[BET YOU DIDN'T EXPECT THIS CHAPTER EITHER! HA! Vote for me, Nicole and Sasha or I'm terminating them PERMANENTLY]

(pic of the guy who inspired sasha physically at the bottom of the chapter)

#Nicole's Point Of View

Whenever Leo texted me I knew something suspicious was going on. So when I received his message early in the morning I knew he was trying to finally murder me to take over my reign. If not, then why the hell was this twink ass bitch messaging me at seven in the morning while I was trying to sleep?

The worst part was not even messaging me at seven, but telling me to come to Derek's house at a later time. Why was it necessary to tell me this at this time when I wasn't even needed until way later? I couldn't understand!

Time to use my Leo voodoo doll? Definitely.

Derek was also awake at this time because he had sent me a message a few minutes after Leo had. But his read: I can't feel my dick. And I responded: Me too.

I went back to sleep, putting on my Trixie Mattel sleep mask, hoping I wouldn't be bothered for the rest of the day. But that was not the case. I did manage to sleep a few more hours but it wasn't enough and I woke up to the sound of my phone ringing.

"Hello?" I said in the darkness of the sleeping mask.

"Where's my money you fucking bitch?"

"I said I'll give it to you next week. JESUS. Do you ever listen?"

"I have plenty of time. I'll wait. You can't go anywhere."

I ripped off the mask and sat up, grunting angrily.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'll talk to you later, mom." I hung up the phone and tossed it over my shoulder, hearing it land on the bed.

Judging by how this morning was going, I was not going to have a pleasant day. I finished packing up the rest of Jack's clothes and put them away in the box, sealing it with duct tape. I hope I remember to send it, otherwise it was going to stay on my floor for a couple years with me not noticing it.

I went through my dresser and picked out an outfit for the day. It seemed like I was going to be out a lot, so I needed something proper to wear. I found something simple and spread it out on my bed as I stared at my side boob reflection on the mirror.

"Yes," I said.

I brushed my teeth, checking my social media, responding to the nudes I got overnight. One guy thought it was funny to send me a dog one, so I replied with "hot" and changed his Snapchat name to "Ignore" so I could remember to never open his snapchat ever again. I didn't want to block or remove, I wanted him to cry over why I was ignoring him. Blocking was too easy.

I noticed Jack had seen my latest snapchat from last night. I hovered my thumb over his name, wondering if I should just do it and block him already, but I couldn't. I sat back on my bed as an overwhelming feeling of loneliness swept over me like the cold waves of a dark and empty sea and I cried.

I thought this would stop. But as time went on, it only got increasingly worse. It seemed like my life was writhing what was left of my heart. I was so tired of it.

As upset as I was, I forced myself to take a shower and try to eat something. That something ended up being a few bites of stale cereal and my daily dose of medicine. I sat on the kitchen counter for a while, staring down at the floor, losing track of time. The silence was louder than my thoughts at this point.

My clothes waited for me on my bed, so after snapping back to reality, I dressed and did my make-up. I was wearing a black mini dress and a fur jacket with knee-high boots. As I went to grab my purse, I realized who had bought it for me. Suddenly I didn't want it anymore, even though it was my favorite. I picked another one from my closet and dumped out my things into the new one. It was small and kind of worn-out, but no one would notice.

I left my small and dark apartment and walked down the hall towards the stairs. I spotted Maurice sitting on a wooden chair in front of his front door, playing his guitar with a cigar in his mouth.

"Hey, honey," I greeted as I walked towards him. When he saw me, a big smile spread wide on his face.

"Hi, Frances, how are ya?" he said.

"I'm wonderful," I said, returning the smile and giving him a kiss on the cheek. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

"Oh, just having some time with my guitar while the lady is out with her sister."

"Right, she doesn't like music," I said, remembering the story he told me. His wife used to love music, but now she barely remembered her own name. "You tell her I said hi, okay?"

"Sure will." He went back to playing his soothing song as I went down the stairs, swinging my purse to the rhythm of the music.

I waited by the side of the road as dozens of cars drove fast, not letting me cross the street. Finally when I saw my chance, I made a run for it. Cars honked past me but I was secretly hoping to get hit. Unfortunately I made it to the other side.

