My fiancee is so Goddamn beautiful. Her curls stick to her forehead, her t-shirt—which was actually mine until she took ownership of it—is knotted at the sides, giving me the perfect tease of her stomach, and her shorts frame her ass so perfectly that I wish we weren’t three hours behind on our road trip.
We haven’t gotten out of California yet, probably because she wants to stop and say goodbye to every single landmark that means something to her. Our school. Little Sicily. The Harlow Galleria and bowling alley. The Harlow carnival. The beach. The lake house. Every time we stop, she gets sentimental, and I try to remind her that there’s still time to defer a year if she doesn’t want to head to Big Springs right away. However, she’s convinced herself that she’s ready to move forward with her life, so I’m giving the love of my life what she’s asking for.
Michele left for Big Springs a week after graduation, true to the promise she made Skylar and Hayden. She seems happy and carefree, and she calls us daily to let us know how everything is going. Thankfully, she hasn’t had a run in with anyone associated with Madilyn. I hope she never does—but more than that, I hope Nickayla and I never do.
Brody finally asked Sabrina to be his girlfriend at the lake house, the night of our graduation party with the Quinns. Because of that, I don’t feel so sad about leaving it behind. Until his brother and sister graduate high school, he’s going to stay in Harlow with Sabrina. So I find solace in knowing that even though Nickayla and I won’t get to visit our place anymore, it can become someone else’s place. It’s not a total loss on our part.
I come up behind Nickayla, and I wrap my arms around her. She leans her head against my shoulder, closing her eyes. Even though her hair’s in her face after a long day of loading our shit into a U-Haul, I can tell that she’s crying. I hate to see her cry, but I feel the weight of saying goodbye to this place the same as she does.
“Are you gonna be okay, baby?” I ask.
She nods, but I can tell in the way that her body tenses up that she’s not sure. She hates goodbyes. I know that better than anyone. She’d rather avoid them altogether than deal with saying goodbye to something or someone that she loves. I guess I can’t always keep her from carving pumpkins.
Her cast is off now. It was taken off a week ago, and once it was gone, I swear, I’d never seen her happier. Now she can move around freely and I don’t have to worry about her every second of every day. I just choose to.
“I’m good,” she says with a sniffle. “I’m just sad. You have to let me be sad, okay? This place…” She gestures over the lake to my parents’ old house, then to the water, then to the rocks where we had a fight. “This place is where it all began. And this is where it’s going to end. This is the last stop before we leave California for good and I…just let me be sad, babe. There are so many memories here.”
I nod. I know exactly what she means. Every memory we made here, including the arguments we had, are etched in my heart. I’ll never forget them. I’ll never forget this place, or the girl who showed it to me.
If I’m being honest, this place gave me Nickayla. If it wasn’t here, and if my parents never bought the house across the lake way back when, I never would have seen her the night she tried to end it all. And I never would have been able to save her.
“I can do that.” And I can. I understand her sadness. “Just as long as you let me be sad right along with you. This place holds just as many memories for me.”
She nods, and after twenty minutes of crying and sadness—tacked on to the hour we’d already spent here before I decided to say something—she climbs into the U-Haul beside me.
When we’re both inside, she scoots all the way over, so that she’s right next to me. My arm comes up and drapes around her shoulders, and she smiles through her tears. It’s what I love the most about her. No matter how hurt she is, she’ll always find a way to see sunlight through the rain.
“I just love you,” she says.
“So fucking much,” I respond with a grin and a kiss to her temple.
I drive in silence, and she simply stares out the window as we drive right past the sign that says, “You are now leaving Harlow.” I never thought I’d see that sign while behind the wheel of a U-Haul. But I’m excited for the possibilities ahead of us.
All our friends are good. Our families are…well, as good as can be expected, considering mine has always been and always will be incomplete. There’s no other reason for us to stay here.
I’m glad that Nickayla fell in love with my hometown. Because I get to have everyone and everything I love in the same place. I will always be at home as long as I’m with her, but I feel a strange sense of accomplishment at the fact that she loves my hometown as much as I do.
