11th May 11:55AM–Bed
I woke up about two hours ago to the pain of the hotel phone ringing and the luxury of light fingers brushing stray hairs out of my face. I buried my face in what I thought was a warm pillow and pulled the covers closer around me in an attempt to hide from the noise.
The first thing I became aware of was that the pillow was moving and then my ears registered the sound of chuckling amidst the harsh ringing of the phone. The light fingers vanished. After a shuffling of papers the pillow began to speak softly: "Violet, wake up. The phone's ringing."
It took me another couple of seconds to realise I was not alone in whatever bed I was in. My initial reaction was of course panic. I jerked up and twisted my head back to see who I was lying on, but as soon as I opened my eyes I had to close them again. The fast movement and light made me feel nauseous and my head throbbed with a dull pain. With a groan I sank back down into open arms and a soft voice, no longer caring who it was.
"Jeeze, Vee. I told you not to drink that much. Okay, maybe I didn't but you did and well you went and listened to me instead, didn't you? Do you want me to disconnect the phone?" I recognised the voice this time and let Nick push my hair out of my face again. It suddenly stopped ringing.
"No, what time is it?" I moaned into his chest.
It was around then that I noticed my head was resting on skin. I pulled away a little and slowly tried to open my eyes again. This time it wasn't so bad. I squinted and saw a bare chested Nick with some of my textbooks in the bed beside him. My gaze moved down his chest to where his skin met the bed sheets.
Nick: 'Oh calm down I have briefs on. I got warm.'
I looked down at myself; I was wearing pyjamas I'd bought the second day. They were cute blue shorts and a tank top. Satisfied that I wasn't in bed with a naked stranger I sank back down onto his chest and rubbed at my head.
Nick: 'Water?'
Me: 'Yeah, thanks.'
I took a sip of the full glass he handed me and cleared my throat. I then leaned over across his warm chest and dialled my dad's room number. As it rang I cleared my throat and practiced some sounds so that I wouldn't sound too bad on the phone. He picked up.
Me: 'Hey Dad, sorry I missed your call. I was in the bathroom.'
Dad: 'No problem. I missed you at breakfast.'
Me: 'Yeah sorry. I was up kind of late last night.'
Dad: 'No problem. I just wanted to make sure you were alive. I have to head out for a meeting in a while so I'll see you later for dinner.'
After hanging up I rolled out of bed and into the bathroom. I showered and began brushing my teeth. As I brushed I wandered back into the hotel room in my towel and dug around for some clothes.
Nick was still lounging on my bed; he was reading one of my textbooks. He glanced up at me and spoke.
Nick: 'Oh by the way I used your toothbrush earlier. I knew you wouldn't mind.'
I stopped brushing for a moment and rolled my eyes before returning to the bathroom and changing into some clothes. I also wrapped my hair up in a towel. When I came back out Nick was pulling on his trousers. I grabbed his shirt from the couch while he was turned the other way and took it back into the bed. I stuffed it deep under the covers.
Me: 'What happened last night?'
Nick: 'All in good time. Have you seen my shirt?'
I shook my head innocently.
Me: 'Come back to bed.'
Nick took another minute and lifted cushions off the sofa and searched in piles of my clothes before he gave up and crawled onto the bed beside me.
Me: 'My head hurts so much.'
Nick: 'And that is exactly why I ran back down the aisles in the store yesterday, I went back to get painkillers. You should drink lots of water.'
Nick leaned over the side of the bed and picked up a bottle of water and painkillers.
Me: 'How are you so perky?
I took the water from him and the packet of painkillers. I swallowed two pills with a gulp of water.
Nick: 'I don't get hangovers.'
I eyed my textbooks on the bed.
Me: 'Were you reading my textbooks?'
Nick: 'Yeah, I woke up early, showered and then didn't have anything else to do.'
Me: 'I don't remember anything from last night.'
Nick: 'Really? Well in that case we'll have to do it all over again.'
Nick swung a leg over me and was suddenly sitting on my hips. His gaze never left my lips as he leaned his head down flirtatiously. I laughed and pushed him off.
Me: 'No we didn't.'
