PINKY PROMISE ; CLEARWATER

II.

"DO YOU THINK I was too forceful? I totally was, right?" Seth asked David as soon as they got out of the restaurant, ruffling his hair.

David just chuckled at his friend's antics, "It wasn't half that bad. I couldn't have talked to her like, at all, I mean she's older than us, that's kind of intimidating."

Seth came to an abrupt halt. "Wait, what? She's older than us? Why didn't you tell me?"

" You didn't know?" David retorted, "Oops, I thought you knew. But it really doesn't matter, I'm sure she thinks you're cute."

"Cute? Me?" Seth asked in disbelief, "I'm anything but cute. I'm handsome, charming and intelligent."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night."

Seth ran after his friend, still in shock, "You really think she thinks I'm cute?"

David shrugged, "I mean probably, but come on that isn't bad."

"But women don't want a cute guy, they want a manly- man. I'll be single forever and end up like your uncle Simon," the young Clearwater boy lamented.

Both of them shuddered at the thought of Simon, "I'm sure it's not that bad. How do you even know what girls are looking for in guys? Maybe Nicole likes cute and chatty guys and not the dark, mysterious guys like your sister's ex."

"How often do I have to say it? I'm not cute!"

Bantering, the two of them continued their way home, even if they forgot a few minutes in what they were even fighting about.

"Cecelia, you have time right now, right?" Nicole asked her friend over the phone as she made her way home in the dark.

"Depends, is this just like a casual call or are you going to cry about something, because I'm not prepared for the second one," Cecelia Branham responded on the other side of the phone.

Nicole rolled her eyes at her best friend, even if she knew that Cecelia couldn't see her right now. "I'm just going home from work, and it's dark. I want to talk to someone."

"Why didn't you say that earlier? Go on, tell me, how was work?"

Throwing on the hood of her rain jacket, Nicole walked in the direction of her home, few street lamps illuminating her way. "It was fine, there were a few people around but it wasn't that stressful."

Cecelia hummed on the other side, "And? Did any cute guys come by?"

Contemplating for a moment, Nicole responded, "We both know most of the guys our age on the reservation, so no, not really." After another moment of thought, someone did come to her mind. "Actually there was a cute guy."

"Really? Who? Do we know him?" Cecelia stopped her questions and finished with a final demand. "Don't tell me it's some guy from Forks, we don't like them and you know that."

Nicole shook her head and quickly denied the last thing.

They both didn't like guys from Forks anymore because once Cecelia had a date with an older guy from there at the beach and was stood up, when she called him, he only said that he accidentally forgot.

From this day forth, both of them decided to never again try dating someone from Forks, they even swore to each other that if one of them ever gained interest in a guy from Forks, the other was allowed to hit her, as hard as she wanted.

"No, no. He's from around here, he said his name's Seth. He was like, I don't know, kind of cute and talkative, from what I could tell, but we didn't talk much, so yeah." Nicole finally told her friend, who was eagerly expecting the news.

There was a moment of silence, "Cecelia? Are you still with me?"

"Oh, yeah, I was just thinking who this guy was and if we should know him, but I'm not really sure." Cecelia finally responded. "What did he look like?"

"Not that special, I mean almost like every other guy here. He had long black hair, tan skin, he was the same height as me. He had really cute dimples when he was smiling. And his friend's name was David," was all that Nicole could come up with and she knew that this description could fit almost every third guy that goes to their school.

Cecelia, being the one in their friendship who has a lot of connections and other friends, remarked sarcastically, "Wow, that really narrows it down. But I think I know him."

"You do?" Nicole asked a bit too loud and eagerly, her voice echoing throughout the empty street. "I mean, you do? Tell me everything, but it's not like I'm interested in him or anything, so don't get your hopes up."

Cecelia chuckled a bit, she knew what her best friend was like when she was interested in someone, so yeah, she did get her hopes up. "Okay, I don't know much, buut, his last name's Clearwater and he has an older sister, Leah. There was like some kind of big dating scandal with her because her ex-boyfriend started dating her cousin, like, right after they broke up, and I think they even live together now."

"Gosh, that's horrible, how could anyone do this to someone?" Nicole asked in shock.

"I know, right? That guy's kind of shady, some even say he's starting his own cult now but I'm not really sure about it. Back to Seth, though, I think he's okay, he plays soccer for our school's team if I'm not wrong and he's a sophomore, so a year younger than us. Which is pretty convenient, I mean, you prefer younger guys"

Nicole's cheeks turned pink at her friend's words, "Shut up, you're making me sound like a pervert. I just think that younger guys have this kind of charm to them, like, they have something that the older guys don't have."

"What? Innocence? You're the one making you sound like a pervert," Cecelia stated.

Nicole's cheeks turned even more pink as she went up the muddy driveway to her house, "You're the last one that's allowed to talk about perverts, honestly. Wasn't the last guy you were talking to like six years older than us?"

Now it was Cecelia's turn to get flustered by her friend's words. "Okay, that's enough, I thought we wouldn't talk about him anymore. That was a moment of weakness. I'm hanging up now, and don't expect me to drive you to school on Monday. Hope you're safe at home by now, bye!"

"Oh, come on! I was just -" and Cecelia hung up on her. Nicole just rolled her eyes and made her way inside the two storey house. Leaving her dirty boots and soaked jacket near the entrance to clean them tomorrow.

"Hello? I'm home," she shouted into the house and was met by a chorus of hellos from the living room. Making her way there she saw her whole family sitting across the small room, an episode of The Flintstones playing as they all more or less paid attention to the series.

Her two younger twin sisters, Maya and Olivia, sat on the carpet, one on each side of their Saint Bernard dog, petting it. Her youngest sister sat on the armchair, her eyes wide as she sang along to the intro. Last but not least her parents sat on the small sofa, their attention shifting from the show in front of them to Nicole as she entered the room, though her mum continued humming along to the song.

"How was work?" her father, Lucas, asked her as she sat down on the floor in front of them, placing her head on the armrest of the sofa.

Nicole shrugged, "Just like always, though there were more people than usual when it rains. And I already ate there, Danielle insisted on it because I didn't want her to drive me home."

"That's very sweet of her and good for me, because your dear father ate up everything that I put aside for you to eat," her mother, Evelyn, said in a criticizing tone.

"I couldn't help it! Your lasagna is too good, honey."

Nicole smiled up at her parents and talked to them a bit more in detail about her day at work. Though, she left out the details about her thinking that a certain customer was pretty cute, because they were sure to start some drama, especially her sisters who would then tell all of their friends in school about it.