DISCLAIMER: Only Nicollet Cordelli, her parents, the high school teachers,
and the names not featured in the movie Newsies belong to me. The other
characters belong to Disney. Also, the food restaurants used don't belong
to me. The Crocodile Hunter doesn't belong to me either, and neither does
Boy Meets World. So don't sue me, k? And we all know Lucas Conlon is
mines... ^_^
A.N. THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO'S REVIEWED! We're going to break 100!!! ^_^ You goils is awesome! I enjoyed writing this ficlet for ya'll and I'm really glad you devoted time to reading it. It was an honor authoring it for youse. ^_^ Shout-outs to: Kate Lawrence, unnamed, Seraph, Dimples, Meredith & Emily, kew, Megabee, Spatz, Hotshot, and imaginelet!
*Confessions*
~~~ Nicollet and Race were studying for a Spanish test in a local library the afternoon the girl had disputed with Spot over her date with Matt Bradshaw, or at least were suppose to be studying. Instead, Nicollet was ranting over how senseless she believed Spot had been acting earlier.
"I don't even like, Matt!" she exclaimed. "I mean, just because I have a boyfriend now doesn't mean I can't hang out with my guy friends. I'm hanging out with you right now, aren't I? Does that mean I'm cheating on Spot? No!"
Race hated to get in the middle of fights involving the couple but having a guy's point of view, he thought that perhaps he could enlighten the girl somewhat. "Yea, but Spot knows I don't like you in that way. And he also knows that Matt does."
"Then he should trust me enough to know I won't let the date go further than a friendly basis!" She slammed her textbook shut and groaned. She didn't even know why she bothered studying. She and Race were both Italian, and so they had experience with Romance languages; she could pull off a B on the test without even trying. What concerned her now was Spot. "Race, I care about him, I really do. I'm not trying to hurt him in any way. I'm not trying to make him jealous or rub it in his face whenever a guy asks me to hang with him for a night. I don't even know why I called it a date! It's just...going to the movies!"
Race thought upon that. As he listened to Nicollet explain herself and her feelings, he realized that there really wasn't anything wrong in what she was doing after all. She was only spending time with friends outside her usual social circle. Surely the mere fact that she had a boyfriend shouldn't deprive her of that!
He shrugged. "Maybe Spot just gets jealous easily. He is pretty protective of you."
"What should I do then?" She slouched back in her chair utterly confused. If she went with Matt as she had promised the boy, it'd only lead Spot to grow angrier and might drastically affect their relationship. If she didn't go, she and Spot would make up quicker but poor Matt would be denied.
"Why don't you go with Matt, but invite Spot too?"
Nicollet pursed her lips as she considered that. "I think that'd only present more problems. He'd be all over me the whole time and would keep glaring at Matt all night." She threw her hands up in frustration. "Which reminds me! I can't believe he kissed me in front of Matt this morning! He knows I hate it when he does that, but he did it anyways!"
Race had to laugh, but his humor was sprung from other thoughts. He wondered whether Nicollet and Spot would ever be featured on Jerry Springer, or perhaps some other bizarre talk show in which Nicollet would scream about all that Spot does wrong while Spot would be busy hurling chairs at all the guys after his girlfriend. It would be quite the sight!
"That's one thing I don't get," he said to her. "What's up with you not wanting him to kiss ya and all in public?"
"I just don't want the entire school knowing about it, ya know? If we break up, then it'll be publicized and all like we're celebrities or something. It happens every time Spot breaks it off with a girl. People start talking about it in the hallways, rumors are made, all of a sudden you see a story in the school newspaper about it. And I didn't want it to be like that with us."
Race nodded; it was a reasonable explanation. He remembered last year, when Spot had ended a 6 month relationship with a girl who moved to New York at the end of the second school semester, a rumor had been created claiming the girl had moved because Spot had impregnated her. It was a rather radical turn of events, considering the break-up was simply caused by the long distance separation.
Nicollet looked at the time her watch entailed and frowned. It was six in the evening and the library would be closing soon. She wondered whether she should stop by Spot's house on her way home. Should she speak with him and try to understand his reasoning, or dismiss the matter as another petty argument? With a sigh, she made up her mind.
