The grocery store…

She recognized him right away. It had been a long time since she’d laid eyes on him in person, but he wasn’t exactly something that anyone could forget. Her eyes trailed slowly over the back of his head, his hair was shorter, slightly darker too, but she knew if she touched it that it would still be as silky soft as ever. His waist had narrowed slightly, and she smiled as he squatted to see the items on the lowest shelf in front of him and she caught sight of his denim-covered rump. Smirking to herself she thought, "At least he kept that weight…"

She wondered how to approach him. Then momentarily her thoughts turned toward whether or not she should approach him at all. Her heart suddenly felt heavy as she considered the possibility that after so long he wouldn’t want her to approach him.

Turning to walk away, a magazine in a nearby checkout caught her eye and she had to smile. There he was, smiling back at her from the glossy cover of some random teen magazine. Reaching for the magazine she looked lovingly at his picture, he was still as stunning as ever. Looking up from his smile she looked back to see if he was still perusing the shelves of the grocery store, and when she saw that he was, she took a deep breath and approached him.

He was still crouched looking at assorted colorful boxes on the shelf and she smirked as she carefully positioned the magazine with his photograph in front of his eyes, "Excuse me, but do you know this man?"

She heard him let out a soft laugh and then he stood up taking the magazine from her hand looking down at it, "He looks familiar…" When his blue eyes met her brown ones he smiled a smile that matched the one on the magazine in his hands, "I can’t say I’ve seen him lately though…"

"Me neither…" she smiled up at him, all nervousness about talking to him having flown out of the automatic doors of the fluorescent lit store.

His smile didn’t fade as he opened his arms and pulled her into a long hug. A soft sigh left his mouth and tangled its way through her hair as he held her close making up for the time they’d spent apart. "Jesus Kel… it’s been way too long."

"I know…" she told him quietly as they pulled apart from the embrace.

"Eight months…"

She nodded and looked down at the package of Oreo’s in her hand before looking back up into his eyes, "How are you Nicky?"

"I’m okay…" he nodded. "I got your card back when my single hit radio… thanks…"

She nodded again, "Welcome… I wanted to call but wasn’t sure that I should…" her voice trailed off and her eyes left his nervously. "I really do love the song though… and I saw the video yesterday…"

"I’ll send over a CD for you… then you can hear all of it and let me know what you think."

"That would be good…" she smiled.

"You still with him?"

She nodded and watched his face for a reaction. When he moved his focus from her to the magazine again she spoke up softly, "He misses you, you know?"

"No he doesn’t…" he said quickly and picked up the grocery basket that had been sitting at his feet.

"Nick…" she sighed. "He does…"

"You know what, Kel? Don’t okay? Don’t be the in-between anymore. If he misses me so much then he needs to tell me that. I don’t need to hear it from you." His voice was harsher than he’d wanted it to be and with a sigh he shook his head, "Damn it… I’m sorry…" Frustrated with himself he ran a hand through his short hair and tried to smile at her, "I didn’t mean to be so… pissy, with you."

"It’s okay…"

"No, it’s not…" he said and bent his head down trying to make eye contact with her until she smiled at him. He smiled too, "How about we stick to how you are?"

She chuckled and nodded, "Okay…"

"Is that an okay meaning you’re okay, or an okay meaning we can talk about you?"

"Both…" she chuckled.

"Cool…"

"So what’s a big star like you doing in a grocery store in the middle of the night?"

"Buying macaroni and cheese…" he chuckled as he showed her the inside of his basket.

"Holy shit…" she laughed as she saw for the first time that his basket was nearly full of Kraft boxes. "How much do you need?"

"I just got back into town and well… you know how I am…" he laughed.

She giggled and nodded, "Still haven’t learned to cook huh Carter?"

"Nah… my best friend kept promising to teach me the basics, but I haven’t seen her in a while so…"

Another somewhat awkward silence drifted between them and she nodded, "You know, I never meant to… well I, I just didn’t…"

"Kel…" he said putting his hand on her arm.

"It’s been so hard you know?" she said looking up to him, her eyes pleading him to understand. "I just didn’t know how to open the door back up with us… especially since you’re not even talking to AJ anymore… Nicky I never wanted this all to happen."

