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Chapter Seventy-Eight
Point of View: Kayla

I laid in bed, staring at a picture I'd taken of Nick one of the days we'd hung out together. He was smiling in it. It seemed like years ago instead of days or weeks. It felt like millennia since I'd hugged him, rather than 72 hours.

Even longer since he'd laid right here behind me in this bed, his body so closely pressed against mine, his shirt off, his chest bared, my fingers running over him, trying to seduce him...

I wanted so badly to be over there, pressed against him like that again right now.

If he wasn't under house arrest, I'd be there right now.

"Kayla are you ready to go see Nick?" Aunt Zoe called up the stairs. If you only freaking knew, Auntie Z, I thought, closing my eyes.

"Yes!" I called, "Be right down!"

I got up and pulled a baggy shirt on over my head, figuring this would maybe keep him from looking at my body the way he usually did, the way that made me want to jump on him and be with him in every way possible every time his eyes fluttered across me.

I was burning up, ever since the day we'd almost but hadn't.

And now I couldn't even hug him.

By the time all this was over and we finally got time alone, I was going to explode with sexual frustration over this guy.

Zoe and I drove over there, my mind still shamefully settled on dirty things I wanted to do to Nick. Zoe was gnawing her lower lip. The Prius inched through the crowd of paparazzi and the gates closed behind us. Zoe drove around the fountain. Brian's SUV was already parked there. The Prius came to a stop right behind it.

"Is he allowed to have this many guests?" Zoe worried.

"I wanna see him," I answered, "So I hope so." I started up the walkway and Zoe got her crutches out and followed along behind me. She caught up quickly.

When we knocked on the front door, the officer opened it tentatively. He glanced behind him, then shrugged and let us in. Brian and Nick were sitting on either side of a folding table that had been set up in the foyer with two plastic chairs - the one Nick was on, and the one Brian was on. Nick looked up when Zoe and I stepped inside and his eyes lit up. "Hey," he said.

Brian got up out of the chair on his side of the table and gestured for Zoe to sit down. She smiled gratefully, and lowered herself into the plastic chair, resting her crutches against the table. Nick, too, got up and pushed his chair around the table, not actually coming around himself, to me.

Our hands brushed as he gave it to me, and the tingle ran up my arm and made my heart spasm out of control. "Oh," I gasped.

Nick looked at me, a small smirk on his face, and licked his lips. His eyes swept me. The baggy t-shirt didn't work. He swallowed and his eyes met mine, smoldering.

Nick was feeling the same way.

I'm pretty sure we were both ruing not having done it like rabbits when we had the chance that day.

"Are you feeling any better Nick?" Zoe asked.

Nick snapped out of his reverie of staring at me to focus on Zoe. He knelt down on his side of the table to be on eye level with her as I sat down on the chair. Brian crouched between us, arms over the backs of the chairs to keep him up.

"I'm okay," Nick answered, his eyes flickering to me, "Yeah."

I felt Brian glance at me knowingly, and he looked back at Nick and sighed.

"Have you boys contacted a lawyer?" Zoe asked.

"Yes," Brian said, "I've been working on that. It's complicated. That's what we were just talking about, actually, trying to figure out." He fell silent.

"Try to figure what out?" I asked.

"What to do," Nick replied.

"Prove you're not guilty," I said plainly, as though this was obvious. Which it was.

Nick sighed, "It's more complicated than that, Kay," he said.

Zoe leaned back, "They can't seriously think you would do this."

"Well they do," Nick said.

Brian cleared his throat, "It's hard because the evidence is all there."

"What evidence?" I demanded, "She died before he even got there. This is stupid."

"Tire tracks, drugs, my admission that I was there at all," Nick shook his head, "It's stupid because we know the truth, but for people trying to prove I did it, it's obvious."

Zoe nodded. "Do you have proof of suicidal tendencies? Hospital records? Anything?"

Nick shook his head. "She was always very clean about it. Krystal was one of those girls that did it right the first time. She wasn't one to botch up and get caught up in it."

"That's a sign that she was serious about it," Zoe said.

I rubbed my hands on my knees, they were getting clammy. Nick looked at me, his eyes flitting to my hands on my legs, inching up slowly until they'd glazed over my crotch slowly, then moved quickly to my eyes, a microscopically sized smirk crawling onto his face.

