Laura was in the apartment all alone, she wanted to do something. She was waiting for Ronny to call her, but she hadn’t heard anything yet and it was really starting to annoy her. She was so peeved that Ashley had the nerve to just show up like that, who did she think she was? A little bit of a notice would have been nice. She disliked Ashley ever since she introduced her to Kimberly. They used to be really great friends, but something changed in her, almost like she thought Kimberly was better than her. That was bullshit. Ashley lost one of the most amazing people in her life and it was almost like she couldn’t even give a damn. And what was up with her modeling? Worst part, what was up with her getting a contact?!? Laura had been working her ass off for how many years? And with Ashley, she barely even had to try. She ran her hands through her dark hair; she hated her with a passion – she couldn’t wait until she was gone. Who knew what kind of shit she was drilling into her roommate’s head.
Laura let out a silent groan and she stood up. If Ronny hadn’t called yet, he probably wasn’t even going to. She sometimes didn’t even know why she was with him. It still bothered her that Nick had never called her. She just didn’t understand it, why wouldn’t he want to call her? She knew if she kept on thinking about it, it was going to drive her mad, so she decided to take a quick shower. As she was about to walk into the bathroom, her phone went off and she immediately picked up. “Finally,” she mumbled to herself as she flipped it open, “Yeah?”
“Laura, hey,” said Ronny on the other end. “So a few friends of mine want go to a club in Miami.”
She felt a smile spread out across her face, she would kill to actually get out and do something, “That’s awesome! What time?” This was just what she needed to get her mind off Ashley...even Nick.
“Eight,” he answered.
She looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was already six-thirty, “Okay, that’ll give me an hour ½ to get ready.”
“Laura,” he softly said. “It cost like fifty dollars to get in this club and I can’t pay for you this time.”
She felt her face fall. He couldn’t pay a measly fifty dollars?!? Why the Hell was she even with him in the first place? He was always so cheap, she knew Nick would have no problem paying. God damn it, why didn't he ever call her? “Oh, you can’t?” Disappointment showed in her voice; she wanted to make it known that she was upset.
“Yeah, I’m really sorry,” he sounded sincere. “So do you think you can swing it?”
“Uh…” she knew she couldn’t, she was flat broke. She hadn’t had a modeling gig in a few weeks; of course she had been lying to Kimberly about that. “Let me get back to you.”
“Okay. Just call me when you know for sure. Hopefully I’ll see you soon.”
“Yeah, hopefully,” she mumbled before hanging up the phone. “God damn it, Ronny!” She hissed.
She was so aggravated that she had no money; she hadn’t gone out to a nice club in so long. She ran to the computer and checked her online banking and silently cursed to herself as she saw she only had twenty dollars. What was she going to do? She chewed on her bottom lip and decided to see if Kimberly had any money lingering around. Laura hated herself for even considering stealing from her roommate, but she really wanted to go out tonight. Plus, she had a job, she wouldn't mind....much. She walked into Kimberly’s bedroom and began to skim the area to see if there was any money laying around. Nothing. She walked over to the white barrow and searched the flat surface, still nothing – not even a dime! She was getting frustrated; at this rate she was going to have to rob a bank! She then opened the top drawer, maybe Kimberly hid some money in with her underwear. As she was searching she found her photo that the Backstreet Boys signed. She shrugged and took it out, but once she did that she saw some photos and picked them up. Her jaw literally dropped once she saw them. Laura immediately grabbed the photos and sat down on the floor with the photo next to her and looked through the pictures. There was about six of them. Four of them were from what it looked like a theme park in one of those photo booths. This wouldn’t have bothered her one bit except the person she was with was….Nick Carter!
