Smasher

I walk into the apartment completely drained. I'm not sure what's gotten into me, I can't believe I almost kissed her. I almost kissed Nikayla. I haven't kissed anyone since Brittany's accident, I haven't been able to. Even though I know she'd want me to be happy and it's been so long since it happened, it still feels like I'm cheating. I don't know what to do anymore, I like Nikayla, a lot. I can't tell her what I'm feeling, I don't want her to think I'm still caught up on my dead ex. I will always love Brittany, she's going to have a special place in my heart forever, but I don't want to miss my chance with Nikayla because I'm stuck in the past. I hold my head, frustrated.

I move silently pass Blade's room where I hear a feminine voice whispering. Amaya, I smile. I'm so happy Blade found someone after everything he's been through. It's about time something good happens for him. I wonder what all he told her about his past, it's pretty crazy and he's an insanely private person. He won't even share his name. Technically I'm not supposed to either, but I told Nikayla with ease. She's so easy to talk to it's crazy.

I lay on my bed with my racing thoughts. Part of me wants to run back to her apartment and kiss her with such intensity it makes her dizzy.The other part of me feels guilty for even thinking like that. I remember her saying she likes my smile, I haven't smiled in so long I thought it'd look awkward when I did. Did she like me? She was so hard to get it was impossible to tell. I'd never had such a challenge before.

I sleepily crawl under the covers and close my eyes tight. I have to get some sleep, I'm driving her tomorrow and I don't want to drive recklessly because I'm tired. With that thought, my mind calms down and I finally get some sleep.

My eyes open slowly, the smell of pancakes making me wide awake. I stretch and reach for my phone to check the time. It's 9am, just 15 minutes before my alarm. I groan, I hate when that happens.

I make my way to the kitchen, hearing something being sprayed. The first thing I see is Blade and Amaya kissing.

"Isn't it a little early for this?" I walk through the kitchen entryway, yawning.

Blade took a step back from Amaya, looking at me with a devilish smirk. "I'm surprised you're up considering your late night yesterday."

"I smelt pancakes." I stretch and point at the pancakes.

Blade puts some pancakes on a plate and hands them to me. "We need to get you a bell to wear around your neck." He says jokingly.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to be home much today, so you guys can do whatever you want." I take a seat at the kitchen bar.

"Oh yeah? Big plans?" Blade teases me.

I take a huge bite of his pancakes as I think of an excuse. She wanted to surprise them. "Nikayla's taking me on a tour of the city."

Amaya turns to me, grinning. "You two seem to be getting pretty close."

I nod in agreement, she wasn't wrong. "She's great." Thinking about Nikayla makes me start eating my pancakes more quickly, eager to see her again.

Blade pats me on the shoulder. "I'm happy for you bro."

I looked over at Amaya, then back at Blade. "You too man." Amaya's cheeks turn bright red and she looks at her feet.

   I finish my breakfast and get changed as fast as I can without looking disgusting. I walk back out into the kitchen and hear a knock on the door. "I'll get it." I say, heading to the door before anyone can beat me to it. The two just stare at me.

Nikayla is standing on the other side of the door when I open it, wearing a black crop top and blue jean shorts. "Hey." She smiles at me.

It takes me a minute to find my voice after seeing her. "Hey, are you ready to give me the tour?" I ask, hoping she'll catch onto the lie I told Amaya and Blade.

She takes a step closer to me. "Yeah, I think we're going to start with the Dolphin Mall and then make our way to the Wynood Art Gallery, there's a few parks I want to show you too!" She speaks without missing a beat, I knew she was smart.

"Let's go." I say, hooking my arm with hers. "Bye guys!" I wave at the other two.

"Bye!" Nikayla repeats to our friends.

They smile and wave. "Have fun you two!" Amaya responds cheerfully.

"Thank you, you too!" Nikayla says as we walk out the door.

As soon as we're far enough away from the room, she turns to me. "I should have actually offered to to give you a tour of the city." She says, looking guilty.

"Hey, don't worry about it, we have plenty of time for that. I'm not going anywhere." I reassure her.

This seems to make her feel better. "I'd be more then happy to show you around whenever you want."

"Thank you. I'll hold you to that." I open the door for her. "Are you excited to meet your child?"

She looks at me, grinning mischievously. "Hey, I ask the questions today." She scolds me. "But, yes. I brought $500, do you think that's enough? I took it out of my savings, but I can maybe get a little bit more." She bites her lip nervously.

"Oh are you?" I didn't have the heart to tell her that the dog was a little over a $1,000, but I was planning on paying anyways. I'd saved up some emergency money while I was at Clementine's and this was most certainly an emergency. "Yeah, you've got all you need." I grinned.

She nodded, smiling back at me. "Yay! Okay so first question, how old are you?"

