by Lisa Graves
Before I could even look up, my heart started to race at hearing Nicholas’s voice. I felt like I could jump out of my skin. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know how to act. I closed my book and set it on the bed stand. “Hey,” was my brilliant response.
Nicholas laughed. “Hey?”
“What are you doing here?”
He ignored my question, and brushed his shaggy blond hair out of his eyes. “Gheez. I was sure you were going to run and jump into my waiting arms this time.” Nicholas opened his arms and waited.
I hesitated for half a second before deciding to jump feet first into my task and into his arms. I could tell he was more than a little surprised when I actually did it.
Being held a foot off the ground, in his big strong arms, I said, “I’ve missed you.”
I could feel him breath me in. “I’ve missed you too. And that’s why I’m back for good.”
“Huh?” he set me down on the bed and sat down beside me.
“I may have thrown a ginormous fit to get my mom to let me come live at dad’s, but it worked. I’m back,” he repeated.
This was great. It still felt wrong, but I’d just have to somehow get over that for it to work. And with Nicholas here, it just might. The new hope I felt, lifted my mood.
“So, can I bring you on a date?”
He wasn’t wasting any time. “Sure. When were you thinking?”
“Now works good for me.” Yep. Wasting no time at all.
I shook my head. I was still in my pajamas, dirty, and I hadn’t brushed my teeth yet. “How about later?”
“When were you thinking, hoe?” he looked kind-of sad. Like he’d just been rejected.
I had to clarify. “Today is good. I just need to shower and such.”
The smile returned to his face. “Can you get ready in the time it takes me to run and get us coffee goodness?”
I mentally tabulated. He could be there and back in about fifteen minutes. “Sure,” I said wary. “But take your time.” Maybe I could squeeze twenty minutes out of him.
“Kay. I’ll be back in a minute. Oh, and dress warm.”
I was in and out of the shower in no time. I was just putting the finishing touches on my hair. It was getting a little longer, so it wasn’t spiking very well, but the sweepy bangs didn’t look half bad. As I walked out of the bathroom, Nicholas was coming up the stairs, coffee in hand.
“You look good, Lil.” He handed me my drink.
“Thanks. So what’s the plan?”
“You’ll just have to see.”
I followed him downstairs, and as we opened the door to leave, Meredith happened by.
“Nicholas?”
“Hey, Mrs. B.”
She looked at me, confused. “I thought you were in Oregon.”
“Not anymore.”
“We’re going out, mom.”
She smiled. “On a date?”
I shook my head as I walked outside, but Nicholas said, “Yes,” as he closed the door.
He opened the door of his old hand-me-down mercedes for me.
“You didn’t need to tell her we’re going on a date.”
He got in the driver’s side. “Yes I did. If not, she’s going to think I’m some kind of stalker for how often I plan on being at your house.”
I gave him a dirty look, but couldn’t help but smile. I took in a deep breath of the hot cup of coffee in my hand. I loved that smell. “So where we going?” I asked again.
He laughed.
“What?”
“Look in the back, hoe.”
There in the back of his car was our snowboarding gear. My purple boarding pants, black coat, and black and white chick board. It had flower shapes on it. Nicholas’s blue gear was there too.
I couldn’t keep the excitement from my voice. “We’re going boarding?”
“Yep.”
“When did you grab my gear?”
“Before I woke you up. I snaked it from your garage so we would be ready to go. It doesn’t look like you’ve used it all season.”
“I haven’t had anyone to go with.”
He winked at me. “Well now you do.”
Nicholas was definitely the happiest person to ever get the boyfriend title. It was sweet. I tried to not to feel guilty for using him. And right now I was so happy to be going boarding that I didn’t. I took another drink of my macchiato.
He turned on some tunes and looked at me as we drove up Little Cottonwood Canyon. “So, you like my boyfriend skills?”
“You have some good boyfriend skills.”
“Woot.”
