In the Blink of an Eye

"I can't believe that he would do that," said Howie shaking his head. All the guys, minus Nick, were gathered in AJ's room.
"Neither can I, but when I heard him say those words, I'm telling you, it was like a chill went through me," said Brian in disbelief. "And the worst part is that I think he actually meant what he said."
"He couldn't have…could he?" asked AJ uncertainly.
"He could," said Brian sadly.
"Wait a minute, if he said those things to you Rok, what did he say to Julie?" asked Kevin alarmed.
"Oh my God, I didn't even realize that," said Brian and made a grab for his cell phone and quickly dialed Julie's number. The phone rang four times and then the machine turned on. "Julie, please pick up, it's me Bri," said Brian into the machine, but Julie didn't pick up the phone. Brian hung up and looked at the guys, "This is bad, really bad."
"Okay, here's the plan, Bri, you go find Nick and try to talk some sense into that boy, I'm going to go over to Julie's house to see how much damage Nick did," said Kevin getting up.
"What about me and Howie?" asked AJ.
"You two still need to pack," said Kevin sternly.
"Yes father," said Howie smothering a laugh.
"Not funny," stated Kevin with no humor in his voice. He turned to Brian, "Okay, let's go."
"Okay, but do you think we can fix this in one day?" asked Brian following his cousin out the door.
"Probably not, but maybe we can mend it a little," replied Kevin. Brian nodded and with that, the two guys went to find Julie and Nick.

*~*~*
Kevin got to Julie's house and rang the bell. When no one answered he tried the door but found it locked. Kevin scratched his head thoughtfully and tried to figure out what he was supposed to do. He then remembered that whenever Julie was very upset, she liked to go to the beach and gather her thoughts. Kevin then quickly turned in the direction of the beach and almost ran there. Sure enough, he found Julie sitting on the sand and staring blankly into the ocean. He carefully walked up to her and sat down on the sand too. Julie looked at him and Kevin winced as he saw the pain in her eyes.
Julie managed to utter two words before collapsing into Kevin's arms, crying uncontrollably, "Why me?"
"Shh, it'll be okay," said Kevin softly as he gently stroked Julie's hair. They sat for about a half an hour while Julie cried. She then calmed down slightly and stopped crying.
"I'm sorry I got your shirt wet," said Julie sniffling.
Kevin laughed lightly, "I never liked this shirt anyway." He then saw a trace of a smile on Julie's lips, "Okay good, I got a small smile out of you, now we're making progress."
"Sorry to tell you this, but we're far from making progress," replied Julie.
"Julie, I know it's hard to answer this question, but what did Nick say to you?" asked Kevin carefully.
Julie took a deep breath, "Things along the line of that he doesn't trust me, doesn't love me, doesn't respect me, and oh yeah, that I wasn't worth the effort that he put into our relationship."
"Ouch, remind me to pound him the next time I see him," said Kevin his muscles tensing.
"He doesn't deserve it, he had every right to say those things," said Julie sadly. "I kissed Justin and Nick saw it, I'm surprised he didn't say worse."
"Julie listen to me," said Kevin turning to face Julie, "you didn't do anything, and neither did Nick, both of you are victims in this and both of you deserve to be angry. You're hurt and Nick is hurt, it shouldn't be that way. You guys need to sit and talk this thing out."
"Oh yeah, that worked real well earlier today," said Julie sarcastically.
"Then you won't be alone, this way neither one of you will say anything that you don't mean," said Kevin.
"But Kev, Nick DID mean all those things he said, that's what hurts the most," said Julie her gray-blue eyes filling with tears.
"He might've meant them in the heat of the moment, but I'm sure that once he thinks about what he said, he won't mean them anymore," said Kevin and enveloped Julie in a hug. At that moment Kevin's cell rang, "Hello?" he said. Julie only heard his side of the conversation. "What?" "Why?" "What does that have to do with anything?" "Yes it is a problem!" "When was this decided?" "A few minutes ago??" "I can't believe this!" "FINE!" Kevin hung up the phone angrily.
"What happened?" asked Julie seeing that Kevin was upset.
"The management just called and said that we have to leave for the tour now," replied Kevin. "They said that they miscalculated the time it would take us to get to the next city and that leaving tomorrow won't do because we wouldn't have enough time to rehearse."
"So you're leaving now?" asked Julie sadly.
"Yeah, I'm sorry," said Kevin.
"It's okay, I understand that you have a job to do. Tell the other guys goodbye for me," said Julie hugging Kevin.
"You can tell them yourself, they're stopping by your house to pick me up," said Kevin. He got up and pulled Julie up with him, "Come on, let's go back to your house."
They were standing near the house when they saw the guys' bus pull up. The door opened and AJ, Brian, and Howie came out. Julie noted Nick's absence forlornly. All the guys gave Julie one huge hug.
"We're sorry we have to leave now," said Howie.
"It's okay, I already told Kev that," said Julie looking into the bus's tinted windows.
"I tried talking to Nick, but he just shuts me out," said Brian apologetically.
"Not your fault, we all know that Nick is stubborn," said Julie. "And this time probably talking to him wouldn't go any good."
"Julie, we will get you and Nick back together," promised AJ.
"It's nice to hear how confident you are AJ, wish I felt the same," said Julie looking at AJ.
"Don't worry, things will be fine in no time," assured Howie. The bus driver then honked the horn.
"Okay, I guess that means we have to go," said Brian. The guys hugged Julie one last time and then got on the bus. Julie watched miserably as the bus drove down the street and out of sight.
*~*~*
Justin slammed down the phone in frustration. Rachel still wouldn't talk to him, nor would she pick up the phone. He rubbed his temples in an effort to prevent the headache that was threatening to start pounding any minute.
Despite all the things that have happened lately, one good thing came out of it; Justin and Julie have become good friends. Since the Backstreet Boys left for the tour a week earlier, Justin has been at Julie's house very often. They mostly sat and watched TV, but at least they weren't alone. Justin knew that his group's tour was starting soon also and he wanted to fix things between himself and Rachel before he left. So that gave him two weeks to make everything okay.
Justin looked around his hotel room and saw that there was no point in sitting there feeling sorry for himself, so he grabbed his keys and headed to Julie's house.
He got there twenty minutes later and parked the car. He didn't even try to ring the doorbell, Justin headed straight for the beach. It was where he usually found Julie. Justin got to the beach and looked around. He saw Julie sitting on the rocks that separated the beach into two halves. It was windy that day and the waves on the ocean were getting higher and higher. All of a sudden, Justin saw a huge wave, it crashed into and over the rocks and in the blink of an eye Julie was gone.