Southern Boy Charm | ✓

Chapter 33

Outside the wind is strong. It shakes at the trees, causing the leaves to dance and shake. My hair whips around my face, blocking my vision, and I have to constantly place it behind my ear. I scan for him with squinted eyes in the dark night. It isn't until I round the corner that I see him.

His car is illuminated in the yellow glow of a streetlamp. It sits, broken and bruised from the car wreck earlier. How he managed to still be able to drive it is still a mystery to me. He doesn't face me. Instead, he slightly leans against the driver side door, his forehead is pressed against the cool metal. Looking at him, here in my own ecosystem, I am at a loss of what to say. It feels so odd to see him out of his own element in Georgia.

He doesn't notice me when I approach. I want to say something, but every word gets caught in my throat, forming a lump instead. SO much was left unsaid between us, and now, he's here. There is so much on my mind that it might as well be nothing. What's clouding my brain the most is the way that my breath catches when I first see him. Or even more troubling, the way that from this far away, sparks ignite all within my body. Despite being frozen in place, my mind is working a mile a minute.

He looks up suddenly, and his eyes grow wide in shock when he seems me standing there. "Leighton?"

"Nick?" is all that I'm able to choke out, but I say it so quietly that I'm almost positive he can't hear me. I walk closer to him until we're only a few feet apart. From up close I can see his red eyes and messy hair. His skin looks blotchy, and just by looking at him I can tell that something is wrong.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, using all of my energy to make my voice firmer than before. I try to appear unbothered and act like my heart isn't beating so hard in my chest that I'm afraid it may explode. I can't tell by his expression whether it's convincing or not.

"I wanted to see you," he says. I can tell from his red eyes that he must have something that has been bothering him, something that he wants to tell me, but instead he just stands there looking at me. I'm taken back to classic Nick, the one that can't express his emotions, and it dawns on me that no matter how much I miss Nick, I don't want to go back to that.

"Well you saw me." I turn around on my heels to go back to the dance but his hand on my elbow stops me. Just from his touch alone my body is on fire. No matter how mad or annoyed I am of him, he always has this effect on me and it's terrifying. "Wait, Leighton. Please don't go."

His voice is so raw and full of emotion that my body turns back to face him on its own accord. When his warm touch drops from my arm, it suddenly seems bare.

"I came because I realized how big of an idiot I've been not only over the last couple days, but the entire summer."

"Nick," I say, shaking my head. "An apology isn't going to change anything." Our fight isn't as simple as him making me mad. I wish it was, because then it would be so easy to forgive. But our problem is so much deeper that I'm not sure that words are enough to patch it.

"I know, and as much as I would love to have you in my arms right now, that's not why I'm here."

My eyebrows furrow. Then why did he drive hundreds of miles in a totaled car to see me? I know that Nick had never been someone who is easy to read, but even after how intimate we'd been the past few weeks, deciphering him was like starting a new 500-piece jigsaw puzzle every day. "Then why are you here?" I ask.

He runs his hands through his already messy hair. "I guess I wanted to say thank you for not telling me what I wanted to hear, but what I needed to hear. My head has become a clusterfuck of emotions and thoughts lately, and you are the only person who has given me some clarity."