Chapter 41

Samantha sat there staring at the cell phone in her hand, dumb founded. Nick had cut her off. Sure they had some arguments before, but never anything serious. And they had stopped talking for a while back when she was pregnant, but that was her choice. This time, Nick had called the shot, and he didn’t want to speak to her.

Samantha took a deep breath, and let out a sob. She sat there and cried, her hands on the steering wheel of the car. She had lost her best fried because of a choice that she made. She continued to cry in the car, but after ten minutes, she finally got control of herself.

“I’m doing the right thing,” she thought. “I love Jake, and Megan needs a family. And as long as he doesn’t do anything again, we’ll be okay. Nick will come around. He’s mad now, but he can’t stay mad forever. He’ll see Jake is going to be different.”

Samantha wiped her tears away, starting to drive, but still thinking. “Nick is the best friend that I’ve ever had, along with Megan. But I’ve got to live my own life here. He’s off living his. I’ll just give him some time, and he’ll see that things are okay, and we will be friends again,” she said to herself, as she sniffed the last of her tears back in and drove home to Jake.

A few weeks passed, and Nick and Samantha still had not talked. Nick had went from being mad to being depressed, but now he had decided to just focus on the tour, which was going along well. The fans overseas were even crazier than the US fans and when there were tons of fans everywhere you went, it was hard to stay too sad. Between press, greeting fans, and doing shows, the days passed pretty quickly.

The guys were all helping in trying to make Nick forget about the fight he and Samantha had that night by dragging him sightseeing and shopping. Nick hated it, but it was better than sitting around thinking about Samantha.

“Dude D, how much crap can you buy? Damn man,” Nick whined as Howie was looking through some clothes.

“Depends,” Howie replied.

“On what?” Nick asked.

“How much money do I have?” Howie said.

“Uhhh damn, this is gonna be a long day,” Nick said, rolling his eyes.

“Why don’t you buy something?” Howie suggested, “You know, there are other clothes besides t-shirts and jeans.”

“Not in my closet,” Nick said, as he was looking at some silver earrings.

“Those are nice, but I don’t think they go with that jersey,” Howie joked, as Nick rolled his eyes.

“Tomorrow is Samantha’s birthday,” Nick said, as he put them back in the jewelry case.

“Miss her?” Howie asked.

“A lot,” Nick admitted, “but I can’t be friends with her if she’s going to be with Jake.”

“Why not? Because you want her?” Howie asked.

“Yeah, NO,” Nick quickly corrected himself, “because that guy is an asshole.”

“So you made her choose between you and him,” Howie said, as he took his stuff up to the counter.

“No, I don’t want her to be with him because he hits her, he’s abusive. Not because of me,” Nick argued.

“But you do love her, you said so yourself,” Howie pointed out.

“What are you trying to say?” Nick asked, getting aggravate at Howie’s little game.

“I’m not trying to say anything,” Howie said, as they walked out of the store and walked down the cobblestone street of London.

“Whatever it is, just say it D,” Nick said, as Howie stopped walking and looked at him.

‘Nick, you are her friend. And it’s understandable about why you don’t want her to be with Jake, but it’s her decision. If you were her best friend like you say you are, then you would stick by her. Not punish her when she doesn’t do what you want her to. I think you’re being a little selfish. You want her for yourself, and that’s why you’re so pissed,” Howie pointed out.

Nick just stood there for a minute, silent. “Well damn,” Nick said, as he looked at Howie.

“C’mon let’s eat, I’m starved,” Howie said, as Nick followed him, still looking confused as hell.

The rest of July passed and now it was the first week of August, and the guys were still on a tour whirlwind. They were about to do their last overseas show that night, and then they were going back to Orlando to shoot a video for their new single, “Larger Than Life.” After that, they were going to be on a much-needed two week break before the US tour started.

After shopping with Howie that day, Nick realized that he had a point. He knew that the main reason he didn’t want Jake around Samantha is because what he had done to her, but he also knew that there was more to it than that.

Nick had picked up the phone so many times in the last few weeks to call her, but always chickened out, not knowing what to say. He knew she loved Jake, so that was a dead end. And he still didn’t approve of her being with him, so what could he say?

In the last few weeks, Nick had bought some presents for both Samantha and Megan, and after thinking about what Howie had said, he decided he would go and see them once he got home. He had gone over the speech he would say in his mind over and over, that she was still his best friend, and even though he wasn’t happy about what she was doing by staying with Jake, he would stick by her. He would just suck it up and be supportive, because more than anything, he needed his best friend. After all, if you don’t have your friends and family, what’s left in life? Nothing. He had already learned that the hard way, being lonely on the road too many times to count. If this was what she wanted with her life, he wasn’t going to say another word.

Nick sat in his car outside of Jake and Samantha’s new apartment building looking up at the apartment that they lived in. He didn’t know weather to go in or what.

