Chapter Nine

Gianna stepped out into the hot sun and closed the sliding doors behind her. Taking a deep breath, she headed towards the group sprawled on the patio. Dropping her towel, she situated herself in an empty chair next to Elise. She pulled herself away from AJ to give her a sympathetic look. Gianna gave her a confused look, but Elise just smiled and patted her on the arm.

“What is it?” Gianna whispered.

“We heard what happened.” Elise said in a comforting tone.

“What happened?”

“Nick broke up with you.” Elise said bluntly.

“Does the entire house know?” Gianna asked.

“Yeah, we kind of confronted Nick about it earlier today.”

“You what?” Gianna asked sitting up in her lawn chair.

“We asked him about it. We were concerned about you.”

“What did he say?”

“That he and you talked about it and he said that he needed time. Asshole.” Elise muttered. Gianna smiled weakly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll survive. This isn’t the first time that a guy has broken up with me out of nowhere.” Gianna answered shrugging. She acted like nothing was wrong, but deep down, she hurt like hell. For once, she had thought that this could be it. Sure she was only 20, but she had dated before, and no one was like Nick.

“Are you sure?” Elise asked again.

“Yes,” Gianna hissed. She was getting annoyed with this. Couldn’t Elise just leave well enough alone??

“Fine, but if you need to talk to someone, you know I’m always here.” Elise said turning her attention back to AJ.

“Sure you are my ass...when?? While you’re entertaining AJ in the bedroom? Or when you’re sunbathing in a tiny bikini next to AJ??” Gianna said under her breath. She rolled her eyes and reached over to the table next to her to grab her CD player she had brought out with her, along with her extensive collection of depression music. Sarah McLaughlin...Tori Amos....Melissa Merchant...and her absolute favorite, Alanis Morrisette. She popped open the CD player, but dropped her Alanis CD on the brick patio. Bending down to retrieve it she spotted Nick coming out of the house. She froze and watched him strip his shirt off and walk towards the group. The two made eye contact, but Gianna quickly averted her gaze to her CD. Nick shook his head, looking away from Gianna, he still felt guilty.

“Hey Nick!” Brian said from him place on the edge of the pool. Leighanne had long ago dozed off in her lawn chair drenched in suntan lotion and Brian was getting ready to go swimming.

“Hey, B. What’s up.” Nick answered in a slightly depressed tone. He sat down next to Brian and dunked his feet into the cool water of the pool.

“Nothing, what about you? You guys look like one hell of a pair.” Brian said nodding towards Gianna.

“Yeah, I know. I hurt her, and she’s blaming me. She told me to leave her alone.” Nick said quietly. He took a quick glance at Gianna, and found her listening to her music on her CD player. For the time being he was safe from being overheard. He turned back to Brian.

“What happened?” Brian asked.

“I went upstairs to be alone. Telling her I needed time was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. I could hear her crying in her room. God, I feel so bad. I went into to comfort her, give her a hug, let her know I still love her, but she pushed me away, told me I couldn’t help her.” Nick finished lowering his head.

“I’m sorry, man. I know you love her.”

“Yeah, I really do. I’m just...scared. Is that so bad?” Nick asked looking up at Brian with pain showing in his eyes.

“No, it’s not bad. It’s normal for someone who’s coming out of a relationship like you had with Anglea. I don’t understand why Gianna can’t understand that!” Brian finished loudly. He shook his head.

“Bri, it’s okay. She’s hurt. Okay?” Nick said defending her. He wasn’t going to let Brian take that tone when talking about Gianna.

“Nick! How can you be so understanding?! She’s being so..”

“Brian, I love her. That’s it. I don’t care what she says to me, nothing’s going to change that.” Nick said shrugging. He slid himself into the water and dove under the water, leaving Brian on the edge. He resurfaced and turned towards Gianna. She had her eyes closed and looked to be sleeping. Nick’s eyes traveled over her body and returned to her face to see her looking back at him. She just stared, straight at him, but through him. Her eyes full of hurt. Nick looked away. When he looked back at her, she was gone. He saw the sliding glass door closing and knew that she had gone inside.

Gianna fell into one of the kitchen chairs. Crossing her arms over her chest she sat. What was she going to do for the next month and a half? It was hard enough to be in the same room with him, how was she going to handle sharing a bathroom with him, a life with him now? This sucks. She heard the door opening and glanced up to see Brian taking a seat across from her at the table.

“Hi, Brian.” She said.

