NOVEMBER
Like groundhog day, Trinity wanted to go to a party and Nick wanted a low key night, but agreed to the whole costume thing with her. He dressed as a surgeon and she was a sexy nurse. Unfortunately, she was off with her friends, a sexy cat, a sexy vampire, and a sexy co-ed (yes, she bought a costume). Once again he was alone. As he wandered, he bumped into a girl from his major.
"Hey April." He looked at her Buffalo shirt. "Are you a fan or a player?"
She shrugged. "Either. I hate dressing up. So this was easy." She looked him over. "Are you going to med school?"
"Nah, just grad school. Hopefully."
"Smart. You'll get in. I'm in for the long haul."
"Not me. My dad has a Ph.D. I might follow in his footsteps, but it depends on where I end up working."
"What does he do?"
He held his chin higher. "Cancer research."
"That's cool." She looked around. "I'm not sure why I'm here."
He laughed. "I know why but I don't want to be."
"Where's your girlfriend?"
Did everyone know he was with Trinity? He shrugged. "Around someplace."
She chuckled. "I always wonder what you have to talk about."
He laughed. "Not mitochondrial RNA. Do you like Buffalo?"
She chuckled. "I'm wearing a hundred dollar jersey."
"Right. I'm going to the game."
"You're a Tampa fan?"
"No. I'll root for Buffalo although I'm a New England boy."
"I didn't peg you as a zealous sports fan. Going to games that aren't your team."
"I like football. I'm a Drake fan."
"Our wide receiver? He's great, but why him?"
Nick smiled. "He's a friend. He sent me tickets."
Her jaw dropped. "You're friends with this guy." She took out her phone and showed him a picture of Will catching the ball."
"Yeah. I've seen him catch on the beach a million times."
"Like in the NSPN special? Everyone in Buffalo watched it."
"Yeah. If you look hard, you can see me in it."
"No way."
"I know the guy who films those."
"The rumor is it was a school project."
Nick nodded. "Yeah. His senior project, but the network offered him a job. He travels around for six months. I'm friends with his sister."
"I knew you were cool, but I'm impressed."
"Just lucky to live where I do."
"Did you apply to Tampa?"
He shook his head. "No, I'm going home. I miss winter."
She laughed. "I'm from way upstate New York, I hate snow."
"What med schools did you apply to?" She listed all southern schools. "You don't miss your family?"
"No. We're not close." A girl approached with two solo cups. "Where have you been?"
She rolled her eyes. "I got waylaid, and the line was long. All the skimpy girls kept cutting."
Neither girl was fat, but they weren't petite. By skimpy, she probably meant sexy nurse, cat, etc... "I should go find my nurse."
He pushed his way to the liquor. The guy behind the table was pouring booze in a cup. "Try this." He smiled like he wanted to taste something sexy. It had better not be the nurse.
Nick put his arm around Trinity and whispered, "Nurse. I need some mouth to mouth."
She pulled away and turned to face him. "Why were you talking to that girl?"
He shrugged. "She's nice, and you disappeared."
"She's. She's. You embarrassed yourself by being seen with her. I don't know why she came. Why can't the losers just stay home?"
Nick stared at her before putting his hands up. "I'm outta here."
He turned and pushed his way past people. Let someone else babysit her. If the guy serving drinks wanted to get her drunk and take advantage of her, he was wasting his time. Trinity didn't need to be drunk. He trusted her, but before they dated, she hooked up all the time. He didn't care. His grandmother's words came back to him. She was self-centered and unkind.
Even April thought he was a fool for dating her. As he pushed through to the door, he saw her and her friend. It was obvious what Trinity was going to say about her. She wasn't jealous. He stopped in front of the couple. "Hey, do you want my other ticket? You'll be more fun than..."
"Your sexy nurse?"
"Yeah. I'll message you." She smiled.
He wanted to call Sophie because he didn't understand females. Trinity thought April wasn't worth it because she was an outstanding student and apparently had a girlfriend. Nick had never noticed nor did he care. It was obvious April and her girlfriend didn't respect Trinity because she wasn't studious. He winced, probably because she was slutty too. Did that make him a fool? Why did it take a cat, a vampire, and a co-ed for him to see it?
People told him, but he didn't listen. As he walked home, he kept thinking Ivy would have hated her. She was more apt to be hanging out with friends than partying. Granted, she went to a small school in New Hampshire, not a large university. She also had gay friends in high school and in college. Her roommate freshman year was a lesbian. Nick remembered all his friends discussing it. Ben had voiced the question he wondered about. "Wouldn't it be awkward if she liked you?"
Ivy laughed. "Just because I'm a girl she won't automatically like me. I'm friends with boys and they don't like me. Right Nick?"
"Um, right?"
Then Sophie went on about the past when people had to stay in the closet, and plenty had roommates. None of his friends judged or showed any unkindness. Nick's gut told him Trinity was on the verge of saying something mean. Stop kidding yourself, she was always mean, especially around her friends.
Nick woke to banging on his door. Was someone in trouble? He threw open his door. Trinity stood there with a scowl. "How did you get in?"
