Mercedes walked in the door with a glazed look on her face.
"Man, Mercedes, you have a smile from ear to ear! What happened?" asked Isabella.
"I love Brian," said Mercedes. Surprised at what she had just said, she decided to say it again. "I love Brian! I love Brian!" She jumped up and down, then suddenly stopped, and sat down on the couch. They rest of them just looked at her.
"I wonder if she loves Brian?" said Isabella. The rest of them laughed. Just then the phone rang. Nicole went to answer the phone.
"Hello?" said Nicole.
"Hey it's me."
"Jonathan?"
"No, I'm your fairy Godmother, honey. Yes it's me!"
"Oh, hi!"
"I'm over at the guys house. They were so happy that they finally got a phone installed, that they wanted someone to call, and I knew your number." He paused for a second. "Anyway, we wanted to know if you girls would like to join us for dinner tonight at the pizza place."
"Well, I don't know."
"It's on us."
"Well then sure! I'll tell the rest of the group. What time?"
"Six?"
"Okay. See ya then."
"Bye bye!" said Jonathan.
"I love you," she said, but he had already hung up the phone. She stood there for a second holding the phone, then put it back up on its cradle. "Guess what guys. We're going out for pizza with the guys tonight at six o'clock."
"Okay," they all said together.
Six o'clock rolled around pretty fast for the girls. They were all dressed in casual clothes, and this time Nicole was the one that was pacing.
"First Emalia, now you!" said Isabella. "You guys need to stop pacing! They'll be here any second." She was right. The doorbell rang, and Nicole was the first one to race over to the door, and answer it. She opened the door, and met Jonathan's eyes. They just stood there, in a trance.
"Okay you guys, snap out of it," said Mercedes and pulled Nicole away.
"We have six fifteen reservations, so we have to hurry!" said Jonathan.
"Okay, we're ready!" said Mercedes. They all walked out of the door, when Cassandra stopped.
"Oh shoot! I forgot something! You guys go on ahead. I'll catch up with you," said Cassandra.
"I'll stay with you," said Nick.
"Okay, don't be long," said Jonathan as he put his arm around Nicole's waist. Nick and Cassandra went inside, and she ran upstairs, and into her room.
"I hope it wasn't her hair," thought Nick. She ran back downstairs, and her and Nick ran out the door. He took her hand, and they stopped walking so fast. Her hand let go of his and found its way around his waist. He did the same, and thought that it was the right time to tell her.
"Cassandra-" He was cut short. Devon, Nathan, and Richard were in front of them.
"Hey Cassandra. Can I talk to you for a sec?" said Devon.
"Yes. Go ahead."
"Talk to Coreene for me. Tell her that I'm dying without her. That I need her, and I can't go on without her." He got down on his knees. "Please Cassandra. I'm begging you. Talk to her. I'm begging you please!"
"Okay get up. I'll see what I can do," said Cassandra, and he got up from his knees.
"Oh, how touching. Now that that crap's over," said Richard.
"Oh fuck off loser," said Cassandra and went in his face.
"Yeah, whatever Cassie. I could probably get it better from a cactus," said Richard, and Nathan laughed.
"I'd like to see you try!" she yelled at Richard.
"You wouldn't be saying that if it would bring Andrew back!"
"You go to hell. You go to hell and you die! It's all your Goddamned fault that Andrew's dead! You and your group, now excluding you Devon, pushed him over the Goddamned edge!"
"That gay fag brought it on himself! He didn't deserve to live. He was such a flamer someone had to blow out his torch, and it just so happened to be himself that did. We just helped."
"You bastard! He was not gay! How dare you!"
"Yeah, I knew that he was gay when he had a crush on you."
"We were just friends. A word that you wouldn't know the meaning of, you errogant bastard!"
"Oooh a bastard am I? Atleast I'm straight."
"How would anyone know? You've never had a girl! You're about as straight as a hair on a cat's ass!"
"Why the hell would you be looking at a cat's ass?" She had had about enough. She lounged for Richard, her fist finding his chest, knocking him to the ground.
