"Such a dirty mind you have there! I was only referring to seeing me,." Nick smirked.
A dry laugh escaped from me. "You're crazy," was all that I could respond with.
Nick grinned, making his face glow. "You only live once, you've gotta live it up." Nick shrugged as he kept the eye contact between us, almost as if his words were supposed to be a personal message for me.
"We probably should go downstairs to get our room sorted out. I'm sure our real partners would appreciate seeing us."
"Probably, but we both know you'd have more fun with me than your real partner,." Nick chuckled.
"Oh totally, you saw right through me," I said.
"We can go on for hours about how amazing I am and how you'd have fun being my partner, but we should probably meet them downstairs so that we can move on to Williamsburg."
Nick grabbed his jacket as he came closer to me. I kept my hands as tight balls in the pockets of my coat. The teachers would probably try to fix our rooms quickly before we headed over to the historical landmark or they would be in a bad mood later. I reached over and opened the room door to get out of the room.
2
Nick
I crossed the entryway, my hand behind my back to close the door behind us. Rachel turned around, probably thinking she'd close it herself. She came up chest to chest, face to nape of my neck. I grinned. Rachel's cheeks had pink spreading across them. Her gaze was glued to the floor as the door clicked behind us. I watched Rachel's whole upper body rise, filling up like a balloon before letting out a long breath. Rachel has always been funny to embarrass. I held back laughter. I didn't want to make her completely uncomfortable.
The hall was surprisingly quiet especially considering the hotel was filled with high schoolers. Rachel was a step or two ahead of me despite her shorter legs. I glanced over at her. Rachel's hair was just short of her waist, blond with smooth waves that flowed down from the top of her head to the tips of her strands. Her coat was buttoned and tied close to her upper body and overlapping those dark blue jeans of hers since it was so big. Rachel's white little sneakers were just peeking out of the bottom of her pants, no I wasn't studying her.
I reached around Rachel when we got to the end of the hall to open the door before her. She tilted her head to some extent so that her big green eyes would meet mine. The corners of her lips turned ever so slightly.
"Thanks."
"No problem, Rachel," I responded.
Rachel started to hop down the stairs. When I say hop, I quite literally mean bouncing down the stairs like a small child. I took each step in haste to keep up with her. It was probably not wise to lose a short woman on a mission. My sister and mother proved that one. I was the youngest of four, two older brothers and an older sister. Plus I've had classes long enough with Rachel to know the teachers were going to fix our room situation. She was so sweet and innocent; no one would dare try to corrupt her, minus my sense of humor.
When we reached the bottom of the platform we made our way out into the lobby to see our grade traveling as a herd into another room, a big room filled with tables and chairs for dinning, most likely it was used for conferences that came to the hotel. I glanced down at Rachel who shrugged her shoulders as we followed. We were ushered to a random table.
I sat in the chair, closed my eyes for a moment and stretched, wishing that I could just go to sleep already to make up for waking up so freaking early this morning for this stupidity the school had arranged. My siblings took this trip in eighth grade, my brothers felt the need to brag about the fact they didn't have a project like us. My sister smacked them with a spoon when she was cooking to get them to shut up. That started a food fight in the March household. We were lucky my mom came home before my dad; otherwise we would have been doomed. Mom got the last word in by shoving spaghetti sauce on all of our heads then making us clean up before Dad saw. I love my family.
"It kind of looks like everyone is paired up when they're coming in here," Rachel announced in a low voice, disbelief in every word.
Oh God girls were absolutely crazy! "Rachel, I think you've been reading too many of your weird books," I started, thinking about when the book, I think it was called Flowers in the Attic, came up with some students because some kid saw the movie and Rachel straightened out the facts which left me to never look at her the same way again. "We go to a public school. We’re not people in a dating service."
I shook my head as she raised an eyebrow at me. "Don't patronize me Nicholas, look around the room," Rachel muttered, she just had to use my whole name.
I rolled my eyes as I scanned the room, observing more of my peers entering. "Okay, maybe you aren't completely crazy," I responded under my breath and she stuck her tongue out at me.
I returned the reaction and she giggled. I smiled. This was so normal for us. I really wish Rachel wasn't right as much as she was.
"Yo, dude, what the hell is happening?" A slap on my back punctuated my best friend's question.
I peeked over my shoulder and grinned. "Dill, if I knew I'd think about telling you for a good price," I told him.
Dill,