The roads were clear, but a little icy as we made our way up to Brighton. It didn’t take us long to get there and get geared up. In less than forty-five minutes from leaving my house, we were zooming down the mountain. What a nice, unexpected day!
I had decent snowboarding skills. Definitely past the bunny hill stage, but I didn’t have the mad skills Nicholas had. I knew he could do the more difficult runs, but he didn’t leave me for a second. It was sweet.
After our fourth run, it was pushing lunchtime. “What do you want to do for lunch?” I asked.
“I totally have it covered.”
I sped up and zoomed past him, powder flying. “Do you?”
He lapped me a few minutes later and went off a jump. Nicholas air-born I heard, “Yes!”
I avoided the jump and caught up with him. We crisscrossed down the rest of the run.
Nicholas did a fancy stop, spraying me with snow. “So you’re hungry?”
I looked at him from under my wet face and stuck my tongue out. Could he possibly have planned lunch too? “Yes I’m hungry.”
“Kay. I brought pellets.”
“Hamster pellets? Yum.” I teased.
“No. I brought Lilly and Nicholas pellets.”
We unstrapped and walked back to his car. “What is a Lilly pellet?” I asked.
“Dr Pepper and saltines.”
I nodded. He was right.
“And what’s a Nicholas pellet?”
“Snacks,” he pulled out a little cooler from his trunk. It was filled with: Dr Pepper, saltines, candy bars, granola bars, and trail mix. The works. “Want to eat in the lodge?”
“Sounds good to me.”
After lunch, I only managed to do another three runs before my legs were shaking so badly I could barely stand. Even though I couldn’t feel below my waist as Nicholas drove us down the canyon, it was a great day.
“That was so much fun. Thanks again.” I smiled at my brown-eyed friend. Uh, boyfriend. “This was a great date.”
Nicholas raised his eyebrows at me. “Oh, the date’s not over.”
“It’s not?”
“Nope.”
A smug smile colored his face the rest of the ride home. We reached the base of the mountain at dinner time. I was sweaty, hungry, and exhausted. Whatever he had planned better include hot chocolate.
We had to stop for gas. It was as if he could read my mind, for he came out of the gas station with a hot chocolate for each of us.
I shook my head and smiled.
“What?” he asked as he gave me my wish.
I laughed. “I was just thinking how hot chocolate would make this about perfect. That and a shower.”
“Well, you can’t shower yet.”
“Why?”
“Just trust me, Lil.”
“Kay.” I had no idea what else Nicholas had up his sleeve, but I would bet money that he’d been planning various romantic escapades for months. He had just been waiting for me to cave.
We made one more stop on the way home to pick up a pizza, before we pulled into his driveway just a few minutes past seven.
I groaned as I dragged my aching body out of his car. “Urgh! I really don’t feel like unloading.”
“Yeah, me neither. I’m beat. I’ll do it tomorrow, Lil.”
“Sounds good to me.”
We sat down at his table and ate our pizza pellets. As it qu
ickly disappeared I said, “Well, thanks again, Nicholas. Today was a ton of fun.”
“I’m glad you had a good time, hoe, but the date’s not over.”
I looked at the clock. It was getting close to nine. It was still Saturday, but I was beat.
“Today’s been awesome, but I really don’t think I’d be up for anything else. I can’t even stand up Nitch-o-las. I haven’t boarded in over a year. I’m not entirely sure I can walk home.”
“And once again I rock, Lil.”
“You do?”
He gave me a dirty look.
“I mean, you do!” I corrected with enthusiasm.
“My dad is on another date.”
“Kay?”
“Well, normally he’d flip, but since he’s not home, I figured we could go out on the deck and relax our tired muscles in the hot tub.”
Wow. That did sound most excellent at the moment. There was a really good chance I wasn’t going to be able to walk tomorrow, and a nice soak would feel great. I smiled at him. “He will kill us if he catches us out there unsupervised.”
“I know,” Nicholas made a kiss shape with his lips. “But what’s life without a little adventure.”
