Changing The Rules

I closed my eyes not daring to turn around and let Nick take the lead.

“Urm, h-hey Miss Jenkins” He stuttered out as he kept his arms around me.

“Charlene?” She said and I could practically hear the smile in her voice. She knew.

“Yes?” I asked slowly, turning around and pulling out of Nicks arms which brought a slight pout to his lips.

“Were you two…kissing?” She asked with an eyebrow raised and a smile on her face. Nick and I both nodded, waiting for her reaction.

“I knew it would work.” She smiled to herself as my head sprung up with curiosity.

“Knew what would work?”

“The moment I met you Charlene, I knew you and Nick would have chemistry but also knew that it wouldn’t exactly be ideal getting you two together. You did both deserve detentions, but maybe only for a day or two not three weeks.”

She had planned all of this. How did she know that Nick and I were compatible when we didn’t even realise it ourselves? She sat on the desk as we kept standing, still in shock.

“So how come I never see you two ‘together’ in school? And I know it’s not just because you’re following the anti PDA rule because no one does.” Nick put his hand out for me which I took as I stepped closer to him, our arms just touching.

“It would be too complicated so we’re keeping it quiet. That’s why you never see us together and when you do we’re usually arguing. We’re quite the little actors you know” Nick said as I laughed gently, squeezing his hand which he squeezed right back.

“So did my little plan work?” She asked as Nick and I looked at each other before turning back to her.

“Not originally. In fact, for the first week we hated each others guts…even more so. But now it’s all good; better than good.”

“How long have you two been dating, if you could call it that?”

“Only since Monday when I finally got the nerve to ask her out, but she took some convincing.” Miss Jenkins sat there analysing the two of us before she suddenly looked very serious.

“You love each other don’t you?”

Nick smiled down at me before answering, “I love her”. Miss Jenkins looked at me expectantly but I looked away not feeling comfortable.

“She doesn’t love me, but we’re happy which is all that matters.” I felt like shit when he said that and Miss Jenkins picked up on it, sending a sympathetic look my way. The way he so bluntly said ‘she doesn’t love me’, like he was ok with it when I didn’t know if he really was.

“I will…love you I mean” I said softly, looking up at him as he slowly turned to look at me, a gentle smile settling on his face before leaning down to softly peck my lips but not for too long considering there was a teacher watching us. We were broken out of our moment when she stood up and patted herself down, sighing loudly.

“Ok, well you two are free to go now. You’ve proved to me that you can get along…and very well I might add so you can leave.” She smiled as she approached the door, opening it but was stopped by Nick’s quiet voice.

“Do we have to?” Miss Jenkins turned around slowly, with a curious look on her face. “I mean this is the only time me and Charlene have time to ourselves where we can just be together without having to put on an act.” He pulled me even closer, wrapping both of his arms around me as I followed suit.

“You have two more weeks’ detention for…arguing and using profanity. Does that work?” She smiled as Nick and I nodded with huge grins on our faces.

“But do we still have to do the work? Like the prom planning and stuff because that is so freaking boring” Nick complained. I hit his arm laughing knowing we would still have to do the work.

“How about you work…on getting Charlene to love you?” She asked, mainly looking at me.

“I’d like that” I whispered smiling up at Nick before putting my head in the crook between his neck and shoulders.

“But there is one rule. No sex in my classroom” Nick and I laughed as she left with a smile on her face, heading down the corridor.

“Well that was…different” I laughed as I turned to face him, both of our arms still wrapped around each other.

“Did you mean what you said?” He paused, running his hand down my cheek “About loving me?”

“Yeah, I know I will one day. I mean I’ve got a lot of walls built up, but I know you can eventually knock them all down. It will take while, but it will be worth it because it will bring us that much closer together.” I said staring into his eyes which were so filled with love that couldn’t be contained, a tear falling from the corner of his eye which I quickly reached up and removed.

“I love you Charlene. I really do.” He kissed my forehead as I cuddled up to him, inhaling his scent. I nodded against his chest, just happy doing nothing but holding him.

………..