She never thought relationships would be so hard to maintain.
~*~*~*~*~
Lucas Conlon flipped through the channels of his uncle's wide screen T.V. while he sat reclined onto a couch devouring cookies and a soda. He was making up his mind whether to watch the Crocodile Hunter or old episodes of Boy Meets World when the door bell rang and interrupted his relaxation. He mumbled under his breath and waited for someone to answer it, but Merryll didn't come down from his room and Aunt Carol was busy rambling on the phone with a friend.
He waited patiently, hoping he wouldn't have to be disturbed, but the bell rang again and no one was answering it. He finally rose to his feet and marched to the house's front entrance with means to confront the guest and shoo them off on their way as soon as possible. He swung open the door, only to yell when he saw the person before him and afterwards slammed it closed. A few seconds later, when he had composed himself, he opened the door again and smiled warmly at Nicollet.
"Sorry," he apologized. "I thought you were going to beat me up, but then I saw that you weren't with the others."
Nicollet rolled her eyes. "It's Merryll's job to beat you up, not mines. Speaking of him, is he here?"
Lucas nodded. "Yea, but so is my aunt, and seeing how she kinda grounded him from seeing you for a while, it probably wouldn't be smart for you to come inside."
"Grounded from seeing me? For what?" This certainly was news! Spot hadn't said a thing about him having been grounded!
"Last night when he slept over your house, well, he didn't come home until eight the next morning and of course, we were all already awake by that time. My aunt got pissed and just grounded him; she even took away his car and all."
Nicollet mentally kicked herself for not having seen it earlier. Nothing ever stopped Spot from driving his car to school; it was practically his life! Yet today he had walked to school. And she noticed he seemed to be a bit snappy at lunch earlier, nearly exploding when a lunch lady had told him pizza slices were sold out. Then again, Spot was like that even on good days.
"What were you guys doing all that time anyways?" Lucas asked suggestively.
"He was only making sure I was all right..." She remembered how lovely it had been to wake up next to Spot this morning, feeling his arms around her and his chest heave up and down with every breath. She remembered how she had felt protected and loved, as if nothing could dampen her spirits ever. Spot was originally only suppose to stay with her until she fell asleep, but rest had gotten the best of him and he had ended up drifting off alongside her.
And yet when he had woken up this morning, she remembered, and had realized his mistake, he hadn't been the least bit frustrated with her. In fact, his deep blue eyes had only mirrored empathy and care. He hadn't even complained to her about his punishment all day!
She realized Lucas was waiting for her to say something. "Can I talk to him?"
"Er..." the boy seemed hesitant to reply. He looked back into the house behind him as if checking for something and then faced the girl again. "My aunt's in the kitchen. If you run in and dash up the stairs like there's no tomorrow, she probably won't even notice you. But if you do get caught, I'm sticking with the story that you were holding me at gunpoint unless I agreed to let you in." He opened the door wider and grinned at her.
"Thanks Lucas," she replied. "I'll be sure to put in a good word for you when I talk to Merryll."
~*~*~*~*~
Nicollet reached for the support of the stair railing as she surpassed the top three steps in one leap and nearly tumbled to the floor of the second story. She emitted a light laugh when Lucas shook his head and rolled his eyes at the poor display of inconspicuousness and then gathered her bearings to enter Spot's room. His door was presently closed, a poster that read "Enter At Your Own Risk" spread across the wooden surface. She knocked twice and, when she had heard him grant entrance, slowly walked in.
Spot was sitting on the edge of his bed reading yet another one of his car magazines. Nicollet's presence surprised him, for he expected her to be dallying about with Bradshaw, but he showed no signs besides those of indifference. "Hey," he said simply before going back to his perusing.
Nicollet didn't exactly feel too welcomed but she supposed it was the only thing she'd receive from him for now, and so she walked farther into the room until she was standing right before him. "We need to talk, Spot."
With an exaggerated sigh, he tossed the magazine aside and leaned back onto his bed, propping himself up on his elbows. Nicollet blushed in spite of herself. No matter what the circumstances, Spot always managed to adopt a certain nonchalance that made him all the more sexier. His eyes were glistening with a storm-cloud hue, his sandy-blonde hair fallen over his face.
