Nicole's Decent Ch. 07

The bonfire on the beach went exactly as I had expected. James was a jerk, everyone was drunk, and a lot of girls ended up crying. What I did not expect was the question James asked after he drove me back to the house.

"Do you have a date for the wedding?"

We were sitting in his hummer and I looked over to see him staring at me.

"No. Why?"

"You sure you're not going with Gale?" I felt myself holding my breath. There was a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach and I felt like my world was seconds from crashing down around me.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I should get inside." I grabbed my door handle but James grabbed my arm to stop me. Reluctantly I turned back towards him.

"I'm not going to tell anyone if that's what you're worried about. It's funny though because he's just an older version of me."

"Shut up."

"Come on you know it's true. I mean honestly how many women has that guy fucked? Whenever he's here he sleeps with a different girl every night. At least tell me you make him wear a condom. A guy like that is bound to have a few diseases under his belt." James was stroking my arm with his thumb.

"How did you find out?" I felt the same feeling in my stomach.

"I haven't seen him with anyone since you guys got here. Plus most the women under that roof," he pointed towards the house," are either married or under 15 years old. You're the only one who isn't. Plus I figured he'd try to get in your pants the second you turned 18, most guys would." James had progressively moved his hand down my arm and to my leg while he had been talking.

"It wasn't like that. I was the one who initiated everything." I was so happy it was dark because I could feel myself blushing.

"Sure it wasn't. I mean it totally doesn't seem out of character for a guy that age and with his background to want to have sex with a beautiful girl like yourself." James had moved his hand to the top of my thigh. "I'm sure he never fantasized about being the first guy you parted those sexy thighs for either." James was inching his hand between my legs.

"Go fuck yourself." I grabbed his hand and jerked it away from me. I grabbed the car door and yanked it open. Before I could get out James caught me off guard with another unexpected question.

"Do you know who Gale's going to the wedding with?" I stopped and turned back to him waiting for a response.

"Actually no you should ask him yourself. But I was wondering if you might want to go with me? I promise I'll be a gentleman. Plus if you go with me I won't tell anyone about your relationship with Gale. If that's what you're calling it even." He winked.

"Fine." I turned and walked inside the house. All the lights were turned out and I assumed everyone was asleep. I glanced at the clock before I made my way upstairs and was surprised it was already 4.

I walked past Gale's room and stopped. I immediately turned around and walked into his room. He was sitting on the bed typing on his laptop.

He stopped when he saw me and smiled. "Good morning. How was your date with your boy toy?" He moved his laptop next to him.

I folded my arms and frowned. "Who are you taking to the wedding?"

"Jenny, why?" He grabbed his laptop again and started typing.

"You're taking my cousin?" I felt like my heart was going to beat out of my chest.

"She's your third cousin." He was still typing.

"She has two kids!"

"Yeah and she's divorced. She had no one to go with so I figured I would take her. Is there a problem with that?"

"She is 12 years older than you!"

"I'm 21 years older than you."

"Maybe I wanted a date for the wedding!"

"Don't be ridiculous, you know that wouldn't work. Your parents might have a heart attack if we showed up together. Ask James if you want someone to go with."

He was acting so calm, it was driving me crazy. I had no idea how to respond. I walked over to him and he stopped typing. I stood there for a few seconds waiting for him to look up at me instead of the stupid screen. I then did what anyone else in my shoes would have done, I slammed his laptop shut.

"What is your problem?" Finally he was reacting.

"Are you going to fuck her?"

"What?"

"Are you going to fuck her?" I still had my hand on top of the laptop. I was bent over at the waist waiting for his answer.

"What do you think?"

"I think you didn't have the balls to tell me you were taking someone in my family to a wedding for someone else in my family. I think you would love to take the opportunity to have sex with someone else and say that we never said we were exclusively only fucking each other. That's what I think."

"Are you sure you haven't fucked James? It's past 4 and the morning and you smell like whiskey. You were out with him all night and I'm sure you had a good time even though you would never admit it. Are you sure you didn't decide to have sex with someone other than me just for the sake of it? Honestly it probably wouldn't be that hard for him to convince you to have sex with him. You already like him."

