It was a Saturday afternoon. I sat in my room channel surfing; and of course there was absolutely nothing on. After searching the channels for what seemed like the hundredth time, I gave up on the TV and went to my computer. Some internet surfing might be able to rid me of my boredom. I signed into my e-mail account and that was as far as I got before I was summoned. “Lindsay, can you come here.”

“Coming Mom.” Well, here we go. I walked out of my room and found my mother lying in bed watching some random movie that, to me, didn’t seem all that interesting. I walked into the room. “What?”

“I’m hungry. You think you can make me some lunch.”

I sighed. It was always like this. “Fine.” I walked downstairs where I bumped into my little sister, Brianna. “Hey Bri, you hungry?”

“A little bit.”

“Mom wants me to make her lunch now so do you want something?” Now, when my mother asked me if I would make her lunch I answered reluctantly. But I never minded doing things for my sister.”

“Ok.”

“What do you want?”

“Whatever you are making for mom is fine. Can I help?”

I love my sister. “Sure.” We made lunch for four. I figured my dad would want lunch after he saw me give it to my mother so I just made his lunch too. And I was right. I went back downstairs to enjoy my lunch with my sister.

So lunch came and went. I was able to be bored for, oh about an hour before my mother called me again. This time she was out of cigarettes. Luckily she had another pack around, because I’m only 17. I can’t legally bye cigarettes until I turn 18 and there was no way that I would do something illegal for my parents. They have to do something for themselves. Ok, I went off on a tangent. I went to find my mother’s damn cigarettes. I really wish she would stop smoking. That would be one less thing that I would have to do.

I found her cigarettes and I went back to doing what I wanted. Which if you’ve noticed, I don’t get to do to often. And as usual, it didn’t last. I was called again. This time because she was thirsty. Oh and because my dad wanted a sandwich.

I went downstairs, got her drink and made his sandwich. Then I took them upstairs. Mom placed her glass on her nightstand and dad went straight for his sandwich.

I left the room and not five minutes later I was called back into the room. She had reached for her remote control and knocked over her drink so now I had to clean up her mess. All of a sudden I feel like a maid.

And if you think the afternoon was bad, then you should stick around and see what happens in the evening.

First it’s cooking dinner. But on this particular evening, I had to go shopping for groceries first, because that is yet another thing that they don’t do on their own.

Luckily for me, my sister was in the mood to help me shop. After our trip to the grocery store, I went to cook dinner. And although I was only 17, it couldn’t be a simple dinner. Dinner had to be up to their standards. And of course, they are too good to even come down and eat with their children. So after I cooked, I had to serve them dinner in bed. Then after they are done, I have to clean up their dishes. Then I have to bring them dessert. And with their dessert, their alcoholic beverages. Then the next morning, I have to clean up their messes.

So that’s usually what goes on every Saturday, give or take a call from my mother or two. Sunday is almost the same thing. First clean up their mess, then make breakfast. Sunday’s are almost the same as Saturday’s. Except they actually leave the house. But even then it’s only for like 4 hours at most. I have to drive them to wherever the hell they are going on a given Sunday for their social outing. Then I have to pick them up and start dinner. Then the routine with the dessert.

And the only break I get is when I go to school.

Sunday is the worse. Yes, they do go out for a couple hours, but here is an example of a typical Sunday.

~*~/~*~

“Lindsay, we are going to be late.”

“Coming.” And no they will not be late. They will be on time. But you see, coming in on time is unacceptable to them. They have to be early so they get their extra socialization. I grabbed my car keys and walked outside without a word. They followed me out. I drove in silence to the outing of the week.

Next comes like 4 hours of peace and quiet. Four hours that I can either spend alone, or hanging out with my sister. Like I have mentioned, I absolutely adore my sister. Sometimes I feel like the only thing that they did right was give me a little sister.

On this particular Sunday, I choose to spend the free time away from my parents with my sister.

“Hey Bri, you want to go to a movie or something?”

“Yeah sure. But what about Mom and Dad?”

“What about them? If we go to a movie then we’ll be back before they even think about coming home. And if we don’t go to a movie and we do something else then we’ll just make sure we are home before the four hour mark.”

“Ok. We can go to a movie.”

Like a nice big sister, I let her pick the movie. Even though I knew she would pick a movie I had no desire to see.

And I was right. She absolutely loved her choice of movie and I absolutely hated it.

Well, the movie was slightly longer than I originally thought it would be so I was slightly late in picking up mom and dad. Since I was late, I took Brianna with me to pick them up. The car ride home was quiet. The only sound I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. The silence signified that my father was mad. And that thought alone was terrifying.

We got back to the house and Brianna and I started dinner. I served them their normal glasses of alcohol and answered to their every request for seconds on the food and refills on their drinks.

My father’s refills were getting more and more frequent. I was half tempted to not serve it but I knew that if I didn’t the outcome later would be a lot worse. It wouldn’t have mattered because if I hadn’t served him he would have gotten it himself and that would have made him even madder.

Later that night, I was sitting in my room after cleaning up the initial mess made by my drunken parents. I was getting my books ready for school the next day when my door flew open and my father barged into the room. Alcohol bottle in one hand and a face as red as blood from the anger. He looked at me and screamed. “You worthless bitch. You were late.” He threw the bottle and it crashed to pieces right by my head. My breathing increased as he advanced forward. “You were late. Why were you late?” I could barely understand him through his slurred speech and anger but I knew what the question was.

“I went to a movie with Bri and the movie ran over. I didn’t mean it.”

“You lying bitch. Tell me the truth.”

He advanced quickly. He was now standing in front of me. “I am telling you the truth.” I was enveloped in fear as I watched his arm rise. I felt the stinging on my cheek when his hand connected.

He didn’t stop there. He kicked, punched and screamed obscenities at me. And when he was done, he stalked out of the room to find his next victim.

I slowly climbed onto my bed and started crying. I heard screaming coming from the room next to me. I was crying for my pain and for the pain in knowing I can’t help my sister, my dad’s current victim. I lulled myself to sleep by crying and by the sounds of my sister’s ear piercing screams and the sound of my father’s angry voice.

Monday morning. I love Monday’s because that means that there is a whole week ahead where the bulk of my day is not spent taking care of my parents. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Aren’t they supposed to take care of me and Bri? There I go again, going off on another tangent.

So yeah, Monday mornings. My parents sleep off their hangovers, while Bri and I get ready for school. We have a nice breakfast together and then I drive her to school.

After dropping her off, I met a group of my friends at school. “Hey Linds! Rehearsal tonight?” Skylar, the lead guitarist in my band, greeted me when he first saw me.

“Yep.” By the way, my band’s name is Shanker. “Can’t wait. You know I look forward to rehearsals.” I replied. I saw my best friend Abby, who also happens to be dating Skylar walk up to us. “Rehearsals with you guys and school are my only escapes.” I mumbled mostly to myself. Low enough so that Skylar couldn’t hear me.

“Hey guys.” She gave me a quick hug then turned to her boyfriend and kissed him softly and sweetly.

“Why did you say that Linds?” Skylar asked after he broke away from Abby.

“Say what? What are you guys talking about?” Abby asked.

“Lindsay mumbled that rehearsals and school were her only escape. I want to know what she meant.”

Ok, maybe he did hear me. “I didn’t say anything like that.” I tried to deny it. Not quite sure if Skylar is buying it though. “We were talking about tonight’s rehearsal.” I replied.

“Cool. Can I come?”

“Sure baby. You are always welcome at our rehearsals.”

“Yeah Abby, what would a rehearsal be like without our favorite fan.”

“I know, but I don’t like to feel like I’m intruding. That’s why I always ask.”

“Abby, you are always welcome.”

We continued this way for a few minutes. Friendly teasing managed to make its way into our conversation. We enjoyed spending our time before school started talking. Our conversation was interrupted by the warning bell. We had 2 minutes to get to class.

Yes school is my escape. Too bad school is only 6 and ½ hours long. I was sitting in my last period class. I glanced at the clock and sighed inwardly. School was almost over which meant that soon I would have to go home. Thank god that I go to rehearsal straight from school so I still have a couple more hours of freedom. Too bad those few hours will fly by.

The dismissal bell rang and I stood with the rest of my class as we made our way out to our lockers. I met Skylar and Abby at my locker and we started off to Skylar’s house for the rehearsal. On the way we talked about various things.

We arrived at Skylar’s house and headed straight for the garage where all of our equipment is. The other band members hadn’t arrived yet. That gave the three of us to sit around and talk some more.

Without warning, the garage door flung open and in charged the rest of the band. They were hyper and bouncing off the wall. “Hey, hey. You guys ready.”

“Hey, our number one fan is here. What’s up Abby?”

“Not much.” Abby smiled shyly.

I took my spot behind the microphone as the rest of the band took their instruments. I warmed up my voice for a bit. Speaking into the microphone, I said. “Hey Abby, any requests?”

“Um…” Abby paused so that she could think. “I can’t decide between three.”

“Well, what three do you wanna hear? We’ll play all three.”

“Ok, first I want to hear ‘Jump Start’, second, um, ‘Destiny’ and third I want ‘Life.’”

“Ok. You heard the little lady.” Skylar said as the band started the introduction to ‘Jump Start.’

We started with Abby’s three requests and then we practiced and made fun of each other as only close friends can do.

Unfortunately, time flies when you are having fun and it was now time for me to go home. I slowly started to gather my things, trying to buy myself a little bit more of me time. I searched my backpack until I came across my camera. I love taking pictures.

To buy some time before I got home, I took random pictures on my way home. I got a picture of a young kid playing in his front yard with his puppy, a mother bird feeding her little one, kids flying a kite and some other random things that I encountered on my way home.

I should probably give you a little insight to what you see when you walk into my house via the front door. If you are standing in my doorway and looking into the house, you can see the top of the stairs.

I reached the front door of my house and opened it with my camera ready. I like to take pictures of the tranquility of my house when I first walk in because that’s the only time my house is peaceful. But today, the picture was anything but tranquil.

After I snapped the picture, I realized what I was immortalizing on film. I caught my father pushing my sister down the stairs. Well I saw him push her down the stairs, what I captured on film was him dragging her roughly by the hair.

I watched in horror as my sister came tumbling down the stairs. My mother stepped out of the kitchen when my sister was about half way down the stairs. I could tell that Bri was trying to stop the fall, but nothing could have stopped the momentum in which she was pushed.

She hit the bottom of the stairs, and a bone chilling crack was heard throughout the silent house. I quickly placed my school books and my camera on the floor by the door and rushed over to my sister.

“Bri, are you ok?” I looked her body over. She was lying in a very awkward position. It was then that I noticed her broken neck. With feeble hope, I checked for a pulse. There was nothing. My sister was dead. “BRIANNA…NOOO.”

I sat in silence while the police turned the front parlor into an official investigation. My mother sat there crying while my father was pretending to be the ideal husband. He sat beside my mother with his arm around her, comforting her during the tragic death of her daughter.

I was shocked that my mother was allowing the contact that my father was giving her. I know that she knew what he did, and yet she was acting like he did nothing.

The police officer approached my parents. “Ma’am, do you know what caused the fall?”

“It was an accident. She was the only one up there. She must have fainted or something and fell down the stairs.”

In anger, I jumped up. “You liar. He did it.” I screamed pointing to my father. “He pushed her down the stairs in his drunken state. Or did you forget that. How can you sit there and lie? He killed my sister. And you are defending him. I hate you both. You both are murderers. You both killed her.” I ran out of the room. Surprisingly nobody followed me.

I arrived in my room and grabbed my school stuff and my photo equipment. I placed them on my bed and looked for my suitcases and duffels. I filled my bags to the point where nothing else would fit in it.

Meanwhile downstairs, my mother was talking to the police about my outburst. “I assure you officer. She’s just upset and speaking out of her sorrow for losing her sister. They were very close.”

The officer thanked my parents and went back to his partner. “So what do you think?” His partner asked him.

“I don’t know. I don’t quite believe the mother’s story. I didn’t believe it while she was saying it, then with the older daughter’s reaction, I don’t think it’s true. I think we need to do some other investigation about these people.”

Back up in my room, I finally finished packing. I walked downstairs and with my head held as high as it would go, I marched out of the house and to my car. Also surprising is that nobody stopped me. I got all my bags situated in the trunk. I got behind the wheel and peeled out of my driveway. I had a destination in mind. Abby’s house.

I arrived at Abby’s house and parked in front. I left my bags in the trunk and started for her door. I haven’t cried over my sister’s death yet. But I know the waterworks will start soon. I rang doorbell and waited a couple minutes. Soon Abby opened the door.

I saw Abby standing there and I started sobbing hysterically. “Oh my god. Lindsay, what happened? What’s wrong?” She approached me and engulfed me in the comforting hug of a best friend.

She led me into the house and up to her room. She sat on me on her bed and left the room. She came back with a box of tissues. She took one and started to wipe the tears off my cheeks.

When the river of tears showed no signs of stopping, she pulled me into a hug and rocked me back and forth as I cried. I ended up falling asleep. She tucked me into her bed and she went to get her school books and started to do her work in her room while I slept. She knew she would be needed as soon as I woke up and she wanted to be there.

As I was sleeping, I kept seeing my sister tumbling down the stairs. I couldn’t escape it. Then I kept hearing my mother’s lies. I woke up with a start and thought that maybe it was a dream. Then I recognized the room I was in as Abby’s room and it was then that I realized I was living a nightmare. The tears started up again. But this time there were no gut wrenching sobs.

She looked up from her homework and saw me sitting in her bed with tears flowing down my face again. She got up and hugged me tightly. Then she released me and left the room. She came back with a glass of water. Which I accepted gratefully after she offered.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

“He killed her.”

“Who killed who?”

“My father killed Bri. My father killed my sister.”

“What?” She was shocked. “What happened?”

“He pushed her down the stairs.”

“What led up to this?”

“My father has always been abusive. Well not always, only when he was drunk. Which happens to be most of the time. He was drunk when I got home from school and I watched him push her down the stairs.”

“Why aren’t you home with your mother?”

“Because she’s defending him. She lied to the police and said that it was an accident that Brianna had fainted or something.” I was calm through the beginning while telling Abby of the situation. Now I was starting to cry again.

“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She said sympathetically.

“Abby, I know this is putting you in a bad spot, but I can’t go home. I can’t live in the same house with murderers. Can I stay here?”

“As long as you need to. I’ll go tell my mother.”

She once again vanished from the room and returned moments later with her mother at her heels.

Her mother approached me and engulfed me in a loving embrace “Oh honey, I’m so sorry about what happened and your parent’s involvement. You can stay here for as long as you need. This is your new home.”

“Thank you.”

“No need to thank me honey. We are always around if you need us. You know that.”

She left the room. Abby turned to me. “Did you bring anything?”

“Yeah. It’s in the trunk of my car.”

“Come on. I’ll help you get it. For now you can stay in my room with me. Like a permanent sleep over, while my mother sets up a guest room to make yours.” She started out of the room.

I ran up to her and grabbed her in a hug. “Thank you. Thank you for being my best friend. I love you.”

She returned the hug and the sentiment and we left to go get my stuff.

It’s been 6 months since my father killed Brianna. I have been living with Abby ever since then. I haven’t seen my parents since then. But you know what? I don’t miss them. I miss Brianna. I was never a bright person, and I don’t mean bright as intelligent. I mean it as in the colors I liked. Ever since Brianna’s death, I’ve gotten more into black and other such dark colors.

I was sitting in my room when my door flung open. A very excited Abby ran into my room. “I GOT IT. I GOT IT.”

“You got what?”

“The contest. I won the contest.”

“What contest?”

“Duh, don’t you remember? I’m gonna meet Nick Carter. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH.”

Flashback
Abby and I were in the mall. As we walked past a display in the music store, Abby stopped short. “What is it Abby?”

“It’s a sweepstakes.”

“Ok, but why are we stopping?”

“Because it’s a sweepstakes to win tickets to Nick Carter’s concert and to spend a week with Nick.”

“Nick who?”

“Nick Carter. You know the sexiest Backstreet Boy. When the group decided not to record, he went out on his own.”

“Backstreet Boys? You still listen to that crap?”

“It’s not crap. It’s good music.”

“Have you turned teeny on me?”

“No. I’ve always like the Backstreet Boys. But Nick has always been my favorite. I have to enter this contest.”

“I thought you’d be past this. I can’t believe you didn’t grow out of your Backstreet fascination.”

“I happen to like their music.”

“But that doesn’t mean you have to enter every contest.”

“Lindsay, I’m entering this contest, and you can’t stop me. It’s a possible chance to meet Nick Carter. I can’t pass up any possible way of meeting him.”

“Fine, enter the contest but make it fast.”
End Flashback

“Lindsay, you have to come with me.”

“Go with you? Hell no.”

“Why not?”

“Because, I can’t stand that teeny bopper music.”

“Then don’t do it for the music. Do it for me. Your best friend. Please pretty please.” Abby started begging and gave me the puppy dog eyes.

“Fine. I’ll go, but you can’t expect me to enjoy this.”

“We can turn it into a summer road trip before our senior year of high school. It’ll be fun.”

“Except for the week that we have to spend with Nick.”

“No. That’s where you are mistaken. That will be the BEST week.”

“According to you. Sorry but I won’t enjoy spending time with an egotistical pop star.”

A couple weeks later we were packing my car for our road trip. After my car was loaded, we went inside and had one last meal, before our trip, with her family. I could tell that Abby was excited. She was talking a mile a minute and practically bouncing in her seat.

After the meal, we threw our last minute stuff in the car and we were off.

We had a week to get from upstate New York to Tampa Florida, where the concert was. If you drive straight threw from our area to Florida, with only stopping for sleep and other necessities it takes about two days. So we stopped at every tourist trap on the way down.

We spent a lot of time and money at amusement parks. We hit some of the best malls on the east coast. That was strictly Abby’s plan not mine. Abby kept saying how much she needed new clothes to look good for Nick. She’s my best friend, I love her, but sometimes she makes me want to vomit.

The closer we got to the day of the concert, and Tampa, the more I heard about Nick. Nick Carter this… Nick Carter that… Even if I tried to deter the conversation from him, she always brought it back. Saying things like, ‘Did you know that Nick Carter, blah blah blah.

Right now we are in Orlando. I had to get away from Abby and her excessive talk about Nick Carter. I left Abby in the hotel and I went out exploring. I found a few things that I enjoyed doing, and I had fun doing it. As I was about to head back to the hotel, a certain building caught my eye. I walked into the building and walked out a new woman, literally.

I headed back to the hotel. Abby was waiting patiently for me. She was getting bored. She had no one to bother with Nick comments. I walked into the room and she jumped up. “Oh goody, you’re back.”

“Yep I’m back.”

We were doing our own thing for a couple minutes. Then she started talking about Nick again. I sighed inwardly and rolled my eyes. The closer it got to meeting him, the more annoyed I got that I agreed to do this. Then she completely changed her train of thought. That’s another sign that she’s excited. She’ll randomly decide to change a topic. Then she said. “Hey Lindsay, do you want to go out for dinner instead of horrible hotel room service?”

“Sure. But my name is not Lindsay.”

“What? Of course it is. What silliness are you talking about?”

“I had it changed. Lindsay Shybell doesn’t exist any more. My name is now Casey Moreno.”

“I don’t understand. Why did you change it?”

“Shybell is my father’s last name and my parents named me Lindsay. I want nothing more to do with them, so I had my name changed. Now I have no name that my parents bestowed on me.”

Abby was in shock. “How about we go get that food now?” We left to get food and out of nowhere Abby said. “How the hell am I going to get used to calling you Casey. I’ve known you since we were in diapers and you’ve always been Lindsay? I’m never going to be able to call you Casey.”

“Well you better learn, because Casey is my name now.”

We entered the fancy hotel where we were supposed to meet up with Nick. We walked up to the reception desk and waited for the overly perky receptionist to notice us. Now that shouldn’t take long considering that Abby is jumping up and down because she couldn’t contain her excitement. The receptionist looked up. “Welcome to Caesar’s Palace. What can I do for you?”

I glanced over at Abby who was still excitedly bouncing and said. “The Mexican jumping bean you see beside me won a contest to meet Nick Carter and the contest said she could bring a friend. She’s the contest winner and I’m the friend.”

The receptionist told us what floor Nick and his entourage was staying on and we went to wait for the next elevator. Soon the elevator arrived and we arrived on the correct floor. The elevator doors opened and we stepped out. We looked out and decided on which way to go.

We rounded a corner complete confused as to where we were going when we bumped into someone. I looked up and scrambled to my feet in fear. Of course we’d have to bump into a big guy who looks as if he could kill us with his eyes. “Um, hi.” I stuttered.

“What are you doing up here? This is a private floor.”

“Um…umm.”

“I’m waiting for an answer before I remove you from the floor.”

“C…con…contest w…winner.” Abby stuttered, her excitement now replaced with fear.

The security guard softened and started laughing. Ok, now I’m confused. “I’m sorry.” He said. “I thought that you were just some crazy fans that snuck up here. Come on. I’ll take you to his room.”

We followed the security guard and my heart finally returned to its rightful spot in my chest. The security guard stopped in front of a door and looked in the pockets of his uniform. Soon he pulled a room card out of his pocket. He swiped the card and opened the door. “Here you go ladies. He’s somewhere in there. He shouldn’t be too hard to find, it’s a suite not a mansion.” He chuckled at his lame attempt at joking.

We walked into the room and the door closed behind us. Abby began to bounce again. “Will you calm down? You don’t want to startle him do you?”

“Nope.” Abby finally started acting like a civilized human being.

We walked around the suite looking for him. He wasn’t in the living room; that was obvious because that’s where we entered. He wasn’t in the spare room because that door was open and we could see in. He wasn’t in the little kitchen area. We walked passed the bathroom, and he wasn’t in there either, the door was open.

That meant he could only be in one place, the bedroom. We walked up to the door. It was closed so we couldn’t be sure if he was really behind the door or not. I knocked lightly. We waited for a few minutes but the door didn’t open and there was no response. Thinking that he wasn’t in the room, I opened the door to confirm my thoughts.

When I looked into his room, I was shocked to find him asleep. Abby pushed passed me to see in. She gasped loudly when she saw him on the bed.

I put my hand over her mouth so that she wouldn’t scream. As I was about to push her out of the room, I glanced over at the bed. I nearly screamed when I noticed that he was no longer asleep.

He was sitting up in bed starring at us. “Who the fuck are you?” He was angry. I never realized how intimidating he could be, until this moment. I could tell Abby was afraid of him too. We were both stunned into silence. “Well.” He waited a little longer for an answer. When we didn’t say anything he said. “I’m waiting for an answer. Oh better yet. Instead of telling me who you are, why don’t you start with what the fuck you are doing in my room.”

I saw tears start to form in Abby’s eyes and she ran from the room. This made me angry. “You know you could be a little nicer to your fans.”

“Well excuse me if I’m a little angry that there’s two psychotic fans in my room while I’m sleeping.”

“First, get off your ego trip. I’m not a fan. And second, Abby is not psychotic. She just so happens to be the contest winner that gets to spend a week with you. Although I can’t see why she would want that. Oh, one more thing. You could have at least been awake when your contest winner arrived.”

Nick looked like I had just slapped him in the face. I looked at him with a look of pure disgust and walked out of his room to comfort Abby. I couldn’t believe that I have to spend a week with that asshole.

Nick got out of bed and put on a pair of jeans and a different t-shirt. He ran his fingers in his hair to smooth his hair down a bit. I looked up at the door when he opened the door. I looked at him in disgust and got off the couch and started for the door.

“Wait.” He said. I turned to look at him while he turned into his room to grab something. Once he grabbed what he wanted, he approached me. “Before you act on the pure disgust you are showing and storm out of the room, you might want this.” Nick handed me the key to mine and Abby’s room. When I looked at the card, I noticed it was his room.

“We’re sharing a room with you?”

“No.” He said gently. “You’re sharing a suite with me, not a room. That’s your room.” He nodded at the spare bedroom. I gave him a dirty look and stormed out of the room.

Nick turned back to the couch. Abby looked up at him. There was an emotion in her eyes, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. To him it looked like there was hurt in her eyes. She spoke quietly. “For years, I have defended you to people, saying that you weren’t like most celebrities. I always had the impression that you were nice to your fans. You just proved me wrong. I was looking forward to this week I got to spend with you. Now I’m wishing that I hadn’t won this contest because this will be the worst week of my life. As soon as the week ends, I’m never going to support you in anything you do, and I’ll make sure my friends stop supporting you too.” She got off the couch and stormed into the spare bedroom.

Nick sat on the couch. He cringed when the door slammed. He placed his head in his hands.

I walked back into the room after I cooled off and saw Nick sitting on the couch with his head in his hands. I almost felt sorry for him. “What did you do to my best friend?”

“She’s in your room.” He said quietly without changing positions.
He sounded so upset. I was really starting to feel sorry for him, I couldn’t believe it. I was torn between going to him and comforting him and going to see if Abby was alright. I decided to go to Abby, seeing how she is my best friend.

Abby and I were sitting in our room talking. I heard Nick moving around in the suite, but I didn’t care. Abby was telling about everything that she had said to him, and it was then that she said something that completely shocked me. “Casey,” Well first off, she called me Casey, I figured she would still be automatically saying Lindsay. “I don’t want to stay all week. I want to leave now and have more of a road trip with you.”

We heard a knock on our door. We glanced at each other because we knew it was Nick. We held a quiet conversation to decide whether or not to open the door. Before we came to a decision Abby went to the door. She grabbed both of our keys. She flung the door open, thrusting the keys at him. “Here. We don’t need these.”

He just stood there starring down at the keys in his hands. “Why?” He said quietly. His voice cracked slightly on the one syllable question, like he was trying to keep from crying. He sounded pathetic. I couldn’t believe what happened next. Abby, sweet quiet Abby, laughed at him. And I mean a loud laugh in his face. I loved it. I started laughing too. I looked up at him. He looked really hurt. “Please stay.”

And for the 3rd time today, Abby shocked me by staying. “Why should we? Why would we want to ruin a week of our lives by staying with an asshole like you? I should have listened to my dear best friend when she said that you were nothing but a stuck up spoiled brat who only cares for himself and his whores.”

I stopped laughing. My sweet innocent Abby just called her idol an asshole and insulted him to his face. I didn’t think she had it in her. I also stopped laughing because he really did look like he was about to start crying. He was really hurt by what Abby said to him. At first, I was enjoying this because I thought his ego was the only thing that was getting deflated, but I realized that his ego was long out of the picture and his self-esteem was following quickly.

He looked down. When he spoke again, his voice was really quiet and shaking. “I, um, I was kind of hoping that you would, um, come to dinner with me. And, um, I was also hoping that you would stay at least just tonight, so that I could possibly make it up to you and redeem myself.”

I was about to say something, but Abby beat me to it. “You think WE should stay so you, the pompous jackass prick, can redeem yourself?”

He kept his eyes glued to the keys in his hands for a good 5 minutes. He didn’t say anything. Both of us stood there starring at him waiting for him to do something. “I’m, I’m sorry.” He said, his voice barely audible.

We watched him turn around to walk back to his room. He dropped our keys on the table by the couch and continued walking to his room with his head hung low.
I stood rooted in my spot in shock. I watched Abby fall onto the bed. “He’s trying to make us stay so we don't ruin his rep.”

“Um, Abby.”

Abby wasn’t listening to me. She kept talking. “I mean, can you believe the nerve of that guy.”

“Abby.”

“Yeah.”

“You went too far.”

“What? No. He deserved it. And besides, you never liked him, so why are you sticking up for him?”

“Because he looked so hurt.”

“Whatever. Let’s get our stuff and get out of here.”
We grabbed our bags and walked into the suite. As we walked past the door, we noticed it was slightly ajar. We kept walking past it. As we were about to leave the suite, I heard something. “Wait, Abby. Do you hear that?”

“Yeah. What is that?”

“I don’t know; it’s coming from Nick’s room.” We put our bags down out of the way and walked quietly back to Nick’s door. I pushed the door open quietly. I stood there, I didn’t know what to make of what I saw.

“What’s going on?” Abby whispered and then she gently pushed me out of the way so she could see. Nick was sitting on the bed, with his back facing us. His had his head cradled in his hands, and his shoulders were shaking. “Is, is he crying?”

“Yeah Abby, he is.” Abby walked silently away from the door and sat on the couch. “Abby, are you ok?”

“I made him cry.” I nodded. “I really did go too far.”

~*~
Nick’s Point of View

I walked away from their door dejectedly. I guess I deserved what happened. I really wasn’t too nice to them. I dropped the keys on the table and continued walking. I entered my room. I left the door slightly open, it didn’t matter, my female guests weren’t staying and I had no one to blame but myself.

I heard them walk past the room. I was really hoping that they would change their mind, but I guess not. I tried to get my mind off of what happened. But nothing was working. Everything that the girls said to me kept running over in my head.

“First, get off your ego trip. I’m not a fan. And second, Abby is not psychotic. She just so happens to be the contest winner that gets to spend a week with you. Although I can’t see why she would want that.”

“I was looking forward to this week I got to spend with you. Now I’m wishing that I hadn’t won this contest because this will be the worst week of my life. As soon as the week ends, I’m never going to support you in anything you do, and I’ll make sure my friends stop supporting you too.”

“Why should we? Why would we want to ruin a week of our lives by staying with an asshole like you? I should have listened to my dear best friend when she said that you were nothing but a stuck up spoiled brat who only cares for himself and his whores.”

“You think WE should stay so you, the pompous jackass prick, can redeem yourself?”

I didn’t think I was as bad as they were making me out to be. But I guess I really am an asshole, a stuck up spoiled brat, a womanizer, selfish, and a pompous jackass prick. Am I really that bad? I couldn’t help it. I started crying softly. The more their words ran through my head the harder I cried until I was sobbing.

~*~
Casey’s Point of View

I just sat on the couch with Abby. Abby was really upset that he was crying. She had tears in her own eyes. I was more or less in shock. I had never seen a grown man cry before. Abby and I jumped when the suite door open. It was the security guard from earlier. He looked at us with a confused look. “Something’s wrong with this picture. What happened?” I explained in detail what had happened. “Where is he?” I pointed to his room. “Are you girls still going to leave?”

Abby and I looked at each other. “It’s up to you Abby.”

“I don’t know. I was really hurt by what happened when we first got here but now I feel bad because I made him cry. I didn’t want to make him cry.”

“I originally came to get him for dinner but he probably won’t want to eat now. I’ll leave you two to decide what you want to do. If you decide to leave or if you want to go to dinner, come find me.” He told us his room number and left.

We sat on the couch in silence contemplating our decision for a half hour. Abby and I looked up when his bedroom door opened. His face was red and streaked with tear stains. He stopped short when he saw us. My eyes locked with his and I could see all the hurt he felt. I think Abby saw it too because she gasped. He looked away and continued on his way to the bathroom.

When he emerged a couple minutes later, he wouldn’t look at us. He was almost at his door when Abby made her decision. “Nick.” He stopped but he wouldn’t look at us. He didn’t say anything, but just the fact that he stopped was enough to know that she had his attention. “We’re going to stay and give you a chance.”

Without turning around, he said. “You were right before, I don’t deserve a chance.” He sounded so defeated. He walked back into his room. I looked at Abby as she got off the couch and approached the door of the suite. I watched her pick up her bag and walk back into the room that we are suppose to share. I followed her example and went into the room to unpack.

About an hour later I noticed how hungry I was. “Hey Abby, are you hungry?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think we should try and find the guard?”

“I was hoping that Nick would emerge for food soon.”

“How long are we going to wait for him to come out of his room?”

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s go find the guard.”

We put our shoes on, grabbed our keys and left the room. Abby stopped as we passed his room. “Abby, you coming?”

“Should we invite him?”

“You can. He probably won’t come but you can try.”

Abby nodded. I think she knew that he would probably decline the offer, but she knocked on his door anyway. There was no answer. She knocked again, a little louder this time. Again there was no answer. She tried the doorknob. The door wasn’t locked, so she quietly opened the door. He was sleeping restlessly. He seemed to be stuck in a nightmare. We stood there for a couple minutes, watching him toss and turn. Abby and I looked at each other. She walked to his bed and sat down on the edge. She started to shake him lightly. “Nick. Nick.” She said softly. “Nick.” His eyes fluttered open. His vision focused on Abby. As he went to roll over Abby grabbed his arm pulling him back to a position where he could see Abby. “We’re going to dinner…”

“Fine.” He went to roll over again, but Abby pulled him back.

“Will you just listen to me for a second?”

“What could you possibly have left to say? I believe you have already hurled every insult at me. Can you let my arm go now?”

She let his arm go. He rolled over. “We want you to come with us?”

“Why, so you could publicly insult me?” He said into his pillow.

“No. Do you want to come?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Are you sure?”

He rolled back over so he was looking at Abby. “I think I would know for sure if I was hungry or not.”

“Sorry.” Abby quietly left the room. I was still in the room. “Nick. Are you not coming because you really aren’t hungry or are you not coming because of what happened earlier?”

Nick didn’t answer for a few minutes hoping that I would just go away. When he realized that I wasn’t going to leave until I got an answer he sighed, then said. “I’m not hungry.”

“Ok Nick.” With that I left the room.

Abby and I left the room and went to find the guard. We knocked on his door, and he took us to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant. We spent the hour talking about various experiences. The situation with Nick was never brought up.

At the end of the meal, Abby asked if we could order food to bring up to Nick. The guard agreed and we decided what to order Nick. Since we didn’t know his tastes and his guard wasn’t being much help, we just ordered him a hamburger. When Nick’s food arrived, Abby grabbed it and we headed back up to our room.

When we got back to the room, everything was still as we left it. We opened Nick’s bedroom door to tell him about his dinner, and even everything in there was as we left it, including Nick tossing and turning on the bed. Abby left his food on the table in the living area and went to wake Nick up. “Nick.”

He opened his eyes slowly. “What?”

“We bought you food.”

“You didn’t have to.”

“Nick, you can’t stay locked up in your room forever.”

“You’re leaving, why do you care whether or not I stay in my room. And besides, I’m not hungry.”

“Ok Nick. Your food is in the living room if you get hungry.”

A couple hours passed. Abby had already gone to bed. I was sitting in the living area, lost in my own world. I was starring down at a picture of Brianna. I miss her so much. I was starring at the picture remembering some of the great times that I had with her. Sometimes those memories were bittersweet. They were great memories except for the fact that those memories made me miss her.

I jumped when I heard someone walk into the coffee table. “Oh, Nick. You scared me, I didn’t see you there.”

“Sorry, I was trying to stay quiet but the coffee table got in the way.” He said quietly. He had his emotions in check now, but you could tell that he was still upset.
I briefly smiled. “So you finally got hungry?” I asked as he grabbed the food we got him and started to eat.

“Yeah. I’m shocked you’re still here.”

“Abby decided she wanted to give you a chance after she found out how hurt you were by what happened.”

“She didn’t have to do that. I deserved what happened.”

“No you didn’t. You deserved to get knocked down a few notches; you didn’t deserve to have your self-esteem lowered to nearly nothing.”

He briefly stopped eating. “How did you know that I have low self-esteem.”

“Because if you had a better self-esteem, you wouldn’t have been that hurt.”

“Oh. Um, I don’t mind you staying out here while I eat, but can we talk about something else?”

“Sure, what do you want to talk about?”

“I dunno. Anything other than what happened earlier.”

“It’s still upsetting you isn’t it?”

“Um, yeah, a little.” I could tell he was lying when he said ‘a little.’ I knew that ‘a little,’ meant ‘a lot’ but I let it slide. “I thought we agreed not to talk about this.”

“True.”

“Um, what’s your name?” I looked at him and didn’t answer. “Um, if you’re gonna stay, even though I don’t deserve it, I think I should be able to get your name. You and your friend never told me your names during our confrontation.”

“Oh, right. My name is Casey. And the fan…”

“You mean ex-fan, but go on.”

“Ex-fan?”

“Yeah, she said she wasn’t going to support me anymore. That would be an ex-fan, or a former fan, whatever you want to call it, but she’s not a fan anymore. And I thought we weren’t going to talk about this, but yet we keep getting back on the topic.”

“Well, anyway. Her name is Abby.”

We made small talk while he finished his dinner. Although at this point, it should be considered a late night snack. After he ate, he went to get up to go back to his room. I could tell that he was still upset. I somehow managed to get him to stay, and we continued talking. I looked at Abby as she opened the bedroom door. I saw Nick look away. Nick and I were still talking when Abby emerged from the bathroom. She walked by the couch and didn’t stop until she reached the bedroom door.

She stopped at the bedroom door and turned back to us. She ran to Nick and flung herself on him. He looked shocked as he caught her. Tears started flowing down her cheeks, then she started speaking. “I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it. I really didn’t. I wasn’t thinking. I swear I didn’t mean it. You aren’t an asshole, you aren’t a womanizer, you aren’t a pompous jackass prick and whatever else I called you. I’m really sorry. I overreacted to what you said when we woke you up. Can you ever forgive me?”

Looking at Abby, I saw that she wasn’t going to stop apologizing anytime soon, and with every word she said to him, she held onto him tighter and tighter. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was turning blue.

“I can’t forgive you…” I saw her face drop. He sensed what she was thinking so he quickly continued. “I can’t forgive you until you let me breathe again.”

“What?” Abby asked him. Loosening her death grip on him only slightly.

“I can’t breathe.”

“Oh. Opps.” She laughed nervously as she let him go.

“I’m really sorry Nick.” She apologized for the confrontation again, not necessarily for cutting off his air supply.

“It’s ok. I’m sorry too. I overreacted when I woke up and saw you in my room.”

“We overreacted too. And that just made things worse.”

Nick yawned and then smiled lightly then stood up. “As much as I would like to sit out here all night and exchange apologies in an endless loop, I’ve had a long day and those few naps I took were either cut drastically short or completely restless. I can forgive and forget what happened earlier if you can. I would like to stay out here longer to get to know you two better, but I’m exhausted, so I’m gonna go to bed.”

“Goodnight Nick.” We said in unison.

“Goodnight ladies.”

Nick walked into his room and closed his door behind him. I looked at Abby and we silently agreed to go to bed as well.

I woke up and looked around the room. Noticing that Abby wasn’t in the room, I got up and got dressed. I opened the door and found Abby standing outside Nick’s room. I greeted her on my way to the bathroom. When I emerged, she was still standing there. “You know, he’s not going to miraculously come out unless you knock.”

“I’m sorta afraid that he changed his mind about forgiving and forgetting over night.”

“I doubt it. Just knock on the door and ask him if he wants to join us for breakfast.”

“Ok.” Abby raised her hand to knock on the door. Her hand was about to connect with the wood of the door, when the door flung open and Nick entered the living area like a whirlwind.