I back out of the parking spot and started driving. "Ah, good question. I'm 25."

"Wow, you're kind of old." She teased. "When's your birthday?"

I look around at the scenery, I was to busy running for my life to really appreciate it yesterday. It's beautiful. "Another great question. I was born November 8th."

"November 8th." She nods to herself. "Did you go to college?"

I laugh. "Yeah, I use to work as an IT."

"Wow, so your like really smart? That's good to know." She beamed. What she said next caught me way off guard. "What's your body count?"

My eyes get wide and I glance over at her. She's looking back at me eagerly. "That was random. It's three."

"Ooh okay, you have me beat." She giggles. "Have any pets?" She asks, totally changing subjects.

"Woah, wait a second, back up. What made you want to ask me that question?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Well I was hoping you were a dog person so you'd come visit my new little puppy. I need to think of a name." She puts a hand on her chin, thinking. "I'll decide when I see her."

I smile. "I was referring to the body count question, not the pet one."

She shrugs. "I wanted to know. It tells you a lot about a person."

"What does mine tell you?" I raise an eyebrow.

She looks out the window. "If only it was your turn to ask questions."

I roll my eyes. "Oh come on, that's not fair, I didn't know we were asking those types of questions!" I laugh, surprising myself. I'd forgotten the sound of my own laugh. "I have so many more questions now."

She squeals. "Did you just laugh? Oh my gosh, your laugh is so hot!"

My laugh intensifies and she starts laughing too. "Very funny."

"I mean it! Why don't you ever laugh or smile? You should be showing those things off!" She says in between breaths.

"I just did, didn't I?" I countered. I was so not ready to talk about the reason I lost my smile.

Nikayla looked skeptical but didn't push it for which I was grateful. "So, you never answered my question about your pet history, please don't tell me your a cat person! Not that I don't like cats, I just really want you to love my new puppy as much I as I'm going to." She stammered.

"I love dogs, there was a dog at my house at all times and I'm already obsessed with your little angel." I grin. She was so excited about this little puppy, it warmed my frozen heart. "I'll be visiting you two so often you'll be begging me to leave you alone."

She looked relieved. "That's good that you like dogs, because we're only five minutes away from getting one." Her eyes were focused eagerly on the ETA.

"Wow, this ride flew by, it feels like we just started driving."

"It really did, but it's not over yet. I have one more question before we arrive." She taps her fingers along the glovebox.

I glance at the GPS, not wanting to miss the turn I needed to make. "Okay, shoot."

"Are you crushing on anyone right now?" Nikayla says, casually playing with her hair.

I look at her out of the corners of my eyes and realized I did. "Yes, but I don't think I'm the type to have a crush, but I'm definitely interested in someone."

She nodded. "I was wondering if you like people like that, you seem so independent."

"I sometimes I like company." I smirk. "We're here." I jump out of the car and help her out of my truck.

As soon as she is on her feet, she takes off in a run to the puppy. "Is this her?" She is front of the adorable little puppy jumping at her through a wooden fence.

"Yes she is, assuming your Nikayla and Smasher?" A tall woman with red hair is standing by Nikayla, grinning. "I'm Andrea, the one selling her." She shakes both of our hands.

"Oh it's so nice to meet you Andrea! Can I hold her? Here's the money." She reaches into her wallet and grabs out her money and hands it to the friendly lady.

"Absolutely, here you go." She opens the fence and lets the puppy run to Nikayla, the scene is so adorable I can't help but take a picture. I'll show her later, hopefully she doesn't think I'm too creepy.

As Nikayla is distracted with her new tiny friend, I hand the girl the money that is owed for the dog. "Here, take this instead, this is the full amount."

The girl nods and hands me back the extra money which I put in my pocket. "Thank you."

I nod. "Thank you, she loves her."

"It looks like the feeling is mutual, I'm happy she's going to go to a good home."

After a few minutes of small talk, I bend down next to Nikayla and her puppy. "You two are so precious."

She looks up at me, grinning ear to ear. "Thank you, I am so appreciative of you for helping me find her. She's perfect!"

I reach over and pet the little munchkin. "Please, this is for me too. Let's take her home."

"Let's do it! Hopefully she likes long car rides." She lifts the squirmy puppy into her arms and walks to the car, saying goodbye to the girl on her way through.

I wave to the girl and help Nikayla get into the car. "I know her name." She grins, petting her puppy.

I raise an eyebrow. "Oh yeah, what is it?"

She kisses the puppies head and turns to me. "Her name is Jikayla."

"Jikayla?" I question her. "Where'd you come up with that name?"

"It's a combination of our names; Justin and Nikaya."

I reach over and rub the Jikayla's head. "I love it." I grin at Nikayla.

When we got home, everything went insane. Nikayla's ex attacked Amaya.