Nicolette (The New Girl #4)

Chapter 4

I walked behind a girl whose backpack was slightly open. Inside, there was a pink vape pen peaking out. I looked around to make sure no one was paying attention and I snatched it and stashed it into my purse.

I went to class enraged with anger. I'm not sure why I'm angry, but I just couldn't help myself. This way, I have no motivation. I skipped class to go to the bathroom and try out my new vape pen. It tasted like strawberry.

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After school, my mom was home early. I saw her sitting on the couch looking through old photographs.

"Come here, look," she said, pointing to an old picture of me and my dad.

"Wow, I was so little," i said.

"You were. Him and I both raised you together with little help. We even got married, I wish we could've had our big wedding after I graduated."

"You were going to have another wedding?"

"Yes, we decided to have a small, court wedding early on and have a bigger wedding later when we could afford it ourselves but that never happened since he passed away."

I could tell she was still hurting so I decided to stop asking questions.

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It was finally the weekend.

I usually hung out with Scylla but it's been awkward since she rejected me so I've kept to myself. Plus, I've been getting a lot of migraines lately and it makes me just not want to do anything.

I pulled out my vape pen and started filling my room with strawberry scented clouds.

Just then, my mom barged in.

"What the hell is this?!" she yelled.

I hid the vape pen underneath my pillow.

"What? Do you want to end up just like your father or something?"

I gulped, "What do you mean?"

"He was a heavy smoker and he vaped a lot too, which led to him smoking marijuana and eventually he started doing hard drugs."

"Oh, I didn't know that."

She laughed, "I don't know how he's being a bad influence on you when he isn't even alive anymore."

I didn't say anything.

She held out her hand, "give it to me."

I was reluctant at first but I gave it to her. She took it and walked out of my room.

"Mom, wait."

She came back.

"Is that how dad died? From a drug overdose?"

She nodded, she almost seemed ashamed that that was his cause of death.

I hated that that's how he died. That could have easily been prevented. He should've known better not to do those kinds of drugs. Lucky for me, I know better, and I would never touch anything like cocaine or heroin.

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It was Monday. I could barely get myself out of bed, I felt sick.

"Mom, can I stay home today?"

"Why?"

"I'm not feeling good."

She looked at me with disbelief, "fine."

I smirked but tried my best to hide it. I went back to bed and fell asleep.

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Since I skipped school yesterday, today i had to present my project to my English class.

While some students presented, I was going to draw but I didn't even feel like it. I felt so anxious.

"Nicolette, you're up next."

My heart started pounding, it felt like it was going to fall out of my chest.

I got up and just walked out of the room.

After class ended, I walked back in.

"You do realize you're going to get a zero on this presentation, right?" asked my English teacher. I honestly couldn't even remember her name, that's how much I paid attention in that class.

"I just can't do public speaking," I said.

"Well then I guess you're going to have to fail."

In the corner of my eye, i saw that someone left their Juul plugged in. I walked over and unplugged it and took it for myself. Try finding this one, mom.