Chapter 25

Nick fumbled around in his backpack for his cell phone that was ringing. He was always losing the damn thing. “Hello?” Nick finally answered.

“Hey,” Samantha said.

“Hey, what’s up?” Nick asked.

“Megan wants to speak to you, hang on,” Samantha said.

Samantha handed Megan the phone, walking out of the living room and into the kitchen. Just talking to him reminded her of today at the station, and she was afraid if she spoke to him, she’d go to yelling at him.

“Hey Meggy!” Nick said into the phone, a smile spreading across his face.

“Hi Nick,” Megan asked. “What are you doing?”

“We are practicing singing on the stage. What are you doing?” he asked her.

“I just got out of my bath. Mommy said I could call you,” Megan told him.

“You can call me anytime Meggy. How is school?” he asked her.

“Good,” Megan answered. “I got to color with paint today.”

“Wow, that’s so cool girl! You gonna paint me a picture?” Nick asked.

“I did! It’s on the frigadator,” she told him.

“The frigadator?” Nick asked, as he laughed at her.

“Yep! When are you coming back?” Megan asked him.

“Well, not for a little while baby. We have to be here some more to sing and stuff. But as soon as we’re done, I’ll come and see you and we can do whatever you want. How does that sound?” he asked her.

“Can you take me to see Mickey Mouse?” Megan asked.

“Sure,” Nick said.

“Can Mommy come?” Megan asked.

“Ummm yeah, she can come. Maybe Uncle AJ and Howie can come too,” Nick said.

“Nick, me and Mommy want you to be my daddy,” Megan said.

Nick started to choke on the line, he was so shocked at what Megan had just said. “What?! What Meggy?” Nick asked, as he tried to catch his breathe.

“Mommy! Nick’s sick!” Megan started yelling across the room. “He’s choking!”

“Megan,” Nick said into the phone to get her to listen to him and stop yelling for Samantha. “Megan?” he asked again a little louder.

“You otay Nick?” she asked.

“Yes, I’m okay. Did mommy tell you she wanted me to be your daddy?” Nick asked, as Samantha got on the phone.

“Nick, you alright? Meggy said you were choking…” Samantha said.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just coughed a little,” he snapped at her, knowing he wasn’t going to get an answer to his question now.

“Well, it’s her bedtime, let me have her say goodbye,” Samantha said, as she handed the phone back to Megan telling her to say goodbye.

“Bye Nick, I love you. Come home soon,” Megan said into the phone.

“I love you too,” Nick said, “Sweet dreams.”

Nick heard Samantha telling Megan to go on up to bed, that she would come up and tuck her in after she was done talking.

“Hey, I need to talk to you about something,” Samantha said, as she got back on the phone.

“What’s up?” Nick asked, not sounding very interested.

“Well it seems that you told everyone at some press conference that you wrote “Rain” for me, and that we used to date?” she asked him smartly.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Nick asked, starting to get annoyed.

“It’s all over the damn internet Nick. I had over four hundred emails and the phone was ringing off the hook at the station today,” she snapped.

“Well the fans asked me, and I told them the truth. It isn’t a big deal,” Nick snapped back.

“Everyone at the station is having a big laugh at my expense, and I don’t even known how that stupid song got released,” she yelled, getting more and more agitated by the moment, especially since he didn’t seem to care.

“Look, it’s not my problem if you can’t control the people you work with. And stop bitching at me, I did not want “Rain” to be released either,” Nick yelled back.

Now they were both getting pissy.

“I couldn’t barely work, people were calling and bitching at me all day, thinking I’m your girlfriend and shit. I don’t need any 14 year old stalkers waiting for me outside the door. I have Megan to think about….” she started as Nick interrupted.

“Speaking of Megan,” Nick yelled, “Did you go and tell her that I’m going to be her daddy?”

“Hell no I did not,” Samantha snapped back.

“That isn’t what she said,” Nick yelled into the phone. “How can you use her like that?”

“She said that on her own. It wasn’t me,” Samantha said defensively.

“I don’t believe you,” Nick said, “Two year olds don’t make shit up. And they don’t lie either, not even for their mothers.”

“Fuck you Nick!” Samantha yelled into the phone.

The only response she heard was a dial tone. He had hung up. Samantha lay back on the couch, the pounding in her head was back again. She just layed there, lost in her own thoughts. She wondered if she and Nick would ever be able to even be friends again, let alone anything else. From the way things were looking, it didn’t seem possible. Things were too fucked up. She had fucked them up, and it didn’t seem like they were ever going to get over what happened in the past. Samantha sighed, hot tears starting to run down her cheeks. A few minutes later, she finally cried herself to sleep.

