Nolan wore new pants when he picked me later that evening. I knew that because he left the tag on the back. I swear he blushed a little as he yanked it off. When he turned his back I double checked to make sure all my tags were gone.
I was shocked that, instead of the motorcycle, he picked me up in the minivan. It was the better choice, though. My mom definitely wouldn't have let me leave the house if he had. She was barely willing to let me leave with him at all, saying I looked too cute if all we were doing was a school project.
"It's just you and your parents, right?" I asked as he pulled out of my driveway.
"Yeah."
"Then why the minivan?"
"My mom used to have a dog walking business. She used to load them up in here and take them to the dog park," he explained, glancing over at me. "Is the studying starting now?"
"No. Not yet," I said, leaning back in the seat. "We'll start the questions once we're...where are we going exactly?" We were in an area unfamiliar to me. Here I thought I've seen every inch of Bellcreek.
"The creek."
"Bellcreek has an actual creek?"
"Yeah." He nodded. "It's dried up, though. It only resembles a creek if it floods."
Nolan made a quick stop at a pizza place before we made it to the alleged creek. He backed into a spot that over looked dried up ditch. There was a small playground and picnic area off to one side and restrooms on the other. There were a few scrawny trees and patches of grass. Mostly it was just dirt and litter.
Despite the less than aesthetic surroundings the view of the sky was amazing. The blue faded into yellow then orange. It was gorgeous.
Nolan grabbed the pizza and exited the car. I followed him to the back where he propped open the trunk door, revealing the blankets and pillows. It made the trunk look like a very comfortable fort. A very intimate, almost romantic fort.
"Is it too much?" He sounded unsure. If his hands weren't gripping the pizza box I'm sure they'd be in his hair. "I figured since we're being forced into small talk we should at least be comfortable. And earlier, when you mentioned the three months thing, I thought I'dâ" he let out a sigh, shoulders slumping. "I don't know. Just thought it'd be nicer."
He was rambling and embarrassed and completely adorable. "I like it." I smiled. His pink stained cheeks pushed up as he did the same.
We got comfortable among the blankets and sheets, a large pepperoni and sausage pizza between us, as we watched the sky morph into an inky blue.
Two slices of pizza in and neither of us had said anything other than pass the napkins. I was the first to break the silence.
"So...do we just start listing off our likes and dislikes?" I asked taking a sip of my soda.
Nolan wiped his mouth with a napkin before answering. "I like pizza." He picked up another slice picking off and eating the pepperoni and sausage. Because that's what he did. He picked off the toppings before eating the rest of the pizza. It was weird, but cute.
Why was everything he did suddenly cute?
"This is awkward, right?" I asked, unable to keep the thought to myself any longer. "Like, first date awkward."
He reached over the back seat and pulled out a six pack of Mike's hard lemonade. "I knew this would come in handy."
"Didn't know you drank hard lemonade," I said, picking one up. I'd never had one. Hopefully it tasted better than beer or vodka or that wine Bee loved so much. "I thought you liked the stronger stuff."
"I don't want a repeat of Halloween," he admit. I laughed. "And I noticed you don't drink, so I wanted to keep it light."
"Who knew you could be so thoughtful?" I teased.
The fruity flavor of the drink didn't do much to mask the taste of the alcohol. Still, I drank it. If I was going to spend the night in the trunk of a minivan spilling secrets I needed to get out of my head.
One and half spiked lemonades later we exhausted the likes and dislikes and secrets talents.
Nolan hated sushi and knew every lyric to every song on Justin Bieber's Christmas album. He slept with the window open no matter the weather and loved buddy cop movies. I surprised him by saying few lines from The Other Guys and we laughed a little two hard at the word peacock. If I got him to laugh hard enough he'd start wheezing, which made the whole thing even funnier.
I told him about my collection if socks and my love of art. He teased me for being afraid of carousel horses (which look demonic!) and agreed that DreamWorks animations was better than Disney Pixar.
"I mean, they have Shrek and Shark Tale."
"Shark Tale is totally underrated," I agreed, finishing off my second hard lemonade.
Nolan nodded. "Nick and I talked our parents into getting us some fish after we saw it. We wanted a shark, but apparently was too dangerous."
"And illegal." I snorted.
"We got goldfish instead," he continued. "Two. Nolan and Nick."
