As soon as I saw the number, I screamed. It was Zack. Again. “This is fucking ridiculous!!”
Nick jumped up and grabbed the phone from me, flipping it open. “Listen, bitch… It’s OVER, get it through your fucking head. She doesn’t want you anymore. Stop calling. Stop trying. And if you even so much as THINK about being near her again … or hurting her… I will FUCK.YOU.UP.” He flipped the phone shut and handed it back to me, smiling. “We’ll see how he likes that.”
My mouth was just hanging open as I took the phone. That was just hot. Nick had always been fiercely protective of the people he cared about, and I guess it just made me feel good to know I was still so much in his favor. I turned my phone off completely and dropped it in my purse. I flopped back down on the couch next to Nick and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
He reached over and took my hand and held it. “No problem. I’m still just glad you’re here with me and not there, having to deal with him.”
I slid over to put my head on his shoulder, I was glad I was here, too… being on the opposite side of the country from Zack, and getting to spend time with Nick … this was the only place I really wanted to be. I knew Zack was pissed, I knew why he kept calling… I’d have been mad as hell, too, if I was him. Nick slouched some, and tilted his head so it was resting on mine. We were comfortable together.
“Are you ever going to tell me why he keeps calling?” he asked after a few moments of silence.
I’d been back with him for almost a week, and he’d been patient, not asking too many questions, just letting me tell him what I wanted to, when I wanted to. It’d taken me almost a month from the time I’d told him I was coming back ‘til I actually got there… and those days had sucked, hardcore. Having been away from the life I had in Florida had made me realize that it was nothing I wanted anymore.
“Because he’s pissed?”
“What did you do to him?” he asked, dropping his head to look at me out of the corner of his eye.
I gave him a smirk, I might as well lay the whole story on him now. I had wanted to save all the details because I wanted to be face-to-face when I told him, I wanted to see his reaction rather than just hear it.
So, I started from the beginning, telling him about getting home and finding Zack and our knock-down-drag-out and him getting hauled off to jail. I almost couldn’t make it through the story at a few points, I was trying so hard not to laugh at Nick’s reactions to what I was saying. I knew how to tell him a story, and it was obvious I hadn’t lost my touch.
I finally made it through the rest of the details – selling the house and getting rid of Zack’s stuff – the Salvation Army had greatly appreciated my sizable donation- and fighting with the dealership when I went to sell the other car. I wasn’t going to miss the Miata, it didn’t hold any special memories… it had just been my “I live in FL, I have to own a convertible” car. I’d put some of my stuff in storage, tossed the rest in the back of my Explorer and started the drive to California. Yahoo!Maps had estimated the trip at roughly 37 hours… but I took my time and meandered, I knew I had a safe place waiting for me and nothing behind me really, so I just drove.
I’d even made a list of things in various states that I’d passed through that I had to tell Nick about. We’d talked about taking roadtrips and never really had gotten the chance to just get in the car and drive… so I’d just taken tons of pictures and made notes of things to tell him about so he could have the vicarious experience with me.
Nick had laughed when he’d seen me pull up at his place, five days after I’d called him to tell him I was driving out of Florida and crossing the state line into Alabama. “You’re never going to sell this thing, are you?” he’d asked, running his hand along the side of the SUV, smiling.
I’d shook my head ‘no’ and fell against him, wrapping my arms around him and feeling truly content with everything that had happened. I was in the City of Dreams now. I was in a new place, with a person that made me happy, and I had a chance to start my life all over again, make things mine.
---
“GET THE DOOR!!!” Nick yelled from the back of the house, after the doorbell had rung somewhere around 8 times.
“It’s gonna be for you, why do I have to get the damn door?!?” I shouted back, finally forcing myself up off the couch and pausing the movie I’d been watching. We’d definitely settled back into our old habits with each other- it was fun.
I flung the door open and gazed at the girl standing on the doorstep. I looked her up and down, wondering if this could possibly be the elusive girlfriend. “Hi, who are you?”
