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Nick's point of view
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"Good goin' bro! You did it at night time? How romantic!" B.J. slapped my arm and took a sip of milk from the carton.
"Did what?" I asked innocently.
"Don't play dumb with me! You know what! You told Amanda, ya know...how you feel!" Normally I would have blushed but instead I flopped down in a kitchen chair and banged my head on the table a total of twenty times.
"Nick! Stop!" B.J. placed her hands around my head and looked at my gloomy eyes. "Oh Nick! Why didn't you? I told you to!"
"B.J., it's not that simple." I sighed and sat up straight.
"Start from the beginning and maybe I can understand." B.J. pulled out another kitchen seat and sat down.
"Well, I called her up and I was going to tell her I was sorry for this week. Then, I was going to ask her if she wanted to go and watch the sun set and I would have explained myself then."
"But..."
"But that's when Amanda told me her Mom is dying. For good. So I couldn't do it. So I just asked her if she wanted me to come over to talk. She suggested on the dock and I said okay."
"Okay, that's sort of what was supposed to happen."
"Well then, I apologized for Sunday, and the kiss and, and everything! I said it was stupid, and it was ridiculous for her and I to get into a relationship."
"Nick! You NEVER EVER tell a girl that! Haven't I taught you anything?" I shrugged and let my head fall forward to hit the table again.
"Well how am I supposed to know if she wanted more than that! After I said I was sorry I was planning on seeing if she were to object, but she didn't. She sat there quietly and let me finish! She wasn't supposed to do that!"
"Alright Nick, here's a new rule about woman and men. Never ever, ever, EVER make a plan to tell them you like them. Plans always backfire and screw up. Just go with the flow," I heard her say.
"Well it's too late now! Couldn't you have told me this before?" I whined.
"Nope. You have to learn from your own mistakes. So did anything else happen?" she asked.
"Well, basically everything was quiet after that. I just about kicked myself every five seconds and thought of a way to tell her the truth, but I figured what I had said to her was how she felt. So I left it at that. Then we left, as friends."
"Well here's the plan Nick."
"Plan? But didn't you just say never to make plans?" I asked confused.
"Yeah I did. But I'm making a BACK-UP plan, back-up plans are pretty cool. They actually work."
"Okay..."
"Find something you have of hers and take it to her house. See what she's doing, how she's feeling. If she looks miserable, she wants you. If not, she just wants to be friends."
"So should I do it right now?" I asked.
"Yeah, that way you can be one hundred percent sure she's miserable because of you."
"Oh thanks B.J.! If I see her miserable, it's gonna make me miserable!"
"No it won't Nick. You'll smile because you know she likes you. And then, make your move. Or...make another back-up plan. Take her out or something. She'd appreciate that." B.J. looked at the clock above the stove and shrieked. "Oh goodness! I have to go and get my school book from Jessica! Nice chatting with ya Nick, and don't forget anything I told you!"
"See ya." I sighed and slouched in my chair. How was I supposed to pull this back-up plan off? I didn't have anything of hers...or did I? I quickly stood up and shouted.
"Sunglasses!"
"Nick? Who are you talking to? You don't have another imaginary friend do you?"
"Dad!" I turned around to see him entering the kitchen and tried to play it off. "Oh no, I just remembered I have something of Amanda's that she needs really bad. I'll be right back."
"Don't be gone too long. Your curfew is approaching rapidly." I ignored him and quickly walked out of my house into the comfortable air.
"A-man-da, A-man-da, A-man-da." I said in beat to when my shoes hit the pavement. That was the only way to keep myself from backing out. Pretty soon I had "A-man-da-ed" my way up to her door and knocked.
"Nick! How are you my son?" I blushed, which you couldn't see in the night's sky.
"I'm fine."
"Amanda's upstairs in her room, go on up."
"Thank you sir." I made my way slowly up to her room, butterflies in my stomach with each step.
I peeked my head through a tiny crack between the wall and the door as to not walk in on anything having to do with...nudeness.
"Knock knock!" I said as I slowly walked in.
"Nick?" I heard Amanda call as she stood up from her bed.
"That's me!"
"What are you doing here?" she asked surprised.
"I forgot to give you back your sunglasses."
"Oh. Thanks." She took them from my hand and walked into her bathroom to put them in her cabinet. "You could have just given them to me at school or even after."
"I know," I said as I scanned her spotless room. I glanced around and saw her collage of us together. "I see you've got our new pictures up on your wall," I said as I tapped a picture of us in front of the door, but when I did, it fluttered to the ground.
"Yeah, aren't they good?" she called from the bathroom as, what I guessed, she was doing her hair.
I bent over and picked up the polaroid to tack back up onto the wall, when I noticed something on the wall where it had been.
"Nick and Amanda?" I muttered under my breath.
"Too bad it was the last dance of the year huh?" she asked as she came out of the bathroom. I quickly placed the photograph back onto the wall before she noticed I had seen what I had.
"Yeah. Well, I have to go. You know about my curfew and everything," I smiled and waved. "I'll let myself out."