The first photo he was kissing her cheek; very cute, but Laura could feel the jealousy flair up inside of her. The second one, they were making funny faces; sticking their tongues out with their face scrunched up. The third they were just smiling; looking very happy, Laura could feel herself trembling from rage. How could she keep something like this from her?!? Kimberly knew how crazy she was about the guy, that backstabbing bitch! The forth one was what made her really explode; it was a photo of them kissing – kissing! How could Nick even want to kiss her?!? She then looked at the last two photos. Kimberly was in someone else’s house while on the couch with Nick. He was sitting up and Kimberly was laying on him, with her head on his chest while his hand was on her back. They were both looking up at the camera and smiling…he looked happy – way too happy! She could make him happy….she would make him happy. She then looked at the last one and Laura was in complete stun. It was a group photo with Kimberly, Nick and his sister Angel with some other guy she had never seen. All smiles – so all that time while she said she was out with some Dave dude it was really Nick Carter?!? Her face then froze, she called Nick Carter ugly?!? He was the one that was a dick to her? What was Kimberly saying about her to him? She was making her look bad! Laura put the photos down and then looked at the Backstreet Boy photo and her chocolate eyes blew up. AJ Mclean thought she was hot?!? Why didn’t Kimberly tell her?!? What, did she want all the boys to herself? That selfish bitch. Laura could feel her breathing increasing as she read Nick’s message to her. She couldn’t believe….just couldn’t fucking believe it! He told Kimberly not to tell her?!? And he gave her his number? Hold the phone, why the Hell was he so interested in this girl and not her? Last time Laura checked, Kimberly was not model material! She aggressively ran her hands through her dark hair. She chewed on her lower lip and she jumped up, grabbing the photo and she ran to get her phone. She dialed the number on the photo and it rang a few times and then a voice mail picked up. She could feel her heart in her chest slam against her rib cage as his voice filled her ears, this was really Nick Carter’s personal cell-phone number! She would just call him back later, she was going to give that roommate of hers a piece of her mind when she got home that was for sure! Laura could feel herself trembling, she decided to take a shower to calm her nerves and what to say for when she called Nick back. She quickly returned the photos and placed them neatly back into the drawer and programmed Nick’s number into her phone. He was going to forget all about Kimberly – wait!!! She remembered that Kimberly was crushed because her and that Dave guy broke up…that meant that….her and Nick broke up?!? This was her chance, oh yes Nick was going to be hers…she was going to make sure of it!
Ashley and Kimberly went to an outdoor mall that was a few miles from her apartment. Ashley was right, shopping defiantly always helped when you needed to get your mind off things, but unfortunately Nick still lingered in her mind. She missed him dearly. Finally Ashley broke through and asked what had happened. What could Kimberly tell her? Could she really say Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys? She kept it simple.
“Two weeks ago he took me to this place he was staying at and we had the most amazing sex I’ve ever had!”
Ashley’s brown eyes enlarged, “Nice!” Her lovely face then turned hard, “Wait! He didn’t leave you after you guys fucked right?!?” Her tone turned so sharp it could slice through any metal.
“No, no. It wasn’t like that,” defended Kimberly. “Nick was really sweet….but….the next day while I was in the shower his…” she tried to pick her words wisely, “Friends kind of just barged in. He defiantly was not happy to see them and I had no idea they were even there, so here I am walking out in only a towel. I got dressed and one of them asked me kindly to leave so they could talk to Nick. I mean, it wasn’t a big deal; they obviously had to work some things out. I was okay with it, but Nick…God he wasn’t and when I said it was fine he flipped out! I have never heard him yell at me like that….he’s never yelled at me at all. So I just walked out, I was so angry.” Kimberly could feel the tears sting her eyes as she remembered the horrid memory.
“Well…those guys shouldn’t have barged in like that anyway! I mean can we say rude?!? But yeah, def not cool that he yelled at you.”
“And I did something bad….I listened to the conversation and I wish I didn’t….those guys clearly did not like me at all. But what really hurt was that Nick made it out like I was taking him away from his responsibilities. And well I confronted him and we got into such a fight, Ash….and finally we were at my place and it just blew up so bad that we both just said fuck it.” By that time Kimberly could feel warm tears making their way down her face, “And I miss him so much…I – I really loved him. I know it may be crazy because I didn’t know him that long, but I did. I know there’s no way to get him back.”
Ashley embraced her tightly in her arms, “Shh, it’s going to be okay. Why don’t you talk to him? Call him or something?”
“What’s the point?” She quietly sobbed, as she pulled away, “He hasn’t bothered to call me in all this time; he obviously wants nothing to do with me….I mean how can I blame him?”
“Don’t say that. For all you know, he could be just as scared as you are.”
“I somehow doubt that,” Kimberly mumbled.
“Come on,” ordered Ashley, as she pulled her arm. “Let’s go in FYE. Music is good for the soul.”
Not in the case, not for Kimberly. Music is what would hurt more….every time a song played on the radio and it was Backstreet Boys it made her heart bleed a little more. Nothing would ever stop this pain, nothing. She had something good and she let it pass, she fucked up – when she was with Nick she had never been happier and without him, she had never been more miserable.
