"How did your first day go?"
I glanced over at Demi as we walked across the parking lot to Nick's truck. The day hadn't gone badly, per se. The kids were friendly and the teachers were good, just as I had been told. However, Dallas wasn't New York and it never would be.
"It was okay," I answered simply.
Demi glanced over at the truck and sighed. "Look who's sucking face yet again."
We approached the car and I finally saw Nick and Selena sitting in the bed of his truck, kissing. Demi cleared her throat but they paid no attention to her not-so-subtle hints.
"Do you think you could keep your hands off my best friend long enough to drive us home?" Demi asked Nick coldly.
Nick finally pulled away from Selena and smirked at his twin sister. "Don't worry, Demetria. I know that you don't have a boyfriend right now, but there's no need to be jealous just because your friend does."
Selena nudged Nick softly and gave him a warning look. "Nick!" she hissed.
Nick smiled at his sister and hopped out of the bed of the truck. "Calm yourself, sis. Jump in the car and I'll take you home now." He turned to look at Selena. "I'll call you."
She bit her lip and nodded with a subtle smile.
"He's not going to call her," Demi mumbled, climbing into the front seat of the truck.
I glanced at Selena and sent her a small smile. If Nick was really as bad a boyfriend as Demi made him out to be then I really did pity Selena. It must have been difficult to be with someone who didn't care about you nearly as much as you cared about him.
I climbed into the back seat of the truck and closed the door. No sooner had I sat down had Nick screeched out of the parking lot.
"Are you insane?" Demi snapped. "What the hell are you driving so fast for?"
"I have plans tonight. The sooner I drop you home, the better," he replied.
I rolled my eyes and leaned back in my seat. I had seen dozens of movies about the king of the school who thought he could tell everybody what to do just because he knew how to throw a football. Nick was exactly like all of those boys – arrogant, obnoxious, vain. He thought he could speak to his sister like that just because the rest of the school worshipped the ground he walked on.
We soon arrived at the house. Nick didn't even cut the engine.
"Are you two getting out or what?" he barked.
"What the hell is your problem today?" Demi hissed. She got out of the car and slammed the door shut behind her.
I glanced at Nick as he impatiently drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Do you have some sort of disorder or something or are you just an ass?" I snapped.
"Excuse me?"
"How dare you speak to us like that? This past week you've been so nice, but ever since we got into the truck after school, you've been nothing more than a jerk just because you have to take fifteen minutes out of your 'busy schedule' to drive us home," I replied.
Nick turned around in his seat with a smirk. "I'd watch what I was saying if I were you, princess. This ain't New York, and down here you certainly don't get what you want just because you snap your fingers and stamp your feet a little," he said smoothly.
I narrowed my eyes and let out a low growl. "Demi was right. Selena does deserve so much better, because deep down, you're nothing more than a stubborn, egotistical jackass who wouldn't last one second outside of the suburbs."
"That's the thing, sugar. We aren't outside of the suburbs, and round these parts, we don't pay much attention to spoilt, demanding brats from New York City." Nick turned around in his seat once more to face the front. "Don't let the door hit you on the way our, hon."
I jumped out of his truck and slammed the door angrily. I stomped across the yard and up the porch steps.
Demi looked at me with furrowed eyebrows. "What took you so long?"
"I thought I'd give your brother a piece of my mind."
"Was that really such a good idea?" she asked, biting her lip.
"Just because he walks around that school like he owns the place doesn't mean he can talk to his own sister like she's a piece of crap, and I certainly won't stand for him speaking to me like that when he hardly even knows me," I replied.
"Miley, he isn't exactly the kind of guy you want to screw with. In this part of town, he can say one word and the entire world can come crashing down on you," Demi warned.
I glanced at her as I pushed open the front door and smiled warmly at her. "It's a good thing that my world isn't down here then, isn't it?"
Demi slammed the front door and threw her bag on the floor. "Okay, enough!" She stepped in front of her and smiled sadly. "I get that it was difficult for you to move down here, okay? But seriously, you have to stop making it seem like you'll be back in New York before you know it, because you won't. By the sound of things, you'll be staying in Dallas for the rest of the year, so you may as well admit that things aren't going to change anytime soon and start adapting to life down here."
I looked away, not quite sure what to say. I was grateful for her family taking me and putting a roof over my head and food on my plate, but it wasn't her place to demand that I 'adapt'. She had known me just over a week and yet here she was telling me that I needed to accept the way things had worked out.
