Nick above *Francisco Lachowski*

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"So, what's on the menu for today?" I ask, just having finished my breakfast.

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." He smirks at me, teasing me in more ways than he knows.

"Alrighty, so what's first then?"

"Showers."

Yay! I can remove the grease and smoke from my hair.

He hands me a material shopping bag and tells me to put everything I need in there. I eye him suspiciously but comply.

I re-emerge with a full bag. Nick has his board shorts on and a plain white tee.

"Oh yeah, you're going to have to wear your bathers."

"You're crazy."

"Sanity is highly overrated."

We banter for some time before he, without telling me where we are going, convinced me to wear my bathers. That sly little bugger.

***

"Hi, just the two of us," Nick smiles at the lady behind the desk, handing over some change. He puts his hand up on the desk and she stamps it, I follow suit.

We walk through the revolving door and the smell of chlorine hits me like a truck. I have a mini, silent, coughing fit but thankfully nobody notices.

"You shower in a pool?" I ask looking at him like he's stupid. Who the hell showers in a pool?

"No but we have to swim for a bit so they don't think we're just showering here. The showers are over there." he points to two doors, one female and one male.

Is this even legal?

I trudge into the ladies room, soaking from head to toe. It's fairly big with two large benches in the middle of the room and a concrete step bordering the room. The adjoining room has two sides: one with toilet stalls and a hand washing trough, the other has shower stalls, decent sized one too. Mats cover the floors to decrease the risk of falling over, they must have been thinking of me when they made this place.

My shower was quite eventful. I almost slipped over, both shampoo and conditioner got into my mouth, the water temperature kept changing and I couldn't find my soap. It was fantastic.

I dry myself off with the towel I smartly didn't use earlier when I got out of the pool. Today isn't very warm so I packed three-quarter leggings, a spaghetti strap singlet and a cream knitted sweater.

I chuck on my bra, singlet and sweater but when I get to my bottoms I freeze, I forgot a tampon. Crabsticks. I'm left with no other option than a toilet paper pad. I let out a frustrated groan, pack up my things and waddle over to the toilet with my pants not pulled up all of the way. Yeah, it'd be real bad if someone came in right now.

I make it safely to the toilet and lock the door. I thank my lucky stars, well whoever made these toilets, for the tampon dispenser on the back of the door. The relief that I'm feeling right now is indescribable. If we're being honest, I did a little happy dance. They really were thinking of me when they made this place.

***

"What can I get for you today?" The waiter asks us.

Nick orders a triple burger and fries and I'm in the mood for something greasy, so I go with wedges.

"What's your favourite movie?" I ask.

"It's tough but if I had to choose it would be 'A Knights Tale'. You?"

"I have no idea, I just watch whatever."

We talk endlessly and it's easy because we don't know much about each other. Our food arrives and the chat continues, just slowed down due to the chewing. Nick gets through all of his meal and helps me polish off mine. He eats a lot, it's like he's lost the part of his brain that tells him when he's full. I'm not the girl who orders a salad and just picks at it. That's not me, never has been, never will be. I eat what I want to eat and have no shame, but I do know when I'm full.

***

I replace my sweater with an old zip up jacket and pull on my steel cap boots. I believe that every single person in the world should have a pair. They are really comfy once you wear them in and are probably my favourite shoes, too bad they aren't appropriate on most occasions.

Nick said that he knew a good trail, so we decided to go on a walk. After those wedges, it couldn't hurt.

It's quite windy but when I get moving, it won't be so cold. We walk along the scenic trail for a good thirty minutes when Nick tells me that we're going to take a shortcut.

Nick and I are walking side by side and several times our hands have accidentally bushed each others. Neither of us said anything about it, scared to ruin the moment. Well I was scared, he probably didn't even notice. We approach a gate that's connected to a barb wire fence. That doesn't bother me but the 'no trespassers' sign does.

"Are you sure we can go through here?" I ask, an uneasy feeling at the pit of my stomach.

"Yeah, I know the guy, don't worry about it." he reassures me. I feel a little better at his words but not entirely.

I climb over the gate with ease due to growing up on a farm. It's a large paddock with trees going down the fence line. Over the far side of the paddock is a house and a small shed. We walk through the paddock but more to the left. Just when I think we have made it out safe, a chubby man, sporting a rather messy beard, steps out of the shed. He looks intimidating even though he's short and is wearing a singlet that makes me want to gag. He reeks of body odour and smoke, it's like he hasn't showered in days.

