Feeling This

Chapter Nineteen

A/N: smut warning

"So what's going on between you and Mark?"

Nicolette nearly choked as she swallowed her sip of water. She coughed before turning to the man who had just sat down next to her on the park bench: Rick. "Uh, what?"

"Come on, Nic," Rick smirked. "Don't deny it. You two always sit next to each other on the bus and he's always sending you these looks when he thinks no one's paying attention."

"What?" Nicolette asked, genuinely surprised this time.

"Yeah, it's obvious he's got it bad for you."

Nicolette looked down at her lap guiltily, her fingers playing with the edges of her book. Rick must've been imagining things; Mark couldn't like her that much. There were too many problems with their relationship for him to take it that seriously, like their age difference, Travis being her uncle, and...the fact that she still wasn't over Tom. She liked Mark, but she wished she liked him a lot more than she actually did.

Mark was a great guy and Nicolette enjoyed being with him. But it wasn't the same as it had been with Tom. Her heart didn't race in her chest and her stomach didn't twist into knots like it used to with Tom. Then again, they were two different guys so maybe it was only logical that she felt differently around them.

"Although I thought the same thing about Tom," Rick continued. "Until he hooked up with that groupie at least." He laughed at the memory while Nicolette's hand tightened into a fist. She wondered if she would ever get over it, if she would ever stop being mad.

That was why Nic couldn't be with Mark. She didn't know if she could trust him. No, not just that exactly; she was afraid of getting hurt again. Here Rick was, proving she had a right to be worried. Rick thought Mark looked at her the same way Tom used to, and look at how things had ended with Tom. Nicolette didn't want that to happen again.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Nicolette shook her head and resumed reading her schoolbook.

"Yeah, that's why you looked totally pissed off when I mentioned the groupie and your hand balled into a fist like you were imagining punching Tom in the face."

Nicolette sighed and looked at Rick's smug face. "Tom can fuck whoever he wants, Rick. There's nothing, nor has there ever been, something going on between us."

"Nic, you two practically hated each other," Rick laughed. "And then all of a sudden you guys were practically making love with your eyes every time we went out to grab a bite to eat."

"Whatever you thought you saw, it was all in your head," she denied, turning a page of her book.

"Okay fine," Rick conceded. He leaned back against the bench, draping his arm behind Nicolette's shoulders. "Maybe I imagined the stuff with Tom." His voice dripped with sarcasm, making it clear he didn't believe what he was saying. "But I definitely did not imagine the stuff with Mark."

"Oh yeah?" she asked patronizingly, trying to act like she wasn't paying any attention to him as she continued to read. In reality, Nicolette was hanging on to his every word, wondering how she and Mark had slipped up. "And what makes you say that?"

"Oh I don't know," Rick shrugged. "It might have had something to do with the moans I heard coming from the bathroom last night. 'Ahhhh, ahhh! Fuck, Nic!'"