Lori walked away from Nick with silent tears flowing down her cheeks. She got into her car, and drove home. She didn’t know why she had said all those things to Nick. She didn’t mean them all. She couldn’t help it. When she gets upset, she lets everything come out. She doesn’t regret not saying anything, except the opposite usually happens. She says stuff she doesn’t want to say.
Lori drove around aimlessly, until she ended up at the park. She started walking around, thinking of all the good times she had shared with Nick. They had been going out since she was 17, which would make it 2 years now. She thought of all the bad times she had shared with him. All the times when she just wanted to hold him, and of when he wasn’t there, when he was on tour. She thought of everything. She was so deep in thought, she ran right into someone. It just happened to be Brian, one of Nick’s best friends, one of her best friends. She looked into Brian’s eyes, and burst out sobbing.
“Lori!! What is wrong? Did you have a fight with Nick? It’ll be okay, sweetie, he’ll get over it, and everything will be just fine.” Brian tried his best at comforting her, which didn’t work, since she was so upset.
“Oh Brian. I was going to Nick’s house to go, to surprise him, and I saw some girl standing outside. He was kissing her. Not like a peck on the lips kind of thing. Like ‘I want you bad’ kind of kiss. Of course he didn’t see me. I hid as soon as I saw an unfamiliar car in the driveway. But after she left, I ran up to him, and started yelling at him. It was awful. I said the most awful things.” She told him the whole story, how she sang to him, how she told him she couldn’t sing the last words. She told him everything. He sat there and listened. Brian was good that way, he was probably the best listener there was.
“Lori, I have to tell you something. I know why Nick was kissing that girl. She wasn’t even a person he knew. A fan. He was so scared. He loved you so much, more than life itself, and it scared him. He had to see if his love for you was true, real, complete. I don’t know how this kiss changed him, if it did, but from what you tell me, it sounds like it didn’t do a thing for him. Nick isn’t scared of very many real things, Lori. Sure, he tells magazines he’s afraid of gremlins eating his toes in the night, but that isn’t real stuff. He is really scared of showing himself completely to someone, letting them know every little aspect of his life, letting himself them with his heart and soul, and not having them love him back. You probably scared the shit out of him. I think you need to talk to him.” Brian said this with a calm and controlled voice, but on the inside it was killing him. He hated lying to Lori. Yeah, Nick was scared of all those things about love happening. But Brian had no idea why he was kissing that girl. When he said that, the only thing he thought of was saving his best friend’s relationship. He just hoped he wouldn’t pay for all the lying.
“NO! Brian! No! It can’t be. I ruined everything. I can’t talk to him. I can’t. Maybe someday, but not now. I don’t see it happening anytime in the near future. Brian, are you sure that is why he kissed that girl? If he was feeling so insecure, why didn’t he talk to me first? Why couldn’t we talk? Why? We were always so open about everything before. Everything. Whenever we had problems, we talked. I thought he knew the only way a relationship works is if you are honest. See, Brian, it wasn’t working anyway. He couldn’t talk to me. What do I do now?” Lori whispered the last few words, with silent tears. She hated crying, and only did when something hurt her terribly.
Brian knew that he was in trouble now. He didn’t know they told each other everything. Well, he did, he just didn’t register it in his mind when he started talking. He was in deep shit now. “Hey, let’s take you home. I want to talk to Mel anyway. Then you can talk to her, and see what she says about all this. Okay, sweetie?”
Lori shared a house with her friend Melissa. They had known each other forever, and were really close. Mel was going out with Brian. They had been going out for about a year now, after Nick and Lori set them up.
Brian took Lori home, and while Lori prepared for bed, Brian spoke to Mel. She didn’t know what to tell him, other then she would talk to her. Lori came down then, and they decided they wanted to watch a sad and romantic movie. They decided to watch “Romeo and Juliet”. After it was finished, with both the girls crying, Brian decided to leave. Brian kissed Mel goodbye, then gave Lori a big hug.
The girls stayed up talking about everything that night. The talked about Nick, Brian, what Brian had told Lori. They talked about what Lori was feeling. They talked about everything. Lori was so glad that she had Mel there for her. She was like a sister to her, the one she never had.