“That’s like the third time you’ve looked at the clock in the last minute,” Howie commented, looking amused.
“Well, it’s 10:32. Where’s that flight?” Nick demanded, tapping his foot restlessly.
“You and I both know all too well that flights are always running late,” answered Howie, his voice calm and patient. “Just chill out; it’ll get here.”
Nick crossed his arms over his chest and tried hard to keep his eyes from roaming up to clock yet again. Aaron’s flight had been due to arrive at 10:30, but he and Howie had been there for half an hour already, and he was sick of waiting. He loathed airports, especially lately, after spending the busy month of September flying every which way with the guys for various appearances and interviews.
Luckily, after a few hectic weeks, their schedules had cleared, and Nick’s life was settling back into normalcy... or at least what had been normalcy before the VMAs. It wasn’t quite the same though. For one thing, AJ had gone back to his Los Angeles home. It had been six months now, and they had all realized that Nick was fully capable of living on his own again. Howie was going to stick around for another few weeks, just as a precaution, but he drove back to Orlando often to visit his family and take care of things at his own house.
Nick was fine with the new arrangement, but a part of him almost missed having Howie and AJ around all the time. He’d gotten used to the constant companionship, and on days when Howie was home in Orlando, and he was left alone, he found himself bored and lonely. He and Claire hung out when she was not working or out with Tim, but he never saw as much of her as he had over the summer, before he’d pushed her out of his life.
This week, he would not see Claire at all. She was in Hawaii for the week, compliments of Tim. Nick had been too busy seething with jealousy to get the whole story she’d told him over the phone, but it was something about some dentist convention in Hawaii that Tim was attending and had invited her to attend with him. And of course, she’d accepted.
“I’m so sorry I won’t get to meet your brother,” she’d said, sounding disappointed.
“It’s okay,” Nick had muttered, “you can meet him another time.” He was very glad this was the week Aaron was coming; at least the kid’s presence would hopefully keep his mind off of Claire and Tim and what they might be doing together in the beautiful tropical paradise that was Hawaii...
“Hey, Nick-“
... Running down the beach, the waves lapping at their ankles, sand spraying everywhere. He, tan and muscular, looking the epitome of perfection in just his swim trunks. She, dressed in a tiny bikini that accented all her curves, her peaches and cream complexion tinged with raspberry pink. They, holding hands, laughing, playing... Them... together...
“Nick, I think that’s the plane.”
... Him caressing her skin as he smoothed sunscreen across her shoulders. Her massaging his back with scented oils, her hands working his muscles, her fingernails grazing lightly over his flesh. Them, together in a darkened room, lost in each other’s embrace, as candles flickered all around...
“Yeah, that’s it, it’s landing.”
... His fingers gently tugging on the strings that held her bikini top up. Hers slipping under the waistband of his shorts. Their lips brushing as they drifted closer and closer together...
“Hey, Nicky, wake up!”
Nick jumped and found himself back in the brightly-lit airport. His cheeks reddened as he realized he’d been spacing out, getting carried away with troubling ideas of what could be going on thousands of miles away in Hawaii. He looked sheepishly over at Howie. “Sorry, what’d you say?”
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Howie said with a wink. “Aaron’s plane just landed.”
Nick’s eyes flew to the large window overlooking part of one of the runways. Indeed, a plane was slowly rolling up. Relieved, he watched and waited as the plane came to a stop, and the jet bridge extended to connect to the plane. A few minutes later, passengers began to stream into the gate. Nick smiled when he spotted his lanky brother’s blonde head bobbing along behind an elderly couple. Escorted by a large bodyguard, Aaron stepped away from the herd of other disembarking passengers and looked around, craning his neck as he turned his head every which way and that.
Nick fought the urge to shout his brother’s name; he did not want to attract attention to them. Luckily, Bruce, Aaron’s bodyguard, whom Nick had met on occasion, saw them. Nick watched him nudge Aaron and then point them out; his brother’s eyes lit up as he turned and saw Nick. He hurried over at almost a jog, then stopped a few feet away, slowing to a snail’s pace. Nick saw the hesitation on Aaron’s face as he gave him the once-over, his large brown eyes sweeping from head to... left leg. Nick smiled anyway, determined to not let it bother him. “Yo, AC, c’mere!” he said and held his arms out just a little, offering a hug on the off chance that Aaron would agree to one.
Aaron cracked a smile. “Hey,” he said and came forward, hugging Nick very lightly, as if he were trying to hug a delicate flower that he did not want to smash. Nick scoffed and pulled his brother roughly into a bear hug. Normally, he would have reached down to give the kid a noogie on top of that, but he discovered that reaching down was out of the question... reaching up was more like it. Aaron was just as tall as he was.
“Damn, AC, when’d you get so tall?” he asked, releasing his brother.
The teenager grinned, looking a bit more at ease. “Why, you scared? You know I can take you now.”
“Ah, in your dreams. I can still whoop your ass any day, bro.”
Things felt like normal as they walked through the airport, picking on each other back and forth like that. But Nick knew it wouldn’t last; sooner or later, they would have to talk about what had happened in the seven months since they’d last seen each other.
