"Mom, no stop! Please Mom! No!" She was really scaring me. I ran to her side shaking her, trying to make her stop.
Before I knew it, my father had gotten doctors to come and take her away from me. I was crying uncontrollably as I watched them remove her from her bed and take her away on a stretcher.
"Mooooom!" I screamed.
"Amanda, calm down." Nick ran to my side, on the floor next to the bed she had been in.
"No, it's my fault. It's all my fault. I was talking to her too much. She was trying to tell me she loved me, I heard it! I pushed her too hard! It's all my fault." I rocked back and forth with my arms wrapped around my legs. "It's all my fault, all my fault, all my fault, all my fault, all my fault..." I continued on and on, and before I knew it, everything went black.
"She's waking up."
"Well, she needs to."
"No she doesn't. She just needs her sleep."
I heard three voices I recognized. I opened my eyes fully and looked around. I found myself in the back seat of our truck, going home.
"What happened?" I tried to sit up but I quickly became dizzy and cried out in pain.
"Just lay back the way you were," I heard Nick say. I turned to him and scanned his face and felt my stomach do flip flops.
"Oh yeah," I said remembering the day's events. They all flashed through my head making my face turn a slight shade of pink that wasn't visible in the dark. I remembered me reacting extremely to my Mother...my Mother!
"How's Mom?" I asked.
"She's fine. Back to normal." I saw my Dad look back at me in his rear view mirror and smile. "She just had a few ceizures, she's alright now."
"They didn't let us back into her room af..." Jakob began before my Dad gave him a look that meant to stop.
"Oh." I laid my head back on the window and let the coldness of it relieve my headache. I was just beginning to fall back asleep when I could feel us pulling up into Nick's driveway.
"Do you have to go?" I said, trying to hold his hand tightly as to not let him go.
"I've got school tomorrow."
"Oh, right."
"Bye Nick."
"Bye Mandy." I watched as he walked up to his brightly lit house, wishing I had the strength to go with him.
As soon as I arrived home, I drudged upstairs and fell directly into bed without changing my clothes. As I was peacefully dreaming about swimming in an ocean, the phone awoke me.
"Hello?" I asked sleepily on the fifth ring.
"Hi Amanda."
"Oh Nick, what's up? Didn't I just see you two minutes ago?"
"Yup. That was me!" I laughed and turned over and sat up against my pillows, not bothering to turn on the light, hoping this was going to be a short call.
"So what did ya want?"
"I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry about your Mom."
"Ni-ick!" I whined. "Thank you, but I told you not to be, silly. It's not your fault."
"I know it's not, and I also know it's not yours either."
"Yeah it is."
"No it's not!" he yelled into the phone. "Listen to me now. It's not your fault that this happened to her. It's not anyone's fault but the idiot who didn't learn how to drive! Do you understand?"
"I guess," I lied. The truth was that it was all my fault and I wasn't trying to argue with him. I just wanted to get off of the phone.
"Nickolas! Come here this instance!" his Mom yelled.
"Uh, I can tell you're needed. Sorry."
"Hold on a sec." Nick covered the mouth piece as he told his mother he'd be off in a minute or two. "But like I was saying, do you want me to get some of your work for you from your teachers? You never know how long you're gonna be out of school."
"Oh no, don't worry about it."
"NICKOLAS!"
"WHAT MOM?"
"GET OFF OF THE PHONE AND COME TELL ME WHY THE KEYS ARE LOCKED IN THE CAR!!!!"
"Oh my gosh, Amanda, I have to go," he whispered.
"Nick! I totally forgot about that! Don't worry. Just play it off like they did it. Or even you did it yesterday! Just don't get in trouble please! I promised you I wouldn't let it happen to you."
"Don't worry about it. See you tomorrow."
"Bye." Amanda silently prayed for everything to be okay as she hung up the phone. It certainly didn't seem like it.
She couldn't get it off of her mind, the way his Mom had yelled, like she knew for certain he had done it. She wished so desperately to be there with him, to help him through it, and to find out how he was going to be punished, but she knew thats all she could do is wish she knew. Wish until school tomorrow, then she would actually hear it for herself in person.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Amanda Petri!" I turned around to face the owner of that voice. "Why are you in school today?"
