NIKITA'S POV
I don't know the level of injury that I have sustained as my body hit the post. I know that if it weren't for the hoodie and pants I was wearing that I would probably be a bleeding mess right now.
I tried to lift up my body. I felt a sudden sting in my right arm. Just around the elbow hurt badly. I sat up after a bit of difficulty just as the car opened and a tall gigantic figure stepped out. I didn't even have time to stop and look at his obnoxious face.
I am not sure if that's a correct adjective for describing the face of someone you don't know but I used it anyway.
"Oh my God. I am so sorry." He rushed forward. My nose picked up the smell of beer immediately. It's either the idiot had been drinking while driving or had just finished drinking before getting behind the wheel. And whichever of them it turns out to be, he was still a fool.
I tried to stand up. I had hurt my knee, that was for sure, because the pains I felt there weren't just from anything else.
I ignored the drunk driver and pulled the legs of my pants up and oh my God, I was bleeding from both knees. I even had another wound on my right ankle. God! Today can't be any worse. I felt like crying.
I rolled up my sleeves to look at my hands. There was a slight red swelling on my left elbow. It wasn't that serious. My left shoulder ached as well and I seriously hoped that I had not dislocated it.
I tried to look up at the reckless youngster. Tears clouded up my vision. I looked back down and picked up my bag that had fallen.
"Look, I'm very sorry." He stepped closer. His scent engulfed me. He smelled like a mixture of lavender and citrus. As if he had poured the whole bottle on himself before coming out of the car. The scent was too strong on him.
"Oh my God. You are bleeding."
What's with the overt use of exclamations. I wanted to ask him but my mouth was shut. I squandered over to the side of the open car. Just on the passenger seat of the front was a bottle of beer.
I thought as much. I laughed lightly.
"Drunk driving, uh?" I asked sarcastically. It wasn't even a question, the evidence was right in front of me.
"Look, it's not what you think." He argued. "Let me take you to the infirmary." He said and stepped closer.
"Don't come any further." I objected. I took a quick look at my phone, it was almost nine. There was no way I would make it to Brooklyn even before 9:30. I take one last look at the defaulter in front of me before walking off.
I walked as fast as I could. The taxi that I had ordered was yet to be here and if it didn't arrive in the next five minutes, I will opt for the subway.
Luckily enough, it stopped right in front of me and I climbed in. "Are you in a rush, miss?" The driver asked.
Was he planning on taking me on a tour of New York city or what?
"If you can drive thrice as fast as you normally do when someone is in a hurry, then I would really appreciate it."
He chucked without saying another word.
I closed my eyes and rested my back on the seat. I ran my hands gently over the spot where I had just gotten bruised. It was not going to be that easy. It was going to inflate and swell up. And this was definitely going to cause a lot of trouble for me.
.....
I don't know how many minutes it took me to get to Axiom studio but I am greeted by an angry looking Gloria Stein when I limp out of the car.
She always looked grumpy and although I know why she does, I have never allowed that to be an issue for me.
"I said thirty minutes. You swallowed up more than an hour." She fumed.
The word 'swallow' just made me realise that I haven't eaten breakfast yet. My stomach grumbled.
"I took a cab, Gloria. I didn't fly." I said and walked past her into the company's building.
Axiom Records is, you could say, one of Monroe's family properties. It belonged to them. They bought it from the original owners or so they said, and that was for their beloved young daughter, Elara Monroe, alias Kiki Sparks.
Fucking Kiki Sparks.
The mention of that name alone makes my stomach churn with boiling hatred.
"Don't you know how to keep to time?" Gloria's voice came behind me again.
I was not even interested in the fact that she was talking. I was trying to not make it obvious that I was limping in pain. I opened the door to her office and walked in before settling down in one of the chairs.
"I'm talking to you Nikita." She yelled and I looked up at the older woman.
Her curly hair falling with the heaving of her chest. She wore tinted glasses and that sometimes made her look like a miniature of Professor Geller.
I breathed in slowly. "The time I took to get here..." I paused for a while. "It takes longer than 30 minutes to drive from School to this fucking place." I yelled.
She was taken aback by my sudden outburst but seemed to recover quite quickly.
"What are you trying to say?" She asked. She sighed before looking at my trembling legs.
"You got hurt? You hurt yourself?" She yelled again.
"Lower your voice, woman. My ears are hurting." I said and turned to look at the other side. I was trying hard to fight the tears that were trying to cloud up my eyes.
"Kiki... Elara wants to see you." She said and looked away slowly.
I waited for the so-called Elara. The office was quiet except for the timed tapping of Gloria's pen against the table.
"I like Love Mines." She said abruptly.
"Everybody does." I retorted sharply.
"Nikita I..." I plug in my earpods blocking out her emotional discourse.
The door opened almost immediately and she catwalks inside. She, my nemesis. The only person whose very existence gives me reasons to jump off the cliff and whose existence is also giving me reasons not to attempt to.
"Oh hello, hi." She says in her quirky tone.
"Did I keep anybody waiting? Oh of course not." She exclaims and walks inside. "Oh did you watch Nichole's show this morning? I guess you did. She is your mentor after all." She grins.
Gloria stands up and she sits down on her seat.
"Did you see the awards show?" She asked tauntingly. "Or you must have heard of the awards." She grinned again.
"Three awards." She said and gestured with her fingers.
I know exactly what she was trying to do and unfortunately, it gets me every single time.
"How do you feel uh? Everybody loves Love Mines by Kiki Sparks."
Her voice was heavy on the Kiki Sparks. I almost wanted to punch her.
"How do you do it? How do you write the songs and get the right lyrics and how do you sing it?" Her eyes were peering at me with pure mockery.
I noticed Gloria shift uncomfortably. I was even more uncomfortable. I was trying hard not to show.
"I think I'm in love with the song too. "I stepped it out and right into a field and it was filled, filled up with love mines..."
She sang in her croaky voice. That was when I got back my confidence. She might take the fame, but at the end of the day, I am Kiki Sparks.
"Why am I here, Elara?"