~~Caroline~~
“So Chris wants me to go out with him tonight.”AJ said walking up behind me as we had just gotten done eating. I guess that was who he had been texting all night.
“Well are you gonna go I mean we got a lot of people over…tell him to come here.”I said leaning my head back to see him as he stood over me with his hands on my shoulders.
“I already asked…he’s got a date or something, wants me to tag along so it won’t be weird.”he said looking down at me. “You guys don’t mind if I leave in a bit do you?”he asked looking at the rest of the guys. They all shook their heads no. I cared. I thought it was incredibly rude so as he turned to walk away I ran up behind him to confront him about this. I grabbed his arm and turned him back around to look at me.
“You can’t just go out while we have people visiting AJ!”I said pretty loudly. I didn’t mean for it to be as loud as it was because Leighanne, Brian, Nick and Baylee all looked up at the same time at us.
“You don’t have to make this into such a big deal!”he said back looking down at my hand on his arm. “It’s just Brian and Nick…I’ll see them when I get back.”he said shrugging.
“You just don’t get it.”I said looking away from him crossing my arms. “You have been so different lately, ever since we moved here. I just understand where its coming from.”
“You’re reading to much into it baby.”he said trying to get me to smile.
“No I’m not. You can be such an asshole sometimes.”I said turning to walk away from him. I walked back to the table ready to cry. Why was he leaving all the time now? Everything just wasn’t adding up. I hated the person he had become in the past week. He was just such a jerk. He only cared about himself.
“I’m sorry.”I said sitting down next to Nick giving Leigh and Brian a slight smile.
“Not your fault girl.”Leighanne said putting her hand on top of mine. She squeezed it lightly to let me know it’d be okay.
“Well I guess we’re going to head to our hotel then since party pooper ruined the night.”Brian said picking Baylee up. He had fallen asleep with his head on the table.
“Later Rok…”Nick said as they pounded their fists together. “Studio in the morning right?”
“Bright and early!”Brian said smiling.
“Bye.”I said waving to them as they walked out of sight. And then there was just me and Nick.
~~Nick~~
“You okay?”I asked looking over at her. I just didn’t get AJ sometimes. Why was he treating her this way? His friend Chris was more important to him…no that’s not it, getting drunk and high was more important to him.
“I’ll be fine.”she said sniffling. She had been looking away from me for a hot minute so I knew she had started to cry.
“Hey.”I said pushing her lightly to get her to cheer up. “I’m still here…we still got my boat. It’s a beautiful night and it’s only ten oclock.” She looked up at me and smiled. Watch yourself Carter. This is where you make your mistake.
“Not tonight.”she said letting me down.
“I don’t take no for an answer.”I said pulling her up off of the picnic table bench we were sitting on. “Come on…”I said dragging her back to the dock. I saw the lights in AJ’s apartment go off and I knew he had left for the club. “Now you sit here…it’s the best view.”I said making her sit at the front of the boat. I took my driver’s seat and began to pull out of the dock. The water was beautiful tonight with the moon reflecting on the ripples, or maybe it was her sitting on the front edge of my boat staring intently out onto the lake.
~~AJ~~
I was lying to them. I had been the one to call Chris. I just didn’t want to look at Caroline and Nick anymore. I know its my stupid imagination. It’s probably the lack of drugs today, partly why I called Chris. It’s just knowing they had sex, I was okay with, but seeing them hanging out together and flirting and whatever is just disgusting. I liked it better when it was awkward for them and they didn’t talk.
“Hey dude.”I said picking up the phone as I saw Chris’ name pop up on the caller ID.
“Bar’s closed. It’s Sunday.”he said sighing as I stopped my car at the redlight outside of my apartment complex.
“Damn…okay well come here. You can bring the girl.”I said making a U-turn heading back to my place.
“You sure?”he asked.
“Oh yea…I need something to keep my mind off things.”I said pulling into a parking spot out front. “Caroline left on Nick’s boat right when I was leaving.”
“Oh shit man…”he said and paused, but I had nothing to say about it. “I’ll be there soon.”
~~NICK~~
“Want a beer?”I asked pulling the cooler out from under my feet as I stopped the boat in the middle of the lake. We were half way to my house by now. She held out her hand and took the bottle out of mine.
“So talk…”I said plopping myself down next to her. “Tell me what’s going on.”
“Nick I don’t need a therapist.”she said narrowing her eyes at me.
“But you do need a friend.”I said making her smile.
“He’s just so different all of the sudden. I mean you saw him at that soundcheck with the song and everything and its like we come back to Orlando and he’s super jerk.”she said playing with a string on the blanket I had given her. It was kinda cold out tonight.
“No he’s being AJ.”I said rolling my eyes. “Do you love him? I mean when you really sit back and think about it do you love him, or are you lonely?”I asked surprising myself I had asked it.
“Yea…I mean I love what he use to be. I don’t like him now. I mean what do you think as an outsider.”she asked taking a sip out of her beer. She had almost downed the whole thing. I was impressed.
“I think you deserve more. I think you’re beautiful and he’s just being stupid. You’re to good for him.”I said and she rolled her eyes.
“Nick stop it.”she said laughing.
“Caroline I’m serious. He doesn’t understand what he has. He’s wasting it. You deserve so much more than what he is willing to give to you right now.”
~~Caroline~~
I couldn’t believe what Nick was saying to me. I had never heard him be so serious.
“He says he loves you, but if he did he’d be sitting here not me.”he said sitting with his legs crossed Indian style looking at me. He was right.
