Chapter 28:
The day went by slowly and by early afternoon we were waiting for the elevator to reach our floor.
“ Guys we’re back!” Nick yelled once we stepped through the door. Closing it behind me.
“ I thought you had school till, 2?” Ryan questioned while checking his watch.
“ Half-day.” I said while plopping down on top of him and grabbing the blanket behind his head.
“ Well that’s nice.” He said and resumed playing his video game.
“ Where’s Austin and Ron?” Nick asked while sitting next to me. I laid back and rested my head in lap, so I had my feet in Ryan’s lap.
“They went to the coffee shop, I guess they were still tried from the movie night last night.” He mumbled while ruffling my hair.
“ Did I hear coffee shop?” I piped while jumping up and grabbing my phone.
“ Oh no, you do not need that sugar.” Nick laughed while stealing my phone and pecking me on the lips.
“ Please?” I begged with my puppy eyes. He shook his head and started backing away.
“ Fine, I guess ill need a new form of coffee.” I sang while tackling him on the sofa and kissing him roughly. Instantly out of reaction Nicks hands wound around my waist and pulled me closer. I snaked my hands into his hair and drew him closer so our foreheads were pressed together and are lips sealed with each others.
“ Seriously could you guys do that when I’m not around!” Ryan yelled while throwing cold ice water on us, causing us to pull away shivering.
“ You little prick!” I half jokingly yelled while jumping up and pinching his chest.
“ Ouch, stop-Ouch. Tanner!” He yelled while trying to squirm away from my painful pinches.
“ Haha okay I think he’s had enough torture smurf.” Nick laughed while pulling me back and into his chest. I shivered from the coldness off our wet bodies.
“ Well, I’m going to go change because a certain prick threw ice cold water on me!” I sneered while getting out of Nicks grasp and walking towards the stairs. I heard the guys laughing in the back round and the foot steps of Nick trailing behind me.
“ I like that white shirt wet.” Nick laughed while unbuttoning his and throwing it in the hamper.
“ Really? Maybe I should wear it to school.” I joked and struck a pose. He growled and put long sleeve shirt on.
“ What, you don’t think Jace would enjoy it?” I asked while taking it off and throwing it in the hamper and grabbing a spare bra.
“Oh, I think he’d like this a lot more.” Nick whispered against my neck while pinching the back of my bra together. It neatly unclipped and fell limp on my body.
“ O yes, much better.” Nick said while spinning me around and pushing me against the wall. His lips instantly found mine and played aimlessly with them. I pushed him away just enough for me to throw my bra across the closet and push him into the wall behind him, before attacking him with my lips. Nick grabbed my hips roughly and pushed them against his. He gently bit my lower lip begging for entrance which I easily denied, due to his little stunt earlier. He slipped his hand behind my neck and broke the kiss.
“ Feisty.” He whispered in my ear before kissing down my neck. I closed my eyes enjoying the fire the was spreading through my body. His lips left little whispers against my neck before sliding up my cheek and resting right by my lips. He lightly kissed there and kissed the other side before pulling back. I opened my eyes in surprise and glared. He had a smile on his face was slipping off his pants.
“ Tease!” I accused while wrapping my arms around myself to cover up.
“ How do you know? I could be taking off my pants for a special reason.” He suggested while wiggling his eye brows.
“ Liar!” I said while stepping back over to my side of the closet and pulling a bra on. I slipped out of my uniform and threw on jeans and sweatshirt.
The waves crashed against the rocks and the sand squished into the cracks in my feet. My hand was enveloped with Nicks warm one and his lips in my hair. The guys and I decided to go to the light house and hang out. The guys were further ahead taking pictures of the tower and messing around.
“ Can I ask you a question?” Nick whispered into my hair and plucked a stand of hair out of my eyes. I smiled at the memory of him asking that same question last night.
“ Yeah” I said and looked up at him. He smiled down at me then glanced at the sea behind me.
“ Can we tell the guys?”
“No!” I said immediately and looked forward.
“ Why?” he whined.
“ Because, they’ll try to convince us out of it. Saying were to young and irresponsible!” I explained while flipping hair out of my eyes and looking at the crashing waves in front of me.
“ Tanner, They wont care. They love us either way and just want us to be happy!” He argued.
“ Nick, Why do we have to tell them now? Why not.. I don’t know after the school years over? Why now?” I asked and glanced up at him. He had a hard look on his face. I brought my hand up and touched his cheek.
