CHAPTER 14

[ Mike ]

I fell in love with Maya Gonzalez in tenth grade when she bumped into me in the hallway—I still remember like it was yesterday. Her long, jet black hair was pulled into a high, messy bun and a pair of wide rimmed glasses sat at the tip of her cute, button nose as she knelt to the linoleum floor to help me out. "I'm so sorry," she had said, "you okay?"

I was so mesmerized by her beauty that I couldn't find the right words to say. "Um, yeah, i-it was my fault! You didn't do anything, I wasn't paying attention. I'm sorry! Are you okay?"

She had pulled her rosy lips into a small smile. "Yeah," she laughed softly, "I'm okay."

I smiled back at her. "Good."

We held eye contact for a total of 7 seconds (I had counted) until we were interrupted by Derek grabbing onto the collar of my shirt to bring me to my feet. "Jesus, Mikey, you're making it awfully hard to be seen with you when you keep embarrassing yourself in front of cute girls."

Maya giggled as she stood to her feet and tentatively touched Derek's shoulder. "Leave him alone, Derek." She held out a hand to me. "I'm Maya."

"M-Mike," I had answered swiftly as I jumped at the opportunity to grab her hand.

Maya had given me a short nod before she flicked her intense brown eyes to Derek. "Are we still on for tonight?"

He nodded. "Definitely."

She had looked past Derek to smile at me, and then she sauntered into the hallway, swinging her hips as she walked away. It wasn't until she was completely out of sight that I had grabbed onto Derek's shoulders and shook him hard. "What's happening tonight?" I questioned. "Can I come?"

Derek shrugged my hands off his shoulders. "I'm having sex with her," he stated simply, "and no, you cannot come."

"You're having sex with her?" I had questioned. At that time, I had just befriended Derek. I was aware that he was the most desirable boy in school, but I didn't know then that he was also the sluttiest boy in school. "Is she your girlfriend?"

"Nope."

"She's not? Then why—"

"It's called friends with benefits."

I nodded. "Well, she's really pretty."

Derek's brows had pulled together in curiosity. "You like her?"

"Y-yeah, well, I mean..."

"That's cute." Derek nudged my shoulder obnoxiously. "I'll put in a good word for you."

"Really?" I had asked out of pure excitement, having no idea that Derek wasn't being serious.

For weeks, I had waited patiently for Maya to talk to me about the "good word" that Derek had put in for me, but she never did. It was only when I started to get familiar with Derek and his sense of humor and his promiscuity that I realized that he wasn't trying to set me up with her and that she would never ever want me in the way I wanted her.

Now, as I looked at Maya, she looked just as beautiful as she did back then.  In my dreams, we'd be the perfect couple, but in reality, I think she secretly hated me.

"Stop staring at me," she spat at me without making eye contact and nudged Calvin's shoulder with her finger. "Change the movie. I've seen this a thousand times."

Calvin gave her a sideways glance as he tossed a few kernels of popcorn into his mouth. "This is my favorite movie. I love the part when Ryan finally figures out that he's been in love with Jacob this entire time and he stops being such a playboy just to be with him."

"Funny," I decided to comment, reluctantly pulling my attention away from Maya to the dark haired boy who was obviously into his feelings this evening. "Sounds strangely similar to the last movie where Chandler stopped sleeping around with everyone just so he could be Alaina. Is there something you wanna tell us, Cal?"

He narrowed his gaze at me while burying his hand into the popcorn bag just so he could throw a few kernels at me. "It's just that kind of day," he dismissed the subject swiftly. I could tell there was something more than what he was letting on, but I kept my mouth shut so he wouldn't get bitchy.

Maya stretched her tanned legs across the sofa that Calvin was currently sitting on, so much so that they rested in his lap. "When is Derek coming? God knows he's the only one who can get you out of the pissy mood you're in. If we watch another movie about a manwhore falling in love, I'm gonna puke all over you."

"Derek's not coming," he admitted, slumping his shoulders a little bit. "Something came up."

