Who Says Love Has to Be Left up to Fate?

Thanks to
sherqwamia and No_Controles and yeahimadeone and wickedchessie for commenting recently.

Chapter thirty-one:

I slowly stopped breathing as he leaned in closer, a loose curl of his hair falling over his eyes. It would be time for him to get a haircut soon. I ran my hand through his hair to get a feel of the length but stopped short when I saw a smirk for on his lips. Oh right we were about to kiss. I was about to take my hand away and move back to my original up against the wall position but he stopped my arm from moving.

“Don’t. I like it when you run your hands through my hair.” His breath hot and minty sweet was right on my lips and it made them split apart involuntarily. I took comfort in the fact that Nick seemed nervous as well, his voice held a tremor and his eyes so brown and bright where searching mine. I barely nodded with my eyes and he went back to the task at hand.

I was preparing to close my eyes when I caught a glimpse of movement in the background and I gasped quietly. Nick must have notice because he turned around and we discovered Stephen and Jake leaning against the door, their arms casually crossed watching us with a satisfied smirk on their faces.

I was really mad right then and there, that the boys had robbed me of my first kiss, but mostly I was creeped out and embarrassed. Were they just going to watch us? I mean I know the bus is small and everyone probably knows that Nick has asked me out, so couldn’t they just stay away?

Nick reaction was just as startled as I was and he jumped a mile away from me just as Joe had. What is the matter with those two, do I have ‘Tick Tocking disaster’ waiting to happen written all over me or something? I watched him unsure what you’re supposed to do in these kinds of situations. Once his shock was gone and he had moved back into closer proximity to me, his face contorted into a provoked glare.

“What do you think you’re doing standing there,” he asked them, eyes narrow and jaw tight.

“I find it sweet watching little Nicky play with older women, awww.” Gurgled Stephen.

“I find it perverted.” I say in all seriousness but it flatters when I see a twinge of a smile play on Nick’s face. I look away from him because otherwise I could never stop smiling.

The boys raise their eyebrows at my angry response and Jake held up his hand in mock apology. “Ah, see me and Stephen are surprised. We thought you’d get with Joe or Teddy- someone older. We would have loved to have you run your hand through our hair as well-“I felt bile creeping up the back of my throat just looking at their sneering faces. They may be hot as the Sahara, but their insides were beyond the words.

“Out,” I almost jumped a mile. Nick’s voice had a threatening knifes’ edge to its shortness. “You leave Olive alone; in fact leave all of us alone. No one wants you here.”

“Say what? That hurts dude, we’re like family and you’re treating us like this? Even after you betrayed our trust for your own little pride, you dare act like the victim. Jake haven’t I been saying we need to teach these “JoBros” a lesson?”

“Sure have, and I think we know how to do it now that things have moved along. Paintball’s a competitive sport Nick. I’d watch my back if I was you.” And with that the two strolled out in a leisurely manner leaving Nick very suspicious and angry. We followed them out to notice that the whole bus was empty and that we must have arrived a while ago. Nick collapsed on a couch seat and patted his knees. He had fallen heavily on the couch, weighed down by the headache those two gave use, but I sat down on his lap slowly afraid that I would weigh too much.

He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me back deeper into him, then he rested his chin on my shoulder. “That was beyond weird.” He mused, as we both stared ahead out the window to the landscape of a clear lake and forest.

“They seem pretty harmless though,” I said trying to sound 400% confident. “I mean they were going to play paintball with you anyway, they’re just going to try and hit you as often as possible now. Those things leave a mark. Plus we all know how competitive you are. If they win by making you lose that’s plenty of revenge for such a minor thing.”

“I don’t think they are just going to use the paintball game though. Plus to them it wasn’t a minor thing, it was their future I guess, and they think we somehow stole it from them. Anyway I’ll be fine, just another headache to deal with.” He said resolute, and kissed my cheek. At least we were making progress. His lips were soft and warm and a shiver rushed up my spine. “But that I can deal with it since I have you to take it away.

