"What...what are you doing in my house, Nico?" I ask, trying to keep my eyes off of the flowers in his hands.

But he held them up anyways, "Got these for you."

I wanted to reach out and grab them, but I stopped myself. I repeated my question, "What are you doing in my house, Nico? How'd you even get in?"

Maybe the flowers would mean more to me, if he wasn't buying them for somebody else, too.

He let out a sigh before putting the flowers down on the bed. He took a step towards me, "Rio let me in. He's funny, you know. Unlike you."

"I'm funny," I crossed my arms.

"Okay," he nodded. "Then tell me a joke."

I looked around my room. I picked up my tiny mirror that was on my nightstand and handed it to him, "Look in it. There's the joke."

The corners of his mouth turned up slightly. He tossed the mirror onto my bed, and I shifted my weight from foot to foot.

"What is there to talk about?" I ask. "It seems pretty simple."

"Elle-"

I cut him off, "You shouldn't be here. The girl on Youtube is going to be disappointed in me."

"What?" his eyebrows lowered.

I shook my head, "It doesn't matter."

I grab onto his wrist and use all of my strength to try and pull him towards the door. I'm pulling, grunting, sliding against my wooden flooring. But he doesn't move and removes his wrist from my grip easily.

I let out a frustrated sigh.

"Look, Nico. I get that you don't want to talk about your life, and that's fine. You don't owe me anything. But I don't think it's a good idea for us to kiss and hang out when you have somebody else in your life," I spoke while crossing my arms, trying to make myself seem more authoritative.

He opened his mouth to speak, but I cut him off and started walking towards my bathroom, "I'm gonna shower, you can leave through the same door you came in."

I heard his footsteps quickly behind me before he grabbed my waist and cheek, turning me back towards him. He kept his hands on the side of my face and waist to stop me from leaving.

"Stop fucking running from me," his voice came out with more emotion than I think he meant it to.

I gulped.

Beautiful eyes.

That I hate.

"Come with me."

My eyebrows went down, "Where?"

"See who the flowers are for, for yourself."

My nerves increased. Although I may be able to kick ass now, that doesn't mean that I purposefully want to go somewhere that has a girl who wants to knock out my teeth.

He noticed my worrying, and spoke softly, "It'll be okay, just trust me."

Trust him.

"Okay," I nodded my head slightly.

But if this girl tries to pull my hair out that I've spent 19 years growing myself; Nico and her are both gonna need to see their dentists'.

He grabbed onto my hand, something that made my heart skip a beat. He walked out of my room, and I kept taking glances to make sure that Romeo and Rio weren't walking out of their rooms. Rio would probably talk to him for hours, and Romeo would interrogate him.

His car was parked outside. As we got in, my heart sunk seeing that he still had an 'A' keychain.

He started to drive, and I mentally prepared myself to be able to fight. I would never hit this girl first, she has done nothing wrong. But if she tries to hit me, I'm not just gonna stand there and let it happen.

We park at the end of a road. It's dark, and I don't see any houses.

"Nico...this looks a little sketchy," I spoke hesitantly while he unbuckled his seatbelt.

"Trust me," he repeated his words.

He stared at me, waiting for my next move. I took a deep breath, nodding my head slightly before stepping out of the car.

The sound of bugs filled the night air. The temperature was warm, but not hot like it is during the day. He met me in the middle of the grass in front of his car and put his hand on my lower back, guiding me towards wherever we were going.

I looked down at my shoes nervously as we walked, but when I looked up, my heart sank a little seeing where we were.

We came to a stop, and I felt my heart crack a little in my chest.

On the tombstone, it read 'Rest in Peace, Amara Cross. March 2nd, 1994 - April 8th, 2012.'

And right beside it, there were white daisies on both sides.

"When I was 14, my sister Amara was 18," he began to explain, and I gave him my full attention. "We were at my grandparents' house the day we moved because they were going out of Boston for the weekend and they trusted Amara enough to house sit, and I went wherever Amara went. My parents didn't mind, because then they could unpack all of our shit without worrying about their kids."

The same day that I met him when we were kids. I never even knew that he had a sister, I never saw her that day.

♦ ♦

"Amara was a good kid. She wasn't planning on throwing a party or anything, but we just wanted some pizza," I explained to her.

