- Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
So only three more chapters left! Can you believe it? And not a minute too soon because I'm hitting roadblocks and I'm itching to begin the sequel which I'm VERY excited about. There's plenty of story planned, so please stick with it. As of lately I know the story has taken a darker turn and even I've had my doubts about taking it where its gone, but it has to go there for the sequel to happen. So, please be encouraging and tell me your thoughts.
Chapter 57

             The tension that hung in the air was so thick that a knife wouldn’t even be able to cut it. Alyssa was staring expectantly at Nick, with her hands still on her hips awaiting some kind of explanation. Nick licked his lips as his eyes traveled from Alyssa to Michelle who was still standing there awkwardly looking just as shocked as he had been. He couldn’t think of how exactly to start, so he turned the questioning on her, trying to buy him some more time to figure out what to say. “What are you doing here?”             

“I hopped on a plane all the way to fucking Australia, so that I could surprise you on your birthday. Guess it worked huh?” she answered in an icy tone of voice. “It certainly seems like you weren’t expecting me.”

             “Alyssa, how was I supposed to know you were hiding out in my hotel room?” he tried to defend himself.

             “You weren’t! Hence the term ‘surprise.’ I wanted to do something special for you on your birthday and I worked really hard to plan this all out and you still manage to fuck it up for me! Furthermore, even if I wasn’t here, I would hope that you wouldn’t be bringing random girls back to your hotel room every night. I thought we were past that!”

             Finally Nick’s guilt subsided a little bit and began to be replaced with anger as he remembered the reason why he’d invited Michelle up to his room in the first place. “You never called me Alyssa! It’s my fucking birthday and I waited all day long to hear from you and I didn’t even get a text message from you! I think that’s pretty damn messed up!”

             Alyssa shot him an incredulous look. “So, that gives you a reason to cheat on me? All because I didn’t call you earlier because I wanted to catch you completely off guard?”

             “How was I supposed to know that? For all I know you could’ve been back in New York out with some other guy and that’s why you never called,” he tried to point out.

             “And you really think I’d do something like that? Especially after I pushed so hard for us to finally be together? How would that make sense at all?”

             Nick fought to remember how Michelle had seemed to explain Alyssa’s rationale for cheating, but found the words all jumbled up in his head, so he quickly threw her explanation out of his head. “After the way you were flirting with that waiter at Koi, anything is possible!”

             Alyssa rolled her eyes. “Oh please, Nick… Get the fuck over it already. I wasn’t flirting! I was just trying to be polite to the poor guy especially since you were being such a pompous bastard!” Not giving him a chance to respond she quickly continued. “Besides, I did call, but you never picked up your damn phone.”

             “No, you didn’t,” Nick insisted.

             “I did so! I sent you a text message too.”

             “I never got it.”

             “Just check your fucking phone,” Alyssa huffed. When Nick hesitated she raised her voice. “Do it!”

             Nick reached into his pants pockets looking defeated and opened up his phone. Sure enough he saw that he had a missed call. He vaguely remembered his phone ringing earlier down in the bar and him insisting to Michelle that it probably wasn’t anyone important. Then he headed into his inbox and saw that his most recent text message was from Alyssa. Opening it up, his throat immediately went dry. There was a picture attached of Alyssa that he assumed had to be taken of her earlier that night, laying on his bed in the very same lacy negligee that she was currently wearing, a sexy pout on her lips. Along with it was this message:

             Hey Birthday Boy... Sorry I never called. There is a surprise in your room though that should more than make up for it.  

             Shit, if only I’d just picked up my damn phone in the first place, Nick silently cursed himself. At that point he realized that it was pointless to justify his actions by blaming this whole situation on her for not calling. He needed to do some major groveling because he doubted he’d ever seen her this mad before outside of maybe the time he’d accidentally called her Katie when he’d gotten home from Sweden, years ago.

             He’d completely forgotten that Michelle was still in the room until he noticed her peering over his shoulder at the picture and text message in front of him. “Wow… Looks like you really had this thing planned down to a T.”

             Alyssa’s eyes narrowed in Michelle’s direction. “And exactly who the hell are you again? And what kind of trash are you to go around trying to screw other girl’s boyfriends?”

