Everywhere - Sloane tags Nolan

[Sloane Taylor]

She thought it had been a mistake. How in the hell did she get mixed up in him again? Over the summer? She was the biggest cliche. Nolan got to her and she hated it. Sloane couldn't believe she slept with the younger boy again. Although she had to admit that it was to her advantage. But that was beside the point. They were being rational teenagers fighting out their break-up and then they ended up in her guest house.

That was definitely not part of the plan. Not by a long shot. She had wanted to avoid the stupid summer fling cliche but she ended up sleeping with her ex. Damn it what was wrong with her? It didn't help that she met James. Damn it James was amazing by any standard and Sloane couldn't believe she thought she was falling for him too. When did she catch feelings? Oh right. When Nolan came into her life. That stupid boy.

And now school was re-opening and she had to see him every single day because of the merge. She had thought it was going to be a good deal, having fresh meat at her disposal but it also meant Nolan Ahlstrom was going to be everywhere she went. Unless...unless she avoided him. There were ways. She knew there were ways of avoiding anything. But who was she kidding? She was not going to hide out for the sake of not bumping into Nolan fricking Ahlstrom.

So what should happen as she made that realisation? Bumping into Nolan, that was what. "Damn it, man watch where you're going!"

[Nolan Ahlstrom]

A tall boy wearing a Kansas City Chiefs jersey reached into the air to catch a football, his name displayed proudly across the back of the bright red uniform. His last name, though the jersey was actually that of the boy's older brother. Nolan's eldest brother Adam was still the starting quarterback for the midwestern NFL team, and he had come through on his promise when he invited Nolan and the family out to Arrowhead Stadium last weekend to watch the game. Nolan had fulfilled his part of the bargain. A few weeks prior to the beginning of the school year he had been named starting quarterback of the team, something Nolan had worked incredibly hard for all summer long. His confidence had never been higher, and he was taking chances and making passes in practice he wouldn't have the year before. And as much as he hated to admit it, he knew the reason.

Sloane.

The girl that broke his heart. She taught him pain, and humility, and most importantly, she taught him not to care. Since she had rent his heart in two, Nolan had become more and more indelicate to those around him, a trait that likened him more to his other brother Freddy than ever. And it seemed the more his indifference towards girls showed, the more they seemed to want to be around him. He was no longer a virgin; Sloane had seen to that. But Nolan's path was now littered with many more female conquests, and because of this attention his confidence rose. He learned that people would want him and want to be around him if he the more he succeeded, both on and off the field. The time Nolan spent away from training was divvied between being in bars and being on his back.

There was even one night where he drunkenly hooked up with Sloane again. If he had not been so drunk, he might have been much more awkward around her, but lucky for him he had been out all night. It was impossible for him to resist, and though he told himself he was just trying to get her back he couldn't help but recall all the feelings that this girl used to evoke in him. So he spent the rest of the summer making sure that he did not see her again. He hoped that even with school starting, she would keep out of his way, and he would keep out of hers.

Except he didn't. Nolan stood around with a group of his teammates, peppered with a few cheerleaders. They had been tossing the ball around, talking about Sunday's practice. As the ball came high towards him, Nolan shuffled back a few steps as he plucked the ball out of the air and bumped something vaguely solid.

"Hey, why don't you watch-" Nolan's words ended as the other voice spoke up, his mind instantly registering the noise. He couldn't help but turn to peek at the girl he once loved. She was as gorgeous as ever, if not even more so. It was evident she had been working out quite a bit over the summer, and Nolan couldn't help but admire her body. Even though the look was but a split second, he feared she might notice. His head whipped back around.

"Whatever," he jeered, trying to look cool amongst his friends. "Just move along."

[Sloane Taylor]

She saw it despite not wanting to look at him but she saw the look in his eyes when he realised she was the one he'd bumped into. As much as she hated to admit it, that look gave her hope that things weren't over between them. She couldn't decided whether that was a good thing or a bad thing and the confusion killed her. What was so damn special about him anyway? He was a year younger than her, he was a jock and he was blond. Sloane prided in not having a type but she actually didn't like younger boys, jocks or blond guys. It just didn't make sense why she made an exception with him. And after him, young blond jocks weren't so bad anymore. Damn Nolan Ahlstrom.

Despite having mixed feelings, Sloane knew exactly what was so damn special about him. He actually treated her like any other girl. While the other guys she slept with only cared for one thing, Nolan cared beyond that. They weren't even sleeping together when he asked her to be his girlfriend. But then again, why did she even care? Sure he was good looking but so were her other conquests. In fact she remembered about ninety percent of them had been even more good looking than him. Ugh, she was confused. She hated being confused.

What he said made her give out a harsh laugh. "Whatever? That's the best you could do. Whatever." She repeated the heinous word and rolled her eyes. "Too good for me now, quarterback?" She had hoped it came out as harsh but she knew it sounded like she was hurt. What a weird thing to see Sloane Taylor being hurt.