"Nick, go away if you're gonna question me all day about that."
"Just answer me now and it won't have to be all day," he said.
"Nick, no, I know all you're gonna do is yell at me, like you're doing now." I sighed and tried to walk away, but he followed me.
"I'm sorry."
"For what blondie?"
"Blondie? Un uh, no little girl is gonna call me blondie!"
"I'm not the one who wants to know why I'm at school..."
"Okay okay! Just tell me!" I laughed at how cute he was being.
"Fine, I'll tell you." I took a deep breath and began, knowing he wasn't going to approve of it. "I decided I could handle school today. I knew that if I just went to the hospital, something else would go wrong with my mom. I'm jinxed. I bring bad luck."
"What? You never bring bad luck to me! Well...except yesterday with the car. You are not jinxed Amanda. How could you say that?"
"It's not everyone. It's just around my Mom. So, I've decided just to hang low until she's out of the hospital, until she's not close enough to death that I could kill her."
"Okay," Nick said simply, showing signs of confusion. I decided to let him be confused, nothing he could say or do would keep me from being in school.
"So how much trouble are you in?" I asked, changing the subject.
"A LOT, I can tell you that."
"Man, that sucks. So what can't you do."
"I can't drive their car ever again until I get my license and my own car, which I'll never be able to afford unless I become some super Pop star or something." I laughed. Nick a Pop star? I can't picture that. Especially since Pop wasn't even in anymore. Not since the New Kids On The Block.
"Is that it?"
"I can't use the phone past five, or go anywhere unless they're home and know exactly where I am. I can't stay out past ten, not even on weekends."
"Ouch," I remarked. I felt that I should be punished as well, I WAS in the car with him.
"And, that all goes for a month. And if I do anything wrong from now until then, I will get an extra month added on," he ended as we stopped in front of the vending machine.
"That's gotta suck. A whole month? Wow."
"The whole month but for one day. The Spring formal dance," he said.
"Ha! I'm surprised they're gonna let you do that! And are you even gonna go?" I glanced at the amount of money in my hands and decided I didn't want to spend it just yet on food.
"They didn't even know about the dance until I practically begged them to let me go. I said there's someone special I wanna ask."
"Really?" I raised my eyebrows. "Let me guess. She's tall, blonde, blue eyed, models for some big fashion designer, and wears a size two."
"Since when are you blonde?" I squinted my eyes at him, pondering whether or not I heard him correctly. I couldn't figure out what to say, so I just waited for him to go ahead and ask me.
"Are you going with anyone?" he asked as he fidgeted.
"No, I'm not."
"Well...do you wanna go with me?" I stood there silently.
"Nick...I...w..what is this about?"
"Huh?"
"You know what! I wouldn't have a problem with it normally, but when I know the only reason you're asking me is because you pity me, I do have a problem with it." I started walking away from him, almost in tears.
"Pity you? What?" Nick called after me, but I started running full speed to the one place I knew he couldn't talk to me at, the girls' bathroom.
How dare he? I never even thought he would ask me to the Spring formal dance! I didn't even remember it until he asked me. How dumb did he think I was? I know the only reason he asked me was because of my mother. I know the only reason ANYONE was going to ask me is because they felt bad about my mother's situation.
"Oh gosh!" I checked the bathroom stahls and they were all empty. I leaned forward on the counter and balled my eyes out. I was crying so hard, so loud, that I didn't even notice when the bathroom door opened.
"Are you okay?" I quickly wiped my face and turned to face the teenager.
"No I'm not." I turned back to the faucet and turned on extra cold water. I splashed my face, hoping it would hide some of the puffiness under my eyes.
"I know I'd be real upset if my Mom was in the hospital too," she said.
"What did you say?" I asked turning to face her, leaving the water running.
"I love my Mother more than anything else. I'd die if she was in a situation like that."
Who was this girl? And how the heck did she know about my Mother being in the hospital!?!
"Excuse me." I pushed past her and exited the restroom.