Nick: 'You're lucky I am such a gentleman. You were begging me for it. I practically clawed you off me.'
Nick leaned back on the bed and put his arms behind his head.
Nick: 'Okay so what did we do? Well, we came back to your hotel room. I put on some music; we had some wine and then danced for ages. After that we did some shots because you didn't really like the wine. More shots. Then when I thought you were drunk enough I asked about Mr soul mate. Turns out you were not drunk enough. You poured more vodka shots and we tried to play x's and o's but it didn't work. Eventually you told me all about; and I quote 'The Jerk'. '
Me: 'You stayed over.'
Nick: 'I didn't want to get the blame if you died from choking on your own vomit. I set my alarm for every hour for the first four hours to check that you were still breathing.'
Me: 'Oh no, did I puke?'
Nick: 'Thankfully you did not.'
Me: 'Thanks for taking care of me.'
Nick: 'I thought I'd always be taking care of you.'
Me: 'The deal is not off.'
Nick groaned and rolled onto his side so he was facing me. He took my nearest hand in his.
Nick: 'I know what he did was wrong. I want to go beat some sense into this idiot who is clearly pretending he can't see this amazing woman in front of him. I really do and I want to keep you all for myself. But you met your soul mate. He's all you'll ever think of. How can I compare to that?'
Me: 'Nick'
Nick: 'A condition of the deal is broken. It's void. It was only valid when we were both soul-mate-less.'
A few years ago Nick and I were playing cards in the hotel bar. I was fourteen, he was fifteen. The topic of soul mates came up. He asked me what I wanted mine to be like. I told him I wouldn't be shown mine. I told him about my family.
Nick then told me about how his family found soul mates a little late in life. Nick was an only child and didn't want his children to feel lonely like he had; he always wanted a big family but knew he probably wouldn't be able to have more than one child. He asked how I felt about my situation. I told him about how the women in our families found men to father their children.
Nick was intrigued; I could almost see the wheels turning, a solution to both our problems forming behind his eyes. He proposed we get married at twenty four and he said he'd be the father of my children on the condition that neither of us got soul mates before then. This way I would have a family, for a few years at least, and he'd get the big family he craved.
We would both get companionship and have children. It was a win-win situation. We passed it off as a joke; I used to tease him and say that it was the only way he could think of to get into my pants but he'd just turn it around on me and say that I wanted to get into his pants. We joked and teased but behind it all we were serious. It was the perfect solution to our problems.
Nick: 'I will make you a new deal.'
Me: 'Go on?'
Nick: 'I will marry you at twenty four if that moron doesn't come round.'
Me: 'I don't want him to come round.'
Nick: 'Deal or no deal?'
Me: 'Deal.'
I squeezed his hand.
Nick: 'Okay so you've told me what happened already so let's tackle the phone now.'
I groaned as Nick reached over to the bedside table and picked up my phone; he began tapping away on it. I shifted uncomfortably like I always do when someone has my phone. I sat up and looked at what he was doing. I looked just in time to see his swipe the airplane mode off. The phone stayed silent for a few seconds before it started beeping and vibrating uncontrollably.
Nick: 'Wow.'
Me: 'Don't.'
I made to grab the phone but he held it out of reach.
Nick: 'You're going to have to read these at some point and I don't want you to do it alone. Whose texts will we read first?'
Me: 'Lana?'
Nick: 'I'll go to the top and go from there okay?'
I didn't say anything I just nodded.
Nick: ' Okay so let's start. "Why is your phone off? Did you get my email? I can't believe you didn't call me. What happened, where are you?" Oh by the way these are not all in the one text. They're separate. Anyway. "Stadbar. Are you deranged? You're going to regret it so bad if you do anything with Nick." Oh… I don't think I was meant to see this.'
Nick laughed aloud. He shuffled closer to me and leaned in.
Nick: 'What does she think we're going to do?'
He said it slowly, his voice deep as his breath ticked my ear. I rolled my eyes and poked him in the side. It made him jerk away from me and shoot a cheeky grin in my direction.
Me: 'You don't have to read hers anymore. I think it'll just be more of that.'
Nick: 'Okay who is next? Who is Lisa? Oh, I think you mentioned her name last night.'
