After I had hung up the phone from the cab company, I had turned around to find myself starring into Nick's frightened sky blue eyes. Carl stood dangerously close to Nick from behind. My heart began to hammer when I realized that Carl had a gun positioned in the middle of Nick's back. Christina sat in Carl's black volvo, watching the scene unfold.
"Head behind the building," Carl said coldly.
I swallowed and met Nick's eyes. He nodded ever so slightly, assuring me that following Carl's directions was the best thing that I could do at this point. When we were behind the supermarket, Carl removed the gun barrel from Nick's back. I nearly fainted with relief. I looked over at Nick and realized that I was becoming dizzy again bacause his form started became fuzzy. I squinted as I tried to focus, but my eyes wouldn't let his image become clear. My head started to spin, and I could hear Carl's voice, but it was muffled. He was saying something along the lines of not worrying about any pain.
It was a clear sunny day, I realized as I looked up at the blue sky filled in with cotten candy textured clouds.
"Ange!" Nick's voice cracked.
"Cuff 'em!" I heard an unfamiliar voice bellow.
I was jerked to reality when the unpleasant scent of ammonia filled my nostrils. I sat up and rubbed my eyes, looking around. I couldn't believe the scene that I was seeing. There was a police cruiser and two cops, one who was cuffing Carl and reading him his rights. The other was crouched down over me, looking at me with concern.
He assisted me to a standing position "atta girl," he encouraged. Then my eyes focused on a familiar forest green Jeep Wrangler.
I let a little cry of relief escape my throat as Brian embraced me and held me tightly. I responded and burried my face in his shoulder, letting out a slight whimper.
"You have no idea what you put me through, Ange..." Brian said choking up slightly.
He stopped hugging me long enough to cup my face in his hands and stare into my eyes. His blue eyes were full of such sincerity and emotion, that I couldn't help but feel extremly close to him for those two seconds we looked at eachother. It only seemed natural for him to kiss me, and he did....right there in front of the cops, Carl....and Nick. I was too occupied in the heat of the moment to notice Nick shuffle over to Brian's Jeep and climb into the backseat.
Nick watched Brian and Angela as they kissed in front of everyone. He crossed his arms, trying to convince himself he was angry, when really he was hurt. Brian was always a lady's man, and it bothered Nick. Nick had decided to accept it when Angela began to show interest in Bri, but he figured it would pass. He closed his eyes and imagined the previous night, how she fell asleep in his arms...He had wanted to protect her, and he wanted to show her that even though Brian didn't show interest in her, he could...He loved it when Angela teased him....he loved the way her eyebrows furrowed and she crossed her arms in front of her chest...the universal sign of anger. Angela was the only one who could get away with calling him retarded and have him enjoy it. In fact, she could drop kick him and pin him to the ground and he would still come back, eating out of her hands. He chuckled a little in spite of himself, picturing Angela pinning him from behind. He looked back over at Ange and Bri. They had finally stopped smooching long enough to thank the cops.
Dazed and confused, I entered the apartment and shuffled over to my bed. It was almost like I had never left, but at the same time I couldn't believe that I had been in this apartment less than twenty four hours ago.
Brian put a comforting hand on my shoulder, "I think what you need is a nap, girl."
I massaged my temples and nodded in agreement.
Nick looked at me with concern "Ange, you ok?"
I smiled up at him gratefuly and gave him a nice buddy pat on the back. "Don't worry Nicky, I'm fine. I just need to take a nap."
"I think I'll join you," he sighed.
I laughed, "in your own bed I presume?"
He nodded, a stoic expression on his face. As I watched him shuffle into the room he and Bri shared I couldn't help but wonder why he seemed so sad. I was too tired and confused to ask.
The next few days were very uneventful. We all went about our daily routines, Brian at the A&P, Nick at the comic book store, and I at McDonald's. One evening after a particularly rough shift, I stumbled into the apartment, smelling like grease and vanilla frozen yogurt. I smelled like grease for obvious reasons, but I smelled like vanilla frozen yogurt because the machine had broken, coating the front of my blue McDonald's t-shirt.
I could hear the Nintendo64 coming from the living room. I hadn't been sitting at the kitchen table more than five minutes when Nick bounded in the door, a ball of energy. The familiar naseating odor of McDonald's food engulfed me. Wearily I looked over at Nick, only to have my fears confirmed. He held two brown bags of McDonald'd take-out. I clutched my stomach and looked away.
"I got dinner!" he said proudly.
"I'm not too hungery..." I said.
Nick shrugged "Rok, I got us some chow!"
A moment later, Brian appeared with a sour expression on his face. "McDonald's again? Didn't we have that last night?"
"No, man...that was two nights ago. We had Chinese last night."
"Oh," Brian said dismisively.
"Fine!" Nick huffed "all the more for me! I got both of your favorites though."
"Nick, do you ever think before you act?!" I retorted.
He held a look of confusion, "what are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about this!" I stood up and gestured to my shirt.
"Ah man...Ange..." he laughed sheepishly "sorry!"
"No you're not." I said haughtily. "It's your fault I have to work at that shithole!"
There was a stunned silence in the room as my choice of words lingered in the air.
Brian laughed nervously "why don't you change Ange? I'll take you to that Mexican restaurant down the street." I nodded in agreement and disapeared.
Nick's jaw dropped. "I love Mexican food! If I had of known--"
"Doesn't matter Frack--" he patted his back. "I kind of want to be alone with Angela anyway."
Nick threw the food onto the table, causing french fries to scatter all over the place. "Oh...you want to be alone with her huh? Wow...ummmm...you see Bri that's, uh real interesting."
"Man, what's your problem?!"
"My problem? Well...I suppose you might as well know. My problem is you ok? You told me from day one that you weren't interested in Angela. Now that I'm intersted, you want her!"
"That's ridiculous...we just need to get to know one another."
"You think I don't know about your ulterior motives? Well I do. This is fine though. Perfect even. Have her. Take her...she likes you more anyways..." Nick appeared as if he was going to say something else, but then he changed his mind. "This is gay. I'm leaving."
Brian shook slightly as the door to the apartment was slammed shut.