As I tried to enter the parking lot of the gas station, a car cut me off and I almost tripped back onto the busy road. My heart was beating so fast but the assholes were gone by the time I gathered myself. I would have jumped their car and broken every window.

Quickly, I skipped towards the gas station, at the same time pulling my dress down as it was rising up. There were a few construction workers outside watching me, not even trying to be secretive about it. But whatever, I wore this outfit because I wanted the attention anyway.

I entered the gas station and got blasted with freezing air. My legs were instantly icicles.

"Hey, Frances, can you work today?"

"What the f–" I said as I headed towards the back room. "I have off today, remember?"

Diego left the register and ran towards me, having this pleading look in his eyes. I wasn't afraid to smack a teenager and he was making it so hard.

"Please?"

"I don't work today," I repeated. "I'm only here to grab a drink. Now I'm thinking I should have died of thirst instead."

"PLEASE!"

"Why? Why are you asking me to work today? What is so important?"

"I have a game tournament today and my dad won't let me skip work. It's only two hours and it starts in half an hour. Please?"

"Hmm . . . No."

"I'll let you have what I make today, in cash, right now."

"Deal, give me the money." I waited with my hand out. He ran back to the register and pulled out some bills from the secret stash.

"Thank you, I love you so much," he said, a little too affectionately.

"Still not sucking it, kid."

"Whatever," he said, rolling his eyes and running out the front door.

"HEY! PAUL! PUT THAT BACK!" I screamed as the old man tried putting a bag of gummy bears in his pocket. "YOU KNOW I DON'T CARE ABOUT BREAKING MY NAILS AND I WILL BREAK THEM ON YOUR ASS!"

Miserably, I went behind the register and rested on the counter. This was going to be the longest two hours of my life. I hated this job so much. I liked the family that owned this place, but it wasn't the same dealing with different types of morons all day long. Even one hour was enough.

When the second hour came, a group of ugly guys came in with their pants around their knees. They saw me and looked shocked but continued to walk behind the aisles.

"Yo, Santiago, who this girl?" one of them said. Like, I was right here, I could hear them.

"Ionno, just take whatever you can fit and let's go."

I sighed my boredom through my nose and reached down for the shotgun. I walked around the counter, making sure every step of my heels were heard loudly.

"If you think you can keep doing this shit when Diego is around, you are WRONG!" I shouted as I raised the shotgun for them to see. "This is not your neighborhood, this is not your world and you can't take shit that isn't yours. You want something? You PAY for it and stop being a little bitch. Now take your small dick out of my store before I SHOOT you in the balls."

"Is this chick serious?"

I pumped the shotgun. It clicked and made their faces go pale. I ran at the one who talked and I hit him over the head. The five of them scrambled like roaches as I started screaming.

"GET OUT!"

I have never seen guys run so fast in my life. I went back to the register, hiding the shotgun and accidentally burping. I had my drink an hour ago and I was still burping, interesting. Amazing drink.

Another customer entered after the guys ran out. It was a mom I saw at least once a week, sometimes more if she came in for food. She had her daughter, Faith, with her.

"Hi, Faith!" I said joyfully.

"Hi," she said shyly with a finger in her mouth.

"Do you want some candy? Pick out any you want, okay?" The little girl nodded as I took her mom's money for the gas.

"Thank you," the mom said.

"You're welcome." The little girl came back from an aisle with m&ms. "Bye, Faith, see you later!"

"Thank you," she said as her mom mouthed what to say.

The next hour was boring, again. It was only two hours and sometimes I had the whole day to myself. Ever since I was fired from my job at the movies for letting girls in for free I've been having a horrible time. That job was the best. It was so much fun because it was a big movie theater and half of it was an arcade. It was so massive that it became easy finding out weak spots and abusing my power.

Diego came back from his nerd thing right on time.

"Did my dad show up at all?" he asked as we switched places.

"Nope."

"Everything go okay?"

"Yup."

"Do you have to leave?" he said sadly.

"Yup."

"Oh, come on, Frances."

"Diego . . . I am old enough to be your mom. If you don't stop trying to fuck me, I'm going to literally fuck your parents and ruin your life."

"Pft. With time, my love."

I ran to the beverages and stole one and ran out of the store. Once again, I was waiting by the road to find a good moment to run across. I opened my delicious ice cold mocha and took a big gulp. I licked my lips as a car stopped in front of me.

