"Did you miss me!" Erin yelled, walking up to my locker the next morning.
"Shoot me," I begged, slamming my head against my locker.
"Ouch! Don’t do that! You’ll lose the last few brain cells you have in your head! Besides, I’m not that bad…am I?" she asked. "What’s wrong with you? It’s Friday, you’re always in a good mood on Fridays!"
"Don’t remind me!" I whined.
"What is wrong with you!?"
"Couldn’t sleep."
"How come?"
"I have my reasons."
"Hey Nick!" she smiled as Nick put the code into his lock.
"Hey!" he said, smiling back.
"We still on for tonight?"
"You betcha!"
I have to get out of here I thought to myself, so I made a lame
excuse up so I could leave. I didn’t see Nick again until lunch. Erin had a club meeting and Lanie was no where in site, so I was forced to sit underneath the tree again by myself. It didn’t take long for Nick to find me.
"Hey," he said, popping his Mountain Dew can open and taking a sip of it.
"Hey," I echoed. My hair was covering my face, so he couldn’t see how tear streaked it was. I guess he could tell by the way I was talking or something, because that was his first question.
"What’s wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing, I’m just having a really bad day."
"Can I ask you a question?"
"You just did…"
"No, I mean a different one!"
"Sure, go ahead."
"Why do you always run from me?"
I looked up at him. I wasn’t’ expecting that to be his question. "Uh, well, um…, I…"
He was still staring at me, waiting for an answer.
"I uh, don’t know." Whatever I did, I couldn’t force myself to tell him I had a thing for him. For me, it seemed to be almost impossible.
He sighed. "Well, I just wanted to tell you no matter what Geoff says, you’re not a loser. He just says that to make you feel bad because the poor bastard’s insecure. Besides, I think you’re kinda cute!"
"You don’t have to say that to make me feel better," I said, still not able to make eye contact with him.
"I’m not, I mean what I said."
Of course the bell just HAD to ring. We always planned these things at the wrong time. I sighed.
"We still on for tonight?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"See ya then."
I watched as he got up and walked away. I was still in shock. Still confused, I headed to 5th period.
At the end of the day I had slacked behind because I wasn’t in the mood to talk to Nick about lunch, not to mention I was still really confused. I figured my six-hour work interval would help me figure myself out.
All I could think about at work was Nick. As I restocked shoes, I thought about Nick. As I helped the customers, I thought about Nick. As I took my fifteen-minute break I thought about Nick. Everywhere I turned I thought I saw him. Although I was driving myself crazy, I was still totally psyched about going out with him and Erin that night after work. The more I thought about it the more nervous I got. I had no clue whatsoever how I was going to tell him I liked him, but I figured what happened, happened, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Those six hours were the longest six hours of my life. 9:00 finally rolled around and I headed out to the car, and headed home. I jumped in and out of the shower, blow dried my hair, got dressed, slapped some makeup on, and was back out the door again. When I got at Go Kart City, Nick and Erin were already there.
"So, what do you lovely ladies want to do first?" he asked. "Go carts or ‘mini-golf’?"
"Go carts!" Erin shot back, without any hesitations or second thought.
"Erin, if you thought that quick in school you’d be in really good shape!" I joked.
"Oh bite me!" she laughed.
"I’m not sure that’s sanitary…" Nick said, giving me a strange look.
Erin grinned. She already knew her plan had worked.
We were in line for forty-five minutes, what seemed like forever. Nick goofed off the whole time we waited. He must have told us all the perverted jokes he knew. Not to mention he made a complete fool of himself by wearing his hat sideways and acting like he was from New York. But he was quite an act. He was so cute when he laughed, so it didn’t bother me at all. I was still really nervous around him though, and whenever he asked me something or said something I ended up stumbling on my words and getting my tongue all in knots. I must’ve looked like a complete idiot.
After waiting in line fore forty-five minutes we stayed on the track for another hour before we hit the mini-golf.
"Dude, I suck at this game so bad!" I laughed.
"Do you really now!?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows. "Let me show both of you chicks how to play ‘mini-golf’!"
Erin laughed as he wrapped his arms around mine, put his chin on my shoulder, and put his hands on mine. "Relax," he whispered into my ear. He must’ve been able to tell how nervous I was by how bad I was shaking. "Are you watching Erin? You best be watchin’!"
"I’ma watchin’!" she giggled.
"FORE!" he yelled, smacking the ball as hard as he could with the club. All three of us almost died laughing.
Since it was my ball, I had to go fishing for it. There conveniently wasn’t a net, so I had to get down on my stomach and stick my hand in the nasty water they called a stream.
"Don’t fall him!" he laughed, grabbing my waist and pushing me forward.
"AH!" I yelled. I dropped the ball on the so-called green and smacked him on his arm. "Don’t do that!" I laughed.
Before I knew it, he grabbed me, pulled me close to him, and laid one on me. I almost melted right then and there in his arms.
"Aw!" Erin laughed, watching from the sidelines.
"We now know we can’t take you anywhere!" Nick laughed.
"Next hole!" Erin grinned, leading the way.
"Hold on. Here goes Happy Gilmore!" I announced, getting back down on my stomach and using the club as a pool stick.
"Me next! Me next!" Erin shouted gleefully, jumping up and down.
"I’m gonna get mad if you get a hole in one off of that," Nick laughed.
"Steph…hole in one…on the same sentence?" Erin teased. "Yeah right!"
"What is this? Pick on Steph day?" I asked, getting up.
"Could be," she answered.
We messed around for the next 16 holes and around midnight we were at the 18th hole.
"I’ll go take all the clubs and balls back," Erin offered, laughing at herself.
"Lordie, I’ve created a monster!" I joked, handing her my club and bright green ball. Nick had gotten mad that I took the green.
Nick laughed and handed his stuff over to Erin too. Erin happily skipped inside to return it all. "Are you sure she’s okay?" he asked, sitting on the bench beside me.
"Well…we took her for her CAT Scan about two months ago and they said she was fine, but I’m starting to think they missed something!"
He laughed. "Well, I had fun tonight!"
"Me too," I agreed.
"Wanna do something tomorrow?"
I laughed nervously. "Like what?"
"Well, I have to meet up with the guys and practice a few songs. You could come along if you want."
I gave him one of those what-are-you-talking-about faces.
< p>
"The guys are four of my friends, and we sing…as Erin probably told you I was into that. You really should come. The guys would love you!"
"Sounds cool. When and where?"
"I can pick you up."
"Alright, that’s fine with me."
"Okay, you people ready to go?" Erin asked, sticking her head out of the door.
"Yeah," I answered, getting up and following Nick inside and back out to the car. We walked Erin to her car, said goodbye and then he walked over to my car with me.
"So, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night at 8?"
I nodded. "Yep!"
"Thanks for coming."
"Thanks for inviting me, it was a blast!"
He leaned in to kiss me, but before he could we were stopped by the horn of a car.
"HEY! NONE OF THAT NOW!" Erin yelled, hanging halfway out of the window of her car.
"What a weenie!" I laughed, waving her off with my middle finger.
Nick laughed and finished what he had started. "See ya," he grinned.
"Hold ya horses there Nicky boy."
"Huh? Did I forget something?"
"My number maybe?" I asked.
"I already got it," he smiled.
I couldn’t help but to smile back. "See ya."