Abby looked shocked and Nick kept going. “Uh, hi.” I said, hoping to get his attention.

Nick stopped short and turned to me. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t see you.” He looked at Abby who was still standing in shock. “Are you ok?”

“I was about to knock when the door flew open. I think I jumped out of my skin when that happened.” Abby answered.

Nick bit his lower lip in an attempt not to laugh. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you. Did you want something?”

“Just to know if you wanted to join us for breakfast.”

“You know. I’d love to but I have to be at a photo shoot.”

“When does the photo shoot start? Maybe you have time to get something quick.”

He looked at his watch. “Um, it was supposed to start 45 minutes ago. I uh, kinda overslept. But I really have to go. I’ll talk to you later. Bye.” With that Nick rushed out of the room.

I looked at Abby and we burst into hysterical laughter. “He was supposed to be at that shoot 45 minutes ago. I think he more than “kinda” overslept.” I said in hysterics.
We got over our hysteria and found our way to get breakfast. After breakfast, we went back to the suite to discuss our options for ways to keep ourselves occupied while Nick worked. Abby decided on shopping. So that’s what we ended up doing for several hours. Have I mentioned that Abby is a shopoholic?

~*~
Third Person POV

Nick returned to the room sometime around 2:00 or 3:00 and noticed that the girls weren’t in the room. He had just spent the last few hours getting lectured. First for being late, and then for any other little thing that annoyed someone. Not only was he lectured, but his face hurt from the fake smile he had plastered on his face all day. He sat on the couch and turned the TV on. He channel surfed before settling on some action movie. He rested his head on the back of the couch. He felt himself drifting off to sleep so picked his head up. After about 30 minutes he found his head on the back of the couch more often and still fighting off sleep. With that knowledge, and being too tired to go to his room, he lied down on the couch and was asleep within minutes.

~*~
Casey’s POV

We entered the room noisily. Our bags kept bumping into things and Abby kept giggling. I was laughing at Abby because she was giggling so much. We noticed that the TV was on. I know we shut that off before we left so Nick must have returned, but we didn’t know where he was. We put our bags into our room and walked back into the living area. Abby stopped laughing. “Abby?”

“Is he ok?”

I looked in the direction she was looking and found Nick sleeping on the couch. “Why wouldn’t he be ok?”

“Well, since we got here all he’s been doing really is sleeping.” Abby looked at me then walked to Nick. She placed the back of her hand against his forehead. A minute or so later, she took her hand off his forehead and placed it on her own forehead. Then she put her hand back on his forehead only to remove it moments later and place her hand on my forehead. “I can’t tell if he has a fever or not.”

She once again placed her hand on his forehead. We thought Nick was sleeping through this whole thing, until with his eyes still closed he said. “I’m not sick. I don’t have a fever, so you can stop feeling for one.” Abby jumped and screamed. Nick opened his eyes and looked at her. “You can stop screaming now.”

“I thought you were sleeping.”

“I was. Until I kept feeling your hand on my forehead.”

She giggled. “Oops. Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“It’s ok. It’s about time I woke up anyway.”

“Why are you spending so much time sleeping if you aren’t sick?”

“It’s the end of my tour and I’ve been on the road for about 10 months now. I’m rundown and I have no energy. It’s for that reason that I can’t wait for tomorrow, when I’ll be back at my own house.”

“I thought we were spending a week with you.” Abby was a little confused.

“You are, but most of that week will be at my house. Tonight’s the last show.”

“Oh.”

“So what’d you girls do today.”

“Shopping,” I said with a scowl on my face.

“Not one for shopping are you?” Nick said quietly.

“Oh no. I hate shopping.” I pretended to gag for emphasis. That’s when Abby came over and playfully hit me. Nick stayed quiet. He didn’t laugh. That was weird.
Nick sat up to make room for us on the couch. Abby and I jumped onto the couch without hesitation. We tried to hold idle conversation for awhile, but for some reason, Nick was being quiet again. “Ok you. Why are you being so quiet?”

“What do you mean?” He asked timidly.

“That. You sound like you are upset. If you’re still upset over yesterday, get over it. We apologized.”

“I’m not upset.”

“Then why the hell are you acting like you are?”

“I’m afraid…”

“Afraid? Afraid of what?”

“That I’ll say something wrong and that we’d have a repeat of yesterday.”

“Nick.” Abby said. Abby is so quiet, how come in front of her idol she’s becoming talkative? “Nick, you don’t need to worry about what you can say and what you can’t say.”

“That’s easy for you to say. You weren’t on the receiving end of your comments yesterday.”

“So you are still upset about yesterday?”

“No, it’s just…” He trailed off.

“It’s just what Nick?” I asked. He was beginning to frustrate me.

“I, um. I’m afraid, that um, if I um…”

“Spit it out.” I yelled at him. He looked at me kind of shocked. “We’re waiting.” Nick began fidgeting. He looked as if he wanted to leave but he wouldn’t do that. “Well, are you going to tell us why you are being so quiet or are we to assume that you feel as if you are superior to us?”

“I don’t feel superior to you. It’s just that…” He began stuttering again. However this time we heard him mumble to himself but it was hard to make out what he was saying. He stopped and he seemed to compose himself. “I feel like I’m walking on thin ice and one wrong step would cause me to fall through the ice.”

Abby inched her way closer to him. When she couldn’t get any closer to him, she maneuvered herself until she was sitting on his lap. She hugged him wrapping her arms around his body and rested her head on his chest. After a few minutes she looked up at him. “You’re on solid ground. Yesterday was just a bunch of over reactions. You don’t have to watch yourself in normal conversation.”


~*~
Less than an Hour Later

Abby and I were sitting on the couch eating chips and watching TV. Nick was sitting with us until he went into his room to get ready for his final rehearsal of the tour. He walked out of his room and stopped behind the couch. Ever since our conversation that afternoon things between us were much lighter. He was even joking with us. The light atmosphere was definitely better than the tension that was between us.

Anyway, I went off on a tangent to explain the mood. Nick stopped behind the couch and leaned down. We were absorbed into the show so we jumped when Nick’s face appeared between the two of us. He laughed. When we settled down, he said, “I’m leaving for rehearsal/sound check now. Do you wanna come with me now or do you wanna come later?”

I rolled my eyes because I didn’t want to go at all. Abby looked pensive. “Um. I want to go later.”

“You sure? If you go later you won’t see what goes into the show.”

“That’s ok, I want to be surprised when I see the show.”

“Ok. Then I’ll see you later.”

With that he left.

~*~
A Couple Hours Later

Someone from Nick’s entourage came to pick us up to take us to the arena where Nick’s concert was. We were escorted through the arena. We found Nick with no problem. He was already dressed for his performance and really hyper. He was literally bouncing. It was actually a funny site. We were able to greet Nick and wish him luck before we were rushed to our seats for the opening act.

Finally after about 45 minutes, Nick was onstage. I was bored during the opening acts. I was hoping Nick put on a better show than that. A couple songs into his set, I was actually enjoying myself. He was putting on a damn good show.

I turned my attention back to the stage. He was currently in between songs. As his band got their materials together, he seemed to be playing mind games with the audience. He was doing many things out of shock value. He just wanted to get a rise out of the audience, and let me tell you, he was very good at getting the audience to react.

It is now about half way through Nick’s set. His band started playing the introduction to his next song. As Nick opened his mouth to start singing, the band stopped playing. He looked around the arena with a very confused look on his face. Then he shrugged his shoulders and turned to the band. “Why’d you stop?”

The band didn’t answer. The arena was in silence. He was still trying to figure out why his band stopped when a wall of screams hit him. “Why are they screaming? I’m not doing anything.”

He had his back to the audience trying to figure out how to get his band to talk when a chant started out of the audience. “Turn around. Turn around. Turn around.”

He turned around to see why the fans were chanting. He couldn’t believe it. His brothers, the Backstreet Boys, were standing onstage. The first few rows could see the tears that were spilling over onto his cheeks. The fans watched as he walked, in sort of a daze, to his four friends. Nick reached Kevin first. Kevin held his little brother at arm length for a few minutes until he pulled Nick in for a tight hug. The fans cheered loudly. It had been several months since Nick had seen any of the guys and the last time he saw them, they didn’t part on good terms. He was so overcome with emotion at seeing them, that he started crying in Kevin’s arms. He pulled back from Kevin. He smiled and tried to wipe his tears. Brian was next to pull him in to a hug. AJ didn’t even give Nick enough time to pull away from Brian before pulling Nick into a hug. After AJ’s hug, Howie approached. He had hung back when Nick spotted them so that the others could greet Nick first. He hugged Nick as tightly as the other three did. Kevin walked behind Nick and affectionately patted Nick on the back. “GROUP HUG.” Brian and AJ screamed and jumped into the group to turn the hug between Howie and Nick into a group hug with Nick in the center.

Once the hug broke up, Nick asked, “What are you guys doing here?”

“We came to surprise you. Things didn’t end well the last time we talked, so we wanted to make sure you knew that you had our support.” Kevin said.

“Thank you. That means a lot to me.”

“We can’t take all the credit. We were contacted by two very sweet girls, Abby and Casey. They said that they owed you something and that getting us to come would be the best way to make everything up to you.” Brian explained.

Nick looked at us, “Abby, Casey, why don’t you come up here.” He motioned to his security guard to help us to the stage. We were escorted to the stage and walked out to where Nick and the other boys were standing. He approached us. He hugged both of us at the same time. “Thank you. What you’ve done really means a lot to me.”

We left the stage to return to our seats. The fans started chanting for the boys to sing a song together. To appease the fans, the boys sang one song a capella and left the stage. Nick stayed on stage to finish his concert

He was tired. So tired in fact that he skipped the after tour party which was thrown in his honor. He must have been ready to collapse to miss his own party. I found a whole new respect for him that day, the day I realized that behind the camera he is usually falling asleep on the spot, but once he was in front of a crowd, he was a bundle of energy.

Ok, I went off on a little tangent here. Anyway, once he got off stage, he purposely fell onto the couch and put his head back. Everyone swarmed around him. I wanted to congratulate him for an awesome show, but I didn’t want to fight my way through the crowd.

I jumped out of my reverie when I heard Kevin’s voice over the excited buzz of the crowd. “It takes a lot of energy out of you to put on a show like that. He’s tired. Give him some room to relax.”

Through the parting crowd, I watched Nick give a grateful smile to Kevin. Now that the crowd was dispersed, I made my way over to him. When I reached him, he had his head resting on the couch with his eyes closed. “Hey!”

He opened his eyes. “Hey”

“Great show.”

He smiled slightly. “Thanks.”

Shortly after the entire entourage was making their way over to the after party, while Nick, the other four remaining Backstreet Boys, Abby and I went back to the hotel.

We threw Nick a small, intimate after tour party in our suite. Howie supplied the alcohol, 2 6 packs of beer. Nobody in our little party had more than 2 beers. The guys even allowed us to drink, even though we were underage.

Nick nursed his one beer for about an hour. Then he got up, took a shower to relax. When he returned ready for bed, we knew that the little get together was over. The other 4 Backstreet Boys left but not before we found out that they would be staying with Nick and us at his house for a few days.

Abby and I went to bed knowing that the following day would be a tiring travel day.

We arrived at Nick’s house during late afternoon. Nick’s house was gorgeous and surprising. Surprising because it wasn’t this HUGE mansion that I was expecting. The house was large enough to house a family of 6 but the point is that it was only a one family house. Nick gave us a tour of his house and we spent the rest of the day lounging around. We ordered take out dinner and spent time out by the pool.

We went exploring the next morning around 11. Nick was still sleeping, but we were being quiet. We quietly entered his room. He didn’t even stir. We looked around his room. An idea struck us and we ran out of the room before bursting out laughing and waking him up. We went back to the room we were sharing and conspired about our idea.

When Nick finally woke up, we begged and pleaded with him to take us to the mall. He finally agreed and we were off. We went into target where we bought wire hangers, strong tape, a flashlight and a magnifying glass. Making up the excuse that we were short compared to Nick, we would need a stool, so we bought one of those too. Our next stop was to an art store where we bought yarn and a hot glue gun. Then we told Nick that we were done shopping, and he gave us a weird look, but shrugged it off. Then we left the mall.

We spent that night in a similar fashion that we spent the night before. I won’t admit this to anyone but I was actually enjoying my time here. And Nick, wasn’t as bad as I had thought. He was actually very sweet. Yet another thing that I refuse to admit to anyone but myself.

I know Nick was curious as to why we bought all that stuff today but he never brought it up. It was the middle of the night. Nick was dead to the world. Abby and myself got all our giggling out before entering his room. Abby held the flashlight as we snuck into Nick’s room. I had a couple deformed wire hangers, which I taped to the ceiling above Nick’s head using the strong tape. I threaded the yarn through the hangers that were hanging from the ceiling. I anchored the yarn to his carpet with the strong tape. I took the tape and made a stand for the magnifying glass. I positioned the magnifying glass so that when the morning sun hits the glass so that there will be a beam that burns the yarn.

Now for the last part. I grabbed the orange that we grabbed from the kitchen. I was about to attach it to our concoction. After thinking for a few minutes, I realized that the orange could probably give Nick a concussion. With that thought, I ran from the room, leaving a puzzled Abby behind. I dropped the orange back into the fruit bin and searched the kitchen for something that wouldn’t hurt him as much. With a stroke of evil genius, I threw open the refrigerator door and grabbed an egg. I ran back to the room to show Abby what I got. She wanted to protest but I knew she wouldn’t because that would wake Nick, and this little prank of ours would have been shot to hell. I put hot glue around the egg then placed the yarn over the glue. I held the yarn in place until the glue took hold.

To test part of my concoction, I gently pulled the yarn back so that the egg was directly over Nick’s head. I taped the access yarn down. As silently as we came, we left the room.

The sun rose and shined into Nick’s room. As usual Nick didn’t stir. As the sun beamed light into the room the magnifying glass beamed light onto the yarn. Soon the yarn was starting to break, strand by strand.

We were sitting in our room talking. We just woke up, and had yet to remember that our prank was occurring as we sat there. Well we forgot about the prank until we heard Nick scream.

The yarn finally broke, dropping the egg onto Nick’s forehead. “WHAT THE FUCK?” He sat up and felt the gooey egg drip down his head, however, he couldn’t figure out what was dripping on his head. He reached up and attempted to run his hand through his hair. The egg made that habit a bit difficult. He pulled his hand away and looked at his hand. “Holy shit. That’s fucking gross.” For the first time since he woke up, he looked around the room. He spotted the shell of the prank. “Welcome to Bedrock.” (AN: In the Flintstone Movie starring John Goodman, Fred Flinstone’s alarm clock, is a rock on a string. The string breaks dropping the rock onto his head. That’s where the set up for this prank came from.)

He noticed the similarity the prank had to the Flinstone’s movie and figured out who was behind this prank. He was about to go after the master minds behind this prank when he realized that he was covered in egg. He would not give the satisfaction of getting seen like this, so he jumped into the shower. 20 minutes later, he emerged from his room, dressed and egg free. He walked up to a door and threw the door open and quickly threw his arms behind his back.

We jumped when the door flung open. We were about to laugh when we realized that he wasn’t covered in egg. “You’re supposed to be covered in egg.”

“I’m aware of that. But I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction.” He threw a water balloon at each of us that exploded when hitting us, soaking us and the bed. “It’s not great payback, but it’s the only thing I could come up with on short notice. You better watch your back.” Soaking wet, we watched him start to leave. We were sort of shocked when he turned around. “Oh, one more thing. The sheets on my bed are now covered in a messy, gooey egg. I hope you have fun washing the sheets. Ciao!” With that he closed the door and we sat there in shock.

I was still starring at the door in shock. “He was supposed to react. You know. Be partially angry, chase us around the house.”

“I know. What’s the point of pranking him if he’s not going to react properly? He can be so frustrating.”

~*~
Third Person

Abby and Casey were outside bathing in the sun. Nick was sitting in his office and looking out the window. His gaze was fixed on Casey in her suit. He didn’t hear Brian open the door.

Brian entered the room and left the room slightly open. “Hey.”

Nick turned his attention to Brian. “Hey.” Nick turned his gaze back to Casey but didn’t allow it to remain there. Brian followed Nick’s gaze but couldn’t figure out what he was looking at. “What are you looking at?”

“Nothing.”

“Nick.”

“What?”

“I know you and I know when you are lying.”

Nick sighed. “Fine. I was looking at Casey.”

Unbeknownst to the boys, Abby was walking past the room and stopped when she heard Casey’s name. She stayed by the door listening to their conversation.

Brian gasped. “What?”

“What do you mean Bri?”

“Do you like her?”

“She’s a very nice girl.”

“No. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant do you like her?”

“Yeah. But I don’t know what to do.”

“You forget any feelings that you have for her.”

“What?”

“It’ll never work between you and her.”

“Why?”

“Nick. Just trust me. If you get together with her, you’ll ruin a friendship. You two are better as friends.”

“How do you know?”

“Nick, she won’t be able to return the sentiment. People like that can’t.”

“I don’t understand.”

“She obviously has baggage.”

“So? You’re saying that just because she has baggage that she doesn’t deserve to be in a relationship. According to your opinion, then I don’t deserve to be in a relationship either. I have baggage too.”

“She’s not good for you Nick.”

“That’s not for you to decide.”

“Nick. Don’t do it.” Brian left the room. Nick went to go back to gazing at Casey but stopped himself. Brian knew of his crush so now it was only a matter of time before the other guys would be lecturing him. He had to be careful now.

Abby had walked away from the door when she saw Brian getting ready to leave. She didn’t want to get caught. She hurried to her room where she contemplated what to do.

An hour later, she came to a decision. She exited her room and bumped into Brian. “Hey Brian.”

“Hey Abby.”

“Um, can I talk to you for a minute?”

“Sure.”

She lets Brian into her room. “I know I shouldn’t have been eavesdropping, but I heard my best friend’s name, and I had to know what was being said. Why are you so against Nick and Casey being together?”

“Because I’ve seen Nick get hurt too many times, and I don’t think she’s capable of giving him what he needs.”

“And what does he need?”

“Um…”

“See, you can’t answer. Brian, it isn’t your decision who Nick dates. If Nick likes Casey, then Nick should be able to pursue Casey. I personally think that Nick and Casey would be good together. You can’t tell Nick who he can and cannot date.”

“I just don’t want him to get hurt again.

“You can’t stop him from getting hurt. If he gets hurt, the only thing you can do is be his best friend and help him pick up the pieces. And besides, Casey might not return his feelings. But, if she likes him, then let them pursue a relationship.”

“I guess you’re right.”

“It isn’t a matter of guessing. I am right. Let this take its own course.”

~*~
Casey’s Point of View

That night there was a storm. A very unexpected storm and a very bad storm. It knocked out the power for while. The wind was lashing, windows were rattling. Thunder was directly over head. You could see the bolts of lightning touch the ground outside. It was bad.

The next morning, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. Not only was the sun shining, but the sky was blue and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There was no sign of the storm, except for the massive amount of damage it caused to Nick’s yard.

The Day was absolutely gorgeous. So Abby and myself went outside to bake in the sun.

“I overheard something interesting yesterday.”

“Really? What was that?”

“Nick likes you.”

“He’s been nothing but nice. I never thought he didn’t like me.”

“No. He LIKES you.”

“Do you mean he likes me as in he’s interested in me? Like in a dating sense?”

“Yes. How do you feel about that?”

“How do I feel about him liking me or how do I feel about him?”

“Both.”

“Well, I’m flattered that he likes me But I don’t feel that way about him. I like him as a friend. But I could never like him as more than a friend.”

“Why not?”

“He’s a great guy.” Did I just say that out loud? I did, didn’t I? “But, we have
completely different lives and besides, he’s out of my league.”

“How is he out of your league?”

“Oh come on Abby. How ISN’T he out of my league.” I cringed slightly when Abby gave me the look. The best friend look that says, yeah right, now I want the truth. I knew she was going to see right through me.

“Casey, I’m your best friend. You don’t have to lie to me.”

“I’m not…” there’s that look again.

“Do you really not like him or are you just afraid to admit it?”

“Why admit something that isn’t true.”

“You can be so frustrating sometimes.”

“Why?”

“Because I can tell that you’re lying.”

“I’m not lying. I’ll admit that he’s a good guy and that I’d like to stay friends with him, but there’s nothing else.”

“Casey, have you ever heard of the word DENIAL.”

“Yeah, I heard of it, but I’m not in denial.”

“Yes you are. I’ve seen you looking at him when you think no one’s looking. Why won’t you admit that you like him?”

“Because I don’t.”

“Ok Casey. If he was some kid in our school, would you like him.”

“Um, probably.”

“Then why is our real situation differently?”

“Because in our real situation, he’s a superstar who could have ANY girl that he wants. Why would he want me?”

“I don’t know but he does.”

“I’m sure he doesn’t Abby.”

“I heard him say it. He likes you. And I think he wants to pursue something with you.”

“This is ridiculous Abby?”

“Why? You’re young, beautiful. You deserve him liking you just as much as any of his other girls. Look, just talk to him. See what he says.”

“Fine, I’ll talk to him.”

“I just have one more question, then I’ll leave you alone.”

“What?”

“Do you like him?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.”


~*~
Earlier that Morning
Third Person POV

Nick woke up and looked out his window. He sighed deeply when he saw the damage the storm caused. He didn’t see the point in showering since he wanted to go outside and clean up his yard. He’d shower after his yard was clean. He got dressed and walked out to his yard. He was out there for 3 hours before he noticed any movement in the house.

He jumped slightly when he heard his backdoor open. He relaxed when he realized that it was Abby and Casey coming outside. He went back to work.

He heard them talking but he didn’t want to eavesdrop. They didn’t even know he was there.

“I overheard something interesting yesterday.”

“Really? What was that?”

“Nick likes you.” He heard his name. Now he needed to know what was said. He stopped working so that he wouldn’t make any noise and disturb their conversation.

“He’s been nothing but nice. I never thought he didn’t like me.”

“No. He LIKES you.”

“Do you mean he likes me as in he’s interested in me? Like in a dating sense?”

“Yes. How do you feel about that?”

“How do I feel about him liking me or how do I feel about him?”

“Both.”

“Well, I’m flattered that he likes me but I don’t feel that way about him. I like him as a friend. But I could never like him as more than a friend.”

Nick felt like someone had just punched him in the stomach. Not wanting to hear anymore, he silently went around the house and entered the house through the front door.

He went up to his room to be alone. That shower sounded like such a good idea right now.


~*~
Casey’s POV

It was a couple hours later. I was feeling really warm from sitting out in the sun for long. I decided to take a shower. I went to the guest room and got some clean clothes and headed for the bathroom.

After my shower, I got dressed in the bathroom. I placed my dirty clothes in the guest room, and then I was going to go search for some form of life in this house. I didn’t have to look far, because at that very moment, I started to hear someone playing the guitar. I followed the music and it led me right in front of Nick’s room.

I walked up to his door ready to knock. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw that his door was opened. He was sitting Indian-style on his bed, holding his guitar over his lap. He had his eyes closed as his fingers strummed his guitar. He did look beautiful like that. And so serene. I almost didn’t want to disturb him, but I also needed to have that conversation with him.

I knocked on his open door. He opened his eyes, and smiled tentatively at me. “Hey Nick. Can I come in?” Nick nodded as he removed his guitar from his lap and placed it on his bed. I entered the room. I sat at his desk facing him on the bed.

“You can come closer you know. You don’t need to stay on the complete opposite side of my room.”

I smiled and walked over to his bed and sat beside him. My gaze shifted to his hands. They were trembling. “Are you ok Nick?”

“I’m fine.”

There was an awkward silence. I looked a round his room for some topic that I could talk to him about. I noticed his guitar. “You’re really good.”

He shrugged. “Thanks.” He smiled, but I could sense that it was a forced smile.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

He sighed. “I’m fine.”

I kept trying to have a friendly conversation with him. I was trying to see if he would tell me of his feelings. I’m not sure why I wanted him to say it, but I did. However, throughout the attempted conversation, he seemed to be getting tenser and I could barely get more than one syllable words from him. I figured he wasn’t in a good mood and that I wouldn’t get the confession that I wanted, so I left him alone.

Much later that night, I was trying to fall asleep but for some reason, I couldn’t sleep. I’m not sure why, but the fact that I hadn’t seen Nick since our tense conversation earlier that day was worrying me. I didn’t see him after our conversation before dinner, at dinner, or after dinner.

Not wanting to wake Abby with my tossing and turning, I went downstairs to the living room to watch TV. I looked at the clock. It was 4:30 in the morning. I snuck back upstairs. The fact that I hadn’t seen Nick was really bothering me. I had to convince myself that he was sleeping. I quietly opened his bedroom door.

I looked into his room, and gasped. He wasn’t there. Not only that, he’s bed looked picture perfect. He hadn’t even slept in it yet.

Now, I was really worried. I went downstairs and sat on the couch. I put the TV on low so I didn’t wake anyone else in the house.

It was a half hour later when I heard something outside. I looked around the living room, but I didn’t see anything I could defend myself with. I jumped and turned toward the door, without finding a defense weapon, when I heard it open. I could feel my scream getting ready to wake up the whole house.

I was about to scream when I realized that it was Nick walking into the house. “Hi Cashey, yous up earwy.” Oh my god, he’s drunk.

I’ve been around drunk men before. Hell, one of them killed my sister. Since I don’t know this one that well, I was afraid of what he would do. I tentatively approached him. “Come on Nick, you need to get to bed.”

“I no need bed.”

“Yes Nick. You aren’t making sense.”

“I fwine cutsie.”

“Nick please.”

“Yousth begging me.”

“Nick, it’s for your own good.”

“Eberyone twinks theys knows whatsh goosh for me.”

“That’s because right now you don’t know what’s good for you.” I grabbed his arm as he staggered.

“I knows whatsh I need. And itsh not bed.”

“Nick, don’t make me get Kevin.”

“Kewin not shcare me. I shtand up to him.”

“Brian.”

“Bwi Bwi ishn’t shcawy.”

“Nick. Come on. It’s bedtime.” I grabbed his arm and dragged him up the stairs. It wasn’t hard because he was too drunk to even consider walking straight. I want to know why he went out to get so drunk, especially alone.

I dragged him to his room and pulled his bed down. As I was about to push him into bed, he quickly staggered into the bathroom. I gagged as I heard him throw up. When I didn’t hear him heaving anymore, I entered the bathroom. I found him resting his head on the tub. I used all of my strength to get him off the floor and to his bed. Once he was in bed, I pulled his covers over him. He passed out. I left his room, and returned to my room. I finally fell asleep.

~*~
Third Person POV

The next morning, everyone except for Nick was sitting at the breakfast table. They were discussing their plans for the day. They finally decided on what they wanted to do and they started to disperse to get ready.

“Hey, what about Nick.” Brian asked.

Casey looked up. “Nick’s not going to feel up to coming. He came home drunk at like 5 this morning.”

Brian looked at Casey, not sure if he should believe her. He went upstairs and into Nick’s room. “Nick wake up.” Brian said softly.

“Don’t talk so loud.” Nick mumbled.

“Are you ok buddy?”

“I just want to sleep. Leave me alone.”

Brian nodded. “Ok.” He left the room to join the others. Then they left for the day.

Several hours later, Nick finally rolled out of bed. He was disgusted with himself for falling asleep in his outfit. He was even more disgusted by the strong stench of alcohol that surrounded him. He stumbled into the bathroom to take a shower.

Once he was dressed, and feeling a bit better, he grabbed his clothes and his sheets and took them to the laundry room to wash.

After the laundry was done, he made his bed and went downstairs. He pulled out his 1 cup coffee maker and made himself some coffee. He took his coffee into the living room where he drank it in front of the TV.

The doorbell rang as he finished his coffee. He went to the door to answer it. The delivery man handed him a decent sized box in which he carried into the kitchen. He looked at the return address. He recognized the address, but he couldn’t remember from where. He opened the box and gasped as he saw the contents.

He took one out and looked at it closer.

Nickolas Gene Carter
And
Kathryn Lynn Kielson
Wish your presence
On the Date of
Wednesday June 22
In the year
Two thousand five
As their love
Joins them together for
Eternity

The design on the card was smeared by his tears. He flung the invitation across the room, not paying attention to where it landed. “KATIE.” He screamed. He forcefully grabbed the box that held the rest of the invitations and roughly took them to his office where he shredded all of the invitations in the box. He returned to the kitchen. Tears were now flowing freely down his cheeks. “Katie. Why you?” He placed his head in his arms on the table, and started sobbing.

And that’s where Casey and Abby found him.

Casey’s POV

We were sitting at the table. Nick wouldn’t even look at us. He kept his head resting on his arms. He was no longer sobbing out loud, but we could still tell by his shoulder’s shaking that he was definitely still crying. We had no clue what happened for him to be this upset. And him not telling us anything wasn’t helping at all.

I placed my hand on his shoulder. “Come on Nick. Tell us what’s wrong so that we can help you feel better.”

He shrugged away from my touch. “Nothing will help me feel better right now.”

“Come on Nick. That can’t be true. Please talk to us.”

He looked up and I was shocked at how red and puffy his eyes were. He must have been crying long before we got home. “I can’t.” He looked away from us then said quietly. “I need to be alone right now so I’m going to go upstairs.” With that, he pushed his chair back and walked briskly from the table.

I gave Abby a helpless look. She looked at me the same way. We wanted to help him. But without him telling us what’s bothering him, there’s nothing we can do.

Then, the doorbell rang. Abby and I looked at each other. We didn’t know what to do. So we waited for a bit. The bell rang a second time, but we weren’t sure if Nick was coming down to answer it. When the bell rang a third time, I watched Abby get up and head toward the front door.

~*~
Third Person POV

Abby opened the front door.

The visitor was about to greet who he thought was supposed to be Nick, but stopped in confusion when he saw a strange girl. He stepped back and looked at the number on the house. “Ok, I have the right house.” He turned to the girl. “Who are you? And why are you answering Nick’s door?”

“Oh, you’re a friend of Nick’s?”

“Why else would I be here?”

“No need to be rude.”

“Sorry. I’m very protective over Nick. If you won’t tell me who you are, I’m sure Nick will. Now will you let me in?” Abby stepped aside while the unknown visitor entered the house with his bags. “So where IS Nick?”

“He’s upstairs. He said he needed to be alone.”

“When did he go upstairs?”

“Like 10 minutes before you rang the bell.”

“Ok, then I’ll leave him alone for a bit.” He followed Abby into the kitchen. He jumped back a little at the site of another girl he didn’t know in Nick’s house. “Now you really need to tell me what’s going on here. Nick wants to be alone and there’s not one but two strange girls in his house. Why are you two here?”

“I won a fan contest to spend a week with Nick.” Abby said.

“I’m her best friend.” Casey finished.

The visitor nodded. “What are your names?”

“I’m Abby, she’s Casey. What’s your name?”

“Brent.”

Casey went to the refrigerator to get a drink. She opened the cabinet to get a glass. Realizing that the dishwasher was ran but not emptied, she leaned over to open the dishwasher. Before she opened the dishwasher, she spotted a card that wasn’t there earlier today. Curious, she bent down to pick it up.

She gaped at the invitation in surprise. “Hey Abby. Did you know that Nick is engaged?”

“What? I never heard that.”

“Here’s the invitation.” Abby walked toward Casey as Casey held out the invitation to her.

“Oh shit.” Brent said quietly, but the girls still heard him. They looked up at him briefly before going back to the invitation. “Let me see that.” He said firmly.

“What?” Casey said.

“I said. Let me see that invitation.” He demanded than waited with his hand outstretched. Casey didn’t give him the invitation fast enough. “Now.” He said in that same firm demanding tone.” Casey silently handed him the invitation. He looked at the intricate wedding design, and the fancy writing. The girls looked at him surprised when he started speaking to himself and he wasn’t talking under his breath. “Holy fuck. Do they do this to torture the man?” He took a deep breath to steady his breathing. “You said he went upstairs. Did he tell you where upstairs he went?”

“No, he just said upstairs.”

Brent dropped the invitation on the table and ran from the room in search of Nick. Leaving the girls extremely confused.

Brent ran upstairs and looked through every room until he found Nick. Nick was in his room, curled up into a ball on his bed. Brent couldn’t see Nick’s face, but the fact that Nick’s shoulders were violently shaking clued Brent in that Nick was still crying. He entered the room and closed the door.

Brent quietly, but quickly walked to Nick’s bed and sat down beside Nick. He positioned himself so that Nick would have no problem seeking comfort on Brent’s shoulder.

Brent placed a comforting hand on Nick’s shoulder. Nick jumped and quickly wiped his tears thinking that it was one of the girls on his bed. Years of pretending taught him how to turn his tears off in public. He dried his eyes and turned around until he could see who was touching him. “Brent? You’re early.” Nick said quietly. His voice was hoarse from crying and barely audible.

“I’m glad I got here early.” Brent’s hand was still on Nick’s shoulder. Nick’s eyes, knowing he didn’t have to pretend any longer, started watering again. He blinked and the tears started streaming at a fast rate down his face. Brent had tears in his eyes from looking at how upset his best friend was. He removed his hand from Nick’s shoulder and opened his arms as if expecting a hug. “Come here.”

Nick didn’t hesitate. He willingly fell into Brent’s embrace. Brent held Nick tightly as he cried. He rubbed Nick’s back until he calmed down a bit.

Nick pulled back. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was red and splotchy. “I’m glad you’re here.” Nick said hoarsely.

Brent climbed off the bed. He grabbed Nick’s hand and pulled him into the bathroom. “Wash your face.”

“Why? I’m only going to be red and splotchy again once I start crying again.”

“I’m taking you in public.”

“Brent no. I don’t want to go out. I want to be alone. Well, ok, I’d rather be alone in your company. I don’t want to be in public.”

“Relax man. I’m going to take you to my family’s beach house. But we don’t want to take you out in public looking like this.”

“But why can’t we just stay here?”

“I want to be able to talk to you freely about this. Without the possibility that someone will be listening.”

“You mean Abby and Casey?”

“Yeah. They seem like nice girls. But this is private. I’ll even unlock my father’s workout room, so you can beat up the punching bag if you need to.” Nick smiled slightly. “Now, wash your face so we can get out of here.

Nick washed his face then turned to Brent. “Let’s go.”

Abby and Casey heard footsteps behind them and turned around. They gave Nick a smile when they saw him. “Nick.” Abby said.

Nick shook his head. Then he followed Brent outside.

Abby and Casey shared a confused look when the door shut. “Abby? Who is Brent?”

“Huh?”

“Well, you were a fan of Nick’s that bordered on obsession from time to time. I figured you’d know who he is?”

“I’m actually not quite sure.”

“Oh.”

“Why do you wanna know?”

“Because I’m confused.”

“Yeah so am I. I really hope Nick is ok.”

“I’m sure he will be. Hell, look at me. I’m ok and I watched my father murder my little sister.” She paused. “Well, most of the time, I’m ok.”

They stayed on the couch and looked for something to watch on television. They jumped when they heard the doorbell ring. “Man, Nick is popular today.”

This time, Casey opened the door. “Oh. Hi guys.” Casey said as she held the door open for Kevin, Brian, Howie and AJ.

“Hey.”

Brian was looking around confused. “Where’s Nick?”

Casey shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“He didn’t tell you where he was going? That’s really not like him.”

“He was upset about something. Then some guy named Brent came, and about 10 minutes after Brent went to talk to Nick, they left the house”

“He was upset? About what?”

“We don’t know. He wouldn’t tell us.”

Brian nodded. He turned to the guys. “We should go find him.” Then he replayed the conversation. “Oh wait. You said Brent was with Nick?”

“That’s right.”

“Ok. Then we don’t have to go look for him. He’s in good hands.” He turned back to the guys. “There’s nothing we can do now. Let’s just go and give him some space.” He turned back to Casey. “Have him call me when he gets back.”

She nodded and the guys left.

Several hours later, Nick and Brent walked into a now empty living room. Brent left Nick on the couch while he entered the kitchen. Brent grabbed the invitation and looked on the back. Sure enough the address of the company was on there. He put the invitation in his jacket pocket and went back to Nick in the living room. Nick was blankly starring at the black television screen.

“Hey man, I’ve got something I’ve gotta take care of. Will you be ok alone?”

Nick nodded as Brent left. He absent-mindedly reached for the remote. He looked at the movie channels on his TV, desperately looking for a movie that he could lose himself in and that will help him temporarily forgot his pain.

Would you know that it was just his luck that EVERY movie station was playing a romantic comedy? And not just any romantic comedies. Romantic comedies that he used to watch while cuddling with Katie.

Tears started to slowly slide down his cheek. So he shut the TV off. He was about to go upstairs and find the goriest movie he owned when the doorbell rang. He quickly wiped the tears off his face and walked to the door.

He opened the door. “Hi Brian.”

“Don’t hi Brian me.”

“What?”

“You were supposed to call me when you got home.”

“I just got home like 10 minutes ago. I had no message to call you.”

“Casey was supposed to tell you.”

“I haven’t seen Casey.”

“Ok. How are you doing?”

“I’ve been better.”

“What upset you so much?” Nick looked down. He didn’t answer.

At that moment, Casey and Abby came downstairs. They didn’t want to interrupt so they silently snuck to the kitchen. Neither of them saw the girls enter the kitchen.

“Nicky. What upset you?”

Nick sat on the couch. He tiredly rubbed his face. “I got a package today.” Brian sat quietly waiting for Nick to be ready to finish his thought. Brian sat on the couch next to Nick. Nick turned a tearful gaze to Brian. He opened his mouth to talk, but nothing came out but a strangled sob.

Brian immediately grabbed Nick and pulled him into a brotherly hug. Several minutes later, Nick pulled back a little calmer. But he stayed close to Brian. “Nicky what was in the package?”

“Invitations.” He said quietly.

“Invitations?”

Nick nodded. “To mine and Katie’s wedding.”

Nick looked defeated. Brian pulled him back into a hug. “I’m so sorry Nicky.”

Nick took a deep breath. “Everyone swore that they would take care of the cancellation details for me, so that I wouldn’t have to. Whoever was in charge of canceling the invitations, either did a poor job, or the company we ordered from is cruel and money hungry.”

“Cruel and money hungry?”

After another deep breath, he said, “Yes cruel and money hungry. Because if they weren’t cruel and money hungry, they wouldn’t have sent the invitations to me. How they could not realize that they sent the invitations to an ex-groom-to-be who watched his fiancée get shot, several times I might add. Then to add to their cruelty, they sent those invitations to an ex-groom-to-be, who was also a father-to be, and who lost not only his fiancée, but his unborn child hours apart.” Nick broke down crying at his little speech about his family that was ripped from his grasp.

