Closer || (n.j.)

Chapter Eighteen

Chapter Eighteen--
"I'm getting ready now. Your limo is coming, right?" I say into the phone speaker, the device between my ear and shoulder. I was talking to Kristen about coming to her 21st birthday party which was only a couple of hours away. I haven't seen Nick all day, so he must've been busy this morning. I was trying to get on my strapped heels as I was talking to my eager, and impatient, best friend.

"Yup! My parents told me that there was going to be someone singing at my party. Since, you know, it's kinda what I've always wanted. They say I'll really like him." She sounded so excited that she almost couldn't contain herself. My guess was that it was none other then Joe Jonas. Kristen still had quite the crush on him, and she also thought that Nick and I were still together. I haven't told her yet, and I wasn't going to ruin her big day by mentioning it.

"Okay. I'm excited. Happy birthday again!" I excitedly say in the phone, my shoe finally strapped on my foot. I gazed at them in admiration, these were the shoes Nick got me for my 20th birthday. When he knew that I couldn't afford them. We said our goodbyes, hung up, and I grabbed my purse off the bed. Kristen is a few months older then me, so her birthday is December 2nd and mine is February 5th. I walked out of my room, shut the door, then went downstairs into the living room. Nick was down there when I went into the kitchen.

"Hey." I said, touching up my lipgloss in the mirror we had at the entryway.

"Hey." His voice was deep, almost like he'd just been crying. I decided to push that aside and I sat at a stool by the kitchen counter. Nick gazed at me in admiration for a few seconds before turning away like he wasn't doing anything.

"You look really nice." He said after about a minute of awkward silence.

"Thank you. You do too." I replied, looking at his outfit. He was wearing dark wash jeans, a blue button up t shirt that he hadn't quite buttoned so the white shirt underneath was showing, and converse sneakers. He looked pretty good. I patiently waited, looking out the door to see if the limo was here yet.

"Waiting for someone?" Nick asked me, half smiling.

"Yeah. My friend, I'm going to her birthday and she's picking me up in her limo or whatever." I say, rolling my eyes. Just as he was about to say somethings, a horn honked out in the driveway.

"Bye!" I said for some weird reason. I cursed myself once I got out of earshot of Nick and headed out to the sleek, black vehicle. I climb in the back by my best friend and she looks great.

"You look amazing!" I say to her.

"Thank you! You do too, as always. Where's Nick? I haven't seen you two together yet. I wanna see some action babe." Kristen says, winking. I give a mental sigh and decide to give her what she wants. I cannot tell her that we're not together anymore. Not yet.

"Oh, I'm sure he has other things to do." I push it aside and cross my legs.

"Come on! Just one kiss. Since you probably won't see him the rest of the day considering you'll be spending it with me!" She cheers loudly and the driver rolls his eyes in the rearview mirror.

"Let me just go get my boyfriend." I say, giving a fake smile. I climb out of the car and smooth my dress before going back to the house. When I get inside, Nick is still at the counter on his phone.

"I need you." I say, the phrase coming a little more desperate then anticipated.

"What?" He looks up, shutting off his phone.

"I haven't told Kristen about us and I'm going to her birthday today. She said she wants to see us together before I spend most of the day with her." I ramble on and just grab his hand. His hand in mine felt weird now. Nick followed me out to the driveway, I was basically dragging him by the looks of it.