"I think we got that one down, guys!" Fatima stopped the demo tape and turned to face her team. "Nick, is something up? You were two steps behind the whole way through today. And your moves were a bit too choppy." She observed Nick closely, the scowl on his face not fading. "You've had that same look on your face ever since you walked in here this morning. I think we need a change of attitude tomorrow." She turned to the next Boy. "Kev, I think you could use a little more umph on the pop-locking. And, um, I think it was Howie. Yeah, Howie." She singled him out of the group. "You got kinda off there at the end, but nothing that we can't work on tomorrow." She unscrewed the cap to her Ozarka and took a quick sip. "Tomorrow though, I want a perfect practice. 'Cause a perfect practice makes perfect, right guys?"

Weak replies.

She cleared her throat. "You know, maybe I should keep you all here for another hour or two. Probably couldn't hurt any to get in some more practice time.... c'mon guys, let's take it from the top."

The Boys promptly recited "Perfect practice makes perfect" in unison, and Fatima reluctantly dismissed them for the day.

Brian gathered his duffel from the floor and trotted out of the dance studio behind Nick. "Yo Nick, what's your problem?"

Nick just tugged the strap on his own duffel higher on to his shoulder and said nothing.

A.J. darted up behind the two and popped Nick in the back of the head with a towel. "Hey Nicky, why such the long face? Having trouble with the ladies again?"

"Shut up, A.J."

"Was it something I said?" he snickered, whopping Nick with the towel again. Brian gave him a disapproving look and he threw the towel on to a nearby chair.

Once the Boys reached the showers, they dispersed momentarily to do their own thing.

Brian pulled his T-shirt over his head. "C'mon Nick. What's the matter? You've been kinda quiet all day."

A low growl was his only reply. Tossing his shoe to the floor, he removed the sock from his foot. "It's....." The other two Boys paused as Nick stumbled over his response. He sighed heavily as he pulled off the other shoe and set it aside. "It's.... this girl."

"Ha, I knew it!"

Brian frowned at A.J. and then turned his attention back to Nick. "Is that was has you so upset?" Fumbling with the drawstring to his wind pants, Nick gave his head a quick jerk and said nothing. "Is that a yes?"

"Brian, I really don't want to talk about it, okay?"

"It's that friend of your sister's, isn't it Nicky? Um, Andrea? Andrea, right?"

"I said, I don't want to talk about it, okay?" He cleared his throat, and hesitantly stepped out of his pants. A chuckle from behind him had his pants yanked back up around his waist a second later. "What?!"

A.J. cupped his mouth with his hand in a feeble attempt to suppress his laughter.

Brian looked from one Boy to the other. "Who's Andrea?"

"What?!"

A.J. laughed harder.

"I said, who's Andrea?"

"It's Adrienne, Rok." Nick corrected. "She's nobody. She's B.J.'s friend."

A.J. continued to laugh even louder.

Nick wrapped his arms protectively around his own waist. "What's so funny?"

Following A.J.'s gaze, Brian caught sight of what he was laughing about, peeking over the top of Nick's pants. He narrowed his eyes. "Um, Nick?"

"Yeah?" He lowered his eyes to the floor.

"Is it just me, or are you---"

"No, I'm not."

As if on cue, A.J. erupted into gales of happy laughter. "Nick-ay boy's sportin' some pretty panties!" Brian bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing himself.

Nick hastily yanked a pair of pants from his duffel and tugged the draw string up at his waist. "Yo, just shut up A.J.!" The laughter grew louder.

"Hey guys." Howie greeted, tossing his bag up on a chair. He pointed up at A.J., who, at that point, was rolling on the floor. "What's his problem?"

Brian took a deep breath to reply, but A.J. interrupted. "Nicky's got on some gay knickers!"

Nick threw his shirt to the floor and crossed over to A.J. "I told you to shut up!" A.J.'s laughter was choked off as Nick wrapped his fingers around his throat and squeezed.