Me: 'I got a message from her?'
Nick: 'Yeah, she sent a few. "Violet. I know what I did was detestable. Holly is a twisted girl that everyone seems to owe a service to. What I did was not out of spite for you. I was in debt to her. Please pardon my misdeeds." …Why does she talk like that?'
Me: 'I think she swallowed a dictionary when she was a child.'
Nick: 'What is she apologising for?'
Me: 'I guess because she was sort of helping Holly mess with my head.'
Nick: 'I think we should move onto Kevin's texts.'
Me: 'No. I've had enough of reading texts. I don't want to be a sopping mess and I don't want you to ruin my good mood by making me cry. I am hungry; can we get some food?'
I reached under the covers and pulled out his shirt. I threw it at him before jumping up and pulling the towel off my head. I saw him shaking his head at his shirt with a slight smile in the mirror as I went to grab the hair dryer. He pulled his shirt on and began to button it up.
When I was about halfway through drying my hair he came up behind me and took the brush and hair drier out of my hands. He sat me down on the nearest chair and without saying anything began to dry my hair. I enjoyed when people played with my hair.
Nick dried it normally for about a minute before he seemed to get bored and began brushing it the wrong way and putting it over my face. We ended up in a laughing fit and then he panicked when he dropped the hairdryer and the nozzle bit came off. (I googled it and apparently it's called the air concentrator.) He didn't realise that it just stuck back on so I pretended he broke it for about a minute before I gave into the giggles again.
Nick: 'My arms are tired. You can finish it off. I tried.'
I finished drying my hair and Nick told me that he wasn't able to do breakfast but he'd be back later to take me on a 'secret adventure'. I'm scared. He told me to bring old clothes but I didn't bring any so I'll just buy some cheap tracksuit bottoms later on.
I walked him to the door and leaned on the frame as he stood, hands in pockets in the hall.
Me: 'I guess I'll see you later then.'
Nick: 'Come 'ere.'
He smirked and let out a chuckle as he reached for me. I slipped my arms around his waist and he cupped my face gently. He pressed his warm lips to my forehead before pulling away and turning to leave. He stopped dead so I followed his gaze and saw my dad standing a few feet away, with eyebrows raised.
Dad: 'Morning Nick.'
Nick: 'I-I am so sorry, sir. I didn't. I mean, well we didn't do…'
Nick was making a mess of his excuse so I decided to cut him off quickly before he embarrassed himself further.
Me: 'He slept on the couch. He had a few beers down in the hotel bar and I didn't think it was safe for him to drive home.'
My dad began laughing hysterically and pointing at Nick's face.
Nick managed to look panic stricken, his eyes darting around for an escape and confused all at the same time. Kind of like he thought my dad had gone over the edge and was going to butcher us both brutally in the hall.
When my dad finally calmed down and stopped laughing he explained.
Dad: 'You should have seen your faces! Oh wow, I haven't laughed like that in a while. I saw Nick's car outside earlier in the car park. Thought I'd come up here and give you two a scare. Oh and I wanted to tell you that your mom called and told me to pass on a message from Lana. She says that if you don't answer her calls she will decapitate you when you get home.'
Me: 'Decapitate me? Were those her exact words?'
Dad: 'Well you know your mom, she said it nicely but I know Lana and that is exactly what she meant so call her back, okay?'
Me: 'Yeah, fine, I will.'
Nick: 'I should go.'
Dad: 'Oh, yes let's go together. I wouldn't want to miss this awkward elevator ride together.'
My dad is the kind of person who gets enjoyment out of awkward situations. As he walked down the hall he pat Nick on the back a few times and I could hear him commenting on the pinkish shade that Nick was wearing on his face. I shook my head at them and closed the door.
I am thinking of lounging by the pool for a little while before heading out to the shops to find something I wouldn't mind calling old clothes.
Happy Christmas (A little late...) and have a wonderful new year!
Here is the next chapter... I've been so busy with college so you'll have to be patient with me
Thanks for following this story for so long! I really appreciate all the love!
Leave a review please. I really want to improve my writing. Tell me what you like and where I could improve. 3