A/N: Thanks for all the reviews and to jss2420 for being a fabulous beta. This chapter is probably the fluffiest its been, so I hope you like.

Disclaimer: I dont own anything

Six

"Nick! Put me down!" I squealed, hitting him playfully on his arm. Blood was rushing to my head from being carried upside down.

"You're coming in!" he yelled, almost to the water's edge now. His sturdy hands were wrapped around my waist, holding me up on his shoulder.

"It's cold!" I complained, even though the beach was close to 100 degrees.

He laughed, and I looked down to see the ocean beneath us. He shifted me around and took me off his shoulders, placing me gently in the shallow water. "See, its not that bad!" he exclaimed. I shrugged, and he wrapped his arms around my bare waist and pulled me towards him. He lowered his head and kissed me lightly on the lips, leaving them tingling. His fingers touched them softly, and then he dunked his head in the water. I stood waiting for him to come back up for air, and when he did, he shook his hair like a dog, spraying me all over. I squealed and shivered, and he picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his body and my arms around his neck.

"You're crazy," I muttered into his ear, resting my head in the crook of his neck.

"That's why you love me," he smirked, and tilted my head up to press his lips against mine. I pulled away, and shoved him under the water playfully, jumping off of him. He came back up for air, and grinned. "I hope you know what this means," he challenged. I stared at him. "War!" he yelled, and splashed me with water. I retorted and splashed back, and before I knew it, I was soaking wet.

After our 'war', we emerged from the water and hurried up the sand to our towels. We dried off, and then lay in the sun side by side, our hands intertwined. "I'm so glad you're my girlfriend," he murmured, his lips inches from my cheek. I turned to him.

"I'm so glad you're my boyfriend," I mumbled back, and our lips touched again.

"Can I take you to dinner tonight?" he asked. His thumb caressed my cheek, and his other hand pushed my curly brown locks behind my ear.

"Of course," I smiled.

A few hours later, we wrapped our towels around our bodies and slung our bags over our shoulders and began to trudge back up the beach to the road. We walked the 15 minutes back to our school, and then parted ways once we stood in front of my sorority house. "Pick you up at 7?" he asked.

"See you then," I smiled before standing on my toes and placing my lips on his one last time. I pulled away and ran up the stairs, and looked back at him and waved before opening the door and going inside.

I rushed upstairs and turned on my laptop, jumping onto my bed. I logged in, and then removed my bathing suit and wrapped a robe around my body while I waited for it to load. When it finally did, I clicked on my email and the internet. I got the emails from the school, reminding me about the first day of school tomorrow and my classes, and from my dad and Jake. I replied to the emails from them, and then closed it and got up from the bed and walked across the hallway to the bathroom. I turned on the shower, and as soon as the water was warm, I stepped inside. I washed my hair and body and shaved my legs and arms, and then got back out of the shower, turning the water off. I wrung my hair free of excess water, and then dried my body off with a white towel and stepped back into my robe.

I walked back into my room and sat back down on my bed in front of my computer while I waited for my hair to dry more, since I wasn't going to do anything to it tonight. I roamed around on the internet for a little bit, checked my email again, and did some shopping, and then went back into the bathroom to blow-dry the rest of my hair. I applied makeup and pulled my hair back in a thin black headband, and then went into my bedroom to get dressed. I looked at the clock, and it flashed 6:03. I went into my closet and rummaged for a few minutes when I heard someone enter the room. "Big date?" I heard Jade ask behind me.

I turned around and smiled sheepishly. "Yeah," I muttered.

"You and Nick have been spending a lot of time together lately," she said, not looking directly at me. I wasn't sure if there was a meaning behind her words.

I nodded. "We're pretty close."

"Do you love him?" she asked, fingering a loose thread on her black t-shirt.

I bit my lip and smiled. "Yeah. I mean, I haven't told him yet, but I know I do."

She hesitated for a moment. "Just… be careful, okay?"

I nodded slowly. "Okay," I said softly.

She stared at me for a few long seconds, and I was uncomfortable under her gaze. "I have a dress you can borrow, if you want," she suggested, and the awkward moment was over.

I smiled. "Thanks, that sounds great. I feel like nothing will be good enough."

