When the Sun Goes Down

Once Travis and Jesse had returned from their long boat ride and had dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Blanchard (Nicole wasn\'t hungry), Travis called some of his old friends and agreed to go to a party at one of his old high school classmate\'s house. Jesse had already been in awe of Bayley after the boat ride, and now Travis wanted him to see that Bayley was not just a family town, it was actually the scene of some of the craziest parties...even on Monday nights.



Jesse sat on his bed in a towel and stared at the large suitcase and the two overstuffed duffle bags that sat on the floor in front of him. He never was big on packing or unpacking, he usually had someone to do it for him, but now he was all on his own and he had no idea where to start. He had more clothes than most boys his age, but he couldn\'t help that his mom hired him a personal shopper and sent clothes in a care package nearly every week.



"You look determined," a voice said as Nicole appeared through the bathroom door. She wasn\'t intimidated by him like she thought she would be. They\'d only known each other for two days, but she had no problem going into his room and striking up a conversation with him. She figured it was partially because she wanted to talk to him as much as possible so she could brag to her friends.



"I\'m not real good at unpacking," he said honestly with a half smile. He had noticed the easiness of conversing with her as well. He guessed it had something to do with the fact that she didn\'t treat him like he was a celebrity, she wasn\'t all shy and nervous around him. He liked that.



"How can you not be good at unpacking? All you do is take stuff out of a bag and put it in a drawer," she moved further into the room towards the bags.



"Yeah but you gotta sort it and fold it and I\'m just not patient enough I guess," he realized he sounded like a spoiled idiot, but he really thought it was a waste of time.



"Alright, Paris, it\'s really not that big of a deal." She said smiling.



He gave her a dirty look before he spoke, "Tell ya what, you do the whole unpacking thing for me and I\'ll give you...let\'s see" he stood up from the bed, becoming aware that he was only in a tiny white towel, and shuffled over to his wallet which sat on a chair in the corner. He opened the wallet and looked inside for a few seconds. "Shit, well I only have a ten now, but next time I go to the bank I\'l give you a hundred bucks."



"You sound pathetic..." she said, the grin remaining on her face. She tried to avoid looking at his body. He made a puppy dog face. "But I do need some money." She watched the smile spread on his face. "Fine, a hundred bucks and I can listen to Taylor Swift as loud as I want to in the morning."



"Well aren\'t you a little greedy..but fine." She noticed the tiny pile of dirty clothes in the corner of the room.



"Oh god," she began to say, "please tell me you know how to do laundry."



He scrathed his still wet hair and looked down, "Uhh..about that."



"How pathetic, how did you survive college?"



"Special lady friends did it for me." He said with a chuckle. She shook her head and reached down for one of the duffle bags and threw it onto the bed before unzipping it. Jesse made his way to the bathroom, turning before he went through the door and saying, "Wanna pick me out an outfit for me for tonight too?"



"Where are you going?" She asked, looking up from the suitcase.



"I don\'t know, some party Travis\'s friends are having."



"Lucky, it\'s a school night for me. Not to mention all the looks I\'m gonna get because of what happened."



"Ooh yeah, I heard about that..kid must be an idiot." He disappeared into the bathroom and turned on his electric shaver. He really meant it, who would go screw some other girl when they had someone that looked like Nicole? Once his face was all smooth, he turned off the shaver, quickly brushed his teeth, and headed back into his room. Nicole had moved onto the second dufflebag and was removing the last t-shirt from it. "Wow, look how quick you are."



"Told you it wasn\'t that hard." She tossed the duffle bag to the floor and picked up the heavy suitcase and began removing its contents. "The outfit I picked out is at the top of the bed."



"Good choice," he said, picking up the orange polo and faded blue jeans she had selected, "so you like briefs not boxers?" he added when he saw she had even picked out his underwear.



"Mhmm..well it depends on the guy. If he fills them out right, they\'re sexy," she realized she shouldn\'t have said it, complimenting a guy\'s lower body tended to inflate his ego. She had seen him in them before though, and she knew he filled them out very nicely.



He cocked his eyebrow and smiled, "Thanks," was all he said, she was expecting a remark like "so you noticed?" or "wanna see for yourself?", but she never got one.

"So did you love this dumb fuck?"



"At one point I did. It was like I was obsessed with him but he acted like he didn\'t give two shits about me and then eventually it switched and he was all lovey dovey and I was not that into it. I was gonna break up with him before college and I probably wouldn\'t have been that upset if he dumped me, but it\'s just the way things went down..him cheating on me and all...it\'s just embarassing. I don\'t know, it\'s hard to explain." She stopped once she realized how she was babbling and that he probably wasn\'t even listening. She\'d figured he wasn\'t a relationship kind of guy, probably didn\'t even know what love was. He was a manwhore at its finest.



