“NO WAY!!” I shouted a little too loud. “Oooh, I’m sorry. Just a little excited,” I apologized.
“It’s understandable. Congratulations, we leave in about 3 weeks with the Backstreet Boys and 702.”
“Thank you so much!”
“Welcome. We all look forward to meeting you.”
“Same! Goodbye!”
“Bye.” I put the phone down and turned around. Nick was only standing about 6 inches away from me.
“What was that all about?”
“Oh, um....my dad, he uh, bought a new car. A really cool one,” I lied.
“Oh, cool! I love getting new cars.”
“Me too. Lets go finish the movie.”
“Ok,” we went back to the couch and finished the movie.
“So when do I get to meet your family?” I asked turning the TV off.
“How about tomorrow.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Alright, we’ll go tomorrow,” I restated.
“Ok. I’ll call them sometime and let ‘em know.”
“Do you think they’ll like me?”
“Of course. Especially Aaron. He’ll love having another person to bug about playing Nintendo with us.”
“I love Nintendo. My brother and I spent hours arguing over who would be first player or who would get to beat up Koopa Troopa in Mario. We broke about 3 Nintendo sets.” Nick listened as I reminisced. “My parents were constantly buying new ones.” Nick laughed at my remark. “Well we played it too much!” I defended.
“I see. Well, then at least you know Aaron will love ya!”
“Good. Cuz I love Aaron.” I laughed when I saw the You-Love-Him-More-Than-Me? look on his face.
~*~*~AT THE SAME TIME~*~*~
Mary, Brian, AJ, Howie, and Kevin were hanging out at the guys’ condo. “What should we do?” Mary asked everyone.
“Lets play strip poker!” AJ blurted out. Knowing his girlfriend was the only girl, Brian shot AJ an evil look.
“Yeah right!! Four horny guys with one girl who is younger than everyone else! I don’t think so AJ,” Mary replied.
“Well then what?” Howie asked. They sat in a bored silence for about 20 minutes until Nick and I walked in the front door. We saw them scattered about the room.
“Whatcha doin’?” I asked.
“Being bored,” Kevin answered.
“Lets play a game,” Brian suggested.
“Like what?”
“Truth or Dare!” I answered.
“No!! I hate that game. Someone always gets mad at someone else when we play that game,” Mary said.
“Oh come on Mary, plllleeeeeeeaaaaasssseee!!” I begged.
“No!”
“Maaaary...” I whined.
“NO!!”
“Please....” I whined some more.
“I said no.”
“Baby.”
“Fine! Just shut up.”
“Yes!” I shouted.
When we were about to start, someone called and AJ answered. “Oh, hey Donna!”
“Who’s that?” I asked Nick.
“Donna Wright...manager.”
“Ohhh yeah.”
We listened to AJ’s end of the conversation. “What? Why?” *pause* “Is she ok?” *pause* “Do you we have to?” *pause* “Ok, fine. Yeah I’ll see ya. Bye.” AJ hung up as everyone stared at him.
“What’s wrong?” Howie asked.
“Well, uh one of the girls from 702 broke her leg in 4 different places. They aren’t touring with is anymore,” he informed them.
“Well who is?” Kevin asked.
AJ looked at Nick but didn’t say anything. Nick could tell something was up. “What is it AJ?”
“Well....uhhh...they chose...Inno...”
“What?” Mary asked.
“Innosense,” he repeated and Nick’s face fell.
“What?!” Mary and I asked confused with the whole situation.
“One of the girls in the group is Nick’s ex.”
“I thought I’d never have to see Nikki again.....ever.” Right then I wanted to die. I had to tour with Nick and his ex-girlfriend. Wasn’t this great? I thought.
“Oh...” I trailed off not knowing what to say.
“Lindsey, nothing will happen. NOTHING!” he promised.
Remembering Nick didn’t know about me going, I simply replied, “I trust you, Nick.” He smiled when I said this. Eager to change the subject, I asked, “Ready to play?” Everyone agreed so I started, “Mary, truth or dare?”
“Truth.”
“Ok, um.....Oh I got it! Did you really hate Brian as much as it seemed when you were in the hospital? Or was that all an act?” Mary didn’t say anything. “Mary!”
“Ok, ok. NO, I didn’t hate him. I liked him a little but I put on the act as an exscuse not to get too close to him.”
“I knew it!”
“Ok, my turn. AJ, truth or dare?” Being the daring guy he is, of course he chose dare. “Ok, I dare you to french Lindsey for 2 minutes.”
There was a long silence while everyone looked at eachother when suddenly I belted out, “No way!! I have a boyfriend. No offense to AJ, but I will NOT kiss him!”
“It’s just a stupid dare,” she reminded me, “Besides, you have to.”
I whined a little and looked over at Nick. He didn’t look too happy but he nodded agreeing with Mary.
AJ and I silently got up. He whispered, “Sorry we have to do this.”
“Me too. Lets just do it and get it over with.” I wasn’t comfortable kissing such a good friend. Especially when my boyfriend was sitting there watching. We leaned in until our lips touched. He caught me off guard when he slipped his tongue in my mouth. I had completly forgot that she said “French” which made it even worse. I wanted to cry. I felt so terrible making out with one of Nick’s best friends, even though he knew it wasn’t cheating, it was just a kid’s game. My thoughts were interrupted by Brian.
“Times up.”
We pulled away and smiled at eachother akwardly. I walked over to Nick and sat on his lap. To make up for what I had just done, I slowly kissed Nick. I put my head on his shoulder as a single tear ran down my cheek.
“Howie, truth or dare.”
“Truth.”
“Member when we were in Spain and that hot waitress was hitting on you? Did you sleep with her?”
We all watched Howie carefully and he blushed. “Yeah,” he admitted.
“I knew it! That’s 10 bucks, Brian!” AJ shouted.
“Aww shit,” Brian whined as he handed AJ a 10 dollar bill.
“You had a bet on that?” I said half disgusted and half amused. When they nodded I started cracking up.
“You guys are so immature. I’m gettin outta here before you make me admit somethin I’ll regret telling you,” Kevin said walking into the kitchen.
“Me too,” Howie followed him.
“Ok, my turn then,” Nick said. “Lindsey, truth or dare?”
“Well I don’t wanna end up frenching your very best friend so I’ll pick Truth,” I joked.
“Ok. Are you gonna miss me when I leave?”
I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t lie and say no, because I wouldn’t miss him. If I was going to be with him, how can I miss him? And I didn’t wanna tell him the secret, it was supposed to be a surprise, but what else could I do? “Well, ummm....I...uh...” I stuttered to find the right words.
“Lindsey? Yes or no?” Nick asked worried.
“Well” *pause* “No.”
“What?!?” he asked shocked. ‘How could she not miss me? I thought she loved me,’ he thought. He couldn’t think straight; he needed air and time to think.
“Nick, no, it’s not like that!” but it was too late, he was already gone.
“LINDSEY! How could you say no?” Mary shouted.
“Well, I umm... I got picked for Aaron’s band.”
“Oh my gosh! That’s great!” they all said.
“You have to go explain it to Nick,” AJ said.
“Well I think he’s too mad at me to listen. But I’ll try.” I got up and walked out back to the beach. I saw Nick sitting close to the water sitting on the sand bundled up into a ball. His head was burried deep in his knees.
“Nick?” I said softly. He looked up and I saw tears falling down his face. “Oh god,” I said barely above a whisper. I walked over next to him and said, “Please. Just let me explain.”