"I'm happy, are you happy?"
I looked up at Nick from the position we were laying in on his bed, and smiled. "I'm very happy."
"How happy?" he grinned.
"Extremely happy." I giggled, as his hand ran over my tummy, tickling me.
"Happy enough to take your clothes off?"
I stopped for a minute, not expecting to hear that. I bit my lower lip, not knowing what to say. It had only been, like, a week. Was this what we were supposed to do? I wasn't sure why, but it made me nervous - the thought of actually being with Nick. I knew Chellie had been with him before, and that didn't bother me. Too much. Was he going to compare us? What if I didn't measure up? I mean, I've only had sex twice, ever!
"You okay, baby girl?" he asked, taking me out of my thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm good." I smiled, looking up at him, trying to reassure myself.
"You sure?"
"Yeah... just... thinking about you without that shirt on." I said, trying to refocus.
"Yeah? Cause I was thinking the same thing." he smiled.
Nick sat up and removed his shirt, and then put his hands on either side of me. He kissed my neck and then whispered, "your turn."
I hesitated. Uhhh, guess I forgot to mention I've kinda never really been naked in front of anyone before... Thank god Nick took the initiative on this one. His hands slid underneath my t-shirt, and pulled it up over my head. My hands immediately tried to cover my tummy, and Nick had a puzzled look on his face.
"How could you possibly be ashamed of this body?" he asked.
I didn't know what to say, so I just looked away, feeling ridiculous. Nick grabbed both my hands and held them above my head. "Fine... I'm just going to show you how amazing it is, then."
He kept my hands held above my head while he started to kiss my neck, and continued to move lower. He moved his tongue to my right nipple, and my back instinctively arched. He continued to lick over it and then blew on it, then made sure to give the same assault to the other. I was shaking a little after he'd finished his sweet torture, and then kept moving downward. He stopped for a minute to pull down my shorts and underwear, and at that point, I just kicked them off when they got to my ankles. He let my arms go, and moved to spread my legs, to which I immediately snapped them together.
"Oh, no, baby. There's no way you're not going to let me taste you."
Nick pushed my legs open again, and once his face got between my thighs, he shot up and looked at me. I had to giggle because I knew what was coming next.
"When did you do this?!"
My clit hood was pierced, and apparently Chellie never mentioned that to him. I'd gotten it done shortly after I'd met Nick, and I was really surprised that Chel hadn't told him about it, since the entire scenario was ridiculously funny. The piercer had been making fun of how small my hood was, and then laughing at the fact I was shaking so badly before he did it. Oh, I was so not amused.
"About a month after we met." I replied, looking down at him.
"Oh hell yeah." he said, lowering his head once more.
Once he started sucking on my clit, my hands immediately went to his head. He was so good, there was no way I could control my screams. He pushed the barbell back and forth with his tongue, while he slowly put a finger inside of me. He kept a steady rhythm with his finger while he sucked on my clit, I slid my fingers in his hair, and starting to pull a little. He continued until I could barely feel my legs. "Nick..
"Yeah, baby?" he smirked, crawling back over me.
I put my arms around his neck and pulled him down to kiss me. "That was... oh my god."
"You ready for this?" Nick whispered, his head in my neck, and he started rubbing his cock back and forth against my pussy. I swear I could have came just by him doing that.
"I don't get to put my mouth on you first?" I pouted, trying to hold back a giggle, knowing it would drive him crazy.
"I can't... baby... won't last. Just let me fuck you." he moaned, trying to keep control.
"Fuck yes..." I moaned, starting to lose it, as well.
Nick pushed his cock inside of me, and my back immediately arched up against him. He waited before pushing the rest all the way in, but what I felt was nothing short of amazing. He held me against him, savoring the moment, slowly rocking his hips. I started to rock with him as I got used to him inside of me. I could hear his grunts in my ear, which just turned me on that much more. "Oh my god..." I cried.
"Ashleigh, open your eyes." Nick said, pulling back, so his abdomen was perpendicular with mine.
I opened my eyes and looked up at him, waiting for what he was about to do.
His fingers went straight to my clit, he knew I was about to cum. My eyes instinctively shut, but Nick's voice told me to keep them open. "Ash... look at me."
I opened them once again, as my orgasm took over and he whispered out, almost inaudibly, "I love you." Nick thrusted in me one last time before his orgasm hit him. and collapsed on top of me.
Umm. What?
I looked back up at him, after my orgasm had subsided, wondering if he really just said that he loved me. "What?"
"Sorry... I just... I've kinda known for a long time, and I wanted to tell you."
"Ummm..are you sure?" I stuttered. Love wasn't a word I just threw around lightly.
"Yeah. No pressure or anything... I just wanted you to know. I do love you..."
"I definitely love you too..." I started. "I'm just not sure in the way that you do, yet."
