(((February 20, 2016)))
Nicole's POV
Parker, Hannah, Rick, Payson, and I were sitting in my living room talking on this cold February Saturday. Payson had came up from Vegas last night. It was good having all of us together; Hannah and I had made friends with Rick since the other night when he got here. Hannah and I made breakfast for the guys this morning, while they sat in the living room watching a movie that they had rented.
"Nick's going to be cooking for us this summer." Parker told Rick after he had commented on how good the food was.
"Mm." Rick nodded as he took another bite. "Good choice, man. She's a good cook."
"I'm going to be the nurse out there, too." I said.
"Yeah, she's going to be doing a lot of stuff out there. Cooking, cleaning, laundry, nursing, all that jazz." Parker said.
"You gonna get paid for all that?" Hannah asked me.
I smiled. "No, I don't need to get paid. Parker takes care of me."
"That's right, baby." Parker said to me.
"What are you gonna do while they're at the mine site, Hannah?" Payson asked.
"Stay here by myself, I guess." Hannah answered.
"Yeah, Parker's gonna keep paying the rent on this place while we're gone. We figured it would be easier than moving all our stuff out just to move it back in at the end of the summer." I explained.
"And we don't want to chance someone else moving in here." Parker added. "And we need a place to stay when we come back down to visit during the summer. So it's just easier to keep paying on this place."
"How long y'all gonna stay here?" Rick asked.
Parker looked up and smiled at me as I was sitting in his lap and he was leaned back in the chair. "Um, I don't really know. Figured we'd just stay here until we started looking for a house."
"And when's that gonna be?" Payson smirked.
I smiled. "When we start to get married."
"When's that gonna happen, Parker?" Hannah smirked.
Parker smiled and shook his head as he chuckled. "I don't know. Won't you worry about your relationship and let me worry about mine, okay?"
I laughed at Parker and Hannah.
Parker laughed for a second and then asked, "When are you gonna get married, Hannah? Payson?"
"Don't even go there, bro." Payson smirked. "We just started dating what, like two weeks ago?"
"Yeah, you and Nick have been together for a while." Hannah added.
I scoffed as I smiled. "Only three months. Y'all act like it's been years."
"Seems like it has." Hannah said.
"Hey, the only one that has a relationship longer than four months here is Rick. He's the one that we should be talking about getting married." Parker said.
"Rick, you got a girlfriend?" I asked.
Rick chuckled. "Yeah, her name's Sheri."
"Aw, cute. How long have you been with her?" I asked.
"Not much longer than you and Parker. About a month longer." Rick smiled. "Here's a picture of me and her on Valentines Day." He said as he handed me his phone.
"Aw, she's pretty. Look, Parker. Have you met her?" I asked.
"Nope." Parker shook his head. "She's not as pretty as you, baby." He smiled.
I smiled and gave the phone back to Rick. "Oh, shut up. Is she going up to the mine with you?"
"No, she has to work and stuff. She has a little girl that she has to take care of too." Rick answered.
"Well, when are you gonna let us meet her, man? You trying to keep her from us or something?" Parker smiled. "It's not like we're nerds or anything."
We chuckled.
"I think she's gonna come visit me at the mine sometime this summer." Rick said.
"Oh." We said.
"Hannah, why don't you come to Vegas with me this summer?" Payson asked her.
Hannah smiled. "Is that what you've been thinking about this whole time?"
Payson nodded and smiled.
"I don't know, hun." Hannah answered.
"Come on, it's not like you have anything keeping you here." Payson said.
"That's true, Han. Do you really wanna stay here by yourself?" I said.
"Well, no." Hannah admitted.
"Then, come stay with me for the summer, babe." Payson smiled. "We can be roomies."
Hannah smiled. "Okay, I'll think about it."
Payson looked at me like "help me with this." I nodded and mouthed "I got it."
***
"Okay, dude, that is so not what happened." I said as we were still talking in the living room.
"That is so what happened!" Hannah smiled. "Y'all, I promise that she did that."
"Hannah! Quit lying!" I laughed.
"Wait, so you're telling me that that sweet little angel of a girl over there got in a fight?" Payson asked.
"No, I didn't." I said before Hannah could answer.
"Babe, did you really?" Parker smiled.
I let out a deep breath as Hannah eyed me. I knew that they weren't going to leave me alone until I told them the story.
"Okay, this is what happened." I said. "Okay, so I was like seventeen, and we were at the beach, me and Hannah, with our boyfriends at the time and a few other friends. Aunt Marie had let us stay at her beach house. Anyway, we were all doing our different things, there was like eight people there. Me, Hannah, Dean,...what was your boyfriend's name, Hannah?"
"Nate."
"Yeah, Nate. Nate, Sarah, Sammy, Lizzie, and Ben....we went down to the pier, and after a while, everybody had gone back to the beach house except for me, Hannah, and Dean. Hannah and I went to the shop that was at the end of the pier and left Dean. And there was this girl in the shop that I had known from like eighth grade. She's a bitch. She came up to me and was like 'hey, Nicole!'...acting like she was my friend. I rolled my eyes and said something to Hannah....she then walked up to us and said hey again. I'm like 'don't talk to me.' And Hannah was like 'leave us alone.' And then the girl's like 'why do you hate me so much?'..."
"Guys, this is the good part." Hannah smiled.