“I’m Macy… who are YOU?” she shot back, sizing me up with a mildly hostile glance.
“I’m Summer…” The look on her face when I said my name was priceless... part shock and possibly part fear. I chuckled, “I see you’ve heard about me.”
She was craning her neck to see around me, like she expected Nick to appear behind me, naked and guilty any minute. I stepped aside to let her in and watched as she went through the house, calling for him. He met her coming out of the kitchen and grabbed her up, giving her a sweet, slow kiss that made me more than a little jealous. I leaned against the wall around the corner, silent, to hear what she had to say to him… if they ever stopped kissing.
I heard him first, “Hey, beautiful”… then another kiss.
“SHE’S the one staying with you?”
“Yeah…”
“Why is she here?!?”
“Because she’s staying here while I’m gone…”
“You’re not gone yet!!!”
“Um, no… but I will be soon… she sold her house so she’s just staying here… it’s no big thing…”
“YOUR EX-GIRLFRIEND IS LIVING WITH YOU AND IT’S NO BIG THING?!?”
I clamped my hand over my mouth to stifle the giggle that was wanting to escape. She was in such a snit over nothing.
“No, it’s not… she’s my friend… there’s nothing to worry about. I love you, Mace… she’s not competition…”
“When you talked about her, you failed to mention she looks like Malibu Barbie!!”
He laughed at that, “Nah, her boobs aren’t big enough for that…”
What the hell?!? He’d never complained about them before!
“Nick! That’s not the point! You’ve got some beautiful girl – who just happens to be your ex-girlfriend- living here with you… and you never told me about it! You’ve been lying to me!!”
Oh god… she sounds like she’s about to cry….
“Mace… I was not lying! I told you I had a friend staying here… I do… she’s my friend. That’s it. I swear, that’s all…”
“I’m sure… where is she sleeping, huh, Nick? You kept telling me not to come over… she’s why! You’ve been “busy” all the time… what have you been doing?!?”
I couldn’t take this anymore and stuck my head around the corner, “Macy, seriously… I’d fuck his brother, his dad, AND all three of his sisters before I’d have sex with him again… you don’t have to worry about that…” I saw the horrified expressions on both of their faces, and had to laugh because I knew what he was thinking. “I’d still do Leslie…”
“I HATE it when you say that!” he said, visibly shuddering.
I laughed again, I’d still never figured out why that bothered him so much – but it never failed to entertain me. I’d always thought Leslie was hot – and I’d mentioned it to him once and he’d freaked out. So, every now and I liked to bring it up, just to tease him.
I finally stopped giggling and looked over at her, still gaping at me. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was on her mind.
Nick saw the look, too, and put his hand on her shoulder. “Mace, c’mon… let’s go somewhere… we’ll talk… chill out…”
I gave her the sweetest smile I could possibly muster without cracking up again. I knew he was in love with her, I should be nice and not try to cause any problems.
She just sort of nodded at him and headed toward the door, without saying anything else. He gave me a look on his way out the door and I blew him a kiss, sure I’d hear about all that later.
Since I was in the kitchen, I grabbed a beer and some leftover pizza from the other night and went back to the couch, starting the movie again and flopping down. I could see how she’d be upset about things – if he hadn’t really told her much of what was going on. She really didn’t have anything to worry about, though. Nick and I had a very easy relationship now… we were good friends. Honestly, he was probably my best friend. He’d been my boyfriend, he’d been my lover… but now, he was my friend.
We weren't each others firsts, really, unless it counts for being the first time either of us honestly fell in love. Looking back, I think he'd even say that he wasn't really in love with Mandy. Did he feel a lot for her? Yeah, of course. But love? C'mon, they were 16 and 17... how much does anyone really know about love at that point? You know what you see and feel at that time, but don't realize how little that is until you've gotten older and felt more and experienced more and know how all-consuming love can be once you've fallen in so deeply that you can't remember the way it was before that person became everything in your life. And that's how it was for Nick and I. He wasn't the one I lost my virginity to, but he was the one I gave it up to in every other way. I handed him my heart, my soul, anything he wanted, he had gotten. And he did the same for me... usually. Mostly. Basically.