"If you say so. Bye Nick." I glanced once more at her sleepy face and exited her room and her house. Nick and Amanda? With a heart around it? When did she write THAT? I thought as I kicked a rock down the street.
Amanda did look tired, and kind of...miserable when I went to see her. I guess she dreaded seeing me again so soon, after what I had said. So maybe......it is! She really DID like me! And that must mean she still does! I smiled brightly and walked the rest of the way home by myself.
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Amanda's point of view
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I sighed as soon as I saw Nick close my bedroom door behind him. Why did he come all the way over here, almost past his curfew, just to hand me my sunglasses? I shrugged and walked over to the collage. The pictures were too cute! I glanced at each and every one of them and was about to turn away when I noticed one was out of place. Half of it showed the inscription I had scraped into my wall with a dry ink pen. All of a sudden I felt my face grow hot.
What if Nick HAD seen what I had written? Wasn't that the picture he was looking at? Calm down, calm down, Amanda.
I looked at the picture again before I fixed it correctly. Oh well. If he had seen it, it's not my problem any more. I was planning on getting over him as soon as possible, and as long as Nick knew how I felt, that was fine. It wouldn't change his side of it anyways.
I turned around and flopped face down on my bed.
The next morning I woke up on time for school with butterflies in my stomach. They weren't because of the usual reason, Nick Carter, but because I was going to school when I knew I was wanted at the hospital.
I did my normal routine, shower, style hair, make-up, and then I grabbed the car keys before heading out the door. As I was walking past my Dad's room, I looked in through the wide open door. My eyes enlarged as I saw him sitting up on his bed, placing on his shoes. Luckily his head was down, facing the ground, so he didn't notice when I bolted for the front door to leave for school.
I slowed down my breathing as I headed for a busy day at school. I felt a small amount of guilt in my stomach at first, but then I reminded myself what had happened, and what was bound to happen.
"They lied once, they'll only do it again," I said to myself and left it at that.
I was in the middle of walking to second period when I heard the intercom turn on. The principle was calling names for people to go to the office for various reasons. That's when I heard my name.
"Me?" I mouthed with my eyebrows locked in a position letting people know I was confused. I shrugged my shoulders and just continued walking, ignoring it. If they wanted me bad enough they would call for me again.
And that's exactly what they did. They called for me a total of three times during my gym class. The class I knew no one would question me about it, well as far as the teachers.
"Amanda, I think I heard your name called."
"Oh I know, Timothy," I said trying not to sound annoyed from the fiftieth person stating that fact to me. "I, uh, I already went to the office. They don't need me again, they just aren't that situated down there, you know how it is," I lied.
"Yeah. See ya."
"You know I didn't see her go to the office. I was down there all morning! And she's been in this period the whole time!"
"Tell me about it. What could be so bad she wouldn't want to miss class for?" I heard Timothy and his friends say. I just ignored them and hurryingly headed to the girls' bathroom.
"Hey watch it!" I said as I got run into by some idiot. Only when I looked up, the idiot was Nick.
"Hey Mandy, you know they called you over the intercom, like, five time!"
"Yes I know! Gosh! Why does everyone have to remind me! It's no one's business! Just leave me alone!" I screamed. I quickly ran to the closest set of empty bleachers and sat down alone. Normally Nick would have ignored me and my attitude, but ever since my Mom had become an issue, he's learned to help me instead of running away. I only turned my head the opposite way as Nick walked over to where I was sitting. I didn't feel like talking to him about my Mother this early in the morning.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
"Then why did you just snap my head off a few seconds ago?"
"Because I'm tired and everyone refuses to leave me alone." I sighed and silently prayed that he would go away.
"I'm not leaving," Nick said as if reading my mind.
"I was just thinking that!" I turned to him and scanned his face. "How did you know?"
"Easy. It's you Amanda. Every time a problem arises, you try to push everyone away. That's selfish. Now what's wrong? Is it your Mom?"
"I wish you didn't know me so well. It makes me wonder what you know about me that I don't know about." Nick felt his face grow hot remembering what he had discovered just the previous day. Now he began to wish SHE didn't know him that well!
"So what happened now?"
"I just think my Dad's mad because I didn't go to the hospital today."
"So...you think he came to school to get you?"
"Yeah, I guess. I just don't want to go to the hospital." I sighed at how ridiculous I probably sounded.
"What if something bad happened to your Mom? Did you think about that? You need to go to the office Amanda."
"That's what I'm afraid of Nick! I don't want to know if that's it! I'm just too scared to go see her, and I'm too scared to find out if she's still there...or not."
"That's so selfish. How does your Mom think about you not being there for her when she REALLY needs you? That in her last moments of life you don't want to see her? And what if something IS wrong? You need to go to the office and find out what they wanted." I shook my head at how disappointed I was in myself. Nick was completely right, even though I knew I still didn't want to go.
"Will you come with me?" I said as I looked up from my hands. I saw his eyes brighten up and smile because he knew he had reached me. I'm not too sure why he was so happy, he does it every time!
