The Bad Boy's Bucket List

Try The World's Best Pizza

I turned and started to leave again, and waited for Nolen to catch up with me near the elevator. He was slightly out of breath, probably because I left him with all the bags, but I couldn't help it. Part of me felt angry at that woman, who was probably at least ten years older than us, for making a move on Nolen, and part of me felt slightly annoyed that he took the paper.

Why did I even care?

In the elevator, Nolen could sense my annoyance. "Hey, what's wrong?"

I changed the subject. "Nothing's wrong. So, are you going to take that girl up on her... offer?"

Nolen shook his head. "Nah, she was smoking hot, but not really my type."

"You have a type?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I prefer my girlfriend."

What? He has a girlfriend? I stood speechless at what he just said, before he burst out laughing.

"Oh my gosh," he chuckled, "you should have seen your face." He reached out and squeezed my cheeks, the way I had done so on the airplane. "Don't worry, I'm single, so you can continue to crush on me."

"I do not crush on you." I replied, annoyed at his wit which I did not find funny. I had been annoyed a lot in the last hour, I realized, but I think it was just him.

Nolen grabbed the bags and the door of the elevator opened on our floor. "Sureee you don't. Is that why you keep staring at me every time I turn away?"

"I was staring because you're ugly." I stuck my tongue out.

"I am anything but ugly. Admit it, I'm the hottest guy you know."

And the most conceited, I thought, but didn't answer. Instead I swiped the card through our door, and it opened up, revealing a modern room that was a good size. Two full size beds sat next to each other, and to across from them there was a table with two chairs on it. I walked over to the window, opening it up and looking outside, taking in the view of the tops of Roman buildings.

"This is so cool."  I commented, and he nodded. I grabbed a bed, putting my stuff down next to it, and he did the same with the other one.

"It's almost dark, do you want to go get something to eat?" Nolen asked, stifling a yawn. It was still early here, but the time change had probably messed us up a bit, and it would be good if we got a good night's sleep, so I nodded back.

"Yeah, let me change though."  I responded while opening my suitcase up and grabbing some stuff. I used the bathroom and re-applied mascara and lip gloss. I changed into a black skater dress and gladiator sandals, and brushed my hair so that it hung down over my shoulders. I didn't know why, but for some reason I wanted to look nice tonight.

When I came out, Nolen let his eyes roam over my body, taking me in. A long wolf whistle escaped his mouth, and I playfully shoved him. I hurried over to my bag, grabbing a purse, money, and my small digital camera.

"Alright, let's go."

~-~_~_~_~

It didn't take us long to find a pizza place, since there were four on the same block as the hotel. We passed three of them, but at the fourth place we decided it was the one. Small tables were set up outside and music played softly through the restaurant. A few locals were inside, but it was empty for the most part, probably due to the fact it was still pretty early out.

As we walked inside, an Italian man greeted us and sat us down at a place right near the open aired window. He left us to look at the menus.

"What do you feel like?" Nolen asked me. I glanced at the menu, seeing you could get pizza by the slice or the pie, and along with pizza there were several other things to order, such as pasta or salads.

I shrugged. "Do you want to get a pizza pie and split it?"

He grinned at me. "That sounds great."

The man came over to us and introduced himself as Donald. He first took drink orders, which consisted of a lemonade for me and water for Nolen. Then he placed some warm bread on the table, along with butter and a small plate of olive oil. We ordered a pizza with mushrooms, spicy pepper flakes, onions, and some other vegetables, and he left the table.

I smiled when I thought of how understanding Nolen was of my vegetarianism. A lot of people gave me a hard time about it, or wanted to order meat and didn't seem to understand why I was vegetarian, but when I told Nolen he listened with interest and didn't ask me if it was hard, or if I wished I ate meat. Instead, he told me that he thought that was really cool and a kind thing to do for animals.

I'd be lying if I didn't find Nolen really hot at that moment.

The food came after a little bit, and we dug in. The cheese was dripping with tastefulness, and I loved the red pepper flakes that added spice to the meal. We didn't talk as we ate, due to the fact we were both stuffing our mouths with the food the whole time, but at the end of the meal we sat back and Nolen pulled something out of his pocket.

The bucket list.

"One of the things on here was to 'try the world's best pizza'." He said, crossing it off. "I don't know if you thought so, but sitting here in Rome, eating amazing food, across from a beautiful girl, well that count's as the world's best pizza in my book."

He called me beautiful.

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Hola!

So random fact about me: I'm vegan, so writing about eating cheese kinda lost me since I haven't had cheese in five years, lol. Sorry!!

Also, can I just say I really, really appreciate everyone who votes on this book and my other book, The Nerd and The Jock, which is really badly written btw so don't feel pressured to go read it or anything if you don't want to. I wrote that back in the summer after 7th grade and sometimes when I read the grammar mistakes and the writing mistakes... ugh.

So sorry if my grammar or anything is all weird. If you comment where I messed something up, I will change it and really love you. Thanks!

Continue to vote and comment because it motivates me to write more!

If you can think of a ship name for them.... comment and if I like it, it will become official since I have no creative names for California and Nolen.

Thank you all so much!

-S

Spoiler Alert: I have BIG plans for a chapter coming up.....