A/N: I probably won't update the next several chapters quite this fast, but I was dying to get this part of the story out :)
Chapter 11
Seeing Nick lying there waiting for her twisted Lindsay's heart into a pretzel shape. All of a sudden she felt horribly guilty for not having planned this out better. She shouldn't have stayed out with Barry so late last night- hell, she shouldn't have arranged dates on back-to-back nights to begin with.
Though he very easily could have already noticed the flowers, Lindsay quickly moved them away from the windowsill, towards the side of her room where they couldn't be viewed from the window. She took a quick look in the mirror. Her hair was wet when she had fallen asleep and was now in unmanageable waves, she had no makeup on, and she was in some ratty pajama pants and a T-shirt. But she didn't feel like she could keep Nick waiting a second longer. She whispered down to him loudly. "Nick!"
Nick stirred, obviously having been in a pretty deep sleep. "Mmmmmm?" he mumbled.
"Nick, it's Lindsay. I'm so sorry! I passed out after work and just woke up."
That seemed to get Nick's attention. He opened his eyes sleepily and gave her a big smile. "Hi, Lindsay," he said, yawning. "I'm sorry, I was just getting sleepy waiting for you, so I figured I'd take a little nap."
"You're sorry?" Lindsay exclaimed in a whisper. Nick sounded like he genuinely felt bad for falling asleep, which made her feel even worse. "Nick, tell me how I can fix this- I feel terrible. Tell me how I can make it up to you."
"Make it up to me?" he interrupted. "Wait, we can't still go out tonight?"
Lindsay considered this. It was an admittedly ridiculous time to go out, but since she had just slept for almost 8 hours, she felt pretty alert. She had the day off today and could always take a nap later. Good thing she had already put so much time into studying for her exam.
"Well- okay," she reasoned. "Just as long as I'm back before my parents get up. They usually sleep in a bit on the weekends, but I'd still need to be back by 7 or so. Is that okay?"
Nick smiled at her. "Sure," he said. He had yet to stand up. Yawning again, he added, "I was thinking we could start by shooting some hoops, so dress casual."
Well, this is a little odd, Lindsay thought. Basketball seemed like kind of a strange thing to want to do on a date. But it worked well with her "just got out of bed" look. "Okay," she agreed. "Just stay there; give me a sec." She quickly changed her clothes to jeans, flip-flops, and a bright peach-colored top. She kept her hair down and tried to scrunch it up as best she could with some gel. She didn't really have time to apply make-up but quickly put on her lip gloss. Then she headed back to the window to call down to Nick that she was ready.
He got up, moving the rose to one hand, and shyly presented it to her. "Here," he said. "You look amazing," he said, smiling again. And he sounded really sincere, even though she had only thrown herself together in the last two minutes.
"Thanks," she replied. And though Lindsay felt really horrible for doing this, she didn't want the rose to be without water, so she quickly turned around and placed it in the vase with her other flowers. She'd separate it later.
Though Lindsay was a bit apprehensive at the idea of playing basketball on their date, she quickly changed her tune. Nick took her to the basketball courts where he played on his summer league- clearly, this place meant something to him. They warmed up with a couple of games of HORSE, and Lindsay ended up having a blast. She wasn't very good, but Nick had a way of making her feel like she was genuinely improving and kept giving her tips and pointers along the way. As he did, he would usually position himself behind her while she was shooting to show her how to hold the ball or angle the shot, and she couldn't help but feel a little rush of adrenaline when she felt his body close to hers. After two games (one of which Nick blatantly let her win), she found that her heart rate was elevated and she was starting to work up a sweat.
They took a breather on the small set of bleachers, which Nick had gone out of his way to make a little bit romantic. Though the courts were fairly well-lit, he had brought a few candles and scattered them around. He had also packed a little midnight snack that he had stashed in a small cooler. Lindsay was impressed- cut-up fruit, veggies and dip, fancy cheese and crackers, and a couple of sodas. They snacked by candlelight and chatted about his league and his return to basketball.
"So, are you going to play for school next year?" Lindsay wondered. Nick hadn't mentioned his plans for basketball beyond the summer.
"Yeah, definitely, as long as they let me back on the team," Nick replied. He shrugged. "Not to brag or anything, but I was pretty good at one time. And I've been practicing like crazy. So hopefully the school knows what's good for them." He winked at her and smiled.
