Expectation || (n.j.)

5

I woke up suddenly by the sound of a loud ringing. I jolted straight up, seeing that I was in my own bed. Alone. I found my phone under the covers next to me and saw my boyfriend's smiling face on my screen. I answered the call and tried to make myself seem more awake.

"Hey." I exhale, leaning back on my bed.

"Hey. Did I wake you?" Nick's voice on the other end makes my heart flutter. I smiled at the sound before responding.

"Yeah, but that's okay. What time is it anyway?" I yawn and pull my phone away from my ear to check the time. It was 9:31 in the morning.

"9:30, wow. I didn't plan on sleeping that late. So, what's up?" I say, falling back into the covers and putting my phone on speaker, resting it on my stomach.

"I was just gonna take you out today. It's a surprise." His voice seems to beam at me.

"Okay. Sounds good. What should I wear?" I question, getting out of bed and heading into the bathroom. I brush my teeth, Facetiming Nick in the process.

"Probably shorts and just a regular top. I don't know." He shrugs. I see that he's sitting in his living room on the couch with no shirt on.

"Classic Nick. No shirt on." I laugh and spit my toothpaste in the sink, wiping off my mouth on the hand towel. I walk into my bedroom, going to get my outfit for today. I chose short short jean shorts and a tight, white crop top that's open mostly in the back and is off the shoulder.

"What can I say? I'm a guy that lives alone." He gives me a boyish grin. The same grin I fell in love with. The same one I felt like I didn't deserve for one second.

"You're too cute. When are we going?" I ask, beginning to slip off my shirt, but turning so my back is to the camera. I changed into my outfit quickly, Nick most likely watching the whole time.

"I'd say early afternoon." I nodded firmly and picked up my phone, walking into the kitchen to make myself some coffee.

"I'm getting a call. I'll pick you up around noon. Love you babe." Nick says to me, his eyes wandering.

"I love you too baby." I smiled sweetly and he hung up. I brought my coffee into the living room and watched tv until my boyfriend came to get me for the day.

I felt lips on mine and opened my eyes slightly. I realized that I was laying on my couch and must've fallen asleep. I put my hands on Nick's neck and pull him in for another sweet kiss. He hovers over me and kisses me while tickling me in the process.

"N-Ni-Niiick!" I yell, laughing so hard that tears begin to fall from my eyes.

"Ready to go baby?" He asks as I try my best to catch my breath. Once I do, I answer him.

"Yes!" I cheer, kissing his cheek. We got up from the couch and walked out to his car, hand in hand. He opens the passenger side door for me and closes it behind me as I climb in.

"There's something I should tell you." Nick told me in a serious tone. I looked at him with a bit of a shocked expression.

"Okay...." I quietly spoke.

"I love you." He gave me a boyish smile and turned onto the highway.

"I love you too baby." I laughed and smiled, kissing the top of his hand. We pulled into the parking lot of someplace a little bit later. I realized that Nick had taken me to the fair.

"Surprise." He tells me quietly, making his nose scrunch up. I smiled because he knew that I loved the fair. Whenever it was in town I just had to get to it. Once I went to the fair the whole week it was in town.

"This just made my day a hundred times better." I smiled and kissed his lips tenderly.

"If we don't get out of the car, we'll never make it into that fair." He laughs against me.

"Thank you." I kiss his nose one more time before climbing out of the car. He gets out and we walk hand in hand into all of the commotion.

"Oh!" Nick cheers loudly as he hits all the bottles down. I gotta admit, he's got a pretty good arm when it comes to baseball.

"Which one?" The guy in the booth points to all of the stuffed animals that were hanging overhead. My boyfriend looked over at me and he picked for me since I was horrible at decision making. He handed me a blue stuffed dog that was actually pretty good quality. When I was younger, my foster parents would take me and my foster siblings here, and we'd have a collection of stuffed animals won at the fair.

"You ready to go yet?" Nick asks me, all the lights of the fair illuminating his face. Surprisingly, I was pretty tired. But there was something else that I needed to do at the fair before I went home. Always.

"We have to sit and watch the fireworks silly." I stick my tongue out at him playfully and he puts his arm around my shoulders.

"When do those start?" He questions, leading us to a vacant picnic table to sit.

"In about a half hour. So we could go on another ride or so until they start. It'll be announced. We used to watch them when I was a kid. My foster parents would take my siblings and I here every year and we'd watch the fireworks together." I smiled at the thought, wondering what they were all up to now. I hadn't had contact really with anyone for a year or so, except for my sister, Finn. She's my real sister, and we've always been inseparable. That is until our parents abandoned us. I remember when I told Nick about her and couldn't stop smiling. She's younger then me by two years, but she acts as though she's my age. We haven't seen each other now in a few years because we were taken to different foster homes when we were kids. But she knows where I live, but that's it. I don't know anything about her right now either.

"That's pretty cool. I was never one to really go to this stuff. I think I came here once when I was younger. With my first girlfriend." He sipped on the Diet Coke he had gotten and sucked in his lips.

"Did you kiss her under the fireworks?" I tease him, scrunching up my nose.

"We weren't aloud to stay that long." He stifles out a laugh and I laugh along with him. Who wasn't aloud to see the greatest part of this? In my opinion, the fireworks were the best part.

"What was her name?" I question him, setting my stuffed dog next to me on the bench. I was starting to get chilly and so I rubbed my arms up and down and my teeth chattered a bit.

"Miley Cyrus. She's an actress now, and that's all I know about her. Honestly, when we were dating, she wasn't exactly the popular kid. Unlike myself. I was in the cool kids group in school." He gloats and gives a cocky smile.

"You're so full of it." I laugh at him and make a funny face.

"You want my jacket?" He offers me his leather jacket, but my instant reaction is to turn it down.

"It's okay." I tell him.

"No, seriously." He holds it out to me and I walk over to take it. Before I get the jacket, Nick's lips collide with mine. It instantly warmed up my whole body.

"I may not need that if you keep doing that." I put at him, smiling. I took it anyway, feeling the warmth from him wearing it. This had to be one of the best nights of my life.