Please Take Me Off The Shelf

Grace leaned against the frame of the door leading into the main music classroom. She smiled to herself as she watched her best friend strumming away at his guitar, completely oblivious to the fact that Grace was listening in. He stopped playing the guitar all of a sudden and groaned in frustration before turning round. As soon as he saw he wasn't the only person left in the room he smiled and set his guitar down on the table next to him.

"Gracie, what’s up?" He asked. Grace smiled back at him and walked into the classroom, perching on the desk next to his guitar.

"I heard someone playing, and I just had to come and listen in." She explained. "I should have guessed that it was you. You're always in here at break and lunch nowadays."

"Aww, do you miss me?" Nick asked.

Grace stuck her tongue out at him. "No. It’s nice to have a bit of peace and quiet." She joked and he laughed. "So, what’s this new song of yours about?"

"How do you know it’s about anything?" Nick asked her, looking away from her face down at his guitar. Grace paused and looked down at his guitar as well.

"You always have some kind of meaning behind your songs." She pointed out and playfully plucked one of the strings. The sound echoed around the quiet classroom. Nick smiled and shook his head.

"I just wrote this one for the fun of it." Nick laughed and took his guitar out of his friend hands. "And what have I told you about touching my guitar?" He winked at her. Grace rolled my eyes and brushed her hair back over my shoulder.

"To never touch it because I'll probably break it." Grace replied in a sarcastic voice. "Just because I accidentally broke your guitar when we were seven, does not mean that I would break it now." She shook her head and reached over to tap the wooden neck. "You see? No breakages."

"Still, you're a liability at the best of times." Nick explained and moved the guitar as far away from Grace as he could on the desk. She frowned at him.

"Fine." Grace pouted and then her eyes lit up. "I actually have something so huge to tell you!"

"If it involves the idiot from your English class, then I am really not interested." Nick sighed and ran his hand through his hair.

"Aw, Nicholas." Grace went back to pouting which made Nick laugh to himself. "Come on! I have to tell someone, and let’s face it, you're the only person who can actually sit and listen to me babble on about things without wanting to murder me." She rolled her eyes. "Since when were you not a gossiper?"

"Since I started hiding out in music every day." He replied with a smile before picking up his guitar and walking over to where the case for it lay open on another of the desks in the room. Grace sat back on the table and crossed her legs, watching him zip up the black case.

"Please tell me you're going to rejoin the land of the living soon?" Grace asked with a sad smile, "We all really do miss you. Sit with us at lunch today?"

"Promise me Craig isn't going to be there." Nick asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Only if you promise me to tell me what your problem is with him?" Grace asked and looked down at her shoes. "I know he's not exactly your favourite person in the world, and yes he is a bit of an arse. But he's nice to me, so you've got to give him that."

"I just never took you as the person to fall for the star football player." Nick grinned cheekily and Grace's mouth fell open in shock.

"I have not fallen for him, thank you very much!" Grace shook her head at her friend. "Did you not hear me, he is an arse."

"Why do you hang around with him then?" Nick asked and hoisted his guitar case over his shoulder. Grace frowned and shook her head.

"I have not fallen for him Mr Jonas. Be careful what you spread around about me." Grace smiled devilishly and then hopped off the table. "Some people might get the wrong impression." She winked at her friend and then folded her arms across her chest. "I have to dash to history now, I better see you at lunch."

"Oh, you will." Nick replied with a wink and watched his best friend walk out of the room. As soon as Grace had left Nick pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket, flattened it out and scanned through the lyrics written upon it. He grabbed a pen from on the desk next to his guitar case and scribbled down two lines to the beginning of his first verse.

She's such a flirt,
And I am a lonely heart.

Nick sighed and shoved the paper back into his back pocket. He picked up his guitar and placed it in the storage cupboard at the back of the classroom before walking out into the busy hallway. He was distracted all the way through his next too lessons, daydreaming up lyrics for his latest song. His music teacher didn’t mind his lack of focus, she always said that inspiration should not be stopped, still Nick found the time seemed to pass quicker when he wasn’t paying attention, he just hoped that he hadn’t missed something vital in maths because of it. That subject was hard enough to begin with.

As he walked into the common rooms he noticed that all his group of close friends were already gathered around a table by the main window in the room, laughing and joking away. Nick sighed and walked over, he felt like a stranger intruding on everyone’s conversation, even though he had been friends with everyone since before they started high school.

