One of her fingers began tracing back and forth over my jaw, and I felt my eyes start to close. I felt tingly and warm, as if I were nearly asleep already. Nicole’s hand left my skin, leaving it cold, and I opened my eyes again. I watched her lean over and adjust the alarm before she reached back to me and tucked a bit of hair behind my ear. She seemed to focus on the strands as she wove her fingers through them.
“I need a haircut,” I said, and I smiled a little.
“I like it this way,” she said.
Okay…no haircut then. I was good with that.
Nicole settled back against the pillow, and I did the same. I opened my hand so my palm lay flat against her back. She wrapped her hand around my hair at the back of my head and stilled. She blinked a few times, her eyelids getting heavy.
“Nicole?”
“Hmm?” She didn’t open her eyes.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Thomas,” she said with her eyes still closed, but the corners of her mouth turned up in a smile. “Go to sleep now.”
I closed my eyes and watched the day go by, making sure to stop for that precious thirty seconds a few times before my mind settled and dropped into unconsciousness. At some point in the night, I woke up again. Nicole was still lying on her side, facing me, with one of her legs tossed over mine. I felt warm, comfortable, and…
…safe.
Here—in her house, in her bed, with her—I felt as if nothing could touch me. It felt as if he couldn’t touch me as long as I was within her arms. I tried to remember the last time I felt this way, and all I could recall were quick flashes of times with my mother. Those times when we sat at the piano and she would sing while I poked at the keys she pointed to on the keyboard…those were like this.
I drifted back off again.
Nicole’s alarm awakened me early enough to get home and complete my daily run before Dad even woke up. As far as I could tell, he had no idea I had left the house at all. I showered and shaved quickly before jumping in my car and driving back over to Nicole’s house.
I had actually gotten a decent night’s sleep, which didn’t happen often. I usually needed a good-sized cup of black coffee before I was really awake in the morning but not this day.
I felt good.
Nicole rolled her eyes at the gesture but still waited for me to go around the car and open the door for her once we got to school. I kept my arm around her shoulders as we walked in, only letting go of her briefly when we stopped at each of our lockers.
Hers still made me cringe. I hadn’t done anything about it yet.
Nicole was a little nervous as we walked through the halls, but no one said anything, and the sheer number of people outright staring at us dwindled. I left her at her first class just as the bell was ringing but not before I leaned in and gave her a very quick kiss on the side of her mouth.
“See you soon.”
I glanced over my shoulder at her as I walked off, unable to stop myself from smiling as I saw her look back at me before she went inside the classroom. I saw Ben on my way to my first class, and we got lunch all worked out between one hallway and the next. By the time I led Nicole into the lunchroom, Ben and Maria were already sitting at one of the round tables, waiting for us.
“What’s this?” Nicole asked under her breath as I took her to the already occupied table.
“Ben’s on the team,” I said with a shrug. “Maria’s his girl, and she’s usually at practices. I thought you guys could sit together or something.”
“So, what? You’re choosing my friends for me?” Nicole snapped at me. When I looked at her, her eyes were narrowed.
“No,” I said. I paused in the middle of the lunchroom to try to figure out what the fuck she was talking about. “I just figured you’d like her, and she’s usually there…”
“And that’s not choosing my friends in what way?”
“What the fuck, Rumple?”
Nicole closed her eyes and breathed forcefully out of her nose.
“We really need to talk about this,” she finally said. “Let’s just…get it over with, but after practice, we really, really need to talk.”
“Okay,” I said, still not having a fucking clue as to what was going on, “whatever you want.”