Player of Life (Perception Book 4)

by Shandi Boyes

  When we went to the bar, Tina appeared extremely confused when she noticed me with Nick again. Her concerned eyes stared at me, like she was trying to silently warn me away from him. I nodded my head at her. I knew what I was getting myself into with Nick. He has never given me any indication that I am here for the long haul and I am fine with that. I am having fun and enjoying my life, before I ship off to my next big adventure.

  The next two month’s things follow along a similar path with Nick and I. We would spend every weekend dancing at the Dungeon before an impromptu romp either in Nick’s truck or his bedroom. Normally if we ended up back at Nick’s house, I ensured I drove my own car so I wouldn’t have any more embarrassing walks of shame.

  We also did regular ‘dates’ most Sunday’s. Where we would either go to the café at Bronte’s peak or to the cinema’s to watch a movie. Nick definitely isn’t the talkative type, but my heart would race every time he held my hand or he would kiss me with so much tenderness my knees would buckle. I knew that the more time I spent with Nick the harder it was going to be to leave him, but I couldn’t give up one single moment he was willing to share with me. I cherished every single minute I had with him, as deep down inside I knew eventually something would come between us. I just didn’t realise it was going to be me leaving for college.

  I had mentioned my college plans to Nick a few times and normally he didn’t seem too phased by it, but I’ve noticed tonight that he is a lot quieter than normal.

  “Only one round tonight?” I cheekily joke as I finish doing up the buttons on my shirt.

  Nick and I are parked in his truck at Bronte’s peak. We had just spent the last thirty minutes getting hot and heavy. Normally Nick goes a minimum of two rounds, so I was surprised when he started pulling on his jeans after only the first round.

  “Keeping up with you on the dance floor must have worn me out” he replies laughing, but I notice his smile isn’t as large as it normally is.

  “What time do you fly out on Friday?” he questions as his gaze turns to look at me.

  “Ten am” I reply, triggering his eyebrows to pull together tightly.

  “Did you need a lift?” he offers kindly. I shake my head.

  “No, Emily is dropping me off” I advise. His eyes leisurely roam over my face, before he slowly nods his head.

  When he dropped me off at home, he kissed me slowly and tenderly, causing my heart to fill with love. If he had asked me right then and there to stay, I would have. But he never did.

  I would like to pretend that my heart hasn’t already fallen for Nick, but that would be a lie. I loved him before I had even slept with him.

  I just wish he felt the same way.

  Chapter 16

  Nick

  “How are you finding living in the big city?” I question into my cell phone as I start strolling towards the entrance of Mavericks.

  “It’s going okay, it’s a little daunting though” Jenni replies nervously.

  Jenni had left two weeks ago today to start her university studies in New York City. I have sent her an occasional text message in those two weeks, but today I really wanted to hear her voice so I decided to call her instead.

  “It will get better” I respond confidently. I am sure she will soon settle in. She has that type of personality that draws people to her. I think that is why Slater took her under his wing.

  “Hopefully” she replies sullenly.

  “Are you excited about tonight?” she questions happily.

  “Yeah, excited and a little nervous” I reply honestly, triggering her to giggle.

  “You will be fine” she replies.

  Tonight, Isaac’s friend Cormack is finally going to watch our band perform live. I never ended up giving Isaac the information he wanted on Emily, so he never mentioned our bands name to his music executive friend. It was just lucky that I met him in passing one day and mentioned our band to him myself. He ended up showing up at Mavericks a few weeks ago and took one of our demo CD’s we had created. After our meeting with them on Sunday, he organised for his music executive talent scouts to come and watch us perform.

  Jenni takes in several deep breaths over the phone before she eventually whispers “I miss you Nick”.

  I would be fucking lying if I said I didn’t miss her too. I miss her every day. I miss her every time I walk into the Dungeon and she isn’t holding my hand. I miss her when I order a bottle of beer and a glass a wine from Tina, because I had become accustomed to doing that every weekend for the past two months. I miss the way she smells and I miss her smile. But I am never going to tell her that. Jenni has always made me break every one of my ‘Player’ rules, but there is one rule I will never break – I will never fall in love. When she notices that I remain quiet on my end of the line, she breathes out harshly.

  “I have to go” she states crossly.

  “Wait” I interrupt not wanting our call to end yet, but I am too late as she has already disconnected the call. I quickly redial her number and my call gets sent straight to voicemail.

  “Fuck” I curse into the darkened sky. I quickly start typing a message into my phone.

  I miss you too.

  Admitting that I miss her, isn’t telling her that I love her. Right? My finger hovers over the send button as my heart rapidly beats. My eyes flicking between the send and the delete button. I am gripping my phone so hard my knuckles are starting to go white. I eventually shove my phone back in my pocket angrily, not hitting either button.