"I know…" he said with his hand still on her arm. "And I stayed away because as much as I miss you, I don’t want to cause any trouble between you and him. I just had to believe that you’d come back some day… and when I got your card congratulating me on the single, I knew that I was doing the right thing."

She nodded and bit her bottom lip, "I’m sorry Nicky… I should have been there with you…"

"He needed you more than I did…" he told her and used his fingers to tip her head up toward his. When her misty eyes met his he smiled, "How about we get out of here? We can go grab something to eat, that isn’t mac and cheese," he laughed. "And get caught up on each others lives."

"That," she said with a smile, "sounds wonderful…"

Minutes later after they’d both made their purchases and then crossed the parking lot by foot to the all night diner they’d frequented together many times before, they looked over menus and talked softly.

"You need to call home and tell him where you are? It’s pretty late…"

Kel shook her head as her eyes moved over the menu, "It’s very late… but I don’t need to call home. He’s in Los Angeles…" She looked up with a smile, "Some co-hosting thing and then he has a bunch of charity stuff to do."

"How come you didn’t go with him?"

"Just didn’t feel like it…" she shrugged. "We were in LA until about three weeks ago for two months. I don’t really like it out there very much. So when he told me that he had to go back for another two weeks, I decided to just stay home alone for a change."

Nick nodded and smiled, "Then you craved some Oreo’s in the middle of the night…"

"Exactly," she smiled back. "Lucky for me you happened to crave macaroni at the same time huh?"

"Very…" he chuckled. "So when does he get back?"

She looked at her watch to see exactly what time of day it was, "Well, counting today? Um… ten days…" Nick nodded again and looked back to his menu with a smile. She cocked her head smiling at him and shook her head, "What’s the smile for?"

He shrugged, his eyes staying on the menu, "Ten days I get to spend with you…"

They ate greasy food and drank shakes until the sun came up. Laughing and trading stories, old and new, with one another as if the time they’d spent apart never happened. When they finally left the diner and walked slowly to their cars he grabbed her hand and held it in his. She smiled at the simple action and drifted back to all of the times he’d done the same before.

Nick had been her friend, best friend, for years. So many years she almost lost track of how many. A mere six months apart in age, they were so much alike it often scared bystanders. It was that similarity that kept them so close over the years however. Only someone who knew you inside and out could hold the title of best friend, and for each other, Nick and Kel did that. He could read her verbal and non-verbal language like an old familiar book, and she knew every little thing that set him off, good and bad. Knowing each other so well was probably what kept each of them from losing their faith in one another when they’d spent eight months apart for the first time in their friendship, and had severed all ties between the two. Nick knew in his heart, or at least hoped, that their friendship was strong enough to see them through the unplanned hiatus that they’d taken. Kel, meanwhile, told herself the same, and hoped that the day that they did reunite he’d welcome her back into his life without any trouble.

He’d done just that, as they’d re-bonded over cheese fries and watched the sun rise through the window of that brightly-lit diner. When they reached their cars, most of the weight that eight months apart from one another had left on their shoulders had dissipated, and their smiles had returned.

"So…" he smiled down at her as she leaned up against her car feeling the morning dew slowly seeping through her shirt from the surface of her car.

"So…"

"Have dinner with me tonight… I promise not to cook…"

Kel smiled and shook her head, "I should hope not… I think I had enough cheese on those fries back there to keep me happy for a month…"

Nick chuckled and ran his hands over her arms as he noticed the goosebumps on her skin from the chill of the morning, "We’ll go out and just have fun… keep talking… I missed our long conversations about nothing…"

"So have I…" she smiled and loved the way that his hands were warming her skin. "Pick me up at seven?"

"Definitely…" he smiled and kissed her forehead gently. "Now go home and get some sleep young lady… staying up all night with some boy… I can’t believe you…" he chuckled doing a perfect imitation of her mother from when they were teenagers.

She giggled and reached out to hug him, "I swear mom, all we did was talk…" They laughed together over the memory and then shared a friendly kiss, "I’ll see you tonight then…"

"Yes you will…"

"Sleep sweet, Nicky…"

"You too, girlie… and Kel?"

"Yeah?" she smiled looking up at him.

"Welcome back… to my life…"

She smiled and nodded as she pressed the unlock button on her key fob, "Glad to be back…"