Chapter Seventeen
The next morning Tim awoke to find himself in Hannah’s bed. He sighed and crawled out of bed. He stretched his arms over his head and decided to get some breakfast. He looked at Hannah; she was completely passed out still. He doubted that she would be up any time soon. Suddenly Hannah’s cell phone rang, he knew she was not getting up to answer it, so he did.
“Hello?”
“Hello Tim?”
“Yeah, who is this?”
“It’s Nick.” He answered coolly, “Can I talk to Hannah?”
“Um, well, she can’t really come to the phone right now.”
“Why not?”
“She’s sleeping and there is no way she is waking up anytime soon, she had kind of a rough night last night.”
“What happened? Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she’s fine, nothing that water or a strong cup of coffee won’t cure.”
“Try to wake her up, I need to talk to her.”
“Okay,” Tim kneeled on the bed and gently shook Hannah, “Hannah, wake up, Come on sweetie.” Hannah basically rolled over and snuggled back under the covers. “She’s not waking up, I could probably drive a garbage truck through here and she wouldn’t wake up. I can have her call you later, okay?”
“Yeah I guess.”
“Okay, bye, Nick.”
“Bye.”
Nick couldn’t figure this out, why was it that every time he called, Tim picked up the phone? Were they at his place? Nick called up Hannah’s house and Rosita picked it up,
“Hello, Amour residence.”
“Hello, is Hannah there?”
“No, Hannah is not living here right now, she moved in with Tim Scott. You can leave a message and she will get it later. Who may I ask is speaking?” Nick stood there speechless on the phone, “Hello? Mister? Hello?” Rosita asked but Nick hung up the phone. He couldn’t believe Hannah! Why would she do this to him? Living with Tim? She was a liar! She never really loved him! He slammed down the picture of them on his bed stand and stormed out of the house. He needed to clear his mind.
Hannah finally woke up late in the afternoon. Groggily she went into the kitchen and got herself a large glass of water. Tim left her a note on one of the cabinets,
“Hannah, at the school, be back @ 8 tonight. –Tim, P.S. Drink lots of water you really hung over woman.” She laughed at the note. She actually didn’t feel that bad and she decided to get some fresh air and visit the boys at the school. Hannah showered quickly and threw on a pair of cut off shorts and a white tank top. Pulling her hair up into a bun she got into her car and drove over to the school.
She walked into the school and Tim was teaching a class while Mike was warming up for his next one. Mike lit up as soon as he saw her and ran over. He ran over to her,
“Hey stranger.” She said hugging her tightly and he replied,
“Hey, how are you?”
“I’m okay, better than I thought I would be, but then again someone took really good care of me.” She said smiling at Tim who had just walked into the room.
“Hey, look who’s finally up, how ya feeling this fine afternoon?”
“Good thanks to you.” She said hitting his arm lightly.
“That’s good, hey listen, Nick called for you this morning. It sounded important and he wanted you to call him back.”
“Why didn’t you wake me?”
“I tried to, but someone was a little passed out.”
“Oh,” She blushed as some of Mike’s students came in, “well on that note, I guess I better get going.”
“Han, Mom and Dad wanna have dinner tonight, okay?”
“Yeah sounds great.” She replied as Roxy popped into the room and bounced her way over to them.
“Hey everybody! Good Morning or should I say good afternoon!”
“Well someone has a bit of energy today.” Mike mentioned and then Tim spoke up,
“You’re gonna need it because I’m gonna whoop your butt!”
“Oh you sure of that, Mr. Scott?” She said bouncing and punching his arm playfully.
“Oh I’m definitely sure about it.” The two began horsing around, Hannah and Mike laughed at them and then she glanced at Mike. He caught her eye and knew exactly what she was thinking, ‘Roxy and Tim would make a great couple.’ She smiled and said to the group,
“I’ll see you all later,” and to Mike she said, “we’ll talk at dinner.” She winked at him and he smiled back at his twin.
“Okay bye, Han.” As soon as she left Mike called Roxy over. “Did you get the tickets?” She smiled,
“Good thing my daddy owns the arena, huh? We got front tickets for all of us with back stage passes.”
“Fabulous, well phase one of the operation is complete. Now all we have to do is get them to see each other and talk.”
Hannah dialed up Nick’s number as she drove back to Tim’s apartment. It rang a few times and clicked into his voice mail.
