The party was in full swing at Nick’s house. The music was loud and the alcohol was going down smooth. His friends had all brought different girls they met at different places. Nick knew most of the people but there were a few girls he hadn’t met. It didn’t matter as long as they were hot. He was on the couch drinking a beer with a girl on his lap. He had seen around the club scene a few times and they ran in the same circles but they weren’t friends. She was kissing on his neck when he looked across the room and locked eyes with a girl in a barely there top, short skirt and boots. She became embarrassed by the eye contact and turned away quickly. He continued to look at her and caught her trying to sneak a look at him. He gently removed the girl from his lap and walked over to a couple of his friends. They performed their ritual of weird handshakes and he nodded his head,
“You guys know that girl over there in the short black skirt?” They laughed and continued drinking,
“Which girl in the short black skirt?” He rolled his eyes and shook his head; they were not going to be any help,
“The girl in the pink top.” He pointed and they followed his finger,
“Nah, we met her in a club.” Nick shook his head and looked up at the ceiling,
“She’s young.” He looked over at her again to see her looking at him.
“Dude, she’s fine, we met her at a club.” Nick shook his head,
“No way dude. I don’t care.” Sam laughed,
“You had to be 18 to get in.” Nick sighed,
“No dude, I know underage girls. I see them everyday and I’m not getting caught up in some underage sex scandal. No way.” He walked over to her,
“Hi.” She looked down and began to play with her hands,
“Hi.” He might as well get right to it he sighed,
“So, how old are you?” Her eyes widened as she looked up at him,
“Nineteen.” He shook his head,
“Ok, you want to tell me the truth?” Just as she opened her mouth the girl who was sitting on his lap walked over at looked at her competition,
“Hey baby, you coming back?” Nick didn’t bother to look at her,
“Not right now, I’m busy.” She was about to protest when he looked at her for the first time since she interrupted the conversation,
“Not right now.” She walked off, quite unhappy with being turned down and Nick gave the girl his attention once again,
“Come on.” He took her hand and led her out back by the pool. She leaned against the wall and he stood in front of her,
“So, come on don’t lie to me again. How old are you?” She looked down,
“Sixteen.” Nick sighed and looked up at the sky,
“What are you doing here?” She looked up at him,
“I like you, I wanted to meet you.” She raised her hand to his face and leaned in and tried to kiss him. He turned his head,
“Look-“ She interrupted him,
“I can make you happy like those other girls.” His head fell down and he braced himself on the wall with his hand next to her head,
“You don’t want to be like those other girls.” She nodded her head,
“I do.” He shook his head and she questioned,
“Why not?” He sighed,
“I wouldn’t be a nice guy if I was with you.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms,
“I’ve read stuff about you on the internet.” He looked at her,
“Don’t believe everything you read on the net.” He waited for her to say something but when she didn’t he continued,
“Look ok, fine I do things. You don’t want me to treat you like I treat those other girls. You’d be much better off being my friend.” She shook her head,
“Why?” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair; he couldn’t believe he was going to put himself out there like this,
“Because I don’t treat them very nice. In fact, I treat them pretty bad sometimes.” She frowned and he could tell she wanted to say something,
“What? Go ahead.” She shrugged,
“Why do you treat them bad?” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly,
“I guess because I know that they probably wouldn’t give me the time of day if I wasn’t Nick Carter so I figure why not get what I want. They’re just using me too.” She looked down and he knew his words probably stunned her,
“Look, I wouldn’t be a very nice person to you if I did that. I wouldn’t want to do that to you, I’d rather be your friend; I could be a better friend to you. Besides, you don’t want to see me in trouble do you?” She looked up at him,
“No.” He nodded and bit his lip as he looked up at the sky,
“That’s what would happen if anything between us happened and I don’t want to go to jail.” He lowered his voice,
“And between you and me, I don’t want to brag, but I think I’m a little too pretty to go to jail. That’s one place you don’t want to be popular.” He winked at her as she giggled; she nodded her head and whispered,
“Ok.” He smiled for the first time since he saw her,
“Can you do me a favor and not go and hang out with older guys, that’s pretty dangerous.” She shook her head,
“On one condition.” He raised his eyebrows and laughed,
“Ok.” She continued on,
“You treat girls better.” His eyes widened and that was definitely something he hadn’t planned on her saying,
“Ok.” He grabbed her hand,
“Come on, I’m going to take you home.” She looked at her hand in his and looked up at him and smiled. He stopped her,
“Hold on.” He took his thumb and wiped the lipstick off her lips,
“There, that’s better. Girls are much prettier without all that stuff on.”
Hey lay in bed and replayed his conversation with the little girl earlier that night. He really wasn’t where he wanted to be when it came to girls. He would see guys play girls and thought that’s how he wanted to be; it was like that was how he was supposed to be. He was a guy and on top of all that he was a celebrity and was supposed to be able to get anyone he wanted, that was supposed to be his lifestyle right? Deep down that wasn’t him and he just wanted that one special girl to be himself with to be sweet and goofy with. He sighed as he remembered he had that with Shayna and it still ended up wrong. They had a great relationship why did he think he had to be more, why did he think it could be better than it was? He knew there was no such thing as perfect so why did he expect it with her? Or maybe he expected it to be his way…which was perfect for him.
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Chapter 43