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Chapter Forty-One
Point of View: Nick

"So... how's those driving lessons doing?" Brian asked about an hour and a half after I'd been talking to Zoe. He was driving me to my appointment with Dr. Haseltine, and I hadn't briefed him on my house or the visit from the police just yet. Zoe had cancelled the drive so that I could wait for them and talk to them before the appointment, and she'd stayed there and wandered around the downstairs, clucking her tongue. When the cops had come, she'd told them about Krystals's attitude the day before.

"They're going okay," I answered.

Brian puckered out his lower lip as if to say 'eh' and said, "What about the instructor? I thought you hated her?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, I guess she's kind of growing on me a little. She's okay. I mean I don't particularly like her, she's just okay. Her niece is hot, though."

Brian laughed. "How on earth did you meet her niece?" he asked.

"When I went over her place last night," I answered, "I did the Spiderman visits Wal-Mart thing with them."

Brian rolled his eyes, "You did that again?" he chuckled, "Nick, Wal-Mart's gonna stop letting you through the doors, like the whole chain, I swear..."

"Dude, do you have any clue how much spinach I have sold to little kids? Wal-Mart owes me their spike in spinach sales."

"Oh I'm sure thats a lot, too. Come to think of it, if they stop Spidey from coming, the company might fold because they didn't get those spinach sales. You're right, Nick, you've got no reason to worry."

I laughed and smirked, then changed the subject before it could turn back to Zoe, and thereby possibly back to the house, which I didn't quite wanna tell Brian about yet. "So... how's the rental place?" I asked.

"It's nice. Baylee hates that it doesn't have a pool, but I'm actually glad. My toes were getting to be waterlogged while we were at your place - I think he came out of the pool for a grand total of about fifteen minutes there," Brian said, "Besides... basket ball court, man! We should shoot some hoops after your appointment."

"I can't today, bro," I said, knowing he was about to ask me why. I sighed.

Brian pouted, "Aw man, how come?" he smirked, "You to afraid that I'd B-Rokkin' you all over the court? Huh??" His smile was bright and ridiculously huge. He hadn't used that phrase since like... I dunno, 1998? It made me laugh. "Seriously, what's up?"

"I have some, um, cop-guys coming," I said, "This afternoon, to um, assess..." I mumbled the rest too quietly for him to really hear.

"Cops? Assess? Assess what?" Brian's eyebrows puckered in concern as he wheeled the car through the parking lot of the hospital, trying to find a parking space.

"Don't freak out, okay?" I said quietly.

Brian looked really, really concerned now. "Why? What'd you do? Nick, you didn't drink did you?"

"No!" I snapped, "I slept on the lawn so I wouldn't drink." I'm still not quite sure how that helped, but it sounded good. Like an extreme. I folded my arms over my chest.

Brian put his blinker on and waited for a woman with three toddlers to load them into her car so he could take her space. He turned to me while we waited, "What do you mean, you slept on the lawn? What happened?"

"Okay, so the day before yesterday, when you moved out, that was the last day of Krystal's tour," I said it all in one gasping mouthful, "And yesterday she showed up at the house thinking we were moving in together, like we never broke up." I stopped and tucked my lower lip under my teeth, waiting for the explosion.

"KRYSTAL was there?" Brian asked, his face reddening, "Oh my Lord." He turned to face forward, his hands gripping the wheel. "Nick she is so bad for you," Brian started, but I cut him off.

"I know that," I said, "I realize that now. I didn't before, but I do now."

"Good," Brian responded heatedly.

"That's why I kicked her out," I explained. "It's just... well, then I left to go see Zoe last night, and while I was gone, she -" I paused, "She kind of came back."

The Dodge Caravan the mother and toddlers had gotten into backed out and Brian swooped into the parking space and cut the engine, turning in his seat to stare at me. "She came back?"

I nodded.

"And?"

"Well, she was really high, and really pissed, and..." I took a deep breath, "She basically destroyed everything in the house." I imagined the ruins that made up everything I owned, basically, and sighed. "I mean literally everything."

Brian's face was aghast. Like he literally had no idea how to respond to my words. "So the cops?" Brian nodded, "Good, you reported it."

"Yeah," I nodded. I was glad I had, though I was nervous about it. Zoe had talked me into calling them, though. It sounds stupid, and I probably am crazy because of it, but I didn't want to get Krystal in trouble. I didn't want to ruin her life or her career by having word of it get out. I just didn't feel vengeful toward her, as I probably should've.

Brian reached for the door handle and got out of the car. I followed him and we started walking across the parking lot. We were halfway to the door when he stopped and looked at me. "What good did sleeping on the lawn do?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged, "I didn't have to try to pick through the remains of my room that way, I just got to go to sleep. I got a blanket first from the living room, of course, but..." I shrugged, "I just knew last night if I'd gone back in and looked at like my studio or my room, I was going to break down."

Brian nodded, "Okay. That makes sense."

He walked with me up to Dr. Haseltine's office and sat down in a chair in the hall to wait while I knocked on the door and the familiar, Chicken-hunger-inducing face of Dr. Haseltine opened and ushered me in, smiling.

I flung myself down into the usual spot, and looked at his goldfish. It was hanging out between some reeds in the corner of the tank. "Good morning, Nick," Dr. Haseltine said happily, "Do you have your journal with you?"

I looked at him, "No," I answered, "I don't." I paused, that sounded like I just didn't care about the treatment. "I'm sorry," I added, "My uh- my exgirlfriend, she um -" I paused, "I dunno, she wrecked it."

Dr. Haseltine frowned.

"That and like my entire house... I dunno." I shifted my eyes away from his face.

"When did this happen?" he asked.

"Yesterday," I answered.

Dr. Haseltine hesitated. "Nick. Look at me."

I looked up and our eyes connected and I could feel him searching them, checking for traces of a hangover. It was a long, intense moment, I didn't usually let people look into my eyes this long - I couldn't handle it, it was too intrusive. I've never liked it. I finally had to turn away and return my gaze to the wall.

"I'm proud of you," Dr. Haseltine said, sitting back. "Now, tell me how you did it."

I looked towards him, but not really at him. I focused on one of those metal ball bouncy thingies on his desk and leaned forward, grabbing the end ball and starting the chain reaction up. I watched them do a couple rotations before I said, "I fell asleep on the lawn in a Spiderman costume after selling spinach to a little kid."

Dr. Haseltine blinked. "What?"

I held up an imaginary can of spinach, and in my Spidey voice said, "Spiderman gets all his vitamin K by eating spinach! You should eat spinach, too!" When Dr. Haseltine was still blinking at me, I added, "I was at Wal-Mart, with my driving instructor, showing her it's not scary when people stare at you."

Dr. Haseltine continued to blink for another couple seconds and he rubbed the back of his neck as he sat back. "Okay, I'm really hoping this story makes more sense when you tell it in detail, because right now I'm considering sending you upstairs."

I laughed and smiled, reaching out to stop the metal ball thingy because it was annoying me. "Yeah, it does, I promise."