She and Ashley walked into the music store FYE and it were as if karma was there to bite her in the ass, because the song on the radio was I’ll Never Break Your Heart. “You gotta be kidding me,” she softly moaned, as she felt her heart squeeze in agony from the lyrics over the intercom.
Ashley turned to her and noticed her sudden facial expression of anguish, “What’s wrong?!?” She demanded as concern filled her voice.
Kimberly just shook her head, “Noth-nothing I’m just fine. I just…I just got a really bad cramp. No biggie.”
Ashley studied her for a few moments; it almost seemed that she didn’t believe her, “We can pick up some Midol if you want?”
She shook her head, “Nah, I’ll be okay. I’m just gonna look at some music.”
“Okay…”
Kimberly walked away and towards the CDs and saw the Backstreet albums, she pulled out their newest one; Never Gone and traced Nick’s photo with her index finger. Oh how she missed him, she wished that he kept that promise and never broke her heart. She then jumped as she heard Ashley squeal.
“Oh My God!”
“What?!?” She demanded, as she tried to get her heart rhythm back down so she wouldn’t have a heart attack.
“Look at this!” She ordered, as she walked over towards Kimberly with an open magazine, “Does he not look luscious or what?!?”
Kimberly felt like her heart had just got stabbed all over again, as she saw the photos in the magazine. It was Nick at Disney Land, luckily the way she was turned no one could get a good glimpse of her, “He’s alright,” she quickly said, as she turned away; feeling a few tears trinkle down her face.
“Just alright?!? Kim, you’d be all over this in a heartbeat! What’s the matter with you?” Ashley’s voice nothing but teasing.
“I just don’t like him anymore, alright?!?” She tried to hold it back, she tried so hard, but she failed miserably and her voice broke.
“Kim?” Ashley’s voice so soft it sounded like a whisper and she touched her shoulder. That was when she saw the tears, “What’s wrong?!?” She hugged her, “Please tell me what’s wrong.”
She couldn’t do it anymore, she just couldn’t, she had to break her promise. “I miss him so much, Ash.”
Ashley quickly skimmed the photos in the magazine and that was when she realized that Kimberly was the mystery girl in the photos with him, “There is no Nick Black is there?”
She shook her head, “I’m so sorry, I wanted to tell you…I did! But Nick asked me not to tell anyone. Do you hate me?”
“Of course not! Come on,” she gently ordered. “I think it’s time you and I have a serious talk.” Ashley put the magazine back on the self and grabbed Kimberly’s hand and pulled her from the store and began to walk outside of the mall. “So Nick and his friends….those are….the other Backstreet Boys I assume?” She just silently nodded as her head was down, “And they don’t like you? Why not?”
“I blame Nick for that,” she murmured.
“Why? I don’t understand….”
She looked up at her best friend with her tinted red eyes, “He had been avoiding doing things…things he was supposed to do. The other guys assumed I was the reason for his lack of discipline and he did nothing to correct their allegations.” She then shrugged, “I don’t know why he let them think I was this cold hearted bitch, but what is done is done.” Kimberly then looked at Ashley with serious eyes, “What I’m about to tell you….you cannot let it get out, okay?” She just nodded, “Well, the guys got into such a bad fight…Nick…he actually quit the group.”
Ashley’s chocolate eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, “Wait, what?!?”
“Shhh!” She hissed.
“Sorry,” she said, in a softer tone. “But Nick quit the Backstreet Boys?!?” Her whispering voice turning frantic.
Kimberly nodded, “Yes and it’s all my fault. They were fighting because of me! They broke up because of me!” The sharp sting of reality was settling in and she felt her eyes overflow with tears until they poured down her cheeks.
“Come on, Kim,” said Ashley in a comforting voice. “You couldn’t possibly be the real reason why the group broke up.”
“Oh no?” She wiped the tears that dribbled down her face, “You weren’t there, Ash…you didn’t hear how they were talking about me. Nick was defending me…but it cost him his whole career – I mean how could he even do that?!?”
“It sounds like to me he really loves you, Kim. I mean, risking all that for you.”
She shook her head, “No…he doesn’t,” she said, in a broken voice. “How could he? Look at me!” She screeched, “AJ’s been right – I mean, what could Nick actually see in me other than sex? I just have to face it…he used me. For all I know, he could have made a bet with one of his friends.”