I snapped. Before I knew what happened I pulled my arm back and smacked Gale across the face. I was stunned that I had actually done it and immediately took a few steps back.

A few seconds passed and neither of us said anything. Gale's face was still turned away from me and he had his eyes closed. I felt the tension throughout the room.

Finally I stepped towards him. He looked at me and I stopped. The left side of his face was a deep shade of red. It contrasted with his olive skin tone so much more than I would have guessed.

"I'm so sorry." I moved towards him and kneeled next to him on the bed. As gently as possible I brought my hand to his cheek and slowly rubbed it. "I'm sorry."

He didn't say anything. Instead he grabbed my the outside of my hand. I felt myself flinch away but he held my hand.

"I'm not going to hurt you." For the first time in what felt like a million years I actually took the time to look at Gale's eyes. They were the exact same shade of green as emeralds. It was cliché but I felt like I could get lost in them for hours at a time.

Gale moved his other hand to rest on my cheek. I closed my eyes and moved my hand to rest on the outside of his, like he had done to me. I turned my face in towards his palm as I felt the calluses from his fingers brush across my cheek.

Gale moved towards me and brought me in towards his chest. "Everything is going to be fine, I promise."

I breathed a sigh of relief as we both sunk to the bed. "Everything's going to be okay?"

"Yep."

I'm still not sure if it was because of the sense of closure I felt or the utter exhaustion but I quickly drifted off to sleep that night.

"Oh my God!" I was immediately woken by a shriek from downstairs followed by what sounded like pots and pans clanking everywhere.

"Oh my God," I groaned to myself as I sat up. My eyes felt like they needed to be soaked in water and my stomach felt like it had been burned from the inside out.

"Who was that?" Gale sat up next to me. He wrapped his arms around me and dug his head into the back of my shoulder.

"I think it was Sydney." Sydney was my 14 year old cousin who was a bitchy version of me. We got along great but I felt bad for people who had to actually spend large quantities of time with us when we were together.

I got up and Gale groaned as I slid out of his grip. "Come back to bed."

"It's going to look great when we walk out of your room together and I'm wearing the same clothes from last night."

Gale groaned again and flipped over. "It's not fair."

I rolled my eyes and smiled to myself, "Not much of a morning person are you?"

"Morning people are psychotic," he moaned into the pillow.

I went to my room making sure no one saw me. I slid out of my clothes from the night before and put on a pair of cotton pajamas from Victoria's Secret. I still heard a lot of commotion from downstairs as I walked out of the room.

"For the love of God get out of my way you idiot." This time it was Anne's voice.

"No. Listen everyone stop moving!" Finally I heard my mom taking charge of the situation.

"If you are a male I want you out of this kitchen right this second! If you are under 40 I want you out too!"

I walked down the stairs and saw that the living room was full. Everyone was talking and I silently cursed to myself for having an Italian and German family.

Sydney walked over to me, "You will never guess what just happened."

Her younger sister Paige ran up behind her, "Nicole, Nicole! Sydney dropped all the scrambled eggs, then Don slipped and dropped the bacon. Then Zach's girlfriend called him and broke up with him so he got mad and threw the orange juice at the wall. And now I'm mad because I love orange juice and there's none left!" I rolled my eyes.

Gale came up behind me. "What's going on?" He looked incredibly tired. Paige quickly repeated the story to him. My head was throbbing from listening to the noise occurring all around me.

I felt myself lose my balance and slide into Gale. He grabbed me before I fell to the ground.

"You either need sleep or a really greasy breakfast." I looked up at him and smiled.

"I think breakfast sounds great."

Within an hour everything had been cleaned up and we were at the one of the local cafes. Gale and I ended up at the same table as Sydney and Paige.

I leaned against the glass as the waitress took our order and promptly left, obviously frustrated by so many people being there.

Gale moved his hand to my thigh.

"She's going to spit in our food." I commented.

"If we're lucky it will be Anne's plate," was Sydney's snide comment.

It was no secret that as a whole we did not like her. Everyone thought it was pointless to get close to a woman who would be gone in 4 years. Plus she thought she was incredibly knowledgeable in whatever topic anyone was ever discussing. Honestly she was just annoying.

