PART TWO

I knew at the beginning that Nick had a soft spot for me. I used to think
that maybe he thought about me that same way I thought about him. Then I would
tell myself that it was just my imagination, that he was just being friendly. I
never wanted to get my hopes up--I didn’t cope well with
disappointment.

At first it was as if we were all friends. Hannah and I would hang out with
him and his friends and everything was peachy.

It took a foolish moment of weakness and a whole lot of cocktails and shots
for everything to fall apart. Before that though, things were perfect.

The first time Nick came into the bakery, I acted like I didn’t know
who he was. He asked for a dozen mixed bread rolls. While I put them in a bag,
we talked about what a perfect day it was outside.

“We’ve having a picnic,” he told me. “My friends
think it’s a lame idea, but they’re coming anyway.”

I smiled at him. “Who can refuse a picnic?”

I handed him the bag of bread and took his money. When I gave him his
change, we shared another smile, then he walked out the door.

I was still smiling after he was out of sight, wondering if he smiled at all
the girls like that. He was gorgeous with his messy hair, stubbly jaw and azure
eyes. His smile was the real lethal weapon though. Those beautiful, sumptuous
looking lips curled up into a smile so gorgeous that it made my cheeks warm.

Hannah didn’t see Nick that day, and Nick didn’t see Hannah.

They met the second time Nick came to the bakery. She was out the back icing
some cupcakes but her hot guy detector must have gone off or something, and I
was mid-conversation with Nick when she joined us.

“Another picnic?” I asked him.

“No,” he said, “Just hungry. I think I’m going to
have to have one of those brownies. I’ve been thinking about it ever
since I walked out of here last time.”

The little smile he sent in my direction made me think that the brownie
wasn’t the only thing that had been on his mind. I used the tongs to
carefully take the brownie out of the display and put it in the paper bag.

“Do you believe in ghosts?” Nick asked suddenly.

I laughed. Talk about random. “Not really,” I said. “Do
you?”

“I think so,” he said. “There’s this motel, like an
hour’s drive away. It was deserted years ago and people say it’s
haunted. Some of the locals out there want it torn down, but it’s like a
tourist attraction now.”

I felt Hannah come up beside. “I saw that place on the news a while
back,” she said. “It looks creepy as hell.”

He looked at her and then me. “Why don’t you guys come out with
us tonight? It’ll be fun.”

Hannah and I left our squeals of excitement until Nick was safely out of the
building and had crossed to the other side of the street.

Later that night when we met up with Nick and his buddies, we were cool,
calm and collected. Nick drove us over there in his shiny SUV. We didn’t
talk much on the drive over; Nick’s music was far too loud for
conversation.

A song came on and Hannah shouted, “I love this song!” It
sounded like an eighties track, big guitar and synth. I didn’t know what
song it was, and I seriously doubted Hannah did either.

“Me too!” I said, and we laughed together.

The motel was eerie and kind of surreal. A lot of the windows were smashed,
ceiling panels were half hanging down and some rooms had been burnt out.
Indecipherable graffiti was scrawled on the dilapidated walls. There was no
carpet, and the ground crunched creepily beneath our feet.

A couple of the guys lit a fire and we sat around telling ghost stories.
Well, mostly Nick and his overactive imagination told the stories. While we
didn’t find any evidence of ghosts, Nick had the brilliant idea of
playing hide and seek.

“Okay,” Chris said. “Let’s do it.” He poked
Nick in the shoulder. “You’re it!”

Nick started counting, “One Mississippi, Two Mississippi,
Three…”

I have to admit I was terrified while hiding by myself. The deserted motel
ruins seemed like the perfect set for a horror movie, and an excellent spot for
some deviant psychopath to hang out. Some freak could grab me, slit my throat
and I’d be found in a pool of my own blood.

It was a relief when Nick found me.

We kept playing. Dean was hopeless at finding decent places to hide, so he
was “it” most of the time. Secretly, I wondered if he was scared of
crouching in some dark crevice too.

When it was Chris’s turn to be “it”, Nick insisted that he
had to count for several minutes longer because it was getting harder to find
good spots to hide. When Chris was shut inside the “it” closet and
could be heard counting, Nick grabbed my hand and dragged me outside.

In the darkness, Nick tugged me along the long driveway and led me to the
car, which we had left near the rickety old gate. Nick quietly opened the door
and crawled in the backseat and I scrambled in after him. I went to close the
door, but he grabbed my hand and shook his head, putting his finger to my lips
to hush me. I left the door open just a crack so that it wouldn’t make a
noise.