"NICOLE! GET IN, LOSER!" Reina screamed from the passenger side. Some guy I didn't recognize was driving.

Reina was Eric's sister and Eric was one of my closest friends. They were both gorgeous, tan, hazel eyes, sometimes looked so similar that they could pass off for twins. But I had no idea where Eric was and I hadn't heard from him since he got out of prison.

"HEY, BITCH!" I said, stepping down on the street as the back seat opened. I climbed in and buckled my seatbelt, taking another sip of my drink. Two other guys sat in the back but I was a skinny queen so I fit in perfectly even though it was an old car.

"Eric is back in prison, if you're wondering. This is my cousin, Javier. And these are two of his friends."

"Really? Again? He just got out, are you serious?"

"Like I said, he's a dumbass."

People were honking behind us so Javier flipped them off and started driving again.

"Hey, guys. Nice to meet you," I said to the guys next to me. "I know you're looking at my drink and not my tits and my answer is no, you can't have any."

"Where you headed to?" Reina asked as the two guys exchanged looks.

"Momma's house."

"Take a left, Javier," Reina told him, giving him instructions to my mom's house. "How is she doing, anyway?"

"Same as always, you know."

She pouted cutely. "Sorry, nena."

"It's whatever. You can only do so much, right?"

"That's what I told Eric!" she exclaimed, turning her head to look at me. "I can't help him if he doesn't want to be helped. I'm only human."

"I'll visit him if I can," I told her, knowing how happy it made Eric whenever he had visitors.

"HA! I won't," she said, laughing hysterically and leaning back against her seat, watching the road ahead as we got closer to my mom's place.

My entire day was ruined from the very start of it. First Leo was suspicious, then I had a mini breakdown, then Diego forced me to work, like what the hell is that even about? And like a dumbass I accepted, only because I needed to pay my stupid mom back and that was the easiest money, so whatever right? But no, I was supposed to meet-up with this guy at his tattoo shop after getting my drink, but I had to miss it for the easy money otherwise my mom would never leave me alone. At least I got a free ride–even though she lived a few blocks from me and I could have walked.

We entered the trailer park and I told them to just drop me, since her place was at the very end and I wanted to walk.

"Love you, sexy bitch," Reina said as I climbed out of the car.

"Love you," I replied, blowing her a kiss.

I sighed and began to walk, passing dozens of trailers. Every time I came here I was flooded with memories of how life used to be before everything happened; before my mom became addicted, before he lost his job, before they both ruined their lives.

It started when I was in high school. When I was younger than a teen, my life was perfect. My parents were still together and every Christmas I'd wake up to a beautiful tree with colorful presents underneath. Then somewhere, somehow, it all fucked up badly. I was too young to understand at the time, but I held on to those memories like they were my last breath.

Grant didn't exactly lose his job as the principle, he was just caught cheating with a student by my mom, and instead of reporting it she blackmailed him into staying with her. He quit his job. Not like he was a good principle anyway. My parent's mistakes cost me my chance at life. It was so hard to do anything after that. Once you became dirt, climbing out seemed impossible. When pills were more important than my school supplies and I had to either borrow from my friends or steal, I knew my life wasn't going to be easy.

That was the reason why I hung out so much with Derek and Leo when we were younger and why it seemed like I practically lived in their home. They were my real family. My friends . . . they were all special to me, my reason to look up and see more than just clouds . . . they were my bright and shining stars.

Looking down, I walked over dead grass until I was in front of the door. I knocked and waited. I heard a few loud voices inside and my mom was the one who opened the door.

"Got my money?" she said, blowing out smoke into the air between us.

I pulled out the money, including extra, from my purse and handed it to her.

"You going somewhere?" I asked when I noticed she was dressed up.

"Pharmacy," she replied dryly as she stuck the cigarette in her mouth to use both of her hands to count the money. "Why?"

I knew the real reason. She might be going to the pharmacy, but she wasn't going inside, she was going to the back.

"Nothing, you look pretty."

"Move."

I stepped aside and she stomped out of the trailer. There were more people inside, I could tell, but I didn't recognize any of them and I didn't want to stay around to meet them.

"Can you give me a ride to Derek's place?" I asked as I followed her to the old green truck with scratched paint.