"No, stop it!" yelled Nick and pulled her off of Richard. She struggled hard.
"No! Let me go! Let me go! I'm gonna kick his ass!" she yelled.
"With what muscle?" Richard said standing up. "That punch that you threw was pretty weak!" He started to laugh. Nick handed Cassandra to Devon, and drew his hand back. He made a huge fist and flung it at Richard's nose, like a rubber band. Richard held his hand up to his nose.
"Oh my God, I think you broke my nose!" yelled Richard. There was now his blood on the sidewalk.
"Good! I hope he did break your nose!" yelled Cassandra. "Come on Nick!" Her and Nick started to walk away, when she turned around and yelled back, "I'll do my best, Devon!"
"Hey Cassandra!" yelled Richard after her. She turned around quick.
"What the hell do you want?"
"I almost forgot. I have a message from Bobby. He says that he won't stop until he has you back! He'll never let go of you! He'd kill to get you back."
"Where the hell are they?" said Brian at the pizza place. "They're twenty minutes late! I'm getting worried."
"Give them five more minutes," said Mercedes.
"You said that ten minutes ago."
"Look there they are!" said Isabella. Nick and Cassandra walked over to the table and sat down.
"Here," said Cassandra and put a glass of ice water up next to his hand.
"Ooh, ouch," he said. She started talking really quietly, and only to him.
"Thank you," she said before laying her head on his chest and crying. He put his good hand up to her head, and held it. "How could he say those things? He didn't mean them did he? Tell me! Did he? He couldn't have! Nick, did he? Did he?" He put his head down on hers.
"No, he didn't. He's a jerk. Don't listen to him at all. Never listen to anyone like that." The rest of the group could only watch, saying nothing. They couldn't find anything to say.
"Are you guys, hungry, at all?" asked Brian breaking the silence. They both shook their heads no. "Do you want to talk-" He stopped when he saw Nick shaking his head, and telling him not yet.
"Damn!" Nick thought. "Another perfect moment ruined. Now I have to wait, again."
They all ate fast, because they wanted to get Cassandra home, and Nick's hand was beginning to hurt him. When they were getting up to leave, Nick winced at his hand.
"Okay, Nick. What happened?" asked Kevin. Cassandra held her hand up to Nick.
"I'll tell them," said Cassandra. In between sobs, she told her story. "We were walking here, when we saw Devon, Nathan, and Richard. Well, to make a long story short, Richard and I got into a huge verbal fight, until I went after him. Then Nick punched him in the nose."
"You're kidding me," said Brian.
"It felt good before," added Nick. Cassandra picked up his hand, and kissed the top of it.
"What was the fight about?" asked Mercedes.
"Well, it started when Devon was talking to me." She turned to Coreene. "Coreene, he literally got down on his knees, and begged for your forgiveness. He loves you Coreene, and said that he couldn't live without you. Truthfully, I think that he's the man that he was before. Go back to him." Coreene nodded her head. Cassandra turned back to the group. "Then, he turned it to the subject of, of, Andrew." She stopped for a second and took a deep breath. "I told him that it was all his fault that he is dead, and of course, he turned it around on me, so I lounged at him, and you know the rest."
"Cassie, that's terrible!" said Isabella.
"Come on Nick. Let's go. I'll wrap your hand when we get home," said Cassandra.
"All right," he said. On the way home, he held her the best that he could. Mercedes and Brian, who were holding up the back of the line, got to talking.
"That son of a bitch, Richard!" said Mercedes. "He's such an idiot, I could kill him."
"I'd kill him for you," said Brian. "You're obviously hurt by this guy, and I don't like to see the people I love, hurt."
"Oh, Brian," she said and walked even closer to him.
When they reached the girls' house, Cassandra took Nick into the kitchen. The rest of them went into the living room, unfolded the couch, and spread out for a lazy rest of the evening.
"Here, sit down," said Cassandra to Nick, and pulled up a stool for him next to the counter. She went into the freezer and got him an ice pack. She put it on his hand. "Leave it there until I come back with a bandage," she said then ran to the upstairs bathroom. Just then Mercedes and Brian walked into the kitchen.
