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Chapter 29

By Sunday, Nick had to sit both Chelsea and I down to lay some ground rules. Chelsea and I had run amuck around the house the entire weekend. Well, not really, but it felt like old times as we stayed up all night watching movies and attempting to bake cookies.

Nick had sat us on the couch and sat opposite on the coffee table. “Okay, ground rules ladies.”

We had both started giggling. “Okay Dad.”

He flashed me a 1000 watt smile. “There’s not gonna be a bedtime for you two during the week, you’re not babies, but go to bed at a reasonable hour, in separate rooms, got it?” We both nodded. “Homework will get done before you do anything else.”

“We know,” I shot him a look. That had always been a rule no matter what.

“This isn’t really a rule, but we eat dinner together and we talk.” Chelsea smiled and nodded. It actually was a rule. We always had to sit down at the table and we’d take turns telling each other three things that happened that day. I used to hate it and make up things just so I could go back up to my room, but I realized that he just wanted us to communicate. It was another reason why I always talked things through instead of running away from them.

“Nick’s just nosy,” I teased.

He ignored me and turned to Chelsea, “Ally has a rule that if she goes out, she needs to let me know when she gets there and when she’s leaving. I want you to do the same, just so I know where you are.”

She nodded, “okay, that sounds good.” I stifled my snort of disapproval. It was borderline tyranny to me; I don’t know how Chelsea of all people thought it was fine.

“Are you going to be okay to go to school tomorrow?”

She bit her lip and nodded, “yeah, I’ll just need some makeup,” she smiled wryly, “you don’t have any do you?”

I laughed, “I’ve never worn makeup in my entire life.” She giggled with me; it was a thing we had in common.

Nick took out his wallet and handed me a bill, “well go get some.”

“I can pay for my makeup,” said Chelsea softly.

“I know you can,” Nick smiled softly, “but you’re not going to.” He grinned at me, “Want to pick up some pizza too?”

I scoffed, “what about all that food that BJ and I cooked?”

He laughed, “Those are for the weeknights, it’s technically still the weekend. I’ll call and you can pick it up.”

I rolled my eyes but took the bill. I didn’t get his logic sometimes.




Chelsea and I had stopped by the drugstore and gotten her makeup. We had been shopping plenty of times together, but we were shopping for an item to help hide the fact that her father had beaten her. I didn’t like it. I hated that he had taken my best friend away. She was here physically, but the Chelsea that I loved was gone, and I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be back for a long time.

By the time we got back to the house with the pizza, I had lost my appetite. Nick dug into the pizza with gusto asking if we got everything we needed at the store. Chelsea nodded quietly and nibbled on her pizza and I frowned. I couldn’t understand why this would happen. I couldn’t understand how someone could do this. Nick barely ever raised his voice to me, and here Chelsea was, trying to cover up bruises from her father.

Nick squeezed my shoulder and I smiled sadly up at him. I couldn’t fool him no matter how hard I tried.

After Chelsea went to bed, Nick poked his head into my room, “Alex wants to talk to you on Skype.”

I grinned and followed him. Alex had never come back after he left with Nina, which meant that he had gone back home with her. I hoped that she got him back in check and they could start working on their marriage. “Hi baby,” Alex grinned when I sat down in front of the computer.

“Hi! You look great.”

He laughed, “It’s the digital, it takes away my old man wrinkles.”

“Psht, you don’t have any wrinkles old man,” I teased. He was so afraid to get old.

He looked hurt but I knew better, “I’m an old man? You know what that means? Nick!” Nick dragged a chair over and joined the conversation, “She called me old, which means in two years, you’re gonna be old.”

I giggled, “He’ll always be old, he’s my Dad.” The next thing I knew, I was in a headlock and Nick was giving me a noogie. I swear, the bones in his fingers were extra hard. “Ow! Stop Nick!”

“That’s for calling me old, kid,” he grinned.

I shoved him and turned back to Alex, who was laughing at both of us. “Are you back in LA?”

Alex smiled a smile I hadn’t seen in months. It was so good to see. “Yes, I am. We’re both here, and…we’re working on things.”

“Good,” I smiled. “You don’t look good sad.”

He laughed, “That’s a lie. I always look good baby.” I scrunched my nose. I didn’t want to picture Alex as a ladies man. That was like picturing Nick a ladies man, which I heard he used to be…

Gross.

“I hear you have a new roommate to replace me.”

I smiled sadly, “Yeah, Chelsea’s staying with us for a while.”

“Nick said you two were tearing the house apart this weekend.”

I elbowed Nick in the ribs.

“Ow!”

Alex laughed, “And terrorizing him.”

I punched him in the shoulder.

“Seriously,” Nick grabbed both my hands and held them in one of his while he flicked my ear, “stop abusing me girl.”

I stiffened. I knew he was teasing, but it was the wrong word to use. “Sorry,” I whispered.

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed my forehead, “sorry Ally.”

I turned back to the screen, “How’s Nina?”

Alex grinned, “Perfect, way too good for me…the usual.”

I shook my head, “you don’t give yourself enough credit. I want my husband to be as awesome as you are.”

“Don’t talk about marriage please,” Nick groaned, “I haven’t dealt with the fact that in April you’ll be 18.”

Alex agreed, “Besides, you’re not getting married until you’re like, 40 anyways.”

I rolled my eyes, “whatever. What if I meet someone in college and he proposes to me?”