Brian hugged him. Both jumped when a loud noise came from the kitchen. Brian got up to investigate. Nick stood up but stayed back as Brian approached the kitchen.

In the kitchen, the girls were in shock at hearing Nick’s words. They were so lost in their shock that they jumped a mile high when Nick’s puppy came barreling into the kitchen and crashed into the table. The collision caused the chairs to crash to the floor.

The door behind them flew open, and the girls tumbled onto the floor at Brian’s feet. At first Brian was shocked to find the girls eaves dropping on their conversation. Then his shock turned into raw anger. In a calm, but angry tone, Brian said, “How dare you. Do you even know what the word privacy means? What made you think you had the right to hear what we were saying?” Brian paused and Casey went to answer him. Brian cut in. “No. What you overheard, was private. Only Nick’s closest friends and family know about what happened. If Nick wanted you to know, then Nick would have told you himself. You need to stop eaves dropping.” He was looking at Abby, but was addressing both of them.

Casey was getting defensive. “How do you know that Nick didn’t tell us himself?”

“Because had Nick told you himself, you would have been respecting his privacy and not eaves dropping on a private conversation. Stop sticking your nose where it fucking doesn’t belong.”

Nick stood in the living room, listening to the exchange between Brian, Abby and Casey, well, mostly between Brian and Casey. He wasn’t ready for the girls to know about his past. But now they know and there’s nothing he can do about it. Not wanting to deal with anybody any longer, he quietly snuck out of the house. Out of the three people who were standing in the entry way to his kitchen, not one of them noticed his exit.

Brent parked in front of the address on the back of the invitation. He barged into the building and demanded to speak to the manager.

“Sir, he’s in a meeting right now. He’ll meet with you after.”

“No. He’ll meet with me now.”

“Sir, he’s busy.”

“And I have a depressed best friend at home because of this company. He will see me now.” Brent waited impatiently as the receptionist got the manager.

The manager, a short heavy set man with a receding hairline came out of the conference room leaving the door open behind him. The look on his face was not a pleasant one. He was visibly angry, but not even this stuffy businessman’s anger could surpass Brent’s anger. The manager looked at Brent with a look of disgust. “I’m Roger DeVull and you must be the inconsiderate customer who pulled me out of a very important meeting.”

“If you want to talk inconsiderate, then you are looking at the wrong man. You should be looking in a mirror.”

“Excuse me.”

“You’re the fucking inconsiderate one.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh yes you do. Do you know what the word CANCELLATION means?”

“I really don’t know what you are getting at.” Mr. DeVull was losing his patience.

Brent lost his patience before he even stepped foot in the office. “Well, since you don’t seem to understand that word, let me tell you. When someone cancels an order, it means that order is not to be fulfilled. But yet, you didn’t listen a few months back when there was a cancellation of wedding invitations. And because of your inconsiderateness, my best friend has been reduced to a sobbing mess.”

“You need to understand that we don’t stop orders once they are ordered. You see, we get tons of cancellations, and nine times out of ten, the couple gets over their disagreement and get back together, and then want the invitations again.”

“Well then you better learn how to fucking ASK why the order is being cancelled.”

Mr. DeVull yawned in boredom. “What is the big deal? The order was cancelled, we filled it anyway, it’s not my fault your best friend and his betrothed didn’t rekindle their love.”

“There is nothing left to rekindle. My best friend and his betrothed didn’t part ways after a disagreement. My best friend’s betrothed was FUCKING MURDERED.” Brent smiled in sick satisfaction as the color drained from Mr. DeVull’s face. But he continued anyway. “You are the greediest man alive, because not only did you send wedding invitations to a groom-to-be who lost his bride, you sent the invitations to a father-to-be who lost his unborn child in the same day. All you cared about was the money you would be receiving from the order and not about how receiving those invitations would affect the man you sent them too. Learn to ask why the invitations are being cancelled.” Satisfied, Brent turned around and started out of the building.

“I’m sorry. I’ll send an apology card to your friend. What’s his name and address so we can apologize correctly?”

Brent turned around. “You will send him nothing. However, his lawyer will send you a nice big lawsuit. Oh wait, that’s right, I already saw Nick’s lawyer and I have the lawsuit papers right here.” Holds the papers in the air and waves them slightly. Walks defiantly to Mr. DeVull and slams the lawsuit papers into Mr. DeVull’s chest. “Consider yourself served.” He turns to walk out. He screams back over his shoulder. “I hope you have a decent retirement fund, because after what you did, you will for sure lose your company. Oh what am I saying, I don’t hope you have a decent retirement fund, I hope you burn in hell. Tata.” Smirking, he leaves the office. He turns back to face Mr. DeVull. “You might want to pick your jaw up off the floor.” With that last comment, he slams the door behind him and makes his way back to Nick’s house.

Brent pulled his rental car into Nick’s driveway. He got out of the car and walked to the front door to enter the house. He didn’t notice the missing car. He stepped into the house and his sense of sound was assaulted by the sound of screaming. He walked further into the house. Not seeing Nick in the living room, or in any other room for that matter, he angrily stomped back to the kitchen door where Brian and Casey were a step away from a physical cat fight. “BOTH OF YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP.” Brian, Abby, and Casey looked to Brent in shock. Brent lowered his voice slightly. “Where’s Nick?”

“What do you mean, where’s Nick?”

“Well, BRIAN. Nick is not in this house, nor is he anywhere AROUND the house.” The room fell silent. Brent found himself growing impatient again. “Well, where is he?”

Brian looked to the floor with a sheepish look on his face. “I don’t know. I left him in the living room.”

Brent gave Brian a hard stare. “And you call him your little brother.” He pivots quickly and stalks to the door.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to go find Nick; since you were too busy bitching at the girls to be paying attention to the fact that he’s upset.” He turns away again. Then turns back to Brian. “You better be gone by the time I return with him.” Looks at the girls, “and you two…I guess I can’t kick you out of here because you have nowhere else to go. You two need to make yourselves sparse until he’s feeling better.” He turned one final time and stalked out the door.

When Nick snuck out of the house, he had no clue where he was going to go. All he knew was that he couldn’t stay in that house any longer. He drove around aimlessly for an hour before finally pulling into a parking lot and killing the engine. He got out of his car and walked around with his head hung low. He was wearing a hat to cover his limp blond hair. He was wearing dark sunglasses to cover his bloodshot eyes. He walked along the sidewalk of the park he ended up at.

He made a sudden stop when he realized where he was. It was THE park. The park where his beloved was cold heartedly murdered. He looked around to realize that he was standing in the same spot he was on that fateful day back in November. If he closed his eyes, he could still see the murder perfectly clear, as if it happened yesterday. He could still hear the blast of the gun, over and over and the painful scream that erupted from his Katie as she was shot and fell to the ground. He could still remember begging bystanders to help him. He could still feel the pain he felt when he thought he had lost her and the fear that engulfed him when he realized she was still alive, but barely. He could still hear her weak “I love you” before she passed out.

He couldn’t take it anymore. He bolted from his position back to his car. He jumped in and started driving again. This time, he drove to the cemetery. He parked his car and walked straight to the familiar grave. His legs gave out from under him and he landed with a soft thud on the grass, next to her headstone. Reaching out with his right hand, he traced the lettering gently.

Kathryn L. Kielson
Beloved daughter, friend.
Soon to be wife and mother
Born: May 20, 1981
Died: November 11, 2004

He felt the familiar feeling of tears running down his cheeks. In a shaky voice he said, “God Katie, I miss you. Why’d you have to leave me? It would have been hard but I would have been able to deal with it if I had only lost the baby and not you as well.” He stopped to try in vain to wipe away his tears. “I love you Katie.”

Nick heard a twig snap behind him. His public persona took over again and he dried his eyes. Then he turned around to be face to face with Brent.

“I had a feeling I’d find you here.” Brent sat next to Nick. He placed his arm around Nick’s shoulders. Nick willingly leaned into his best friend’s comforting embrace. Brent soothingly rubbed Nick’s upper arm. “Come on man. Let’s go home.”

Nick starred at Katie’s grave with unseeing eyes. Finally, after several minutes of silence, he nodded his head.

Brent, who went searching for Nick in a cab, put his hand out. Nick, knowing that he would never win the argument, dropped his car keys into Brent’s outstretched hand.

Brent drove them back to Nick’s house in silence. Once back at the house, Brent was pleased to see that Brian, Abby and Casey heeded his order. He led Nick to the couch. Nick simply followed him like a lost puppy.

Nick looked tired as he spoke quietly with Brent. Brent was trying to get Nick to fall asleep. When Nick did finally fall asleep, Brent repositioned Nick so he’d be more comfortable and went upstairs to let Nick rest. Brent made sure to tell the girls not to bother Nick. Meaning, Brent wanted them no where near the living room.

*Nick walked out of the bathroom. He stopped in the doorway and admired the beautiful vision in front of him. Katie, his girlfriend soon to be fiancée, hopefully, was curled up on the bed watching Runaway Bride.

Katie felt Nick’s gaze. “Well, are you gonna join me, or are you gonna stand in the bathroom doorway starring at me.”

Nick smiled and went to the bed. He climbed in and wrapped his arms around her. “I love you.”

Katie snuggled into Nick’s chest. She looked into his eyes. “And I love you.” She kissed him and then laid her head on his chest and turned back to the movie.

Nick was playing with a chain that Katie wasn’t aware of. Runaway Bride just ended. “Katie.” Nick whispered.

“Yeah?”

Without Katie seeing, he took the chain off his neck. He held the charm in his hand and dropped his chain on the table beside his bed. He played with the charm in his hand. “Marry me?”

Katie gasped. Her hands flew to her mouth and her eyes watered. She looked at Nick with a look of pure love. “Yes.” Her voice was breathy as the tears in her eyes ran down her face. Nick smiled and didn’t bother holding back his own tears. He grabbed her hand and gently slid the ring that he was playing with onto her left ring finger. “Oh Nick. It’s beautiful.”

“Like you.”

Katie smiled. She shut the TV and turned in Nick’s comfortable embrace. A passionate kiss started that night’s celebration.

One day, about a year and a half later, Katie bounced happily into the house. “Nick? Are you here? Nick?”

Nick left his study when he heard her calling him. She saw him and ran into his arms. She couldn’t help it she started crying. Nick pulled back. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

Nick looked at her. “If nothing’s wrong then why are you crying?”

“I’m just really happy.” Nick looked at her weirdly. Katie chuckled and pulled him to the couch. She gently pushed him onto the couch then climbed onto his lap. She kissed him gently and pulled back. “I’m pregnant.”

“We’re having a baby?” Katie nodded softly. He stood up and picked Katie up. He spun her around. He stopped and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She was giggling and he kissed her.

“Are you happy about the baby?”

“Nothing could make me happier.”

Another couple months have passed. Nick and Katie were taking a nice walk in the park on a gorgeous day in November. They were approached a few times by Nick’s fans but beside that, the day was going real well.

Nick saw a fan start to approach him and stop. Nick found this a little puzzling but kept on with his leisurely walk with Katie. The fan stopped in their path. Nick and Katie stopped. There was something not right with this girl.

Nick, not feeling entirely comfortable started to back away from this girl, pulling Katie with him. They saw her lift the gun and they started to run away from her. Nick stopped and turned when he heard gunshots. He saw Katie’s body jerk when the bullets hit her. She screamed in pain and started to collapse. “Katie.” He ran to her side and caught her before she hit the ground. “Oh god. Katie.” He looked around at the bystanders. He smiled gratefully at a bystander who was on his cell phone obviously calling 911. He turned back to Katie. He tried to hold his tears back because he didn’t want to be seen crying in public. He couldn’t do it. He gave up the fight and let the tears make their way down his cheeks.

The fan who held the gun stood in shock as she watched the seen in front of her. She watched Nick start to cry as he held Katie. She couldn’t take it anymore. She held the gun up to her temple and pulled the trigger, killing herself instantly.

Nick watched as Katie’s eyes started to close. “No. Katie, don’t close your eyes. Stay with me Katie. Help is on the way. You’re going to be ok.” Nick’s tears fell onto Katie’s face, mixing with her tears.

“I’m so cold.” Nick sighed in relief as he heard the unmistakable sound of sirens approaching.

“Help will be here soon. Hold on baby. Hold on.”

“I love you Nicky.”

“No, you aren’t saying goodbye yet.”

Katie’s eyes closed as the paramedic arrived with a stretcher. They loaded her into the ambulance. Nick rode in the ambulance with Katie.

Once in the waiting room he started fidgeting nervously. He couldn’t stay still. He didn’t want to be alone either. He left the waiting room and called Kevin.

An hour had passed and he heard no news on Katie. The waiting room door opened and Kevin ran into the room. He saw Nick and rushed to his side, pulling the younger man into a comforting hug. Nick broke down on Kevin’s shoulder.

Kevin led Nick to sit down when AJ, Brian and Howie burst into the room. They spotted Nick and Kevin and all rushed forward to surround Nick and attempt to comfort him.

Another hour passed and a doctor entered the waiting room and approached Nick. “You came in with Ms. Kielson, right?”

Nick nodded. He didn’t like the somber look on the doctor’s face. “How’s Katie?”

The doctor took a deep breath, this wasn’t going to be easy. “Katie, is still alive. Barely, but still alive. She’s still being worked on. Actually, I came out here for another reason.”

Thoughts of the baby filled Nick’s mind. Tentatively, he said, “what?”

“One of the bullets went right through her uterus.” Nick gasped and held his breath. “It didn’t hit the baby. Instead, it tore through the placenta. There was only a small chance that the baby would survive.” The doctor took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. We’ve lost the baby.”

That hit Nick like a ton of bricks. His baby was gone. He cried for his lost baby. Soon after he stopped crying. At the moment, Katie was still alive. He could have other children.

Resting his head on Kevin’s shoulder, he fell into a restless sleep. While Nick was sleeping, the doctor came back out. Kevin nudged Nick’s shoulder and he woke up.

Nick fearfully looked up at the doctor’s face. Another somber expression. Nick took a deep breath and held it as the doctor started to speak. “We were able to get all the bullets, a total of seven, out of her, but she suffered a lot of internal bleeding. We couldn’t stop it. There was nothing left we could do. She didn’t make it. I’m sorry.”

Nick dropped his head in his hands as violent sobs racked his body. He slid off the chair and onto the floor and was quickly surround by his friends. Kevin pulled Nick to him as he cried. Kevin, Brian, Howie and AJ all had tears in their eyes. They always liked Katie, but their tears were mainly for the pain that Nick was suffering.*

Nick was still asleep on the couch. Tossing and turning as the nightmare played on. He woke up when he landed with a heavy thud on the floor.

Brent was reading in the guest room that would be his during his stay. He kept his door open so he could hear Nick if he had to. Brent heard a crash from the living room. “Nick.” He dropped his book, not caring that he lost his place and ran at full speed into the living room.

He found Nick sitting on the floor. His knees drawn up to his chest. Brent ran around to him. He knelt down in front of him. “Why did this happen?” His voice was small.

“I can’t answer that.” He moved so that he was sitting beside Nick. He placed his hand on Nick’s back. Nick repositioned himself; he was now sitting pretzel style with his back against the couch.

Abby and Casey entered the living room. Casey sat in Nick’s lap and hugged him. Abby sat next to Nick and rested her head on his shoulder.

Nick stiffened when he saw the girls enter the living room. He didn’t know what to expect. He was slightly shocked when the Casey sat on his lap and hugged him. He had expected that from Abby, not Casey. He didn’t say anything. He was surprisingly comforted by the contact that Abby and Casey made with him.

Nick was starting to feel uncomfortable. “You know, I’m not a baby. You don’t need to treat me like one.”

Brent looked up. He looked almost offended. “Who said anything about us treating you like a baby?”

“Oh come on Brent. I know you mean well, but you have barely left my side since you got here. I even have to justify going to take a piss.”

“I haven’t left your side because I care.”

“I know you care Brent. But you don’t have to suffocate me.”

Brent stood up. “Fine. I won’t show you that I care anymore. In fact, maybe I should just head back up to New York and forget this visit.” Brent stormed out of the room. Nick took a shaky breath to compose himself. Abby and Casey started to head out of the room.

“Casey.”

Abby kept going and Casey stopped. “Yeah Nick?”

“You can stay.” Nick stood up and sat back down on the couch.

Casey came back to the couch and tentatively sat down next to Nick. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah I’m sure.”

“Why didn’t you want Brent?”

“Because Brent was around when this actually happened. He was there to stop all of my suicide attempts, except for one where I almost succeeded. I had told him to go out and have some fun. That night I slit my wrist and nearly bled to death before I was found. So now whenever I’m upset, he doesn’t leave my side. AT ALL. His constant presence was starting to get to me.”

“He’s just worried about you.”

“I know. I just felt like I couldn’t breathe anymore.”

“I think you offended him when you said that.”

“I did offend him. But it had to be said. He’ll get over it. He’s all talk anyway. He won’t go back to New York. Especially if he thinks I’m in danger of hurting myself.”

They made small talk for 2 more hours then Nick excused himself and retreated to his room. He closed the door gently behind him. He left a trail of clothes as he walked to his bed and stripped down to his boxers. It was still early, barely 6:00 but the events of the day left him exhausted.

He climbed into bed. He could feel his eyelids getting heavy, but he was afraid to sleep. He was afraid that his dreams would be plagued by the memories of that horrible day.

Taking a deep breath he snuggled under his blankets. He was about to fall asleep when there was a soft knock at the door. “It’s open.”

The door opened slowly as a disheveled Brent stepped into the room, closing the door behind him. “Hey.” He said softly.

Nick sat up in bed. “Hi.”

“I’m sorry that I smothered you.”

“I wasn’t angry with you. I know you were doing it because you care. There’s no need to apologize.”

“I went overboard. It’s just…in December when you slit your wrist, I was so afraid of losing you.” He quickly wiped away a lone tear. “Living in two different states is one thing. I wouldn’t have been able to handle it if you died, especially by your own hand. I don’t like seeing you like this.”

“I know Brent. I’ll be ok. This is just a temporary set back.”

“A temporary set back?”

“Yeah. I was doing well before receiving those invitations.”

“Were you really?” Nick nodded. Brent gave Nick a small smile. “Well, you’ve had a rough day. I’m sure you want to rest, so I’ll leave you to that. I’ll wake you up for dinner.” Brent exited the room, closing the door behind him.

“No you won’t.” Nick mumbled to himself before getting out of bed and making his way into the bathroom. He leaned over the sink for a few seconds before opening the door to his medicine cabinet. He pushed a few bottles aside until he found the little orange bottle of prescription medicine. He looked at the bottle for a few seconds before popping open the cap.

Brent was lying on his bed channel surfing. He muted the television at the soft knock at the door. “Yeah?”

Abby peaked her head into his room. “Casey got hungry so she made dinner. She made enough for all of us to eat.”

“Thanks. I’m gonna go get Nick up. I’ll meet you downstairs.” Brent slipped off his bed and walked to Nick’s door, knocking loudly on the door. When he didn’t answer, Brent quietly opened the door. He saw Nick sleeping in the middle of his big bed. He pushed the door open further and stepped into the room.

When he was standing over Nick’s bed he said, “Nick. It’s dinner time. Wake up.”

Nick didn’t stir. Brent placed his hand on Nick’s bare shoulder to shake him awake. His skin was cold and he still didn’t stir. Brent’s stomach rumbled and he gave up on waking Nick. He shrugged his shoulders and headed for the door. He closed the bedroom door behind him and headed down to the kitchen.

He entered the kitchen. “Hey Brent, where’s Nick?” Abby asked quietly.

“He’s sleeping. He didn’t seem to want to wake up so I let him sleep. He’s had a really rough day so sleep is probably the best thing for him anyway.”

“Yeah.” Casey agreed.

Brent nodded. “Things will probably look different in the morning for him anyway.”

Casey nodded. “You’re right.”

Brent looked at her. “Of course I’m right. He’s my best friend.”

Quiet Abby spoke up. “How do you know Nick?”

Brent laughed. “Our mothers were friends in high school. We have literally been friends since birth.”

Abby’s jaw dropped. “Wow. That’s just…wow.”

Brent smiled. Conversation was dropped as everyone ate in silence.

Once dinner was finished, the three of them cleaned up the kitchen. Then the girls headed into the living room. Brent kept walking. “Hey Brent, you’re welcome to stay with.”

Brent smiled. “Thanks Abby, but no thanks. I’m pretty tired myself, so I’m going to follow Nick’s example of curling up in bed watching TV until I fall asleep. I’ll see you two tomorrow for a, hopefully, less eventful day.”

“Goodnight Brent.” Abby said.

“Goodnight.”

Brent left the room. Casey gave Abby a look. “What?”

“You are totally flirting with him.”

Abby smiled. “So.”

“So. What about Skylar?”

Abby looked down. “I called him the other night and a girl answered his phone. She was kinda out of breath. I called him back the next day and he admitted to cheating on me, so there is no more me and Skylar. I’m free to flirt with Brent.”

The next morning Brent stumbled into the kitchen just before noon. Abby giggled. Brent looked up. “Did you just wake up?”

“Yeah. Have you seen Nick yet?”

“No he hasn’t come down yet.”

“Ok. Well, I’m going to go and wake him up.” Abby nodded and Brent left the room.

He went back upstairs and headed toward Nick’s room. He didn’t even bother knocking. He opened the door and was shocked to find Nick in the same exact position that he was in the night before. That was weird for Nick. Even on a good night, he changes positions a million times while sleeping.

Fear started to spread through Brent’s body. He quickly approached Nick’s bed and tried the same attempts to wake Nick as the night before. When Nick didn’t stir, he started to panic. He tried to keep himself calm and tried to think of ways he used to wake Nick when they were kids. He ran into the bathroom to get a class of cold water. He opened the bathroom door and stopped in shock.

He picked up an empty prescription bottle. He looked around the bathroom and found the bathroom littered with the pills that were supposed to be in the bottle.

Brent gasped. His bottom lip trembled as his mind registered the possibilities of what was going on. He darted out of the bathroom and to Nick’s bed. He catapulted himself onto Nick’s bed and started to search for Nick’s pulse.

He was shaking when he jumped onto Nick’s bed so this made finding Nick’s pulse next to impossible. As more time passed and Brent couldn’t find Nick’s pulse, Brent’s shaking hands began shaking more, if that was even possible.

Trying to hold his tears at bay, Brent ran from the room. He ran into the kitchen and didn’t see Abby or Casey sitting at the kitchen counter.

A few minutes passed and silent sobs racked Brent’s body. Abby and Casey stood up and rested their hands on Brent’s back. “Brent, what’s wrong?”

“I…I think that Nick is…” He took a deep breath. “I think that Nick is dead.”

Nick entered the kitchen to see his best friend in tears. He couldn’t figure out what could have happened to make Brent cry. “What’s going on in here?” His voice was still hoarse with sleep.

Brent broke away from Abby and Casey and ran to Nick. Nick stumbled when Brent flung himself at Nick. “You’re…you’re alive?”

Nick looked very confused. He felt Brent’s head for a fever. “Of course I’m alive. What is going on with you Brent?”

“I thought you were dead.”

“WHAT?” Nothing would have shocked Nick more. “Where did you get a silly idea like that?”

“When I went to wake you up, you wouldn’t wake up. So I thought of ways I used to wake you when we were kids. I went into your bathroom and found an empty pill bottle and little pills littering your bathroom floor. Then I couldn’t find a pulse, and you weren’t waking up. Oh god Nick, I was so scared that I lost you.” Brent went to hug Nick.

Nick cautiously hugged Brent back while trying really hard not to laugh. He couldn’t hold out much longer and pushed Brent away from him and burst out laughing. He had to sit at the kitchen table otherwise he would have fallen. Now it was Brent’s turn to be confused.

Nick looked at Brent and tried to regain his composure. “Brent, was that some sort of ploy to get me to laugh?”

“What? No, it wasn’t Nick. How could you say such things?”

“Because that was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard.”

“Why Nick? How do you explain what I found?”

“I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep after the events of the day, so I got the sleeping pills that were prescribed to me back in November. I took one dosage, I swear. Brent, you know me, I’m a klutz. How I spent so many years dancing around stage without breaking a bone, is COMPLETELY beyond me. My point is that I’m a klutz when I’m not medicated, so just think how klutzy I am when I am medicated. Anyway, after I took the prescribed dosage, I accidentally knocked over the pill container that I forgot to close before taking the medication. I saw the pills go flying all over the place but I really didn’t care. I figured I’d just get my doctor to fill another prescription and left the pills scattered around the bathroom. Ok, I explained the fallen pills, what else do you need explained?”

“Why you didn’t move?”

“I took sleeping pills. You sleep quite soundly with sleeping pills.”

“Why was your skin so cold?”

“I wasn’t wearing a shirt and I wasn’t completely covered by my comforter. And the AC was on full blast. Anything else?”

“You didn’t have a pulse?”

“You were looking in the wrong spot. I swear Brent. I’m alive. The thought of suicide never crossed my mind. I’m sorry I scared you Brent. I swear to you, I am alive.”

“I’m sorry Nick. I guess I really freaked out this time.”

Nick smiled. “You really did.” Brent turned away in humiliation. “Brent.”

He turned back to Nick. “Yeah?”

“After my attempt that almost took my life, and after I had recovered to the point of being thankful that I was still alive, do you remember what I promised you then?” Brent nodded. But Nick continued anyway. “I promised you that if I ever had suicidal thoughts again that I was going to talk to you. I have never broken a promise to you. Why should I start now?”

“I’m really sorry that I freaked out. It’s just; my worst nightmare is discovering that I couldn’t stop you from committing suicide and finding you dead. And this morning, it was like my worst nightmare was coming true.”

As Nick stood up and hugged his best friend, Casey and Abby looked at each other. Abby had tears in her eyes just from watching the two men in front of her and witnessing the strong, bond that they have with each other.

Brent and Nick broke away. Nick noticed the tears in Abby’s eyes. “Abby?”

“I’m sorry Nick. It’s just, I’ve seen women with the type of bond you two have, but I’ve never seen any men with it. That display of emotion and care, and even the hugging, it was really beautiful.” Brent and Nick shared a look. Then burst out laughing. “What? Now what’s funny?”

“Abby, Brent and I were born months apart from each other.”

“2 ½ months to be exact.”

“Our parents were always together so we were always together. We’ve been friends for almost 25 years. Of course we’d have a strong bond.”

Conversation ended there. Brent and Nick went upstairs. They cleaned up Nick’s bathroom and then Brent left the room. Nick called his doctor and asked for a refill of the sleeping pills after explaining to the doctor that he didn’t take many, that he dropped most of them on the floor. Then he jumped into the shower.

After his shower he didn’t feel refreshed. If possible, he felt worse. He shrugged it off and went to go find his 3 roommates. He found them in the living room watching some crappy made for TV movie.

After the movie they ordered Chinese takeout. By the time it came, 3 out of the 4 were ravenous. Nick couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t hungry after skipping dinner the night before, sleeping through breakfast and skipping lunch.

When the food arrived, everyone dug in. Including Nick who was trying to put up a front that he was hungry. Dinner was silent until Nick broke the silence. “You know, you girls are going to be leaving soon.”

Abby looked down. “Yeah.”

“But you don’t have to. You can stay longer if you like.”

Casey looked at Nick. “How much longer?”

“As long as you want.” The girls decided to stay a couple weeks longer.
Now that dinner was finished Nick felt horrible. He had a headache, his throat hurt, he felt cold and worst of all, extremely nauseous. He knew he shouldn’t have eaten the Chinese food.

He quickly excused himself and all but ran to the nearest bathroom. He made it just in time for his Chinese food to make a reappearance. He didn’t even bother going to back to the living room. He just headed straight up for his room. He collapsed on his bed and he was asleep shortly after.

Brent woke up exceptionally early the next morning. He had planned the perfect prank for Nick this morning. It was Nick’s birthday and neither Brent nor Nick allowed the other’s birthday to pass without a birthday prank.

He entered Nick’s room to set up his prank. He stopped in shock when Nick wasn’t in his bed. Then he heard the heaving sounds coming from the bathroom. He left the room until he heard Nick make his way back to bed.

When he was sure Nick was back in bed, he entered the room. “Hey.”

“Hey.” Nick responded weakly.

“Are you ok?”

“I feel like shit.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I somehow managed to get sick while this whole thing with the invitations happened.”

“That sucks man. I’ll let you rest.” Brent turns to rest. “Oh, by the way. Happy Birthday!”

“Yeah, some birthday this will be. I’m stuck in bed on my 25th birthday. Something is really unfair about that.”

Brent smiled weakly. “Rest, I’ll be back later.” He leaves the room while Nick attempts to fall back asleep. Brent walked back to his room and slammed the door behind him.

Abby ran to his room to make sure he was ok. “I’m ok Abby, I’m just mad.”

“About what?”

“Nick doesn’t feel good.”

“So you’re mad at Nick because he doesn’t feel good? That’s not right.”

“No, I’m not mad at Nick, I’m just mad in general. Today’s Nick’s birthday and he’s stuck in bed.”

“Oh yeah. It is Nick’s birthday.” Abby sent Brent a sheepish smile.

Brent started laughing. “Thanks, I needed that.”

“No problem. Casey and I will help you.”

Casey walked into the room at this point. “What am I being volunteered for?”

Abby dove right into the explanation. “Today’s Nick’s birthday AND he doesn’t feel good. So we’re going to help Brent take care of him today.”

“Oh, ok. That’s not too bad. I’ll help.”

Casey walked into Nick’s room. She watched him from the doorway as he slept. He didn’t look too comfortable. He was tangled in the sheets and looked to be cold. She walked to his bed. As she got closer to Nick’s bed, she noticed that she was right;
he was shaking from being cold.

With a little bit of a fight, she managed to untangle Nick’s blankets and pull them up to his chin to help him warm up. She felt his forehead and pulled her hand back in shock when she realized that he was burning up. She went into his bathroom and looked for five minutes until she found a thermometer stashed behind multiple things in his medicine cabinet.

She went back out to him. She shook him awake so she could take his temperature. The thermometer beeped and she pulled it back to look at it. His temperature was 102.5.

She returned the thermometer to the bathroom. She then left Nick’s bedroom. She returned moments later with a bowl full of ice water and a washcloth.

Within the few minutes that she was gone, he managed to fall back to sleep. She sat beside him on his bed, resting the bowl of ice water on the bedside table. She dunked the cloth in the cold water and rang out the excess water. She used the cold, wet, washcloth to sponge Nick’s face, wiping away sweat and hopefully helping his fever break.

She pulled the washcloth away from Nick’s face to re-soak it. She turned back to Nick and jumped. Nick’s eyes were open, but she wasn’t sure if he was starring at her, past her or through her.

“Hey Nick. How are you feeling?”

“Katie?”

“No Nick I’m not Katie. I’m Casey.”

“You’re so beautiful Katie.” Casey started ignoring Nick. “Katie, the baby is crying.” Casey looked at Nick but continued to sponge his face and neck. “Katie, aren’t you going to get the baby?” Casey briefly stopped what she was doing and looked at Nick, then continued. “I’ll get the baby.” Nick moved to sit up.

“No Nick. Lie back down. There is no baby.”

“No, Katie, I have to get the baby. The baby is crying.”

“Nick please, lie down.” Casey gently pushed him back to a lying down position.

Nick struggled, but in his state, Casey was stronger. Nick stared up at the ceiling, acting like he’s cradling a baby. “Ssshhh. It’s ok, little one. Daddy’s here.” Starts singing a lullaby to the baby.

“Nick, there’s no baby.”

“Katie, be quiet, you’re going to wake the baby.”

Casey was getting nervous. She dropped the cloth in the water. She entered the bathroom and grabbed the thermometer again. She took it back to Nick and took his temperature; 103.1. No wonder Nick was so delirious, his fever wasn’t breaking , but instead going up.

Casey left the room and searched around the house. Then she went upstairs. She knocked on Brent’s door. “It’s open.”

“Brent, I’m worried.”

“What’s up?”

“I was just in Nick’s room, trying to break his fever. When I first took his temperature, he had a 102.5 fever. I tried to break it, but then he was acting delirious, so I checked his temperature and his fever went up to 103.1.”

“Can you go back to his room, and keep trying to break his fever. I’ll take Abby to get bags of ice. When we get back, we’ll fill the bath tub and hope that breaks his fever.”

Casey nods and goes back to Nick’s room. Nick was really scaring her. He kept mumbling Katie’s name. She swallowed her fear and went back to sponging his face and neck.

About a half hour later, Brent returned with Abby and the bags of ice. They took all the bags up to Nick’s bathroom. “Casey, Abby, fill the tub. I’ll deal with Nick.” Brent pulled Nick to his feet and supported him all the way to Nick’s closet. He quickly stripped Nick of his sweat soiled clothes and changed him into a bathing suit. He then helped Nick back to bed and waited for the girls to say that the tub was ready.

Once the tub was filled, Brent dragged Nick to the tub and placed him in. Brent stayed by the tub with the washcloth Casey had. The girls left the bathroom. He nervously sponged Nick’s face and neck while Nick rested his head against the wall.

Casey entered the bathroom. “I’ll stay with him if you want.”

Brent nodded and left the room.

Casey stayed by his side for another 20 minutes. When she saw Nick start to shiver, she went to get Brent.

Brent helped Nick out of the tub and helped him get changed and back to bed. He pulled the blankets around Nick’s chin. Nick fell asleep shortly after. They both left the room.

About an hour later, it was Abby’s turn to check on Nick. Abby wasn’t used to seeing her idol in such a state; it took her a few minutes to approach Nick’s bed. She walked right past his bed and into the bathroom to get the thermometer. She held her breath as she approached the bed. She tried to wake Nick up so that she could take his temperature. He was giving her a problem, so she opened his mouth and stuck the thermometer under his tongue. The thermometer beeped and Abby hesitantly looked at it.

She gasped and screamed. Brent came rushing into the room. “What? What is it? What’s wrong?” Abby frantically waved him closer.

She handed him the thermometer. Brent looked at the temperature reading of 104.6. “Holy shit. We need to get him to the hospital.”

Several hours later, Brent, Casey and Abby were sitting in a hospital waiting room, waiting on news of Nick. The doctor came out to talk to them. Brent jumped up. “How is he?”

“We have him on antibiotics. His fever is starting to break.” Brent released the breath he didn’t realize he was holding. “We want to keep him here for a few days for observation.

4 days later, Nick was released. He was now relaxing on his couch. He wasn’t 100 percent better, but he was really close to being completely better. He could function normally again, but he opted to not do much because he was still weak.

Casey walked into the room, and sat on the couch opposite Nick, since Nick was stretched out on the one he was on.

Nick gave Casey a once over. “Casey, are you alright, you look kinda pale?”

Casey smiled. “I’m fine Nick. How are you?”

“Much better.”

“Good, you scared us.”

“Sorry.” Casey stood up to walk to Nick. In the process fainted. “Casey?” Nick got up and made his way to Casey. When he reached her, the first thing he noticed was her flushed skin. He picked her up and carried her to the guest room. He left and returned moments later with the thermometer. He waited patiently for the beep. Once he heard it, he looked at the thermometer. “Yeah, Casey, you’re fine. You have a 101.2 fever.” He left the room only to return moments later and try to break her fever.

Finally, Nick got tired of being in her room. He wanted to rest, but he didn’t want to leave her alone. He picked her up and carried her to his room. He laid her on his bed, then climbed in on the other side and fell asleep.

Much later that day, Casey woke up. She realized that she was in Nick’s room, but there was no sign of Nick. Fifteen minutes later, Nick entered the room, carrying a tray of food. He placed it on the bedside table. He took her temperature again. He smiled. Then placed the food on her lap.

“Why are you doing this Nick?”

“Because you’re sick. You need to be pampered.”

Casey smiled. “Thanks Nick. But you really didn’t have to.”

“Yes I did. I might have been delirious, but I know that you spent more time at my bedside than the other two. So, now that you’re sick, I’m going to be by your bedside.”

“But you’re still sick yourself.”

“I might not be completely better, but I wouldn’t consider myself still sick. Now eat up.”

He’s really sweet. Good looking too. Casey thought. What am I thinking? I can’t be forming a crush on Nick. Looks at Nick and definitely felt the familiar stirrings of a newfound crush. Oh no. I have a crush on Nick. That won’t do at all. We are from two completely different worlds.

Within two days, both Casey and Nick were back on their feet. Everyone, except Brent was eating breakfast.

It was a friendly breakfast, with everyone ragging on each other and all around having a good time. Then Brent walked into the kitchen, dressed in a suit and carrying a suit case. Abby’s jaw dropped and her eyes stayed glued on Brent.

“Brent, man, what’s going on?”

“I’m sorry Nick, but I have to go back to New York for a few days. I have to take care of some business endeavors.”

“That sucks. Doesn’t your job believe in vacations?”

“I know, but I’ll be back in a few days.” Brent walked to the table, and quickly hugged Nick and then the girls, holding Abby just a little longer. He then walked back to Nick and ruffled his already messy hair. “If you need to talk, just call me. I’ll make time to talk to you. He hugged Nick once more, and then left.

When Brent was gone, Abby said. “What kind of business endeavors would he have to take care of?”

Nick smiled in pride. “He’s a really big business tycoon. He designs buildings.”

Abby looked dreamy. “Wow.” Nick smiled.

The rest of that day dragged on slowly and boring. The day after seemed doomed to follow the same trend. Nick, Abby, and Casey were sitting in the living room playing Monopoly when the doorbell rang.

Nick looked to his door in confusion. He then looked at the girls. The bell rang again. “Who is at my door? I’m not expecting visitors.”

When the bell rang for the third time, he finally got off the floor to get the door. He opened the door and froze in his spot.

“NICKY.” The next thing Nick knew was that his four new visitors had charged him and ended up tackling him. They were all talking to Nick a mile a minute, while struggled to get out of the grasp of his four siblings.

When Abby realized who was at the door, she gasped. Casey looked at her in confusion. “We should go and leave them some privacy.”

“What? Who are those people?”

“Nick’s brother and sisters.”

Casey didn’t get a chance to answer Abby because they heard Nick say. “Will you four KINDLY get off of me?”

One by one they piled off of him so that Nick could stand up. Nick led his siblings to the living room and took his spot back where he was for the game. He turned to his siblings. “Guys, this is Abby and Casey. Abby won a contest to spend some time with me and Casey is her best friend. Casey, Abby, this is BJ, Leslie, Angel and Aaron, my sibs.”

Shortly after, all five girls left the living room, giving the two brothers a chance to catch up.

Once the girls were gone, Aaron moved away from Nick and glared at him. Nick shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “What?”

“What?” Aaron mocked Nick.

“Why are you acting like this?”

“Oh gee Nick, I wonder why? You know why.”

“If I knew why, would I be sitting here asking you why?”