“Which one is your house?”I asked changing the subject as I was looking at the houses lit up a little ways down the harbor. This was getting to intense for me. I loved AJ, of course I did.
“That little one right there.”he said pointing squinting his eyes because it was so far away.
“Let’s go there.”I said standing up to throw my empty bottle into the trash can. He got up behind me and walked to the back to pull the anchor up. “Don’t fall.”I said putting my hands on his waist so he jumped.
“You think your funny huh?”he asked laughing as he walked back over to the driver’s seat. “I’ll getcha later.”he said making me laugh. Stupid gansta talk. Haha.
“You drive us there…”he said holding his hand out spreading his legs out for me to sit in between them in the driver’s seat. “You were good at it earlier.” I walked over to where he was sitting trying not to fall over half from the beers and half from the waves. I sat in between his legs. I wasn’t the smallest girl, I wore a size ten in pants, but he was a big guy, tall I mean so I fit between his legs. I leaned back into him as the boat jerked into forward. I knew he was close to me because I could feel the bill of his hat hitting the top of my head as we drove forward. He was careful with his arms and kept them at his sides. It was cute actually. He was really trying to be a gentleman about the whole thing.
“Oh good God!”I said as my phone rang and brought me out of my thoughts. It scared me! “It’s AJ.”I said looking down at the caller ID. I hit ignore and looked back at Nick. He nodded his head in the yes position letting me know it was the right thing to do. It felt weird but good at the same time to be this close to him. I don’t know if I should be feeling like this, but AJ was being such a jerk lately I couldn’t help but gravitate towards someone who treated me right.
“Pull it in right here.”he said pointing to his dock. Ahhhhh this is so hard. He put the boat into neutral and climbed out behind me hopping onto the dock to he could tie the boat off. “Just turn the wheel my way and I should be able to pull it in.”he said pulling the rope.
He extended his hand to me as I walked towards the edge of the boat. I grabbed his hand and he helped me out.
~~NICK~~
“And this is the best part of my house…”I said spreading my arms open so she could step out onto my porch which overlooked the entire lake.
“Oh wow…Nick…”she said walking to the edge to fully see everything. “This is beautiful.”she said and starting going on about some story of when she was younger. I had started to tune her out. I was to focused on her white cover up blowing in the breeze.
“Ready to drive me back. It’s getting late.”she said unexpectedly. I had expected her to just stay here not that anything would happen and me just drive her back in the morning. I had been wrong apparently.
“Yea sure.”I said looking down at my watch noticing we had already been here for an hour. I followed her back down to the dock and untied the boat as she backed it out of the harbor.
“Don’t leave me!”I said acting scared as I jumped on the front of the boat nearly slipping off backwards.
“I shoulda left you.”she said laughing as I slid into the seat behind her. I put my hands on top of hers on the steering wheel and after a few seconds she moved them away.
~~CAROLINE~~
“You’re beautiful.”he whispered kissing my neck and collar bone a few times. What was he doing to me? I should not be doing this.
“Nick stop…”I said as he continued to plant kisses moving up to my cheek. “This is wrong.” The boat was barely moving now. He had moved his hand off of the speed and was using them to rub up my sides.
“I won’t tell him.”he said continuing to kiss my neck. He made me feel sexy. He made me feel wanted. “You need this right now…you need someone to make you feel appreciated.”he whispered as I let my hands fall to his thighs. I couldn’t help it. I had no control over what was happening. “No one can see us. No one to let out the secret this time.”he said as I turned to face him.
“This is wrong Nick.”I said as he put his forhead up to mine.
“It feels right.”he said and lightly pressed his lips to mine. His lips were soft, not like AJ’s who’s were always chapped from the alcohol. His kiss was sweet and loving…weirdly enough it felt safe like this is what I was supposed to be doing. “That’s all I wanted.”he said pulling away from me. God I’m an idiot but he is just so damn cute.
“You gotta take me home.”I said rubbing my lips together as I looked down. I was ashamed. VERY ashamed! The thing was we weren’t drunk, I mean sure we’d had a few beers but we very well knew what we were doing.
“Don’t worry this will be our secret.”he said as we pulled up to AJ’s dock. I could already feel the tension growing as I stepped out.
“See you tomorrow.”Nick said waving as I watched him pull away from the dock. I feel like I should be walking with my head down. I was not going to be able to look AJ in the face. I mean we had kissed, big deal, but it was SO much more than a kiss. I wanna get all giddy about it, but I just feel so horrible. I am really confused. I expected AJ to still be out but as I neared the hallway entrance I heard the TV on and people talking.
“Have fun?”AJ asked sitting back on the couch watching TV with Chris and some mystery blonde chick.
“We just went on the boat a little bit…”I said avoiding eye contact. I could see from my side vision that the smile he had on had faded. Ugh! Shoot me!
“You wanna hang out with us for a bit we’re just watching It’s Always Sunny?”he asked turning the TV down a little bit.
“No babe I’m beat from today…not really feeling well. I’m going to head to bed.”I said walking into the bedroom.
“I love you.”he yelled from the living room.
“Goodnight.”I said hearing my phone vibrate in my pants pocket as I made it to the bed.
Carter: I like you.
Oh Jesus Christ! This was supposed to be a SECRET!
Reply: Nick I can’t do this. I can’t do this to him.
Carter: Well when you finally come around to see what’s in your face I’ll be here.
Reply: Stop it. Goodnight Nick.
Author's Chapter Notes:
So this is going to end up being the biggest mistake of Caroline and Nick's lives...the reprocussions are going to be much greater than they expected!
Chapter End Notes:
REVIEW! I love reading them they make my day :)
