Nick watched Leah closely as her intense gaze scrutinized the chess board. He loved watching her concentrate--the way her eyebrows would knit together, her eyes changing different hues of blue, her hands clasped together securely in her lap. Leah's concentration was broken as her best friend began to laugh at her.
"What??" she whined pathetically, as she lightly shoved the laughing Nick.
He smirked over at her, "Nothin'... you just look sexy when you're all serious."
Leah looked up at him, startled, "Did you just call me sexy?"
Nick's eyes widened as he turned his gaze the other way, "N-No..."
Leah burst out laughing, "You lie! You called me sexy!" She giggled, joking around with him, "So you think I'm sexy, huh?"
Nick blushed, "Shut up, Lee."
"C'mmon," she laughed, "let's watch a movie."
"Why? Cuz you're losing?"
"Now it's your turn to shut up. I was merely trying to save you from further embarrassment. I mean, your face is gettin' sorta' red," Leah grinned, loving the fact that she was just making it worse.
"You never seize to amaze me, Lee," Nick shook his head back and forth.
"That's 'cause I'm sexy."
He sighed, "I'm gonna kill you."
"I know."
~ * ~
Nick watched as Leah slept peacefully on her bed, that night. They'd been laying in her room, watching movies, and sometime between the heart-stopping antics of Clifford in the movie "Clifford," and Nicolas Cage's evil ways in "Face Off," she'd managed to conk out, her head resting on his chest. Nick knew he had to tell her sooner or later how he was feeling... he was falling in love with her more and more every second he spent with her. But Nick also knew that now just wasn't the time. She was only 16 and it just wasn't right for him to tell someone of her age that he was in love with her.
Nick sighed to himself as he moved a stray strand of hair, that had fallen from her ponytail holder, from her face. Laying his head back down on one of her pillows, he wrapped his arms around her body securely and pulled her closer to him, holding her tight.
He would tell her, someday, how much he loved her... but not yet.
