Later that night I was on the phone with my friend Nikki when the doorbell rang. I was the only one home so I scrambled downstairs to see who it was. I peeked out the peephole and saw the same blond hair and blue eyes that had been showing up at my door for sixteen years.
"Nicky Poodle!" I shrieked when I opened the door.
"Salamander!" he shrieked back. He gave me a kiss on the cheek. "Can I come in?"
"Nah, I'll make you stand on the porch," I said.
"Fine," he said and sat down. I laughed.
"Come on, I just finished talking to Nikki," I said.
"Sweet, how's she doing?"
"Well still recovering from the skiing accident, but in good spirits," I said. He nodded.
"Good to hear she's doing well," he said. Nick always made it a point to be friends with my other friends. It was a good system cause then we were all friends. He had been my friend the longest. I was three when I had first met the prank pulling five year old when we lived in Florida. Now we lived in So Cal and Nick had bought a house not too far from ours. He was over at our house every time he was home. Mom called him 'son'.
Everyone always asked why we didn't go out. The reason was simple. We knew too much about each other. When I was five our parents bathed us together and took a picture for God's sake, we were too good of friends to risk screwing it up in a relationship.
"Got anything going on?" he asked. I shook my head.
"Wanna go rent a movie or something? I'm bored," he said. I laughed.
"Well we have What Lies Beneath if you haven't seen it," I said. He cocked an eyebrow.
"Really?" he said. I grinned. Nick loved horror movies, almost as much as he loved scaring the shit out of me during them.
"I'm there," he said, jumping over the back of the couch and grabbing the remote.
"I'm gonna go make some popcorn," I said, walking into the kitchen. I stuck the bag in the microwave and went to get a couple of sodas out of the fridge.
"So how's the tour going?" I asked.
"Pretty good," he said. "Glad to be on a break."
"I thought you loved touring?" I said, throwing him a drink.
"I did, but lately it's just been hell," he said. "It doesn't have the same appeal it did."
"Is it because of that fan thing?" I asked. He went pale.
"No, that was nothing," he said. I didn't believe him. He'd been scared badly by it. I was the first one he called when it had happened.
"Okay then," I said. "So you're just bored with it?"
"Yeah," he said.
"Have you told the guys?"
"Not yet," he said.
"You should, they deserve to know," I said. He looked up at me.
"I will, maybe tomorrow when Bri comes over," he said.
"Okay," I said. "Let's get the movie." He turned on the DVD player and we sat and watched most of the movie. During it both my parents came home and my sister. Pretty soon the whole family, even the cat, was parked in front of the TV watching the movie.
Nick had gotten up to get another drink and I was sitting on the couch. At one of the more pivotal scenes he snuck up behind me and grabbed my shoulders.
"AAAAHHHHH!" I shrieked and then scared everyone else. He was rolling on the floor laughing.
"Damn you!" I said through giggles.
"See! You're laughing!" he said. I glared at him and started laughing again. Emily stuck her tongue out at him.
"I'll beat him for ya Sam," she said. She jumped off the back of the couch and tackled him. He laughed even harder. She was a petite 5'4" and didn't weigh more than 110 pounds. Nick had 70 pounds on her.
"Em, you're out of your league," I teased.
"No I'm not," she started to tickle him. He thrashed around and squealed. I joined in.
"Okay uncle!" he said. We backed off. Dad leaned over and looked at us.
"Nick, you're a good man," he said.
"Thanks," Nick replied, catching his breath.
Nick went home after the movie was over and we settled down and went to bed. I dreamed of Nick, the fan, and David's arrival in only a few days.