Nickayla turns to me as though she’s about to say something, but before she gets the chance, her cell phone rings. She grins at me and holds up her pointer finger. She pulls her phone out of her shorts pocket and, after looking at the caller ID, she answers it and pulls it up to her ear.
“Hey, Bree, what’s up?” I can hear screaming and hysterics on the other end, and from the stricken look on Nickayla’s face when she bolts upright and out of my embrace, I know that something’s wrong. “Sabrina. Please, calm down. What happened? Sabrina. What happened?”
There’s more screaming on the other end, and without her even confirming it for me, I slow the truck to a stop. Nickayla’s eyes widen as she stares at me, and she’s shaking her head like she can’t believe what she’s hearing. She shakes her head some more, and my hand comes up to rest on her thigh. She places her hand over mine and twines our fingers together, then squeezes. She probably doesn’t know it, but she’s trembling. And it’s scaring the shit out of me because I don’t know what the fuck is going on right now.
“Oh, God,” Nickayla moans, before leaning forward and clutching her heart. “Oh, God.”
Her shoulders shake and I put the car in park. Her phone drops from her hand, and she pulls her hand away from mine. Both her hand are on her heart now, and she screams at the top of her lungs through her devastated cries. I don’t know what’s going on, or what Sabrina told her, but I have to find out.
I bend forward and grab her cell phone off the floor of the truck and I bring it up to my own ear.
“Hello? Sabrina?” I yell into the phone.
Sabrina is crying just as hard as Nickayla is, and even though I don’t know the girl as well as Nickayla does, my heart breaks a little for whatever agony has her reacting this way.
“Colin,” she chokes out.
“Yeah, Sabrina. It’s me. What’s going on?”
She cries even harder, and my eyes dart over to Nickayla who’s still in hysterics. I don’t know what to do, and the both of them have me terrified. I don’t even know what to think happened, because my mind is racing through about a million different scenarios.
“Sabrina, what’s going on? Please talk to me!”
She hiccups before wailing in my ear. “You…you have to…turn around. It’s…it’s Brody. Please.”
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I have to thank my marvelous Beta readers. Danie, Ange, and Maria, you three are the best ever. You make this entire journey worth continuing.
To Ashley, for three years of late night writing sessions, advice, laughs, and love.
To Cass, for always being there when there’s no one else. For being my rock, my counselor, my friend, my mentor. You’re the best in the world, and although I hate you, I thank God for you every day.
To my sisters, Lanita and Jade, for always encouraging me and never letting me dim my light. For allowing me to shine my brightest and for being a guiding light when mine went out a time or twenty. For being funny in sad moments and forcing me to get out of whatever funk I’m in at the time. To Jade specifically for giving me character names when I needed them. To Lanita specifically for giving me priceless intel into the mind of a woman scorned that one time, and for helping me with that one conundrum towa
rd the end.
To my friends and family who have supported me from day one, sharing my teasers and buy links, supporting my writing, word of mouth, and so much more, you are invaluable. I wouldn’t be where I am, working on book number 4 out of 394 WIPs if it weren’t for all of you.
To my readers who waited patiently for the next book, and who have been by my side since the beginning, thank you.
Playlist
Unbroken-Demi Lovato
Life Starts Now-Three Days Grace
Good to You-Marianas Trench ft. Kate Voegele
About Last Night-Silence of Sound
Fade Away-Silence of Sound
You’ll Be Okay-A Great Big World
I Won’t Let Go-Rascal Flatts
I’ll Stand By You-The Replacements
One Way or Another-Kate Voegele
Can’t Be Love-Laura Izibor
Hold On-Colbie Caillat
Sometimes You Leave-Carrie Underwood
Cue the Rain-Lea Michele
Empty Handed-Lea Michele
Build You Up-Kim Taylor
Let Her Go-Boyce Avenue ft. Hannah Trigwell cover
Soldier-Gavin DeGraw
Stay-Gavin DeGraw
Almost Everything-Wakey! Wakey!