“ Because I want to share the news with the guys closet to me. I want them to know that I going to have the most perfect wife ever and for them to be happy for us.” Nick said while stopping us and looking down at me. “ Its almost like your ashamed to be with me.” Nick confessed. My eyes just about bugged out of my sockets.
“ Nick, I would never ever be ashamed to be with you. I love you in every way possible! I cant help but feel like you should be ashamed of me. I mean I’m not the model type your suppose to be with. Your dad owns a huge law firm and he’s famous. People are going to expect you to have the best fiancé out there, not an average girl from California.” I confessed and intertwined my hands with his.
“ Is that what you think? That people wont approve of us?” Nick asked
“ Well, yeah.” I laughed a humorous laugh and glanced up at him. He also let out a humorless laugh and threw his head back in frustration.
“ Uhh Tanner what am I going to do with you.” He whispered while looking back down at me.
“ I don’t care what people think of us! I only care what we-“ He paused to point to each of us. “ think of ourselves. I have not doubt there will be people who don’t agree, but there’s always people who don’t approve. But there’s also people who do agree. And people who will think we were made for each other and wont let the anyone tell them other wise. Therefore, I love you. No one will tell me other wise. And we will get married.” He said with a confident smile.
“ Get married?” I heard people say in unison.
“ Oh crap.” I whispered and glanced over at the three guys who looked confused.
“Get.” Austin said.
“ Married?” Ron finished and looked between the two of us.
“ What? Who?” I asked like I was confused and glanced around.
“ You!” Ryan said still shocked.
I glanced up at Nick and he stared down at me pleadingly. I nodded and looked back to the guys.
“ Yes, tanner and I are getting married!” Nick said proudly.
“ What!” Austin yelled.
“ When?!” Ron yelled excited.
“ No Way!” Ryan yelled the loudest.
“ We’re engaged.” Nick answered Austin’s question.
“ Not until I’m out of high school!” I asked Ron’s and we both ignored Ryan’s.
“ Your going to be my sister in-law?” Austin said with a grin. Relief washed over me when I saw everyone was smiling.
“ Hey bro.” I said with a wave. He laughed and tackled me in a hug and spun us around.
“ Welcome to the family Tanz.”
“ Thanks!”I laughed and kissed his cheek while he lowered me to the ground.
“ Congrats!” Ron hugged me and shook Nicks hand.
“ Well, I must say. I didn’t see this coming.” Ryan laughed and hugged me the tightest.
“ And you think I did?” I questioned and slipped my arm around Nicks waist. “ he popped the question on me last night!” I confessed.
“ O my gosh!” Ron squealed like a girl and jumped up and down.
“ Dude your acting like a gay boy!” Austin laughed and tried to keep him down.
“ I’m sorry I just love weddings!” He confessed and settled down. We all laughed and started walking down the beach.
“ So, do mom and dad know?” Austin asked while stepping in place next to Nick.
“ No, I was gonna tell them tonight.” Nick said while wrapping his arm around my shoulder and pulling me closer.
“ Good luck with that.” Ryan mumbled and squeezed my hand.
“ I think they’ll be just fine with it. They love Tanner.” Nick said and gave me a dazzling smile.
“ I think mom will have a heart attack.” Austin joked and kicked some sand.
“ Yeah, maybe we should hold off on telling her Nick.” I suggested.
“ Nah, she’ll be just fine!”
“ If you say so!”
“ Last one to the tower spills it to Mom!” Austin yelled and took off towards the tower. Ron and Ryan took off after him and I turned to Nick. He gave me a mischievous smile.
“ Last one there.” He yelled and took off. I sighed and took off after him. He may be fast and a football player. But he has muscles which weighs him down enough for me to catch. And he doesn’t know this but I’m like a lighting bolt when it comes to catching people. I sprang up and tackled him to the ground before kissing his cheek and taking off, leaving him stunned on the sand. I laughed and ran after Ron who I must say was very slow. I pushed him, causing him to lose his balance and topple to the floor.
“ Bully!” He yelled after me. I laughed and skipped before getting pulled to the ground by a laughing Nick.
“ I’m so going to beat you!” he laughed and held my hands above my head.
“ I don’t know it’s a long ways to the tower.” I proposed.
“ I think ill manage!” He said while kissing me on the lips and jumping off me. He offered me his hand. I reached up and grabbed it, only to pull him onto the ground and jumping up.
