Hey guys, I'm back. I apologize for the wait but I was really busy. I recently started my GCSE's - something you probably wouldn't have any knowledge of unless you go to a school with a british curriculum. Anyway, my education is not the point here. The point is that I'm back and though updates will be less frequent, they will be coming. Power of Dreams was put on hiatus while so i can continue it before publishing the rest of the chapters. This, however, is not the case for In This Life, which is relatively easy to write.

So please, read and enjoy some Nitchie romance.

P.S: I spotted a mistake in the last chapter in which I said that Ella was not at Camp Rock this summer, despite being at camp a couple pf chapters earlier. I corrected that mistake and just to make it clear; Ella is at Camp Rock.

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"Are you sure this will work?" I asked.

"Don't worry Mitch, I'm sure this will work," Caitlyn reassured a strange glint in her eye. If I didn't know better I would have mistaken it for anger but what reason did she have to be angry. We were currently in our cabin finalizing the plan with Tess, Aqua and Lola. All of us were sitting on the floor of our meeting room, which was actually just our – my – cabin.

"Okay so first we have to-" I began, wanting to confirm everything again.

"Mitchie!" Lola exclaimed.

"What!"

"Would you shut up!" She snapped. "We went over it five times and if you go on one more time about the 347 ways it could fail, I will snap your bloody neck!"

… Did I hear crickets chirping in the background?

Anyway, Lola might as well have grown two heads because that was the first time I had seen her snap like that. Guilt enveloped me as I realized how irritating I must have been so I decided to apologize. It was hard to get the words out at first due to my small frequency of given apologies but I'd rather say that stupid five letter word than make a fool of myself by stuttering and mumbling.

"I'm… sorry. I didn't realize I was being such an annoyance. I just want this to be perfect and as tough as I act, I've never really done this before," I admitted with a blush that was as rare as Hailey's Comet.

"It's fine Mitch, but please trust us when we say this will be perfect," Lola reassured. "Alyssa won't know what hit her!"

I laughed at the vindictive tone in my friend's voice. In the short time the witch had been here she'd managed to get on the nerve of all of them from fiery Tess to calm; collected Lola. So it wasn't a surprise when everyone easily agreed to this malicious trick which would be carried out two days from now.

Moving on to a different topic, I leaned in and whispered to Lola; "It's time."

Lola nodded as she got the message.

"Hey Caitlyn," she called out. "Mind helping me with my dancing. I got brown to let me use the studio for the next two hours."

"Sure," came the reply from Cait.

The rest of us watched the two depart until they were no longer in sight.

"Okay," Tess started, "how are we going to get those two together?"

"Lola and Caitlyn?" Ella asked in confusion making everyone roll their eyes. As nice as Ella was, she could be little slow.

"No!" Aqua exclaimed exasperatedly. "Caitlyn and Jason! We all know that Cait has the hots for him, and Mitchie and I overheard him admit that he likes her too. But the two are so damn stubborn that we need to force them together. Mother Nature ain't gonna cut it this time."

"I say we lock them in a cabin together," Tess suggested but I vetoed the idea saying that it wouldn't work. Aqua was right, the two were stubborn and cowardly in the field of romance. Caitlyn wouldn't act unless she was sure that Jason liked her and Jason wouldn't act without extreme coercion.

Pondering on this, I suggested a new idea. "I'm not sure but I say that if we get Jason to sing to Caitlyn then that should be enough to push them together. All they really need is some reassurance, and Jason singing to her is that reassurance."

"But what about Jason, how are we supposed to get him to sing to her and make the first move?"

At that point I rolled my eyes. "Blackmail," I said. "Duh!"

"But we don't have anything to blackmail him with," Ella responded.

"Ella?" I asked, trying to make her understand. "What is the number one cliché of sisters and their brothers."

"They give them dating advice," Ella suggested.

"Good one," I replied in surprise. I actually hadn't thought about that one. So really I should have been asking her what the second cliché was but there was no way I could do that without admitting my mistake. And well, we all know how much I hate to do that. So nonchalance was the way to go. "But unfortunately. It's incorrect. The number one cliché is blackmailing them."

Everyone seemed to nod at that, which was good as it meant they hadn't noticed my faux pas.

"But Jason doesn't have a sister," Tess pointed out.

"Uh, hello!" I exclaimed pointing to myself.

"Oh right, I forgot that you guys are so close. It's kind of weird though… are you sure there's nothing going on between you two?"

"Tess?"

"Yeah?"

"Shut up before I kill you," I growled before lunging at her.

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"I can't believe you did this," I exclaimed as we pulled away from camp in Nate's Aston Martin. The lucky son of a bitch had a gorgeous orange Virage Coupe that made me want to marry him just to take be able to drive that sweet ride. "Did I ever tell you that you're amazing?"

