Nick Carter downed the rest of his beer and tilted his head back in pure bliss – more like confusion. His head was spinning and it wasn’t even two in the afternoon. His phone continued to ring off the hook as he sat back and ignored the outside world.
“Hey, it’s Nick. Leave a message,” his answering machine picked up for the hundredth time.
“Nick…its AJ, man,” he heard one of his best friend’s voices. “Dude, we’re really worried about you. We’ve been waiting at the diner for over an hour now. We’re driving over to your place. See ya.”
Dammit, Nick cursed in his head. That was the last thing he needed right now; all his best friends to drive over and save him from his own insanity. He picked up the phone before AJ could hang up. “AJ?” He mumbled and began to peel away the beer wrapper on the outside of his bottle.
“Hey, man! How are ya?” Dumb question, Nick thought to himself. “Where have you been? We’ve been waiting for you for like…almost an hour and a half!”
“I got caught up with something,” Nick shrugged as he lied through his teeth. Well, it wasn’t necessarily a lie. He had gotten caught up in drinking. “I don’t really feel up to company right now…” he muttered and ran his fingers over his eyes drowsily. “I’m kinda tired.”
“We’re worried about ya, man,” AJ muttered on the other line. “Kevin’s threatening to fly out here if you can’t get yourself together.” AJ chuckled to try and lighten the mood. “You really don’t want that to happen.”
Nick had to crack a small smile. AJ was right. “Christmas time sucks,” Nick mumbled as he stood up and walked over to his fridge to find yet another beer. “I mean, I was doing great, ya know? I had stopped thinking about her and everything…and then Christmas had to go and come around.”
AJ sighed. He knew Nick was struggling with the fact that Sophie had left him. He was surprised, really. Nick had never held onto any fallen relationship. He usually bounced back and got over everything rather quickly. But not this time. Sophie moved out and Nick turned to this pile of mush. He would lie around his house, he stopped writing music, and he stopped eating right. He had turned into this…monster. “How about I come over there with Howie and we’ll get up, get dressed and go out tonight? Guys’ night out.” He suggested.
“I’m not really up for it,” Nick sighed and took a gulp from his Bud Light. “I-I was thinking about maybe taking a trip out to Boston…” he played with the wrapper again. Granted, his head wasn’t ‘all there’ from the consumption of alcohol, but he knew what he was saying.
AJ sighed heavily again. “Nick, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Why make it all worse? It’ll just be harder for you if you go up there and see her. You need to get over Sophie.”
“Yeah? Well, what the fuck do you know anyway?” Nick snapped, biting off AJ’s head. “Fuck, AJ. You don’t know what it’s like to not have the one person you love anymore.” He bit his bottom lip out of pure anger; so hard, in fact, he thought he might have drawn blood.
“You don’t think I know Nick? Remember Sarah? Or Kaci? Or any of the other amazing women I ended up dating, falling in love with and then getting broken over?” He questioned angrily. “Yeah buddy, tell me I don’t know again. Seriously.” He didn’t want to get angry with Nick. That wasn’t his intention. Sometimes Nick became so unbearable he just didn’t know how to handle the situation.
“I’m sorry, okay? I just think going to Boston might be good for me,” he shrugged.
“Whatever,” AJ mumbled. He knew Nick shouldn’t even see Sophie right now when he was like this, but he also knew Nick was a grown man and had to make his own decisions, even the wrong ones. He couldn’t stop anything from happening in Nick’s life. Only Nick had the control over that.
Nick mumbled out that he had to go and said goodbye. He really hadn’t been planning on making any trips out to Boston; if anywhere, he wanted to go back to California to try and get away from the home he had shared with Sophie for almost four months. But after mentioning the irrational option to AJ, the thought had stayed in his mind. He moseyed over to his computer and opened up the internet. It was worth a shot.
- Back in Boston –
Sophie sat down at her desk in her cubicle and pulled up the internet. “Any good stories out there?” She called over the cubicle wall to her new found friend and co-worker, Elise Mannix.
“Some Santa robbery at the mall…” Elise mumbled back, too infatuated with her current story to elaborate. “I think Danny picked that up, though.” She muttered.
