[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter Three


I woke up a couple hours later, half expecting to find Nick sitting on my chest because it felt so weighed down. But my chest was free and clear of Nick or any other sort of large elephantish creatures. I grimmaced and rolled out of bed, sitting up in the dark. I flicked on a lamp and found Nick's bed still made. He wasn't even back yet from eating. I wondered how long he'd been gone. I glanced at the digital alarm clock next to the bed and realized it was only 11:30.

I stood up, and laid a hand over my chest. It felt like my chest would rip open at the center if I didn't hold it shut, the pressure was so great. I hobbled weakly to the bathroom and stared at myself in the mirror, turning on the faucet. My lips were dry. I cupped my hand and slurped water into my mouth and splashed my face, taking deep breaths. I was just tired, I told myself, all the stress from the plane and Nick whining and everything. It wasn't anything to worry about. I rubbed my chest lengthwise with the heel of my hand and wandered back to the main room, still feeling tight.

I hauled my duffle bag onto the bed and unzipped it and rooted around until I'd found the small bottle of baby aspirin that I always kept on hand. I took the last couple pills from the bottle and tossed it into the trash bin beside the dresser, making a mental note to buy more. It seemed like I'd just bought that bottle. But I hadn't needed it that often, had I, that I'd run out of it that quickly? I must've bought something else and have it confused with the aspirin, I thought.

I sat down on the bed and turned on the TV, flipping through the channels, bored. I wished it wasn't so late, I'd call Leighanne, but it was really too late to do that. I should've called her before I fell asleep. I was sort of rethinking my choice not to eat, now, too, but it was also too late for that. I leaned back into my pillows and watched The Rugrats on Nickelodeon absentmindedly. It was the episode when Chuckie has a bug named Melvin and Tommy has to baby sit it and it dies and Phil and Lil want to eat the bug, then Chuckie finds out and thinks Tommy killed the bug and they have a bug funeral. I've seen like every episode of the Rugrats ever made.

I was just about asleep again when the bedside phone rang. I picked it up. "Mr. Littrell?" came a deep voice.

"Yes?"

"This is the front desk, you have a phone call. One moment I'll patch it through."

"Thanks," I replied. A moment later, there was a click. "Hello?" I asked.

"Hello Brian," it was Leighanne. I felt like the weight of the world was crawling off me and my chest actually loosened up it seemed. I sat up and muted the TV, grinning to myself. "How are you?" she asked, "Make it to Montreal okay, I take it?"

"Hey baby," I said. "Yeah we made it okay. I'm sorry I didn't call you before, I was really tired and fell asleep almost immediately after walking through the door."

"I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" she asked, concerned.

"No, actually, I was watching the Rugrats."

Leighanne laughed. "At midnight?"

"They have a weekend long marathon this week," I answered. "So you can get your fill of Chuckie and the gang," I added, in Chuckie's voice.

Leighanne was still laughing, "I can't believe you can do that voice."

"I can do a ton of voices," I replied in Donald Duck's voice.

"You're a man of many talents, Mr. Littrell," Leighanne said.

I grinned up at the ceiling. "Did you have a good day?" I asked.

"Yeah, I got a part in this commercial, I'm kind of excited about doing that," she said offhandedly. "I spent the day painting actually today."

"Painting?" I asked.

"Yeah, I went to this yard sale and they had this old coffee table for like five bucks. So I bought it and sanded it down and spray painted it, then hand painted some flowers and designs on it. It looks pretty cool now."

"Sounds cool."

"Yeah I also got some clothes there I'm going to alter." Leighanne loved doing alterations to clothes. She was always buying this vintage stuff and like taking the sleeves off it or adding stuff to it or whatever. I told her she should design stuff for a living but she always insisted it was just a hobby. "Was the flight smooth?" she asked.

I was still rubbing my chest. "Yeah," I replied, "It was okay. I slept through most of it, though."

"You must be really tired, sleeping through most of a flight, then again when you land?" she asked.

"Well you know, holiday stress and I've been busy," I shrugged. "Plus Nick exhausts me sometimes..." I told her about him not getting the Six Flags joke at first. She laughed. "He's such a pain in the ass sometimes," I said.