"We need to find proof," said Brian, "Someone who witnessed the tendency besides Nick."

I stared at Nick's sparkling blue eyes.

"Maybe a family member?" asked Zoe.

"There's gotta be someone..." Brian muttered.

"I couldn't think of anyone," Nick answered, "She wasn't very close to a lot of people."

"Because she was a backstabber," Zoe muttered.

Betrayal. The word echoed in my mind.

"What about that guy she dated?" I asked, remembering reading the article online. "The one when Nick was in rehab."

"Dennis," said Nick slowly.

I shook my head, "No, it was like.. weird. It was a latin sounding name."

"Demarco?" he tilted his head like a dog, thinking.

Zoe and Brian looked at us.

"The dancer guy," I said, trying to prompt Brian.

"Dick?" he asked.

"Yeah," Nick said, nodding, "Definitely he was a huge one."

"I meant is that his name," Brian said, rolling his eyes.

"Oh." Nick looked sheepish. "I dunno. I don't think that's it."

I closed my eyes, trying to remember the guy's name. I could see him in my mind. He looked a lot like Ricky Ricardo, only buffed up and unshaven.

Ricky Ricardo.

"Desi," I said, "like Desi Arnez, but not."

Zoe, Brian and even Nick looked at me in surprise.

"What?" I said defensively, "Once upon a time I loved Krystal's music. She was the next Madonna. I read a ton of interviews with her."

Brian stood up, "So Desi, huh? Any clue what the guy's last name is?"

We all stared at each other.

"A tour book," Nick said. "Krystal's tour book." He jumped up and ran up the stairs. The cop looked torn between going after him and staying where he was to look after us three. Finally, he decided to stay put.

Nick returned a moment later, chucking a glossy book onto the table between the four of us. On the cover was a really suggestive photograph of Krystal laying in a pristine white bed, contorted in a really dirty position. The only costume she wore was the long leather strap that they twined around her to create the illusion of a final actual outfit. "All the dancers names are gonna be in here," Nick said.

Brian grabbed the book and opened the cover. There were some.. uh.. well, interesting? photos of Krystal inside. Brian winced and shoved the book into my hands. "I can't look at that," he said, "it's like cheating on my wife."

I flipped the pages, looking for the cast and crew list. Nick leaned over the table as far as he dared, Brian covered his eyes and Zoe looked over Brian's head as I flipped. "She didn't wear much, did she?" Zoe commented, looking up at Nick.

Nick hesitated, "Well... yanno."

Zoe looked at me, "Just so you know, if you ever dress like that young lady..."

"Yes Zoe, I know, you'll kill me dead," I said, laughing.

"Damn straight I'll kill you dead," she said, "Like Raid on an ant farm."

Brian snorted out a laugh. Nick laughed, too. I rolled my eyes, Zoe had been saying that line for years, I was quite used to it.

I stopped on the page we were seeking. The opposite page had a picture of Krystal - clearly naked, but wrapped in a thin purple strip of fabric that only just covered the important parts, with a pair of stilettos and that bracelet of hers being the only other thing on her curvy body. I dragged my fingernail down the list of production and crew members.

"Male Dancers," I read aloud. "Drew, Scott, Leonardo, Mark, Phil, Wallace, Teddy, Alex and Dustin." I looked up. "No Desi."

Nick blinked.

"What? Seriously?" Brian started to looked over, saw the opposite page, and quickly turned and covered his eyes again, "Dude, Nick, did she ever wear clothing?"

Nick smirked, "Well to be honest..."

"Answer wisely, Carter," I said.

His smirk fell off. "Clothing everyday. All the time clothing."

Zoe laughed. I shook my head. "So... No Desi. Now what?"

"Maybe she hired him after the book was printed," Nick suggested.

"Maybe his name isn't actually Desi," Brian said.

"Curiouser and curiouser," muttered Zoe, quoting the book Alice in Wonderland.

We all sat in silence, and I closed the book, not wanting to stare at Krystal anymore. Seeing her wrapped in nothing but purple silk like that had made me realize how not... well, Krystal-like my body was, and the awful comparisons Nick would be forced to make when we finally got together.

And apparently, the way he'd smirked, they'd had a lot of sex to set the standard that I now had to live up to eventually.

I wasn't gonna eat real food for a few weeks. Lettuce and that's it, I swear it.