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Nick & Kevin
Chapter Twenty-Five: It All Comes Out

It was the screams that tipped me off – the swearing and the yelling, it was like I was home again listening to my parents rip each other to pieces. I had my hand through the broken glass and opening the door in seconds. I didn’t want it to be true, but when I ran into AJ’s living room, there she stood, a vase in her hand no doubt wanting to add it to the collection of already broken things on AJ’s floor. The living room was a mess. The couch was torn open – what she had used I don’t know – vases were smashed on the floor, AJ’s TV was on the floor too but is had a massive hole in the middle of the screen like it had been kicked in. She had obviously ransacked the place and I could only assume she was looking for something valuable. But that couldn’t be it; my mum would never do something like that.

“Mum! What are you doing here?” I was horrified, completely embarrassed and deeply ashamed. I could feel the other guys crowd in behind me and that only made things worse. So I tried to block them out.

She looked surprised to see me there. Her mouth was slightly ajar and she stared at me. For a minute there I thought maybe she was going to drop the vase and embrace me, tears in her eyes, begging me to forgive her for what she had done and what she was currently doing. I really thought that was what she was going to do.

And then she threw the vase at me.

Someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me out of the way before it hit me. It sailed past me and crashed against the wall. I didn’t bother to see who had saved me from receiving a nasty cut on my face. I only had eyes for my mum.

“Mum!” I screamed, shocked, hurt and a little afraid.

“You asshole!” she squatted down on the ground and picked up something black. “You told me you were broke!” she stood back up and threw the black thing at me. This time, I didn’t need anyone to pull me out of the way, I dodged it.

“Mum!” I rushed over to her but stopped about a metre away. I put up my hands, palms out, hoping to come across as non-threatening. “Mum! Calm down! We can talk about this!”

“What’s there to talk about?” she screamed, rushing over to a photo frame hanging from the wall. I knew what she was going to do so I quickly grabbed her around the waist. She instantly started screaming, swearing and shrieking. “Get off me! Get off me!”

Alarmed, I let go. What the hell was going on here? She was acting like a psycho!

“You need to leave,” the voice behind me was angry, very angry.

I didn’t look away from her but she looked past me and towards the speaker.

“You!” she looked dangerous in that moment. “You did this! You did this to my son!”

She took the frame off the wall. I wanted to stop her but I couldn’t move. She took the frame and threw it. I watched it fly across the room and watched as Kevin dodged it.

“You need to leave now!” he yelled. “This is not your house!”

“You did this to him!” she screamed at him again. “You turned him against me!”

“Mum, he didn’t do anything!” I said, feeling my heart pound in my chest.

“Yes he did!” she was becoming frantic and out of control. She started to cry as she stomped her foot on the ground. There was a breaking noise and she leaned forward to pick something up, straightening again with a broken piece of glass in her hand. “You bastard! You turned my son against me!”

The others were screaming now. There were shouts of “calm down, Jane” and “the police are on their way”. I didn’t know what to do. She was holding the piece of glass in her hand as if it were a weapon. She was holding it so hard in fact that blood was dripping off her hand, over the glass and down on the floor. It occurred to me that whatever she thought Kevin had done might have made her mad enough to try and gut him. So I stepped in front of her so that I was blocking Kevin.

“You turned him against yourself, you crazy bitch!”

I ignored whoever said that.

“Mum, put it down,” I said. “What are you doing? Just put it down.”

“He did this to us,” she screamed. “You cut me off because of him!”

That made me angry. “No, I cut you off because you were sucking me dry!” I screamed. “You want money? Get a damn job!”

“See what they’ve done to you!” she screamed back, taking a step forward, the bloody piece of glass freaking me the hell out. “You chose them over me! You’ve always chosen them over me!”

“That’s not true!” I couldn’t believe she was saying this to me. “I gave you all my money! I don’t have any more left to give you!”

“Bullshit! You’re not broke! You’re living in a fucking mansion!” she waved the bloody piece of glass around the room.

“This is AJ’s house!” I exclaimed. “I lost my house because I gave all my money to you!”