"Talk about what?"
She crossed her arms. "Why didn't you tell me you had been grounded for seeing me last night?" His eyes narrowed questioningly but she continued before he could press the inquiries. "Why didn't you tell me your mom had taken away your car?"
Spot momentarily scowled. He was already planning Lucas' next punishment. Who else could it have been! The younger Conlon was infamous for his big- mouth.
"Spot, we have to start talking to each other more. Why wouldn't you tell me?"
He looked at her then and had to struggle hard to keep himself from smirking. Her long hair was loose and for some reason he wanted so badly to comb his hands through the caramel strands. He wanted to smell her hair's sweet perfume and feel it's silkiness against his skin as he had last night when she was entangled in his arms.
He remembered how his heart had swelled with pride during those late night hours they had shared together in the same bed. It felt right to have her there with him, and he felt lucky to have her in his life. And now looking at her pleading at him with her eyes to open the communication lines in their relationship, all he wanted to do was lie beside her again and relive that moment.
"Spot?!"
"Damnit, Nikki, I don't know! What difference does it make! It's not like my parents weren't going to ground me just because I told you about it."
"I don't understand why you're so mad," she said softly. "If it makes you feel any better, I called Matt up about thirty minutes ago and told him I wouldn't be able to shoot to the movies with him this Friday."
For a moment, he didn't know what to say. He searched his mind for some kind of smartass remark but only drew blanks. Then it dawned on him that he didn't want to fight with the girl anymore. He didn't want to make things difficult; they had had enough trouble getting together as it was! "Nikki...I just, I just don't..."
He cursed under his breath. What was he suppose to say? He didn't have experience in the field of compassionate ardor, especially when he actually meant the words he was saying. It was easy blurting out lines of love when you cared nothing for the person you were with. It was a totally different game when you did.
"I just don't want..." He felt the pressure of her waiting pierce through him, expecting him to suddenly quote some Shakespearian romance. "...us to fight anymore." He settled with that. It was merely a more general way of saying he didn't want anything to come between them.
Nicollet smiled, fully understanding the underlying message behind the words. "Neither do I."
"And I, uh, didn't mean to say what I said about your parents and all..."
"Don't worry about it. You were right in a sense, I guess. Maybe it was kinda immature for me to call you so late."
Spot grabbed her hand and yanked her forward so that she fell atop him. Wrapping his arms around her, he sat up and kissed her as if in doing so, he would insure his very existence. He pulled her closer to him and tickled her lips with his tongue, asking to be let in, a request she gladly obliged.
Spot loved the taste of her mouth; it aroused feelings all over his body that chased away his sanity. She smiled into the kiss and nearly melted when Spot started to nip at her neck, licking her collar bone and then running over it again with heated kisses. She could go like this all day and never stop...never stop...
Her eyes shot open as the two words resounded in her mind. Reluctantly, she pulled away from Spot and tried to tell him something, but his lips were over hers before the words were out and she thought she might not be able to break free a second time. But she managed to gently push his face away with her hands finally.
"Spot, we gotta stop. Your mom's going to walk in, grab me by the hair, and throw me out the window!" She rested her head onto his shoulder and laughed with him.
"Ah, forget about her," he replied. "Listen, Nikki. I don't care what time of day it is, if you need me, just call, all right? It doesn't mean you're immature. It just means you need someone to hold you. And another thing, d'ya think you could keep the dates to a minimum? I don't like the idea of my girl hanging with some bastard when she should be hanging with me." He kissed her cheek and tried to draw closer to her lips but she moved her head and laughed.
"I doubt anyone would tempt me good enough to want to leave you."
He smirked. "Well, not everyone's got a personality like mines and good looks to top it."
"Oh, god! On second thought, lemme go give Matt another ring!" She started to rise from his lap but he grabbed her waist from behind and pulled her onto the bed beside him, rolling over so that he could pin her hands over her head.
"Ha! Try to beat that!"
She liked how he was persistent, how he always had to have his way. "How 'bout you just kiss me and get it over with?" She returned his devilish smirk.