“Don’t go doing this to yourself,” pleaded Ashley.
“Why not?” She sobbed.
Ashley then tightly embraced her, “Because you’re beautiful. Nick fell for you, for a reason. Don’t beat yourself up like this, you can’t. The only way you will stop feeling like this is if you talk to him. You have to.”
Kimberly pulled away and wiped her eyes, “I don’t know….what if he doesn’t want to see me?”
“Stop what if’ing me, Kim! It’s something you need to do! Give him a call.”
She shook her head, “I just can’t….let me wait until after when I’m not a wreck.”
Ashley nodded, “Fine.” She then smirked, “But we’re gonna make you so hot when you see him! I saw the perfect store, come on!”
Kimberly’s lips twitched and she half smiled, “Okay….let’s go.”
Ashley’s smile turned bright, as she looped her arm with Kimberly’s and they walked through the outdoor mall.
“I mean can you believe that?!?” Screeched Angel; whom was in the car with Benny. He had gotten out of work so they decided to grab something to eat, “I really thought his girl was different, ugh I knew I should have just went with my gut instant. And I swear to God if I see her so be it – ”
“Angie,” he ordered in a stern voice. “Calm down. You can’t keep on fighting your brother’s battles for him; he can do it on his own. He wants to work things out with her, so why don’t you just let him? From what I saw, she wasn’t all bad…she works, she’s not using him. Come on, we hung out with them a few times, and I saw nothing bad about her. She’s crazy for him…I think it was just a bad misunderstanding if you ask me.”
Angel shot him a hard look, “What?!? How could you even say that, Benny? I mean, come on – look what she’s putting him through. She’s no good for my brother and I will not let her hurt him again.”
“Babe, you know I love you, but it’s really not your choice. If he wants her, let him have her. He’s miserable without her, let him be happy – let him make his own decisions.”
She folded her arms and looked out the window. She could feel her teeth grinding, Benny should be on her side. Nick was confused and didn’t know what he wanted, she was the one that was supposed to help him – she had to help him. She wasn’t going to let him get used.
They drove past an outdoor mall and suddenly Angel’s head whipped around as she saw Kimberly walking with another girl. “STOP THE CAR!”
“What?!?”
“Benny, stop the fucking car!”
As much as he didn’t want to, he pulled over on the side of the road, “Now what is your problem?” He demanded.
“Pull into the mall.”
He glanced over and saw Kimberly and looked back at Angel, “No…no fucking way! You are not going to start anything. Just leave the girl alone.”
Angel’s eyes turned tight, “Fine,” she hissed through her teeth. “I’ll just walk over and have a taxi get me.”
He rolled his eyes and pulled back onto the main road and drove across the street into the mall’s parking lot. “You know this is not a good idea. Nick is going to be so pissed if he finds out.”
She shrugged, “At this rate I don’t care. I’m not going to watch him get his heart ripped out again.” With that said, she got out of the car and slammed the door shut and ran out of the garage and tried to find that girl that broke her brother’s heart.
Benny dropped his head down onto the steering wheel and moaned. He understood where Angel was coming from and he knew why she wanted to protect her brother, but this just wasn’t right. Nick was going to be pissed he already knew that. He then got out of the car himself and searched for his girlfriend, he was just hoping Angel wouldn’t find the girl.
Ashley and Kimberly had just walked out of a nice store called DEMO, they had some nice things, but Kimberly just wasn’t feeling it. But with Ashley around she knew she wasn’t going to give up until she found something she liked. Maybe she should just lie?
Suddenly her body was jerked back, “There you are!”
That was when Kimberly was face to face with Nick’s fuming sister, “Ang-Angel, what are you – ”
“You think you can just fucking use my brother and get away with it?!? Well, you have another thing coming! I knew you were no good from the start.”
Ashley’s eyes burned with anger and she shoved Angel away from Kimberly, “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are – but you have no right to talk to her like that. Let alone touch her!”
Angel sneered at the dark haired girl in front of her, “This is none of your business!” She spat, “So if I were you, I would just walk away.”
“When you start harassing my home girl, I make it my business. I don’t care who you are….I don’t care who you know. All I know is, if you don’t walk away, I will fucking rip your throat out.”
Benny saw his girlfriend and another girl going at it and he raced over to them, “Hey, hey, hey!” He grabbed Angel, “What’s going on here?”
