"You can do this, you can do this" Natalie mouthed to herself as she went to confront Nick about what had almost happened in the pool. She found him stuffing a few things into his backpack, as she nervously cleared her throat to get his attention. "Uhh Nick we need to talk."
"What about?" Nick said cautiously, focusing on his shoes as if they were the most interesting thing in the world. He already had a feeling what it was about and he really didn't want to talk about it.
"You know what. The pool the other day, what might've happened" Natalie replied.
"Nat" he said. "I'm late already, but nothing happened okay. Let's just drop it." He slung his backpack over his shoulder, as Natalie watched him fumble around for something. "Do you know where my keys are?"
"Yeah, they're over there on top of your alarm clock" Natalie sighed, pointing towards Nick's beside table. "Where are you going anyway?"
"I've gotta pick up Cassie. She's coming home today" Nick said, giving a small smile. He stuffed his keys in his pocket and ran his hands quickly through his hair. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah things couldn't get any better" she said dryly. "If you want to leave things up in the air like this."
"Nat we're friends" Nick said as he placed both hands on Natalie's shoulders. "We'll always be friends alright. You're one of my best friends and I can't lose that."
"Uh-huh" Natalie said slowly, unable to look at Nick, just in case he could see the disappointment in her eyes. "Sure Nick."
"Great, well I gotta go, Cassie's probably waiting" Nick said already heading for the front door. "Have a great day Nat, I'll see you later."
"Yeah...later" Natalie said softly, as she watched Nick quickly head out the door and take with him any chance she had been hoping for to become more than friends.
**************
"Whoa, whoa" Cassie said as she giggled at Nick's sudden playfullness and bout of affection. He had been extremely affectionate for the past few days and she was starting to wonder what had gotten into him. "Nick...Nick hang on."
"What?" Nick said as he dropped a kiss on her forehead.
"Can we give it a rest for a bit" she laughed. "You haven't left me alone since I got here."
"I didn't think you'd want me to" Nick pouted. "Cass you've been away for so long, didn't you miss me or something?"
"Like crazy Nick, but you'd think from how you've been acting that you have something to feel guilty about" Cassie said with a laugh.
Nick immediately backed off, giving Cassie a scrunched up expression. "I can't believe you just said that."
"I was kidding Nick" Cassie replied.
"Well it wasn't funny Cass."
"Alright I'm sorry" Cassie finally said. "Why are you getting so defensive?"
"I'm not, it's just I missed you and now we're trying to catch up, you think it's because I have something to feel guilty about" Nick responded.
"Okay Nick, calm down. I'm really sorry that I said that, cause I missed you too" Cassie said giving Nick a grin. "Now where were we?"
Nick looked up and saw a few pictures on the shelf, that he and Nat had taken while mucking around with the camera. He focused on the one of Nat grabbing him around the neck in a mock head lock, while they pulled faces at each other, and immediately the same feeling he'd gotten at the pool washed over him. Nick shook his head and looked back at Cassie who was waiting for him to say something. "Um I think we were right here weren't we?" He said before bringing his head down to kiss Cassie; but with the memory of Natalie quickly bringing itself to the surface.
**************
"Hey, hey easy on the coffee Nat" Sarah said as she watched Natalie down half her cup in one go. "You'll be awake till next week if you keep that up."
"It doesn't matter, I've been awake for three days straight cause I keep seeing Nick everytime I close my eyes" Natalie shrugged. "I can't sleep anyway."
"Has Cassie been over?"
"Yep, everytime I come home there they are, you'd think Nick didn't have anything else to do with his day besides sit on that couch with her and make out" Natalie replied. "Doesn't Nick have his music career to maintain or something. I haven't seen him go out to do anything besides go out with Cassie."
"They're apparently on abreak, but he's got rehearsals and stuff coming up so he's gotta unlock lips with Cassie sometime" Saraj remarked. "I had lunch with them the other day and they just about made me want to puke."
