Chapter 16: Promises, Promises...

A week dragged by - seven days without Linda. For Nikki it was hell. It was like the most dreadful torture anyone could inflict on one's worst enemy. All her family were deeply worried about her - Nikki knew that - but their love and concern weren't enough to make the pain go away. Nikki thought she would go crazy. She couldn't sleep, she couldn't eat... She just wanted to die... She wanted to be left alone in her room where she could cry freely and think about Linda and why the world was so cruel. She skipped school because she didn't trust herself. Her self-control hit an all-time low. She would probably burst into tears in front of her friends for no apparent reason. She trembled every time she thought of the humiliating scene of their final quarrel. Just thinking about it made it more real, as if their final separation had actually happened.

To make matters worse, her parents' despair was obvious - they even considered calling Emma Mansfield and having the shrink fly from California to Florida. At the end of the week her parents decided enough was enough. They were going to call Linda and ask their eldest daughter to bring her younger sister back to her senses. As soon as this threat was spoken, Nikki cringed. She finally realized that her tantrums wouldn't bring her sister back. 'And why am I crying?' she reasoned angrily with herself. 'I broke up with her. Stop being a baby and go on with your life!' The following Monday she was back in school, exerting herself to pay attention to her teachers and friends. Still, everybody noticed how quiet she had become.

After school, Nikki moved out on the grass and away from her fellow students, to wait for Zoë and Jeannie. She sighed. She missed Lana... With the move to Florida, she lost a very good friend. Lana wasn't much of a writer and the distance between them deprived Nikki of the only person she would confide in other than Linda and the twins. Lana and Nikki would exchange phone calls now and then but their folks were already complaining about those "unnecessary" long-distance calls.

Nikki sighed again. The painful image of her sister leaving home hit her again. They hadn't spoken during breakfast on Linda's last morning. Linda wouldn't look at her, keeping her eyes down. She talked to Jeannie and Zoë, to everybody except her, Nikki, "the love of her life" or so had Linda called her... 'Promises, Promises... ' it rang in her mind. Linda had never promised her anything but still those words, that song kept hounding her. Linda had walked out of the front door without a kiss or even a hug... She just left, without looking back. It seemed as though Big Sis was happy to leave her behind. At last Linda was free, free from her smothering love.

Someone tapped on her shoulder. Nikki turned around expecting to see Jeff Steinberg or another awful bore like Mrs Brown, the math teacher. Nikki smiled. It was Cindy Lopez with her hunk of a boyfriend, Chad something... She didn't recall his last name. Cindy had tried several times to become friends with her. Nikki didn't understand Cindy's insistence. Why didn't she leave her alone? Why did she keep cropping up with Chad by her side? These two gave her the creeps as though their open smiles hid a "darker" intent. She wondered if they wanted a threesome, but somehow that idea was ridiculous. This time it was an invitation to a birthday party, Chad's, Cindy explained. Nikki hated to say no just for the hell of it. 'I'd better find a good excuse, ' she thought, but before she could give an answer she saw Zoë and Jeannie coming her way.

"Hi, Nikki," Jeannie greeted. "Ready to go home?"

"Sure," Nikki said, happy for this distraction. "I'm sorry," she added, facing Cindy and Chad, "but I've gotta go."

"OK, Nikki," Cindy said, throwing her curly black hair away from her attractive face. "You don't have to give me an answer right now. Just think about it. Promise me?"

"OK... Bye."

Nikki and her sisters strode away, heading for the parking lot. Nikki braced herself for a cross-examination. The twins didn't say a word, though. They walked silently to Linda's Jeep, which was Nikki's now. Before the breakup Linda promised her the Jeep when she went away. After the breakup Nikki refused to take the keys. In spite of that, Linda left them on the vanity, along with a short and laconic note: "Here are the keys."

Nikki and the twins rode back home, no one breaking the silence. With Linda gone, Nikki reckoned that even her parents looked sadder. Linda was the sunshine of the house, the bumper that absorbed the unavoidable shocks between the conflicting personalities in the family. The twins had each other, however, and sometimes their high spirits hurt Nikki inside. She was happy for them, though. At least they were having fun... Nikki sighed, stopping the Jeep in the driveway. Nikki and the twins wandered into the house through the front door. The back door was locked and bolted from the inside, a safety measure against burglars.

"Nikki?" said Jeannie, breaking the silence at last, stopping at the foot of the stairs and turning toward her older sister. "We're going to freshen up before we go to the beach. There's a beach party this afternoon. Wanna come?"

"Beach party?" Nikki frowned.

"It's nothing big... Just a bunch of guys... and girls we know... Come on, it's gonna be fun."

"No, I am not in the mood."

"Oh come on, Nikki... Staying here on your own isn't going to help. Trust me."

"How do you know? You have Zoë right next to you."

"But we all lost Linda too. You're not the only one feeling sad. Come on, come with us. Don't be such a pain in the neck."

'Pain in the neck?' Nikki thought. No one ever called her a pain in the neck. That epithet made her think about how much she had changed since Linda left for college. She was not the smiling happy-go-lucky girl everyone used to know. She had become a pain in the neck... That realization made her say, "All right... I'll come with you. You're right. No use staying here and feeling sorry for myself."

Nikki looked at the blue sky, feeling the sea breeze caressing her face and hair. With a quick motion of her head, she threw her hair back and over her naked shoulders. It was 4 PM and the sun was still high enough to embrace her with warmth, driving away the sorrow. She looked at the twins, and smiled to herself. The twins were popular with the guys. It seemed the guys had their own "ideas" about them, particularly when Zoë and Jeannie held hands. Little did they know that those "ideas" were being "realized" every night in the twins' room. If they did know, how would they react? Would they whistle approval? Would they boo? 'Who cares?' Nikki thought. They were having fun and hurting no one.

Most of the girls in the group were quite standoffish, Nikki concluded, watching a bevy of them sitting close together in their stylish bikinis and swimsuits. They were quite attractive but they didn't join in the action. That is, the tickling brawl that had developed between the twins and two of the guys, Brian and Johnny. Brenda and Marie were the exceptions, grabbing the guys and helping the twins. In no time that part of the beach became a battlefield of laughter, tickling and shrieks of delight and protest. Against Nikki's will, a third guy started to tickle her... Joining the fun personally was not in her plans. He started it, though, and now she wanted to help the twins - no matter what. Soon enough all the participants in the brawl fell on the sand in laughter. The bevy of prissy beauties that had run away to avoid the brawl stepped cautiously back, as if they were afraid of being dragged without warning into another tickling fight.

Nikki laughed, feeling the sand in the most intimate parts of her body. She wanted to swim in the sea and to wash away the sand. A guy had felt her breast during the brawl, or so it had seemed. She was about to look for the culprit when she heard someone from afar yell "Hi there!"

"Linda!" the twins and Nikki shouted with utter surprise.

"Yes, it's me," said Linda, smiling, wearing a tight swimsuit that enhanced all the curves of her body. She had her hand on her left hip and the other was holding her huge jute bag. "I see I'm missing the fun."

"What're you doing here?" asked the astonished Jeannie, rushing over to Big Sis.