  “Hi Nick” states a female voice to my right, scaring the living daylights out of me.

  “Hi” I reply back as the female figure moves out of the darkness into the street lighting.

  Oh shit, it’s the girl from a few months ago, the young brunette with the hazel eyes. I still can’t recall what her name is. She smiles brightly at me before she unexpectedly throws herself into my arms. I gently pry her hands off my neck and pull her back away from me.

  “It’s nice seeing you again” I say, while quickly heading towards the entrance doors of Mavericks, wanting to get as far away from her as possible.

  We have had a couple of groupies the past few months get a little handsy and over excited, but this lady has a bit of craziness in her eyes that freaks me out.

  “Do you want a little boy or a girl?” she questions excitedly.

  I freeze halfway upon entering Mavs. My confused gaze turns back to look at her smiling happily at me, before she walks closer to me.

  “I think we will have a little girl” she says as she stands in front of me, her excited eyes flicking back and forth between mine.

  “I’m not planning on having any kids for many years to come” I reply matter-of-factly.

  “Oh yes you are” she states firmly as she nods her head “In around seven months” she continues, forcing my heart to drop into my stomach.

  What the fuck? My eyes quickly dart around the space trying to see if Slater or Jacob are in the vicinity. They must be pranking me, as there is no way what she is saying could be true. I always use protection. If I don’t have it, I don’t have sex.

  “You’re joking, right?” I question seriously. Her eyes narrow angrily as she crosses her arms and shakes her head.

  I quickly wrap my hand around her small arm and pull her into the darkness of the carpark. I want to make sure that no one can overhear our conversation.

  “That isn’t possible, I never have sex without protection” I inform sternly.

  “You did that night, you said you wanted to have a baby with me” she replies as she flutters her eyelashes.

  “That is not fucking possible” I yell angrily. I know I was pretty smashed that night but there is no way those words would have ever left my fucking lips.

  “I went to the doctors, you’re the only guy I’ve ever slept with, so you’re the father” she informs. I angrily run my hand down my face, trying to think of a way to get out of this fucked up situation.

  “I can give you money
to take care of it” I inform. Her eager and excited eyes continue to flick between mine, until the realisation dawns on her face. I wasn’t offering to look after her and the baby, I was offering for her to get an abortion.

  “I could never do that” she whispers angrily as she clutches a large gold cross hanging around her neck, while her hazel eyes start to fill with tears.

  “I can’t take care of a kid right now, I’m not financially stable, I don’t have a house, I don’t have anything I could offer a kid” I stumble out nervously. I also don’t want to be a father, especially not with her.

  “That’s okay, I can support all three of us, I have some money that my daddy left me and I could get a job, it will all work out” she replies, her eyes once again beaming with excitement.

  I stand still, staring into her crazy eyes. My heart rapidly beating as everything I have ever wanted in life starts to slip between my fingers. Suddenly, Noah’s voice filters around the carpark as he completes a sound check, reminding me about tonight’s performance.

  “I have to go; I have to go perform” I say dazed.

  “I can meet you after the show?” she advises. In my confused and disoriented state, I nod my head before swiftly making my way towards the stage.

  “About time fuckface” Slater angrily states as I stumble my way onto the stage. I flip him the bird before lowering down to help Noah set up my guitar amp.

  “Sorry I’m late Noah, I just had some shit to sort out” I advise. Shit that is going to turn my life fucking upside down.

  I notice that the lady that is claiming I have fathered a child with, moves towards the back of the bar area. Her hazel eyes watching my every movement. When Noah jumps down off the stage to go and take a leak, I quickly make my way over to her.

  “Can I get your details and call you tomorrow?” I question, since the cloud of fog in my head is starting to lift.

  I need to concentrate on my performance tonight. This is the opportunity our band has been waiting on for years, and I am not going to let a little slip up fuck this one chance we have at making it big.

  She smiles brightly before she scribbles her name and number down on a Mavericks napkin. She kisses the corner of the napkin, leaving a pink lipstick outline, before she hands it over to me. “Megan” I read off the napkin.

  “I’ll talk to you tomorrow” she states eagerly before she skips out of the bar

  ****

  When Noah first motioned for me to look at Emily when we were on stage, I found it surprising that she was stumbling. I’d never seen her touch a drop of alcohol. It was only once the guy wrapped his arms around Emily did I realise what was happening. I’d never understood why a guy needed to drug a girl to get her to sleep with them. Believe me, there are plenty of desperate women out every weekend. You just need to lower your standards if all the good ones are already taken. I didn’t have a chance of pulling Noah off the guy once he started beating him. It was only when I yelled in his ear that Emily needed him, did he finally stop pummelling his face.

