The Way You Said Hello ~ Chapter Twelve

I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, hopelessly trying to decide what to put on. I already had my hair done: it was down, perfectly straight, a few inches past my shoulders. Its dark brown colour shone in the light as my head turned, trying to find my makeup bag.

"What am I doing?" I muttered to myself. I needed to get dressed before I did my makeup. I strode toward my closet, but before I got there, I heard the doorbell ring. I happily ran to the front door and swung it open. Ryan stood before me, holding a bag that looked like it was full of clothing.

"Hey girl!" I yelled and grabbed her into a giant bear hug.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" she laughed as her arms flailed in the air. "I'm gonna drop all this crap all over your floor, and then you're gonna be sorry."

We started walking back toward my bedroom, avoiding everything that was strewn all over the hallway floor. My parents had gone out for the night, as usual, and I was alone in the house. I'd taken advantage of that fact and had music blasting on my stereo. I had also thrown articles of clothing everywhere in my previous closet-raiding frenzy. On top of that I still hadn't found anything to wear.

"Okay. So…" I grinned. "Are you excited to meet Mr. Nicky-Boy?"

Ryan let out a giant squeal. "Becky!! I still can't believe it. I don't know how you did it, girl. You must have put the moves on AJ pretty heavy to get him to fall for you that bad!" she giggled, nudging me in the ribs.

"Hey, nobody is falling for anybody here," I said, going through my closet, still searching for the perfect thing to wear. "We were only together for one night. We're still friends, I think. But it's really confusing." I made a face. "I have no freaking clothes to wear!!" I screamed to no one in particular.

"I don't even wanna know what you did on that ONE night you were together," Ryan teased, taking out all the clothes she had brought.

I shot her a dirty look. "Nothing happened. We talked…and that's it."

"Yeah, like I believe that," she said sarcastically.

"Ryan!" I protested. "Well…okay. There was one kiss. But that's all."

She squealed again and jumped on my bed. "A kiss?! Okay, spill the beans. What was it like?"

I finally gave in and also grinned. I jumped eagerly onto the bed next to her, on my hands and knees, and grinned. "It was so good, girl. I have never been kissed like that before. Mmm…" I said, closing my eyes and falling backward onto the bed, remembering exactly what it was like.

"You are so lucky!" Ryan gushed. "Well, I guess we need to get ready. After all, I have to make a good first impression on Nick." She hopped off the bed.

I groaned. "Will you give me some advice on what to wear tonight?" I said, still lying spread-eagled on the bed.

"Why?" she asked. "You already have perfect fashion sense."

"But nothing seems right for tonight!" I said frustratedly. "I don't even know where they're taking us!"

Ryan thought for a moment. "Better go for casual," she said. "It's safest. And you know, if they show up and tell us they're taking us somewhere fancy, we can always change quickly."

"You're right," I said. I slid off the bed and walked back to the closet. Tyrese was blasting from my CD player at the moment, and I sang along. I finally picked out a pair of khaki cargo pants that weren't quite tight, but hugged my hips snugly. Then I grabbed a navy blue halter top from American Eagle. "How's this?" I asked Ryan, spinning around.

"Great! Very classic," she said. "What about me?" She was wearing short blue-jean shorts and a white spaghetti-strap tank top that had little red flowers embroidered around the edges.

"Very cute," I said approvingly. We made our way into the bathroom and started putting on our makeup. Well, I should say, Ryan started putting on her makeup. I just slicked on some lip gloss. I hated putting a ton of crap on my face. However, I did rub a little body shimmer on my face and shoulders to make my skin glow. I helped Ryan put on some blue sparkly eye makeup that matched her blue eyes and some light pink lipstick. Her short light brown hair was up in a ponytail.

I stared at our reflections in the mirror for a moment. "If I do say so myself," I said appreciatively, "we look pretty damn good!" We both laughed and put our arms around each others' shoulders.

At that moment, the doorbell rang. We both jumped out of surprise. Suddenly, we realized exactly who it was at the door. Ryan looked at me in shock. I simply took a deep breath and remembered that it was just AJ, the guy who made me look at myself in a totally different way last weekend. He was incredible, but I wasn't going to pass out just because he was at my door. I remained surprisingly calm. Calm, but happy.

I walked quickly to the front door with Ryan just behind me. I swung the door open, and there stood AJ and Nick. As Ryan's jaw fell open, I gave the two guys a big smile and waved them inside.

One look at AJ and I wondered how I had made it through the week without being with him. He looked perfect - baggy blue jeans and a white wifebeater. Of course, the sunglasses were there. His hair was sticking up, spiky, brown with some red highlights. Then there was the smile on his face.

Nick looked great as well, with his khaki cargo pants (that nearly matched mine, though they were HUGE) and white collared shirt. His hair looked very cute, fixed the same way he had it in the "I Want It That Way" video.

AJ came over to me and put his arms around my waist. "Baby girl!" he said. "The lady looks mighty fine tonight."

I laughed and playfully slapped him on the arm. "You don't look too bad yourself. Hey, AJ, we're forgetting about those other two." We looked over at Ryan and Nick, who were eyeing each other curiously. Ryan, of course, was in total awe. However, I saw Nick look her up and down a few times appreciatively, and I saw a certain look in his eye that suggested attraction. I grinned to myself.

"Betcha it takes them less than two hours to hook up," I whispered into AJ's ear.

"No way am I gonna bet against that," he whispered, also watching them, "because I definitely agree with you."

Louder, I said, "Nick, this is my best friend Ryan. Ryan, this is Nick, as if you already didn't know."

"A pleasure to meet you," said Nick, his blonde hair falling sloppily into his eyes. He offered his hand to Ryan, and she shook it eagerly.

"The pleasure is all mine," she said, smiling. They looked into each others' eyes and mysteriously became spellbound. They reminded me a bit of AJ and myself…even if they did move a lot faster than we did.

"Worst case of love at first sight I've ever seen," I murmured to myself.

"I wouldn't say that," AJ whispered into my ear. My head jerked around to meet his gaze. There it was again - that look in his eyes that made my toes curl. Too early in the evening for that, I told myself giddily.

"Well," Ryan said, apparently having torn himself away from Nick's hungry stare, "why don't we get going?"

"Yeah," I suddenly asked. "Where are we going, anyway?"

"It's all part of the surprise," Nick said, still looking at Ryan. I smiled again as she grabbed his arm.

"Let's go, then!" she yelled and dragged him toward the door. AJ and I gave each other a look and then burst out laughing. Hand in hand, we followed them out the door into the warm Florida night.

~

Continue to chapter thirteen

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