“Hey Nick.” Grace was the first to notice him approaching the table. Nick noticed she had a spare seat next to her and dumped his bag next to it instead of the other free seat at the other side of the table.

“Welcome back to civilization!” Eric, Graces twin brother, laughed. The whole table erupted in similar comments and Nick laughed to himself.

“Well, if I’d have known you missed me this much, I would have just told you all to come and join me in music.” He replied with a small smile.

“And watch you write a song?” Craig replied. “I’m sure the girls would enjoy that, but that’s not for me, thanks mate.”

“Don’t worry Nick; Craig isn’t eating with us today." Grace reassured Nick once everyone had gone back to their own little conversations. "As far as I know he has
training this lunchtime." Nick sighed and then half smiled. He wasn't going to pretend that didn't make him feel a whole lot better, because it did.

"But he will be there tonight." Grace warned and took a sip of her water. Nick frowned in confusion.

"What’s happening tonight?" He asked.

"I can’t believe you've forgotten!" Grace exclaimed with a playful smile as she screwed the top back onto her bottle of water. "I've only been talking about it for the past month!" Nick continued to stare at her in confusion. "My dance schools open night? You promised me you'd come."

"Oh, that’s tonight?" Nick tried to remember actually agreeing to go somewhere that involved dancing. "I think I have to look after Frankie tonight." He lied.

"Don’t you lie to me Nicholas." Grace shook her head. "I can tell when you're lying, because you’re terrible at it." She frowned. "Nick, I haven’t spent the past month and a half learning to salsa dance like a professional just so I can teach it to random strangers who get bored after two minutes. You said I could teach you properly."

"You know I can't dance though." Nick sighed. He knew he was going to end up going along regardless to what he said, so he might as well give up anyway.

"Yes, I do know that." Grace replied in a matter of fact kind of way and rolled her eyes at her best friend. "But that’s not going to stop me, now is it?"

"Probably not." Nick sighed in defeat and Grace beamed, her brilliant green eyes sparkling with excitement.

"And I'm going to tell my dad to bring you, so I know you'll actually turn up!" Grace continued to smile and flicked her hair over her shoulder. Nick pretended to look scared and Grace laughed loudly before covering up her mouth in embarrassment. She ruffled Nick’s curly hair and then turned to talk to someone else as they caught her attention. Nick laughed to himself at his best friend’s short attention span and rooted through his bag for his lunch.

The rest of the day seemed to pass equally as quickly as it had before lunch. Nick felt constantly distracted, both nervous and excited about the night ahead of him. Sure, he couldn't dance to save his life, but he knew it would be amusing.

He was sat in his room strumming away on his guitar when he heard a knock on the front door. His head turned to the sound, even though it was coming from downstairs and he immediately hid the sheet of paper that had all his lyrics written down upon it under some old school textbook. He laughed at his own protectiveness over his songs and dumped his guitar on his bed before rushing downstairs to meet his friend.

Nick pulled open the front door and a large gush of icy wind shocked him. He'd almost forgotten that it was close to December. Grace immediately rushed inside and started messing around with her brown curls.

"Do not keep me waiting outside in weather like this again." She frowned at Nick and then stuck out her tongue playfully. "It’s freezing outside."

"Come on, or you’re going to be late for your salsa dancing extravaganza." Nick laughed but Grace was already over at the mirror in the hallway trying to sort out her hair back into place. After a few minutes she sighed and slipped the band from round her wrist and wrapped it round her hair so it hung effortlessly down her back. She frowned at her reflection and then turned back to her friend.

"My hair will have to do like this." She complained and then grabbed Nicks hand and dragged him out of the door. He barely had time to yell goodbye to his mother before he was pushed into the front seat of Grace's car. Grace ran round the other side and climbed into the front seat next to Nick.

"You don’t have to be so forceful you know." Nick laughed and immediately turned the heating up in the car as soon as the engine was on. "You already know that I'm coming with you."

"I know, I just thought it'd annoy you." Grace explained and then cranked up the radio. They spent the rest of the drive singing along to whatever came onto the radio, just like they used to when their families went on holidays together when they were little. It didn't matter if you liked the song or not, you had to sing along. It was an unwritten rule.