I chuckled. "I'm like 'okay, we're not at school now so I can finally tell you what for....you've always acted like a bitch to me, you've always acted like you were better than anybody else, you think that everybody has nothing better to do than give you attention, you're a freak and you cry over every little thing. News flash, nobody likes a crybaby. All you're ever going to be is a bitch'...."
"Ooo, tell'em." Payson smiled. "Baby sister's a savage."
I laughed. "Before savage was cool."
"Okay, finish, finish." Hannah said.
"Then she said somethings about how I was a stuck up bitch and that I must be talking about myself and all that junk. I'm like 'that's some big talk. But I could whup your ass right here in this shop'...."
Parker laughed. "Why have I never heard this?"
"It's not like I'm proud of the way I acted. I should've been more mature....but anyway," I smirked, "she pushed me, or tried to, and I took my fist and threw it right in her face. She kept on pushing me and pulling my hair and I was trying to punch her so hard. I did bust her lip and made her nose bleed. She pushed me down on the ground, but Hannah--"
Hannah interrupted me and said, "I jumped on her back and started pulling her greasy hair out and hitting her in the head while Nick was getting up. Then we were both going at her. Everybody was watching us and trying to break us up and stuff. One of the bitch's friends came and pulled her away from us and tried to hit on us. We sent them both running, though."
"I yelled to her, 'Told you I was gonna whip your ass. Don't come around me again, bitch'...." I laughed.
"Damn, baby. You're a baddass." Parker laughed.
I laughed. "It was only one time and that girl had bullied me for years."
"What? How did she bully you?" Parker said.
"She would just be mean and hateful and stuff. Put me down, treat me like I was a piece of crap. She knew I liked this guy one time and she told everybody." I answered.
"Why didn't you tell me this when it was happening?" Parker asked.
"It was when we weren't talking. I didn't tell anybody." I said.
"She didn't even tell me until like a year after it happened and the other girl changed schools." Hannah commented.
"Come here, babe." Parker said as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me down to lay with him in the chair. "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"It's okay." I mumbled. "It happened like six years ago."
"I know, but you're like, the nicest girl ever and you didn't deserve that. Just like you don't deserve for people to judge you about being my girlfriend." Parker told me.
"Wait, what?" Hannah said.
"Nothing." Parker said.
"It's nothing, Hannah." I said.
"No, you two are going to tell me." Hannah said.
We sat in silence for a few minutes. Rick and Payson started a conversation while Hannah looked at me and Parker, waiting for us to tell her. I just laid on Parker, and Bear was in his lap also. I petted Bear while not looking at Hannah. Parker had one arm around me and one arm behind his head, and he was watching the television. Hannah finally got tired of us not saying anything to her and came and sat on the floor beside the chair and looked at both of us.
"You're going to tell me." Hannah said as she rested her chin on the arm of the chair.
I shook my head "no", while Parker just ignored her and continued watching television.
"Tell me, please." Hannah pouted to Parker.
"Look, if Nicole doesn't want to tell you, I'm not going to tell you." Parker suddenly pulled himself away from the television and said. "It's her business, not mine. Well, it kinda is mine because she's mine, but that's besides the point. She'll tell you when she wants to tell you. It's not that big of a deal, anyways."
After about five minutes of Hannah staring at me waiting for me to tell her, I finally picked up my phone and went to the picture with the comments about me on it. I hadn't deleted them yet for some reason, but I need to. I handed her the phone and told her to just read the comments. She grabbed the phone and started to diligently read the comments.
"That's a bunch of jealous girls that are ugly and fat and just jealous that they're not going to have Parker." Hannah said about ten minutes later. "But that is not right. If I were you, I'd tell them what for."
"I can't do that. Like you said, they're just jealous." I said.
"I blocked every one that commented something about you. And I reported the comments. You're welcome." She smiled.
"Thanks, Hannie." I smiled. "I told you it was nothing."
"I don't care if it's the least important thing ever. We tell each other everything." Hannah said.
"I know." I said as I took my phone back as she handed it to me.
***
Today really was a lazy day. All we did was stay in the house where it was warm. When the sun started to set, I went outside on the porch to watch it. I love the colors in the sky. The purple, orange, the clouds, it's all so wonderful. I was taking some pictures of the sky when Parker came up behind me and wrapped his arms around me. I jumped a little before I realized that it was only him.
"Ain't it pretty, Parker?" I smiled in admiration.
"Yeah." He said. "The sunsets and sunrises in the Yukon are pretty awesome, too. You'll love it up there."
"I know I will." I smiled. "Mostly because it's where you are."
We stood on the porch and watched the sun set and the dogs play around in the yard. This is the kind of things that I've always dreamed of doing with the man that I love. Us watching the sunset, laughing together, just standing together with his arms around me is enough to make me happy. This might be why I can't see my life without him in it, because all my favorite memories have him in it, and he's always with me, even if we're apart, he's in my heart. I don't know how it's possible, but I love him more every day. He makes me smile, laugh, feel better, feel loved. These past three months are the happiest I've been in a while, and it's all because of him. Because of him, I have his family and Haines. He might be a dirty gold miner and have a temper sometimes, but he will always be mine.
"You wanna go eat at Mama's?" Parker asked me as it started to get dark.
"Yes, I do." I smiled as I turned around to face him.
"I love you, beautiful." He smiled.
"I love you more, baby." I smiled and gave him a little kiss before we went inside.