We got up and rushed to join the others who had already gone to the cabins we we’d be sleeping and were being shown around by the staff. I am not sure how couples are supposed to be, but nothing really changed between me and Nick. I mean we stayed together more often, because now that it was official as it could get I felt a strange need to be near him all the time. And when we were being taught all the basic skills like how to shoot and reload a paint gun or drive the jet ski, canoe or kayak we could use to cross the lake and get to the land on the other side, we’d talk to each other or other people, but not about being boyfriend and girlfriend. We just were.

There were the sudden gazes at each other when we’d catch each other’s eyes and smile secretively like we were hiding a joke, and also when we walked around the Rox our hands found each other every time they were near each other. After the tour and training we sat down for dinner in what was like a small version of a dining hall and were finally confronted by everyone else who hadn’t said anything so far. The excitement at being at the Rox was immense; I had learned how to ride a quad bike and raced Nick and Kevin. I lost terribly because I kept hitting the trees and going of the narrow winding trail. Frankie who was riding with me kept howling with laughter at each collision. For my own defense, I don’t own a car like everyone else and I was quite proud of having been able to stay on the bike.

The Jet Ski was another story and everyone felt it was best that I ride with Nick instead of risking being wiped out. I didn’t know Nick could ride one but when I was with him on the lake I felt no fear at all, I had all the protection I needed. My arms squeezing his waist (I tried to get a good balance that kept fluctuating between holding on for dear life, and a nice romantic hug.) and his head bent low over the handles in a very serious professional way, took away any gremlin of fear I may have. My hair was rushing behind me and it felt good, like life couldn’t get better than this.

Somehow suddenly having Nick as my boyfriend made everything so much better, it all made more sense.

“Right, Demi is harassing me on the phone,” started Kevin in the middle of the dinner. I looked up from Frankie’s plate were I was trying to make him eat his vegetables.

“Oh?”

“I can’t stall her questions any longer Olive, she wants a yes or no answer from you.”

“What is this even about?”

Kevin broke into a large smile and surveyed the table getting everybody’s attention but Joe’s who seemed determined to keep staring at his green beans. “Are you and Nick,” I could see where this was going and I glanced at Nick who had done the same. We quickly looked away again. “It looks pretty obvious, but just for officiality’s sake, are you and Nick dating.”

“Why yes, dear Kevin I do believe me and Nicholas here have come to and understanding to increase the amount of time we spent in close proximity to each other and on a romantic basis.”

“For goodness sakes Olive,” moaned Gina who was jumpy with excitement. “Just say yes or no. Demi just texted: Did Nick here finally give my best friend some loving?”

“Yes. Yes I have,” proclaimed Nick nudging me gently with his shoulders. The table erupted in cheers and the boys thumped the table, which prevented Joe to keep staring at his plate and he looked up with a blank expression.

“Wow,” he said pushing his chair back, “Didn’t think you had it in you bro, didn’t even know you were interested in Olive.” He stood up. “But it kind of makes sense now, the song. It’s about her right?”

Nick was just as confused as I was by Joe’s tone. “Er, yeah. But I haven’t told her yet. So… and Joe, Kevin, and even Frankie I know we normally ask one another if we doing the right thing when we want to ask out a girl, but this is Olive. I knew you’d agree. She’s…” he turned to look at me and smiled.

“Whatever man,” said Joe yawning, “You were smart to act fast, my loss I guess.” We all looked at him uneasily, but he threw his head back and laughed. “All our losses actually, one less single girl for all of us single boys.” The boys all laughed along with this one, and Nick shakily relaxed to.

“Well I am going to the cabin now, I am suddenly so tiered.” Joe left the table, his posture a bit more droopy than normal and his footsteps slow and sluggish. He must be tiered.

Gina congratulated me over and over again, she said she was like a proud mama. I bathed in all her questions finally happy that I was someone that could answer the boyfriend questions. But Nick avoided talking about it more and so I limited my gushing because I didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. He is very modest you see, and me telling Gina how he practically serenaded to me would make him blush like mad.

After dinner we walked back to the cabins to shower and get ready for bed. It was cozy in there but very military like. Gina wanted to keep talking about Nick, but I was kind of tiered of it. Is that weird, that I am sick of explaining how I feel about someone. Plus Gina was doing all her body language analysis. Apparently Nick and I are very compatible since we mirror each other a lot. If Nick runs his hand through his hair so do I. If I play with my top so does he. What I am wondering is, was it always like this, or him verbally asking me out give our bodies the A-Okay sing to mirror each other.