Grace dragged Nick, not quite kicking and screaming, to the dance studio that she'd been told to stay in for the night and demanded he wait where he was. Then she ran off somewhere and Nick stood on the spot, looking around and feeling a bit out of place. When Grace didn't return for a while he sighed and wandered out of the room, just to be nosy and see what else was going on. He knew Grace would be annoyed at him for not listening to him, as always, but he knew her almost too well. She would get over it as quickly as she decided she was annoyed.

When Nick wandered back into the main dance studio about half an hour later, it wasn't difficult to spot Grace in the crowd of girls all dressed the same. Nick had always ended up finding himself at most of her dance shows, and he knew how much she enjoyed it. He was amazed at how much effort she actually put into her dance, she gave one hundred and ten percent all the time. Grace spun round and Nick smiled and laughed to himself when she looked over in his direction and covered her face with her hands, an embarrassed smile crossing her face.

It took him a few moments before he realised his best friend wasn't looking at him, but in fact someone stood a few feet in front of him. It was typical, just typical.

Nick strode over to his friend, ignoring the fact that she was already in conversation with Craig. He tapped her on the shoulder and folded his arms across his chest.

"Can I just talk to you for a second?" He asked before glaring at Craig out of the corner of his eyes. Grace stared at him blankly for a few moments before opening her mouth to speak.

"Can it wait Nick?" She shot her best friend a look that clearly said she wanted him to go away and leave her to talk to Craig. "I'm kind of busy at the moment." She smiled at him.

Nick sighed at himself, and half questioned what he had actually been hoping to achieve from this. "I'll get out of your way then." He replied and walked out of the dance studio, out of the dance school and sat on the steps outside the front door. He groaned to himself, wondering what the hell he had been hoping to achieve from that. Grace liked Craig, he knew that. So why did he feel the compulsive need to prevent her from speaking to him?

"Nick? What’s the matter?" Grace's voice came from behind him. He turned his head and saw her standing with her jumper wrapped as tightly round her small frame as it possibly could. "Come back inside, its freezing out here."

"Nothings wrong Gracie, go back inside. You look frozen." Nick sighed and turned back to face forward. Instead of listening to him, as always, Grace did the opposite. She sat down next to him on the steps and watched him quietly.

"Something is wrong though." Grace sighed and wrapped her arms around herself before shivering. "Nick, I've known you twelve years. I practically know you better then you actually know yourself."

Nick smiled at that, because it was spectacularly true. "Honestly Grace, it doesn’t matter."

"But it clearly does." She argued back. "Don’t you dare tell me its nothing, because you know how I will react to that."

"Gracie, go back inside." Nick repeated himself. She shook her head, shivering once again. Nick shuffled closer to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulder to try and warm her up. "Why are you so stubborn?" He asked.

"Why are you so cryptic?" Grace replied with a smirk. Nick laughed and then shook his head at himself. "Nick you know you can tell me anything, right?" Nick nodded. "So why don’t you just tell me what’s been going on with you recently. You're never around anymore, and I miss you."

"Its too complicated to explain." Nick sighed.

"Its Craig isn't it?" Grace asked almost instantly. Nick turned to look at his friend. "You don’t like him hanging around with me."

"In all honesty, I don’t think its his fault." Nick sighed and mumbled away. "If it was any guy I think I'd be annoyed with them."

"Are you jealous Nicholas?" Grace asked playfully. Nick looked away from his best friend. When he didn't reply, one of Graces hands flew up to her mouth in shock. "Crap. That’s it isn’t it?" She asked, her eyes wide with shock. Nick dropped his arm from around Graces shoulders and Grace turned herself so she was facing Nick completely. "Nick, say something." She pleaded.

"Would it change anything if it was the reason?" Nick replied after some thought.

"What does that matter?" Grace replied.

"Because, if its going to change things between us for the worse, then I'm not going to give you an answer." Nick explained. "I just want to you to be happy. And by the looks of things Craig makes you happy."

"I wont be happy if I know there’s something wrong with you Nick, you are my best friend." Grace replied with a stubborn look across her face. She shivered once again and Nick frowned at her.

"Lets talk about it later, go inside before you freeze to death." Nick sighed.

"Only if you come inside as well." Grace frowned. At the same moment, Craig walked out of the front door of the dance school. He looked down at the pair of friends, his eyes flicking between the two before settling on Grace, who was still shivering.

