The next few weeks were glorious. It was like a dream. Everything seemed just perfect. We were happy. I was even thinking about telling him I loved him.

Then I noticed them. We were in the hallway at school and he had reached out to grab my hand. His wrist came out from under his sleeve.

"What are those?" I grabbed his arm before he could cover it.

"Nothing."

"It's obviously not nothing." I stared down at his wrist. There were several deep jagged cuts.

"Leave me alone."

"Tell me, Nick." I knew what they were. I just needed him to say it.

"Did you not hear me? Leave. Me. Alone."

"Please." I looked up at him, absolutely terrified. He violently ripped my arm from his grip. I continued to watch him, hoping for some sort of response. He just shoved me aside and stormed off. I felt tears run down my cheeks as he left. I was scared.

Since I didn't have a ride home, Nick had no other choice than to bring me home from school. We were silent as we drove out of the parking lot. I tried to get him to talk.

"Nick. Please. Just talk to me."

"Fine. How 'bout this weather we've been having?"

"You know that's not what I want to talk about."

"Miley. I am not going to talk about it. It is my personal business. Not yours. Mine."

"You sound like a possessive five year old."

"You just, you don't have any idea, okay? So just stop." I didn't say a work for the rest of the way home. He dropped me off at my house and I went to my room for the rest of the night. He didn't call or text me. I didn't call or text him.

The next morning I was surprised when Nick pulled into my driveway like always. He rang the doorbell before I had time to leave the kitchen. I answered the door hesitantly. He was standing there, holding flowers.

"I'm sorry about yesterday." He handed me the roses they were beautiful.

"It's alright but you don't need to apologize. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Maybe later. Do you forgive me?" I was getting really confused.

"Nick, you didn't do anything wrong. You don't need to apologize. There's nothing for me to forgive you for."

"Okay. Great." He leaned in and gave me a kiss before putting his arm around me. "Come on. Let's go to school." I followed him out to his car, not wanting to feel relieved but I kinda did. I mean, come on, I was sixteen. Sixteen-year-old kids don't want to deal with drama, they'll look for any excuse to escape it.

As the day went on Nick slowly sank back into normal. Not angry like the day before and not overly apologetic like earlier in the morning. He smiled as I got in his car at the end of the day.

"Do you wanna stay for dinner tonight at my house?"

"Sure." I smiled sweetly, trying to hide all that was going on in my head.

"Good. I'll call my mom and make sure that she makes pasta." I giggled as he pulled out his phone.

"Yay."

We watched a movie once we got back to Nick's house, Transformers. I was laughing throughout the whole thing.

"Why do you even like this movie?"

"I don't know...it's cool."

"What's cool about it?"

"What's not cool about bad ass robots fighting each other?"

"Point taken." I snuggled up to his shoulder. He smiled and ran his fingers through my hair. "Nick?" He shot me a look. I was interrupting the epic fight scene at the end of the movie.

"Yes, Miley?"

"I think I love you."

"That's weird."

"That's weird?"

"I mean...uhhh."

"It's fine. Just...forget I said anything."

"No, Mi." He pushed a piece of my hair behind me ear. "I love you too."

"Really?"

"Really." He leaned in and we started kissing, completely forgetting about the movie. After a while, Joe entered the room.

"Let's keep it PG, guys." I blushed as I turned to look at him.

"Oh hey Joe."

"What are you even doing here?"

"Mom called, said that Miley was coming for dinner. Asked if I wanted to come."

"Oh."

"Anyway, dinner's on the table."

"Thanks Joe." I said, smiling. I liked Joe. He sort of reminded me of my own brother. Except Joe was older. But the whole goofing around playful teasing thing was just like my brother. "Ready?" I stood up and held out my hand to help Nick up. He took is quickly before pausing.

"Wait. Mi."

"Yeah?" He just looked at me and gave me a quick smile.

"Nothing. Never mind."

"You sure?"

"Yeah. I'm sure." He put his arm around me as we walked into the kitchen. I immediately got excited when I saw all the food on the table.

"Oh my gosh Denise. This looks incredible."

"Thank you Miley. Nicholas, you could pick up some manners from this girl of yours."

"Yeah yeah yeah." He grumbled. I looked over at him and he gave me a look and then smiled. I smiled back. I had forgotten about his problems. Momentarily.

Okay, I'm sorry. This chapter is kinda all over the place. I know what I want to say but I don't know how to write it. I am not going to quit on this story though. I am determined to finish it.

Also, I'm sorry it took so long. I was swamped with school up until Thanksgiving and I thought I'd have more time to write this week but I got even more in over my head and now my friend is in the hospital and this week has just been insane.

Anyway, I'll stop making excuses now. But I promise the next chapter will be better :)

I love you guys.