Rude

"It's very rude to leave food where you don't have to pay for it." Now it was enough for me! I noticed that Lara wanted to say something, just like her friend, who then raised his hand when he saw that.

"Lara, hold the edge." I got up loudly so that all eyes at our table were on me. I put my hand in my pocket.

"You really suck." Then I tossed the first bill I felt on the table, right in front of Ron's plate. Without paying attention to how much it was.

"So that you don't throw yourself into expense." I hissed. Pulled back the chair and walked away from the table without looking at Nick or Lara again. I knew that it was pretty embarrassing, but now I couldn't stay in there with THAT at the table. I heard Nick say angrily to Ron:

"She has diabetes and can't eat everything." Then I heard Ron say on it:

"That's why she doesn't have to get up like that."

"You would have her just being able to say what there is, then there would have been no stress. You provoked it! ”Nick defended me.

"Oh now, don't drift." That was the last thing I heard before the door closed behind me.

Nick got up now too.

“I've lost my appetite.” He took money out of his pocket and threw it on the table and took the other money away.

"Enjoy your meal, Lara." He said and then went out too.

I got my cell phone out of my pocket and called Jess. She knew that I was in the restaurant with the others.

"Jolina?" She asked immediately, perplexed.

"Yes, I just got out, I couldn't take it anymore." I told her.

"Because of Ron or ..."

"Yes, because of him. It was really awful. You can't imagine that. ”I continued to tell her.

"Where are you now?" She asked.

"I'm standing in front of the restaurant." I sighed.

"Okay, um we will pick you up. Sven and me. ”She was out with Sven. Interesting.

"Sven is with you?" I ask extra.

“Yes, don't ask now. We'll be there in a few minutes. We're almost around the corner. ”I had to suppress my laughter.

"Okay, I'll wait." She just hung up. I had to smile as I put my cell phone away again. Then I heard the door open behind me. I turned back and Nick came to me.

"Hey." He and I said back. He held out his hand to me and took mine and pressed something into my hand. I looked at him when I realized it was my money.

“I didn't feel like staying any more. I took care of the bill. ”A bit surprised, I nodded.

" Do you want to go home? I'll accompany you for a while. ”I shook my head.

“No, I just spoke to Jess on the phone. You and Sven come here. You're nearby. ”He nodded and we both looked at each other until Nick started laughing.

"Why are you laughing now?" I asked, surprised. He shrugged his shoulders.

"That was really the worst date there is." First I looked at him, startled. Did he think it was a date? But then I still saw his smile and had to smile too.

"Poor Lara has to eat alone with him now." I said pityingly. Just as he was about to answer that, I heard Jess. We greeted each other.

"You left too?" I heard Sven ask.

"Sure." Nick answered him. He looked around.

"Would you like something to eat?" I nodded immediately, I was still very hungry.

We walked around the corner to a takeout. In front of the door I turned to Jess and Sven.

"What did you two actually do, did you have an appointment?" Jess looked briefly at Sven so that they looked at each other.

"Nothing special." Jess said quickly. Sven just looked at her. So I turned back to Nick who was holding the door open and we went inside. Jess and Sven were pretty calm for their standards. I asked Jess briefly if everything was okay. She just nodded.

In the early evening I drove back to us with my parents. We were at home for barely an hour and I was about to take a shower. When I heard our doorbell. I closed my closet and heard my father answer the door. Then I heard a second male voice.

.......

“Cherie.” My father called for me. And I came out of my room and saw Nick standing next to my father. Surprised and frightened, I approached them both.

"Nick?" He gave me a slight smile and my father turned away from us. Again to the wall, on which he has now been standing for almost twenty minutes to take down the shelf that was attached there.

"Hi Jolie." This time he didn't call me in front of my father during my real take.

"Sorry if I just show up here." I nodded slightly.

"Did something happen?" He immediately shook his head when I asked him that.

"Clair called me earlier and wants me to drive to her?" At first I was confused. Who was Clair? but then it came back to me.

"Your mother?" He nodded.

"I'm going to her now and ... she said that I can bring you with me." I looked at him astonished. She could still remember me and wanted me to visit her?

"Um ... I just came home earlier and ... I have school tomorrow." Nick only nodded at first.

