Tyler checked his watch again. Why does she make me so damn nervous? He thought, frustrated. "6:30", he said silently to himself. He had to be at Nicole's house by 7 o'clock sharp, or she'd throw a fit. Tyler thought it best to leave at this time. "It never hurts to be early", was Tyler's new philosophy since being involved with Nicole.
Arriving at her house at 6:54, Tyler contemplated beeping the horn for her to come out. Being the Gentleman he his, Tyler thought against that idea, and instead started walking towards her doorstep.
Tyler rang the doorbell, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited... Finally, he gave up on waiting and started to walk back to his car. Just as he got seated, Nicole confidently strolled out of the house, walking over to Tyler's car. She stood at the car door, seemingly waiting for something. Tyler got out of the car and opened the passenger side door, so Nicole could get in. "Well, it took you long enough to get here", Nicole said coldly.
Tyler sighed, then muttered, "yeah, sorry. Traffic." He was already getting a headache, and the date had just started...but she IS so beautiful, he thought. Tyler then went around to the driver’s side and got into the car. Upon entering the car he noticed his nose was itching, no, tickling inside. He sniffed quietly to try to get rid of the tickle. Nicole then looked at him and rolled her eyes, as if disgusted. They proceeded to drive towards the art exhibit for the first part of their date. Tyler couldn't help but sniff as quietly as possible throughout the car ride to keep from sneezing.
"What is your problem?", Nicole finally asked him, seemingly quite aggravated.
"I'm sorry, I can't help it. You didn't wear that perfume again, did you?"
"What does it matter if I did? You don't like it, or something?", Nicole asked.
"What the hell Nicole. You know I like it, but it just makes me sneeze."
Nicole rolled her eyes and said, "give me a break, Tyler. Anyone can hold back a sneeze. You just sneeze all the time because you know I find it repulsive."
Tyler was so damn frustrated with the way she was treating him that he felt close to tears. "Jesus, Nicole...I just don't understand you! It seems like everything I do is wrong. You wear that fucking perfume that kills my nose, even though my sneezing repulses you. I try my hardest to hold back the sneezes, and you get mad because I'm sniffling! Why do you bother even associating with me at all??"
Nicole did not seem phased by anything he had just said. "Well, I guess you’re not so bad in bed", she said in a joking tone. Somehow he didn't think she was joking though...
They had finally arrived at the exhibit and he parked the car as close as possible. All of a sudden the urge to sneeze intensified more then he could control it. He tried contorting his face, rubbing underneath his nose, and finally pinching his nose shut, but nothing could stop the sneeze now. Finally he gave up and gasped uncontrollably as the sneeze hit him. What should have been a somewhat powerful, wet, but not obnoxiously loud sneeze came out a very stifled, "haaa haaa-kmp".
He felt like his ears had popped, and his sinuses were extremely stuffed up now. Tyler then sniffed loudly and glanced over at Nicole who was looking at him, quite disgusted by his display. "Sorry", he said, trying not to blush.
They then proceeded to walk towards the outdoor art exhibit. Tyler was happy that the exhibit was held outdoors so the fresh air would lesson the effects of Nicole's perfume on his nose. Of course, Nicole was already complaining about how cold it was outside... Just then, out of the corner of his eye Tyler saw someone that he recognized.
It was his best friend, from high school. "Wow, I haven't seen her in about seven years. She looks really great.", Tyler thought to himself. This woman, Lexie, stood at 5' 5", much smaller then Nicole who was almost 5' 10". Lexie had blonde hair with sparkling blue eyes. She basically had the exact opposite features as Nicole had minus the fact that they both had those amazing blue eyes. Although...Nicole's blue eyes, he thought, didn't seem to sparkle like Lexie's do; they seemed cold. Speaking of cold, he snapped out of the daze he was momentarily in as he felt Nicole's ice cold hand grab his hand and pull him towards an art booth.
Tyler wondered why he and Lexie had never dated in the past. They had come close, on many occasions, but for some reason it just never happened. Then he met Nicole, and well, "the rest is history", he said out loud, under his breath.
"Hold on a second, Nicole. I see an old friend. Let's go over and talk to her for a minute."
"Fine", Nicole replied, but only for a minute.
They walked over to where Lexie was standing, by herself, admiring some of the art. "Hey, Lexie! Tyler yelled out when they got close to her.
"Tyler, is that you? Lexie said as she turned around suddenly. "Ty, You should have been here a few minutes earlier! All our old friends from high school were here; Keith, Joe, Mary, Shawn, Seth, Michele, Scott...almost everyone! Hey, everyone's been asking about you, Tyler. Why haven't you kept in touch with anyone?" Lexie then noticed Tyler holding hands with Nicole.
"Lex, this is Nicole..", Tyler started to say before Nicole cut him off.
"Pleasure to meet you. I'm Nicole, Tyler's girlfriend...very serious, girlfriend", Nicole said as she went to give Tyler a semi-passionate kiss on the lips, for show.