“Well… this dump is nicer…” he thought as he sat there and looked over at the bags of gifts in the seat beside him, “Shit I might as well go make a fool out of myself.” He thought as he grabbed the bags and got out of the car.

“Damn shit.. Jake is gonna be here and beat the shit out of me..” he thought as he walked up the flight of stairs and reached the front door and was about to knock on it when he heard something inside.

“What’s that?” Nick thought as he put his ear up to the door to hear Megan crying, “Megan?” as he looked over to see a window and peeked inside to see Jake standing over the crib.

“Megan would you please be quiet!” yelled Jake.

“Jake, shut up.. just leave her alone!” yelled Samantha as Nick looked around and looked back to see Jake picking Megan up, “She doesn’t feel good either and she’s crying, give me a minute and I’ll be right there!”

“Dammit hurry up!” yelled Jake as he held Megan out looking at her. She was turning red from crying so much, “Uhh would you just fucking shut up??” as he started to shake her a little, “Dammit be quiet!”

“That son of a bitch..” Nick thought as he walked over to the door that was unlocked and opened it to see Jake standing there shaking Megan so that she would shut up but it was making her scream more.

“Get your damn hands off of her.” Said Nick as he threw the bags down and walked over, grabbing Megan from him.

“What in the hell are you doing here?” asked Jake.

“Uhh you son of a bitch.” Said Nick, “Why the hell are you shaking her?”

“Nick?” asked Samantha as she stood there in the doorway to her and Jake’s bedroom, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Jake was standing here shaking Megan Sam, and I mean shaking her, I saw him threw the window, I was about to knock and I heard her crying and heard Jake so I looked, how in the hell are you going to let him do that to her?” asked Nick.

“Jake… were you doing that to her?” asked Samantha.

“If you were holding her right now I would finally teach your ass a lesson.” Said Jake.

“Oh really here Sam, hold her.” Said Nick as he walked up to Jake, “Teach me… you’re so fucking bad to hit Sam, rape her and practically kill her and then to stand there and yell and shake a baby that hasn’t done anything wrong, come on, what are you going to do to me?”

“You know I never did like you back in the day, and I still can’t stand you’re ass, you think you’re better than everybody else just because you have all that money and all that fame, you think you can take my fiancée and my daughter and any damn thing else that you want, well you’re not good enough.” Said Jake.

“You know what, I am better than you and I’m not trying to take your fiancée from you, I just don’t want my best friend and her little girl to stay with a fucked up person like you.” Said Nick as Jake turned around and knocked the hell out of him.

“Jake, stop it okay!” yelled Samantha as Megan was crying, “Nick, just go.”

“Oh is that all you got, damn my 11 year old sister can hit better than that.” Said Nick as he looked over at Samantha, “Jake would you be the asshole that you are give me 5 minutes alone with Samantha?”

“Why so you can sweet talk her again in going back to you because all she’s going to do is come back to me.” Said Jake, “Fine take it, I’ll be outside. As he picked up his drink and walked out the door.

“Nick, what the hell are you doing here, you’re like suppose to be in Germany, and just uhh what are you doing here?” asked Samantha.

“I have a week off and I was god damn tired of us fighting, I missed you and Megan and I came to bring you some presents, and what the hell is he doing shaking her? I thought he promised that he’d changed and all of that?” asked Nick.

“I didn’t know he was shaking her.” Said Samantha, “He hasn’t hit me anymore.”

“You know what, that could kill her, him shaking her like that and who would they blame, you probably, you know what I’m just not gonna sit by anymore and watch this. I am so tired of being best friends and time I leave you go back to him.” Said Nick.

“What are you saying, you’re not going to be my friend anymore Nick, I haven’t talked to you in two months… I think we were handling that pretty damn good.” Said Samantha.

“No.. I’m just not going to sit by until something really really bad happens to you or Megan, either you leave him or me… it’s all or nothing because I just don’t want you to be in this situation anymore.” Said Nick.

“I dunno…” said Samantha.

“For good…” said Nick, “Because once you leave him for good, we’re getting away from here and he’s over with. You won’t have to worry about him anymore and there’s not going to be anymore running back to him, none. I don’t care if he is Megan’s father, he doesn’t deserve that. You say the word and we’ll be out of his town for good and you can start over somewhere else and you won’t be alone, because you know as long as you’re with him, we can never be friends and I think our friendship is worth more than that relationship.”

“Nick..” said Samantha as she had got Megan calmed down.

“I’m going home, to my house. You think what I just offered you and I’ll be here until next Tuesday but after that, I’m gone again. Think about it…. You and Megan could have it all or you could stay here with Jake and have nothing.” Said Nick as he looked over at the bags, “There’s the gifts.. call me.” As he turned around and walked out, looking over at Jake as he walked out the door.

Samantha just stood there holding Megan as Jake walked back in and looked at her.

“So are you going to leave with him, he’s leaving…” said Jake.

“No..” said Samantha, “No… I’m not going with him.” As she walked back into their bedroom and Jake started to smile.