Chapter 17-

Just to make sure, she picked the phone back up and called Brians house.

“hello?”

“hey Leighanne? Its Eliese”

“oh hi Eliese how are you?”

“im ok how is everything with you and Brian?”

“oh we’re doing great”

“that’s good, um I have a question for you”

“sure what is it?”

“was Nick at your house last night?”

“Nick…” she said slowly “no he wasn’t, should he have been?”

“well its just that we had a little fight last night and he left. He called me a minute ago and said he was at your house last night. But he was calling from Brianna’s dorm room. I was just calling to make sure before I killed him”

she laughed “ouch, well have fun”

“thanks Leigh. Bye”

“bye Eliese” they both hung up and Eliese went upstairs to get dressed and to think about what she was going to do to Nick.

I walked out of the bathroom and Nick was sitting on the bed waiting for me.

“ready?” he asked

“yeah lets go…did you bring your car here?”

“yep, I’ll bring you back later.”

“ok” I said as we walked outside to his durango. I was about to get in but someone came up behind me and called my name.

“Brianna”

I turned around and saw my other roomate Christy standing there with her books in her arms.

“hey Christ” I smiled

“Brianna!” she said “where were you today. You missed the exam”

“oh I know, I overslept. Sucks for me”

“where are you going?” she asked looking past me at Nick who was standing on other other side or my car. Immediately she recognized him and her eyes got wide.

“to the mall”

“with him?”

“yeah” I replied simply. “listen I got to go. I’ll talk to you later ok?”

“alright bye” she walked away but kept staring at Nick while she walked.

I got in and Nick started the car.

“shes so annoying” I sighed putting on my seatbelt.

“I could tell” he laughed

“yeah shes probably going to go tell all her tennybopper friends that I was with you and they’re all going to kill me when I get back”

“well then maybe you should stay at my house” he said smiling.

“I don’t understand you at all”

“me either” he laughed

10 minutes later we arrived at his house and buzzed himself in, punching the code number in the key pad. When we drove up the driveway Eliese was waiting there on the steps.

Nick stopped the car and we got out. Eleise walked over to us and gave Nick a kiss.

“I missed you Nicky” she said glancing at me out of the corner of her eye to see what my reaction would be to her showing off.

I just rolled my eyes and crossed my arms infront of my chest.

“come on, I don’t have time for this…I want to get playstation 2 before they’re sold out” I said

Nick laughed “let me go change first. You girls play nice while im gone”

“you better belive that I’m going to kill you for leaving me alone with queen bitch” I said. he just smiled and walked into the house.

“whats your problem anyways. You have such an additude” Eliese said as I sat on the hood of Nicks truck.

“only towards you” I said “because you’re a bitch”

“I think you’ve said that. I know how you feel about me. But why?”

“I don’t know Eliese. We used to be best friends. then you and Nick started going out and you always think that just cause him and I are friends that we’re having sex behind your back”

“yeah well you were. So why should I think that it wont happen again?”

“you know that if you cant trust your own boyfriend you shouldn’t be with him”

“I do trust him. I don’t trust you”

“im glad you feel that way, and just so you know. I don’t have any feelings what so ever for Nick, well besides having him as a friend”

“good”

“you know something Eliese…dispite all that’s gone on with us in the last year and a half or so, I still consider you to be one of my best friends. which is kind of sad, considering I cant stand being around you”

“well the feelings mutual hun”

“now, how was your night? I heard you and Nicky had another fight” I asked

“im sure my evening wasn’t anywhere as interesting as yours was. But yes we did have a small disagreement”

“really, what about?”

“I don’t really think that’s any of your buisness”

“actually, when you fight about me, it is my business”

“so what if we were fighting about you. He’s the one who always takes your side. He never even gives me a chance to explain WHY I hate you being here”

“sucks for you” I smiled “im sorry if my being friends with Nick is disrupting your relationship, but if it were up to you Nick wouldn’t leave the house. Hes a much bigger boy than you might think. He knows whats hes doing. And don’t think for one second hes going to let you controll his life”

she opened her mouth to respond but Nick walked out of the house and tossed me a shirt.

“you left this here, oh I don’t know when. Its yours though” he said taking his keys from his pocket and getting in the frontseat.

I saw the look on Eliese’s face and laughed, knowing what she was thinking. I got in the back and figured I’d let her have shotgun just to save Nick the headache of having to listen to us fight over the front.

We reached the mall and got out. Eliese hung on Nicks arm and I walked behind them, not wanting to intrude on their little moment. Nick noticed and stopped, looking over his shoulder at me.

“hey you, im not going to let you pretend your not with us. Come on” he smiled taking my hand and pulling me up next to him. his arm draped over my shoulder and he let his arm fall from Elieses’.

“Nick are you gonna get playstation with me?” I asked

“you bet” he said “Eliese do you want to come with me and Bree to the toy store?”