"Yes," Nate replied with a small smile. "But that doesn't mean I don't love hearing you say it."

"Don't care about that," I said. "This time I'm telling you that your car's got you beat."

Nate just twitched silently and ignored me. I wasn't sure if that angered me or left me satisfied. A mix of both, I supposed.

"You know you didn't have to do this, I would have been happy with a small picnic and walk along the lake," I told him minutes later. The ride had been mostly silent up till now as we both took in the sights along the road and watched the sun set. Nate had some music on from his private collection, and listening to it, I realised that his tastes were pretty similar to mine. We were currently listening to some music by the amazing Amy Lee, or was it Evanescence because people always seemed to go rabid when the rest of the band was left out.

"That may be true," Nate agreed removing one hand off of the steering wheel and grasping my left hand. "But I think my baby deserves a night out on the town."

'out on the town'? Seriously?

Ignoring my boyfriends use of outdated language, I let out a grin at how sweet he was.

"Well aren't you quite the charmer?" I inquired playfully, a freedom I hadn't felt in so long returning to my heart. Being in this car, with Nate, it made me feel like a kid again when I would dream of cruising on the open roads singing my heart out with my Prince Charming, Nick Carter – who I had a massive crush on until last summer.

"So where exactly are we going?"

"There's a small city nearby and that's all I'm going to tell you."

"Asshole."

"Ooh, dirty talk," he countered. "I like it."

...

"OW," Nate screamed in a high pitched voice as my heels made contact with his nether regions.

"Ooh, baby! I love it when I make you scream." With his ego damaged as such, Nate didn't reply to that and stayed silent for the rest of the ride. The silence wasn't uncomfortable though and I often caught him sneaking glances at me just as I did to him. The highlight of the ride, I think was when 20 minutes into it, without cause, I leaned in and gave him a small peck on the cheek. The smile I received as a reward was simply beautiful.

"We're here," said Nate as he pulled up in front of a glamorous restaurant named Les Deux Chats.

Stepping out of the Virage Coupe I examined the fancy French restaurant in front of me. "Les Deux Chats?" I asked. "The two cats? Oh yeah that's classy."

"You're never satisfied, are you?" Nate asked me dryly as he handed the valet his keys.

I smirked and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "That's not true. I'm satisfied with you aren't I?"

Raising his eyebrows, my boyfriend asked, "just satisfied? And here I thought you appreciated me more than that."

"Oh you're right, my dear! You mean the world to me! However shall I earn your forgiveness!" I exclaimed, earning some weird looks from other people entering the restaurant. Looking at their formal attires, I felt a little underdressed as I hadn't known we'd be at this fancy a restaurant but I supposed my dress wasn't too bad.

Nate also seemed to be conscious of the looks we were attracting and took my hand forcing me to follow him inside to our table. Along the way he grumbled; "You always have to make a scene don't you?"

At first I was confused but I quickly realised that he was referring to an incident when I was dating Shane.

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Shane and I were going on a double date with Nate and his girlfriend Raven at some really fancy restaurant not too far away from my house, as I had school the next day and couldn't afford to make the one hour commute to new York, where the others lived.

The dinner itself was fine but when desert came, Raven started asking me questions about myself which I gladly answered. However, Shane decided to butt in and say that I was gentle, a sweetheart and in other words, a pushover. Hiding a small smirk, I stood up and started yelling at him; "Is that what you think of me! As nothing but a pushover trophy girlfriend! Well I'll tell you something Gray, I am no pushover and I'll prove it! Shane Grey, we are through."

Then I stormed out of the restaurant with Shane not far behind. When Shane caught up to me he found me leaning on the side of the restaurant, laughing my ass off. Shane was mad for a short time but got over it quickly, seeing the humor of the situation but Nate was pretty upset because Raven and he got kicked out for my scene.

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Looking back at the event, I'm starting to think he was only upset because I got his hopes up when I supposedly broke up with Shane. But as for the whole scene creating thing, it was only once and I told him that.

"Only once?" he barked out in the midst of his laughter at my statement, which was mildly insulting. "Mitchie, because of you Connect 3 is banned from 3 of New York's top restaurants.

Blah, blah, blah! So what if I'm slightly sadistic?

We were at the table now and a young, somewhat good looking waiter approached us with our menu's and gave a polite welcome. I smiled, the guy was so nervous it was absolutely adorable.

"Is this your first day?" I asked him.

"Yes ma'am, it is," he said glancing around nervously. I guessed he was looking to check if his superior was anywhere near. My mother used to that when she catered weddings. She was always on the lookout for the bridezilla's before sneaking in a small conversation here and there.

"Oh, don't call me that," I told him with a laugh. "It makes me feel old and I'm only 17. My name's Mitchie."

I held out my hand for him to shake at this point. He smiled a small smile and shook it before saying his name was Trevor.