“ See you there loser!” I yelled behind me. Ryan and Austin were a little further ahead pushing tackling each other in attempt to get them to the ground. I sneakily sprinted up behind them and pushed threw the middle so I was in front.
“ Hey!” Ryan whined
I laughed and kicked it into gear so I was ahead. I was coming up on the tower and was only about 4 feet away when I got tackled from both sides and fell onto my back in the sand laughing.
“ Ow!” Ryan whined.
“ Get off me you fat lard!” Ron yelled.
“ Nick, your squishing me.” I complained.
“ I think I broke something.” Austin said while rolling away from the huge dog pile that formed.
“ Smurf, your hand.” Nick laughed. I looked down and noticed my hand was on his manhood. I instantly pulled it away and blushed.
We all untangled from each other and stood up while dusting the sand off us. Once we were clean we noticed none of us had touched the tower yet. All at once we lunged for the tower and touched it.
“ Who was last?” I asked.
“ Not me!” Everyone said at once. I sighed and sat down against the tower in exhaustion.
“ I say Nick has to tell!” Ryan said while sitting next to me.
“ Agreed” Ron said while plopping down.
“ Not fair!” Nick whined while sitting down and pulling me into his lap.
“ You did propose. Therefore I believe its your duty to tell them.”
“ But why cant we together?”
“ Because.” I thought but came up with nothing.
“ See you got nothing!” He laughed and tapped my nose.
“ I’ll do anything for you.” I whispered in his ear and gave him my famous puppy eyes.
“ Anything?” he smirked. I nodded and smiled.
“ I’ll take you up on that.” He said while kissing my temple.
“ Good.”
Once we were all rested we took pictures all over the beach and behind the tower, we hustled home just in time to change and meet Nicks parents at the sushi restaurant. My body was aching in pain from running as I changed but I took an extra shot of pain meds without Nick knowing so he would think I was healing. Little did he know that little stunt I pulled at the beach just made it worse.
The restaurant was darkly lit with only a few lamps around each table providing shadowing light. The restaurant was nicely decorated with Japanese signs and red with black accents on the walls. The restaurant was very crowded for a Thursday evening.
“ Ahh there they are!” Mrs. Marks squealed while standing up and rushing towards us with her husband close behind.
“ Tanner you look gorgeous, as always.” She smiled and hugged me then went on down the line of people. I hugged Mr marks and fallowed him back to the table they were at in the corner.
“ How’s it going Tanner?” Mr. Marks asked while sitting down. The guys were walking towards the table smiling.
“ Its great. What about you?” I asked smiling politely.
“ Well, thank you.” He smiled while the guys finally joined us at the table. Nick sat next to me and placed his hand on my thigh. Everyone else sat down and looked at the menus. Right away the waiter came up and gave a flirty smile.
“ Hi welcome to sushi rocks what can I get you?” He asked directing more of the question at me.
“ Ill have your chi tea.” Mr. Marks asked while giving the guy a warning eye. Well good to know im not the only one who noticed.
“ Ill have the same.” Mrs. Marks smiled and resumed looking at her menu.
“ Coca.” Ryan responded.
“ Same.”
“ Water.” Austin said and glanced at Nick.
“ Black panther.” Nick mumbled and looked at his menu.
“ And for you honey?” he asked. I gave him a ‘ as if’ look then smiled.
“ Peach tea.”
“ Okay be right back with those.” Once he walked away everyone seemed to relax. Nicks hand remained on my leg and started rubbing up and down.
“ What’s a black panther?” I asked curious.
“ Coca, red bull, with bitter lemon juice.” He smiled and glanced over at me.
“ That sounds disgusting!” I admitted. He laughed and squeezed my thigh.
“ Its actually really good!” Ron said with a nod.
“ It is!” ryan agreed.
“ The best!” Austin smiled.
“ Has everyone here tried it!” I asked irritated. They all nodded and laughed.
“ Don’t worry dear. I have not and never will try any teenage boy drinks.” Mrs. Marks laughed while taking my hand across the table and squeezed it.
“ Mom, one of these day I will get you to try one!” Nick challenged.
“ Never son!” She vowed while releasing my hand and looking back down at her menu. I laughed and kissed Nicks cheek. He smiled and kissed me. His hand traveled on my thigh and explored.
“ Here are your drinks.” The waiter said while reaching his arm in between our two faces, causing us to pull back. Nick growled and glared at him while he set the drinks down in front of us. He slowly placed the rest of the drinks in front of everyone while continually glancing at me.