"I'm sure they will," Lindsay said confidently, though she really had no way of knowing. But looking at him, he seemed…..dedicated. He had taken his hoodie off, and underneath it he wore a sleeveless black basketball jersey. The definition in his biceps was pretty crazy, and his tanned arms made her feel like an albino with the way that she had spent time inside all summer. Sure, he looked hot, too, but it was his passion for something, and the way that he was actually willing to work for it, that really sparked Lindsay's interest.
She secretly wondered how his drum lessons were going to go, whether or not they would be something that he stuck with. Basketball seemed like it came easy to him. Drums, on the other hand, did not seem like a natural inclination for Nick. How would he respond when he faced a particularly challenging lesson? Would he give up and resort to the fantasy of it, like when he bombed his Dimension tryout? Or would he dig in and work hard? Based on what she saw now, Lindsay really hoped it would be the latter. She was excited to hear that Nick was learning a lot on the job about playing drums, and he was already more confident about his lessons starting in August.
The date was a lot different than Lindsay expected. She supposed she hadn't spent a lot of time with Nick before he smoked weed regularly, so with him having kicked the habit it almost seemed like he was a brand-new person. She noticed the same clarity she saw in his eyes at A1 being translated to other things- he remembered a lot of the details she told him at Ken's party about following the Dead, for example, things that he would never have remembered back when he was smoking. And she found that sober Nick was a nice compromise between the rambling-while-high Nick and the too-stoned-to-say-anything Nick. He wasn't quite the talker that Barry was, but she and Nick managed to keep a fun conversation going with a minimum of awkward silences.
Lindsay noticed something else. Nick seemed eager to please, to impress her, but he definitely wasn't as intense or clingy as before. Though part of it might have been circumstantial (i.e. her being grounded and him being unable to call her), Lindsay also suspected it was because he was so much busier. He didn't have time to hyperfocus on her, to visit her at A1 every day or drop by her parents' house each night. He had a lot of things in his own life to juggle now. And because of this, even his sweeping romantic gestures (like sleeping outside her bedroom window with a rose on his chest) were now far more endearing than creepy.
After their little rest, Nick suggested a game of one-on-one. Lindsay raised her eyebrows skeptically; Nick had her in height by over a foot and had much longer arms and legs, plus all the basketball experience- she didn't stand a chance. But she quickly realized that Nick's main point was to have an excuse to be close to each other (I'm only trying to get the ball!) while playing and exerting a lot of energy- which was really kind of sexy, actually. And it didn't take her long before she realized she had a powerful weapon- Nick was as ticklish as anyone she knew. Anytime he tried to use his height to hold the ball away from her, he perfectly exposed his armpit to her wrath.
Even so, it didn't take long before Lindsay gave up entirely. She didn't need any kind of competition to tell her how physically dominating Nick was. How could she not be aware of his physical presence? So after a few minutes Lindsay looked up at Nick and asked him casually if he had anything else planned for their date.
"Yeah, actually I do," he replied, looking pretty pleased with himself. "I was thinking we could go to the lake. Maybe pick up coffee on the way. It works out because I had wanted to take you there for the sunset before I found out you were grounded. But, hey, that's the good thing about you falling asleep earlier tonight- we can go for the sunrise instead."
Looking around, it was twilight- the sky was definitely starting to lighten. Lindsay guessed it had to be around 5 a.m. They had a little bit of time yet.
"Sure," she replied.
So they got in Nick's car and started driving to Lake Erie. For a while they drove in comfortable silence. Lindsay looked over at Nick and studied his profile as he kept his eyes on the road. Nick had always been handsome, but his clean-cut haircut, tanned face, and alert eyes magnified it for her about a thousand-fold. Lindsay found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss him again, how this date would end.
And though this had been something she had been planning to postpone until the end of the evening, Lindsay found that this little drive provided a good opportunity for them to talk more seriously. She might as well bring it up now, get it over with.
"Nick? Can I ask you something?" she said it softly.
"Yeah, sure," He responded, glancing at her quickly before looking back ahead of him.
"Um, did Daniel say anything to you after Ken's party last weekend?"
He glanced at her again, puzzled. "Like what?"
She was already pretty sure he didn't know, otherwise she suspected their date would have been affected or he would have confronted her. But even if he did know and was just trying to draw it out of her, she was dying to get it off her chest anyway, confess to him.
"Like….. back when we all first started hanging out, at the beginning of the year, I had a little crush on him?"
Nick looked surprised. Apparently Daniel had not told him. "You did?" he asked. "Um, okay…" Even though they were on the highway, Nick took a minute to slow down and pull over to the side of the road so that they could look at each other.
