“I don’t care if it’s only an hour…I’m sleeping,” Nick whined. Mackenzie attempted a smile when Nick flashed his beautiful blue eyes in her direction but found it impossible. “What’s wrong sweetie?” Nick asked. “You haven’t been the same since last night. Are you okay?”
Mackenzie swallowed hard over the lump in her throat. “It’s now or never,” she told herself. “Nick, I think that we need to talk.”
“Uh oh,” Nick said. “It’s about this wedding isn’t it. I knew I shouldn’t have asked you in front of all those people. You wanted to say no, didn’t you? Didn’t you?!”
“No,” Mackenzie countered quickly. “Nothing like that.” She took Nick’s hand and led him back onto the deserted bus where the two took seats across from each other. Mackenzie swallowed again before she began, messaging her forehead before beginning. “Nick, I knew I should’ve told you before. I wanted to 100 times but I just chickened out. I don’t know how to say this, but…I have…I have cancer Nick. I’ve been on chemotherapy since two weeks before the concert. I’ve just been too afraid to tell you…”
Nick sat in the stunned silence for a while, too shocked to move…to shocked to speak…to shocked to anything but sit in the engulfing silence. Mackenzie had lied to him. She had said that everything was fine. Nick thought that he and Mackenzie shared so much with each other that this was something that he should’ve been the first to know. “How…why…?”
“I’m so sorry Nick,” Mackenzie cried, tears already streaming from her face. “I was so scared…”
Nick interrupted angrily. “To scared to tell the man that you were planning to spend the rest of life with? What the hell Mackenzie? When were you planning on telling me? When you were on your deathbed?”
“No,” Mackenzie said shortly. “It’s just that I was going to tell you so much…before we set the date for our wedding but…”
Nick interrupted again. “Don’t plan on that wedding any time soon Mackenzie.”
Mackenzie’s body was racked with sobs as she stared at Nick in disbelief. “But…I love you Nick. I’m gonna beat this. I need you.”
“You didn’t tell me that you were dying! What next, what else are you have you been keeping from me?!”
“Nothing Nick!” Mackenzie yelled. “Look, I messed up. I didn’t tell you. I’ve been keeping this from you for a while now…it’s not fair to you and I shouldn’t have done it, but I did and the only reason I did was because I couldn’t stand to see you anymore stressed that you usually are during concerts. I wanted to beat this before I had to tell you. I wanted to prove to myself that I was strong enough…”
“Who else knows? There is no way in hell that you could do all those shows during this tour without anyone finding out. How the hell did you manage anyway if you’re so sick,” Nick snorted cruelly.
Mackenzie’s gaze lowered. “Kevin knows,” she said, playing with the engagement ring on her finger. “He found the pills in my pocket last night when I passed out on the way back to my room.”
“So Kevin knows but I didn’t?! You’re my fiancee…well, I don’t even know about that anymore…”
“Stop Nick. I know that your mad and you have a right to be,” Mackenzie was on the verge of breakdown. “But I need you so much now. I don’t know if I’m going to beat this without you.”
“Well you’re going to learn to have to,” Nick said, standing up from his seat, “because I’m not staying with someone that I can’t trust.” With that, Nick stomped off the bus, stormed into the hotel lobby, found his room, and confined himself there until 7:00 when the group had to do sound checks.
Chapter Sixteen
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