The younger Nick was one of the first to wake up, but was unsure of what to do. He laid in bed for a few minutes, listening to Brian breathe. Trying to wake him, Nick moved restlessly on the bed, hoping he would feel it and wake. He, however, had no such luck.
After lying around for a several more minutes, he got up to go to the bathroom. On his way back, he ran into the older Brian, who wasn't paying attention.
Brian shouted out, surprised, then said: “Oh, its you. ‘Scuse me,” and walked on.
“Hey! What's going on with you and Older Nick? And just because you two are having problems, doesn't mean you need to take it out on me,” Younger Nick said, stopping him.
“Its nothing. Just take this advice and try to remember it. Don't turn into such a dick when you get older,” He replied angrily then continued walking to the bathroom.
Nick shook his head, rolled his eyes, and continued his trek back to his room where he found Brian awake.
“Where'd you go?”
“I went to the bathroom. Then I ran into older you. Man, he's a prick! I asked what was going on between him and older me, and he said nothing and told me not to become such a dick when I got older. I wish I knew what was going on, it doesn't seem right..” He trailed off, looking at Brian.
“Well, you do have this tendencies. Maybe they're going to show their face.” He grinned at Nick and stood up.
The minute he did so, Older AJ popped his head into the room. “You kids still asleep?” He saw them both standing there, looking at him. “Good. Come with me,” He said and popped back out of the room.
"Where are we going?" Brian asked, catching up with him.
"Break-ie-slow." AJ snickered.
"Break-ie-what?"
Nick giggled, "Breakfast!"
"How the heck did you figure that out!"
"Break-ie, for the break part, and slow in replacement for fast! Break-ie-slow! Or, Break-ie-fast!"
"Nick, sometimes your mind amazes me!"
"Why thank you!"
They reached Nick's kitchen. At the stove, the older blonde was making eggs. Kevin sat at the breakfast nook flipping through a newspaper and sipping coffee, they were talking.
"Honestly," Nick said, "they should rebuild it, and only keep the first eighty floors as office space and the rest as memorials. You get your memorial and the skyline is back."
"Nick, I totally agree, but it won't happen, no one wants that because it reminds them to much."
"Won't the other ideas remind them too? I mean seriously, at least get the skyline back. The problem is, we need to remember, you go to New York and it's all they talk about because it happened there, here it's like it never happened!"
"Nick, you're right, but there's nothing we can do about it."
"You hear about that French guy who said it never happened?"
"Yeah he's an idiot."
"Who's an idiot?" Young Nick asked, dropping next to Kevin at the table, "Rebuild what?"
Kevin shot his Nick a look, "Nothing happened, we're babbling about a movie."
Brian looked skeptical, "You guys sounded like something bad happened in New York."
"Nothing happened!" AJ jumped in, "It's a movie, Drop it!"
Brian almost said more but his older self pushed past him and dropped into the chair. "Morning sunshine." Kevin smirked.
"Shut up Kevin, I really don't feel like dealing with you right now."
"Someone work up on the wrong side of the bed."
"Kevin.."
"Brian.."
"Jerk."
"Thank you." Brian grunted and turned to look out the window. A plate, fork, knife, and napkin was placed in front of him and the others. AJ helped Nick by pouring the orange juice for everyone and handing out toast. Nick had made a huge plate of scrambled eggs with cheese and ham pieces mixed in. With a serving spoon he gave each a scoop then sat down to butter his toast.
"Any plans for today?" He asked without looking up.
"I was thinking we could take them to Disney." Kevin replied.
"Nah! Shopping!" AJ said excitedly.
"Oh boy!" Nick joked, "Here goes AJ with his shopping again!"
"Well, you got any bright ideas snookems?"
"Faggot."
"So sweet."
"You *are* gay."
"You weren't complaining last night!"
The two didn't even have a chance to laugh at their joke. Brian slammed his hand on the table.
"Shut up! Just shut up with the gay jokes! I know Nick, I know you say them because you know I'm against that!" Nick scrunched his eyebrows.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about! You do things to annoy me!"
"No, I don't!"
"Yes, you do! You're just pissed because I spend more time-"
"You know something Brian, fuck you!" Nick stood and threw down his napkin, "I'm sick and tired of this! It's always you isn't it? That's all you think about! I can't even joke around with AJ! I know the truth, we *all* know the truth! You are a selfish asshole who can't handle the fact that he lost his best friend! That something didn't go right in his *perfect* existence! You know something, I am pissed that you spend more time with Leigh! That's what started this! But you- you're just a vain bitch! And you're jealous because my best friend isn't you, it's AJ. And that I'm closer to your cousin! *You're* the one who blew me off constantly, *you're* the one who lied and told my secrets, *not* me! So fuck you Brian!" He stormed from the kitchen and out the back door.
"Please!" Brian yelled back, "Me jealous? Of AJ? Of that drunk bastard? No way!" The minute the words left his mouth he regretted them. AJ's face was shocked and hurt and Kevin looked beyond angry.
