Nick’s point of view

I walked onto the set and began looking for Liz immediately. Unfortunately, Jake found me first.
“Nick where have you been?” he asked angrily.
“Sorry Jake, I was a big hung over in the morning,” I replied sheepishly.
“Oh yeah, it was your birthday yesterday, did you like the party Liz planned for you?” asked Jake.
“Yeah, it was great,” I said absentmindedly because I had spotted Liz. She was talking to Jeff and Tanya.
“Okay, go ahead and get to the wardrobe and make-up trailer. The scene between you and Liz is being filmed in fifteen minutes and I expect you to be there on time,” said Jake and walked away. I sighed. There was no time to try and talk to Liz; I had to do my job first.
Ten minutes later I walked out of the make-up trailer and headed for the set where the scene was supposed to take place. Liz was there but this time she was alone. It looked like she was going over her lines.
“Hi Liz,” I said softly as I approached her. She didn’t even look up. I stood right in front of her, no reaction. “I’m so so so so so so so so so very sorry, please let me explain,” I said pleadingly. Liz still didn’t look up. I got it; she was giving me the silent treatment, which was worse than yelling at me in front of everyone. “Just please say something, I can’t stand the silent treatment,” I begged. Liz slowly raised her head and her eyes locked with mine. I flinched as soon as I saw the pain in them. She was in absolute agony and it was all my fault. At that point I felt like the worst human being on Earth. Liz still remained quiet; she simply looked at me and then got up and walked away. My shoulders slumped in defeat. I had hurt her so much and it looked like there was nothing I could do to make her forgive me.

Jake’s point of view

I settled in my chair as Liz and Nick took their places. There seemed to be something wrong between the two of them but I hoped that it wouldn’t interfere with their work.
“Action!” I yelled and the cameras began rolling.
“Will I see you tomorrow?” asked Liz, as her character Angel.
“Probably, if I won’t have to work,” replied Nick, as his character Michael. Now there was no denying it, there was definitely something missing between them. It’s like they were actually trying to act professional, their usual spark was gone.
“Cut!” I yelled. “Nick, Liz, can I talk to you for a minute?” I requested and we all walked over to a different corner of the set. “What’s going on?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” asked Liz, she wasn’t even looking at Nick, and was obviously trying to stay as far away from him as possible.
“I mean what is going on?” I repeated. “Did you guys have a fight or something?”
Liz said nothing, Nick sighed.
“Well?” I prodded.
“There was um, a small misunderstanding,” Nick finally said.
“SMALL MISUNDERSTANDING??” yelled Liz. “You KISSED another girl!!! How is that a small misunderstanding??” she exploded.
“You kissed another girl?” I asked turning to Nick. “That’s not a small misunderstanding,” I said shaking my head. “No wonder she won’t come near you,” I added nodding towards Liz.
“Nickolas Gene Carter you are the most horrible person I’ve ever met and I wish I never knew you!” yelled Liz and then ran off.
I watched Liz run from the set and then turned back to Nick. He looked heartbroken, but then again, it was his fault. “I’m guessing your scene will have to be rescheduled,” I observed. Nick nodded. “Go figure out how you’re going to make this up to Liz,” I told him. Nick said something softly. “What?” I asked.
“I don’t think I can make it up,” he repeated and then walked off the set.

Nick’s point of view

I saw Howie pull up in my car and was relieved to see that he was at least speaking to me since he was the one to pick me up.
“Hey D,” I mumbled as I got in.
“Hey,” he replied and pulled out of the parking lot. “Did you figure out how you’re going to make up for what you did yet?” he asked.
“No, do you really think that there’s a way?”
“Don’t know, time will tell,” said Howie shrugging. “Liz is a pretty understanding person, but even she has her limits,” he added.
“I know,” I said sighing. “That’s what scares me.”
“What?”
“She has her limits, what if I reached it? What if she never speaks to me again? I can’t lose her D.”
“You should’ve thought about that before you started getting drunk,” snapped Howie. I remained silent. His remark hurt, a lot, primarily because it was the truth. Howie looked at me and sighed. “Nicky, I’m sorry, it just came out,” he apologized.
“I deserved it, you have nothing to apologize for,” I told him.
“Still, I’m sure you will find a way to make this up to Liz,” he assured me.
“So what if I do? What makes you think that she’ll forgive me?” I asked frustratingly.
“I didn’t say that, I said that you’ll find a way to make it up to her, it’ll be her choice to accept your apology or not,” he said.
“I’m doomed,” I said and leaned back in the seat with my eyes closed. How did I manage to screw up so much in just one day?

Liz’s point of view

I was sitting in my room and listening to the radio. After running from the set I went straight home and cried for what seemed like hours, probably cause they were hours. At that point I was all cried out and it didn’t seem like I had one drop of water in my body left. I sighed and picked up a book by one of my favorite authors. Unfortunately, I then realized that I already read it so I put it down again.
“And now here’s a song from those unstoppable Backstreet Boys,” announced the DJ on the radio and a second later ‘More Than That’ began playing. I quickly picked up my remote control and turned off my radio. I did not want to hear Nick’s voice, even if it was simply the radio. I wondered if he ever meant any of the things that he sang.
About twenty minutes later there was a knock on my door. I opened it and saw Kevin.
“Hey,” he said cheerfully, a little too cheerfully.
“Hi,” I replied wearily and let him in.
“Lana said that something happened on the set,” said Kevin sitting down on my bed next to me.
“That’s putting it mildly,” I told him.
“Oh, so what happened?” he asked.
“Jake, that’s the director, wanted to know what happened between Nick and me cause we weren’t acting like we usually did and Nick said that we had a small misunderstanding,” I explained.
“Small misunderstanding,” stated Kevin. “Okay, that’s an interesting way of putting it,” he added.
“Yeah, so I basically yelled at him and then ran off of the set,” I said.
“Liz, let me ask you something,” said Kevin leaning forward a little.
“What?”
“If Nick showed you that he was really truly sorry for he did, would you forgive him?”
I took a deep breath. “Honestly, I have no idea. Just the thought of seeing Nick making out with that girl makes me feel like my heart is breaking all over again. And the fact that it’s the same thing that happened between me and Brad makes it worse.”
“But Nick was drunk, he had no idea what he was doing.”
“That doesn’t excuse what he did.”
“I’m not saying that it does, but he really was out of it.”
“Kev, the fact that Nick did that, even if he was drunk, says a lot. Maybe he did it because subconsciously he wasn’t happy with me and he wanted another girlfriend. Maybe he was bored with me, I don’t know,” I said sighing once again.
“Liz, Nick loves you more than anything in this entire world,” said Kevin looking at me. “He would never hurt you like this on purpose and there’s no way that he wants to be with anyone else. He is completely heartbroken right now, and that alone says how much he cares about you.”
“I care about him too, I love him so much it’s scary. But how can I know that he’ll never do anything like this again? And how do I know that he won’t be sober next time?” I asked.
Now it was Kevin’s turn to sigh. “I don’t know, I can’t answer that question, no one can, not even Nick, but I do know that he will try his hardest to get you back and I’m asking you to give him another chance.”
“I’m not promising anything,” I said shaking my head. “First I wanna see how sorry he truly is.”

Nick’s point of view

I was twisting the ring that Liz had given me on my finger and staring into space. I wanted to figure out the best way to get her to forgive me but unfortunately I was drawing a blank. I was clueless. My mistake was so colossal that I didn’t even know where to start making up for it. I looked over at the piece of paper on my table and it was then that I got an idea.

chapter 13 chapter 15