Twelve: Maybe
“It definitely means he likes you.” Bev confirmed, nodding her head and grinning ear to ear.
The two of us were having a quick bite to eat at a cafe down the street. Showtime wasn't for another hour, but as usual the guys were off doing Soundcheck and whatever else they did before a concert. Besides, girl talk was much needed. I mean, Nick had kissed me! That was cause for celebration, right?
Honestly, I wasn't too sure. He'd seemed pretty reluctant about the idea of us in the car the night before. Well, not so much reluctant as... worried about Brian. Of course there was the possibility that he'd already had his conversation with Brian and he'd given him the go ahead.
Somehow I doubted that. Nick wasn't exactly one who was good with confrontation. In fact, he avoided it as much as humanely possible. Maybe that was why he'd kissed me, because he didn't want to have a whole conversation about our feelings?
I had no idea. But hey, that's what girl talk is for, right?
“I don't know. Should I ask him? Like, what am I supposed to do?” Of course the drawback to girl talk is that we mostly end up talking in circles and not really solving anything.
“Just kiss him again.” She shrugged, as if it were no big deal. Of course it was a big deal!
“I can't just... do that!” I exclaimed. It was a ridiculous idea. Maybe Nick had just been going along with our plan of fake dating... he was just standing there with Kevin and AJ. I'll bet that's what it was. But we hadn't kissed before, that was never a part of the plan. Maybe he figured it was okay because I liked him? But wouldn't that make things more awkward? Can you tell that I was confused beyond all belief?
“Of course you can, he kissed you once, that means he's perfectly fine with it. You know Nick, he's a stubborn guy. He doesn't do anything unless he wants to.” Trust Bev to be the voice of reason.
“I guess.” I mumbled. I didn't exactly have the confidence to walk up to him and stick my tounge down his throat.
“Just do it, Dani.” Bev commanded, finishing her drink. “Guys like stuff like that, when girl make the first move.”
“Technically it was him that made the first move.” I reminded her, playing with the ice in my glass.
“Either way, he'll find it hot. Do it.” She said with a grin. A few seconds later the waitress came by and handed us our bill. Bev promptly grabbed it out of my hands telling me that she'd pay, since I'd had a rough last couple of days.
Every girl needs a friend like her.
I got back to the hotel a little while after Nick did, since the guys are always there first. They've got a pretty good system set up there. They do their last song, disappear into the stage, some pyrotechnics go off and everyone of course keeps screaming. By the time the lights go on at the arena they're already back at the hotel, and the girls are none the wiser.
It works pretty well, except for the whole waiting in the dancer bus part. That part kind of sucks. We have to go last, because it's a priority to get the guys back first, which makes sense. Still, sometimes girls will chase our bus or wave at it, thinking that it's Nick or someone who's in there. That part is kind of amusing.
Either way, I decided to hang around in my hotel room and wait for him to come back. I figured we could order some pizza, watch some movies... you know, the usual things that we did after a show.
But I waited and waited, and Nick didn't show up. After about an hour I finally got fed up and decided to call him. I mean, wouldn't you? Maybe if this was some regular guy that I liked I would have felt all nervous and worried and unsure if I should call or not. But this was Nick. My best friend of how long?
So I quickly dialed his number and waited as it rang. When his voice mail picked up, I gave up. Tossing my cell phone on my bed I glanced at the clock. It was around midnight, maybe he was sleeping? Somehow I doubted that, but you could never be too sure.
I wondered if it was too forward of me to do what I did next, but at that point I really didn't care. I took a deep breath as I marched down the hall towards his hotel room. Standing in front of his door, I bit my lip, not sure if this was really a good idea. Maybe he wanted to be left alone, maybe he was tired...maybe he was with another girl.
No! That couldn't be it. And yet, the reality was, that definitely could have been it. Nick had slept with groupies in the past, what was to say he wouldn't do it again? Well, there was only one way to find out, right? Another deep breath and I was knocking on his door.
He answered fairly quickly. The lights in his room were on... so he hadn't been sleeping.
“Hey.” He said, eying me a little suspiciously. Okay, maybe that was just in my imagination. Either way, I hadn't anticipated how awkward this would be. “What's up?”
“I was just...” Doing what? Making sure you weren't sleeping with someone else? Ugh. “wondering if you wanted to hang out. Or watch a movie. Or get food.” Smooth, Dani.
“I'm watching Friends. You can join me if you want.” He replied, opening the door and ushering me inside his room.
I quickly stepped inside his room and was quick to sit on the other double bed. Why was this so awkward? It was as if the entire dynamic of our relationship had changed, and now everything was weird.
“This is a good episode, have you seen it before?” Nick said, nodding towards the screen. Of course I'd seen it before, I've probably seen every episode of that series ten times! That's something Nick should have known. See? He's not very thoughtful at all.
“Yeah.” I replied simply. “Ben Stiller's pretty good in it.”
“Ben Stiller's pretty good in everything, Dani.” Nick shot back, raising his eyebrow.
So the evening went on like that. The two of us just continued to make small talk about the TV shows we watched and that sort of thing. Every ounce of me wanted to ask him why he'd kissed me before, and why he wasn't doing it again. But I didn't. Maybe I should have, maybe he wanted me to make the next move since he'd so clearly already made one. Or maybe I was just over thinking this way too much.
Finally, after an hour of sitcom reruns and uncomfortably looking at the floor I spoke up. “Uh, Nick. Are we still doing that fake dating thing?” That was a safe question, right? It wasn't like I was asking the status of our real relationship, just our pretend one. Plus, this gave him the opportunity to answer 'well it wouldn't really be fake anymore, would it?'
“Yeah, why wouldn't we?” He asked. Damn!
“No reason.” I said, looking back at the TV. And with that, we just retreated again to awkwardly watching sitcoms and making the occasional comment about them. Why was he making this so difficult and confusing?
