A week later:
~~Caroline~~
“What time is the doctor coming today?” I asked walking in from the balcony of his apartment. I had been laying out on there all morning watching the boats and swimmers. We’d been here for about a week now and still hadn’t went out to get everything for the place yet. We had some furniture but no curtains you know little stuff and I was waiting to go do that after the doctor. AJ was laying on the couch watching something on television and totally did not hear a word I said. “AJ!” I yelled and he jumped. He looked up at me waiting for me to say something. “When is the doctor coming?”I asked again. He shrugged and turned back to the tv. “Well I need to know when I need to get ready to go shopping.”I pressed on.
“Caroline I said I don’t know.”he was getting annoyed. “Here call him and see.”he said throwing his phone at me. Luckily I caught it. I rolled my eyes and walked out of the room to make the call. You would think he was deaf from how loud he had the show turned up.
“Drew’s Rehabilitation Center this is Jude how may I help you?”a woman’s voice said on the other end.
“Hey yes I just needed to get some information on what time the doctor will be stopping by my house today…the name is Alex Mclean.”I said sitting down on the edge of the bed in our bedroom. I could hear her typing away on the keyboard.
“Ma’m I am not aloud to give out any information on this patient without speaking to him directly. Is he anywhere around?”she asked and I got up and made my way back into the living room.
“They need to talk to you directly.”I said handing him the phone. He grabbed it from me and I walked back into the bathroom to start the shower. I could hear AJ walking around in the bedroom behind me pulling on his bluejeans. His belt buckle was loud as hell.
“So what time is he coming?”I asked as I saw him walk past the door.
“He’s not.”he said stopping by the door pulling on a black tshirt.
“Why not?”I asked surprised.
“Because I told him not to.”he said walking away from the door. Why the fuck would he do that? I knew he wasn’t serious about this. I am so stupid.
“Why?”I asked walking out of the bathroom to talk to him.
“Because I don’t feel like I need it today.”he said nonchalantly as he sat back on the bed. “Come here baby.”he said pulling on me. I refused to budge and he stopped.
“You don’t get to decide whether or not you feel like it. That was the point of you doing it here…he has to come see you every week.”I said putting my hands on my hips.
“I do get to decide because it was my choice to start this again.”he said standing up pulling his bracelets off the bedside table sliding them over his wrists. Where was he going?
“I’m going to go get lunch with Chris.”he said referring to his best friend. I was hurt.
“I thought we were going shopping to look for all of the house stuff today.”I said sighing.
“Here babe.”he said reaching into his wallet pulling out his credit card. “I put your name on it. You can use it now.”I took the black card from him and set it down on the table beside me. I crossed my arms and looked up at him. “Don’t be mad…I trust you to pick out whatever.”he said putting his hands on my shoulders.
“It’s not that. I just…I thought we could spend the day together that’s all.”I said walking back into the bathroom to turn off the shower. I’m sure it was cold by now.
“So wait until I get back…”he said. He was really starting to piss me off today.
“I don’t want to wait until then. I’ve been waiting all fuckin day.”I said rolling my eyes. It would be to late by the time they got done anyways.
“Don’t be like that….I’ll meet you at whatever store you’re at when we get done.”he yelled from the kitchen. I heard him grab his keys off the counter. “I love you.”he said walking back into the bathroom where I was slowly applying my makeup. I had given up on the shower. He kissed me on the cheek and walked out the door. Asshole.
~~AJ~~
“What’s up dude?”I said grabbing Chris’ hand as he pulled me into a hug. It’d been a long time since I had seen him. I use to see him everyday, but since I’d met Caroline she had replaced him being there everyday.
“Long time no see.”he said sitting down at the table. We had decided to come eat at this outside bar place.
“No shit how are things man…”I said leaning back in my chair.
“Pretty okay. How’s the girl?”he asked as the waitress came over.
