Chapter Three

The grill had been set up and Howie, donning a chef’s hat, was cooking the hot dogs.

“Gianna! How you doing?” Howie said as he twirled a hot-dog out of a high flame.

“Good D. You?” Gianna asked coming up beside him, giving his a hug from the side.

“Good, hey Rok and Leigh are over there.” he said nodding his head towards the pool. Gianna nodded as she made her way over to the clear water. Sitting down on the edge she sunk her feet into the cool water, swaying her legs back and forth, she waited for one of the Littrell’s to notice her. Minutes later Brian glanced up to check the state of the food and spotted Gianna.

“Hey! I haven’t seen you in forever!” He said swimming over to her in the shallow end. Stand up in the water he waded to the side of the pool hugging her, drenching her in the process.

“B!” Gianna squealed as she shoved him away.

“Hehe. Gotcha!” Brian said pulling away.

“Brian, what did you do?” Leighanne asked in a stern tone as she swam over to the two of them.

“Hey Leigh.” Gianna said smiling at her.

“Gianna, it is so good to see you. Where is your friend?”

“Upstairs with AJ I think. That’s the last place I saw her.”

“How was the drive up here?” Brian asked as he pulled himself up and out of the water to sit next to Gianna.

“Long. But fun. Thanks for the convertible by the way.”

“It was Nick’s choice. The rest of us wanted BMW’s and Corvettes.”

“Thank god for Nick. The car is bitchin.” Gianna said running a hand through her hair.

“You talking about the Stang??” Nick asked as he came over with a plate of food and took a seat on the other side of Gianna.

“Yup. Your brilliant choice.”

“You like?”

“I love.” Gianna said smiling.

“Food’s done?” Brian asked perking up as he eyed Nick’s plate.

“Been done bro.” Nick answered as Brian stood. Grabbing a towel he headed for the chow.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Nick asked as Gianna watched him devour a hot-dog.

“Yeah, I’ll be right back.” Gianna said as she pulled her legs out of the water and walked over to the grill.

“Hot-dog.” Howie said holding up his fork with a grilled hot-dog on it. Gianna grabbed a plate and bun and allowed Howie to place the hot-dog in the roll.

“Gracias.” Gianna said as she headed over to the table and loaded her plate up with salads and chips. She finished piling her plate with food and headed back to the pool where Nick was sitting by himself, having been abandoned by Leighanne. Out of the corner of her eye she spotted AJ and Elise exit the house laughing together.

“Hey.” Gianna said as she sat down next to Nick again.”

“Hey. Good food.” he replied shoving a few chips in his mouth.

“Yeah? We’ll have to give props to Howie the cook.” Gianna said taking a bite out of her hot-dog. “This is a really nice house.” she said looking out over the ocean. The sun had already begun to set in the early evening and it transformed the sky into a bright orange color. “Beautiful view.”

“Yeah I know. I love it. Where I live in Tampa my house looks out over the gulf. The view is great, but not this great. I mean, this ocean stretches on infinitely. You know? The sunset is gorgeous.”

“I came out here for peace and relaxation. I’m not sure if I’ll get the peace part living with AJ, but the relaxation part is a definite. I can’t be anything but relaxed here. Tomorrow I’m going down to the beach and laying in the sun all afternoon.”

“Mind if I join you? I am a huge fan of the beach and ocean.”

“Not at all. For some reason I doubt that Elise will be free tomorrow,” Gianna said jerking her head at AJ and Elise still laughing over their food at a near-by picnic table, “she’s found a new friend.”

“Clearly she has huh?” Nick said smiling.

“I wonder some times...” Gianna stated to herself.

“Wonder about what?” Nick asked as he watched Gianna’s eyes become cloudy.

“What? Oh! Um..just about what goes on in Elise’s head. She is very interesting.” Gianna said being brought out of her thoughts.

“I think the same about AJ. In that sense they are perfect for each other.”

“Yeah they are. She puzzles me sometimes though.”

“Yeah.” Nick answered as he studied Gianna. There was something about her. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he was comfortable around her. He wondered how he had never noticed it before, but then realized that before today, he had never spoke to her one-on-one. Angela, his ex-girlfriend had taken up all of his time when Gianna visited the guys. He suddenly felt extremely guilty for never becoming friends with Gianna. She was a great person, had a few things in common with him, and was not hard to look at at all. He made a promise to himself to get to know her this summer. While she was here she would need friends, especially because Elise had already abandoned her. Not to mention that it would be good to get to know another girl. Ever since his break-up with Angela six months ago, he had been shy about becoming close to another girl, even in friendship.

“You okay, Nick?” Gianna asked concerned. He had a far off look in his eyes, and he had forgotten about the remainder of his dinner on his plate. Nick shook his head, ridding himself of his previous thought.

“Yeah, just thinking.”

“What about? Anything interesting?”