Observing as Calvin stared down at his popcorn in disappointment, I shook my head in disbelief. It seemed as though I was doing more to fix their relationship then they were. "Why don't you just tell him?" I proposed in which Calvin raised a questioning brow at me. "Tell him you don't want to be fuck buddies anymore. Tell him that you want a relationship, a real one."

He scoffed. "Who said that I wanted a relationship?"

"You've been bending over backwards to make Derek jealous," I noted. "Seems to me that someone's missing all those cute little dates."

"We only went on one date and it wasn't even his idea," Calvin pointed out while he dropped his shoulders to slouch in his seat. "Derek's just not boyfriend material, Mike ... no matter how much I want him to be."

"How to be ... boyfriend material," I drawled out, smiling once the idea hit me. "That could be the name of a book! But it's not what you think it is because by the end of the book, the main character won't be boyfriend material. Clever, isn't it?"

Calvin narrowed his gaze at me while his brows drew together in confusion.
"Anyway," he said to bring the conversation back to the topic of his ad Derek's weird relationship. "Making him jealous is the only way that he really notices me, I guess."

I rolled onto my side and gave him a coy smile. "You're such an attention whore," I mused, "but whatever you do, stay away from Noah. I don't want you influencing him with your weird mind games."

For some reason, he found that funny. "You're worried about me playing mind games on him? That's what you've been doing!"

"No, I haven't."

"Yes, you're doing all the stuff that boyfriends do because you know, subconsciously, that Noah really wants a boyfriend in hopes of him having ex with you," Calvin stated like it was fact, even though he was more than wrong. "Then you're gonna break his pretty little heart when you finally do."

I sighed heavily. "Okay, first, he doesn't want a boyfriend. He's not a whore like you. Second, I'm not doing stuff that boyfriends do. I'm being a friend, in case the term is unfamiliar to you. Friends support each other, talk to each other, and help each other."

He dug a hand in the popcorn bowl and threw a handful of kernels at my head. "I support you! I go to your soccer games."

"With Derek."

He slumped in his seat. "Well, we're talking right now, aren't we?"

"About Derek."

"But I helped set you up with Noah, too!"

"For Derek."

Calvin folded his arms across his chest and sunk further into his seat, refusing to utter another word when he realized I was right and he was wrong. He was a shitty friend just like his boyfriend, but the only reason I tolerated him was because watching Derek string him along was sorta entertaining.

We didn't talk much after that, just sat in silence as My Straight Best Friend played in the background and as all three of us were occupied by our cell phones. Calvin had started to text some boy named Cory in his math class, Maya was browsing through pictures of prom dresses, and I was deep in a conversation with Noah. It was such a relief to know that I had someone like Noah around. He listened to my problems and he truly cared about my well-being, which was a change for once.

Currently, we were talking about his parents who were getting a divorce, according to our phone conversation just hours before. I was trying to console him and tell him that he shouldn't think those things, but he was pretty convinced and there wasn't much I could say or do to mend that.

The signs are all there, Mikey

have some faith will ya? always so negative

Someone has to be

that someone shouldn't be you bc you have to worry about playing the perfect belle.

God, don't remind me..

i'd bet u look hot as a girl

No.

i can totally see u with boobs

I can totally see you without a dick, you know, once I bite it off.

ouch. but hot!!

It took him a while to respond to that and I figured it was because he wasn't comfortable with my masochistic side, but my worries were soon eased when my phone buzzed a few minutes later with a message that made my heart stop.

I miss you.

I didn't reply right away because I stopped to think about what Cora, Nicolas, and Calvin had all said to me. They mentioned that Noah wanted to be my boyfriend, and I dismissed the idea every single time because our deal was made on the basis that we weren't gonna do that. He was such a nice, sweet kid, but he wasn't the kind of person that I would see as a boyfriend. He was more like that cute next-door neighbor that was a few years younger than you that you felt protective over. To be completely honest, I couldn't see myself holding hands with him or buying him cute gifts and I really didn't want him to think we were heading in that direction.