He was about to apologize when his cousin's fist connected with his jaw.
Brian fell to the floor hard and looked up at his cousin. He rubbed his jaw, shocked. “I deserved that, but did you have to do it so hard?” He slowly stood up.
Kevin narrowed his eyes and said, “Yeah. I was hoping maybe it would knock some sense to your brain, you asshole”.
Brian shook his head. Still rubbing his jaw he turned to AJ. “I'm sorry, man. I didn't mean that, I don't know where it came from.”
“Fuck you, Brian.” AJ turned around still looking stunned and stalked out the back door.
Younger Howie, who had entered during the fight, went into the kitchen and quickly returned holding ice, which he handed to Brian who in turn put it to his jaw. “Your jaw doesn't need to swell up and then have stories start about what happened.”
Brian then realized that the younger group was standing there, watching the exchange. “Aw shit. That should not have happened, especially with you guys around.”
“Well, it did. Now would someone mind telling us what just went on?” Young AJ demanded, looking around.
Kevin eyed the guys. “We really shouldn't.. Its one of those things we shouldn't say, even if it does keep it from happening. We can't erase that.”
“We can't erase what?” Older AJ asked as he came back into the room, followed by Nick who sneered viciously at Brian.
“Er, everything that happened last summer..” Kevin raised his eyebrows at him, then nodded towards the younger group.
The younger group just looked around, even more confused.
“Forget it. It was nothing, just forget it. So what are we doing today?” Older Kevin asked, changing the subject quickly.
“Take them to Disney!" Nick's mood abruptly changed, "We haven't gone there in a while together anyway, Remember when we used to go all the time?”
“Oh yeah! That sounds like a good idea,” AJ said. Everyone else nodded.
“Okay, lets meet back here in about an hour, so everyone can get ready. Sound good?” They all nodded again then went their separate ways.
In less then an hour, they met back at the house. Each was showered and dressed comfortably.
"Guys ready?" The older Howie said. Everyone nodded. "Then let's get a move on!" In two cars they piled, and headed to the Magic Kingdom.
They day was filled with cotton candy, scary rides, and laughter. Though things were still stiff with Brian, Nick managed to push the events of that morning and the summer before from his mind.
When they arrived home after ten, each were tired and run down. Brian, who was irritated at the fact that he was ignored by everyone, was the most cranky. In his mind, this was all Nick's fault. He continuously threw venomous looks towards the blonde and even at the fourteen year old. The younger Nick, who in one day was attached to the older Kevin's hip, wilted under Brian's gaze and crawled closer to the thirty-one year old.
Unaware of why the young child was so shy all of a sudden, Kevin put his arm around him and smiled down at him. Nick smiled back and suddenly felt a lot better about the whole situation. He leaned against Kevin and closed his eyes.
A flash of green struck the older Nick's eyes for a second. He held back the urge to yell at his younger self. 'Stop! That's my Kevin!' But he held his tongue. Instead he got up to go the bathroom. On the way back however, he knocked into his Brian.
Brian sneered, "Move it fatso!" He shoved him aside and entered the bathroom. Nick suddenly felt insecure and wrapped his arms around himself. He continued walking down the hallway only to see the younger Brian standing there, looking shocked.
"What's....what's going on between you two?"
"Nothing...nothing at all." Nick was quiet as he walked back into the living room. The younger Brian felt tears prick his eyes but he wiped them away quickly.
"What's going to happen to me?" He whispered, fighting back the urge to cry, "What's going to happen to Nick?"
-
The next day they were back at Nick's house and the younger group was firing questions at the older group about what was going to happen. Younger Brian stayed quiet until he saw his older self throwing dirty looks toward both Nick's.
“What is wrong with you?” He shouted, staring directly at older Brian. “What happened to our friendship?” He said quietly, then looking at older Nick.
“Its nothing. Just a spat,” Brian replied quickly.
“Bullshit. This isn't a spat. You screwed me over, you self-centered jerk,” Older Nick shot at Brian.
“I screwed you over? I think you've got that wrong. You're the one that started to hang out with AJ over there instead of me.”
“Don't pull me into your crap. I have nothing to do with it,” AJ added in quickly then shut up.
“AJ's right and you’re the one the spent all your time with Leighanne and ignored me. Once you got married, everything stopped between us. Just because you’re married doesn’t mean you stop hanging out with your best friend. You’re the one who always said friends always come first, but you completely contradicted yourself once she came along.”
“She's my wife, and she's there for me!”
“What, and I wasn’t? During all those years, I was never there for you. You just get dumber and denser everyday, don’t you?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever reach your level of intelligence, even if I do get dumber and denser everyday,” He shot back.
The younger two sat and stared at their older selves, not sure what was going on or what to do.
“Yeah, well at least I can keep my promises to my friends and not forget them when I meet a girl,” Nick replied.
Brian narrowed his eyes then said, “You know what? I don’t need this shit. I’m out of here. If you ever decide to grow up into a real man, you can find me at home, with my wife.” He stalked out of the house, slamming the door behind him.
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER THREE
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