Chapter Sixteen— A Little Bit of Everything

A knock on the door woke me up. I was cozy in bed and under a pile of blankets. I grumbled something at the door and snuggled up to the pillow I nicknamed Bruce Wayne.

“I’m comin’ in,” Candy said. I heard the door open and I pulled the blanket over my head. I heard fast footsteps and something get on my bed, then start jumping, then pounce on me.

“POSEY! GET UP! GET UP! GET UP!” Dahlia screamed at me. Wait…

“Dahlia?” I croaked.

There was a shuffle and some giggling from several people before Dahlia crawled under the blanket and laid down. “Oooh. It’s like a tent. Or the Fortress of So…. Soli… Nicky?”

“Solitude,” he said.

Oh my god. Nickolas was in my bedroom.

“Posey,” Dahlia giggled. “Why aren’t you wearing pants?”

I sat up and pulled the blanket over my head. I kept my bare legs covered. The only thing I had on, was Nickolas’ hoodie he gave me.

He and Candy were laughing at me and I glared at the both of them. “Why are you here, Nickolas?”

“I let him in,” Candy said.

Great. “Um, why are you here, Nickolas?”

“You said you were coming over,” he told me. “And as promised, I am picking you up. Get up and get pants on. Or don’t. You look very comfy in my hoodie.”

Damn him.

“I’ll see you later, hon.” Candy started walking. “Very nice to meet you, Dahlia. You too, Nick.”

“Bye,” Dahlia waved before Candy shut the door. Then she looked at me. “You still didn’t tell me why you don’t have pants on.”

I smiled. “You don’t sleep in pants either, kiddo.”

“But I have a nightie. She’s only in a sweater.”

Nickolas grabbed her and set her on his hip like a pro. “Late night, Cupcake?”

I stared hard. “None of your business. I got back when I got back.”

“Nash dropped you off?”

“Duh. Can you leave while I get ready for this forced play date? I don’t need you seeing me without pants on.” Again.

He shook his head. “You can get dressed in front of me. I love the choice of sleep attire, by the way.”

I sneered. “Ha. Well, it was lying around.” I picked it specifically because I loved how it fit.

Dahlia tapped his shoulder. “I thought there was a puppy here.”

“At my friend’s house, honey.” I got up and didn’t care that Nickolas could see a whole lotta thigh. He watched me with something warming and I ignored everything that went with that feeling. I didn’t need to read into it. I already knew I lost it whenever I got attention.

I went to my dresser and grabbed a tank top and the only clean thing I had, a damn skirt. Black, to match the top. I didn’t like the choice but it was the only one I had. My fault for not doing my laundry and playing games on my phone instead. Regrets.

“Now.” I turned to the intruders. “I’m gonna go shower. Can you behave for ten minutes?”

“Yes.” Dahlia nodded steadfastly.

“Oh, not you. I meant Nicky.” I smiled again and the bastard smiled right back, like he was lobbing a fastball he hoped I would miss.

“I can behave. You have lots of pretty little pairs of panties I can go through.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “Bite me.”

“Where?” He grinned enticingly.

“Posey?” Dahlia said as I started walking. “Can I play on your phone? Nicky has 'Candy Crush' but he can’t play until three days.”

I pointed to the nightstand. “Sure.”

I showered with lightning speed and dressed even faster. I threw on my mustache knee socks and hurried back to my room that Nickolas was violating just by being here. It wasn’t even ten in the morning and he was already harassing me.

I was almost mad that Candy let him in, but she had no clue that he was the devil with perfect hazel eyes. He was probably even charming to her. A hot boy with a cute kid, she was a goner. I would be if he weren’t such an irredeemable tool. But to let him in my room. My room. Too far, Mrs. Thune. Much too far. Too many people almost saw me without pants on.

He was in my bed when I got back in. Dahlia was next to him on my phone while he was on my tablet. I left that in my nightstand…

I pulled my Chucks on. “Ready?”

Dahlia popped up and ran to me, handed me my phone, and asked me to pick her up. I did, setting her on my hip. We started walking downstairs and Nickolas opened the front door for me. I put Dahlia in her booster seat and buckled her in.

Nickolas put Dahlia’s eighties playlist on, and we started for his house. He kept giving me sideways glances as he drove and I tried to figure out why. I kept my eyes forward when I decided that wasn’t happening.

Nickolas carried his sister into the house when we got there, and she wiggled to get out of his arms. She grabbed my hand and started dragging me to her room. She showed me all of the pictures that she drew for me over the past two weeks and it made me fell awful for not seeing her.

“I believe you have homework to do,” Nickolas said to me after he set a movie up for his sister. She sat on her bed with a Gameboy when we left.

