The winter here is cold And bitter It's chilled us to the bone We haven't seen the sun for weeks Too long, too far from home
I feel just like I'm sinking And I claw for solid ground I'm pulled down by the undertow I never thought I could feel so low Ohh, darkness I feel like letting go
If all of the strength and all of the courage Come and lift me from this place I know I can love you much better than this Full of grace Full of grace My love
'It's better this way' I said Haven't seen this place before Everything we say and do Hurts us all even more
It's just that we've sayed too long In the same old, sickly skin I'm pulled down by the undertow I never thought I could feel so low Ohh, darkness I feel like letting go
If all of the strength and all of the courage Come and lift me from this place I know I can love you much better than this Full of grace
I know I can love you much better than this It's better this way
-Full of Grace, by Sarah McLachlan (CD: Surfacing)
~*~ Sunday, June 18th, 2000 ~*~
Nick walked aimlessly down the white halls of the icey building, looking for room A26. He muttered the different room numbers to himself as he passed each one, "A20, 22, 24..." until he got to the one he had been looking for.
Taking a deep breath in front of the door, Nick placed his hand on the handle and turned it. With a click, the sturdy, steel door popped open. He slipped inside and spotted who he'd come to see, immediately. His cousin sat on a chair, staring out the window at the rain pouring down outside. Not wanting to startle him, Nick quietly pulled up a chair next to his cousin and looked out the window with him for a while.
"Hey, Nick. I thought you were another nurse coming to give me meds or something. How are ya, man?"
Nick turned to look at him, "Pretty good... How about you? They treatin' you good?"
Jeff shrugged, "Sure. Why not. 'Cept for the fact that I'm stuck in this hell hole of a place like I'm mental or something," he smiled.
"You're not mental, man. You just need to get some things figured out in your head. You know, get rid of the alcohol and stuff."
Jeff nodded, "Yeah. I'm doing a lot better with all that stuff, I think. I'm just getting really anxious to get out of here, y'know?"
"Yeah... And you will. How are your wrists doing? Better?"
"M-hm... They're healing, I guess." Jeff raised his arms to show Nick.
Nick hid his grimace pretty well as he ran his finger over the scar that was beginning to protrude under the skin. He could tell that his 17 year old cousin had cut pretty deep this time.
"Thanks for comin' to see me, Nick. I mean, I know you're really busy and all."
"Jeff, you're family. And my favorite cousin, at that. Of course I'm gonna come see you," Nick smiled, gently.
"How's my mom doing?"
"What do you mean? Didn't she come to see you yesterday?" Nick asked with a shocked look on his face.
"What? No. She hasn't come once."
Nick looked confused, "But... but that doesn't make sense. She told us that she's come to see you five times already!"
Jeff stayed silent, knowing he didn't need to say anything.
"Oh gosh," Nick groaned. "We all thought she was finally coming around."
"My mom? 'Coming around'? Why would she? She's the one that gave me my first drink at age 10... She's the one that bought me the alcohol 'cause I'm underage... She doesn't care if I'm in here... If I tried to kill myself." Jeff gulped and looked back out the window, the sound of the hard rain hitting against it, soothing him in some weird way. He watched the leaves blowing in the breeze, just longing to feel the wind blowing over his boyish face again. Longing to smell the fresh air of upstate New York. "No. My mother would surely not visit me. Your immediate family is the only one's who have come."
Nick felt the tears well up in his eyes as he watched his cousin, who was only three years younger than him yet seemed so much more vulnerable, stare out the glass that was seperating him from the outside world.
As Nick opened his mouth to say something, a nurse poked her head in the door, "Mr. Carter, visiting hours just got over a few minutes ago."
Nick nodded and she left.
"Tell your mom and dad I say hi," Jeff said without looking away from the window.
Nick didn't answer, but he knew Jeff knew that he would. Giving Jeff a gentle hug and a kiss on the top of his head, Nick stood up quietly. "I'll be back tomorrow. I'll be in New York for five more days. You can bet your butt I'll be here every day."
Jeff gave him a lightly smile before turning back to hiw window.
With a sigh, Nick walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him. He walked down the hallway, his hands emerged deeply in his pant pockets, wondering if the place kept their air-conditioning on year-round or something. As he passed each room, he looked through the small windows on the doors, to see that the majority of the patients sat staring out the window, like his cousin, or slept.