“Hey, I was wondering if I could talk to you.”

“Sure, how is he?” Gianna asked knowing full well that the conversation would be concerning Nick.

“What do you care?” Brian said dead panned. Gianna looked up at him. Was he serious?

“Excuse me?” She asked.

“I said, what do you care. Gianna, do you know how much you are hurting him right now?”

“Brian, I’m hurting too.” Gianna whispered.

“Okay, listen.” Brian said in a softer tone. “You both are hurting. But it’s because of one reason.”

“What?” Gianna asked, unsure if she wanted to know the reason.

“Because...,” Brian paused. “Because you don’t understand him.” he finished quietly. Gianna’s face fell.

“I don’t understand him huh?” Gianna asked.

“He’s scared. He told you that. Listen to him.”

“I know he’s scared, but he should have told me that before he kissed me.” Gianna said shaking her head.

“He wanted to kiss you, he loves you. But he’s afraid of getting his heart broken again.”

“So what do I do?”

“What did he ask you to do?”

“Wait.” Gianna said smiling slightly.

“Do you want to wait? Is he worth it? Do you love him?”

“Yes, yes, and..yes.”

“Then this shouldn’t be that hard. You know he loves you, and you love him. It’s only a matter of time.” Brian said shrugging.

“Does he really love me like he says?” Gianna asked shyly. She glanced up at Brian, blushing slightly.

“Yes, he does.” Brian said smiling. “He really loves you. I didn’t see him like this, even when he was with Ang.”

“Like what?”

“Happy.”

“Really.” That one word meant a lot to Gianna. She doubted that Nick loved her..why would he pull away like he did. Knowing that she made him happy was just what she needed.

“Really, Gianna. He smiles, he jokes around, he talks to us again. Because you’re here with him, he’s gained confidence to tell me and the guys what happened six months ago with Angela.”

“So what you’re saying is that I should just listen to him. Wait for him?”

“Yep.”

“Thank you Brian. I thought that I had lost him.”

“No way. He’s too attached to ya.” Brian said giving a small laugh as Nick walked in from outside, towel drying his hair. As he pulled the huge white cloth down, he realized he had walked in on Brian and Gianna talking.

“Uh, sorry.” He said smiling sheepishly.

“No problem, we were done here.” Gianna said shrugging her shoulders, standing up. Nick looked over at her. She had spoken to him, politely. Gianna notice the shocked look plastered on Nick’s face, and giggled. “Come on, I wanna talk to you.” she said grabbing Nick’s hand, pulling him out of the kitchen and upstairs.

“I thought you didn’t want to speak to me.” he said as Gianna pushed him down on his bed. “Hey, I’m wet.” he whined looking down at his swimming trunks.

“So? I want to talk to you.”

“Sure, sure. What about?” Nick asked wiping water from his upper arm.

“I love you.” Gianna said. Nick looked up at her quickly.

“I love you too.”

“Good, now that that’s covered, I’m waiting.”

“For what?”

“For you.”

“Me?” Nick asked in surprise. Gianna nodded and smiled. “You’re waiting for me.” Nick said.

“Yup, I’m waiting until you’re ready for a relationship. I’m sorry I said all that stuff to you.”

“It’s okay. I thought...I thought that I really hurt you.”

“Well, I was hurt. But now I know that I was stupid. I listened to you, but I didn’t hear you.”

“Huh?” Nick asked shooting her a puzzled look.

“I listened to what you said, but I didn’t hear what the words meant. You’re scared. I pushed you, and I was wrong. I should have listened to you when you told me you were afraid to begin with. I should have taken things slower. Right?”

“Yeah.” Nick said smiling. She understood!

“So...we can still hang out right? That’s not going to be weird or anything?”

“Of course we can hang out!”

“Good.” Gianna said giggling.

“Man, I missed you.” Nick said smiling.

“I didn’t go anywhere.”

“I know, but we weren’t friends for awhile.”

“Yeah...I missed you too.” Gianna said punching him lightly on the upper arm.

“Can I have a hug?” Nick asked, doing his best impression of Austin Power’s Dr. Evil.

“Shut up, of course you can.” Gianna said opening her arms. Nick slid over to her and wrapped his big arms around her small body. She took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of him, chlorine and all. She smiled as the dizzy feeling over took her. It was amazing what this man could do to her.

“What’s wrong with you?” Nick asked, feeling her sway in his arms.

“Nothin.” Gianna said pulling back, smiling brightly.

“You sure?” Nick asked suspiciously.