"Try living with it. It's like Nick's trying to say he's off limits by flaunting Cassie around the house right in front of me" Natalie responded. "I feel like ripping her head off everytime I see her."
"I don't think Murder One would go down too well with Nick" Sarah laughed. "He seems to be, sorry to say, really into her at the moment."
Natalie put both hands to her heart and pretended to collapse. "Break my heart why don't you."
"Sorry Nat, just giving you the cold hard truth. Nick's going through a phase at the moment and he's not thinking straight" Sarah said, with a roll of her eyes. "It's just too bad for you I guess."
"Hey I'll live. He's not the centre of my world or anything. If he doesn't want anything more I can live with that" Natalie shrugged. "I think I'm gonna have to start dealing with it already."
"You like him alot don't you?" Sarah commented with a sympathetic smile.
"Don't even get me started Ser."
"I wish things could've been different for you though."
"I wish too, but Nick seems to want to deny the whole thing ever happened so what can I do?"
**************
Nick was sitting out on the balcony with Cassie, but was too busy concentrating on something else to pay attention to what she was saying. Natalie was in the pool with a few friends of hers, including AJ and Sarah who were sitting to the side having an intense conversation, and a new guy she was splashing around in the pool with. He watched Natalie laugh hysterically as she was hauled up onto the guy's shoulders and thrown into the water as they both lost their balance. Natalie swatted at him playfully before they both headed to the stairs at the side of the pool, where Nick recalled he had cornered her before. He was trying not to stare, but he couldn't deny the fact seeing Natalie with another guy was really annoying him.
"So what do you think?" Cassie interrupted.
"Huh about what?" Nick said absent-mindedly.
"About what I just said" Cassie replied.
"I..uh..I.." Nick stammered, knowing that he hadn't heard a word that Cassie had said.
"You weren't listening again were you?" Cassie accused in an annoyed voice.
"Sorry Cass, could you repeat it. I have other things on my mind at the moment."
"You've been a million miles away. What are you looking at anyway?" Cassie said, before following Nick's gaze and landing on Natalie having a close convesation with a guy by the side of the pool. Cassie smiled and turned to Nick. "That looks promising."
"What does?"
"Nat and that guy. They both seem to really like one another."
"Nat wouldn't like him, he's too...jock looking. She's looking for a different kind of guy."
Cassie raised an eyebrow at him. "And how would you know all this?"
"I live with her, I know Nat inside out, I know what she wants and what she doesn't want" Nick shrugged with a smile. "And that guy ain't it."
"Well that doesn't look like she doesn't want him" Cassie pointed out as they both saw Natalie being tickled and the expression of giddiness on her face as she giggled and tried to get away. The further she tried to back away though, the closer they both got.
"We used to do that all the time" Nick frowned. "I think that guy's taking things a bit too quickly."
Cassie looked at Nick with an incredulous expression. "Nick I think that's for Nat to decide don't you? She doesn't seem to be worried."
"She can't see what he's doing yet, she can be a bit blind to things like that sometimes."
"Babe leave it, Nat can look after herself" Cassie said with an exasperated sigh. She didn't like the fact Nick was showing more than concern at what Natalie was doing.
"I can't believe AJ's just sitting there" Nick said with a slight yell. "The guy is seriously putting the moves on her and he's not doing anything."
"Maybe cause he doesn't care either way" Cassie remarked. "It's not as if he's forcing her to do anything Nick."
"Yeah but Nat's too nice for her own good, sometimes she finds it hard to say no" Nick replied.
"So what are you gonna do?" Cassie said with an annoyed expression.
"Maybe I should go down there just so somebody can keep an eye on Nat. Come on Cass you wanna go swimming?" Nick said distractedly, unable to avert his eyes away from the pool and Natalie.
"As if I have a choice anyway" Cassie said sourly as she got to her feet and followed Nick through the house and into the backyard.
Chapter Eighteen
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