Now It's My Time to Strike Back

I’d thought I would get used to Vic and Nick being around me, but after a few days, I was sick of them.

Vic would be all girly and cutesy around him with everyone there, but it was obvious Nick didn’t want that. Sometimes he’d actually push her (lightly) off of him or he’d ask her politely to just relax.

In some ways, I felt bad for him, but in others, I didn’t. For instance, now my patience had thinned. It was the day before I had to leave to return to New Preston and I still wasn’t sure who exactly was going to come with me so I had to ask. We were all currently in the backyard by the pool; Vic and Nick were in the pool whereas I was sitting on my shaded bench but Mel and Jake were sitting on the patio chairs near the pool.

I knew I had to do it soon.

“OK, guys!” I called, not wanting to even talk to Nick or Vic, but I continued anyway.

All eyes landed on me as I walked over to everyone, Mel staring at me in a knowingly way. She and I had talked the matter over, but she didn’t say if she was going to go or not.

“I have to head back to New Preston tomorrow. I just wanted to know if anyone else had to head back as well. I don’t care about being alone, so just please answer the question”, I concluded, waiting patiently as silence reigned the group.

“We have to head back tomorrow”, Nick answered, looking at Vic for a quick second before staring back at me.

I sighed.

“I thought so. What about you, Mel? Jake?” I asked.

“Sorry, Rose. I didn’t have anything planned until about the end of July when we’re normally supposed to head back”, Jake answered.

“I have to be back next week, not this week. Something about a student council meeting?” Mel said in a confused tone.

I laughed lightly. Mel was so forgetful sometimes unless it included me or Joe.

“Alright, well, I’m gonna go pack, so, I’ll see you guys later”, I said quickly before I heard the water before Nick spoke.

“I’m going, too”, he said, following me into the house leaving a stunned Vic.

Once we got inside, I spoke.

“What the hell was that about?” I asked.

“I wanted to talk to you”, he said catching his breath as we headed up the steps.

“OK”, I said, slowing my pace a little.

“Do you have to give the Freshman a tour of the place? I could have sworn I saw your name on Ms. Thorne’s list, but I wasn’t sure. I didn’t get a good look-”, he began, but I cut across him.

“Yeah. I do”, I said, my spirits drifting with mixed emotions inside of me. “What does Vic have to do?” I asked, watching his nervous look change into a calm one.

“Vic has to go back early for cheerleading try-outs and to basically persuade some of the new Freshman girls to join the cheerleading team”, he explained, rolling his eyes.

“That sucks”, I said, realizing that he didn’t want to talk about the matter.

“Yeah, it does. She started talking about it a few months ago back in April. She was all like, ‘Nick what do you think I should do next year? You’ll be on the baseball team and I want to do something, too, so, what about me being on the cheerleading team?’ But I was basically like, no but she did her own thing, you know?” he rambled.

I nodded in comprehension.

“That sounds like something Vic would do. So, how have you guys been?” I asked, trying to be nice.

“We’ve been fine. I’ve been inspired lately so I’ve started writing songs again”, he answered politely.

“Oh? Songs like what?” I asked out of curiosity.

Nick shrugged his shoulders before answering verbally.

“Nothing really. The song I’m writing right now is in bits and pieces. You wouldn’t be interested in hearing the chords for it, would you?” he asked, catching me off guard as well as my interest.

“Uh, I don’t mind at all”, I lied, plastering a smile on my lips. I was interested in hearing the song, but if it was about Vic, I was going to be pissed.

Why? I really don’t know.

We walked to Vic’s room, the light pink walls making me cringe on the inside, but I didn’t display how I felt and neither did Nick. He walked to the left of her bed and pulled out her guitar from under the bed and I laughed lightly.

He shot me a look but that only made me laugh harder.

“Oh, come on! You know you look hilarious holding a pink guitar when you’re not even wearing pink!” I teased.

“Please! You know I make this guitar look good”, he replied, winking at me causing me to laugh harder as a few chuckles escaped him as well.

“Well, play already”, I joked after I contained my laughter.

He opened a top drawer on Vic’s bedside table and pulled out a black pick.

“Give me your honest critique, alright? I want to know what you honestly think regardless if it’s good or bad”, he said in a serious tone.