"Grace, you look frozen." Craig sighed. "And your wanted back inside."

She shook her head. Nick frowned at her. "Go back inside, I'm going home now anyway. I'll talk to you at tomorrow. I promise." Grace must have seen the genuine promise in Nick’s expression, because almost instantly she stood up and walked inside. Craig lingered, as if he was going to say something to Nick, but instead he turned round and followed Grace back inside. Nick stood up from the cold stone step and started walking in the general direction of home. He tired to collect his thoughts in a way that would make sense to anyone but himself. He wasn't sure how to explain to his best friend that he'd had a crush on her for almost a year. It wasn't the kind of thing you could exactly just bring up in conversation. Even with the history that the two of them had, it could either make or break their friendship and Nick wasn't sure if he was ready to take that chance, or if he would ever be ready at all.

Before he knew it he was home. No one else seemed to be around, all the lights were switched off as he walked up the drive, which he was thankful of. He didn't want to have to explain to anyone why he'd walked home instead of waiting for his friend to drive him. He shivered as he unlocked the front door and pushed it open quickly so he could get inside. He dropped his keys on the kitchen counter and climbed the stairs in the hallway, his mind now only set on his music. As soon as he was in the comfort of his own bedroom he picked up his guitar and a piece of scrap paper, and began writing. It was the same song he'd been working on for weeks, but reworded in such a way that made it even more personal to him then it had been before.

Eventually his parents and his brothers arrived home from where ever they had been, and Nick half watched the big hand on the clock on his wall approach twelve quicker then he expected it to. He was lucky it was a Friday night; otherwise he would have never pulled himself out of bed the next morning.

It got so late that he was sure no one else would be awake. It was only then did he start properly playing, letting his fingers roam over the guitar strings in a way that he only did when he was fully alone. He knew he’d be able to play as loud and for as long as he wanted, because his room was at the other side of the house to everyone else’s bedroom, and he’d managed to soundproof it pretty well, but something stopped him from singing the song as loud as he would have been able to. In his eyes it would have ruined the whole feel of the song.

When he was satisfied with every little detail of his song, Nick set his guitar down on his bed in front of him and sighed. All this teenage angst couldn’t be good for anyone. He was just about to start getting ready to go to bed, when he heard a quiet knocking against his window. He walked over to it and pulled his curtain back, which had been half closed. He was shocked with the sight in front of him.

Grace mouthed at him to open the window and Nick did so quickly, reaching out of it to grab his best friend’s hand. She carefully balanced herself on the tree branch outside Nick’s window so she could slip through his bedroom window without falling and Nicked helped her through the wooden frame.

“Are you crazy?” Nick asked. “You could have seriously hurt yourself!” He yelled and then remembered that all though he’d soundproofed his room as much as he could, it wasn’t completely perfect.

“I think next time I’ll leave that to the people in the movies.” Grace laughed to herself and Nick reached up to her hair to pull a stray leaf out from her curls.

“That might be a good idea.” Nick laughed along with his friend. His eyes glanced up at his clock and then back as his best friend. “Not to sound like I’m complaining, because this is a very bizarre surprise, but you do know its almost one in the morning right?”

“Yes, I do know that Nicholas.” She pointed out and took the leaf out from her friend’s hand. She looked down at it, gently tracing the delicate patterns upon it with her fingers. “I just couldn’t sleep after what you said.” She explained.

“Why didn’t you just call me?” Nick asked.

“Parents. I’m not exactly subtle when I’m on the phone.” Grace sighed and walked over to perch on the end of Nick’s bed, the crispy orange leaf still in her hand. “Plus, I don’t know. I needed to think. Get some air. I just needed to see you.” Grace looked up from the leaf and into Nick’s eyes. “Technically its tomorrow now.”

“You haven’t given me enough time yet.” Nick shook his head and looked away from Grace.

“I heard your song.” She replied in an instant. “Its beautiful. Really Nick, it is.” Grace sighed and then placed the leaf in her hand carefully on the bed beside her. “Craig took me out after the open night had finished.”

Nick looked back at Grace. He resisted from making a snide comment. “What’s that got to do with anything?” He asked simply. Grace sniffed and Nick immediately crouched down in front of her, looking up at her face that was now hidden by her brown curls. “What’s up Gracie?” He asked protectively.

