Nice

When the caravan of buses and vans stopped in the parking lot of the Omaha venue, Kevin spotted Sam nearly fall out of her designated vehicle. She straightened out her clothing in a nervous manner that he’d never seen with her before. She then hurried to a spot on the sidewalk where someone was standing. Kevin’s eyes widened as he saw her fling her arms around the young man and plant a kiss directly onto his lips.
“That’s him.” Kevin jabbed Joe in the arm with his index finger.
“Who?” Joe asked his over-excited older brother.
“Jason.” He continued to watch Sam and Jason with a sense of awe and jealousy.
“Who?” Joe repeated.
“Sam’s… boyfriend.” Kevin studied Jason and deliberated on whether Jason was good enough for Sam. He concluded quickly that he was not even close to being right for her.
“I thought she told you that she didn’t have a boyfriend.” Nick interjected.
“Okay, he’s not exactly her boyfriend. But look at them.” All three boys stared at the pair as they greeted one another far too warmly. “Ugh, what does he have that I don’t?”
“Well, from what I can tell,” Joe started. “Strapping good looks, nice clothes that don’t require a stylist, non-messy hair… And I bet he’s got a big--”
“Inappropriate, Joe.” Nick quickly caught him before he finished his sentence. Nick watched as the defeated looking Kevin glumly strolled to the backstage area, his eyes never leaving Sam for an instant.

---

“Well, she looks exceptionally miserable today.” Joe pointed behind Kevin at Sam. She was pulling her clothes rack with extra contempt. She looked, indeed, quite despondent. Kevin thought about how happy she seemed when he last saw her, flinging herself into the arms of someone else. Kevin hadn’t realized he was staring until she caught him gawking at her. For his sake, she rolled her eyes an extra time as she approached.
“Listen, assholes, I’m not in the mood for your whining.” Sam began her tirade as soon as she reached them. “So don’t even think about telling me that you’re not in the mood to wear red.” She stared directly at Joe. In fact, not for an instant did she look at Kevin after her brief eye roll moments earlier. Without any further discussion, Sam turned her back on the three boys and walked away; leaving them to pull the carefully labeled outfits from the rack.
It took him several moments to collect his thoughts on the situation. By the time he had made the decision to go after her, she was already out of sight… but he followed in her direction.
“Sam?” Kevin said to the back of her head. She was seated on the sidewalk with a handful of rocks. She plucked one rock from her hand and tossed it across the street where it hit a street sign dead on.
“Oh god, not you.” She turned and looked over her shoulder. She stood up with a groan. “It would be in your best interest to go away.”
“No.” He said defiantly.
“What?” She stared at his boldness in disbelief.
“I said no. I won’t leave you alone because I know something is wrong. And until you tell me what’s got you so upset, I’m not going anywhere.” He was one hundred percent serious.
“You’re impossible.” She glowered outwardly, but to herself she felt glad that he wanted to stay. “How am I supposed to think when you’re standing there looking all kissable and awkward?” She let out a frustrated moan.
“Kissable, aye?” Kevin raised his eyebrows at her and smirked. He stood close enough to her that if he wanted to kiss her all he had to do was lean in.
“Shut up.”
“Tell me what’s wrong and I will.”
“He’s engaged.”
“What?”
“Engaged. Jason is engaged. As in, going to be married. And he has been engaged for six months.”
“Wow.”
“You’re telling me. After the ‘blahblahblah distance’ conversations with him and after all his dumb ‘you’re the most beautiful girl in the whole world’ lines, I should have known he was a liar.”
“You are beautiful.” Kevin interjected.
“Like, he couldn’t have told me this two months ago, you know, before I fell for all his bullshit… Wait, what did you just say?”
“I said that you’re beautiful.”
“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
“No, I don’t. Especially when I’m getting mixed signals left and right from you.”
“Mixed signals? How in the hell am I sending mixed signals? I’ve made it pretty clear that--” She was cut short by Kevin leaning down and pressing a kiss onto her lips. She responded quicker than he thought she would; she latched onto the front of his shirt and pulled him in closer. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders, never letting himself detach from her mouth. For moments that felt much longer, the pair stood on the side of the road, interlocked. Kevin, always the gentleman, was the first to pull away; much against his desire.
“You don’t want me to leave still, do you?” He whispered with his forehead pressed to hers. Realizing her mistake, she yanked herself away from him.
“If you keep kissing me like that, I’ll never want you away from me ever.” She bit down on her lip and closed her eyes, mad at herself. When she opened them again, Kevin still stood in front of her, now with his hands stuff into his pockets.
“I’m not like him, Sam.” His hair was messy and his eyes were honest.
“Exactly. That’s EXACTLY the problem. You aren’t like him. You aren’t a self-absorbed asshole. You’re nice.”
“Being nice is a problem?”
“No… yes. You’re so damn nice all the time. That’s weird to me. You’re like the nicest person I’ve ever met. And not that kind of nice where you smile and talk to me for five minutes while I’ve got sewing needles in my hand and then right after you go back to ignoring me. You’re not like that. You say hi to me when you see me even when I’m scowling at you. Who does that, you know? At first, I thought you had like a death wish or something. Like you wanted me to hate you. I didn’t understand why you were nice to me when I wasn’t anything but awful.”
“I still don’t get what’s wrong with being nice.”
“Nothing, Kevin. Nothing is wrong with being nice. But I’m not nice. And he’s not nice to me. And I’m nothing like you. I’m not pure or safe or sweet. But you’re nice to me anyway. That’s why this is all wrong.” Sam was choking up as she said this.
“Oh man, don’t cry. I couldn’t stand it if I knew I made you cry.” He stepped into her and put his hands on her shoulders softly.
“Stop that.” She only sort of shook him off.
“Stop what?”
“Being nice to me. I’m trying to reject you and you’re standing there looking like you do, like things might be okay if you hold onto me.” By this point, stray tears ran down the sides of her flushed pink face. Kevin, unable to take the thought of her crying any longer, leaned in and kissed her on the cheek in the spot that was moist and red. She placed her hands on either side of his neck. For a moment, all she could do was stare. Kevin was undeniably enamored with her. He could see how fragile she really was beneath the rocky exterior. He saw through the charade and she hated that but in the same moment, she loved him for it.
“Sam…” He started carefully. “I may never understand why you think you deserved him. Why you told me he was what you wanted. I don’t get that. I won’t get it entirely ever, I don’t think. But I know that he… him… that’s not what you deserve.” He kissed her lips quickly again. “I said that if he made you happy, I was okay with you wanting him. But I know he can’t make you happy so I’m not okay with it. I can make you happy. I know I can.” The confident look on his face was gorgeous to Sam.
“I know you can too.”
“Well good. But you can’t be afraid to be happy. You can’t let… however it is you think you should be stop you. You should be happy. And I should be happy too.”
“I want you to be happy.”
“You make me happy.” Kevin let his serious expression brighten. “With your dry jokes and your complicated Starbucks orders.” This time she stood on her toes and kissed him.
“You don’t care that I’m not nice?”
“I think that you’re perfect how you are.”