In Love With The Wrong Guy Chapter 1 Nick Cassidy

A Story by Ronnin

It was back at the end of Summer of 2009, September 6^th. I remember it all. I used to live in Neptune with my mom. I went to Neptune High as a senior and hoped to get into Stanford for college. I was quite a witty student. I did all of my requirements, and I made through all the school s**t life had offered me. I even had job experience when I was a junior. Everything came fine. But there was one thing missing in me that time. All I did was live my normal routines, yet something was missing. I felt incomplete and lonely. I understood that my divorced mother who was in two jobs hadn’t enough time to be home. I’m pretty comfortable with my friends, too. But still, I didn’t have my light. But I had just found it.

September 6^th was a Sunday. The afternoon sun had gone bright. The tree leaves have gone orange and dry. The wind blew stronger than it did during Summer. I could feel the Autumn getting closer.

It was eleven o’clock at noon when me and my mom had just finished church. Everybody had gone outside; some were on their way home; mom told me she’d leave for work and just let me go home by myself, which was pretty usual. I was still hanging out, waiting for Sandy �"one of my church friends- to finish helping to the church members to close. I knew I should have helped along with her, but I felt lazy. Somehow, just listening to wind brush my hair was comforting. Sandy on the other hand, is on the church choir, and they normally sing twice or three times each mass. I’ve always wanted to join, but I never got the confidence to sing in front of people.

It took quite some time for Sandy to make it out. I had already been embracing myself because of the chills. When they did come out and leave church, I walked to them as they walked to me, too.

“Finally, it seems like you’re done.” I said to Sandy as she and her choir and church peers walk down to the road with me.

“Yeah,” Sandy, along with the leaving members, walked our way probably because we had similar destinations. “It could’ve been quicker if you helped out.”

“Sorry.” No. I wasn’t really sorry. Suddenly, one of the church leaders �"Mrs. Wicket- cared to barge in my conversation with Sandy.

“Liyah! How are you?” she greeted with delight and held my arm.

“Still the same! Thank you!” I answered with joy as I blinked my eyes repeatedly. Obviously, my smile was fake because I wouldn’t want Mrs. Wicket to ask more. Yet she kept talking.

“I’d like you to meet our new church members.” She said with excitement, pulling my wrist towards three people I didn’t know. The younger guy �"probably my age- was Alexander Johnson, and the two adults were probably his parents.

“Liyah, this is Alexander.” She introduced me to the guy. I had no choice but to smile. Mrs. Wicket pointed on the two adults with Alexander. “And these are his parents. They’re new.”

“Hi. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Liyah.” He reached his hand to shake with me and smiled. He revealed his teeth with his smile. I thought it was annoying, but I couldn’t show any disrespect. So, I pretended that I was happy to meet them.

“How enchanting to meet you.” I had no choice but shake his hand and smile back. I swept my attention to his parents and thought I should. “Hi! I’m Liyah!”

I smiled at them and scooted away back to Sandy. “Sandy!”

“Hey.” She continued walking. Some of the other members were already away from us. “Have you met Alexander and his family?”

“Yup. And I hate introducing.” I whispered.

“I know.” She walked with me away from the church members. “You want to go somewhere?”

“How about we get a cone?”

“Again? We have done that for like five weeks straight every Sunday.”

“All right.” We stopped walking. “What do you wanna do?”

Suddenly, my phone rang from my pocket. It bugged both me and Sandy. I brought my phone out from my pocket and answered. “Hello?”

“Who’s calling?” Sandy teased. “Is it a guy?”

“Hey, Liyah.” The caller said. I realized it was Nick Cassidy, my friend and ex-boyfriend, that was calling. Flashbacks returned to me. When Nick was my boyfriend, everything was quite different. We always did things together. He’d always seemed enthusiastic about everything. But I never felt anything for him. I loved him, too, but only as a friend. As soon as I felt that it was not right anymore, I broke up with him. Neither one of us took it well, but he took longer to get over it. “It’s Nick.”

“What’s up?” I turned around from Sandy, trying to make sure she doesn’t hear. Since Sandy knew that Nick was my ex, she had been teasing me to get back with him especially because Nick still gave his full attention to me.

