Believe In Me

“Dailee?” Cale asked, walking into her bedroom. He saw her sitting on her bed holding something, “Whatcha got there?”

“Nothing,” she said while slowly putting the object in her backpack beside her bed, “How’s the project coming?”

“It’s coming,” Cale sighed and sat gently on her bed, “I heard what happened today.”
Dailee looked up when she heard this, “What happened today?”

“You and Nick were seen in lunch together. We both know you don’t have lunch 6th hour and neither does he.”

“Your point, Cale?” she asked annoyed.

“Just don’t get caught skipping that’s all I ask.”

“We were not skipping gym. He was just… helping me out, ok?”

“I just don’t want you to get in trouble, Dailee. Promise me that much.”

“You know I’m not good at keeping promises.”

“This is the only one I’m asking you to keep.”

Pursing her lips, she looked at her backpack and then back up to Cale, “Fine, I’ll try my best.”
He leaned over and gave her a hug then got up and started to leave, but turned around, “By the way, I approve.”

He glanced back, gave a small smile, and left.

Dailee scrunched her eyebrows and took the drumstick back out of her bag. It had his initials carved into the thick end. NJJ

Clink

What the…Dailee thought as she turned toward the source of the sound… her window.

There was Nick, sitting in her tree, throwing berries at her window.

She put the drumstick under her covers and opened the window, “Jonas, what do you think you’re doing?”

“You know… stuff,” he smirked and looked around the scrawny tree, “You know, I’m surprised this is even ho-AH!”

THUD

“NICK!” Dailee ran from her room and outside. She knelt beside him as he struggled to get up, “Oh-my-gosh, are you ok?!”

He chuckled painfully, “It’s just a flesh wound.”

She helped him up by holding onto his elbow and forearm. When she let go her hand felt
wet. “Uhm, Nick? You don’t have AIDS do you?”

“No, wh- oh,” Looking at the huge gash on his forearm he groaned, “Great, just fantastic.”

“Common, we should get you to your house.”

“Alright, let’s go,” Nick whispered, grabbing his arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
They made it up to the door and Dailee tried opening the door, but it was locked. “Great. Just great. I love how I was smart enough to keep the door unlocked!”

He shook his blood covered hand and grabbed his arm again. “Nick it’s not going to stop that way… here,” She took off her T-shirt leaving her in a camisole and handed it to him.

“Are you sure? I mean I don’t want to deprive you of a shirt or anything…” he rambled.

“NICK! Just take the shirt; it would make me feel better.” She shoved it at him and started unlacing her right shoe.

“What are you doing now?” he asked.

She didn’t answer. She just took the shirt, wrapped it around his arm then used the shoe lace to keep it on. It looked like a mini cast.

“Oh cool! Thanks Dailee, I owe you one.”

“No big, now is anyone home?”

Nick thought for a couple seconds then slapped his head, “Oh wow, I totally forgot Kevin is home for a few days.”

Dailee sighed and rang the door bell, “Wow, Nick. I’m glad you have the intellectual capacity to remember someone is home.”

“Oh shut up, Dailee.” Someone then opened the door. He was just a couple inches taller than Nick and had his same curly locks. He too was wearing skinny jeans and a lose fitting graphic tee.

“Hey, Nick and friend. What is on your arm, dude?” he asked with an odd look on his face.

“Kevin, Dailee. Dailee, Kevin,” Nick grabbed Dailee’s hand with his good arm and brushed past Kevin pulling her behind him.

He led her up some stairs and down a hall. The house was generally clean and it seemed very organized from Dailee’s view of things. Nick stopped in front of a closed door, let go of Dailee’s hand, and went inside. Turning on the light he walked farther into the bedroom. “Common, nobody’s here.”

Dailee walked into what looked like the master bedroom. It had a king size bed centered against the farthest wall from the door with end tables on each side. A dresser sat to her right and a door to her left. On the dresser there were a couple picture frames containing family photos and four individual shots of four different boys. She noticed two of the four boys right away but it took her a minute to realize who the other two were since they were never formally introduced. She followed Nick towards the door he opened it and walked inside the decent sized bathroom. He ambled over to the open closet and grabbed a First Aid kit from the middle shelf. Walking back over to Dailee, he handed it to her. “Fix me up Doc.”