Nick tugged my arm and pulled me into his lap. I smiled as I straddled his
thighs and he reached up to turn off the internal light. He put his hand under
my chin and smiled back at me.

As he slowly leaned in to me, I felt like I might hyperventilate.
Nick’s lips on mine was the most amazing thing I’d ever felt. His
lips were so incredibly soft and warm. My fingers clawed at fistfuls of
Nick’s white shirt while his lips and tongue danced with mine. I
whimpered pathetically when he took his lips off mine. When they moved onto my
neck my breathing quickened. His fingers snuck under the back of my shirt while
his lips played over my sensitive, flushed skin.

Nick’s mouth made it to the top edge of my tank top just as Chris
lunged into the back seat.

“Found you!”

This time I was annoyed to be found so soon. Nick put his hands on my hips
and moved me off his lap.

Next time we hid in a cupboard at the far end of a block of rooms. This time
I kissed Nick, running my hands over his chest and then wandering lower where
my fingers stroked his hardening length.

We heard footsteps approach and I pressed my mouth hard against
Nick’s. There was nothing tender in this kiss, it was red-hot and
impatient.

“Fuck it,” Nick cursed when Mike ripped open the closet door.

“You’re it,” Mike grinned.

Mike turned away from us and Nick stole one more fiery kiss.

When it was my turn to find the others, I was mid-count when a terrifying
scream cut through the night.

“Oh my god!” I could hear Hannah yelling.

We found Hannah inching her way along a wall, moving away from something.
“Look in the corner!” she said. “Let’s get the fuck out
of here.”

We all crept inside the room to find a used syringe in the corner. I sighed
in relief. I had been expecting to find something far more ghastly.

After Hannah freaked out, our game was finished and Nick decided we would
call it a night.

I didn’t say anything to anyone about what happened that night. Nick
could have held my hand, or kissed me again in front of the others, but he
didn’t, so I figured I should stay quiet. I don’t know how Hannah
never realized what had happened. I felt like I was walking on clouds after the
way he kissed and touched me. And how could she have missed those little looks
that Nick and I kept shooting each other?

Nick dropped us off at home that night. He stayed in the driver’s seat
and waved us goodbye. I was disappointed that the night was over, and more
disappointed that he left without arranging for us to do something together
again. I thought for sure that he would want to come inside, or maybe even take
me back to his place, but he didn’t. I respected that he really
didn’t want anyone else to know what was going on, so I kept my
excitement to myself.

It was an agonizing two weeks before Nick called again. He asked if we
wanted to come to a party at his buddy’s house. We were at the mall at
the time, and I could barely hear him over the crowd.

“It’s sweet,” he said, “Right by the
beach.”

“Text me the time and address,” I told him. “And
we’ll see you there.”

Hannah’s grin stretched across her face when I told her Nick had
invited us to a party. We decided to buy new swimsuits for the occasion. I
picked out a pink halter bikini with tiny little purple flowers. I liked the
way the flowers gave the illusion that there was something more promising
inside the bikini, than there actually was. Hannah went for a more revealing
brown and gold triangle bikini set and insisted we pick up some fake tanning
lotion too.

We arrived bronzed and bubbly at the house where Nick’s buddy Dean
greeted us at the door. “Welcome to my home sweet home,” he said.
Then he looked over his shoulder and yelled, “Guys, the entertainment has
arrived!”

I smiled awkwardly and stayed standing in the doorway.

“Just kidding!” he laughed manically. He grabbed Hannah’s
arm and pulled her inside. “Come in. Grab a drink.”

The house was gorgeous. We played a game of Marco Polo in the pool. There
was plenty of mischievous groping, by both us and the boys. My jaw throbbed
from smiling and laughing so much. After the Marco Polo game, we sat around and
ate pizza, which was washed down with copious amounts of vodka and other drinks
with no name. When I asked, Dean told me “it’s good, that’s
all you need to know.”

Nick said he was getting bored with just sitting around on the floor. Dean
had a Jacuzzi that fit all six of us easily, so we moved there, taking the
drinks with us of course.

Mike kept trying to get me to drink more, but I could feel that I was
reaching my limit. I tried to drink slower, so that I didn’t end up with
my head down the toilet.

Chris was an idiot. Out of all the guys there, it was Chris who was the
loudest, and the funniest. He knew every lame knock-knock joke there was. Maybe
it was the alcohol, but the jokes became funnier the more he told. I put my
hand over my mouth to try and control my laughter. When I was drunk, I laughed
hard. Okay, it was more of a rambunctious snort that a laugh. I was mid-snort
when I saw them.

I couldn’t believe my eyes as I saw Nick lean in and kiss Hannah. I
froze and my cheeks burned hot.