"I don't …" I trailed off and looked at her. "I'm sorry. I didn't know that you felt that way."
Demi smiled sympathetically. "Maybe that was too harsh. I was a bitch, wasn't I? God, I'm, sorry. Sometimes I just open my mouth and it all just comes out and I –"
"No," I interrupted. "You're right. I need to accept that I'm going to be down here for the foreseeable future, and I should try to get my head around that before I push away everybody who has even considered being my friend."
She led the way into the kitchen and grabbed two cans of Diet Coke from the refrigerator. "I'm sorry. I don't know you and I don't have the right to make judgments, I know. I just want you to feel like you can settle in here."
I understood where she was coming from, I really did. I just wasn't so sure if I actually wanted to settle in in Texas. I wasn't a Southern girl. I was a New Yorker to the bone. I breathed the sophistication and the maturity of the city, not the sense of community and family-awareness that came with places like this.
Demi turned to me, her smile turning from sympathetic to sad. "I know that you aren't happy here," she said quietly.
"It's not that," I interjected.
"But it is, Miley. You're not happy here, and that's okay. You miss New York and you feel like that's where you belong, and maybe it is. But please, for me, for my mom, will you make an effort to fit in here?"
I watched Demi. I had known her less than a fortnight and she was still treating me like one of her best friends. I had moved into her pool house, eaten meals with her family, driven to school with her brother, eaten lunch with her friends, gone shopping with her. She had opened her arms to me and welcomed me into her life, and yet I hadn't even bothered to repay her by making an effort in her town.
I slowly nodded and smiled slightly. "Of course I'll make an effort."
"A real effort. Not one of those half-hearted excuses."
I nodded once more and took a sip of Diet Coke.
"Now that we've settled that," she said brightly, "I was thinking about Homecoming in a couple of weeks. Do you want to go?"
I contemplated telling her that I really wasn't in the mood to go to a dance with hundreds of strangers, but I just didn't have the heart.
"Of course." I looked over at her excited face and couldn't help but laugh at how joyous the mere thought of Homecoming made her. "So is Homecoming a big deal around here?"
"Oh, it's huge!" Demi exclaimed. "Making the Homecoming Court is, like, the biggest honour you can get at our school. Of course last year Nick was the first junior in about twenty years to be Homecoming King, so he's a shoe-in to win again this year." She sat down at the breakfast bar and glanced at the calendar to check the date. "It's three weeks from Saturday. Think you can find a date by then?"
"I could see if Liam wants to come down and visit that weekend," I suggested.
"Oh my gosh, that would be perfect! I mean, seriously, I've been so excited to meet this guy."
I smiled. At least someone was excited to see Liam, because I certainly wasn't.
"He can't wait to meet you either," I lied.
Demi beamed at me. "So, we should go dress shopping this weekend with Sel. She's so excited. Dances are, like, her favourite thing in the world Oh, and the football game is on the Friday night. That's always awesome. Superstar will be playing obviously, and Selena is cheering."
"I thought you were a cheerleader."
"I was last year, but this year I'm just not into it, so I told Selena that I quit."
"What, is she the captain?"
"Yeah, she got promoted this morning."
I nodded politely and took another sip of my drink. Of course Selena was captain of the cheerleading squad. I mean, come on, what a cliché. She was the perfect all-American girl. She was beautiful, smart (from what I had seen in Chemistry with her that morning), popular, and she was dating the captain of the football team, who just happened to be the perfect all-American boy. Like I said, a cliché.
"So, here's the plan - pep rally Friday afternoon, football game on the Friday night, party at Selena's after then the dance on Saturday night. I'm so excited!"
I smiled at Demi and giggled with her. I had to admit that the idea of Homecoming excited. We never made a big deal out of it in the city. I hated to say it, but I was excited to see if it really was like they made it seem in the movies.
My phone vibrated in my hand. I looked down and saw Liam's name on my screen. I excused myself, made my way out onto the back porch, and pressed my phone to my ear.
"Hey baby."
I smiled at the sound of his voice. "Hey. How was your day?"
"Long. Boring. Tiring. I missed you like hell, Mi. When are you coming back?"
All of our phonecalls involved that sentence. When are you coming back? As if I knew. Hell, I doubt my parents even knew. I was going to be stuck in Texas for the rest of my teenage years if they had their way.
"I was actually going to call you," I said, avoiding Liam's question. "It's Homecoming down here three weeks from Friday. How would you like to come down here and be my date to the dance?"
