It was a long time before Brianna returned to the house. The sun was just starting to rise and she was exhausted. Walking up to the back door she wasn’t sure if she was happy or not that the house was quiet. Locking the door behind her she jumped when she heard Mike’s voice.

“You doin’ okay?” He had been dozing on the couch waiting for her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.”

“I’m okay.” She was looking around, not really sure where to go or what to say.

“He’s in bed.” Yeah, she realized she was looking for Nick too.

“Thanks Mike. You didn’t have to wait up for me. I think I’ll get some sleep before I have to drive home.” She gave him a hug and went upstairs. Mike soon followed to get some sleep of his own.

Nick was awake and heard Brianna when she came upstairs. She went into the other room and took a shower. But a little while after he heard the water stop running he realized that she wasn’t coming in to lie down with him. **Sigh** Did you really think she was going to, Nick?

In the other room Brianna was having her own problems falling asleep. How many times have I been to his house? I can’t remember if I’ve ever even slept in this bed.

Nick decided he would at least go check on her, see if she was asleep or not. I’m sure she’s asleep. She’s got to be tired. But, I’m tired and I’m not asleep. When he looked in the room she was lying on her side with her back to the door. Nodding his head he acknowledged to himself that she was asleep. After standing in the doorway for a few minutes he went and sat on the side of her bed. He wanted to touch her, rub her back or her touch her hair, but he stopped himself.

Instead he talked to her in a whisper. “Brianna, I’m sorry. Why do we keep doing this? You’re the last person I wanted to fight with, the last person I ever want to fight with, ya know. You’re right, I wasn’t paying attention and I should have been. But the kicker is, you see, ya know it’s funny in a way that I accused you of being upset at me ignoring you by talking to those girls. It’s, well, in a way it’s ironic, I was ignoring you by talking to those girls on purpose. It bothered me that you two were over there all by yourselves talking, instead of what I had said, that it bothered you that I was on the couch with those girls, ya know.

"It’s never bothered me before, Bree; it’s never bothered me about you seeing other guys. First, I thought it was just that John guy, ya know. But then I got so upset at AJ that night when you left the party because he was gonna spend the night with you. It’s like; you wouldn’t believe what I thought he did to you. I couldn’t sleep all night thinking about it, and stuff. And now, now tonight with Greg. Bree, we were only supposed to be friends. Remember friends forever? But friends don’t feel like this and don’t act like this towards each other, and stuff. Life is just too crazy, when’d it get so crazy? **Sigh** Well, isn’t this funny, me talking to you sleeping. Maybe you can hear me and when you wake up you’ll know how sorry I am for tonight. G’night Bree. G’night my little girl.” Rubbing a hand over the top of his head he stood to leave the room.

Nick was just walking out the door when he heard Bree call him. Turning around he saw that she was now facing the door, facing him. “Nick, I’m sorry too.”

<~ Chapter 34 or Chapter 36 ~>

In the End

Karina 2003