Save You-Simple Plan
If You Are Not The One-Daniel Bedingfield
Scarecrow-Alex and Sierra
Halo-Bethany Joy Galeotti
Marry Me-Jason Derulo
Give Me Love-Ed Sheeran
Car Crash-Wakey! Wakey!
Little Do You Know-Alex and Sierra
We are the Champions-Queen
Beside You-Marianas Trench
About the Author
Jasmine Carolina is a twenty one year old college student who has been passionately writing from the raw age of ten. It was the love of the Harry Potter series and the Chronicles of Narnia that sparked her love of writing and anything that involved creativity. She currently resides in Chicago, Illinois with her family. Along with writing, Jasmine has a love for books, musicals, travel, and makeup, however she’s not afraid to get her hair messed up or her nails broken. Almost Everything, book two in the Nickayla Quinn Trilogy, is her third novel. She’s currently in college full time while working on three new projects.
Other works by Jasmine Carolina
Losing Me (Nickayla Trilogy #1)
Never Let Me Go (Nickayla Series Spinoff #1)
Coming Soon...
Follow Sabrina as she falls in love with Brody Durham, the boy who thinks he’s unlovable in Jasmine Carolina’s
Hold On To You
Coming 2015
“Hey!” I scream, barreling through my house as I chase after him.
He continues to walk away, not even looking back at me even though I know for damn sure he can hear me. As pissed as I am at him right now, I can’t help but admire the way that he walks, head held high and shoulders thrust back like he doesn’t have a care in the world. It’s amazing how he puts on a show for the rest of the world, and I’m one of the select few who gets to see the real him.
“Turn around and look at me!” I get progressively more pissed off with every step he takes when finally, he turns around and his lips form a tight line. I stop short and catch my breath a bit before I shove his shoulder. “Don’t do that!”
“Don’t do what?” he asks.
He’s taunting me, I can feel it, but there’s not a single trace of a smile on his face.
“Don’t kiss me! You can’t do that! We’re just friend, Brody.”
His grey eyes narrow and he stalks over to me, hands gripping my forearms and pushing me gently until I’m pressed up against the wall. He smirks a bit, but the smile doesn’t reach his eyes completely. “You don’t want me to kiss you, Bree?”
Involuntarily, my tongue darts out and runs across my lower lip as I shake my head. “Not at all.”
Brody chuckles darkly, inching forward so that he’s mere centimeters from my face, and every inch of us is pressed together, touching, needing, wanting. Except for our lips, and the feel of his lips against mine is one I’ve craved for so long, and one that my body desires right this second even though I’m telling him otherwise. Inhaling, I catch a whiff of his somehow intoxicating cologne, the one that has no name because he mixes two different ones together but smells sexy and seductive and is just so…Brody.
“Well, I hate to break it to ya, but your body language says otherwise.” I gulp, and his jaw works the instant that I do. “I can feel your beating a million times a minute. Your cheeks are flushed. Every time I speak to you like this, you lick your lips. If you didn’t want more from me, you wouldn’t have chased after me.”
“I came after you to tell you not to do it again,” I lie. “You forget that I know you, Brody Durham. I know where your heart lies. And because of that, we can never be more than friends.”
He leans forward and presses his lips to mine, removing his hands from my forearms and placing one strategically behind my head as he closes his eyes. He doesn’t make any moves to deepen the kiss, to ask for more. He just stays there, frozen, his lips touching mine as his breathing labors like he’s needed this kiss like he needs air to breathe. I don’t know how long we stay like this before he pulls away, closing his eyes and taking deep, ragged breaths.
“If you knew me as well as you think you do, Sabrina, you’d know that I want to be anything but just your friend.” His answer is bold, and it’s the one I’ve been waiting to hear for two years. “I belong to you, whether you know it or not. I fell for you the moment you threw ice water in my face and called me pathetic.”
I laugh at the memory of how he thinks we first met, and how pissed—but intrigued—I was at the broken boy who had enough balls to call me a bitch.
With tear-filled eyes, I look up at him and crack a small smile.
“I fell first.”
Almost Everything (Nickayla Quinn Trilogy Book 2) Page 32