“You have a fucking drinking problem, Rob! Look at what you did to her!” Nick screamed at the top of his lungs. He, obviously, didn’t care that it was 1:30 in the morning and that neighbors were beginning to get angry. All he cared about was my best friend, and here she was, lying on Rob’s hardwood foyer floor; a puddle of bruises and blood. I stood behind Nick in the doorway, not wanting to get involved.

“Some friend you are!” He yelled back. “I don’t have a fucking problem.” He slurred and took a step toward me, only to stumble backwards and reach out for the wall. I picked up the metal baseball bat I had brought with me – thank God – and brought it behind me as if I was going to swing. Thunder boomed in the distance – typical Florida weather.

“Don’t take another step, bastard,” I spat and reached down with my empty hand to help my best friend up. “Crystal, honey, come on.” I muttered and pulled her to her feet. She slouched over my shoulder. “If you come after her ever again, I will beat the shit out of you. Then I’ll make sure to call the police…” I mumbled. I hurried her to Nick’s Escalade. I wasn’t going to sit around for Rob to beat us all up – because I knew he’d try.

“You should have let me handle it,” Nick muttered as he came to the car seconds later, soaked from the rain pouring out from the sky.

“Yeah, well, I would have if he hadn’t scared the shit out of me,” I shivered, just thinking about it. I looked in the backseat at Crystal, sitting there helplessly. “I think we should take her to the hospital.” I sighed. “This doesn’t look good at all.” Tears filled my big brown eyes. “Why does he have to be such an asshole?” I mumbled as I glanced out the window. The wipers were on full blast. I looked down when I felt Nick’s hand on my own.

“I’m sorry, baby,” he sighed and brought my hand to his lips. I gave him a genuine smile and turned my glance back out the window.

It wasn’t his fault. But as much as I wanted to tell him that, I couldn’t. I was too afraid to open my mouth because I knew if I would, tears would pour out. Nick and Rob had been best friends growing up. Ever since recently, Nick had determined he was no longer friends with Rob because of the way Rob treated women and life in general. Everything was a big party to Rob. Nick once had the same attitude, but recently was trying to stem away from that.

“I can’t believe I let this happen…” Crystal mumbled slowly from the backseat. Her shoulders shook with sobs.

“No, honey,” I quickly took my hand out of Nick’s and reached behind me to rub her knee soothingly. “None of this is your fault, you understand me? Rob has a problem. He needs help. He should have never taken any of this out on you.” I reassured her.

She gave me a small smile as Nick continued to speed towards the hospital. “Thanks.” She whispered. I kept my hand on her knee and glanced out ahead at the hospital. “Listen, guys, I really don’t want to get Rob in any kind of trouble…so how about we not explain how this happened? Okay?” She sighed.

I gave her ‘the look’ and shook my head. “Crystal, this is the second time he has beaten you so badly we’ve taken you to the hospital…” I started.

“I know, I know,” she nodded as if she had heard it all before. “Em, let me just make up another story and I promise I won’t let him do this again.” She pleaded. I rolled my eyes and sighed, not sure what to do.

“Second chances work sometimes, ya know?” Nick piped up from the driver’s seat. This time I sent him ‘the look’ and opened my mouth to say something, only to be cut off by Crystal.

“Thanks, Nick,” she thanked him and opened her car door. “You guys just head out. They’ll pinpoint Nick again, just like last time.” She referred back to the time when Rob had beaten her before. Nick and I had taken her to the hospital and the doctors couldn’t stop questioning both Nick and Crystal about if she was sure Nick hadn’t inflicted all this pain on her.

“I’m not leaving you here by yourself,” I quickly jumped back in. “Nick can drive home; I’ll catch a cab with you later on.”

“No,” Crystal shook her head. She looked back and forth between Nick and me. “Em, how about you just walk me in to the front desk?” She suggested and started to make her way out of the car slowly. I knew she wanted to talk to me and I sighed, getting out of the car as well.

We walked into the hospital together. “Crystal, let me stay with you, okay? I don’t feel comfortable just leaving you here.” I sighed. She shook her head and looked over at me.

“Honey, listen to me,” I found it ironic that she was about to start lecturing me when really, she was the one that needed a good talking to. Time after time, she’d call me in the middle of the night telling me what an ass Rob was and yet she still went back to him. “You and Nick need to go home and have a night together as a couple. He’s been doing all this promotional stuff and I know you missed him. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to call my sister and have her come sit with me.” She promised.