"Hey mate, how are you going?" Nick stretches out his hand.

"Alright, who's the lady?" He ignores Nick's outstretched arm and moves closer to me. He places a hand in my shoulder and I jump at the sudden contact. I feel extremely uncomfortable right now and all I want is to be away from this filthy man. I don't care if Nick knows him, I just want to get away.

"Okay, that's enough." Nick intervenes but the man doesn't budge.

"Just being friendly." I feel bile rise in my throat.

He leans in and kisses me on the check and I feel it rising, higher, higher, higher and then it drops, all over him. I look at the man I just covered in vomit, not regretting it. I mean, I wouldn't vomit by choice but he's a rather slimy man and I don't like it. I hope Nick's not angry..

"C'mon April," Nick takes my hand and drags me out of the paddock. His touch alone has my heart racing. Don't let go, don't let go, don't let go, don't let go...dang it, he let go.

"Sorry," I mumble, apologies weren't ever easy for me, even if I didn't mean them.

He chuckles, "Don't apologise, that was funny, Pukey."

I'm going to pretend that he didn't just call me Pukey.

"Okay, good, because I wasn't really sorry."

***

We arrive safely back at the campsite, tired from the long walk we just went on. It was worth it though, at the end of the trail there was a magnificent spot with the most beautiful, old, cherry blossom.

I lie down on the grass, rather dramatically I might add, and look up at the sky. The sun is setting, leaving the sky a wonderful mix of pinks, purples, oranges and reds. It's one of the nicest sunsets I've seen.

"Uhm, April? Small problem..." Nick trails off and I sit up faster than I thought possible. I probably shouldn't have done that because of the dull ache I feel in my head. I take a moment to get myself back to normal and then move over to where Nick is standing.

We both stand in front of my tent, surveying the damage caused by the wind. The cover is almost ripped into two pieces, just holding together by a thread. Just my luck.

"It'll be fine for the night, right?" I ask, slightly proud of my rhyme.

"I'm afraid not. It's meant to rain during the night and it's going to be really cold."

"Oh," I say, pondering my options.

"You can sleep in my tent with me, or in the car, but we need to put all of the stuff in the cabin so it doesn't get wet."

Well, that limits my options, I guess Nick's tent it is.

"Your tent is fine," I smile at him and he nods.

We re-start the fire so we can cook dinner and get to packing things away and moving my things into his tent, thank goodness we didn't bring too much. You can only imagine how awkward this is for me, I have to sleep with him! What if I snore or sleep talk or something embarrassing like that? I decide not to think about it and get to making dinner. We have steak, potatoes, a packet of gravy and some cherry tomatoes.

I fetch some water to cook the potatoes in and place it on some coals, putting the potatoes into it. Meanwhile, Nick has seasoned the steak in salt and pepper and has turned on the small barbecue. For camping, were eating pretty well. It shows that you really don't need much to survive. I boil some more water for the gravy and chop up the tomatoes, distributing them equally onto two plates. We work in silence but it's not an awkward silence.

Nick announces that the steak is done and conveniently, the potatoes are too. I place two on my plate and three on Nick's, quickly whipping up the gravy. I let Nick pour gravy into his meal because I don't know how much he likes. He might drench his food in gravy or just have a drop, who knows?

He ended up drenching his food, minus the tomatoes, in gravy, just like me.

"Twinning!" I held out my plate so he could see.

"I guess so," he laughs. With me or at me? That, I don't know.

"Thanks." He looks puzzled.

"What for?"

"Well firstly, the steak, but for the whole trip. I've had a really good time." I tell him, really meaning it.

"I'm glad. It was my way of saying sorry."

Yeah, that got awkward really fast.

"Let's just forget about it, okay?"

"Yeah. That could've become a cringeworthy Fault In Our Stars moment real fast."

"You've seen The Fault In Our Stars!" I accuse.

"No." he answers, too fast.

"Yes you have, don't deny it." I say, a smug look on my face.

"I didn't want to see it."

"But you did."

"Yeah," he mumbles, a pout on his face. His lips look so soft, I swear he uses lip balm..

