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“You’re kidding me right? Tell me you’re joking.”

“No, I’m not Nick. I have to take care of this stuff.”

Nick had been home for four days and barely spent a minute with Lauren. She was staying at the house but she was always working and now she was calling to tell him that she had to catch a flight to check out another location.

“You need to take care of us! I flew out here the morning after you called. Hell, I would have flown out that night if I could have!”

“No one asked you to!”

“Actually you did!” Nick laughed. “I dropped everything to come back out here to see you.”

“What everything did you have out there? Playing video games with Howie? How pressing was that?”

Nick was pissed. He couldn’t believe that Lauren was talking to him like a child, like he has no other things going for him in life.

“No, actually I made some friends and was working on my solo album.”

“So go back and do that!” Lauren snapped. “I don’t want to have this argument anymore. You have two choices. Stay out here and wait for me or go back out with your new friends.”

Nick was about to reply when she hung up. He closed his phone and then threw it against the wall. Watching it break into pieces reminded him of how his life was coming apart. There was this life with Lauren which he didn’t know if it was a life with her anymore. Then there was his life with the guys. The tour ended and all his brothers scattered to be with their families. Howie was the only one he was really getting to bond with and now flying out here interrupted all of that.

Nick grabbed his house phone and dialed Howie’s number. It rang five times and Howie picked up just ask Nick was about to hang up.

“Hey brother.” Howie said.

“Hey D. Are you busy?”

“A little.”

Howie didn’t know what to tell Nick. He knew his brother left for Lauren and he wasn’t sure if he should tell him about Emma.

“Oh ok. I can call you back.” Nick replied sadly.

“No, it’s ok. Talk to me.”

“Lauren called me the other night and promised me that we would have a week together, just us. Then she’s barely here and calls me today to tell me she’s flying out to meet another sponsor.”

Howie shook his head. He knew that Nick loved Lauren and deep down, Lauren probably loved him back. The problem was that neither was happy and the cracks in their relationship were starting to show.

“Are you gonna stay out there in case she comes back?”

Nick sighed. “I don’t know. I love her but I can’t deal with this crap right now.”

“So why don’t you fly back out here?”

“I was thinking about it.”

“When?”

“I think I can get a fly tomorrow.”

Howie laughed. “Already checked it out huh?”

“Yeah.”

“Well good, book the ticket. Then you can help me move all of Emma’s stuff to storage.”

Nick’s head snapped up. Emma was moving?

“Where’s she going?”

“Addie’s apartment for now.”

“Why?”

Howie paused. It wasn’t his place to tell Nick about Jessie and his new girlfriend.

“Um, she needed to leave.”

“Why Howie?” Nick said growing concerned. “What happened?”

“Jessie cheated on her.”

“Asshole!” Nick swore loudly. “I told you he was a moron. What did he find a new video game?”

“Actually, he found a new girlfriend.”

“WHAT?”

“I guess Emma found them in the house the night you dropped her off from the party.”

Nick felt sick. She had asked him to come in for coffee and he turned her down. If he had only gone in.

“I know what you’re thinking.” Howie said as though he was reading Nick’s mind. “Nothing would have changed. She would have still found them and she would have been more embarrassed because someone else was there.”

“I know. I just feel like I could have helped her.”

“You couldn’t then but you could now. She’s gonna need all the friends she can find. It’s been hard on her and it’s really showing. I don’t think I’ve seen her smile in the last few days.”

Nick hadn’t known Emma very long but it seemed like she was always smiling. It was hard to imagine the kind of pain she was in that would cause that smile to disappear.

“I’m booking my ticket now and I’ll be there in the morning.”