I went to stand up. I’d need to run home and get my swim suit. That is assuming I could still run. I couldn’t. My legs shook just to stand. “I don’t think I have the energy to run home for my suit.”
“I may have already snaked that too.”
“How?”
“I grabbed it before I ran to get coffee this morning.”
He had planned everything.
“I stuck it in my drawer in the bathroom. You can change in there, while I go and get on my suit.”
At least the bathroom wasn’t far. I managed to make it without falling. I did have to sit on the toilet to change though. How pathetic. The soreness was the result of my sedentary lifestyle. It was kind of miraculous that I was thin, and good thing. Nicholas had managed to grab my bikini instead of my one piece suit. I’m sure it was an accident on his part. I came out of the bathroom wrapped in a towel.
Nicholas was already on the deck. He’d taken the lid off of the hot tub and was just getting in as I came outside. All of the lights were off except for the light on the bottom of the tub.
I stepped down into the hot water and immediately felt my body succumb to the heat. Physically exhausted, I lay back and relaxed. Nicholas scooted close and put an arm around me. He hadn’t put a move on me all day, and now he was working his magic when I had no energy to fight him off. Maybe that was his plan all along.
I was too tired to reset boundaries. And we were technically dating now, so an arm around me should be alright. It was a lot softer of a head rest than the fiberglass tub. I looked up and enjoyed the beautiful winter starry sky. It was so clear.
That was when he started making me feel uncomfortable. “I love you so much, Lilly.”
“I love you too, Nicholas.”
“But?”
“But I’m gonna need a little time to readjust to us dating. It still feels a little weird.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. But it does.”
“But we are still dating, right.”
“Yes.”
“Sweet gravy niblets.”
I laughed. “What?”
“Sweet gravy niblets?”
“Uh..yeah. What are you talking about?”
“I’m just happy, hoe.”
I turned my head to look him in the eyes. “Gravy niblets are a happy thing then?”
“Oh yeah.” His smile was amazing.
I went to shake my head back and forth, and on the forth part he caught me off guard and kissed me. There was so much happiness in his mouth, and I felt so happy and relaxed that I didn’t immediately pull away. I tried to go with it, but my conscience got in the way and I turned my head away.
I love Elliott.
After a minute, Nicholas asked, “Was that weird, Lil?”
I thought about my answer before I decided on, “It was nice, Nicholas.”
“Sweet grave niblets nice?”
He was always good at making me laugh. “Yeah. Sweet gravy niblets.”
We continued to cuddle as the heat soothed our tired muscles, and just enjoyed the silence. Nicholas even turned off the hot tub light, and it made the stars appear even brighter. It was nice and peaceful. The blanket of snow on the ground. No one and nothing outside but us.
I had to give it to him. He was good at romantic. Who knows where he learned that? Maybe he took notes from all of the movies he watched. Just then we heard a car pull up and his garage door start to open.
“Oh no. Hurry Lil, run into the bathroom and change. Hide your suit in my drawer. I’ll hurry and cover up the hot tub and be right behind you.”
My heart raced as I quickly snuck into the bathroom and changed as fast I could. I think I heard Nicholas run to his room a few minutes after me. I hope I did.
As I walked out of the bathroom, Nicholas came up behind me. “Just follow my lead.”
“Okay.”
Mr. Romero came into the kitchen just as we sat down by the empty pizza box. He looked at Nicholas, then me, “You two know I don’t like you here unsupervised.”
“We just got home from boarding, dad. We were hungry so we picked up a pizza.”
He eyed the empty pizza box. “Just got home huh?” I think Mr. Romero could tell there was something wrong with our story.
“We were hungry, dad.”
It was pushing eleven. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a curfew, especially if I was out on a date, but I figured I should go home anyway. I was warm, relaxed, and exhausted. There was passing out on my comfortable bed in my immediate future. “I should probably get home, Nicholas.”
“I’ll walk you over.”
“It’s just down the street.”
“It’s no problem.”
Nicholas walked me home. I gave him a hug at the door.
