Hey, here's chapter 2. Thanks for the review and i'm glad u like it. This chapter is longer than the 1st so hopefully u like this one too...please R and R.

Enjoy

NICOLE

The next few days were sort of a blur. They all worked hard at the garage the next two days to finish up the cars and then closed up, unsure of when they'd come back. They let Hector know they wouldn't be coming to races for a while and stored their cars away in the garage, since they wouldn't need them for a while.

The day before they left was pretty quiet around the house since everyone was packing. Vince had a large duffle bag packed up, plus a small carry-on, and his guitar; no way was he going to leave that behind.

Everyone hit the sack early that night since they had a 10:30 flight in the morning.

Surprisingly, they got to the airport on time, with little arguing. They got seated on the plane and took off right on time.

The flight was about 4 hours long and was far from interesting. They showed a movie but it was no interest to Vince so he slept most of the way, waking up only for the soda and peanuts being passed around by the nice stewardess.

When they got off the plane, Dom and Mia's cousin, Lucan (Luke for short), was waiting for them.

"Hey, Luke"

"Sup, Dom"

They embraced in a manly hug before Luke gave Mia a big bear hug. He was an inch or two shorter than Dom and only a little less built, so he able to lift her right off her feet and swing her around.

"How's my favorite little cousin?"

"I'm ok, how bout yourself?"

"Not bad, girly, not bad"

He shook hands with everyone else, since he didn't know them as well.

"Lets go grab your luggage"

He turned, throwing his arm over Mia's shoulders, and led them to collect their bags.

"Aw, sweet...you play, bro?" Luke asked, seeing Vince with his guitar case.

"Yea"

"Awesome...I got a friend waiting in the parking lot cuz we won't fit all in one car... you guys have everything?"

They did so they went to the parking lot and loaded their things into Luke's car and his friend's Escalade.

Dom and the girls went with Lucan and Leon and Vince went with his friend, Sean.

Lucan's house was a nice-sized, two story house on a street with other houses that looked almost exactly the same. They followed Lucan in, leaving their bags for a minute, and stood around in the living room.

"Aiight, I forgot to tell you on the phone, I'm one room short. A friend is in from Chicago and needs a place to stay for a while and I promised him the room already..." Lucan explained. "No worries though, I got it under control. I got a friend who has an apartment like... 10 minutes from here. It's more in the city, but it's a nice place and Cole's awesome."

"Ok," Dom said, nodding and looking around. He wasn't sure who'd take it. It wouldn't be him, though, since he'd be with Letty.

"I'll take the room," Vince offered, taking advantage of the excuse to be away from the team a little more. Maybe that was something he needed; he thought so.

"Aiight, she should be here in a few minutes"

"She?"

"Oh, yea...Cole is short for Nicole"

"Oh, does she want a girl staying with her? Cuz I can stay with her," Mia offered.

"Nah, she doesn't care," Luke assured her. "Besides, I want you here with me so I can pick on you"

"Yea, and I don't know if I'd want you in the city living with just a girl," Dom put in.

"Nah, Dom, it's fine. She don't live in a bad part of town or anything, it's a nice place"

"Whatever"

Luke was passing out beers when the door opened and a girl walked in.

"Hey, sup Cole?" Luke greeted with a big smile.

"Hey Luke"

"Let me introduce you first to my favorite cousin: Mia. This is Dom, my other cousin, and his girl Letty. Behind her is Leon and Vince. Vince is gonna stay with you, cool?"

"Alright, but we're eating here, right?"

"Right on, girl"

"Sweet, I'm hungry"

"I bet; I'll order the pizza," he said, grabbing the phone and going to the other room.

"Hi," Mia said cheerfully, taking a seat next to where Nicole had sat herself at the table.

"Hi"

"Just a piece of advice: Vince can be grumpy but just ignore him. He's always been that way," she advised, smiling.

"Hah, ok, I'll keep that in mind"

Vince just rolled his eyes but was grateful that Nicole didn't seem to take it all too seriously. He didn't want her not really liking him before they'd even said two words to each other. Something about the girls just said "fun" and he hoped she was. He didn't really want to live with somebody boring, but he doubted she was. One thing he did know what that she was cute, real cute. Luckily he'd spoken up and taken the room before Nicole was there, or Leon would've been all over it.

She was short...probably about 5'4" and had a lean build. Her dark hair was pulled up in a sloppy bun and he figured it would be pretty long if she put it down. Her lightly tan skin covered her soft body and looked seemingly flawless. He wasn't really sure if he 'had a type,' but if he did he was pretty sure she'd be it. She seemed to have a quiet confidence that he found very appealing.

"Pizza will be here in 25 minutes," Luke announced, putting the phone back on the receiver.

"So, Vince... you don't snore really loud or anything, do you?" Nicole asked after a few moments of silence.

"Nah, not that I know of"

"No, he doesn't," Leon assured her.

"Sweet... you smoke?"

"No"

"Good... allergic to cats?"