“Not really, just about what I’m going to do this summer. I am going to leave this beach house an entirely different person. I am way too shy and held-back. I need to get some confidence.”

“You seem pretty confident to me. How else would you be able to get up on stage and perform for tens of thousands of fans?”

“I have stage confidence, but I need life confidence. You know what I mean?”

“Not really.”

“I’ll have to explain it to you later. There’s a long story that goes with it.”

“Oh.” Gianna said disappointed.

“Hey, what are you doing tonight?”

“Why?” Gianna asked.

“We can hang out in my room. I have a big screen TV. I’ll tell you all about Angela and life confidence.” Gianna raised her eyebrows and smiled.

“Sounds like fun.”

“Oh, don’t get too excited. My tale is actually quite boring.”

“Doesn’t matter. It will be interesting.”

“Glad you’re looking forward to it.” Nick said smiling as he finished his dinner.

Hours later, the sun had set and the cool air had set in. Dew had settled on the green grass as the guys and girls sat outside in patio chairs gazing at the stars.

“It is really calm out here.” Elise said pulling a blanket over herself.

“Yeah. I love the noise.” Brian stated.

“What noise, B? It is perfectly silent.” Howie said.

“Shhh, listen.” Brian said. Everyone hushed and listened intently for any noise in the silent area.

“I don’t hear anything.” Howie whispered.

“Exactly.” Brian said laying back getting out of his chair to lay on the damp grass. “The silence is deafening. You know the quote?” Brian said as he glanced up at the group.

“Yeah, I know what you mean, Brian.” Gianna said as she curled up in her over-sized Harvard sweatshirt. “This is so different from our apartment in Miami, isn’t it Lee?” Gianna asked looking over at Elise.

“Yeah, I don’t know how I am going to get to sleep tonight. I am so used to the traffic of the city.”

“Weird how that works isn’t it?” Nick asked. “You would think that loud traffic and cars would keep you awake but really it’s the opposite.”

“Yeah, strange.” Gianna said glancing at Nick who was seated in the chair next to her. He looked over at her wrapped in her sweatshirt and smiled.

“Cold?” he asked with an hint of amusement in his voice. Gianna shot him a dirty look and snuggled deeper into her warm sweatshirt. “Hey, come on.” He said standing up offering her his hand. Brian, still laying on the grass looked up and threw the group a puzzled look. Gianna eyed Nick’s hand for a moment before placing her hand in his allowing him to pull her up. “I want to talk. Okay?” he asked looking at the group of people gaping at the scene. Gianna headed for the house thinking of the warmth awaiting her, and Nick followed. Heading up stairs Gianna went for her room.

“I’ll be in there in a second. I just want to change. K?” she asked as she reached her door. Nick nodded and she disappeared into her room. Once inside she stripped the sweatshirt, T-shirt, and jeans off and pulled her flannel pajama bottoms on and slipped the sweatshirt back over her head. Taking the short cut through the bathroom, she knocked on Nick’s door. Hearing him tell her to come in she opened the door. Nick was sprawled on the bed in his pajama pants and a white T-shirt.

“Get comfy, we might be here for awhile.” Nick said patting the seat next to him on the bed. Gianna grabbed the blanket from the end of his bed and plopped down next to him. “Here.” Nick said putting his hand out for the blanket. Gianna handed it to him and he opened it and spread it over the two of them. Gianna propped a pillow up behind her and shifted to face Nick. He, in turn faced her.

“Alright, I’m ready.”

“Okay, so you want me to tell you about Angela.” he stated watching Gianna nod. “K. She was this girl that I met when I was about 15. I met her through my mother, she and Angela’s mom were close friends and the two of them decided to set us up with each other. Mind you, I was just getting into the whole girl thing. Because of the fact that I was on the road so much, I barely had time for a social life.” Nick said.

“Gotcha, I can understand that part.”

“Anyway, I was completely inexperienced and well...needless to say, Angela wasn’t. She was a year and a half older than I, and at 16 she was known around her school as the..um...tramp. Lucky me huh?” he said rolling his eyes. Gianna giggled slightly but stopped when Nick continued. “So I met her, and at first I had no idea what she was like. I didn’t go to school with her, and she didn’t look like a tramp so I though that maybe she and I could hook up or something. She was amazingly pretty, long brown hair, green eyes, very skinny, I think she was a cheerleader. Well, I met her, we talked and I liked her, I mean really liked her. About a month later she and I became an item. That was the beginning of the end.”

“What happened? You guys were together for four years...there has to be more to this.”