"The rehearsal dinner's tonight." I folded my arms as I said this.

Everyone at the table remained silent until the waitress brought us our drinks.

"Why the long faces guys?" I finally took a second to look at the woman. She was probably around 50. Her hair was dyed a very dark red and she had very wide hips.

"We hate our new aunt," Paige boldly responded. Everyone smiled at that point and the waitress busted out laughing.

"Well at the end of the day all of you girls can remember that you are each utterly gorgeous and you," she nudged Gale, "remember that you have this one to flaunt to all of your friends." She looked at me now.

I averted my eyes and blushed. Gale quickly responded, "Oh we're not-"

The waitress cut him off, "Your hand has been on her leg for the past ten minutes, that means you are definitely together." She winked at us before she walked away. I was so sick of everyone winking.

"I guess she needs to have her eyes checked," Gale quickly moved his hand off my thigh and placed it on the table.

Sydney was staring at me. We had been sharing the room since she got in and she obviously knew I didn't sleep in there with her last night. I looked over at Paige and she was too busy doodling in the maze on her coloring sheet to pay attention to what the woman had just said.

The rest of breakfast went well. We all made small talk and Gale kept his hand on the table in sight of everyone.

Sydney kept trying to get me alone for the rest of the day. I was avoiding her and actually participating in the family festivities for once.

The rehearsal dinner took place on a yacht. It was perfect, of course. The bad thing about yachts is the fact that you can't exactly run away from someone if they're determined to talk to you. Sydney finally cornered me in the bathroom.

"You're with Gale?"

"Nope. That waitress was obviously bored and lonely so she wanted to stir up trouble, that's all."

"Yeah, obviously. It's not like you two have totally been vibing on each other for the past few years." It was her turn to fold her arms.

"I have no idea what you are talking about. And who even says vibing, is that even a word?"

"Yes it is and yeah right. You have had a huge crush on him since forever."

"No, I haven't. He works with my dad and we have to spend a lot of time together, that's all."

"You're lying."

I tried to walk past her but she quickly moved to block my path.

"Get out of my way."

"How long?"

"How long what?"

"How long have you been fucking Gale?"

"Language."

She rolled her eyes and waited for my response. When I said nothing she finally asked the ultimate question, "Do you love him?"

I had no idea what to say. I obviously loved him, but that started before anything had happened. Love was just something that had been ingrained with us since I could remember.

"Bye." I walked past her and returned to the party.

The next morning was the morning before the wedding. All the men had left before we ever woke up and the girls had the house to ourselves. Everything went as planned, surprisingly, and we were at the church by 1.

I stared at myself in the mirror for an excessive amount of time before the ceremony began. The dress looked awful on all the bridesmaids and I guess that was the point. Anne was going to look incredibly extravagant in comparison.

We lined up before the music started playing. I looked across the hall to see which groomsmen I would be walking down the aisle with, it was Greg. He was a complete pig. His hands were constantly sweaty and I was sure he would be staring at my cleavage as we walked together.

Sydney was standing next to me and she elbowed me in the ribs. It was her subtly trying to nudge me. I ignored her. "Pst. Bitch. Hey. Listen to me. Oh my God stop sticking your nose in the air for two seconds and talk to me."

I turned to her. "What?"

"Switch places with me."

"Why?"

"So you can walk with Gale, duh."

I smiled at her. We switched places and she leaned in towards me, "You so owe me one."

The music started and we all walked out together in our pairs. When I took Gale's arm he smiled down at me.

When we were in front of everyone I felt butterflies in my stomach. I was nervous that I might fall over at any second.

"You look beautiful," Gale whispered in my ear.

"I look terrible in this color, everyone does."

"No. I think you look beautiful."

"I look decent."

"Okay whenever anyone asks about you I'm going to describe you as decent."

"Good, because I'm decent."

"You're right you're decent."

"I'm decent."

"Nicole's decent."

I felt a genuine smile on my face for the first time that day. I stole a glance at Gale and he was smiling too.

The wedding was beautiful, blah, blah, blah, insert the same thing you continuously hear whenever anyone goes to a wedding. In all actuality weddings are excruciatingly dull in my opinion. The best part of weddings were the reception.