“LIAR!” she hollered, throwing the glass at me. I didn’t dodge that time and if it hadn’t been for my mother’s shitty aim it probably would have hit me. Luckily, it landed about a foot away from Howie. “After everything I’ve done for you!” she continued, looking absolutely crazed. “This is how you repay me! I made you that money! It’s because of me you have millions! I did it! ME!”

I lost it then. I couldn’t deal with her shit anymore. I couldn’t deal with being made to feel like a bad guy after everything I had done to make sure she had been taken care of.

“GET OUT!” I screamed. I wanted it to sound threatening and dangerous, like how my dad used to sound when I did something wrong. But I just sounded all broken. “I don’t owe you anything! GET OUT!”

“You want me to get out?” she shrieked. “You want me to get out?!”

Before I could answer, she rushed across the room, past the other guys who looked like they had no clue what they should be doing, and over to the fallen TV. She picked it up and smashed it on the floor. And then she did it again and again and again. Pieces of plastic, glass, metal and wiring flew across the room.

I had my hands in my hair again – it seemed that was my new habit whenever I felt like I was losing my mind. I felt like tearing chunks of it out as if that was going to stop my mum from going bat shit crazy.

“POLICE!”

Two uniformed cops ran into the room, one holding a baton and the other holding a gun. I froze and so did everyone else, including my mother.

“What’s going on here?” one of the cop with the gun asked.

No one spoke.

“Whose house is this?”

“Mine,” AJ said quickly. “It’s mine.”

“Your silent alarm went off and we got two calls from the neighbours,” the cop said. “One said they saw a female break in.” He looked over at my mum then.

“No, they know me!” my mum said quickly, her voice suddenly sweet but anxious. “That’s my son!” she pointed to me.

“Is this true?” the cop with the baton asked.

I nodded, my heart still pounding and feeling more scared and anxious than I have been in a while.

“See,” my mum said. “It’s alright. I’m his mother.”

“You were breaking this man’s things,” the cop with the baton pointed out, motioning to AJ.

“I didn’t have a key,” my mum explained.

I looked over at AJ, Kevin, Brian and Howie. They each had a sour look on their faces. AJ was looking around his living room and I could see that he was on the verge of losing it. Oh my God, if he started drinking again it was going to be my entire fault. And Kevin looked livid. He looked scary. If he didn’t hate me before, he was going to hate me now. They all were. I had to make this right.

“So you broke into his house and trashed his stuff?” the cop with gun asked.

My mum remained silent. She looked at me, her eyes pleading with me, wanting me to give her an out.

I looked back and felt the first tear leave my eye. I wiped it away furiously. I knew what I had to do because AJ would never do it. He loved me too much to do it.

“She broke in,” I said, calmly, still staring at my mum. “And when we told her to leave, she threw stuff at us.” I pointed at the bloody piece of glass which Howie still stood by. “She threatened us with that,” I said.

“You bastard!” my mum looked furious. “You ungrateful little bastard!”

“And she did all this,” I didn’t hold my hand out to show them what I meant, they knew I meant the shithole that had become AJ’s living room.

“NO!” she screamed.

“You have the right to remain silent...”

When they cuffed her, she screamed at them and at me. When they had finished reading her the Miranda rights, she struggled against their hold. As they escorted her out the door, she tried to turn back to me.

“Nicky! Baby! I’m sorry honey! Don’t let them take me!”

I turned away from her.

Xxx

I should have done more. I should have grabbed her and thrown her out. I shouldn’t have let it get that far. Now all I could do was stand there and watch as the cops dragged her out of AJ’s house.

“Nicky! Baby! I’m sorry honey! Don’t let them take me!”

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. What the hell just happened? Was this what was going on in Nick’s life for the past year? Why hadn’t I known about this?

“We’ll need you to come in tomorrow morning and give a statement,” one of the police officers said before exiting with his partner and Jane in cuffs.

“Look at my home!” AJ cried when the police had left, bending down to pick up the casing of his now destroyed TV. “My TV!”

“I’ll pay for everything AJ.”

I turned to Nick. I was getting used to the look that he had on his face.

“With what?” AJ said, sounding defeated not angry.

Nick looked horrified. He probably forgot that we heard everything he told his mother, including his financial situation.

“I’m gonna go,” he said softly, moving past us all and heading for the front door.

