How You Remind Me // Nickelback

I follow Nico through town for a few minutes before he turns onto an older street with houses that look like they've seen better days and yet it's a nicer neighborhood than mine. Peeling paint and crumbling sidewalks the entire way, but the trees make up for the old feeling. Massive trees on both sides of the street with full boughs bending over like a canopy covering the road. I could get used to the feeling of living with these trees.

I shake the thought away because the only place I'll be getting used to living is anywhere but here. My plan to get away is solid so I don't need anything mucking it up like awesome seventy-year-old Oak trees.

Nico turns right into a long driveway and sticks his arm out the window to wave me in. I follow him and stop right in front of the closed garage door. Nico has pulled his truck to the side of the garage right next to some kind of car that's covered with a tarp. I stop the engine and open my door when Nico stops me.

"Hang on, let me open the garage then you can pull her in."

Her. Of course he refers to my 'Stang as a female. I roll my eyes and watch as Nico unlocks a padlock on the side of the garage then bends to grab the handle and lift the door. Old school. I thought everyone used garage door openers. Whatever, it gives me the opportunity to admire his biceps as he lifts the door. I feel myself smirking, so I wipe that shit right off my face.

Nico directs me into the cleanest garage space I have ever seen. No oil or grease to be found, not even on the concrete floor. Every tool is organized on a peg board, seemingly by size. There's a huge professional looking tool chest in pristine red and chrome shining like a showpiece. My jaw drops as I stop the car and get out because the guy who can't seem to lay off the grease in any form is a neat freak in the garage. Who would have thought?

Nico's eyes are lit up as he looks at my car, rubbing his hands together.

"I've been dying to get my hands under this hood. I can't wait to touch your engine."

"Excuse me?" I know what he means, but jeez! Can he be less porno about the whole thing?

"This is a freaking classic, April. She's so messed up but fixing her to cherry is going to be so satisfying."

I rub my face. "You have no idea how you sound, do you?"

"Huh?" Nico's response is absent minded as he doesn't even look my way. Instead, he's already unlatched the hood and is drooling over the engine. Drooling. Literal drool just fell from the corner of his mouth.

"Hot damn. She's in worse shape than I thought." He claps his hands together and suddenly I feel like a third wheel.

"Wow, okay. I should just leave you two alone." Hands up, I start to back out of the garage.

Nico spins to me. "Nah you don't. Stay right where you are." Then he walks to the back corner and flips on a light. The side of the garage is decked out in work-out gear and mirrors. There's also a couch situated in the perfect position to watch the gearhead show.

"Sit. Listen and learn, sweetheart. This will be educational, I promise." Nico crosses his arms and watches as I plop myself on the couch. It's defeat, really. I have no desire to learn about an engine. But I also have no desire to earn my first F. I'm no straight A student, but I have decent grades for the minimal effort I exude.

"Ugh. Get this over with so I can leave. And don't ever call me sweetheart again. Gross"

"What do you have against pet names?" Nico says with his head already bent over the engine.

"One, I'm not a pet. Two, I'm not your sweetheart. Three, I'm kind of a bitch. But don't call me that, either." I'm leaning forward as I talk even though Nico isn't looking at me. I do see him stiffen a little when I refer to myself as a bitch.

He turns slowly, leaning against my car. "I think I need to hear about this rumor before we continue." His eyes are narrowed as he speaks.

I let my head fall back against the couch and stare at the ceiling. "Fine. It will save me some time anyway. I'll be able to leave so much sooner this way."

"I doubt that."

Whatever. "It has been said that I offer locker room and/or bathroom favors for money."

"It has been said," Nico repeats with a questioning tone. "By who, exactly?"

"By all the guys at my last school, then by all the girls. And now by pretty much all the kids at Jefferson, too."

"No, no. That's not what I meant. Who started the rumor? Because even though I didn't hear that exactly, I did hear something along those lines. So tell me who started it."

There's a darkness to his voice that causes my head to lift back up from the couch. I watch as Nico flexes his hands into fists...repeatedly.

"That's not necessary."

"April...tell me what happened. I'm serious."

I take a deep breath and let my head fall once again. I can't look him in the eye when I say this. "I went on a date with a guy I thought I could trust, someone I'd been interested in for a while." It was a pathetic crush on an older guy, to be honest. One I'd been nursing along since freshman year. But I don't want to say all of that to Nico.

"Keep going," Nico says, controlled fury bubbling just under the surface of his voice.

I don't look at him, but my mind keeps picturing his fists clenching. Maybe he's got his arms crossed, and his jaw is tensing, doing that sexy angry male muscle move that guys do when they are just about to beat someone down. Why is that reassuring?

"April."

"Sorry, um where was I?" Other than fantasizing about how sexy Nico would look ready to pounce on some guy.

"On a date with an asshole." His voice holds zero humor.

Okay, got it. I better redact some details and keep it clean. It was clean, but the less he knows about what Craig actually said to me, the better, based on Nico's current demeanor.

"I was hanging out with some friends at the park one night. We used to sit out on the swings after dark just to feel like we were out on our own at night. Some guys from our school showed up for a pick up game, and one of them started a conversation with us. Well, specifically with me, and it was kind of flirty. So when he asked me if I wanted to get out of there, I said yes and jumped in his car."

