Texting The Non-Smoker (m.c) -2-

1.0

[ Nicole ]

I don't know why I'm doing this. Why should I wait for a guy I barely know to meet me in this rundown (and gross) park at four in the bloody morning?

The tips of my shoes are covered in the small rocks under the swing sets, crunching slightly when I push on the ground to rock back and forth.

"Nicole!" Michael yells in a sing-song voice.

"Shut it, there are people sleeping." I whisper in a harsh tone.

I glare at him momentarily when his face is illuminated by the flashing park lights. He wore a plain white t-shirt and pajama pants with dinosaurs on them.

"Don't judge me." Michael says in a playful tone, sitting on the empty swing beside me.

"Blue t-Rex's and purple triceratops?" I mumble.

He grins. "What other dinosaurs do you know?"

We proceed naming the basic Dino's on Michael's bright yellow pajama pants; apatosaurus, pterodactyl, ankylosaurus, and even a mammoth.

"Those are too easy for you, what about the others?" Michael smirks at me, thinking he's going to win this challenge.

"Oh please; that's an stegosaurus, a allosaurus, a pink deinonychus, a lime green megalosaurus, and finally a black baryonyx." I smile proudly.

"Well aren't you miss dinosaur expert, eh?"

I can't help but laugh. "When my dad needed a break, he'd send us to my aunts for a week or so during the summer and she'd put me in a museum of natural science camp where you choose your type of class. There was an FBI slash CSI crime investigation class, a cooking class, chemistry, sciences, and clearly the dinosaur class."

Michael smiles and nods. "I just really like dinosaurs."

"I couldn't tell."

"Jeez, sorry Miss Snooty pants," Michael replies in a deep voice, adding in a lisp to his words.

I find myself laughing, again. "Is that supposed to be JiJi from Kiki's Delivery Service?"

His face beams with happiness at my knowledge of the animated movie. "Yes! What about this quote," he pauses to clear his throat. "Nicole, Nicole! You're beautiful, and your hair is like starlight, it's gorgeous!"

My cheeks heat at his name switch, but nonetheless I knew exactly what movie it was. "No, I am a extremely powerful fire demon named Calcifer! Sorry, I just like to do that once in a while."

We both fall into a fit of giggles at my attempt of Billy Crystal's deep voice. I notice that his cheeks are pink when the light illuminates his face a little more.

"What is your favorite work by Hayo Miyazaki?" He questions once our laughter died down.

"I think From Up On Poppy Hill; the music is wonderful, the characters are relatable and amazing. I can't find one thing I dislike about that movie." I explain slowly, smiling to myself as the beginning song immediately started to play in my head. (A/N: that's what the attached YouTube video is!)

"I like that one but I want to say mine is either Howl's Moving Castle or Spirited Away."

"I like Spirited Away, it's just very odd to me. I think Ponyo is the cutest little animation movie though." I grin.

He nods in agreement. "I haven't seen Ponyo, but Grave Of The Fireflies is incredible."

"I refuse to watch it! I know I'll cry," I say, a little louder than intended.

Michael laughs at my outburst while trying to shush me at the same time. Sticking my tongue out, I scrunch up my nose and squeeze my eyes closed.

"Very mature, Nicole." I find him smirking while staring at the pebbles when I reopen my eyes.

Our conversation dies down at that point, and we end up swinging on the swing set a little. I enjoy the silence, but wonder at the same time why its occurred. I sneak a glance over at Michael; his cheeks are pink once more, and his eyes are glued to his black shoes.

"I wish I could see the stars," I end up blurting out, suddenly uncomfortable with his quietness and the squeaking of the rusty chains on the swings.

"Why?" He voices finally.

I shrug. "I've only really seen them light up the sky once, and that was so long ago that I barely remember what it was like. With all these city lights, it's too bright for star gazing."

I can feel Michael staring at me, his eyes burning a hole through my temple. Instead of looking back at him, I look up at the starless sky.

"I like when the sun rises," Michael says quietly.

"Really?"

"Yeah, everything is usually so calm, that is until the typical neighbors start cussing and the car horns honking, and the God awful traffic-"

I interrupt him with a snort of laughter. "It's so peaceful until humanity ruins everything."

"It's true! We ruin the most beautiful things in life; polluting our clouds to the point they aren't even white, they're freaking brown. And our land is filled with trash, we have people starving on the streets, cigarettes being tossed into grass which causes fires, chemicals being pumped into all our food- it, it just disgusts me." He mutters in frustration.

I ignore his comment about my smoking habits. "Do you really feel that way?"

He nods with a stern look on his features.

"Then do something about it. I believe if you can change what doesn't make you happy, you should go for it. I find it idiotic to continue just stumbling around in unhappiness when you know there's a way to fix the problem."

"But what can I do?" He sighs.

"There's a FoodBank a few miles from your apartment, go volunteer there." I suggest.

"I don't want to go alone," he whines pathetically.

Rolling my eyes, I also let out a sigh. "I'll go too, maybe we can get Jen and Katie to go."

"And Calum, Luke, and Ashton!" He says excitedly.

I smile and nod. "If you find out the volunteer hours and all of the requirements, we'll go."

"What about Jacob?" He asks, reminding me of my responsibility to my brother.

"I'll bring him with us. Wait, what time is it?"

"It's nearly six a.m, how time flies when you're having fun." Michael jokes with a small smile on his lips.

"Shit, I have to go. Jacob has his first therapy session in an hour!" I stand up quickly.

"Therapy?" Michael questions.

I shake my head before I start to run towards the house. "I'll tell you later, bye!"

I hear him laugh, even though I was a good distance away from him. I find myself laughing too, yearning to do this with Michael more often than not.

A/N:
Late night update!!!

So, lots of cuteness and shiz in this chapter. I hope I'm not moving to fast, I plan on this book being long af. So there's going to be many chapters like the previous one where it's practically fillers but it's them getting closer. (:

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this update! Please vote and leave a comment if you did!

What do you think of Michael and Nicole? (;

I love you guys!

- Jen