Chapter Fifteen | Talia

"What the hell happened to you Saturday? After you left me at the club you completely just ghosted my ass the rest of the weekend." Simone says to me as we walk to lunch the next day. She was absent yesterday because she didn't feel good so she had to wait until now to interrogate me.

I feel a little guilty about ignoring her texts and calls all weekend, but in my defense, it was a pretty life-changing weekend. I smile as I think about Nick whose class I left an hour ago. He managed to stay on his side of the room today and keep his hands to himself. After having sex on the kitchen counter and then again in my room, we managed to sedate ourselves long enough so that I could finish my homework assignment and for Nick to actually put a lesson plan together for the rest of the week, then we ordered Chinese food and cuddled and watched a movie until I fell asleep.

It was a pretty incredible day.

The only thing that sucked was Nick had to get up and leave early to get ready for work since he didn't have any clothes at the beach house. But he kissed me this morning until I forgot my birthday before he left and locked up behind him and I went back to sleep for another hour before my alarm rang.

I'm not entirely sure what to say. I couldn't exactly tell her I ditched her to have sex with our AP English teacher.

"Sorry. I told you I wasn't feeling good. I must've caught the bug or something because I was pretty out of it for the rest of the weekend." I lie.

"Aw, I'm sorry. Did Mr. Cross fuck you back to health?" Simone wonders, shocking the hell out of me. I stop walking immediately and pull Simone to the side so we wouldn't block the other kids going inside the cafeteria.

"Why the hell would you say something like that?" I demand.

"You think I didn't see you leaving with him Saturday night? When I was done dancing I started to go back to where I left you, but you were too busy getting tongue down by Mr. Cross that I guess you didn't notice me and then you two left the club together. It doesn't take a genius to know what you guys did next." Simone explains.

I don't know what to say.

"I-"

"Please don't lie to me. Anyone with eyes can see that you're the only person he doesn't look at like he hates them." Simone says.

"I-" I try again, but honestly, I have no idea what I'm going to say. Should I come clean or deny it?

"You can relax. I'm not going to say anything to anyone. You two are adults and it's none of my business who either of you sleeps with," Simone reassures me. "I do want to know how the hell it all started though."

I study her, still unsure if I should tell her the truth or not. Should I talk about this with Nick first? It wasn't just me who had something on the line. He could lose his job if word of us together got out. But Nick had his sister and brother-in-law and I had no one I could talk to about any of this. Simone didn't seem like the type to run her mouth with this sort of news. I feel like I can trust her. "I will deny everything if you say anything to anybody." I warn her.

"You can trust me."

So I take a leap of faith and tell her everything. I tell her how we met at my job. I tell her about meeting his sister and niece, I tell her about the sketchpad, I tell her about the beach house and I tell her about how he makes me feel whenever we're together.

"Oh my gosh. This is insane!" Simone gasp. "Why can't cute shit like this happen to me?" She demands, making me laugh.

"This is definitely not how I expected my senior year to be going," I state. "But I can't complain."

"All cuteness aside, I'm sorry about your mom. That's beyond messed up." Simone says.

It is messed up and it's not like I magically forgot about her or our situation. I still think about her and I hope she's okay. But is bad that a part of me saw us going down this path anyways? It was going to happen sooner or later but thanks to Nick it happened a lot earlier than planned.

"That's life." I shrug.

"So you gotta tell me..." I already know what she's going to ask based on the huge grin on her face.

"What is the sex life?"

I don't even have to think about it. "Award-winning."

***

"You're going to the game." Simone tells me for the umpteenth time even though I've tried getting out of it at least a dozen times.

The two of us are in my bedroom after school on a Friday. Simone stands inside my closet trying to figure out what I should wear for tonight.

This is her first time here and just like me, she can't believe Nick gave me this place until I graduate.

"And you didn't give him the cookie before he gave you a whole house?"

"No." I laugh.

"Damn, he must really like you." Simone states before she goes back inside my closet. "How about this?" She holds up a black off the shoulder pull-over sweater and I shrug. Simone throws at me in response before going over to my drawer and searching for some jeans.

"Can't we just stay here and have a girls night in?" I suggest.

"Raincheck. Listen, I know you're all boo'd up now but some of us would still like to have a man and I have my eyes set on Liam."