"It's okay, baby girl. Like I said, no pressure."
I closed my eyes, with a small smile on my face. Nick really had waited for me. He was for real. And he was all mine.
-----
I was a little taken aback when Chellie had brushed me off when I'd called her earlier. Was she pissed about us not showing up to help with the decorations? Shit.. I would be. She had every right to be angry. I was being less than a best friend lately. But wasn't she the one who was encouraging this? Hadn't she been the one to tell me to talk to Nick? I was pulled out of my thoughts when I heard my phone ring.
"Hello?"
"Hey beautiful. Whatcha doin?" It was Nick.
"Nothin, gettin' ready. What are you up to?"
"Gettin' ready too. Just seeing what my favorite girls are up to."
"Oh, well... Chel's not here." I said, sadly.
"What? Why not?"
"I think she's mad about yesterday..." I told him.
"Oh…”
"I hate that things aren't the same anymore." I sighed.
"It'll be okay, baby. We'll work this all out, I promise." Nick said, cautious that I might be changing my mind.
"Okay. You can come by whenever you're ready."
"Alright. Bye, beautiful." he said, making me smile. Nick was the only one who'd ever called me beautiful.
I pulled my hair back in small clips, and put ridiculous amounts of hair spray in, so it wouldn't fall out over the course of the night. I finished my make up, and put on my costume, including the tiny wings. I wasn't going to wear any shoes, but I put some in my small bag, incase we went out afterwards. I always enjoyed being barefoot more than anything else. I dusted some glitter over my shoulders, chest, and arms, and walked downstairs, to wait for Nick.
I was in the kitchen when I heard the doorbell ring, and I immediately ran to go get it, opening the door to see Nick standing there, dressed as 1920's gangster, in a black pinstriped suit and fedora. "Oh my... GOD!"
"You too, Ash." He said pulling on my wrist to bring me toward him to kiss me.
I put my hands around his shoulders, and gave him a sweet kiss before bringing him inside. "You look amazing." I said, shutting the door.
"You do, too, beautiful." he replied, pulling me to him again. "As a matter of fact, I'm thinking we just skip the party, and stay here."
"No way!" I replied, "What makes you think you're getting lucky tonight, anyway?"
"Seems like yesterday, when I was going down on you… you said you wanted to return the favor." He smiled, whispering in my ear.
His words sent chills to my entire body, it was ludicrous the way this man had control over my body. "Maybe..." I smiled, weakly. I wasn't so sure what I was doing, but he didn't need to know that.
"Let's go then." Nick said, pulling on my hand out the door.
We got to the venue, happy with the turn out, from what we could tell from the parking lot. I stepped out of the car, still barefoot, and waited for Nick to get out as well. As we started walking toward the door, Nick took my hand in his. I looked up at him and smiled, this was turning out good so far. We walked inside, thoroughly impressed with the decorating Chellie had done. It was amazing. We looked around for her, be didn’t see her anywhere.
"Come dance with me." Nick said, pulling me on to the dance floor.
Nick and I started dancing as I sang along with the song, "break it off, boy. This has got me feelin' naughty. I wanna know boy, if I could be ya shorty. Set it off boy..." Nick smiled at me as I continued to mouth along with the song while we moved.
The night was thoroughly enjoyable, aside from the fact that neither of us could spot Chel anywhere. I searched the room for every hot sailor girl I could find, yet didn't see her anywhere. I pulled out my phone and texted her. "Hey.. I can't find you anywhere."
About five minutes later she texted back. "I'm around."
I sighed, frustrated with her attitude and not knowing why she was acting so different. "Chel, what's going on? I get you’re pissed, but why are you so mad you won’t even fucking talk to me?"
I was still looking around for her when my phone buzzed again. “We'll talk tomorrow."
I texted back, agreeing. What else could I do? She was clearly upset about something… but was it more than the fact that we didn't show up yesterday? I wondered if it had to do with the blonde gangster walking toward me.
--------------
CHELLIE
Turns out, it’s much harder to avoid people than I would have thought. I’d never really had to make a conscious effort to dodge anyone before, so now that I was playing “keep myself away” from them… I was quickly learning the intricacies of the game. Rule one, it was probably best not to play in stilettos.
A few hours into the party I was getting legitimately tired of going out of my way to stay away from them. And I was extremely irritated with people that had seen both Nick and I going, “Aww, you match! Why aren’t you together?”
C’mon… it’s just not even funny. How’d that even happen? I actually DID want a picture of the two of us all gangster, because at some point, yes, it would be cute to look back at this. Right now, I was just annoyed.
I was really just pissy in general… I’d lost Brendan at some point to a girl dressed up as a “naughty nurse” which was really sort of… funny and lame at the same time. Last I’d seen them, they were making out over in the ‘cemetery’. Whatever… I wasn’t all that concerned with him anyway. I was, honestly, just pissed about Nick and Ashleigh.
