X. DATE

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(how I imagine Nico to look - based on the actor Nico Mirallegro in 'My Mad Fat Diary')

CHAPTER X. DATE
Nothing more happened that night between Harry and I, my father had come to pick me up at 10pm in his little car. Once I stepped outside, I noticed him looking at every single detail of the mansion in awe.

'Is that your friends house?' He asks me as we pull away in the car.

'Yeah, he's pretty rich.'

'You could say that again.' He states, having one last adoring look at the home, before we drive away.

It was now the following Monday. The previous week had been spent doing end-of-year assignments and reading a new romance novel. My mother had been indulged in her newest poetry collection, using the chunky computer connected to the landline to delicately type each poem. The computer had been placed on an old wooden desk outside my bedroom, in the upper hallway of the house. So, because of this, I would often leave my room for school and see my mother's sight glued onto the screen. She seemed to enjoy being able to say goodbye to me personally each day, which was an advantage for her.

'Okay, class, you know the drill. Date in the top right corner of the page, today is Monday November 17th 1986. In this session, we will be going over the exam answers from last week's class test.' Mr Stemming begins to drag his chalk against the blackboard, much to the class's dismay. I lean my head against my hand, beginning to fall into a nap.

Suddenly, when Mr Stemming turns away from the class to write an equation, a small piece of paper flies past my head and onto the desk in front of me. I peer down to find a paper airplane and a small grin finds my face. My head turns to the desk behind me to see Nico, sending him a raised eyebrow. He mouthes 'open it' to which I do, and it reads 'Date on Friday? Nico x'. Blush doesn't take much time to form over my cheeks and I can't help the butterflies that erupt in my stomach. I turn around once again, sending him a nod this time and he looks relieved.

I soon feel a nudge from beside me, I turn to find Lana looking towards the paper in puzzlement. My fingers unwrap the airplane again, showing her the message and she excitedly giggles.

'Something funny, Miss Rose?' Mr Stemming eventually asks.

'No, sir.' She replies, trying her hardest to stop giggling like an idiot. I just shake my head, though the deep smile doesn't leave my face.

Later on that day, in the evening, my father decided to make his speciality for dinner; spaghetti bolognese. We hadn't eaten the dish for a few months, since before we had planned the move to Bridgemont Valley, so it was a warmly welcomed treat. Even my mother came downstairs, leaving the confined chains of the computer, and had dinner with us at the table.

'You're out an awful lot nowadays, Adriana.' She eventually says, twisting her fork in the pasta.

'Yeah, I've made a lot of friends.' This earns a smile from my father.

'That's good, honey.' She states with a grin, taking a bite of the pasta.

'You're out a lot on Fridays.' My dad interjects.

'Yeah, one of my friends hosts a get-together every Friday. I think it's to celebrate the end of the week.' I never asked Harry why he did it, but I assumed that to be the case.

'Study hard, party even harder, am I right?' My dad laughs, I join in but my mother stays stern. He raises an eyebrow at her but I just shake the whole encounter away from my mind.

'I'm happy everything is going well for you.' She tells me.

The idea of telling my parents about the body pops into my mind, and I wonder how they would react to it. I felt that their first instinct would be to drive me straight to the police station, so I strayed away from the idea.

November 21st arrived quickly and I was very excited about Nico's date idea. I had spotted Harry around school, every time with darker bags under his eyes, but he would always grin towards me. I wondered whether he would feel annoyed if I told him about my date with Nico, but I remembered that he has never liked me in that way, so I decide against it altogether.

'Are you still on board for our date-thing later?' Nico nervously asks before we leave the school, 'It'll just be a casual thing - maybe a coffee shop date, since it's so cold outside.'

'That sounds perfect.' I give him a smile.

He pulled up outside of my house at 6.30pm on the dot, sat inside a white Mustang. I had changed into a pair of jeans and an oversized maroon sweatshirt. I grabbed my winter coat on the way out as well as my boots. Nico left the car once he saw me approach it, opening the passenger door for me to climb inside.

'Hi.' He says, a faint rosy tint forming over his cheeks.

'Hey.' I grin, his face moves closer to peck the side of my face and I feel myself blush too.

When he starts the ignition, the radio turns on straight away and Al Stewart's Time Passages floods the car. The drive was peaceful, and I found myself feeling more excited over Nico than I ever had been. I glance over to him, noticing that he's wearing woollen gloves and matching scarf. His nose was beginning to turn red due to the cold conditions outside. He turns and notices me staring.

'What are you looking at?' He playfully asks before lightly jabbing my waist, causing me to laugh. We are both giggling when the car stops outside of the coffee shop, a warm beige light coming from it's windows. It looked like heaven against the foggy white light of the outdoors. He takes my hand, warming it up with his gloved one, and leads me inside. Nico chooses a miniscule table at the corner of the room, before going to purchase two hot chocolates.

I sit and wait for his return, feeling the sudden heating of the coffee shop engulf me. My coat is on the back of the chair once the heat becomes too warm, and I lay my arms on the table. The coffee shop had a log-cabin theme and I liked it, it made me feel like I was inside a compact home in the arctic.