Nick looked into room A2, just like every other room he had walked by, but this time he stopped. He didn't know if it was her angelic beauty that had caught his eye - her light brown hair gracefully falling to her shoulders, her big brown eyes holding a twinkle like no other - or if it was the fact that instead of sitting in front of the window, longing for freedom, or sleeping, she was just watching TV, like any other "normal" person would if they were just sitting at home.
Curiosity got the best of Nick and he noticed a doctor walking by, so he stopped him. "Excuse me."
The doctor turned and stopped walking. "Can I help you, sir?"
"Yes, can you tell me why that girl's in here?"
The doctor shook his head 'no', "I'm sorry, sir.. That's all confidential."
"Oh, okay. Thanks anyway," Nick smiled, politely.
"You're welcome, sir. Sorry I couldn't have been of any help."
Nick nodded and with that the doctor turned and continued walking down the hallway, rounding a corner soon after. Nick noticed that a nurse must have accidently left the girl's chart in the bin by her door. He looked around to make sure no one was there. Satisfied that he was alone, he swiftly reached into the plastic bin, on the wall, and pulled out the manila folder. Her name, age, birthdate, and all other small facts were typed on the front.
"Georgia Camille McLachlan (okay, so I couldn't think up a last name!)... 17," he said, quietly, but outloud. Nick opened the folder and began reading. "Excessive drinking. Drug use. Relapsed three times, since being hospitalized. No suicide attempts. Been here for a year." Nick sighed and looked back into the room to see her drawing in a notebook. He heard someone coming down the hallway, and quickly shut the folder, putting it back in the plastic slot. Glancing into the room, he looked at her one more time before hurrying down the hall, his sneakers squeeking on the floor with each step he took.
"Visiting time's over, Nick," Jeff's doctor smiled at him, as they ran into each other.
"I know, Dr. Sanders. I'm very sorry. I was just leaving."
Dr. Sanders smiled again, with a nod, "No problem, Nick. See you tomorrow?"
"You betcha," with that Nick walked down the rest of the hall and left the clinic.
~*~ Monday, June 19, 2000 ~*~
Nick passed Georgia's room, on his way to Jeff's, and looked inside to see her not there. He noticed the notebook that she had been drawing in, the previous night, open and laying on her bed. He hated to do it, but his curiosity was bugging him to death. Looking around and, yet again, not seeing anyone (he figured it was because it was 'activity time'), Nick turned the door knob and discreetly slid inside her bedroom. He shut the door behind him and looked around at his surroundings, quietly.
It was a simple room, although most of the room's in the clinic were. There was a dresser, bed, bedside table, closet and a chair. On top of the dresser sat a small boombox and on the bedside table sat her TV. The walls were un-painted; nothing hung on the walls; and instead of her clothes laying in her dresser or in her closet, they sat in a suitcase, neatly folded.
"That's odd," Nick muttered to himself. "I thought she's been here for a year."
He walked over to the bed and picked up the notebook, flipping it back to the first page. She did sketches, just like him, and she was very good... but he noticed, as he flipped through each page, that her drawings seemed to tell a story... a story of someone's life, and he assumed that life was hers.
Each drawing (or chapter of the story) had a title. The first picture, a picture of a newborn baby resting in the arms of a woman who was looking at a different child who seemed to be about three years old, was entitled 'Only The Beginning'. As the picture's went by, Nick came to realize Georgia was the baby in the first picture, and the little girl that the mother had been looking at must have been Georgia's older sister.
Just when he'd gotten to the drawing of Georgia's mother taking her to the clinic, the door to the room opened, making Nick's head shoot up. He dropped the notebook in shock.
"Who are you??" Georgia asked, confused, as she walked over and picked up her notebook, placing it on top of the TV. "What are you doing in here?"
Totally shocked and freaked that she'd get him in trouble, Nick spoke fast, before rushing from the room. "I'm so sorry! I really am!"
Georgia smirked at the retreating figure. With a sigh, she walked over to her notebook and pulled it off of the TV, opening it and looking at the pictures. "Oh gosh, I can't believe he saw all these. And who the heck was he?!"
~*~Later That Day~*~
"Alright, so tell me why you ran in here so fast," Jeff laughed as him and Nick played Nintendo.