"Nope"

"Good...this'll work great then"

The pizza came a while later and they sat around the Dinning Room table to eat, chatting away about this and that. Once they were done eating Nicole stretched and checked her watch.

"Well, Vince, wanna get going? Get you settled in and all that?"

"Sure, let's go"

She nodded and clapped Sean's on the back.

"Wanna give us a ride, cuz?"

"Sure... the others gotta get their stuff outta the Escalade though"

Chairs scraped against the floor as everyone got up to get their things and bring them back into the house.

Once the only thing left in Sean's car was Vince's things, the three of them left. The ride was quiet and they were soon pulled up in front of a nice looking apartment building.

"Need help with the stuff?" Sean asked

"Nah, we can get it between the two of us. Thanks, cuz, see you later"

Sean nodded and Nicole went around to the back to help Vince.

"What do you want me to carry?"

Vince handed her his backpack and grabbed his duffle and guitar himself. Nicole shut Sean's car and stepped onto the sidewalk as he sped off.

"You sure this is all? I'm stronger than I probably look."

"Nah, I got it"

"Ok," she shrugged, leading the way into the building and up to her room.

She unlocked the door and pushed it open for the both of them.

"I'll get you a key tomorrow; sorry I forgot to do it earlier"

"Not a problem," Vince assured her.

Nicole turned on some lights after shutting the door and Vince took a look around. It was a nice place.

They were standing in the living room, which was really pretty big. Some doors led out of the room and the one farthest to the left, which was the widest and had no door, led into the kitchen. The next two to the right had their doors closed so he had no idea what they were and the last doorway had door beads hanging down, arranged in a way that showed a green, black, blue and yellow zigzagging pattern. He assumed that would be Nicole's room. Against the far left wall there was a set of stairs that led up to a loft-type thing.

That was about it. From what he could see the apartment was painted in mostly earth colors, which, for some reason, seemed to fit Nicole very well.

"Ok, here's your room," Nicole said, opening the door to the very right of the kitchen. "The next door is the bathroom and the last one is mine"

"Aiight"

Vince dropped his things into his room and looked around quickly. It was nicer than he'd expected, as was the whole apartment. A twin bed was up against the right wall and a small dresser was across from it. There was a small, empty closet, bedside table and small set of shelves. It was great. Once he had his things moved in, it would be even better.

He turned the light off after looking around and walked out to find Nicole on the couch, sitting cross-legged with the remote in one hand. He took a seat on the other end of the couch and they quietly watched TV. The couch was just as comfortable as it had looked and he relaxed, almost dozing off. He hadn't been sitting there long when a small, gray tabby-cat hopped up into his lap and started making itself comfortable.

"Oh, that's Tiger. Go ahead and push him away if he bugs you and he'll take a hint"

"Nah, I don't care"

The small kitten curled up on his lap and fell asleep within minutes. A few hours later, when he and Nicole were getting up to go to bed, he almost felt bad to have to move that cat. He carefully shifted it to the side before getting up and wondered if he was going soft. He was pretty sure there was a time when he would've just pushed it off without thinking about it.

"Good night Vince"

"Night Nicole"

She disappeared into her room and Vince slipped into his, stripping down to his boxers and pulling on some sweat pants before climbing into the very comfortable bed.

Much to his surprise, nightmares didn't wake him up. He did, however, wake up with the need to pee. As he was leaving the bathroom he heard something and froze. Noticing the sound was coming from Nicole's room he walked to her doorway and listened. Her covers ruffled every now and then and he could hear her mumbling something and he could've swore it sounded like she was crying.

He quietly pushed aside some of the hanging beads that served as her door and peered in. He couldn't see much since the only light in her room was dim from the street lamps out on the street. It was obvious, though, that she was having a nightmare. He felt for her, since he'd had numerous nightmares with no one to comfort him, so he slipped in and clicked on the lamp on the little table by her bed. Sure enough, her cheeks looked damp as she continued to toss and turn.

"Nicole... hey, Cole, wake up..." he spoke quietly, not wanting to scare the shit out of her, and shook her lightly. "Nicole..."

She suddenly jerked awake and sat up.

"What?"

She looked around and spotted Vince after a moment.

"Nightmare?" he asked, even though it was obvious.

She nodded and, after a silent and awkward moment, Vince found her arms around him and he automatically hugged her back. She was shaking and he pulled her protectively into his lap, rubbing her back and whispering to her just because it felt right.

After a little while, she relaxed and felt like she was sleeping. He dared to move back and look at her and, sure enough, she'd fallen asleep in his lap. He stood up a little, just enough to pull back the covers, and carefully laid her down before putting the covers back over her. A large part of him wanted to stay there with her, to make sure she'd be ok, but he wasn't sure how she'd react to that. Sure, she'd wanted his comfort in the middle of the night when she was still scared but who knew how she'd feel in the morning.

He watched her for a moment and sighed before going back to his room to lay all alone until sleep claimed him.

alright, there. Hope it was ok...let me now my reviewing. Just use that little button at the bottom. R and R, please and thank you.