Chapter Nine - Raindrops

“Nick?” Caraline asked as she looked at him, “Are you okay?” He looked up at her and then cut his eyes back down to his pants and walked up to her quickly, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Nick said as he smiled at her, “You go over there and I’ll take care of the bill okay?” She smiled, walking over to the door and sat down in a chair there as she watched Nick standing there, talking to the host and took his credit card out of his wallet. She took a deep breath, looking around the restaurant, thinking until she looked back up, seeing Nick walking back up to her, “Ready?”

“Yep,” Caraline whispered as they walked outside, seeing their limo driver standing there with the door open, “How did he know we were ready?”

“I got ways,” Nick whispered as Caraline rolled her eyes, looking over at him before she stepped into the limo, and slid across the street again. She looked outside the door, seeing Nick telling the driver something and then he climbed in, sitting down in the seat beside her as the driver closed the door.

“Where are we going now?” Caraline asked as she saw Nick looking down at his crotch, “Are you okay down there?” she asked as Nick looked up at her and she smiled, “Problems?”

“No, man, no,” Nick said as he shook his head and laughed, “I was just thinking. Wanna know where we’re going now?”

“Sure,”

“Back to the hotel,”

“Figures,” Caraline said as she rolled her eyes, looking back out the window as she crossed her legs, “Why aren’t we going anywhere else?”

“Well it’s already eleven,” Nick said as he started to laugh, “By the time we go back to the hotel, walk around some and talk some more and stuff, hell it’ll be time to go to bed,” he said as Caraline looked back at him, “Separately of course,”

“Uh huh,” Caraline whispered as Nick laughed, smiling over at her. She smiled at him and looked back out the window to her left, “It’s starting to rain,”

“It is?” Nick asked as he looked out his window, “Damn, well that sucks,”

“It’s cool. I like the rain,” Caraline said as she smiled, “It’s only sprinkling,”

“So, where are you guys going after you leave here?” Nick asked as Caraline looked down at her bracelet and then back up, “I mean, you know, when you leave New York City?”

“To be honest, I don’t remember. I know Nick,” she said as she paused, looking over at Nick, “Tim, I mean Tim.” Nick started to laugh at her. “I mean Tim starts his tour and Faith is going along and he had talked about hiring me also to you know, help out with him and his band, we’re supposedly having a little meeting about that tomorrow. So if that’s the case, I’ll be on the road with them still and if not then I’ll probably go home to Star or either to Nashville to maybe work with some writers or maybe I’ll stay here in New York and take in some fashion shows or something,”

“Can’t get me off your mind huh?” Nick asked as Caraline rolled her eyes at him, “You should stay here and take in some fashion shows. I can model,”

“Yeah I bet,” Caraline whispered as she started to laugh, “Underwear model?”

“Nude model, whatever works,”

“I hope that Tim hires me to do his and the bands wardrobe for the tour because then I won’t have to leave the kids for like six weeks,”

“Their kids?”

“Yeah. Gracie and I have this thing that we always have to watch Sesame Street together everyday almost,”

“I was on that show twice,”

“Unfortunately I know,” Caraline said as she looked back at him, “That’s how she knew who you were,” she said as the limo stopped and they heard the driver get out, “I guess we’re back at the hotel,”

“I guess so,” Nick said as he smiled. The driver opened the door up and Nick stepped out, turning around and taking Caraline’s hand to help her out. She walked up to the hotel door as Nick gave the driver a tip, telling him something and he turned around, walking up to her and taking her hand, “Come on,”

“Where are we going?” Caraline asked as they walked through the hotel lobby and she looked around seeing two fans sitting over in the corner, “Nick, there’s two of your fans,”

“Uh shit, come on,” Nick said as he turned his face and started walking a little faster, “Maybe they don’t recognize me since I’m dressed up,” he said as Caraline started to laugh. The elevator door opened time they walked up to it and a older couple walked off, leaving the elevator empty. Nick walked into it, leading Caraline in and hit the top floor button and then looked over at her.

“Why are we going to the top floor. Is that you’re floor?”

“No,”

“Then why are we going there?” Caraline asked as Nick smiled at her, “Why?”

“Just to go and we’ll be alone,” Nick said as Caraline cut her eyes over, looking at the numbers on the elevator, going up, “I just hope it doesn’t rain too much,”

“Doesn’t bother me,” Caraline said as she smiled, looking at him. The elevator door opened and Nick took her hand again, leading her out of it and turned the corner. He pushed the door open, to see a set of stairs that lead up to another door, and he opened it up and stepped out onto the roof, and lead Caraline out of it, “On the roof?”

“Yep,” Nick said as he shut the door back and Caraline crossed her arms, looking around, “It’s a nice view isn’t it?”

“Yeah it is,” Caraline said as she walked over a little more, closer to the edge, “It’s a long ways down too,”

“I was staying here once before and a guy jumped from up here, trying to kill himself and well, he did a pretty good job of it,” Nick said as Caraline looked over at him, “I guess that wasn’t too funny huh?”