Spot didn't need a second invitation.
~*~*~*~*~
Sunday morning came around the corner. Nicollet and Company were usually divided on these days for they often separated into their own churches or family practices. Mush attended a Spanish church because it was his parents' first language while Race's family weekly visited a church that solely spoke Italian; his parents weren't bilingual. Specs and Blink both went to a Baptist church about two miles away from the school.
Jack didn't go to church but instead went over his grandmother's house on Sundays. However, hearing her lecture on and on for hours at a time was church enough for him and so he considered it all the same. Snitch's choice to spend the holy day was quite an enigma. He always stopped by a Catholic church he had found not too long ago just before service and would speak with a priest to make his weekly 'confessions' of having wronged people with his theft. And yet, the next day, he was right back to performing the misdeeds all over again. The others supposed he simply needed to relieve his conscious one day a week.
Fortunately, Spot and Nicollet attended the same church and today they were seated side by side as they tried ever so hard to listen to Youth Pastor Matthew talk about peer pressure during the half hour of bible study that preceded morning service. Spot's mind turned to other things. Nicollet was wearing a short summer dress that had definitely caught his attention when he had first seen her that morning. He casually let his hand fall onto her leg and then crept his fingers up to the hem of the dress.
Her eyes widened at his mischief and she shoved his arm away with a grin. Spot was not easily dissuaded, though. He tried this act one again, but when Nicollet seized his fingers and twisted them in warning, he snatched his hand back and groaned.
"No fun you are," he whispered into her ear.
She nodded her head at something Pastor Matthew's had said in effort to make it look as if she were paying attention. "Why don't you use your techniques on the girls Blink's recruiting for that book of his?" she whispered back.
"I think I came up with an idea for my own book," he said as he relaxed in the pew. "Nicollet Cordelli: The Journey of Not Understanding Women, But Loving Them Nonetheless."
She rolled her eyes with a laugh. "Oh stop trying to suck up. You're not getting any."
"What! Baby, even if we never get married, you are mine!"
"Spot!" She looked all about them to make sure no one had heard the saucy comment. She could hardly believe he had said it herself! "We're in church! Does that mean nothing to you?"
He draped an arm over her shoulders and brought his lips closer to her ear. His cool breath sent tingles throughout her body. "Yea, it means something. It means God created Adam, and then created Eve, and then what followed was edited out the bible cause they knew kids would be reading."
She playfully smacked his arm but had to laugh at the joke. As she scooted closer to him, he leaned over to give her a quick peck on the cheek, and then resumed paying attention to their youth pastor.
Nicollet realized a number of things that day. One, no matter how many times she and Spot argued, and no matter how serious the issues intertwined with the debate were, the two would always remain best friends. Two, their relationship would never resemble that of her parents so long as they worked hard at it and never ran away at the first sign of trouble. And three, she was falling harder for him than she would have liked to admit. She loved everything about him, even that pestering little ego that graced his personality. She couldn't imagine herself without him by her side. She wasn't all that sure but she believed she was...in love.
She knew teenagers misused the word nowadays, had made the four- letter emotion into something it wasn't. Had made it into an every day occasion when it was rather something special, something rare. But rarer was it that two temperamental people like herself and Spot had managed to work out a relationship. Rarer was it that no obstacle could ever keep them from watching out and caring for one another. It was love, and that fact scared her.
But as she looked at Spot that day, she knew in her heart that he felt the same way. It wasn't just evident in his words, for things said could hold promises never kept. She knew because she saw it in his actions, in the way he treated her, in the way he was always there.
And for the first time, Nicollet Cordelli knew everything was going to be all right.
~*~*~*~*~
Alright, well this is when you leave your final review. ^_^ But I have a question. Would anyone be interested in reading a sequel to this story? Maybe some of you are like 'No, it's cute ending like this!' But maybe there's some of you out there who want to read more, and if I get enough people saying they want a sequel, I'll be convinced to write one up. Mind you, it might not come up until Mid-July, but if ya'll leave me your email addresses, I'll contact ya when I upload the first chapter. ^_^ But that's only if you really really really really want a sequel. I think it might follow Nicollet & Spot as college freshman living together and trying to deal. Muahaha. Alright, Thanks so much for everything! Adieu~ Love ya!
