That afternoon, Nick, Cassandra, Emalia, Kevin, Mariah, Howie, and Angel, were relaxing on the couch in the girls' house. Everyone else was out in the backyard swimming and celebrating Isabella's break up with Austin.
They were filling in Mariah about everything that she's missed, but just then the phone rang.
"I'll get it," said Cassandra getting up from the couch. "Hello?" she said.
"Um, hi is Nick there?" said a female voice that Cassandra did not know.
"Yeah, who is this?"
"Just tell him that it's Kimberly. He'll know who I am." Cassandra was a little confused but she shrugged it off.
"Hey Nick, it's for you," she called.
"Who is it?" he said back.
"It's Kimberly. She said you'd know her." Nick jumped up from the couch and ran over to the phone.
"Kimberly?" he said excitedly.
"Yeah Nick, it's me."
"Oh man! I haven't talked to you in so long! How are you?"
"Not good."
"How'd you get this number?"
"Nick, I looked it up."
"What do you mean you're not doing good?"
"I'm calling from the hospital."
"What! Why? What happened?"
"My boyfriend, actually now he's my ex-boyfriend beat me up pretty badly."
"Oh Kim, that's terrible! I'll kill him! Why'd he do that?"
"Because I broke up with him."
"Oh I'll kill him! No one hurts my Kimmy!"
Cassandra was getting a little suspicious so she snuck up to her room and quietly picked up the phone. She didn't consider it eavesdropping, just listening. When she picked up the phone, she wasn't happy at what she heard.
"Baby, I need you," said Kimberly.
"I'm here for you."
"No, baby, I need you here. Can you come and be with me?"
"Which one are you in?"
"I'm in the one in Scottsdale, Arizona."
"Oh that's very close to a house that I have out there," said Nick.
"You have a house out here?"
"Actually I lived in it for a couple of months, but I had to unexpectedly come back here."
"Oh. Baby I need you."
"I know. I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Come today, please?"
"Uh, well-"
"Nicky, please!"
"All right, I'll be out there later on tonight."
"Thank you. I should be out of here in a couple of days."
"I won't leave your side."
Cassandra had heard enough. No one called him Nicky, except her, and maybe a few other people that she let, but not this girl. She already didn't like her. She almost slammed the phone back down, but caught herself and silently put the phone back down.
"Oh he's going to be by some other girl's side? I won't leave your side. He used that line on me. Well we're gonna see about that. I have to tell someone how angry I am."
She sat down on her bed and pulled out her diary, and began to write all of her emotions. She knew it would make her feel better.
Dear Diary,
So Nick's going to some other girl's side? Well fine then. He doesn't think that I'm strong enough, but I won't be a prisoner of his love anymore. This is my life, he always tried to keep me down but now I rise above. I see through his disguise. All the dreams we had I believed so I held on. I understand. I know that I love him so much, but so do all these girls on Jerry Springer. They don't know any different. No more. I'm not going to tell him that I know his little secret. He wants to go, he can go. Good riddance.
She stopped. She didn't feel like crying, or dying, or screaming. She didn't really know what to feel. She heard someone coming, so she opened her diary, and pretended that she was writing. She saw Nick come into her room and sat down on her bed.
"Hun, I have to go."
"Fine. Go."
"I don't think you understand-"
"Yes I do. Go ahead. I have no objections."
"So I take it that you heard my conversation on the phone with Kimberly?" he said innocently. Cassandra cringed.
"Yes I did," she said, fake smiling. "And I think that you should go. See ya." She went back to pretending that she was writing.
"No you don't understand. I want you to come with me." Cassandra looked at him.
"Oh really?" she thought to herself. "He wants to introduce me to his other lover. Well at least he's got enough guts to do that."
"So how about it? I'd miss you too much if you didn't come with me." He touched the side of her face. She felt like throwing up when he touched her.
"No, I think that you should go, alone. I don't feel like doing any more travelling. You know, Andrew and all," she lied.
"I understand. Are you sure?"
"Yes, now go, or you'll miss your plane."
"I'll miss you the most," he said. "Give me something to remember you by?" he asked. They leaned in and kissed.
"See ya," she thought to herself. The feel of his tongue touching hers disgusted her. She felt like biting him so it hurt. She couldn't believe that this was her husband. She was too young to be married in the first place! "What was I thinking?" she thought still kissing him. "I'm almost nineteen years old, and I'm married? I must be on some drugs."
She pulled away. "Nick, you know, maybe we should break up?" Her words shocked both of them.