“Oh, am I doing it all on my own?”

“Of course.”

We went into his room and he closed the door. My eyes—as always—went to that guitar in the corner. So pretty and it was just sitting there, begging me to come and play with it. But I had work to do.

We sat on his bed and he handed me the computer. As it warmed up, I crossed my arms. “Are you gonna explain why the hell you acted the way you did last night?”

“Nope,” he shook his head.

I huffed. “So you interrupted my date and you won’t tell me why you did it?”

“Dahlia wanted to see you.”

“And she did. Then you did.”

“I did,” he said morosely.

I went back to the homework and filled a few pages with the garbage that the teacher wanted to read. Seven down, three to go and all without an ounce of help from Nickolas.

I was still at a complete loss of what I was going to do for the visual. I could build some kind of diorama of the buildings but it felt so simple. All I had to do was get a C to pass that stupid class. It wasn’t like I had to impress some college that I had no hope of getting in anyway. If I worked really hard, I could get into a community college in a few years. Still, it was more money than I had. Which was zero. I had zero money.

“I’m still pissed at you,” I said as I typed. I felt like I should say it since he was only sitting there watching me, like the useless lump that he was.

“Why’s that?”

I almost growled. “Lotsa stuff. Like last night. And what you said to Mona.”

“Oh, sorry. Did I interrupt your telling her about some guy you screwed?”

I shut the computer and set it on the nightstand so that when this turned into a fistfight, I wouldn’t owe him a laptop. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“Everyone heard her yelling, Posey. What were you doing? Telling her about a hookup?”

I stood up from the bed because I couldn’t sit next to him anymore. “No. She was asking me if I slept with you, dumbass.”

His face turned blank and a little dopey. “Why would she ask that?”

“Because I stayed here for two days.”

He stood up and started walking to me as he spoke. I backed up. “And why the hell did you tell her you stayed here?”

“Because we’re friends! She asks about my life and I tell her. You wouldn’t know since you’re so much of a dick that people only either wanna hit you or fuck you.”

“Who are you to talk? How was Nash last night? Do you always give it up on the first date every time or was he special?”

My eyes narrowed and I wish that looks could really kill. “I didn’t sleep with him! I don’t know why everyone thinks I just fuck whoever looks at me twice! He brought me home and that’s it. Not that I need to defend myself to you!”

He almost had me at the wall but he kept a few feet between us. “How am I supposed to know you didn’t screw him? You let him kiss you in public, not to mention stick his hand between your legs.”

“What the fuck do you think of me? I didn’t let him do either. He just kissed me. He didn’t ask. And he only had his hand on my knee.”

“Dahlia said it was between your legs.”

“IT WASN’T! And why do you care either way!?! We aren’t even friends, let alone something that would make this your business. I can kiss who I wanna kiss and I can be with who I wanna be—”

Nickolas pushed me against the wall and in perfect synchronicity, he lifted me up, I put my legs around his waist, my arms around his neck, and his lips came crashing hard against mine.

My eyes closed when he applied glorious pressure to me. I parted my lips without having to be prompted and he took advantage of the invitation in a second and… all I could feel was him. All around me, against me, in my head and my body and I wanted more.

His hands were on the backs of my thighs but they quickly slid up and landed on my ass. He decided to leave them there and I was so okay with it. Sensation rocked through me as Nickolas pressed against me harder, and the friction made me bite his lip. My hands gripped his hair as he growled. If my eyes were open, they would have rolled back in my head.

Nickolas pulled me off of the wall, and I hated losing the pressure. I tightened my legs around him, and he gently bit my lip. I made a sound as he put us on the bed, where he proceeded to rock against me. I let go of his hair to put my hands in his back pockets so I could force our bodies back together. He got the hint and did as I wished.

I gasped at the loss when our mouths were separated, and Nickolas watched me as he bumped against my core again. When I whimpered, he smiled devilishly. Never had I wanted anything in my life, as badly as I wanted Nickolas inside of me in that moment. Every thought in my head swirled around it, screaming with need I’d not felt before.

He pulled the strap of my tank top down, and made a trail of kisses from my shoulder to the swell of my breast where he lingered. My fingers went to his hair, holding him close while he nipped at me. I felt his tongue moving against my skin and I started moving my hips in time with his.

His mouth came back to mine, and it felt like home for the ten seconds he was there. I could have stayed under him, and basked in the comfort it gave me, and I would have been fine to fade to dust in that spot. When he pulled my legs from around him, I almost complained, but then he moved down my body, keeping his lips against me the whole time. Nickolas stopped at my chest before he went down to my stomach. My shirt was lifted up so he could press his tongue against my skin. He kissed me from my stomach, to each side of my hips. He moved down again and he put his head under my skirt. A hand held my leg to the side as he teased me through my underwear, and I wanted to kill him for it almost as much as I wanted to do something else to him.