A.N. THANK YOU EVERYONE WHO'S REVIEWED! We're going to break 100!!! ^_^ You goils is awesome! I enjoyed writing this ficlet for ya'll and I'm really glad you devoted time to reading it. It was an honor authoring it for youse. ^_^ Shout-outs to: Kate Lawrence, unnamed, Seraph, Dimples, Meredith & Emily, kew, Megabee, Spatz, Hotshot, and imaginelet!
*Confessions*
~~~ Nicollet and Race were studying for a Spanish test in a local library the afternoon the girl had disputed with Spot over her date with Matt Bradshaw, or at least were suppose to be studying. Instead, Nicollet was ranting over how senseless she believed Spot had been acting earlier.
"I don't even like, Matt!" she exclaimed. "I mean, just because I have a boyfriend now doesn't mean I can't hang out with my guy friends. I'm hanging out with you right now, aren't I? Does that mean I'm cheating on Spot? No!"
Race hated to get in the middle of fights involving the couple but having a guy's point of view, he thought that perhaps he could enlighten the girl somewhat. "Yea, but Spot knows I don't like you in that way. And he also knows that Matt does."
"Then he should trust me enough to know I won't let the date go further than a friendly basis!" She slammed her textbook shut and groaned. She didn't even know why she bothered studying. She and Race were both Italian, and so they had experience with Romance languages; she could pull off a B on the test without even trying. What concerned her now was Spot. "Race, I care about him, I really do. I'm not trying to hurt him in any way. I'm not trying to make him jealous or rub it in his face whenever a guy asks me to hang with him for a night. I don't even know why I called it a date! It's just...going to the movies!"
Race thought upon that. As he listened to Nicollet explain herself and her feelings, he realized that there really wasn't anything wrong in what she was doing after all. She was only spending time with friends outside her usual social circle. Surely the mere fact that she had a boyfriend shouldn't deprive her of that!
He shrugged. "Maybe Spot just gets jealous easily. He is pretty protective of you."
"What should I do then?" She slouched back in her chair utterly confused. If she went with Matt as she had promised the boy, it'd only lead Spot to grow angrier and might drastically affect their relationship. If she didn't go, she and Spot would make up quicker but poor Matt would be denied.
"Why don't you go with Matt, but invite Spot too?"
Nicollet pursed her lips as she considered that. "I think that'd only present more problems. He'd be all over me the whole time and would keep glaring at Matt all night." She threw her hands up in frustration. "Which reminds me! I can't believe he kissed me in front of Matt this morning! He knows I hate it when he does that, but he did it anyways!"
Race had to laugh, but his humor was sprung from other thoughts. He wondered whether Nicollet and Spot would ever be featured on Jerry Springer, or perhaps some other bizarre talk show in which Nicollet would scream about all that Spot does wrong while Spot would be busy hurling chairs at all the guys after his girlfriend. It would be quite the sight!
"That's one thing I don't get," he said to her. "What's up with you not wanting him to kiss ya and all in public?"
"I just don't want the entire school knowing about it, ya know? If we break up, then it'll be publicized and all like we're celebrities or something. It happens every time Spot breaks it off with a girl. People start talking about it in the hallways, rumors are made, all of a sudden you see a story in the school newspaper about it. And I didn't want it to be like that with us."
Race nodded; it was a reasonable explanation. He remembered last year, when Spot had ended a 6 month relationship with a girl who moved to New York at the end of the second school semester, a rumor had been created claiming the girl had moved because Spot had impregnated her. It was a rather radical turn of events, considering the break-up was simply caused by the long distance separation.
Nicollet looked at the time her watch entailed and frowned. It was six in the evening and the library would be closing soon. She wondered whether she should stop by Spot's house on her way home. Should she speak with him and try to understand his reasoning, or dismiss the matter as another petty argument? With a sigh, she made up her mind.
She never thought relationships would be so hard to maintain.
