Isabelle sighed and sat down on the tour bus. She had decided to tag along with Nick for most of the drive. He had multiple bunks on his bus, so it’d be easy that way. She stared out the window at a few snowflakes falling down from the sky. “You look really bummed.” Nick muttered as he sat across from her on the couch and took a sip from his diet coke.
“I’m not…bummed,” Isabelle mumbled and fidgeted with her fingers in her lap to try and think of what exactly she was going through. “I just feel guilty. He brought me here and I went and screwed everything up.” She sniffled and wiped lazily under her eyes. Through her tears, she glanced over at Nick with a heavy sigh. “And now here I am making you feel like I made the wrong decision or something. I don’t feel like I made the wrong decision, Nick.” She explained and walked over to the couch to sit down across from him. “I just feel bad. I feel like either way I was going to hurt someone and I did. I hurt Brady.”
Nick sighed and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. “You’re so amazing, you know that?” He whispered softly and kissed her forehead. “You worry so much about other people and not enough about yourself. Izzie, you can’t always live wanting everyone around you to be happy. What do you want?” He asked quietly.
Isabelle bit her bottom lip as she pondered the question. She glanced back up at Nick. “I want to be here…with you.” She muttered.
“Then you made the right decision,” Nick shrugged with a small grin. “Come on,” he scooted closer to her and draped an arm around her shoulder. He kissed the side of her head sweetly. “Let’s watch a movie or something to take your mind off things. We have a pretty long drive to the next city.”
“Alright, fine,” Isabelle sighed and snuggled up to Nick. She had to admit, being in such close proximity really did make her feel a bit better. He had this way of calming her down when she herself didn’t think she would be able to.
“Okay, what will it be?” He asked and kissed the top of her head. Even though they hadn’t known each other that long, Nick knew her well enough to know breaking up with Brady was having an effect over her. She was too genuine and kind to not allow it to bother her, and for that, Nick felt bad. He didn’t want her to be so down on herself.
“Hmm,” she smirked to herself. “Something Christmas-y.” She beamed. “I could definitely use some holiday cheer right about now.” She chuckled.
“It isn’t even Thanksgiving yet,” Nick rolled his eyes with a grin, but nonetheless scooted her over a bit so he could get up and look through his DVD collection.
“It will be this weekend,” Isabelle pouted back. “It’ll be really weird not being with my family this Thanksgiving…” she sighed and played with the flannel blanket draped over the back of the couch Nick and she had been sitting on. “I mean, even though they can be a bit crazy at times and definitely push me off the deep end, they’re still my family. I still miss them.” She shrugged.
“I’m sorry,” Nick sighed. It seemed like this whole thing with Isabelle was getting more and more complicated. “Maybe you can catch a flight home on Wednesday or something to be with them. We’re flying back into the states Sunday, anyway. Howie’s wedding is coming up and they need to get everything prepared anyway. So, we could meet back up afterwards or something?” He tried to come up with an answer to her problems.
“That would be nice, Nick,” Isabelle nodded as he put in “The Grinch”. As he came back to sit down, she put her arm around him to pull him close. “But who will you spend Thanksgiving with?” She asked him and kissed his cheek sweetly.
Nick shrugged as if it wasn’t a big deal. “I don’t know. I think Leighanne and Baylee are flying in, and probably Leigh. So AJ and I will chill and watch a movie or something.” He mumbled.
Isabelle played with his fingers in her hand as she tilted his face towards hers. “As enticing as going home to spend time with my family sounds, I think I’ll stay here and ‘chill’ with you and AJ.” She grinned. Nick beamed and kissed her softly.
“You don’t have to do that. I’d never want you to spend time away from your family for me…I know family traditions are big to other people,” he shrugged. “I’m just sorry I travel all the time and I can’t hang around with you or whatever.”
“It’s okay,” she shrugged with a grin. “Hey, I took this job anyway.” She winked. “Besides, I’m not sure I could bare going home and explaining that Brady and I broke up. I mean, they’re not really gonna take it well, as far as I know.” She sighed.
“Well, then we can have our own Thanksgiving,” he smirked. “As long as you’re sure you’re okay with it, then it works out for me.” He beamed. “We usually can’t do anything special. We’ll get some food, hang out and watch a movie or something.” He shrugged.
“Sounds nice enough to me,” Isabelle winked and kissed his cheek softly. “So, um, you mentioned that we’re heading back to the states after this next show?” She asked softly as previews began to play.
“Yeah,” Nick nodded, not really sure where Isabelle was headed with her question.
“Where are you gonna go when we go back?” She asked again, trying to sound somewhat discrete. She didn’t want to seem pushy, but she also wasn’t sure she wanted to go home for the weekend. Thinking more and more about explaining to her family why she wasn’t home with Brady was beginning to bother her. She knew her mom, especially, would have something to say about it. And she didn’t expect any feedback to be positive.
“Florida. Howie’s wedding is in Orlando, so I’m going to head back to Tampa to spend some time with my friends and then over to Orlando for his wedding,” he explained, beginning to realize where Isabelle was headed with all this. “Iz, do you wanna come with me?”
“Oh, I didn’t realize you were spending time with your friends in Tampa,” she mumbled and shrugged. “I’ll just catch up with you at Howie’s wedding.” She didn’t want to impose on Nick and his friends. She knew he was barely ever home anyway. He’d want time with them on his own.
“Izzie, I really don’t mind you coming with me,” Nick chuckled and paused the movie so he could have her complete attention. “Seriously. I’d like it. My friends usually make me go out and get plastered with them. It’d be much more fun if you were there. We’d just chill at Robbie’s place, watch a movie or something and order in.” He shrugged.
“Nick,” Isabelle sighed and sat up so she could look him in the eye. “Are we moving too quickly? I mean, I just broke up with Brady. It seems like everything’s just falling into place but I hope it’s not too good to be true.”
“We should just take it one day at a time,” Nick reassured her. “We’ll get off tour for a little while, spend some time with my friends and their girlfriends. Then you’ll get to meet all the wives at the wedding, and at Thanksgiving too.” Nick explained with a grin. “It’ll all work out, I promise. You trust me?”
Isabelle beamed when he said that and kissed him softly. “More than you know.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
AH! I'm so sorry it took me ages to update. School has been absolutely chaotic but I took my final exam on Friday!! So I am free for the next month to write my heart out, haha. I hope I didn't lose too many readers!! PLEASE review! I promise to keep up with this now that it's holiday break =]
