Chapter Twenty - Four

I can’t take much more of this. My family, just, I wish they would all just leave me the hell alone. I swear to God, this is one reason why I don’t want to be famous. Look at my family would you? They’re a disgrace and totally messed up.

My sister. Brandie. She’s only 18; she’ll be 19 soon. I’ve always said she was a whore, but then again I’ve known this for a long, long time. She lost her virginity when she was 12 I think, which is pretty sad. I guess she was bound to get pregnant sooner or later. But to have sex with four guys in the same night and not use protection to know whom the father is? She’s going to end up with AIDS or something.

I really wish that I could just divorce them. They’re all so totally fucked up that it amazes me that Nick actually wants to be a part of it. Seriously. I can’t take it any longer.

Elisabeth walked downstairs slowly, a little bit later to see Brandie sitting there on the sofa, looking at some magazine that Nick had laying on the coffee table. She stood there, looking at her for a minute, wondering what happened to the little sister that she knew back when they both wanted to be Reba McEntire. She sighed, shaking her head in response and walked away from the stairs and going into the kitchen.

“Hey,” Brandie said as Elisabeth looked back at her and didn’t say anything. Brandie sat there a minute, not saying anything else and then turned around, looking in the kitchen at her sister, “Why haven’t you told Nick yes yet?”

“How did you know?” Elisabeth asked as she walked back into the living room, breaking off little pieces of a cookie and sat down in her chair, looking at her sister. Did every fucking body know but her?

“He called Dad like two weeks ago and during one of his long, boring phone calls to me, he told me,” Brandie said as she looked back down at her magazine, “Mom didn’t know, but of course, you know how she feels about Nick,”

“She made that abundantly clear while she was here,” Elisabeth said as Brandie laughed, “I’m just waiting. I want to take it slowly, that’s all,” she said, eating the rest of the cookie and looked over at the TV.

“I’m sorry about that virgin comment that I said before,” Brandie said as Elisabeth cut her eyes over to her, “I mean it must take a lot to stay one when you have a guy that is as hot as Nick wanting you.”

The girl did have a valid point.

“Yeah, it is,” Elisabeth said as she looked down at her hands, not knowing what to say, “I’ll probably tell him yes, but just not yet. I just want to wait.”

“You want it to be perfect,” Brandie said as Elisabeth looked back over at her, “Just like you had to have your bedroom always perfect, and your Barbie dolls had to be dressed perfectly. Your CD’s had to be in alphabetical order, and your posters on your wall couldn’t be crooked or tilted the slightest bit. You have to have everything perfect. Me? I don’t care if it’s perfect, as long as it’s what I want, and then I’m happy. I’m not trying to please anybody but myself. I don’t care what Dad, Mom, Clay, you, or anybody else says about me. If I’m happy, then that’s all that matters.”

“Then why are you hiding the fact that you’re pregnant?” Elisabeth asked as Brandie shrugged her shoulders, “Because you’re ashamed of yourself. You have to be.”

“It’s my fault. I drunk too much,” Brandie, said as she shrugged her shoulders, “But it’s going to be my baby and nobody elses. It’s something nobody can just take away because I’m grounded. It’ll love me back no matter what.”

Elisabeth didn’t really know what to say to that. Thankfully, she didn’t have to say anything because Nick walked through the door, carrying three bags from McDonald’s and a tray of soft drinks.

“Those people at McDonald’s are a bunch of freakin’ idiots,” Nick said as he handed Brandie her bag, and her drink, “Do you think they understand the concept for ordering a Sprite? Hell no,” he said, handed Elisabeth her bag and her drink, “I don’t think they speak English,” and with that, he sat down on the other end of the sofa, opening up his bag, “Bitches better had gotten my order right too.”

Elisabeth just looked at Nick, smiling at him. The way he bitched about something as small as McDonald’s just made her giggle inside because he was so damn sexy.

“Look at you smiling at him,” Brandie said as Elisabeth snapped out of her smiling at Nick and looked at her, “Awww,”

“Whatever,” Elisabeth said as she shook her head, looking in her bag as Brandie laughed at her. Nick was too busy trying to eat to even pay attention to them.

A few hours passed of slow conversation between the three. Nick was actually planning another quiet evening with just the two of them before Elisabeth went back to work the next day, but when Brandie showed up, that plan just shot straight to hell. They barely said anything for the rest of the night unless it was just small talk about music or whatever was on TV at the time.

Brandie kept looking over at Nick and Elisabeth who were now on the sofa while she was sitting in the chair. Elisabeth had her back propped up against Nick’s chest and he had his arm around her and just layed like that for the longest time, playing with each other’s fingers as they watched TV.

“So,” Brandie said finally, breaking the two hour long silence between the three of them, as Elisabeth and Nick looked over at her, “Why are you two just back together yet?” Elisabeth rolled her eyes in response.

“Well we sort of are,” Nick said as Elisabeth looked up at him, “We’re just taking it slowly, that’s all,”

“It’s just that, well I know that I’ve never been around you two that much at all,” Brandie said as she looked over at them again, “But I’ve been sitting here for the past few hours and you two have been cuddling and holding hands, playing with each other’s fingers, and little kisses here and there, and it’s like what the fuck, you know? I don’t get the whole ‘taking it slowly’ thing and that could be why I’m in the position I am today, but it’s not like you just met and you’ve never dated. Hello, you asked her to marry you and Elisabeth I know how you feel, just, damn, go be alone,” she said as Nick cracked up laughing at her.