“I know I won't just stay an hour or two for long. She really wants me to come over and, to be honest, I don't want to go there alone. ”I was torn. I did not know what to say.

"I would-" I couldn't go on because my father interfered without turning around. He spoke to me in French so that Nick couldn't understand him and kept looking at me. My father said to me: that I can go with you if I want to. That it seems important to him, otherwise he would not have come here. He was probably right about that.

"Okay, I'll come with you." Nick didn't smile or was happy, he just nodded. I took my key and my father turned to us and looked at Nick.

"Don't stay away too long, Jolina has school tomorrow." Nick looks at my father.

"I'll bring her home in five hours at the latest." My father nodded and then turned back to the wall.

"Are you going to tell mom about it?" I saw him nod and then walked out of the apartment with Nick.

During the car drive we were silent more than we talked to each other. I looked out the window the whole time ... until I noticed how my arm was touched and my eyes widened in shock. I looked around in amazement. That's when I saw Nick's amused grin.

"We'll be there in a minute." He smiled.

"Did I fall asleep?" I asked unnecessarily and saw him nod.

"Why didn't you wake me up again." He shrugged.

"I've never seen you sleep before ... you look cute doing it." I just gave a snort and noticed that we were leading into a settlement with large multi-story houses. I folded down the screen in front of me on the car to look in the mirror and saw one side of my hair wildly spaced. Oh god how embarrassing! I quickly stabbed my hair with my hands until I still had a hair tie in my hostess pocket and fished it out and pulled my hair together in a high braid. Then I rolled up the sleeves of my pully and noticed how Nick was looking at me.

"I should have made myself up beforehand," I muttered.

"You look good." He said with a smile in his voice and parked right in front of a door of a large white house.

"We're here." He sighed and took off his seat belt. But remained sitting after he had switched off the engine, so that I had already grabbed my hand on the door and looked at him.

"All right?" I asked confused and saw him nod after a loud sigh.

"Off to the lioness's hell." He tried to be funny and got out. I followed him and stopped with him in front of the door, which he just stared at. It was really difficult for him to be here. Then he sighed again, straightened and rang the bell. In a split second the door opened. As if she had been waiting for us behind the door. Nick's mother looked a little annoyed at first but when she saw us she smiles.

"Nicko, you came." He nodded.

"I told you," he growled a little. Then his mother turned to me.

"Jolina, you came with me too." I nodded and gave her a friendly smile.

"Thanks for the invitation." I said to her, without knowing exactly whether she really invited me or Nick just didn't want to come here alone. But Clair smiled and walked out the door so we could enter the house. Nick read me and I looked around. She really lived in a huge house, at first glance it was almost twice the size of my uncle's and my aunt's. We followed her into a dining room.

"Sit down, sit down," she said excitedly. So that I smiled at Nick. Who just rolled his eyes. I sat down next to Nick and his mother took three cups out of the cupboard and then disappeared from the room. I looked at Nick who was bored looking around the room.

"She's nice." When I said that, Nick looked at me.

"Wait, we just got here." I shook my head and his mother came back. With a tray in my hands on which was a pot of coffee and a bottle of water with a large bowl of various biscuits on it. When she had put everything on the table, she looked at us.

"I'm sorry kids, I don't have anything else, but I didn't think you'd come." I smiled at her and Nick took the bottle of water and poured himself and myself a drink.

"Thank you." I said quietly to him and he nodded barely noticeably. Clair turned and reached behind her and when she turned back to us she had an ashtray and a pack of cigarettes in her hand. She handed me the box and I declined to say thank you. So that she, she held out Nick.

"I don't smoke," he said in a cool tone. His mother shrugged and lit one herself, releasing the smoke with relish.

"I remembered it differently." Nick sighed.

"At that time I was seventeen and only did it now and then, that was years ago." His mother nodded.

"Yes, and then you traded tobacco for other addicts." She said it in a strange tone. And already we were on the TOPIC.

"And let's go," Nick confirmed quietly.

"Your father told me that you were gone for the last few weeks." Nick looked at her and then nodded.

"Why?" Nick shrugged.

"Vacation?" He said then, making his mother look angry.

