Nick stood quickly as he watched his mother walk down the corridor, heading in his direction. His heart swelled at the sight of family, at the sight of someone who hadn't disowned him. At that thought he wondered how his 3 best friends (aside from Brian) AJ, Kevin, and Howie were doing. None of them had visited him even once.
Nick's mother felt her eyes well up with tears as they caught sight of her son. How had his life become this? She reached her trembling hands through the barriers between them. "Hi, baby," her voice caught with emotion as she watched her son grasping to feel a kind hand ... something he hadn't felt in six years. "Aaron wanted to come with me..." she added as she noticed Nick couldn't respond without breaking down.
Nick was already shaking his head insistently, "No," he spoke firmly and Nick's mother knew how serious he was, "No, mama -- please don't let him come here. He can't see me here."
"Baby, your brother hasn't seen you in six years -- he needs to see you, especially before-" she couldn't continue. She was already crying.
"No, mom, don't think about that," Nick tried to hug her through the confinements that kept them from each other.
"Nicky, your brother needs you."
"But not like this."
~ * ~ 7 years before ~ * ~
Nick looked at California at the restaurant table. She had been awfully quiet and he wondered, as he watched her chew her salad silently, if he'd been talking in his sleep again. "Cal, you okay?"
California looked up at her boyfriend and sighed, "Yeah, sweetie, I'm fine."
He was the sweetest guy she knew. Could what she was thinking she had done be true? This was her boyfriend and she was in love with him. But for the first time she was slightly scared of him.
"I love you," Nick said suddenly as he reached across the table to take her hand in his own.
Cali smiled at him, "I love you too."
Certainly what her imagination had conjured up was wrong. She was in love with this man and he was perfect. But her love was blinding.
~ * ~ 5 years before ~ * ~
Nick looked at the girl in front of him. They'd been dancing for hours and now they sat side by side talking out on the lawn. He'd just learned that her name was Amity. The name seemed to easily roll from his drunken tongue. In his 15-year-old mind he knew he could easily fall in love with her. That's what he told her as they made their way back inside the house and up the stairs, finding one of the many, but one of the few empty, guest rooms.
"Nick," Amity spoke apprehensively as he began to unbutton her shirt. "Nick, I don't think I want to do this." Though his lips were blazing a sensual fire across her skin, in her mind she knew what she wanted -- and it wasn't this. "Nick, no..."