“Nick,” Howie called out, successfully stopping Nick in his tracks. “Where are you going? You have nowhere else to go.”

He had nowhere to go? Didn’t he buy another place? Surely he had the good sense to buy or rent another place. Unless he couldn’t afford it...but he wasn’t that broke was he?

“Don’t go Nick,” AJ said, dropping the TV casing. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Nick couldn’t look at any of us. Instead he stared at a place just right of Brian.

“I’m sorry my mum did this to your house AJ,” he said, his voice shaky. I don’t know how she knew I was here. I’m sorry I’m such a fuck up and I’m sorry you all came down here.” He swallowed, took a deep breath and looked up at me. “I’m sorry I called you Kevin.”

He turned for the door again and walked out. I could have stopped him, I just didn’t know if I wanted to.

“What the fuck just happened?!” Brian screamed once it was just the four of us. “What is going on?!”

“I’m going after him,” Howie said, moving quickly for the door.

“No!” I leaped forth and pulled him back. “You need to tell us right now what the hell has been up with him!”

“I don’t know-“

“Cut the shit, Howie,” Brian snapped. “We have a right to know.”

“I want to know why she trashed my house!” AJ agreed.

Howie nodded. “Probably because she wanted money,” he said sadly.

In the next five minutes, Howie told us everything. He told us about Jane and Bob’s divorce and how Bob forced Nick to choose between him and Jane. He told us how Nick had been cut off from his siblings. He told us that his father had disowned him when he found out Nick had been giving money to Jane. Howie told us how Nick became alienated from his friends when he could no longer afford the glamorous celebrity lifestyle.

“And he’s broke,” Howie finished.

“How broke are we talking here?” AJ asked.

“Ten thousand in the bank,” Howie said. “That’s it.”

I felt gutted. Nick had earned millions! Millions that were all his! He earned that money from hard work and persistence and now he only had ten thousand?

I turned to Brian, expecting to see the shock on his face too. But there was nothing there.

“Did you know about this?” I demanded from him.

“Some of it,” he nodded solemnly. “I didn’t know it was this bad.”

Rage boiled in me. “You should have said something sooner!” I growled.

“He wanted his privacy!” Howie exclaimed.

“I can’t believe this!” I couldn’t keep my voice down. I was completely siezed with rage. “Why didn’t he tell me about this? I would have been there for him! I would have given him money!”

No one answered me. Maybe how I was behaving now was an indication of why Nick had hid everything from me.

“I’m going after him,” I said, running past the guys.

“You don’t even know where he is!” Brian shouted. “He could be in any bar around town!”

“He’s not in a bar,” I shouted back as I ran out the door.

Xxx

16th March, 1993

“Can I get a mint choc-chip and...” I looked down at Nick. The blonde was looking greedily at all the flavours of ice-cream on display behind the glass counter. “Nick, what do you want?”

“Can I get two flavours?” he asked, excitement written all over his face as though he’d never had an ice-cream before.

“Sure,” I laughed.

“Can I get choc-chip and double chocolate?”

“That’s not really two flavours,” I pointed out while the girl serving us watched on in amusement.

“Yes it is,” Nick countered. “There’s double chocolate and there’s chocolate-chip. Different degrees of chocolate-ness. And one even has chips in it!”

I laughed again.

“Okay,” I said to the girl. “One choc-chip and one double chocolate and choc-chip.”

“Right away,” she said, and made herself busy.

“You having fun?” I asked the kid.

“I should have gotten strawberry,” he said after a minute and I grinned.

I was starting to like this kid. I’ll admit it, at first I hated the idea of being in the same group as a twelve year old and although he seemed committed, I didn’t really see us getting along. We were nine years apart and he was so immature about everything. But there were times when it kind of felt like he was growing on me.

“That’ll be seven dollars,” the girl came back with our ice-creams. Nick took them while I paid the girl.

We left the kiosk, licking at our ice-creams and enjoying the sun. Spring had finally arrived and Nick had been dying to go to the beach all winter but it just hadn’t been warm enough. So I thought I’d take him today – not to swim, but to walk on the sand and enjoy the sun. It was about time that I got to know the kid a bit better. We were going to be seeing a lot of each other after all.