“So…do you want to come back to mine?” I asked as we walked the corridors, swinging our hands together knowing we were alone in the English block. As soon as we left its safety and entered the parking lot, we immediately pulled apart aware of other people in detentions.

“Are you sure? I mean I can just drop you off if you want?” He asked, looking surprised.

“Yeah, I want to spend more time with you. Plus I don’t want to be home alone; my parents are going out to dinner later. You wouldn’t want me to be home all on my own would you?” I pouted as Nicks eyes kept darting between my lips and eyes, wanting so desperately to wipe the pout away with his lips.

“Don’t tease me when you know I can’t have you.” He said into my ear as I giggled, pulling away from him. “But what about my school work?”

I stopped, a huge grin on my face, never thinking I would hear him care about his school work.

“We can do it tonight. I can help you with history as well, I mean seriously Nick, Jesus was not around in the Victorian era.” I laughed referring to his earlier comment in class which I found adorable, especially with all of the confusion on his face as he said it.

“Nick! Oh Nick!” We heard Clarissa yelling from the other side of the car park. Nick grabbed my hand as we ducked down, running to his car to avoid little miss airhead. We jumped into his car, speeding out of the car park and driving to my house which I knew was going to become a regular thing.

……….

“Mum, Dad, we’re home.” I yelled up the stairs, not knowing where they would be.

“We?” My Dad asked as he entered the main room, quickly noticing Nick and smiling “Ahh Nicholas, how nice to see you again.”

“You too sir” Nick smiled shaking his hand.

“Would it be alright if Nick stayed with me tonight because you’re going out and he needed help with history…really badly.” He fake glared at me as I started laughing again. I mean seriously Jesus? Couldn’t he think of anyone else? I wasn’t going to mention that to my mum who like most of my family was highly religious and I didn’t want her to act funny around Nick.

“Ok…just keep your hormones under control.”

I blushed as my dad spoke, buring my face into my hand. I took Nicks hand and took him up to my bedroom, hearing him thanking my dad on the way.

“Well that was embarrassing” I said as I hit my head repeatedly on the door, watching Nick walk around my room, looking at all of my little random things.

“Who’s this?” Nick asked picking up a picture of Jesse, my brother.

“Oh that’s my brother Jesse” I quickly took it from him, putting it back down not wanting to talk about it.

“How come I’ve never heard you speak about him?” I sat down on my bed, Nick doing the same as he took my hands in his.

“He died in Iraq two years ago. He was patrolling a small village when he was shot three times from behind. They reckon he died straight away; serious blow to his brain.” I whispered looking down as a single tear fell onto my duvet. Nick didn’t say anything. What could he say? But took me in his arms as he rocked me back and forth, rubbing my back. It still hurt, but not as much. I would always remember my brother, but I tried to enjoy his life and remember him positively, rather than of what became of him. At least he died helping others, which in my opinion was extremely heroic.

“You know I’m not in the mood for doing history yet. You want to watch a movie?” Nick asked, rubbing my cheeks with his thumbs as I nodded, smiling slightly.

“I like Peter Pan” I whispered, sounding like I was 5 years old.

“Then Peter Pan it is.” He got up off the bed, walking over to my DVD collection, rummaging around for the DVD but couldn’t find it.

“Babe, Peter Pan isn’t here.” He asked looking over his shoulder as I climbed under my duvet trying to get warm.

“It’s already in the DVD player. I watched it last night.” I admitted sheepishly as Nick rolled his eyes playfully, grabbing the remote and walking over trying to figure out where to sit.

“You can come in here Nick” I said quietly lifting the blanket to allow him to get in.

“Are you sure? I mean you don’t-”

“Nick I want you close to me.” Without any further hesitation, he took of his shoes and got in next to me, holding me close to his chest as I rested my hands on his shirt, drawing imaginary shapes.

“You know, I haven’t seen this movie for ages.” Nick said as the previews started and he readjusted himself so he was more comfortable.

“Well now that we’re dating, you will be seeing a lot of it.” I laughed as he smiled, still stroking my cheeks.

“Can’t wait” He whispered as I cuddled back into him, watching what was always Jesse and I’s favourite movie.