"Of course," he said calmly. I smiled and patiently waited for class to end before we both went to the office. I had butterflies in my stomach as we walked side by side down the crowded halls, but I just reminded myself no matter what was to happen, Nick would always be there with me.
"Yes?" one of the women behind the counter asked impatiently.
"They called me down the the office. Amanda Petri."
"One second." I raised my eyebrows at Nick and shrugged.
"Petri, Petri, Petri..." the woman mumbled. "Amanda Petri. Here you go." I looked up and accepted the packet of school pictures she handed me.
"Pictures!" I shouted. I shook my head and walked away to class with Nick. But before we had to go our separate ways, I heard Nick snickering.
"What?" I asked. Nick's response was only more laughter. "WHAT!?!" I guess when they say that laughter is contagious they know what they are talking about because I started laughing too.
"You thought it was..."
"Please, don't remind me," I said, cutting him off. We continued down the hall laughing but we soon stopped.
"You know what I say about this?" Nick said.
"I'm afraid to know, but go ahead."
"I say you know what you have to do, and you know what it is you're supposed to do. And now that you were going to face the problem today, you should face your Mom, talk to her, forgive her for making the mistake of not telling you what was going on. I say do it." I sighed. How come I always know what is about to come from his mouth before it does?
"Nick...you know how I feel about this. But I'll do it, I promise."
"Good."
"But I won't do it without you." I looked at him, keeping a straight face.
"You will. See ya," he said as he turned the corner to his physics class.
Maybe Nick was right. Maybe I should forgive my Mom, or just appear to forgive her. If I couldn't feel it in my heart, I should make my Mom believe so, just for her sake. Just to give her a peaceful death, and to know that we all love her, including me.
"Dad! I'm home!" my voice echoed inside of my house. I walked up the stairs and checked the normal places he would be, but no Dad. "The truck's in the driveway, isn't he supposed to be home?" I questioned myself. "Oh! He must have taken the car." I continued to my room and threw my book bag on my bed.
"Yech, look at yourself Amanda, you have three pimples on your chin, and you ate chocolate today? What were you thinking?" I started laughing to myself as I watched myself in the bathroom mirror. "You sound crazy, talking to yourself. And yet, you continue to do so."
"You don't sound crazy, you sound more than crazy, mentally ill, permanently menatally ill." I jumped as I felt Jakob's breath on my neck.
"You jerk!" I smacked his muscular chest and laughed. "Thanks for scaring me like that!"
"What can I say? I always do, and it never fails."
"It never fails...it never fails...hmmmm," I muttered staring off into space.
"Earth to Amanda! Are you okay?" he said waving his right hand in front of my eyes.
"Yeah, it's just something I always say to Nick."
"Ooooh! Amanda's little boyfriend! I saw your dance pictures, it looked like he had his hand all over your butt! There wasn't any freaky sneaky stuff going on now was there?"
"Jakob! Will you PLEASE learn to grow up! And he is NOT my boyfriend. I don't even like him, so stay out of it. You don't know anything about it."
"Whatever." He rolled his eyes and smiled at me.
"Where's Dad?" I asked changing the subject.
"At the hospital. I was about to head over there as well, but I realized you might want a ride too. So, I came home first to get your idiotic self. You coming?" he asked exiting my room with me at his tail.
"Idiotic? Look at you! Talk about idiotic!"
"I know I look good, don't be jealous!" He flexed his arms showing off his nice sized muscles.
"Okay, okay, whatever. Let's go."
"Okay, but we can't stay that long. I've got homework. And besides, it's not like we are allowed to be in there a whole lot."
"I know, for real," I said as we headed out of the front door and to Jakob's car.
"You'd think they would let us stay in there all day since she's...sick, but noooo." I didn't reply to Jakob, but I got in the red car next to my brother and let him lead the way.
We listened to rap music on the way, and I laughed as he jokingly danced around. It was totally corny, but we were known to do anything to keep each other smiling.
"I'll race you there!" Jakob said as soon as we both slammed our doors.
"We're only ten feet away boy. Hey wait up!" I laughed and chased after him but failed to catch up. We continued to joke around all the way to our Mother's room, but once we were a couple of yards away, we stopped and headed in.
"Hey Dad. Hi Mom." I smiled and walked over and gave her a hug.
"Hi baby!" I smiled and watched as she nodded for my Father and Jakob to leave us alone together.
"Hi Mom," I said again once they left. It felt good to have her by my side. "I love you. I'm really sorry about last time. I'm ashamed of myself for being...that way."
"It's okay, I can understand." I saw her smile, knowing she was thinking about when her own Mother passed away.
"What made you rethink what you were doing?" she asked.
"Nick. Yup, great 'ol Nick to my rescue, as usual."
"Whoo hoo! Amanda's got a boyfriend!"
"Mo-om!" I whined.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop. I don't need you mad at me for doing something stupid again. You do forgive me, right?" she asked with her eyes shining with the green happy tint they used to have for the first time in awhile.
"Yes. Of course I forgive you." I said, truly meaning it with all of my heart. "Of course."
