No one answered, and, figuring she had fallen asleep after all, Nick started to walk away. Then the door clicked open behind him. He turned around to find Leah in the doorway.
“Hey, Leah,” he said, going back up to her door.
“Oh! Nick!” She looked surprised to see him and quickly stepped out of the room. The door clicked shut behind her, but she didn’t seem to notice. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, I just came to see if you were back yet,” Nick said. “Were you sleeping?”
“Um... no... no, I was just watching TV in bed,” she said quickly, shifting her weight from foot to foot.
“Oh... cool. Look, I just wanted to apologize for earlier. I actually came by your room this evening to see if you wanted to go out, but you were already gone. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, that’s okay.”
He narrowed his eyes at her. She was acting awfully strange... “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah, everything’s great. I... um... should probably go back inside my room now.”
“Why?”
She gave him a funny look. “Cause I’m tired, and I’m going to go to bed,” she said briskly. “Why do you have to ask so many questions?”
“Sorry,” Nick said irritably. “I’ll leave you alone then. Goodnight.”
Leah turned quickly and reached for the doorknob. But, of course, being a hotel room, the door was locked. And judging by the look that came over her face, Nick realized she didn’t have her room key with her.
“Locked out?” he asked with a chuckle.
She glared at him, her face turning bright red. “Damn it,” she cursed, trying the knob again, as if it would magically be unlocked this time.
“Just run down to the lobby; they’ll give you a spare key,” Nick advised her. “Don’t worry, it happens to everybody.”
“Yeah...” she murmured. “Yeah, I’ll just go dow-“
But her words were interrupted by a click, as her door suddenly swung open. Nick’s mouth dropped open in surprise and then shock, as it suddenly dawned on him that someone had opened the door from the inside. There was someone in Leah’s room! He looked at Leah to find that the blood had drained from her face. She was staring at him, her expression a mix of shock and guilt. And that’s when he knew...
Before Leah had a chance to react, he pushed past her and shoved the door open all the way. And there, standing just inside Leah’s room, was another man. And not just any man. Dressed only in boxers, his hand on the doorknob, his curly hair plastered to his forehead, there stood Nick’s archrival, Justin Timberlake, his face ashen with shock.
The two men seemed to realize exactly what was going on at the same time.
“Nick? Wait... you mean, Leah is... Leah’s your girlfriend?” Justin stammered, quailing under Nick’s accusing glare.
“You slept with her! You slept with her, didn’t you, you asshole?!” Nick cried, outraged. He could feel the color creeping up his neck and the blood pulsating through his veins.
“I didn’t know!” Justin protested, holding up his hands in defense. “I didn’t know she was your gir-“
He didn’t have a chance to get the rest of his words out. Violently blinded by rage, Nick raised his fist and punched Justin as hard as he could, right in the middle of his sputtering face. Justin cried out in pain, blood spurting from his nose. But he was not too injured to retaliate; the next moment had him charging at Nick, his hands outstretched. He collided into Nick, shoving him backward with extreme force. Grunting, Nick stumbled backwards and hit the wall of the hall, his head banging hard against the plaster. He clawed at Justin’s face and shoved him back, sending Justin flying backwards to the ground. Nick pounced on him, and they wrestled on the floor, punching and ripping at each other while Leah screamed for them to stop.
Nick wasn’t sure how long the fight actually lasted, but suddenly he was aware of a strong pair of hands grabbing him, yanking him away from Justin. Craning his neck, he found that it was Joe. Another member of the security team had his hands on Justin and was restraining him from Nick. Leah was backed up against the wall, wringing her hands and in tears.
“Come on, Nick,” Joe said loudly and firmly into Nick’s ear. “Come on, back to your room before someone else finds out about this.” Nick heard the words, but he was too angry to comprehend them. Holding him tightly, Joe dragged him back to his room and practically threw him inside, shutting the door tightly behind him.
“What the hell happened out there?” he demanded, pushing Nick down on his bed.
“That... that son of a bitch! He slept with Leah!” Nick cried.
“He did? I’m sorry, Nick,” Joe said. “Let it go though, man. She ain’t worth your time if she’s gonna cheat on you like that, and he ain’t worth ruining your reputation.”
“My reputation? You sound like my mother,” Nick said in disgust.
“Well, sorry, but just think what would happen if the press find out you and Justin had a fist fight. They’d have a hay day with it! You don’t want that, do you?”
“No,” Nick muttered.
“Then be glad it got broken up when it did. I don’t think anyone else saw you, and if you don’t spill to the press, I doubt he will either. Judging on how he looked, you kicked his ass. I don’t think he’ll want that to get out on MTV.”
Nick had to laugh at that. “Really?” he asked hopefully. “Did I hurt him that bad?”
“Well, you bloodied his nose. Might’ve even broken it. He was definitely bleeding more than you.”
Nick had to smile at that. He felt pretty achy himself and knew Justin had gotten in a few good hits, but at least he wasn’t gushing buckets. He just hoped he wasn’t going to end up with a black eye or something. People would be sure to ask how that had happened. Maybe he’d blame it all on Leah. After what Mandy did to him, people would probably believe it. And Leah would definitely deserve it, after what she had done.
He suddenly realized that his worst fears had come true – he’d been screwed over by her again. She’d played with him, cheated on him, broken his heart all over again. And the second time hurt even worse than the first.
“That bitch,” he spat angrily, shaking his head. Tears rose in his eyes, and he quickly blinked them away, not wanting Joe to see what a loser he was. How stupid could he have been? Why hadn’t he seen it coming?
“You okay?” Joe asked gently.
“Yeah,” Nick muttered, refusing to look at him. “Yeah, I’m fine.”
But he wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
***