James was attached to my hip the entire night, not that I minded too much. I was lonely and I kept glaring at Gale whenever I saw him and Jenny together. She was definitely flirting with him and I knew he loved it.

During one song I excused myself to go get something from the bar. James did not mind and he started dancing with a girl I did not know.

"Can I get a cosmo?"

"Sure thing." The bartender turned his back to me and someone came up behind me. They wrapped their arms around me and I jumped.

"Relax baby, it's just me." Gale said

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Relax no one is going to notice us. They're all way too drunk." He started kissing the side of my neck and made his way to my ear.

"Stop." The bartended turned back around and gave the two of us a funny look but quickly turned to the next person waiting.

I felt Gale's obvious boner pressing into my back as I was pinned between him and the bar.

"Someone is bound to catch us." I was nervous and couldn't even balance my drink in my hand.

"I just want you. Right now." Gale started kissing the side of my neck again. I hated to admit it but I was really turned on.

"Give me a few minutes to finish this then I'll meet you in the bathroom."

"How romantic."

"How realistic."

"I have a better idea," Gale paused for a second to brush a stray hair away from my shoulder and continued, "the janitors closet is empty and spacious. Meet me in there in a few minutes."

Gale walked away and I felt the cool air replace the warmth from where his body had been.

"Was that guy giving you any trouble?" The bartender was staring at me. I knew I was definitely flushed.

"Oh no it was no problem."

"I just hate seeing old men preying on young women. They think they can have whoever they want just because they have money." He was leaning over the bar now.

"So I'm a gold digger?"

"No. Everyone knows this family is loaded, and I'm assuming you're one of them." He signaled toward the crowd.

"How old do you think I am?"

"Well out of principle I have to say 21," the guy flashed me a smile.

"He's not just some dirty old man who likes young girls for the record." I took a sip of my drink.

"Really? Who is he then?"

"He would be the guy I'm fucking." The bartenders face suddenly dropped and I turned around. Before I could stop myself I turned back around, leaned in towards him and whispered, "And for the record I'm not a gold digger he's just that great in the sack."

With that I turned around and submerged myself into the crowd.

After a few minutes I spotted Gale walking towards the bathrooms. He disappeared around the corner and I followed him.

Right before I was about to open the door my dad stepped out of the bathroom. "Wrong door sweetie." He motioned towards the women's restroom and walked off. I breathed out a huge sign of relief.

"Hey babe." I was pressed between Gale and the door. He pushed it closed and turned the lock.

Before I could respond Gale's lips were firmly pressed against mine. My head was tilted up to meet his and I had both of my hands on his chest. I was standing on my tiptoes despite wearing heals. I felt the kiss deepen as we both grabbed on to each other. He slowly traced his hands up the sides of my dress before he found the top of the zipper.

"Not that I don't absolutely love this dress, but I'd much rather see it lying on the floor." With that he quickly unzipped my dress and it fell to the floor in a big yellow heap.

"How long do you think we have?" I was already out of breath from the passionate kiss.

"I would say a good half hour." Gale knelt embraced me again and I started loosening his bowtie.

There was a gentle knock on the door. Both of us froze immediately and stood there waiting.

"Nicole I fucking know you're in there. I need to talk to you." It was Sydney.

"Should I open it?"

Gale looked down at me and shrugged his shoulders. "You need to put your dress back on."

"I am going to count to three and if you don't open the door by then I'm going to open it with a credit card."

We both stood there with our arms wrapped around each other. I felt goose bumps covering my back as Gale trailed his fingers across my skin.

"1...2....2 and a half...3." The doorknob started to move and I quickly threw myself against the door. It was too late though. Sydney had made her way into the door and threw the door closed behind her.

I stood in front of her in only my bra and thong and Gale was behind me. I knew we were both flushed and I was completely embarrassed.

"I knew it." Sydney to a moment to stare at the two of us. She then ran out of the room before I had a chance to respond.

"What should we do?" I felt Gale behind me. He slid his arms around my waist then rested his head on my shoulder.

"Well she either told someone by now or she hasn't. If she did they're going to find us in this closet regardless so I saw we make the most of it. Or if you want you can throw your dress back on and hang out with James. It's your choice."