“What do you think?” She snapped and then eyed Ashley, “This bitch started on me!”
“Well, maybe if you didn’t grab my friend, then this bitch wouldn’t be all up in your face. You don’t know anything about your own brother if you think she used him. Did he say that, huh?”
“Ashley, stop,” whispered Kimberly.
Angel glared at Kimberly and then Ashley, “Actually he did.”
Kimberly’s jaw dropped an inch, “He…he did?”
“That’s right. And I swear to God if you ever go him, contacting him, I will make your life a living Hell.”
“Angel, stop it,” ordered Benny.
“No! I’m not going to let this slut hurt my brother ever again.” She then glared back at Kimberly, “So you better stay away from him.”
“Trust me, I don’t think that that’ll be a problem,” she choked out before shoving past Ashley and down the sidewalk.
“Kim!” Cried Ashley, but she just kept on running. She then turned her attention towards Angel, “Listen, I don’t know who the fuck you think you are!” She hissed, “But you had absolutely no right doing that to her! You say she broke Nick’s heart?!? He broke hers! She’s been crying her heart out over that loser. He lied to her about everything!”
“Loser?!?” Angel felt the fire in her heat up, “Don’t go fucking calling my brother a loser, you don’t know anything about him.”
“And apparently neither do you!” Ashley then booked it and rushed after Kimberly, praying she found her before she did something stupid.
Benny glared at Angel, “Now why did you have to go and do that, Angel?!?” He demanded, “You crushed that girl, why would you lie to her like that?”
“What are you talking about? I didn’t lie! What did I lie about, Benny?!?”
“Nick saying he said she used him! I know you want to protect him, but that was crossing the fucking line! You really hurt her, God damn, I hate how conniving you can be sometimes!”
“I didn’t lie! He said he thought she was…yeah okay, I might have made it seem like it was more like a fact than a question, but you know what? I’m glad she’s hurt! Nick was drunk off his ass when I saw him because of what she did. And you know what? I’m not sorry! She’s not going to fuck up my brother and get away with it. Come on, let’s go.”
Benny groaned, feeling horrible for that girl. Angel went a step too far and that girl was devastated thinking Nick thought she was using him that whole time. He almost wanted to go find her and clear things up, but he knew it wasn’t his place, he didn’t want to get into it…he couldn’t. He didn’t want Nick to find out and then have him at his throat; he knew once he found out what Angel had done it was not going to be pretty….not pretty at all.
Kimberly had run into the public restroom and was sitting down on the toilet as she cried her bleeding heart out. She brushed her hair from her face and allowed the tears to freely run down her flushed cheeks. How could Nick really think that? HOW?!? She was so hurt and upset; she just didn’t know how to deal with this kind of pain. She grabbed her phone and scrolled down the names until it landed on his name and she pressed the call button. She was starting to feel nauseous, what was she going to say to him? Her voice was still broken and the tears were still flowing, but she couldn’t back out now. Thankfully she got his voice mail, should she just hang up? No, she wouldn’t. She was going to leave him a message.
She cleared her throat and as soon as it beeped for her to leave a message she cried her heart out to that voice mail, “Nick,” she said, in her broke voice. “You know I love you, I love you more than I have ever loved a man before and for you…God for you to even think so low of me…” her voice was choking as she sobbed into the phone. “I never used you, I need you to know that, I don’t know what it has to take for you to know that. But I can’t believe you would tell your sister what kind of person I am! And then have her come bully me while I was out! I get it, you hate me – I don’t blame you, I hate me too. And I swear to God, I will never bother you again, but I am begging you, please…don’t have Angel come and threaten me. Well…I – I guess there’s nothing left to say except….well I love you and I’m so sorry for all the damage I caused. Goodbye….have a great life.” She hung up the phone and dropped her head and wept, it hurt, hurt so bad. What she would give to make this pain go away. Her phone than rang and her heart jumped, what if it was him? But she saw it was Ashley and she could breathe again, “Hel –hello?”
“Kim!” Her voice was frantic, “Where are you?!? Are you okay?”
“Yeah…yeah, I’m fine,” she said, as she sniffled. “I just…I just needed to breathe for a second. I’m in the bathroom. Can we…can we just leave now?”
“Yeah, sweetie. I’m coming to you and then we can leave, okay?”
“Thanks,” she said, before her voice broke again and she hung up the phone and ran her hands through her hair. She had to get him out of her mind….it was over, really over. He hated her and she just had to learn to accept that.