             Michelle smirked, obviously entertained by Alyssa’s reaction. ”If you’re that jealous sweetheart, you’re welcome to join in. You know since you’re all dolled up for the occasion. I’m sure Nick won’t mind. He might find it a rather hot birthday present to make up for such a crappy day he’s had because of you.”

                        An outraged look came over Alyssa’s face. “I cannot fucking believe you… You really must have balls, huh? To go down that road? Trust me, honey… If a threesome was what I wanted it wouldn’t include you. I think I’d have better taste in women than that. So, yea… Why don’t you go find your shirt and get out of here, bitch. I’d rather have this discussion with Nick without an audience, thank you very much.”

             “But-“Michelle tried to protest.

              “He’s not going to fuck you, end of story,” she interrupted. “So just leave.”

             Michelle looked as if she was going to say something else, but then shut her mouth and turned towards the direction of the living room area. Alyssa could hear her shuffling about in the next room as she located her shirt and pulled it back on over her head. Just before the door opened she heard her voice call from the next room. “I totally see why Nick would cheat on you by the way. Seems like to me you’re nothing, but a lying, controlling, bitch.”

             Rage bubbled up inside of Alyssa and she found herself going after Michelle, lunging at her the moment she reached the living room door. She’d never gotten into an actual physical fight in her life and she’d never even be tempted to until now. “What did you just call me?”

             “Alyssa, you need to calm down,” Nick tried to tell her in a soothing voice as he grabbed hold of her arms, restraining her from coming to blows with Michelle. He’d never seen Alyssa this angry before and in some fucked up way he actually found it to be quite a bit of a turn on.

             Michelle took that moment to leave the room while Alyssa screamed back at her. “Yea, that’s right bitch. I thought you didn’t have the guts to repeat that!”

             Nick just sighed and led her back towards the bedroom. “And you yelled at me about fighting with Chris,” he joked, hoping to break the tension a little bit.

             Alyssa appeared not to hear him. He could tell just by the way she was still shaking and breathing heavily, that she was struggling to control her anger and calm herself down. “I know this is probably not the best time to be saying this and it’s pretty fucked up underneath the circumstances,” he continued. “But I found it incredibly hot the way that you went after Michelle like that. Especially in that outfit-“

             Alyssa wriggled out of his grasp and shoved him forcefully away from her. “God, you’re an asshole! Must you always think with your dick?” She spun on her heels and retreated into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

             Nick sighed once he realized how inappropriate the comment had been. Standing outside the bathroom door he raised his voice so that she could hear him. “Okay… So maybe that wasn’t the best time to tell you that.” No response. “I’m sorry, baby.”

             “Don’t you dare ‘baby’ me! Save it for your groupies!” Alyssa’s voice shouted through the door.

               Real smooth there Carter, he realized. Obviously this is completely the wrong time to be calling her baby. “Fine… I’m sorry I called you baby. Just please, can’t you come out here, so we can finish talking about this?”

             “What’s there to talk about? I spent hundreds of dollars on a plane ticket to Australia and worked so hard to plan out everything so perfectly, and what do I get in return? I get to watch you burst in the door undressing another girl! I don’t see how that requires any kind of explanation.”

             “And I told you about how I was angry that you didn’t call me and-“

             “So me not calling means that you’re allowed to cheat? That really hurts Nick! Especially after all that crap you told me about how I was so ‘special’ to you and that you didn’t need any other girl, but me.”

             “You are special to me Lyss,” Nick insisted. His frustration level was already heightened by the fact that they were having this whole discussion through a closed door. “Can’t you please come out so we can at least do this face to face?”

            “I can’t. I can’t look at you right now.” Her voice sounded weak with just a hint of a sniffle at the end.

            Again Nick sighed. He knew just how stubborn Alyssa could be. The best thing to do would be to give her a few minutes to calm herself down and then try again. Besides she couldn’t lock herself in there all night, could she? Taking a seat on the edge of the bed he called over in her direction. “Fine, I’ll wait right out here until you’re ready to come out and talk.” As he expected he got no response.

             After about ten excruciatingly long minutes, Nick felt his patience wearing thin. How much longer could she stay in there? “You can’t stay in there all night,” he spoke up, breaking the silence. “You’re going to have to face me sooner or later, so why not now?”