~*~*~*~*~
Lucas Conlon flipped through the channels of his uncle's wide screen T.V. while he sat reclined onto a couch devouring cookies and a soda. He was making up his mind whether to watch the Crocodile Hunter or old episodes of Boy Meets World when the door bell rang and interrupted his relaxation. He mumbled under his breath and waited for someone to answer it, but Merryll didn't come down from his room and Aunt Carol was busy rambling on the phone with a friend.
He waited patiently, hoping he wouldn't have to be disturbed, but the bell rang again and no one was answering it. He finally rose to his feet and marched to the house's front entrance with means to confront the guest and shoo them off on their way as soon as possible. He swung open the door, only to yell when he saw the person before him and afterwards slammed it closed. A few seconds later, when he had composed himself, he opened the door again and smiled warmly at Nicollet.
"Sorry," he apologized. "I thought you were going to beat me up, but then I saw that you weren't with the others."
Nicollet rolled her eyes. "It's Merryll's job to beat you up, not mines. Speaking of him, is he here?"
Lucas nodded. "Yea, but so is my aunt, and seeing how she kinda grounded him from seeing you for a while, it probably wouldn't be smart for you to come inside."
"Grounded from seeing me? For what?" This certainly was news! Spot hadn't said a thing about him having been grounded!
"Last night when he slept over your house, well, he didn't come home until eight the next morning and of course, we were all already awake by that time. My aunt got pissed and just grounded him; she even took away his car and all."
Nicollet mentally kicked herself for not having seen it earlier. Nothing ever stopped Spot from driving his car to school; it was practically his life! Yet today he had walked to school. And she noticed he seemed to be a bit snappy at lunch earlier, nearly exploding when a lunch lady had told him pizza slices were sold out. Then again, Spot was like that even on good days.
"What were you guys doing all that time anyways?" Lucas asked suggestively.
"He was only making sure I was all right..." She remembered how lovely it had been to wake up next to Spot this morning, feeling his arms around her and his chest heave up and down with every breath. She remembered how she had felt protected and loved, as if nothing could dampen her spirits ever. Spot was originally only suppose to stay with her until she fell asleep, but rest had gotten the best of him and he had ended up drifting off alongside her.
And yet when he had woken up this morning, she remembered, and had realized his mistake, he hadn't been the least bit frustrated with her. In fact, his deep blue eyes had only mirrored empathy and care. He hadn't even complained to her about his punishment all day!
She realized Lucas was waiting for her to say something. "Can I talk to him?"
"Er..." the boy seemed hesitant to reply. He looked back into the house behind him as if checking for something and then faced the girl again. "My aunt's in the kitchen. If you run in and dash up the stairs like there's no tomorrow, she probably won't even notice you. But if you do get caught, I'm sticking with the story that you were holding me at gunpoint unless I agreed to let you in." He opened the door wider and grinned at her.
"Thanks Lucas," she replied. "I'll be sure to put in a good word for you when I talk to Merryll."
~*~*~*~*~
Nicollet reached for the support of the stair railing as she surpassed the top three steps in one leap and nearly tumbled to the floor of the second story. She emitted a light laugh when Lucas shook his head and rolled his eyes at the poor display of inconspicuousness and then gathered her bearings to enter Spot's room. His door was presently closed, a poster that read "Enter At Your Own Risk" spread across the wooden surface. She knocked twice and, when she had heard him grant entrance, slowly walked in.
Spot was sitting on the edge of his bed reading yet another one of his car magazines. Nicollet's presence surprised him, for he expected her to be dallying about with Bradshaw, but he showed no signs besides those of indifference. "Hey," he said simply before going back to his perusing.
Nicollet didn't exactly feel too welcomed but she supposed it was the only thing she'd receive from him for now, and so she walked farther into the room until she was standing right before him. "We need to talk, Spot."
With an exaggerated sigh, he tossed the magazine aside and leaned back onto his bed, propping himself up on his elbows. Nicollet blushed in spite of herself. No matter what the circumstances, Spot always managed to adopt a certain nonchalance that made him all the more sexier. His eyes were glistening with a storm-cloud hue, his sandy-blonde hair fallen over his face.
"Talk about what?"