Leighanne laughed, "He's your best friend. He's seventeen, he's going to be a pain in the ass."

"That's what we said when he was sixteen and fifteen. And fourteen. And, come to think of it, thirteen, too."

"Maybe he'll always be a pain in the ass."

"Probably," I laughed, "Someday, the guy's gonna be thirty-three and still pissing me off."

"Probably," Leighanne agreed.

"That'll be weird," I commented. "When he's thirty-three, I'll have known him for twenty years."

"Time flies," Leighanne replied.

"Get used to him. He'll probably move out of his parents house and into ours," I joked.

Leighanne laughed, "We'll get a house with a garage with an apartment over it and have it modelled to his specifications."

She said we, I thought to myself and my mouth went dry. Leighanne said we would get a house with a garage and all that. We. That meant she was planning on being around that far into my future. I wasn't sure if that made me feel good or not. It scared me, and I realized my chest was tight again. I rubbed it with the heel of my hand. Well why not we? I thought. It was a good thing, it meant she liked me enough to think about the future. And where was the future going with Leighanne and I? I wondered. And I realized suddenly that I'd said ours. Not mine, but ours moments before she'd said we. That meant that, despite the panic attack I was now having, the idea had originated in my head not hers.

"Brian?" Leighanne asked.

"What? Yes, sorry," I said.

"I miss you," she said suddenly.

"I miss you too," I answered.

Leighanne sighed, "I feel like I never get to see you. You were barely home over Christmas..."

"I know," I replied.

"You work too much," she said sadly.

"We have a break coming up in February and March," I reminded her, "And then we go to Europe. Europe's gonna be great. I have a couple days off during the tour we can go sight seeing together." I grinned just thinking about how nice it would be to relax in a foreign country with my beautiful girlfriend. I pictured us wandering the streets of Barcelona.

"I wish we were there now," she said longingly.

"Me, too," I answered.

Suddenly the room door banged open and Nick came in, exaggeratedly tip-toeing. He was clutching a white plastic bag. He glanced over when he realized the light was on and said, "Hey you're up. I got you food." He held the bag up for me to see.

"I hear Nick," Leighanne said, "Tell him I said hi."

I pointed at the phone, "You're so loud that Leighanne heard you all the way from Orlando."

Nick looked at the clock. "What is she calling at midnight for?" He frowned.

"She says hi," I told him.

"Yeah hi," Nick replied. He sullenly started unpacking the bag of food that he'd brought back.

"He says hi," I told Leighanne, though I said it more excitedly than Nick had.

"Yeah I heard him," Leighanne replied. She sighed, "I won't keep you on the phone. You should go hang out with him. It's late anyways."

"No it's okay," I answered quickly. I didn't want her to get upset. Nick was glowering at me.

Leighanne laughed at my quick response. "Brian, it's okay. I get it. You're with the guys right now. I understand." I could hear the smile in her voice. "Besides, I'll have you all to myself soon enough."

Nick was not gonna like that.

"That you will," I replied. Because you know, I was going to like that.

"I love you Brian," she said into the phone.

"Love you too Leigh," I replied.

She made kissy noises into the phone. "Goodnight baby."

"Goodnight." We both sat silently, waiting for the other person to hang up. "You hang up first," I said, laughing.

"No you hang up," she replied.

Nick's mouth was moving, silently mocking our ritual of arguing about hanging up.

"No you," I answered, ignoring Nick.

"You."

"Okay at the same time?" I suggested. "One... two... three..."

Nick reached over and hit the little pegs in the cradle, disconnecting the phone. He stared at me. "I couldn't handle round two," he explained. He held out a white styrofoam container to me. "Here, eat."

"Well now she thinks I hung up on her," I complained.

"Dude, I was gonna do it next round anyways, I just did it sooner than usual." He sat down on his bed as I reluctantly hung up the receiver and opened the container. "You guys have been mushier than usual lately, it's kinda gross." He laid back on the bed.