“Yup, I just got a little dizzy for a minute.”

“Dizzy? You alright?” Nick asked alarmed.

“Sure, it was all you. I’m fine now.”

“Me?” Nick asked as Gianna stood and headed for the bathroom.

“Yeah. You smell good.” she flashed him another smile and left his room. Nick sat frozen on his bed, smiling.

Gianna flopped down on her bed in a daze. Love was amazing. Nick and her weren’t even a thing anymore...or yet, whichever. But, he still had the power to turn her legs to Jell-O. She heard a light knock on a door. Sitting up she eyed her two doors carefully. She finally picked the bedroom door and said come in. The bedroom door opened and Elise poked her head in.

“Yes! I’m getting good at that.”

“I just wanted to check on you. I saw you come in, and then Bri, and then Nick. I wanted to make sure that everything was okay.”

“Yeah, everything’s great. Come talk to me.” Gianna said patting the bed. Elise made her way across the room and sat next to Gianna.

“What do you want to talk about?”

“You and AJ. Tell me about him.”

“Oh man, I’m in love.”

“Yeah?” Gianna asked.

“Yeah. He is so amazing. You know? I’ve had this huge crush on him since we met them.” Elise admitted.

“You’re kidding! I never knew!”

“I know you didn’t.” Elise said smirking.

“You kept that from me!? I could have set you two up!”

“We didn’t need you.”

“Yeah, I see that. How did you two hook up?”

“Not sure, we just flirted like crazy. Then a few nights ago, he just came into my room all serious and told me that he wanted me.”

“What did you do?”

“Well, I figured, who was I to deny this amazingly sexy man?” Elise said giggling.

“We talked for awhile, I told him that I’ve had a thing for him since I met him. He told me that he’d been thinking about me since then too. We just clicked, I guess.”

“Yeah? So...how is it?” Gianna asked smiling.

“What?”

“The sex. Duh!”

“Oh my God. G, you have no idea. I didn’t think it could be this great.”

“Really? Wow.” Gianna said, genuinely happy for her friend.

“So, do I want to ask how you and blond boy wonder are?”

“We’re good. We just had a talk. I love him Lee.”

“I know you do, honey.”

“It was so hard to hear him say that he didn’t want this. I was completely ready to give him everything. I wanted him so bad. Then he said he wasn’t ready.”

“Musta sucked.”

“Big time. He gave me this look. I’m sure AJ has it. It’s just full of...”

“Sex?” Elise supplied. The two laughed.

“Acutally yes. It’s this look in their eyes, like fire, and then they’re just everywhere.”

“Yeah, I’ve seen it with AJ. Makes me wild.” Elise said nodding her head.

“You should see Nick’s.” Gianna said breathlessly.

“That good?”

“Elise, he didn’t even give the look on purpose, it was just him looking at me and I couldn’t think straight!”

“Damn girl. Imagine what he would do to you if he planned ‘the look’. It must be really good.”

“I know.” Gianna said sighing. “I can’t wait, I want him now!”

“I can see that.”

“Oh! And the blank, confused look? To die for!”

“Do tell.”

“His eyes get so big, and blue. His entire face gets this young, soft look. You just want to grab him and kiss him!”

“You really do want him don’t you?”

“Uh, yeah. He just hugged me in there.” Gianna said pointing in the direction of Nick’s room.

“And?”

“I didn’t think my legs were going to get me back here. ”Gianna said laughing.

“Hey, did you ever think about whether or not guys talk about us like this? I wonder if I have a look that turns AJ on.”

“Oh, I’m sure they do. Guys gossip.”

“Really?”

“Oh hell yeah.”

Brian paused before knocking on Nick’s bedroom door. He listened carefully and smiled. Nick was whistling. That was a new one. He knocked.

“Hey man!” Nick said happily as he opened the door. He was still dressed in his wet swimming trunks.

“Hey, what are you up to?” Brian asked looking around Nick to see an empty bedroom. What happened to Gianna?

“Nothing much, just hanging out.”

“Where is she?”

“G? Her room. We talked. She’s waiting.”

“Good.”

“Um, when I walked in the kitchen before? Were you guys talking about me?” Nick asked.

“Yeah, sorry Nick. Don’t be mad, but I couldn’t just sit there and watch her hurt you more.”

“I’m not mad, I’m actually pretty happy about how things turned out. Now all I have to do is hold myself back until I know that once I have her I won’t look back.” Nick finished smiling.

Chapter Ten
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