Tyler broke away from the kiss when he got the scent of Nicole's perfume and felt a VERY strong urge to sneeze. He couldn't sneeze now. It was bad enough sneezing when he and Nicole were alone, but Nicole had basically brainwashed him into thinking that ALL women were repulsed with sneezing. It was too late to try and stifle the sneeze now because he had already uncontrollably gasped loudly as the sneeze began.
“ haaaaa haaa HaESHoo!”, he sneezed very wetly, but at a medium volume, into his left hand that covered his nose and mouth. He quickly felt another sneeze coming on and he could do nothing to stop it.
Lexie looked over at Nicole, who was just standing there with a repulsed look on her face, waiting for Tyler to stop sneezing. Lexie couldn’t believe how coldly Nicole was acting towards Tyler. Lexie then noticed Tyler was about to sneeze again, so she quickly started looking through her purse to find some tissues for him. She found some just before the inevitable sneeze took complete control of Tyler again. She quickly handed him the tissues in his unoccupied hand and brought them up to his nose as he sneezed “AAAA..haaa...haESHoo!”, wetly into the tissues. He then wiped his other hand, which was quite wet from the previous sneeze.
“BLESS you”, Lexie said.
Tyler’s face was bright red from blushing. He looked up at her, ashamed, and said a quiet “thank you”. Lexie laughed and said “since when have you been shy, Tyler?” Tyler smiled and shrugged. He then remembered Nicole.
Tyler looked over at Nicole who said, “That was so sick, Tyler. Why can’t you just stop the sneezes so you don’t embarrass yourself and ME like that?”
Appropriately enough, Tyler then felt the strong urge to sneeze return in full force. Lexie noticed him rubbing his nose, and quickly handed him a tissue, which he pushed away. “I don’t have to sneeze!”, he said sharply.
“Oh, sorry..”, Lexie said, surprised at his response.
Tyler could not hold the sneeze in any longer. He looked up at Nicole who was giving him a look that implied “don’t you dare”. Tyler then pinched his nose completely shut with two of his fingers and sneezed almost silently. Nicole sighed, audibly.
“Bless you, Ty”, Lexie said, concerned. “Thanks”, Tyler muttered, as he started to feel a little bit dizzy. He held onto the side of the booth to steady himself, and he seemed to be ok.
“Ok, it was nice meeting you Lexie, but we are going to look around now. I didn’t come to this art show to stand around and socialize.
Lexie really didn’t hear what Nicole had just said. She reached up and put her hand on Tyler’s forehead, which startled him. “Oh my god, Ty! You’re burning up! Do you feel ok?”
“I’m fine. Nicole just forgot that I was allergic to her perfume...She wore the perfume tonight..I’m allergic to the perfume... “ Tyler started to feel a little bit dizzy again, and he sat down on the bench, next to the booth.
Come to think of it, he HAD been feeling weird all day, but he just took it as nerves. He always seemed to be nervous lately, because of Nicole, so he never gave it a second thought.
“Come on Tyler, lets go!”, Nicole said impatiently.
“One..second honey..I don't feel so good..”, Tyler replied, as he leaned forward and put his hands over his face. Lexie put her hand on his back and started rubbing it lightly. Nicole then grabbed Lexie’s hand off of Tyler’s back, and smiled a phony smile at her. “Please do not touch my boyfriend, thanks.”, Nicole said, mocking politeness.
“Sorry...I just...I ...he seems to feel horrible, and you..” Lexie started to say before being cut off by Nicole.
“It is none of your business what I do or do not do!”, Nicole said coldly. “Tyler lets go.”
Lexie couldn’t stand being nice to this woman anymore. “He isn’t going anywhere! Let him sit down for a minute, for god’s sake! He doesn’t feel well!”
Nicole was appalled. “He is FINE, and I’d like it if you would stay OUT of our business!”
Tyler broke the tension of the women’s argument by getting up off the bench quickly and running over to the nearest trash can. He got to the trashcan just in time before he started throwing up violently into it. Both women ran over to where he was. When he was finished vomiting he turned around and looked at the women. Lexie handed him a tissue to wipe his face off, which he did, and luckily he hadn’t gotten anything on his clothing. Tyler felt miserable and went over to Nicole to give her a hug and just have her hold and comfort him. Of course, this IS Nicole we are talking about so instead of lovingly hugging her sick boyfriend, she stepped back and pushed him away. Nicole then handed him a stick of gum, to make sure his breath was ok, I suppose. “Come on, NOW can we look around?? We are wasting the whole evening!”, Nicole said.
Lexie couldn’t believe what she was witnessing! She couldn’t take it anymore. Tyler used to be her best friend, and she just couldn’t stand seeing him treated so badly. “Tyler, leave her here if she cares about looking around a stupid art show, more then she cares about your health! I’ll drive you home, and you can go straight to bed, where you belong when you are not feeling well.”, Lexie said, very concerned for his well being and frustrated by the situation.
Tyler didn’t know what to do. His head was pounding and he couldn’t think straight...