She crossed her arms. "Why didn't you tell me you had been grounded for seeing me last night?" His eyes narrowed questioningly but she continued before he could press the inquiries. "Why didn't you tell me your mom had taken away your car?"
Spot momentarily scowled. He was already planning Lucas' next punishment. Who else could it have been! The younger Conlon was infamous for his big- mouth.
"Spot, we have to start talking to each other more. Why wouldn't you tell me?"
He looked at her then and had to struggle hard to keep himself from smirking. Her long hair was loose and for some reason he wanted so badly to comb his hands through the caramel strands. He wanted to smell her hair's sweet perfume and feel it's silkiness against his skin as he had last night when she was entangled in his arms.
He remembered how his heart had swelled with pride during those late night hours they had shared together in the same bed. It felt right to have her there with him, and he felt lucky to have her in his life. And now looking at her pleading at him with her eyes to open the communication lines in their relationship, all he wanted to do was lie beside her again and relive that moment.
"Spot?!"
"Damnit, Nikki, I don't know! What difference does it make! It's not like my parents weren't going to ground me just because I told you about it."
"I don't understand why you're so mad," she said softly. "If it makes you feel any better, I called Matt up about thirty minutes ago and told him I wouldn't be able to shoot to the movies with him this Friday."
For a moment, he didn't know what to say. He searched his mind for some kind of smartass remark but only drew blanks. Then it dawned on him that he didn't want to fight with the girl anymore. He didn't want to make things difficult; they had had enough trouble getting together as it was! "Nikki...I just, I just don't..."
He cursed under his breath. What was he suppose to say? He didn't have experience in the field of compassionate ardor, especially when he actually meant the words he was saying. It was easy blurting out lines of love when you cared nothing for the person you were with. It was a totally different game when you did.
"I just don't want..." He felt the pressure of her waiting pierce through him, expecting him to suddenly quote some Shakespearian romance. "...us to fight anymore." He settled with that. It was merely a more general way of saying he didn't want anything to come between them.
Nicollet smiled, fully understanding the underlying message behind the words. "Neither do I."
"And I, uh, didn't mean to say what I said about your parents and all..."
"Don't worry about it. You were right in a sense, I guess. Maybe it was kinda immature for me to call you so late."
Spot grabbed her hand and yanked her forward so that she fell atop him. Wrapping his arms around her, he sat up and kissed her as if in doing so, he would insure his very existence. He pulled her closer to him and tickled her lips with his tongue, asking to be let in, a request she gladly obliged.
Spot loved the taste of her mouth; it aroused feelings all over his body that chased away his sanity. She smiled into the kiss and nearly melted when Spot started to nip at her neck, licking her collar bone and then running over it again with heated kisses. She could go like this all day and never stop...never stop...
Her eyes shot open as the two words resounded in her mind. Reluctantly, she pulled away from Spot and tried to tell him something, but his lips were over hers before the words were out and she thought she might not be able to break free a second time. But she managed to gently push his face away with her hands finally.
"Spot, we gotta stop. Your mom's going to walk in, grab me by the hair, and throw me out the window!" She rested her head onto his shoulder and laughed with him.
"Ah, forget about her," he replied. "Listen, Nikki. I don't care what time of day it is, if you need me, just call, all right? It doesn't mean you're immature. It just means you need someone to hold you. And another thing, d'ya think you could keep the dates to a minimum? I don't like the idea of my girl hanging with some bastard when she should be hanging with me." He kissed her cheek and tried to draw closer to her lips but she moved her head and laughed.
"I doubt anyone would tempt me good enough to want to leave you."
He smirked. "Well, not everyone's got a personality like mines and good looks to top it."
"Oh, god! On second thought, lemme go give Matt another ring!" She started to rise from his lap but he grabbed her waist from behind and pulled her onto the bed beside him, rolling over so that he could pin her hands over her head.
"Ha! Try to beat that!"
She liked how he was persistent, how he always had to have his way. "How 'bout you just kiss me and get it over with?" She returned his devilish smirk.
Spot didn't need a second invitation.