"Oh, so that's what this is about?" I smirk at her.

"This is the first game back since the break and I need to be there to show support."

"Okay okay fine. I'll be your wing woman." I giggle.

"So what's Mr. Cross doing tonight?" Simone asks.

"He's actually still at the school. He has some work he needs to grade, then he needs to prepare for next week and he doesn't want to take his work home so he can give me all his attention this weekend."

"Aww. You guys are cute." Simone scrunches up her face, making me laugh. "Alright, I'm gonna go home and get ready. I'll see you in two hours in front of the school."

"Bye." I wave as she heads for the door.

I manage to get ready, dressing in the off-the-shoulder sweater and light denim jeans Simone picked out for me. I took the curling wand to my hair so my hair was wavy until I got the desired wave pattern and added a little bit of lipgloss. It was a little weird walking on school grounds not dressed in uniform. They seriously needed to implement a casual Friday around here.

"You look hot!" Simone squeals as I draw closer to her.

"Thank you! So do you!" Simone traded her uniform for a cream-colored ruffled blouse, black skinny jeans and black ankle boots.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah," I pause. "Just so you know, you're gonna have to explain everything to me."

"No problem." Simone giggles before she turns and starts to lead us to the football field.

The bleachers are packed with students from Kerrington and the rival school. I scan the field and easily spot Jackson and Liam, both dressed in full gear minus their helmets which they hold in one hand.

Simone calls out to Liam but both boys turn their heads before jogging over to us.

"You made it." Liam smiles brightly at Simone.

"Of course." Simone returns his smile.

"I'm surprised to see you here." Jackson said, capturing my attention. While we all still hang out together as a group, I've made sure to put some distance between us since I started dating Nick.

"I'm on wingwoman duty." I tell him.

"Aw. Here I was hoping you came to see me."

"Sorry to disappoint you." I playfully pat his shoulder.

"A few of us plan on getting together after the game. You should join us." Jackson suggest.

"Win the game and we'll see." I tell him before turning around and heading up the bleachers. A whistle blows and Jackson and Liam both jog back over to their coach and Simone takes a seat next to me.

I send a quick text to Nick letting him know that I'm on campus attending the game before I focused on the field and listen to Simone explain what was happening.

After the first half of the game, a husky voice asked, "Is this seat taken?"

I look up to see Nick towering over me.

"Um, no." I say, scooting over so he'd have more room to sit down.

"Hi Simone." He greets her with a friendly smile.

"What's up Mr. Cross?" She says in greeting before smirking at me.

"I thought you'd be working still." I say, looking ahead though. I didn't know if anyone was watching us so I didn't want to look or smile at him for too long.

"I finished. So I decided to come watch a football game." Nick replies. "You look beautiful." He tells me, loud enough that only I can hear.

"Thank you. You look just as hot as you did this morning."

And he did. This morning he wore a black buttoned up shirt, black slacks and black dress shoes.

He chuckles and I risk a glance in his direction just in time to see his breath-taking smile. Nick asked me if I knew anything about football and when I shook my head, he took it upon himself to explain.

It actually wasn't that hard to understand and half way into the second quarter I began to really be interested in the game. Though I have to admit, only some of what Nick was saying was coming through as it was hard to concentrate on anything he was saying when his cologne was making my head all fuzzy.

He sits casually next to me, his leg brushes against mine and I try to be discreet as I brush my hand across his knee.

As much as I'm enjoying the game and being here with Simone, I can't help but wish Nick and I were alone right now. We should be cuddled in bed right now, or in his pool, or making out on his couch, not surrounded by rowdy high school students and football fanatics.

"Are you ready to get out of here?" Nick asks me.

Still staring at the game unfolding before me, I nod my head. "Hey, I think I'm going to head out." I lean over and yell to Simone over the roaring crowd.

She looks at me then looks at Nick. "In all the books it says you're supposed to wait a few minutes before following each other so no one suspects a thing."

She's right. I hate how reckless I'm being. I pull out my phone and shoot a quick text to Nick telling him to leave without me and that I'd meet him down the street from the school. Moments later, Nick stands and makes his way out of the bleachers without so much of a glance in my direction.

Good.

