“Oh yea, that is just the way to keep me swooning, Nick. Oh, baby, oh, baby,” CJ replied dryly, without much enthusiasm. She looked at Nick bored. “That was a spiffy pick-up line. Where did you get it?”
Nick grinned. He was feeling rather retarded himself. How did this girl only have to flash him one bored glance and he was ridiculously turned on already? “You know you want me, CJ. I can see it in your eyes,” he argued good-naturedly, while trying his very best to turn on all the charms he possessed.
CJ burst out laughing, she was laughing so hard, and her chair even scraped the floor. “The only thing you can see in my eyes are a pair of cornea and iris, sweetheart.” She shook her head in disbelieve. “Get over yourself.”
Nick wrinkled his forehead. For a moment there, he panicked. ‘What was wrong with me?’ he thought frantically. “Okay. Did I have a zit under my lips or something?”
CJ raised an eyebrow. “Is that an official language of changing a particular subject?”
“No! I really am asking you whether I have a zit under my lips!” Nick insisted, leaning closer on the table so that CJ could further inspect his feature.
“And if I say yes, will you get over yourself?” CJ inquired, still refusing to look any where near Nick’s soft lips. She had decided earlier on the field trip that the particular part of Nick’s face was lethal danger.
Nick groaned. “Just look at it, dammit!” he urged, almost pulling his hair off the scalp. He never had more trouble in requesting anything from a woman before.
CJ wrinkled her forehead. ‘Does excessive oil drive him this crazy?’ she wondered. “Okay, okay. No need to get scary,” she announced, almost laughing out loud. She was the first kidnapper in the entire universe to be scared of her supposed hostage. She focused her eyes on Nick’s smooth chin. No zit. “I can’t detect any zit there.” At that, the waiter arrived with their orders and placed it on the table. “Now, can we quit playing Kayla Beverly Hills and concentrate on eating now?”
Nick rubbed his chin after muttering a ‘thank you’ to the waiter. He looked at his bacon and decided that his appetite was gone. “Are you sure? I mean, if there’ nothing wrong with me, then, there must be something wrong with you.”
CJ was really sympathizing her forehead just then. She wrinkled it yet again. “What is so wrong with me? I am eating pancakes, not some iguana meat,” she retorted, taking a huge bite of her banana pancake.
“No, no. There must be something really wrong with you,” Nick argued, still not touching his breakfast. He had to make his point across, and then he would eat. He just had to restrain his stomach and eyes from looking at the inviting dish first.
CJ rolled her eyes. She cut another piece of pancake and shoved it into her mouth. “Okay. What is really wrong with me, Dr. Hoover?” she inquired, bored. She felt like babysitting her neighbour’s 5-year-old kid instead of a grown 22-year-old singer. Her eyes caught a pair of teenage girls chatting excitedly outside of the diner. One of them were holding Teen Beat magazine to her chest, obviously gushing, with her eyes staring dreamily to the sky. A full-wattage smile immediately replaced the frown CJ was sporting earlier.
She felt so much more educated.
Nick frowned and looked at CJ weirdly. One second she was frowning, the next she was grinning like Santa Clause had crashed into town. “What is wrong with you?” he asked incredulously.
Laughing, CJ picked a gingerbread and happily bit into it. “I thought you were going to enlighten me on that one.”
Nick pursed his lips. “You are so abnormal, CJ. You know how many girls would kill to be sitting on your chair right now? Most girls I know can’t resist my smile,” he inquired mildly, feeling his own lips twitching into a smile. Great. She was rubbing off on him.
As predicted, his statement led CJ into another burst of healthy laughter. “I would like to think I’m gifted,” she replied between giggles. “Are you always this pigheaded, Carter?”
“Hey, it is true! I still think you are retarded,” Nick replied, smiling broadly. He was not even a bit offended. He was sure there was something wrong with him at not feeling offended too.
CJ’s laughter subsided into a simple smile. She looked at Nick’s untouched breakfast. “I’m more into dark-haired guys,” she said, looking back at the girls. “Definitely,” she reaffirmed. So who cared if Jeremy was a blond?
Nick mused, rolling his eyes upward in order to see his bangs. His eyes crossed and CJ burst out laughing again. “What are you trying to do, Carter? Busting your eye veins?”
Nick laughed, returning his eyes to normal alignment. “I was trying to reconfirm my hair status. Last I checked, it was brown.” He wriggled his eyebrows, looking suggestively at CJ. “Now, am I turning you on? Huh? Huh?”
“Golly, what breed of retard are you?” CJ inquired, shaking her head slowly. She reached over and ruffled Nick’s hair, marvelling at her handy work. Then she looked into Nick’s smiling eyes. “You’re a brunette now, but you’re still a peroxide blond at heart.”
Nick swatted her hand away playfully. “You’re going to drop my hair onto my food,” he argued. “Plus, I’m not a peroxide blond!”
CJ drew her hand and rolled her eyes. “Nick, your roots were seriously showing.” She gave him a ‘duh’ look.
Nick laughed again. He looked at CJ who was chewing slowly at her food. “So, you like dark-haired guys, huh?” He remembered her gushing over a certain ‘Black Hawk Down’ actor in the car earlier. “Like Matt Damon.”
CJ nodded excitedly, her eyes sparkling. “Uh huh, like Matt Damon.” She took a quick glance outside and grinned dorkily. “And Kevin Richardson,” she continued, beaming proudly.
Nick was starting to rebut when he remembered something. “I thought you didn’t know which one was Kevin.” Wasn’t he kidnapped because CJ there did not get her daily dose of MTV and BOP?
CJ smiled again. “No, I didn’t,” she agreed. “But I do now.”
“Oh? Did one of your organ finally release those teenybopper-ial hormone?”
“No,” she replied, shaking her head happily. “But those girls do,” she said, gesturing to the two girls standing outside Secret Recipe. Kevin Richardson was gracing over the cover of Teen Beat magazine.
Nick looked closely at the magazine. His eyes darted to CJ’s giddy expression. He sighed. He was so much envious of Kevin’s eyebrow at that moment.