[Karie]

I’m a nervous wreck. I wasn’t nervous until the lady who is doing my hair came up to the suite to do it so that I wouldn’t have to go to the salon and indure those who I graduated high school with. Which, sure, that makes no sense since I’m at the reunion but Nick thought it would be a good idea.

He on the other hand is going to meet me in the ball room. He’s already dressed and went to take care of a few other things while I finished things up. My hair is already done and the lady just left after finishing it.

As I slip my dress on, I become even more nervous. Would the loose curls fall out of my hair? Will I bust my ass falling down the stairs in these heels? Would my dress rip or would I rape Nick in the middle of the ball room?

There’s something about the man that drives me wild. I don’t know if it’s the part of me that always dreamed of being with someone famous, like say, Ben Affleck, for instance or if it’s the fact that I can’t get enough of him – the man. There’s parts of me that want to believe it’s the whole celebrity thing but then this beating organ in my chest is telling me it’s something totally different.

It’s something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I slipped into my heels and looked up at my reflection in the mirror. The lady at the dress shop was right. The shade of purple, twilight as she called it, really did go well with the ivory color of my skin. I wasn’t sure if I liked it being sleeveless but I could get over it. I wasn’t there to impress anybody tonight. I was there to show the people who made my life hell in high school that I had moved on, that I was better than them, and dammit, I had a hot boyfriend.

“Boyfriend?” I asked myself, looking in the mirror. I guess he was my boyfriend.

I looked in the mirror one last time, checking my makeup and smiled.

“I’m Karie Hamilton,” I said as I walked up to the table outside the ballroom. The guy sitting at the table gave me a blank stare. “K-a-r-i-e,” I spelled it out for him.

“Your date is already here,” he said, handing me my name tag and a pin to pin it to my dress. I nodded and walked past the table as a big black man held the door open for me. I thanked him and walked in, seeing the lights were low and some people were already dancing on the dance floor.

I felt like I was at my senior prom again, except his time I didn’t have to worry about my date hooking up with some skank in the ladies room.

“Hey beautiful,” I heard a voice say as I looked to my left and smiled, seeing Nick stand there in a black suit with a purple looking tie that matched my dress perfectly. “You look… awesome.”

“You clean up really nice,” I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck. He kissed me gently on the lips and I grinned. “How about we just skip out on this now and go back to the room?” I asked, watching him shake his head.

“Not a chance,” he laughed. “I’m showing you off tonight.”

With that, he took my head and led me out onto the dance floor. Brandy’s “Have You Ever” played over the speakers and I felt Nick’s arms wrap around my waist.

“You’re so playing this as if it were your prom,” I whispered, causing him to laugh.

“Yep, and I already know I’m going to get some,” he said, causing me to giggle into his shoulder.

I lifted my head, resting my chin on his shoulder to see Matthew and Tracy walk onto the dance floor. He had a plain black suit on with a black tie and she had on a simple black dress. Matthew couldn’t take his eyes off of me and I couldn’t help but wonder why. Was it because I was so dressed up, because I had some famous guy with his arms wrapped around me, or because he realized what a mistake he made by letting me go.

“Did you mean what you said today?” Nick asked as I leaned my head back and looked at him. “About tonight.”

“Yeah, I did,” I smiled. “I have another question though.”

“What?”

“You’re my boyfriend now, right?” I asked, causing him to smile.

“Well, talking to my Mom earlier, I called you my new girlfriend, so…” he said as I shook my head. “She was impressed that I could land a girl that was smart and could write a complete sentence, much less an article. She liked the article you did on us. She said you made me sound smart.”

“You are smart.”

“Not that smart -”

“Matthew keeps looking at me,” I replied as we turned slightly on the dance floor so that Nick was facing him.

“Jealous, that’s all,” Nick said as we both looked around and noticed that a lot of people were finding their seats. “I found our table earlier. Do you want to go sit down?” I nodded and he took my hand, leading me to a table with a couple who I didn’t really recognize.

As soon as we sat down, we both looked up to see Matthew and Tracy walking towards our table.

Yes, this night was going to be interesting.

[/Karie]

[Nick]

“Karie, Nick,” Matthew said as he pulled a chair out for his wife and then sat down himself. I gave a fake smile and looked at Karie who was rubbing her neck. She was stressed out and I could tell.

I picked up the card on the table and sure enough, their names were on it too.

“Are you sure you don’t want to skip out on this?” Karie whispered in my ear as I shook my head.

“No, just be cool,” I said, looking to see Matthew and his wife talking about something. “They’re not letting it bother them, so we need to be the same way.” Karie nodded and smiled as a waiter brought us some champagne.

“Oh, I can’t drink,” Tracy said, patting her stomach. “We’re expecting.”

“Congratulations,” I said as they both said thank you.

“Listen,” Matthew said as he looked directly at Karie who ignored him. “Karie, can you at least look at me?”