"I'm no taxi!" she said furiously.

"It's close to the pharmacy. Please?"

"You owe me."

"Why do I have to owe you for everything?" I complained when I got in the truck.

"Because I gave birth to you."

That shut me up for the rest of the car ride. It was usually like this whenever I was around my mom. We didn't have much to talk about and if we did, we'd just end up fighting. She dropped me off and left before I could even say goodbye. I bit my lower lip to stop it from trembling and had to take a minute to breathe fresh air before I could walk again.

I threw the empty bottle I had in my hand in the trash as I walked towards Derek's apartment building. His car and Leo's were still out in the front so they were home. I had a copy of Derek's key so I was going to barge in without knocking. If they were sleeping or fucking, I didn't care, they interrupted my sleep, I was going to interrupt whatever they were up to.

When I was at his door, I stopped to contemplate. I shook off any sadness and anger out of my system and pulled out a smile. I used my key and opened the door, walking inside. The apartment was dark except for the kitchen, but the kitchen was its own room basically so it didn't luminate the rest of the place. Sasha was sleeping on the couch with the television on mute and Derek's bedroom door was closed.

I slammed the door behind me so hard it shook the walls. I smiled evilly as Sasha woke up screaming like a girl and when he noticed it was me, he brought up his blankets to cover his shirtless torso.

"Hey," I said to Sasha, blinking rapidly to show off my beautiful fake lashes.

"Hi," he responded, lifting the blanket higher to cover half his face. I was perfectly fine with only seeing his pretty eyes.

I tucked my hair behind my ears and smiled seductively at him.

"I like what you're wearing," I said quietly.

"I'm . . . I'm not wearing anything."

"Exactly," I said, grinning as I made my way over to the couch. I sat at the edge, shoving him aside. He was still covering himself and I wondered if he really was naked underneath. There was no way he was fully naked.

"Why are you here?" he asked, avoiding my eyes by looking elsewhere. He was incredibly shy for someone who didn't seem like he was.

"I was summoned by a homosexual."

"Oh, yeah, there's some of those here."

I cleared my throat when it got quiet between us. I wasn't psychic or anything, but I felt like he was dying inside and I couldn't comprehend why. Derek told me a little bit about Sasha, but not enough to feel like I could answer that.

"Are you a homosexual?" I asked.

"No, I like girls," he answered, dropping the blanket.

I raised a brow, ready to question him. "What kind of girls?" I asked, acting like I didn't care what his response was.

"All kinds. As long as they're girls."

"All kinds? All shapes, sizes, colors?"

"Yes."

"Interesting," I said, squinting my eyes. "Why?"

"Why do I like girls?" He looked confused and his face was reddening now.

"Yeah."

"Um, cause . . . they're pretty. What kind of question is that?"

"Don't question my question with another question, Sasha," I said.

"I-I don't know. I just do."

"What about trans girls?"

"I don't know either. I've never thought about it."

"Well . . ." I started, folding my hands over my knees like a sophisticated woman, "I've met and dated a lot of guys who said they loved all girls, but none of them actually meant it. They either didn't like fat girls or black girls or trans girls or New Yorkers."

"I like all of them, okay? Why are you asking me this?"

I chuckled, fixing my hair behind my ear again as it came loose.

"Because it seems like we're going to see each other a lot and I wanted to know what kind of person you are. It's important for me to know people before I let them in and Derek is my best-friend, so if you're going to be close to him, you're going to be close to me, too."

"Ah, I see."

"And because you're cute and I was hoping maybe you'd want to go on a date with me?"

Sasha became speechless with his mouth slightly parted. A mosquito could fly into his mouth and build an empire and he'd never notice because he was too busy looking completely terrified.

"W-What?"

I leaned closer to whisper, "Would you like to go on a date with me?"

"Saying it quietly doesn't help me hear it better," he muttered.

Was he trying to avoid giving me an answer because he didn't want to? Was I being rejected? The thought made my skin crawl and I realized too late what I had done. Normally, I never do this, but there had been this feeling inside me that forced me to speak the words out before I could think about them. There was no real word that described what I felt . . . it was just a feeling.

There was nothing else to say if he didn't respond. With that, I got up and started walking towards the kitchen.

"Wait!" he said, rushing to grab my hand. "Where are you going?"