He hesitated. "That sounds … exciting."
"Come on. We haven't seen each other in forever, and we can even make fun of the stupid Homecoming traditions down here if you want. I miss you and I want to see you," I pleaded.
"I'll see if I can get a flight down," he said reluctantly.
"What, don't you want to see me?"
I heard him sigh and clear his throat. "Babe, don't be ridiculous. You know that I want to see you. It's just that I think Homecoming sounds pretty freaking stupid, that's all."
I rolled my eyes. Of course he found a way to insult the things people did down here. It was the New York way or no way with guys like Liam. Smoking pot in an abandoned apartment apparently made you the coolest person in the country in Liam's eyes.
"Just let me know if you can get a flight. I guess it's okay if you can't. I can find someone else to be my date."
I know it was wrong to basically give him an ultimatum. Come down and be my date or I'll find somebody else wasn't exactly a good offer. I know that it gave him basically no choice in the matter, but what the hell?
"I'll see what I can do."
There was an awkward silence down the line.
"Is this how it's going to be with us now?" I asked quietly.
"What?"
"If I don't give you what you want, if I suggest something that you don't like down the phone, you're going to be in a bad mood with me? God, Liam, you know I didn't want to come down here in the first place, so please stop treating me like it's all my fault."
"I don't want to go to some stupid Homecoming dance with you in the middle of nowhere in the South, Miley. Stop making it into some big drama about how the whole world fucking hates you."
"You know what, Liam? This place isn't so bad, but you wouldn't know that because you're so determined to believe that this place is the worst known to man. Just because it isn't in New York fucking City doesn't make it 'the middle of nowhere'. It's a suburb of Dallas, not the freaking Sahara."
I angrily pressed the 'end call' button on my phone and threw it down angrily onto the wooden porch. I watched as the screen cracked and the back flew off. The battery fell through a gap between the planks and into the darkness below.
"Tough phonecall?"
I glanced over my shoulder and saw Demi standing in the back door. I smiled sadly and nodded.
She sympathetically wrapped an arm around my shoulder and led me down the porch steps. We stopped beside the barbecue and Demi pulled a baseball out of her pocket.
"You just carry matches around?"
She laughed. "No. I heard you shouting down the phone and thought you could do with some therapy once you hung up." She reached over to the patio table and grabbed Frankie's baseball bat.
"What is this?"
She handed me the bat and smiled. She stepped back with the ball and said, "I'm going to throw this ball, and I want you to hit it as hard as you possibly can, okay? I need you to pretend that this ball is Liam's face."
I watched as she gently threw the ball towards me. With all my strength, I hit the ball and watched as it soared over our heads and on to the roof.
"Nice job, newbie."
We both turned and saw Nick leaning against the porch.
"I thought you had somewhere to be," Demi said coldly, taking a step towards her twin brother.
"My plans changed," he replied, not taking his gaze off me. He smirked and sat down on the steps. "You know, princess, I could go and get that ball for you. Frank won't be too happy when he finds out that his new friend hit his ball onto our roof."
I rolled my eyes. "I could totally get that ball myself."
"Really? Prove it."
I narrowed my eyes. This guy was driving me insane with his challenging tone and his demeaning stare. It was like he thought he was better than everybody else in the state just because the school pretty much worshipped the ground he walked on.
"Fine then, I will."
I stormed past him and into the house. I faintly heard Demi snapping at Nick outside, but I ignored them and thundered up the stairs. I dashed up the second flight and onto the second floor.
I saw a door with a poster of Switchfoot and, seeing as the other door had a poster of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I assumed it was Nick's. I barged through the door and went straight to the window.
I yanked the window open and saw that there was a pretty big ledge. I looked down and saw that the porch roof was just above the first floor, so if I slipped, I would land on it.
I looked to the left and saw that Frankie's ball had landed about five feet from Nick's bedroom window.
Slowly, I inched myself out the window and ended up on all fours on the ledge.
I suddenly heard a piercing scream and saw Demi standing beside the barbecue, shaking and screaming. Nick walked over to join her and followed his sister's gaze.
"Miley, what the fuck are you doing up there? You're going to get yourself killed!" he roared.
"I told you that I could get the ball myself!"
"Cut the crap, newbie! You're going to hurt yourself up there! Just turn around and go back into my room," he ordered.
