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How long had she asked that question? Seconds ago? Minutes maybe? However long ago it was, Nick couldn’t utter a word. She looked so different, her sensual blonde and brown highlights were completely gone, nothing but a dark chocolate brown color on her once multi-tonal head. It was shorter too, no more shoulder lengthy hair, all that was left was touching her shoulders. She hadn’t grown much, maybe an inch or two. Her body didn’t change though, she was still the curvy, sexy bombshell he remembered her to be. Overall, the change made him speechless, he gave her a quick glance up and down, she still wore her heels, a pair of wooden wedged ones, a brown pair of shorts and navy T-shirt. She’s more covered this time, hm! That’s a switch!

“Nick?! Hello, are you there?” She hedged again, waving her palm in front of his face.

His thoughts finally came back to reality, his eyes sharply darted into hers. “Yeah, I’m here, it’s me. Look at you! You’ve changed so much!” In more ways than one.

“Thank you, thank you. I’m so happy to see you Nick.” She spoke softly, and moved slowly toward him, lightly putting her arms around him, half of Nick wanted to pull away, he really did, he had a cold and hard look on his face when the others left them along in the hall, but something clicked in him, all over again, both his hands pressed against her back, hugging her back, a little bit tighter than he wanted to, but much to his dismay, he body was telling him to do different than his mind. “I really have missed you Nick, those four years were long without you.”

Nick nodded, not knowing a simpler way to answer her without exploding in sheer anger, she had been gone four years, four fucking years! And he never even received a single phone call from her, not even a letter. And now she’s back, and the way she speaks, sounds like she wants to pick up where they left off. Too late for that, too much shit has happened. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. He didn’t know what else to do, he kept nodding, speaking slowly and solemn. “Likewise, see you later on maybe.” He said, before disappearing into the crowd awaiting her, ready to bombard her with questions.

They afternoon passed quickly, much to Nick’s own surprise, he’d spent most of the afternoon and early evening in the backyard, soaking up the sun drinking down a beer, mostly drinking his drink and unwillingly caught in a deep conversation with Brian; about what else? Leigh-Anna. Brian was, one again, lecturing him about how much Nick still loved her and is too stubborn to come to. What a crock of shit. He didn’t need anyone to tell him how to feel. He knew what he felt.
“Nick, I don’t mean to say this to you, over and over, but sometime buddy, you’re going to realize you still love that girl inside. And I hope to god, that when that realization hits, it’s not too late. I seen the way you looked at her when she came in Nick, it’s only a matter of time, as far as I’m concerned.” Brian went on, a smug smile forming on his part, when he reached that last part.

“And as far as I’m concerned, you need a serious reality check if you think I’m going to make the same mistake twice. She chose what road to take Brian, when she went away and never even said two fucking words to me! She can rot in hell for all I care, Brian. And I mean that.” He lied to himself, it did hurt him to say those stone cold words, but what she did to him over the past years, hurt him so much more, than anyone could ever imagine.

“I hope you don’t mean that Nick, I really don’t.” Brian said, sighing. He balled his fists together into one, and rested his chin against the top of the fist. Looking intently at his younger brother, he was lying down on the long chair, taking in the sun, completely unaware that Leigh-Anna was behind him, for the entire conversation. Brian looked at the twenty year old, the liquid beginning to form at the bottom of her eyes, she shook her head fiercely, like she didn’t want to believe what Nick had said. Her head shook, and she quickly took off inside. “Be careful Nick, I have a feeling things are going to get very trying, emotional, and very hard, for you, and a number of people. Just, keep what I said in mind, it may be too late when it finally hits you.” Brian finished, Nick crinkled his nose, but he nodded understandably before Brian left, too go see to something inside.

A couple more hours passed by, and Nick still didn’t leave AJ’s. He thought Leigh-Anna was gone to bed, sleeping soundly, exhausted after a long day of everyone asking their own questions about the past four years, and much she missed home, he assumed. Shrugging all ideas, of where she could be aside, he turned his attention to the movie that was playing across the television. The whoever it was running after it’s helpless victim, in a strange way, he could relate to the girl running away from her killer, like he was running from the gut twisting truth. He still loved Leigh-Anna, but the wounds were just too deep, and to even think about what Brian said, those wounds were going to take a long, long time to heal.

“Nick, could you go upstairs and try to find a new set of batteries for the remote, the damn thing keeps dying! I’m pretty sure they’re in my office.” A.J explained, ready to throw the batteries out the window, along with the remote.

“Alright, no problem.” He answered, getting up from the sofa he casually walked into the hall way and up the stairs, slowly walking to A.J’s office at the end of the hall.

“What am I supposed to do?! I’m back now, and I still can’t help but need him!” He heard her voice coming from one of the room to the right, he neared the door and watched through the crack, she was sitting up on her bed, knees brought up to her chest, talking on cordless phone to someone over the phone. Nick’s heard jumped, hearing that familiar needing voice, brought back a lot of memories of when she needed him. Shaking his head, clouding all his memories over, he quietly neared his ear deeper into the crack, listening in. “You don’t think I know...of course he has the right to know...but I don’t want to tell him...why? Because he’ll hate me forever, and I couldn’t handle it if Nick hated me...I know he’s hostile right now, and it kills, it really, really kills me....but what if I tell him? He lashes out at me and never wants to see me again? I can’t live like that, I really can’t.”

Looks like she isn’t the only one hiding something big.

Nick shook his head, she was keeping something, and from the sounds of it, something big. Turns out Brian was right, the time ahead is going to put his patience and emotions to the ultimate test.