"Wow. How'd you come up with such unique names?"
He picked up a pillow and whacked me with it. I giggled, blocking his hits with my own pillow. "Okay. Okay. I surrender!"
He stopped, placing the pillow back into his corner of the trunk and leaning against it. "We were seven, alright? And not very creative."
There was a lull in the conversation and I asked the question that had been burning in my mind since I saw the picture of him and Nick together. "What happened between you and Nick?"
He cracked open another lemonade, taking a long sip before answering. "He tried to Single White Female me."
A bark of laughter escaped me and I quickly covered my mouth. Nolan seemed amused by that. "What the hell does that mean?"
"Anything I had he wanted it too," Nolan admitted. "First it was clothes and shoes and video games, which I didn't mind letting him borrow. But then there was Sasha Moss."
The girl with the orange hair came to mind. Was it her? Did she not only drive a wedge between him and his cousin, but him and his best friend as well?
"Who's Sasha Moss?"
He shrugged, waving it off. "Some girl I had a crush on in sixth grade. I told Nick about her and he ended up taking her to the dance."
Slowly, things Nick had said to me over the months started making sense. When he said he wasn't a good guy in the past or that he couldn't be trusted. If I was even the slightest bit interested in him I would've fallen for his nice guy act. But I only thought if him as a friend. Being around him didn't give me the feeling I had when I was with Nolan.
Obviously that was for the best.
"That's why I didn't want you talking him," Nolan continued, pilling the label from his bottle. "He's like a little kid who only wants the toys someone else is playing with."
My lips curled into a small smile. "Did you just compare me to a toy?"
He paused as if going over what he said. "Shit. That's bad, right?"
I giggled, reaching for now cold slice of pizza. I laid on my back as I ate, staring out at the stars sprinkled in the sky. "What kind of toy would I be?"
He thought for a moment before saying, "Barbie. The Black one. Christie." Quickly, he added, "Shit. Was that offensive?"
I laughed at the drunk guy before me. He was becoming the adorable puppy dog he was while intoxicated. "Nah. I'd rather be a Barbie than a Bratz doll. My aunt used to call me that because I had a big head and a small body."
Nolan's eyes squint at me as he tilts his head to the side. "Now that you mention it..."
"Shut up." I laughed, throwing a pillow at him. "If I'm a Bratz, then you're a Ken doll."
"What's wrong with Ken?"
"Other than not having any man parts?"
"I think we're both aware that I have man parts."
A blush crept up the back of my neck as I remembered that very exposing Halloween. He definitely had his man parts.
The smirk on Nolan's face faded as he realized what he had said. He lowered the bottle of hard lemonade from his lips. "And that's enough alcohol for me." He began clearing the pizza crust, napkins and empty bottles from the trunk, dumping them in a trash bin outside of the restrooms.
I think I might've dozed of in that short amount of time because I was jolted awake as he climbed back in next to me.
"I don't think either should be driving," he announced. I agreed.
It was only nine twenty. The night felt much later. My curfew wasn't until eleven, so we made a plan to nap for an hour to sober up. Since the trunk already had the blankets and pillows we decided to sleep there.
Once he closed the hatch I realized how small the trunk really was. "You can take the backseat," he suggested.
"I don't mind sleeping with you." In such close quarters it was hard to see the shock on Nolan's face at my poor word choice. "Back here, I mean," I added, as if that made it better. Two and a half hard lemonades and I couldn't keep my mouth shut.
He didn't seem to mind. We readjusted ourselves, recreating that moment in Gia's guest room. Only this time we were both slightly drunk and he wasn't dressed as a cat. He was hesitant to wrap his arm around me. When he did I tried not to melt into him.
We laid there in silence listening to the distant howling, the insects and the traffic from a nearby street. I thought Nolan had fallen asleep until he spoke.
His breath was warm against my neck, giving me a funny feeling right below my belly. "Any last minute confessions before the alcohol wears off?"
I chewed at my lip, trying to focus on the question and not the fact that our bodies are pressed together. Or that turning around and kissing him sounded like an amazing idea right now. Those confessions were better left unsaid.
"You're being a dick to your mom." I settled on something not related to my little crush on Nolan Chambers.
"I know."
"You should stop. Beforeâ"
"I know." He cut me off, but he didn't sound mad or annoyed. He knew I was right.
I feel asleep soon after.