That might be the dumbest thing I've ever done. I can't sit up any longer, already wiped out from thinking about that night, and I still can't believe I agreed to tell Nico about this. I let my body slide down to lay on the couch and bring my arm up to cover my eyes. I groan before I continue with the next part. If what I've said so far already has Nico seeing red, I'm not sure it's wise to tell him the rest.

"I'm trying to be calm over here, April, but all of your sighing has me on edge. What the hell did the fucker do?"

I turn sharply to look at Nico and gasp at the look on his face. He's pissed, but it's an anger that is somehow soothing. He's pissed for me, not at me. I take strength from the look in his eyes and decide to finish this off with complete honesty. Because let's face it, Craig has it coming and if Nico wants to deliver, who am I to stop him.

"We drove around for a while. Got milkshakes and listened to music. Laughed at dumb things our friends had done or said. I felt good, excited that he was interested in me, so I was the one that suggested to park in a spot with a nice view." I shake my head because how dumb could I have been to be the one with that idea? Of course Craig jumped on it, based on what he tried once we were there.

"Did he..." Nico starts then pauses. "Did he force you?" Seething. That's the only word to describe his tone.

"No. He didn't force me, but...crap, I'm so fucking stupid!"

It takes less than two seconds for Nico to be kneeling next to the couch with his hands cupping the sides of my face, forcing me to look into his eyes.

"Don't say that. You are not stupid. You trusted him and he used that against you. Finish what you started, April. Don't leave me with my imagination because what I'm picturing might get me arrested for what I want to do to that guy."

I nod wordlessly, willing the tears just on the verge of spilling to dry up. Nico is the only person to believe me, other than my mom. And he doesn't even know the entire story yet.

"He waited a while before kissing me. Then he kissed me a while before complaining about the steering wheel pressing into his side, begging to sit in the back seat so he could hold me closer. Then he held me a while before his hands started to wander, at first just caressing and then full on exploring. He explored a little while before trying to dip under clothes." The tears start falling. So much for being strong about all of this.

"I would push his hand away every time, and he would stop for a bit. Then he'd try again. I have a line I'm not willing to cross, not with just anyone, even a guy I'd been crushing on for a while. I was nervous and excited but not scared of him, so I just kept pushing his hands back into neutral territory and he just kept trying to push that boundary. Finally, I pulled away and said, 'Would you just stop!,' before leaning back in to kiss him again."

Nico is sitting back on his heals, looking past his shoulder at something in the garage, just listening while breathing through his nose. He closes his eyes and then looks back at me.

"It wasn't long after that the he said he needed to take me home. In my head things ended okay, even after I yelled at him to stop. But I was so wrong."

"He had no idea, did he? What he threw away?" Then he shakes his head and stands up.

"Let me guess. You showed up at school the next day and everyone thought you'd gotten paid to do something that never happened."

I nodded, sat up and wiped away the tears. "Pretty much. The fact that anyone believed him stills blows my mind. I'm outrageous and loud, I wear bright colors with my black and I'm not afraid to speak up when I need to. I guess that all means I'm willing to take money. It spiraled out of control so fast. I shouldn't have been shocked by the fact that even my closest friends backed away."

"No one stood by you?"

I shrug. "I'm pretty sure my friends realized it was a lie, but no one wanted to be targeted with me and that's what would have happened. Craig is really popular. All of his groupies had it out for me. All of his friends propositioned me. A few of them even used random interactions with me, like passing me in the library, as the inspiration for their stories. Like I would meet them in the back stacks, or follow them into the locker room after school, stuff like that."

"What the hell is wrong with people?" Nico mutters the words and turns away from me. I can tell he's rubbing his hand over his face and tensing up.

I'm exhausted now. I can't talk about this much longer.

"Listen," I say as I stand and grab my things. "I should just go. Like I said, telling you all of this first just earned me an early release on my sentence. I can just look up something on Youtube and figure it out myself." That's going to suck. But what choice do I have now. There's no way either of us will be able to focus on a carburetor.

I don't get two steps over to my 'Stang before Nico is standing in front of me, practically nose to nose.

"Don't run away, April. This doesn't scare me. I'm not afraid of being seen with you. And you just proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am the perfect person to have in your corner. No one will mess with you knowing I'm just behind you. No one will say a damn word about favors or meetings because I'm the one they'd be speaking about. And no one speaks about me."

Not a line or a flirt in a single word he said, but I feel claimed by every syllable he spoke. My wall is crumbling and part of me wonders if the debris will crush me. But a small voice deep inside is saying that Nico wouldn't hurt me. That he's not here to get what he wants then turn and walk away. I want to listen to that voice, but I'm not sure I can trust myself anymore.

"I'm not running away, Nico. I have to go to work soon, remember?" That's a lie. Work is not why I'm leaving. This is too intense for me.

When Nico lifts his hand to brush a rogue tear off of my cheek, the charge that courses through my body is so strong my legs wobble.

I'm pretty sure this is the guy that's going to turn my world on its ass. The question is, will I let him...

I think I'm just stupid enough to do that. Especially dumb considering I have a date circled on my calendar in the not so distant future. I'm leaving this town. I'm leaving every awful word and turned cheek and finding somewhere to live life to the fullest. Nothing will change that for me. Nothing, and no one.

But Nico might make it so much harder to go.

Did you feel it?? That zing is going to overlap into next week's update so prepare yourselves!! This one was a little flirty and a little growly, and Nico is ready to hunt him some Craig...

Thanks so much for reading!!! I truly appreciate your support. Nico is reminding April of all the things she longs for...

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