I called him back to me and he obeyed. We were kissing again and tried to memorize just what it felt like to have his tongue gliding against mine. Perfect, that was what it was. I felt electric.

My hands found their way up his shirt and I greedily explored his chest. Oh, so much better than just looking. Then he sat up and let me pull it off of him. Okay, so that was better. I pulled him down again with excessive force and his hand went to my hip, almost making me shiver. Then he moved back and his other hand went to my side. Nickolas started pulling my underwear down my hips, and I lifted up to help. A smile crossed his lips again before he threw them on the floor.

He lay over me and his hand went all the way up my side. Not where I wanted, but I could live with it. He kissed me like he’d die if he didn’t, and I moaned desperately when he applied more pressure to me.

Nickolas sat up on his knees, and I moved up with him, so we could keep kissing. He pulled away only to press his lips flush with mine for a moment. “Lie down, Cupcake.” He brushed his thumb across my cheek and I did as he said. His voice was husky and so soft at the same time.

I watched him go for his zipper, and everything crashed all at once.

What the hell was I doing? Was I insane? I needed to leave. Not be here. With him. I had to go, and I had to go right fucking now.

I got out of bed like I was on fire, and I went to the door. Nickolas called after me, but it ended there. I grabbed my shoes and took off out the front door.

I walked down the street and going as fast as I could. I ignored the people staring at the girl holding her shoes and almost running from a house.

What was I thinking? I wasn’t. I wasn’t thinking at all. I was giving in to what my body wanted. That has got to be the… weirdest thing that had ever happened to me. I hated him, he hated me, and we just had our tongues in each other’s mouths for a good ten minutes. A real good ten minutes…

I got past the gates of the little community, and pulled my phone out of my pocket, texting Mona for a ride.

I paced at the gate as I reprimanded myself for the big ‘ol ball of crazy that I just was, and I tried not to think about it all at the same time. Oh, he was good. I hated that he was good. Nash, he was nothing. I didn’t feel a thing. Nickolas, he left my senses overwhelmed in the most delicious way. I could still taste him on my tongue, like pure energy.

A powder blue corvette pulled up and the window rolled down. Mona leaned out from her side. “How much, baby?” She winked.

I just got in the car and buckled up. I tried my best to not look her in the eye. Not to make a move, even to greet Scully in the back.

Mona started driving and said, “You all right? You look a little green. And your lips are swollen. Did you get hit in the face or something?”

“I’m good,” I lied. “Peachy even.”

“Okay then.” A pause. Then she looked down at me, taking in my demeanor. “There a reason your knees are fused together like you’re one of those fifty kids and counting freaks?”

“I may or may not be wearing underwear.”

“WHAT!? Why aren’t you wearing underwear?!”

“I said may…”

She pulled over and stared at me. “Am I sticking my hand up your skirt or are you gonna tell me just how may not-ish that may was?”

I sighed. “Fine, it’s a hard may not.”

“That was Nick’s house you were just at. Why were you not wearing panties at his house? Did a fucking narwhal take them?”

I told her everything. Ev-er-y-thing. I had to. I needed someone to talk to. My puppy yipped from the back seat and I looked at her judging eyes.

“Well shit,” Mona breathed. “Can’t say I didn’t see this coming. Name baby numero uno after me.”

“No. No babies. As far as I am concerned, it didn’t happen. He just lost his mind for a while and so did I. He’s probably beating himself up for it right now.”

She shrugged. “Or taking a shower. A very, very cold one or a very, very hot one. Why’d you stop him from taking the rest of his clothes off? I bet he looks real purdy naked.”

“He does,” I whimpered.

Her eyes widened. “How do you know?”

“Long story.”

She shook her head. “Damn, girl. Does mama have to take care of you? I would be more than willing to do so if it means calming you down.”

“No thanks. I’ve had more than enough heads up my skirt for the day.”

“No such thing.” She grinned, and started driving again.

The ride was quiet but I felt her questions even in the silence. Wondering things that I knew I would have to answer for eventually. Not today. Maybe if I was feeling halfway human in a few days, then I could. I didn’t know what any of this meant and I was more than happy to just ignore it all together.

“Are you going to be okay, sweetie?” she asked with fret in her manner.

“Fine. I just need to sleep this off. Tomorrow, odds are that Nickolas will pretend it never happened. Just like when I stayed over. He doesn’t want people thinking he cares at all.” And I knew he didn’t care about me. I could fall off of the planet and he wouldn’t notice.

“You can tell me if you’re not okay. You know that.”

“I do.”