He cracked his knuckles, stretching his fingers before picking the Sharpie back up and starting to scrawl his name over the black and white photo. He’d been at it for over an hour and he still had a stack of photos and some other stuff to autograph. He needed a break, but if he kept stopping, he’d be here most of the night trying to finish and he had to get these done. Flipping the photo over, he scribbled his name again and then flipped that one over.
He wondered how his Sister was doing, he couldn’t get the sound of her voice out of his head, and she sounded so sad, so alone. Nick desperately wanted to tell her everything would be all right, but he honestly didn’t know if it was going to be. Everything with his parents seemed so unreal, like he was watching someone else’s life and not his own. Then again part of him knew something like this would happen, so it wasn’t a total shock. He’d gone through the denial, hell he still was for that matter.
Nick capped the Sharpie and tossed it down on the table, setting the stack of photos down and grabbing his phone, dialing.
“Hello?”
“Hi Ma, is Les around?”
“Nickolas, you can’t even talk to your Mother?”
Nick sighed, “You know I will Mom, I just need to ask Les something real quick, I’ll talk to you right after, I promise.” There was a shuffling and then Leslie came on.
“Hello?”
“Hey Les.”
“Nick, what’d you say to Mom?”
“Nothing, just told her I had to talk to you, why?”
“She got all mad and shoved the phone at me.”
Nick sighed, “I’ll talk to her after. I just wanted to see how you were.”
“I’m ok ya know, just doing whatever.”
“Yeah, how’s things going with Mom?”
“Same basically. She tried to over compensate for everything by being extra nice and whatever, but it’s too much. She’s trying to hang out with BJ and all, then the next minute she’ll snap at us and be all distant and she’s just…”
“I’m sorry Les,” Nick whispered.
“It’s not your fault,” she hesitated a moment, “So…are ya gonna be able to stop by?”
“Yup, I gotta drop off all this autographed crap and I’ll swing on by after.”
“Good, it’ll be good to see you.”
“Hang in there Les, I’ll be there in a couple days and we’ll hang out ”
“I can’t wait. Look, I gotta get going, Mom’s giving me dirty looks.”
“Alright, oh hold up, could you get Mom for me? I promised her I’d talk to her.”
“Yeah, hold on.”
There was another shuffle and then he could hear his Mom talking, but couldn’t make out what she was saying. There was silence for a Moment then Leslie came back on.
“She said nevermind, that she’s got some things to do.”
Nick groaned, “Yeah ok. I’ll see ya in a few days Les.”
“Ok, see ya.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too.”
Nick hung up and slumped back on the couch. He was glad he was out the house, his Brother and Sisters weren’t so lucky. Shaking his head, he grabbed the sharpie and continued from where he left off.
