Chapter 18

Nick sat there on the sofa, sliding down to the floor with his knees propped up in the air and looked around. It’s happened to him not once, but twice now. Was he too nice? Why is it that a asshole like Jake could have Samantha for so long and now have another fiancee but someone like him couldn’t keep anybody.

Was it because of his career or was it because of her the kind of person he was. He’d always wanted to help the people he loved, was that the problem? He just sat there thinking, having flashbacks popping into his mind. He couldn’t help it.

“What are you doing with prenatal vitamins… that’s stuff that pregnant women take… I remember my mom taking then with Aaron and Angel.”

“Yeah..”

“You’re pregnant? You are… you’re pregnant.”

“Yeah… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.. I mean I didn’t know, I went earlier today to get a physical because I was going to try out for basketball at FSU and she came back and told me that… I haven’t told anybody.. I knew I just had to get away I was going to go to my grandparents and then you said come out here with you and I just left…”

“Jake know?”

“No.. I went there to try to tell him and…. I just couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“I just couldn’t.. if I tell him I’m pregnant our parents will make us get married and then neither one of us will go to FSU and… well we haven’t really been the same in a while. We aren’t as close as we used to be.”

“I can’t believe this….. You’re gonna have a baby…..”

“Damn..!” Nick screamed as she put his hands on his head almost squeezing it, “I shouldn’t have went. If I hadn’t of went… Amber would still be here but no I had to fuck up and go run to Samantha…. no.. no I didn’t run to Samantha, I went to see Megan… that’s all, Megan..” said Nick as he looked around and started to smile.

“Uhhh…. Samantha…” said Nick as his phone started to ring and he picked it up, “Hello?”

“Yo buddy, so Rok tells me that you went to see Sammy and Megan?” asked AJ as Nick hung up on him.

“Shit I ain’t gonna start this no more.” said Nick as the phone started to ring again and he picked it up, “What?”

“Dude what the fuck did you hang up on me for?” asked AJ.

“Amber left me.” said Nick in a low voice.

“Oh dude.. I’m sorry.” said AJ, “Why?”

“She said that well somehow she found out about Samantha meaning like why.. why we stopped talking and how I felt about her and she said time I saw her again, I ran to her and she wasn’t going to be second to nobody and that she’d never compare to Sam.” said Nick as he started to cry, “AJ, she’s just always there…”

“Who?” asked AJ looking concerned.

“Sammy..” said Nick.

“Dude you want me to come over or something?” asked AJ.

“I don’t care…” said Nick.

“Alright man, I’ll be right over.” said AJ as Nick hung up the phone and sat there looking around. He tucked into his bag that was laying over beside the sofa, pulling it up to him and taking out a thing of pictures of him and Megan that they took in a photo booth when they went to Toys R Us and started to laugh.

“Mommy….” said Megan that night as Megan was laying in bed and Samantha was sitting on the edge of her bed, tucking her in.

“Yeah baby?” asked Samantha.

“When’s Nick coming back?” asked Megan.

“I dunno baby, he’s a busy busy guy.” said Samantha, “He’s got all of those songs he has to sing and all of those fans he has to say hello to. He’s really busy.”

“Mommy, Nick said he knew me when I was a baby. Why don’t I remember him?” asked Megan.

“Well he did. He helped us get away from your daddy that I told you was really mean. But then I moved here and we didn’t see each other again til the other day.” said Samantha.

“Oh okay mommy.” said Megan.

“Yeah baby… you just go to sleep okay.” said Samantha as she kissed her.

“Okay mommy, night night.” said Megan as Samantha turned her light out.

“Night night.” said Samantha as she turned her nightlight on and walked out of her room. She walked down to her bedroom to see the letter from Nick still sitting on her bed, but she did her best not to go over and look at it.

“She left him…. probably because of me… I wonder why?” she thought as she sat down and looked at the letter and smiled, “Umm…. I wonder how long it takes him to come back…”

“Nick.. you ready to talk man?” asked AJ as he walked into the living room from the kitchen, sitting down in a chair across from Nick who was still sitting on the floor.