This was my first time ever saying what happened that night out loud. Even when I had to talk to the police, I wrote it all down on a piece of paper.

April 8th, 2012

"Nico! Do you want cheese or pepperoni?" Amara asked me, lowering the phone from her ear.

"Pepperoni," I answered within a heartbeat.

She nodded and continued ordering.

I watched the living room TV as she ordered, smiling to myself as I did so. My parents were health freaks, they never let Amara and I eat pizza. But tonight, they aren't here to tell us no.

She set the phone down and walked back over to the couch, collapsing onto it beside me.

She turned and looked at me, her black hair framing her face as the light from the TV made her green eyes look lighter than usual. She smiled and nudged my arm, "I saw you talking to the neighbor girl earlier. She gonna be your future wife or something?"

"Ew, no," I shook my head. "She's mean."

"Maybe you just need to get to know her. Maybe she thinks the same thing about you," she raised her hands in a defensive motion.

"Not gonna happen," I argued.

"If you guys get married one day, I'll remember this conversation," she smiled at me.

I rolled my eyes.

After about 30 minutes, a knock came from the door. She stood up to answer it and asked me, "Can you go get some plates and drinks from the kitchen?"

I nodded my head while she walked towards the front door.

I grabbed two plates and glasses and started filling the cups up with some soda that was in my grandparents' fridge.

"Thank you!" I heard Amara say.

The delivery driver asked, "What's a beautiful girl like you doing home alone?"

Amara laughed, making me think that she wasn't scared by what he said. But I noticed the tone of her voice change as she said, "I'm not. My brother is home, too, and my parents are on their way to pick us up."

I knew that they weren't, but I wasn't going to call her a liar in front of somebody.

"Where's your brother?" the man's voice asked.

I set the glasses down onto the counter and walked so that I was now in view. I raised my hand, "Right here."

The man laughed seeing me. He looked me up and down, "You're a little kid. Need some meat on those bones, never know when it'll come in handy."

I rolled my eyes.

"Well, thanks for the pizza," Amara ignored him and tried to shut the door. But he hit his palm against it, keeping it from closing.

Amara took a step back with the box of pizza. The man smiled at her, "You are very beautiful."

"Thanks, but I have to go now-"

My heartbeat started to increase watching them start to have a battle between shutting the door and keeping it open. When the man threw his body into the door, making it swing open and Amara stumble back while the box dropped out of her hands, she yelled, "Run, Nico!"

I started running up the stairs with Amara hot on my trail. I grabbed the phone that she used to order pizza with on my way, and I nearly fell while running up the stairs with how fast I was going.

Amara shrieked behind me, making me whip my head around. The man was grabbing her by her ankle, trying to pull her down the stairs. She managed to kick his face, making him fall backward and giving her time to run up the stairs.

We ran into my grandparents' bedroom, shut the door behind us, and hid under the bed.

I dialed 911, my heart feeling like it was in my throat. Amara gave my hand a comforting squeeze, "It's going to be okay, Nico. You're going to be okay."

I nodded my head as the operator picked up.

The man's footsteps started to walk up the stairs, making me whisper to the operator. I whispered them the address and told them what was happening but hung up the second I could see the man's boots standing outside of the door.

Amara did a 'shhh' motion, putting her finger over her mouth.

It felt like every passing second lasted an hour. We watched his boots through the crack underneath the door, and Amara held onto my hand.

The door jumped on its hinges as he started throwing his body into it. Amara squeezed my hand tighter as he did it again, but this time, it swung open.

All we could do was watch his footsteps. They walked around the room, stopping in front of my grandmas' vanity and looking at the pictures that were on it.

He then walked to the closet, moving their clothes around. I cringed knowing that he's touched them because if they were my clothes, I would've thrown them out now.

And then he turned around.

His footsteps creaked against the old wooden floor as he walked over to the bed. Amaras hand trembled in mine, as his feet now stood directly in front of us.

She turned to me and mouth, "I love you."

"I love you, too," I mouthed back, realizing that the police weren't going to get here fast enough. We were both going to die.

The mattress was ripped off of the bed, and Amara and I scrambled to our feet.

We started running towards the door, but he grabbed Amara by her waist and lifted her, making her yell and kick her feet.