“Its nothing.” Grace half laughed. “I’m just so stupid.” She mumbled and brushed her hair back away from her face. Her cheeks were not tearstained, but slowly growing damp with stray tears. “You were right all along, he is just a jerk.”

“But I thought you really liked him.” Nick asked. He was unbelievably confused.

“Liked. Past tense.” Grace explained. “He’s all nice as pie when he’s making you fall head over heels for him, but as soon as he’s accomplished that, he’s an asshole.”

Nick stood up from the floor and sat on his bed next to Grace. “I’m sorry.” He replied and simply put his arm around his best friend’s shoulders. Grace welcomed this and snuggled closer into Nick’s chest. She stayed there for a while before moving her head so she was looking directly into Nick’s eyes once again. She slowly lifted up her hand and placed it too his cheek, stroking her thumb gently against his skin.

Nick wasn’t sure what to do. His hand simply moved from around his friends shoulders to the small of her back. He sighed softly and rested his forehead against his friends and slowly breathed in and out.

Grace was the one to react next. She moved her hand from her friend’s cheek to the back of his neck and slowly moved so she could capture his lips with her own. Nick froze for an instant out of shock, but then closed his eyes and just savoured the moment. One hand remained on the small of his best friends back whilst the other tangled in her brown hair, playing with the shorter curls at the top of her neck.

The pair finally parted from each other, a whole new feeling washing over the two of them. Grace immediately dropped her hand from Nick’s neck and shuffled away from him on the bed. She looked unbelievably confused.

“I really didn’t mean to do that.” A hand flew up to her face and her eyes seemed to be filling up with fresh tears. Nick shook his head and reached over to his friend, resting his hand on her knee in what he hoped was a comforting gesture. Grace sighed and played with the ends of her hair, combing through her curls with her fingers. “Another reason I decided I didn’t really like Craig as much as I thought I did.” Grace began, choking back the tears still forming in her eyes. “When I actually spent more then half an hour with him, I realised that I wasn’t enjoying myself. Not the way –“ she paused and looked away from Nick, down at her hands “—the way I do when I’m around you.”

“I don’t understand.” Nick whispered back, he felt as if he spoke any louder that the moment would be snatched away.

“I just started thinking, about what you said.” She sighed. “Or should I say, what you didn’t say. I know you’ve had girlfriends in the past, but I think if you started to like someone now, I couldn’t stop myself from being jealous. And I don’t think you realise Nick, the mere thought terrifies me. For so long you’ve just been my best friend.”

“Can you understand why I didn’t say anything about it?” Nick replied quietly. “Because that is exactly how I feel.”

“So much for being able to tell each other anything.” Grace laughed and wiped the tears from her eyes. “I cant be happy watching you with someone else, but I don’t know if the other option is even worth considering. What happens if it all goes down the drain, what happens to sixteen years of friendship then?”

“We patch it back up as if nothing happened.” Nick replied simply. He’d thought this over in his head too many times before. “Lets face it, nothing would change. We’d still just be Nick and Grace. Only more together.”

Grace frowned. Nick moved his hand from her knee and picked up one of hers, running his thumb slowly over the back of her hand.

“I guess its inevitable isn’t it?” Grace asked after a few moments of silence. “It’d be stupid for both of us to be unhappy.”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.” Nick told Grace, trying to look as deeply into her eyes as he possibly could. “Like I said earlier, I just want you to be happy, whether that is with or without me. The choice is completely up to you.”

Grace stared back at him for a few moments before smiling to herself. “I wish I could say that I’m one hundred percent surprised about how easy it was to make that decision, because in all honesty I’m not surprised. I guess just deep down I sort of knew this would happen.” She explained and shuffled back closer to her best friend. “I’m not going to lie though, its going to be weird.”

Nick hugged her. “I know, I know.”

The pair stayed wrapped around each other for a few minutes enjoying the peace before Grace turned to face Nick once again. She gave him that all knowing look and Nick smiled to himself.

“Your song. It was about me, wasn’t it?” She asked innocently.

“It didn’t start out that way, but it kind of ended up like that.” Nick sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologise.” Grace smiled and rested her head against Nicks shoulder. “I’ve never had a song written about me before. Its nice.” She explained and then scanned the room for Nick’s guitar.

“Play it for me?”

“In the morning. I promise.”