What I'm searching for is the searching
It doesn't matter what I find
I don't know too much,
that's for certain
But I don't mind
I don't mind

~♥~

Nikolai's P.O.V. :

Nikolai waves Reign goodbye as she drives away from the party. He sees her smiling back at him through the rearview mirror.

He stays there for a few seconds till he could no longer see the car and then goes back towards the party with slow strides, thinking what to do next.

Parties were fun with Reign where he could feel the music and lose himself knowing Reign would always be there to show the way back. Without her, it was just a place for drinks, people and chaos.

Drinks that he didn't want as he had to drive back.

People that he didn't know.

Chaos that he didn't want to be part of. Atleast not deliberately.

He enters the house yet again and looks around.

He could no longer see that boy he knocked out lying there. Someone must have picked and taken him to clean his bleeding nose.

Nikolai hoped that person would also clean his sick attitude.

He had seen the whole ordeal from the starting and his blood boiled as he mistreated that girl and Reign but moreover, he felt disgusted by the people who just stood there with the phones out and jaws on the floor.

The same people who couldn't stop themselves from retweeting and writing long paragraphs about how they can't stand stand injustice are here just watching and standing.

Hypocrites.

If only they would start preaching what they say, this would already be a better world.

He was ready to barge in when he pushed Reign on the ground but he controlled his anger knowing well if there is one thing his best friend likes is self-dependence.

He still remembers how they met in grade seven.

He saw a senior talking trash and being the great guy he is, with his sense of all-men-should-stand-for-the-right-thing that society taught him and still teaches, he barged in only to be pushed aside after Reign grabbed the said bully and in a very colorful language for a grade seven student told her tried-to-be-a-bully that if he ever crosses her path again she would chop his stick in so many pieces that even with a microscope he wouldn't be able to find it.

Followed by a half an hour very scary lecture for him on how girls are capable of protecting themselves and it's not only the men who should stand for right, it's the women too.

When women ask for equality they don't just ask for roses, they accept the thorns with them too. They don't just want the easy work of making a society they want the hard work too.

From that day he knew he had met the strongest women ever aside from his mother.

So when he saw that douchebag pushed Reign and she fell, he knew it wasn't Reign who was going down it was the fuckhead. And just like he predicted she rose and slapped the living daylights out of him, sobering him up in a second.

He could still hear the satisfying sound produced as her hand connected with his face and could almost see the whole scenario in his head in slow motion.

But it was when he saw that douche getting up and wrapping his fingers around Reign's neck that he lost it. The next thing happened in a flash and the only thinh he remembers about it is his fist connecting with his jaw and he falling on the ground, knocked out.

He knew that if he had controlled himself it would have been Reign who would have punched him but just because she could doesn't mean she should.

She is a strong woman who is capable of defending herself but as long as he is there he has to look after her.

Periodt.

He looks at the people partying.

The music has been continued and the few drunk people have started with whatever they were doing, the earlier nuisance already forgotten by them but he could still feel the stares at the back of his head. He could feel the eyes following his every move. He could hear them whispering.

He always hated it when people talked behind his back. Made him paranoid. Not that he wasn't already but that never stopped him from doing the right thing. Getting out of his comfort zone was challenging and he liked to do it. But liking it only made him courageous and didn't make the task any easier.

Suddenly he started feeling claustrophobic in there so he walked out to the backyard.

The backyard was big and he could see a few people sprawled here and there. He walked further and saw a bench. Going there he sat and closed his eyes, his face facing skyward.

The wind calmed his nerves and he relaxed already feeling better.

"Is this seat empty?"

Nikolai opens his eyes when he hears someone ask this question. He looks at the girl who asked him this question as she sits on it without even waiting for his reply.

Dressed in sweats and a cropped hoodie with her hair in a ponytail and a headphone resting on her neck she looked like the odd one out among the people partying.

"You're staring." She said without even looking at him as she tied the lace of her running shoes which had been undone. Nikolai realizes he had been looking at her creepily and quickly averts her gaze, fixing it back at the darkened sky.

Nikolai feels like he needs to explain himself so he does.

"I am sorry. It's just you don't look like you are here for the party. No offense. I mean you look good in a hoodie and sweats t--"

He stops when he looks at her who has been looking at him with a straight face but her eyes, her eyes told him she was amused. It's then he realized he was rambling.

He scrunches his nose at his stupidity.

"Thank you for the compliment. Well, I hope that was a compliment. However, I'm not the only strange birdy here, you aren't partying too."

He chuckles as she says the word birdy and feels the tension created earlier in the party dissipating.

"Came for food. Wasn't good enough. Ended up here," he says shrugging his shoulders as he raises his eyebrows at her, "What's your story?"

"I just hate partying. I don't understand the need to dress up and binge drinking if you're going to throw up on your dress and cry over hangover the next day."

