I Never Liked You Even When I Tried To

c i a n n a

"I don't know what to get Nick for Christmas. Do you have any ideas?" I asked Megan as we sat at her dinner table enjoying our last meal of the day.

"Aren't you thinking a little bit ahead seagull?" she laughed, twirling spaghetti around her fork delicately.

"Well I want to be prepared and you know I don't like leaving things to the last minute, especially gifts." I smiled, thrusting a meatball into my mouth after coating it in sauce.

Megan chewed thoughtfully and twisted her utensil around her fingers.

"Condoms!" she gasped, throwing her arm in the air.

The mince I was eating lodged in my throat and I began to cough desperately in order to get it out.

"Condoms?" I squeaked. "Who the hell for?"

I'm not my boyfriend latex for Christmas! How ridiculous!

"Well Nick obviously, but if you don't want to have sex with him I gladly will!" she snorted, leaning back in her chair as she burped.

"Might I remind you Meg that you are 23 almost 24, and he has only just turned 17? And plus, do you recall me wearing this purity ring?"

I waved my left hand in the air exasperatedly.

"Fuck that stupid thing! Go out and jump some hot guys! And what does age matter? Who gives a shit?!" she cackled, shaking her head at me.

"Well I'm not going to 'jump' him or whatever the hell it is and you ain't either." I scolded, picking at my spaghetti.

Feeling my phone vibrate in my pocket I pulled it out and unlocked it.

From: Nick J
Message: I miss you. Can't stop thinking about your smile, and your eyes, and your laugh, and your amazing talent. Xx

The tears started to prick at my eyes so I kept my head down as I replied.

To: Nick J
Message: I miss you too. And I can't stop thinking about your eyes, and your hair, and laugh, smile, singing voice, personality, and your crappy jokes. :D

From: Nick J
Message: My jokes are not crappy, don't even go there! Your songs are crappy! Especially WYLMITE! So there.

To: Nick J
Message: I think that's your song you douche! :P and that song is cute!

"Is that said rubber receiver?" Megan smirked, as she packed the dishes into the dishwasher.

"Yes Megan it is Nick, but he is not getting those!"

We texted for around half an hour until we found something really exciting on TV to watch.

"Megan?" I piped up in the middle in an ad for 'Shamwow!’. "Do you think that I'm becoming attached to Nick?"

"Attached?" Megan spluttered. "You're in a relationship not a Velcro store! You're supposed to care! Let me guess, when he left you this afternoon you collapsed on the bed and cried? That doesn't mean you're becoming some obsessive girlfriend!"

Nodding slowly I turned my head back to the TV screen and settled into the couch once more.

No matter what Megan said, I still believed I was still moving too quickly.

---

n i c h o l a s

After I managed to fight off Sarah without completely mangling my earlobe, I raced to the counter and purchased the bear.

When I got into the car I texted Cianna for a while and then continued when I got home. I didn't tell her about Sarah because I figured I could get rid of her myself.

Waltzing the stairs on my quest for wrapping paper, I came across Kevin and Danielle sitting at the coffee table with a large notepad opened in front of them.

"What's that?" I asked, leaning over the back of the lounge.

Dani turned another page of paper quickly and tugged at her hair.

"Danielle's sister Helen can't make it for the wedding so we need to work out another bridesmaid. And soon." Kevin sighed, wrapping his arms around his fiancée.

"Cianna can do it." I blurted without even thinking.

Dani whirled around and looked at me with bright sparkling eyes.

"She can? Oh perfect! Yes! Kev did you hear that? She'll be great! And she's just so gorgeous!"

Yes, yes she is.

"And I'm sure she'll look great in purple! Oh fantastic! Thank you so much Nick!"

Hopefully Cianna will actually want to do this.

"Anyway. Do you know where there's some gift-wrap around here?" I asked.

"There's some in the study Nicholas." Mum said, whirling past me with two bowls of strawberries and cream in her hands.

I made my way to the indicated spot and picked out a pretty yellow roll.

After a struggle with the sticky tape I finally had a concealed gift sitting in front of me.

And then a text message arrived.

From: Sarah xP
Message: hey sweety. how r u? i miss you and c nt w8 to opn dat ber on xmas day. i miss u in bed, toching me dat way—

I deleted the message as fast as possible without even finishing reading it.

Let me assure you that I had NEVER been in bed with Sarah or touched her on any other place other than her lips, cheeks or hands.

And I had not thought of touching her anywhere else thanks very much!

From: Cianna xxxxxxxxxx
Message: Hello Nicky!!!!!! what you doing? Do you have any ideas on what you want for Christmas? I'm prepared to spend anything.

To: Cianna xxxxxxxxxx
Message: Hello my beautiful girl. I'm just sitting on my bedroom floor wrapping. Oops. I mean rapping. Haha. Yo Nick J is hot tamale! And all I want for christmas is you so I'm all good. Xx

From: Cianna <3
Message: :o, that's a cool rap, what was the line about a tsunami? Lol. You goose. I have to go, about to drive home. I'll text you in the morning. Night, sweet dreams.

To: Cianna
Message: Make sure you get back safe, night gorgeous, don't let the bed bugs bite. Sweet dreams.

--

It took me two days to ask Cianna if she wanted to be a bridesmaid. She pondered for a while and then agreed when she worked around her schedule.

"Okay good then. You'll have to drive over tomorrow at 10 because we're going dress fitting." I had told her.

And today was the day after yesterday. Cianna's ageing Kombi rattled up the street at a snail's pace.

When she slammed the door I feared it would come straight off the hinges.

"I don't understand why you have that piece of junk. You've got the money to get another car. Why didn't you drive your Aston Martin?" I stated, leaning in for a long needed kiss.

Cianna stepped back and clapped my chest with her hand.

