“Oh my God!” AJ yells staring at his TV as a picture flashes on the morning news. It was a picture of what used to be a house…currently it was a shell of a house engulfed in an inferno of fire, “It’s a torch,” he says looking over at Isabella standing behind him.

“What…do you know the owner?” Isabella asks staring at him.

AJ nods, “It…it was Nick’s.”

“Oh God…” Isabella says breathlessly.

“He…he set it on fire,” AJ says staring at it.

“AJ, you don’t know that for sure,” she says staring at the TV.

“Yeah…yeah I do,” AJ says, “I can feel it.”

“NICK,” Kevin yells from the kitchen as he stares at the television screen before him.

JC stares at the TV and shakes his head.

“Do you really think they are capable of that?” Kevin asks him softly looking at him.

“Yes,” JC nods, “Completely.”

“NICK,” Kevin yells again.

“For the life of me I can not remember what made us think we were wise and we’d never compromised. For the life of me I cannot believe we’d die for these sins we were merely freshmen…” Justin sings walking past the kitchen as JC and Kevin turn to look at him walking by.

“Justin!” they yell at the same time.

“For the life of me I can not remember…” Justin sings backing up about three steps and stopping in front of the threshold.

“Justin, please tell me you guys didn’t…”Kevin starts to say.

“Yup,” Justin nods calmly.

“Yup what?” JC asks.

“Yup, we burned the mother,” Justin says looking at them both, “It was Nick’s idea.”

Kevin’s mouth drops open unconsciously as he stares at him.

“Any more questions or can I go now?” Justin asks them.

“No,” JC says shaking his head, “Go ahead, Justin.”

Justin nods and continues his walk through the house.

“They…they…they set his house on fire,” Kevin says turning to look at JC.

JC nods, “Doesn’t surprise me,” he says shaking his head suddenly, “I had a bad feeling that they would start to lash out if they stayed here too long.”

Kevin hears the familiar thudding of someone running down the stairs on the wall adjacent to the kitchen wall. Nick’s form appears suddenly in the kitchen dressed in a pair of khakis and a simple navy blue t-shirt.

“Morning,” Nick says to them both.

“Nick…” Kevin says softly.

“We got anyway Cheerios?” Nick asks.

“Nick…”

“I mean I can eat Life too, but…”

“NICK,” Kevin yells.

“It was my house to begin with,” Nick says looking at him simply, “I had a right to do it if I wanted to. I’m not collecting insurance money or anything, so there is no real motive.”

Kevin shakes his head calmly and then locks eyes with the younger man.

“No one was hurt,” Nick says calmly, “Can we drop it please.”

Kevin sighs and nods as JC turns to look at him shrugging.

Nick scratches his head lightly and yawns, “Where’d Justin go?”

Kevin shrugs, “We walked towards the door.”

Nick nods calmly walking out of the kitchen suddenly turning left towards the direction Justin had walked, “Just!” Nick yells walking over towards the front door and looking out through the glass at Justin pacing around Ness who was half shouting half talking to him.

Justin looks up and his eyes move across the front of the house until he locks eyes with Nick. He smiles slightly before walking up and opening the door, “Can…can I borrow your car?” he asks looking at him…pleading with him.

“What’s wrong?” Nick asks him looking over at Ness for a second before looking back at Justin.

Justin lets out a short breath and places a hand on Nick’s back moving him backwards into the house, “I…I need to get her to a doctor.”

“Huh?” Nick asks.

“I need to get her to a doctor,” Justin says softly.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Nick asks.

“I…she’s been…sick,” Justin says looking down at the floor.

“Sick?” Nick asks looking at him, “What’s going on, Just?”

Justin looks over his shoulder at Ness standing on the lawn quickly before turning back to Nick, “I…I just need to get something, Nick. And she’s agreeing to let you use her as an alibi?”

Justin shakes his head no vigorously, “No…no she doesn’t know.”

Nick shakes his head for a minute, “No…no…”

“Nick please,” Justin says to him pleading, “It’s not coke or anything. Just some pot I swear.”

Nick looks over at Ness then back to Justin, “You want me to watch Alex?”

Justin nods for a second, “Yeah.”

“Where is she going then?”

“We need to go and grab some shit at the store…”

“You know people at the store who will slip it to you?” Nick studies his face.

Justin nods calmly looking down at the ground.

“She’s not gonna like this, Just.”