"Oh...c'mon Nick-ay.....pink seems... to be your....color!" was all A.J. could get in between breaths.

"He's got what?" Howie disposed of his shirt and set it over the chair. He turned and looked on as A.J. pulled away from Nick's grasp and went scampering out the exit, snickering loudly. Nick lifted himself from the floor and quietly dusted himself off before calmly walking back over to his duffel and shoving his dirty clothes inside. Furrowing his brow, Howie turned back to Brian, and queried again.

Before Brian could answer, Nick cut in with a curt "Nothing." and stormed towards the exit. Kevin met him at the doorway, and was quickly shoved from Nick's path.

"What's he so upset about?" The remaining Boys watched as Nick continued to make his dramatic exit.

"I think he's miffed about something at home." Brian zipped his duffel and slung it over his shoulder.

"Oh." Kevin twisted the cap from his water bottle and took a sip. "What was A.J. yelling about Nick and pink boxers for....."

"Hey girlie, how's it going?"

Adrienne looked up from the inventory list she was checking and smiled as Martina, her trusted friend and co-worker, strolled through the door, a Coke in hand. "Swatson's going to have you for lunch if he finds you back here with that soda."

Martina chuckled and took another gulp from the can. "Gee, not even a Hello Marty this morning, huh?"

"I was just saying." Adrienne laughed, turning her attention back to the inventory list.

"Well, Mr. Swatson can just stick it where the sun don't shine." Marty replied, downing the last of her soda and tossing the can into a nearby trash can. "I never have liked the man." She paused momentarily to watch Adrienne as she continued to browse through the inventory list, checking things off as she went. "And if it wasn't for the fact that Janice bailed on me and left me with this mother of a rent to pay off, you wouldn't find me anywhere near this hellhole."

"About how much do you still lack now?"

Marty clucked her tongue in deep thought. "I think I'm about $350 short of this month's payment."

Adrienne cringed. "That's not good."

"Tell me about it." she sighed, inspecting her nails. "Even worse, I have to shell out some 500 odd dollars to cover my books for my courses this fall." Snorting, she added, "Working here, I'm not asking for anything short of a miracle."

Adrienne frowned. "Looks as though you may have to clock in some over-time this month, Marty." She shook her head. "Poor girl." Marty was only a month or two shy of turning 20, and already she was financially in debt. She lived in a small apartment across town which her and an old roommate from college, Janice, used to share. But, ever since Janice had flown the coop a few months before, Marty had been left covering both sides of the rent. Which proved to be no easy task, considering the rent was costing her nearly 3/4 of her $400 monthly paycheck. Not only that, but Marty attended college almost on a full-time basis during most of the year, pursuing her dream of majoring in journalism. Adrienne had once read some of her work in a weekly column from a small newspaper which made some rotation there on campus, suitably titled "The 7-Day Work Shift". She had a lot of talent in her chosen field. Both her and Marty knew it. But, as money got tighter and tighter, so did Marty's shifts. Marty had already mentioned the chance of her not making back to school that fall. Which made the situation even sadder. "I'm sure you can come up with the extra cash somehow."

Marty rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I suppose I could always go and beg for my old job back at the 7/11." She folded her hands in mock prayer. "Please Mr. Korpstein, give me my job back and I promise never come up $500 dollars short at the end of the day ever again! I swear!" She tugged at her earring. "Sorry chica, but I don't see that happening any time soon."

Adrienne checked off the last of the items from the inventory list and set it down on the counter. "Don't worry about it, Marty. Everything will turn out alright." She grabbed several boxes from the tall stack growing near the door and headed towards the service desk with it.

Marty grabbed a few as well and followed her out the door. "If there is one thing I admire about you, it's your optimism."

The two girls tore through the newest shipment of merchandise and carted them over to their respectable sales racks. They continued to do so in silence for the next 15 minutes or so.

