In Real Life (Nemi)

Something that we're not

I woke up the next morning & the first thing my eyes saw was Nick's gorgeous eyes staring at me as his head laid on the pillow beside me. He handed me my glasses & I laughed as I put them on. Ahh, much better seeing his face, clearly now. "Good morning, handsome."

"Good morning, Beautiful." Nick said, his voice cracking. I leaned toward him to kiss him, quickly. Nick smiled, closing his eyes & wrapping his arm around my waist to pull us closer together.

"How long have you been up?" I asked.

Opening his eyes, Nick answered, "A while. Phil called me at the butt crack of dawn."

I laughed, wrinkling my forehead. "Why?"

Nick sighed. "He saw some of the pictures of us playing putt putt & at the trampoline park & at the restaurants that people posted online. The rumors are all over the internet that we're dating."

"Oh. Well, we weren't dating, then. We weren't holding hands or anything."

"I know. That's what I told him. He kept on me, telling me that if we are together, that we need to end it."

My mouth fell open. "Why would Phil tell us to end it?"

"Because of all the negative publicity that would come with us being together. I just broke up with Olivia like three weeks ago. It's not gonna look good if it comes out that we're together right now, Demi. You have a new album coming out & I have a tv show & that movie I filmed last fall that is coming out later this year. He's our manager. He's just trying to salvage our careers & not make us the most hated celebrity couple in the business." Nick had rolled onto his back & was speaking to the ceiling.

"So, we have to stop seeing each other?" I asked, incredulously, sitting up.

Nick sat up, too, resting his hand on the bed behind me. "No, baby. We just can't tell anyone. No one. Not even Marissa." He bent his head a little to look at me.

I let out an annoyed sigh. "Sneaking around. That's fun. I mean I guess I can do that again. I did it with Wilmer." I rolled my eyes.

Nick kissed my shoulder. "It's just for a little while, until enough time has passed that it doesn't look like I dumped Olivia for you. So that it doesn't look like I'm a douchebag for moving on so quickly & you don't look like a vulture, pouncing on me before my bed was cold." He let out a chuckle & I glared at him. I started to get out of the bed & Nick grabbed my arm. "Don't get up, yet. We still have another condom." I turned around to give him a dirty look.

"If we have to pretend we're something that we're not, or pretend we're not something that we are, then we should probably refrain from anything that could confuse us." I narrowed my eyes at him & snatched my arm out of his grasp so I could get up. I pulled a shirt over my head & started walking toward the bathroom.

"Demi, come on. You can't seriously think it's a good idea to go public this soon."

I turned around, crossing my arms on my chest. "I didn't say it was a good idea, but I don't like that I am being made to feel like I'm doing something wrong."

"I'm not trying to make you feel that way." Nick sighed. "We're not doing anything wrong & we won't admit to anything either. We'll just keep us quiet for a while."

I put my hands on my hips, pursing my lips. "Oh yea? How long is a while?"

Nick shrugged his gorgeous broad shoulders, making me a little warm below my waist. "I don't know. Maybe six months or so, then we can say we just started dating."

I shifted my weight on my legs, giving what he said some thought. "I guess six months isn't too long."

"No, it's not. As long as there aren't any other complications that come up."