- Cut Out
They’d buried the dog somewhere near the second tree on the driveway, which Baylee assured him was Momo’s favourite place to pee. It didn’t seem relevant to Nick, but to Baylee it made perfect sense. The Backstreet Boy had taken the shovel, which finally proved to be useful, from his car’s trunk and dug a hole right where Baylee had instructed him to. He’d lifted the dead Maltese with the same shovel, cause he’d learned not to touch dead animals, not even when he himself had killed it. Slowly he’d let Momo descend into its early grave, while he heard Baylee sniffle a few times. He kept apologizing to the boy and Baylee had told him to stop it a few times, but he couldn’t help it.
“Momo, you’re the best dog I’ve ever had,” Baylee stated sadly and turned around, walking along the driveway towards the house. Nick was left to fill up the grave quickly and then hurried after his friend’s son. Panting, he came to a halt next to Baylee, who was standing a few feet from the door with a big frown on his face.
“What?” Nick asked, out of breath.
“Mom’s car’s still gone,” Baylee replied suspicious. Nick began to frown too.
“Does it always take them this long?” he questioned and saw Baylee shake his head, worried. There was fear on the boy’s face and tears in his eyes. Damn, Nick had once again really screwed his day up. Once again prove that I’m not cut out to be a father.
“I’m sure they’ll be here any minute, ‘til that time, let’s go inside, before we freeze our butts off,” he suggested when he felt the cool autumn wind blow through his t-shirt. He was used to always sunny and happy California, not this cold hole they called Atlanta. Why can’t Brian live in Los Angeles, he thought irritated, while he retrieved the keys from his pocket and opened the big door that gave entrance to the hallway.
“Hey, you wanna play a videogame?” he asked the child once they were inside.
“No, I’m tired,” Baylee answered sullenly and Nick sighed.
“You wanna go to bed?” he offered. Baylee just shook his head and stared off into the distance.
“Come on, you’re almost falling over, so got to bed. I’ll wake you up when they get home, kay?” Nick ordered and Baylee looked gratefully at him.
“Thanks Nick,” he yawned and trudged lazily upstairs. Nick sagged onto the couch in the living room. After a few moments he grabbed the phone off the hook and dialled his fiancée’s number. It was time to give Lauren a call. His girlfriend already knew about his precarious adventures in Atlanta and after she’d been done laughing, she told him to agree on Leighanne’s offer to stay in Atlanta ‘til his shoulder had healed. She’d reasoned that she wouldn’t have time to take care of his sorry ass while she was in Japan to promote her latest instruction videos. It didn’t keep Nick from calling her everyday though, and he knew she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Lauren Knitt,” she answered on the second ring.
“Oh, I really can’t wait until you’ll be forced to answer a phone call with: Lauren Carter,” Nick replied smoothly.
“Honey, in that case, we’ll have to get married sometime soon, or did you think that by giving me a ring, the job would be done?” he heard Lauren say jokingly.
“Nope, I can’t wait ‘til I can call you my wife, you know that,” he smiled.
“I know that,” he heard her smile too. She was a patient lady and Nick loved that about her. In fact, there wasn’t a thing that he didn’t love about her and he knew that she felt the same way too. Now he finally understood what Brian and the others had been talking about, when they were referring to true love. Almost three years ago he’d asked Lauren to marry him, but they had never been able to get it done. There was just always something getting in the way.
“God, I love you,” he breathed, closing his eyes. Suddenly, he felt really tired as well. It had been a long day. He’d taken the bus with Baylee, gone to the zoo. Pretended to freak out about baboons, which strangely made the boy laughing at him. He’d picked up some medication for Brian and himself at the pharmacy. Then Baylee and him had been forced to walk all the way to the hospital parking lot, where thankfully his car was still parked, untouched. On top of all that, he’d killed the dog of his best friend’s son, who undoubtedly hated him now.
“I love you too baby, any news from cold Atlanta today?” she asked curiously, as if she knew.
“You mean besides my shoulder being stiff?” Nick whined softly.
“Oh honey, you should take it easy then. Are you taking it easy?” she questioned strictly and Nick laughed.
“Not so much, Baylee and I went to the zoo today,” he informed proudly.
“Sweety, I think it’s great you’re trying to bond with Baylee,” Lauren stated.
“Oh yeah, we did really well together. Until I ran over his dog…” Nick drawled nervously.
“You didn’t…”
“I did. He’s never gonna forgive me,” he said sullenly and then remembered something else.
“Oh, and now he’s all upset cause his parents aren’t home yet.”
“Where’d they go?” He heard the concerned undertone in Lauren’s voice and felt his own worry growing too.
“The hospital. They’re getting Brian’s chemo done. I don’t know what’s taking them so long though,” he added quietly, staring out of the window at the driveway, where Leighanne’s car was still missing.
“I’m sure they’ll be home soon, you try calling Leighanne?” Lauren questioned.
“Yeah, she’s not answering,” Nick said. He had a feeling Leighanne had a way of not answering phone calls.
“Oh dear, well, call me when they get there, okay?” Lauren ordered. Great, now he’d made her worry too.
“I will, don’t worry, I’m sure they’ll be here any second.”
“How’s Brian doing by the way?” Lauren asked when she realized she hadn’t questioned that already.
“Can you hold on for a second, I’m getting another call,” Nick explained suddenly. Figuring that this was Brian’s phone, he couldn’t just keep the line busy, that would be rude. Besides, what if it was Leighanne explaining why they were late? Without waiting for an answer from Lauren, he opened the other line and answered sternly.
“Littrell household, this is Nick, can I help you?” he answered jokingly.
“Oh, hello,” a gruff voice replied, “is Leighanne there?”
Nick frowned. “Who’s this?”
“Oh sorry, it’s Larry Hitmen, from Hitmen’s entertainment?” Larry answered hopefully, as if hoping Nick would know all about Hitmen’s entertainment.
“Right, look, Leighanne’s not home, but I’ll tell her to call you back, kay?”
“Alright, just tell her that we're basically wrapping up the project here, and that we really miss her, okay?” He sounded serious.
“Errr, okay,” Nick replied, hesitating. The way the man said ‘project’ made him shudder and he really couldn’t think of a reason why they would really miss Leighanne there. Unless… No, she wouldn’t do that.
