"I don't want you to go."
Nick grinned. He truly did have an amazing girlfriend. He pulled her closer to him and murmured softly, "I have Chemistry." He looked down at her disappointed face and chuckled. "I know, baby, but I'm already having enough trouble with it."
Miley frowned up at her boyfriend. "I can tutor you," she replied helpfully.
"And do you honestly believe that I would concentrate on Chemistry when you're talking about particles colliding?" he teased, an eyebrow raised as he looked right back at her.
Miley flushed. "Nicky!" she giggled. She slapped his chest playfully and bit her lip.
Her laugh, so light that it sounded as though it was a tinkling wind chime, brought a smile to his lips. Her giggle brightened his day every time he heard it. It was like a sweet melody he couldn't get enough of, like his favourite song that was played over and over on his iPod.
"I'll see you at lunch," he promised, yet he made no move to leave. They were still leaning against the lockers, staring at each other.
"I love you," she whispered. Her voice was honest and raw, filled with sincerity.
"I love you too." Nick placed a tender kiss on her forehead and backed away. "Lunch," he promised once more as he reversed down the hallway, grinning at her.
"I'll meet you at your car."
Nick flashed his teeth at her with one more grin and winked playfully at her before turning on his heel and walking away from her. He made his way from Miley's locker to the science department in the east wing, practically whistling with happiness as he walked.
He had been dating Miley since he was fifteen years old. As he approached the age of eighteen, every day with Miley was still a joy. He couldn't imagine being with another girl, at least not in the way he was with Miley. They were connected – she knew what he was thinking before he even said it out loud, and he knew everything about her that there was to know. According to their friends, 'perfect' was too weak a word to describe their relationship.
He passed the wall dedicated to Miley's late brother, Jackson. A memorial had been erected soon after he passed away in a tragic car accident two years previously. The floor-to-ceiling mural depicted everything Jackson had loved about life – sports, music, his school, nature.
As he did every day, Nick looked up at the mural and let out a guilty sigh, inaudible to anyone but himself. The death of her brother had torn Miley apart, and though he had helped her through her grief, she could never know what he knew about the crash, and that killed him more than anything. He stared up at the wall and shook his head. Even though it had been nearly two years, he thought about that night every single day.
He moved on from the mural and approached Mr Thompson's Chemistry class. He leaned against the wall beside the door and waited patiently.
His best friend, Joe, raced up to him. "Dude, have you seen Stephanie Clark's new rack? All the girls coming out of the locker room were saying that her dad got her a boob job for her birthday and –"
"Not interested," Nick said quickly, not giving Joe a chance to finish his sentence.
"Oh, that's right. Princess Miley has you by the balls and has done since freshman year. Geez, man, when are you going to hook up with a new chick? You've spent your entire high school life with the one girl! When you have kids, are you honestly going to tell them that you spent pretty much your whole adolescence with your first girlfriend?"
Nick smiled. "Why would I want to hook up with somebody new? Dude, trust me when I say that if Miley dumped me tonight, no other girl would even begin to compare to her."
Joe groaned and punched Nick's arm. "You're so whipped, dude. This whole being in love crap has turned you into such a girl. Next thing I know you'll be buying tampons and scented candles and lace bras."
Nick chuckled. Joe's comments reminded him of the night at the beach when he and Miley had been making out in his car and Miley had pulled off her shirt to reveal the sexiest little bra he had ever seen her in.
"Dude, stop thinking about Miley in her underwear before you get a boner," Joe hissed, disgusted. "How is your little sweetheart this morning?"
"She's good."
"You've got nothing better for me than good?"
"I didn't think you'd want to know what we were doing beside her locker before class," Nick joked.
Joe's face contorted in revulsion at his best friend. "Dude, you did not hook up with your girlfriend in front of her locker." He stared at him and shrieked. "Oh my God, man! You totally did!"
"I wouldn't really call it hooking up," Nick replied.
"What else would you call it?"
"A good morning kiss, perhaps."
Joe turned away, disgusted. "You are repugnant."
"I didn't think you knew any words with more than two syllables," Nick teased.
"I was helping Dem with her English homework last night. She made me find all these words in the dictionary for her. Now I feel like I ate one of the stupid things," Joe replied.
The classroom door opened. "It's our anniversary next week," Nick said as he led the way into the classroom, taking their usual table in the second row from the back.
"You know what that means, right?"
How could I forget? he thought. Jackson's anniversary would follow the week after, just as it had the year before. The anniversary had made theirs a pretty miserable affair. Miley had hardly touched her dinner, and she certainly wasn't in the mood for a conversation.
"Have you two ever had a normal anniversary?"
Nick thought about it and realised that they probably hadn't. The week after their first one, Jackson's accident happened. The following year had been a disaster. That brought them to the current year, one he hoped wouldn't be quite as bad as the previous one.
"Mi's trying not to think about any of that," he replied quickly, not bothering to answer the second question.
"She can't exactly escape it. It isn't for another two weeks and there are already people laying flowers beside the mural," warned Joe. "That anniversary is all this town is going to be talking about for the next month."
Nick had noticed the blue and yellow flowers – school colours, of course – below the full-wall painting, yet he had chosen to ignore it and pretend that nobody had even thought to look into flowers yet. The week of Jackson's death was, believe it or not, as bad for him as it was for Miley. It filled him with guilt and sadness when he made the usual terrible realisation that there was nothing he could do to take away Miley's grief. He wanted them to have a perfect anniversary before Miley's usual three-week grieving process.
