Wow, really nice; I love your dialogue. One thing confused me, though. Toward the middle you write

but the other half’s totally nonplussed because after all this is what I half expected of Nicki’s future- failure, depression, waste.

Nonplussed means surprised, so it seems kind of weird that Katie's surprised about something she expected all along.

Anyway, though, great story. I really enjoyed it.

I really like the description throughout, a good job of characterization through the dialogue and description. I especially think you portrayed the tension between the characters really well.