The topic came up when they got outside to Nick’s car. He popped the trunk for Aaron to put his luggage in and slid into the driver’s seat. He heard Aaron call “Shotgun!” and moments later, the kid was scrambling into the front passenger seat, while Howie dutifully climbed into the back.
“So you can still drive?” Aaron asked, flipping through the radio stations as soon as Nick had started the engine.
“An automatic, I can,” replied Nick. “Don’t need your left foot for that, do you?”
Aaron didn’t respond, instead turning the radio up. Nick supposed the music made for a good diversion, a filler for those awkward silences. And there were many of them, in between meager attempts at small talk. Nick was glad when they were finally home.
“Take your stuff upstairs,” he told Aaron when they got inside the house. “You can stay in the master bedroom – D even changed the sheets for ya.”
“The master bedroom? But isn’t that-“
“Nick’s got the downstairs room now,” Howie answered before he could even finish his question.
A sudden look of dawning came over Aaron’s face. “Ohh... right. Okay. Uh, I’ll be right back.” He hauled his luggage up the staircase and disappeared, leaving Nick and Howie standing in the foyer.
“Does he seem okay to you?” Nick asked Howie, keeping his voice low.
“Yeah, I think so,” Howie replied slowly. “It’s probably just going to take some time for him to get used to... well, you know.” He paused, then added, “You should show him your leg.”
Nick raised his eyebrows. “You think? I don’t wanna freak him out right away...”
“You won’t freak him out. He’s probably curious; you know how kids are. Probably best to just get things out in the open right away, you know?”
“Yeah... yeah, I guess so,” agreed Nick. They heard footsteps from up above, and seconds later, Aaron appeared on the stairs. He walked down them slowly and stopped in the middle of the foyer, looking as if he weren’t quite sure what to say or do. Nick decided to go ahead with what Howie had suggested. “So,” he said, looking at Aaron, “you wanna see it?”
“It?” Aaron repeated uncertainly.
“My leg.”
“Oh. Um, sure...”
Chuckling at the look on his brother’s face, Nick sank down into a chair. With the air of a little kid trying to gross out his friends by showing them a particularly nasty-looking, pus-encrusted scab, he rolled up his pant leg to expose his prosthetic leg. He watched as Aaron’s eyes flitted over the silver and blue metal leg.
“Is it... is it hard to walk on?” Aaron asked.
“Not really, not anymore,” replied Nick. “It takes a lot of work, but I’m used to it by now. This one is better than the old one I had.” Aaron nodded. “Claire says I’m like a Transformer now; whatcha think about that?”
Aaron laughed lightly, then asked, “Who’s Claire?”
Nick had forgotten that Aaron hadn’t met or even heard about Claire. “She’s a friend of mine,” he answered.
“A ‘friend’?” Aaron repeated, arching his eyebrows, a mischievous little smile crossing his face.
“Yes, a friend,” Nick repeated firmly, winking at the same time.
“So how’d you meet her?”
Nick swallowed a laugh. Aaron probably didn’t know what he was getting himself into with that question. “Uh, long story,” he answered quickly. “So, um... whatcha wanna do?” Aaron’s only response was a limp-shouldered shrug. “You wanna... um... shoot some hoops?” Nick offered.
Aaron looked surprised, but nodded. “Okay.”
“D?”
“You two go ahead,” Howie declined with a wave of his hand.
Nick and Aaron went out through the garage, grabbing a basketball on the way. They dribbled it around the driveway, passing it back and forth and taking shots. Nick was not quite coordinated enough to manage a game of real basketball yet, but Aaron seemed impressed by what he could do anyway.
“Hey, bro, think fast!”
Nick looked up just in time to see the basketball hurtling right at him. He managed to catch it right before it went straight into his gut, expelling a winded “oomph,” which then led into a coughing fit.
“You okay?” Aaron asked guiltily. “Sorry for that pass, dude, it was kinda wild...”
“I’m fine,” Nick said through a steady stream of coughs. The ball hadn’t made enough contact to knock the wind out of him, but he felt as if it had. He felt like sitting down to catch his breath, but Aaron looked stricken, and he didn’t want to make the teen feel bad. So, through a cough, he bounce-passed the ball back and took a few deep breaths, stifling back the few remaining coughs.
“You good to go?” Aaron asked, watching him warily.
“’Course,” Nick grinned. “Go ahead, shoot it.”
Aaron’s shot bounced off the rim, and Nick hurried to get the rebound. He backed up and took a shot, which sailed smoothly toward the hoop. At first, it seemed a perfect shot, but as it went into the hoop, it swiveled around the rim, and, at the last minute, bounced out again. “Damn,” Nick swore, making a face.
Aaron laughed. “You suck, dude.”
“Huh-uh,” Nick countered, as Aaron chased after the rolling ball. “That thing was in, dawg, and then it bounced out again. I just have bad luck.”
Sometimes, Nick thought, watching Aaron run effortlessly down the driveway to intercept the ball, that seems like a huge understatement.
***