Nick had been glad to see some more color on his cousin's face, and hadn't wanted to tell him about Georgia, in fear Jeff would think Nick was "checking out girls" while he was supposed to be visiting with him. It's not like Nick was "checking her out" anyway... he had just been... curious.
"Oh... it was... there was no reason."
Jeff paused the N-64 and looked at his cousin like 'you have got to be kidding me. Do you really think I'm that stupid?'
Nick laughed at Jeff's facial expression. "Lemme guess!" Jeff grinned. "Tina! No, Lisa... Oh, I got it! It was Becky!"
"There's that many hot girls in here?"
"Well, no. Those girls are scary. Why would you run from a hot chick?! The only hot one is... oh... my... gosh. You had a li'l run in with Miss Georgia, didn't ya?" Jeff laughed.
"Geesh, you make it sound like a beauty pageant." Nick smirked, looking away.
Jeff grinned, "So I'm right!"
"Well, yeah. But I don't think she found it to be that great of an experience."
"Oh gosh... What'd ya do, Nick?"
"Nothing! Well, sorta something... Okay, I sorta um... Well, I'll just start at the beginning. Last night... when I was leaving... I was lookin' in the small li'l windows that, y'know, are on the doors-"
"Why?"
"I don't know! I'm a curious typa person... Anyway, that's beside the point."
"Curiosity killed the cat," Jeff smirked.
"Oh shut up. I'm not dead... yet. Anyway! So I came to room A2-"
"Ah, the famous A2."
"Why? Is she psycho or something?"
Jeff laughed, "No, Nick. She ain't. Just beautiful. Every male patient here finds her irresistible. Only problem with that is once there was this totally gone guy - I mean, he was like going mental - and he um, tried to have sex with her... She screamed her head off, and the doctors ran in there and they sent the guy to a different clinic."
"You're kidding," Nick gaped.
"Nope."
"Woah. Well, at least she ain't easy."
Jeff rolled his eyes.
"Okay, anyway." Nick continued. "So I saw her, right? And I mean, she looked gorgeous. All she was doing was sitting there watching TV, but she looked so beautiful. So this doc walks by and I'm all like 'Can you tell me why that girl's in here?' and he says he can't 'cause it's confidential or something... So he walks on by and some nurse musta left her chart in that li'l plastic bin thing, right? So I like look around to make sure no one's there..." he paused. "... Well, there wasn't. So I took a peek."
"Nick!!"
"Whaaaat??"
"Do you know the meaning of the word 'con-fi-den-tial'???"
Nick smirked, "You think that's bad? Wait till you hear what happened this morning."
"You sound proud," Jeff laughed.
"Not particularly. So anyhoo, I read what she was in here for - and then I went home, but not before noticing that she was drawing in a notebook-"
Jeff nodded, like he knew what Nick was talking about.
"You know about her notebook??" Nick asked, inquisitively.
"Well, not really. But when we have our li'l 'free time'... gosh, I feel like I'm in preschool... she always chooses to do art. And she's always drawing. The staff always posts her pictures up on the walls and stuff."
"Well, what does she draw?"
"Umm... Kids playing in the sand... normal stuff like that. Most of them have to do with the ocean, but she loves to draw scenic pictures. They're gorgeous too."
Nick made a weird face.
Jeff's eyebrows knitted, "What's wrong?"
"Well, let me finish the story and then I'll tell you... So I left, last night, and when I came back this morning I passed her room and saw that she wasn't in there... but her notebook was. And it was just laying there on her bed, open and stuff... I couldn't resist. So I uh, sorta went into her room and was looking at the all the pictures. When I was about halfway through them, she walked in and asked who I was and what I was doing there - not rudely or anything, just like she was wondering, of course - and I said I was really sorry and ran out of there. That's when I came in your room."
"You're an idiot, man," Jeff laughed. "You coulda gotten in so much trouble. Luckily, Georgia is like the sweetest girl you'll ever meet. So she won't tell on ya. Don't worry."
Nick grinned, "Good..."
"So anyway... Why is it so weird that she likes to draw scenic pictures?"
"Well, it's not. It's just that in her notebook it was all these sketches of like her life or something. It almost seems like her mother never loved her or something, like she was never good enough for her mom. The first picture was of Georgia's mom, holding Georgia when she had just been born. But instead of paying attention to Georgia, she was looking at this other little girl, who was probly like 3 or 4. I assume that girl's her sister, 'cause she's in like the whole notebook, with Georgia. I dunno, it's just like the pictures definently weren't happy pictures... So it just seems sorta weird that she'd draw happy pictures in the art room."
