The Story of Us (Book 1 of "The Story of Us" Series) [Completed]

Chapter 6 - Love Gets Me Every Time

Harley sat backstage at The Late Show with David Letterman later that day, staring off into space. She couldn't believe what happened the night before. She didn't plan on sleeping with Nick, not until maybe Christmas. They had already talked about spending Christmas together and she was going to do it then.

But something came over her the night before that she hadn't felt before. She had never experienced a guy being jealous of other guys looking at her. She never had a guy feel threatened before like Nick had after seeing her performance. Something about that turned her on and she didn't understand it.

A part of her wished she had never slept with her ex-boyfriend from high school and had waited. That way Nick would have been her first. Then again, if she had waited, the night before wouldn't have been as memorable as it was because of all the nerves and icky feelings that came with losing your virginity.

"Harley, are you okay?" Scarlett asked, sitting down next to her on the sofa. "You seem a little out of it today." Harley shrugged her shoulders and looked down at her bracelet she had on. "You want to talk?"

"I slept with Nick last night," she confessed softly, looking at Scarlett. "Our first time together and it was only my second time and I'm afraid I might have freaked him out a little."

"How so?" Scarlett asked as Harley sighed and looked away.

"She cried?" AJ asked as he and Nick walked into a store to go shopping. "Were you hurting her? I mean.."

"No, I asked her," Nick said as AJ started laughing. "I asked her if she wanted to stop and she said no."

"Are you sure she wasn't a virgin?" AJ asked as Nick nodded. "Then why the fuck was she crying?" Nick shrugged, picking up a yellow hat and handed it to AJ.

"Before the end, she had stopped, you know?" Nick said. AJ nodded. "But then as we were going to sleep, I heard her sniffling so I think she was crying again. It's just weird to see her cry because she has this tough girl attitude so much."

"Maybe she loves you man," AJ said as Nick stopped dead in his tracks. "What did I say? The part that she might love you?" Nick nodded. "Come on, when we were overseas and you guys talked, you didn't end it with 'I love you' or anything?"

"No..."

"Have you told each other you that you love one another yet?"

"No..."

"Then I bet that's it," AJ laughed. "I bet she loves you and probably wanted to say it but was too scared because she didn't know if you would say it back."

"I don't know why I cried," Harley said, watching her drummer as he walked into the dressing room to grab a jacket. "He wasn't hurting me or anything. I guess these emotions just took over inside me because I don't really cry that often."

"Did he say anything to make you cry?" Scarlett asked as Harley shook her head.

"Like what?"

"Like 'I love you'?"

"We've never said that to one another," Harley sighed.

"Do you think he loves you?" Scarlett asked. Harley didn't say anything and watched as the drummer walked out of the room again. "Do you?"

"I know he cares about me, but I don't know," she shrugged, standing up from the sofa. "It doesn't really matter though. That kind of stuff isn't important to me."

"You sure?" Scarlett asked as Harley nodded. She walked out of the dressing room and into the hallway. She needed to get away from Scarlett before she started crying again.

Finding an empty dressing room, Harley opened the door and shut it. She leaned against the door and crossed her arms across her chest.

Deep down she knew Scarlett was right. She wanted to tell him that she loved him but was scared to. She had never felt anything like this for a guy before but didn't want to push him away. She saw it too many times before with old friends. They would tell the guy they were dating they loved them and the guy would immediately get scared, running to the next girl that liked them. That's how a lot of teenage boys were.

But Nick wasn't the typical teenage boy and he was also older than the guys she knew.

Nick stood off to the side of the cash register while AJ bought yet another new pair of shoes. Their security guards stood behind Nick, but Nick was too deep into thought to even notice the teenage girls who had began surrounding the store outside.

While AJ wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, he had a lot more experience with relationships than Nick did and he knew how to read someone of the female species better than anybody he knew. AJ said it was because he was raised by a single mother. Nick thought it was just because he was a freak.

But AJ had a point. Harley had told Nick before he went overseas that she didn't plan on having sex again until she loved the guy. She only asked him if he cared about her before they did it.

"So, do you love her because I know that's what you're standing there thinking about," AJ said, stepping away from the cash register. Nick glared at him questionably and AJ grinned. "Yes, I'm that good. So, do you?"

"I don't know," Nick said as he and AJ walked out of the store and their security guards held the girls back. They immediately jumped into a parked car and shut the door behind them.