“Let’s sit on the sand,” Nick suggested and before I could object, he ran ahead of me and plopped down on the beach, kicking off his shoes and rolling up his pants. He dug his feet into the sand and leaned back, using his elbow to prop himself up while using his other arm to hold his ice-cream. I really had no choice, so I joined him.

“I want to go in,” he sighed.

“It’ll be warm enough soon,” I said. “Brian likes the beach too so you can go with him.”

“What’s he like?”

“Brian?”

He nodded.

“You’ll like him a lot,” I said truthfully. “He’s really energetic and he’s always doing silly stuff. But he’s got an amazing voice.”

“When’s he coming?” Nick asked, looking out at the ocean, finishing his ice-cream and rubbing his hand on his shirt.

“April sometime I think,” I said. “After he finishes his exams.”

He seemed to drift off after that, watching the waves while once in a while taking a lick of his ice-cream. This was the most peaceful I’d seen him in all the time I had known him. Given, that time was short, but still. He was always on the move, jumping up and down, pulling pranks on Howie, wrestling with AJ. One time I caught myself thinking that he might have ADHD or something. He had started to grow on me but he was also a massive pain in the butt. He was weird like that.

“So, you have four sisters right?” I asked after a long silence, my ice-cream now sitting contentedly in my stomach. “One set of twins?”

“Three sisters and a brother,” he responded, looking away from the water. He sat straight up and began to bury his legs in the sand.

“And you’re the oldest right?”

“Yeah.”

“That must be pretty cool,” I said. “I’m the youngest in my family.”

Nick shrugged. “I like being the oldest,” he said. “They all look up to me and that’s cool.”

There was a hesitance in his voice, an uncertainty that shouldn’t have been there.

“But?” I asked.

He shrugged again, still piling sand on top of his legs.

“I don’t like looking after them all the time,” he said quietly, as if ashamed.

“What do you mean?” I asked, interested.

“You know, babysitting and stuff,” he said. “I wish we could afford a babysitter.”

“Because your mum and dad both work, right?” I knew that Jane and Bob worked at a retirement home or something like that. I always thought they were put into day-care or had a nanny.

“Yeah,” Nick said. “I think we’re really poor. Mum and dad always fight about money. That’s why I have to take care of the others.”

I shook my head, not completely understanding. Weren’t his kid twins ten years younger than him?

“How old are the youngest?” I asked.

“Six,” he said. So six or seven years younger. I wasn’t too far off.

“So, they’re not too young,” I tried to find something not so wrong about what I was hearing. “I mean, you weren’t put in charge of them when you were six, right?”

He didn’t answer, just continued to pile sand on his legs. At this point, he was going to make a sandcastle right on top of himself.

“Were you?” I pushed, feeling slightly uneasy.

He shrugged again. “Not a lot,” he said. “Mum took time off work until they were two.”

I felt a little disgusted. I didn’t know Jane or Bob very well, so I wasn’t about to make assumptions of them based on a thirteen year old’s claims, but if this was true, I’m pretty sure it was illegal.

“You shouldn’t have been in charge of four kids,” I said. “Someone needed to be in charge of you.”

“I don’t need anyone in charge of me,” he huffed, breaking his legs free from the sand mountain he had created on top of them. “And it’s just because we can’t afford to pay for a babysitter. When we get rich and famous, everything will be different. You’ll see.”

I shifted awkwardly, the ice-cream in my stomach feeling a little uncomfortable now.

“Mum and dad won’t have to work that much and they’ll stop fighting all the time,” he said, looking back out at the water. “And I can make everyone happy again.”

I swallowed. What the hell was I to say to that? When I offered to take him out, I had not expected this.

“I love the beach,” he said finally after a few minutes of silence. “It makes me feel good.”

Xxx

A/N: Sorry for the late update! I was trying to work out how to separate these last few chapters. When I get to the end, you’ll understand why I’m having a hard time figuring out how to structure them. I have about 3 or 4 chapters left.

Anyways, I was feeling bad about making Jane’s character a bitch and then that thing happened with Nick and I don’t feel so bad anymore LOL Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed! Thanks to Jujube x2, KeepThisSecret, KimberlyCan, Mare, PaulaKTBPA and libragurl! Always appreciate the reviews!