“Don't sell me for a stupid boy. What did you do? ”Nick said nothing, so she looked at me. Did she want me to answer her now.

" What has he done? Did he lose his job? Anything to do with the police? With his apartment? ”I shook my head to make her stop counting other things.

"I needed a break from everything." I heard Nick hiss. Clair raised an eyebrow.

" About what? Did you drink through the weeks or pump yourself full of drugs? Do you call that taking a break? ”I noticed immediately how Nick tensed up next to me and clenched his hand, which he had lying on his lower table, into a fist. I immediately grabbed his hand and placed mine over his.

"He doesn't take anything anymore." I said to Clair. That looked at me in disbelief.

“Not for a while. He was with a friend who helped him. “I just had to defend him now. I didn't like the way his mother talked to him. Nick next to me loosened his fist under my hand and I took it so that we clasped our hands together. My heart was in my throat. Not only because of his mother, who made me angry also because the touch of his hand seemed so familiar and good to me, even though we had never actually held hands.

"I'm just trying to get my life under control again." He said more calmly now.

"And how?" Clair wanted to know.

“I don't use drugs anymore and haven't had anything to drink for a couple of weeks, except for a beer this weekend. I've moved and now I live with friends who are there for me and Billy wants me to be his partner. ”He told his mother. She always looked at him in astonishment.

“Billy wants you to be his partner? I didn't even know that you were still working for him. "She said, astonished.

“Believe it or not, I've finished my training and I'll be working with him. His wife wants him to slow down because they have a child. The two of them offered it to me. But I haven't said yes yet. ”His mother nodded thoughtfully.

"Why didn't you say too?" Nick glanced at me and then back to his mother.

"I have to take care of everything else first, before I can worry about it." Clair looked at me.

"What has she got to do with it?" She asked Nick without looking away from me.

"Don't you want him to do it?" I looked at her confused. I had nothing to do with it.

"Um ... it's his choice. I have nothing to do with it. ”His mother nodded.

"And you knew Nicko was doing drugs and you didn't do anything." When she said that to me, it was like a stab in the heart. I winced imperceptibly but Nick must have felt it because he looked at me and I withdrew from his hand. The three of us were silent. I didn't know what to answer.

“Let her out, she can't help it. After all, she's not the reason I started doing it. ”He hissed at his mother, who sighed.

"Do you want to start again with the subject of whose fault it is?" Now she got angry too.

“No, you started with it. Jolina didn't know at the beginning when we were together, she only noticed it later and she hated it, wanted me to stop. I couldn't or wouldn't. ”His mother looked at me out of the corner of her eye.

"And now suddenly you could or did you want to stop?" He nodded.

“Didn't find it so bad for me, they all exaggerated. It was my business and I was fine. But I couldn't control myself anymore. Then I realized that I can't stop as easily as I thought. Got angrier and angrier, hurt all the people I care about. That had to stop. ”Clair nodded further. Then my cell phone started to ring and I looked at them both apologetically.

"Go ahead." Clair said nicely and I quickly took it out of my pants pocket, thinking it was my mother. But then I saw that it was Jess. I looked at Nick, who gave me his car key.

“Go ahead, I'll follow you right away. We have to go again. ”I nodded and left the room. Then my cell phone stopped ringing and I heard the two talking again in the dining room.

"So you're not a couple anymore?" I heard Clair ask and stopped at the open front door.

"No." Nick mumbled so that I could still hear it.

" Why not? It seems as if you would still get along well, the way she just supported you. ”Nick sighed.

"I screwed up, over and over again." Clair interrupted him.

"You probably got that from me." I frown.

“No, no, I didn't cheat on you. I didn't mean that. Under drugs, I was a different person, I wasn't under control, I often freaked out, didn't accept your limits ... ”He stopped speaking.

“Did ... you hurt her boy. Did you touch her? ”His mother sounded angry. And I heard a sigh from Nick.

"It's a miracle that she still talks to me about Haupt, let's put it that way." I got a very strange feeling in my stomach. It hurt me when I heard Nick talk like that. But then I noticed that my cell phone started vibrating. I quickly pressed the receiver so that they wouldn't hear the ringing and they knew that I had overheard them. I quickly closed the door very quietly behind me.

"Hey Jess." I greeted my friend.