"Hey, I just thought of something." Marty chirped, breaking the silence. She tossed a package of men's socks on to a shelf and reached for another box. "What are you doing here this morning? I thought you weren't coming in until one or so."

"Oh, um..." Adrienne paused mid-sentence to quickly price a man's tie before tying it around a mannequin's neck. "I wasn't doing anything this morning, so I figured I'd put some extra hours in down here."

"I thought you said you had an appointment with your physcologist this morning?" Marty queried, holding a pair of golden-toed socks in her hand.

Taking a deep breath, she shook her head at Marty. She wasn't very comfortable talking about her counseling sessions with many people, including her close friends. It was something she usually pushed to the back of her mind and forgot about. To say she was seeing a shrink was something she wasn't quick to admit to. "When people think shrink, they think psychopaths." she had told Marty a few months back, when the two were just becoming friends. "I don't want to be known as some loon." Marty had laughed and told her "Well, they're gonna call you crazy, mainly because of the fact you're friends with me." Adrienne had laughed at her feeble attempt to crack a joke, but deep down inside, it still bothered her. "Well, I did....."

"But?" Marty folded her arms in front of her chest and waited for an explanation.

"......But, with BJ coming home this afternoon and all, I didn't think I really had the time to bother---"

"Augh! I can't believe you!" Marty growled, kicking an empty box out of her way as she stormed up beside her. "You said so yourself you've been having some problems lately! And that---"

"I know what I said." Adrienne snapped, cutting Marty off. "And I have been having a few problems lately but, really...."

Marty seized Adrienne's shoulders and looked her in the eye. "You're not getting anywhere fast if you keep skipping your sessions, girl. I mean, this is the third time you haven't gone in. What if you're....." Her voice trailed off.

She knew what Marty meant. She didn't need to finish her sentence. "What if I AM relapsing? What if the counseling isn't helping me any? What if....." She banished the thought and replied, "I'm okay, really. I've just been having some nightmares lately. Probably because the hearing is coming up soon."

Marty nodded and let go of her shoulders. "Three weeks, right?"

"Yeah."

"Are they getting everything together okay?"

Adrienne nodded. "They called a couple of days ago and gave me an update."

"Has anything changed or is it still---"

"Same as always." she answered curtly, turning to the cash register and punching in the numbers from a bar code that was to the package of men's undershirts she held in her hand. "These are on sale." she said, tossing them into a box full of clearance items. "Maybe I should get some for James." James was a friend of theirs who worked as one of the mall custodians. He was 21, and attended the same college Marty did. The two had even dated at one time. The relationship had turned cold on them a few months back, but the two still remained good friends. It was through Marty that Adrienne had met him, and the three of them often joked around between shifts. "He has a birthday coming up soon, you know?"

"You're changing the subject on me, Andre." Marty playfully shook her finger at her. "You know I don't like it when you do that."

Adrienne sighed. "I'm sorry, Marty. I just really don't want to talk about it right now."

She pursed her lips and finally gave a nod of agreement. "It's just, I don't want to see anything bad happen to you. I mean, you have so much going for you and all. I just.... don't want to see you get hurt."

Adrienne forced a smile and gave her a reassuring pat on the back. "Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." She price checked another item and tossed it into the clearance box. "Besides, you have your own problems to worry about, remember?" She giggled as Marty curled her lip in disgust. "I had to remind you, right?"

"Yeah." she agreed, her eyes locked on the floor. "But, Andre?"

"Huh?"

"Promise you'll go next time." Marty's hazel eyes bore into Adrienne's. "No more skipping out for lack of time, ok?"

She saluted. "Aye-aye, el capitan."

"Now you're mocking me. You know I don't like being mocked either!" Marty frowned but it was obvious she was having trouble keeping a straight face.

She plastered on a mask of innocence and cooed, "Who me? Never!"

Marty playfully slugged her in the arm and the two continued to set up shop.

Chapter 9