikki feeling her stomach twist with guilt yet again. She hated lying to people, especially someone she was not meant to keep secrets from.
Now, she needed to plan how the hell she was going to hide this from Vix. It would completely break her heart if she found out about this stupid mistake, with Hector of all people. Jesus. Her life was quickly becoming a miserable mess.