"My god woman, how many suitcases do you own exactly?" I sighed as I heaved yet another floral patterned suitcase through the open front door.
"Oh come on Nick, that was only the third suitcase so far, I think you're getting a little soft on me," Lizz chided. "You trying to tell me that you travel light on tour?"
"Yes, I only carry two bags---"
"Plus your playstation, plus your games, plus your laptop," Lizz interrupted, counting the items off on her fingers.
"Hey! Those don t count!" I defended, folding my arms across my chest, sticking my lower lip out for added effect.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah Carter, tell someone that would believe that one, I bet Brian travels lighter than you do!" Lizz commented as she gently slapped her hand on my chest as she slid past me in the front door. "My god Nick, you never told me how big this place was!"
I closed the front door and followed her into the living room. She was acting like a kid cut loose in a toy store, going from room to room. "Lizz would ya slow down? You re staying here so I'm sure you' ll" get to see every room ya know."
Grabbing a suitcase, I let out a huge fake groan as I started off towards the stairs. "Your room is the first on on the left, top of the stairs."
"Did you want me to carry that?" Lizz asked, one eyebrow raised in question.
"Nah, I got it, besides, I wanted to add hernia repair to my list of surgical procedures."
"Well, you shouldn't be lifting anything like that anyways and neither should I," Lizz commented.
"So you wanna leave your bags downstairs for another 4 -6 weeks?" I questioned, knowing full well that my face was turning beet red.
"Nope, carry on Boy Wonder," Lizz coached.
Thirteen steps never seemed that difficult until now. God, I was glad to reach the top of the stairs. I dragged the suitcase to the door that would be Lizz's room. I stared at the blank oak door and a thought came to mind.
"Nick, what are you thinking about?" Lizz asked nervously as she saw the smile play across his lips.
"We gotta get you one of those door name tags, ya know, the cheap looking mini license plates that say Lizzard or Katie."
"Only if you get Nicky or Jack on yours and by the way, wheres your room at?"
"Down at the end of the hall," I said as I nodded my head towards the direction.
"Okay, and the bathroom?"
"You have one in your room, smart one,"" I snickered.
As I opened the door to her bedroom, I could of sworn I heard her gasp. I smiled as I turned to see here standing in the doorway, staring with her mouth agape. "It's your room, go ahead."
I followed Lizz into the bedroom, amazed by how taken up she was with everything in the room. My heart lept into my throat as she looked appreciatively at the view from her bedroom windows.
"Oh god Nick, the water, it's beautiful," she sighed.
"Had it shipped in this morning," I joked.
"The ocean is so beautiful--"
"The gulf, it s the Gulf of Mexico, sweetheart," I corrected.
"I don't care if its Lake Michigan, well, actually I do care, but hell, at least its water, oh do I have to leave the windows shut? Can I..."
I gently put a finger to her lips. She looked at me as she stopped in mid- sentence, our eyes locked. Before I lost all nerve, I leaned forward and cupped her chin in my hands. I closed my eyes and captured her mouth in a gentle kiss.
I couldn't help but smile into the darkness. We had known each other for how long now? It still amazed me that it seemed to take no time at all for us to get as close as we did. Not to mention how alike we were and then of course that damnable link. We couldn t get anything by each other without getting busted almost immediately. The idea of being too far from him didn t really sit too well with me. Finally my mind drifted to what had happened earlier. I found myself smiling again. Then the smile faded, why was I so worked up about this?
Cause I liked it.
I mentally slapped myself. I was worried that it would change things. Like, what if we acted different? Or, what if it didn't work out? I didn't want anything to mess up what we had. Then, with that very thought, it sort of sunk in that everything was going to be okay. Nick and I had said to each other so many times that there isn't anything that could ever come between us, nothing that could tear us apart. Especially not something that could bring us even closer. I groaned. I felt a lot better, but I wasn't going to feel totally better till I talked to Nick. I slipped out of bed and into the hallway. The moon shining in through whichever windows it had managed to hit was the only light I had to go by. I used the wall to guide myself down the hall. The door to Nick's room was slightly ajar so I stuck my head in.
"Nick?" I whispered.
"Yeah?" Came the eventual reply.
I inched in the room hesitantly. He must have shut his blinds because it was almost pitch black. "You can't sleep either?"
"Nope." I heard him shuffling in the bed and then he patted a spot next to him.
I padded across the floor and climbed onto his bed. He was sitting up and I was pretty sure he was facing me, but it was hard to tell with the dark. "Um, about earlier..." I started.
"It's okay Lizz. I shou--" Nick interrupted.
Then I did the same thing to him that he had done to me a few hours ago. "Shush." I whispered. I smiled, my heart feeling lighter than it had in a long long time, and I kissed him softly.