“the toy store? Arent you two a little old for that?” she asked

“no, your never too old for video games” I laughed “right Nick”

“right”

“well Nick, we have nintendo, super nintendo, nintendo 64, sega, atari (*atari rocks*) those little gameboy things, dreamcast and regular playstation. Do you really think its necessary that we have playstation 2 also?”

“yep” he said “you don’t realize the importance of these things”

“yeah Eliese your too concerned with buying makeup and clothes. Is there a reason you paint your face every morning? are you afraid people will run away if they see you without makeup” I asked

“ooooooh” Nick laughed which caused Eliese to elbow him in the side. “I mean ooooooh Brianna, you are just jealous that, um, Eliese looks better than you without makeup…” he said slowly

“hey Nick do you want to know something?” I asked

“sure what is it?”

“ummm…” I started “nevermind I’ll tell you later, I don’t want to ruin this trip to the mall”

“ok” he said removing his arm from my shoulder and taking Eliese’s hand. She gave me a subtle cheap looking smile that made me stick my tounge out at her in retalitation.

“nice” she said

I just ignored her and we walked into Toys R Us.

Nick ran for the playstation 2 display and grabbed a controller I grabbed the other one and we started to play whatever game it was they had in there.

“I cant belive you two. Your so immature”

“I want it that way” I said in a sing song voice.

“don’t” Nick yelled “don’t sing that”

“you are…my fire…”

he put his hand over my mouth.

“shhhh, if you be quiet I’ll buy this for you” he said quietly.

I nodded while sucking gently on the inside of his hand for no paticular reason. He gave me a small side smile and removed his hand from my mouth.

“you know something Nick, I have to work at 3 so we have to make this quick” I said

“ok” he said while we walked up to the checkout with our playstations.

“where do you work Brianna?” Eliese asked

“well, thanks to Nick, who put in a good word for me, im working at Jive in Orlando. And I also am working for the Florida coast guard on the weekends which is just volunteer work so I can get some experience.”

“Nick I didn’t know you got her a job” Eliese said with a noticable tone of annoyance in her voice.

“I didn’t. I just told them she was a good girl” he said with a laugh.

“that was nice of you” she said with an exaggerated smile.

He just rolled his eyes and shook his head.

“you know I would have done the same for anyone else” he said

“how come you didn’t do that for me?”

“you told me you don’t want to work”

“yeah remember Eliese? You were gonna use Nicks money and live in his house until he makes out his will and then you can kill him and take all of his stuff.” I said

Nick shot me the ‘shut up, im not joking’ look and I just held up my hands in defense.

“hey hey just tryin to lighten up the sittuation” I said “I thought that maybe we could take a trip to the mall without you guys ruining it with another one of your little squabbles. I guess I was wrong”

“we don’t need your jokes right now ok?” Nick asked

“Nick take your attitude and stick it” I said laughing and walking away to wait for them somewhere else.

“hey Bree what are you doing here?”

I looked over and saw Amanda and AJ standng there.

“oh hi” I smiled “I was supposed to be here shopping, with Nick and Eliese. But their having another fight so I decided to sit here and wait for one of them to storm off”

“fun” AJ laughed

“yeah of course. I wouldn’t want to spend my day any other way”

by this time Eliese and Nick were screaming at eachother, attracting attention from every other person in the store.

“alright Eliese…I’ve had it with you getting jealous”

“well you wanna know something Nick? I know you werent at Brians house last night. I saw HER number on the caller ID and then called Leighanne and she said you werent there”

“so I guess I lied. I knew I couldn’t tell you the truth because you’d flip out like you are now”

“oh Nick I wouldn’t be mad. how could I be mad. all you did was spend the night with another girl. Oh wait…not just any girl, one you’ve cheated on me before with”

“well im sorry about that Eliese. And im sorry that our relationship isnt going to work out”

she just looked at him, as if she didn’t hear what he said.

“you…your breaking up with me” she asked tears starting to well in her eyes.

“im sorry” he said leaning over and gently kissing her cheek. He walked over to where I was standing with AJ and Amanda.

“hey Nick” AJ said “um, im sorry to hear about you and Eliese” he said smirking.

“fuck off AJ” Nick said quietly. “Bree, are you coming?”

“yeah I guess so” I said “bye Amanda, call me later. Bye AJ”

“bye Bree. Bye Nick” Amanda said waving to us as we walked out.

We got in his car and he peeled out of the parking lot.

“Nick are you ok?” I asked softly.

“I don’t know” he said as a tear fell down his cheek. “I’ve been sorta confused about this whole thing for a while”

“if you wanna talk about it, im here to listen”

“well its just…I love Eliese. And I love you”

I was kinda shocked he said that. I know my feelings about him havent changed at all through out the two years I’ve known him but we’ve never really acted on them since that time we slept together.

“Yeah I know what your thinking” he sighed “im a little off.”