“How could you?”

“How could I what?”

“God Nick. Are you stupid or something today?”

“What’s your problem Aaron?”

“Did you think that we wouldn’t find out?”

“Find out about what? You aren’t making sense.”

“You tried to commit suicide.”

“What? I did not. That was just a misunderstanding.”

“Where’s the misunderstanding? You swallowed too many pills, but your stomach was pumped before you died.”

“That’s not true. I didn’t try to kill myself.”

“Whatever Nick, I’m not going to listen to this.” Aaron stormed out of the room.

Nick left the room too. He headed for his bedroom. He sat at his desk and took out his sketch book.

He always managed to put himself into a trance when he’s drawing. It was because of that trance that he didn’t hear the knock on his door.

He jumped when the door opened and three heads looked in. “Nick.”

He smiled when he saw his three sisters. “Come in.” He got up and went to sit on his bed. His sisters followed his lead and were soon surrounding him on his bed.

The next few hours were spent catching up. The girls talked about anything and everything that Nick had missed.

His siblings only stayed for two days. He really enjoyed the time he spent with his sisters. Although his brother was a different story. The argument from the first day caused a tension so thick between Nick and Aaron that it could be cut with a knife.

When his siblings were getting ready to say goodbye, Aaron just went outside without saying anything to Nick. Nick took a deep breath before turning to his sisters. Each sister hugged him tightly before they left.

That night Nick went out to a bar. He needed a drink. And after the week he just had, who could blame him. He felt he deserved a drink. And then another, and another, and another. He didn’t leave the bar until he was so drunk that he couldn’t even walk straight.

Somehow, he made it back to his house. He ended up in the bathroom throwing up before he passed out on his bed.

That night started a destructive pattern for him.

Casey heard the door close; she then rolled over and got Abby’s attention. “He’s going out again.”

Abby sighed, “I heard.”

“He’s been getting drunk every night for the past week.”

Abby nodded. “Are you ok?”

“To be honest it’s scaring me. I watched as my drunken father threw my little sister down the stairs, and now I’m temporarily living with a man, whom I don’t know that well, and he’s drunk more than he’s sober. And not to mention hungover whenever he isn’t drunk. I don’t know him well enough to know that I’m not in any danger while he’s drunk.”

“So what do you want to do?”

“I think I want to go home. I mean, I’m not heartless, I know that he is going through a lot right now, but I’m afraid of what he’ll do to us.”

Abby nodded again. “When Nick sobers up tomorrow we’ll tell him that we want to go home.

They heard the door open, and looked at each other in confusion.

Downstairs, Brent entered the house surrounded by his luggage. He dragged it upstairs and left it right by his bedroom closet. He threw himself on the bed and starred at the ceiling. He changed his clothes so that he was comfortable. He was lying on his back and almost fell asleep when he realized that something wasn’t right.

The house, it was just too quiet to be housing 3 people who should still be awake. He looked at the clock to make sure it wasn’t as late as he thought. Nope, only 11:30, which meant the other 3 occupants, should have been awake. He rolled off the bed and padded barefoot over to Nick’s bedroom.

He knocked and received no answer. Not knowing what to expect, he opened Nick’s bedroom door, and was shocked to find out that Nick was not in the room. He walked to the bathroom, seeing that the door was open; he quickly noted that he wasn’t in there. Now he knew something wasn’t right.

He walked out of the room and stood dumbfounded in the doorway. He didn’t know where else to look. Casey and Abby stepped into the hallway. “Are you looking for Nick?”

He didn’t hear the girls come out, so he jumped. “Yeah where is he?”

“He’s not here.” Casey remarked kinda bitterly.

“Where is he?”

Casey went back into the room. Abby took a deep breath. “Probably a bar.”

“What?”

“He’s been getting drunk every night for the past week.”

Brent starred at Abby blankly. “Do you have any idea what bar he went to?”

“No. He didn’t say anything to us, he just left.”

Brent ran into his room, quickly changed clothes, grabbed his car keys, and ran out of the house.

He searched every bar in the area, until he finally found Nick. He stayed hidden in the shadows watching Nick. He was dancing with a busty blonde. They were practically having sex on the dance floor. Brent groaned in frustration. He could tell Nick was very drunk. He was amazed that Nick could still stand.

Brent made his way over to the bar. He knew Nick would be back to the bar eventually. Or at least he hoped Nick would be back to the bar and not leave the club with the current slut on his arm.

About a half hour later, Brent got his wish; Nick made his way back to the bar. Brent watched as Nick ordered another drink. Brent could hear him hitting on another girl. Nick was no longer making sense.

Brent decided now was the time to get Nick out of there. Brent quickly approached Nick and grabbed the drink out of his hand.

“Hey. I wazt dwi…dwi…thash mine.”

Brent looks to the bartender, “No more drinks for him.” The bartender nodded.

“I shay when I hash enough.”

Brent turned back to Nick. “No, you are too intoxicated to make decisions. So therefore, I will make all the decisions from now, until you’re sober.”

“Yous nots the boss of mez.”

“Until you’re sober, I am. Now let’s go.”

“No.”

“Yes.” Brent gently pulled him off the barstool. Nick was too drunk to keep his balance. He fell to the floor almost immediately. Nick started giggling as if falling was the funniest thing in the world. Brent helped Nick up and supported him out of the bar.

The fresh air hit Nick hard. Within seconds of being outside, Nick threw up. And it went everywhere, all over Nick, and Brent and the sidewalk.

Brent gagged at the smell and almost threw up himself. How was he supposed to get all the way home with the horrid stench? He tried not to think of it. He pulled Nick to the car and placed him in the passenger seat.

Brent walked to the driver side of the car. As he was getting in, Nick urgently flung his door open. He threw up for a second time on the pavement. Brent silently thanked god that Nick was still coherent enough to open the door and throw up OUTSIDE the car rather than inside.

Brent started the car and waited for Nick to close the door again. Once the door was closed, Brent sped home. He didn’t want to take any chances that Nick might get sick in the car. It was bad enough that they were both covered in vomit when they got in.

Brent heaved a sigh of relief when he pulled into Nick’s driveway. He looked over to Nick who appeared to be passed out. Brent groaned. He got out of the car and started to walk around the car to the passenger side.

As Brent neared the passenger side, Nick flung the door open. Brent was about to come help Nick out of the car but Nick waved him away. Before Brent could comprehend what was happening, Nick got out of the car quickly, dropped to his knees and threw up.

When he was sure he was done, Nick leaned back on his heals. Brent stepped over the mess and helped Nick up. Brent supported Nick into the house and up to his room. Brent started leading him to the bathroom.

Nick was starting to struggle against Brent. “No. Bed. I’m not going to be sick anymore.” Or at least I hope I’m not going to be sick anymore. Nick thought to himself.

Brent looked at Nick. “I’m not putting you to bed until you’re cleaned off.

About an hour later, Nick was in bed. Brent cleaned himself off and then walked to his room and collapsed on his bed.

The next morning, Brent made his way into the kitchen. The girls were already up. “Hey Brent.”

“Hey.”

“Did you find him last night?”

“Yeah I found him.”

“How bad was he?”

“Bad.”

Nick chose that moment to stagger into the kitchen. He was using the wall as a walking aid. He made it to the kitchen table and gingerly sat down. He placed his elbows on the table and placed his throbbing head into his hands.

“Breakfast Nick?” Casey asked. That remark was almost as sarcastic as it was bitter.

“No.” Nick croaked out.

“You feeling alright?”

“I feel like I have an entire construction team jack hammering in my head.”

“Well Nick, you have no one to blame but yourself.” Casey stated, and her tone was bitter.

Nick put his head back in his hands. “Can someone get me some pain killers?”

“Why? You deserve to be in pain.” Casey stormed out of the room. Nick didn’t understand what was going on. And at the moment, he wasn’t going to try and figure it out. He’ll figure out what’s going on when his head wasn’t ready to explode.

He sat in silence cradling his head and not looking at either Abby or Brent. He soon felt a gentle touch lower his hand. He looked up to see Abby placing two Tylenol in his hand and a glass of water in front of him. He gave her a small grateful smile before taking the pills. He pushed his chair back and slowly stood up. “I’m going to go lie down until my head feels better.” He slowly walked out of the room, and passed Casey. He didn’t miss the death glare that Casey shot him. He vowed to find out what her problem was as soon as he was feeling better. He continued out of the room and made it to his room. He lied back down and closed his eyes, hoping that sleep would take him soon and he’d be away from the headache that he was suffering from.

A few hours later, he walked back downstairs. His headache wasn’t fully gone, but now it was more of a dull ache rather than a splitting headache. He walked into the living room to see Abby and Casey watching TV.

“Hey.” Casey and Abby looked up. Casey stood up and left the room. Nick made his way over to the couch and sat down beside her. He stayed quiet for a few minutes then turned to Abby. “Is she mad at me?”

“No. She just doesn’t like you drinking so much.”

“I had a rough week.”

“She wouldn’t have minded that excuse for the first night, but you’ve been getting drunk for a week.”

“Why should she care if I’m getting drunk?”

“She’s afraid of drunken men.” Abby accidentally blurted out. She immediately slammed her hand over her mouth.

Nick looked slightly confused. “Why is she afraid of drunken men?”

Abby looked guiltily over to Nick. “I wasn’t supposed to say that, so just forget I said it.”

“Now that you said it, I can’t just forget it. Just tell me why. I won’t tell her I know.” Nick said as he sipped at his beer.

“Ok, fine. I’ll tell you. But you have to swear that you won’t let her know that I told you this.” Abby paused. She stood up and went to the entranceway and looked around to make sure that Brent and Casey weren’t around. She then went back to the couch. She was certain that the other two weren’t around, but she whispered the following sentence anyway. “Her father was an alcoholic and he was abusive.” Nick nodded in understanding, not realizing that there was more to the story. “Nick there’s more.” She took a deep breath. “Her father threw her little sister down the stairs resulting in her little sister breaking her neck and dieing.”

No Nick looked shocked. “Her father killed her sister?” Abby nodded. Nick looked down into his barely touched beer. He stood up and walked into the kitchen and dumped his beer down the sink. He returned to the couch and sat back down. He looked at Abby. “I’m not going to stop drinking all together, but I will stop drinking excessively.” Nick stood up to leave the room. “Abby?”

“Yeah Nick?”

“Can you do something for me?”

“Sure?”

“Can you tell Casey I’m sorry for drinking so much? I would tell her myself, but I doubt she’ll let me close enough to tell her.”

“I’ll tell her for you.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

The next week passed quickly and now the girls are leaving to go home. Casey forgave Nick for drinking every night, even though she never found out that he knew about her sister. They said their goodbyes standing by the girl’s car in Nick’s driveway. The girls got in the car and pulled out of Nick’s driveway and waved to the boys.

Once the girls were on the highway, Abby turned to Casey. “So, what did you think?”

Casey glanced quickly at Abby. She sighed. “Fine, I’ll admit it. I had a good time.”

Abby gave Casey a look. “Is that all?”

“Nick isn’t as bad as I thought he would be. He was sweet and really nice.” Casey stopped.

Abby’s gaze didn’t falter. “And?”

“And he does have talent.”

Abby smiled. “See, I knew you’d come around someday.” Abby looked out the window gazing at the passing scenery. “I hope they keep in touch.”

Back at Nick’s house, the boys went inside as soon as they could no longer see the car. They sprawled out on the couch. “It seems really quiet here now.” Brent commented.

“Yep.”

“Are you ok Nick?”

Nick looked at Brent. “Why wouldn’t I be ok?”

“You just seem upset to see them go.”

“Well, we did have fun. I wasn’t really thinking about them though.”

“Oh, what were you thinking about?”

“I was thinking how empty this house is REALLY going to feel once you leave to go back to New York.”

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”

“Oh, what about?”

“Well, my office needed someone to transfer to Tampa, and I offered to take the job.”

“So, you’re saying what exactly? Besides that you are moving to Tampa.”

“So Nick, do you want a room mate?”

8 Months Later

Nick sat sullenly in the back of the limo, gazing with unseeing eyes out the window. He was on his way home from the venue where he performed his last concert for the tour that had just ended. It was a long tour. To everyone else, it didn’t seem to be, since the tour was only four months long. It wasn’t the chronological length of the tour that was long. For Nick, it was the events of the tour that made it last forever. It was the events of this tour that changed Nick, possibly forever.

The limo pulled into his driveway. He got out and grabbed his luggage. The house was dark, and for that he was glad. He didn’t want to see anybody.

He opened the front door. “SURPRISE.” Nick looked around, unbelieving. His house wasn’t empty as he had hoped. There were a few rounds of welcome home before the music started. He walked to the stereo and shut it off.

There were groans of protest. “Nick.” He ignored them. He grabbed his bags and walked upstairs, ignoring everyone.

Brent stood dumbfounded in the middle of the living room. He looked around the room. He shrugged before saying. “I guess the party’s over.” The guests left the house.

Brent went upstairs. He knocked on Nick’s bedroom door. When Nick didn’t respond, he opened the door. “Nick?” He looked at Brent. He wasn’t showing any emotion and he didn’t say anything. Brent approached him. “Are you ok?”

“I’m tired.”

“That’s never stopped you before. Come on Nick. What’s really wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Nick, I’m your best friend, you can talk to me about anything.”

Nick looked pathetically at Brent. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“So you admit that there’s something wrong?”

“I admit it, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Well, you can talk to me when you’re ready.”

“I don’t ever want to talk about it. Brent, would you mind leaving me alone? I want to go to sleep.”

“Sure. Goodnight Nick.”

“Night.”

Nick climbed under his covers. He closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep. He tossed and turned for awhile, before giving up and lying on his back and starring at the ceiling.

He rubbed his eyes. He desperately wanted to sleep, but like every night for the past 2 weeks, he knew sleep wouldn’t come. He was torn. He wanted to get up and get one of his sleeping pills, but on the other hand, he didn’t want to get hooked on them. So, he lay in bed starring at the ceiling and not sleeping. After about an hour of no sleep, he felt his eye lids grow heavy, and he was soon sleeping. It was a tortured sleep, but sleep none the less.

He woke up in a cold sweat and looked at the clock. It was only 5 in the morning, but he knew he wasn’t getting any rest that night. He rolled out of bed and went downstairs. He turned on the TV and settled on the news.

Brent woke up to Nick screaming. His first instinct was to run to Nick and see what was wrong. But, for the moment, he decided against it. He already knew something was wrong with Nick, but he also knew that Nick wasn’t able to tell him yet. He rolled back over and fell asleep.

Downstairs, Nick was watching the TV. “Murder strikes a small town.” Nick looked up at the TV. He was shocked to see a picture of Casey and her family. This sparked his curiosity. Granted, he hadn’t kept in touch with her like he had told her he
would, but she was still all he could think about. He raised the volume on the TV a bit.

“Jim Shybell, has been convicted of a double homicide. A little over two years ago, he murdered his youngest daughter, Brianna by throwing her down the stairs. He almost got away with it. However, more recently, he murdered his wife, Mary. He tried to get out of this murder, but the investigation clearly shows that he is guilty. It was this guilty charge that reopened the case of his daughter’s murder. On police record there’s a statement by his daughter Lindsay saying that he murdered her sister.” Nick looked at the screen slightly confused. Lindsay? Does Casey have another sister? The news caster flashed a picture of Casey onto the screen as her statement from her sister’s murder was played. Or is Casey not her real name? Is it really Lindsay? “There will be a trial to decide his sentence. Back to you.”

Nick lied back on the couch deliberating what he just heard on the news. Soon he fell into a restless sleep.

Brent came downstairs. He spotted Nick sleeping on the couch. He shrugged. He started to the kitchen when he heard Nick whimpering. Brent made his way to the couch. He placed his hand on Nick’s shoulder.

Nick woke up immediately. “Don’t touch me.” He practically screamed.

Brent looked at Nick confused. Was that fear? Brent approached Nick. Nick was now standing and backing himself in a corner. “Nick?”

“No. Please, don’t. What’d I ever do to you?”

“Nick, it’s just me.” Brent was now trying to hold Nick steadily.

“Please stop. I’m sorry. Whatever I did to you, I’m sorry, just please don’t hurt me.”

Brent was a little shocked to see tears escape Nick’s eyes. He had no clue what to make of this. “Nick? It’s ok Nick. I’m not going to hurt you. What’s going on?”

“Please stop. I’m begging you, don’t do it. Please stop.”

Brent reached out to touch Nick’s shoulder, but Nick recoiled. Brent wasn’t sure if he should be hurt by that gesture, because Nick just wasn’t himself. Brent backed away and just watched Nick.

Soon, whatever was going on with Nick ended. He looked around the room to try and get his bearings. He spotted Brent giving him a concerned look. “Nick, what just happened?” Nick didn’t answer. He stood up on shaky legs and ran from the room.

Meanwhile, Casey and Abby were sitting in Abby’s living room. There was boxes and luggage surrounding them. “Can you believe it? We’re leaving to go to school tomorrow.” Abby seemed to be almost in shock.

Casey nodded. “Yep, tomorrow off we go to University of Florida.”

“Nick lives in that area. Do you think we’ll see him again?”

“Don’t care if we do. He was supposed to keep in touch. Did Brent keep in touch with you?”

“No, but they are both busy.”

“Yeah, whatever. Come on, let’s go to sleep, we have a big day tomorrow.”

Nick was pushing a cart up and down aisles at the grocery store. He and Brent practically had no food left. Someone had to do the shopping, even though he didn’t want to. He wanted to keep a low profile, but the many stares from the other shoppers told him that he wasn’t too successful with that.

There was a loud crash at the end of the aisle. A little boy ran a shopping cart right into a display of soda cans. Nick looked up to see what all the commotion was. He shook his head as he realized the young boy in the midst of the chaos.

He went back to his shopping. He stopped as he felt the familiar feeling of someone watching him. He looked around expecting to see a fan that was too timid to approach him. He wasn’t prepared for what he did find.

His eyes locked with the one man that he never wanted to see, or even think about again. Nick dropped what was in his hand and started breathing heavily. He was a step away from hyperventilation. The man’s gaze never broke away from Nick’s. He smirked at Nick then disappeared.

Nick abandoned his cart and started for the exit. He couldn’t get out of that store fast enough. At the moment he didn’t care that he would be going home to a house with no food.

“Well hello there.” Nick froze. He was lost in his own world and didn’t recognize the voice that addressed him. Nick cautiously turned around.

He sighed in relief when he realized that it wasn’t who he thought it was. “Abby?” His voice was soft.

“You know, we spent an awesome three weeks with you and I thought we had become friends, but yet 8 months passed and there was no word from you. Are we not good enough for you to keep in touch with because I’m a fan?” She kept on going, not realizing that Nick was looking everywhere but at her. She got annoyed when she actually realized it. “Jesus, you won’t even look at me. I thought you were better than this.”

Nick made the mistake of looking at her. Their eyes locked briefly before Nick directed his gaze elsewhere. She noticed in those brief seconds that Nick’s eyes were different. They lacked the vibrant color and spark that they usually held. She then looked at him closely. His demeanor changed. The confidence was gone, and replaced with vulnerability.

“What’s wrong Nick?”

He was looking around frantically again. “I can’t stay here. I can’t let myself be hurt again.” He was mumbling, but Abby still heard him.

After another frantic look around, Nick turned and ran, headed straight for the exit. Abby grabbed her cell phone and called Casey.

“Hello?”

“Casey.”

“Abby, what’s wrong? You sound out of breath.”

“I’m running after Nick. Something’s wrong with him.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know. Casey, I’m really worried about him?”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Can you meet us…”

Nick heard the conversation that Abby was having and stopped. He went back to Abby and started to shake his head. “Hold on Case.” Abby covered the mouth piece with her hand. “Yeah?”

“Don’t bring Casey here.”

“Why not Nick?”

“I can’t see her, not like this, not here.” He quickly grabbed his car keys from his pocket and bolted across the parking lot to his car. Abby was hot on his heels. He reached the car, and unlocked it. He opened the door. He got in. Before closing the door he said, “Leave me alone Abby. Please.” He shut the door, turned the car on, blasted his radio and pulled out of the parking lot.

He arrived at his house. He got out of the car and ran straight for his door. He was fumbling with his keys. He was so anxious to get inside that he dropped his keys a few times. He got in the house, locked the door behind him. He ran upstairs and into his bedroom, and locked that door as well. He went to his bedroom window and bolted it shut. He walked backwards to his bed. Once he felt the bed behind his knees, he sat down and pushed himself up into the middle of his bed. He brought his knees up to his chest.

About an hour later, Brent pulled into the driveway. He spotted Nick’s car. He sighed since Nick didn’t leave the house for yet another day. He put his car keys into his pocket and headed for the front door. He was lost in thought as he reached the door. He was really worried about Nick and couldn’t find a way to get him to open up. He tried to open the front door, but the door wouldn’t budge. The door was locked, but why would it be locked if Nick was home. He grabbed his keys from his pocket and unlocked the door. He left his briefcase on the couch and went upstairs. He knocked on Nick’s door, but as usual, Nick wouldn’t respond. He could hear Nick crying. He tried Nick’s bedroom door, but it too was locked. He kept trying to get Nick to open the door.

He sighed in defeat when the doorbell rang. He started to the stairs. At the top of the stairs, he stopped and looked at Nick’s door. The doorbell rang again, and he went downstairs. He opened the door. He looked at the visitors in shock. “Hi, I wasn’t expecting you two here.”

“Well, maybe it wouldn’t be such a shock if you’d kept in touch.” Casey pushed passed Brent pulling Abby with her.

Brent bit his bottom lip and looked guiltily at the girls. “I’m sorry. I could give you a million excuses for not keeping in touch, but none of them are a good enough reason for not keeping in touch, so I’ll spare you. I just got home from work, so I want to go change. You know you’re way around, so help yourself to our no food.” Brent went upstairs and returned a few minutes later. He joined the girls in the kitchen.

“So where is he?”

“Upstairs, locked in his bedroom.”

“Brent, what’s wrong with him?” Abby asked?

Brent sighed. “I wish I knew.”

“You mean, you don’t?”

“He won’t tell me. Wait a minute. How do you know something’s wrong with him?”

“I saw him at the supermarket this morning. He was acting like he was running away from something.”

“Whatever happened to him, it was definitely big. He’s been home for a week and a half, and I don’t think I saw him smile once. I’m really worried about him.”

“I’m sure he’ll be ok.” Abby said.

“I just wish that he’d talk to me. Ya know. The day after he came home, I woke him up from a nightmare, and he acted like I was going to hurt him.” Brent looked up when he heard footsteps on the stairs. “Can you girls go out back? I want to talk to him alone.”

“Sure.” They went outside.

Nick entered the room. “Hey Nick.”

Nick looked up. “Hi.”

“Nick, come sit down please.” Nick reluctantly walked to the table and sat. He didn’t say anything. “Nick, can you please tell me what’s wrong?”

Nick sighed. “Brent, I told you. I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I want to help you, but I can’t because you won’t tell me. I feel so helpless.”

Nick stood up. He walked to the fridge. He wouldn’t look at Brent. “I can’t.”

Brent stood up and put his hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Nick.” He turned Nick around a bit rougher than he had expected.

Nick pushed him back. Brent retaliated and pushed Nick a lot harder than he wanted. Nick lost his balance and fell. Brent approached him. He pushed himself back in fear. Brent stopped Nick from leaving. “No. You will tell me.” Brent hit Nick. Nick curled himself into a ball and started crying.

The girls saw Brent hitting Nick, so they ran into the house. “Brent, stop.” They pulled him off of Nick. Nick stood up and ran from the room. Casey ran after him.
Brent stood in shock in the kitchen. “I hit him. I can’t believe I hit him. I don’t know what came over me.” Abby rubbed his back.

Casey approached Nick’s door. She was pleased to see that he had left the door open a bit. She pushed it open all the way. She spotted Nick sitting on his bed. His tears were mixing with his blood. She went up to him and pulled him to his feet. He looked at her confused. “Casey?”

“Hi Nick.”

“What are you doing here?” Nick winced.

“Ssshhh, don’t talk Nick.” She gently pulled him to his bathroom. She put the toilet seat cover down and made Nick sit on it. She cleaned his cut and wiped his tears. “Can you tell me what happened to you Nick?”

“I won’t tell Brent, what makes you think I’d tell you?”

“Because I’m not as close to you as Brent is. You don’t have to fear disappointing me.”

Nick stood up and started walking away. “Come on Nick, you need to tell someone.”

“I don’t want to tell someone.”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t want to tell someone. All that matters is that you have to tell someone. You can’t keep living like this.” Nick didn’t say anything. He kept walking away from Casey as Casey continued to badger him to get him to tell.

He entered the living room. He saw Brent looking at him, so he looked back. “Nick I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”

“I know.”

“Please Nick. What’s wrong with you?” Brent was pleading with Nick.

“Nick you need help. You need to get over yourself and tell someone what’s wrong?” Casey said as she grabbed his arm.

He pulled roughly out of her grasp and turned abruptly. “So that’s it huh? You think I’m a pity case because I like to keep some thing private.” He was getting angry. “Maybe I should have a press conference.” He said sarcastically. “Then everybody would know what’s wrong with me. Do you think then that everyone will leave me the hell alone? You want to know what’s wrong with me, but none of you will understand what I’m going through. None of you know what it’s like to be forced by someone.” They gave him a look that said, of course people force you for stuff; you’re famous. He saw the look. He became frustrated. “Don’t you get it? I was fucking raped.”

The entire room was in a shocked silence. Even Nick, who was shocked that he actually said that out loud. Nick took a few deep breaths and looked around the room. Brent had tears in his eyes. Nick’s shock turned to anger. “Why waste tears over something that you’ve never experience? It’s my life, move on.” Brent started to approach Nick. Nick started backing up until he backed himself into a corner. Brent reached over to place a comforting hand on Nick’s shoulder. Nick shrugged his hand off. “No Brent. I don’t want to be touched.”

Brent backed off. “Ok. Nick, when did this happen to you?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Nick, you can’t tell us you were raped than not tell us anything else.”

“I can and I will.”

“Nick.”

“No Brent. I didn’t even want to tell you that I was raped. It just came out.”

“Does the rest of the group know?”

Nick shook his head. “I’d never tell them.”

“Nick, you need to go to a hospital. You need to get tested.” Nick shook his head. He walked out of the room and into the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water. Brent followed with Abby and Casey right behind him. “Nick. You NEED to get tested. Who knows what you could get from this.” Brent kept going on.

Nick sighed in frustration. “Brent shut up.” Brent looked at Nick in shock. Nick sighed again. “I was already in the hospital, I was already tested. I’m clean.”

Brent sighed in relief. “That’s good. Look on the bright side, at least you aren’t a girl and you don’t have to worry about how you might be pregnant.” Nick glared at him.

Casey glared at him. She marched over to where Brent was standing. Nick watched wide-eyed as Casey smacked him, hard across the face. “That was rude and insensitive. Now apologize to your best friend for making a joke when he needs you the most.”

“I’m sorry Nick. I didn’t mean to sound so insensitive.” Nick nodded his acceptance. “Now, how could you have been in the hospital on tour and the guys not know about the rape.”

“I wasn’t in the hotel when it happened. A stranger found me unconscious and brought me to the hospital. When I came around, I told the doctor what happened because I was afraid of what I could have got, but I begged him to not tell the guys. I told the guys I was beaten up.”

“Brent, Abby, can you two leave me alone with Nick?”

“I’m not leaving him.” Brent exclaimed.

“Brent please.” Brent looked at Nick. Brent didn’t want to leave the room.

Casey made eye contact with Abby. Abby knew why Casey wanted to be alone with Nick. Abby placed a comforting arm on Brent’s shoulder. “Even a best friend has to step aside sometimes. Come on Brent. We’ll go in the other room.” Abby led Brent out of the kitchen.

Casey moved a chair closer to the one Nick was sitting in. She placed her hand on his back. He wanted to shrug away, but strangely enough, he found himself comforted. He looked up at her. Once his eyes connected with hers, his eyes filled with tears. He looked away, but Casey put her hand under his chin and turned his head back.

“Nick, I’ll admit that I was never raped, but I partially know what you are going through.”

“How?”

She reached up and gently caressed his cheek. “I was abused. Never sexually, but physically and verbally. I can help you.”

Nick turned away from her. He rested his elbows on his knees, put his head in his hands and started sobbing. She got off of her chair and walked around so that she was facing Nick. She moved his elbows off his knees. He looked up and she could see his pain through his eyes. She gently wiped his tears away with her thumb. She sat on his lap and hugged him. He cried on her shoulder.

Brent heard him crying and stood up. “Brent, sit down, let Casey talk to him.”

“But he’s crying.”

“Brent, he needs to cry.”

“But, he,…”

“Stop.”

Brent conceded and sat back down. He was lost in his own world listening to Nick cry. When silence fell over the kitchen, Brent couldn’t take anymore and he stood up, ignored Abby’s protests and entered the kitchen. He gasped in shock at what he saw. Casey was sitting on Nick’s lap while they talked quietly.

Nick looked up when Brent gasped. “What’s going on here?” Brent demanded. Neither Nick nor Casey answered. Casey got off of his lap and sat back down in the chair she had previously deserted. “Will one of you please explain this?”

“Nothing happened. We were just talking.”

“Did she have to be on your lap?”

“He was upset. There was no way else to comfort him.”

“You could have come to get me.”

Nick stood up in anger and left the room. He stalked to his bedroom and slammed the door behind him.

“Are you happy now?” Casey ran out of the room, following Nick.

She knocked on the door. “Go away.”

“Nick, it’s just me. Please let me in.”

“Fine, you can come in but only you.”

Casey entered the room and closed the door gently behind her. She walked to his bed and sat down on the side. “You’ll be ok. You admitted it, that’s the first step to recovery.” Nick nodded.

Both Casey and Nick jumped when Nick’s bedroom door flew open. Nick groaned. Anybody could tell that Brent was angry. Nick groaned in frustration and threw himself into a lying down position. He was starring off into space while Brent was ranting and raving.

Finally Nick couldn’t take it anymore. He sat up abruptly. “Goddamn it Brent. Not everything is about you.”

Everyone was shocked at Nick’s outburst. “What?”

“You heard me. Before, when I didn’t tell you what was wrong with me, you were always talking about how much it was killing you that you didn’t know what was wrong, and even now that you know, you’re still making this out to be about you.”

“I’m not making this about me.”

“Yes you are. I was upset and you got upset because I was allowing someone else comfort me.”

“I’m just trying to help you.”

“If you want to help me, then be my friend, not my watchdog.” Nick lied back down. “I want to sleep for a little while.” Brent and Abby left the room. Casey stood up from his bed. He grabbed her hand. “Stay?”

“Are you sure?”

Nick nodded and she sat down on the bed. “No.”

“No?”

“I don’t want you to sit on the edge of my bed. I want you to lie down with me and hold me.”

“I can do that.” She lied down next to Nick and put her arms around him.

“Thank you.”

“Nick, I know you don’t want to, but you need to tell someone what happened when you were raped.”

Nick nodded. “I know.”

“You can tell me.”

“I think I would ruin my relationship with Brent if I tell you and not tell him.”

“We can go tell him now, or get him up here.”

“No. Sleep now. Talk later.”

“Ok Nick.” Nick and Casey soon fell asleep.

Downstairs Brent fell heavily onto the couch. Abby sat down next to him. “He’ll be ok Brent.”

“How do you know that? He’ll never be the same again.”

“Maybe not, but he will get passed this.”

“How come you made me leave the kitchen when Casey wanted to talk to him alone?”

“Because, Casey has abuse in her past. She can help him, not completely but any help is good.”

Brent nodded and looked down into his lap while he nervously wringed his fingers. Abby turned his head to her. “Don’t worry about Nick so much. He has three people who are here to help him.” She leaned up and brought his face closer to hers. She kissed him gently on the lips.

He pulled back abruptly. “I can’t.”

“Brent?”

“I can’t do this. Nick needs me, this isn’t right.” He kept mumbling why it wasn’t right. Abby kissed him again to silence him.

“I’ve liked you since we first met 8 months ago. I thought you liked me too.”

“I do, but Nick.”

“Nick would want you to be happy.”

“It’s not like he’s dead.”

“I know, I’m sorry, I worded that horribly. I meant that just because you have to help Nick, doesn’t mean you have to be single. You can have a girlfriend while helping him. Especially if that girlfriend wants to help.”

“You want to be my girlfriend?”

“Yeah.”

Brent smiled. “I’ve wanted you to be my girlfriend since the day I met you.” Brent leaned down and kissed her.

Nick woke up the next morning. He barely remembered the night before. He tried to get out of bed but was restrained by a pair of arms. He looked to his side and saw Casey sleeping beside him.

Casey woke up. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“I think I actually got a good night’s sleep last night.”

“Well that’s good.”

“It’s because of you.”

“How?”

“You helped me realize that I’m not as alone as I thought I was. Then, when I asked you to stay, you didn’t hesitate. It was because you were holding me that I was able to sleep without being plagued by nightmares. So thank you.”

Casey smiled at him. “I’m glad I was able to help.”

“I think I’m ready to talk about it.”

“I’m listening.”

“I want to tell the three of you together.”

“Ok, well let’s go get them.”

Nick nodded. “Will you sit next to me while I’m explaining this?”

“Of course Nick. I’ll even hold your hand if you want.”

Nick offered Casey a small smile. It was an improvement. The first time he gave any smile, besides a fake smile, since the rape occurred. “Thank you, for everything.”

“What are friends for?”

Casey started leading Nick out the door. “Casey.” He pulled her back into the room.

“Yeah Nick?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Ok.”

“How come you changed your name?”

“How did you know about that?”

“I saw a news report about your father killing your mother and they mentioned that he killed your sister and your statement from your sister’s death, they said your name was Lindsay.”

“Lindsay is the name my parents gave me. When my dad killed my sister, my mom stood up for him. I wanted nothing to do with my parents and that included the name that they bestowed upon me. Now come on, let’s go remove this giant weight from your chest. The sooner you tell it, the sooner it will be over, the sooner you’ll feel better.” Nick nodded and allowed Casey to lead him down the stairs.

It was already late morning and Brent and Abby were curled up together on the couch watching TV. Nick and Casey entered the room. They made their presence known and Brent jumped away from Abby. She gave him a look. “Nick this isn’t what it looks like.”

“Do you even know what it looks like to me?”

“No.”

“Then how can you say it isn’t what it looks like. To me it looks like you finally got your wish.”

“So you aren’t mad that Abby and I got together?”

“No, I’m not mad. I know how much you’ve wanted this, from the time you met her. I’m happy for you that it finally happened.”

“We came down here because Nick has something he wants to say.”

“What’s that Nick?”

“I’m ready to tell you what happened.”

Abby stood up. “Come on Case, let’s give these two some privacy.”

“No. Casey stays, and you are staying too Abby. You were both here when I announced what happened, you deserve an explanation too.” Nick sat on the couch; Casey sat beside him like she promised. She grabbed his hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. “It was three weeks before the end of the tour…”

FLASHBACK
“Y o, Nick, do you want to go out tonight, pick up chicks?”

“Not today AJ.”

“The rest of the guys are coming. It’ll be fun.”

“I’m pretty beat. I’m just going to relax by the pool and then head up to bed.”

“Ok Nick whatever.” AJ ran off.

Nick went up to his room. He changed into his swim trunks and headed down to the outdoor pool. He got in the pool and started swimming laps. When he started to get tired he swam to the edge of the pool. As he was hoisting himself out, his arms were grabbed and he was pulled, roughly, out of the pool. “Let me go. What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Once Nick was out of the pool, the man dropped his arms. Nick looked up. “Jamie?”

“That’s right Nick. But there’s no time for greetings, so get up.” Nick didn’t understand what was going on. Nick was getting up slowly. It was too slow of a pace for Jamie.

Jamie kicked him in the stomach. “I said get up.”

“What the hell was that for?”

“Get up.”

Nick still wasn’t on his feet fast enough for Jamie. He roughly grabbed Nick’s arm and pulled him to his feet, and then pulled him outside of the pool area.

He threw Nick onto the floor. Nick looked at Jamie. “What are you doing?” Nick looked Jamie up and down. He began to feel fear when he realized that Jamie was fully aroused.

“You like what you see Nick?”

“Stay away from me Jamie.”

“Oh, so you don’t like it. Such a shame, because you see this,” He reached down and grabbed the bulge in his jeans, “it’s all for you. I saw you swimming laps and it immediately turned me on. I knew I had to have it.”

“I’m not gay Jamie.”

“I know. But that doesn’t matter to me. You did this to me, so therefore you will take care of it.”

“Jamie, let me go, and I won’t mention a word of this to anyone.”

“Not happening.” Jamie kneeled down and crawled over to Nick. Nick tried to back away; Jamie reached for his leg and pulled him roughly so that Nick was lying on his back. Jamie yanked Nick’s swim trunks off. Jamie groaned when he saw Nick.

Jamie was getting closer and closer to Nick. “Stop, please. Don’t do this.”

“Every gay man’s fantasy, and I get to live it out.” Jamie lied down on top of Nick, pressing his arousal into Nick’s leg. Jamie kissed Nick fully on the mouth. Nick was struggling underneath him. Jamie broke the kiss and saw Nick’s face streaked with tears. “Are those tears for me, oh how sweet. Now you need to kiss me back.”

“No. Please, leave me alone. I’ve never done anything to you.”

“I can’t leave you alone Nicky.”

Jamie kissed Nick again. Nick forced himself to kiss him back. Jamie grinned in the kiss and stuck his tongue in Nick’s mouth. Nick bit Jamie’s tongue and kicked Jamie in his full arousal.

Jamie jumped back in shock giving Nick a window to grab his swim trunks and get up and start to run away. Jamie felt himself grow harder, if that was possible, as he watched Nick run away from him naked.

Jamie jumped up and ran after Nick. He caught up and threw Nick to the floor again. “Please stop. Please.” Now his tears were streaming down his face.

Jamie unbuckled his belt and lowered his pants and boxers. “Now, what you did really hurt. But you have the power to make it better.”

“Stop please. Don’t do this. Please. Let me go.”

“Not until I’m ready to.” He sat down right next to Nick. “Now, make me feel better. Suck me.”

“No. You can’t make me do it.”

“You will.” Jamie roughly grabbed the back of Nick’s neck. He forced Nick’s head down until Nick’s mouth was where he wanted it. “Now, suck me.”

Jamie was holding his head down so Nick couldn’t move. He had no choice but to do as Jamie wished. He took Jamie in his mouth, crying the whole time.

Nick purposely bit him hard. “You stupid mother fucker.” Jamie punched Nick with his free hand. He grabbed Nick’s hair and forcefully pulled his head up. “Play nice.” He pushed Nick’s head back down.