“Hey it’s Nick you know what to do.” Her heart melted at the sound of his voice.
“Hey honey, it’s me.” She took a deep breath before going on, “It’s been a long time since we’ve talked. Tim said that when you called this morning that you had something important to tell me. Sorry I missed you, call me back when you’re not busy. Love you, bye!”
Nick heard his cell phone ringing in his dream. By the time he realized that it was ringing in reality it had already clicked into his voicemail. He waited a few minutes and then checked it. His heart sank when who it was. He was so confused on what to do, the love of his life was with another guy. Every time he thought of it he felt like someone had punched him in the gut. Hannah was acting like nothing had happened and it was killing him. She was the one who he told all of his problems to, who was he going to turn to now?
Hannah plopped down on the couch next to Tim. He stuffed some popcorn into his mouth,
“How was dinner?”
“Fabulous, as always. You know, Mike really needs to move out and get his own place.”
“Why?”
“He’s almost twenty-two years old and still lives at home. That’s all I’m saying.”
“Heck, I’d probably still be living at home too if my parents didn’t kick me out.”
“What is it with you people?”
“What? It’s comfy, my laundry gets done and my food is prepared for me. What’s not to love? I think Mike’s pretty smart if you ask me.”
“Lazy boys, that’s what you all are.”
“Sorry, we’re not all work-a-holics like you.”
“I am not! I just don’t like to waste time that’s all.”
“Speaking of work did you hire a new bartender today?”
“Yeah her name’s Jewels and she’s really good.”
“Is she cute?” He asked with an impish smile and she hit him with a pillow.
“Dork, but since you brought it up, what’s up between you and Roxy?”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Oh please I see how you look at her and how you guys are always flirting.”
“What? Roxy and me are just friends. Why are you asking? Has she said anything?”
“See I knew it!”
“What? I just wanted to know that’s all.”
“Do you think she’s cute?” She asked and Tim paused a minute,
“Well, yeah, she’s always been pretty. But Roxy wouldn’t go for me, would she?”
“Why don’t you ask her?” Hannah said with a wink.
Nick pounded the punching bag pretending it was Tim. He was swearing under his breath and tears slipped down his face. He was really wailing on it when Kevin came down to work out and saw him.
“Hey, what did the bag ever do to you?” he joked and Nick punched the bag one final time before taking off his gloves and throwing them against the wall.
“Whoa, what’s wrong Nick?” Kevin said coming over to him.
“Nothing.” Nick grumbled and kicked the punching bag, and Kevin raised an eyebrow at him,
“I’m sure the punching bag would have something to say about that. Is this about Hannah?” Nick finally broke hearing her name,
“She’s got a new guy! She fucking has another guy!” He yelled dropping to the floor and putting his head in his hands.
“What?”
“It’s true, she’s with that Tim guy now. He’s always picking up her phone when I call and I heard them talk about the great “nights” they’ve spent together. Then when I called her house her housekeeper said that she had moved in with him! It been a little over a month and she moved in with him!” Kevin knelt down next to Nick,
“I’m sorry, Nick.”
“But that’s not the worst part, she acts like nothing has changed. I’m just so confused, how can I love so much but hate them at the same time?”
Hannah was getting worried now. It had been three days since she had called and he hadn’t even left a message yet. Their tour was about to be kicked off, so he might have been too busy, but usually he would have called her back if it was important. Now she was indecisive on whether or not to call him. Each time she tried to call him she would get as far as half of his number before hanging up.
Nick looked at the tour schedule; the first stops were all the major cities starting with Orlando then Chicago, New York City and then Los Angeles. He wondered if Hannah would have the nerve to show up.
Hannah watched on TV as BSB went around the world in 100 hours and then landed in NYC doing a whole spiel about their album on MTV. Nick looked really tired, like he hadn’t slept a wink in weeks. He had never returned her phone call and now it had been over a month since she had spoken to him. She finally got the courage to call him, but she got his voicemail again,
”Hey sweetie thought I’d drop you a line. I saw you on the MTV special you did and you looked really tired, they must be working you triple time. It kind of looked like something else was bothering you. I’m just worried about you that’s all and I figured that you just got too busy with everything and forgot to call me back. Well if you want to talk you know how to reach me. Hopefully I’ll talk to you soon, love you, bye Nicky.”
Nick saw that Hannah called and he didn’t even bother listening to the message, he just deleted it.