Nick had to get some air so he left the house for a few hours, not even caring that he forgot his phone. He knew the only person to call him would be Angel and that was to bitch him out some more….or maybe the other guys. He didn’t need to deal with that. He went out to the store, bumped into a few fans; they were asking if he was okay, because they heard he was sick. Of course he had to play it up and told him he was getting better, but still didn’t feel all that hot. The fans were very kind…maybe too kind. There was a really cute one, but all he could do was think about her. It would have been so easy for him to make a move on her, it would have been so easy to take her back to his place, but he just couldn't. Kimberly was the only woman he wanted, the only one he needed.
He made it back to his place a little before sunset and collapsed down on the couch. He saw his phone was flashing, he didn’t even want to look, but he grabbed it anyway off the table and saw he had two missed calls. One number he had never seen before and the other one….it was….it was Kimberly! He saw he had a voice mail; his heart went into his throat as he hit the button to listen. And as he listened to it, he gripped the phone tightly and his heart slowly starting to shrivel up. She was crying so horribly it was almost difficult for him to understand her, but the parts he could...how the fuck could Angel do that?!? She thought he hated her? What did Angel say to her? How could his own sister do that? She knew how crazy he was about her still. He felt the anger take the best of him and he jumped up and grabbed his car keys and got into his car and sped down the highway, he was going to kill her, fucking kill her!
“So what do you want to watch?” Asked Angel, as she looked through the DVDs. Her and Benny decided to have a movie night and just snuggle on the couch. They hadn't done something like that in a while.
“I don’t care, as long as it ain’t no chick flick.”
She softly giggled, “Aw, so does that mean no Twilight?” She asked, in a teasing voice.
“Defiantly not!”
She laughed again and searched through the movies, but her heart went into her throat as there was a loud banging on the door. She stood up and looked alarmed as the banging continued.
Benny jumped off the couch and hurried towards the door to see what jackass was pounding on the door like that. Once he opened the door he saw that it was Nick and he had fury in his eyes, “Uh, Ni-Nick, what are you doing here?”
He glared at him, “Don’t give me that!” He barked, “Where the fuck is she?!?”
She’s not here,” he simply said. He knew Angel making that scene at the mall was not a good idea, he knew that it would get back to her brother. But did she ever listen to reason? No, of course not!
“Stop playing games with me.” Then without any warnings he shoved Benny aside and barged into the house, “ANGEL!!!” He screamed, as he marched into the apartment.
Her head shot to where she heard her voice from her brother’s loud angry voice. She felt her heart stop, she knew this was going to be ugly. She heard him stomping towards the living room and saw a fuming Nick. She swallowed hard, “He-hey. What’s up?”
He stormed over towards her until he was only an inch from her, “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO?!?”
Benny rushed into the living room, “Nick, calm the hell down!” He ordered, “Don’t yell at her like that.”
“Don’t yell at her like that?!?” He aggressively ran his hands through his hair and stared back at his sister, “Do you even have any idea what you have just done?!? What the fuck gave you the right to even see her? I knew you could be cruel, but I didn’t think you were a cold hearted bitch! I guess you really do take after, mom.”
Angel looked at him with hurtful eyes, “How could you even compare me to her? Look, I was just looking out for you before that slut hurt you even more.”
“Slut?!? Don’t fucking start with the name calling, Angel. What are you AJ?”
She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, “I was doing you a favor! She’s no good for you, Nick. Look what she did to you! She’s a user. I’m sorry she called you and you fell for her pity party, but you know what? I’m glad I said what I said – she needed to hear it!”
Nick could feel his jaw clench as his teeth grinded together, “You lied to her, Angel. You made her think I thought she was using me.”
“Well, you thought she was! You even told me that!”
“No I didn’t! I said I didn’t know, Angel! She thinks I fucking hate her! I love her either you like it or not and I am going to fix things with her! It’s my fucking life and I am getting sick and tired of you poking your nose where it doesn’t belong. So do us all a favor and just stay the fuck out of my business. Got it?!?”
“So you want me to just let girls use you, walk all over you?”
“Kim wasn’t using me, Angel! I was just being stupid. She never once bragged about who she was dating, she never once did any of that. Why do you hate her so much? Because she’s not a fucking model too?” He then sat down on the couch and ran his hands through his hair, “I love her….really love her and I want her back.” He glanced up at his sister with his swollen eyes, “And I don’t care if you don’t approve, but I need her.”