She laughed and set the kit on the counter. She untied her improvised bandage and threw it out. Then she brought his arm over the sink and turned the water on, rinsing the cut out. “Um, are you trying to make me bleed to death? The water is turning red from how much I’m bleeding.”

“Relax and shut up, Jonas,” She got the kit open and pulled out some gauze, tape, and Neosporin. After putting the last strip of tape over the gauze she looked up at Nick, “Your welcome”

After examining his arm he leaned down and kissed her cheek, “Thank you Dr. Hayes. I am forever in your debt.”

Dailee gave him a small smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes, “I’ll have to hold you to that.”

Nick led her back downstairs and they decided to watch TV with Kevin. Kevin was already in the recliner so Nick and Dailee sat on the love seat.

He doesn’t like me like that. That kiss was just a “thank you” gesture. Yeah. That’s it. I mean, come on, he probably just feels bad for me. He probably doesn’t even want to talk to me let alone have me in his house. Maybe I should leave. No, he said he was forever in my debt so I can stay as long as I want. Ha, he suckered his way into that one. But then why would he stand up for me in gym? He is friends with Paul, but does he stands up for any girl who thinks Paul should walk off a cliff? And a rather large cliff at that. I don’t know… wait! Why is he staring at me? I didn’t eat anything after school so there shouldn’t be anything on my face. Oh god, why is he reaching for my face now?

Nick tried paying attention to the television but just couldn’t. Dailee kept distracting him. Anyone could tell that she wasn’t paying attention to the show because her facial expressions didn’t match what was going on in the plot line. He was more entertained watching her think than watching the TV. Nick just kept looking at her until he noticed the only imperfection he possibly could on her otherwise flawless face. He reached over and brushed away the eyelash that had fallen on her smooth cheek. “There, perfect,” he whispered, barely audible.

Dailee looked away, “Anything, but.”

“That has got to be the biggest lie I have heard in a long time,” he countered, shaking his head unbelievably, “Dailee, you’re pretty much flawless, let alone your face and you tell me that you’re "anything but", that worries me.”

She shook her head, “You’re lying.”

“No. Dailee, look at me. I swear to God, I swear on my life, I swear on my mother’s un-dug grave, that I am telling the absolute truth.”

She looked at him, searching for any indications that he was, in fact just trying to make her feel better. She found none. “I have to go.”

She stood up to leave, but Nick held onto her hand, “Please don’t.”

“Yeah, Dailee, Nick gets bored easy. And when he gets bored he makes me write songs with him. And, and, I don’t feel like getting up to grab my guitar, so do us all a favor: stay, please.” Kevin said with a smile.

“You write songs?” Dailee asked incredulously.

“A little,” Nick admitted rubbing his neck while looking at Kevin. No he didn’t glare at him; it was a look saying “Help me. You got me in this, now get me out”.

“Yeah, I’m just going to go now. I’ll see ya later, Nick. Nice meeting you Kevin.” And with that Dailee left the house.

“That song is for her isn’t it?” Kevin said shaking his head.

“How obvious can it get?”

“Not much more…”

Dailee walked into her house and straight to the bathroom. She closed the door and locked it behind her. Burring her face in her hands, she held in the tears that desperately wanted to escape. She has never had such mixed emotions before. They were always straight forward. She knew she wasn’t perfect and her mother made sure to keep it that way. She even made sure to keep Dailee from realizing how beautiful she really is. She shakily stood up and looked in the mirror. She saw the same face peering back at her. Not any more pretty than it seemed when she was in the bathroom at Nick’s house. Not any more ugly than after her mom yelled at her last week. Dailee desperately searched for what Nick saw in her. She found nothing. Not a single thing that could leave her to believe she was the slightest bit perfect. The only reason she could think of was that Nick was lying. “Dailee? Are you in there?” he called

“Ye-,” she coughed trying to keep her voice from cracking, “Yeah Cale, I’m in here.”

She looked away from the mirror and left feeling more confused than anything…