I finished my beer and pizza and got up, having no idea what was going on with the movie, since I’d zoned out. I got to thinking about Macy again… she was really nothing like I expected. At all. I mean, Nick hadn’t given me a whole lot of detail about her – I just knew he was totally in love with her. He’d seemed to get even crazier about her in the time I’d been gone. I couldn’t assess much from her personality at this point – except that she obviously had some issues with me… but even the way she looked wasn’t what I was expecting. She was very… average, maybe? She didn’t look anything like the typical California girls I’d seen… she wasn’t blonde, she wasn’t super skinny, and she didn’t dress like a whore. Maybe she was just what he needed.
---
I was dozing on the couch when Nick came back – alone. I could only guess Macy hadn’t been ready for another encounter with me just yet, so they’d said good-bye outside. I sat up, rubbing my eyes, as he walked into the room with me and crashed on the chair across from the couch.
He just looked at me, I couldn’t quite tell what he was thinking. We both started talking at the same time, “My reputation seems to have preceded me…”
“I think you scared the hell out of her.”
I laughed, “She’s not what I expected…”
“She’s amazing, Summer… I really want you to like her…” he said, those big blue eyes giving me that pleading look.
“I didn’t say I didn’t like her!” I scowled at him. “If you wouldn’t have left out several factors in her information… we might have gotten off to a better start!”
“I guess I didn’t figure it would be that big of a deal,” he said, moving from the chair to the couch and sitting beside me. “I mean, like, it works for us… we know nothing is going on now…”
I interrupted him, “Did you get her to believe that, though?”
“She says she trusts me… until I give her a reason not to… She was just pissed I didn’t tell her anything before.”
“I’m with her on that one… when you get left out of things, you get suspicious.” I told him, giving him a look.
“You’d think I’d learn, huh?” he asked, giving me a little smile.
“Maybe one day…” I laughed.
He paused for a second, “What did you mean that she’s nothing like you expected?”
“She’s just… I don’t know… she doesn’t look like your type of girl… “ I said, not ready to get into an in-depth discussion of her, based on the extremely limited interaction we’d had.
“What’s that supposed to mean? I date all kinds of girls…” he protested.
“Right, if ‘all kinds’ actually means, tall, blonde, and skinny…” I retorted. Of the serious girls in his life, I was the only all-natural one… Mandy’s tits were fake… everything about Paris was fake… but we were all tall, skinny, blue-eyed, blonde girls… with varying degrees of “bitch” in our personalities.
He was insistent, “I date girls that aren’t tall, blonde, and skinny!”
“No, you FUCK girls that aren’t tall, blonde, or skinny… because you’re a horndog with occasional lapses in judgment, but to my knowledge, she’s the only chick who doesn’t fit that description you’ve been… serious about.” I said, giving him my best “go ahead and try to deny that” look.
He finally relented, saying, “Okay, so she doesn’t LOOK like what you expected… I swear, once you get to know her…you’ll like her.”
“I’ll take your word on that for now, since I don’t see her being eager to talk to me again.” I said, trying to hide a snort.
“You’re just… different. Like, on her computer…she’s got a Carl Jung quote on her desktop… you’ve got a picture of Jenna Jameson.” he said, reaching up to ruffle my hair.
“Aaaannnddd… your point would be?” I had no idea where he was going with that one.
“I’m just saying… you’re just… different… but you’ll like each other… I’m sure you’ve got things in common…”
I had to laugh at that one, “Nick, the only thing we have in common right now, is YOU. And for girls, that’s a BAD starting point.”
“Just play nice, okay? Please? For me?” He gave me the puppy eyes again.
I sighed, “Anything for you.”