“What?” she asked, glaring at him.

“I’m sorry about everything that happened with us and last night and in the past and everything, okay?” Matthew said. “Think of it this way, if none of that stuff happened then you might not have met your new guy here.”

“Yeah,” Karie replied, taking another sip of champagne. “It just stung last night so badly because of our relationship and how open it was and you still cheated apparently.”

“He was an asshole then,” Tracy said as both Karie and I looked at her. “Even I admit that, but I guess it all happened for the best. We’re happy and you two seem happy, right?”

“Extremely,” Karie snapped back, snapping her fingers for a waiter to bring another class of champagne.

“Hey, ease down on the drinking, okay,” I leaned over and whispered. She nodded and smiled at me. “Don’t want to be too drunk for later, right?” She smiled, leaning over to kiss me gently on the lips.

Okay, I admit now that this whole reunion thing is boring as hell. We ate dinner, listening to a few speakers talk, some videos and pictures were shown and now people are being asked to stand up to let others know what they’re doing now, ten years after graduating.

Listening to some of the people, I realized how far Karie had come from what she grew up around. Everybody still lives in their hometown, working for some local company and had families of their own. She went to college and got out of that town and away from all of them. For some reason, that makes me so proud of her. I just wish some of the other people could realize how far she’s come.

“Now how about we hear from the salutorian of our senior class, Karie Hamilton,” the guy on stage said as Karie looked at me and I motioned for her to stand up. They passed the microphone over to her and I could tell she was nervous already.

“Well,” Karie said, clearing her throat. “I graduated from the University of Florida and I’m living in Nashville, Tennessee now where I’m working for the biggest newspaper in the state, being an entertainment journalist.” I looked at Nick who smiled at me. “Which is how I met my boyfriend, Nick. I don’t have any kids and I’m not married like everybody else, but,” she said, looking at me, “I’m going back to my room tonight, the Presidential Suite I might add, and having some hot, passionate sex with this man and I have no shame about it,” she said, passing the microphone over to someone else and sat down.

Matthew began laughing and I looked at Karie in shock.

“I’m not drunk,” she said, smiling at me. “I’m feeling good, but I’m not drunk.”

[/Nick]

[Karie]

“I swear I’m not drunk, Nick,” I said as he nodded and smiled, taking a sip of his water.

“Karie, can I talk with you for a few minutes?” Matthew said as I looked at Nick who nodded. I agreed and we both stood up and walked out of the ball room. I had no idea what he wanted to say or talk about but I was sure it would be more apologizing.

“What is it, Matty?” I asked as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“Kasey isn’t mine,” he said as I shrugged my shoulders. “The nine-year-old that you thought was mine. She’s not.”

“What does it matter now?” I asked as he looked around the corner.

“I promised her that I would never tell anybody and I couldn’t tell you with her and your boyfriend there the other night,” Matthew said as I glared at him. “Do you remember that young student teacher we had senior year, that worked with Coach Gibbons?” I nodded. “She’s his. My name is on the birth certificate and everybody thinks she’s mine. I never slept with her when you didn’t know about it.”

“Okay,” I replied.

“I killed me that you thought I cheated on you even though, you know, with how our relationship was,” he said as I nodded. “Are you happy with Nick?”

“It’s still new,” I confessed. “But yeah, I really think this could be something with him.”

“He seems like a good guy.”

“He really is.”

“Then don’t let him go because you deserve someone like that,” Matthew said as I smiled and we made our way back into the ball to see the whole “Where are you now?” thing was over after talking to the valedictorian. We walked back up to the table and Nick stood up, facing me and I smiled.

“What was that about?” Nick asked as I put my hands on the side of his face, kissing him passionately. He moaned into the kiss and started laughing, breaking away from my lips. “Karie?”

I didn’t say anything. I lead him out onto the dance floor where a few others were and smiled at him. I could see the curious look in his eyes and I couldn’t help but smile back at him. Just as we moved into our dancing positions, the song changed from Brian McKnight to Bon Jovi’s “I’ll Be There For You.”

“Our song,” he whispered. I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck. “What was that with Matt about?”

“Closure, I think,” I whispered. “That oldest kid isn’t his. His name is just on the birth certificate. I think after all of that stuff with him, I finally have some closure.”

“That’s a good thing, right?”

“Right,” I whispered, resting my head on his shoulder. I felt his hands move up and down my back, sending chills up my spine.

Suddenly I heard Nick lightly singing the lyrics.

I’ll be there for you

These five words I swear to you

When you breathe, I want to be the air for you

I’ll be there for you

I’d live and I’d die for you

Steal the sun from the sky for you

Words can’t say what a love can do

I’ll be there for you

“Let’s go,” I leaned up, whispering his ear. I moved my head back, looking him in the eyes. “I need you… now.”

“You sure?”

I nodded.

“Let’s go,” he whispered, taking my hand and leading us out of the banquet hall.

[/Karie]