I nodded my head in agreement. He looked down at the guitar before staring back at me as he started playing the few chords he had for the song and they sounded beautiful. I was in shock, but composed myself before speaking as he stared intensely at me waiting for my response.

“It’s beautiful, Nick”, I said in slight awe.

“You think so? I mean, right now it’s just all chords, but I plan on actually writing words for it. If I ever performed it, I’d need Kevin and Joe’s help, seeing all of the many elements there are for the song, in my head, anyway”, he said slightly rambling.

It was cute to me so I chuckled a little. Wait, what?! It was a little cute. Ugh.

I stared at Nick as he started playing a few of the chords over and over again and took in him.

He was never this way when he was with me but I knew that wasn’t fully true. He did write Lovebug for me so he must do this every time he’s writing a song.

“I’ve never seen this side of you before”, I said after a while, watching his fingers glide across the neck of the guitar easily.

He stopped strumming the guitar then started playing a few chords of Lovebug, catching me off guard again.

“I never really show anyone this side besides my family and the gang. Otherwise, I’m usually by myself whenever I think of a song that I can easily sing by myself then I play it for other people to get their opinion of it”, he began, moving onto the chorus, but kept his eyes on me as I closed my own, smiling as I remembered the song, soon enough singing the chorus, surprised to hear Nick sing with me.

“Now I’m speechless,
Over the edge and just breathless.
I never thought that I’d catch this lovebug again.
Hopeless, head over heels in the moment,
I never thought that I’d get hit by this lovebug again.”

I smiled a little brighter as Nick continued playing the song, but I shook my head, already knowing what he was implying. He wanted us to continue singing together.

“No”, I said in a shy tone.

“Come on, Rose. Pleeeease”, he said smoothly, but I rolled my eyes.

Suddenly, some words came into my head for Nick’s song. My eyes widened a little as I held my hand out to him.

“I have an idea for the chorus or something as well as some chords. Do you mind if I used the guitar?” I asked.

He nodded quickly, handing the ugly thing to me, but at this point, I didn’t care. I thought of the chords Nick played earlier, trying to tie them together somehow, but decided to just play my own along with the words.

“You warned me that you were gonna leave.
I never thought you would really go.
I was blind, but baby now I see,
I broke your heart, but now I know,
That I was being such a fool,
And that I didn’t deserve you
That’s all I got so far”, I finished, scratching my head a little bit.

I hadn’t realized it, but Nick had pulled out paper and a pen from the same drawer he got the pick out of earlier and wrote down what I sung including the chords.

“You liked that?” I asked, but he didn’t answer me verbally. He nodded instead causing me to give him a confused look. He was doing the same thing I did when I thought of words to a new song and I felt like I was intruding on his personal music time.

“Um, I can just leave-”, I began, but he cut across me.

“No, sorry”, he said as he finished writing. He placed the pad down to his right before he took the guitar back gently.

“You don’t have to leave”, he added.

I just realized that Nick was still shirtless. His muscles gleamed brightly in the sunlight but I knew he was fully dry by now.

“Y-you should probably put a shirt on. Aren’t you cold?” I asked, stammering slightly.

I tried not to look, but damn he was-No! No. I will not think that way. My attention went back on Nick instead of the argument that I was having in my head as I saw him realize the same thing I did.

“Uh, yeah. I need to check my sugar, anyway”, he answered, staring at Vic’s clock that was on the opposite wall of her bed.

It read 2:00 and I sighed.

“Well, I’ll leave you to that, then”, I said with a smile, but for some reason, I didn’t move, not even an inch.

I decided to force myself to move anyway, standing abruptly as I scratched the back of my neck nervously.

“D-did you want to see it?” he asked in a low tone, grabbing my other hand suddenly after I took my first step.

A spark so strongly ignited there and I remembered what it felt like for my hands to be in his. I glanced down at our hands for a second before slowly looking back up at him.

I realized he was staring back at me, watching my previous actions. My curiosity wanted to see, but I also felt like I didn’t want to leave his side, either. It’s not like the others were going to come back anytime soon.

I nodded my head as I followed him into the bathroom, our hands still sort of holding each other.