Nikolai nods in understanding.

"So... You came here to run?" he asks his brows crunching together.

The girl laughs at his expression, "No I went from here to run. This is my home."

Nikolai looks at the house. He knew Paul, another senior had thrown the party.

"You're Paul's sister?" he asks. He looks at her features. She and Paul didn't even have one sharing feature.

Also, he never knew Paul had a sister. Paul was quite famous in college because of his bad-boy reputation. Anybody related to him would have been popular too but looking at her he couldn't remember if he had seen her before.

"Step-sister," she says and then makes a sour face. "He isn't very fond of me. Although the feeling is mutual."

That explains it.

"You study in the same college?" Nikolai felt like he was asking too many questions but he couldn't stop himself. He felt like he needed to know about her.

As if there was something in him that was craving to know more about her.

"She smiled. No, I go to Preston University. What about you? Are you Paulie's friend?" she asked looking around the yard rolling her eyes at the couple (or maybe not) making out.

Nikolai chuckles again. Paulie. He could now see why the step-siblings didn't see eye to eye.

"We aren't friends but I have heard about him," he says after some hesitation. He wasn't sure if he should have said it because she would have asked him what about him the honest answer wouldn't be ...something he wanted to say about her brother, step or not.

But to his surprise, she laughed.

"You mean heard about his whoring."

Nikolai's eyes widen a little. For a person who looked so innocent, she was anything but.

He needed to work on reading people better. Reign always told him that he sucked at seeing what's right in front of him and he couldn't disagree.

He shook his head and responded, "Slut-shaming, are we?"

The girl fake gasps and fakes being offended, "No, I would never. Slut-shaming and name-calling is for girls. For boys, it's just praise and the title of player."

Nikolai couldn't help but be impressed. Not just because of her ideology but because of her bluntness too.

For a moment he was speechless. He didn't know how to reply but looking at her he knew she wasn't waiting for a reply either.

She was looking ahead as if thinking about something. The glow in her eyes had dimmed as if whatever it was playing in her head was a memory she just wanted to vanish.

That was until they heard a roar of cheer. Their head snapped towards the house as the music that was playing was increased a notch.

That seemed to snap her out of her reverie.

She exhaled as if getting rid of that memory along with the carbon dioxide.

"Wanna go for a run? I don't think I can see any more people puking in the beautiful rose garden without pulling out their tongue and tying it around their throat."

Once again Nikolai chuckles before saying, "I don't think running in jeans would be a great idea. What about a walk?"

"As long as it's away from this house, I'm good."

They get up and walk out of the gates. With their hands shoved in their pockets, they just move towards the unknown.

They didn't speak anything and just walked. Like two strangers on an unknown road with an unnamed bond.

Nikolai was torn. He wanted to know more about her. He was curious to ask her more but he would seem like a creep as he has already asked so many questions. So he prayed that she would start a conversation and he could hear her soft but confident voice again.

They were on their way back when finally she broke the silence.

"Are you into sports?" she asked. "You got a nice built."

At this Nikolai wished he should have worn a tighter shirt that would showcase his muscles. He didn't have abs but he did have a good body.

Reign had once said that he was a sight for sore eyes and he believes her more than he believes his own eyes (though he wouldn't admit this in front of her face).

"Was in lacrosse team in high school. After ending up in the hospital twice, left it. What about you?"

"Track team since middle school." She says and then continues, "I like the feel of air rushing by. It's like for a second nothing matters and every obstacle is so minute that before you even think about it, it's already a distant memory."

Nikolai smiles. He knew that feeling. That feeling you get when you do something you love. When you are just so engrossed in it that every other thing vanishes by.

He was about to say something when he heard her gasp. He looked at her and saw her looking towards her house which was just twenty steps away now.

"Is that Paulie?"

He followed the direction her finger was pointing at and sure enough, there was the infamous boy shirtless and drunk as he pukes on the girl he was making out with.

The girl turns into the deepest shade of red partly because of embarrassment as the crowd laughs and take out their cameras to record it and partly because of anger as she glares daggers into his skull.

"Looks like Paulie is in trouble. I can't miss that. So pretty boy I'll see you around. It was nice talking to you," she says and waves at him as she takes a few steps towards the house.

Nikolai tries his hardest not to reply with a handsome man is more likely and asks her one last question he had been dying to ask for so long.

"Hey, pretty girl, what's your name?"

She turns and looks at him. Flashing him a small smile she says, "Riley Edwards."

Nikolai felt as if his heart skipped a beat when she smiled at him and he couldn't help but think if he was being too dramatic.

"Are you going to tell me yours or should I just call you pretty boy?"

Nikolai shakes his head, and then says, "Nikolai Rocco."

She nods and then smiles again. "See you around, Nikolai."

And this time Nikolai could swear without being dramatic, his heart skipped a beat when she said his name.