"What? What are you talking about? How can we just break up? We're married!"
"That's my point. When we were just boyfriend and girlfriend, it didn't matter. It wouldn't have been this huge production-"
"So you're saying that our relationship is expendable?"
"Um, no-"
"Then what are you saying?"
"I'm just saying that what we used to be was so much easier."
Nick stood up and looked at her and shook his head. She bit her lip and stood up. She couldn't let him know that she knew, not yet at least. "One more kiss won't hurt you," she tried to convince herself. "I'm sorry Nick," she said. "I don't know what I'm saying. It's just that I've been under a lot of stress lately, and now you just getting up and leaving, well-"
"That's why I asked you if you wanted to go with me!"
"I know and I'm sorry," she said wrapping her arms around him. "Okay, Cassie, just kiss him," she told herself. "Think of someone else you're kissing. Lean in, that's it. Now close your eyes, good job. Now, kiss Bobby."
She wrapped her arms tighter around him, and kissed him harder, and harder still. "Think Bobby," she told herself. She continued to deepen the kiss, until her thought pattern was interrupted, and she realized that she was kissing Nick again.
She pulled away and kissed him quickly once more. "Good bye!" she said to him. He grabbed his unpacked suitcase and walked out of her room slowly.
When Emalia saw Nick coming down the stairs with his suitcase, she was confused.
"Hey aren't you forgetting something?" she asked him.
"Um, no," he said.
"Yeah, you are!"
"What?"
"You're wife," she stated.
"She didn't want to go with me."
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Arizona. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go or I'll miss my flight," he calmly said and walked out of the door.
Emalia was very confused. She knew the story of how Cassandra had walked out on Nick in Arizona. Was it happening again? She needed to get to Isabella. They were still out back so she ran outside to get her.
"Isabella! Isabella! I need you!" Emalia yelled.
"What? What is it?" Isabella said worried as she ran into the house.
"It's happened again!"
"What happened again?"
"Nick just walked out of here with a suitcase in his hand, and said that he was going to Arizona!"
"Oh man! You're kidding? Tell me that your kidding! Was Cassie with him?" Emalia shook her head.
"No, he said that she said that she didn't want to go with him."
"Oh boy. Where is she?"
"I dunno."
"Well we have to get the story from her. Let's try her room first." Emalia agreed and they ran up the stairs and burst into Cassandra's room. "Cassie!"
"What? What's wrong?" Cassandra responded.
"What do you mean what's wrong? Why did Nick just walk out of here saying that he was going to Arizona?"
"Oh that."
"You don't seem in much denial this time," said Emalia.
"Yeah. Did you guys have another disagreement about that place again?" Isabella asked sitting down on Cassandra's bed.
"No, he's just going out there to be by his mistress's side," Cassandra said calmly.
"His what?"
"His mistress. I, uh, was just listening in on his conversation to, uh, Kimberly, and she said, baby I need you about a million times, and he said that he won't leave her side. She even called him Nicky. No one calls him Nicky!" she screamed.
"Oh Cassie! Are you sure that's the story? Are you sure that's what happened? I know you and Nick have had your differences in the past, but he would never do this to you. He loves you too much."
"Then how do you explain that phone call?" Cassandra said smugly.
"Did you hear the entire conversation?" Emalia asked.
"Well, no, but-"
"There," said Isabella. "You have your answer. I'm sure that there's a reasonable explanation for all of this-"
"No! I know what I heard! It didn't sound very friendly! You know what? I'm glad that he's gone! Good riddance!" Cassandra screamed. "I'm sorry, but I think you two should leave."
Isabella and Emalia shook their heads and walked out of the room. Cassandra jumped on her bed and cried as the reality hit her. "I hate reality!" she screamed. She buried her head in her pillows. "I-I won't be a pr-prisoner of his love anymore."
The next day at noon, Isabella and Emalia were talking together in the kitchen.
"Where is everyone?" Isabella asked.
"I think that Jonathan was having a cookout today, and they're all over at his house. Except of course, us and Cassandra," replied Emalia.
"We have to call Nick and find out what's going on," Isabella said to Emalia.
"I agree, but don't you think that it's too early to call him? It's seven in the morning where he is."
"Which is all the better reason to call him on his cell phone!" Isabella said with a grin. She walked over to the phone, and dialed Nick's number.
Nick heard his phone ring on the table next to him. He was asleep in a chair at the hospital by his friend's bed side. It woke him up, but he quickly grabbed it, not wanting to wake up Kimberly.
