She never would have thought that this would happen to her. It happened to wild girls who were careless but not her. Not responsible, careful, innocent, Jaquelyn Norman. Tears poured from her dark brown eyes as she sat, leaned up against the toilet, on her cold bathroom floor. She wasn’t sure how long she had been there but what she did know was that she was now lost. Her life, as she knew it, was over.

Her sobs became slow and staggered as her mind drifted back to two weeks prior, the night when it all happened. The moment she had stepped foot into their apartment, she knew something wasn’t right….she could feel it.

“Josh?” she had called out into the quiet apartment. When no one had responded she silently made her way through the living room and down the dimly lit hallway. It was then that a noise had finally entered her ears. Stepping into their bedroom she was met a sight she thought she would never see…Josh and his ex-girlfriend, Dawn, franticly trying to get their clothes back on.

In that instant, all of the colour had drained from her fair face. It felt as if someone had stabbed a knife right through her heart.

They had been together for two years and were happy, or so she had thought. But however hurt she was by Josh, she was never prepared for this to happen. She thought in time that her heart would heal, that eventually, she would forget about him. But this new discovery wasn’t about to let that happen.

Inhaling a deep breath, she could only think of one thing to do. She didn’t want to phone him….the thought of confessing her new found secret humiliated her. What would he think? He always thought so highly of her. But she knew she had to do it. He was the one person who had always been there and would always be there for her. Despite only knowing him a total of five years, she considered him her best friend.

Wiping her eyes with her shirt sleeve, she slowly reached for her cordless phone that was sitting on top of the counter. She only paused for a few seconds before dialing the familiar number.


Part of her was hoping he wouldn’t pick up but the other part of her knew she needed him. It was after ten long rings that a groggy voice had finally come onto the phone.

“Hello?”

It was a voice she hadn’t heard in several months and the very sound of it sent her back over the edge. She couldn’t stop it…the tears came flowing out.

“N-N-Nick?” she sobbed.

The voice on the other end had suddenly perked up, worry overcoming him.

“Jackie? What is it? What’s wrong??”

“She wiped her running nose on her sleeve and hiccupped several times. Not knowing how to even begin to answer her friend’s question.

“J “he said, using his nickname for her, “what is it?”

“N-Nick,” she stammered, “I, I don’t know what to do…”

“J, calm down and take a deep breath” he instructed on the other end.

Following his orders, she inhaled slowly and could feel her breath slowing back down.

“Ok, now tell me what the matter is. Did something happen with Josh? Are you Ok?”

“Nick….I’m pregnant.”


* * *


He adjusted his dark baseball hat over his eyes as he stood alone in the bustling New York airport. The boys and himself had just started their tour the previous week in Florida, with a few dates in Orlando and one in Ft. Lauderdale. It was in the latter city that he had received the call from Jackie.

His mind then drifted back to that night. He had just finished the show and had been eagerly waiting to get back to the bus so he could crash. The bed he was crashing in wasn’t the comfiest of beds but, at that point, he didn’t care. It was a bed.

He had only just gotten into a deep sleep when he heard his cell phone ring. The Macarena song filled his ears as he groggily stumbled to find where the annoying song was coming from. Cursing Howie for changing his ringer on him, he sleepily answered.

The moment he heard her loud sobs he could feel his heart plummet. Confusement filled his head as he heard her quivering voice say she was pregnant. He hadn’t talked to his best friend in months due to his busy work schedule but last he had heard, Josh and her were happy. She even confessed to him that they were discussing marriage! It wasn’t until she told him about what had happened two weeks prior that the confusion had disappeared. With a snap of the fingers, it had been replaced by rage. If he ever saw the asshole again, he’d kill him.

If truth be told, he never really liked Josh. He tolerated him for Jackie’s sake but he never really did trust the guy. Of course, Josh had always been insanely jealous of Nick and his relationship with Jackie, despite the numerous reassurances from the both of them. The thought of even being with Jackie in that way almost made him laugh. She was his best friend, someone he could confess anything too….but girlfriend?!? It would be like making out with your sister.

It was then that he saw large groups of people begin to exit the terminal from the plane that she was on. Craning his neck, he waited and waited until he finally saw her.

Her long dark brown hair was tied up in a messy ponytail. She wore a pair of black sweatpants with a thin, white, zip –up hoodie over top of a plain black tang top

“J!!” he called out, waving his arm up in the air to get her attention.

Scanning the busy room, her eyes finally locked with his and a huge grin spread to her face. Dropping her bags, she broke out into a run until she finally reached him.

Engulfing her into a warm hug, he kissed the top of her head as she buried her head into his shoulder.

The moment she hit his body, he felt her tense body relax as if all the mess that she had been going through the past week had slipped away.

“I’ve missed you so much!” she said, pulling away and trying her hardest not to break down into a puddle of water once again.

He gave her a broad smile as he ruffled the top of her head, causing several large chunks of hair to fall out of her ponytail.

“Ugh, Nick! Stop!” she complained.

“Nick! Stop!” he imitated back to her, chuckling slightly.

“Funny…” she grunted quietly.

As they made their way out of the airport, they laughed and joked about like normal…both avoiding the subject that needed to be talked about but neither wanting to be the first to start it.



* * *


She rested her head against the tinted windows of the car as the driver criss crossed his way in and out of the busy New York traffic on their way back to the hotel. She knew Nick was looking at her. She could feel his gaze fall on her every so often since they had left the airport and she knew he was deciding on the best way to bring up the dreaded subject…the subject she didn’t want to talk about because if she talked about it, that would make it real. She didn’t want it to be real.

Playing nervously with his fingers, Nick took his eyes off his window and towards Jackie once again. Biting his lip he decided he was going to be the first to bring it up.

“So are you doing OK? With everything, I mean…” he stumbled awkwardly.

Taking her forehead off of the window, she turned to him and gave a small shrug.

“I guess…” was all she said as she turned her attention back out to the passing scenery.

“You guess? That’s all you’re going to say?” he asked.

The giddiness from the airport had seemed to have worn off the girl sitting before him. A distant look had come over her fair face.

“J, I think you need to deal with this….talk about it!” he urged.

“Nick, please….I just…I’m tired and really don’t want to talk about it right now, ok?” she asked. “Just, anything but that…please.”

There was a small hint of begging in her voice as her dark brown eyes tore into his blue ones.

Nodding, he motioned for her to come over. Smiling slightly, she did as he requested and leaned into his embrace, resting her head on his shoulder.

“We’ll talk about it later then, Ok?”

“Thanks, Nick” She said quietly, shutting her eyes.

He sat there quietly, watching as she drifted off into an uneasy sleep in the back of the dark car.