“Not really,” Caraline said as she looked down and started walking along the edge, looking around. Nick stood there with his hands in his pockets. He looked down at his shoes and then back up to see Caraline looking over her shoulder at him, “Have you ever thought about killing yourself?”

“No, not really. Have you?”

“Once, but I was too scared to go through with it and realized I had way too much going for me at the time to do something like that,”

“Why’d you want to do that?”

“No reason,” Caraline said as she shrugged her shoulders turning around and walking slowly back up to where Nick was standing, “So do you wanna tell me now?”

“Tell you what?” Nick asked, looking her in the eyes as she moved up closer to him, “What I couldn’t tell you before?”

“Yeah, about what it is about me, so what is it? You started talking and you couldn’t say it and I told you it was okay, but do you want to explain it now?”

“No?”

“Yes,”

“Yes,” Nick said as Caraline smiled and he looked pressed his lips together, looking up at the sky, “I can’t say really. It’s everything, like your confidence,”

“Okay,” Caraline said as she smiled, “So what did you and Tim talk about because I know you talked about me,”

“Your family and stuff and you writing music,” Nick said as Caraline looked up to see a airplane in the sky, flying by high above them, “He told me how you were younger than all of your other brothers and sister and how you your dad died and how you went to college while you were still in high school and how you were doubled majored. Then he told me about the songs you wrote and how you got into that. He told me how someone from Britney Spears’ camp was asking about hiring you and you told them no,”

“God no,” Caraline said as she laughed, shaking her head, “The way critics criticize the way she dresses, never. They’ve always said nice things about Faith so that’s good for my credentials.”

“Yep,” Nick said as he laughed, “Don’t ever go work for her. I hear she’s a bitch to work with or for,”

“I don’t plan on it,” Caraline said as she crossed her arms and looked down, before looking back up at him.

“So that song you wrote about -”

“There’s More To Me Than You?”

“Yeah,” Nick said as he smiled, “Who’d you write that about?”

“This guy,” Caraline said as she smiled, walking away from Nick slowly, “That I dated for a little while in college. He was sort of a rebound relationship after I broke up with my boyfriend of like four years that I dated in high school and then part of college. He didn’t think I was going to be able to handle working with Faith or traveling around or any of what I’m doing today,” she said as she shrugged her shoulders, “All he wanted to do was have sex really and I was stupid enough to go along with it because I thought he could help me get over Bryan, my first boyfriend, and he sort of did in a way but I got tired of his crap, always telling me I never was going to make it so I broke up with him,”

“It’s a pretty good song,”

“Thanks,”

“We should write together sometime,” Nick said as Caraline smiled, looking over her shoulder at him as he walked up closer to her slowly, “I think we would make a good team,”

“What would we write about?” Caraline asked as she turned around, facing Nick who was right in front of her now, “I mean, we could write this story about this girl and this guy who meet several times before finally going out with each other and the guy is totally in love with her but doesn’t know exactly how she feels about him -”

“- and at the end,” Nick said as he smiled, “They could get married in a little country church and have two little girls and a little boy. The typical country song,”

“But there’s a problem,” Caraline said as she put her finger on his chest, “I don’t write typical country songs,” she said as she it started to sprinkle rain again, “I write songs with meaning.”

“Recite me something else that you’ve written,” Nick said as Caraline smiled at him, looking around for a minute, “Come on, if you can recite some whacked out poem by Shakespeare, you can do that,”

“To be with you I would risk a thousand lifetimes,” Caraline said as she stared into Nick’s eyes, “To be with you, there’s no mountain that I wouldn’t climb. If you’re the sky, let me be the cloud that runs right through you now. You don’t know just how I need to be with you, there can be no substitute. To be with you, I’ve tried to hide my passion but it’s just no use, piece by piece I lose it when you walk in the room. How can I get through if I can’t be with you,”

“What’s that - ” Nick started to say as Caraline interrupted him.

“Every time I close my eyes, I can see your face. I taste you on my lips. Every night I fantasize that I can feel you on my fingertips,” Caraline whispered as Nick started to move his face closer to hers, “To be with you, there can be no substitute. To be with you, I’ve to hide my passion but it’s just no use, piece by piece I lose it when you walk in the room. How can I get through if I can’t be with you,” she whispered as she put her fingertip on his lips and he smiled against it, “To be with you, there’s nothing I wouldn’t do. I’m powerless swept under by your sweet cares. I’m fadin’ fast, one look at you and I forget just who I am. I come unglued if I can’t be with you,”

“You wrote that?” Nick whispered as Caraline nodded her head, smiling as she moved her finger from his lips.

“I wrote it last night and memorized,” Caraline whispered again as she reached her arms up, pulling her hair down on her shoulders because the rain was making it fall anyway.

“I love it,” Nick whispered again as he moved his lips closer to hers and she paused as they both closed their eyes with their lips only centimeters apart.

“How do I know that you’re not going to forget me?” Caraline whispered against his lips as Nick opened his eyes, looking at her. Caraline straighten her head up, and opened hers, as they held their heads together almost with their nose’s touching, “How do I know you won’t forget about me like you do your groupies?”