"Where are we going then?" I pressed again, really hoping that I could break his wall.
"Trust me okay," he repeated, taking hold of my hand, I looked down at our hands as he interlaced our fingers. "Stop asking."
Nick's skin was warm against mine.
"Then just tell me and I'll stop asking you," I begged as I swung Nick's hand back and forth all the while he kept his pace slow to let me stay with him.
"No I want it to be a surprise."
He squeezed my hand as a smile grew on his face.
"You know you're being annoying."
"So are you, Rach." Nick chuckled.
"Stop calling me Rach."
Nick just rolled his eyes while beaming. He was seriously thrilled with himself. Jerk. That just bothered me more. I really wanted to know what he was up to. My senses were telling me that Nick had been up to something for awhile now. Cars drove past us blowing wind at us. I hate winter. I was born in the wrong season. The cool December temperature stung my skin. I kept walking behind Nick on the sidewalk-less street as a car would come until Nick finally switched hands that he was holding of mine so that I was on the grass on our journey. I've been on this road countless times over the years. We passed the emu farm on one side and bare trees on people's yards. There were some people outside putting Christmas decorations out.
"Why are we going this direction?" I inquired, thinking of the major roads in that direction.
"You shall see, just enjoy the suspense of the surprise."
"I hate knowing there are surprises," I muttered.
Nick glimpsed over at me. As a man stood on his property yelling at some lights that seemed to be in knots as his neighbors across the street with his son was setting up a reindeer set. A breeze blew by causing a chill to run through me. I really hoped wherever we were going had heat. Though I never had a friend who put this much effort into trying to shock me especially for my birthday. The sight of the complex where a local restaurant that everyone likes to go to after football games and a food store was ahead of us leaving me still confused on what Nick was up to. We kept to the left where a few different types of stores such as bagels, sub sandwiches, another food store, and the last movie rental all was located. Nick tugged me in that direction of the lone movie rental place within fifty to eighty miles radius. We were outside the store as he was about to open the door he leaned over towards an ear.
"We're here," Nick whispered into my ear, which sent another shiver through me. "We came to rent a movie."
We stepped through the glass doors to start to go through the aisles of movies. I had no idea what movie he had in mind. Would we even be interested in the same type of movies? In the hotel room we were always fighting over the remote.
"I don't think I've heard of half of these movies." I laughed reading some of the most ridiculous titles I've ever heard in my life. "When did this go into the theaters?"
Nick was chuckling as he was reading about some movie about cheese.
"How about we focus on a movie the two of us can stand," Nick responded as his eyes scanned the shelves.
We stood there in the Action section when I noticed that there were these three teenage girls staring at Nick and me. They started to giggle after staring at him from the Romance section as they held their hands up by their mouths to cover what they were saying to one another. They did not go to our school. The brunette laughed like a Disney Princess as she whispered something else as her friend with darker skin spoke quietly to an Asian looking girl whose attention was brought back to her group. I dropped my gaze to the ground. They knew that Nick and I should not be together. That was when I felt an arm wrap around my shoulders and I could see the three girl's jaws drop that me, the plain Jane, was actually with someone like Nick. Bridget would totally be smacking me for thinking that.
"I think you'd like this, since you seemed to like that movie we watched at the hotel," Nick spoke, with a genuine smile on his face.
Heat rose to my face remembering waking up to those navy eyes gazing at me.
"Yeah, that looks good," I nodded barely glimpsing at the movie as we headed to the line passing the three girls.
The three girls watched us until we left the store. My ring finger started to sting as we were walking across the parking lot. My face scrunched as I looked down at my hand when Nick was watching the cars passing us.
"I think we have popcorn also at home so we can probably make some for when we watch the movie. We can have the heat on to a level we like and have our own seats without having to be yelled at for putting our feet up on the furniture."
I giggled. Nick was being kind of cute with this enthusiasm.
"You're just like a little kid about this." The cold hurt my face as I smiled. "At this rate I'm not going to know how to top this for your birthday."
"I think you've awhile to figure that out." He chuckled, pulling me a little closer to him and kissing the top of my head.
Nick kept my body close to his with his arm wrapped my shoulders. I didn't make an effort to pull away from him. Us standing like that was surprisingly comfortable.
"You're ridiculous, you know that right?" I told him with a grin wide across my face.
"And you love every second of it." Nick snickered while his hand rubbed my shoulder.
"I don't know why you think that,"