Jamie kept groaning, and then screamed Nick’s name as he came in Nick’s mouth. Jamie smile in sick satisfaction. “Now swallow.” Nick shook his head. Jamie punched Nick. “I said swallow.”

Nick forced himself to swallow. No sooner did Nick swallow, he gagged, then threw up.

“Oh, poor Nick.”

Nick was sobbing now. “Please, let me go.”

“I’ll let you go when I’m ready. Now. Lie on your stomach.”

“No. Please don’t. Please, I’m begging you.”

Jamie kicked Nick. “I said, on your stomach.”

“No. I’ve never done anything to you. Please stop.”

“You have done something to me and you’ve done it twice. Why don’t you look at what you’ve done to me?” Nick didn’t look. It was bad enough that he had see him aroused through jeans, and give him a blow job. He didn’t want to see Jamie fully aroused and naked. “I said look.” Jamie kicked him until he looked up. “Now on your stomach.” Jamie kicked Nick until he rolled over. Jamie laid his full weight on Nick and forcefully slammed into Nick from behind. Nick was struggling to get Jamie off of him.

“Please stop. I’m begging you, leave me alone.” Jamie continued to forcefully slam into Nick. Nick could feel the blood dripping down his legs.

Nick stopped struggling and resigned himself to what was happening to him. He was sobbing silently as Jamie continued to rape him. Jamie came with a scream, then stood up and pulled his pants up. He then continued to beat Nick unconscious. Once Nick was unconscious, he pulled Nick’s swim trunks up and carried him back into the pool area. He placed Nick on the edge of the pool, hoping he’d fall in.
END FLASHBACK

Nick was crying again. “What happened after that?”

“I woke up in the hospital, told the doctor I was raped and didn’t tell the guys. I stayed in the hospital for a week after that.”

“Nick. Jamie? Is that the Jamie we hung out with during the summers that I was here?” Nick nodded.

Casey moved her position into Nick’s lap and hugged him, rubbing his back comfortingly. Nick leaned into Casey’s embrace. She whispered soothing words into his ear.

~*~
Meanwhile

“Is everything set?”

“Yep.”

“Alright, let’s go get the boss out of jail.”

They drove to the jail house. They walked in shadows, killing the guards on duty. They stole the keys to the cells and ran through the prison. They found him and unlocked his cell and ran out of the prison into the night.

~*~

Nick was lying on the couch holding Casey. While Brent and Abby cuddled on the love seat.

“We interrupt this program to bring you a very important message. Last night at the county jail had a breech of security. Two men broke into the prison and killed all the guards that were on duty. They grabbed the keys to the cells and freed homicidal maniac Jim Shybell. He’s still on the lose so be cautious.”

1 Week Later

It was close to dinner time. Casey walked into the apartment that she’s sharing with Abby, carrying her books from her last class. She was shocked to find the owner of the building sitting on the couch. “Can I help you with something?”

“Yes. I needed to give you this.”

“What’s this?” Casey looked at the paper in her hand. “Sir?”

“They’re willing to pay a lot more than you are, so they’re gonna get your apartment.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair sweetheart.”

“Trust me. I know that. And don’t call me sweetheart.”

“Well, they want to move in really soon. So you don’t have much time.”

“Can you at least give us time to find some place else to live.”

“If you take too long, I can and will kick you out. And since everything’s pretty much booked right now, you’ll have an awful hard time finding a place. So I’ll probably end up kicking you out.”

Casey let him walk away a bit. “Well then I’m glad that I know someone who lives in this area.”

Casey groaned in frustration as her future ex-landlord made his way out of the apartment. She plopped down on the couch. She wanted to have this whole thing sorted out before Abby got home. She reached for the phone.

She dialed the numbers that were now very familiar to her. She held the phone up to her ear and listened to the ringing until the phone was picked up.

Nick groaned when the shrill ring of the phone woke him up. He reached blindly for the phone. He felt around the night stand with his eyes still closed until his hand came in contact with the obnoxious, ringing phone.

“Lo?”

“Hey Nick, its Casey.”

“Oh hi.”

“Nick, did I wake you up?”

“Yeah.”

Casey scrunched her forehead in confusion when she heard a baby crying on Nick’s side. Nick groaned. “Nick, is that a baby crying.”

“Yeah. I gotta go. I’ll call you back.” Nick didn’t give Casey a chance to respond. He hung up the phone and went to get his baby brother. After changing him, Nick carried him to his bed.

Casey starred at the phone in her hand in complete confusion. She wasn’t sure exactly how long she was starring at her hand, but soon the phone rang in her hand and startled her.

“Nick?”

“Hey, what’s up?”

“Oh, not much. You?”

“Same. You called me. What did you want?”

“Are you in a bad mood?”

“No, just getting down to the point.”

“Well, anyway, my landlord is kicking me and Abby out of our apartment…”

“And you want to know if you can come live with me and Brent?”

“Well, yeah. If that’s ok.”

“Yeah, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Casey, its fine.”

“Ok, thanks Nick.”

“It’s really no problem.”

They hung up and Abby entered the apartment. “Hey Casey.”

“Hey. We need to pack.”

“What? Why?”

“Someone’s willing to pay a higher rent for this apartment, so we are getting kicked out.”

“What? Where are we going to live?”

“With Nick and Brent.”

“Are you sure they’re ok with that?”

“Yeah, I just talked to Nick, he said it was no problem.”

“Oh great.” Abby started jumping around the living room.

“Abby?”

“Yeah?”

“Excited much?”

“I’m moving in with my boyfriend.” She stopped jumping around. “So when are you and Nick going to get together?”

“Probably never.”

“What? It’s so obvious that Nick likes you.”

“Nick and I are just friends and that’s all we’ll ever be.”

Abby let the subject drop. “Let’s go pack.”

The girls went in opposite directions and packed their stuff. An hour later, they were all packed and loaded their stuff into the back of the car and drove over to Nick’s house.

15 minutes later, they pulled into Nick’s driveway. They left their stuff in the car and went up to the front door and rang the bell.

Nick was trying to get his brother to fall asleep when the doorbell rang. He groaned. He went to call for Brent when he realized that Brent wasn’t home. He went to put his brother down, but that resulted in him crying and the doorbell ringing again.

He groaned again then went to the front door, carrying the baby. He opened the door and wasn’t surprised at the people on the other side. “Hi girls”

Casey gave Nick a surprised glance. Abby gave an excited gasp. “Oh Nick, is that Kanden?” Nick nodded. “Oh, he’s so cute.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “You’ll be singing a different tune come tomorrow morning.”

Casey starred at Abby. “You knew about this?”

“Well, duh Casey, everyone in Backstreet Land knew about this.” She ignored Casey and turned back to Nick. “Can I hold him?”

“Sure.” Nick handed Kanden to Abby. “You can put him to sleep too. I’ve been walking around in circles for an hour and a half trying to get him to sleep.”

“With pleasure. This will be so fun.”

Nick laughed in amusement at Abby’s excitement, then turned to Casey. His smile faded when he realized that Casey was glaring at him. “What?”

“I can’t believe you.”

“What?”

“You have a kid.” Abby was heading towards the stairs but stopped when she heard what Casey said.

“What?”

“Oh, don’t play dumb with me Nick. I saw you holding him.”

Casey bit her bottom lip when she saw a look of hurt wash over his face. “I see you don’t think very highly of me. I can’t believe I misread you like that.”

“Nick, I…”

“No Casey. Yesterday I told Brent that you were becoming one of my best friends. This was after I realized that I was beginning to fall in love with you and I was almost positive your feelings were mutual, even if your feelings weren’t as strong. I see I was wrong about you.” Nick turned and started to walk away. When he passed Abby he said, “I changed my mind. I’ll put him to sleep.”

Abby nodded then handed Kanden back to Nick. Nick walked away. Abby watched as Nick disappeared into his bedroom. Abby marched over to Casey and smacked her on the shoulder. “You idiot.”

“What.”

“Kanden is Nick’s brother.”

“Brother?”

“Yes, brother.”

“But Nick is like 26 years old.”

“Nick is 25.”

“Still, he’s old enough to be that kid’s father, and his parents had another baby NOW?”

“His father had another baby. Nick and Kanden have different mothers.”

“But still, his father shouldn’t be getting another woman in her forties pregnant.”

“Ginger is 30.”

“Who’s Ginger?”

“Nick’s step mother.”

Casey shuddered. “She’s young enough to be Nick’s sister, or worse, Nick’s girlfriend.”

“Casey, there’s no point in being disgusted by this. No amount of disgust will change the fact that Nick has a brother that’s 3 months old, and a step mother young enough to be his lover. Now, I think you really hurt his feelings by those accusations. I hope you’re happy.” Abby walked away, leaving Casey dumbfounded.

About an hour later, Nick finally got Kanden to sleep. He grabbed his car keys off of his dresser and the baby monitor. He knocked on Abby’s door.

She opened the door moments later. “Hey Nick, what’s up?”

“I’m gonna go out.”

“Nick you aren’t drinking again, are you?”

“No, no. I just have something I need to do, for myself. I was hoping you’d listen for Kanden?”

“Sure Nick.”

“Great, thanks.” He handed her the baby monitor. “I’ll see you later.”

Nick turned to walk away. “Nick.”

He turned back to Abby. “Yeah?” She walked up to him and hugged him. “What was that for?”

“You just looked like you needed a hug.” She pulled back.

He smiled at her. “Thanks, you’re right, I did need that.”

Nick left the house and headed to his destination.

Without Nick knowing, Casey left the house and followed Nick.

Nick arrived at Katie’s grave without knowing that Casey was following him. He starred down at her grave. As usual when he visits her grave, tears escaped his eyes. “Hi Katie. My life seems to have become one giant mess. Something horrible happened to me, I just don’t want to say it out loud. I’ll never be the same because of it. Also, it seems that my people judgment has left me when you died. I read someone completely wrong. I love you Katie, and I REALLY miss you. I wish I can move on, but I can’t. I feel like I’d be betraying you and our love. Please Katie, tell me that it’s ok to move on. Give me some sort of sign.” He touched her headstone. His legs gave out from under him as he started crying.

Casey stayed a good distance behind Nick so she couldn’t hear what he was saying. She stayed there watching him. When he collapsed she approached him. She sat down beside him and rubbed his back.

He was shocked and jumped at the contact. He looked up. He was shocked to see Casey beside him. “What are you doing here?”

“I followed you.”

“Why?”

“To make sure you were ok. And to apologize for what I said to you before. I’m really sorry. I really don’t know what came over me.” Nick looked down. He looked her in the eye and nodded his acceptance.

He looked away from her when the tears that were in his eyes started to spill over again. She saw his tears and turned his face towards hers. She gently wiped his tears away.

Their eyes locked and their faces inched closer. Soon their lips met in a soft kiss. Their eyes drifted shut.

They pulled apart, breathless. Nick was about to say something when Casey gasped. Her hand flew up to her mouth. “Oh my god. Nick, I…”

Nick had a feeling he knew what was going to come out of her mouth. “Casey.”

“That was a mistake Nick. It shouldn’t have happened.”

A tear escaped Nick’s eye as Casey got up abruptly and ran away. “It wasn’t a mistake.” He took a deep breath. “I love you Casey.”

He stayed at Katie’s grave until he calmed himself down. He wasn’t sure he wanted to face Casey. He sat on the grass in front of her grave speaking quietly to Katie.

He yawned and knew it was time to go home. He stood up and brushed the grass off of his pants and made his way back to his car.

He arrived back at his house around 15 minutes later. He opened the front door and saw Casey in the living room. He took a deep breath as he walked through the living room and to the stairs. He let out a grateful sigh when Casey didn’t try to stop him. He went upstairs and knocked on Abby’s door.

“Hey Nick.”

“Hey Abby. I’m back so I’ll keep an ear out for my brother.” She gave him back the baby monitor. “Thanks for listening for him.”

“Oh, no problem.”

Nick smiled briefly at Abby and walked into his room. He quickly stripped himself of his clothes except for his boxers and climbed into his bed.

The next morning, he woke up and threw on a pair of jeans and a shirt and went downstairs to enter his kitchen. When he got to the kitchen he saw Abby and Casey eating breakfast. He went to the pantry and grabbed a package of Pop-Tarts. He took a glass, poured himself something to drink and left the room with his glass and breakfast.

He stayed in his room all day, only leaving to take care of Kanden and to get food.

Later, there was a knock on his door. Nick fell back on his bed and grabbed his pillow. He placed it over his face and screamed, hoping the pillow muffled the sound. Don’t these people know that he doesn’t want to be bothered? He haphazardly threw his pillow to the side and got up. He went to the door. He opened it enough for him to see who was outside. He opened the door further and allowed Brent to come in.

“We’re watching a movie downstairs. Join us.”

“I’d rather not.” Nick went to close the door.

Brent blocked it. “You’ve been up here all day.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Argh, you’re so frustrating.”

“Fine.”

Nick closed his door behind him and followed Brent downstairs. Brent immediately joined Abby on the couch. They were taking up the whole couch. That only left the loveseat, next to Casey. He sat down on the floor. Brent starred at the back of Nick’s head in confusion.

Throughout the movie Nick was very uncomfortable. He could see that Brent and Abby were making out on the couch. He glanced at Casey. He looked away with a sad sigh. He’d give anything to be able to sit next to Casey. However, he knew it would hurt too much, and that Casey wouldn’t want him there. He tried to turn his attention to the movie while trying to lessen his discomfort. He kept glancing back to Casey. He couldn’t understand why Casey couldn’t love him back.

He couldn’t take it any more. He couldn’t take Brent and Abby cuddling on the couch. He couldn’t take watching the romantic comedy they had picked out. And most of all, he couldn’t take being in the same room as Casey knowing that she doesn’t want anything to do with him. He didn’t make it to the end of the movie. He got up and left the room.

Brent stood up and started to follow him. “Brent come here.”

He turned toward his girlfriend. “But something’s bothering him.”

“Brent, you can’t always fix everything for him.”

“But I’m his best friend.”

“You’re also smothering him. Let him work through whatever it is on his own. If he wants you’re help, he’ll ask for it. Now come here.”

“But Abby…”

“Don’t. Let him be. Finish the movie.”

Brent unwillingly obliged. He walked back to the couch he was sharing with Abby. He kept looking upstairs. He was no longer paying attention to the movie or Abby.

Abby got off the couch and stood in front of him. When he barely acknowledged her presence and kept glancing upstairs, she got fed up. She smacked him.

He grabbed his stinging cheek. “What was that for?”

“You’re paying more attention to the empty hallway then you are to me.”

“He’s upset. I should be with him.”

“You should let him breath.” Abby returned to the couch. Brent tried his best not to look upstairs for the remainder of the movie.

At the end of the movie, Casey noticed that she was hungry. “Hey, do you want to order a pizza?”

They looked at each other then nodded. “Sure.”

“Great.” Casey sprung from her seat and went to the phone to order the pie.

Upstairs, Nick was sitting at the desk in his room. He had his pencil and sketch book. He was in deep concentration while he was drawing. He wasn’t really looking at what he was drawing. It was almost like he was in a trance.

He finished his drawing. There was a knock on the door that pulled him out of his trance. He looked at the picture and saw Katie. Although it wasn’t an image of Katie how he remembered her. She seemed to be glowing with an angelic aura of light surrounding her.

He smiled, and then whispered. “My guardian angel.” He looked up at the door when someone knocked again. “It’s open.”

Brent opened the door and stuck his head in. “Pizza’s here.”

Nick didn’t know what to do. He was hungry, but he didn’t want to face Casey or Brent and Abby’s constant PDA’s. “I’m not hungry Brent.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah. I might eat some later.”

“Ok Nick.” Brent left the room to go eat.

He sat back at his desk and looked at the picture. He put the finishing touches on the picture and placed it gently on his desk. He looked around the room blankly. He needed to find a way to preserve the picture. He spotted his frame. 1 half had a picture of Katie, the other half was empty. He folded the sheet carefully and fitted it in the frame. Then he smiled. He lied back on his bed starring at the picture of Katie and his drawing. He stayed in his own world until his stomach reminded him how hungry he was.

He went downstairs and entered the kitchen. He was expecting the kitchen to be empty; he stopped short when he saw his three room mates. He continued to walk as if he didn’t stop.

“Ok, you. Stop right there.”

“What?”

“What’s wrong?”

“What do you mean what’s wrong?”

“You stopped short when you saw us in here.”

“I just wasn’t expecting you in here.”

“Where were you headed?”

“Outside. Is that not allowed.” Nick’s stomach betrayed him and growled.

“You’re hungry.”

“No I’m not.”

“Nick, I just heard your stomach growl.”

“Well you heard wrong because I think I would know if I was hungry.”

Nick started to continue in his direction to his yard. “Nick.”

He turned around and his eyes met the gazes of his three room mates. He saw concern in the eyes of his best friend and his best friend’s girlfriend. He only briefly met Casey’s gaze. He didn’t want to know what he saw in her eyes. After all, she was the one who just recently broke his heart.

He turned away from his supposed destination and left the kitchen in a flurry. “What the hell is wrong with you people?”

Nick and Brent were in Nick’s game room, playing a game of pool. For once since Brent moved in with him, they weren’t having a serious conversation. It was lighter and more playful. They way best friends should act.

The door flew open and a frantic Abby burst into the room. Brent dropped his queue and ran to comfort her. “Baby, what’s wrong?”

“It’s Casey.”

“What about Casey?” Nick rounded the table and leaned against it.

“She wasn’t in class this morning and when I went up to her room, she wasn’t there. And some of her stuff is gone.”

Nick’s legs gave out from underneath him and he collapsed. “Nick.” Brent ran to Nick’s side. “Are you ok?”

Nick nodded weakly. “I’m just going to go lie down for a bit.” Brent nodded and helped Nick to his feet. He left the room.

Brent watched Nick’s retreating back. “Abby?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you get the impression that Nick loves Casey?”

Abby looked up at Brent in disbelief. “Are you JUST noticing this?”

“I don’t want Casey to hurt him. He’s been through enough. I don’t think he’d be able to handle Casey not loving him.”

“Casey does love him. She’s just in denial.”

Nick reached the top of the stairs and passed Casey’s room on the way to his. He stopped in his tracks and entered her room. He looked around the room, trying to find any evidence of where she could be. There was nothing. He sat on her bed fighting tears. He refused to cry. With a strangled sob he fell back on her bed. That’s where he fell asleep.

*He woke up to a baby crying. With a slight groan, he climbed out of bed and headed to the baby’s room. He changed his little girl and then carried her downstairs. He entered the kitchen and placed the baby in her playpen. He smiled at his wedding band as he put her down.

He walked up to his beautiful wife, wrapped his arms around her pregnant belly and kissed her neck. “Nicky, I’m cooking.”

Nick reached over and shut the stove off. “Not now you aren’t.”

She turned around and playfully pushed him away from her. “We need to eat.”

“But Katie.”

“No buts Nick.” She gave him a small kiss. “If I don’t eat, then neither does your baby.”

Nick gave her a confused look. She looked like Katie, but that last sentence was Casey’s voice. “What?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Nick didn’t respond. “Nick?” It was still Casey’s voice. She stepped up to Nick and kissed him. When they pulled back, the left side of her face looked like Katie, while the right side looked like Casey. He screamed. “What is it Nick.” He was still screaming so she came up to kiss him. He opened his eyes in time to see the face in front of him completely disappear and reappear. Now Katie was gone and in her place was a pregnant Casey.

“Ca…Casey?”

“I love you Nicky.”*

Nick woke up in Casey’s room. He looked around while his breathing normalized. The door to Casey’s room opened. Nick sat up hoping that it was Casey. He was completely confused when Katie walked in the door. “Katie?”

“That’s right.”

“I thought you were dead.”

She giggled. “I am dead.”

“Am I dreaming or am I seeing things?”

“You’re not seeing things. I’m here. Although when you think back to this, you’ll remember it as a dream but you are more awake then you realize.”

“I’ve missed you.”

“I know. I’ve missed you too.”

She walked over to the bed and sat down next to him and pulled him into a hug. He gasped. “You…You’re real.”

“For now. I needed to talk to you so that’s why I’m here.”

“Talk to me about what?”

“You moving on.”

Nick looked away. “I’m sorry.”

She turned his face back to hers. “What are you sorry for?”

“Betraying you.”

“Nicky, you wouldn’t be betraying me. I want you to move on. I want you happy. Casey can make you happy.”

“Casey doesn’t want me.”

“Sure she does. She’s just confused. I have to go now.”

“Katie no.”

“I have somewhere else I have to be.”

“Can’t you stay a little longer?”

“I’m sorry Nicky. I’m always with you, even when you can’t see me. Now I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything.”

“Go to my grave.” Nick nodded. She stood up and kissed him. Then she disappeared.

Nick opened his eyes to find himself lying back on the bed as if he just woke from a dream. He could feel Katie’s presence. In his head he heard. “Go to my grave.”

He flew off the bed and down the stairs. He grabbed his keys and headed out the door.

Casey was sitting on the grass in front of the grave crying. She looked up when she heard footsteps approach her. “Casey?”

“Yes. Do I know you?”

“No. But I know you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m Katie Kielson.”

Casey looked at the grave in front of her then back to Katie. Casey was confused. “Am I crazy?”

“No, why do you ask?”

“Because I’m talking to a dead person. And not just any dead person, but one of my best friend’s dead fiancée.”

“I’m here to help you.”

“Help me?”

“Yes. Casey, why did you run away?”

“Because all I’m doing is causing Nick pain.”

“Nick loves you.”

“You don’t see him walking around the house with that lost expression. An expression that I put there.”

“Actually, Casey. I do. But I also see you walking around with the same expression.” Katie sat down on the grass beside Casey. “I will admit that Nick is hurt every time you turn away from him, and I don’t like to see him hurting, but I know that if you stop running from him, you can help heal him. You can heal the pain he felt when he lost me. You can help him get over the pain he felt when he was raped, and you can heal all the pain you caused him by turning away.”

“I can?”

“Of course you can. All you have to do is love him.”

Nick pulled into the cemetery. He killed his engine and ran to Katie’s grave. He stopped when he saw Casey at Katie’s grave. He sent a silent thank you to Katie. He approached the grave slowly noticing that Casey was talking. He got close enough to hear what she was saying without her knowing that he was behind her.

“Help me?...Because all I’m doing is causing Nick pain.…You don’t see him walking around the house with that lost expression. An expression that I put there….I can?...I’m sorry I hurt Nick. From now on I will take good care of him…Because I love him…” She heard sniffling behind her and she turned abruptly. She stood up and brushed the grass off of her pants. She ran up to Nick and pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry Nicky.” She was babbling so Nick silenced her the only way he knew how. He kissed her.

It started as a gentle kiss but it grew more passionate as they slowly and silently revealed their feelings for each other, neither of them needing words, just the soft yet passionate touch of the other. When they pulled away, they were both breathless and any on looker could see the love shining from their eyes.

When Nick finally found his voice he said, “I love you too.” They left the cemetery hand in hand, not noticing the person watching them from the bushes.

In the car Casey was leaning up against Nick while he drove with one hand. His other arm was wrapped around Casey. Nick pulled into his driveway. He gave Casey a small kiss before they got out of the car.

They walked in the house together. As soon as the door opened Brent was there. “Nick, where did you go? Are you ok?”

Casey stepped up from behind Nick. “Brent back off.”

“Excuse me for caring about my best friend.”

“Caring is one thing Brent. You are smothering him.”

“Yeah, I know. I’m smothering him, I don’t let him breathe.” Brent said sarcastically. “Abby already gave me the whole spiel.”

“Well apparently it didn’t stick, because you are still doing it.”

“I just don’t want him to hurt himself.”

“Well then BACK OFF.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I said back off. If he does hurt himself it will be because of your constant hovering.”

“Who are you to tell me how to treat my best friend?”

“I’m not telling you how to treat your best friend. I’m just telling you to let him breathe. You can’t fight all his battles for him.”

“He’s weak. He can’t do it.”

“Ok, that’s enough.”

Casey and Brent turned to Nick. “Nick?”

“You obviously don’t know me as well as you think.”

“Don’t be ridiculous Nick.”

“If I was as weak as you are making me out to be, I would’ve been long dead by now…”

“That’s not true Nick.”

“Brent will you shut up and listen for a minute. God, why are you making everything about you?”

“Nick, I…”

“I said shut up.” Nick’s outburst shocked the room into silence. “You’re my best friend, not my goddamn father. If I’m having a bad day that doesn’t mean I’m going to slit my wrist the first second I get. Lighten up. I don’t need you smothering me. With a best friend like you, who needs parents?”

“Nick.”

Nick gave Brent a stern look and Brent shut up. “You’re so obsessed with me that you don’t even notice your girlfriend.”

“I’m not obsessed with you Nick.”

“Bullshit.”

“I care, I didn’t know that was such a crime.”

“It’s not a crime, but your caring has turned to obsession. I could have a headache and then you start looking at me like I’m going to OD on pills and you completely ignore Abby. If I didn’t know any better I would think you were gay, because you sure do act like you have a crush on me.”

The room fell silent. Abby looked at Brent. “You, know, he has a point. Call me when you figured out where your true feelings lie. Until then, don’t consider me your girlfriend.” Abby went to leave the room. Casey went to follow her. “No, stay here. Nick will need you more.” She said so only Casey could hear. Casey nodded and stayed in the room while Abby left.

Nick turned back to Brent. “I want you out of this house.”

“Nick, you don’t mean that.”

“I wouldn’t have said it if I didn’t. Until you can learn to treat me and the girls with the respect we deserve, you are not welcome to live here.”

“Well, where the hell am I supposed to live then?”

“That’s not my problem, now get out of my house.”

“Nick.”

“NOW.” Brent looked at Nick one final time before going upstairs to pack his stuff.

About an hour later, Brent came downstairs. He saw Nick lying on the couch with his eyes closed. Casey was lying with him talking quietly. “Nick.”

“Get out.”

Brent looked at Nick one last time and headed out the door closing it softly behind him.

Once the door closed, Casey looked Nick in the eyes. “Are you ok?”

“I guess. I’m going to go upstairs and rest for a bit. Come with me?”

She smiled then got off the couch. They walked upstairs together and entered Nick’s room, where Nick fell asleep almost immediately.

~*~
Meanwhile

He entered the apartment. “Where are they?”

“Where are who Jim?”

“Lindsay and Abby. They were supposed to still be living here.”

“They moved out when we wanted the apartment.”

“I wanted them to still be living here.” He lifted up his gun and shot the guy who didn’t obey his wishes. “I will get her. And I will do it without you.”

There was a knock on the door. Jim opened the door in anger. “What do you want?”

“I can help you.” Jamie said.

“Help me? How can you help me fag?”

“I may be a damn fag, but I have the good on the bitch you’re looking for.”

“Goods my fucking ass! Unless you know where she lives who her friends are, you aint got jack!”

Jamie pushed past Jim and sat down on the couch, a smug look on his face. “I fucked her boy toy!”

“And why should I believe you? For all I know you could be some undercover cop out to get me.”

“Fuck no! I'm no cop. I wanna get him for all the shit that he's got and doesn’t fucking deserve! The way to do that is to kill the whore.”

Jim eyed the boy in front of him. “What did you have in mind?”

“What makes you think I’ll tell you?”

“Because I have no problems killing you.”

“Yeah, well, what will be stopping you from killing me once you get all the information you need from me?”

“You’ll just have to trust me.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“How do I know that we’re talking about the same bitch?”

“Because I enjoyed stalking him almost as much as fucking him. Anybody who enters his life has potential to start his downfall. So I stalked her two. I was so pleased to find that she had a skeleton in her closet and that skeleton is you.”

“So you want nothing with her?”

“What the fuck would I want with her? Now her boy toy, I wouldn’t mind sinking my teeth in some of that. Oh wait, I already did. I’ll be looking forward to another taste.”

“What’s in it for you?”

“Well, you get to kill the bitch, I get to watch it happen. I get to watch his self destruction, then I get to fuck him senseless, again.”

“Since you seem to know what you’re talking about, you can work with me. However, the first sign of betrayal or anything that I don’t like, and my wrath will be turned on you.”

~*~
New York

Brent rang the doorbell and shifted his weight from foot to foot while waiting for the door to open. When Nick kicked him out, he got in his car and drove the two day trip from Florida to New York. Now he was standing on his older sister’s doorstep waiting for her to answer.

The door opened and there stood his sister. “Brent?”

“Hi Angela. Can I come in?”

“Of course.” Brent entered the house. He placed his suitcases by the door and Angela pulled him into a tight hug. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly. He buried his face in her neck and started to cry. Angela felt his body start to tremble. She pulled back and looked at Brent. “You’re crying. Is something wrong or did you miss me?” He walked to the couch and sat down. He rested his head in his hands and continued to cry. Angela walked over and sat next to him, resting her hand gently on his back. “What is it Brent?”

He looked up. “I lost my best friend.”

She made Brent look at him. “What?”

“Recently, Nick’s been going through a lot. I was worried about him and I always wanted to make sure he was ok. Well, anyway, long story short, Nick told me that I was suffocating him, and that if he didn’t know better, he would think I was gay because it seemed like I had a crush on him. And my girlfriend, who was present when he said this, tells me that Nick has a point and breaks up with me. Then Nick kicked me out of his house saying that I didn’t respect him, Casey or Abby.” He said through his tears.

“Who is Casey and Abby?”

“Casey is Nick’s girlfriend and Abby is…was my girlfriend.

“How do you feel about Nick?”

“I don’t know. I’m so confused.” He buried his head in her neck. His tears soaking the collar of her shirt.

She pushed him back so she could look into his eyes. “Listen, we’ll talk about this later. For now, why don’t you go upstairs, take a shower, and maybe catch a nap.”

Brent nods and starts to stand up. “I’ll probably go on to bed right after the shower or just stay out your way, thanks for everything sis."

He starts to walk out of the room. Angela caught up to him quickly and grabbed his arm. “Hey, what are sisters for?” She pulled him into a hug. “I’ll help you get through this.” He smiled briefly and left the room.

Angela sat on the couch. She left the TV off. As soon as she heard the water running, she picked up the phone and dialed.

The phone rang 4 times before it was answered by a girl. “Hello?”

“I need to talk to Nick.”

“Who is this?”

“Who is this?” Angela retorted back.

“Casey, I’m his girlfriend. And you are?”

“Angela. I’m not in the mood for games right now. Just put him on the phone.”

Casey bit her tongue from cursing this girl out. She went up to Nick’s room and knocked before she opened the door. “Nick phone.”

He nodded and picked up the phone. “Hello.”

“Look Blondie, I love you like a brother, but what the hell did you do?”

“Who the fuc...Angie? What do you mean?”

“Don’t play dumb with me Carter. You know what I’m talking about.”

“Angie, I swear, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Fine. Then explain to me why my brother came to my door crying thinking that you hate him.”

“I don’t hate him Angie. I could never hate him. He’s my best friend.”

“Whatever happened is beating him up. Can you please tell me what happened between you two?”

“Look some things were taken the wrong way. I got pissed off from him constantly crowding me and paying more attention to me then his own girlfriend.” He said a little rougher than he had planned.

“Christ Carter! Calm down; don’t take your anger out on me. You really do have a temper don’t you? Or, like always, is Katie your excuse?”

Nick didn’t say anything. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “I…I”

Angela bit her lower lip. “I’m sorry Nick. I didn’t call to upset you. I’m just trying to figure out how to help him.”

Nick nodded then realized she couldn’t see him. “It’s ok.” He said softly. “I don’t know what to tell you Angie.”

“It’s ok Nick.”

“Can you tell him something for me?”

“What?”

“That I didn’t want to kick him out, I just didn’t see any other way out.”

“I’ll tell him.”

“Thanks. Bye.”

“Bye Nicky.”

He hung up the phone and stared at it for a few minutes. At that point, he decided that he wasn’t going to let Angela’s comment affect him. He climbed off his bed and went downstairs.

He entered the kitchen and saw Casey leaning against the counter. “Hey babe, can you get me a glass please.”

“Get your own goddamn glass.” She stomped away from the counter then abruptly turned to him. “And my name is Casey not babe.” She stomped out of the room.

He watch Casey storm out of the room. He groaned. “Damn, she can be so frustrating. What the hell did I say this time?” He followed Casey out of the room. When he caught up to her, he grabbed her arm and turned her around. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Don’t fucking treat me like a goddamn slave Nickolas, and don’t you ever touch me like that again.” She broke out of Nick’s grasp and ran away crying.

Nick watched in confusion and didn’t see Abby approach him from behind. She placed her hand on his back. “Don’t worry about it.” She didn’t miss the tear that escaped his eye. She wiped it off. “Nick, don’t cry. Everything will be ok. Casey’s just in a weird mood.”

Nick smiled slightly, “Thanks Abby, but I wanna be alone right now.”

She nodded and watched as he went out onto his back porch. He sat on one of the chairs and started crying. Sobs racking his body as his world seemed to fall down around him.

Abby stood frozen in her spot watching Nick cry. When she couldn’t take it anymore, she ran upstairs.

She knocked on Casey’s door. “God Nick, just leave me alone.” Casey screamed from behind the door.

Abby knocked again. “Casey, it’s me. Can I come in?” A few minutes later, Abby heard the door unlock. She entered the room and pulled Casey into a hug.

Casey pulled back and wiped her eyes. “Case, what happened?”

“I don’t know. I just snapped.”

“Well explain it to me from the beginning please?”

Casey took a deep breath. “Well, I answered the phone and this woman on the other end is talking rudely to me, and demanding to talk to Nick. I have no clue who this person was, or why she was calling Nick and the way she treated me was horrible. So that put me in a bad mood, and then Nick asked me to get him a glass and I flipped out on him. Then he grabbed me and I just got madder.”

“Casey, don’t get mad at me for saying this, but Nick didn’t grab you that hard.”

“I know, I just flipped.”

“Go talk to Nick.”

“I can’t.”

“Casey, you have to. I lost my boyfriend over a misunderstanding; don’t lose yours over another misunderstanding.” Casey wouldn’t meet Abby’s gaze. “Casey, I want to show you something. Come with me.” Casey nodded and reluctantly followed Abby downstairs. She pointed to Nick who was sitting on his back porch crying. “Casey, you have to talk to him. He kicked his best friend out of the house not even a week ago. That has had to affect him some how. And now, he probably feels like he’s losing you too. Casey, go talk to him.”

“I’ll talk to him, but later, I need to think about what to say to him.”

Abby nodded. “Ok, that’s better than nothing.”

Nick stayed on his back porch trying to compose himself, but every time he thought of Casey or Brent, he started crying. He stared at the horizon and realized that it was starting to get dark. He didn’t even know how long he’d been out there crying.

He stood up and stretched. He entered the house, quietly, through the sliding door in the kitchen. He saw Casey standing over the stove cooking. He really wanted to say something, but he was afraid, and therefore didn’t say anything. He walked out of the kitchen and headed to his bedroom, quietly and dejectedly.

No sooner had he lied down in bed, there was a knock on the door. “Who is it?”

“Abby. Can I come in Nick?”

“Yeah, it’s open.”

She stuck her head in the door. “Dinner.”

He nodded and climbed off bed. He really didn’t want to be in the same room as Casey. He didn’t know what to expect. He entered the kitchen and sat at the table with Casey and Abby. The dinner was silent. Nick and Casey wouldn’t even look at each other.

Nick was so uncomfortable in that kitchen that he didn’t have much of an appetite. He took a few bites, then pushed his food around the plate a bit. That cycle continued until he took his remaining food and dumped in into the garbage disposal. He then rinsed his plate, placed it in his dishwasher and left the room.

He returned to his bedroom. He lied on his bed and tried to fall asleep. However sleep wasn’t coming.

He stayed there, staring at a spot on the wall, lost in his thoughts.

After Casey finished eating, she went up stairs. As she was about to enter her room, she saw Nick’s bedroom door. She took a deep breath and headed toward the door. She didn’t bother knocking because she figured that Nick wouldn’t let her in the room.

She tested the doorknob and to her delight, the door opened. She peered in Nick’s room and saw him trying to fall asleep on the bed. She walked around his bed and climbed in behind Nick.

Nick felt the bed shift but didn’t want to turn around. Casey slipped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Are you awake?” Nick nodded and turned toward Casey. “I’m sorry Nicky.”

“Why were you acting that way?”

“Whoever called you before was very rude to me. Who was she?”

“Brent’s older sister. Why did you snap at me in the kitchen?”

“I felt like I was becoming your slave?”

“What? You were right in front of the cabinet with the glasses. I didn’t think that I was asking anything wrong.”

“I know Nicky and I’m really sorry.

“I forgive you.” Casey scooted closer to him and kissed him.

When she pulled back she said, “Why don’t you get some rest.”

Nick nodded and Casey went to leave. “Casey.”

“Yeah?”

“Stay in here tonight.”

“Now don’t go getting any funny ideas mister.”

“No funny business. I just want to feel you in my arms. Please stay?”

“I’ll stay.”

“I love you Casey, so much.”

She smiled. “I love you too Nick.”

They wrapped their arms around each other and fell asleep.

Brent woke up to his bed shaking. He opened his eyes to see his two-year old nephew, Kyle, jumping on his bed. Kyle stopped jumping and flung himself onto Brent. Brent hugged him back. Angela entered the room.

“Kyle, leave Uncle Brent alone. He needs to rest.”

“He’s ok Angie. I’m awake now.”

“Kyle, why don’t you go play so that I can talk to your uncle.”

“Ok mommy.” Kyle hugged Brent before he slithered off the bed and ran from the room.

Angela entered the room, and sat beside Brent on the bed. “Are you ready to talk?” Brent shrugged. “Give me a straight answer Brent. I won’t push you if you aren’t ready yet.”

“I’m ready.”

“Ok. Why don’t you start with your feelings?”

“My feelings?”

“For Nick.”

Brent groaned. “I don’t know.”

“What do you know?”

“I know that I love him.”

“How do you love him?”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you love him like a friend, a brother, or as more?”

“Well, I thought I loved him like a brother, but then he mentioned I was acting like I had a crush on him and now I don’t know.”

“When did you become so overprotective of him?”

“I’ve always been over protective of him. He’s my best friend. Or at least he was. Now he hates me.”

“Brent, Nick does not hate you.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I called him when you were in the shower.”

“You called him? How could you?”

“Shut up Brent. I did it for you. Well anyway, he said, and I quote, I don’t hate him Angie. I could never hate him. He’s my best friend.”

Brent looked away. “He kicked me out Angie.”

“He didn’t want to.”

“Then why did he?”

“He said it was the only thing he could think of to get the hovering to stop.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I couldn’t get any more out of him. He got upset and wanted off the phone. So you see, if he hated you, he wouldn’t have gotten upset about kicking you out. So the question I ask you is, when did you start hovering over him?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t realize I was.”