~*~*~*~*~
Sunday morning came around the corner. Nicollet and Company were usually divided on these days for they often separated into their own churches or family practices. Mush attended a Spanish church because it was his parents' first language while Race's family weekly visited a church that solely spoke Italian; his parents weren't bilingual. Specs and Blink both went to a Baptist church about two miles away from the school.
Jack didn't go to church but instead went over his grandmother's house on Sundays. However, hearing her lecture on and on for hours at a time was church enough for him and so he considered it all the same. Snitch's choice to spend the holy day was quite an enigma. He always stopped by a Catholic church he had found not too long ago just before service and would speak with a priest to make his weekly 'confessions' of having wronged people with his theft. And yet, the next day, he was right back to performing the misdeeds all over again. The others supposed he simply needed to relieve his conscious one day a week.
Fortunately, Spot and Nicollet attended the same church and today they were seated side by side as they tried ever so hard to listen to Youth Pastor Matthew talk about peer pressure during the half hour of bible study that preceded morning service. Spot's mind turned to other things. Nicollet was wearing a short summer dress that had definitely caught his attention when he had first seen her that morning. He casually let his hand fall onto her leg and then crept his fingers up to the hem of the dress.
Her eyes widened at his mischief and she shoved his arm away with a grin. Spot was not easily dissuaded, though. He tried this act one again, but when Nicollet seized his fingers and twisted them in warning, he snatched his hand back and groaned.
"No fun you are," he whispered into her ear.
She nodded her head at something Pastor Matthew's had said in effort to make it look as if she were paying attention. "Why don't you use your techniques on the girls Blink's recruiting for that book of his?" she whispered back.
"I think I came up with an idea for my own book," he said as he relaxed in the pew. "Nicollet Cordelli: The Journey of Not Understanding Women, But Loving Them Nonetheless."
She rolled her eyes with a laugh. "Oh stop trying to suck up. You're not getting any."
"What! Baby, even if we never get married, you are mine!"
"Spot!" She looked all about them to make sure no one had heard the saucy comment. She could hardly believe he had said it herself! "We're in church! Does that mean nothing to you?"
He draped an arm over her shoulders and brought his lips closer to her ear. His cool breath sent tingles throughout her body. "Yea, it means something. It means God created Adam, and then created Eve, and then what followed was edited out the bible cause they knew kids would be reading."
She playfully smacked his arm but had to laugh at the joke. As she scooted closer to him, he leaned over to give her a quick peck on the cheek, and then resumed paying attention to their youth pastor.
Nicollet realized a number of things that day. One, no matter how many times she and Spot argued, and no matter how serious the issues intertwined with the debate were, the two would always remain best friends. Two, their relationship would never resemble that of her parents so long as they worked hard at it and never ran away at the first sign of trouble. And three, she was falling harder for him than she would have liked to admit. She loved everything about him, even that pestering little ego that graced his personality. She couldn't imagine herself without him by her side. She wasn't all that sure but she believed she was...in love.
She knew teenagers misused the word nowadays, had made the four- letter emotion into something it wasn't. Had made it into an every day occasion when it was rather something special, something rare. But rarer was it that two temperamental people like herself and Spot had managed to work out a relationship. Rarer was it that no obstacle could ever keep them from watching out and caring for one another. It was love, and that fact scared her.
But as she looked at Spot that day, she knew in her heart that he felt the same way. It wasn't just evident in his words, for things said could hold promises never kept. She knew because she saw it in his actions, in the way he treated her, in the way he was always there.
And for the first time, Nicollet Cordelli knew everything was going to be all right.
~*~*~*~*~
Alright, well this is when you leave your final review. ^_^ But I have a question. Would anyone be interested in reading a sequel to this story? Maybe some of you are like 'No, it's cute ending like this!' But maybe there's some of you out there who want to read more, and if I get enough people saying they want a sequel, I'll be convinced to write one up. Mind you, it might not come up until Mid-July, but if ya'll leave me your email addresses, I'll contact ya when I upload the first chapter. ^_^ But that's only if you really really really really want a sequel. I think it might follow Nicollet & Spot as college freshman living together and trying to deal. Muahaha. Alright, Thanks so much for everything! Adieu~ Love ya!