“ So what do you think your going to get?” Nick whispered in my ear and kissed behind my ear.
“ I’m thinking the teriyaki chicken. You?”
“ The Tanner rolls.” He joked.
“ Hmm sounds delicious.” I joked back and gave him a light peck.
“ So, are you ready to order?” the waiter asked while standing right behind Nick and I.
“ Yes.” Nicks father replied. “ Dear what would you like?” He asked his wife. She twitched her lips then smiled. Once we all ordered we went into quiet conversations with each other.
“ So how long are you staying boys?” Nicks father asked while taking a sip out of his drink.
“ Just till Saturday. We have finals Monday and Tuesday.” Ryan frowned.
“Your leaving so soon?” I frowned.
“ Yeah, but don’t worry you’ll be home sooner than you think.” Austin said with a wink to Nick. I was about to ask when Nicks hand travel up my thigh and rested higher up. I slapped it away. Random chats started during dinner and Nicks hand continued to travel higher until I was rested on the inside of my dress. The pain was slowly starting to appear again, but I tried my best to hide it from Nick and everyone else.
Once we were finished eating and talking we fell into a comfortable silence. A silence in which Nick thought it’d be a good idea to break.
“ So mom, Dad Tanner and I have something to tell you.” Nick said while taking my hand under the table and turning slightly towards me.
“ Really?” Mrs. Marks asked with a smile.
“ Yes.” He said with a grin. His father looked at us in anticipation.
“ We’re getting married.” He said slowly making sure they heard.I squeezed his hand under the table waiting for their response. At first they both went blank and didn’t speak a word. When suddenly Mrs. Marks jumped up with a huge smile and jumped up and down.
“ My God I knew this would happen!” She sang while running up to us and hugging the living life out of us.
“Mom, cant breath.” Nick mumbled while trying to pry her off us. She smiled and released us before skipping to her seat and jumping in it.
“ Congrats son!” Nicks dad said while patting us both on the backs and looking truly happy.
“ thanks dad.”
“ So when?” Mrs. Marks asked.
I shrugged my shoulders and looked at Nick. He had a huge grin on his face and looked like the happiest guy ever.
“ The day Tanner gets out high school.”
“ So long?” Mr. Marks asked.
“ Well we are still really young.” I said while sipping on my tea.
“ That’s no excuse.” Mrs. Marks sang.
" Well, I think Tanner would like to finish High school before she settles down into anything future wise." Nick defended with a kiss to our hands.
" When was this decided?" Mrs. Marks asked hardly able to stay still.
" Last night." I said with a smile. I truly was happy.
" How cute." She smiled. I nodded and looked over at Nick who was staring at his father. I looked over and saw his father looking the happiest iv seen him in ages. He's always up tight unless you catch him in his best mood, which I happen to get luck enough to catch him in all the time. His eyes gleamed with unmistakable happiness and his whole body seemed to relax by a million.
" I’m very proud of you son, you couldn't have picked a more perfect fiancé." He smiled and waved down our waiter.
" What can I get you sir?" the waiter ask while staring at me ,I ignored his attempts to catch my eye and kissing Nicks neck and whispering in his ear.
" I’m glad they took it well."
" I knew they would." He whispered back and kissed my forehead.
" Lets have your special lemon brownie cake all around. And also two coffees for the happy couple." He yelled the last part causing us both to blush in embarrassment.
" Right away sir." He mumbled and glared at Nick while he walked away. Yeah like he had a chance.
"So, any thoughts on where you'd like it to be?" She asked us both. I shook my head and looked to Nick for help. He thought for a minute then smiled.
" Didn't you say when you were in Paris you saw a amazing wedding?" Nick asked. She nodded and looked curiously at him. Paris really? She studied him for a moment before she caught on of what he was saying.
" You want it in Paris?" She exclaimed and jumped up and down.
" Mom, will you please calm down." Nick laughed.
" Sorry son, but Paris, o my that'd be perfect!" She exclaimed and I could already see her planning the flowers and reception and such.
" Is that okay with you?" Nick suddenly asked concerned.
" I wouldn't pick a better place." I said while kissing his nose. He smiled and wrapped his arm around my shoulder and started a conversation with the guys.
" So Tanner, do your parents know?" Mr. Marks asked. I stopped mind sip of my tea and my eyes widened. Crap, they will not take this well.