Brian was tickling her because she wouldn't let him do anything to get her and Nick together.
"BRIAN!!! STOP!!!"
At that time they heard the front door slam and footsteps coming up the stairs.
"Nick is that you?", Nicole called out.
"Yeah, it's me."
When Nicole stepped out of the room her face was red and she was panting.
"Nicole, what's wrong? Are you okay? You're red!", Nick asked alarmed.
"Calm down, Nick. Nothing's wrong. It's just that Brian was tickling me to death and-"
"BRIAN!!!"
"Yeah?"
He walked out of the room red and exhausted as well.
"BRIAN!!! I told you take care of her, not tickle her and make her worse. She needs rest. I mean she came from the freaking hospital. Don't you have any common sense?", Nick shouted.
"Geez man! Calm down. If you care so much then just go ahead and take care of her yourself!"
"Fine. I'll probably do a better job than you could anyway."
With that last statement, Brian turned around and stormed out the house.
"Nick, why were you so hard on him? He was only trying to make me feel better."
"No, it's just that if anything happens to you-"
"I'm fine. You hurt his feelings, Nick. I want you to go apologize to him NOW!"
"Okay, but I hope he didn't go too far."
He raced down the stairs and ran out the door.
He found Brian on the driveway playing basketball.
"Hey Brian. I thought you would have been gone by now. How come you're still here?"
"I don't have my car, how am I supposed to go home?"
"Oh yeah. Listen Brian, I'm really sorry about what happened. It's just that I really care about her and if anything happened....."
The words died on his lips as he noticed a figure behind Brian. It seemed so familiar.
"Nick, what's wrong?"
Just then Nick realized who it was. The figure was Derrick.
"Oh my God...., is that Derrick?", Nick asked in a whisper.
As Brian turned around, Nick shut his eyes.
"Nick, ummmm, there's nothing there. Are you okay?"
Nick opened his eyes and couldn't see the figure anymore.
Maybe it was just my imagination, Nick thought. No, he was there, I saw it!
Nick didn't have a long time to think about what he did and did not see because all of a sudden they heard an ear-splitting scream from the house.