"Well, she probably just expresses her true feelings through drawing... in her personal notebook," Jeff chuckled, un-pausing the game. He continued talking as they started to play their game again. "But she's not like a depressed kind of girl... she's really sweet. Maybe she just draws that way in private to kind of vent, healthily... y'know, so she doesn't go insane."
Nick nodded, "Yeah. That makes sense."
~*~Later That Night: 8 p.m.~*~
Nick walked out to his car, about to go back to his hotel, after spending a long day at the clinic with Jeff. He was about to get into his car when he noticed a figure standing in the gazebo a little ways off. He recognized the person right away, her beautiful hair giving her away.
Nick smiled to himself and decided to go over and "apologize" to her for earlier that day. He walked the short distance over to the white gazebo, that overlooked a small lake, and sat down next to her on the little bench she was sitting on. She didn't turn to look at him, but a small smile graced her face as she felt him sit down next to her.
"So I guess you know everything about my life now," Georgia suddenly said, quietly, as she looked down, her hair cascading over her shoulders and blocking his view of the side of her face.
The fact that she spoke out of nowhere scared the crap out of Nick and he jumped, making her laugh a little. "Sorry," he smiled, sheepishly. "I um... I'm sorry about earlier, too. I didn't mean to trespass... Well, actually, I did." he laughed. "It's just I saw you sitting in your room last night and you intrigued me greatly."
"Oh, so you were watching me last night, too? You gonna become my personal stalker?" she looked up at him, biting her bottom lip to keep from smiling.
Nick laughed, "Sure, why not."
Georgia smiled shyly at him.
"Can I ask you a question?" he asked her and she turned her face to look back at the lake.
"Sure, anything."
Nick nodded, "Why do they let you out here this late at night? I mean, I know that not everyone's allowed out here past dinner time."
Georgia nodded. "I've been here for a while now... They know I'm harmless... and that I'm ain't goin' nowhere."
"When do you think they'll release you though?"
"That's just the thing," she smiled a sort of sad smile. "I don't even want to be released. They treat me better than my parents ever did... This place is my home now, these people are my family... I've made friends here..."
"Why is your stuff still packed in your suitcase though?"
Georgia looked up at him and studied his face for a moment, before looking back down at her feet. "I don't know, to tell you the truth. I guess maybe I hope someday something will come along that will make me want to leave... I don't know."
Nick looked at her, even though her hair was covering her face. "I'm sure someday something... or somebody... will do just that."
She looked up at him again and smiled, "Thanks... you know what? I never caught your name."
"That's 'cause I never gave it," he smiled, lightly.
Georgia grinned, "Well, I'm Georgia... Though I'm sure you know that... That is, if you're half as good of a stalker as you appear to be."
Nick laughed and put out his hand to shake hers, "I'm Nick."
She smiled sweetly at him, before standing up, Nick standing up after her. "I should get back inside. It was a pleasure meeting you."
He nodded, "The pleasure was all mine."
"I'm sure I'll see you around... That is, if you've decided to take the job of being my stalker."
"I wouldn't pass that opportunity by."
Georgia laughed and began to walk away. She turned around and continued walking backwards, "Drive carefully, Nick."
"I will... You better walk carefully! You're about to run into that tree."
She turned around quickly and saw a tree in front of her. Walking around it, she laughed, "Thanks! See you soon!"
"Later!" with that said, Nick walked out of the gazebo and over to his car.
~*~ Tuesday, June 20th, 2000 ~*~
"Well, hello, Miss Georgia... And what are you up to?" Nick smiled as he pulled up a chair next to Georgia's where she sat, painting.
"You get that from Jeff?" Georgia turned and looked at him with a smirk on her face. "That's all he calls me, ya know."
Nick laughed, "Yeah, I noticed... Does it bother you?"
"No, except that I feel like I'm running in a beauty pageant for the state of Georgia or somethin'."
"Exactly my thoughts."
She smiled at him, before turning back to her painting and adding some more blue to the sky.
"So you sketch and paint, huh? What else do you do, Woman of Many Talents?"
Georgia laughed and continued painting, "Not much else, I assure you."