             She didn’t answer him, but about a minute or two later he heard the door creak open and Alyssa stepped back into the room. She’d changed out of the nightie she’d been wearing into a much more laidback pair of boxer shorts and a tank top. Her carefully styled hair was now messily thrown up on the top of her head, and all the makeup on her face had been wiped clean. It was clearly evident from the redness of her eyes and the tearstains on her cheeks that she’d been crying. The transformation in her nearly broke Nick’s heart as it really sunk in what he’d done to her.

             “Lyssa, I’m so sorry,” he immediately began apologizing. “If I could take it back I would. I-“

             Alyssa held up her hand to stop him. “I thought I had planned it out so perfectly,” she said in a dull voice. “I wanted to do something special for you so bad; something unexpected. I literally had everything planned from the lingerie to how I was going to get up to your room. I even ordered a bottle of champagne. I tried so hard.”

             “And it was a wonderful surprise,” he interrupted. “I thought you looked amazing and I can’t believe how you managed all of this behind my back. It doesn’t have to go to waste.”

             She shook her head. “Look, we were both wrong I guess. I should’ve called you anyway to wish you a Happy Birthday, but just because I didn’t did not give you the right to hook up with some random girl just to spite me.”  

 “It wasn’t just to spite you! I was drinking and she started to fuck around with my head-“

               Again she interrupted him. “I don’t want excuses. I just want to know one thing. Is this the first time anything like this has happened the whole tour? Or have you been fooling around with other girls this whole time? Please be honest because I need to know.”

             Nick took a deep breath. “This was the first time,” he answered honestly. “And as you saw, it didn’t get any farther than just making out.”

             “But the intent was there,” she pointed out. “If I wasn’t here you can’t tell me that the two of you wouldn’t be going at it right now.”

             Nick hung his head. He had to admit that she was absolutely right. Her voice continued interrupting his thoughts.

             “Is there anything… anything else at all that you’ve been keeping from me that I should know about? Because before I can even think about maybe trying to sort this out I need to know that you’re being one hundred percent honest with me, so that means no secrets all right? Now’s your time to come clean with anything that you feel I should know. Because if I find out that you’re hiding from something from me, I’m done. Got it?”

             Nick solemnly nodded and bit his lip. There was one thing he was hiding, but he wasn’t sure now was the best time to divulge it. His conversation that he’d had with Stephanie the morning after Christmas on her family’s deck echoed back in his head. “Relax Nick. Alyssa’s never going to find out. I’m not going to tell her and I know you certainly aren’t. It’s just going to remain between us. In fact, if you want we never even had this conversation. Agreed?” Stephanie had promised him. But what if it did come out? Would it be better to fess up to his mistake now than to risk it coming out later and destroying their relationship? Then again it had been over three years ago. Did it matter?

             Alyssa noticed his hesitation. “What do you want to tell me?”

             Nick tried to stall for a moment. “It’s kind of stupid. I mean it’s something that happened before we first broke up like a few years ago.”

             “It doesn’t matter. Obviously it’s bothering you, so we should talk about it.”

             Realizing it was now or never, he took a deep breath. “Well, I kind of cheated on you back while we were engaged. I mean I don’t exactly consider it cheating because the girl practically threw herself at me and it was just really hard to resist. I didn’t sleep with her or anything.”

             “How far did it go?” she asked, her voice beginning to rise.

             “A blowjob,” he answered looking guilty. And to think he hadn’t even told her the worst part yet.

             “Who was she? It wasn’t some I know was it?” Nick didn’t answer at first, so she repeated herself. “Was it?”

             Nick looked away knowing that this wasn’t going to make things any better at all, but he’d gotten himself in too deep and she wasn’t going to back down now without getting the truth. He owed her that much. “It was. Someone you know very well.”

             “Who? Izzy? No Izzy would never… Not with you anyway. Couldn’t have been Katie… One of the other dancers from the tour?” Alyssa began to rattle off suspects.

             “It was Stephanie.” His voice was so small at that point he could barely hear it himself.