“Uh,” He was kinda’ nervous. He didn’t know what to say because he didn’t have enough reason to talk to me. He just wanted to. “Are you busy, Liyah?”

“Well, I don’t know.” I said as Sandy tried to figure out our conversation.

“Are you free tonight?”

“Well, yeah!” I kidded to make it sound a little less serious for Sandy. “This is AMERICAAH! We’re all free!”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” I could hear him chuckling. “I meant to ask if you were doing anything tonight.”

“Sorry.” I said. “We’ve got school tomorrow, and I’ve got loads of stuff to do. I can’t go on a date tonight.”

“Oh!” Sandy probably figured it out. “Is that Nick?”

“Well, I could come over to your house and help you out.” Nick suggested. Man, he’s just so pushy.

“No, I won’t be home yet.” I said. “I still have some laundry to pick up, so.”

“I’ll help you.” He insisted quickly. He just couldn’t take a hint.

“No, I can’t bother you.”

“You won’t!” he sounded a bit excited �"more or less. “I’d be very happy to!”

I was having trouble in finding ways to not see him later. I looked at Sandy, and she was giving me that ‘GO WITH HIM!’ look, which made it even harder to think.

“All right.” I sighed. “Meet me at the Skye Dry Cleaning in four hours.”

“Okay.” He said with relief. I tried to not sound frustrated or anything. I didn’t want him to feel bad especially because I still felt guilty after breaking up with him for no good reason. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing you after all these months.”

It’s true. I haven’t seen Nick for months. I wasn’t really that socially active during that Summer. He probably missed me because he always said he does. He was always being sweet to me, but I never felt anything back. It’s like I was meant not to. That’s why I decided that being with him was wrong. But it didn’t matter that time. Sandy and I had things to do before I met with Nick. Besides, I had four hours to think of what to do and what to say before I met with Nick.

“Okay. I’ll just see you later.” I hung up my phone after that, never waited for what Nick had to say further. I hid my phone in my pocket again and saw Sandy making her giggling tease face to me. “Stop it.”

“What?” she chuckled.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” she continued to look.

I couldn’t take it and just walked away. She laughed and followed me instead. Sandy and I went shopping at the Neptune Plaza which was just 30 blocks. Sandy was quite a shopaholic. She had gone to each and every shop and bought four dresses. They cost her over a hundred dollars. God, she’s lucky she’s rich. When we finished shopping, we parted ways.

Just about half an hour late, I got to Skye Dry Cleaning in my promise to see Nick. I didn’t say I was looking forward to see him, but he was. When I got in front of the place, I saw Nick on the side of the road. He was wearing his gray jacket and jeans again. Every time he wore that, he reminded of the time when we had sex on my mom’s couch. My mom wasn’t home that night, as she usually wasn’t. We got a little bored at the house, and he just went at me and stripped. It’s not that I had time to think. When guys do that, my sexual lust triggers and, I just have sex.

“Hey.” I came to him, and he saw me.

“Hey.” He greeted back.

“Let’s go.” I went with inside the laundry shop and he followed.

I kept quiet as much as I can. Whenever Nick talked, I just nodded. I tried to stay focused on taking all the laundries. Nick helped me out with the laundry. I guess he figured out I didn’t want to talk. We placed the laundries inside my bag for clothes. It didn’t really take us long to finish taking all the laundries. My bag was full and ready to go. I hung it on my shoulder as we were about to leave. It was quite heavy, but I was used to carrying that heavy bag. Nick walked to me when I was all done with the stuff. He offered his hand, and I didn’t know why.

“I’ll carry that huge thing.” He referred to the bag.

“It’s not a problem. I got it.” Well, I was a feminist, and I hated asking favors. That is why I took karate, to not be powerless. “It’s not heavy.”

“You’re losing balance with that thing.” He said and pointed his eyes down my feet.

“Don’t mock me.”

“I’m not.” He said in a nice way. “I know you’re a strong girl, stronger than I am. I just want to help out.”

