Chapter 2

Nick sat there in his room that night playing a video, when he noticed he kept watching the clock and then would look back at the TV. He reached over, picking up the phone and dialed Brian, who was his best friend in the group’s number. He sat there listening the phone ringing when Brian’s answering machine came on.

Hi, you’ve reached my home, yes you have.
Guess what? I’m not here, please leave a message after the beep… beep… HAHA! Fooled ya…

Beep…

“Rok, hey it’s me man…” said Nick as he heard a loud noise knowing that Brian answered the phone.

“Nick, man it’s 11:30, I’m on vacation, sweet Jesus let me sleep son…” said Brian as Nick started to laugh.

“Whazzup?” asked Nick as Brian rolled his eyes and fell back in his bed.

“Sleep.. um sleep and oh yeah sleep….” said Brian, “What have you been doing? Aaron gettin’ on your nerves already?”

“Nah… I went to high school today.” said Nick as Brian busted out laughing.

“Oh damn Nick that was good.” said Brian, “Testing new jokes on me, huh? Next…”

“Nah man I’m not joking. I did, I saw some people I haven’t seen since I started to be tutored.” said Nick.

“Really well that’s cool man, maybe make a friend there… lord knows you need one so you can call and worry while we’re on break.” said Brian as Nick shook his head.

“Oh so that’s how it is.. alright fine, who says I don’t have a friend…” said Nick, “Get your beauty sleep Rok..”

“Thank you Nicky, talk to you in the morning.” said Brian laughing as he hung up and Nick sat there looking around.

“Hell Samantha told me to call her.. shit what was her name again?” Nick asked himself as he picked up the phone book and looked under M, “There it is…” as he dialed the number. He sat there listening to the phone ring as he looked at the clock. It was almost 12, she couldn’t still be out with Jake, she had school the next day.

“Hello…” asked Samanth answering the phone, sounding half asleep.

“Sam, hey Nick here…” said Nick as he listened and didn’t hear anything, “Hello?”

“Huh?” asked Samantha, “Who is this?”

“Nick… from today….” said Nick, “Carter…”

“Oh, damn, yeah, umm you do realize it’s almost midnight and it’s a school night.” said Samantha.

“Yes, I know. That’s why I knew you’d be home from your date.” said Nick as Samantha turned her bedroom light on and sat up in bed.

“Yeah.. see Nick, normal people who go to high school, well they don’t stay up til midnight, well not the ones that want to make something of theirselves.” said Samantha.

“Oh were you asleep? I’m sorry…” said Nick, “I just.. my best friend Rok was asleep because well he’s tired. We shot three videos in LA and he’s tired. I didn’t know anybody else’s number but yours.”

“It’s okay, so what can I help you with?” asked Samantha.

“Just wanted to talk to someone, how was your date with Jake?” asked Nick.

“It went pretty good, we went to the bowling alley.” said Samantha as she yawned.

“Bowling alley, on the first date?” asked Nick laughing.

“Sorry.. he isn’t a superstar who can get reservations in NYC and fly there for the night. I had a good time.” said Samantha as Nick looked down and looked around.

“I’m bothering you, I’m sorry…” said Nick.

“No, you’re not.” said Samantha, “It’s fine.. just I have to get up early in the morning because I’m in charge of showing the freshman around at school and it’s gonna be a really long day okay.”

“I understand…” said Nick.

“Yeah just call me tomorrow afternoon about 5 or so, maybe we can hang out and I can introduce you to some other’s that you know.” said Samantha.

“Okay. I will. Goodnight.” said Nick.

“‘Night.” said Samantha as they both hung up and she layed back in her bed while she reached over and turned the light off.

“Damn I got a Backstreet Boy callin’ me at a midnite.. interesting way to start off the school year..” she thought as she started to laugh and went to sleep.

“Man nobody wants to talk to me.” said Nick as Aaron threw a pillow at him.

“Dude shut up.. it’s bed time.” said Aaron as Nick rolled his eyes.

“I really need to get my own room.” Nick thought as he looked around and went back to playing his video game.

That next afternoon, Nick was standing outside shooting hoops at the basketball goal when he heard a car pull up to the front gate.

“Wonder if that’s Rok that came over?” he thought as he put the basketball under his arm and walked around the corner to see Samantha standing beside her car, beeping on the gate.

“Hey.. you can stop that.” said Nick as Samantha tried to look through the bars.

“Well you’ve got this place locked up like Elvis lives her or something, what is this Graceland?” asked Samantha as Nick started to walk up to the gate.

“No, Carterland.” said Nick as he started to laugh, punching in the password to the gate as Samantha walked in.

“Well.. don’t leave your car right there, cuz if my parents come home, they can’t get in.. move it on in the gate.” said Nick.

“Fine..” said Samantha as she went back to her car and pulled on up in the driveway as she got out of the car.

“How’d you find me?” asked Nick as Samantha shut her car door and looked around.

“Well… wasn’t that hard, plus I asked my cousin.. she knows everything and anything about this town.” said Samantha.

“Well it’s not 5 yet.. it’s 3:30…” said Nick, “School just get over with?”

“Yeah, I thought I’d come on over before you started tracking me down.” said Samantha as she looked around, “Now see… I remember when you were younger, you didn’t have a big house like this…”

“I made a little money…” said Nick as he started to laugh.

“Yeah, so what did you want last night, I was asleep?” asked Samantha as Nick looked around confused.

“Oh, just to talk. I called my friend Brian and he was asleep and then you said to call you sometime, and so I did.” said Nick.

“It was midnight…” said Samantha.

“Yeah sorry, just I’m only gonna be here, today and tomorrow and I have to leave tomorrow night to go to Orlando and catch a flight to London…” said Nick as Samantha interrupted him.

“London? Seriously?” asked Samantha.

“Yeah our album just came out over there, our second one, the first one in the US and we’ve gotta go do some promotion and crap over there and I haven’t been here in so long having a few days off… and I was just wondering what happened to everybody.” said Nick.

“Like I said yesterday, you feel like you’re missing out on something…” said Samantha as Nick nodded his head a little.

“Yeah… a little…” said Nick, “I just lost contact with all my friends around here….”

“Yeah.. I can understand that I guess.” said Samantha.

“How could you?” asked Nick as Samantha rolled her eyes.

“I guess your right, so do you want me to go and introduce you to some people?” asked Samantha as Nick looked around.

“What’s the point? I’m leaving for probably another six months or so…” said Nick, I”m not lying I’m rarely here… I may come home for a day or two every now and then, but rarely.”

“So what do you want to do, I’m free this afternoon.” said Samantha as Nick looked over at her.

“No date?” asked Nick sarcastically.

“No… I doubt there’ll be another with him.. I just went out with him because I was tired of him asking me.” said Samantha.

“Yeah sure, it doesn’t matter.” said Nick as he threw the basketball in the backyard, “Let’s go..”

“Where?” asked Samantha.

“I don’t care, go where everybody else is…” said Nick as Samantha shook her head a little.

“Alright…” said Samantha as they got in her car and drove off.