"I call shotgun!" I shout as soon as Aaron and Angel are picked up by their parents, bolting for AJ's Durango.
"No fair!" Nick playfully shouts, snapping out of his trance and chasing after me.
"I'm driving and she gets front," AJ calls out as Nick swoops me into his arms, his sweet side appearing.
"I love you, Sam," he tells me, still jogging to AJ's car.
"Love you too, Nick," I respond, the feeling of entrapment rearing its head again as he presses his lips to mine.
He puts me on my feet next to the passenger door, wrapping his arms around me and resting his chin on my shoulder while we wait for AJ to unlock the doors. "You're distracted again. What's on your ever busy mind?" the guy I once loved asks me, whispering it in my ear.
"Touring, album releases, your studio sessions, our time, appearances and interviews," I answer honestly, whispering my reply as the doors unlock and we climb in.
"Don't stress it," he tells me, stroking my cheek as he sits back. "AJ, can we stop and look at that place near yours?"
"You two can, I'll stay in the backyard there."
"I'll stick with AJ," I say, not wanting to be in the way and talk to AJ.
"Fine," Nick grumpily responds, grumbling to himself.
A few minutes later, we pull up outside a gated medium blue mansion and exit the SUV. "Nice," AJ says, pulling a slightly amused/surprised face and nodding before heading for the backyard. I quickly follow suit and hook my arm in his. He goes for a far and out of view corner, making my mind reel with curiosity. "You don't feel the same," he announces, reading me like an answer sheet to a final and understanding it and pulling out a rainbow tie dye colored pipe with green pieces in it.
I watch as he pulls out a lighter and sets the stuff on fire, inhaling to make it burn red-orange. "No, not anymore."
Curiosity helps me keep my interest in his activity. "Fair enough, considering all he's put you through," he says, releasing the smoke from his lungs via his nose.
"Mmmmm," I agree.
He moves the pipe around, watching my eyes track it. "Wanna know what this is?" he asks, an eyebrow peeking above as he looks at me over the top of his sunglasses. I nod, cursing myself mentally for it. He hands it to me, placing my forefinger over the hole in the bowl part and smiling mischievously at me. "Inhale deeply and halfway through lift your finger," he directs me, touching the finger he put over that hole.
I do as he tells me and hand him back the glass object, coughing violently. "Fuck's that?"
"Weed, marijuana, bud, green, ganja, good shit." He does the same thing I just did, holding it in. "You're supposed to hold it in before blowing it out," he informs me, having blown out the smoke and offering it up again. I take it again and copy him exactly, not coughing as bad.
I begin to feel my body tingle, wondering why and realize AJ's a bad influence at times. "You're evil."
"Yes, yes, I am." He repeats the process and smiles bigger. "You just smoked third a bowl, girl, and you're ripped," he confesses, telling me I'm fucked up on weed.
"We need to hang more."
"We will."
"I wanna take Nick somewhere and screw him brainless," I mutter.
"What?!" he laughs, falling over where he's sitting in the grass.
"You heard me, dude."
"I like this place, I'm getting it," Nick says, appearing behind me.
It'll be nice to have a place where his siblings and parents can't just walk a couple blocks and show up unannounced, regardless of how much he loves them it does piss him off when he's sleeping or has company. "Ok, let's go," I demand, grabbing his wrist and pulling him toward the car. Did I mention I have a tank top, a short denim skirt and high heeled boots on? No? Well, I do. "AJ! We should get to your place!" I call over my shoulder, running for his vehicle.
He jumps up and rushes to his Durango, letting us in faster than before. I climb in the backseat with Nick and wait till AJ's at the end of the road before straddling Nick's lap. I begin hungrily kissing him, rolling my body as his hands slowly begin traveling. "What'd you do to her, AJ?" he asks, my lips moving to the bottom of his jawline just under his ear and his hands fly to my hips to hold me over himself tightly, capturing his bottom lip between his teeth as his head drops back. It's his silent way of saying I'm making it hard for him not to go through with his desire right now.
"I might tell you some day, but it's not today."
Dammit! That was amazing! I think to myself minutes later.
We get to AJ's, haul our bags inside and hole ourselves up in Nick's room, AJ having dropped us off so he'd be able to visit his girlfriend, Amanda. They don't see each other often and they make the most of any time they get together.
After a couple hours alone and a handful of rounds, I become so exhausted that I desperately need a nap after texting Josh that we got to AJ's safely. I know it went off, but I didn't care to answer due to the simple fact I was almost to Knock Out City.
I wake, lying on my stomach and face to face with Nick, his arm draped over my back. I wriggle out from under his arm and head for the yard after getting a set of comfy clothes, climbing into the hammock I had hung up with his help the first time we stayed the night here at AJ's abode. The memory brings a tear to my eye and I wipe the worthless thing away. I highlight a number in my contact list, contemplating if it's worth it and throw caution to the wind as I push the button to make the other person's cell ring. "Hello?"
