I Left My Heart In Huntington Beach

Nicole’s Pov:

“What are we doing in Target again?” Heather asked me for the thirtieth time.

“I already told you Heather, Brian's friends are throwing him and his buddies a welcome home party and he invited me." I rolled my eyes and began scanning the aisles for potential gifts.

“Why are we looking in Target? What are you gonna get him, a pretty bouquet of flowers?”
Heather giggled and linked her arm with mine. She was right. What the hell was in Target that I could get for a bad Biker Boy?

“Come on, let’s go to a motorcycle shop or some place with leather.” I chuckled as we began walking out the door.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Nicole those are perfect. He will love them trust me.”

I stared at the $400 pair of leather motorcycle boots in my hands. I have never spent that much money on anyone in my entire life. Especially on a guy who I haven’t even known for a whole month yet. But I knew he would like these and I guess I did owe him for walking me home and getting James off of my hands. Plus he had become a good friend.
A very good friend.

“I hope he likes them.” I sighed and tossed them back into their box and began wrapping the gift.

“Where is this party?” Heather asked as she opened her closet.

“It's at the beach. So you might want to pick a different outfit.” I stated, looking at the little black dress and purple heels Heather had already laid out on the bed.

“Damn.” She growled and pushing the dress off the bed, retreated back to her closet.

“What are you gonna wear?”

“I don’t know.” I stopped wrapping the gift for a second. What was I going to wear? I only had one bathing suit and it was the same one I've had since I moved here. I guess I'll just wear that one. I opened my mouth to speak, but Heather cut me off.

“Nicole please tell your not going to wear that red one piece. The one you have had since the day you moved here.” I shut my mouth. She turned to stare at me with a matter-of-fact look on her face.

“I don’t have any other suit to wear Heather.” I whined.

“You can borrow one of mine. I have like 10.”

I set the gift aside and watched as Heather put together a beach outfit for me. After 20 minutes of her holding up suits and beach cover ups to me, talking to herself and throwing stuff back into the closet and around the room, we decided on a simple two piece black
bathing suit.

“Heather I cant wear this.” I scrunched up my nose as I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

“Why not?”

“Because I don’t have the body for this suit.” I sighed and turned to my side, poking at my thighs.

“Oh my god Nicole don’t you even start, you look hot trust me.” Heather came up behind me and smiled, setting her hands on my shoulders.

“Ehh I'm no Victoria Secret model.”

“No, but I bet Biker Boy is going to think your hotter than all of them when he sees you in this
suit.” She patted my shoulder and walked over to slip on her flip flops. I had to admit, we did look pretty good. But would Brian and Zack think so?

I think Heather could make Zack do anything, but I know the type of girls Biker Boy likes, and I am not even close to them. I'm a shy, proper librarian, who shops for books online and eats tofu for dessert. Why would anyone find me attractive?

“Nicole you ready?” I heard Heather yell from the bottom of the stairs. I hadn't even noticed she had left the room.

“Yeah!” I grabbed the gift, checking my appearance in the mirror one last time, and then
retreating down stairs.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Brian’s Pov:

Today all of our old high school buddies were throwing me and the guys a welcome home party. I just hoped no one said anything to Nicole about us recording the record, cause all I wanted to do was chill and drink beer.

“Dude, did you invite the girls?” Zack asked as he handed me another beer.

“What girls Zack? There’s like 40 girls here.” I chuckled and took a sip of my beer.

"Did you invite Heather and Nicole?” Zack asked sounding annoyed.

“Yes he did invite us.”

We both turned to see Heather and Nicole walking towards us. Heather smiled and wrapped her arms immediately around Zack, kissing him on the lips.

“Happy welcome home party guys.” Heather smiled and smacked my chest with one of her flip flops before walking away with Zack trailing behind her.

“Thanks.” I grumbled and rolled my eyes. How was Zack not scared of her?

“Hey”

I turned to see Nicole still standing there with a sweet smile on her face.

“Here, I got this for you. I hope you like them.” She handed me a box wrapped in hot pink paper.

“Yeah, I'm really sorry about the wrapping paper, it was the only one I had.” She giggled and crossed her arms.

“No don’t worry about it. You didn't even have to get me anything, it's not even my birthday.” I smiled at her as she waved her hand.