"Don't you dare insult Daisy!" she snapped, folding her arms across her torso. "She is very special to me! I did her up myself thanks very much!"

That shocked me, "You fixed it up yourself? How much did you fix do you mean? Not just replacing the windscreen wiper rubber?" I joked.

That earned me another smack.

"No! I fixed up the gearbox, the muffler, and a few other things. I can change the oil, I know how to check tyre pressure, I know what to do if the car overheats, replacing a tyre, changing lights."

My eyes were wide open inspecting the hunk of metal which I suddenly had a great amount of respect for.

Every single lime green panel was decorated with peace stickers and flowers just like the hippies of the 1960's and 70's.

"I'm proud of you Cianna." I smiled, pressing my lips against hers.

Danielle came sprinting out of the house and ripped my girlfriend from my grasp.

"Thank you so much for this!" my soon-to-be sister-in-law squealed.

Joe laughed and patted me on my back as I huffed grumpily.

"A week till you're eighteen! Legal adult! You'll get drunk! Yay!" Danielle exclaimed.

Cianna raised her eyebrows and smirked.

"Yeah drunk. Watch out Nick; I'm going to jump your bones." she winked.

That right there, were the sexiest words I had ever heard Ci say and boy, her attacking me wasn't going to be my only problem if I didn't close my eyes and block my ears.

"Uh okay." I spluttered, speaking nonsense without even thinking about it. "But only if I can bang you too."

The next thing I knew, I was flying forward and my arms were outstretched ready to prepare for impact.

Hmmm, squishy.

That's weird. The ground isn't squishy unless it's wet and I didn't recall any rain recently.

A very hard and painful blow to the back of my head caused me to come crashing back down to Earth.

Boobs!

My hands were on them!

Eeeeeep!

Cianna looked absolutely horrified so I ripped myself away from feeling her up anymore and scrambled to my feet.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! I didn't mean to! I'm sorry!" I panicked, sweat dripping from my brow.

Cianna brushed dirt from her jeans and bit her lip. "Uh, it's okay...I guess. Just um, try not to do it again, cause it made me feel, um, disgusted."

Danielle took one look at me and snorted, covering her mouth to prevent the giggles.

"Oh Nick, you make me laugh." she sighed.

Today is going to be just dandy isn't it?!

c i a n n a

That was so rude and I wanted to be angry at Nick but I just couldn't and I didn't know why.

I no longer wanted to think about it anymore so I let the thought slip from my brain.

The bell above the wedding shop door jingled as I opened it, and we stepped into the air-conditioning.

Danielle rushed towards a rack with a sign sitting on top reading the name 'Deleasa.'

"These are the perfect dresses!" she cried, pulling out three majorly fugly outfits.

They seemed to come from another dimension and I seriously doubted such a high-class bridal boutique could sell those monstrosities.

Demi Lovato and Maya Kibble, the other bridesmaids, looked at me slowly and then back at Danielle.

With a large gulp, I opened my eyes to see the bride thrusting a year 4000 spacesuit into my arms.

It was a one-sleeve, thigh-length, metallic mini with thick dark blue and silver horizontal stripes. Perched on the right shoulder was a wing like platform pointing at 45 degrees.

It was hideous. Period.

Demi was passed a shiny purple puff ball; complete with boulder sleeves while Maya was dared to wear a floral disaster that was aged and I expected it to smell of mothballs.

"Uh these are nice." Demi lied, smiling but not with her eyes.

Behind us the boys snickered but they soon shut up when they were handed a green tuxedo each.

"I want you to try them on!" Danielle cried, ushering us behind the curtains.

"Do you think she's joking?" I asked quietly, tugging at the tacky material.

"I don't think so." Demi whispered disappointedly.

"I look ridiculous!" I heard Joe hiss.

"Stop whinging!" Nick snapped. "This is Dani's big day and we'll wear what she wants us to!"

Inside, I knew he was thinking exactly the same as his brothers. He was just hiding it and trying not to make anyone unhappy.

"Everybody come out! I want to see what you look like!" Danielle called.

I looked at myself in the mirror and stepped out, ready to be criticed.

Nick took one glance at me and gave a low whistle, paired with a wink. "Surprisingly, you can make that work."

This comment made me feel quite uncomfortable and I turned away, gazing at the picture upon the wall.

"Well don't you all look amazing! Picture time!" Danielle giggled, clapping her hands.

We were too busy posing to see a shop assisant sneaking into the change room with another lot of clothing.

Nick moved right next to me and placed his hand on my lower back. The warmth radiated throughout my whole body.

"Alright, go and get changed again!" we were commanded.

Swinging from a padded coathanger was a stunning floor length single strap lavender dress with a diamonte brooch near the armpit.

"Oh my." I gasped, carefully removing it and pulling it on.

It fitted perfectly although a little adjustment underneath the bust was needed.

"These are amazing! Let's wear these ones!" Maya yelled.

"And these tuxs are awesome too!" Nick hollered.

A body came bursting in and knocked me back into the mirror with a loud 'oof'.

Nick was hugging me tightly and nudging my neck with his nose.

"I could've been naked!" I screamed, pushing him away from me.

"Well I'm sorry if I wanted to see what my incredibly gorgeous girlfriend looked like in her dress! And personally I wouldn't have minded if you had no clothes on."

I completely lost it. Anger pulsed through my veins as I clenched and unclenched my jaw.

"You're such a dirty pig!" I roared. "You've never been polite have you? Putting your hands on my boobs! Talking about how hot I'd look like in a g-string! And now not having any respect?"

Nick looked utterly stunned but I was too furious to even care.

"I need to get the fuck out of here!"

With that, I smashed him into the wall and burst out of the shop in my formal gear.

My head needed some seriously cleaning. And apparently so did Nick's.