“When do you think it happened?”

“Probably when he received the invitations in the mail for his wedding to Katie.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know Angie.”

“So think.”

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Because I love you and I want to help you figure out what is going on with you and Nick. Now, why?”

He sighed. “I guess because Nick was always there for me when I needed him.”

“You were always there for Nick so what made you think you had to step up your game so to speak.”

“I guess because he’s helped me through some deep shit, that I felt I wasn’t doing a good enough job of helping him through Katie’s death especially when he had a breakdown because of the invitations.”

“I’m sure Nick would say differently about your ability to help him through tough times.”

He shrugged. “I guess I stopped being confident in my helping ability when I was...when my relationship with Tiffany ended.”

“When you were what?”

“What do you mean?”

“You said when you were, then changed your sentence.”

“When I wasn't able to stop Katie's murder.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“W…W…Why not?”

“Because, you were in New York at the time of Katie’s murder in Florida. What the hell would you have been able to do to stop the murder? Now tell me. When you were what?”

“When I was almost.” He took a deep breath. “You remember Tiffany right?”

“You mean the sweet girl you dated around 9 months ago?”

“Yeah her.”

“What about her?”

“Well, um, did I ever tell you why we broke up?”

“The only thing you told me was that you broke up because things weren’t working out.”

“Yeah, that wasn’t the whole thing.” He said quietly and looked down.

“Brent.” He didn’t respond so she pushed his face up so she could meet his gaze. “What else caused you to break up?” Tears pooled in his eyes and he tried to turn away. “No Brent. Tell me what happened.”

“You know when I went to Florida to visit Nick, and I came back for that business endeavor.”

She nodded. “Keep going.”

“Well, the day I got back, I had to go straight to the office and then when I got back to our apartment, I was almost dead on my feet after traveling and then working.”

“Go on.”

“Well, um, she was horny that night, but I didn’t want to do anything. I was too tired, So she um…”

“She what?”

“She climbed on top of me, and s…sh…she.” He stopped.

“It’s ok, you can tell me.”

He looked down again, “She tried to rape me.” His voice was barely audible.

“What?”

“Please don’t make me say it again. It was hard enough the first time.”

“You don’t have to say it again, I heard you. I’m just in shock.” She took a deep breath. “She didn’t succeed did she?”

“No, I was able to get away.”

“Well at least you got away.”

“Yeah.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was afraid you’d be ashamed of me.”

“I wouldn’t have been ashamed of you. Did you tell anyone?”

“When I got away I went to a hotel. I called Nick then.”

“In the middle of the night?”

“Yeah. He didn’t care.”

“You were able to tell him without being ashamed but you couldn’t tell me?”

“I didn’t want to tell anyone. I needed someone to talk to and he was the first person I came up with.”

“So what did Nick say when you told him?”

“He asked me if I wanted him to come to New York. I told him no because he had company. We ended up talking all night.”

“Was he able to help you?”

“I guess. He helped me break up with her. I had my cell phone attached to my pants and my ear piece in. He was on the phone when I broke up with her. So he heard everything and was talking in my ear when I stuttered.”

“Did you experience any sort of depression from this?”

“Yeah, I’m still a bit depressed.”

“Is it safe to say that Nick helped you through you lowest points of depression?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you want my interpretation of your feelings?” He nodded. “Ok, Nick helped you through a deep depression, so you are grateful to him. Now a lot of times, people mistake that gratefulness as a deeper love. I personally feel you’re feelings for Nick are brotherly. As for why you were spending so much time hovering over Nick, you felt safer with Nick. He’s your best friend, so you figured he wouldn’t hurt you. That’s why you were more occupied with Nick then your girlfriend. Also since you’re last girlfriend attempted to rape you, you are afraid of getting close to another girl. Does this make sense to you?”

“I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Well, what if you’re interpretation is wrong and I do have stronger feelings for Nick?”

“That’s something you’re going to have to work through on your own, in your own way. We can talk about this until we turn blue in the face, but in the end it’s you who has to make the final decision. I’m going to go start breakfast. I’ll call you when it’s done.”

~*~
Meanwhile

Abby’s bedroom door was wide open as Nick walked past. He heard Abby sniffling, so he stopped and peeked his head into the room. He saw her looking at a picture. He stood in the doorway and knocked. She jumped and tried to wipe her eyes. He entered the room and sat down beside her. He glanced at the picture and pulled Abby into a hug. “It’ll be ok Abby. Please stop crying.”

She snuggled into Nick as she started crying harder. “I can’t help it. I feel like I’m such a horrible girlfriend.”

“Don’t you ever say something like that again. I don’t know from personal experience but I’m sure you’re a great girlfriend because you’re a great friend.”

“But you don’t understand. You don’t…” her voice trailed off.

“What don’t I understand?”

“You have a great girlfriend, you are a great guy, and I know you’d never do what he did.”

“What he did? Who’s he?”

“He..he…he’s Skylar, the love of my life…or at least I thought he was.”

“What happened?”

“We were going out for most of high school and he cheated on me and then this thing with Brent.”

“What thing with Brent?”

“This whole, Brent paying more attention to you thing.”

“Sweetie, that’s just a misunderstanding. It’ll get fixed, I promise.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know.”

“How?”

“Because I know Brent as well, if not, better than you know Casey. I know everything that Brent has gone through, nothing I can tell you now. But trust me.”

“How bad?”

“What do you mean?”

“The stuff he’s gone through, how bad was it?”

“Pretty bad.”

“As bad as some of the stuff you went through?”

“Some of it comes really close.”

She rested her head on Nick’s shoulder. “I miss him so much.”

“I know you do. I miss him too.”

She looked back to the picture, “We were all so happy there. How can you go from this picture to now?”

“I don’t know Abby.”

“Even you were happy.”

“I highly doubt that. I haven’t been happy in over a year.”

“But you were doing better. You were just starting to get over the rape so you were at least smiling again. And then this happened.”

“Abby, this won’t last long. You’ll see.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m positive. What would make you feel better?”

“This whole thing going away and everything being back to the way it was.”

“Everything will be normal soon. Just stick it out. Just remember you aren’t alone in this.”

“Oh my god. I’m being selfish. Here I am blubbering about this and he’s your best friend and I’m not thinking about how this is affecting you.”

“Not as deeply as you may think.”

“Why not.”

“Because Brent and I need each other like we need air. We are each other’s life line. So I know that this won’t last long because of that reason. So it’s not affecting me that deeply because I know all this will be over soon. Would you feel better if you had a way to contact Brent?”

“You know how to contact him?”

“Yeah, he’s staying with his older sister. I can give you that phone number if you think it’ll make you feel better.”

“Can you?”

“Yeah. I just have to look it up. I don’t call there often so I don’t have it memorized.”

“Ok.” Nick stood up to leave. Abby stood up and flung herself into Nick’s embrace. “Thank you Nick. You really are a great guy. Casey’s lucky she has you.”

Casey entered the room. “Hey now, what are you doing in my boyfriends arms?” She asked teasingly.

“Thanking him for being a great guy.”

Casey snuggled into his free side. “Yeah, he is great.” She then leaned up to kiss him softly.

Nick left the room and returned moments later with the number. He handed it to Abby. “Abby, give him a call. I’m sure he could use that. Then when you’re done, we’ll order Chinese food and a movie ok?”

“Yeah Abby, while you’re on the phone, Nick and I will be out back cuddling. Just co me find us and we’ll order dinner.”

Once Abby was alone in the room, she settled on her bed and grabbed the phone. She dialed the number and waited. “Hello?”

“Hi, can I speak to Brent?”

The woman on the other side hesitated a bit before saying “Sure.”

Abby waiting some more. Soon Brent was on the phone. “Hello?”

“Come back.”

“Who is this?”

“It’s Abby. We need you to come back. No, wait. I need you to come back.”

“I can’t come back there Abby.”

“Why not?”

“It’s Nick’s house, and apparently he doesn’t want me there.”

“You don’t see him. He does want you here.”

“I don’t know about that Abby.”

“Trust me. He misses you. I miss you. I miss your smile. I miss your laugh. I miss the way your eyes twinkle when you laugh. I miss the way you and Nick goof off together.”

He started to chuckle. “Abby, you’re rambling.”

“God Brent, I am so in love with you, you need to come back.”

“W…what did you just say?”

“You need to come back.”

“No before that.”

She pauses to think about it. “I love you.”

“Do you really?”

She paused once again to think. “Yeah, I do love you.”

Now it was Brent’s turn to think. “Can you say it again?” He got a warm feeling
and a sense of completion as Abby said those words again. “I think I love you too.”

“You think?”

“I’m confused about everything right now.”

“It’s ok Brent.” She walked into the kitchen while talking on the phone. At the kitchen table was Nick and Casey. Nick was crying and Casey was trying to comfort him. It was then that Abby realized just how much Nick needs Brent. If she was in Nick’s place, she would have Casey to comfort but Nick doesn’t have his best friend to run to right now. It was then that she realized how much Nick actually does need Brent.

“Hey Abby; earth to Abby.”

“Huh, what?”

“What’s going on over there? You like zoned out on me or something.”

“Sorry, I walked into the kitchen and it hit me how much Nick needs you.”

“What? How does walking into a kitchen tell you that?”

“Because Nick and Casey are there and Nick is upset.”

“How upset?”

“Like the day he told us what happened to him. See Brent, you need to come back.”

“I’ll think about it ok?”

“That’s better than nothing. I should probably go help Casey. Just remember, I miss you. I love you.” She paused hoping he’d say it. When his side stayed quiet, she said. “It’s ok; you don’t have to say it back right now.”

“I’ll talk to you soon Abby. Bye.”

“Bye Brent.” Abby hung up the phone and entered the kitchen completely. “What happened?”

Casey looked at Abby, “Jamie was lurking around outside.”

“Jamie as in…” she lowered her voice and mouthed the next part to Casey, “the asshole who raped him.”

Casey nodded. “We called for security to come watch the house but they can’t get here until tomorrow.” She went back to Nick. “Are you ok?”

He shrugged. “He knows where I live. I don’t feel safe.”

Casey went back to rubbing his back soothingly. “Nick, you should press charges.”

“I can’t, that means I’d have to face him again.”

“But it would be the last time you would have to face him.”

“Just think about it Nick.”

~*~
Meanwhile

Angela was walking through her house looking for Brent. She found him in the den watching old home movies of when he and Nick were little. She also found old photo albums scattered around the room. “What are you doing Brent?”

“I’m frustrated. I need to know what is going on.”

“So, explain to me why you are watching home movies from when you and Nick were 10.”

“I dunno, I thought it would help.” He paused. “You know, Abby called me earlier.”

“Who’s Abby again?”

“Well, before Nick kicked me out, she was my girlfriend.”

“Well then what is she now?”

“I don’t know. She told me that she’s in love with me.”

“And how do you feel about her?”

“I don’t know. I think I might love her.”

“You think that you might?”

“Yeah. When she told me she loved me, I had this really strange warm feeling inside of me and all of a sudden I felt a sense of completeness.” Angela groaned in frustration. “What?”

“Brent how dense can you be?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re over here gushing about how much you love this girl Abby, who I have yet to meet, then you go back to thinking that there’s a possibility that you have relationship type feelings for Nick.”

“But what if I do have relationship type feelings for Nick and I love Abby?”

“Is that even possible?”

“If I’m bi it is.”

“Well are you?”

“I never thought I was but now I’m not so sure.”

“Well, then call Nick.”

“What?”

“You heard me.”

“How can I call Nick?”

“Oh, it’s real easy. Just pick up the phone and dial the 10 numbers that will connect you to the phone in his house.”

“I know how to make a phone call Angela. I just don’t know if he’d want to hear from me.”

“Why?”

“He kicked me out.”

“Damn Brent, get over it. Just because he kicked you out doesn’t mean he hates you. The day Nick Carter hates you is the day I’m the Queen of England. Call him. If his voice invokes in you the same feelings Abby’s voice invoked then you know you have more thinking to do. If it doesn’t, well that right there should be enough evidence that you don’t have relationship type feelings for Nick.”

“Why do you always have to psychoanalyze me?”

“Because I’m a psychiatrist. It’s what I do.” She handed him the phone. “Now call him before I start charging you for my services.”

“Fine I’ll call him.” He grabbed the phone and started dialing Nick’s number. Angela didn’t move. “Um, do you mind giving me some privacy?”

“Oh fine. If I must.” She left the room.

When she was gone, he dialed the number. He held the phone up to his ear waiting for someone to pick up. “Hello?”

“Um…hi.”

“Brent?”

“Yeah.”

Nick was silent for a little bit. “How are you?”

When she was gone, he dialed the number. He held the phone up to his ear waiting for someone to pick up. “Hello?”

“Um…hi.”

“Brent?”

“Yeah.”

Nick was silent for a little bit. “How are you?

“Well, I’ve been better. Um, Abby wants me to come back.”

“Yeah, well, she needs you.” Nick answered in an unsteady voice.

“Ok, I get that Nick, and I wanna come back, really I do. The question is do you really want me back? I mean, come on Nick, you said some nasty shit back there.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry, and I do fucking want you to come back to the house.”

Brent could hear the anger in Nick’s voice. “What the fuck Nick. I didn’t do anything to warrant you talking to me like that.”

“Look Brent, now is really not the best time to talk. I’m sorry.”

“Nick, man, what’s up? Talk to me buddy.”

Nick took a deep unsteady breath. “Jamie was here.”

“That’s why you were upset before.”

“How’d you know about that?”

“I was on the phone with Abby and she told me you were upset, just not why.”

“Yeah, that’s why.” His voice was soft. “Brent come back.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure. I need you to come back as much as Abby needs you to come back. We all need you back.”

“Not all Nick. Casey doesn’t need me to come back.”

“What are you smoking Brent? Of course Casey needs you to come back. Without you here, she has to deal with both her best friend and her boyfriend moping because we miss you.”

“Moping? Nick you were moping?”

“Ok, so I wasn’t really moping. More like being pissed off and causing problems around the house.”

“Now that’s more like you.”

“Yeah, so when are you coming back?”

“I don’t know.”

“Brent, come on. How much more convincing do I need to do? We want you back here.”

“I know Nick and I’m glad you want me to come back. But I want to spend some more time with my sister; time when I’m not acting like a basket case. I’ll come back in a week.”

“Ok, I’m going to hold you to that.”

“I’ll call you when I have my flight info.”

“Ok.”

“I’ll talk to you soon Nick,”

“Brent wait.”

“What?”

“You know I love you right?”

“Yeah, I know, me too. It means a lot to me that you just told me. I’ll call you. Bye Nick.”

“Bye.”

Casey was lounging on the couch reading a book, when the doorbell interrupted her. She folded the corner of her page and got up to answer the door. She opened the door and wasn’t exactly sure who was standing on the porch.

The older man looked at Casey confused. He turned to his wife who shrugged, then turned back to Casey. “Is Nick home?”

“Yeah, he’s upstairs on the phone. Come in.”

Ginger was looking over Casey. “So which girlfriend are you again? It must have slipped my mind.”

“Excuse me.”

“I know Nick has his fair share of women, so which one are you? You must be the dumbest of them all yet.”

“What?”

Aaron sneered at her. “Are you back for seconds.”

Nick chose that moment to walk into the room. “What the fuck is going on here?”

“Nickolas, watch your mouth.”

“No Dad, I won’t. I come downstairs to hear my family ganging up on my girlfriend. I have a right to be pissed.”

Aaron looked at Nick. “I can’t believe you’re sticking up for your slut.”

Ginger finished. “We were just telling her what to expect from you.”

Casey was biting her tongue. She looked at Nick and could tell that he was really angry.

Nick pointed to Ginger. “You never liked me, so I know why you’re causing shit.” He turned to Aaron. “And you, what is your problem?”

BJ picked that moment to push past the fight. She put an arm around Casey and grabbed Nick’s arm. He looked at her. “Come on Nick,” He followed his sister, who was leading Casey into Nick’s room. BJ let her arm drop from around Casey’s shoulder. She turned to Casey. “Please don’t be offended, but I don’t remember your name. But I do remember you. I liked you immediately when I met you and I remember thinking to myself that you were exactly the type of girl Nick needed. So I’m really happy you two got together. I’m going to go downstairs and yell at them.” BJ left the room. She stood on the top of the stairs watching the scene in the living room.

Leslie and Angel were talking amongst themselves, Ginger and Aaron was standing there with their arms crossed and Bob was standing there, confused, cradling Kanden. She watched as Angel broke away from her conversation with Leslie and marched up to Aaron and smack him hard across the face. BJ stepped off to the side as Angel ran up the stairs. BJ went downstairs.

Nick heard footsteps run up the stairs. He looked up when he felt someone looking at him. “It’s ok Angel, you can come in.”

She entered the room. “Aaron has been a dick ever since you, um, ever since it happened. He’s worried, he just doesn’t want to show it. He’s scared too. We all are.”

“Ever since I what?”

“Since you tried to kill yourself.” Nick looked at her in complete shock. “What?”

“You mean to tell me that you guys haven’t gotten over that yet?”

“Get over it? Nick how can we get over something like that? I still have nightmares about coming home and finding out you tried to kill yourself, or worse, that you succeeded.”

“But you don’t have to worry about that. I’m fine now. I haven’t even thought about attempting suicide for almost a year now.”

“I know, but it still scares us.”

“I’m sorry.”

“We know Nick. Can we talk about something else now?”

“Sure, you can start by telling me what everyone is doing here?”

“Would you believe me if I said quality family time.”

“Not with this family. We can barely go five minutes without a fight erupting.”

“It was Dad’s idea to surprise you. It turned out to be a bad surprise though.”

“No, it would have been a nice surprise if you left Ginger and Aaron home.”

“Very funny Nick.”

“What? I’m serious.”

“You mean to tell me that you don’t want Aaron here.”

“Not if he’s going to act like that. I love him, and that will never change because he is my little brother, but right now, with the way he’s acting, I’m ashamed to admit he’s related to me.”

“Nick, come on. At least you have a family to be protective over you. In his own weird way, he’s showing you he loves you.”

“Casey, how is disrespecting you an act of love?”

“I don’t know. I’m just saying maybe he thinks he’s looking out for you; trying not to hurt you.”

“That is some serious bull right there Casey and you know it. By acting this way, he is hurting me. He’s putting up a front because he wants to act like he doesn’t care, so that way if I do end up killing myself, remember I’m being hypothetical, he can pretend that it isn’t bothering him.”

“Um, Nick, don’t mind me if I seem ignorant, but who is Ginger?”

“Well, the Ginger that is downstairs is our step mother and she has never liked me.”

“And that Aaron has been feeding her lies.”

“How so?”

“You remember the last time we were here.” Nick nodded. “Well, Aaron went home and made it seem like you had a different girl every night and sometimes more than one girl in a day.”

“I don’t even think I had a girl during those couple days.”

“You were living with two female roommates.”

“God, I wasn’t fucking them, no offense Casey, and the living arrangement was only temporary, at the time. I really don’t need my brother fucking lying about me to someone who dislikes me to begin with.” Nick fell back on his bed and groaned in frustration.

Casey moved his arm that was closer to her and lied down next to him. She grabbed his arm to put around her. She rested her head on his chest. “You better not move; I’m comfortable.” Nick kissed the top of her head.

Angel giggled. “You two are so cute. I’m going to leave you two alone to go join the fight downstairs.” She turned and left the room. Then she poked her head back into the room. “Behave, I’m not ready to be an aunt, so I don’t want any nieces or nephews arriving in 9 months.”

Nick reached behind his head, grabbed his pillow and chucked it at his little sister. He screamed after his sister, “You’re already an aunt.” Angel poked her in head in for a final time to stick her tongue out at Nick.

Casey giggled. “I like your sisters Nicky.”

“Yeah, they’re cool. My brother used to be cool.”

“Don’t give up on him.”

“I’m not, but you’ve met him twice and I’m sure he didn’t make a great first impression.”

“Ok, I’ll give you that. Although, I met Kanden, and I must say, he is a cutie.”

“Girls and babies.” Casey smacked his shoulder.

“You’re an uncle?” Casey asked randomly.

He chuckled, “What?”

“You reminded your sister that she already is an aunt. So that means you have an illegitimate child, you are counting your unborn child, or you are an uncle.”

“No, I don’t have an illegitimate child. No I’m not counting my unborn child because my unborn child wasn’t given the opportunity to live. Yes I am an uncle.”

“BJ?”

“No, I have an older sister.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, she lives in New York, just outside of Buffalo. She’s 6 years older than me and has a son.”

“Where outside of Buffalo?”

“Jamestown.”

She lifted her head off his chest to look at him. “What’s her name?”

“Ginger Carter. And before you ask, yes she is married, she kept her last name though.”

“Did she do a lot of volunteer work and a lot of babysitting?”

Nick looked at Casey. “Yeah, how did you know that?”

“First, I need to make you aware that I’m originally from Jamestown. Well, when I was little, I had a babysitter named Ginger, but I’m not sure what her last name was.
She always used to take me to help clean up the playgrounds and that kind of stuff.”

“Would you be able to recognize her if you saw a picture?”

“Probably.”

“Ok.” Nick gently pushed her up and went to his desk where his laptop was. He looked around his pictures on his computer until he found a picture of him and Ginger from when he was 12. “Ok, completely disregard the awkward kid in the picture with her, that’s just me at 12.”

She laughed and then glanced at the picture. She gasped. “That’s her.”

“Wow, that’s cool. Maybe I should get her to come for a visit.”

“Yeah, that’d be wicked.”

“Ok then. Hand me the phone.” Casey jumped off his lap and grabbed the cordless that was resting beside his bed. He dialed the 10 digit number he knew so well and waited for his sister to pick up. “Hey Gin.”

“Hey little brother, it’s been awhile.”

“Yeah, I know. I’ve been pretty busy. I have a proposition for you. How much of your schedule can you free up?”

“Whoa! Where’d that come from?”

“I miss you and I want you to come see me in Florida. Also I want you to meet someone.”

“A certain special someone? Has Nicky got a girlfriend?”

He smiled. “Maybe. You’ll just have to come to Florida to find out.”

“When?”

“Whenever you can get free.”

“Um, my vacation starts tomorrow Nicky.”

“So come tomorrow.”

“I’ll be there. We’ll be on the next flight.”

“Great, then I’ll see you tomorrow.” He hung up the phone. “She’ll be here tomorrow, most likely with her husband and son.”

“Oh my god. It’s been so long.”

“Yeah, I’m sure it has. You’re not going to freak out on me are you?”

“No. Why would I do such a thing?”

“So you aren’t going to go crazy with silly thoughts like what if she doesn’t remember me? And other such what ifs?”

“No. If she doesn’t remember me, that will be ok.”

The conversation seemed to die down a bit, but it was a comfortable silence. “I think my family left.”

“Well, let’s go watch a nice relaxed movie babe?”

“Sounds good, but let’s stay up here.”

They put in the movie and cuddled together on Nick’s bed. About a half hour into the movie the phone rang. He reached blindly for the phone and answered. “Yeah?”

“Are you busy?”

“No, just watching a movie.”

“Can you be at the airport by 7?”

“Yeah, but if I’m not there by 7:15, that means I fell asleep on the movie and you’ll have to call me to wake me up.”

“Don’t you dare fall asleep.”

“I can’t promise that.”

“Arrg. You’re useless.”

Casey was struggling to get comfortable. “Nicky, lie back down. I’m not comfy anymore.”

“Oh Nicky. Who is that?”

“Well, I better go so I can watch the movie. I’ll see ya at the airport. Love ya.”

“No Nick don’t you dare hang up this phone. I want to know…” Nick hung up the phone and lied back down so Casey would get comfortable again.

“I have to pick them up at 7.”

Casey looked to Nick and smiled. “Ok.”

They turned their attention to the movie. Soon Nick felt himself drifting off. He tried to stay awake so that he wouldn’t be late, but he fell asleep anyway.

“Nicky. Nickolas, wake up. You’re going to be late?”

“What?” He asked groggily.

“Wake up. It’s almost 7:00.”

“7. Ok.” He closed his eyes and was falling back to sleep.

“Nickolas.” He wouldn’t wake up. “Oh fine.” She climbed on the bed and straddled him, kissing him hard until he responded. Once he started responding, she jumped off him and he opened his eyes to glare at her. “It is now 7 o’clock. You are officially late.”

“Holy shit, why didn’t you wake me up sooner?”

“I tried, you wouldn’t budge.”

He grinned sheepishly. “Sorry.” Once he had his shoes on he grabbed his keys and headed out the door.

He entered the airport and looked around. He spotted Ginger holding her son’s hand while she fished in her pocket book for her phone. “There’s no reason to call my house. You won’t reach me there.”

Ginger turned around. “It’s almost 20 after.”

“I’ve actually been circling the parking lot for the past 5 minutes.”

“So that means you are STILL 15 minutes late. You fell asleep didn’t you?” He bit his bottom lip and nodded. “Didn’t I tell you that you better not fall asleep?”

“Yes, but I also said I couldn’t promise that.”

“I know, but you were the one who wanted me to come up so bad.” Nick gave her his best puppy dog face. “I GIVE UP! So, where is this mystery person you wanted me to meet so badly.”

“Not here.”

“OH NICKOLAS. It is obvious that she isn’t HERE. So where is she?”

“At home, probably wondering why we’re taking so long.”

“At home, her house waiting for you to call, or at home your house.”

“At home, OUR house.”

“You live with this girl already? Where the hell was I when you got into a serious relationship?”

“Well, it, uh…it started out as a friendship.”

“I could have told you that. How long have you been with her?”

He shrugged. “Couple months.”

“Aren’t you moving kinda fast?”

“Nope.”

“A couple months and you already live together. Seems fast to me.”

“Yeah, well, we were living together first. It took us forever to start going out. Plus, she has seen me at some of my most vulnerable times.”

“No offense Nicky, but she’s seen you at your vulnerable times and is still with you?

“Oh, just friggin bite me would ya?”

“You better get to your house in record time because I wanna meet this girl and now.”

“Yeah, yeah. Relax will you. She’ll still be there.” He paused slightly. “Hopefully forever.”

“Oh, you didn’t tell me you were in love.”

“You didn’t ask. But yes, I am in love and things are looking up for me now.”

“Good, I’m glad you’re happy again. I don’t like you depressed.

“Nobody does.”

“Why are we still standing around this airport? To your house and fast. I have a girlfriend of yours to attack.”

“Well, then get in the damn car.”

“Ok, ok.”

Once everything and everyone was loaded into the car, Nick started home. 15 minutes later, they pulled into the driveway. “Nicky, leave our bags in the car. I want to meet your girlfriend first.”

Nick led them to the house and opened the door. Tommy, Ginger’s son, immediately started playing with Nick’s puppy that just rounded the corner. “So where is she?”

“Like I said, she’s here. Unless she heard you say that you are anxious to meet her and scared her off.” He moved to right by the staircase.

“Well now, maybe it’s your freak of nature style that scared her away. Maybe someone knocked some sense into her.”

“If I’m a freak of nature, what do you think that makes you?”

“The freak’s older sister?

“Well, sure, if you’re gonna get technical. But that would only work had I not shadowed you whenever we were together. Sorry big sis, if I’m a freak, that makes you worse, since I learned from you.”

“Yeah, but you were the test subject. Geez Nicky. I would have thought you had figured that out by now.”

“So if I’m the test subject, what would that make you? The psychotic scientist?”

“Most definitely.”

“I’m amazed that so many parents trusted you to baby-sit their young children, you know with you being psychotic and all.”

“Hey bab…aahhh.” Nick turned around in enough time to see Casey stumble. He quickly grabbed her to steady her. Casey regained her balance in Nick’s arms and looked up. She smiled at him then quickly kissed his nose. “Just in time babe. The cookies are still warm.”

“Cookies? Why’d you make cookies?”

“Just thought it’d be nice. You didn’t want me to?’

“It was a nice gesture, but you didn’t have to. You don’t have to work at impressing anybody.”

Ginger cleared her throat behind Nick. “Uh Nick. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“Why, you’ll corrupt her. If you haven’t already.”

Tommy stuck his head around Ginger’s leg. “Uncle Nicky, whose she?”

Casey broke away from Nick and knelt down to Tommy’s level. “Hi. I’m Casey. I’m a really close friend to your Uncle Nicky.”

“You mean you kiss and smootch like mommy and daddy?’

Nick looked at Tommy wide eyed. “Whoa little man, where do you hear this? Have you been talking to Uncle Aaron?”

“Nick, enough. Tommy go play.”

“Ok Mommy.”

Casey approached Ginger. “Hi, I’m Casey.”

Ginger hugged Casey tightly. “Thank you for making him happy again.” Ginger pulled back to look at Casey. “You are very pretty. What can you POSSIBLY see in my freak of a brother?”

“He’s not a freak, just a hopeless romantic.”

“HE is still in the room you know.” Ginger and Casey continued to ignore him. He walked up to Casey and put his arms around her waist. Casey smacked his hands off her waist. He removed his arms. “I’m going to go hang out with Tommy.”

“You do that. At least it will be someone up to your par.” Nick didn’t justify that with a response. He glared at Ginger then left the room. Ginger giggled. “Oops, I think I went a little far with that retort.” She looked at Casey. “Why do you look so familiar?”

“You used to be my baby-sitter.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah.”

Ginger thought about it. “Impossible. I’ve never baby-sat a girl named Casey.”

“I changed my name. It used to be Lindsay.”

“You can’t be that girl who used to come with my to my NYPIRG (New York Public Interest Research Group) meetings.”

“Yep, and we cleaned up the playgrounds too. Do you remember?

Ginger looked at Casey closely. “Oh my god, I do remember you. We really do live in a small world.” Ginger pauses. “Wait a minutes, aren’t you too young for my brother.”

“Uh, maybe…wait, no way…age is only a number. You taught me that.”

Ginger giggled. “Oh yeah, I did teach you that. Just out of curiosity, how much younger are you?”

“6 years.”

“Eh, not so bad. I was either making Nick older than he is or making you younger, because I was thinking there was like 10 years between you or something.”

“Nope.”

Ginger looked over at Nick and bit her lower lip.

“Why are you looking at me like that Ginger?”

“Damn it Nick. How the hell did you even know I was looking at you? Your back is to me.”

“I can feel the holes you’re burning in my damn back. She’s right you know, age is only a number.”

“No swearing around my son Nickolas.”

“Aww, he isn’t even listening to me.”

“Have I ever mentioned how much you frustrate me?”

“Yep, but have I told you how much I don’t give a shit?”

“Nickolas mouth.”

“Geez. I didn’t know that this place was a nunnery.” Casey stood up and went over to where Nick was sitting. She sat on his lap and rested her head on his shoulder. Nick yawned. “I think I’m going to head to bed. You two can stay down here and talk.”

“Nah, I’m gonna go to bed too.” Casey announced. The three of them stood up and headed off to bed.

The next morning, Casey walked out of Nick’s room as Ginger was walking down the hall. Ginger stopped short as she saw Casey come out of Nick’s room. “Did you just come out of Nick’s room?”

“Uhh…ummm…why?”

“Are you sure you two aren’t moving too fast?”

“Hey now. I never said I slept in his room.”

Ginger gave Casey a confused look. “If you weren’t sleeping in there what were you doing in there at 9 in the morning.”

“I’m pleading the fifth.”

“Tell me.”

“Why? So you can judge us like Aaron and the other misses?” Casey paused and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry. That didn’t come out right.”

“I’m not going to judge you. A blind person can see that you make him happy. I’m afraid you two are moving too fast. Please, tell me why you were in my brother’s room.”

“I sleep in there sometimes. It makes me feel…safe.”

Ginger nodded. “You two confuse me. I’m going to go make breakfast.”

“How do we confuse you? I’ll help.”

“A couple minutes ago, you got defensive saying you didn’t sleep in his room, but then you said you did sleep in his room. Should we make enough food for Nick too? I personally think we shouldn’t.”

“Well, it’s just that Aaron was totally disrespecting him because of us. Nah, no food for Nicky.” Ginger stared at Casey in shock. “What? He can make his own damn food.”

“Ok then, you deal with the puppy dog look when he does wake up to no food prepared for him.”

“Been there, done that, got the hate that goes with the shirt too.”

“Ok then. Let’s make breakfast.”

“Ok.”

After they ate, they stayed in the kitchen talking until Ginger looked at the clock and noticed it was noon. “Is it weird that he isn’t awake yet?

“Um, yeah. Maybe we should check on him?”

“We probably should.” Ginger and Casey went up to Nick’s room. She turned to Casey. “You go in.”

“Sure.” She pushed the door open a bit. “Hey Nicky, are you awake?” When her question was met with silence she pushed the door open wider to see him smoking on the balcony. Casey went to the door that leads onto the balcony, followed by Ginger. “Morning Nicky.” Nick turned and saw Casey and Ginger coming out onto his balcony. He flicked his half used cigarette off the balcony. “Wow, is Nick Carter finally gonna give up smoking?”

“Uh, smoking? Oh yeah…over and done with.”

“Bullshit Nicky, I know you can’t just quit like that and you’ll be sneaking out here to smoke when you think I’m not paying attention.”

“Yeah, I…uh…no you’re right.”

“If you aren’t planning on stopping why didn’t you just finish your cigarette?” Ginger questioned.

“Uh, ‘cause I know you don’t like to see me smoke.”

“I’m not going to force you, but do you think you can try to stop smoking?” Casey asked.

“I’ll try. I can’t promise you that I’ll succeed, but I promise you I will try. Actually, I’d like to take a shower right now, so can you two ladies go somewhere else to gossip?”

“Sure.” Casey and Ginger left his room to give him the privacy he asked for. “Ginger.” Casey asked nervously.

“Yeah sweetie?”

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Sure what is it?”

“Um, well…um, a…um.”

“Are you ok? What is it?”

“I’m scared.”

“Scared of what?”

Casey took a deep breath. “A couple months ago, Nick and I were, um, you know, and the condom broke. I didn’t think anything of it, but I haven’t been feeling well, and I’m late and I’m scared.

“Wow, um, does he know?”

Casey shook her head. “Not yet.”

“Well, you have to let him know that there’s a possibility. Do you even know for sure?”

“No, my doctor’s appointment is this afternoon.”

“Well, I can keep him busy with Tommy.”

“I want you to come with me.”

“Ok, then I’ll get Tommy to get him involved in a game of hide and go seek.”

Casey hugged Ginger. “Thank you for not judging me.”

“Not a problem girl.”

After Ginger heard the shower shut off, she waited a few minutes before sending Tommy upstairs to distract Nick. Casey and Ginger left for Casey’s doctor’s appointment. Soon after, he put Tommy down for his nap and did his laundry. While doing his laundry, he found some of Casey’s clothes mixed with his so he put them in her room. In her room, he accidentally knocked over a pile of papers. He was shocked at what he found. He went back to his room and got lost in thought.

“Hey Nick. We’re back. We have some good news too.” Casey screamed to Nick. Nick left his room and sat on top of the stairs waiting to be noticed.

“I wonder where he is.”

“I don’t know. NI…” Casey looked up the stairs and saw Nick. “Why are you sitting up there?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?’

“Tell you? I just found out myself.”

“Impossible. There’s no way you could have possibly just found out.”
“What are you talking about?”

“What do you think I’m talking aobut?”

“My doctor’s appointment.”

“Doctor’s appointment? What doctor’s appointment? What are you talking about?”

“I…I just found out that I’m pregnant Nick. What are you talking about?”

“The threats that were piled by your bed.”

“Threats? Why…what were you doing in my room?”

“I was returning your laundry that managed to get mixed up with mine.”

“I don’t care! You still had no right to look through my mail and personal papers.”

Ginger rested her hand on Casey’s back to soother her. “Casey, calm down. It’s not good for you to get this stressed.”

“I know Ginger.”

“Wait, back this up a bit. Why isn’t it good for her to get ‘this stressed out’?” He used his hands to imitate quotations.”

“Weren’t you listening to a word I said? I’m pregnant.”

“What? When? How’d that happen?”

“Do I need to draw you a diagram Blondie? How do you think it happened?”

“No, I mean, we were protected…weren’t we?”

“It broke.”

“Ok, that still doesn’t explain the damn threats you’ve been hiding.”

“You still haven’t explained what you were doing looking through my stuff.”

“I wasn’t looking, well not technically. I accidentally knocked it over, and came across it when I was picking it up.”

“Just because you knocked something over doesn’t mean you have to look at what you knocked over.

“I know, but it’s kinda hard not to when it’s addressed to Lindsay, and there’s not really anybody that knows you’re here.”

“You shouldn’t have been in my room to begin with.”

“I don’t have time for this right now. I have to get ready for my concert tonight.”

“Yeah, go ahead, runaway. By the way, I’m not going.”

“Why? Do you like pissing me off?”

“Yeah, maybe I do. But what do you care?”

“So you think I don’t care about you?”

“Hey I never said that. But while we’re on the topic do you?”

“How can you even ask me that?”

“Isn’t it friggin obvious?”

“No it isn’t.”

“It…You know what? Go to hell!”

Nick clenched his jaw in hopes to keep from crying. He took a shaky breath. “Everything is in your hands right now. Including our relationship.”

“Do we even have one right now? You know what, if I’m here, when you get back you know where we stand.”

Nick nodded and headed to his room, hoping that neither Casey or Ginger saw the tears that escaped from his eyes.

“Casey, you don’t mean that.”

“Yes I do.”

“How? I mean, just a little while ago, he was everything to you. You guys are gonna be parents.”

“You’re point? I thought he was ready, but now I’m not too sure.”

“Why aren’t you sure?”

Nick came downstairs with a bag packed for his show on his shoulder. “I’m leaving now.” He announced quietly.

“Wait, little bro, Tommy wants to go with you.”

“Um, I don’t have anyone who can watch him when I’m on stage.”

“Well, me and Casey will go to then. Right Casey?”

“You can go. I have no reason to be there.”

“Sure you do Casey. You have every reason to be there. So are you coming?” Ginger asked.

“Fine, but only to hang out with Tommy.”

“Are we going separately or together.” Nick asked.

“Separate. I will not be in the same car as you.”

“Do you hate me that much?”

“I’m not justifying that with an answer.”

“You just gave me your answer.” He turns to leave.

“Grow up Nickolas. Fathers need to be grown up before the children.”

“I have to grow up? You mean for going to leave. Well guess what? I’m late for work, so answer this, how is leaving being childish?

“Leaving isn’t what I’m talking about. It’s the way you’re handling this.”

“How the hell am I supposed to take this? This morning, I woke up happy and in love, and now, I don’t know if I’ll even have a girlfriend when I go to sleep tonight.”

“Well, you’ll figure it out, now won’t you?”

He sighed. “Let’s just go to the damn concert. I just want this night to end.”