  When he scooted across to her and I caught the devastated look in his eye, all I could see was Jenni. Even though I’ve never been a fighter, I’m pretty sure I would have responded in the exact same manner that Noah just did. Noah ended up going in the ambulance with Emily, while the rest of us stayed and issued statements to a detective that was a friend of Noah and Jacob’s.

  When I called Jenni to inform her what had happened to Emily she was devastated. It took a lot of convincing from me that she didn’t need to get on the first flight home. Her tears only lessened once I personally went and checked that Emily was okay with my own eyes.

  It was around an hour after Emily was admitted that I noticed Cormack knocking on her hospital room door. When I nodded my head to Slater and Marcus, signalling for them to look at the door, they both smiled before all three of us quietly left Noah in the room staring at Emily.

  Cormack was pretty stern to start with about how disappointed he was when the band ran off stage in the middle of a performance. But he said considering the circumstances, he fully understood. When he said they wanted to offer us a lucrative contract, the excitement was overwhelming, even Slater slapped me on the back in euphoria. Once Slater and Marcus shook Cormack’s hand, they eagerly made their way back into Emily’s room.

  “Congratulations, you have a great group and I think this is just the beginning of a very successful collaboration” Cormack stated excitedly as he offered me his hand to shake.

  The very first person I called to tell about our record deal was Jenni. Then I called my brother Isaac. Even without his help, our band has managed to successfully gain our own record deal.

  “I had no doubt you would do it Nick, I just wanted you to earn it yourself, you’ll treasure it more now” Isaac informed. I guess what he was saying is true. The fact that we earned this on our own credit, makes it feel even more worthwhile.

  During the same conversation I ended up telling Isaac about Megan. At first he reprimanded me sternly about not using adequate protection. It was only when I blatantly denied not using protection did he suggest that I should look a little further into her story. Especially considering the fact that we have just been signed to a label.

  “Some women will do anything for a free ride” Isaac said.

  That is when I decided not to call Megan back the following morning. I ended up calling a lawyer instead.

  Chapter 17

  Jenni

  The first two weeks of college was a confusing time and I am not even talking about the classes. Nick sent me the occasional text message, but it didn’t take a genius to realise that since I was no longer in his vicinity, he wasn’t thinking about me anymore. I was surprised when he ended up calling me the night they were due to perform in front of the music executives. I hadn’t even considered his response when I told him that I missed him. It was just a heat of the moment thing I said, but I felt my heart crack when he never responded. Feeling like an idiot, I disconnected the call.

  When he called me to tell me Emily was roofied at Mavericks bar, I wanted to get on the first flight home. Emily has been my best friend more than half of my life and I wanted to be there for her. Nick ended up convincing me that there was nothing I would be able to do for Emily and assured me that Noah was properly looking after her.

  When he called me an hour later to tell me they secured a record deal, I was so excited for him and his band mates. I squealed that loud Nick is going to hear my voice ringing in his ear for the next week. Once I disconnected my call from Nick, I quickly sent Slater a message.

  Congrats xx

  Thanks! How do you already know?

  I have my resources…

  Ha, well thanks. I am fucking stoked.

  You should be! You deserve it!

  I’ll see you in a few weeks’ city slicker?

  Can’t wait, bye.

  Bye.

  The next two months of college flew by and before I knew it I was heading back home for a long weekend with my family. Nick has stayed in regular contact the entire two months and not just via text messages. He called me and a handful of times we also skyped. My flight home wasn’t supposed to be arriving until late Friday afternoon, but I had managed to get an earlier flight. I was a little homesick and I couldn’t wait to see Emily, my parents and of course Nick. When I landed at the airport, I took a taxi straight to my parent’s law firm.

  You could imagine my surprise when I walked into their firm to find Nick walking out of my mom’s office. His shocked face stared at me, like he couldn’t believe I was standing in front of him, before he eventually came over and kissed my cheek in greeting.

  “Hi” I whisper in his ear, while taking a large whiff of his seductive scent.

  His eyes slowly roam over my face, triggering me to blush, before my mom interrupts our intense stare off by giving out a stern cough.

  “Hi mom” I greet, while reluctantly walking away from Nick to give her a quick brief hug.

/>   Nick’s confused gaze flicks between my mom and I and his face morphs into concern.

  “I’ll talk to you next week” my mom advises Nick sternly. Nick stares at her, before he slowly nods his head.

  “I will see you tomorrow?” he questions confused as his blue eyes stare directly into mine.

  “Yep” I reply smiling. Emily and Noah have organised for all of us to have a BBQ at Bronte’s peak.

  Nick hesitantly waves before spinning on heels, walking briskly out of my parent’s law firm.