The Bad Boy's Bucket List

Go Up a Down Escalator

A/N: Thank you for reading, and remember to vote and comment!

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"Won't this be kind of dangerous?" I hesitated as I stared down onto the sheet. Going up a down escalator? That was really on his bucket list? What if we fell and died?

Nolen smirked. "Someone's afraid."

I shook my head. "I'm not afraid. Let's go."

We were in the same mall where this whole thing, me noticing Nolen's bucket list for the first time, began. We were walking towards the seats where we were originally sitting, and I could picture us there. It was only three days ago but it felt like I knew him longer than that. It was weird.

When we arrived at the escalator, Nolen spoke up. "You ready for this?"

I swallowed the anxiety. "You bet I am." With that, I ran towards the stairs, which were moving down. Stepping onto them, I lifted my knees high and started towards the top. It was so hard to move, the escalator taking me back down every time I felt like I was beginning to make progress, but eventually I could tell I was getting somewhere. I laughed and squealed, hearing Nolen right behind me, and pushed myself to make it up that last stair.

When I got to the top, a cop was waiting with his arms crossed. I gulped.

"Run!" I suddenly shouted, and Nolen looked up to see what I was screaming about. I started down the escalator, the cubby cop right behind me, and started yelling at Nolen to move. He did. Together, we sprinted down and reached the floor level of the mall. Rounding the corner, we bumped into another mall cop who was responding to the other's radio in. I looked at Nolen, sighing.

We were caught.

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It didn't really register to me, what we did, until we were sitting behind the bars in the police station's makeshift jail cell. Once there, I began to realize we had gotten ourselves arrested on only the second day together.

I began to freak out.

Nolen sat against the wall as I paced around, panting. My parents were going to freak out, and I gave them yet another reason to hate me. They would probably ground me, or take away my phone, or maybe just kill me. I voiced all of this aloud to Nolen.

He grabbed my hand, pulling me down to him, and I collided with his chest, which was hard. I scrambled off, muttering a sorry. Embarrassed for falling on him and for ranting, I looked into his eyes with a blush on my face.

"Listen, Cali, everything's going to be okay. I already called someone to come bail us out, and your parents don't even have to know this happened. Besides, do you really think they would hurt you because of this?"

I nodded, thinking about how he called me Cali. Normally I hated when people called me that, but it sounded good coming out of his mouth.

Alarm lit up in his eyes, concern crossing his face. "You have to tell the police if they are touching you in any way."

I shook my head quickly. "No, they've never harmed me, Nolen. Believe me. I just meant, they really hate me. They spoil my sister rotten and take her out of lunches, fly her out on business trips with them, and leave me at home. I haven't had a girl talk with mom since sixth grade, and if I get a 'hello' out of them once a week that's amazing. It's like I'm just there, watching their family, getting in the way of them all being happy. And now I got arrested." My voice cracked at the end.

Nolen reached out and grabbed my hand. He didn't say anything, he just held me, being there for me after that embarrassing break down.

I leaned my head against his shoulder and let the tears fall out of my eyes.

Nolen's "connection" arrived a half hour later, and I saw it was only John. John gave us a wry smile as we left the station with him.

"You guys are lucky I'm loaded or I'd be pretty mad about paying your bail right now."

I rolled my eyes at his bluntness, knowing the boy was known for anything but, and followed him towards his car. We got in the shiny thing, and he pulled out of the station's parking lot. I was first to thank him.

"Listen, John, thank you so much for this."

He shot me a smile. "Hey, no blood, no foul."

Nolen raised an eyebrow, causing me to silently laugh.

John dropped us off at the mall's parking lot, where Nolen's truck was, and we said goodbye. He hadn't asked any questions, which surprised me. When we were inside Nolen's car, I saw the list lying out and crossed the second bullet point off. Nolen drove in silence, and I didn't try to fill it.

After about twenty minutes, we arrived at a dumpy little shack of a house. The grass was seedy and the shutters were falling off, and it was one story. I looked at Nolen with question in my eyes, and he sighed.

"You told me a secret, I'll tell you one. This is my house," he hesitated, looking slightly embarrassed. "My dad works really hard to pay for the private school, and we couldn't afford a nice house after my mom left. She was the one that made all the money, and now this is all my dad and I have. He's never really home, even though he wants to be, because he has to work."

I hugged him. "I'm sorry about your mom." I told him sincerely, meaning it.

"I'm sorry about your parents. I know what it's like to miss your family."

I smiled faintly, and unlocked the door, climbing out. He looked at me with uncertainty. "Aren't you going to invite me inside?" I asked.

He shrugged, and pulled the keys out. I followed him to the door, stepping over loose stairs, and watched as he unlocked the door to the house. Stepping inside, I realized it wasn't as dumpy inside and it was on the outside.

A leather couch and matching chair set faced a TV which had an Xbox underneath it. The kitchen was open air, but I wasn't hungry, so I headed over to the games and picked one up.

"I'm really good at COD." I stated confidently.

Nolen smirked and crossed his arms. "You think you could beat me?"

"Definitely."

He picked up the game controller and sat on the couch. I put the game in and then plopped down next to him. Nolen looked at me with humor in his eyes. "Game on."

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Hi!
Sorry this is short, I'll try to write longer chapters! I'm on break now, so my goal is to update at least four more times. I'll probably update a lot more than that though, because I am flying to my grandparents house in the middle of nowhere, so not only will I have plane time but nothing to do once I get there.

Q: Does anyone watch Grey's Anatomy or How To Get Away With Murder? What do you think of them? Vote if you have watched!

A: I live for those shows. I must have watched every episode of Grey's like, ten times. Lol.

I'll update soon, remember to vote and comment!

Love you,

-S.