Angel let out a loud groan, “But why?” She demanded, as she sat down next to her brother, “I don’t want her hurting you again.”
“I’m the one that hurt her,” he mumbled. “I lied to her from the beginning…I should have just been honest with her.”
“Ugh, Nick. I just – I just don’t trust her.”
“And why not?” He demanded, “You liked her before. So why not now?”
“I don’t like how sad you were….”
“That wasn’t her fault, Ang.” Suddenly his phone rang and he felt his heart jump as he prayed it was her calling, but it wasn’t. It was an unknown number; the same one that called earlier. He picked it up, “Hello?”
“Nick, oh my God!” Said the female on the other line.
“Who is this?” He demanded in a thick voice.
“Oh, silly me,” giggled the girl. “It’s Laura.”
Laura? Why did that name sound so familiar…it then hit him, Kimberly’s roommate! “Laura?!? How did you get this number?”
“Kim’s stupid Backstreet photo.”
“Where is she?!?” He ordered, “Can I talk to her, please?!?”
“Are you serious?” Disgust filled her voice, “You and her really had a thing going on? My God…how could you want her, Nick? I mean, is your eye sight that bad?”
Nick inhaled heavily as he tried to control his temper, “No, my eye sight is just fine. Why are you so mean to her?”
“I’m not mean…”
“Yes, you are. I have to go….next time you see her, tell her I called and I really need to talk to her, it’s important.”
“Ugh, Nick. Just go out with me, then you’ll forget all about her.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he answered, in a hard voice.
“Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but Kim isn’t here. In fact she’s out on a date with some guy she met through her friend Ashley.”
“A date?” He felt like his heart got stabbed, “Well…tell her…tell her I called. And do me a favor, don’t call me again.” With that he hung up the phone and dropped his head; feeling like someone kicked him in the chest.
“Nick…who was that?” Wondered Angel.
“Kim’s roommate,” he murmured.
“What did she say?”
He looked up at his sister with sad eyes, “That she’s out on a date.” He felt liquid roll down his cheek, “I fucked up big time.”
Angel let out a loud sigh, “Maybe….maybe it’s for the best, Nick. I mean, if she’s already dating, it’s obvious she doesn’t care for you the way you care for her.”
He nodded and stopped up, “Yeah.” Although inside he knew it wasn’t for the best…it was for the worst. He wanted nothing more than to just be with her, to just hold her and tell her how terribly sorry he was. He loved her and would do anything to take back what happened that night….he would do anything to just go back in time and tell her the truth. “I’m gonna get going. Sorry I freaked like that, she was just crying so hard in that voice mail….it set me off.”
“She was crying?” Angel asked in disbelief.
He nodded, “Yeah, she was crying. Well, see ya around.”
Angel bit her bottom lip and stood up, “Nick?”
He turned around so that he was facing her, “Yeah?”
“I’m sorry….for well butting in your business, it is your life. I just love you and want you to be happy.”
“I know, Ang. And I know this may be hard to believe….but I’m happy with her.” With that said, he left.
Angel sat back down on the couch and looked up at Benny, “He’s really sad….”
“Do you blame him, Angie? He really loved her and it looks as though she didn’t love him. How would you take that?”
She sighed and looked down, “I just wish there was something I could do, you know?”
“Trust me, you’ve done enough.”
She nodded and pulled her knees up to her chin; wrapping her arms around her legs. She was a horrible sister. She felt tears filling up her eyes, “Can I fix this?” She wept.
Benny sat down on the couch and embraced her tightly, kissing her on top of the head, “He’ll be okay, baby. Don’t worry, he’s a big boy. He just needs time to himself.”
“I just feel I really messed things up. Do you think he hates me?”
“No, you know he doesn’t. He loves you, it’ll be okay. I promise.”
She looked up at him, “You really think so?”
“I know so, Angie.” He met his lips with hers and sweetly kissed her.
Angel wrapped her arms around her boyfriend and rested her head on his chest, “I love you,” she mumbled.
Nick pulled into his place and collapsed on a chair in the kitchen. His eyes were bloodshot from the tears. He needed a way to make Kimberly see he didn’t think so low of her, that he knew she wasn’t using him. He had to make her understand, he loved her so much and he wasn’t going to give her up without a fight.