“I know…I know,” he sighs, “I just…I have so much on my mind now…I…think we should tell them the truth Nick. No more lies. No more. I feel bad. It’s eating me up inside. There’s too many lies.”

Nick looks at him and nods slowly, “Ok…ok when you get back we will.”

Justin nods again looking away.

Nick pulls a set of keys from his pocket and hands them to him, “You’ll be back in a few?”

Justin nods, “Yeah,” he smiles slightly taking the keys from him.

“She mad about the house?”

“Nah,” Justin smiles, “Nah, she knows it deserved it.”

Nick smiles looking over at Ness standing behind them in the distance. She looks at him and smiles without flashing her teeth at him.

“I’ll see ya,” Justin says patting Nick on the back, “Thanks,” he says before turning on his heels and running down the steps over to his wife and placing an arm around her waist leading her to the garage.

Nick watches them as Justin plants a soft kiss on her cheek. He shakes his head to himself turning around and shutting the door as he hears the engine to his car start.

“Where’d Justin go?” JC asks walking up.

“Store with Ness,” Nick says, “I’m watching Alex.”

JC nods calmly, “You and Just do a lot f things together huh?”

“He’s my best friend,” Nick says calmly turning to look at JC.

“I figured that,” JC says calmly, “So…are you and I for another session tonight?”

Nick shakes his head no, “No, Just and I have something to tell you all.”

“About?”

“Everything…everything,” Nick says before turning and walking away from JC towards the living room where Alex was sitting staring up at the TV screen as Bambi danced across the screen. Nick smiles at him warmly and sits down beside the small boy on the floor.

“He’d make a good dad,” Kristen says to Kevin as they look at Nick from the kitchen.

“Yeah…yeah he would,” Kevin says nodding looking at Nick. He couldn’t help the smile of pride from spreading across his face.

“NICK!” a voice yells from downstairs as Nick looks at his shut door from where he sits on his bed watching TV. Alex was fast asleep curled up in the blankets.

Nick shakes his head to himself as the yelling continues.

“NICK!” the voice yells this time from down the hall, “NICK!” from behind the door pounding on the door.

“SHUT UP!” Nick yells standing up quickly and running to the door flinging it open, “You’ll wake the kid up,” Nick says staring at Brian.

“Nick…”

“What?” Nick asks staring down at him.

“Nick…Nick there was an accident,” Brian says staring up at Nick then quickly down at the floor.

“Who was in the accident? Brian who was in the accident?”

“Justin,” Brian says, “and Ness.”

“What?” Nick asks, “Where are they?”

“Hospital,” Brian says, “They…a truck hit them.”

‘You know we gotta tell them some time Nick’, Justin says as his face flashes before Nick.

Brian shakes his head looking at Nick, “The guy just ran through a red light. Slammed right into hem on the passenger’s side.”

‘You boys can’t keep up a charade forever you know that’, Ness says as she smiles brightly.

Nick stares at Brian blankly.

“Justin…he’s in stable condition right now. Beat up pretty badly though. Broken bones, bruised ribs, stitches…”

‘How many masks do you hide behind huh?’ Justin asks looking at Nick shaking his head.

“Ness…where is she?” Nick asks.

Brian stares at him painfully, “Nick…she…she didn’t make it.”

“Oh God,” Nick says breathlessly as he sinks to his knees.

‘We’ll never know how many masks he has,’ Ness smiles as Justin puts a strong arm around her waist, ‘Do you wear one for us, Nick?’

“Oh God,” he says as tears sting the back of his eyes, “Oh GOD!” he yells falling back onto the floor as the tears start to come in streams.

‘No more lies. No more,’ Justin’s voice says to Nick as he sees Justin walk down the path with Ness on his arm.

“We don’t know how to tell Justin, Nick,” Brian says as his eyes fill with tears.

“I’ll tell him,” Nick says from his place on the ground as the tears flow freely.

“Nick, you can’t go out there…there is so much press since they got wind Justin was back in the states,” Brian says as a tear falls down his face.

“I don’t care,” Nick says as he sits up on the ground, “I don’t care.”

Brian nods looking over at the small curly haired boy sleeping curled up in the king sized bed.

Nick looks up and follows his gaze slowly as his lower lip begins to tremble and he breaks into a fit of sobs.

‘Do you wear one for us, Nick? Do you wear a mask around us’ Ness asks smiling brightly at him.