Double Life: Pick a Date

A/N: I wrote so much yesterday, it didn´t seem fair to have it there on Word... I just typed this one though and didn´t re-read it though I quickly checked it... I guess it´ll b one of the many that I´ll have to re-read and edit later.... oh, wel

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In the middle of their lunch Nichole felt a buzz on her pocket, her eyes immediately changed, they were cold now. She took the phone to her ear and listened for about a minute then she hung out and got up, her meal wasn´t finished.

“Are you going now?” Josh hurried to ask

“Your group must miss you, you should go back to them” she said as she took money out of her pocket

“I texted them. Are you ok?” his voice was soft

“Sure” she started to walk

“wait please” Josh took her hand, she looked right into his eyes, her gaze was fierce, as piercing as it had been when they first met, until now Josh hadn’t realized how much her gaze had changed “stay, at least finish your lunch”

“Let go of my hand” she said despite him having a loose grip on her hand

“Don´t let me having lunch on my own”

“Go to your group”

“Nichole, just please, just once”

She shook her head “why not” he asked

She closed her eyes for a second and sighed “I can´t stay here any longer”

“Ok, I´ll ask for our food to be takeout food… just sit and wait a minute longer, it won´t be that long, ok?”

“I´ll be more than a minute”

“I´ll do whatever if you just wait” he said and she felt like chuckling

“You boys are too easy to promise doing anything” she mumbled. Josh raised an eyebrow “you got less than a minute now” she stated emotionless

“Where to?” he asked once they got out of the restaurant

“I´m going back to Burgeoys” she said and he made a face

“So early?”

“Go back to your group, you came with them. I need to go”

“What is it that you have to do?” he asked and she didn´t answer “Can I do something to help you?” he offered after a long silence. She only shook her head. “Come on! You shouldn´t go back to the school so early!”

“I don´t even have permission to be here!”

“When have you asked permission to go out of Burgeoys?” he rolled his eyes

“More times than what you seem to imagine”

“You love trees, let´s go to the park”

“I don´t want to see people”

“Well, there´s people everywhere!”

“Mmmh”

“You don´t want to go back to Burgeoys, you want to go to the woods” he suddenly said, she only glanced his way

“I´ll go swimming” she said after a brief silence. He gasped

“I won´t leave you, I know you enough to know you´re upset”

“you don´t know me, Josh” her voice had a tinge of sadness that she hadn´t planned on showing, if things kept like that she was going to let herself slip through the cracks of her well-studied self

“I won´t leave you”

“I know… it doesn’t mean I won´t”

“Come” he took her hand and made her go in the movie theater where he bought tickets. The room was pretty much deserted; just a couple of old people were in. They sat at the top chairs on the left side.

“You won´t see people here” he said and a long silence fell between them.

“Why are you upset?” he tried again but she didn´t answer “every time you get a call you go like this, what´s going on?” silence again

“Nichole, what…?”

“Please don´t ask me… let me enjoy the silence or noise or just say something else” her voice sounded almost lost as if she was too tired to speak

“Ok” he watched her close her eyes and lean her head back on the chair after a couple of minutes it looked like she was sleeping.

“Is today your birthday?” Josh asked, the mumbling sound of the voices from the film were the background to his voice. She shook her head with her eyes still closed and her head still on the chair. “When is it?”

“I don´t have one”

“I saw the purple box” he said touching her gloved hand

“I couldn´t avoid that, I didn´t expected people to be there so early on a weekend”

“Jonah's been practicing all year…”

“It shows”

“So, birthday…?” he prompted, she remained silent “I want to be able to get you a present like you did for mine”

“I don’t want anything”

“I want to give you a present” he stressed the word want

“Then do it”

“A birthday present”

“Pick a date, it´ll be it”

“I want it to be the real one”

“The one you pick will be that” she wondered how he didn´t get annoyed at her or even mad

“I´ll go to the school records” he said grinning, she huffed

“My file´s confidential… sealed”

“I´ll break in”

“You´ll be discovered. It´s not worth it”

“I´ll ask a teacher”

“Confidential”

“Jonah obviously knows, I´ll just ask him” Josh smirked

“Why would he know?”

“He gave you a present”

“Who says it was a birthday present”

“It wasn´t?” he was almost sure it was but her words made him doubt a little, she shrugged

“I´ll ask him anyways”

“You´re so stubborn” there was a laugh in her annoyed tone

“We could avoid all that if you told me”

“I could just ask him not to tell you if you were right on your theory of him knowing”

“He´d die if you approached him, you don’t want to kill him!” he laughed, she was silent for a long time after that.

“Nichole?” there was no answer

“Nichole?”

“Mmh?”

“Are you ok?”

“I´m breathing”

“I know you’re alive but are you ok?”

“Same thing”

“Not really”

“I´m fine”

“It doesn´t sound like that”

She stayed silent for a while until she sat up, opened her eyes, they were calm and enticing even, she smiled brightly “I am fine, Josh” she used her rehearsed smile and faked voice, he blinked a few times

“That´s not your real smile” he said with a crease between his eyes, her eyes widened a fraction

“After the movie, I´ll have to go”

“Where are we going?”

“You can´t go with me”

“Why not?”

“I don’t think my father would approve of that”

“I thought you said he didn´t care about who you were with” he made air quotation marks

“He doesn’t care who I take to my room, he cares who I take when he requests me to go to places”

“He´s got his priorities wrong” he huffed angrily she felt like smiling but she didn´t

“He´s got his priorities where every business man has them”

“Are you defending him?” he turned to see her, she huffed

“It's been a long time since I stopped dreaming… I was just stating a fact”

They stayed quiet after that, only watching the foreign movie, when it ended Joshua insisted to go back to the school with her, she kept telling him to go back to the group. She wondered if he was going to be mad like he had been once she almost wished he got mad so that he go but she also wished he didn´t get mad and stay.

“I´m free to walk where I want” he said

“walk then” she started to walk swiftly with her characteristic walk feeling his eyes on her for a bit before he started to follow her, she didn´t stop at the bus stop but kept walking up the hill, he jogged to catch up to her.

“Are you mad at me?” he asked mentally kicking himself at how silly the question sounded, she sighed deeply

“I could´ve easily lost you” she said above a whisper, almost mumbling, he grinned

“So you want me to stay”

“I didn´t say that”

“Too bad for you that I saw you at the restaurant” he reached for her hand, laced two of his fingers with hers and shook their hands lightly

“I could´ve left when I saw you see me” she looked up the sky. Her words startled Josh, she wasn´t even looking his way when he saw her

“You wanted me to see you?”

“No, that was a coincidence, I thought you had arrived already, you were not supposed to be there at that time”

“It was fate then”

“Fate likes to throw stubborn kids at me” she said with a hint of humor in her voice “picked up your pace –she took hold of his hand- else we won´t get to be at the bus stop when the bus arrives” she walked faster

“It´s not even coming” Josh looked back

“Stay then” she loose her grip on his hand but he didn´t let go, she glanced at him with a light smirk