Oh great! If someone I didn't even know heard about my Mom, who didn't? How am I supposed to know when someone's being nice to me just because they pity me? Gosh! Now I know it's not just Nick! It's EVERYONE!
I had been planning on going to the Spring formal for months! Months! It's what I looked forward to most every year! And I even had the guys' picked out that I was going to ask! Now I can't even go. I know the only way a guy would go with me is because they felt bad for me. Because they pity me. Just like Nick. Now I would not only not be going with Nick, but I wouldn't be going with anyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Nick's view)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I walked in the front door and slammed it as hard as I could.
"Geesh! What's your problemo?" I heard B.J. ask as she walked up the stairs.
"Nothing! NOTHING AT ALL!" I screamed and headed to my room. I opened the door and slammed it as quickly as I could, to keep everyone out. My plan failed to work.
"What's with you Nick? You know you don't have to yell at me. I didn't do anything to you!"
"Go away." I picked up my tennis ball and threw it at the wall and caught it as it bounced back to me.
"You know you're not supposed to do that. Just because they're not home doesn't give you the right."
"B.J.! Gosh! Just go call them and tell them so I can be grounded for another wonderful month!" I said sarcastically.
"And they'll take away your Spring formal dance privelages."
"See if I care." I was so mad at myself all day for asking Amanda. I knew she wouldn't say yes to me. How could I have been so stupid?
"I know you do. Tell me what's wrong. We're family." B.J. came and sat down next to me on my bed. She put her arm around me and forced me to lay my head on the bed frame with her. "Is it a teacher?"
"No."
"Is it a friend."
"No."
"Is it...a girl?" she turned and looked at me, knowing it was.
"Yeah."
"Is it...Amanda?"
"YES! OKay, here's what happened," I said, not waiting for her to ask me. "It was in the morning and I asked her to go to the dance with me. She actually looked like she was gonna say yes at first! Then all of a sudden this hurt look wiped over her face! I mean, I didn't say anything to offend her!"
"Well, what did she say?"
"She said the only reason I asked her to go with me to the dance was because I pitied her. You know how her Mom's in the hospital?" B.J. nodded. "And then she ran away to the girls' bathroom crying! Girls, I don't get 'em."
"Trust me. I'm a girl too and I rarely understand us. Listen. I think deep down in her heart she knows you asked her because you like her for who she is. But since her Mom's been through a lot, and you've been there for her, she thinks that's the only reason you asked her!"
"So you're saying that she knows the real reason I asked her, but she still said she didn't?"
"Exactly."
"Im getting a headache just thinking about it," I said. It was true. Girls WERE confusing. "So what am I supposed to do? She probably never wants to talk to me again."
"Sure she does. She probably feels real bad about yelling at you right now, but don't wait around for her to apologize first. She's not going to."
"But I would if I was in her shoes!"
"Nick, Nick. That's the difference between girls and guys. Girls don't say what they really want, but we do reserve the right to be pissed off when we don't get it."
"And how come?" I asked, getting more confused by the second.
"Because that's the truth of the matter. Look, you really wanna know what to do?"
"YES! But I'm not gonna be able to figure it out on my own. Not with all these rules about woman and crap." We laughed at my stupidity and she continued.
"Just call her and ask her again. But before you do, you have to tell her the real reason why you asked her. Tell her it's because you like her."
"I can't say that to her."
"Well...say something you can say. But I'm telling you, she'll say yes if you do it again. Trust me." B.J. ruffled my hair and I smiled. I was glad we had a closer relationship than anyone else. That way I could go to her whenever I needed girl help. She always knew what to tell me since we were closer in age than anyone else.
"Thanks sis. See ya at dinner."
"Alright, keep me posted." She opened the door and as soon as she did, Aaron rushed in.
"What was that all about Nick?" he said as he came to sit on my bed.
"Women."
"Oh, I understand."
I laughed. "What do you know about women?"
"I know plently."
"Like..." I started for him.
"We can't live with 'em, and we can't live without 'em either." Aaron sure was wise!
"If you only knew how right you really are."