He was standing in front of me with the blanket behind him. He wasn't naked, he was wearing shorts.

Don't look at his body, Nicole. Don't do it. Your nipples will get hard and you won't come back from this. Stay strong - Love, Nicole

"Sorry," I said quietly. "There's a time and place for everything, and that was not it."

He laughed. "Don't apologize. You didn't do anything wrong."

"Don't tell me not to apologize," I whispered threateningly.

"What was that?" he asked, missing what I had said.

"I just . . . that was kind of inappropriate," I said, feeling my hair come undone once again. Annoyed, I grabbed my hair and wrapped it around my neck like a rope ready to end me.

He squinted his eyes, confused. "So you ask me out then you apologize?"

"I was listening to my vagina," I said sincerely.

"Oh."

"Yeah, so if you'll excuse me, I'm going to find a place to hang myself." I slowly walked to the kitchen and found the little portable staircase that Derek kept around not because he was a suicidal maniac but because the light in this damn house had to be replaced almost every week.

Sasha followed me in a hurry. "Maybe I think your vagina has great taste and I'd like to go out with her some time. I mean, wait, that came out wrong, I mean yes, I'll go out with you."

Honestly, I was shocked. I was disappointed at myself for at least not taking the time to actually think about what I wanted to say, but it worked? I almost got so upset because I thought I ruined my chances for letting him think I was some creep. But he actually said yes? He didn't even know me! Did it mean he thought I was pretty? Did he think about me at all?! Why would he say yes if he didn't like me, right? O.M.G.

"Really?" I said when I turned to face him.

"I'm sweating, haha." His laugh came out forced. "Why did I say that out loud?"

"It's kind of cold in here," I pointed out.

"Yeah, I think I have a problem."

He was really cute, like so cute. I couldn't stop imagining things. My heart was pounding madly against my chest. Every time he looked at something, I was able to gawk at him freely and really admire how cute he was. He was . . . so cute. So so so cute. The worst part was when he set his eyes on me. Like . . . he was LOOKING at me. When he looked at me, it was more than fluttering butterflies in my skinny tummy, but he made me feel like I existed. I was there in that moment with him and it was real.

Fuck, he was so cute. Fuck fuck fuck.

Every detail of his existence was a blessing. His hair? It was short and blonde, possibly long enough for me to pull. His eyes? Green and magical like emeralds. His skin? So smooth, clean and clear. HOW. His body? Goddamn. His body was fine. And the best part . . . his lips. DEAR GOD HIS LIPS. So nice and pink and kissable. And he was white. All of my exes had no lips! I would have dated other types of guys but none of them wanted me because I was too crazy and clingy. Like what the fuck were they on? I was clearly perfect. Anyway, point is . . . white guys were the only ones dumb enough to date me.

But Sasha . . . he was no Americano. He was special. He was my Cheeto prince.

"I love you." I slapped my hand over my mouth immediately and Sasha started sweating more. I fell to the floor in horror as my mouth betrayed me. I was staring at his crotch when Leo walked out of Derek's room.

"Woah! Okay! Gross!"

"What?" Derek said from inside the room.

"Nicole is blowing Sasha and he's sweating like crazy."

"What?" he repeated.

"I'm gonna faint," Sasha announced.

________________

[Author's Message]: Let me say something quickly before I explain Sasha's appearance. I was never planning for this chapter to ever happen, but I saw an opportunity AND I TOOK IT. Everyone started shipping Nicole & Sasha, then I started to, then it made sense for them to be together. There is no one more perfect for Nicole than Sasha, same for him. That's why I broke up Nicole and Jack, but they were never going to last that long when I was planning Road Trip. Nicole has a lot of issues with relationships (never her fault though). SO, here we go . . . Sasha . . . so . . . this is awkward as hell but Sasha was inspired by a cam model lol. Don't know what that is? Basically it's those people that go on these . . . websites . . . and sit in front of a webcam, and uh, pray to jesus basically. I once randomly found this guy, he was SO freaking cute like OH MY GOD. So adorable and a character in my head was born but I had no idea where to put him. So I put him in Step Brothers. He fits perfectly, doesn't he? The best part is that he's actually Russian. And he's bisexual, but my character is NOT. He's straight. The squad is almost complete! So, here is what he looks like lol