             Alyssa froze for a moment, her mind not even beginning to comprehend what he’d just admitted to her. Finally it clicked and an outraged expression replaced the little bit of calm she had mustered up. “Stephanie? As in my younger sister, Stephanie?” she screeched. She gasped as her mind finally calculated the math. “Three years ago? Nick! She was like sixteen! That’s so sick! I don’t know what part I should be more pissed about? The fact that you willingly let my younger sister give you head, or the fact that it was illegal because she was a minor!”

            “It wasn’t what you think Alyssa!” he insisted. “She came home drunk from some party that she was at and you were out with Izzy. She could barely walk and was terrified of your reaction if you’d seen her in that state, so I offered to help her up to her room. Once we were there she practically jumped on me and it sort of continued from that point. It wasn’t something I did on purpose or even had planned on happening. It just sort of happened. I’m not proud of it in any way, but basically it was like a trap.”

             Alyssa did look amused. “A trap? Please… Come on Nick. Clearly you took advantage of my sister. Not only was she underage, but she was drunk too? People go to jail for things like this!”

             Nick slowly felt himself losing his cool. His hands balled up into little fists. “She may have been dunk, but she certainly wasn’t innocent. She knew what she was doing! You know how Stephanie can be! You know how hateful she can be on the inside, especially at that time of her life. Once I realized what was happening I had no way out!”

             She made a disgusted noise and rolled her eyes. “Uh huh Nick… Yes, you’re such a victim here. You were pinned down against your will and forced to receive a blowjob from a sixteen year old? I feel your pain. You can’t tell me that a part of you didn’t enjoy it.”

             “I didn’t! The whole time I kept thinking about you, I swear! In fact, I was even fantasizing that it was you instead!”

             Alyssa just shook her head. “This is so unfuckingbelievable; like something out of a bad episode of Jerry Springer. I’ve never felt so trashy in my life. By the way, that was real smooth there trying to convince me that you were actually considering my feelings while you were being sucked off by my sister!”

             Nick winced at the accusation, hearing what he’d done summarized so coldly from her lips. When she put it like that, it did sound trashy. Trashy beyond belief. “I swear to you Alyssa, it wasn’t as enjoyable as you seem to think.”

             “But it was in some sort of sick, twisted way right?” she accused.

             He sighed, realizing that he was just about at the end of his rope. Her insulting questions were just stirring up more and more frustration inside of him and he could begin to feel his temper that he had been trying so hard to hold back, begin to bubble over. Before he opened his mouth, he knew that he was going to say something to make the situation worse, but even he found that he was shocked by the words that came out next. “Well, maybe it never would’ve happened if you’d at least have given me some head every once in a while!”

             A hurt expression crossed over Alyssa’s face and for a moment he could actually see her chin quiver. Had he really pulled that card? Even he had to admit that it hadn’t been a fair shot. Before he could even open his mouth to take it back, his words really radiated with Alyssa and her face contorted in anger. He didn’t even see her raise her hand until he felt the blow hard against his nose. For a small girl, she really could pack a punch! The move sent him staggering backwards, his hands immediately reaching upwards to cup his nose.

             “That was absolutely and completely uncalled for and just proves what an asshole prick you are!” she shouted. “Too bad, because maybe if you hadn’t showed up with some whore’s hands down your pants, maybe you’d have gotten some head tonight from me! You completely and utterly disgust me!” The adrenaline raging through her body had her almost completely out of breath and as she paused to draw in some air, she looked back over at Nick just in time to see him pull his hands away from his nose, his fingers sticky with warm blood. It was only then that it actually had sunk in to Alyssa that she’d actually decked him.

             “Oh my God… Did I…? I did that?” she meekly asked.

             “Well, I didn’t punch myself in the nose,” Nick sarcastically replied, clearly annoyed.

             Immediately Alyssa felt horrible. She hadn’t meant to actually hurt him. She hadn’t even meant to hit him. It just had kind of happened. He’d gotten her so enraged that her temper had taken control. Never before in her life had she ever hit a man before or even made a move to do so. Yea, he had deserved it, but she still couldn’t help, but feel ashamed. “Let me help,” she offered, heading into the bathroom to get a towel or something.

             “That’s all right. I think you’ve done enough,” he coldly responded.

