Chapter 7
One week later, things weren’t going any better at the appartment. Alicia was still hurt and she couldn’t see how she could ever forgive Sabrina for her lack of honesty. Sabrina had tried many things to save their friendship but she knew only time would be able to help her out. She had continued to see Nick, which she loved more everyday. Her grades in school had been pretty good lately. She was only going out on Saturdays. She did a lot of cooking and many other things around the appartment. Alicia had notice just how hard Sabrina had worked and she knew that this was her way to ask for forgiveness but something had been broken and she didn’t knew if it would ever be possible to patch it up.
It was a Saturday and the two girls were in the appartment. Their boyfriends had gone to New York to help a charity that fought against parents’ violence towards children. Alicia was trying to find something good on the television when she came across the six o’clock news and saw the Backstreet Boys coming out of a limousine. She guessed it was out of their hotel and she enjoyed watching Brian when she noticied Nick in the background, hugging a beautifull young girl and then taking her by the waist. The camera made a big plan on Nick, introducing her new girlfriend to the world. Her name was Julie Brealey and she was from California. The channel then skipped to yesterday’s speech by the president.
Alicia couldn’t believe what she had just saw. She turned around and saw Sabrina, whom eyes where shining with tears. Sab ran to her room and less than a minute later she passed in front of Alicia with a backpack, opened the front door and slammed it shut. Alicia got up and ran after her but she was nowhere to be seen. She came back to the appartment and called Brian at his hotel but they weren’t there at the moment and there was no other way to get a hold of him. She didn’t know anybody around and she couldn’t call the police considering that her friend had been out for 5 minutes. She decided to wait until the next morning to see if she would come back.
That night, Alicia did not sleep at all. She was worried sick about Sabrina and spent the whole night turning in circles in the kitchen, wondering how and where was her friend and worrying about her safety. She felt very bad for the way she had treated Sabrina for the last week. She should have been able to help her threw this hard time like she had always did.
When the sun rised, she called again at the hotel. It was 5 o’clock in the morning. “Hello, could you please connect me with Brian Littrell’s room? … Thank you.” The phone rang for a long time but nobody picked it up. Where could he have been at 5 in the morning?
All day she waited for Sabrina to come back and finally fell asleep on a living room chair. That’s where Brian found her when he passed by her appartment around seven that evening. He gently took her in his arms and went to put her in bed. She opened her eyes when he was pulling some covers over her. She jumped out of the bed and ran up to him, hugging him very tight and started to cry hysterically.
“What’s wrong baby?” He was very surprised because she had always given him the impression to be very strong. He made her sat down on the bed and protectivly put his arms around her.
“It’s Sabrina.” She calmed down a little and tried to explain what had happen. “It’s Nick … his new girlfriend … sob … we saw them on T.V. … sob … Sabrina ran away and I don’t know where she is … sob … it’s all his fault!” She then pulled away from Brian and looked at him in the eyes. “Did you knew about it?”
Brian hadn’t understood a word of her story. “What are you talking about Ali?”
“About Nick’s girlfriend.” Brian still looked puzzled. “He cheated on Sabrina with a girl from California!”
“What?!?! How did you come up with that idea? Nick is crazy about Sabrina!”
“It was on the news yesterday. You were all outside of the hotel and he was hugging a blond girl. She seemed to mean a lot to him and they said it was his new girlfriend.”
“Alicia, that was his cousin! For God’s sake, don’t believe everything you hear on the news! They’ll say anything to get the people’s attention and most of the time they can’t be farther from the truth. He hadn’t seen Stephanie for three years! Now, let’s call Nick and tell him about all this mess.”
Alicia was glad that Brian was by her side and mad at herself because the idea of the news being false hadn’t crossed her mind once and being a reporter, she should have thought about this eventuallity.
Ten minutes later, they both arrived at the boys’ house and found Nick comptely changed. The once happy and funny boy was now crying and begging Alicia to think harder about places where Sabrina could be.
“I don’t know Nick! I can’t think of any places and I don’t know any of her friends.”
The next morning, Alicia went at Sabrina’s school to talk to some of her friends but they couldn’t help her. No one had seen her since last Friday. Nick hired two private detectives but they did not have any kind of leads.
On Tuesday, they called the police but that didn’t seem to help either. Both Nick and Alicia looked like gosts because of their lack of sleep. Brian was very worried for both of them and he was the one that handled everything.
Wednesday came fast and there was still no news of Sabrina. Nick had locked himself in his room the night before and didn’t want to talk to anyone. When a policeman handed Alicia the phone, her mind was empty and she was acting like a robot. “Hello? … hi … what?!?! I’m coming right away!” She grabbed Brian’s keys and ran to his jeep. He tried to stop her, knowing just how tired she was, but she was already gone.
She droved for twenty minutes, burning several red lights and stops. She parked in front of Justin Timberlake’s appartment. She ran inside and found Sabrina sitting at the kitchen table. Sab looked up and stared at her friend, both surprised and happy to see her. She was waiting for Alicia’s reaction and she had no idea what to expect.
Alicia walked slowly across the room and tooked Sabrina in her arms. They both started to cry. “Don’t you ever do that to me again Sab! Do you understand? Never.” Sabrina nodded and noticed Justin in the doorway.
“I’m sorry Sabrina but it was too much of a big secret for me to keep.” He turned toward Alicia and explained. “Remember the day I came to your appartment and you introduced me to Sab? You had to leave but we talked for awhile and discovered we had a lot in common. I gave her a double of my house key so she could come here when she needed to be alone and I simply forgot to mention it to you. It wasn’t something we intended to keep from you Ali. I came back today and found her here. She told me all the story and I called you.”
Alicia looked at him and she knew he hadn’t wanted this to happen. He had just been very nice, like always. “Thank you Justy.” She asked Sabrina. “Ready to go home?”
“Yes.” They both hugged Justin and promised that they would come back soon.
They droved in silence for awhile and then Alicia told her about Julie Brealey. That they had made a mistake and just how much Nick loved her. When they arrived at the house, Brian was impatiently waiting for them. He was relieved when he saw that they were both doing fine. He hugged Alicia while Sabrina went up to Nick’s room.
She knocked gently but there was no answer. “Nick, it’s me.” A moment later, the door opened slowly and Nick appeared. He looked awfull. His eyes were red from all the crying, he obviously hadn’t taken a shower in days and he was wearing old clothes. When he saw Sabrina, a shinning light appeared in his eyes and a beautiful smile illuminated his face. He took her in his arms and started to kiss her.
“I’m so sorry Nick.” She said in a small voice.
“Let’s forget about it sweat heart.” He looked at her and put his fingers through her hair. “I love you Sabrina.”
She looked at him in the eyes. “I love you more.”
Chapter 6
Chapter 8
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