Nick….Nick?”

I found myself staring up at Aaron’s face. Immediately, he squatted down on the floor next to me. “You dropped this,” he said as he offered my cell phone back.

Numbly, I took the cell back, not saying anything as I started to get up from the floor only to be stopped by my brother’s hand on my shoulder.

“I think you need to sit down for a few minutes….you seemed to act like you were gonna pass out or something….I think you blacked out.”

“Huh?”

“You asked the attorney who was in the car with you….”

Immediately my attorney’s words crept back into my head. I put my hands over my face.

“What did he say? Nick……? What did he tell you?”

“H-he said the guys…” I started sobbing. Aaron’s hand on my shoulder somewhat calmed my frayed nerves and I looked at him for a moment. “They might not make it,” I whispered.

Aaron stared at me, “Who? Nick, who was with you?”

“Rob and Josh.”

“So that explains the DUI.”

My head shot up. “What the fuck is that suppose to mean?” I snapped.

“You know exactly what that means,” Aaron retorted.

I bore my eyes into my brother. I swear I could literally feel my blood boil. “You sound just like mom…don’t you fucking throw that type of shit at me!” I seethed. “All I know is two of my friends are laying in the hospital because of me. I don’t need your shit on top of this!”

Aaron stood up and grabbed the coke can that was on the island counter. “I’m sorry you took it the wrong way, but you know how Rob can always be persuasive and you are easily led; don’t deny it Nick!”

I opened my mouth to reply and stopped. Aaron was right. Rob always got me to do stupid shit; there was no denying that. Why didn’t I say no to him last night?

I grabbed the keys that were laying on the counter.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“I have to go to the hospital and see how they’re doing,” I muttered as I started toward the front door.

“Nick, you can’t.”

“Why? They’re my friends---“

“I’m pretty sure you don’t have a license anymore,” Aaron interrupted.

I stopped for a moment and then continued toward the door. “Yeah, so?”

“Besides if they’re in ICU, they won’t let you see them. Just give me the keys and sit down…..c’mon Nick.”

Reluctantly, I placed the keys in my little brother’s hand. When did Aaron turn into an adult? “I-I just can’t sit around and wait,” I stuttered.

“You have to,” he replied.

Slowly sitting down on the couch, I could feel Aaron’s stare. Normally things like that didn’t get to me; I've been stared at for years by strangers but to be honest, having your little brother give you that pitiful stare really gets under my skin.

“You don’t have to stare at me,” I muttered.

“I wasn’t.”

“Yeah you were. I can feel it.”

“Can’t I be worried about you…..cause I am.”

Leaning forward, I held my head in my hands. The hangover from hell was returning and it seemed stronger than ever. “Just go worry someplace else then,” I asked; not bothering to lift my head up to look at him.

Aaron’s cell cut into the thick silence that hung in the air. He quickly flipped the device open. I silently prayed that he would get up and walk into the kitchen to take the call. My prayers went unanswered and I noticed that he had settled his skinny ass deeper into the couch opposite of me.

"Yo, waddup? No shit? CNN? Wow you’d expect to see that shit on MTV before CNN….hell, I would actually expect to see it only on WTSP…” he rambled.

I hadn’t really paid much attention to his conversation until I heard him utter MTV and WTSP – our local ABC television station. That piqued my attention. I looked up at him.

“Yeah, I’m at his house…..yeah, hey….call me if you hear anything more.” Wordlessly, Aaron snapped the cell phone shut.

After a few minutes of silence, my curiosity gave way. “So what was that all about?”

Aaron shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing.”

“You said something about MTV and channel 10.”

”That?”

I nodded and widened my eyes as I tried to prod Aaron to spill it. “Yeah, that.”

“Just stupid stuff,” he replied as he squirmed on the couch.

I knew that little shit was lying. Aaron had always been a bad liar. His body language always gave him away. “It was about me wasn’t it?”

“Not everything is always about you Nick.”

He couldn’t even look at me when he said that. Now I know he was defiantely lying. “C’mon tell me what’s going on or do I have to turn the TV on?”

“They have pictures of your car on the news on channel 10 and MTV and my friend Jarrid said that there is a crawler on CNN about you getting in an accident and stuff.”

I sighed as I leaned forward and put my head back into my hands. I could see this shit being reported on the local news but MTV and CNN? When I got that DUI a few years ago it was on the local news in California because I was living there back then and I was really stupid. Seems like I should have been smarter and learned my lesson with that DUI. Why the hell didn’t I learn? I took a risk and now two people are laying in the hospital and could die because I was an idiot and got behind the wheel and drove when I had no business driving.

I was so screwed and there was no taking this back. No ‘Nick Carter’ charm could ever get me out of this mess! I completely fucked myself.

The doorbell chimed and me and Aaron stared at each other for a few moments before he stood up.

“I’ll go answer it,” he replied as he started off toward the front door.

“Ask whoever it is to go away, I don’t want to talk to anyone,” I said quietly before I returned to cradle my aching head.

“Nick?”

“I told you I don’t want to see anyone right now, just tell whoever it is to go away.”

An authoritive voice snapped me out of my self loathing. I felt a hand on my upper arm. “Nickolas Carter. We’re placing you under arrest.”

A Florida State Trooper pulled my arms behind me after I stood up and he snapped handcuffs on my wrists.

“My brother bailed me out this afternoon….” I protested.

“You have the right to remain silent……”

I was going to object again to what was happening when the reality of the situation suddenly hit me….someone didn't make it!