"This is..." Brian said, holding up the book triumphantly. "Sarah's journal,".
Sarah buried her head in her hands. "Please Brian, please! Noooo!".
"Nick has the right to know what you're up to," Lucinda said. "Now go on, Brian,".
"Sarah, are you going to tell Nick your tale, or am I?".
Sarah stayed silent.
Brian flicked through the journal. "April sixth, yesterday was my birthday and I met this, like totally gorgeous guy called Andy..." Brian read.
"Stop it!" Sarah yelled, jumping up to grab the journal.
Nick pulled her away. "I want to hear this," he said to her sternly.
"...Andy is amazing, I'm totally in love. I don't care about Nick anymore, well I didn't in the first place...".
"Get to the important part," Lucinda urged Brian.
"Important part?" repeated Nick. He turned to Sarah, who couldn't look at him. "You're cheating on me and that's not the important part?".
Sarah remained silent yet again.
"April eleventh, last night Andy came up with an excellent idea! He and his friends kill off Nick after us getting married so I get all his money. Isn't he clever, why didn't I think of that earlier!".
Nick gasped. "Seriously! You're planning to murder me?!".
"No, no..." Sarah said weakly.
Brian held the page out to Nick. "She wrote it here, in her handwriting, look,".
Nick looked at the page and his heart sank. It was definitely her writing. "No," he said in denial. He looked Sarah in the eye. "You're cheating on me and planning to murder me?" he asked sincerely.
She looked to the ground, not saying anything, shocked at being found out.
Nick collapsed onto the couch and pounded his fist on the arm of the chair. "Why Sarah, why?!" he asked, tears running from his eyes.
"I... well..." she stumbled on her words.
"No, that's it," Nick said sternly. "I gave you a second chance when I took you back before. I'm not giving you another,".
"What are you gonna do? Call the cops?" she asked weakly, shaking with nerves.
"Not necessarily," Brian interrupted. "You have a choice. You either leave Nick now and get out of his life, stay away from him, cancel your murder plans. Or this journal goes to the police and the press, then you'd be waving goodbye to your career and your freedom!".
Sarah gasped. "Don't show it to the press! My reputation would be ruined forever! And Andy would be sent to jail! OK, OK I'll leave Nick,". Crying herself, she stood up.
"Leave now and never come back," Nick instructed coldly.
With her head down, she walked slowly to the door. Just as she opened it, she turned around and looked at Nick. "I'm sorry," she said quietly. "Goodbye,".
"Goodbye," Nick said softly, blinking away tears.
Sarah threw her engagement ring and house keys onto the mat and started to run.
When she was out of sight, Nick started sobbing again.
His mother put an arm around him. "You cry, honey. It'll be OK now, she's gone,".
"I'll get her belongings together to send to her house," Brian offered.
"Thanks," Nick whispered.
Lucinda got him a Kleenex. "I'm sorry Nick," was all she could say.
"You've got nothing to be sorry about," Nick told her. "But I have. I've been such a jerk, can you all forgive me?".
His father smiled at him. "Of course, son. Sure we forgive you,".
"I'm sure the other guys will forgive you too," Brian added. "You can rejoin the band if you want, you're welcome to,".
"I need time to think things through," Nick said, wiping his eyes. "All this happened so quickly!".
Three weeks later, Nick sat drawing in his backyard. He felt sad over the departure of Sarah but was glad that his family and friends had been so supportive and forgiving. His family, Lucinda, Stuart, Leighanne and Brian had all come over to visit him regularly and the other guys had all called him and made up, but he was still uncertain what to do in the future. And he didn't know if the fans would accept him if he rejoined the group so soon.
"Nick, are you in?".
"Here I am," Nick called out from his spot behind a palm tree. He smiled, seeing Lucinda walk towards him. "Wuzup?".
She returned the smile and sat beside him on the grass. "Nothing, just called over to see how you were, keep you company. What you drawing?".
Nick showed her his sketch, it was a drawing of his back yard, only he had altered everything to make it look futuristic. "I'm looking to the future," he said with a smirk, meaning it in two ways.
"Wow, you're so good at art! I betcha my college would take you on,".
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"My college. After the summer I'm going to a college in England. It's a special college for the arts, you know, theatre, music, art, creative writing, that kind of stuff. I managed to get a place because I'm good at writing. I'm taking art classes there too. If you really excel at something they'll take you on without any other qualifications,".
"Hmmm," Nick said thoughtfully. "You think I'd seriously get in, Lu?". College sounded cool to Nick, as he'd missed out on a lot of education in his earlier years and the idea of studying art sounded appealing. "Where's the college then?".
"In England," Lucinda answered. "It's in the countryside in a quiet area not too far away from London. It's a small place, only a few hundred students. Stu's going there too, to do theatre. We looked at colleges like that all over the the states and Europe, but that one seemed the nicest,".
"That's something to think about," said Nick, ideas quickly starting to form in his mind.
Ring, ring!
Nick picked up his cell phone, it was now a week later. "Hello?" he answered cheerfully.