“She left me..” said Nick as he looked over at him.

“As you said..” said AJ, “And well becuase of Samantha and did you seriously think that some girl that’s as fine and nice as Amber is gonna stick around while you’re running off with some girl and her kid?”

“Don’t talk about Sam like that.” said Nick.

“Dude I’m not but ya know that’s how Amber sees it..” said AJ, “You ran off on your time together to be with you might as well say your first love, your old fling, cuz you and I both know somebody got freaky up in that elevator during the earthquake, anyway, whatever Sammy is and her daughter. That’s how she sees it.”

“Why do you think something happened there?” asked Nick.

“You both had a damn smile on your face when they found ya.” said AJ as Nick looked at him confused, “I’m kiddin’… no man we could just tell alright.”

“Oh..” said Nick, “Well yeah it did.. we thought we were going to die.” as AJ started to laugh.

“Oh good one to get some Nick, very good.” said AJ laughing.

“I’m for real.. we thought we were… I told her that I loved her and she told me she loved me… but then later I found out she didn’t love me the same way that I loved her.” said Nick.

“Ohhhh… damn that’s what got ya so bad.” said AJ.

“Yeah… she didn’t want anybody to take care of her, she wanted to do it on her own and basically Amber said the same thing that she didn’t need anybody to take care of her and that she was taking the backseat behind Samantha.” said Nick as he took the pictures out of his bag.

“What’s that?” asked AJ as Nick handed AJ the pictures of him and Megan and AJ started to laugh.

“Damn that’s cool.” said AJ laughing, “Man she looks like.. hell just like Samantha.”

“I know.. she’s so smart man, get this. She knows like every Britney Spears song, she loves Aaron and she likes us man. She calls us the Street Boys.” said Nick as AJ laughing.

“Street boys?” asked AJ laughing.

“Yeah man, she loves “Rain”.” said Nick as looked down and AJ looked over at him.

“Really?” asked AJ.

“Yeah.. she was wanting me to sing her a song and she wanted me to sing that one…. Samantha walked out.” said Nick.

“So what kind of place she got up there?” asked AJ as Nick smiled.

“Man she’s doing good. She’s got this phat ass condo on the beach, it’s three bedrooms I think, a great ass view of the beach from her bedroom, just..” said Nick as AJ interrupted him.

“Her bedroom, now Nicky…” said AJ.

“Dude no.. I went in there once and that was this morning before I left, I wrote a letter to her and told Megan to give it to her. That’s the only time that I went in there. Hell we didn’t say too much to each other all together, just small talk. She kept wanting to talk about what happened and I just kept blowing her off.” said Nick.

“Why Nick, you should talk to her about it, then maybe things won’t be so strange between you two.” said AJ.

“I just can’t… I’m just not ready to talk to her about it because when I do.. I’m gonna hurt her just like she did me…” said Nick as he looked over at AJ.

“Hurt her? How?” asked AJ.

“I know her and when she finds out how much she hurt me…. it’s gonna do the same to her, I just know it is.” said Nick, “And I don’t wanna do that to her.”

“Dude, just… you two really need to talk things out about that.” said AJ.

“Not yet..” said Nick.

“So what did the letter say?” asked AJ.

“That I had a good time with Megan and I thanked her for letting me see Megan and that I would be back to see her.”

“Well.. when?” asked AJ.

“I don’t know if I can see Samantha after what she did today.” said Nick as AJ looked at him.

“What she did?” asked AJ, “You mean Amber? Man… you know what if I was Amber, I would of dump ya ass too.” as Nick looked at him, “You’re gonna go back to Samantha anyway, so why stick around ya know?”

“I’m not going to Samantha…. she ruined that.” said Nick.

“Yeah and I’m never going to drink another alcholic drink again.” said AJ laughing, “Oh good one Bone.. damn funny..”

“Yeah okay…” said Nick as he looked over to his left and looked back at AJ laughing and he couldn’t help to laugh himself.