I typed up a quick reply to clarify the terms of our deal, but before I could send the message, the door bell rang. My first instinct was to look to Calvin because I assumed it was Derek, but he didn't even look up from his phone. "Is that Derek?" I asked, anyway.

Calvin shook his head. "Derek's at a party," he said in a disinterested, distant voice. He stuck out his phone for me to see a picture of Derek and a random girl laughing stretched across the screen. "Why do girls like him so much?"

"Dunno." I shrugged. "Why do you like him?"

He fell silent at that, which made me smile. Scrambling to my feet, I strolled through the house until I arrived at the front door, swinging the door open with full force and fully expecting it to be my mom with the pizza I told her to get. My heart sunk to my stomach when I saw that it wasn't my mom, but Nicolas, on the other side of the threshold. His wavy hair didn't look as neat and perfect as usual, but there was still something about him that made him look flawless at all times.

"Nicolas..." I gave him a wary look, "...remember that thing I said about you being a crazy and creepy stalker? Yeah, um, this certainly qualifies as crazy and creepy. How do you know where I live?"

Nicolas reached into the pocket of his tight fitting jeans to retrieve an object that looked oddly similar to the case for my Epipen. "You forgot this in class, today. It fell out of your bag. It has your number and address on it."

I snatched the case from his hands. "Okay, so instead of running after me in the hallways to return it ... you wait until 9:00 at night to return it? By the way, the normal human thing to do is to call the number, not show up to my house."

Nicolas nodded. "Then I assume you are not a normal human if you listed your address in the first place. Besides, I wanted an excuse to see you in person."

I gave him a fake grin. "Well, look at that, you saw me!" I made a move to close the door in his face, but he stopped me from doing so when he placed his hand on the door and pushed back with just as much force.

"I do not like these games, Mike," Nicolas said in a stern voice. "I am not going to hurt you. If you say I did what I did in the past, then there is nothing I can do to change that, but I am a different person now. Please give me a chance."

Faking an apologetic look, I let my shoulders fall in defeat. "Sorry, you're all out of chances today. Try again next year!" His presence was really starting to creep me out, especially the way he was looking at me with those cerulean eyes of his. "Have a nice night."

"What must I do?" he questioned.

"It's not hard, actually. All you have to do is pick up those feet and walk back to your..." I looked off into the driveway to see that there was a motorcycle parked alongside my car, "...motorcycle? Since when did you drive a motorcycle?"

"You like it?" Nicolas asked, a sense of excitement in his voice. "My host father got it for me as a gift. He is such a kind man."

I tore my gaze away from the bike and made eye contact with him again. There was something oddly sincere about the way he looked at me, like he was serious about being a different person. I hated this part of me that was telling me that I should stop being an ass, but I decided to listen to that part just because I wanted him to fall in love with Calvin again and leave me the hell alone.

"Come in," I insisted with reluctance in my voice as I stepped aside to give him access to my house. His face beamed with excitement as he stepped over the threshold and waltzed into the house with a grin on his face.

"Thank you," he told me.

"Don't thank me just yet." I nodded my head toward the living room, indicating that I wanted him to follow me as I rushed over to the common area where Calvin had made us watch all those horrible movies. Both him and Maya looked up once I entered the room, but only Calvin sucked in a breath when he caught a glimpse of Nicolas. "Hey, guys. He's gonna hang with us for a while."

"What?" Calvin questioned as he straightened his posture. "Why?"

"Because," I answered with a shrug. "Nicolas, these are my friends. Maya and Calvin."

He waved. "Hello, how are you?"

"Would be better if you hadn't picked this stupid movie," Maya spat as she kicked Calvin in his arm. Judging by the way he retracted his arm and started to rub the skin there, it hurt.

I nodded in agreement and walked to the DVD player to change the movie to a more exciting one—Pirates of the Caribbean. Calvin didn't complain much because his eyes were glued to Nicolas the entire time, like he was studying his actions.

