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Chapter Twenty-Two

Nick was out the door and to the driveway before Brian had even cut the ignition. When he opened the truck door, he hit Nick in the gut by accident, having not seen his descent on the truck. Nick, however, only stumbled back a couple feet, clutching his stomach, and was not deterred from his original mission, despite Brian's profuse apologies.

"What happened?" Nick demaned, yelping over Brian's voice.

Brian stopped apologizing and looked stunned a second, shook his head - trying to clear the weirdness of Nick out - and stammered, "Happened?"

"Yeah," Nick raised an eyebrow. "What went down?" He glanced at the truck, as though expecting to see evidence of the evening all over it.

Brian paused. "We... went to get ice cream... we talked..." he shrugged. "She pet the goat."

Nick looked simultaneously interested and disgusted. "The goat?"

"At the ice cream place."

Nick's face contorted. "At the ice cream place?" he asked, "Dude, weren't there like kids there?"

Brian stared at Nick for a long moment before it dawned on him who he was talking to. "The goats is an animal Nick, not a perverse innuendo."

Nick looked crestfallen. "Oh." Brian rolled his eyes and started to walk toward the house. Nick trotted after him, "So alls you did was eat ice cream and talk?" he asked. "You paid off her medical bills and you didn't even get laid?"

Brian stopped short and looked at Nick, "You're sick," he said.

Nick shook his head, "Dude, you paid off her medical bills, she owes you more then an ice cream cone. You aren't a boy scout."

"Actually," Brian hesitated, then changed his mind. "Nevermind."

"What? Actually what?" Nick demanded. Brian shook his head. Nick's mind rewound the last couple sentences they'd said and snapped two and two together. "You paid tonight, didn't you?"

"That's what gentlemen do!" Brian retorted.

"I let Lauren pay for dinner all the time!" Nick replied.

"Exactly like I said," Brian snapped back, "That's gentlemen do."

"No," Nick answered, "That's what dudes trying to get the girl do." He eyeballed Brian. "You still love her, don't you?"

"Shut the fuck up," Brian took the steps of the porch two at a time, practically leaping, and wrenched the door open. Nick's long legs enabled him to catch up quickly, though, and soon Brian felt his tall blonde friend breathing down his neck as he rounded the living room doorway and found Lauren sitting in a chair reading a book. She looked up as the two boys came in and Brian dropped onto the sofa. Nick stayed standing.

Lauren's eyebrow raised at Nick's expression of triumph and Brian's flared nostrils. Especially as Brian leaned his head back and groaned, clutching his forehead like he had a severe migraine. "Either of you want to tell me what went on?"

"Brian's in love with the girl he went on a date with tonight," Nick replied, his voice smug.

"It wasn't a date," Brian groaned.

"He paid," Nick supplemented.

Lauren looked at Nick. "We go on dates all the time and you don't pay --"

"That's what I said!" Nick cried.

"-- the guy paying doesn't neccessarily make it a date anymore," Lauren didn't even stop when Nick interrupted, "Maybe it did in the fifties, but not anymore."

"It wasn't a date," Brian said again.

"But he loves her," Nick said. "He said so."

"Actually I said to shut the fuck up was what I said," Brian pointed out.

Nick shook his head, "Same thing."

Lauren rolled her eyes at Nick, dog-eared her book, and dropped it onto the table beside her before kneeling on the couch beside Brian. She tilted her head to look at his eyes. "Ignore Nick," she said quietly, gently. "What's the matter?"

Brian took a deep, shaking breath. "I miss Leighanne," he whispered.

Nick threw himself into the chair Lauren had just vacated. Pleased it was still warm from her body heat, he nestled into it and sat on his hands, watching Lauren and Brian closely, feeling a bit helpless. He chewed his lip. He also felt a little guilty. He hadn't realized Bri was still feeling bad about Leighanne... if he had, he wouldn't have pushed the Emma thing so hard.

"I know you do sweetheart," Lauren said quietly. She put a hand on Brian's arm in a comforting sort of way. "It's going to be okay."

"She had an abortion," Brian choked the words out.

Lauren paused, unsure who Brian was talking about.

"Emma was pregnant. I got Emma pregnant before I left... and she never told me," he covered his eyes with his hands, "She didn't feel like she could because I was gone in Florida for the band and she didn't want me to - to abandon all that, and..." he felt his throat closing up, words becoming harder to get out without squeaking.

"Dude, you knocked up a chick?" Nick's voice piped in.

"Nickolas," Lauren snapped, turning to wave a hand at him as though she were smacking him away, like a fly.

"What!?" Nick asked, incredulous, "It's a legitimate question!"

"It's rude," Lauren scolded, turning back to Brian.

Nick stuck out his tongue as soon as Lauren's back was turned.

But in the exchange, Brian had started to laugh. It was exactly what he'd envisioned Nick would say when he told him. His head felt like it was swimming in some kind of crazy laughing gas and tears came to his eyes as he laughed so hard and silently that his stomach started to ache. He clutched his stomach.

From the outside, it looked like he was crying. Lauren was perplexed, "Oh my God, don't cry Brian, Nick's mouth is too big for his own good. It's okay..." She turned back to Nick, who was now sitting forward in his seat, concerned at the word cry and staring at Brian with wide eyes. "See what you did, you heartless wildebeast?" she demanded.

"What I did?" Nick sounded affronted but he knew it was his fault.

"Yes, you -- You and your big impossible mouth... running off like you were raised by wolves or something..."

"I might as well've been raised by wolves!" Nick snapped.

This was only making Brian laugh harder and he finally managed a strangled guffaw.

"Dude seriously don't cry," Nick said, standing up and coming over.

"You're -- you're ridiculous..." Brian wheezed the words and finally the outburst of laughter came and Lauren looked shocked.

She looked up at Nick. "You've finally done it," she said, "You've made him go crazy."