She led me to her part of the closet, and pulled out a short black dress. "This would look adorable with some red pumps," she said. "Your Jessica Simpson's would look amazing."

I nodded and took the dress from her hand. "Thanks so much, Jade. You're a lifesaver."

She smiled and left the closet, leaving me alone in the room with heaps of clothes surrounding me. Her words rang in my ears clearly, be careful. I tried my best to convince myself that she was just jealous.

I pulled the dress over my head and zipped the zipped on the side. I took her advice and stepped into my red Jessica Simpson heels, and then found a red leather purse in the corner of my clothes. I put all my things inside, and then went downstairs. There was still 30 anxious minutes until Nick would arrive. I sat down at the counter and took out my phone, writing a text to Jackson. I hadn't spoken to him in days.

While I was typing, I heard the girls gossiping in the other room, and couldn't help but eavesdrop when I heard my name being mentioned.

"It's so sad, she has no idea. I mean, neither did we until a few weeks ago. It's so crazy."

I wrinkled my eyebrows in confusion. What were they talking about? I listened harder, trying to make out specific words and voices.

"He's just going to break her heart like he did hers. She's in the exact same position as Hayden. The same thing is going to happen," another voice whispered.

Who was Hayden? Was she the old girlfriend? Maybe they just had a tough breakup, but I knew that we shared something different, something special. I was sure that this Hayden girl was just exaggerating when she talked about him.

Figuring I had nothing to worry about, I turned my attention back to my texts. I wasn't going to let them fill my ears with pointless gossip, when I knew the truth. Me and Nick were in love, and that was that.

The doorbell rang loudly through the house, the harsh whispers suddenly coming to a stop. It was silent for a few seconds before someone called, "Miley, Nick's here for you!"

I got up from the stool and picked up my purse, and dropped my sidekick inside. I walked out the kitchen and into the living room, where about 10 girls were seated in a circle, including some of the new girls. "Bye girls!" I exclaimed with a smile, and they returned it. I was trying to figure out if the smiles were real or not.

I opened the door to show a smiling Nick. He wrapped his arms around me and hugged me tightly, and then took my hand and closed the door behind me.

He turned to look at me for a long moment, and I felt really self conscious about myself. This was the second time someone had done that to me in the past two hours. "What?" I stifled with a small smile.

"You're just so beautiful. You put everyone else to shame." He shrugged and continued walking down. I laughed softly and hurried my pace to catch up with him.

"It's okay if we walk, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied, and we walked along the sidewalk, passing the rest of the sorority and fraternity houses and then leaving campus. We walked in silence in the brisk air, the only sounds coming from my heels clicking against the ground.

He led me into a small Italian restraunt, where he gave the hostess his name and we were seated almost immediately towards the back. He scooted my chair back for me and I sat down, and then he sat across from me. The hostess handed us both menus, and we looked through for a few minutes.

"So are you ready for school tomorrow?" Nick asked, folding up his menu and placing it to the right of him, on the edge of the table.

I shrugged. "Kind of. I don't really know what to expect. I guess I kind of always pictured things differently. I always imagined my last night before college buying loads of coffee with my roommate and preparing my first day of school look. Not out to a crazy ass restraunt with a hot boyfriend, not letting a worry pass me by." I laughed softly at the last sentence, and so did Nick.

"I think that this year will be better for me," he nodded. "Last year wasn't the best way to start college."

I remembered the girls' conversation earlier, and figured there was no time like the present. "I hope you don't mind me asking, but who is Hayden? I just heard some girls talking about her or something."

A nervous expression washed over his face, but was gone so quickly I wasn't even sure I saw it. His hand reached across the table to hold mine. "She was nobody, okay?" he assured with a small smile. "Don't worry about it."

I smiled and the waiter came over to take our drinks, ending the conversation.

But no matter what he said, I had a small feeling she wasn't just anybody. A part of me wanted to leave it alone, and just act like I didn't care. But the other part of me wanted to know what had happened. He seemed anxious to end the conversation, so I was sure that this wasn't just another girlfriend.

I was scared, but determined, to find out.

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A/N: Hmm. Who could this mystery girl be? Review and you might find out!

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