I ignored Nick's orders. Slowly, I started to edge along the ledge, my right arm raised to grab the ball as soon as I got close enough. I could faintly here Demi sobbing uncontrollably down on the ground, but I pushed her cries away.
"Come on, princess. Just take my hand and come back inside."
Nick's voice seemed closer all of a sudden. I turned around and saw that he was leaning out of his bedroom window, his hand outstretched.
"Get away," I hissed.
"Just take my freaking hand!" he snapped. "Please, before my sister dies of a heart attack. Just take my hand and we can forget this whole mess ever happened."
I ignored him and went to move forward, but I couldn't. I turned around and saw that he had a tight grip on my ankle.
"You aren't going anywhere," he growled. "Just get back in the fucking house. This ain't New York, Miley."
For the first time since I had climbed onto the ledge, I looked straight down. I soon realized that looking down was a pretty stupid mistake. I suddenly felt dizzy. My grip on the ledge tightened so much that my knuckles quickly turned white. I found myself shaking.
I distantly heard Nick murmur, "Oh shit."
I felt him tug slightly on my ankle.
"Miley, please just turn around a little and take my hand."
I slowly tried to turn around. Nick's hand was just centimetres from mine. I reached out to grab it. We were so close …
Suddenly I felt like the world was falling away. I had slipped.
I heard Demi scream. I heard Nick yell and almost fall out the window to grab me. I heard the wind in my ears.
I gripped onto the ledge tightly, tears silently streaming down my cheeks. I whimpered softly as I dangled from the top floor of the house, not quite sure how much longer I could hold on.
I saw Nick's face as he leaned out of his bedroom window, a petrified look plastered across his face. I heard his voice telling me from miles away to take his hand and he would pull me in, but I was too scared to risk removing one of my hands from the ledge.
"Trust me! Take my hand!" he yelled.
I whimpered again and looked at his outstretched hand.
"Take my hand!" he repeated.
I gradually loosened my right hand's grip on the ledge and steadily reached out. Nick quickly grabbed my hand and pulled me quickly up from my position. He pulled me through the window and collapsed back on the floor, me landing on top of him.
We both breathed heavily. His eyes were closed as he rested his head on the blue carpet, murmuring quietly to himself.
"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I never should have challenged you or gotten you to think that you had to prove that you had the guts to get Frankie's ball from the roof."
"I was stupid," I said quickly. "I never should have –"
I never got to finish what I was going to say. Demi picked that exact moment to storm in with a face like thunder and a tongue as quick and as sharp as lightning.
"What the fuck do you think you were doing?" she snarled at Nick. "I can't believe you made her go onto the roof to get a stupid baseball!"
"Demi," I said quietly.
"When Mom gets home, I swear to God, Nicholas!"
"When Mom gets home what, Demi? I freaking pulled her back inside! I have said I'm sorry to Miley for making her go out there in the first place. Just calm down, alright?" he replied, climbing to his feet.
Demi looked disgustedly at her brother and then smiled softly at me. "Are you coming to the pool house?"
"I'll be over in a sec."
I watched as Demi nodded, glanced at Nick once more, then stormed out of the bedroom. I then focused my attention of Nick and watched him as he bit his lip and began to pace across his bedroom.
I clambered to my feet, still a little shaky from the experience of dangling from the top floor of the house, and cleared my throat slightly.
"Thank you," I said.
Nick simply nodded.
I sighed and made my way to the door.
"Miley?"
I didn't turn around.
"I'm sorry," he said again.
I said nothing in response to his apology.
"I'm sorry," he repeated, this time his voice a soft whisper.
"You're a good guy," I said.
I didn't wait for a response. I knew what he would say. He would say that he wasn't a good guy, that there were things he had done that counteracted all the good stuff. But I knew that bad people didn't pull dangling girls back into buildings, and bad people didn't look alarmed when their challenges went wrong.
Nick Gray was a good person, whether he wanted to admit it or not.
Everybody's a little bipolar in this chapter, haha. They go from angry to happy to angry to scared. I wanted to get this chapter up for you guys before the weekend ends, so here it is :-) Please review and tell me what you thought.
Thanks to jonasluver4ever21, lifeshwhatyoumakeit101, IWantNiley3.0, YouSaidForever, ijustneedyounow, MissQueenyB, When I'm Afraid (Your review literally made my day! It was honestly like the longest review I've ever gotten), Simar and NickJisoffmychain2828. I really appreciated all your reviews. Please keep on reviewing and letting me know what you think. I love reading them!