“You can go. Remember we are going separately.”

“I know. See ya there?”

“You won’t see me.”

Nick left for the concert. He went through the motions of his pre-show rituals until he found himself on stage in front of his audience. About half way through the show, a fan threw a teddy bear up onto the stage that Nick was unaware of. He tripped over the teddy bear. As he was regaining his balance, his foot got caught on a wire that was supposed to be taped to the stage. As he fell, his foot got tangled causing him to fall at an awkward angle and land heavily on his mic pack that was hooked to the back of his pants.

Casey was sitting on Nick’s couch crying. Ginger entered the living room. “Well, he’s resting as comfortably as he can get with a severely bruised tailbone and a torn muscle in his leg.

Casey took a deep breath. “And it’s ALL because of me. I know that already.”

“It’s not your fault.”

“It is. He wasn’t concentrating.”

“Casey, he tripped over a teddy bear; that has nothing to do with concentration. Why do you feel this is your fault?”

“Because I made him mad, he would have seen it if he wasn’t so mad at me.”

“Not necessarily.”

“How can you say that? I made him upset, angry and I made him think I was breaking up with him. There’s no way he had enough concentration to not trip over that teddy bear. And it’s all my fault.”

“Well, go talk to him. He wants you up there with him.”

“I don’t see how or why he’d want me up there.”

“Just go see him.”

“I can’t.”

“You can. You know you can. He needs you right now.”

“I’ll only hurt him.”

“The only way you will hurt him right now is to not go see him.”

“But…”

“But nothing. Didn’t you tell me you only felt safe with him?” Casey nods. “Then go to him.”

“Fine, but if anything happens it’s your fault this time.”

Casey stood up and slowly went upstairs to Nick’s room. She took a deep breath before she opened his door and quietly slipped in. She stayed in the corner of his room closest to the door, completely opposite to where Nick was lying.

Nick’s eyes were closed, but he could still feel Casey’s presence in the room. He opened his eyes to assess where in the room she was. “Casey, are you going to do anything other than stand in the corner starring at me?”

“What do I say? I mean this is all my fault.”

“It isn’t your fault. Now get over here.”

She cautiously approached his bed. “I’m so sorry I never told you.”

“It’s ok.”

“No, it’s not ok. I’m just so, so sorry. All I ever do is cause you pain.”

“No you don’t.” He moved so he could see Casey better, he winced in pain at the slight movement.

“Can…can we not argue anymore. I’m just so sorry.”

Nick nods. “Can you just answer something for me first?”

“What is it?”

“Why are you blaming yourself for this?”

“Because if you weren’t so mad at me, it never would have happened.”

“This would have still happened.

“You don’t know that. I mean…I don’t know anymore.”

“I do know that. Because I know how to leave my personal stuff off stage. I wasn’t thinking about our fight. I was just thinking that I had a show to do and an audience to please. I was in the same mind frame as if we didn’t fight right before the argument.

“Ok, fine. Let’s drop it ok?”

“Consider it dropped.”

“Thank you. Now can I lay down with you?”

“Just don’t hold me too tightly.”

“Ok.” She gets into bed with him and accidentally kicks his injured leg. He tries really hard not to wince or voice pain. He couldn’t do it and let out a small whimper. “Oh no. I’m so sorry. I should go in my own bed.”

“No stay.”

“But what if I hurt you again?”

“I want you to stay. Just be careful.”

“I will. I promise.”

Nick tried to get comfortable. When he discovered that every position he was once comfortable in are now uncomfortable due to his injury, he gave up. He groaned in pain and frustration.

“What?” Do you need something?”

“No, I just can’t get comfortable. Every position I usually fall asleep in is uncomfortable.”

“Can you cuddle? That might help.”

“I dunno.” He answered in a voice laced with pain.

“When did you take your pain killers?”

“I think only at the hospital.”

“Can you take some more? Or is that too many?”

“Too many.”

“Oh ok, well let’s relax and watch a movie.”

“Watch a movie I can do. Relaxing might be easier said than done.”

“Do you want me to rub your shoulders?”

“Will that require moving?”

“Um, not if you don’t want to move. I can rub them from here.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to move, I just don’t think I can without hurting too much.”

“Well, don’t move. I’ll do it from here.” Casey repositioned herself to rub his shoulders.

“Are you sure that won’t be too uncomfortable for you?”

“I’m sure. It’s you I’m worried about.”

“Why are you worried about me?”

“Well, let’s just say it’s the subject we dropped earlier.”

“Ok you. I’m on pain killers, which means my mind is clouded right now. No talking in riddles. Please tell me why you are worried about me so I can make you stop worrying.”

“Because of our fight. I just want you to know I don’t doubt us.”

“I know you don’t doubt us.”

“I just wanted to make sure because of what I…”

Nick interrupted her. “If I could turn around and kiss you, I would just to shut you up. I don’t doubt us.”

“Ok.”

“You aren’t allowed to worry. You need to keep my baby safe and healthy.”

“I…I can’t help it but worry.”

“Baby, please stop worrying.”

Casey momentarily stopped rubbing Nick’s shoulders to put the movie on. She got into bed and continued trying to relax Nick. “Nick, are we ok?”

“I think we are. Casey, if I could, I would turn around and show you how much I love you.”

“I love you too Nicky.”

They settled into the bed to watch the movie. Half-way through the movie, Casey turned to tell Nick something to find that he fell asleep. She snuggled into his chest, careful not to hurt him.

The next morning, Casey carefully climbed out of bed. She did what she had to in the bathroom, then she went downstairs to start breakfast.

When the food was prepared, she put a serving on a tray to bring up to Nick. When she entered his room, she was shocked to find him cautiously walking back to bed. “What are you doing out of bed?”

“I needed to use the bathroom.”

“Ok. You are allowed out of bed for that. Do you want help?”

“No. I made it to the bathroom alone. I can make it back to bed alone.”

She bit her lower lip as she watched him walk slowly to his bed, using the wall and furniture as a walking aid. When he reached the bed, she helped him get comfortable. She placed his tray of food on his lap. “Do you need anything else?”

“My pain killers.”

“You were just in the bathroom and you didn’t take them?”

“I didn’t want to remain standing for longer than necessary and I knew you or Ginger would be up here to check on me.”

“Ok, I’ll get them for you.” She walked toward the bathroom. Before she went into the bathroom, she approached his side of the bed. She kissed him softly, “I love you.”

She started to walk away, he reached out and grabbed her wrist and pulled her back gently. He pulled her into a sweet kiss. “I love you and I have no doubt in us. Remember that. You have nothing to worry about. When you return with my pain killers, we need to talk. It is nothing bad, so don’t worry. We just need to talk before my brain becomes foggy.”

She nodded then disappeared into the bathroom. She re-emerged seconds later with his pain killers. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Are you happy about carrying my child?”

She nods eagerly. “I will admit though, I had wanted to wait until I was older and more settled, but I wouldn’t trade being pregnant now for anything. Are you happy?”

“Absolutely. Ever since I met you, I have dreamed of you having my babies. Granted, like you I was expecting it much later. But I have no problem with now.”

“I love you Nick.”

“I love you too Casey.” Casey repositioned herself so that she could kiss him without hurting him and making herself uncomfortable.

It was a very passionate kiss, and they didn’t even hear the doorbell. Their kiss was interrupted when Nick’s bedroom door opened. “Damn you two.” He looked at Nick. “You’re injured and yet you are still making out with your girlfriend.”

Nick looked at the door and smiled. “Brent, what are you doing here? I thought you weren’t going to come back for a few days.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, but then you got hurt.”

“You didn’t have to come back. I tripped over a teddy bear. I’ll be fine in a little over a week.”

“Yes, but in New York, I wasn’t aware that you only tripped over a teddy bear.”

“I’m sorry, I’m on pain killers; I didn’t think to call you.”

“Not a problem Nick. I thought something serious happened to you.” Nick gave him a confused look. “I was reading this morning’s paper, and on the front page of the entertainment section there was a headline, ‘Freak accident lands Nick Carter in hospital.’”

“Freak accident? Yeah it was an accident but it definitely was not a freak accident.”

“And as for the hospitalization portion, we took him to the emergency room when we discovered that he couldn’t stand up on his own. We were there for like 2 or 3 hours, but he was never admitted.”

“If you wanted to spend some more time with your sister, you could have. You could have just called.”

“I was going to call. But then I realized that I’d be completely freaking out on whoever answered the phone so I needed time to calm down so when I dialed, I dialed the airport and got a flight here. Figuring that would give me enough time to calm down before I got here.”

Abby, who had been helping out a friend of hers for the past couple days and just got back and filled in on what happened, entered Nick’s room. She didn’t notice Brent and walked right past him. “Hey Nick, how are you feeling?”

Nick gave her a look. He chuckled, “how do you think I feel?”

She giggled. “Oops, stupid question.”

Nick looked at Brent and saw that he wanted to say something to Abby but he was nervous. Nick turned his attention back to Abby. “Hey Abby, turn around.”

She gave Nick a baffled look but turned around anyway. “BRENT.” She walked up to him and flung herself into his arms. “I’ve missed you so much.”

He returned her hug and realized just how much he missed holding her. He was filled with the same feelings while holding Abby that he had when Abby told him that she loves him. He looked over to Nick and saw that him and Casey were cuddling and talking quietly and kissing each other in between words. He kept looking at them, and then turned to Abby, “Is it just me, or are they more in love now than when I left?”

“It isn’t you. They seem more in love to me too and I was only gone for like 3 days as opposed to your couple months.” Abby smirked at Brent, then she said. “Ok, you two, besides that fact that Nick is injured, you have company.”

Casey smirked back. “I love him, therefore I am going to show him. She purposely turned around and kissed him.

Abby pretended to gag. “You loved him when I left but you weren’t this lovey.”

Casey threw the pillow that Nick wasn’t using to lean against at Abby.
“Something changed.”

“What changed?”

“Part of him is growing inside of me.”

Abby gave her a “duh” look. “You love him, of course he’s part of you.”

Casey shook her head. “Not what I mean.”

“Then what do you mean?”

Casey giggled. “I’m pregnant. So, literally, part of him is growing inside of me.”

Abby squealed and ran to pull Casey into a hug. After she released her, she ran to the other side of the bed and hugged Nick gently. “That’s so great.”

Brent followed Abby’s example. He hugged Casey then hugged Nick. “Congratulations. I’m really happy for you.” The four friends fell into a friendly conversation of teasing and laughing.

Ginger knocked on the door and let herself in. “Hey Nick. The venue sent over the teddy bear that you tripped on.”

Ginger gave him the bear. He chuckled. “So, this is the culprit responsible for my injury. It is actually kinda cute.” He looked at the bear a little closer. “Hey, it has a note.” He took the note out of the envelope and read it to himself.

Nick,
Hey fagstreet boy. Looking forward to another encounter? I sure am.
Jamie

Behind the note, there were pictures from the night that Jamie raped Nick. Color drained from Nick’s face and he whimpered.

Casey, Brent and Abby looked at the note and pictures. “Nick, give the pictures and note to me. I’m going to the police station.” Nick nodded and handed over the papers. Casey made sure to stay in physical contact with Nick.

Brent gave Nick’s shoulder an affectionate squeeze and left. He left the house and went straight to the police station. He was at the station for awhile, but he got a lot done. He was able to file a rape report and get a restraining order. The officer he spoke to didn’t want to do it without Nick’s presence, but Brent calmly explained that Nick was injured and couldn’t be there. Satisfied at what he got down at the police station he got in his car to go home. On his way home he passed drug store. At the last minute, he entered the parking lot, got what he wanted and left.

He got home to find Nick, Abby, Casey and Ginger right where he left them. Abby got up off the chair she was sitting on so Brent could sit. Once he was settled, she sat on his lap. “Brent, what’s in the bag?” Abby peered in and took out one of the object and realized that they were all the same. “5 cans of mase?”

“With Nick getting threatened, I was only going to buy 1, but the 3 of us live here too, so that might put us in danger. And Ginger.”

“I’m getting threats too.” Casey spoke up quietly.

Abby snapped her head toward Casey. “You what?”

“I think my father knows where I am.”

Abby gasped. “Oh, no.”

Nick, who looked like he was falling asleep, opened his eyes. “We need to seriously tighten security around here.”

“There’s already 5 guards guarding the house.”

“We need to at least triple the guards.”

Abby went pale. “Um, guys? What if this Jamie person who is after Nick has teamed up with Casey’s father?”

“That doesn’t make sense Abby.”

“Yeah it does Casey. It might not be likely or true, but it is something we should look out for.”

~*~

Jamie entered the apartment that he was currently sharing with Jim and angrily slammed the door shut behind him.

Jim entered the room, sharpening a knife. “What got your panties all in a knot?”

“Fucking security guards. I can’t get near the house.”

“I thought you said there was only 5 guards around the house?”

“I did. Because at the time there was only 5 guards. Now, they must suspect
something because I was just there and there was like 30 something guards. They were everywhere.”

Jim stepped up to Jamie and held the knife up to Jamie’s neck. “You swore to me that guards weren’t a problem.”

“A few guards isn’t a problem, but I can’t take on an entire army.”
Jim relaxed a bit. “True. We need a new plan.”

It was a couple weeks after his accident. He no longer needed his pain killers and he no longer needed to stay in bed. He was still limping but as long as he didn’t do too much consecutive walking, he’d be fine. Ginger, who had stayed longer than she initially planned to help take care of Nick, left when Nick was feeling better.
He had been awake for about five minutes, starring at Casey who was sleeping next to him. He watched her for a few more minutes before getting up to use the bathroom.
He finished in the bathroom and entered his room. He smiled at Casey, who was still sleeping. He quietly went to his desk, opened a drawer and pulled out a small box. After checking that Casey was still asleep, he left the room.
He walked downstairs and saw Brent and Abby fast asleep on the couch, cuddling. He smiled and entered the kitchen. The first thing he did was make himself a bowl of cereal.
When he was done eating, he went into a cabinet and took out 14 packets of sugar. On one side of each packet her wrote one letter, on the other side he wrote numbers. Then he began making breakfast. When the food and coffee were done, he put the food, coffee, and sugar packets on the tray. The sugar packets were all facing so the numbers were visible.
He took the tray of food up to Casey. He was happy to find that Casey was already awake. He placed the tray of food on her lap.
“Oh, Nick, what’s this for?”
“I just wanted to make sure you knew how much I love you.”
“You didn’t have to do all this. I know you love me.” She looked at the tray with a look of delight. He made all of her favorite foods for breakfast. She then spotted the packets of sugar, and her face scrunched up in confusion. “What’s with all the sugar packets? And why did you write a set of numbers on them?”
“The first number represents what word the letter on the other side is from and the second number represents the letter.” She gave him a blank stare. “Pick up a packet and tell me the number combination.”
She did so. “Three two.”
“Third word second letter.” Casey nodded and set about putting the packets in order while picking on her breakfast. When she had them all in order, she flipped them over. She gasped in surprise when she flipped over the last packet. The packets spelt out “Will you marry me?”

~*~
Downstairs

Abby woke up in Brent’s arms and snuggled into his chest. Brent, who was already awake, tightened his hold on her. She turned in his arms and kissed him. They broke apart. “I missed waking up in your arms.”
“I missed holding you. I’m glad we got back together.”
“Me too. I love you.” She kissed him. Their stomachs rumbled and they broke apart giggling.
“What do you say we order take out?”
“I like that idea.”
“We should ask Nick and Casey what they want.”
“I’m hungry. Let’s go.”
They went upstairs and Brent opened Nick’s bedroom door without knocking.
Casey screamed and grabbed the sheet to cover her naked chest.
Nick’s face was red. Casey couldn’t tell if the redness was from their passion or from anger. “God Brent. Don’t you knock?”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon. I wasn’t expecting you two to be about to have sex.”
“It doesn’t matter. The door was closed. Learn to knock when the door is closed.”
“I’m sorry Nick.”
“Turn around.”
Brent and Abby turned around. Nick leaned off the bed and grabbed his boxers and t-shirt. He put his boxers on and handed Casey his t-shirt.
“Nick?”
“Put it on. I can’t reach your shirt.” Casey nodded and put his shirt on. Then she giggled. “Why are you giggling?”
“Because, I’m going to have to start stealing your shirts, they are comfortable.”
Nick pulled her to him and began tickling her.
“Can we turn around yet?” Brent asked.
“If you must.” They turned around. Nick was now leaning against the headboard and Casey was leaning against Nick, engulfed in his shirt. “Now, what did you want?”
“We are ordering takeout. We just wanted to know what you want.” Nick and Casey told them. Brent and Abby left.
Nick and Casey continued from where they were interrupted so that they could have their release.
Nick and Casey joined Brent and Abby just as the takeout arrived.
The four friends talked amiably as they ate. The table was shocked into silence when Abby squealed. Brent broke the silence. “What’s wrong Abby?”
“Casey, is that an engagement ring?”
Casey looked at her ring and grinned widely. Then she looked at Nick. Anyone could see the love and devotion in her eyes. “It sure is.”

~*~
5 Months Later

Casey was true to her word, and wore Nick’s clothes more often. She even substituted his clothes for maternity clothes. Nick would chuckle and then kiss her every time he saw her wearing his clothes, which was practically every day.
Casey noticed a slight change in Nick. Over the past months, she noticed that he was smoking less. When she questioned him, he replied that he was trying to quit for the baby. He hadn’t quite kicked the habit, but he can now go several hours before he needed a nicotine fix. Before, he needed to smoke at least once or twice in an hour. Casey was really proud of him. Even though he hadn’t completely quit, she was proud that he was trying and that he was able to cut down.
Over the past 5 months, the threats were intensifying. Casey is now 7 months pregnant and seriously worried about the pending threats. In hopes of having one day that is not filled with fear, Brent, Abby, Nick and Casey went to the county fair.
They arrived at the Fair and paid their way in. At the entrance was a grouping of novelty shops. Nick had a feeling that him and Casey would be spending a lot of time there since Casey was too pregnant for most of the rides. Next were the many places to buy food. Next were the few rides followed by shows and exhibits.
The four friends were at the fair for about an hour so far. Brent and Abby were on a ride. Casey couldn’t go on because of her pregnancy. Casey and Nick were sitting on a near by bench with their arms around each other. Soon Nick tensed. Casey looked at him. “What’s wrong Nick?”
“Jamie is here.”
Casey looked around and saw someone starring at Nick. Casey asked if that was Jamie. Nick nodded his approval. Casey continued to look at Jamie, then she gasped. “Oh my god.”
Nick looked at Casey again. “What?”
“He’s talking to my father.”
Color drained from both of their faces as they realized what the significance was. Brent and Abby came off the ride at that point. They became nervous when they saw their pale friends, fearfully holding on to each other. “What happened?” Brent asked.
Nick found his voice first. “Jamie is here.” Brent was shocked. Nick continued. “So is Casey’s father. It is obvious that they have been working together.” Brent and Abby became pale. “We need to get out of here and fast.”
They all nodded and began to make their way quickly to the entrance. As they were running, they noticed that Jim and Jamie were following them. They were terrified now. They couldn’t even speed up because of Casey’s pregnancy.
The entrance came into view and gave them a false sense of hope. They were almost out and their car wasn’t far from the entrance.
Their hope was slashed when Casey screamed. Her father was right in front of them.
“Hello Lindsay.”
Tears sprang to Casey’s eyes. “Why are you doing this to me?”
“You know what I did to your sister. Therefore you need to be taken care of. I can’t leave any live witnesses. He pulled out his gun and aimed at Casey. “Goodbye Lindsay.”
Nick knew that he wouldn’t be able to survive if he lost Casey the same way he lost Katie. As the gun went off he pushed Casey out of the way. Brent steadied her as the bullet hit Nick between the shoulders.
Casey ran to Nick as his body crumpled to the floor. Casey was crying over his body, trying to keep him awake.
Jamie watched the bullet hit Nick, and that made him angry. He couldn’t rape Nick again if he was dead. He pulled out his gun and fired it. The bullet hit Jim in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Security at the fair immediately detained Jamie, who was later arrested for rape, disturbing the peace and murder.
Casey heard the ambulance approaching. She continue at her attempt in keeping Nick awake.
Nick’s breathing was labored. “Make sure to take good care of the baby. I love you Casey.”
“Nick no! Stay with me.”
The ambulance arrived, and Nick lost consciousness.

*BREAKING NEWS STORY* scrolled across the screen.

County Fairs are supposed to be fun. A fun day where people can avoid their life for a few hours. Today’s fair didn’t quite turn out that way. Although the day started out spectacularly with great weather, children laughing, the day ended with a blood bath.

A group of four friends, ranging from their late teens to their mid twenties were seen laughing and having fun. They were keeping to themselves and they weren’t bothering anyone. Until something caused them to run from the middle of the fair ground to the entrance. It was reported that they accidentally bumped into a few people and didn’t apologize. As they neared the entrance, they came to a sudden halt. One gun was fired and hit one of the four in the back. The gunshot victim was none other than Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys. A second gun was fired killing Nick’s shooter. The second shooter was arrested and Nick was rushed to the hospital. There is no word on Nick’s condition. All we know is that Nick was unconscious when he was placed on the stretcher and into the ambulance. We will report updates on his condition as they become available.

Casey was starring at the screen. Brent grabbed her hand. “Casey, don’t pay attention to it.”

“Why do they do this? I mean, we are waiting in an Emergency room. Obviously something dramatic or tragic happened. So why do they put the news on so we can get more bad news. Especially when the tragedy involves someone famous or if the event was newsworthy.” The tears that she was so desperate to hold in slid down her face. “Oh god, I’m so scared.” She said as she began to become hysterical. “I need Nick. And what about the baby? I can’t do it without him.” She said as she placed her hands on her stomach.

Brent wanted to comfort her, he really did, but he didn’t know if he could. He kept opening his mouth to say something, but nothing ever came out. He gave up as he felt himself almost ready to cry.

The doctor entered the waiting room at that moment. He approached them. “Are you with Nickolas Carter?”

Brent took a deep breath. “We are.” Brent, Abby and Casey stopped breathing at that point. This was it; they were going to find out whether or not Nick was alive. Casey was completely terrified.

“His surgery was successful. We had a few complications…”

Casey interrupted him. “Complications? What kind of complications?”

The doctor took a deep breath. This was the part of his job that he hated. “He flat lined.” Casey gasped. “We were able to revive him though. We got the bullet out and we stitched him up.”

Casey released her breath. “So he’s ok?”

“He’s in a coma right now.”

Brent was struggling to keep his composure. “When will he wake up?”

“I don’t know. One thing you have to face is that he might not wake up. The longer he’s in a coma the less likely he is to wake up.”

Casey started crying. Abby pulled her into a tight hug. “Can we see him?” Abby asked. The doctor nodded and led them to where Nick lie in a coma.

Brent pushed open the door and followed the girls into his best friend’s hospital room. Casey let out a strangled sob, and Abby pulled her into a hug. Brent didn’t want to look. He took a deep breath, and then quickly looked at Nick. He looked away almost as soon as he saw Nick lying helplessly on the bed, clinging onto life. He felt Abby pull him into a hug and he lost his composure. He started sobbing into Abby’s shoulder. Casey made her way into the hug and the three of them stood there, holding onto each other and crying into their embrace.

They couldn’t look at him like that at the moment. They left his room. They entered the waiting room and saw Kevin, Brian, Howie and AJ sitting there. Kevin stood up as soon as he spotted Brent, Abby and Casey. “We came as soon as we heard. How is he?”
They explained the situation. Kevin took the big brother role again and pulled Casey into a comforting embrace. That hug soon turned into a group hug. Then Brian broke away and suggested a prayer. They huddled in a circle and Brian led the pray for Nick.

They each took their turn visiting him. Soon Casey found herself visiting him. She was alone this time. She grabbed his hand. She brought it to her lips and kissed it, hoping that he would wake up, but knowing that he probably wouldn’t. She looked at him and started crying. She calmed down a bit. “Oh Nick. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. If you never fell in love with me you wouldn’t be lying in a coma in a hospital. God Nick, you need to wake up.” She put her head on the side of his bed and began crying.

She didn’t realize how long she was in Nick’s room, until Brent entered the room. “Come on Casey. Let’s go.”

“I can’t Brent. I can’t leave him.”

“This isn’t good for you or the baby.”

“I’ve only been here for a couple hours. It’s not like it has been a couple days.”

“I know that Casey, but since you don’t want to leave, a few hours will turn into a few days. You need to take care of yourself and your baby. When Nick wakes up you are going to want to be healthy.”

“What if he doesn’t wake up?”

“You can’t think like that.”

“How do you have so much faith that he will wake up?”

“Because I refuse to believe that he will die until he actually does. Think positively. He’ll wake up and then we’ll all be able to put this tragic event behind us. Now come on. I won’t let you make yourself sick.”

She agreed reluctantly and stood up. She leaned over him and kissed him softly on his lips. She let out a strangled sob when she didn’t feel the familiar sensation that came from him responding. She let Brent lead her out of room.

Soon, they arrived at Nick’s house. It was the first time that she’d be in Nick’s house for a significant amount of time while Nick wasn’t there. She was tired. She headed upstairs and automatically headed toward Nick’s room. She opened the door and was hit with a strong sense of loneliness. It was then that she realized she wouldn’t be able to stay in that room without Nick. She wearily entered the room, and grabbed some of her clothes. She took the clothes into the guest room that used to be hers.

She went to visit him in the hospital everyday. And everyday there was no change. Oh the doctors would say on occasion that his vitals were looking better, but ultimately, Nick was still in a coma.

It had been a couple weeks since the accident. Nick still hadn’t woken up nor did he look any healthier. Brent was having a hard time seeing Nick like that so he stopped visiting daily.

He couldn’t stay in the house either. He was always expecting Nick to walk out of a room, or to bother him while he was trying to do work. He would upset himself when he realized that Nick wasn’t going to be walking into the room he was in because he was in a coma.

It was then, that he had decided to go back to work. At work, he tried real hard to keep his mind off Nick and on his work. He couldn’t and his work became really sloppy. All his co-workers noticed.

On his second day back at work, he was starring at a picture of him and Nick that was taken before Abby and Casey moved down to Florida. It was while he was starring at the picture that the door to his office burst open and his supervisor entered. He was caught starring at a picture and not working. “I’m sorry sir. I’ll get back to work.”

“Brent, what’s going on with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, company policy is that we are supposed to fire those whose work becomes sloppy. I noticed yesterday that your work was a little sloppy, but I didn’t say anything figuring you were just having an off day. But your work is sloppy today too. And now when I come into your office, you were starring off into space and not working. You are a good worker and I don’t want to fire you, so if there’s something going on please tell me.” Brent broke eye contact. All the emotion he was trying to hide at home, for the sake of the girls, especially Casey, came rushing to the surface. He tried to fight it back. He didn’t want to cry in front of his boss. He was unsuccessful and a tear escaped from his eye. His supervisor didn’t miss the tear and was now immediately concerned. “Brent?”

Brent took a deep breath. “I’m sorry sir. It’s just. My best friend is in the hospital.”

Brent looked at the picture of him and Nick again. His supervisor followed his gaze. “Is that him?” Brent nodded. “Is he ok?”

“He’s in a coma.”

“Brent, why don’t you take time off until he feels better?”

“I can’t. I can’t be in that house knowing he’s not there. It hurts too much.”

“You live with him?”

Brent nodded. “I need to keep myself occupied.”

“Ok, then I’m going to partner you with someone. I can’t have your work faltering.”

“I’m really sorry sir.”

“You’re human Brent. I’m not expecting you to be on top of your game while your best friend is clinging to life.”

“Thank you for understanding.” Brent sighed in relief when his supervisor left. He wasn’t going to lose his job and for that he was grateful.

~*~

Abby entered her school library and searched for the group of her friends that she was meeting. They were getting together to study for their final that was coming up in a few days. She spotted them and sat down at their table. They were still waiting on a few more people so they sat and talked quietly. Abby was quiet and didn’t contribute much to the conversation.

Soon the rest of the group arrived and they began their study session. Abby still wasn’t contributing. Every time she was asked her opinion she wouldn’t know what they were talking about and need the question repeated.

“Come on Abby. Focus.”

“I’m sorry.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“My best friends’ fiancé, who also happens to be my boyfriend’s best friend, is in a coma.”

“Oh. I’m sorry Abby.”

“I know I need to focus. But I keep seeing Casey walking around the house, completely miserable because the father of her baby is lying in a hospital bed. And then there’s my boyfriend, who’s trying to be the strong one in the house, when it’s his best friend who’s in the hospital. It’s just very hard.”

“I’m sure it is Abby. But you need to focus here. We really need to do this. I’m really sorry, but if you can’t focus we are going to have to ask you to leave because of a lack of productivity.”

“I’m trying. It’s just hard. He’s my friend too. And he’s been in this coma for like 2 weeks now. With every day that goes by that he doesn’t wake up, he gets less and less of a chance of surviving. I’m sorry. I know you guys don’t care. I’ll try a little harder to focus.

~*~

Casey entered the half painted nursery. Nick was painting it before he was shot. Once he was done painting it, they were going to go furniture shopping. She’d been avoiding the furniture shopping hoping that Nick would wake up soon and that he would be able to accompany her. However, now that she was 7 ½ months pregnant, she knew she had to get the furniture by herself. She was going to leave the nursery half painted.

The half painted room had become a symbol of hope. A hope that Nick was going to come home. As long as the painting wasn’t finished, she had hope that Nick would do it when he was better. The second she started to finish that room, would be the day she accepts his death. And since he was still breathing, and still had a heartbeat, that room wasn’t going to get touched.

She felt tears prick the back of her eyes from thinking about what the future could hold. Nick was either in her future or not. She desperately hoped that he would be, but was deathly afraid that he wouldn’t. She left the room and got herself ready to go furniture shopping for his baby.

Casey was walking around the store, picking out the furniture that she knew she needed; her lower lip was trembling. She was trying as hard as possible not to lose her composure in the store. She rounded a corner and was hit with the feeling that Nick should be with her. She started crying hysterically in the store.

The store manager spotted her crying and approached Casey. When the manager couldn’t calm Casey down, she led Casey to the break room.
Casey began apologizing profusely for bursting into tears. The manager told Casey that there was no need to apologize. When Casey calmed down enough to talk, she spilled the whole story about Nick being in a coma.

Once Casey was calm, the manager led Casey back to the floor and helped Casey finish her shopping. The manager rang up Casey’s purchases and explained the delivery process. “I’ll keep your fiancé in my prayers.

“Thank you.” Casey left. She was home long enough to leave a note that told Brent and Abby that she was going to the hospital to be with Nick.

Once at the hospital, Casey made her way to Nick’s room. Standing outside his door, she took a deep breath before entering. She was hoping that when she looked at him, she would see him smiling back at her. She opened the door, and found Nick the same way she left him.

She approached his bed and took a seat beside it. She began talking to him about anything that she could think of. When she grew tired of talking, she placed her head down on his bed. With her head down, she reached for his hand, and held it gently while caressing the top of his hand with her thumb.

The steady beep of the heart monitor began to lull her to sleep. Just as she was about to doze off completely, the steady beep turned into a long monotonous beep, which signified that his heart stopped beating.

Casey was thrown out of the way as the room filled with doctors and nurses. She watched in terror as they tried to revive him. She was borderline hysterical and didn’t hear what the doctors were saying. This seemed to go on forever.

She calmed down a bit and could once again hear. It was then that she heard the most life shattering thing ever.

The doctor shook his head sadly. “Call it.”

“Time of death…”

“Casey.”

The orderly who was about to look at his watch looked up. That barely audible voice didn’t sound like a voice he was familiar with.

Casey looked up expectantly at her name. She became confused when nobody was looking at her.

“Casey.” It sounded more like a moan then her name, but she knew it was her name. It was then that she heard the steady beeping of the heart monitor. The medical staff looked at Nick. He was waking up.

Nick opened his eyes and saw the medical staff looking at him. He became anxious and scared when he realized that there were so many people there and that he was waking up in a hospital. The fear was evident in his eyes and he began thrashing on his bed. The two orderlies in the room moved to his bed and began holding him down. A nurse ran out of the room and entered shortly after with a needle that held a sedative. Soon, Nick’s body relaxed and he was asleep.

Everyone started to leave the room. “What’s going on? Is he dead or not?”

The doctor returned to speak to Casey. “He’s alive. And he has woken up.”

Casey glanced at the bed and saw him in the same position that she has been seeing him every time she came. “It doesn’t look like he’s woken up.”

“He woke up and had a panic attack.” Casey gasped. “It’s ok. That’s very common with people waking up from a coma. The nurse sedated him. The next time he wakes up he’ll be calm.”

“When will he wake up again?”

“Couple hours.” Casey nodded and the doctor left the room.

She approached the bed again. She kissed him gently and then left the room to call the necessary people and tell them that Nick woke up. She didn’t tell anyone that they almost pronounced his time of death. No need to make everyone worry unnecessarily.

She returned to his room and sat by his bed. She gently grabbed his hand. She didn’t know how long she was sitting there, but soon she felt herself drift off to sleep.

Nick’s eyes fluttered open. He looked around to see that he was in a hospital. He nearly hyperventilated when he realized that he couldn’t feel his left hand. He looked over to assess the situation before he freaked. He realized he couldn’t feel his left hand because Casey was using his left fore arm as a pillow. “Casey.” His voice was soft and hoarse. He wasn’t sure if she heard him. He cleared his throat. “Casey.” He groaned when his voice didn’t come out any different. He tried to reach his right arm over to caress her face, but couldn’t get his hand close enough because of an IV in his right hand. He sat there starring at the top of her head.

Casey had the unnerving feeling that someone was watching her. She opened her eyes and realized she was at the hospital. She looked up and smiled broadly when she realized that Nick was starring at her. “Hey.”

“It’s about time you woke up. My hand is asleep.” His voice was still hoarse and that long sentence made him cough.

“Nick? Are you ok? Do you need something?”

“Water.” She poured him a glass of water from the pitcher that was placed there sometime after she fell asleep. He took a sip. “Why does my upper back between my shoulders hurt?”

“You were shot.”

“Recently?”

“You were in a coma for a month.”

“A month?”

“Yeah. You scared us all. Especially me right now. The doctor was ready to pronounce you dead when you woke up.”

He looked confused. “But I just woke up now. There was no doctor in here.”

“You woke up from the coma a couple hours ago. They had to sedate you though.” Nick had no concept of time right now. He suddenly looked worried. “What is it Nick?”

“What month is it?”

“May.” He stayed quiet. Casey could tell that he was contemplating something. “What is it Nick?”

“You’re still pregnant right?”

“Of course I am Nicky. What made you think I wasn’t?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that I was suddenly afraid that I missed the birth.”

“I’m not due for another month.”

“Good. Hopefully I’ll be better by then.”
“I don’t care if you’re better by then. All I care about is that you are getting better.” She stood up to lean over and kiss him. She returned to her seated position. A pain ran through her abdomen. “Oh.”

“What? Are you ok?”

“I’m fine. I think the baby just kicked.” After a few minutes, she felt the same pain as earlier, but it was a bit stronger. Soon after, Nick fell asleep. Casey sat in the room just watching him sleep.

A couple hours later, Nick woke up and panicked when he saw Casey breathing heavy and holding her stomach.

“Casey, are you ok?” She looked at him, but didn’t answer him. “Casey what’s wrong?” When she didn’t answer, Nick reached for his nurse button and pressed it.

Moments later, the nurse came in. “What can I get you?”

“Not me, her.”

“Come with me darling. We need to get you prepped.” Then they were gone, leaving Nick starring after them in confusion. When nobody came back to tell him what’s going on he closed his eyes. He was fighting back tears, and soon he fell asleep.

He woke up immediately when the door opened. “Hey Nick.” Abby and Brent said at the same time.

“Hi.”

They approached the bed. “You don’t look too happy to see us.”

“It’s not that.”

“Then what is it?”

“Casey was in here. But then she started having pains and the nurse whisked her away, but no one told me what’s going on.”

Abby stood up. “I’ll go find out. I’ll be right back. And Nick. Don’t worry, you need to stay relaxed.” Abby left the room and headed straight for the nurses station.

“Can I help you?”

“Hopefully. Um, my friend was in room 222 and she was escorted out by a nurse, I was just wondering if you could tell me what’s going on?”

“She went into labor. I took her to the maternity ward to be prepped for delivery. Do you want to see her?”

“Yes please.” The nurse led Abby up to the maternity ward and to where Casey was. Casey was not ready to deliver yet so Abby was allowed to see her. She walked into the room. “Hey.”

Casey smiled briefly before being hit with another contraction. When the contraction subsided, she said “What are you doing here?”

“Apparently, you went into labor and nobody thought to tell the father. He was really worried, so I came to investigate.”

“Are you going to stay here, or go back to Nick?”

“Nick’s best friend is with him, I think it’s only fair if I stay here with you. Then, after you have the baby, I’ll go down and tell him.”

“He’s going to be so upset.”

“Why?”

“He wanted to be present for the birth so badly.”

“There’s nothing we can do about that. He needs to stay in bed. He might get upset that he missed it, but he’ll be ok.”

The doctor entered the room and checked her dilation. “Ok Casey, it’s time.”

~*~

“What’s taking Abby so long?”

“I don’t know Nick.”

“Do you think its something bad?”

“I can’t answer that. I’m sorry buddy. Nick, you need to stay relaxed. Why don’t you go back to sleep and maybe by the time you wake up we’ll have news on Casey.”

“How am I supposed to sleep?”

“You’re heavily medicated, I’m sure you’ll be able to fall asleep.”

“But…”

“No buts Nick. Just close your eyes and try to fall asleep.”

“Fine.” Nick closed his eyes and just how Brent expected, he fell asleep almost immediately. He was starring at Nick and losing track of the time. He didn’t know how long he was sitting there when Nick’s door opened and Abby came in.

Brent motioned to Abby to go into the hall so they could talk. As soon as the door was closed, Brent said. “Is Casey ok?”

Abby nodded. “Casey’s perfect.”

“Then what’s wrong? What happened?”

Abby smiled. “Nick is a daddy.”

Nick woke up and sighed in frustration when he realized that he was still alone. He couldn’t help but worry. He let the tears slide down his face at the thought of Casey and not knowing if she was ok or not.

He didn’t hear the door open. “Oh my god. Nick, what’s wrong? Does something hurt?” She rushed over to him and wiped the tears off his face.

“Casey?” He pulled her as close to him as he could get her. “I was so afraid that something bad happened to you.” He looked at her. “Why are you in a hospital gown?”

“They had to admit me, so you have a roommate now.” She giggled.

“Casey, that’s not funny.”

“I’m sorry Nicky.”

“Why were you admitted?”

“I went into labor.”

“You did?” He became really sad.