[Nolan Ahlstrom]

The group of athletes and cheerleaders stood talking and laughing, their focus luckily not on Nolan or his former flame. He tried his best to ignore her, but the voice that returned to him did not carry the normal strength it had. She was vulnerable, she was human. Had Nolan forgotten that? After the breakup, he had tried his best to convince himself that she wasn't a person, that no regular human being could ever treat people that way. But she was human, and she was succeptible to fault just like anyone else. Nolan couldn't know what had happened to her in her life that made her put up such a callous persona, but he had seen behind that facade for a few rare moments. He enjoyed those moments, because he felt he got to see Sloane's true self. Who she might actually be and how she acted.

He thoughtlessly lobbed the football back to the group and turned towards Sloane. His guard was still up, still worried that this all might be another ploy of hers. Sleeping with her again had only brought him a few moments of barely-remembered pleasure, and weeks of reawakened agony. It was not something he wanted to experience again.

"You wanna talk?" The jock led the older girl away from his friends. The morning light beamed through the windows and lit her hair, causing her to seem like an angel. Nolan knew better than that. When they were further away, he continued. "Sorry, I didn't mean that. I was just... well, you know how it is when you have to look cool." He dropped his gaze, no longer able to look at her. Emotions were rising, and it made him feel uncomfortable. He shifted his weight to the other foot and leaned against a locker, intently studying his shoes. He wasn't sure how to continue, and so made the best attempt he could at being pleasant.

"How was your summer?"

[Sloane Taylor]

There was a part of Sloane that wanted so much to push Nolan away when he touched her but another part, a bigger and stronger part of her let him pull her away. His voice, though hesitant, held a gentle tone and for a second Sloane felt the urge to pull him into a hug, cling on to him like a baby to its mother. She killed that urge immediately and put up a stone wall between them.

She was about to reply to his offer to talk when he continued. "I don't understand why you have to look cool." She shrugged, speaking quietly. "You're the quarterback, whatever you do or say should be considered cool by extension." Defenses were down on Sloane's front and she found it bizarre that she wasn't fighting against it. Why did she not care that she was making herself vulnerable to the boy who could potentially break her heart?

"I really don't want to talk about my summer, mister small talk." Sloane sighed inaudibly. "We need to sort things out if we want to avoid a repeat of what happened two months ago." Running her fingers through her hair, she looked everywhere but at the handsome boy in front of her.

[Nolan Ahlstrom]

Nolan wasn't sure if Sloane was being serious or not. Perhaps she never dealt with the social intricacies of being popular, even though she was fairly well known. A lot of people seemed to like her, especially boys, but that could easily be for reasons other than genuine admiration. Now that he was starting quarterback, the normally quiet boy was finally starting to figure out how much effort it actually took to be cool. It really wasn't as simple as Sloane made it out to be. Still, he didn't want to argue with her so he kept his mouth shut.

"I..." he started, but realized too late that he had no response to the girl. Is that what she wanted? Though in retrospect it was a mistake, Nolan couldn't help but recall with a certain amount of yearning the night the two of them spent together over the summer, at least the bits he could remember. At the time it felt fantastic, as if there had never been a rift between them. But the next few days had been almost as hard as when the pair first broke up. Still, it hurt him a bit to think that it really didn't matter to her.

Cards on the table, as his dad said. There was no point in trying to figure out this girl's head. "That's what you want, then?" His tone was somber, and he was trying to show as little emotion as possible, but it was hard for him not to seem even a little hurt by the seeming dismissal. "I guess it's probably for the best." He paused for a moment, wishing he knew the exact right thing to say. Something that might change her mind entirely, change her into someone capable of a monogamous relationship. He could never trust her, he knew that. But he also knew that something about her just made him absolutely nuts. He had to speak up, even if it wasn't the poetry of Shakespeare falling from his lips.

"It was really good, though."

[Sloane Taylor]

Like Nolan, Sloane could not shake some parts of that night they spent together. She wasn't sure whether it was because of the act itself or doing it with Nolan again. Why was she still so confused about her feelings for the younger boy? It didn't make any sense because she'd never had that kind of confusion before.

His question made her look at him with even more confusion before she masked it with nonchalance. A smirk appeared and she retorted. "You don't?" She leaned against the wall and forced herself to act natural. Even when he used her line against her. She didn't think it would affect her since she'd used it so many times on other people. She thought she had some kind of power over being hurt but coming from Nolan, it actually cracked her.

"I'm glad I entertained you." Sloane slipped her phone out to look at the time and sighed. "Sorry to cut this short but we're cool right? No more...this." She gestured to the space between them and looked at him. "You can stay clear of me all you want. Tell your friends...whatever. I won't bother you anymore." She pushed herself off the wall and started to walk away, suppressing the tears she suddenly felt like shedding.

"Oh yeah, good luck on the game this Friday." She threw over her shoulder and walked off, forcing herself not to turn around.

[OOC: Wrapped or tag to?]