“Thanks again for today. It was a ton of fun.”
Nicholas gave me a soft little kiss on the lips. “Thank you, Lil. Good night.”
The first week back to school with Nicholas as my boyfriend was weird, but nice. Quickly, we fell into a sort of routine. We held hands between classes. He would buy me snacks from the vending machines. We’d sit together at lunch. It was all surreally normal.
Even the dirty looks Nicholas and Drew gave each other when Nicholas would drop me off at Photography, and then waiting outside the door after class, seemed like a normal teenage life. It was good.
Of all the uncomfortable concerns I had about being a couple with Nicholas, for some reason Charlotte hadn’t crossed my mind. And somehow we’d managed to get through his entire first week back without seeing her once. Unfortunately, his second Tuesday back at school, we weren’t so lucky.
The encounter happened a few minutes after my Photography class got out, so to make matters worse, Drew was there. Nicholas and I were walking hand in hand to the cafeteria for lunch. Drew and Patrick were only a few feet in front of us when it happened.
“Lilly! What are you doing?!”
My heart sank as I heard her angry voice. Nicholas and I sighed in unison as we turned around and saw Charlotte standing behind us, arms crossed and fists tight.
“Hey, Charlotte. How’s it going?” Nicholas tried to ask in an offhand tone.
She just stared at me. A vein seemed to throb in her forehead.
“Lilly.” It was an accusation.
“Hey, Charlotte. So, uh, Nic’s back.”
I saw Patrick and Drew walk closer in my peripheral vision, probably to hear better. By the sound of Charlotte’s voice, I’m sure everyone heard her.
Her eyes practically popped out of her head. “Why are you two holding hands?”
“We’re sort of dating.” I looked at the linoleum.
“I thought you were dating someone that didn’t go to school here.”
“Well, she’s dating me now.”
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“Nicholas.” To him, her voice was a plea. She didn’t want to be evil to him, but she had caught him in the unthinkable act of showing me affection. I wasn’t sure what she was going to do.
“We’ll see you around sometime, Charlotte,” Nicholas said to her. He directed his attention at me, “We better get to lunch, Lil.”
I didn’t say a word. Nicholas put his arm around me and walked me to the cafeteria. As we sat down to eat the two cheese rolls and dipping ranch, I said, “I don’t think that our trouble with Charlotte is over.”
Nicholas tore off a piece and popped it into his mouth. “Maybe. We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. Nothing she can do will change anything.”
“Chances are she’s going to try,” I sighed.
Chapter 18. Dominating
As if the universe were flipping me off, I had a flashback in front of Nicholas after school. Apparently an encounter with the queen of darkness wasn’t enough to ruin one’s day. It happened as we were walking up my porch steps. I zoned out and went to that horrible place of dust and sadness, and ended up falling up the stairs.
I was so disoriented that I couldn’t hold back the tears.
“Are you okay, hoe? Did you hurt yourself?”
Too bad the tears weren’t caused by physical pain. I wiped my eyes with my sleeve and tried to blink back the flood that was trying to break loose. “I’m fine.”
Nicholas helped me into the house and onto the couch. “Do you need anything, Lil?”
I just needed a minute alone. “A soda might help.”
“On it.” He left the room, and I had a second to compose myself.
I was still seeing Elliott’s dead, dirty hand in the pile of rubble nearly everyday, but usually it happened when I was alone. I could better hide the unbearable pain I felt as I came to when I had a second to refocus and try to convince myself that it wasn’t real.
But something inside me knew it was.
And that something made me want to vomit.
Nicholas came back with us each a Dr Pepper. He also brought a fresh package of saltines to split. “Here you go, hoe.”
“Thanks.” I flipped on the TV to avoid any more unnecessary talking.
I already knew Nicholas wasn’t going to go home until his nine o’clock weeknight curfew. He was like human velcro. It wasn’t really overbearing, since he was constantly over when we were just friends too. Only now he would try to sneak in the occasional kiss.