"I had to stand outside. You didn't answer your phone."
"I was asleep." If he knew who let her in, he would write them up. It was against the rules to let people in. Only the person the guest was visiting could let them in. People broke the rules all the time, but at one am, it was a different story.
He let her in so he wasn't written up for a noise complaint. "You left me."
"Like you care. You were mean."
She stamped her foot like Abbie did when she was five. "I was just telling the truth."
"Your truth not mine. April is a Buffalo fan, so I invited her to the game with me."
She pouted. "You asked me. I wanted to meet the sexy guy you know."
"I did, but you complained you would miss Sunday spa afternoon." She and her friends did their nails and who knows what else.
"That's not cool. I'm your girlfriend."
He laughed. "That's what you don't see, I'm not really cool. The most important thing to me is my grades."
"I've been trying to change you."
Nick laughed. "I don't want to change."
"How can you not want to be better? Popular? Being cute isn't enough, you know."
Nick thought of the song from Wicked Lana sang at the coffeehouse. Sophie loved it and played it a lot. 'Change for the better' meant becoming a better person 'for good' not because it was cool. "I don't want to be popular if I have to be mean. I don't care if someone is gay, geeky or purple. If they are nice, I will talk to them. April and I helped each other survive our chem lab freshman year."
"I've tried so hard with you. My friends couldn't understand why I bothered even when I told them the sex was good."
"You can get good sex on campus without the hard work of trying to change me."
Her jaw dropped open. "You don't mean that. I could have gone to the bartender's room, but I said no."
"But did you want to?"
"He's a football player and extremely popular."
"Then go back and go for it. Clearly, you don't like me the way I am, and lately, I haven't liked you very much either."
She looked like a mime showing surprise. "Are. You. Breaking. Up. With. Me?"
"I think it's for the best. We aren't making each other happy." Except in bed.
"Fine. You'll regret it, Nicholas Brenner!"
She slammed the door, but he didn't care. Honestly, he wouldn't regret it. He had other friends he had been ignoring, because Trinity didn't want to hang out with his friends.
When he woke he had a message from Will asking if he could meet for an early dinner. Nick smiled, as he texted yes.
Nick rarely wore long pants, but he dressed up to eat at the hotel restaurant. Suddenly, he felt awkward. Will had been around all the time, but how much did he really know him? His cottage was on the same street as Nick's house. Will was friends with Keira's brothers and Rory who used to babysit them. On The Point, one age group overlapped with the one before it. After his group, there was Abbie and Emma and her friends the Bennett girls.
The hotel lobby wasn't like the hotels his family stayed in when they traveled. It reminded him of the old Eloise movie Sophie got Abbie hooked on. As he looked around, Will walked towards him smiling. "You look good, Nicko."
Nicko? Why not? "You do too, WR. You're having an exceptional year." Nick had checked on Will's stats, but best of all he had been healthy.
"No injuries." He knocked on his skull. "Knock on wood. Come on, hungry?"
Nick nodded. He could always eat. Will ordered water, so Nick ordered a coke. As he looked at the soup and chowder menu, he looked up. "We missed the seafood stew."
Will chuckled. "I saw that. Sometimes I wish I didn't look."
Nick smiled. "I know what you mean. I'll be home for Thanksgiving, but there won't be a Warm'em Up Thursday."
"It's called 'Warm up Thursdays'."
"Whatever it's called, I hope she makes seafood stew when I'm home in January."
"And in February for me. Did you see what she's charging?"
Nick shook his head. "You can afford it."
"Twelve bucks a bowl. She said she sold out."
"This seafood chowder is fifteen." Nick pointed at the menu.
Will laughed. "This is a little uppity for The Landing."
"How are the kids? Liam and Charlotte?"
"Getting big. I've seen them twice. They went to my game in Massachusetts and then when I played in DC."
"I heard Kat went to see you play."
Nick hid a smile. "Jack drove her down."
Nick laughed. "You like her."
"Friends, like you and Ivy. Right?"
"Right." In less than twenty-four hours as a free man, he had thought of Ivy a few too many times.
They paused to order. Will ordered the salmon, but Nick chose chicken. He doubted he would have to pay, but he couldn't afford anything else.
"You have a girl here, right?"
Nick shook his head. "Not anymore."
"Sorry. What happened?"
"She wasn't right for me. As my grandmother said Sophie wouldn't want to be friends with her."
Will laughed. "I dated girls my sister didn't like. I should have known better."
"Why did you choose them?"
Will laughed. "Why do you think?" Frowning, he added, "Except I always fell in love with them, anyway."
"I heard you stole Sam's girlfriend."
Will laughed. "She was never Sam's girlfriend. Sam loved Rory. I stole Cole's girl. She was definitely the type who only wanted sex, and I thought it was love."
Nick shook his head. "I didn't love her."
"You're lucky. My heart's been tackled worse than I have been on the field."
Nick laughed. "I doubt that." He wondered why he had been unsure about meeting him.
After they ate, Will handed their server his phone to take a picture. After they smiled, Will said, "I'll send it to Kat."
Nick didn't say it, but he planned to send it to Sophie and Ivy.
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