You Can't Fight Fate

...Jackie and Stevvie looked at each other before glancing back at Storm with widened eyes.

Eric sat amused, waiting to see what would unfold in the next few minutes. Whispers came from the growing crowd around them; they too, were wondering what was going to happen. Storm sat back and put his hands behind his head, satisfied with his dare. Nick on the other hand, was growing a little green monster that began to gnaw at the pit of his stomach.
All he could think of was ways he could inflict physical pain on his roommate as soon as they returned to their room if he even thought about kissing Stevvie. The girls both loudly made up excused as to why they couldn’t kiss Storm, causing everyone to laugh as he got rejected.

“Girls, girls, girls! Calm down!” Storm shouted over everyone, “Trust me, I’m not planning on kissing my best friends…we’ve already been down that road.”

Everyone made “woo” and “ooh” noises at his statement, causing Stevvie to blush. All of the friends, minus Nick had flashbacks from Eric’s thirteenth birthday party when their game of choice was “spin the bottle.” The remaining boys eyed each other, confused as to who would take the dare.

“Sorry girls, you know I love you, but my days kissing girls are long gone,” Eric informed them as he leaned back in his chair.

“So, that leaves Jonas,” Storm decided, “which lucky lady do you choose?”

The back of Nick's neck immediately flared up in a nervous sweat. He was hoping Eric would take the dare…he wouldn’t mind her kissing a gay guy as much.

“Well?” Eric asked, breaking the silence, “I vote Stevvie!”

Stevvie’s eyes widened at the sound of her name, her cheeks instantly turned a faint red.
Before this was over, she knew her face would be crimson. The crowd clapped and cheered as they agreed with Eric. Nick tried to hold back a satisfied smile as Stevvie grew more nervous. Of course, Nick knew he made her this way, he’s seen it before.

Counting the first time he changed his shirt in front of her. On his last tour, one of his favorite tech guys died from a heart attack at age forty. He had type 1 diabetes also, and pretty much ate like Nick did, which wasn’t exactly the healthiest at the time. He despised working out in an actual gym like Nick too. His sudden death shook Nick a bit and inspired him to take his health a bit more seriously than he already did. The next day Nick cut down on the fast food and started working out with Joe. After a few weeks, he finally realized why Joe loved working out so much, especially lifting weights. Let’s just say, he liked what he saw in the mirror a little more than he did before. Now, he and Joe are always competing who could pack on more muscle. It was also fun to watch the reaction of women when they caught a look of his abs, including Stevvie’s. After that, he made a point to change in front of her as much as possible.

The group began to chant “kiss her, kiss her!” loudly.

Nick sighed and played off his nervousness. “If it will get you guys to get off my back…”
“Nicholas!” Stevvie mouthed, shocked at him.

Everyone began to cheer as he made his way to her side of the booth. He slouched down, trying to look as if he could care less if he kissed her or not, even though he wanted to more than anything else.

He made eye contact with Stevvie. She had a slightly panicked look in her eyes, she didn’t like when all of the attention was on her. It didn’t bother Nick one bit, he was use to it. He gave her a wink and a flirtatious smile. Stevvie narrowed her eyes at him, unable to tell his intentions.

Nick looked at the group and put his finger to his lips to quiet them. Then, he turned toward Stevvie, catching her breath-taking blue eyes, making him suddenly nervous to kiss her. He couldn’t help but wonder if his breath was okay even though he had been munching on the mints that were on the table for the past half-hour. He dropped his eyes to her pastel pink lips, gaining confidence again. Stevvie prayed the he wouldn’t kiss her, if he did, she knew it would be all over from there. Finally, nick made the impetuous decision to lean in…

<->
My eyelids lowered slowly as Nick leaned into me. My breathing turned shallow and my heart sped up as the realization that within seconds, Nicholas Jerry Jonas would be kissing me. Part of me wanted to back out; I knew I would do what I feared the most if I let him kiss me. However, the other part was stronger; the part that wanted to kiss him, the part that wanted him in general. I wanted to get high off his intoxicating scent and immerse myself in his arms. To have his lips on mine…it would be the climax of our affair. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy, in the midst of me trying to avoid falling in love with Nick; I would end up falling harder, so why not enjoy it a little.

“FIRE!! EVERYONE OUT OF THE BUILDING! FIRE!!” Bernie, the cook, yelled as he hobbled as fast as his obese self could take him.

His shocking statement startled Nick and me, causing us to jump apart. We were merely centimeters away from each other.

“Call 911!”Betty yelled as she shuffled everyone out, “Let’s go people!”

Thick, black smoke began to billow out of the kitchen area.

Nick hopped up from his seat, grabbing his leather jacket…and my hand. He pulled me quickly out of the building to my car where Jackie, Eric, and Storm were already waiting. Our fingers were still intertwined as Nick made huge strides, forcing me to trot along to keep up. His face was a little cold, but he softened as he noticed me gaze. He gave my hand a slight squeeze of reassurance and a kiss on the forehead before slipping my keys out of my other hand. He opened my door for me, once I got in, he closed it and jogged over to the driver’s side, revved up the engine and pulled out of the parking lot, just as the fire trucks arrived. One minute into the drive, his hand returned to mine…and stayed there all the way home. It wasn’t as good as kissing him would have been, but right now, I didn’t care.

"The spaces between your fingers were created so that another's could fill them in"