“Shit.. I knew I shouldn’t have said anything…. I knew it..” Nick thought as he threw the phone back in his backpack, “Then she’s feeding shit into Megan’s head because oh now she wants me, now she does. She didn’t then, why the hell does she want me now…” as Howie walked up to him, about to say something but realized Nick was totally pissed.

“I shall come back later.” said Howie as he walked off and Nick picked up his backpack and walked out.

Three days later, Nick and the guys had a day off in Sweeden and Nick was going to take full advantage of it by helping out his sister Leslie cut a few songs for her next album, especially one she’d be dying for him to produce on.

He hadn’t talked to Samantha since the falling out and he didn’t really plan on it. He didn’t mean for what he said in the press conference to cause her any problems at work. He just didn’t understand why Megan kept asking about him being her daddy. He still thought that Samantha was getting her to say that stuff, but then again, Samantha didn’t want to have that kind of relationship with him before, why the hell would she want that now?

“Nick!” said Leslie as Nick and Kevin walked into the studio and Nick and Leslie hugged. They hadn’t seen each other since their Grandmother’s funeral.

“Hey sis.” said Nick, “Where’s mom or dad?”

“Mom’s back at the hotel, she’s got the flu.. you’ll have to go visit her.. I’m here. Hey Kev.” said Leslie.

“Hey Leslie.. so what’s these songs you’ve got?” asked Kevin.

“Okay oh my god, see Jessica Andrews, you know that chick, she sings country, well someone the writer knows anyway gave the song to her, but she thought it wasn’t up to her ya know, her standards, so she gave it to Dreamworks and tada.. here I am.” said Leslie smiling, “That’s my favorite one “What I Really Meant To Say”, it’s so sweet. It’ll make ya cry.” as Nick and Kevin started laughing as Leslie gave him a sheet of paper where she had written out the lyrics, “There’s the lyrics there.. you wanna go in there and let me sing a rough cut of it?”

“Umm.. sure yeah.. come on Kev..” said Nick as they went in the soundboard room, sitting down at the control panel as Kevin looked at the lyrics.

“Dude these lyrics are tight man.” said Kevin as Nick looked over at him, turning some knobs on the board.

“Okay Sis..” said Nick as he hit record while the music started. Nick sat back in the chair, taking the lyrics from Kevin as Leslie began to sing.

It took me by suprise
When I saw you standing there
Close enough to touch
Breathing the same air
You ask me how I been
I guess that’s when I smiled and said just fine
Oh but baby I was dying

“Dude this song is good I’m tellin’ ya man.” said Kevin as Nick looked over at him, still looking at the lyrics.

“Not that bad…” said Nick as Leslie started in on the chorus.

And what I really meant to say
Is I’m dying here inside
And I miss you more each day
There’s not a night i haven’t cried
And baby here’s the truth
I’m still in love with you
Yeah..
That’s what I really meant to say..

“Nick you alright man?” asked Kevin as he looked over at Nick.

“Yeah…. this song is damn good though.” said Nick, “Leslie’s doing damn good on it too.”

“Yeah she is … ” said Kevin.

That’s what I really meant to say..

“So.. what did ya think?” asked Leslie as she took the headphones off and looked in the booth were Nick and Kevin was as Nick and Kevin shook their heads yes, “You liked it.”

“Yeah…. can we do one more take of it… and then I wanna see the music sheets and all to it. you got those right?” asked Nick.

“Yeah right here..” said Leslie, “I’m using them for singing…”

“Okay keep them in there and let’s do one more take on that.” said Nick as Leslie nodded her head and they began to play the music again.

Nick sat there looking at the lyrics to the song again when he looked over at Kevin.

“This song is good you know that… whoever wrote this like put their heart and soul into this.” said Nick.

“Like you did on “Rain”?” asked Kevin.

“Let’s not go there.” said Nick, “In the middle of this song, bring the tempo up a little maybe….. that would be good.”

“Yeah, Nick, damn boy that’s good.” said Kevin patting him on the back as the song ended.

“Alright Leslie bring in those music sheets.” said Nick as Leslie took her earphones off, and walked into the soundboard room, handing Nick the music sheets and he went straight to the middle of the song, giving Kevin the first two sheets.

“Was that good in there?” asked Leslie.

“Oh yeah sis, really good.. see bring this tempo up here a little..” said Nick as Kevin looked confused and Nick looked over at him, “Kev, damn dude.. what’s up?”

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