"You sound happy Frack!" Brian laughed. "What's up?".
"Oh you're right, I'm happy," he said, walking across the room to pour himself a coffee.
"That's great! So come to a decision about the band? Are you gonna rejoin us?".
"No...".
"Oh," Brian said sadly.
"Let me finish!" Nick interrupted. "No, not right now. But I will rejoin you at a later date, like after college,".
"College?" Brian exclaimed.
"Yeah," Nick smiled. "Lu and Stuart are going to this art college in Europe and I'm going with them. It's about time I got some kind of education! I called the place this morning and they said that as long as I pass a test I can go,".
"Wow, that's excellent!" Brian said, happy for his friend. "I'm so pleased for you,".
"It gets me further away from Sarah and I can make a new start. But I do want to rejoin the band, during my summer break and after I leave college,".
"That's fine, you can do that," Brian said, knowing the other guys would be delighted.
"And I'll write some songs while I'm there, for the next album,".
"Cool! You still coming to my wedding?".
"If you want me to,".
"Of course I do! I was hoping you'd be my best man,".
Nick gasped. "I'd love to! Thanks Rok,".
"Lu and Stuart are invited too. We've set a date in early September, Is that OK?".
"Yeah, the college year begins at the end of that month,".
Nick hung up after saying goodbye and sighed happily. At last he was feeling happy with his life. Sarah had gone, he had made up with everybody and he was about to make a new start in another country.
The doorbell rung so Nick answered it. Lucinda and Stuart stood at the door. "Did you call the college?" Stuart asked.
Nick nodded. "Yep! As long as I pass the test I can get in OK,".
Lucinda smiled. "I'm so glad you're coming, you'll love it. The college is small and in a quiet area so there won't be hundreds of fans bugging you all the time don't worry. We brought over some pictures of the place,".
Nick let them inside and they sat in the living room reading the college book and looking at photos of the place. "It looks really cool, I'm looking forwards to going," Nick said. "So are you guys going over to Europe yet?".
"Not until the week college starts," Stuart said. "We're going back home to Phoenix for most of the summer where I can get back to my girlfriend,".
"Oh," Nick said, sad he wouldn't see them all summer.
"I might stay here in Cali though," Lucinda said, smiling at Nick.
He smiled back. "Oh, you're both invited to Brian's wedding," Nick told them. "Talking of weddings, if you guys hadn't found Sarah out, I'd be married to her by now and probably dead too,".
"Don't mention that!" Lucinda said making a face.
"Can I dance with the bride?" Nick asked Brian as a band played an upbeat jazz tune in the beautiful gardens in Georgia where Brian and Leigh's after-wedding party was taking place.
Brian stepped away from Leighanne. "Sure, but only one!".
Nick swayed to the music with Leigh. "Brian was so sad about the fallout you guys had, he's real happy that you all made up," she told him with a sweet smile. "And he's so pleased you were his best man,".
"It was an honor, Brian can be my best man when I get wed,".
"When will that be?" Leighanne asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No time soon!" Nick laughed.
"Who will your bride be? Lucinda?".
Nick blushed and went quiet. "No!" he managed to blurt. He and Lucinda had spent a lot of time together over the summer as she had mainly stayed in California, and they had gotten pretty close. Nick had missed her when she had gone home to Phoenix to see family for a few days so he had gone to visit her. But he wasn't thinking of romance with her yet... or was he?
Just as he thought of her, she appeared, emerging from the crowded garden in her beautiful flowing lilac dress. Leigh pulled away and patted Nick on the back. "Go dance with her," she whispered with a smirk.
Nick was blushing as he approached Lucinda. "Wanna dance?" he asked quickly, looking at the ground, embarrassed.
Lucinda was delighted. "I'd love to,".
Leigh and Bri started dancing together again. "They make a sweet couple!" Brian laughed.
"Yeah, come on let's go grab a drink," she looked at her watch. "It's almost time for the speeches,".
Soon everyone was sitting around waiting to start the speeches but Nick was nowhere to be seen. "I'll go look for him," AJ offered, taking off his outrageous top hat and rushing off.
He found Nick sitting on a bench cuddled up with Lucinda; they were kissing passionately. AJ smiled. "Come on, speech time!".
Nick jumped up, startled. "OK, thanks for telling us Bone," he said, embarrassed. He smoothed down his suit and they made their way to the table. He managed his speech without messing up too much.
"A toast," Brian said afterwards. "To our marriage,".
"To your good health," Kevin added, raising his glass.
"To many fun times in the future," AJ said with a smirk. Everyone laughed.
"To your future family," added Howie.
Nick raised his glass. "And to a long, happy future for everyone," he said, smiling at Lucinda who sat beside him with a huge smile on her face.
Everyone then dispersed to get back to the party. But Nick stayed sitting there with Lucinda.
"The future. I can't wait,".
She smiled. "I can't wait either," she said.
Nick put an arm around her. "The thing I'm most looking forwards to is being with you,".
He leant forwards and gave her a long, sweet kiss, one of the first that they would share together in their long, happy future.
The End