“Yeah, well, there is. The first year went great. I was away for half of it, but I kept in touch with her. I wasted tons of money on phone bills and flying home to visit her. I thought that what her and I had was special. After my seventeenth birthday she became, well, irritated over the fact that I hadn’t given myself to her yet. So, of course, being the typical guy, I lost my virginity to her, I thought that’s what I had to do. My boyfriendly duties. No one had ever told me how special the moment I was supposed to give myself to someone was. About a week after ‘it’ happened Brian took me aside to ask me whether or not Ang and I had done it yet. I told him no, I don’t know why I didn’t tell him, but he went on to tell me that he was so proud of me that I was waiting and that the moment was sacred, to be shared with the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I had no idea. I had just found out that I had wasted this moment on someone who I wasn’t sure if I loved at all.”

“Ouch. That must have been difficult.”

“You have no idea. Are you still a virgin?”

“Um...no.” Gianna admitted. Nick gave her a weak smile and again went on.

“Anyways, I left for Germany that year and left Angela behind. We talked and wrote to each other for the six months I was away and things were going great. I got home and her and I picked up where we left off. Dating regularly, sleeping together whenever we had a house to ourselves or thought to rent a motel room. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I wasn’t into the relationship that much anymore. She kept telling me that she loved me and wanted to spend the rest of her life with me. She had her whole life with me planned out. I, on the other hand, was having difficulty figuring out whether or not I wanted to tell the press I had a girlfriend still. This went on for another year. I was eighteen and I had finally figured out that I loved her. Truly loved her. She became my life. Around that time, I met you. I was so caught up in my relationship that I didn’t even notice you, or Elise for that matter. My parents moved to California that year and I was left with the family house. I was pretty lonely. So I did the one thing that every guy wants. I had my beautiful girlfriend move in with me. Stupid.”

“Why?” Gianna asked as she pulled the blanket up over her shoulders.

“Why? Because she became this jealous, overprotective and stuck up girl that I didn’t want anything to do with. Anytime a fan would come over to the house she would call the police. No kidding. Whenever I got fan-mail she burned it in the fireplace while I wasn’t home. Basically, she was a bitch, and the only time she wasn’t was when she wanted sex. She lived with me while I was recording "Millennium" in Orlando, and she stayed at the house while I toured for the album. I would fly home periodically to see her, but she was always out with friends or working late when I got there, at least that’s what she told me. It wasn’t until I got home at the end of the Millennium tour when I found out what she had been really doing.”

“What was the little bitch doing?” Gianna asked beginning to get mad.

“Cheating.” He said as Gianna’s mouth dropped open. “The whole time. And when I say whole time I mean the ‘whole time’, all five years.”

“Five years?! “

“And the hilarious thing, with the same guy. She had been dating two people at once! And another funny thing..my best friend. I grew up with the guy. I never saw him, and he didn’t know about me so she was in the clear.”

“How did you find out?”

“Haha, she was fucking him in MY living room the day that I got back!”

“Why that little-”

“I know, I called her every name in the book that day. Dumped her ass. Josh, the dude she was cheating with, was clueless. She had told him that my house was hers and that she lived alone. Everytime I was home on a break she just made plans to meet at his house or somewhere else. It broke my heart. Here I was, having spent the last five years of my life with this one girl, never once betraying her in any way, and she had gone behind my back and played me from the very beginning.” Gianna was speechless. She had no idea how someone could hurt someone that bad on purpose. What could possibly make a girl cheat on a guy like Nick. Sweet, good-looking, heart of gold. It was just beyond belief. Glancing over at Nick she saw the pained expression on his face.

“Nick...”

“I’m okay. You know, you’re the first person who had heard the whole story. I never had enough guts to tell it in it’s entirety to any of the guys. But anyway, that was six months ago. I haven’t been in a relationship since. I don’t plan on being in one anytime soon. She hurt me so much. And that is where the life confidence comes in. I am not confident about living my life. I am afraid to trust anyone anymore because of Angela. I need to be able to do that. I need to meet girls, and have relationships, but I’m afraid.”

“Nick, that is totally understandable. I know how you must feel. You were hurt by the person that you trusted most. But you have to realize something.”

“What?” Nick said looking up at her.

“Not every girl is Angela. You are going to find one that loves you more than life itself, one who truly does want to spend the rest of her life with you, one that won’t betray you.”

“I hope so.”

“You will, I’m sure of it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“You know what?”

“Huh?” Gianna asked.

“I am really glad that I have gotten to know you. I think that you and I will be great friends this summer.”

“Me too Nick.” Gianna said as she laid back in his bed and, again, pulled the blankets around her.

“Cold still?” Nick asked her.

“Just a little, I’m not used to this. Usually I’m down south farther and it’s really warm. Plus I don’t have air-conditioning..”

“Yeah I know. AJ’s got the air-conditioning cranked and he will shoot us if we adjust it.”

“Great..so basically, I’m trapped in an freezer all summer??” Gianna said moving closer to Nick.

“Basically, come here.” He said opening his arms. Gianna snuggled towards him in his embrace and was automatically warmed. ‘Nick and I are going to be great friends.’ Gianna thought as she drifted off into a deep sleep wrapped in Nick’s arms.

Chapter Four
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