Nick leaned in closer and spoke quietly so only she could hear, "Oh, surely there must be something else you're good at."
She blushed, "No, not really!"
He laughed and stood up, "Well, I gotta go hang wit' my main man Jeff! I'll see ya around?" he smiled down at her.
Georgia looked up at him, with a pleasant expression on her face, "You can bet your cute li'l butt on that one!"
"Oh, so you looked?"
She laughed, "Oh, but of course."
Nick giggled playfully, before kissing her hand and then running off to find Jeff.
~*~ On The Basketball Court, Outside ~*~
"She has got you sooo hung," Jeff laughed at the expression on his cousin's face, as Nick made his way over to the younger boy, who was involved in a b-ball game with a few other guys.
"I can't help it... She's so cool," Nick grinned, giving Jeff one of those 'manly' hugs. "How you doin', man??"
"Great!... Hey, guys, this is my cousin Nick... Nick, this is Matt, Alex, and Ryan."
They all said Hi to each other.
"Guys, I'm gonna go talk to Nick. So, finish up the game without me." Jeff said, as him and Nick began to walk off to the side of the court.
"K. Later, man!" Alex called after him.
"So you like her?" Jeff laughed. "You just met her yesterday."
"I know, but I already know like everything about her life." Nick reasoned. "Just gotta talk to her more, and get to know everything about her."
"What about the fact that she lives here, and you live in Santa Barbara? I mean, New York and Cali are sorta far away."
"I know, I know. It's not like I said I'm gonna marry her or anything! Although..." he faded off and then laughed.
"Oh shut up," Jeff chuckled. "Like she'd ever marry you, you big oaf."
~*~ Wednesday, June 21st, 2000 ~*~
Ya know, I don't understand You deserve so much more than this ... ... Oh, so just let me try And I will be good to you Just let me try And I will be there for you I'll show you why you're so much more Than good enough
-Good enough, by Sarah McLachlan (CD: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy)
"So if you didn't like drinking alcohol, and doing drugs, why did you?" Nick asked as him and Georgia sat in her room, talking.
Georgia was silent for a minute, before opening her mouth and trying to explain as best as she could, "It was a total cry for attention ... I just wanted my mom to love me, ya know? It was like, I tried so-o hard to meet her expectations. I tried so hard to be good enough for her... but nothing I did ever was. So basically, in my own screwed up way, I got the idea that maybe, just maybe, if I was really bad she'd know that I was rebelling because no one ever gave me love. But when she found out that I was drinking excessively and doing pot and stuff, she gave me the most disgusted look and she said something that I'll never forget. She said 'You could never add up to what you're sister is... You could just never do it. You're not worth anything.' and she threw me in here."
"What was so good about your sister?" Nick asked, quietly.
Georgia sighed, "She was a cheerleader, got straight A's, was an excellent dancer... you name it. She was everything my mother wanted, the 'perfect' girl. She was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Could have any guy she wanted. And what made it worse was, it didn't go to her head. She didn't use guys, just because she could. She was the sweetest person you'd ever meet. I just couldn't hate her! There were times when I just wanted to hate her so badly, but I couldn't. The only thing I could hold against her was the fact that she never stood up to my mother, for me. She was my big sister and yet for some reason she valued my mother's opinion too much. She would wait till my mom left the room to say 'Georgia, you know what she said isn't right...' My sister loved me, I know that, but she also loved being popular and beautiful. I mean, who wouldn't? She didn't want to give that up, by making an enemy of my mother."
Nick sighed, "Wow. What's your sister's name, by the way?"
"Virginia..."
He made a weird face.
"Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking," she laughed. "I think it WAS a beauty pageant... My mom's own pageant. And Miss Virginia won." Georgia said, softly.
"You must be a very strong person, Georgia... I mean, most people in the situation that you were in, wouldn't have made it this long. They would have given up a long time ago. And I'm so glad that you didn't."
"You wanna know why I never killed myself? It's because I knew my mother hated me. And I knew it would probably make her happy if I killed myself. I didn't want her happy, so I decided to just stay alive to make her suffer more."
Nick pulled her into a hug and she sighed against him, her arms wrapped around his waist. "Georgia? Can I tell ya something?"
"What's that, Nick?" Georgia raised her head to look at him.