Quite frankly, I expected Nicolas to make eye contact with Calvin and immediately decide that he wanted to stalk him instead of me, but he didn't. If anything, he became more obsessed with me because he sat down beside me on the extra large bean bag and tried to ask me questions throughout the entire movie. Some of his questions weren't even ones that had to do with the movie; at one point, he asked me what my favorite food was. I was reasonably short with him by telling him to shut up and stop bothering me. He found that funny.

By the time we had gotten to the third installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean saga, Calvin and Maya had both fallen asleep, leaving me alone with the creepy stalker. At this point, I wasn't even paying attention to the movie anymore. I was more concerned with my personal safety and how easy it'd be for Nicolas to kidnap me.

"Do you remember when I offered to solve your virginity problem?" Nicolas asked out of nowhere, completely breaking me from my deep thoughts. "The offer still stands."

"No, sorry, can't recall."

He sighed. "Mike..."

"Frenchy..."

"You waste your time with that boy," he commented. "You think I am attractive, yes?"

I shrugged. "Not really."

He raised a surprised eyebrow. "Okay, then I must assume that you won't react when I do this..." I prepared myself to ask what he was talking about, but my questions were soon answered when he grabbed onto my crotch and squeezed tightly. An involuntary gasp fell from my lips as my dick responded by growing hard. "So you are lying," he mused.

I rolled my eyes. "I don't like you like that. Wait, actually, I'm pretty sure that I don't like you at all."

I heard a soft hum from him that was shortly followed by him moving closer to me. All the warning signs went off in my mind, but I couldn't find it in myself to tell him to stop, especially not when he had strategically pulled down the waistband of my sweatpants to reveal a prominent, throbbing erection. Before I knew it, he had leaned over and lowered his head onto my eight and a half (I measured) dick. His mouth was warm and I responded way too positively to it, but there wasn't much I could do about my dick's preferences. He was quite the picky motherfucker.

Then, as he took my entire length into his mouth without gagging, his hands worked their way under my shirt and roamed all over my chest. A dreamy sigh escaped my lips when his fingers pinched my nipples and I reached out to grab onto his soft hair. He was a thousand times better than Noah had been, since I had to tell him to bite my dick in order to get some sort of pleasure from it. With Nicolas, I didn't need to ask him to inflict any pain; he did so sparingly and at the perfect moments. So it wasn't much of a surprise when I exploded into his mouth not even five minutes later.

After licking his lips in a very seductive way, he brought his lips to mine and kissed me, casually slipping his tongue into his mouth and transferring my own load that way. Of course I had tasted myself before, for curiosity reasons, but the way Nicolas did it just made it taste way better. When he was finished, he swallowed down whatever was left and started to stroke my dick which was still twitching from all the adrenaline it had just endured.

"That was so fucking hot," I breathed out in bare whisper.

Nicolas smiled. "I can do more if you would like."

"No, no ...I think that's enough for now. I'm spent and tired."

He pouted for a short moment, but he nodded. "It is probably best that you sleep, so you can retain all the information we learned today in Calculus."

I rolled my eyes at him, but eventually settled into a comfortable position on the bean bag. To my surprise, Nicolas crawled next to me with his chest pressed against my back and he rested a hand on my hip. The position felt weird to me because I never thought that I'd be the little spoon, but there was something slightly enjoyable about the way his head was nestled into my shoulder and the way his hot breath felt on my skin.

Well, fuck.

**

a/n: Hello, my lovelies! Sorry that it's taken me so long to update this. I have school and I have a job and it's so hard to find a decent amount of time to write, so I'm writing at 2 in the morning! BUT WHAT DO YOU THINK OF NEW COVER???

I actually have two questions for you guys. Do you think Mike is gonna tell Noah about what he did? And do you really believe that Nicolas is a changed person? I honestly think he's trying his best, guys!

Anyway, I'm beat. If you liked this chapter, give it a like and leave a comment!

Until next time,
Lara <3