Brittany stepped from the shower and threw her hair up in a messy up-do once she was dressed. Derek had come home and Freddy had left all in the same day, which was slightly bittersweet. But Brittany and Sarah had left to return to college the next day which had saddened Brittany all the more. She wouldn't be seeing Freddy for a while, and leaving her brother after being with him for less than 24 hours was disheartening. It helped having Sarah there, but Sarah was dealing with her own problems, though, much to Brittany's dismay, she wasn't telling her what had happened, and had seemed very distracted since their trip to Florida.
Brittany heard her phone ring from inside the bathroom. She groaned and slid her T-shirt over her head quickly, before rushing from the steam-filled room into the main part of her dorm. "Hello?"
"Hi ... um ... this is Nick ... Carter?"
"Oh ... hi!" she sounded extremely surprised. She and Sarah didn't share a dorm, so it was odd that he would be calling there. "What can I do for ya?"
"Well ... I don't really know why I'm involving you in this; Sarah will probably be pissed that I did this. It's just ... sh*t, I'll have to call you back; call waiting."
Brittany made a weird face, completely confused, as she heard him hang up. Placing the phone back on the cradle she started to head back to the bathroom to finish getting ready, the phone stopping her once again. She grabbed the phone up and hastily held it to her ear, "Argh! What do you want??"
"I want to know what you're doin' answering your phone like that," the voice laughed, sounding as though they were awfully proud of their quick comeback.
"You're such a dork," Brittany sighed, but then ended up laughing. "What are you doing calling me, Freddy?"
"How'd you know it was me?"
"Por que tu llamas?"
Freddy laughed, "You're the dork. Ahhh, but I love ya."
"Yeah," she rolled her eyes and began to pace back and forth as she talked, her fingers moving to play with the telephone chord when she realized she had a cordless. "So what's up, sexy?"
He laughed again, making Brittany's stomach flutter, "I miss you already. It hasn't been long since I saw ya, but ... well ... when do you have another school break?"
"When do YOU have a break? I mean, the season's not even halfway done. Fred, I can't leave school again. Not for that long at least. Maybe like a long weekend."
"Yeah," Freddy sighed, "I know. Unfortunately. Maybe the next time I have a few days off, I can go up there and see you. Would that be cool?"
"I'd love that!" she grinned, her entire face lighting up.
"Well, where would I stay?"
"My dorm."
"Ohhhhhhhhhh!"
Brittany laughed, "Shut up."
"You know, I've been thinking ever since ... you know ... what happened ... that ... sh*t, someone's on the other line. Can I call you back?"
"I HATE call-waiting! It's screwin' up every single one of my phone calls!"
"What???"
She sighed, "Nothing. Call back later. Love you, Fred."
"I love you too. Talk to you in a second."
"Bye, babe." Brittany groaned as she walked back into the bathroom to finish getting ready. What was he about to say? She just hoped he held that thought until he called back.
Nick/Sarah
Sarah sat in her class, tapping her pencil against her math book. She'd been talking to Nick every night possible since she'd been home and, much to her dismay, she knew that if he didn't call he was with Adrienne. The relationship that she and Nick were carrying on was incredibly hard on her and she'd spent almost every night, of the past two weeks, crying. It was horrible to think that when Nick wasn't spending his time on her, he was spending it on Adrienne ... and Nick knew that, to make sure Adrienne didn't suspect anything, he still had to sleep with her. Yet, at the same time, Sarah knew that she was "the other girl" and that Adrienne deserved his time and emotions more than she did.
Due to the fact that her highly secretive relationship with Nick was very stressful, Sarah had become very quiet and found life most enjoyable when she was in solitude. It was too difficult to be around Brittany, her best friend, and not tell her everything. She knew she was hurting Brittany by ignoring her, not to mention the fact that she missed her friend, but Sarah didn't know what else to do. Nick had made her promise that she wouldn't tell a soul -- and that included Brittany.