"What do you mean you don't know?" AJ asked. "You've been dating the girl since December basically. Granted you don't get to spend the amount of time a normal couple gets to spend together, you have to know what you feel about her after last night. Don't you?"

"I guess I love her..."

"Don't you dare say 'I guess I love you' to Harley," AJ hissed, pointing his finger at Nick. "You do or you don't. If you don't, then don't be playing with this girl because she's already given it up to you."

"She wasn't a virgin, remember..."

"Might as well been one."

"True."

"So?"

"I haven't decided yet," Nick said as AJ rolled his eyes.

Harley sat in her hotel room that night, finishing up one of her assignments that she needed to e-mail her tutor. She had a tutoring session the next afternoon at home which meant she was leaving New York early that next morning. She sent the e-mail which had her assignment attached and closed out of her e-mail.

She immediately went to a Backstreet Boys message board that she frequented just to see what people were saying about her.

This time, it wasn't all that great.

She kind of looked skanky up there on stage trying to act all bad ass. She needs to go back to the sweet little ballads she wrote about Nick, or whatever famous person she's latching on to this week.... Skank.

Harley sighed. Maybe Nick was right about her performance. Her album sells were awesome, but maybe her VMA performance did push a few buttons. Nick had already told her what he thought of it. Her parents hated it, especially her father and apparently the head of her label wanted to speak with her on a phone conference the next day with her parents.

She jumped from her thoughts hearing a knock at the door.

"Hold on," Harley sighed, closing her laptop before making her way to the door. She looked out the peephole and smiled, seeing Nick standing outside. "Hey," she smiled, opening the door to see Nick standing outside with a little gift bag. "Have a good day shopping?"

"I did," he said, walking in. He looked back to see Harley shut the door and she turned around to smile at him. "I bought you something."

"You didn't have to do that," she said, walking up to him.

"Kind of your congratulations on the new album," he smiled, handing her the bag. "Hopefully you like it."

"I'm sure I will," she smiled, taking a small velvet box out of the bag. She opened the box to see a sterling silver charm bracelet inside with two small charms already on it. "You got me a charm bracelet?"

"Yeah," he smiled, walking over to take the bracelet out of the box. "I got you two charms for it. One is a CD and they engraved yesterday's date on it and the other is a small heart locket." He opened up the small heart shaped locket to see a photo of him inside. "Inside is me."

"I love it," she smiled, watching him as he put it on her left hand. After he fastened it, she reached up, hugging him tightly. She backed away from the hug and kissed his lips softly. Nick deepened the kiss and Harley backed away, almost wanting to laugh.

"I wanna ask you something," he said, watching her as she looked at the bracelet.

"Sure," she smiled. "Ask away."

"Why did you start crying last night," he asked. He noticed that she froze, then looked up at him. "After, you know, it was over, I heard you again and it's kind of bugged me all day because I hope I didn't hurt you or..."

"It was my emotions," she said, seeing a smile come across his lips. "It was just really emotional because I didn't expect that to happen last night."

"I wasn't expecting it to happen until at least your birthday," he said as she smiled. "Why did it happen? I mean, what changed your mind?" He watched Harley as she moved closer to him, her body against his. "Something you were feeling?" Harley nodded slowly and he smiled. "What were you feeling?"

"I was tired of waiting," she said, wrapping her arms back around his neck. "I'm this hopeless romantic and I wanted what they have in the movies and I felt that with you last night. When you came back to the dressing room last night, all jealous, it's like you were jealous because all of those men were looking at me and I belong to you."

Nick sighed. That was exactly what he was thinking when he barged backstage.

"And because you love me?" he asked as she glared at him. "Is that why you started crying? Was that the emotion you were feeling?"

"Nick, don't make me say it..."

"It's okay, trust me. Say it."

"Fine," she sighed. "I love you and I know you're a guy and guys are weird about that type of thing...

"I love you, too," he blurted out, causing her to stop talking. "Fuck," he hissed. He started breathing heavy and backed away from her. "Shit."

"What's wrong?" Harley asked as Nick sat down on the edge of the bed.

"It just kind of hit me that I love you too," he said, looking at her. She smiled, sitting down next to him. "I do, I just. I guess it scares me that I feel this way and we don't see one another as much as I want."

"I turn eighteen in less than two months and then I can do whatever I want," Harley smiled, moving into Nick's lap and straddling him. "If I want to visit you for a week, I can and they can't stop me."

"Your career can."

"We'll make it work," she whispered, leaning her forehead against his. "This is you and me. Nothing can stop us from being together."