Snap out of it girl, you can't go thinking about his lips!

I punch that annoying girl they call my subconscious in the face, telling her that I'll think about his lips whenever I damn want to.

"Anyway, let's do the dishes so we can pack up the remainder of the things." I agree and we get to it. I hate washing, it makes my hands feel weird, that's why Nick is washing and I'm drying.

It's that time of night where you can just see but you know it's going to be dark really soon. It's rather cold so I grab my flannelette pyjamas and toiletries and head over to the toilet block.

While I'm brushing my teeth, Nick appears with a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth. I giggle at the sight. Even with a toothbrush in his mouth, he manages to look incredible. Our eyes lock in the mirrors and he waggles his eyebrows at me. I smile, trying not to let the toothpaste fall out of my mouth before spitting it out.

"Nice boots by the way." Nick compliments me and I laugh because he's wearing the same ones, only the zip up version.

"Yeah, you too." I reply. He winks at me and I grin, picking up my bag and walking around to the girls side to change.

I'm almost done when Nick calls out, "I'm going back now!"

"Okay, I'll be there soon!" I yell back so he can hear me through the thick walls separating us.

***

"What's the most dangerous thing you have ever done?" I ask, hoping for a good story.

"Uhh, well I was in Bali for schoolies with my mates. We were all drinking and we ended at this beach but it wasn't a sandy bank, it was a cliff." I gasp at this information.

"Nobody got hurt did they?" I have to know.

"No! Well, one guy cut his fool on a rock but that's it. Anyway, I wasn't thinking and I jumped off it with a few other guys. I hit the water pretty hard and got some decent bruises but other than that I was fine."

"Wow," I breathed out. I was actually afraid for him before he told me he was fine, even though it was in the past.

I admire Nick so much. I want to be more like him, more daring and active. He doesn't care what people think and he does what he wants to do, not what others want him to do. I think maybe, just maybe, he might be the push I need to achieve my goals.

"You can't tell my parents though, they'd kill me."

"Wait what?" I ask shocked. Don't his parents know about his cliff jumping adventure? How could he hide those bruises?

"Yeah, I didn't tell them because I know how disgraced they would be. Even though they are good people, they set ridiculous standards. I just don't think they would be too happy about their son jumping off of a cliff under the influence of alcohol."

"Yeah, well pillow talk stays with the pillows." I smile even though he can't see me in the dark.

I snuggle further into my sleeping bag to warm myself more. Nick was right when he said it would be cold tonight. The wind stops and I check with Nick to make sure everything is put away so it won't get wet and that the tent is zipped up. It's the calm before the storm, I can feel it.

With the pitter patter of rain on the tent and heavy eyes, I drift into a welcome slumber.

***

I wake up absolutely freezing. The rain continues to fall and it's still dark out, making me think it is very early in the morning. I check my phone and it reads 1:05.

"You cold too?" I jump when I hear the masculine voice beside me.

"You gave me a heart attack!" I forgot that we were in a tent together.

"Sorry," he chuckles, not really sorry. He turns in a lantern to provide some light.

"It's not okay. But yes, I am cold, freezing actually," I say, my teeth chattering.

"Unzip your sleeping bag," he orders, unzipping his.

"But then I'll be colder." I argue.

"No you won't, just trust me." I groan but comply.

He picks both of out sleeping bags and lays them over him.

Bastard just stole my sleeping bag!

"C'mere," he instructs, moving to the edge of his inflatable mattress.

Oh, um...what?

Even with doubts running around my head, I feel like an icicle so I do it anyway.

I cautiously slide onto the mattress, facing away from him to avoid embarrassment. I feel the body heat radiating off of him and I feel myself becoming warmer already. Apparently Nick wasn't happy with this because he puts an arm around my waist and pulls me to his chest. When he leaves his arm circling my waist in a protective way, a grin makes its way into my face and I'm glad he can't see. This is unbelievable. Nick Wheerlock is spooning me, and even if it's just to get my body heat, it has butterfly's fluttering around my stomach. I haven't known him for long but he's amazing and I really hope it's not awkward tomorrow.

I hear his breathing become slow and heavy and I know he's asleep. I allow myself to join him.

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Thankyou for your patience, we know it's been a while..

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Lara and Tahlia xx