Nick, on the other hand, was going through just as much, if not more. Adrienne had begun to ask him why he was constantly checking his voicemail when they were out and his e-mail when they were at his house. It had become quite clear that she was becoming annoyed at not having his undivided attention ... and possibly even highly suspicious of what -- or who -- did. She'd asked him a week after Sarah and Brittany had gone back to New York, whether he was becoming interested in other women and Nick had just sat there for a minute, completely shell-shocked. Luckily, the phone had rang and Brian had created a nice diversion as Nick made sure to keep him on the phone until it was obvious that Adrienne was far too tired to have a long conversation. She never brought it up again.
Nick had mixed feelings about the predicament that he found himself in. Though he knew that in the long run all three of them -- Sarah, Adrienne, and himself -- could get hurt, he was glad to be with Sarah and he liked her more every time they talked. But in a way, he wished he'd never met her. If he hadn't met her she wouldn't be going through what he was putting her through. He couldn't help but feel responsible for what was happening. HE was the one who had a girlfriend, HE was the one who had talked Sarah into everything, and HE was the one who was too afraid to let everything go for her.
Freddy/Brittany
Hours had passed and neither Nick nor Freddy had called again. Brittany had been driving herself crazy, not knowing what either of them had wanted to say. It had been obvious that Nick had wanted to ask a serious question and Freddy had been about to say something that could make or break their relationship. Anything said about the night they had spent together could do such a thing.
She was working diligently on an article for the newspaper that she interned for (though her mind had occasionally wandered off to Freddy) when the phone rang, its piercing shrieks causing her to practically jump out of her own skin. She was still a little out of breath when she answered, "Hello?"
"Geesh, what ARE you doing over there??"
"Working on an article," by the tone of her voice you could tell she had rolled her eyes. "It gets me so hot for you."
"You're already hot for me," Freddy chuckled, his own tone sounding threateningly cocky.
"You know it."
They sat in an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes, their minds trying to separately decipher whether their conversation was playful or just the opposite.
Finally Brittany cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter, "So??"
"Oh ... what?"
"'Oh ... what?'" she mocked, her tone sounding distracted to mimic his own. "You were about to say something on the phone earlier tonight when your call-waiting beeped in."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Freddy feigned ignorance, though on the other end of the line he was trying desperately not to laugh. "Maybe you need some rest; you're getting delusional, my dear. That brain of yours running a little too quickly for its own good?"
"Shut up," Brittany growled, before laughing. "C'mmon, Fred, you know what I'm talking about."
"I do not. We haven't even talked on the phone tonight. Last time I talked to you was the day that ... well ... you know."
"Argh! You are so infuriating!"
Freddy laughed, the chuckle in his voice practically sending Brittany into convulsions of the heart, not to mention certain other places, "You're so freakin' easy to tease. All I was gonna say was that - Oh, sorry, someone's calling on the other line. Call you back."
"Freddy, no! Don't you dare hang up!"
"Brittany, I'm being serious this time! Someone really is calling."
Brittany gasped, "And you were lying earlier??"
"Heh, heh" he grinned, "I'll talk to you later."
"Freddy!!"
He hung up before she could protest any farther. With a frustrated groan, Brittany threw her phone down and returned to her paper which she realized had 'Freddy' written all along the border.
Nick/Sarah
"I gotta take Adrienne out to dinner tonight 'cause it's her birthday," Nick sighed into the phone as he sat in his living room, his head resting against the back of the couch.
Sarah felt like throwing up just at the thought, but refrained. "Oh," was all she could manage.
Nick felt bad for telling her, but there was a reason that he had to. "I know, I know. I don't want to, baby, trust me. But I have to and I just needed to tell you so that you don't-"
"Yeah, I know," she interrupted. She knew and didn't need to hear him say it. She couldn't call his cell phone or ... his house. Nick and Adrienne would most likely be going back there after dinner ... no matter if Nick wanted to or not. "Have fun," Sarah tried to sound sincere and not bitter in the slightest, though it didn't work very well.
"I'm sorry, Sar."
"Yeah ... I know."
But how sorry? Sorry enough to break things off with Adrienne? Sorry enough to even end their own secretive affair in order to save her breaking heart? Sarah knew that she sure didn't have the courage or the want to do it herself. But maybe Nick didn't either.