“Jesse and I always loved Peter Pan. We would talk about wanting to be kids our whole life, not having to grow up.” Nick listened intently as I started speaking over the movie, wanting to share this part of my life with him. I had never opened up to anyone like this before but for some reason with Nick it just felt right. “We would always play dress up, I would be Wendy and he would be Peter Pan and one time he wanted to be Wendy. Mum and Dad thought he was gay.” I laughed softly at the memory before I continued. “But we did have to grow up. The day he went to war was the day we both knew we couldn’t be children our entire lives. And the day he died” I started choking up, as Nick tried to comfort me and calm me down but I needed to get this out “Was the day I realised life isn’t like a fairytale. There isn’t always going to be a happy ending.” I whispered, tears pushing down my cheeks. I cuddled into Nick as he whispered comforting thoughts into my ear. I wasn’t sobbing or anything like that. I wasn’t even making a noise. But the tears still fell, in fact they flowed.

“I’m sorry about your shirt” I laughed slightly, although the crying was still evident in my voice. His shirt was really damp from my crying and I’m sure it was uncomfortable to wear now.

“It’s fine” He whispered, pecking my lips. “Did you still want to watch the movie?” He warily asked, knowing it could bring on loads of emotions. But strangely it only did when I spoke about it, the movie itself always made me smile and remember Jesse and all the good times we had together.

“Yeah. Sorry for getting all deep on you. You probably won’t be able to watch it the same way again after this.”

“No, but it gives it a deep meaning and will always remind me of you…and your brother. He was a hero Charlene. He died helping others, so in some sense he was like the good guy in fairytales. Like the prince charming I guess, who tried to fight the forces of evil. Well not quite in that sense but you catch my drift. You couldn’t have stopped anything from happening, it was all just like a twisted story that we couldn’t change. Life is like that; in the end fate determines what will happen so we had might as well let it run its course. Don’t regret anything you do because it is all just part of this crazy journey we call life. You just have to make sure you live your life to the fullest for the both of you. You and your brother”

No regular teenage guy could come up with stuff like that. Have the ability to completely change my mind set and stop me from feeling lonely for the first time in two years.

“You’re my prince charming” I whispered, stroking his hair which softy slipped through my fingers. My parents hadn’t been able to comfort me in the way he just had. To make me see that there was a life after Jesse and that he would have wanted me to be happy. To live my life to the fullest. And it was Nick that I needed to help me do that.

The smile he had, stretched all across his face as he bent his head down to kiss my lips. Our kiss was passion filled and loving, both of us being too wrapped up in each other to acknowledge the DVD menu repeating over and over. I pulled back eventually looking up into Nicks warm, welcoming eyes.

“I think we should watch the movie now” I said as I lent across him to retrieve the remote pressing play. I settled back into Nicks arms, looking up at him as he pressed a few kisses to my forehead.

Nick did well staying awake for the majority of the movie, but struggled with the last 10 minutes considering how comfortable my bed was. My door suddenly flung open as my parents strolled into the room, speaking as loud as can be.

“Charlene, we’re-”

“Sshhhh!” I whispered frantically, pointing out Nick who had his head thrown back as he softly snored. My mum and dad both smiled at the sight but then pointed out the fact we were in bed together.

“Oh come on, it’s not like that. Nick was comforting me over Jesse” My parents gaze softened at the mention of their only son, knowing no one had ever been able to speak to me about it. “Besides he’s not like that anymore”. I added in a slight snap, still whispering and looking at Nick hoping we hadn’t woken him.

“Ok, well we’re going now have a good night. We’ll be back around 12.30.” They smiled at me, my mum laughing quietly at Nick as they left the room. I smiled up at Nick who was still fast asleep, admiring his features. I tried to shimmy out of his arms so I could get another fluffy Disney movie but his grip tightened as he groaned slightly, not liking my departure. I smiled, leaning over to peck his lips. As I pulled away, I noticed he was still asleep but had a soft smile on his face. I pressed play, settling in his arms again ready for another run of Peter Pan, feeling safe in Nick’s arms which felt like they could protect me from anything.

It was then that I realised I was falling in love with him…and fast.