"Put her down!" I yelled while running over to him, seeing the knife that he had in his hands.

Amaras face was covered in fear, but he dropped her. He swung the knife at me, cutting my chest. I winced at the pain, blood now staining the front of my shirt.

Amara slammed her body into the mans and yelled, "Hide, Nico!"

"But-"

"Now!"

Watching Amara grab the knife from him made me feel relieved. I turned around and ran, going into the upstairs bathroom and shutting the door behind me. I covered my ears, but I could still hear them fighting as furniture fell over and glass shattered.

Amara is going to kill somebody. But she needs to.

I prayed that the police were going to enter any second now.

The sound of fighting slowly stopped, and I allowed for my heartbeat to slow down. Soft footsteps walked down the hallway, and stopped directly in front of the door.

I held my breath the entire time.

A knock came from the other side. Amaras' voice spoke, "Nico? It's me. He's dead."

I quickly jumped up and opened the door, a smile forming on my face seeing Amara there.

But it slowly dropped seeing the entire front of her shirt soaked in dark red blood, oozing out of her stab wound.

"Amara?" my voice was filled with worry.

She looked like she got dizzy, taking a few steps forward into the bathroom before falling onto the floor.

I rushed to her side and yelled, "Amara!"

Silent tears dripped out of her eyes, rolling down the sides of her face as she lay on her back. I held my hands over her stab wound and cried, "It's going to be okay, Amara. The police are on their way and you are going to be okay."

She lifted her hand to grab mine, removing it from her wound. She held it with a weak grip, and she forced a smile at me.

I could see it in her eyes that she wanted to speak so badly. She wanted to say something, but she couldn't. Her body hurt too much.

She opened her mouth, which was filled with blood.

She spoke the last word she was able to get out, "Nico."

And her grip on my hand turned limp. Her eyes moved away from me and looked up at the ceiling. I watched the tears that were falling out of her eyes,

But none fell anymore.

"Amara?" I shook her body, but her green eyes never moved. "Amara!"

The sound of police breaking down the front door filled my ears, but I couldn't move. I held onto her cold hand, hoping that maybe she would blink again at any moment.

"Amara..." my voice broke, watching her face never change expressions.

"Upstairs bathroom!" the police officer that now stood in the doorway yelled down the stairs.

My eyes were blurry, my ears were ringing, I felt like I wasn't even in my own body. A police officer picked me up as EMTs entered the bathroom, and I kicked to try and get out of their grip.

As the police officer rounded the corner to leave the room, I watched the EMT that was kneeling at Amara's body look up and shake their head slightly.

And I knew at that moment, she was gone.

Elle's eyes turned glossy under the moonlight.

She grabbed my hand with her small one, giving it a comforting squeeze.

"That's why I don't go by Nico," I told her. "It was her last word before dying."

I saw guilt flash across her face. She instantly started apologizing, "I'm so sorry, I had no idea-"

"Shhh," I cut her off, cupping her warm face in my hands. "You can call me it, Elle. Nobody else."

She lifted her hands and put hers overtop of mine, which still held her face. I explained, "That's why I have a scar on my chest, and that's why I teach self-defense."

Her brown eyes were so warm as they stared up at me. I had never told anybody this story, and I never wanted to. But I fucking wanted to tell her.

"After that, we moved. We stayed in Boston, but my parents thought that a new house would help them grieve," my hands tightened on her face as my own words made me angry, but I quickly relaxed them, not wanting to hurt her.

"I'm so sorry you went through that," she spoke with so much warmth in her voice.

"Its been 10 years, and I still visit her grave all the time," I told her. "Unlike my parents."

Her eyebrows lowered, and my thumbs brushed her soft cheeks, "Different story for a different time."

She nodded, not trying to pressure me at all.

"I'm telling you this, Elle, because I don't want you to leave."

"Leave?"

"My life. I don't want you to leave my life."

Words I never thought I'd say, after promising myself I would never care for another person again.

Her hands squeezed mine, as she whispered, "I won't."

My heart warmed in my chest. I tilted her head up, pressing my lips against hers. Her kiss is so gentle and soft, and I hold her as close to me as I can.

And it looks like I've broken my promise to myself,

Because I care about her.