"No really, I wanted to. Plus I owe you for walking me home and taking care of James."

"Well thank you." I smiled and set the gift down by my chair.

She looked cute in her beach cover up. She also looked a bit shy since Heather had left her side. She stared at the people around the fire and tucked a piece of hair back behind her ear that the wind had blown out of place.

“Come on, I'll introduce you to some people. We have lots of food, you hungry?” I smiled and grabbed her hand, leading her over to the fire.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Nicole’s Pov:

I had started feeling much better than I had felt 2 hours ago since Heather and I first arrived at the party. I was really nervous at first, but I was much more relaxed now that I had met some of Brian’s best friends and even a few family members.

“Hey, you wanna go take a walk?”

I turned to see Brian smiling sheepishly at me.

“Yeah sure.” I smiled back and followed him away from the fire and down towards the water.

“So, are you enjoying your party?” I asked as we began walking down the shoreline.

“Yeah. I haven't seen half of these guys in a long time and I'm really glad you came.” He said as he shoved his hands in his sweater pockets.

“I am too.” Man did this guy know how to make my insides melt.

“You look amazing in your bathing suit by the way. Especially for a librarian.”

I giggled and shook my head.

“Thanks, it's Heather's. It was either this one or this red one piece that I have had since
I moved here.”

“Well, I'm glad you chose the black one.” He smirked at me.

“Thanks, but I usually never wear things like this.”

“Yeah, I noticed that about you. That, and your mouth.” he said as he stopped and his beautiful brown eyes tore into mine.

“What about my mouth?” I lifted my hand to be sure there weren’t any smores crumbs stuck to it.

“I like your mouth. I want to kiss it.” he reached out and brushed his thumb across my bottom lip. “Slowly. Over and over and over again.” I felt a chill go down my back.

“Well you already have.” I gulped. This man made me so nervous sometimes. And those eyes of his, they did things to me.

“So does that mean I'm allowed to kiss you again?” I had walked right into that one. Aggravating as he might be, Brian always seemed to have a way with words when he wanted to. He only had to look at me once to make me want him. But how did that make
me look giving in so easily?

He began to lean in closer as he brushed back a strand of hair that fell out of my pony.

“Don’t.” My voice was unsteady. I couldn’t let him win again, I had to stop giving into him.

“Don’t what?” He gently traced the line of my jaw with his index finger. “Don’t notice what every little thing you do makes me feel? Don’t believe what I see in your eyes? Don’t long to kiss you every time I see you?”

“All of the above.” I croaked.

He just smiled and shook his head before cupping my cheek in the palm of his big hand.

“Sorry but I don’t like following orders.”

And before I knew it, his lips were on mine, pressing soft but intense kisses to my lips. I grabbed the back of his neck with my hand and pulled him closer to me, as he wrapped his arms around my waist. I took a step back and gasped as his tongue parted my lips.

What was I doing? This wasn’t good girl code. I was breaking every rule. What image was I setting for myself? What if he was just like James and in the next 2 months I'd be standing on a curb in Huntington screaming at him for leaving me, just like
I had done to James.

But his lips were like poison, a drug that I was letting myself get addicted to. I wanted it, I needed it…but I had to fight it. I set my hand on his chest, trying to break away from the kiss. But he was strong. I tried to take another step back, but my foot slipped on the wet sand.
I quickly grabbed Brian by his jacket as we both fell back into the ocean.

A wave crashed over our heads. I came up for air, once I knew it was safe. I looked over at Brian, as we both broke out into a fit of laughter and tried standing up as more waves crashed over us.

“Way to go klutz.” He chuckled and pushed me a little.

“Me? If you didn’t have your tongue down my throat I could have seen where I was going.” I
giggled and splashed him as he began coming closer towards me.

“Oh you know you liked it.” He smirked as his fingers brushed a strand of wet hair out of my face.

I couldn’t answer. I felt like I had swallowed my tongue. His gaze was so intimidating sometimes. And he looked sexy even dripping wet. He pressed his lips to mine once again when I didn’t answer.

“I hope you enjoyed that kiss, because this is the most vulnerable you will ever have me.”

I pushed him back a little and began to walk off.

“You say that now Minnie Mouse, but you just wait…” He smirked back.

“Okay, whatever you say Biker Boy.” I giggled as we began walking back towards the bonfire.