Chapter 3

Nick never went away from her, but
didn't talk to her either. He stood right behind her
in line like a little boy eager for a lollypop.

As soon as they reached the top, Jessie was so
eager to get at least a foot farther away from Nick,
any distance would satisfy her. She walked in a
fast pace over to one of the statue's window views
and stuck her head out.

The view off the statue of liberty was one of the one
and only things that relieved her stress,
but of course 'he' had to be behind her.

"Why are you here if you live here?" He asked.

"Why do you want to know?" Jessie said in a happy tone,
she looked out to see the twin towers and smiled.

"Just curious."

"Why so curious?"

"Cause I am."

"That's not a good enough reason. Hey have you
ever seen the view from up here?" She asked
taking his hand and pulling him to the window.

"I…yeah I have," he said backing away.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked still on her 'high.'

"Nothing, can we go now?" He asked almost pleading.

"Not until you tell me why you're
freaking out," she said folding her arms.

"Fine…" he said folding his arms.
"I'm scaredofheights," he said mumbling and in one word.

"What? I'm sorry I must have gone deaf at
that split second, say again?" She said mocking him.

"I'm afraid of heights okay? Can we go now? The
ferry's going to be here in 20 minutes and it's going
to take us that long to walk back down," he said sighing.

"Okay give me one second…" she said looking back
out. The ocean looked beautiful, and the sun
looked perfect that day. "Okay," she said walking
with him down the exit.

"So why do you come here?" He asked as they
walked down the flights of stairs.

"I come here every other day, I love it here," she
said shrugging. "What's wrong with that?"

"Oh nothing! I just was curious. I came here for Kevin;
he's like a dad. Always taking us on tours and bringing
his camcorder," Nick said as they started going
down faster.

"Maybe he was in a past life," she said as he stopped.

"You believe in reincarnation?" He asked.

"So?" She said walking down faster. "What if I do?"

"That stuff is such bull! It's like saying I was a cow
because I love milk or something."

"I believe I was a hyena," she said as he laughed.

"Okay!" He said as she stopped.

"And you know what I believe you
were?" She said angrily.

"Go ahead and tell me," he said saying it out of curiosity.

"I believe you were a donkey, a big fat jack
ass," she said with a sinister smile. She started running
down the stairs as Nick followed.

"That was good," he said laughing a little.

"I have nothing to say to you, go away huh?"
She said as her breath started catching up with her.

"Where can I go? Should have thought of that before
you said that." She rolled her eyes and decided to
ignore him the rest of the time going down.

She got onto the ferry and walked to the stairs…
he had finally left her alone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Nick knew she wouldn't talk to him…for a little
while. So he decided to go to the guys and eat,
one of Nick's favorite things to do other than mess
with his dream girl. He opened the door to the
restaurant and walked in to see the guys standing
at one of the tables signing autographs.
Nick covered his face and dodged the girls,
going to the food line.

"Hi can I help you?" The guy said.

"2 cheeseburgers, 1 fry, a coke, and a cookie," Nick said
pulling out his wallet. After he paid he walked
over to the guys and put his food down on the tiny table.

"Hey you guys, you know we have like 10 minutes
till we have to leave right?" Nick said chomping
on his fries.

"Come on Nick, the ferry's right there we
can walk 5 feet to it," A.J. said.

"So how's this girl going?" Brian asked as the guys
listened in.

"Okay I guess, I know a lot about her," Nick said
shrugging.

"What's her name?" Kevin asked.

"That…I haven't found out yet," Nick said as the guys
rolled their eyes.

"She seems weird," A.J. said taking a sip of his tea.

"Well, she is in a way. She believes in
reincarnation," Nick said as the guys laughed.

"Nick always gets the good ones!" Howie said as they
threw away their trash. Nick took the rest of his food with
him on the ferry. He went upstairs and saw
her sitting in the same bench with a new cup of cocoa.

"Hello little lady, this seat taken?" He said sitting down.

"If you're sitting here, yes it's taken," she said
moving her cocoa as far away from him as she could.

"That's no way to talk to a stranger," he said taking a
sip of his coke.

"This is New York, I talk to everyone like that," she
said rolling her eyes.

"Can you tell me your name?" He asked.

"No," she said taking a sip of her cocoa.

"Please?"

"No."

"Why?"

"No."

"PLEASE!"

"If I tell you will you leave me alone for at
least five minutes?"

"Uh huh."

"Jessie, Jessie Taft," she said as he nodded.

"Pretty name," he said.

"No it's not," she said shaking her head.

"It's better than Nick," he said taking a bite of his
cookie.

"Hey aren't you supposed to be quiet for five
minutes?" She said proving a point.

"Yes mam!" He said as she turned to the window
and looked out on the ocean.

"I can't stay, if I do I'll talk so I'll be back in 5," he said
getting up and walking over to the guys bench.

"What did she do?" Brian asked.

"Her name is Jessie," Nick said sitting aside A.J.

"Nick isn't your ex named Jessie?" A.J. asked.

"So? This Jessie is better," Nick said
looking at her in awe.

"So why are you over here then?" Howie asked.

"Because we had a deal," Nick said.

"Hey Nick we have a few hours before the
concert, why don't you
follow her again?" Howie said snickering.

"I wasn't following, I was just
trying to talk to her…" he said as he looked at
his watch.

"See ya," he said throwing his trash away and walking
back over to Jessie.

"Hi," he said sitting next to her.

"Hi," she said staring out at the ocean.

"You like the ocean?" Nick asked.

"Uh huh, I love it," she said looking at his blue eyes.

"You should go to Florida, some places you
can see all the way to the bottom," Nick said looking
into her green eyes.

"Wow," she said mesmerized by his eyes and not
about the ocean. Of course Nick didn't realize.

"What would you do if I asked you out tonight?"

"I can't, working," she said making up a lie. She didn't
have to work, but for some reason
she didn't want to go with him.

"Where do you work?"

"Barnes and Noble across from Einstein's bagels,
you know where I'm talking about?" She asked
hoping he didn't.

"I will by tonight," he said smiling. She grinned a little and
looked back out the window.

"If I went out with you tonight, where would you take
me? You don't know where anything is,"
she said looking at the dock as it came closer.

"I do too! But you wouldn't know and you won't
since you're working," Nick said as the ferry stopped.

"Thank you for visiting the statue and statin island,
hope you enjoyed it," the captain said over the
intercom.

"Bye Nick," she said walking off.

"Bye!" He said watching her leave.

"So you meeting her tonight?" Brian asked as
they got off.

"If you help me, I suck at directions," Nick said
hoping he'd agree.

"I'm NOT getting into this!" He said trying to get out
of it.

"Come on Frick! We're best friends please!" Nick said
about to get on his knees.

"Fine, just don't tell Howie I helped you I don't want him
to get pissed at me!" Brian said as Nick hugged
him with excitement. "Get off me!"

"Oh sorry," Nick said leaping off him. "Hey Kev! Brian
and I are going out!" Nick said dragging Brian
away to the main road.

"We're in east Manhattan and you expect the taxi
driver to just know where this place is?" Brian said.

"Oh get technical! We can always hope!"
Nick said as they got into the taxi.

Index

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