I sighed and looked down at the tile floor below me. She was right. Nick and I really needed to work on “us”. We had been together for just about two months now, but we had been friends for years. I had stayed by his side during his time with Paris, then again with his quieter relationships – most recently being the one with Julie.

“You know I’m right,” she smirked. I wondered how she could even smile and think about anything other than the pain she was feeling at that moment.

“You promise you’ll call Cathy?” I asked, referring to her sister.

“Swear,” she winked and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket. I sighed and glanced around the waiting room. Nick and I really did need time to ourselves. For the past two weeks, he had been traveling nonstop for promoting the boys’ new album.

“Thank you,” I sighed and leaned up to kiss her cheek. “I want a phone call first thing tomorrow.” I said sternly. She nodded and hugged me back.

“Thank you for tonight,” she sighed. I nodded. “Now go have hot reunion sex with Nicky.” She winked and I rolled my eyes. She was such a goof. But I knew tonight would possibly lead to that with him.

I climbed back into the Escalade and sighed heavily, still dripping from the pouring rain. “I still can’t believe tonight…” Nick broke the silence as he pulled out of the hospital parking lot.

“Neither can I,” I mumbled and glanced out the window. “I can’t believe Crys’s attitude about the whole thing, either. I mean, she’s so upbeat and positive about everything. Why is she like that?” I questioned, not necessarily looking for the answer, just expressing my confusion.

“I don’t know, baby,” he said. I smirked. I loved it when he called me that. He would call me that sometimes whenever we were just friends, but usually it was in a joking manner. “I’m sorry we didn’t really get to have tonight to ourselves.”

I looked over at him and placed my hand on top of his that was resting on the gear in between us. “It’s my fault. I mean, she called me. Thank you for going with me, though. I know how hard that was for you since you and Rob are friends…” I hadn’t really thought about that before. Nick and Rob did have a fairly existing relationship.

Nick shrugged. “I can’t believe he’d hit a girl…” he shook his head. I knew it was rough for Nick because he had been accused of being abusive before. His friends all stood up for him and I distinctively could remember Rob being the one that said, “Nick, man, we all know how fucked up that is…we know you’d never do something that shitty.”

“Baby, I’m sorry,” I whispered and brought his hand up to my lips, kissing it gently. He looked over at me and smiled.

“It’s okay, really,” he assured me. “I’m glad you just did that…” he said so softly I wasn’t even sure I had heard him correctly. I frowned, urging him to explain. “I’m glad you kissed my hand…for a while tonight, I thought you were mad at me…” I felt bad that he had thought that.

“I’m not mad at you,” I shook my head and glanced down at our hands. He intertwined our fingers. “I’m just so confused right now. I mean, we haven’t been together that long…and we really haven’t spent a lot of time together…” I began. He looked over at me, genuinely concerned as to what I was feeling and going through. “It’s like, every time I start getting closer to you, something takes us a part. Either touring or, in tonight’s case, an emergency like this. I mean, granted it was Crystal that called me…but it’s like, the entire world is out for us to fail.” I hoped I had made sense explaining that.

“Emily,” Nick sighed and glanced over. “We talked about this. Right now is probably the worst time to get involved in a serious relationship because of me getting up and leaving soon. I mean, I thought we had agreed that we’d give it a try anyway.”

“And I definitely do want to give it a try…” I jumped back. “I do, I swear. I just wanted to explain that so you know I’m not mad at you…”

He smiled back at me as we pulled into his driveway. “I really did miss us, ya know.” He added as we jumped out of the car in the pouring rain and ran up to his front door. I giggled and nodded as he tried to put the key in the key hole.

“Nick, hurry,” I laughed as he joked around and tried to fumble with it for a bit. Thunder boomed loudly in the distance and I jumped out of fear, grasping his t-shirt a little tighter than before. He laughed and rolled his eyes.

“Big chicken,” he chuckled as he pushed the front door open. We were practically attacked by his pit bull dog, Layla. I giggled and knelt down to pet her. “God, I missed this place…” he smiled around. Usually Nick lived out in California, but ever since we got together, he started living in Florida on his breaks.

“I missed it too,” I smiled and snuggled up to the back of him. “Not as much as I missed you, though.” I said seriously and he turned to look at me. He took my face in his hands and brought it closer to his so he could kiss me softly, yet sensually. I shivered, partly from being cold and partly from being this close to Nick again.

“You cold?” He whispered softly as we pulled away. I nodded and closed my eyes, completely intoxicated by him. “Let’s go upstairs and get more comfortable…” he smirked and took my hand in his. This was the perfect moment. The perfect moment that I never wanted to end.