Because of You (Because of You 1)

I grimaced at that big number.

"That's the best deal I can get, Nikki. He’s cutting me a break. Can you afford it?"

I thought of my savings account, which had a balance of exactly $357.86. "I can, but I don't have the cash on me, it's in my savings. Can you take me to the bank?"

He nodded. "Yeah, let me just run in and tell him we'll be back."

Derek ran me up to the bank, but when we got there, we ran into another huge problem.

I had the money in my bank account, but I was still 17 and minors couldn't withdraw money without a parent or guardian present.

"Are you serious?" I said to no one in particular after the people at the bank rejected me.

Derek gave me a dark look, sighing as I grumbled and complained about how much life sucked.

"This is great," I said, shaking my head. "I can't even get the money out of my account without Alex, so I can even get the car fixed."

"Will he let you take the money out?"

"What?" I asked, looking over at him.

"If your dad was here, would he let you take the money out?" he clarified.

"Yeah," I answered. "He doesn't care what I spend my money on, it's just a matter of him not being here… If I can’t get the money without him, he’s going to find out, and if he finds out he’s going to kill me and never let me use his car again."

He sighed, muttering a few swearwords under his breath and muttered, "You better be right," as he walked into the bank.

"What are you doing?" I asked, following him.

"I'm 18," he stated. "I can take money out of my accounts without anyone's permission."

My jaw fell open and I could only gape at his back.

Then he turned around, saying, "And I am not joking, Nicole, if you don't pay me back—”

"I will!" I said eagerly, cutting him off. "I promise. I'll pay you back tomorrow after school. Alex doesn't have to go in until four tomorrow, so he'll be able to take me to the bank."

Derek nodded, walking over to the line to wait for the next teller.

I couldn't help it, I walked up beside him and said, "Thank you so much."

He looked disgruntled, but he gave me a sideways glance and said, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just don't tell anybody."

This caused me to grin at him, thinking maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

Derek took me back to his house, which was a strange experience, although he did tell me again to stay in the car. I wasn't offended that time, because the last thing I wanted to do was walk into his house and see Mike, or maybe a picture of the happy little family hanging on the wall.

For just a few hours, Derek and I seemed to have forgotten the history that our family shared, and since he was doing me a huge favor, I wasn't inclined to push my luck by reminding him.

Luckily, I didn't have to see Mike at all, and when Derek came back with a toolbox, I was pretty happy to leave. For some reason, being there kind of gave me the creeps.

Derek took me back up to the empty school, and even though he had been nice that day, I was still glad no one was around to see us together.

While Derek was in the middle of changing my second tire, Alanis started singing again, and I looked down to see that it was Andy.

I had been dreading that call, but I had expected it all day. I wanted to push ignore and call him back later, but I knew he would be worried.

"Hello?" I answered quietly, even though Derek was right there under my car, so he could hear me even if I whispered.