"Well Trevor, what would you recommend we have?"

"Well, personally, I think this place is an overpriced dump," he replied. "The only thing worth eating is the pasta."

Nodding in thanks I scanned my menu and told him I'd have the Spaghetti alla putanesca, Nate said he'd have some kind of white cream tortellini thing. For our drinks, we both ordered water.

"Nice guy," I noted as Trevor walked away.

"Well if he's so nice, why don't I just drive back home and he can take you out on a date?" Nate asked snarkily.

I smirked at his jealousy. It was very endearing. "But," I said, "then I would miss out on a date with an even nicer guy, that's also so much better looking, and this guy's hair is better too."

Nate grinned before pushing his chair in closer to the table, only to lean over it and kiss me in a way that had everyone else in the restaurant looking away from our table.

"You look beautiful tonight, baby."

"And you lo- oh! Food's here," I exclaimed in surprise. Woah, they had fast service! I smiled when Trevor came over to our table and made a remark about the speed at which the food arrived.

"Yeah, well the chefs really bustled it when they found out Nate Black was dining here. I think they just gave me other peoples orders," he said.

"You knew who I was?" Nate asked, perplexed as I was. Trevor hadn't even batted an eye at Nate when he was here earlier.

"Of course I did!" Trevor exclaimed, finally remembering to serve us our food. "My little sister keeps talking about you and your band constantly. It drives me insane!"

I burst out laughing at the taken aback expression on Nate's face. Truth be told, I didn't enjoy restaurants like this that much but this dining experience was certainly enjoyable

Trevor made a few more stops to our table as we finished our meals and the dessert we later ordered but they were only brief and we didn't see much of him. He really made an impression, however, when we Nate had paid the bill and we were standing up to leave. He was walking by and carrying a tray holding many glasses of water.

It happened just like it would in a comedy movie. He tripped over some ladies purse, his mouth opened in horror as he lurched forward; tray tipping over, some water spilling over; and all of it heading towards me. But unlike the protagonists in those movies, I had an amazing boyfriend who took the bullet for me and ended up with his upper body soaked to the bone.

The manager ran over and started berating Trevor angrily, his face red and him huffing and puffing like a maniac. Unable to help myself, I chuckled, drawing surprised looks from the 3 males around me. Nate looked confused. Trevor looked confused and slightly creeped out. The manager though, was still huffing and puffing and his beady, rat like eyes were just creepy and didn't show much emotion. I didn't even speak to the man but I already hated him.

Anyway, I knew I had to step in if Trevor was to keep his job so I cleared my throught and asked, "Are you the manager?"

The manager nodded, giving Trevor a quick glare before plastering on a fake smile. "Mademoiselle and monsieur," he said in a phony French accent that would make an actual Frenchman wince. "I hope that this little incident does not discourage you from returning!"

"Oh, don't worry about it. We had a wonderful experience," Nate said surprising me. "To tell you the truth, Trevor's wonderful service was one of the highlights of the evening. If I were you, I'd keep him around."

The manager looked shocked to hear us standing up for his employee but he nodded and departed, leaving Trevor behind to shoot us a grateful smile and say goodbye. Then the teen returned to his job leaving us alone.

Turning to Nate who was still soaking wet, I wondered why the manager hadn't offered towels like any other respectable business would have, then asked; "Cold?"

"Yeah," he replied, shivering for a moment.

"Then lets go."

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"So are you still cold?" I asked as Nate sipped his hot chocolate. We had returned from our date half an hour ago and stopped by our cabins to change before coming here. The hot chocolate Nate was drinking came from the kitchen as a present from my mother who saw us walk by and noticed Nate's shivering state.

"Well it depends."

"On what?"

"On whether or not you'll take care of it if I say I'm still cold."

"Cold it is then." I scooted closer to Nate and let him wrap his arms around me, pulling me close. His skin was slightly damp; making it less smooth, or should I say slightly sticky, but Nate was still Nate. He could hold me even if he was soaking with sweat and stunk, though I'd probably put up a fight just for the kicks.

"You look beautiful," said Nate. He then kissed the back of my neck, nuzzling it with his nose after that. It wasn't anything like the movies described though. I didn't get a tingly feeling, and I didn't turn into a blushing and stammering mess. It was comforting though, and it made me feel at home; like I was safe; secure; at peace. The feeling wasn't magical or breathe taking – it was more like the feeling of comfort you got from cuddling into your blanket in front of a fireplace on a cold winter night.

And I loved it as much as I loved the heart pounding, racy emotion I felt in the midst of our heated moments.

Looking back, I think it was during this moment of peaceful joviality that I truly fell in love with Nate.

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Thanks for reading guys, I can't believe I got so many reviews and I love each and every one of you for them. I hope you enjoyed this chapter; it was definitely a blast for me to write.

Please review :D