On Your Side

“Twirl for me.” Jess said, staring at her friend.

Sarah rolled her eyes and walked in a small circle.

Jess lifted her hands and with a smile dropped them back into her lap “I’m a genius. You can thank me later for my decision to pack that top.”

“Are you sure it’s ok for me to borrow it?”

“Of course, what’s mine is yours.”

Sarah sat down and slipped her feet into the heels that Jess had also just so happened to pack then prepared to stand up “I feel like I’ll break my neck.”

“Boobs out, bum in and you’ll be fine.”

She stood up almost falling but catching her balance when she used Jess’ advice, “do you know where he’s taking me?” thinking of all the places he could take her in Braintree and the only thing that stood out to her was the Starbucks he took her to and she knew he wouldn’t be taking her there.

Jess smiled “of course.”

“Tell me?”

“Nope.”

“I hate you.”

“No you don’t” she laughed “he’ll be here any second, front lounge, now.”

Watching her feet as she went, Sarah walked from the back lounge, through the bunks and to the front where all The Maine boys were sat.

“Hot damn, Reyrey, you’re looking fiiine.” John said, noticing the girl stood nervously.

“Uh, thanks J.O.” she laughed, hearing the door open.

Nick stepped in, wearing clean black jeans with a blue button down, “wow.” he smirked.

“you too.” she giggled, walking towards him.

He kissed her gently “you ready to go?”

She nodded as he slipped his hand into hers.

As they left the bus there were different variations of “use protection” being called out.

Nick had been back to his apartment and got his car, he held the door open for her and she slid into the seat.

As he did his seat belt he smiled “remember that little Italian place?”

She grinned “yes.”

“I hope you liked it because that’s where we’re going, I thought I’d be all sentimental and cute.”

“well it’s definitely working in your favour, Santino.”

He laughed “I told Mom I’d drop in with my girlfriend, if that’s ok?”

She nodded “sure.”

“She was telling me over the phone ‘I don’t know why you’re bothering, Nicholas, you’ll never find another girl like Sarah.’ so it’s a surprise.”

“Your Mom said that?”

“Why are you acting so shocked? Mom loved you.”

They pulled up to he familiar house and Nick took her hand as they walked to the front door. He pressed the doorbell and waiting for it to open.

“Nick!” the woman smiled wrapping her arms around her son.

“Hey Mom, you remember Sarah?”

“Sarah?” she asked dropping her arms and turning to the girl “Sarah! It’s so good to see you!”

Sarah laughed “you too, Julie.”

“So you two are back together?” Julie asked leading them into the family room

“as of this morning.” Nick smiled

“Richard, Nick’s here!” Julie called through the patio doors

The tall man that honestly did just look like an aged Nick walked through the doors “Son, how ya’ doing?”

Nick chuckled “I’m great Dad, better than great actually.”

“and who’s this young lady?” he asked before turning to face her “well I’ll be damned, is that Sarah Reynalds?”

She smiled “It is indeed, Rich.”

“You better hang on to her this time, son.” Richard smiled.

Nick snaked his arm around Sarah’s waist “believe me, I plan on it.”

“Are you guys staying for dinner?”

“Ah, Dad we’d love to but I’ve been and booked a table at that Italian restaurant.”

“Oh, La - oh lord, what’s it called? I know where you mean though, fantastic food!”

“I took Sarah there on our first date, three years ago so it’s perfect.”

Julie shot up from her seat “I’m sure that pie is about to burn.”

Sarah looked to her “I’ll give you a hand.”

The women walked into the kitchen, “y’know Sarah, it’s lovely to know you’ve given him a second chance.”

“What can I say, Julie, your son’s a catch.”

Julie beamed “I was so glad it was you, sweetie, I was dreading him bringing home another mess, like the Jessop’s daughter again.”

Sarah just smiled.

“I’m surprised a lovely girl like yourself hasn’t been snatched up in 8 months.”

“I only broke it off with my boyfriend a little over a week ago actually, he cheated on me.”

“Oh honey, I’m sorry.”

Sarah shook her head “don’t be, I’ll be honest when I found out Nick was on the tour I almost split with him anyway but I didn’t want to just throw it all away then he cheated on me and Nick being Nick, was there to pick up the pieces. I missed him, Jules.”

“He missed you too, he was a mess.” Sarah felt a pang of guilt “it’s obvious that you kids were made for each other, everyone was so shocked.” she sighed “I couldn’t believe it when he said he’d broken up with you, obviously long distance is difficult but we thought you’d be getting married.”

“Don’t rule that out, he’s already been speaking about it.” Sarah laughed

***********************

“Don’t you mess this up, son, she’s a lovely girl.” Richard said, sitting down facing Nick.

“I can’t stand to be without her, Dad. Those 8 months were painful.”