"I still can't believe that you haven't told her," mumbled Joe, taking his book out of his backpack.
"Keep your voice down!" Nick hissed, looking around to make sure that no one heard. "Jackson told me that night to never let Miley know what happened. Therefore, I have not and will not tell her."
"Her brother died in that car, Nick. She deserves to know the truth about what happened that night."
Nick looked away and coughed to give himself time to think. "I'm doing what he asked because we both knew her well enough to know that she would handle the truth badly." He closed his eyes and sighed. "I feel guilty every single day. You know that. I wish that I could tell her, but I can't."
"Maybe if you told her –"
"I promised Jackson," he snapped. "His last wish was that Miley never find out, and I intend to keep it the way Jackson wanted it to be – hidden."
Nick approached his car and saw Miley sitting on the hood, laughing at something across the parking lot. As usual, she looked beautiful. Her blonde highlights caught the sun and shone golden.
"Hey, gorgeous," he called.
Miley looked up and smiled. Her smile could light up an entire building, never mind a room.
"Hey, baby!" she called back excitedly. "I've missed you." She approached him and wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could.
"Cafeteria or Giuseppe's?"
"Giuseppe's. I promised Demi that I would talk to her there."
Nick opened his passenger door and held it open for her. "Hop in," he said.
She clambered into his TrailBlazer and buckled her seatbelt. She glanced nervously around the car.
Nick sighed as he walked around the car. The accident still affected her every day, and she hadn't even been in the car with Jackson. It had taken five weeks after the accident to convince her that a car wasn't a rolling death machine.
"So, what are you going to get?" he asked in an attempt to distract her from the idea of the accident.
"Maybe a slice of pizza," she replied, her voice distant as she surveyed the road carefully.
Nick reached out and rested his hand on her knee. A simple, silent sign of reassurance, yet her entire body relaxed almost immediately at his touch.
"I've been meaning to ask you something," he said softly.
"Yes?"
"Will you be my date to Homecoming?"
Miley laughed, a light and airy sound. "You don't have to ask, baby," she teased. "We've been together for years. I just assume that we go together now."
"I wanted to be a gentleman for you, even if I do think it's kind of lame," he murmured.
"Thank you," she whispered, squeezing his hand. "You're adorable."
It was clear that both of them were thinking of Jackson as they drove through McCready's crossroad. The car was filled with silence as they eyed the flowers laid at the sight of the crash.
"It's his anniversary soon, you know."
"I know."
"I can't do this alone, Nick."
He looked over and smiled weakly. His heart broke for the girl he had loved since he was fifteen. "You don't have to do it alone, baby. You've got me." He held her hand tightly, keeping his other hand firmly on the steering wheel.
"I miss him so much."
"We all do."
"He was a good friend to you."
"And a good brother to you."
Miley looked over at her boyfriend and smiled sadly. "He used to tell me that he wished you would just put us all out of our misery and marry me, even if we were practically kids back then."
Nick grinned over at her. "He used to laugh at me and tease me about being whipped in the locker room after football practice."
"You always were whipped."
"Only for you, beautiful."
His compliment brightened her face entirely. She rested her hand on his knee and watched as he pulled into the parking lot at Giuseppe's.
"Aren't you coming out?" Miley asked when Nick didn't get out of the car.
"You go ahead," he said. "I have to find a picture in the glove compartment for Joe. Something about Demi's birthday."
Miley nodded and disappeared into the small local café. Nick leaned over and reached into the glove compartment. He found the picture from the beach that he was looking for. Underneath the photograph was a small envelope, his name written on it in bold capitals.
NICK.
He carefully opened the envelope and pulled out a small piece of notepaper.
I KNOW YOUR SECRET.
He froze and dropped the paper into his lap. He had many small secrets, but nothing as big as what he had promised Jackson he would keep hidden. He knew that the letter meant only one thing – someone knew what had happened the night of Jackson's accident.
He decided to read on, though he knew that it probably wasn't such a good idea.
DO AS I SAY AND SHE WON'T FIND OUT.
He knew instinctively that 'she' was Miley, though he didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to believe that this person was trying to involve Miley in any way, shape or form.
It had to be a joke, he thought. It had to be Joe or his brother or one of the guys from the football team. Whoever it was, they couldn't be serious. He wasn't going to do what somebody asked just so he could keep a secret, though in all honesty, it was a giant secret that he had to keep.
He stuffed the note back in the envelope and then back in the glove compartment. Miley was waiting for him; he didn't have time to decide on what to do.
He slammed his car door shut and slowly made his way inside the café. He immediately spotted Joe, Demi and Miley at their usual table. He approached them with a false grin glued to his face.
"Hey!" He leaned down and kissed Miley's cheek, even though he had seen her only minutes before. "How is everybody's first day going?"
Miley furrowed her brow and leaned closer to him. "Baby, are you okay? You seem a little tense."
Nick couldn't exactly admit what his problem was, so he kept quiet. He nodded, that grin still plastered on, and pretended like everything was, because in reality, what else could he do?
So this is my new story :-) Hopefully you all enjoyed the first chapter. I'll have the next chapter up soon x