“well sorta. Nick you know I love you, but I just don’t know…”

“I understand. Things have been so weird lately. And I honestly cant belive I just broke up with Eliese.”

“why did you?”

“a couple of reasons”

“care to share?”

“well number one, she annoys the hell out of me. Number two, your one of the most important people in my life. Your like my best friend and I know that she cant handle that. And number three, you know how I told you the other day that I could sometimes picture us spending the rest of our lives together?”

“yeah”

“well I cant anymore”

“you just told me that yesterday”

“I know” he pulled over to the side of the road and turned in his seat to face me. “last night when I was with you, and you were talking about all the things you wanted to do with your life. You told me that you wanted to be a marine biologist and you wanted a little house on the beach, with a husband and three kids. You told me that you just wanted to be happy, no matter what happened.”

“yeah I know I said that”

“well after you fell asleep last night, I was thinking about that. And I was thinking about what Eliese and I talk about sometimes. She doesn’t want to have kids which is something I think we cant work out, cause I do…”

“Nick your only 21 (*remember this is a year or so later*) you don’t have to have kids right now”

“I know, let me finish…” he said “she cares more about material possessions than anything else. She always wants money and stuff but refuses to work. You on the other hand…”

“don’t compare me to her” I said “this is like when people compare you to Nsync”

he looked at me for a minute and then smiled. “your right im sorry. What im trying to say is that I’d be happier with a girl who is independent and can do things for herself. I love Eliese, but I don’t think we’d last. We’re too different”

“good for you Nick. Back to my little Nsync vs. Backstreet metaphor, your saying that you would much rather have a CD that’s worth your money than one that they should pay YOU to listen to”

“right” he laughed “but um, our CD is the one you would pay money for I hope?”

“yeah” I smiled

“good” he said sighing. “im so screwed up”

“honestly Nick, I’ve never seen someone make such a big deal out of something like this before”

“what do you mean?”

“your sitting here telling me all about these things that you don’t like about Eliese, and how you don’t think you wanna be with her anymore, so whats your big fuss about?”

“my big fuss is about you!” he said

“I cant make up your mind for you Nick”

“my mind is made up”

“that’s it. Im getting out of this car if you don’t stop confusing me”

“my fuss is about you cause I love you and I want to know if you love me back. I know you said you love me, but do you love me more than a friend?”

“Nick…” I said stumbling over my words.

“its ok Brianna, I didn’t expect you to” he said

“I do love you Nick” I said after a minute.

“you don’t seem sure”

“im positive. This whole thing just cought me off guard. I’ve always loved you but kept it to myself because you were with Eliese.”

“im not anymore”

“yeah I think I realized that”

“ok, do you wanna come back to my house so we can talk some more?”

“sure”

*A month Later*

“congratulations you guys” Nick smiled giving Amanda and AJ hugs.

“thanks Nick” AJ said while holding Amanda’s hand in his.

“yeah and thanks again for not bringing Eliese. Shes not exactly my favorite person”

“mine either” he said shrugging then turning to Brianna who was standing to the right of Amanda. “hey you look beautiful” he smiled

“thanks Nicky” I said kissing his cheek. “now, listen up for a second. If we ever get married, I want a wedding just like this except…better”

“hey I heard that” Amanda said smacking me on the arm.

“im only joking Amanda, your wedding rocks. I just want mine to be…different”

“ok then shut up”

“alright” I said smiling, Nick put his arm around my waist and led me out to the balcony. “well I would have to say Nick, you don’t look half bad youself. That tux makes you look awfully sexy” (*sigh* Nick is a sexy sexy boy…right Amanda? You said youself he was sexier than AJ*)

he laughed “I love you”

“I love you too” I said wrapping my arms around his neck and kissing him.

“so what do you think…” he sat down and I sat on his lap. “you wanna move in with me?”

“I donno Nick, I have school and if im with you every night I don’t know how much studdying or sleeping I’ll get done.”

“Brianna I promise that I wont cause trouble” he said with sad eyes.

“awww Nick” I sighed “but…but”

“come on. Brians married, Kevins married, AJs married now, no one is going to wanna hang out with me anymore. I’ll be all sad alone”

“what about Howie?”

“hes no fun”

“am I fun”

he smiled and nodded.

“alright Nick, I’ll move in with you. but on one condition”

“whats that?” he asked

“I don’t want to get married until im atleast 23 and a half so don’t even THINK about it”

“hey that’s not fair…that’s…” he counted on his fingers “like 5 years away. I’ve been thinking about it all day cause of the wedding”

“well, maybe if things are going well in a couple years I’ll consider it. I don’t want to get married when im 18 like Amanda”

“fine be that way”

“I like it better this way Nick. then our story will be the same ol’ story”

“I guess your right. Same old plot, same old ending”

THE END

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(*that’s the end of the story, sorry it was such a bad ending, but like *I* said above, it was getting to be the same old story with the same old plot and ending. It was boring to write so I HAD to end it.*)