Page 26 of For the Plot (The Stone Siblings #1)
Nikki
Talk Too Much - Reneé Rapp
I stared at the blank page in front of me, willing the words to magically appear.
It was the same routine as always. I told myself I was going to write.
I sat in front of the computer. I stared at the blank pages, fragments of sentences floating in and out of my mind, all of them too slippery to latch onto and form into actual sentences.
And then I gave up, pulled my phone to scroll for a five-minute brain break, and was still here, hours later, doing abso-fucking-lutely nothing.
Just type, Nikki. Type anything, anything at all, I pleaded with my own brain.
I swear some days, it was like I was just in the passenger seat of my own mind, watching ten squirrels in a jumpsuit attempting to act normal.
Pretty sure there was nothing normal about that, or even thoughts of that, if I was being totally honest.
My phone dinged with a text, and I sighed with relief, finally having a real reason to ignore the blank page in front of me. It was the family group chat, starting with a message from my twin.
Noah
Family dinner night bitches (non derogatory), who’s in this week?
Robyn
Oh let me check my very busy schedule, ok yep I’m free
Noah
*middle finger emoji*
Ezra
Sorry, not tonight. I’m working.
Probably? Trying (and failing) to write at the moment
Alex
Guess I’ve got nothing better to do
Noah
You bitches (derogatory)
Hey!! I said most likely yes
Noah
I wasn’t calling you a bitch, I was calling THEM little bitches.
Robyn
You didn’t say little
Noah
Fine, *you little bitches (derogatory)
Better?
Oh, yes, much.
Alex
You’re all insufferable
Ezra
Play nice children
Robyn
That’s why you’re no one’s favorite, you never pick sides
Ezra
Maybe that’s why I’m everyone’s favorite
Alex
Yeah, he’s definitely the least annoying of any of us
True
Robyn
Rude, but not wrong
Noah
Fine, I’ll concede
Ezra
*gif of someone bowing*
Alright fam, back to work. Wish me luck *salute emoji*
I clicked my phone off and woke the laptop screen up to stare at the blank page again, contemplating if I should just quit instead and go run off to live as a gremlin in the forest. I closed my eyes, taking a breath and forcing myself to chill out.
I had a tendency to want to quit when things got hard or I got bored.
Writing was the only passion or hobby I hadn’t given up on, and I was determined to see it through.
I wasn’t bored of it in the slightest, but it was definitely the hardest thing I’d ever done.
I was gonna finish this damn book if it killed me.
Getting out of the car, I made my way to my parents' front door, letting myself in. I'd lost track of time and was running late, so I was sure they’d already sat down to eat.
In the end, I only ended up writing about a page’s worth the whole day.
But it was also the first writing I’d done in months, so I was calling it a win.
It was also the perfect excuse for my tardiness, though in truth I was late because after I wrapped up writing, I sat down to catch up on notifications for “ten minutes” that turned into sixty.
"Sorry, sorry! I’m here!" I called out, heading straight for the dining room.
My family was indeed already seated around the table, digging into dinner.
I was met with a chorus of greetings as I settled into the last open chair.
Tonight it looked like it was homemade alfredo and chicken, with a side of garlic bread.
I loaded up my plate, not realizing how hungry I was until I had the food in front of me. My stomach growled as I swirled the first bite of pasta around my fork, moaning as I swallowed it down.
“Perfect timing!” Mom smiled at me as she passed the garlic bread down. “We were just about to do Highs and Lows!”
I nodded in response, my mouth full of pasta.
“I’ll go first,” she continued. “Today’s high was an uneventful day at work.
My low was stubbing my toe on the coffee table, again .
” Mom had terrible spatial awareness, and had been stabbing her toe on that coffee table our entire lives, even though the coffee table hadn't changed spots in all the years we'd lived here.
Dad went next. “My high was getting lunch with Dan.” Dan was his best friend, and they tried to get together at least twice a month.
It was much easier for him to have his plans scheduled in advance, and having specific scheduled time with people helped him stay in contact so he didn’t go too long in between hangouts.
“My low is that I’ve had a headache all day, unfortunately. ”
We all echoed our sympathies, and then Noah volunteered to go next, both her high and her low having to do with patients at work.
“My turn,” I jumped in. “My high is that I wrote a few hundred more words!” Everyone congratulated me, knowing how hard I was struggling to write at the moment. “My low is that it took me all day,” I added wryly.
Robyn went next, her low a professor who was pissing her off, and high the new tattoo she'd added to her sleeve.
Last to go was Alex. He didn't usually love Highs and Lows, but today he seemed to barely be holding in his excitement. “Well, I was hoping that everyone would be here for this news, but I’ll just have to call Ezra when he’s off.
I got it. I got the sitcom.” He had barely finished getting the words out when chaos unleashed, all of us running around the table to pull him up and give him a giant group hug, everyone shouting over each other in an excited cacophony.
The rest of dinner was spent talking about what this could mean for Alex, his low forgotten.
After wrapping up dinner and dishes, Noah and I said our goodbyes and headed out to our cars.
As soon as the front door shut behind us, Noah grabbed my arm. “Twin chat time,” was all she said before dragging me to her car. I groaned but didn’t fight her. "Twin chat" was what we said growing up when one of us needed to talk, no questions asked, no getting out of it.
Once we got in the car, she turned it on to run the AC. As anyone who had ever lived in SoCal knew, September and October were the hottest months of the year. Noah turned to look at me expectantly. When I didn’t say anything, she sighed in exasperation. “Girl, tell me how it went!”
I bit my lip, trying to decide how much I wanted to tell her.
Normally, we told each other everything.
And I know I had promised her to keep her updated, but something about what James and I were doing just felt like…
Well, it felt like it was just for us, and I didn’t want to share it with anyone, not even Noah.
I shrugged in an attempt at nonchalance. “It's going really good.”
“That’s all you’re going to give me? 'It’s good?'”
“I said really good.”
Noah gave me a deadpan look. “You know I was all for this, but the fact that you don’t want to talk about it makes me nervous,” she said, her voice full of concern.
“I don’t know, Noah, I’m having a good time! We’ve been taking it slow, we haven’t had penetrative sex yet, we’re building up to it. And he is definitely up to the task.” I grinned cheekily at her, and she tried and failed to hide her snort of laughter. “I’m just kind of enjoying the ride.”
“OK, come on.” She laughed.
“Sorry, sorry, I’m done now, promise.” I grinned at her.
“But seriously, how long do you plan to keep this going?”
“We… haven’t really talked about that,” I hedged.
“Nikki.”
“What?” I asked.
“You know I love you.”
“Oh, here we go.” I rolled my eyes to the roof of the car in exasperation.
“I’m just worried about you!” Her voice was defensive, but the undertone of care was there. “I’m worried that this is starting to seem more like a relationship rather than just sex lessons like you claim, and you're going to get hurt.”
“I promise, I know what I’m doing.” I sounded way more confident about it than I really felt.
“Just be careful, OK? With your heart and his.”
“I will,” I said, holding up my pinky for her to hook with her own. Internally, though, I scoffed. I might have to worry about myself, but there was no way James’s heart was at risk of anything.