Lindsay sighed and looked at Nick right in the eyes the minute he put his car in park. "Look, I'm telling you this because I want to be honest with you. At Ken's party, I accidentally let it slip to Daniel, so I figured you would find out sooner or later anyway. But I wanted to tell you myself because it's not true anymore. At all. Daniel is my friend's boyfriend; that's it. He's back with Kim now. I haven't felt anything more than that for him in a long time- I only did for a couple of months anyway. And you and Kim mean way too much to me for me to ever jeopardize that."
Nick didn't overtly react; he just shrugged his shoulders. But Lindsay could see the slight tinge of hurt in his eyes. "Okay," he said again. "I'll deal with it. Thanks for telling me." He looked at her while putting his hand on the gearshift, hesitating. "Was there anything else?" he asked apprehensively.
It was at that moment that Lindsay completely wussed out. She just didn't have the nerve to tell Nick about Barry- a crush on one other guy was enough for Nick to handle for one night. She couldn't bear to see that look in his eyes again- and she knew that if she told him about her date last night that he would be more than just a little hurt. So with a shaky breath, Lindsay shook her head no.
"Okay," he said, recovering, giving her a little smile as he went to shift into drive. "Are you ready to see the lake?"
They stopped for coffee on the way there; Lindsay was going to need it to make it through the rest of the day.
When they got to the Lake Erie, the wind had picked up and the sky had lightened even more. The sun would be peeking through the sky at any moment. Nick and Lindsay walked along the water's edge, making small talk, and Nick shifted his coffee into one hand so that he could hold her hand with the other. Lindsay let him; the air felt wonderful and the view was already breathtaking. The sky around the lake was beginning to turn a vivid red-orange color. Nick and Lindsay breathed in deeply, taking in the lake air, and continued to walk and hold hands and chat, tossing their empty coffee cups in the trash.
Right when the sun peaked over the horizon, they stopped walking, and Nick leaned down and kissed her. This kiss had a completely different feel than the one from last night- they had time. Maybe not a lot of time right then, because the sun rising was a clear signal that Lindsay was going to have to get home soon. But they could take all the time they wanted over the next year and few months while they were both in school in Chippewa. The kiss was slow, more covertly sensual. Nick wrapped his strong arms around Lindsay's body, moving his hands around to her lower back. Since her shirt had risen up a bit trying to reach her arms up to encircle his neck, her bare skin was hypersensitive and tingling from his touch. Reaching up, she leaned into him so that her chest was flush against his, and their bodies were pressed so closely together that it spurred all kinds of devious thoughts.
But literally the moment the kiss ended, guilt racked Lindsay's body so intensely she could feel herself shaking. What in the hell was she doing, going out with two different guys in the same weekend? Kissing them both? Thinking about more? How could people do this, see more than one person at a time, and continue to live their lives like everything was normal?
Lindsay had grown silent and was staring at their feet. After a minute, Nick put his hand on her chin and gently pulled her head up. "Everything okay?" he asked her.
Lindsay gave him a fake smile and nodded. "Yeah, it's great- but the sun's coming up, and my parents will be waking up at any time now. I should get home."
Nick nodded. "I understand." Though he really didn't. He added, "Let's get to the car."
The entire drive home, Lindsay wanted to think about how great their date had been, about how this Nick Andopolis seemed so much different than the one who smoked weed all year. She wanted to think about how sweet he still was to her and how good he looked and how amazing his arms felt around her and how good of a kisser he was. But she couldn't.
All she could think about was how she had managed to get herself into this mess, question how she could have possibly thought it was a good idea to accept two dates on two consecutive nights with two different guys (and all while she was grounded).
Nick pulled up and parked where he usually did, offered to walk Lindsay to her window. It was light now, so she declined- if by chance a neighbor would see her, she'd rather try to explain to her parents walking outside by herself in the early morning than walking outside with a guy in the early morning. So instead she told Nick good-night while they were still parked in his car.
"Good-night, Lindsay," he replied, a little dreamily, still thinking of their last kiss, perhaps. He leaned in and gave her another quick kiss, though this time her heart wasn't really in it, and they separated after only a moment. "I mean, good morning," he corrected himself as he pulled away. "Hopefully I'll see you soon."
Lindsay smiled and said good morning before getting out of Nick's car and shutting the door. Looking all around her to make sure that no one was looking, she dashed through the street and her yard until she reached her bedroom window, and practically catapulted herself inside. She was terrified of being seen, of getting caught.
And even though Lindsay made it safely back inside the house without her parents knowing, she felt like she was in more trouble than ever.