Dead Beat~//n.mara

𝕋𝕨𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕪-𝕥𝕙𝕣𝕖𝕖

Desiree woke up in pain. Her arm was throbbing and had drool covering it. Meri had fallen asleep on Desiree's bruise and made it sore. She looked around and didn't see Meridee so she went downstairs and found her sitting her in the couch watching cartoons.

"Meri, how did you get down here?" Desiree was confused, as there seemed to be no one else around. Meri turned her attention back towards the large flat screen as the announcer began the famous tag line. Desiree went around to the kitchen where she found Nick. He was making PB&Js.

"Hey..." Desiree said softly. Her voice was hoarse; she had been crying since she put Meri down. Even cried herself to sleep. Nick looked away from his sandwiches at Des and offered a smile. Desiree just looked away though. "You brought her down here?"

Nick nodded, "She woke up about 20 minutes ago, she was trying to open the door to get out. You were sleeping pretty hard so I just got her for you."

Desiree slammed her fist onto the island. "Fuck." She mumbled under her breath. "She can open doors. I usually hear her... she could've fallen." Tears began to well up in Desiree's eyes again.

"Hey don't blame yourself. You didn't hear her because of me. I'm sorry." Nick tried. Desiree just kept looking down in her lap. "Are you okay?"

Desiree quickly wiped her tears. She was silent for a while. Nick tried to place his hand atop of hers, but she moved it away too quickly. "I- I just care about her so much. I can't let anything happen to her. It always scares me when I wake up and I don't see her by my side because anything could happen. I have to protect her... you know?"

"Yes. That's what I've been trying to say." Nick sighed. "I'm sorry about the whole lock thing, but you know how I feel about you. I gotta protect you anyway that I can. And I know you don't need me to, but it at least puts me at ease a little... to know that he can't come back and hurt you. That helps me sleep at night knowing you and Meri are safe."

"I see you still think everything is about you." Desiree rolled her eyes. Now she was just being petty.

"Des... did you not hear anything I just said. It's about you! It's always has been. Ever since you got to LA I've put you and Meri above everything because it's just what you deserve. I got you a place to live, missed studio sessions to watch Meri, I even bought you a car! And I don't mind- because I love you Des. But it's like you don't notice."

"Wait what?" Desiree was confused. "You bought me a car?"

"Well... yeah it was going to be a surprise it was the other thing I was doing today. I put a down payment on a car for you, since you're gonna need your own way to get around and support yourself and Meridee."

"Nick... that- that's crazy! That's way too much to spend on me."

"No it's not. I wanted to. I did it because I know you. I know you're super headstrong and stubborn, but also independent and determined and you hate having people do things for you. I'll admit changing the locks was for me, but I know you don't want to stay here forever, so this car, it's for you. So you can be happy here."

Desiree began to cry again. She knew Nick was genuine. He did all of these wonderful things and Desiree was only finding issues with them instead of appreciating the fact that he even tried. She knew many women weren't as fortunate to even have their baby's fathers in their lives. Des choked back her tears and went around the island literally jumping into Nick's arms.

"Thank you."

"Stop thanking me all the time." Nick chuckled; embracing her tightly. He had the strong urge to just kiss her then and there, but he'd wait on that. For now he'd settle on just a simple forehead kiss.

"You know I love you, right?" Nick whispered into the crook of Desiree's neck.

The girl with the beautiful chocolate skin nodded. "I love you too."

"Ooh, I love PowerPuffGirls!" Desiree and Nick slowly let go of each other and looked out into the living room where they saw Austin sat next to Meri enjoying the cartoons on the TV.

"Sorry guys, but there's a strict no PDA policy in public areas of the house." Austin joked. "Aren't they gross?" Austin said to Meridee, causing the toddler to laugh.

"Hey Austin." Nick went to dap up his best friend. "I thought you weren't coming back til tomorrow."

"Well I wasn't until I saw on Twitter that somebody claiming they knew our address got tweeted at the group page. So I figured I'd come make sure no one was lurking at our house." Austin was surprisingly chill given the creepy situation.

"Oh, that's weird. Why didn't you just ask me to do it?"

"I texted it in the GroupChat, but nobody even read it, so after 40 minutes I just decided to come home. Luckily if anybody had been here they weren't outside when I got home."

"Oh yeah, I forgot we had you on mute in the GroupChat cuz you kept sending us links to download that fucking anime game." Nick rolled his eyes chuckling.

"I find that extremely offensive and you should still download it and play with me." Austin shrugged then turned his attention back towards the TV.

"Hey do you guys have like an ice pack or something?" Desiree asked. She was holding her arm as her bruise continued to make her arm throb. "And maybe some compression tape?"

"Yeah they're upstairs, I'll show you." Nick offered a small smile.

"Thanks." Desiree grinned back and followed Nick towards the staircase. "Austin watch Meri. And don't show her anything weird!" She yelled before heading up the stairs.

"No problem." Austin yelled back, before changing to a different show on Hulu. "Alright Meri, lemme put you on to My Hero Academia."

Lo's Hoes
Is Desiree finally letting her guard down?! Hope ya liked this chapter and I'll see u next week luvs 😘 vote and comment