“She’s good. I just bought an apartment here that’s why I called you out. I’m going to be here a little bit more now.”I said. “I’ll have um…you know what bring me a water and two shots of Jack.”Chris looked over at me stunned.
“Aren’t you quitting?”he asked surprised. I just wanted to loosen up, two shots wouldn’t kill me.
“Slowly but surely.”I said smiling. He hesitantly smiled back at me. After an hour of talking back and forth we were totally tanked. This wasn’t exactly curing my alcoholism was it? At least I hadn’t done any coke today…yet.
“Nick what’s up man?”I said answering my phone.
“Dude Caroline’s calling all us looking for you. She said you were supposed to meet her a while ago and she couldn’t get in touch with you.”Nick said and I sat up in my chair trying to focus on what he was saying. Chris and I must have been here for a long time as I noticed it was getting a little dark. There was no way either of us could drive.
“Oh shit…Nick you’re here right…at your house here right?”I said stumbling over my words.
“Yes dude are you okay?”he asked. He must have noticed I was drunk.
“I’m great listen man call Caroline and wherever she is just go meet her there and hang out with her. I’ll meet up with you guys in a bit.”I said and hung up the phone. So he is probably the last person I should have sent to go hang out with her, but better to have him go then no one show up.
~~Caroline~~
Why is he being like this? I have called his phone over a million times today and still no answer. This is really upsetting me. He is supposed to be here with me shopping for his house stuff. I don’t wanna buy anything because I’m afraid he will hate it, but at the same time if I come back with nothing he will wonder what I was doing all day. FINALLY Nick calls me back maybe he got in touch with him.
“Hey where are you? He got caught up in something and he can’t come so he wants me to keep you company.”Nick said on the other end. That’s odd. Why would he choose Nick out of everybody to come.
“I’m just at Linen’s N Things downtown…you don’t have to come Nick. It’s not a big deal. I’ll just head home.”I said looking around the store at the curtains.
“I don’t have anything to do. I can come. It’s okay.”he said sighing. I knew he didn’t want to. It’d been awkward enough last week on the final tour days.
“Nick really it’s fine.”I said throwing some black curtains into the shopping cart.
“I’m already in my car. See you in a few.”he said and the line went dead. I pressed end and called AJ again.
“Leave a message.”AJ’s voice said on the second ring. That bastard ignored my call. I was getting really upset.
“AJ You better call me back soon or I swear to God I will get my shit out of that apartment before you get back home and go live somewhere else. CALL ME BACK!”I said getting louder towards the end as I saw Nick walking in the door. Of course, all of the cashiers had noticed him and he was now going to get sucked into talking to them for a bit. I decided to save him from it and walked over to him.
“Hey.”I said tugging on his arm. “I need your help.”I said pulling him away from the girls.
“Thanks.”he said as I dropped my arm from his.
“No problem.”I said as he looked behind him at the crowd of girls who were still staring at him. “I know you can’t go anywhere normal.”
~~Nick~~
She looked pretty today in her long black sundress. It framed her body perfect and it had a nicely placed slit right between her boobs and just a small amount of skin peeked through. She had curled her hair, which meant she had done it just to look pretty for him. I actually felt bad for her. She was beautiful and he was treating her like shit. He was drunk when I talked to him. I know he was. He chose alcohol over her again. I wasn’t going to say anything to her about it, but I wasn’t oblivious to the whole situation. I knew what was going on. He was leading her on about getting better. This whole do it yourself crap was just an excuse to hide it from everyone. I was on to him.
“Got enough black and red?”I said looking through her cart.
“He likes those colors.”she said looking up at me as we strolled through the bed linen isle.
“But what do you like?”I asked. It had always seemed to me that she did everything for him and he did nothing back for her. I could be wrong. I’m not always there.
“Black and red.”she said and I laughed. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe they were perfect for each other. Things had been really weird between me and her since the whole incident when Aaron was with us. We hadn’t really said much to each other until now. It’s not that I regretted sleeping with her. It was awesome and spontaneous and wow I may just get a boner thinking about it. Calm down Nick. It just she’s with AJ and I am not coming between them again. Last time was enough. Point made she looks hot today.