"I understand." He surprised her again when she realized he\'d actually been listening, "Eleventh grade, all my friends were going out with girls and having sex and stuff, but me, I was actually into this girl..thought I loved her and all, but unlike everyone else we werent having sex. I tried to a couple times, but she always said she wasn\'t ready, so instead of being like most jerks at that time and dumping her for a slut, I kept going out with her. Turns out she was fucking my best friends right behind my back. Talk about embarassing...I didn\'t go to school for a week. That was the last time I ever had a girlfriend."



"Noo way," she really was shocked. She didn\'t know what else to say.



After he went back into the bathroom to change into the outfit she had picked for him, she went back to the unpacking. He was beginning to seem more down to earth than she thought. She remembered she used to drill Travis with questions about him, having Jesse Buchanan as a roomate and best friend. He had always told her he was an awesome guy, but he was the biggest player he had ever seen. He told her how he used to have to go to the library to do homework because there\'d always be a sock on the doorknob...meaning he was busy and to come back later. When he told her such stories she had immediately depicted him as a cocky asshole, a very good looking one, but now she was beginning to see that he really could be a cool guy.



She was nearing the bottom of the suitcase and was about to pull out the last few pieces of clothing when she nearly had a heart attack. At the very bottom of the suitcase laid a perfect, expensive looking tuxedo. Yes, she\'d seen a tuxedo before, but it was the vest color that had caused her to become frozen. It was a beautiful pink color with a pink tie, her favorite color, and it matched her prom dress perfectly. She hadn\'t had any idea of going to her prom with him, but now it was becoming an option...if only she had the nerve to ask her.



"Cute, isn\'t it?" He asked when he walked back into the room and saw her holding the tux.



"Yeah, why do you have this?" She asked and couldn\'t help but notice how good he looked when he was in nice clothes. So far she had only seen him in shorts and t-shirt...and briefs. The polo fit him tightly and showed off his biceps and his hair was gelled up and wasn\'t a sloppy mess on his head. He was cute when he was messy looking, but damn was he sexy when he was actually trying.



"We had this formal party thing for the basketball team. I probably should have sent that home with the other stuff...don\'t think I\'ll be needing that" Not if I can help it she thought to herself. She remembered now when Travis had called home and informed their mom that he needed a tuxedo. Unlike Jesse who actually owned one, the Blanchards had just rented one.



"Ohh..nice. Welp, I\'m all done here." She said once she had hung the tux up and put away the remaining clothes.



"Thanks so much, I\'ll get the money for you tomorrow." She nodded and walked past him to go through the bathroom, noticing how amazing he smelled. God it was so easy to forget about Clark with someone as hot as Jesse around.



Jesse felt a little differently about Nicole. He did like how she was able to converse with him, but after she agreed to do his unpacking for him, he thought he had her right where he wanted her. Where he tried to get all girls. Wrapped around his finger. But he would later realize that it was quite the opposite of that.



****



In another country Rebecca Lamore-Buchanan sat tasting wine in a chair across from her husband. She may have been in Paris, but her mind was back in America, thinking about her son. She felt bad about leaving him to fend for himself, well not really, but part of her still felt guilty. Although, if she was home, she still probably wouldn\'t see much of him. She had even put over a million dollars in his bank account for the summer, she guessed he would be fine...but part of her still felt guilty.



"Bec?" The man who she loved softly grabbed her hand. She looked up and saw a worried look on his face, "You okay?"



"Sorry, I\'m fine," she smiled and sipped from her glass. She needed to relax and enjoy this, not spend her time there worrying and stressing. "I have to use the bathroom, I\'ll be right back." She walked inside the open doors into her home and went straight towards the computer.



She loved their little french home, it was the perfect escape from the real world. It sat away from the busy part of the city, but was only a short drive away. It was peaceful and gorgeous, and what she was about to do was the only way she\'d be able to enjoy it.



She could only imagine what her son and the Blanchards thought of her, leaving him on his own for the summer. She had met the Blanchards at some of the games and could tell they weren\'t the type of parents that would just leave their kids and go off to some other country. She had never felt so bad about leaving him before, but for some reason now she did.



She opened up her email and clicked on compose, typing in Jesse\'s email address.



BONJOUR!



YOUR FATHER AND I ARE ENJOYING OUR STAY IN PARIS VERY MUCH, BUT WE MISS YOU AND WISH YOU WERE HERE! HOW\'S NORTH CAROLINA? TELL THE BLANCHARD\'S WE SAID HELLO AND THANK YOU. WE LEFT YOU MONEY IN YOUR ACCOUNT, IF YOU NEED MORE JUST LET ME KNOW. BY THE WAY, YOUR GRANDPA SAID YOU COULD COME STAY AT THE RESORT IN THE BAHAMAS ANYTIME AND YOU COULD BRING THE BLANCHARDS WITH YOU. IF YOU WANNA COME SEE ME AND YOUR FATHER, JUST LET ME KNOW, WE\'LL HAVE IT ARRANGED. GOOD LUCK AT THE JOB AND IN THE BASKETBALL LEAGUE! WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

M and D



She clicked send and sat back in her chair, feeling a little better. Now, she thought she could enjoy her vacation.