“You’re not getting married if you’re in college. You’re not getting married until you have a career.” Nick flicked my ear again, “in fact, you can’t get married until I give you permission to. And I’ll never do that.”

I chuckled, “sorry to say, you’re not the boss of me.”

“I beg to differ kid.”

“Stop calling me a kid,” I frowned. I hated when he did.

“No,” he argued, “you’re my kid, and that’s what I’ll call you.”

I shrugged him off me and turned back to Alex, “you see what I have to put up with?”

Alex grinned, “yes, and believe me, I had to put up with his obnoxiousness for years before you came into the picture. Thanks for taking one for the team.” I rolled my eyes but laughed.

“So where’d you and Nina go?” I glanced at Nick. I was glad that he asked the question that I was dying to know.

“Marco Island.”

“Isn’t that where you proposed to her?”

“Aww, it was?” Alex was a hopeless romantic at heart. He didn’t like his fans to know because he was thrilled with his “bad boy” image that the fans labeled him as. But I overheard him once telling Nick that when he proposed to Nina, he lit 500 candles all around the room, laid rose petals on the bed and had champagne on ice. It didn’t surprise me that Alex had taken Nina to Marco Island to do it.

Alex laughed, “Yeah it was. That’s why we went there.” He sighed happily and it brought tears to my eyes. “We talked, got myself under control and then moved on to us. Things aren’t perfect again but we both don’t want to give each other up.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“We’re gonna go to counseling for a little while, help us learn how to deal with the issues we’re having. When we were talking about AA, we both realized that we pride our relationship on being able to communicate effectively, and somehow along the way, we stopped doing that. So since what we knew to do wasn’t working, we’re going to learn new and more effective ways to communicate.”

I beamed; I was so proud of him.

“Good for you man, what about the baby issue?” I leaned against Nick; he was asking all of the questions I felt bad asking.

Alex took a deep breath, “If it happens, it happens. But we’re not going to try and we’re not going to worry about it. I’m still not convinced that I was made to be a father, but I am convinced that Nina was made to be a mother, and she for some reason, has chosen me to spend her life with, so if I’m the only one who can give her the opportunity to be a mother, then so be it.”

I wanted to reach out and touch the screen. I wanted to hug him. “I love you Alex, you’re such a great person, I have no doubt in my mind that you’re meant to be a father. The fact that you’re worrying about it means that there’s hope. And I bet if you weren’t around to help Nick, I’d be far worse off than I am right now.”

Nick laughed and agreed, kissing my forehead. “And I know you’re worried about some other things when it comes to being a father, but I don’t think you should deny yourself the fulfillment raising a child brings on the off chance that it might happen.” Nick shrugged and squeezed me, “and if it does happen, at least they’ll know that they’re not alone, there are ways to cope and be happy after getting through the hellish part.”

Alex looked like he was ready to cry, and that made me want to cry. I was an emotional person to begin with, but the stress that had been put on me as of late with Jen, Chelsea and Alex, I felt like I could snap at the drop of a hat. “You shouldn’t worry about that Alex. If you do, you’re not going to get very far, and it wouldn’t be fair to your child.”

“I know,” He sighed. “I’m trying, I really am. And you’re right Nick, if it does happen, then at least they’ll know that I can help because I went through it too.” He pointed at the screen, “as for you Ally. You’re not supposed to be so insightful, you’re only 17. I shouldn’t feel like spilling my guts to you. Can you go back to being five please?”

I laughed and blew him a kiss.

“I second that going back to five thing. You’re growing up way too fast.”

Alex laughed, “when is the photo shoot happening?”

“Friday,” said Nick, “they’ll be here all day.”

I turned to Nick, “what photo shoot?”

“Aaron and I are having a joint interview/photo shoot to talk about his new album with Rolling Stone. They’re gonna do it here at my studio since he wrote a bulk of the songs here.”

“Really?” Nick had never let cameras or journalists anywhere near our home or his studio. He had said that his private and public life were two separate entities and he felt no need to intertwine them.

“You’re old enough to see what goes on,” he smiled. “Maybe you can help out.”

“No way,” I said, “that’s your job, not mine.”

Alex laughed, “You don’t want to break into the biz Ally? You’ll have plenty of stepping stones if you do.”

“Nope,” I said, “I don’t know what I want to do. I just know that I want to study French.”

“You can be our translator when we go on tour,” Alex laughed.

Nick looked thoughtful, “that’d be an option, you could be a translator or something.”

I shrugged, “I don’t know. I have plenty of time to think about it.”

“You can translate the songs Aaron wrote for his album into French,” Alex suggested.

Nick grinned, “Then you can really join the interview.”

Alex turned his back to the screen for a second and when he turned back around he said, “Nina just finished making me a fabulous dinner so I’m going to go.” He waved, “Ally, I love you and am proud that you’re dealing with everything beautifully.”

“I love you too. Pretend I’m hugging you right now!”

He beamed, “I just got chills baby, I can feel it.” We laughed, “See you bro.”

“Bye Alex.”

Nick shut the laptop down and I turned to him, “What happened to keeping me out of the limelight forever?”

Nick shrugged. “After the way you’ve handled everything else, there’s no doubt in my mind that you can handle it.” He smiled, “I’m proud of you, I want to share you and show everyone else how great you are.”

I made a face. I had a feeling that I wasn’t going to get out of it.