His dad nodded “I remember, you’re lucky to have found someone who makes you feel that way when you’re so young.”

Nick gulped “I’m moving to Arizona.”

Richard nodded for him to carry on.

“Well, long distance is what broke us apart last time, but also Halvo’s from there, Andrew recently relocated and Justin’s in California, it may not show but the distance is also taking it’s toll on the band.”

“I understand, do what you have to.”

“I don’t know how to tell mom.”

“You need to pack up your apartment, right?”

“Yep, well I need to find a new apartment first.”

“Well, tell her when you get off tour.”

Nick nodded “anyway, we better be heading off, don’t wanna lose our table.”

Richard stood up, pulling his son into a manhug “have fun, don’t blow it.”

Nick chuckled “It’s as if you think it’s inevitable that I will screw up.”

“I just want to see this work for you this time, Nick.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Nick headed for the kitchen “you ready to go, babe?”

Sarah turned away from Nick’s mom, “sure.” she smiled.

Julie hugged her quickly “it was lovely to see you again, tell your mom I say hi.”

“you too and I will.”

Nick grabbed her hand, she called out a goodbye to Richard before they got into Nick’s car.

“Dad thinks I’ll screw this up.” he chuckled, turning on the car.

“well then we’ll have to prove him wrong.” she smiled.

“mhmm.” he agreed before kissing her quickly.

They waved to Nick’s parents then drove off to the restaurant.

--------------------------------------

The place was quiet but Nick had reserved a booth in the far corner of the restaurant, out of the way of the few people that were there.

Sarah was laughing at Nick getting his pasta sauce all over his face and he was just about to wipe some of it down her nose when three girls walked over.

“Are you Nick Santino?” a short blonde asked.

He quickly wiped his face with his napkin “yeah, hi.”

“Oh my god, we love your band.” one of the brunettes giggled

“yeah, you are SO good.” the other added

Nick chuckled “thank you.”

“Could we get a photo?” the blonde said quickly, thrusting a phone at Sarah.

Nick flashed her an apologetic smile before standing with the girls, putting his arm across their shoulders.

Sarah quickly took the photo and handed the phone back to the girls “it’s cute.” she smiled

“Thanks.” the girl said bluntly before turning back to Nick “are you looking forward to the show tomorrow, we can’t wait!”

“uh, yeah it’s always great to play hometown shows.” he nodded in Sarah’s direction “Sarah here is also on the tour.”

Suddenly all the girls were interested in her “Oh my god really, are you in a band, that’s so cool.” were all thrown at her at once

“I, uh, tour manage The Maine, they’re old friends of mine.”

“Does that mean you could get us in on the guestlist?” the taller of the two brunettes asked

“Guestlist for tomorrows full actually, since it’s Nick’s hometown and I lived here for a while we have a bunch of friends coming. Sorry about that.”

The blonde snorted “oh.”

“Anyway, girls, I’ll be hanging out tomorrow after the show.”

After all of them shot Sarah another dirty look they were on their way.

“Fan girls.” she sighed “I don’t think I’ll ever grow to love ’em.”

He laughed “sorry.”

“I’m not sure how I feel about teenage girls looking at my boyfriend like a piece of meat.”

He reached out for her hand, “ignore them, baby.”

“I don’t know if I can.”

“Why?”

She shrugged “I’m not gonna be on every tour, it’s hard knowing you’ll have girls constantly throwing themselves at you. You guys are getting bigger every second that passes, the attention isn’t going to go away.”

He sighed “Baby, I’m not going to screw this up, you’re the only girl I want.”

She bit her lip looking at him.

“In fact...” he paused slipping his hand into his pocket and pulling out a small box.

Sarah widened her eyes “what is that?!”

Nick chuckled “don’t panic, it’s a promise ring.” he opened up the box and pushed it towards her “it was an engagement ring, I got it around 10 months ago, then I fucked up. It’s too early to ask you to marry me and I have more money now so I can buy you a fancy ring when we get to that. I want you to have it as a promise ring.”

She was holding the box, running her finger gently over the gold band with an engraved infinity symbol.

“I took it and got it engraved this morning, it was plain.”

She smiled “Nick, I love it.”

“C’mon here.” he said holding out his hand for hers, she placed her in his and he slipped the ring onto her ring finger. “it’s going here, so you know I’m serious about this.”

“I feel bad, Nick, I don’t have anything to symbolise a promise to you.”

“One step ahead.” he held up his ring finger and showed her a matching infinity symbol “it’s only sharpie at the moment, I wanted to check with you first.”

She nodded “I’m paying for you to get it done properly.”

He leant across the table and pecked her lips “where ever either of us is in the world, we’ll always be together here” he placed his hand over her heart, “the ring finger is the only finger with a vein leading straight to your heart.”