Sorry it's been so long! Hopefully this makes up for it!

Miley sat in third period staring up at Mr. Straker pretending to be the perfect student listening intently when really her mind was miles away. On Nick, to be exact. It had been about a week since the whole "sex" situation had occurred and since then they had been spending every moment together. Since they lived together it was kind of hard to not get close this fast.

For the first time she really felt like she could trust a boy and was falling hard and fast for him. The image of him with her shirt off consumed her brain as she sat in her desk, anxious to get home. Recently he had been much less gentle with her, not that she was complaining, and wasn't afraid to get aggressive.

He would also find little ways to touch her when they were together, like the way he would always reach over and rub her hand when they were in the car, or hold the small of her back while they walked down Carnaby street.

But it wasn't just physical. Although when they were physical with each other it was like his feelings would radiate off Nick's body. Or how he would whisper how he loved her eyes when they were doing "things" where most guys would just compliment her ass. But she felt like they could talk to each other. She told him everything... well almost everything. And at this moment she was practically dying to see him, especially knowing that he had the day off and could be spending time with her right now.

"Alright. That's the end of that for today," said Mr. Straker. "Please read the handouts I gave you at the start of class…and if you don't read them at least ask someone who did so I don't have to give you all detentions." The class let out a collective laugh as the bell rang and everyone made their way into the hall.

Miley stopped by her locker to pick up her history books for seventh period and looked at her phone sitting in her locker. She looked at the time on it and sighed to herself… only 2 more hours.

When she finally did get home she found Nick making her a feast of all her favorite snacks: oreos and peanut butter, red vines, popcorn, triscuts and cheese, and he'd even made her a strawberry daiquiri. Virgin, of course. He didn't feel it was necessary to promote drinking with her.

She fake gasped and put both hands on either side of her cheeks when she entered the kitchen. "Do I really have a boyfriend this wonderful?"

"Well in the interest of not sounding conceited, most of it came from a box."

Miley walked over to him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, putting her arms around his neck while his went to her waist, and breathed him in. "Just like I like it" she winked at him, causing him to let out a chuckle.

"You're really not as difficult as everyone says, you know that?"

She wrinkled her nose adorably and smiled. "Mmm thanks baby."

He laughed at her missing the sly insult and squeezed her small hips. "Dig in!"

She walked over to the counter and began shoving her face with the (in Nick's opinion) disgusting foods he'd prepared. She downed a handful of popcorn mixed with cookie dough bites and made a face at him, finally understanding what he had said earlier.

"Who says I'm difficult?"

The next day, while Miley was still at school, Nick couldn't help look around the massive house he was currently residing in. It was incredible that Miley had actually grown up in places like this. He and his brothers didn't have money until he was fourteen and he was still getting used to it. Taking a peak into the library, he came across a number of big, emrald green, leather books. They took up a whole row of the book shelves lining the walls of the huge, dimly lit room and on the spine of each was a different year. He took out the one from 2000 and looked inside, realizing they were scrapbooks. There were pictures of Miley in huge frilly dresses with bows on the side of her head, kind of like the kind he'd seen the Obama girls wearing when he and his brother were invited to play at the White House. In one, he saw her holding up a little porcelin box, lined with gold and pink paint with a smile showing off her two missing front teeth. He guessed the teeth were inside the box.

Putting the book away, he looked on the shelf below, and saw various school yearbooks. They were lined up from 2000 (1st grade) to the most recent, 2010 (11th grade). He tried to find Miley's picture in everyone, noting the way she'd changed from the year before. He noticed the book from 2008 was missing. Miley would have been just 14 or 15 then. As he wondered where it was, he heard the bell indicating the side door was open, and minutes later Miley came into the library, singing some song she must have made up about the holiness of Friday's.

Giving him a kiss on the lips, she looked at the book he was currently laughing at and gave him a smack across the arm.

"I was twelve, okay? Everyone goes through awkward stages!" she defended.

"I'm not laughing!" he said, obviously laughing.

"Nicholas. May I remind you all of your pictures are access-able on the internet? Maybe we should take a look at how hot you were in middle school."

"I'm sorry I'm sorry! Really, I think you look cute."

"Yeah whatever butthead. Put that away I wanna watch a movie with you."

"Alright," he said, closing the book and putting it back on the shelf. "Wait, there's one missing." She stopped in her tracks on the way out the door. She was turned the other way so luckily he couldn't see the unsure expression on her face.

"Are you sure?" she said, turning around.

"Yeah, look. It skips from 2007 to 2009. See?" he said motioning to the yearbooks with his finger. "Hey wait, even the scrapbook from that year is gone."

"Oh... yeah I forgot my parents must have taken it with them this trip. You know, gotta keep pretending like they care about me!" she said sarcastically.

"First off, I know they care about you but why would they take it? Isn't that kind of a hassle? These books are pretty big."

"Yeah, yeah it's fine let's get out of here. This room always creeps me out a little." She said tugging on his arm, already half way out the door.

"Whatever you say Miss braces-and-glasses-at-the-same-time." That one earned him two slaps.