I gave a long glare at him, and he didn’t hesitate to do the same. I gave him a challenging look, yet he didn’t look any other way. I gave up, and just gave him my bag. I landed the bag on his palm, and he hung it around his back.

“I got the impression that you’d say you want to take me home.” I said with quite a serious look.

“Yeah.” He smiled. “If you’d let me.” He basically made me feel sorry for him. I had no choice.

“Fine.” I smiled back. “Only if it’s a cab.”

“Okay.” He chuckled and offered me his hand. “Come on.”

I sighed and held his hand anyways. I hoped that didn’t mean anything, but I guessed he didn’t take it like that. We went out on the side of the street. He still wouldn’t let go of my hand even when I tried pulling it away. I just went with the flow. Nick called out a taxi, and one stopped. It was pretty amazing. There weren’t much available cabs by that time. It didn’t matter anyway.

While in the cab, Nick tried all he could to get me talking. He shared several stuff, and I tried my best to at least give an appropriate response. He held my hand all the time. I felt guilty enough to let him. I just sat there the whole time until we got to the apartment.

Nick went out of the cab and tried to run to my side so he could open the door for me, but I went out already.

“I was supposed to come and open that for you.” He said.

“I know.” I said. “Thanks.”

Nick handed the cab driver five dollars, and the cab left. The clouds started to roar with lightning. It seemed like storm was coming. It had already gone dark. Nick had noticed I was bothered by the weather.

“Are you afraid of lightning?” he asked.

“How about you come inside?” I invited him with a smile, ignoring his question. He smiled and undoubtedly came with me to the apartment. Mom was not at home. She had night shift and usually returns home at noon the next day. Nick and I got inside the apartment when it started to rain. I thought I’d ask Nick for coffee because it was getting cold. Our apartment was quite warm and comfortable, and since mother seemed to have brought the umbrella with her, I guessed Nick would be staying for the night.

“Would you want anything? Coffee maybe?” I asked Nick while I took my bag off his shoulder. He sat on the couch and made himself at home since he has been in our apartment for so many times already.

“No, thanks. I’m fine.” He smiled.

“Okay.” I proceeded to my room and changed my clothes. I didn’t care if Nick would peek as I changed my clothes. It’s not like he hasn’t seen my body before. When I came out, he was still sitting on the couch. So, he didn’t peek on me �"most likely. I walked to him, bringing some clothes of my dad that might fit him. Well, I thought he might need some change of clothes if he was to stay for the night. I came in front of him, and he just smiled. I looked a bit serious.

“Here.” I handed him the clothes. He accepted him and gave me a glare.

“What are these for?”

“You’d better stay for the night.” I said. “My mom has our umbrella with her. You won’t be getting any cab because of the rain. I suggest you stay.”

“Are you okay with that?”

“It’s only if you want to.”

“Thanks.” He smiled.

“I still owe you for helping me, okay?” I smiled back. “Are you hungry?”

“You don’t eat dinner.” He chuckled. “Neither do you.”

“Yeah.” I said. “Would you mind if I go to bed now? I’m a little tired.”

“That’s no problem.” He stood up. “I’ll take it from here, then. Maybe I’ll take a shower first.”

“Thanks.” I walked to my room again. “Good night.”

“Good night.” He said as I closed my door to sleep.

I went on and slept. Nick took a shower as I was in bed. Nick did as he promised: he took care of the lights and the doors. Later that evening, I was still awake when Nick came to my room. I pretended that I was sleeping as he slowly walked to my bed. I thought he was going to invite me to have sex or something. Instead, he sat on my bed and glared at me. I felt him hold my hand. He probably thought I was sleeping, but my eyes were a bit open. I could still see him though.

“Sweet dreams.” He whispered. Somehow, that seemed really sweet and thoughtful for me. Maybe I forgot how warm it was when I was with Nick. It felt like there was always someone there for me. But I just couldn’t be with him no matter how caring he was.

I heard a sniff from him. I thought he was crying, or it was just cold. Either way, I felt him lean over to me. He kissed my forehead and stared. He stood up and left my room moments after. Because of that, I had thoughts that kept me from sleeping. But I was able to sleep anyways.