“You look pretty.”I said and she smiled. I just wanted her to know someone had noticed.
“Thanks.”she said giving me a weird look. Massage chairs AWESOME! I sat down in it and closed my eyes as I felt the “hands” massage my back.
“Nick come on. I do not have time for this.”she said laughing at the faces I was making.
“Really what else do you have to do?”I said and she shrugged. She knew I was right.
“Something other than this…”she said holding her hand out for me to help me up. I put my hand in hers after a few more minutes of her coaxing me up. I noticed how well our hands fit together. Stop it Nick. This is AJ’s girlfriend. I have to stop. I dropped my hand from hers as we walked towards the check out.
“You hungry?”I asked as she started to put her things at the checkout. I looked at the checkout girl and smiled because she was staring us down.
“Starving.”she said pulling out her phone. “You know he’s just now calling me back. I’m not even going to answer.”she said closing it back putting it back in her pocketbook. Good girl. I noticed she handed the lady AJ’s credit card. Stupid move on his part. He must really trust her.
“Let’s get something to eat.”I said grabbing the cart from her leaning on it so I glided towards AJ’s car she had come in.
“I should really get home.”she said opening the trunk to the Range.
“You can spare an hour…I’m wasting away here. I need some food.”I said putting her bags in the back of the car.
“Fine Nick.”she said. “I’ll bring you back here when we’re done.” Mission Accomplished.
~~Caroline~~
Wow. So our dinner was CRAZY EXPENSIVE! Nick had wanted to go to this real nice place in Downtown Disney. I couldn’t believe how expensive all of the meals were. He had paid of course and I felt horrible, but what was I going to use AJ’s credit card to pay for my meal with Nick. No way. We had had a few drinks and I think the bill came out to around four hundred before tip.
“Thanks for dinner, and for keeping me occupied.”I said as we had arrived back at Linen’s N Things parking lot. He looked over at me and smiled.
“It was fun.”he said patting me on the hand. “See you soon.”he said opening the door to get out. He leaned in to hug me, but lingered holding me for a second. Awkward.
“You can always call me to hang out…I’ll be staying in Florida for a while.”he said pulling away from me standing by the door.
“Sure Nick.”I said and smiled as he shut the door. I think I was developing a tiny crush on him. Fifteen minutes later I was back at our apartment and I walked in expecting to get into the biggest fight ever with AJ. I was ready to kill him after the way today had played out. I was glad that he had sent Nick, I guess I should feel bad about that. As I opened the door I noticed the red petals on the floor. What is this? I dropped the bags on the floor and looked around at the candle lit house.
“AJ?”I said looking around for him. I suppose I should follow this trail of roses. So corney, but so cute.
“Out here.”I heard from the balcony. All of I had to do was here his voice and I was already ashamed of going to dinner with Nick. Nothing had happened, he had sent Nick to hang out with me. I guess I shouldn’t feel bad. It was his idea.
“You did all of this?”I said surprised by what lay before me outside. He had fixed a perfect dinner of steak and potatoes and candles lit everywhere. It was beautiful with the lake view. He had even dressed up and had on a crimson dress shirt with a black skull tie.
“I’m sorry about today.”he said standing up from his chair. “I got caught up with Chris and lost track of time…did Nick meet you?”he said putting his arms around my waist.
“Yea…we already ate though. We went to this nice place near Disney.”I said and his face saddened.
“Oh.”he said and looked away from me.
“I’m sorry. You just didn’t answer my calls all day so I didn’t know.”I said watching him blow out the candles.
“It’s fine.”he said walking past me with the plates.
“AJ don’t be like that.”I said as he dumped the food in the trash.
“No really it’s fine. I’m glad you and Nick had a good time.”he said and sat down on the couch to watch TV.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Oh Nick....
