Dog Tags

Chapter 24

 Quinn's POV

The movie comes to an end as the lights come back on inside the theater, "Still one of the best movies ever made." I say turning to Nick who just simply looks at me, "A classic is a classic for a reason." Nick takes finger and brushes it against my eye wiping the left-over tears from my eyes when I started crying at the last scene of the movie. "We should get going." Nick nods his head as the two of us stand up and make our way outside as I throw away the empty popcorn bucket and Nick throws away his empty soda cup. "Do you need a ride? I would be more than happy to drive you." I know spending this much time around Nick is not good for me, and I can't help but feel like I am Ilsa when she tried to ignore her feelings for Rick and stay away from him. "I guess I have no choice since Anthony was my ride but I am sure that he is still on his date and I don't want to ruin it for him."

Nick and I start walking to his car when out of the blue a man wearing black baseball hat, long black tank top, dark blue jeans, and Vans on his feet runs into me spilling my drink all over me. "Watch where you are going Clumserella." I look at man who is a little bit taller than 6 foot with blonde hair and blue eyes in shock, "You are seriously blaming me for this?" I ask him and instead of being a gentleman about all of this he goes in the complete other direction, "You are the one that wasn't watching where she was going, and now I might be late my modeling job." I am stand there speechless but the next thing I known Nick steps in front of me,

"I think you owe the lady an apology." Nick's voice is low and dark but the stranger seems Unphased by him. "I am not apologizing for nothing, now get out of my face before I make you a permanent part of the pavement." Nick lets out a dark chuckle as he grips the guy by his shirt slamming into the window of the nail salon, "You are going to apology, otherwise I am going to rearrange those so called dashing good of yours." The terrified look on the strangers face and in his eyes, tells the story because this is the first time that I have ever seen this dark side of Nick. "I am sorry that I ran into you." The stranger says in a shaky voice and I just nod my head. Instead of letting the poor guy go Nick slams him again into the window of the nail salon getting the attention from the people inside,

"Now say it like you mean!" Nick yells tightening his grip on the shirt of the guy,"I am truly sorry for running into you and being rude." I place my hand on the back of Nick and once my hand touches his back all his muscles tense up and he turns his dark blue eyes towards me letting out a growl that scares me a little. "Nick, let him go before someone calls the cops." Nick snarls as he turns his attention back to the stranger, "Your lucky because I would like nothing more than to put you through this window right now." Nick hisses at the guy before tossing him onto the pavement. 

The stranger picks himself up the best he can as he scurries away. "Are you alright?" Nick asks walking up to me as he starts helping me clean myself up,"Am I okay? I think the question should be are you okay? Nick, you almost put the guy through the salon window." Nick just scoffs at me and I have to say that I am more than a little worried and scared of how Nick reacted, but on the other hand I know that Brenton would have done a lot worse. "I think we did as much as we can do, I will just take a shower when I get home." Nick avoids looking at me and I feel like he is only doing that because he still hasn't gotten back full control of myself just yet. 

"Am I dropping you off any place special or just at home?" Nick asks takes a couple deep breaths as he starts calm down, "Just home, I have huge plans for the weekend and need to start getting ready." Nick smiles as his blue eyes return to their normal endless ocean. After giving Nick my address I find myself sitting the passenger seat of Nick's beautiful car looking out the window at the city all light up, "I might be stepping over the line asking this, but what is your relationship like with your boyfriend being a marine?" I look away from the outside and over at Nick,

"That is a very personal question to ask, but I guess the answer is that it is the kind of relationship that you take day by day." I start flipping through the channels of the radio until I find a decent song but I don't get to listen to it very long because Nick turns the volume down, "That was a very rehearsed answer Quinn, but I would like the real answer." I sigh wondering how Nick was able to see through it when most everyone around me just takes me at my word.

"The truth is that is more of a challenge than some people know, I find that every night I try to convince myself that it will be different coming morning, everyone around me asks if I am okay when I would think that they would know the answer by now, but instead of telling them the truth, I just plaster a fake smile on my face telling them what they want to hear and that is I am fine or it was just a tough day." I can't believe just how much I am opening up about myself and my world to Nick who I have only met a few weeks ago. "We are here." I look away from Nick to see that we are indeed in front of my house, "This place is huge." I chuckle because that is usually the first thing that people say when they see my house, and I have to say that it never really gets old.