The next day, Jane said I didn’t have to go to school, but I didn’t feel like having to do make up work, so I went anyway. I really didn’t think anyone would say anything as far as my parents would go, because they hadn’t cared about me before, but I was wrong. As soon as I stepped into the door all eyes were on me. Trying to ignore it, I walked to my locker with my head hung low.
"I’m really sorry," a girl named Mandee from one of my classes said quietly.
"Oh," I replied. "Thanks." She smiled and walked away. Person after person told me how sorry they were that day. It was the longest day of my life. I was looking forward to seeing Nick at dismissal and going home to the peace and quiet. I got all my books out of my locker and walked over to him.
"Hey! How was your day?" he asked, putting the last book into his book bad and zipping it up.
"Long. Stressful. Painful."
"Aw, I’m sorry," he said, kissing my cheek. "I’m sure it’ll all be forgotten by Wednesday."
"Yeah," I sighed, "I hope you’re right."
"Hey, SLASH!" Geoff called. I don’t know why, but he always called me by my last name.
Recognizing the voice, I slowly turned around to see him staring back at me. "What?" I asked, making it a point to be rude.
"That’s pretty cool about your folks. Did the guy blow their heads off?" he laughed hysterically.
I was going to ignore his incredibly rude comment, but Nick had a totally idea.
"Watch your f*cking mouth!" he yelled, punching him right in the face. That’s all it took for the biggest fistfight I had ever seen in my life to get started. As it looked, no one was going to stop it, so I had to do the dirty work. I pulled Nick off of Geoff, and Nick unwillingly calmed down. Geoff backed away with a bloody nose and a black eye. They stared at each other before Geoff picked up his book bag, and walked away.
I turned to Nick. "You REALLY didn’t have to do that," I said, giving him a weird look and wiping some blood off his cheek.
"Yeah I did." He flinched. "That was totally uncalled for and that’s the only way he’s gonna shut up and stop bothering you."
"Would you stay still!?" I asked, holding him in one place. I cleaned him up as much as possible. "Listen to me. Don’t ever do that again, ya hear?"
He smiled. "Yes ma’am."
"You got it babe." I picked up his book bad and threw it around my shoulder on top of mine. "You’re gonna have a pretty bad bruise on your cheek."
"Where?"
I ran my thumb over the place where the bruise looked the worst where he could feel it. "Feel it?"
He nodded. "C’mon. Let’s go home."
"Man, he got you good," I sighed as Nick put on his seatbelt.
"I’m sure I’ll be able to feel it tomorrow. Mom’s gonna kill me."
"Just say…you ran into something!"
"Sounds like me," he laughed.
After that we both ran out of things to say, so the rest of the ride was quiet, but I enjoyed the peace. I was sick of people telling me how "sorry" they were. It only made me feel worse because they reminded me of what I saw. I had the worst headache and I was dying for some Tylenol.
"YES! Mom’s not here!" Nick said as he drove up into the driveway, suddenly in a better mood. We got inside and there was a note from her on the kitchen table. It said that her and the rest of the Carter kids would be out until 9:00, and Bob had to work over time until 10:00. I didn’t mind, and Nick surely didn’t mind.
Nick washed his off and I choked down two Tylenol. We both collapsed on the couch. "What a day!" he sighed, putting his arms around my shoulders.
"You’re telling me!" I laughed. "I have go the worst headache and I am so tired!"
"Ditto…and my cheek hurts," he whined.
"Well, blondie," I teased him (even though I’m blonde too), "ice might help."
"Oh yeah," he said, getting up.
"Sit. I’ll get it."
I put 4 ice cubes in a zip lock back covered it with a paper town and gave it to him. My mom used to do that for me when I’d get hurt playing outside with Amy, Steven, and Andrew when I was a little squirt.
"Where’s the spot?" he asked.
I laughed. "Your cheek hurts, but you don’t know where the spot is?"
"No…"
"Gimmie!" I said, grabbing the bag. "Right here!"
"Ouch, that hurts!"
"Oh you are such a baby."
"Well!"
"Well, I know a way to fix this."
"What’s that?"
"Don’t ever do it again."
"But I had to stand up for my woman!"
I laughed. "No you didn’t."
"Yes I did."
"Don’t argue with me. You numb yet?"
"Huh?"
"Your cheek…is it numb yet?"
"Oh, yeah."
"Good as new!" I smiled, rubbing his head.
"Hey, don’t mess with tha ‘do!"
"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot. Can’t mess with the ‘do. So what are we gonna do all night?"
"What are we gonna do or what do I wanna do?"
"Pervert…what are we gonna do."
"I have a few ideas."
"Like what?"
"Like, NINTENDO!"
"On a scale from one to 10, I give it a 9.9!"
We must have played Area 51 the whole entire night. It wasn’t until 9:30 that Jane came home with the rest of the Carter kids. It was really my first chance to get to know them. All of them except Angel had blonde hair like their big brother Nick. Aaron, of he cut his hair, he would have looked like a photocopy of Nick. He was absolutely adorable. BJ was nice, she a I ended up talking the rest of the night after I met the rest of them. Angel was Aaron’s twin sister, but looked nothing like him. She was cute, had bfrown hair, brown eyes, and was kind of short. Leslie was also a blonde, and was pretty tall for being 14. BJ made me sick, she was so pretty. But, then again, she resembled Nick a lot. She was a Junior at CHS too, but I didn’t remember seeing her. She and I had a lot in common too, which was really cool. We got along great.
"So you’re dating Nick, huh?" she asked.
"Yeah," I answered.
She laughed. "Boy, have you got your hands full!"
"He can’t be that bad."
"Oh yeah he can! Have you met Brian yet?"
"Uh huh."
"He’s a fox huh?"
"Oh yeah, hottie. I agree with that totally!"
"Too bad he’s Nick’s best friend or I would be all over him!"
I laughed.
I swear, we must have covered half the topics ever discussed in the world, and left the other half for another day when we both got the time. At 11:00 I was about ready to pass out, so I headed on to bed. Nick insisted that I take his bed, but I didn’t want to deprive the boy of his bed. I know how attached men are to their beds. He offered over five times, but I refused. After about fifteen minutes of refusing, he finally gave up. Besides, he had to go and explain his face to Jane.
"See ya bring and early tomorrow mornin’!" he said with a goofy grin. He kissed me on my cheek and ran downstairs to explain himself.