VALERIE

Twenty Six

The house they stood in front of surprised the two of them.

Maybe bigger than Valerie's house, they stood in front of not a house, but a mansion. Tall palm trees lined the white gate that surrounded the home, a large fountain stood off by the side of the brick walkway with daffodils and magnolias planted around them all delicately swaying in the warm Florida air.

The over sized house had super short but really green grass and thick vines that crawled up to the upper floor of the home and seeped themselves into the tiny cracks of the exterior walls.

Intimidation struck the poor guy blindsided.

Taking a step back, Nick instantly turned away to walk back to the car,

"Nick!" Valerie shouted rushing in front of him and the drivers seat to stop Nick from taking off.

"Move." He said sternly, he clenched his jaw tightly and avoided eye contact with her, bobbing his head around.

"Turn around." Valerie demanded, her voice was also serious, which it never was.

"It's the wrong address." Nick mumbled sticking his hands into the front pockets of his ripped denim jeans, he kept his eyes on the sidewalk and on Valerie's shoes.

"No it isn't. Now turn around and knock on that door or I swear I will."

"Go for it, I'll be gone once you reach that fucking door anyways."

Valerie gasped, "Nu uh you wouldn't leave me."

A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips, "Right." He said sarcastically, only to aggregate Valerie enough to move out of the way.

"No you did not drag me all the way out to this fucking warm mosquito hell to just turn back now."

"Watch me." He deadpanned while he roughly gripped her shoulders and threw her out of the way.

Being thrown so roughly and being so fucking clumsy Valerie fell on the floor like a fucking piece of garbage.

She scowled up at Nick who didn't mean to drop her but did.

"Oh fuck." Nick vocalized, backing away up from the car he extended his arm out to Valerie but she shoved it away before standing up on her own.

"You fucking asshole." She whispered at him with a hard gaze.

His grey eyes bore into her own intensely  she then turned to face the house again without another word.

"Sorry!" He yelled at her but all she did was dust off the back of her shorts.

"You can do this Nick." She reassured the nervous guy beside her.

Silently, Nick leaned against the car and shook his head. He stared up at the large mansion.

This certainly wasn't what he pictured.

Especially with a bipolar girl bouncing by his side.

He swallowed his saliva carefully.

The warm afternoon breeze moving there hair about.

While he stared at the mansion the sudden feeling of her small warm hand intertwining in between his fingers alarmed yet comforted him.

He looked down at his hand, he grinned at her chipped black nail polish and how perfectly her fingers fit in between his.

Like it was meant to be that way.

Valerie offered him a empathetic smile as she stared up at him, gazing down at her he nodded his head in a silent contract.

Slowly the two made there way up the brick path.

The nervousness mushing up his mind and her presence made it worse.

He felt like a child, a child that had to have his hand held to be secure, he wanted to crack a smile at the sight of a 6 foot 3 tall lanky guy following behind a short and quirky teenage girl with mania.

But before he knew it they stood in front of a large wooden door with the letter, "Q" carved into the door.

Pressing the doorbell Valerie didn't let go of his hand.

Valerie just offered reassuring looks, his tight hold on her hand let her know how scared he really was.

Big bad tough Nick was intimidated and terrified.

"No ones home, lets go." Nick said pulling away with Valerie's hand still in his.

"Hold on there cowboy." Valerie pulled back, almost falling down herself.

Nick stood beside her again at the front door as she rang the bell again.

His eyes stayed on the floor as the sound of a dog emanated through there ears.

Before they could even have time to compose themselves the door opened wide.

"Can I help you?"

Valerie immediately looked over to Nick who's jaw was clenched while his lips wobbled.