The Rox was great but I was already encountering my first problem. There was just one light in the room and it went out automatically at ten, long before I had fallen asleep. It was much too dark for my liking, and I started to panic. I tried to wake up Gina so she could stay up with me and help me stop to worry because being in the middle of nowhere the Rox is pitch black. She didn’t even stir and I remembered how Gina, could and has already slept through a hurricane. She was camping in Lousianna, and it was only when her water bed started to float and tipped her off that she noticed.

I wished I was with Demi. Every night Demi and I crawled into one bed and talked for hours, or watched a movie, looked at magazines or just had fun updating her twitter status. I met some of her friends through Skype and it was cool. Her band mates are nice though way older, and she knows a lot of people.

Anyway I couldn’t stay in this room so I decided to go sleep in the tour bus, since there I knew I could turn on the light. I skittishly made the long trek over tripping over my own feet in the oppressing darkness. When I came near it I realized there was light inside and movement as well. It was quite late now I had spent a good hour in bed too afraid to move, and then it took me one hour to find the bus that was parked a little less than one mile away from the cabin.

I walked in and saw Nick sitting on the couch strumming his guitar, his wet hair just out of the shower shaking to the beat and his simple white t-shirt clung to his still wet body. He was surprised to see me and stopped playing immediately. I rocked back and forth on my heels unsure how to explain why I was here. I had planned to run back to the cabin in the early morning and pretended I didn’t need a bit of light to fall asleep.

“I am so sorry Olive,” That caught me by surprise.

“What? Why?”

“I completely forgot to tell you there are some flashlights under each bunk. You weren’t paying attention when the guy said so, so I was going to remind you.”
“Oh it’s okay I figured I’d just sleep here. I uh… don’t like the pillows in the cabins. Too thin.” I said trying to brush the matter aside,

“Come here,” he held out his hand and pulled me in when I clasped it. I sat down beside him and rested my head on his shoulder while his arm wrapped around mine. I instantly started to relax but was still feeling pretty twitch from the long walk over.

“Were you afraid?” He asked quietly rubbing my upper arm in a very comforting manner. If I said yes would he continue.”

“No. Why would I be?”

“I wouldn’t have guessed you were, cause you don’t look it but Gina told me you get Goosebumps when you’re scared. You have them all over your arms.”

“Don’t listen to Gina, I wasn’t that frightened. Just the dark right?” a yawn escaped me.

“Why are you here?” I changed the subject. He let it go and looked down at his guitar. “You’re playing with the blue one, that’s the composition one.” I say in a matter of fact way.

He was surprised and a grin split apart his lips. “I…yeah. But how did you know, I mean hardly anyone except my brothers have noticed I have one for different things. Most girls don’t notice.”

I felt quite pleased just then. “Well I am not just any girl. I may not know how to play the guitar or how to name them, but I notice things. The one you love to try songs out on people with is that red one.” He smiled even brighter and hugged me close.

“Here go into one of the bunks. Let’s get you to bed. No not that one that Joe’s, mine is below.” I climbed into the space and settled into the sheets. I had a pleasant surprise, because they smelled slightly of Nick. I took another small sniff before Nick could see me and wonder if he had made a bad decision. He got in after me casually but didn’t get in the cover, nor did he lie down. He sat and leaned against the opposite side of the bed where I would have clear view of him. He had his guitar and was strumming a soft tune.

“Demi had told me you don’t like just playing for your girlfriends.”

“It’s not exactly true. I don’t like doing it for just what I call a boyfriend chore. I want to sing to you because I know you can appreciate it and not just expect it of me as proof my dedication towards you of whatever.” I nodded solemnly and watched his every move. He played just the music and did not sing. It was a lullaby in style, but very romantic in the mood. I felt my eyes start to grow heavy as it washed over me and drew me into the dream world this kind of situation could only belong in. How could I be this lucky?

I am not sure but the last thing I remember, is feeling a small kiss on my lips that I must have dreamt because it happened on a beach somewhere with the sun setting and waves crashing to the beat of the lullaby, at least it felt real.