"Hey, you look deep in thought," said Mercedes. "Care to share? Or is it just pain?"
"Yeah I guess that you could call it pain," said Nick.
"What's wrong?" said Brian.
"Well, I guess-I don't know."
"Yes you do," said Mercedes, "now tell me."
"And me too!" said Brian. Nick smiled, but then it faded when Brian asked,
"Is it Cassandra?"
"What did she do?" asked Mercedes.
"It's not what she did, it's what I didn't do."
"Well what didn't you do?" asked Brian.
"I didn't do what you did."
"I don't understand."
"You told Mercedes that you loved her. I fear that I am cursed. The first time that I felt like I could tell Cassie that I loved her, Andrew died. I was going to tell her tonight, but then we had that run in with those losers. I don't even know if she really loves me like I love her."
"Oh get over it!" said Mercedes. Nick had a dumbfounded look on his face. "When she got the letter from Andrew, who was the first person that she ran to in the middle of the night? And tonight, who was the person that she cried on? And who is the one that she's taking care of right now?" He didn't say anything. "I rest my case," she said. "Just tell her. Don't wait any longer. I think that it's just what she needs right now." Mercedes put her arm around Brian's waist and started to walk towards the living room. Brian patted Nick on the back and said,
"Hey, good luck bud."
"Thanks man," Nick said. As they left, Cassandra came back down with an ace bandage.
"Miss me?" she asked.
"Yes," he said. She didn't say anything else. She took off the ice pack and picked up his hand. She held it in her own hands, and turned it over and over to see how bad it was.
"It's not that bad," she said, and lightly kissed it. She took the ace bandage and started to slowly wrap it. When she was done, and clipped it off, she put his hand back down on the counter, and took the ice pack back to the freezer.
"Cassandra?" he said.
"Yes?" she asked. He stood up and went over to her.
"Can I ask, or, sort of tell you something?"
"Sure Nick, ask away."
Back in the living room, the rest of the group was now watching television. They were watching Jeopardy, and Emalia was answering almost all of the questions.
"How did you get so smart?" Kevin asked her.
"I don't know. But when I was in grade school I took an IQ test, and the results were very high," said Emalia.
"Yeah, back then, for her, negative ten was exceptionally high!" said Mercedes, and the rest of them laughed.
"Hey!" said Emalia.
"Hey look!" said Isabella quietly, and pointed to the kitchen. "I can't hear what they're saying."
"Don't stare!" said Nicole. "Just listen!"
"Cassandra?"
"Yes, Nick?"
"Thank you for wrapping my hand."
"Anytime, thank you for knocking out that loser!"
"Hey, anytime." They laughed a little, but then Nick got serious. He thought to himself, "I have to. Just say it, like Brian said." He put his hands on Cassandra's shoulders. "Cassandra, I love you." She just looked at him for a minute. It was the longest minute in his life. Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him tight. She whispered in his ear.
"Oh Nick! I love you too! How I've waited to hear you say that!" In a way, Nick was a little surprised, but he loved the outcome, and wrapped his arms tightly around her waist.
"I'm glad to hear that. You won't have to wait to hear it anymore." A tear ran down her eye as she hugged him.
"I'm scared," she whispered into his ear.
"Why? What's wrong?" he whispered back.
"I'm scared about Bobby."
"Hey, what about him?"
"What he'll do to me if I see him again. You saw him before at the movies, we never expected him to show up there. And he could have showed up last night, too."
"Please, don't worry about Bobby. I'd never let him hurt you again. Don't give it another thought." He hugged her even tighter, but she was giving it another thought. She was thinking about those words that Richard had yelled after her. In the back of her mind, she knew that Nick hadn't heard those words. She knew that Bobby was capable of it. Of killing to get her back, but he would never, ever have her back.
"I never wanted it to come to this," she said crying softly.
"I know. Nobody did."
"I can't see what she said, but she hugged him awful quick!" said Isabella. Brian and Mercedes smiled to each other as she put her head on his chest. They both knew what was happening.