Free Destiny Revealed by Nicole Bailey

closed.
“Yeah.”
“That doesn’t answer my questions, but let’s go out to
breakfast together and then go,” he answered.
“Did you hear him, Nat?” I asked.
“Yep. K. Let’s all meet at the Denny’s by the mall and
then head downtown,” she decided.
“So, are you gonna tell me how it went last night?” I
asked.
“Uh, can’t talk right now. Maybe later,” she said. I
could hear the smile in her voice. We hung up and I got up
to shower.
Nick was shaking his head at me. “You girls are awful.
You’re as bad as a guy.”
“What are you talking about? I just wanna know if
anything happened. They’ve never spent the night
together,” I said.
“Yeah, but we spent a whole week alone in Mexico and
nothing happened. And with Jack, I have a feeling they’d
be bound for like a month before he would ever try
anything with her,” he laughed. I laughed with him, but
didn’t mention what had happened between Jack and Nat
after prom.
I walked in the bathroom and started to undress. “Are
you going to join me Nico Bartolini?”
“Sὶ, Sofia Bartolini,” he grinned as he came up behind
me in the bathroom.
Forty five minutes later, we were on our way to
breakfast. Nat was practically glowing as we slid into the
booth. I raised my eyebrows at her. She shook her head, but
said, “I need to go to the bathroom really quick. Order me
the Grand Slam.” Jack nodded and let her out.
“I forgot to go before we left, I’ll come with you,” I
lied. Nick shook his head at me.
When we got to the bathroom, I said, “So spill it. I want
details.”
“Nothing happened. We came close again though. Man
this is hard, but it’s almost time for the ceremony,” she said
excitedly.
“Yeah, try spending an entire week in bed alone. Now
that was hard. You can do it. Maybe no more sleepovers
though,” I told her.
“Probably a good idea. After I kissed him at the party,
he was a little wound up. He’s never kissed me like that in
public. Could you believe that?”
“I know! That was insane. My jaw was practically on
the floor. I guess he’s no prude now, huh?” I smiled.
“Oh, Sof, I’m so excited! The day is almost here. We’re
going apartment shopping later today.”
“Shopping?”
“It sounds better than ‘hunting’. Hey, do you know if
that one place is still available in your building? How cool
would that be?”
“I’m not sure, but you should definitely go check today.
We could carpool to school together again!” I was excited
at the idea of Nat being so close. Of course we would still
see each other all the time, but it would be fun if she was
just downstairs or in the building next door. “We should
probably get back out there.” We left the bathroom and
went to the table. “Did you order for me?” I asked Nick.
He nodded, “French toast, bacon, eggs over medium.”
“How does he know that? You didn’t even tell him,”
Nat said.
“She always gets the same thing,” Nick smiled.
We talked excitedly during breakfast about our plans
now that school was done. Nat and I were going to start
working for my mom at her store for the summer. Nick was
going to work at his family’s restaurant and Jack was going
to work for his dad’s construction company. Nick and I
were taking a week off before going to work. He had
money—I finally discovered he had a trust fund—but I
needed something to do, and he felt a responsibility to help
his dad out.
After breakfast, we left for the tattoo parlor downtown.
“Sup?” Etienne asked as we walked in the door. Dash’s
twenty-five year old brother worked at the shop. He was
the one who was going to do our tattoos.
“Bonjour, Etienne,” I smiled. “Ҫa va bien?”
“Ouais,” he answered. “Good to see you guys. You
ready to do this?”
“Absolutely,” I grinned.
“Do you have an idea of what you want? Are we doing
full names or just initials?” he asked. “Or do you guys want
a band or something?”
“I think—” I started to say when the front