Not that they were together… I knew he really wanted her and he’d be good to her – or at least better than any of her previous boyfriends had been. And it wasn’t even that I was losing my fuck buddy… I was fairly confident I could find another one of those if I really wanted to.
What really had my panties in a twist was the way things seemed to be headed. Immediately upon their getting together… I’d been forgotten. It’s always annoying when one of your girl friends gets a new boyfriend and they go through that “Ohmygod he’s my whole world and I will spending every waking second with him” phase. But when that new boyfriend is your best friend… that takes them both out of the equation. Chel – (Nick + Ashleigh) = one-third of the Muskateers, all by her onesie.
Ash sent me a text, asking where I was and I just replied “I’m around”… what else was I going to say? She sent a second one, asking what was wrong. Could she really not know? I replied with “we’ll talk tomorrow”. Maybe.
I went back to the bar, and asked for a jack and coke, without the coke. The bartender just laughed at me and handed me a tumbler and said, “drink this.” I sniffed it – and had no idea what he’d just given me. Eh… I’ll be adventurous. I tossed the drink back and heard, “That’s not going to end well.”
I turned around and there was Nick… looking ridiculously (and irritatingly) hot. I glanced around for Ashleigh and couldn’t find her anywhere. “Aren’t you missing something?”
He scowled a little, “Ashleigh is with her friends… the ones who aren’t acting like bitches to her.”
Oh no he didn’t.
“Outside. Now.” I said, grabbing him by the chain on his pants and pulling him toward the exit nearest to us.
“What the fuck is your deal?” he growled as we got outside.
“Are you SERIOUSLY going to call me a bitch right now?” I practically yelled at him.
“What would you call it then? Ash is all upset you wouldn’t get ready with her earlier, you’ve been avoiding both of us… I’ve seen you dodgin’ out the way when you see us coming…”
Isn’t it amazing how some people never seem to realize that they have any part in a situation? It’s always someone else’s fault. I took a few deep breaths before I went with my instinct to take my stiletto off and beat him with it. “I have been avoiding you for a grand total of three hours. How the fuck do you explain the last week? Neither one of you has called me. At all. If I hadn’t shown up yesterday to do EVERYTHING… none of this would be going on right now. And why was I here alone? Because I’m sure you two were… otherwise engaged. Why would I WANT to talk to either one of you? You obviously don’t have any time for me now… why should I make any for you?? I’m so excited by this preview of how my life is going to be for the duration of your relationship with her.”
He just looked at me for a second, like he was letting what I said sink in. He finally said, “Sorry…” and then turned back toward the door. He opened it and before he walked inside said, “You look really good tonight” then let the door slam behind him.
I looked at my watch as I leaned back against the wall, was it too early to go home? God, this night was a disaster for me.
This is my Halloween? Seriously? It’s my favorite freaking holiday and this is how it turns out? I lose my date, get ditched my best friends… This sucks.
----
I managed to be somewhat social and appear as though I was having some fun until I shooed the last party-goer out at 2 AM. I hadn’t seen Nick or Ashleigh again, so I don’t know if they stayed after he and I “talked” or not.
Brendan left with his nurse and I paid the dj and the bartender, trashed all the decorations and went home alone.
As I drove home, I thought it was weird the number of people I hadn’t seen all night. I didn’t see AJ anywhere… there were several of my friends I hadn’t seen… I realize that my bobbing and weaving avoidance tactics had probably made for a worse night than was really necessary.
I crawled in to bed, not even angry anymore, just sort of sad for me. Things were probably fixable… but it seemed like sort of a daunting task.
----
When I woke up, I sent Ash a text… I wasn’t quite ready to talk just yet. I told her I was going to run some errands and would stop by her house on my way. I figured she’d still be asleep or tangled up with him, so I was surprised when I got an immediate response.
“Ok. I’m up. Come on by.”
I got ready and went over to her house, rang the doorbell and waited. As soon as she opened the door I said, “I talk, you listen.”
She nodded at me, looking a little.. scared maybe?
I took a deep breath, because I knew when I started talking, it was just all going to start spilling out. “Okay, here’s the thing. I don’t care that you’re with him. I don’t even care that you’re having sex with him. Although, I can’t believe you didn’t make him wait a little longer… but that’s not the point. I’m not jealous of you two together… me and him having that kind of relationship… never gonna happen, I’ve always known that. What I don’t like is both of you forgot I existed the second you hooked up. We don’t blow each other off for guys, remember that? You didn’t talk to me for DAYS… you don’t show up to do something we were all supposed to do together… if it’s going to be like that for however long you guys are… dating or whatever… I’m bowing out now because I cannot deal with being the odd one out all the time.”