I wait another five minutes before saying goodbye to Simone and promising her that Sunday we'd have a girls day and no chance of my ditching her for Nick.

The two of us hug goodbye before I stand and exit the bleachers.

I wrap my arms around myself as I walk across the track field, across the staff and faculty parking lot until I'm finally off of school grounds. I can spot Nick's car waiting for me across the street and I look both ways before crossing the street and jogging over to his car.

Once I'm safely tucked in, Nick drives off.

"Guess I'll have to wait til Monday to see how the game ends." I say, only pretending to be disappointed about leaving early.

"Are you really disappointed?" Nick asks.

"No. I'm sure Simone will fill me on how the game ends. Jackson will probably wonder where I ran off too though."

"Do you like him?" Nick wonders.

"I mean, he's a nice guy, but... I kinda have feelings for someone else."

"Is he in my class? Give me a name so I can fail him." Nick says, which makes me laugh.

"Shut up." I slap his shoulder. "I gotta say, you're adorable when you're jealous."

"Me? Jealous?" He scoffs. "No way. Why would I be jealous when I know you dream about all of this all day." He gestures towards his body with the hand that's not on the wheel.

Still giggling, I reach up and run my fingers along his jaw. "I mean, you do have a body the stuff dreams are made of."

Nick chuckles in response before brushing his lips against my wrist.

"Where are we going?" I ask when I notice we're not going in the direction that leads us to his house.

"I thought we would continue the night. Are you up for some ice cream?"

"Always."

I lean against my seat the rest of the way and enjoy the ride. We arrive at an ice cream shop called Frosty Point and rush of cold air washes over me when Nick opens the door for me to enter. I'm immediately in awe of the place as I take in the striped lime green walls and the pink and green chairs and tables for children lined against the wall where not too far away there's a carousel with two ponies. The other half of the room is not as fun on the right side; the walls are a plain white, ice cream shaped stickers and menus cover the wall and unlike the side destined for kids, the tables and chairs on this side are made of black iron.

The sweet smell of fresh baked goods and vanilla invade my senses as we walk further into the room. Nick grabs my hand to entwine our fingers and I swat him away.

"Relax." Nick entwines our fingers. "There's no one from school here." He tells me as if he can read my mind.

I let out a deep breath and squeezed his fingers. "Sorry. One minute I'm ready to show you off to the world, then the next I want to act like I've never seen you a day in my life."

"I notice that," Nick chuckles before pulling us to a stop in the middle of the ice cream parlor. "Breathe Talia. Right now we're just a normal couple getting ice cream, holding hands," He flexes his fingers around mine to prove a point. "And kissing." He leans down but waits for me to meet him the rest of the way. I hesitate for only a second before brushing my lips against his.

"How is it that you always know what to do to calm me down?"

Nick grins. "I never want you to worry when you're with me." He brushes his lips against mine one more time before walking us to the counter. The both of us say our ice cream order and less than three minutes later, the two of us are slipping into our seats at one of the tables towards the back of the room.

"How are you so okay with this?" I wonder. The entirety of our relationship and the circumstance around it, Nick has been nothing but calm, while I on the other hand worry about how much trouble he can get into and what I'm risking.

Nick stirred his spoon around in his coffee flavored ice cream. "The more time I spend with you the more I'm sure that you're what I want. From the minute I saw you I saw resilience in your eyes and then we talked and it was so easy and natural and then we spent some time together and the feeling that I get when I'm with you is a feeling I never want to lose. So if you're asking me why I don't give a shit about the kind of trouble I could get in by being with you, then the answer is because you're worth it. You're worth walking through a storm for Talia." Nick tells me.

My heart beats rapidly against my chest at his words. A warm, foreign feeling twists its way into my belly. Is this what falling in love feels like?

I keep my gaze steady as I stare across the table at Nick, wondering just how lucky I was that he came into that diner that day. What would my life be like if I had actually left work on time instead of taking that extra hour? What if another waiter served him? We would have never sat together and had breakfast and we definitely wouldn't be here now.

Being with Nick meant I could get expelled, I wouldn't walk across the stage with my classmates, and any college I tried to attend would no doubt hear about this, ruining my chances of acceptance. But I don't care. I should. But I don't.

There's no point in comparing consequences.

He's mine.

I am his. We chose each other.

We're in this together.