             Alyssa froze in her spot as she watched him pick up a towel and hold it to his nose. She stood fascinated as she watched a spot of crimson slowly begin to grow on the stark white towel. “God, its bleeding a lot. Do you think I broke it?”

             Nick’s cheeks turned red obviously embarrassed by the fact that his girlfriend could hit him hard enough to actually break his nose. “I think you give yourself too much credit. Blows to the nose just tend to bleed a lot.”

             Alyssa continued to stand there helplessly for a moment; an awkward feeling coming over her. I need to get out of here, she realized. Before I do or say something else I regret and wind up killing him. They’d fought enough and a lot had come to the surface. They both had reputations of being hotheaded and they needed time to cool off and process everything that had just happened. If they didn’t they’d only wind up making the situation that much worse. “I should go,” she muttered as she gathered up her belongings.

             “Maybe that’s a good idea,” Nick agreed. “Before you do anymore damage.”

             Without saying another word, Alyssa bit back her tears, picked up her suitcase, and headed towards the door. She never looked back and tried to keep her head up high as she stepped into the hallway. It was only once the door had slammed behind her that she realized that she had nowhere to go.


             A few minutes later, Alyssa found herself outside of Teri and Howie’s hotel room, desperately pounding on their door. For a moment or two, she’d stood outside of Nick’s room wondering where she should go. It was too late to check into another hotel for the night and she knew that she’d have to wait until at least the morning to see if she could get a flight back to the US. She definitely couldn’t face Stephanie at the moment, so turning up at her door was out of the question. When she passed by Tricia and AJ’s room, they’d had the do not disturb sign hung quite obviously outside of their door. So, Teri and Howie were really her last resort.

             She kept on knocking, but heard no noise from within the room. They’re probably sleeping already, she reasoned. Just give it up. They’re not going to answer.

             She was just about to accept defeat, when she heard Teri’s voice from somewhere deep inside the room groan. “Hold your horses! I’ll be right there.”

             Alyssa inwardly breathed in a sigh of relief as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, impatiently waiting for her friend to answer the door. After what felt like an eternity the store sprung open to reveal Teri just tightening the belt on her robe. “Who the hell is pounding on my door in the middle of night?” she asked without looking up. When she did the expression on her face showed that she was quite surprised to find Alyssa there. “Lyss? What’s going on? Is something wrong?”

             All the poise and emotions that Alyssa had been struggling to maintain from the moment she’d seen Nick walk in to the hotel room with Michelle, came crumbling down at that moment as she impulsively burst into tears. “Nick cheated on me! He bought some girl back to his room tonight. And I found out that my younger sister gave him a blowjob, so I punched him and now his nose is bleeding, and it’s just a really big mess. He probably hates me!”

             “Whoa… Maybe you better come inside, calm down, and start back at the beginning only a lot slower,” Teri suggested, looking very confused. “All I heard was Nick… Blowjob… Something about your sister… And he’s bleeding?”

             Alyssa just nodded her head as she stepped inside the room, dragging her suitcase behind her. Teri ushered her over towards the couch and motioned for her to take a seat. Plopping down beside her, she put a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Now back up and tell me what happened from the beginning. Start with after you hung up with me earlier.”

             Alyssa took in a deep breath before beginning her story. “After I hung up from you, I tried calling him, but he wouldn’t pick up the phone, so I sent him a text and still no answer. So, I guess I fell asleep or something and when I woke up I heard voices outside of Nick’s door. Then in bursts Nick with his tongue down some half dressed girl’s throat. It was pretty obvious where it was headed.”

             Teri gasped. “Oh, my God Alyssa… I’m so sorry! What a fucking asshole! Did he even offer any kind of explanation?”

             She nodded. “He claims that because I didn’t call him to wish him a Happy Birthday, he got all upset and decided to go to a bar or whatever and start drinking. Guess that’s where he met the girl and supposedly she manipulated him into believing that I didn’t call because I was cheating on him or something.”

             “What a douche… That doesn’t even make sense! Why would he believe some random skank over you? Doesn’t he trust you?”

               Alyssa shrugged. “He blames the alcohol, but I don’t know… That’s not even half of it though.”

             Teri’s eyes widened. “You mean there’s more?”