“Maybe it’s because you’ve never been in love and you just went and fucked whoever,” Elisabeth said as Brandie looked at her, “I’m not saying it to be mean, but it’s the truth,”

“Maybe,” Brandie said as she shrugged her shoulders and looked back at the TV.

“I think she just wants you to have sex,” Nick said as he looked down at Elisabeth who started to laugh, “And you know what?” he asked as he stood up, and lifted Elisabeth who was dying laughing at him, trying to put her over his shoulder, “I think that’s what we’ll do.”

“Nick!” Elisabeth yelled as she cracked up laughing and he started to tote her over to the stairs going up there, “Nick, put me down you damn idiot!”

“Use a condom! Trust me, they work!” Brandie yelled as Nick reached the top step, and walked into her room, tossing her down on her bed, laughing still.

“You’re crazy!” Elisabeth yelled at him, as he climbed up on the bed, kissing her passionately. Elisabeth laughed back, interrupting the kiss as Nick moved his lips down to her neck sucking on it playfully, “You’re going to kill me!”

“What?” Nick asked as he hovered over her, smiling, “You know I’m only joking baby,” he said as he leaned over, kissing her softly on the lips, “Although I do really wanna make sweet, passionately, hot, lustful, wet, love to you, and taste you again,” he whispered as he licked his lips.

Elisabeth layed there in shock.

“Damn,” Elisabeth said as she looked around and took a deep breath. She moved Nick out of the way and sat up on the bed, looking around strangely while he sat up, looking over at her. He just stared at her for a minute until she cut her eyes over at him, giving a little smirk, “I wanna say something.”

“Okay,” Nick said as he turned around, looking at her, face to face. Elisabeth smiled at him, before looking down at her legs, as she sat in Indian style, “What is it Beth?”

“I’m kinda scared,” Elisabeth said, not even looking him in the eyes, “I mean really I am,”. She looked up, taking a deep breath and looked over at him as he leaned in, kissing her on the lips lightly. She opened her eyes slightly, looking at him, and then closed them, kissing him back until he backed away slowly, suck on her lips, “Um, that was nice but that’s not what I was wanting to say,”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me,” Nick said as he moved his hand, running the back of his fingers over her cheek lightly, “I know that you’re scared because you’re realizing that I’m the one.”

Elisabeth stared at him blankly again. She’d been doing that a lot today. She was doing it this time because she didn’t know what the hell Nick was talking about.

“And it’s okay,” Nick whispered as he leaned over, kissing her on the lips lightly again, “You can just tell me yourself when you’re ready. It scared me at first too baby,”

This wasn’t what she was scared of.

“Okay,” Elisabeth said as she smiled, reaching up to hug him. She looked around her bedroom, laying her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her tightly, hugging her.

That’s not what she wanted to talk about. She wanted to tell him about how she was scared she was only getting the attention because people might be finding out about them, especially the Backstreet Boys fans and she knew how adamant they were when it came to a girl in Nick’s life. Not like she was going to tell him now after he said all of that.

“I’m gonna go tell my sister goodnight and I’m pretty beat, so can we go to bed?” Elisabeth asked as they stopped hugging and Nick backed up, looking at her, “I’m fine, you don’t need to ask me if I am. I’m just tired.”

“Okay,” Nick said as Elisabeth smiled, crawling off of the bed. She smiled down at Nick and turned around, and began to walk downstairs, thinking to herself how she was going to go to hell now for lying. Although she didn’t really lie, she just agreed with what Nick thought she was scared of.

She shook her head and walked downstairs, looking over at the sofa to see Brandie laying with her head on the arm of the sofa, asleep. Elisabeth stood there, looking at her for a minute, and crossed her arms. Her sister was seriously messed up. It wasn’t really Brandie’s fault. It was her parents for making her this way by giving her every little thing she wanted.

Elisabeth walked through the guestroom and into the guestroom where Nick had been staying, and took a blanket off of the foot of the bed. She sighed, shutting the door and walked to the back of the sofa, throwing the blanket out, laying it on top of Brandie. She looked down at her for a minute, before reaching over and picking up the remote to turn the TV off.

She looked over, making sure that the front door was locked and turned the light off in the living room and paused. She really didn’t want to go upstairs and make out with Nick. She just felt like going to bed. She began walking upstairs, trying to figure out how she was going to get away with just going to sleep when she reached the top step, seeing Nick laying there on the bed asleep.

Then she smiled, before unbuttoning her jeans and slipping them off. She reached down, pulling her t-shirt over her head and tossing it over on the floor, leaving her in her bra and panties. She smiled, walking up closer to the bed, and pulled the covers back and sliding under them, looking over at Nick.

This wasn’t so bad at all.

Elisabeth, Nick, and Brandie all slept through the night without even waking up. Somehow, Elisabeth sledded up next to Nick and he wrapped his arm around her, causing them both to smile in their sleep.

Brandie on the other hand was asleep on the sofa, sleeping peacefully until she heard someone knock on the door. She started to wake up and looked over at the time on the VCR, seeing that it was a little after seven in the morning. She knew neither Elisabeth nor Nick was awake yet and decided to get up, off of the sofa and started to gag.

Damn morning sickness.

She yawned, walking over to the door and began to unlock it, without even looking outside. Then the person outside rang the doorbell as Brandie bitched under her breath at them.

“Beth, is that the doorbell?” Nick whispered, as Elisabeth snuggled up against him a little more, not even listening to him. Nick opened his eyes a little, and shut them back, thinking that maybe he was hearing something.

Brandie!!

Then both Elisabeth and Nick opened their eyes, jumping out of bed and began to run downstairs.