“Who the hell are you and why the hell are you kissing my boyfriend?” Ally cried.
Nick quickly pulled apart from Kelli and dropped his eyes to the floor. She hadn’t yelled at him yet, and hopefully he could sneak out and let her cool off for a while before she had a chance.
“Your boyfriend? He’s been my boyfriend for over a year, honey,” Kelli said simply.
“What?” Ally said quietly. Nick tried to slip past her, but she grabbed his arm and held him back. “What the hell is she talking about? How could you do this to me?”
“Maybe I should go and let you two work this out,” Kelli said. “I’ll see you later, baby.” She planted a wet kiss on Nick’s cheek, leaving a pink lipstick print there, and walked out.
“Ally, please, listen to me.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Nick,” Ally seethed, her eyes filling with tears. “I trusted you.”
“Will you let me explain?” he begged.
“Do you not see how much you just hurt me? Why should I let you explain? So you can tell me about how you’re fucking another girl?” she demanded. “Were you really thinking of her last night, Nick? Was she in your mind the whole time?”
“No, Ally, please, hear me out!” he pleaded. “First of all, I’m not fucking her, and second, I love you and only you.”
“That’s what I thought, too,” she muttered. She spun on her heel and dashed out of the room. He ran after her and caught her a few rooms away.
To avoid allowing her to get away, he held her wrist tightly. “She’s an ex-girlfriend who can’t accept that we’re over. She insisted that I kiss her to prove that I didn’t care about her, and-”
“Shut up!” she sobbed. “Just stop it. It’s over, Nick!” She wrestled out of his grip and took off down the hallway.
He stared after her, knowing he would just make things worse if he tried to follow. Dammit! He’d really screwed up. ‘I was right this morning. I really don’t deserve her,’ he thought. Why did he have to be so stupid? Why couldn’t he have just pulled away? Why did he agree to kiss Kelli in the first place?
A hand on his shoulder made him jump. He turned to see Kelli. “What the hell do you want?”
“Face it, Nick. It’s just you and me,” she said softly. “Now that that bitch is out of the picture.”
“Don’t you ever call Ally that! She’s a hell of a lot better of a person than you are. Leave, Kelli. It’s over,” he ordered firmly.
“But, Nicky-”
“Go home.”
She took one last look at him before turning and going to her room. As soon as she was out of sight, he collapsed on the floor in tears.
As Ally was running down the stairs, Brian was coming up. When he saw her, he grabbed her shoulders and tried to calm her down. “Whoa! What’s going on?” he asked.
“Nick’s a cheating, lying bastard,” she bawled. “I hate him! I hate him! I hate him!”
He took her into his arms and rubbed her back softly. “Slow down. Tell me what happened.”
“I went upstairs and went into my room. He was kissing another girl. A tall, blond, skinny girl. I asked what was going on, and she said he was her boyfriend, and they’d been together for over a year. Why would he do that to me, Brian? I thought he loved me!”
Brian quickly put the pieces together. “Ally, that isn’t his girlfriend. It’s his ex. Her name is Kelli. She’s a psycho. She dumped Nick last year, and then she came back to him, and he wouldn’t take her back. She never could face the fact that they had broken up. She showed up here today, and that’s why I came to your room this morning. I wanted to warn him that she was here. He doesn’t care about her, Ally.”
“That’s why you came to our room this morning?” Ally whispered. “He said it was to tell him something that Kevin said.”
“No, I wanted to warn him.”
“He never tells me anything anymore, Brian. When he’s upset about something, he goes to one of you, even if it involves me. He was mad at me the other day, and he went to AJ instead of confronting me. Now he won’t tell me his ex is staying in the same hotel?”
Brian felt like kicking himself. He had gotten Nick in trouble. “I’m sure he just didn’t want to concern you.”
“He told me he wouldn’t keep anything from me anymore.”
“Calm down, Ally. You’re making a big deal out of something that isn’t that serious,” Brian said gently.
“Not that serious? Brian, do you know what’s going to happen? He’s going to block me out of his life! I love him more than anything, and when he doesn’t tell me about something that bothers him, it hurts me so bad!” She stopped, and her eyes closed as the tears got worse. “I gotta go.” She spun around and walked back up the stairs.
Nick buried his face in his pillow as he heard the door open. He knew that if he tried to look at her, he’d just start crying again. However, she didn’t give him a choice. “Nick, look at me, please.”
Her tone was soft and gentle. Maybe she wasn’t so mad at him anymore…or maybe she was just too exhausted to fight with him. He looked up at her and realized the latter was much more likely. Her brown hair was pulled back in a messy ponytail, her normally bright eyes were dull and surrounded by puffy red circles, and he could see that her whole body was lacking energy. “I’m so sorry,” he choked. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“You didn’t even tell me she was here,” Ally said. “You promised me you wouldn’t keep anything from me anymore.”
“I didn’t mean to keep it from you. I just didn’t want to upset you,” Nick whispered. “And I didn’t want to mess things up.”
“Then why did you make out with her?” she demanded.
Anger rose in his voice. “Okay, first of all, I wasn’t making out with her, and second, I already explained that. I just wanted to get her to leave me alone. She promised she would. I didn’t plan for things to happen that way!”
“Well, they did,” she muttered flatly. “You never even mentioned her, Nick.”
“I didn’t see a need to. That’s another reason I didn’t want to tell you she was here. I knew you’d get mad if you found out about her. I didn’t want to lose you when I – when we had just fixed everything.”
“Dammit, Nick! You had me in the palm of your hand after last night! I wouldn’t have cared!”
“Don’t lie to me. You would have freaked out! Oh, no! He had an ex-girlfriend that he never mentioned! He’s shutting me out!” he imitated dramatically.
“Is that how you think I am? Maybe I should just leave, then. I came back to try to sort things out and at least make peace if not get back together, but if that’s the way you feel about me, I won’t even bother. Congratulations, Nick. You just officially lost me.” With that, she stormed out of the room.