On Sunday afternoon Miley received her usual end of the week phone call from her parents. After they'd covered the usual, "how is everything" small talk they felt they needed to ask in order to be "good parents," they started asking her about her time with Nick. Miley didn't share things with her parents, period. They didn't need to know specifics about her life. It just complicated things. So when her mom told her she would be taking half the week off of school to go with them on a family vacation in Aruba, she was a bit concerned about the whole secret.

When she hung up the phone, she ran into Nick's room and told him about it. He, on the other hand, was thrilled with the idea of going on vacation because he had the whole week off.

"Mi what's so bad about going to Aruba? We're gonna be relaxing in the sun for four days it's not a bad thing."

"I know it's just that… Um," she started. He sensed her hesitation but didn't understand why she was so worried. He walked up to her and kissed her softly. "What?" he asked camly.

"I just, haven't really told my parents about us yet." She looked up at him unsure of how he would take it.

"You haven't?"

"Well…no. Have you told yours?"

"Yes." Crap. She thought.

"Oh." They stood in silence for a brief moment, neither of them really knowing what to say. It wasn't that he was mad it was just an awkward situation. Nick couldn't help but feel a little hurt or disappointed.

"Why didn't you tell yours?" he asked. "Was it… was it because you it doesn't matter as much to you?"

She looked up, startled. "What? No!"

"Then why?"

"I just—I don't know it just didn't come up."

"But I hear you on the phone… they always ask about me."

"Hey in my defence they've never said 'Miley are you and Nick hot for each other?" she tried to joke.

"Look I just think it's kind of strange you would want to keep this some big secret from your parents."

"But it's not like it's just this, I don't tell them anything!"

Nick tried to be mad at her but this was just kind of sad. He realized Miley really didn't have a relationship with her parents. They gave her whatever she wanted so that they didn't have to deal with her. What other 17 year old girl lives alone?

"Do you think they would care?" he tested.

She frowned a little bit, hesitating. "Not really" she said in a voice he'd never heard from her before.

In that instant Nick realized why Miley was the way she was. Everything about her life made sense to him now. She drank for attention. She had meaningless hookups with guys because she was afraid of letting people in. The dangerous extremes she went to weren't because she liked living wildley, they were because she hoped someone would notice. All she wanted was for someone to realize she was out of control and make her stop. And if her parents weren't going to do it, he would.

"Nick?" she questioned, moving her head so she was in his line of vision.

"Sorry," he said.

"What were you just thinking about?"

"Nothing. Just…us. You make me really happy, Mi. You know that right?"

She smiled and blushed slightly. "I guess so, yeah."

"Good. Because it's true."

As their lips connected and although Nick knew it must have been the thousandth time, he would never get too much of her. Everything about her had him begging for more. She could toy with his heart any way she pleased. And to be honest, it scared the crap out of him.

A few days later, as packing commenced, Miley had called Nick into her room for some fashion advice.

"Mi I don't know! These all look the same to me!"

"Well they're clearly not!" she yelled, exasperated, holding up three pairs of identical white denim cut offs.

"Look I'm sure you'll look amazing in anything you bring so please don't worry about it. Let's just take a break from the packing for a minute."

Damn she sure was high-maintenance. Not that he minded. They sat on her bed and automatically lay down with her body on top of the side of his. He wrapped an arm around her to hold her closer.

They talked about nothing in particular until somehow they ended up not talking at all, as Nick was on top of Miley, loving the way she locked her tongue around his and how she would occasionally pull him down by his belt loops so that his more sensitive area grinded into her hips.

After a while she pulled apart momentarily to speak. "Mmm. As much as I love this," she was cut off by Nick's lips on hers "I really need to go bikini shopping if we're really gonna go on this dumb vacation." He connected their mouths once again before responding.

"Can I come?" a pattern was started.

"Uh-uh." Breathe. Kiss.

"Please?" Kiss. Breathe.

"No…but I promise I'll model them for you when I get home" kiss. Another kiss. Yet another kiss.

When he managed to control himself long enough to pull away he laughed at her and tried not to get too excited by the mental image she'd given him until she left.

Just a few days later, bags packed and ready to go, Nick and Miley sat at the kitchen table anticipating the arrival of her parents. The plan was her parents would pick them up on the way to the airport before they all flew down together. Neither spoke that much as they were both a little nervous. Miley because she had never actually introduced a guy to her mom and dad before, and Nick because he was about to meet his girlfriends parents.

He was dressed up in a nice oxford button down while she had on jeans and a white racerback tank-top. She bit the skin on her bottom lip anxiously.

"Stop that" Nick said, gently pulling her lip out from her teeth with his thumb. "it's going to be fine Mi, they're your parents. They'll support you no matter what."

"No that's your parents. My parents tell me exactly what they think all the time. Regardless of how hurtful it is."

"You do know I'm nervous too, right?"

She sent him an apologetic smile. "Sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out. Ugh, whatever" she said, shaking her head. "No matter what we have each other. It's not like were really going on a family vacation anyway. It's just an excuse for them to take a few days off from their already leisurely lives and justify it by taking me along."

"…Why are you so negative about this? It could be fine."

"I know, sorry. Just… promise me you won't take them too seriously."

"What does that mean?" he looked at her, confused.

"Nothing, just don't let them get into your head okay?"

Suddenly they heard the front door open and a pair of heals clack against the hard wood floor of the entryway. When it opened again, a set of light thuds joined in.

"Darling we're home!"

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