He'd gotten be a burger and some fries. I shoved a fry into my mouth, thankful that he'd thought of me. The fries were cold but I wasn't picky. I contemplated what Nick had said, about us being mushier than usual, and shrugged. "I think..." I started, but stopped.

Nick sat up. "You think what?"

I took a deep breath, "I think I might ask her to marry me," I said.

Nick was looking at me like I was growing a giant purple horn in the center of my forehead or something. "What in the hell would you do that for?" he demanded.

"Because that's what people do when they're in love," I said.

Nick rolled his eyes and flopped back on to the bed again. "You're insane. You know most marriages end in divorce?"

"That doesn't mean mine will," I replied.

Nick sighed and shook his head. "Marriage sucks anyways. Everyone fights and theres kids and they fight and nobody can pay the bills and theres responsibilities and you have to take the trash out every other night." He twisted and put his feet up on the wall. "I'm telling you, marriage is not what you think it is."

"And how many times have you been married, Nick?" I asked.

"None," he replied, and he pointed at me, "And I'm smart enough to know that I plan to keep it that way."

"You'll change your tune when you find the right girl," I said. I picked up my burger and half the lettuce fell out into the styrofoam container. I started picking it up and shoving it back under the bun.

Nick shook his head, "Nope. I won't change my tune. I'm serious. I'm never gonna get married."

"You will someday," I answered. "And you'll have kids and you'll be good at it."

Nick rolled his eyes. "I'm never having kids either. I'd probably drop them and break them." He shuffled his feet against the wallpaper, staring up at them. "Besides I'd make a shitty dad."

"You really wouldn't," I replied.

"I think it's hereditary," he replied, "Carters are just shitty dads is all."

"It's not hereditary," I said. "This burger is good," I added, trying to change the subject.

Nick rolled to look at me. "You're only twenty-two," he said, ignoring my burger comment. "That's really young to get married."

"I'm almost twenty-three," I pointed out, "And we'd be engaged for probably a year. So I'd be twenty-four by the time we actually got married."

Nick sighed. "It's a dumb idea, I'm telling you. Besides, do you really wanna spend the rest of your life with Boob-Job Barbie?" he asked.

"I really wish you'd call her by her name," I said.

"I'm sorry, but Boob-Job Barbie was what was on her box when you brought her home," he said, snarky.

I threw a french fry at him. It bounced off his face and landed on the comforter beside him. He picked it up and shoved it in his mouth. "Seriously, man," I said, "I'd really appreciate it if you at least tried to like her. She's a nice person. She likes you," I added.

"Everybody likes me," Nick replied, chewing the french fry I'd thrown, "I'm irresistable like that."

It was my turn to roll my eyes. "You're so arrogant, you know that?"

Nick shrugged. "So what if I am? If I'm right, I'm right. Right?" He glanced up at the TV. "Oh dude, it's the Rugrats. Turn'em up."

I reached for the remote and turned them up. Now it was the episode when Chuckie and Tommy follow Reptar around at a wedding. I could almost feel Nick's sidelong glances as he thought about the idea of me getting married. After a long stretch of silence, he glanced over at me. "Plus if you get married," he said, "We'll never get to hang out."

"We'll hang out," I answered. I muted the TV again. "We work together, of course we'll get to hang out."

Nick shook his head, "You'll never wanna play hoops again."

"Don't be dramatic."

"I'm not being dramatic. You never play hoops when she's around. You're all about being the boyfriend and you forget all about me."

If we were on a sitcom the audience would've responded to that line with a resounding awww because of the way he'd said the words. He was staring at his hands, picking at his fingernails again, looking rather pathetic.

"I don't forget about you," I replied.

Nick shrugged. "I'm gonna go to sleep," he said moodily.

"Okay," I replied.

He rolled over and shimmied under the blankets. I turned off the TV and put the remainder of my dinner on the bedside table, full. I reached for the light switch and, aside from the glow of the city outside the window, the room was dark. I shuffled under the blankets, too. It was silent in the room. I stared at the ceiling, my arm under my head.

"Hey Nick?" I said into the dark.

"What?" he asked, not even slightly sleepy sounding.

"We could go shoot hoops now if you want."

He was up and out of bed like a flash of lightening.