             “Uh huh… See I asked him if there’s anything else he’s been hiding from me or not being one hundred percent truthful about because I needed to be able to trust him if I could even think about thinking about forgiving him,” she explained in a choked up voice. “Well, apparently he has been hiding a big secret for close to three years now. Back when Stephanie was living with us and was only sixteen might I add, she came home drunk from some party and wound up giving Nick head, which he did nothing to stop. They’ve both been lying to me for years now.”

             “That’s so fucked up!” Teri cried. Realizing that she wasn’t really helping matters much she changed her voice into a softer tone. “I mean Nick should obviously know better, but the fact that Stephanie, your own sister, did that to you is completely disgusting. I knew she was a bitter person, but I never thought that she’d be the type to do something like this to you. I don’t think I’d ever speak to her again after something like this.”

             Alyssa sighed. “I just might not. Honestly I can only deal with one betrayal at a time, but when I do run into her its not going to be pretty. As of right now she’s dead to me. As for Nick… I don’t know. Maybe I could’ve forgiven him before he made some asshole comment about my lack of generosity in the blowjob department.”

             “He what?! What did he say?”

             “That maybe he wouldn’t have allowed things to go down the way they did with Steph if only I had given him head more often,” she grumbled.

             Her friend gasped. “All right… I say we fucking castrate him! By the time I’m done with him he won’t have to worry about how often he gets head because he won’t be able to receive it anymore! I hope you told him where to shove it?

             The corners of Alyssa’s lip lifted up into a slight grin. “Well, I did insinuate that he fucked up whatever chance he did have of getting any tonight. And then… well then I sort of punched him. Hard… In the face… He was bleeding pretty badly from his nose.”

             Teri began to laugh as she wrapped her arms around Alyssa in a hug. “Oh, man I love you Alyssa! I can’t believe you had the nerve to hit him.  Congratulations! I’m proud of you! He definitely deserved that. Way to stand up for yourself, Hun.”

             Alyssa didn’t look as triumphant though. “I’m not proud at all. In fact, I feel like crap. I think I really hurt him. Like deeper than just a blow to the nose. I think he was really pissed and kind of embarrassed that I hit him. I’m not like that at all. In fact, I’ve never raised my hand to anyone before, but he just pushed me and that’s pretty scary.”

             “Yet, it’s okay for him to hurt you by fooling around with other girls behind your back, including your sister?” Teri pointed out. “I’d say that warrants you knocking some sense into him.”

             “Whatever… He probably hates me right now anyway. It’s over and done with. I just wish it hadn’t ended up like that,” she confessed.

             “Maybe it’s not over. Not saying that you should forgive each other and pretend it never happened, but maybe you both just need to calm down a little bit. Maybe after that you can finally find some closure. Wait a few days and see what happens.”

             Alyssa shook her head. “I don’t think Nick is going to let something like this go so easily, and quite frankly I don’t think I’m ready to let what he did to me go. If I do get over it, I don’t think it’ll be for a long time. In fact, I’m heading back to the US first thing tomorrow morning. I need to try to put my life back together since it doesn’t look like I’ll be moving out to LA after all.”

            “Lyss, I think you’re jumping way ahead of yourself here. Just because you and Nick had this fight doesn’t mean that you can’t move to LA like you planned. Regardless if you and Nick stay together or not.”

             “Uh uh. I can’t go out to LA and live in that condo. There are too many memories there already and besides, Nick owns it. I’d be bound to bump into him at some point,” she sniffled.

          Teri sighed realizing that the best thing for Alyssa at the moment was sleep. She was obviously emotionally drained and needed to sleep off the events the past few hours. “Honey, why don’t you make yourself comfortable on the extra bed and try to get some sleep? Right now you’re really upset and emotional and the best thing for you is sleep. Things will look more promising in the morning and then you can decide where to go from there.”

             Alyssa just nodded. What Teri said did make sense. And she had to admit that she was getting a headache from crying so much. “Thanks so much for listening Ter. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

             “That’s what friends are for,” she whispered as she drew Alyssa in for a hug. She watched in the doorway as Alyssa made her way into the bedroom and pulled back the sheets of the extra bed. While she slipped under the covers and pulled them up over her head, Teri couldn’t help, but feel sorry for her friend, and even angrier at Nick for breaking her heart.