'Here.' Nico returns, holding two large mugs as well as a narrow box. He places the mugs down on the table before setting the box down before me.

'What's this?' I question, looking over the box with curiosity.

'Open it and see.' He takes his jacket, scarf and gloves from his body before taking the seat opposite me. My fingers unlatch the top of the box and open it to view a fabric patch. I pick the patch up, the word 'Adriana' sown into it with a baby pink thread as well as a small pink rose at each corner of the patch. 'My mother made it, she runs a textile store here, and as soon as I told her that I had met you, she wanted to make it. You can put it on anything, there's velcro on the back.'

'This is so lovely, thank you Nico.' I send him a grin, still delicately holding the patch in my hands. It was so thoughtful, I was surprised to receive something like that. I carefully put it back into the box, closing it over tightly. 'Is that why your family moved here? For the textile store?'

'Yeah, she wanted to expand her market.' He takes a sip of the hot chocolate, his eyes the same chocolate colour.

'What does your dad do?' I ask, feeling slightly rude of assuming he had a dad afterwards.

'He works in an office, just some law firm. What do your parents do?' He questions after I finish some more of my drink.

I explained what my parents did, he seemed to enjoy hearing about my life in Pennsylvania as well as my life here in Maine. He particularly found my mother's job interesting, how she found success through writing, and he told me that he wished to pursue English Literature at college just like me.

Soon enough, the date was over and I found myself sad that it ended so soon. Nico drove me home, exiting the car to open my door once again. However, when I stepped onto the sidewalk, I didn't move and faced him instead.

'Tonight was really great.' I tell him with a deep beam. He returns it and steps closer to me.

'It was, thank you for accepting my offer.' He chuckles nervously, and I do too. His arms soon wrap around my waist and mine automatically fall over his shoulders. With newly found confidence, he instantly closes the space between us and his lips press gently against mine. They were warm and tasted of hot chocolate. Soon, our lips moved against each other and the feeling built a strange feeling in my stomach, like butterflies but tripled. However, just as the kiss was ending, Harry's face sprang into the forefront of my mind. I began to wonder if it felt this way to kiss Harry; and the split second that I realised what I was doing, I pulled away. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, I'm fine. My - my parents will be wondering where I am.' I stutter, turning to step up to my front door. I can hear him chuckle from near the car.

'See you later, Adriana.' He calls, strolling around the car to his side.

'See you.' I call back with a forced grin, but as soon as I am indoors, I lean against the dark-wood door in confusion. I was sure that I liked Nico, but that didn't explain why Harry's face came parading into my mind at the wrong time. Harry was just a friend, so why was I thinking this way about him? I stayed there for a moment, trying to console my mind but in the end, my thoughts overwhelmed me and I ran up to my room, closing the door rapidly behind me.

My body fell back onto my bed and I stared at the blank ceiling of my room. Sleep soon won the race over my troubled thoughts and I fell into a deep slumber, though Harry was too in the forefront of my dream. We were back in Rocky Trails, and I knew where the dream was going but I didn't want to accept it, hoping for a different outcome. Subsequently, we reached the final scene of the dream and it felt like rehearsal of an already-known script. We found the body, but this time, Blake was under a plain white sheet. Harry's hand gripped the edge of the sheet, pulling it swiftly from over him, and I instantly woke up in a cold sweat. My body jerked up and my breathing was extremely unsteady. The sound of the home-phone ringing flooded the house and I tried to calm myself down, getting out of bed. The morning sunlight was beaming through my curtains and it hurt my eyes as I passed it.

I assumed the caller to be Nico so prepared myself before picking it up, but I was surprised to hear a female's voice.

'Hello?'

'Hey, Adriana. It's Lana. Tell me all about it.' She instructed and I anxiously twirled the phone's cord around my fingers.

'The date?'

'Of course the date. What else would it be?' She giggled and that cheers me up slightly, the memories of the nightmare floating away with my words. I tell her the details of the date, obviously leaving out the thoughts of Harry, since she already had a liking for him. 'You kissed?!'

'Yeah.' I nervously chuckle as she shrieks from the other line.

'I'm so happy you had a good night! Nico seems so nice, you both suit each other so much.'

'Where were you last night?'

'Where do you think? I didn't have a date like you, so I was stuck in another of Harry's parties.' Lana tells me.

'Was it good?'

'Yeah, it was definitely fun. Harry asked about you, I just told him that you were on a date. The others hope you had a good night too.'

'Harry asked?' I stop twirling the cord.

'Yeah.'

'That's so weird.' I force myself to say, though nervousness still laced my voice.

Lana and I eventually finished speaking, I put the phone back down, stepping into the kitchen to grab a piece of fruit for breakfast. My mother and father didn't wake up very early anymore, they didn't make breakfast like they used to; I found myself missing that. Suddenly, the phone starts ringing again and I assume that it's Lana.

'What have you forgot to tell me?' I chuckle, taking a bite of my apple.

'What?' Harry's voice floods the line and I freeze.

'Oh, Harry - Hey.'

'You need to get over here. I need to speak to you.'

(I hope you're enjoying the story thus far! x.)

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