"Hello?" he could barely say he was so tired.
"Nick, it's Isabella."
"Um, hi. What do you want?"
"Listen, I know it's early, but what did you do to Cassie?"
"What do you mean, what did I do to Cassie?"
"She has this crazy idea in her head that you are out there in Arizona with your mistress."
"My what?"
"Tell the truth, Nick. Why are you out there?"
"Cassie didn't tell you the story? She told me that she understood, but she didn't want to come with me."
"What story?" Isabella asked.
"I'm in the hospital right now, I have been all night long. My best friend, Kimberly, who I've known since I was two, is here. Her boyfriend beat her up so bad for trying to break up with him, that she had to be sent here. She asked me to come out here because she had no one else to turn to and she was very scared."
"Nick, we had no idea!"
"What's this whole thing about a mistress?"
"Um, well," started Isabella, embarrassed, "Cassie, well, sorta listened to the end of your conversation, and when she heard her say baby I need you, and that you won't leave Kim's side, she got mad, and that's probably why she got angry at you."
"Oh boy. Well will you tell her the story, that I'm sorry, and that I love her very much?"
"Yeah, definitely. I'm sorry Nick. Tell Kim that I'm sorry and that I wish her the best."
"Yeah, thanks, bye."
"See ya." Isabella slowly hung up the phone. "Oh dear."
"What is it?" Emalia asked nervously.
"It seems that we have a case of miscommunication. Come on." Emalia followed Isabella upstairs and into Cassandra's room. She was awake and was staring at the ceiling with a glazed look. "Cassie we have to tell you something."
"What? I was right? I knew it! Nick-"
"You have everything wrong," said Emalia.
"What do you mean?"
"What we mean is," started Isabella, "that Nick is out in Arizona with his best friend. I just called him on his cell phone. I woke him up at the hospital. The girl who's bed side he isn't leaving, is really a hospital bed. The girl was beaten up very badly and she had to be put in the hospital. He says that he is very sorry, he misses you, and that he loves you very much."
"And that's where he is," finished Emalia.
Cassandra sat up in her bed.
"Oh God." She hit her hands to her head. "He must think I'm totally insane! I told him to go only after I told him that I thought that we should break up-" She paused. She stood up and pulled at her hair. "What am I talking about? I am insane!" She started to laugh. "You know what you guys? I was so mad at him that when I was kissing him good bye, I was so disgusted by the feel of his tongue, that I had to think of Bobby to get through it. And let me tell you, it was good!"
Isabella and Emalia could only look at her. Just then the phone rang, and Cassandra rushed to pick it up. "Hello?"
"Cassie." Cassandra gasped. Her bottom lip began to quiver.
"Nick," she whimpered.
"Hey, what's wrong?"
"I'm sorry. Any of that stuff about us ever breaking up, I was just mad. I didn't mean a word of it! I swear!"
"Hey, it's okay. I heard that you heard my conversation."
"Oh you did. Well, when I heard you get so excited over that girl that called, I guess that I, uh, got a little, well, jealous."
"You don't need to get jealous. There's no one but you. You can always count on me no matter where I may be."
"How is Kimberly anyway?"
"She's just waking up. Wanna talk to her?"
"Um, I guess."
"Okay, hold on."
Isabella and Emalia looked questioningly at her.
"I'm on hold. I guess I'm gonna talk to Kimberly."
"Hello?" Cassandra heard a feeble voice say.
"Is this Kimberly?" Cassandra asked.
"Yeah. Is this Cassandra?"
"Yeah, just call me Cassie."
"Okay, Cassie, just call me Kim."
"Hey, I'm so sorry to hear about what happened to you, but I'm sure that Nick will help you, a lot."
"Thanks, I'll try to have him back to you very soon."
"You guys are best friends, and you obviously need him. I'm willing to share, for a while."
"So you're his wife? You're a very, very lucky girl. I know him better than he probably knows himself. You have a great guy, you don't want to lose this one."
Cassandra nodded her head and smiled to herself. "I know," she said. "I know."
"Wanna talk to Nick again?"
"Sure."
"Hey," he said. "Are you okay now?"
"Yeah, I'm better."
"Please feel better, you know that all you have to do is call on me and I'll run to you. I hope that you now understand why I'm out here."
"I do now, and I'm so sorry."
"Don't be, it's okay. Remember, there is nothing stronger then our love. I love you."
"I love you too."