Sophie sighed and decided to hit up Google for current issues going on around her. She bit her lip and glanced around her bare and boring cubicle for someone to search. She had always been a picture person; however on her move to Boston, she had opted out of bringing many of her albums or photos along. All of them reminded her of Nick – the one person she was trying to get away from. It seemed like Christmas was always the hardest time for her to deal with a break up. Nick. She found her fingers typing in his name before her brain could even tell her to stop.
Dammit. She opened the article that popped up immediately. She was too intrigued not to.
Backstreet Boy, Nick Carter, seemed to be playing the field at Dolce Night Club in Orlando, Florida the other night. We spotted him with two blondes, a brunette and even a red head at different parts of the night, yet he left with two men?! Maybe Nick’s a bit different than we thought?
Sophie frowned and looked at the pictures; the ones of Nick with other women made her want to throw up, but then she saw the one where he left with the two guys and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. The two guys were his two best friends – Robbie and Chris. Nick wasn’t hooking up with random girls, either. And somehow she got a pleasant feeling out of that.
“Sophie,” she heard from behind her. She spun around in her computer chair and smiled at the man standing there, her boss – Jonathan Richardson.
“Hey Jonathan,” she beamed and reached behind her to quickly close her laptop so he wouldn’t see what she had been up to. “How are you?”
“I’m doing good,” he smiled his practically perfect smile. “Are you working on any stories right now?” He asked her as he cocked his head to the side to try and see behind her. She bit her bottom lip and quickly shook her head ‘no’.
“Nope, nothing,” she smiled. “I was actually looking for something to get started on. I know the office is closed tomorrow but I don’t really have any plans so I’m up for any kind of story.” She explained, wanting to mentally smack herself for going into such detail. He probably didn’t even care.
“Well, there’s a quaint kid’s festival taking place just down the street at Boston Commons over by Cheer’s. You wanna cover that for me?” He winked.
Sophie inwardly groaned. A kid’s festival? She was hoping for some great robbery or better yet, an attempted murder. But a festival? That wasn’t exciting whatsoever. “Sure, I’ll get right on that.” She sighed with a smile and reached for her scarf and gloves.
“Thanks,” he winked and quickly walked away.
“You’ll learn soon enough not to be fooled by Jonathan’s charm,” Elise piped up from the cubicle over. Sophie chuckled and stood up to pull on her heavy black pea coat.
“Oh really?” She grinned. She wasn’t interested in men at this point in her life. She didn’t want to jump back into any kind of relationship; so the fact that Jonathan was insanely attractive and gorgeous didn’t faze her. She was more interested in establishing new friendships with the girls and guys around her.
“Yep,” Elise chuckled and scooted her computer chair over towards Sophie’s side. “I completely fell head over heels for him when I first started here.” She laughed. “He was all flirty and everything…it was a huge mistake. He didn’t like me that way at all.”
“Aw,” Sophie smiled. “Yeah, well, I got out of a pretty serious relationship when I moved here. It was kind of a big mess.” She made a sour face. “So I’m not really looking for any kind of relationship just yet, ya know?” She sighed. Elise nodded.
“I definitely understand that,” she agreed. “I heard you tell Jonathan you don’t have any plans for Christmas. Don’t you have family or friends to spend the holidays with?” She asked. Elise didn’t mean to pry; she was just curious.
“Well, my family lives in Florida. I love them and miss them terribly…along with my friends,” Sophie sighed, that bit of homesickness creeping back up her throat. “It’s just that my ex boyfriend lives there too. And I’m just not sure I’m ready to face him again. I’m kinda getting over it all…it’s hard, but I’m working on it. I’m just not up for reopening that can of worms.” She tried to explain.
“Aw, well, it’s no fun to be alone on Christmas,” Elise added in. “My fiancé and I are having our friends over tomorrow for Christmas dinner and stuff. You should come!”
Sophie grinned appreciatively. “That’s sweet Elise, but you don’t even know me. I mean, I wouldn’t want to like, barge in or anything.” She scrunched up her nose. She didn’t want everyone to pity her.
“Nonsense,” Elise smiled. “The more the merrier.”
After exchanging addresses and phone numbers, Sophie headed on her way to write Jonathan’s bogus story. Oh well, at this point, things were looking up.
Author's Chapter Notes:
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