Chapter Four

The next morning, Daisy woke Nick up early and it took almost an hour to make him leave the bed. She almost gave up on him and went ahead to the mall by herself but finally Nick decided to get up and get dressed. Daisy had washed his socks and other clothes, but Nick decided to wear another t-shirt of her brother’s instead.

Now he kinda wished that he didn’t.

“This is a mall?” Nick asked the next morning as him and Daisy walked into the mall, which was in the next town over, “Doesn’t look like one.”

“Well it’s the biggest mall nearby that I can drive to.” Daisy said as she rolled her eyes at him, “You are so moody in the morning.”

“Yeah, you try being moody walking through a mall wearing a Hank William’s Jr. t-shirt from the 80’s.” Nick said as Daisy started to laugh, “I think you dressed me this way on purpose.”

“My own living Ken doll. Oh how lucky I am.” Daisy said as Nick rolled his eyes, walking into American Eagle, “What are you going to get?”

“Don’t watch me while I buy underwear.”

“Boxers?”

“Same thing.” Nick said as he picked up a pair of American Eagle boxers and looked at him, “That’ll do.”

“You’d look good in this.” Daisy said as she held up a sleeveless jersey and Nick looked over at her, “I mean -”

“No, it’s cool. I like that.” Nick said as he took it, placing it in his arms and smiled at her.

“You act like you’re this millionaire. You’re not even looking at the price tags.” Daisy said as she walked over to the women’s side of the store and Nick looked at her, and turned around looking at the price tags.

“Well I’m completely broke.” Nick said as him and Daisy sat in the middle of the food court around lunch time, eating at a pizza place that was in there, “Atleast I got some clothes though.”

“Yeah, hopefully your friend calls soon.” Daisy said as she smiled, playing with her food.

“Yeah.” Nick said as he looked up at her and then down when she started to look at him, “So where do I stay while you’re in class?”

“You can stay in the lounge area at school.”

“Cool. Never been to a school like that before and hung out.”

“You aren’t missing anything.” Daisy said as she looked at him, “Why do you have your ear pierced?”

“Me and my little brother got them both done.”

“You have a little brother?”

“Yeah.” Nick said, “He’s 15. He’s got a twin sister. Then I have three other sisters.”

“Big family. It’s just me, my mom, and brother.” Daisy said as she looked up to see a guy walk by them and he waved at her, “Ugh.”

“Who’s that?” Nick asked, looking at the guy as he looked back at Nick.

“This guy that’s in one of my classes.” Daisy said as she looked at Nick, “Come on. We’re done here right?”

“Yeah.” Nick said as he reached over, taking her tray and went to go put them up. Daisy picked up her purse and her and Nick walked away from the pizza place and started to walk around the mall slowly, “So what do you like besides country music and journalism?”

“Movies.” Daisy said, “I like movies. It’s like I can watch it for two hours and be in a fantasy land.”

“What’s your favorite ones?”

“My favorite movie is ‘Notting Hill’ with Julia Roberts.”

“She’s good.”

“Yes she is.” Daisy said as she looked over at him, “What’s your favorite movie?”

“Probably ‘The Goonies’. Not really like ‘Notting Hill’ but -” Nick said as Daisy interrupted him.

“I like that movie too. I used to have a crush on Sean Astin when I was younger.”

“Mikey?”

“Yeah.” Daisy said as she started to laugh and looked away, “I know, he’s not a country singer. Shocking.”

“Yeah, seriously.” Nick said as he laughed and Daisy looked at him, “I’m joking. I mean country is cool. They wear cool hats.”

“Tight jeans.”

“If you like that sort of thing.”

“Oh I do.” Daisy said as Nick cracked up laughing at her, and then looked at her.

“Think I would look good in a pair of tight jeans?” Nick asked as Daisy cut her eyes at him, “What?”

“I can’t answer that.” Daisy said as she looked in the opposite direction, smiling.

“What? Come on.” Nick said as he nudged her a little.

“Okay, yeah you’d look uh okay in a pair of tight jeans.” Daisy said as Nick cracked up laughing at her more, “I’m shutting up now. Come on, it’s almost time for me to go to class.”

“Oh college here we come.” Nick said as he rubbed his hands together and continued to laugh at her.

Daisy drove Nick around her college, showing him around the university. Nick looked around, checking out some of the girls and then tried to hide under his baseball cap so nobody would recognize him. She took him to the usual hang out place and Nick went in, and just sat down in the TV room, watching TV and looking at a few magazines in there while Daisy went to attend her class.

A few times some girls came in and Nick sunk down in the chair more, acting as if he was reading the magazine, but really he was just looking over the top at them, making sure that they weren’t watching them.

“Nick.” Daisy said two hours later as Nick looked up, seeing her standing behind him, “Class is over, let’s go.”

“Oh okay.” Nick said as he got up and grabbed Daisy’s arm, so that they would leave the break room before any of the girls in there recognized him.

“You in a hurry?” Daisy asked as she started to laugh, “What’s up?”

“Those girls were weird.” Nick said as they walked out of the building and started to head for the parking lot where her car was, “Hey, how about we get a pizza tonight. Do we have enough money?”

“Yeah, I already called and ordered one.” Daisy said as Nick raised his eyebrow at her, “I’m psychic.”

“I see.” Nick said as he started to laugh, “Let’s go home.”

“Home?” Daisy asked, looking at him questionably as Nick started to laugh, “My house.”

“Right.” Nick said as he shook his head and laughed again as they walked over to her car.

“No.” Nick said a little bit later as they sat in the living room in front of the TV, watching a movie, “That movie sucks.”

“‘Forrest Gump’ doesn’t suck.” Daisy said as she looked at him, “It’s a good movie.”

“Sucks.” Nick muttered as he took a bite of pizza and cut his eyes over at her, noticing that she was getting pissed.

“It does not suck. He’s from the south and they thought that he couldn’t walk right, and yet he becomes this big football player and this war hero and shrimpin’ boat captain and -”

“Damn ok. I was joking. The movie rocks.” Nick said as he shook his head at her laughing, “You’re so passionate in fighting about shit.”

“Yeah well, it reminds me of my brother. ” Daisy said as she looked over at him, “And I like Tom Hanks.”

“Sorry.” Nick said as he smiled over at her, “It’s a good movie. I like Bubba.”

“You just like Bubba because of the way he talks.”

“That’s true.”

“I went to high school with a guy that reminds me of Bubba, like he could be his twin.” Daisy said as Nick cracked up laughing, “I’m serious.”

“For real? I wanna meet him.” Nick said as he looked at her with a serious look.

“He went away to college.” Daisy said as Nick smiled, pulling out a little gift bag from behind the sofa and reached over, handing it to her, “What’s that?”

“Happy Birthday.” Nick said as Daisy smiled at him and then took the bag from him.