“Yeah, but you don’t seem that happy about that.”


“I really wanted to be present for the birth.”

“I know.”

“Did we have a girl or a boy?”

“Both.”

“We had twins?”

“Yep.”

“What did you name them?”

“I didn’t yet. I wanted to name them with you.”

“Can we name our daughter Kathryn?”

“I was going to ask if we could name her Brianna.”

“Oh. How about whichever name we don’t choose as a first name, we choose as a middle name.”

“I like that.” Casey played with the names in her head. “Kathryn Brianna flows better.”

Nick nodded. “What should we name our son?”

“I was thinking Damian James.”

Nick rolled the name through his head. “Yeah, I like that.”

Casey climbed into Nick’s bed. The nurse from the maternity level entered the room. She was carrying the two birth certificates that needed names. “Have you two decided on names yet?”

“Yes. Kathryn Brianna Carter and Damian James Carter.” The nurse wrote the names down and left.

Later that day, Nick was sleeping and Casey was snuggled up to him when 4 nurses entered. 2 nurses each had a baby; the other 2 were pushing basinets.

Once the basinets were set up and the babies were gently placed in, the nurse walked over to Casey. “They are both healthy.”

“Thank god. I didn’t even tell him that there was a possibility of health complications.”

“Nope, no complications. They are two perfectly healthy babies. They are beautiful.”

“Thank you.” The nurse left.

Casey climbed off the bed and stood by the two basinets. She starred down at her two babies and tears came to her eyes. They were part of her and Nick, created by their love; she found that highly amazing.

Nick woke up and didn’t feel Casey besides him. “Casey.”

“Yeah.” He voice was shaky.

“Are you ok? What’s wrong?”

She sniffed and wiped her eyes. “Nothing.”

“You’re crying.”

“Nothing’s wrong. I just can’t believe that something this perfect came from us.”

Nick looked at Casey. He could see she was looking at something. “What are you looking at?”

“Our children.”

“They’re in here?” Casey nodded. Nick became quiet.

“What’s wrong Nick?”

“I can’t even get out of bed to see my son and daughter.”

Casey picked up Katie and carried her to Nick. She placed the tiny infant in Nick’s arms. She then carried Damien to Nick’s bed. She climbed in and got as close to
Nick as possible. Nick had tears in his eyes from seeing his children for the first time.

Unbeknownst to Nick and Casey, Brent walked into Nick’s room and took a picture.

A couple weeks past and Nick was released from the hospital. Although he was home and walking around, his shoulders were still sore from the bullet so he couldn’t do much to help with the twins. That frustrated Nick so much. Nick was more frustrated with himself than Casey was with him. He couldn’t pick them up; He couldn’t hold them without sitting down. The feeling of helplessness was very depressing to him. He couldn’t wait until he was well enough to be able to help and be self-sufficient.

~*~

Brent and Abby were in their room. The TV was on some random channel, as they sat in the room talking quietly; Brent was holding Abby tightly. A few minutes later, Abby wiggled out of Brent’s grasp and opened the drawer on her beside table. She pulled out a velvet ring box. She took out the ring and placed it on her left ring finger. Brent wasn’t paying attention, but noticed the ring when she leaned back into him. “Hon, you shouldn’t be wearing that right now. They are both here.”

“So. There’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to wear it. I think we can tell them now.”

“Abby please, take it off. I’m not ready to tell them.”

“Fine.” Abby stood up and walked toward the door. She then turned around and threw the ring at Brent.

“Abby.”

“What Brent?”

“You’re being rash.”

“Why the hell did you ask me to marry you if I can’t tell my best friend?”

“I told you why you couldn’t tell.” Their voices were beginning to rise.

“Yes. First it was Nick being shot and in a coma. Then when Nick woke up, it was because he was still in the hospital. Then the twins were born. Then it was because Nick just got home. Now what is it? Huh? Nick is out of the hospital and well on his way to a full recovery. The novelty of the twins’ birth has since worn off. I think we can tell them now.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“I told you. I’m not ready.”

“God damn it Brent. What the hell do you need to be ready for? It’s an engagement, not a crime. And before you say anything, yes I am aware that I just quoted a musical, but it’s true. Getting engaged is one of the best days in a girl’s life, and girls like to share their best days with their best friends. Now I understand why we couldn’t tell when we got engaged, but this is over 2 months later. I say we tell them.”

“Are you already gone into bridezilla mode? I’m just not friggin ready.”

“Bridezilla mode?

“Yes. You are freaking out over nothing.”

“Fine whatever. It’s nice to know you consider our engagement nothing.”

“What? Stop putting words in my mouth. I don’t consider our engagement nothing. I’m just not ready to tell.”

“If we scream any louder we won’t have to worry about telling.” Abby turned on her heel and stormed out of the room.

Brent watched Abby leave and sighed. He knew going after her wouldn’t be wise. He turned on his music as loud as he could stand it and shut out everyone in the house.

Abby stormed back into the room and unplugged his CD player. “What the fuck Abby?”

“There are two infants in this house. You will not shut out our fight with loud music that will wake them up. Find another way to shut out the world.” Abby left the room again.

Nick sat at his desk in his office. He came up with the intent to draw but now he was starring at a blank piece of paper with no inspiration. With a sigh of defeat, he stood up and headed to his room. He was more upset now than when he came upstairs. He turned on his PS2 that Casey allowed to be plugged back in when he was bedridden. He tried to take his frustration on the digital characters on his screen, but it wasn’t working. He turned the game off and went to the basement. A punching bag was down there and he felt that punching something should make him feel better.

He couldn’t tell you how long he was down there. But Casey could. She watched him go downstairs thinking that he was going to his studio. But then, instead of hearing the sounds associated with his studio, she began to hear the sounds associated with the punching bag that was hanging in the unfinished part of the basement. This worried Casey to no end, so she made her way downstairs. Once downstairs, she watched him for a few minutes wondering what put him in such a bad mood.

She approached him and placed a gentle hand on his arm to stop his movements. “Stop, you’re going to hurt yourself.” When he stopped, she gently pulled him from where he was standing. She led him back to the finished part of the basement and unlocked the studio door. Once inside she pushed him on the couch. She sat down next to him. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Nicky, don’t. I can tell that something has upset you. Please tell me what it is.” She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Brent and Abby are engaged.”

Casey interrupted him before he could explain everything. “What? That’s what got you so upset. God Nick. That’s great news and all you can be is upset about it. What kind of best friend are you?” She stood up abruptly and fled the studio. Leaving Nick even more upset.

A few minutes later, he came upstairs with the intent of talking to Casey to explain what about the engagement upset him. When he saw her talking to Abby, he decided against it and headed up to his office. He entered locking the door behind him.

Downstairs, Casey and Abby were sitting on the couch watching Meet the Fockers. They were giggling and shrieking through out the movie. When it was over, they looked at the clock and realized it was nearly dinner time. Since neither of them were in the mood to cook, the ordered pizza.

The doorbell rang. Casey answered the door and Abby went upstairs. She entered her room and shut the door quietly behind her. Brent looked up but didn’t say anything. “Hey.” Abby broke the silence.

“Hi.”

After a few more minutes of awkward silence, Abby said. “Um, dinner’s here. We ordered pizza.”

Brent nodded and Abby turned to leave. “Abby wait.”

She stopped. He approached her and hugged her from the side. “I’m sorry.”

“I am too. Let’s just go downstairs and eat.”

They left the room and passed Casey on her way upstairs. She wasn’t sure where Nick was. She just looked in the basement and didn’t find him so she figured that he was upstairs. She checked their room first. That room was empty so she went to his office.

When she tried the door and found it locked, she knew Nick was behind the locked door. She knocked softly. “Nick?”

Behind the door, he contemplated not answering. “What?” He figured not answering wouldn’t do any good.

“Come on. Dinner’s here.”

He opened the door and pulled Casey into an unsuspected hug. Casey pulled away from his embrace without returning his hug. She turned away from him and headed to the kitchen, leaving him standing outside his office feeling rejected.

He took a shaky breath and walked downstairs. He entered the kitchen, grabbed his plate and grabbed a slice from the box. He sat down at his spot at the table. He kept his head down as he slowly picked at his food. The conversation flowed around him. Even though he was surrounded by his 3 closest friends, he felt like he was alone.

He tried to look at Casey but every time he did, she would glare at him so only he could see. He looked back into his plate at his half eaten pizza. What little appetite he had was now gone. He stood up and threw his paper plate and half eaten pizza away. Then he left the room.

Brent watched him leave. “Casey, is he feeling ok?”

“Yeah, he’s fine. He’s just being a jerk.”

“What? Casey what are you talking about. I was asking about the fact that he barely ate anything and that he was unusually quiet.”

“Yeah. So was I.”

“Casey what are you talking about?”

“He overheard you two talking.”

“About what?”

“You’re engagement.”

“How the fuck does he know ABBY?” Brent glared at Abby.

“This is not my fault. You were screaming just as loudly as I was. I’m actually surprised that he’s the only person who overheard it.”

“You were the one who started it by putting the ring on.”

“I’m not having this argument with you again.”

Brent roughly pushed his chair back and stood up. He stalked out of the room, leaving his chair overturned. Abby ran from the room after him.

Brent reached Nick and Casey’s room and barged in. Nick was sitting on the bed starring at the blank TV. He jumped and looked at the door at Brent’s entrance.

“How dare you.”

“What did I do?”

“You were eavesdropping on a private conversation.”

“I was not eavesdropping.”

“Then how the hell did you hear about the engagement.”

Nick let the tears that he was fighting all day slide down his cheeks. First Casey was pissed at him and now Brent. He was about to say something when Abby ran into the room. “Shut the fuck up Brent. Don’t you know it’s better to question stuff like this calmly instead of angrily. Now you either calm down and stay quiet or leave.” She climbed on the bed and sat next to Nick. “Now Nick. You were about to say something.” She said to him softly.

“I wasn’t eavesdropping.”

“You were downstairs when we had the fight. So you must have heard the fight and come up. That’s eavesdropping.”

“Brent, I said shut up.”

“I wasn’t downstairs. I was up here.”

“When we came upstairs you were downstairs Nick.”

He turned to Abby. “When you went upstairs, yeah. But shortly after, Katie started to cry and I went to get her to give Casey a break, but my shoulders were still stiff from when I woke up, and I couldn’t pick her up. So Casey had to come over and get her. I felt helpless. And everyday that something happens to make me feel helpless, that feeling is always stronger. So I came upstairs to try and not feel so helpless. I went into my office and I had the door open. That’s when I heard you start fighting. I then closed the door. And you got louder. So I kept trying to tune you out, but then I heard my name and I couldn’t tune it out, and that’s how I heard your fight. I wasn’t standing outside the door with a cup to the door so I could hear. I wasn’t eavesdropping.”

Brent sat on the bed on the other side of Nick. “I’m sorry I accused you. Why is Casey mad at you?”

“I over heard everything you said about how the reason you initially didn’t tell was because of me. And that upset me more, because now not only was I feeling helpless. I was also feeling like a burden. Casey wanted to know what was bothering me, so I started to tell her. I told her you were engaged and she took that as though I was upset you two were engaged. She didn’t let me finish telling her that it was because of why you didn’t tell. She even called me a horrible best friend because I was upset. But I’m not upset about that. I’m really happy for you two. I couldn’t ask for a better girl to be marrying my best friend.”

Abby sighed. “She’s really mad at you.”

“I know. Before dinner, when she came to get me I hugged her, but she refused to return it. She broke out of my grasp and walked away from me.”

“I’m sorry Nick. I’ll talk to her for you.”

“It’s ok. It won’t help. She needs to come to me on her own.” He congratulated them again and they left. Nick stayed where he was.

A few hours later, Casey entered the room to get ready for bed. She refused to look at him. Nick felt his heart break knowing that Casey was still mad at him. He stood up and left the room carrying his pillows from the bed. He went to the linen closet and grabbed a blanket. He made his bed on the couch in the living room that night. Casey climbed into bed not caring that Nick wasn’t coming to bed tonight. In fact she was almost happy about it. After a couple minutes of getting comfortable, she fell asleep. Meanwhile, on the couch, Nick was tossing and turning and making a conscience effort not to fall off. He eventually fell asleep around 4 in the morning.

Abby woke up the next morning in a very happy mood. She went downstairs to make herself breakfast when she stopped short in the living room. She marched back upstairs and flung the door to the master bedroom open. The door hit the wall and woke up Casey, as Abby hoped it would.

“What was that for Abby?” Casey yawned and started to drift back to sleep. Abby marched into the room and dragged Casey out of bed. “What the hell Abby. I want to sleep, it’s still early.”

“I don’t care.” She continued dragging Abby until she stopped in the living room, where Nick was sleeping uncomfortably. “How could you?”

“How could I what?”

“Don’t tell me that you are that blind that you don’t seem him.”

“No I know he’s there. But I didn’t send him there. He did it on his own.”

“Yes, because you are being such a cold hearted bitch to him. He told us about how you refused to hug him yesterday.”

“He’s not happy for you and Brent.”

“He is. You didn’t let him finish explaining what was bothering him.”

“And that is?”

“That his coma is why we didn’t say anything when we first got engaged.”

“Oh.”

“Wake him up and bring him upstairs. Give him a massage because you know he’ll be stiff.” Abby left Casey standing in the living room.

Casey took a deep breath and walked over to Nick. She knelt down in front of him. “Nick, wake up.”

Nick opened his eyes. His vision cloudy with sleep. “Casey?”

“Yeah.”

“What time is it?”

“5:30.”

“I just fell asleep like an hour ago. What do you want?”

“I want you to come up to bed.” Nick looked at her not believing what he heard. “Come on. You’ll feel better sleeping in your own bed.”

“After yesterday, I didn’t think you wanted me up there.”

“I was being a moody bitch yesterday. I’m sorry. Come upstairs.”

Nick finally agreed, and Casey helped him stand up. She carried his pillows and left the blanket where it was. When they got upstairs, Nick climbed into bed, and was almost asleep when Casey told him to roll onto his stomach. He complied and she began massaging his shoulders and back, paying extra attention to his shoulders. When Nick was relaxed, Casey rolled off of him to face him. He kissed her softly. The soft kiss turned passionate.

About an hour later, Brent entered the kitchen smiling. He kissed Abby. “Nick and Casey made up.”

“And how do you know that?”

“Well, I don’t know what they are doing, but I do know that when I walked past their room, one of them was moaning. I think it was Nick.”

2 Years Later

Casey woke up disorientated. She couldn’t recognize her surroundings. As she woke up further, she recognized the room as her and Nick’s room in their new house. She could feel Nick holding her tightly. She snuggled into his warm embrace. He stirred and his eyes fluttered open. He smiled sleepily when his eyes locked with hers. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” She kissed him softly. “It’s still early. Go back to sleep.”

He shut his eyes and was asleep instantly. She smiled at the way he could fall asleep almost immediately after his eyes closed. She paid no attention to the fact that he was more asleep than awake just now. In his sleep, he tightened his hold on her. She smiled contently and fell into a peaceful sleep.

It felt like moments later, but was in fact hours later, when they were awoken by the bed shaking. “Casey, the bed is moving.” Nick mumbled groggily. His eyes still closed. There was a giggle. Nick opened 1 eye to find the reason why the bed was shaking. Their two-year-old twins were jumping on the bed. He groaned and pulled the sheets over his head. He wasn’t ready to wake up.

Casey grabbed Damien since he was the closest to her. He giggled as she pulled him down onto the bed. Casey got off the bed carrying Damien. She was about to grab Katie when Katie stopped jumping. She threw herself onto Nick’s body. He groaned from the unexpected impact. She giggled then rolled off of him. She found her way underneath the covers. He kept his eyes closed while Katie wiggled next to him in her attempts to get closer. “Dada wake.” He refused to open his eyes. He wasn’t ready to wake up. Katie started crying at her failed attempt to wake him up. Now he felt guilty and opened his eyes and pulled his young daughter to him. Her tears slowed as Nick cradled her. He kissed the top of her head when she was calm. Nick wasn’t paying attention to where Casey was but soon he felt Katie being lifted from his embrace. “Dada.”

Nick rolled over to see Casey holding Katie. “Honey, let’s let daddy sleep a little longer.”

“Ok mama.”

Casey placed Katie on the floor and she ran out of the room. Casey leaned over Nick and kissed him. “Thank you.” He said when he broke the kiss.

“For what?”

“Letting me sleep a little longer.”

“I’m only letting you sleep longer because you just got off tour yesterday. I can’t have you yawning on the altar tomorrow, now can I?”

“I love you.”

“I know you do. You wouldn’t be marrying me tomorrow if you didn’t. Now I better go make sure that our little devils aren’t getting into any trouble. You sleep.” Nick nodded and closed his eyes. Casey left the room as Nick went back to sleep.

A couple hours later, Nick woke up. He took a quick shower and got dressed. As soon as he was dressed, he made his way into the kitchen. Casey was putting lunch on the table as he walked in.

“Hey, I was just about to wake you up for lunch. Are you well rested now?”

“I’m still a little tired but don’t worry; I’ll be fine. I won’t be yawning on the altar tomorrow.”

She walked around the table and kissed him softly. “Can you believe that we are getting married tomorrow?”

“I’m glad it is tomorrow. I just want to get it over with.”

“What do you mean by that?” Casey was getting defensive.

“I’m so sorry baby. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. You know I’m horrible with words. I meant I just want to be with you, without the hustle and bustle that goes along with wedding plans, the wedding ceremony, and parties. I love you.”

“I love you too. I’m sorry I got defensive.”

“It’s ok.”

Nick and Casey sat down at the table. Katie slid off her chair and started to climb onto Nick’s chair. Nick helped her by picking her up and placing her on his lap.

“Katie sit in your own chair.”

“It’s ok Casey. I wouldn’t have put her on my lap if I had a problem with her sitting here. Nick only put food in his plate and fed Katie from his plate.

After lunch, Katie and Damien wanted to go outside and play. Casey went out with them while Nick stayed inside to clean up after lunch.

The table was clean and all the dishes were in the dishwasher. He was about to join his family outside. He glanced out the window and smiled at Casey playing with the twins. He smiled when he thought about spending the rest of his life with Casey, but then an overwhelming sense of nervousness washed over him. He didn’t understand it and he certainly didn’t like it. He picked up the phone and dialed Brian. “Hello?”

“Hi Brian.”

“Nick? What’s wrong?”

“Damn Bri, how did you know something was wrong?”

“I think I’ve known you long enough to recognize your voice when something is bothering you. Now what’s wrong?”

“Am I doing the right thing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Is marrying Casey the right thing to do?”

“Are you getting cold feet Nick?”

“No, it’s not that, it’s just, I don’t know.” He sighed in frustration.

“What happened Nick?”

“I don’t know. I was looking out the window at Casey playing with the twins and I got nervous.”

“It’s ok to be nervous.”

“I know, but sometimes I feel that Casey can do so much better than me. I guess I’m afraid she’ll find someone better and leave me.”

“Nick, you are too insecure for your own good. You need to stop putting yourself down. Casey loves you, so obviously you are good enough for her. Not to mention, she gave up her life to have and raise your children.”

“I know that, but I also know that I wouldn’t be able to handle if she left me.”

“Nick, you need to stop. Casey loves you and you two have a solid relationship. She’s not going to run off with some other guy. Now, I just think this started out as nervousness about tomorrow and the possibility of forgetting your vows and everything snowballed in your head making you paranoid about everything else. Relax Nick. You’ll be fine.”

“I don’t know.”

“Listen to me Nicky. Take a deep breath and calm down. You’ll be fine. You’ll see, once you get passed tomorrow things will go back to normal. After all, you are pretty much married already. Tomorrow just makes it official. Now hang up this phone and go outside and spend time with your family.”

“Ok.”

“You feel better now.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Nick hung up the phone. He sat down at the kitchen table to calm himself down a bit. He didn’t hear the sliding door, leading to outside open. “Nick, what’s taking…” She stopped when she saw him sitting at the table with his head in his hands. She pulled a chair closer to him and placed her hand gently on his knee. “What’s wrong?”

He stayed quiet for a minute trying to figure out what to tell her. He figured that he might as well tell her the truth and not be caught in a lie. He lowered his hands, but wouldn’t look at her. “I’m nervous.”

“About tomorrow?”

“That and…” He let his voice trail off.

“And what?”

“I know I’m not good enough for you. I’m nervous that you’ll wake up one day and realize that and then leave me for someone better.”

She chuckled but then realized that he was serious and stopped. She placed her hand under his chin and made him look at her. “I thought you would be past that insecurity by now. You are perfect for me. I love you and I don’t plan on ever leaving you. It’s ok to be nervous about tomorrow, but you don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to me leaving you. I wouldn’t have had the twins if you weren’t good enough for me.” She made her way onto his lap and hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder.

“Brian said the same thing.”

She looked into his eyes. “He’s a smart man. You should listen to him. Now come on. Everything will be fine, so let’s go outside and play with our children.” She stood up and grabbed his hand. As soon as he was standing, they walked to the door holding hands. Right before they went outside, she kissed him. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” They kissed once more, and when they pulled back, they looked outside to see the twins starring at them from the other side of the door. They laughed lightly and went outside.

A little less than two hours later, they were still outside. Katie plopped down onto the ground. Nick saw that and bent down next to her. “What’s wrong teddy bear?”

“Seepy.” As if to prove her point, she yawned and rubbed at her eyes with her small fist.

Nick scooped her up. She rested her head on his shoulder and fell asleep. He walked over to Casey who was making sure Damien didn’t hurt himself while he was playing. “Is she ok?”

Nick looked at his sleeping daughter and smiled. “She’s asleep.”

“Oh. N.A.P. Time.”

“Yeah.”

As if on cue, Damien yawned. Casey picked him up and her and Nick carried the twins to their bed. Casey and Nick stood in the room in each other’s embrace for a few minutes just watching their children sleep. Soon, they left the room and closed the door partially behind them. “Do you want to take a nap too?”

“I guess. I wanted to go to Katie’s grave, but I guess I can do that later.”

“Go now; that way if you get back early enough, you can still nap.”

Nick nodded and kissed her. “I’ll be back soon.”

It was Casey’s turn to nod. Nick smiled briefly before turning around to leave the house.

Casey walked to the window just in time to see Nick get in his car and drive off. Casey walked to the bed and sat down on the bed. She looked around the room and her mind began to wander.

She became nervous about tomorrow when her thoughts strayed to her parents followed by thoughts of Nick’s parents. Her father was an alcoholic murderer and it was completely absurd to compare Nick to her father. But on the other hand, Nick’s parents could be considered the definition of dysfunctional. She rationalized that Nick had to suffer through that, so maybe he would do everything in his power to make sure they didn’t become his parents. It was with that somewhat comforting thought, that she fell asleep.
Meanwhile, Nick walked to Katie’s grave. “Hi Katie. I’m sorry it’s been so long since I’ve visited. Over 2 years to be exact. A lot has happened in that time. I got shot and nearly died. Also I’m a daddy now. I have a boy and girl. We named our daughter Kathryn after you. I’m getting married tomorrow. I’m kinda nervous. I also can’t help but think that you and I would be married for about 3 years now with a son or daughter of our own. I hope you don’t feel that I am betraying you.” A soft breeze rustled Nick’s hairs and he could feel Katie’s presence. He suddenly felt a sense of peace and he smiled. The wind gave him final closure from Katie’s’ death. It also seemed to blow away his nervousness. “Thank you Katie.”

About 20 minutes later, he entered his house. He first entered the twins’ room. He smiled at their sleeping forms. He kissed each of their heads. Then he left their room and entered his room. He climbed into bed next to Casey and pulled her close.

A couple hours later, Casey woke Nick up. Once his eyes were open she said. “Nicky, you need to wake up and get ready for dinner with Brent and Abby.

“Ok.” He stood up and pulled Casey close to him. “Why didn’t you wake me up when the twins got up?”

“You looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to disturb you. You start getting ready, I have to finish getting the kids ready.”

“I’ll help you get them ready. Then I’ll get ready.”

“Ok Nicky.”

Almost 2 hours later, Nick was standing in front of the mirror tying his tie when he heard a beep from outside. He walked to the window while finishing on his tie. The limo they rented for the night was there. Casey came out of the bathroom. She was wearing a very elegant, navy blue evening gown. Nick smiled when he saw her. “You are so beautiful.”

Casey smiled at him. “You don’t look so bad yourself.” She approached him and straightened his tie before kissing him.

“The limo is here.” She nodded and they left the room, took hold of their children’s hands and left for the restaurant.

After about a half hour, they arrived at the restaurant. They found Brent and Abby and greeted them. As soon as they were seated, a waiter came to ask what they wanted to drink.

Dinner went entirely too fast for Nick’s liking and soon he found himself saying goodbye to Casey for the night.

Nick watched Abby pull Casey away. He grabbed both Katie’s and Damien’s hands and led them to the waiting limo.

During the half-hour ride home, Katie and Damien were being silly. Nick smiled at their antics. Soon, the limo pulled up in front of the house. Nick ushered the twins into the house and up to his room and left them coloring while sitting on the floor. Nick entered the bathroom and quickly changed into a t-shirt and basketball shorts. He called Katie into the room and changed her into her pajamas. He called Damien next but before putting Damien’s pajamas on, he gave him a bath. When Damien was done, Nick called Katie in for her bath.

Once Nick finished bathing the twins, he had them help him put away the crayons and coloring books. As soon as everything was cleaned up, Nick led his children into the living room and put on Pooh’s Heffalump Movie. Father and children sat cuddled on the couch for the duration of the movie.

The movie ended and Nick stood up to take the movie out of the player. Once the movie was back where it belonged, Nick turned to the couch and said. “Ok. Bedtime.”

Katie was about to slide off the couch to go to Nick when Damien started screaming. “No bed.” Damien slid off the couch to the floor. He started kicking and screaming. Katie began to follow her brother’s lead, and slid off the couch and started to kick and scream as well. Nick groaned in frustration.

He stepped over Damien and picked Katie up off the floor. She was kicking against his side. As soon as he had Katie out of the room, she calmed down. “You were only carrying on like that because your brother was. Weren’t you?” She smiled at her father and rested her head on Nick’s shoulder. Nick kissed the top of her head as he entered the bedroom. He laid her in her bed and covered her with her blanket. He sang her to sleep. As soon as she was asleep, he kissed her forehead and left the room.

He walked back to the living room where Damien was still screaming. Nick sat on the couch and watched Damien scream.

About 5 minutes later, Damien rolled over thinking he won. Nick stood up and scooped up Damien. Damien saw where Nick was heading. “Dada, I not tired.” Damien yawned and rubbed his eyes with his fists as Nick entered the bedroom.

Nick gently placed Damien’s head on his shoulder. Damien went out like a light. Nick smiled. “Yeah, you’re not tired.” He tucked Damien in. He watched them sleep for a few minutes before shutting the light and heading to his room.

He entered his room and stripped down to his boxers. It’s been over 2 years since he last slept in a bed by himself. This caused him to struggle to find a position comfortable enough to sleep in.

When he did finally fall asleep, he was woken up by Katie screaming. He bolted out of bed and to their bedroom. When he got there, he saw Katie screaming because Damien was throwing up and convulsing. Nick rushed over and shielded Katie from what she was witnessing and called an ambulance.

The ambulance arrived and Damien was loaded in. Carrying Katie, Nick jumped in behind the paramedics. Nick was in shock. He couldn’t believe this was happening. He didn’t even notice the paramedic approach him until he was right in front of Nick. Nick held his breath when he saw the paramedic. “Your son has been poisoned.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry. His stomach will have to be pumped.”

They arrived at the hospital. Nick was forced to sit in the waiting room. He called Brent and explained what happened. Brent promised that he’d be there with the girls soon. As Nick was sitting in the waiting room, Katie started convulsing, and then she started to throw up. The nurse saw this and rushed over, taking Katie out of Nick’s grasp. Nick’s strong resolve broke, and he started crying. Before Brent and Abby arrived with Casey Nick fell asleep.

A ringing woke Nick up with a start. It took him a few minutes to take in his surroundings. He was sitting up in his bed, with a layer of cold sweat on his skin. He realized the ringing was the phone. He reached over and grabbed it. With a shaking hand he held the phone up to his ear. “Hello?” His voice was anything but steady.

Casey frowned in confusion. He sounded weird. “What’s wrong Nick?”

“It felt so real.” He said more to himself. He wasn’t registering that he was talking on the phone.

“What felt real? Nick, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me.”

“The twins.”

“What’s wrong with the twins?” Now Casey was getting really scared. Was something wrong with her children?

Nick didn’t respond to her question. He had dropped the phone on the bed right after mentioning the twins and ran out of the room. He opened their bedroom door. He sighed in relief when he saw their angelic faces sleeping peacefully. To give him a better frame of mind, he walked to each bed and felt for a fever. He kissed each of their heads and walked back out of the room. He entered his room and sat on the bed, forgetting about the phone lying next to him.

Well, he forgot about the phone until he heard, “NICKOLAS ANSWER ME.”

He picked up the phone. “I’m sorry.”

Casey felt reassured after hearing his voice sound a lot more normal than when he answered. “Nick, what’s wrong with the twins?”

“Nothing. They’re fine.”

“Then what was wrong when I called.”

“I just had a horrible dream that’s all.”

“About what?”

“The twins were poisoned.”

“Poisoned? No wonder you sounded completely freaked when you answered the phone.”

“Yeah.”

If he woke up from a horrible dream, that means she woke him up by calling. “Oh Nick. I’m sorry.”

“I’m confused. Why are you apologizing?”

“I woke you up.”

“Trust me. I’m glad you called and woke me up. I’d rather be talking to you than continuing that dream.”

“I wish I were there.”

“I wish you were here too. Hey, let’s run away and elope.”

She laughed out loud, then quieted herself. “Nicky, we are getting married tomorrow.”

“I know, but if we eloped, we’d be together tonight.”

She giggled. “Wait, a minute, you are kidding, right?”

Now it was Nick’s turn to laugh. “Of course I’m kidding. As much as I want to be with you tonight and to already be your husband, I value my life. I know that someone would come after me if I were to break the wedding plans. Honestly, I want to live long enough to be your husband.”

“You’re so silly.”

“Only around you. It would ruin my tough guy image to be silly around other people.”

“Oh Nick. You are too much. What am I going to do with you?”

“Hopefully love me forever.”

“Of course I will.”

Nick looked up when he heard his bedroom door open. Katie was standing there clutching her stuffed animal tightly looking like she was ready to burst into tears. “Hold on Casey.” He placed the phone on the bed. “Come here Katie.”

She ran to him and climbed on the bed. She threw herself into Nick’s lap. “Dada, is mama coming back.”

Nick cradled her and kissed the top of her head. “Of course she is teddy bear.” He picked up the phone. “Casey, talk to Katie.” He handed Katie the phone. “It’s mommy.”

“Mama?”

“Hi Katie. What are you doing awake?”

“I scared.”

“You’re scared? How can you be scared when you’re sitting on daddy’s lap with daddy playing with your hair?”

“Mama not here.”

“You’ll see me tomorrow. You know that.”

“But why can’t mama be here now?”

“Mommy’s staying at a friend’s house tonight. I haven’t seen her in awhile.”

“Ok, mama.”

“Are you being a good girl for daddy?”

“Yes I am.” She turns to Nick. “Right dada?”

“I don’t know what I’m saying “right” to so, I can’t answer you.” Nick tickled Katie’s side. Katie began giggling into the phone.

“Is daddy tickling you honey?”

“Yes.” She continues to giggle.

“Can you put daddy back on the phone?”

“Ok mama. Love you.”

“I love you too honey.”

Katie handed the phone back to Nick. “So what did you ask before she wanted me to agree?”

“I asked if she was being a good girl.”

“Oh, yeah she is. She’s beginning to look sleepy again.”

“I’ll let you go then Nick. I love you.”

“I love you too.” Nick hung up the phone. “So Katie, where do you want to sleep?”

“With dada.” Nick smiled before grabbing Katie and getting in bed. Soon they were both asleep.

The next morning, Brent arrived at the Carter house. He let himself in and made his way up to Nick’s bedroom. He opened the door and smiled when he saw Nick cradling Katie’s small body. Brent approached the bed and shook Nick awake. When Nick finally responded and woke up, Brent said, “Does Casey know that you slept with a cute blonde?”

Nick looked at Katie still sound asleep in his arms. “I think Casey suspects it.”

Brent smiled. “Well it’s time to get you and the twins ready for your wedding. So get out of bed.”

“You’re so nice Brent. But honestly, I don’t think you’ll be much help when it comes to helping me get the twins ready.” He got out of bed. “Does Abby know how much of a spaz you are when it comes to babies?”

“Not yet. But it’s not like she’s pregnant. So I don’t have to worry about telling her.”

“Just so you know, there’s no need for you to be here.”

“I came to help you.”

“Well, there’s no way I’m trusting you to dress my children. So what are you going to do? Help me dress myself? I don’t think so.”

“You know, you are awfully calm for someone getting married.”

“Yeah, unlike some people I know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean Nick?”

“Oh gee, I wonder. You nearly threw up you were so nervous.”

“Did you have to remind me of that?”

“Absolutely. Just be thankful you didn’t throw up during the ceremony.” Nick had the children awake and was getting food for them. After they ate, Nick dressed them. Once they were dressed, Nick said to Brent, “Make yourself useful and watch them while I take a shower.”

“I thought you said I was a spaz when it comes to kids.”

“You are, but they need to stay clean while I take a shower and get dressed. And besides, my father should be getting here momentarily.” The doorbell rang and Nick smiled at the timing. He went to the door and greeted his father. “Perfect timing Dad. Now someone who knows how to handle children can watch the twins while I shower.”

Nick turned and practically skipped out of the room. Bob looked after his son in amusement. “He’s awfully hyper isn’t he?”

Nick heard his father’s comment. “I’M GETTING MARRIED.” He screamed excitedly then left the room to shower.

Brent and Bob started laughing. “He sure as hell isn’t nervous.” Bob commented.

“Not at all.”

The rest of the morning preparations went by in a blur and soon everyone found themselves on the beach, waiting for the ceremony to start. Katie and Damien were sitting with Nick’s father.

After what seemed like forever to those seated, Nick took his place by the altar with Brent by his side. Katie clapped excitedly when she saw her father. She wiggled out of Bob’s grasp and ran to Nick. Bob couldn’t catch her in time. When she got to Nick, he didn’t hesitate to scoop her into his arms. He held her as he waited for the ceremony to begin.

Soon Casey began walking down the aisle with Abby’s father. Katie, who was still in Nick’s arms, said, “Mama pretty.”

Nick laughed lightly. “No, she’s beautiful.” Nick’s eyes locked with Casey.

They broke their gaze when Damien saw Casey and ran to her. Everyone broke out laughing, bride and groom included.

When Casey reached Nick, he put Katie down and took hold of Casey’s hand. Katie clung to Nick’s leg as Damien clung to Casey.

Nick and Casey exchanged their vows and Nick was told to kiss his bride. They broke apart. Nick picked up Katie and Casey picked up Damien

The pastor said, “I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Nickolas Gene Carter,” he then saw the twins in their parent’s arms and added, “and children.”

The reception flew by and soon Nick and Casey found themselves cuddled up on their bed for the first time as husband and wife. They were very content just cuddling and kissing softly. Wedding days, although wonderful and joyous, are draining, and then add in a set of toddler twins, you’d understand why they were content to just cuddle and kiss. They both thought, sleep now, consummate marriage later.

As they were falling asleep, Casey jumped out of bed. Nick sat up and looked at her worriedly. “Casey, baby is something wrong?”

Casey turned to Nick with a piece of paper flat against her chest. “Nothings wrong. I just almost forgot to give you something.” Casey climbed back into bed next to Nick. “Here.”

Nick took the paper from Casey. “What is this?”

“Read it.”

Nick looked down at the paper and read what was on it.

I play the part of an every day teen
Nobody can really see that it’s not who I am
My friends talk happily about their families
I listen in envy; my family just isn’t like that
My sister is the only happy part of my family
What I wouldn’t give to be loved for me?

My parents don’t do anything with me or my sister
They don’t even eat meals with us.
I make the meals, and clean
My mom acts like she’s a queen; my dad is never sober
He is aggressive and abusive
My parents sure don’t love me for me.

I dream of getting away from here. I dream of meeting the perfect man.
Even though there is no such thing as a perfect man, I want my perfect man
To love me and help my unhappiness melt away

I have no way of getting out, I’m only seventeen
Even if I could, how would I live?
I’m determined to get away, to lead a better life
My family is so uncertain and unloving
I fear what I will find when I enter the house
Is it too much to ask for to have someone love me for me?

Now Nick was even more confused. “Casey?”

Casey gently took the paper from Nick and placed it on his bedside table. She climbed over him and straddled him. She looked at him with love pouring out of her eyes. “I wrote that when I was seventeen, before I met you, and my life was a mess. I’m giving it to you because I don’t need it anymore. I found my perfect man.”

Nick smiled and kissed Casey. They broke apart and went back to their lying down position. “I love you Casey.”

“I love you Nick.” They fell asleep in each other’s arms.

The next morning, before doing anything else, they made sure to spend enough time together alone to consummate their marriage. They cleaned themselves up and then went to get the twins ready for their trip. Nick and Casey were taking the twins to England with them for their honeymoon.

Hours later, they checked into their hotel suite. The suite was luxurious. It had a large sitting area, a kitchen, complete with working stove and an eating area, and two bedrooms. 1 bedroom had a king size bed and the other room had 2 twin size beds for the twins.

The first day of their honeymoon, they didn’t do anything but relax. It was a couple days into their honeymoon when Nick was beginning to become really worried about Casey. She seemed to be always throwing up. She returned from the bathroom and Nick gave her a worried expression. “Casey, are you ok?”

“I’m perfect, why wouldn’t I be ok?”

“You’ve been throwing up and it’s starting to worry me.”

“Oh that.” She brushed it off, then stopped to think. “Oh that’s right. You don’t know.” She rushed off to her suitcase.

Nick looked even more confused. “I don’t know what?” He watched Casey go from bag to bag looking for something. “Casey, what’s going on? You’re acting like a crazy person.”

She found what she was looking for and turned to face Nick with a bright smile on her face. She walked briskly over to him and sat beside him on the bed. She handed him a pretty large envelope.

Nick opened the envelope and looked at the contents. “Is this what I think it is?”

“What do you think it is?” The bright smile never left Casey’s face.

“It looks like results from a doctor’s pregnancy test.” Nick looked up at Casey and she was looking at him softly. “You’re…”

Casey began nodding eagerly. “That’s right Nicky. I’m pregnant. You’re going to be a daddy again.”

Nick pulled her closer and kissed her passionately. They fell onto the bed and celebrated their new marriage and the new baby.