"I think that you're so beautiful... inside and out. And no matter what anybody ever tells you, you've got to remember that. Because it's true. I wouldn't tell you that if it wasn't. And I wouldn't change one thing about you... you're so much more than good enough.You're like no other girl I've met. You have this uniqueness about you, that I love. I don't quite know what it is yet, but I'd be content spending my whole life trying to figure that out. Some day you will make some very lucky guy very happy." he whispered softly, looking at her beautiful face the whole time.
Georgia could feel her face getting hot as tears filled her eyes. "No one's ever said anything like that to me."
"Well, then you haven't been talking to the right people."
~*~ Thursday, June 22nd, 2000 ~*~
Georgia woke up to hear her bedroom door click open. She opened her eyes to see, much to her surprise, Cindy, her mother standing there, an angry nurse behind her.
"Ma'am, you can not wake up the patients! You will have to come back later, during visiting hours!"
"Georgia is my daughter and I will see her whenever I want!" her mother yelled back at the nurse, before turning to Georgia, who was sitting there, trying to comprehend what was going on.
"Mother? What are you doing here?" Georgia suddenly asked, realizing that this wasn't a dream... her mother really was there. But by the look on her face, Georgia guessed that wasn't a good thing.
"I'm here to tell you that you're sister and I got in a fight all because of YOU! She 'missed' you! God only knows why! And she told me if I didn't let you come back home, she'd call the cops on me for child abuse! Whatever. So I told her to leave, and she did! She got in a car accident and DIED! And it's all your fault!! I hope you rot in HELL for all the agony that you have inflicted on my life!!!" her mother screamed at the top of her lungs, probably waking up every patient in the clinic.
The nurse was trying desperately to get Cindy out of the room, seeing that it was obviously upsetting Georgia tremendously, but Cindy was fighting her the whole way, not allowing the nurse to pull her out of the room.
Georgia had her knees tucked up to her chest, her face buried in them, as she cried. Knowing that her sister was dead was enough to give her a nervous break down, let alone her mother telling her that it was all her fault. Every mean thing that her mother had ever said to her, in her lifetime, came flooding back to her memory, making her body shake with the power of her sobs.
The nurse called out for some help with getting Cindy to leave, and some doctor's to calm Georgia down, but by the time the doctor's ran into the room Georgia was too hysterical to calm down just by talking to her. Just as one of the doctor's was about to give her a tranquilizer, Nick rushed in the room and pushed the doctor's away.
He quickly sat down on the bed beside her and pulled her shaking figure into his lap, wrapping his comforting arms tightly around her. "Shhhh... It's gonna be okay," he whispered, soothingly, in her ear. "It's gonna be alright."
Nick looked up at Cindy for a moment, his eyes practically blazing through her skull. After holding her angry gaze for a while, he turned and looked at the doctors, "Get her out of here... Now!" he spoke through his teeth.
They nodded and ushered Cindy out, leaving Nick to try and comfort Georgia. He just sat there, rocking her back and forth in his arms, for a while, while she cried.
After about a half hour, Georgia lifted her head off of Nick's shoulder, "Nick?" she croaked out, her throat dry.
"Yeah, Sweetie," he smoothed down her hair, kissing her forehead.
"Thank you... for being here for me all this time. For being my friend while you've been here. Thank you," Georgia whispered, weakly. "But it's over, Nick... All of it."
"No, it's not! Don't you say that!"
"Nick, my mother's right... And I'd be better off gone. And a lot of other people would benefit from that, too."
Nick shook his head back and forth, "No! That is not true! Think about all of the people who love you... all of these nurses and doctors, and other patients. Think about... about... me."
Georgia sniffled back her tears, "Nick..."
"What?"
"Don't," she whispered.
"Don't what?? Don't love you?? C'mmon, Georgia... you're amazing! Everyone loves you."
"Nick, just go... please!"
"No, Georgia, I can't-"
"Nick, you're leaving tomorrow and it's not like I'll ever see you again... so just go... Just get out!!!!" Georgia screamed, pointing to the door.
"Georgia, no. You don't understand!" Nick stood up and looked down at her, an urgent expression on his face.
"Nick, get out now, or I will have you thrown out." she stated through her teeth.
Nick felt his heart break and he looked at her with the saddest expression in his eyes. "Fine. But only because it's what you want... I love you," he whispered, before walking out of the room.