"H-hey," I choke out.
"Hey, girl," I hear from the comforting familiar voice, drawl and all.
"I can feel it dying," I confess, torn apart inside.
"You're being dramatic."
"No, I'm not. Doesn't feel the same and I can't see him like I did the first time," I explain to my true to my roots friend.
"I told you that I refuse to get involved."
I slide my manicured fingers through my naturally wavy hair and sigh, attempting to force tears into reverse which fails. "I need your 'pinion."
The rest of that talk is far too personal to share or to explain, but I'll pick it up again at this point, though-"Oh, lawdy! He didn't!"
"He did!"
We burst into boisterous laughter, having shared a serious heart to heart minutes ago. "Oooh, that boy's gotten frickin' brave," I comment.
"He turned to your brother and said if he had been sleeping with someone close to us all, only he and that girl would know because they wouldn't tell."
He sounds unphased by the almost certain confession a mutual friend of ours had spoken just a few hours ago, the double edge of his tone is concern. "Wonder who he meant?" I play off, knowing it's me that our friend meant without directly indicating it.
"Not to be forward, but did you, were you ever involved with him in any way at all?"
Yes, we dated briefly and sleep together when possible. "Course not," I scoff, a snort coming through to help convince my friend.
"I sorta find it strange how close y'all have gotten so close."
"Of course you do, but it's not worth concerning yourself about," I cooly remark.
"You're lyin' to me. You've had a relationship with him, July 98 till the following January. I'm country, not dense, Samantha Marilyn Chasez! I caught it when I read those entries when JC brought your journal back and I know you were unfaithful to him for the last few months with the guy you're dating now, I know far more than I let on. Most of which I had learned from your journal and Justin taught me Op-Top to make it entirely possible to interpret every single entry on my own. I know everything you wrote in it and you can't lie to me about it. I also wouldn't doubt that you're cheating on Nick with Justin, you two are inseparable and highly predictable after I read it all," he quickly rambles, my jaw falling slack.
"Wha-? Whe-? How in the hell? You better be alone!" I stammer.
"I'm at my place alone and nobody else is here."
"Promise?"
"Yes, I promise. Cross my heart."
"Ag pointe amháin, grá agam dó le mo chroí go léir agus gach snáithín de mo á. Rinne mé gach rud a raibh mé in ann a bheith ag a thaobh, anois táim ag tnúth le gach uair a bhfuil mé in ann a chaitheamh amach as dó. Ní dhéanann sé mbaineann i lár mo Cruinne níos mó, nach bhfuil sé mo fócais. Devvie Is é an ceann téacsála orm nuair a shealbhú mé mo chill gar do mo chorp, Bainim dúnta le Nick mothúchánach agus go hiomlán ar bhealach oscailte do Devvie. Tá mé níos mó ná áirithe nach féidir liom a rá aon le Devvie má d'iarr sé orm a bheith leis agus Nickolas saoire," I quickly rant, frantic as I've ever been in all the years I've known him.
"You have been! That means he's been unfaithful to her! She'd be unbelievably and undeniably enraged at the both of you!"
I imagine him pacing, hand sliding through his hair and his green eyes filled with anxious excitement as I make him suffer for a few seconds before falsely replying to his correct insinuations. "No, James, I have not been doing anything with Justin. I have been speaking to Devvie, though."
"About a possible relationship?"
"Maybe."
"It'd give me piece of mind and feel better if you were involved with Harold."
"It would?"
"Yes, most definitely would, I promise."
"I'll consider it, seriously."
"Good, I'll remember this agreement."
"This is why I come to you, James."
"I know," he replies smugly.
"Talk to you later."
"Talk to you soon."
I hang up, shoving my cell into the back pocket of my cut off jean shorts and laying back on the hammock to relax, my eyes closed. "What have you been talking to this Devvie about, if you don't mind me asking?" Nick startles me, causing me to almost fall out of it.
Once I slow my heart back down to its normal pace, my hand remains resting over my heart as I see him leaning against the tree next to me with his arms folded over his beautifully sculpted pecs. His body has always been in great shape, only slipping up once in a blue (twice since I've known him). His beautiful blue eyes focused on me, filled with questions and worry. I wish I could allow myself to love him again, but I can't after what's happened. "Hanging out and catching up," I nonchalantly tell him.
"Is there something wrong?"
"No," I lie.
"Did I do something to upset you?" he asks, slowly sitting on the edge of the hammock and laying back next to me, placing his head on my shoulder as he weaves his fingers between mine with his arm over my abdomen.
"No," I fib.
"What is it then?"
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