The next evening, Cassandra stood brushing her hair in front of the mirror in her room, and Nick sat on her bed watching her.
"Cassandra, how come you never told me that your mother died?"
She stopped brushing her hair, and looked into her mirror to look at him. "I-I guess that it never came up in conversation."
"Can I bring it up now?"
"I, uh, don't know. W-what do you want to know?" She put her brush down and turned around to look at him. She walked over to her bed and sat down next to him.
"How come you never told me?"
"I guess, probably for the same reason that you never told me about your younger sister. I just didn't want to go back to that time."
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"No, it's okay." They sat in silence for a couple of seconds. "Nick," she finally said, "I want to go to Austin's wake tonight."
"But why?" he asked.
"Because I think it will bring some closure to this whole thing, and I know where it's being held, it's only twenty minutes away. So will you come with me?"
Nick had reluctantly agreed and within no time, the two of them were walking into the funeral home where Austin's wake was being held. All of a sudden, Cassandra ran into someone.
"Oh, excuse me!" she said.
"No, my fault," Cassandra said.
"Hey, are you a relative? I've never seen you before."
"I'm, uh, one of his good friend's sisters. You could say that Austin and I were, um, close. I'm sorry, I'm Cassandra and this is my husband, Nick."
"I'm Tamara. I don't mean to stare, but I feel like I've heard Austin talk about you guys before." Cassandra and Nick gave each other a quick glance. "But I must be mistaken."
"So are you his sister?" Cassandra said changing the subject.
"Oh, no. I guess you could call me an ex. Austin was a druggie, a gangster, and I gave him an ultimatum. I said that it was either me or his terrible lifestyle."
"And?"
"And he died. Now I'm a widow."
"Widow?" Nick and Cassandra both said at the same time.
"Yeah," said Tamara.
"How long were you two, er, married?" Cassandra asked.
"It would be a year, next month." Cassandra gave Nick a look. "Oh you must meet Austin's mother." Before Cassandra could protest, Tamara grabbed her hand and dragged her into the other room, and Nick followed. "Carol?" The feeble woman looked up. "Carol, this is a close friend of Austin's."
Cassandra and the woman shook hands.
"Sit down, dear," Carol said to her. Cassandra did as she was told. "You know, he died just like his father did. His father was murdered." Cassandra gave Nick a nervous look. "But enough about that, I haven't seen you before. Where are you from?"
"Oh not too far from here-"
"Are you married?"
"Actually, yes-"
"What's your name?"
"Cassandra C-Carter."
Carol's expression went blank, and she pointed to Nick. "And that must be your husband, Nick."
"Well, yes, how did you-"
"The helpless puppy dog, Nick. The one that follows his accomplice around." Cassandra stood up and backed up. The woman glared at her, but was too weak to stand up. "You killed my son, you bitch!"
"What? N-no I didn't-"
"Murderer!"
"Now wait-" Cassandra stopped, remembering that dream that seemed so real.
"Why? Why did you have to murder my son?"
"But I-" Tamara rushed by her. As they were fussing with Carol, Cassandra grabbed Nick's hand and they quietly slipped out of the door and ran to his car. "Nick, she told me that I murdered Austin. I told you that dream wasn't a dream-"
"Cassie, stop right there. Austin probably talked about you and me, and how much he hated us or maybe how much he really hated you, and she's not in the best mood right now and she needs someone to blame right now. And that's probably you."
"Thanks," she said bluntly.
"Closure, huh?" he asked her. She only gave him a look.
"Hey guys!" Emalia said when Cassandra and Nick walked through the door.
"Hey, how'd it go?" Kevin asked. Cassandra only gave him a look.
"Don't ask," replied Nick, but Cassandra decided to say something.
"You guys know about that dream that I told you? You know, the one that seemed so real where I killed Austin?" Emalia, Kevin, Coreene, Nicole, and Jonathan all nodded. "Well, first of all, I got to meet Austin's widow."
"What?" they all said.
"What are you talking about?" Coreene asked. Nick and Cassandra walked all the way into the living room, and sat down on the floor.
"You know guys, we need another couch," Cassandra commented.
"Yeah, okay, whatever. Now what are you talking about?" Emalia pushed.
"Okay. Her name is Tamara, and she explained that Austin used to be a druggie and just an evil person, and she told him that it was either the drugs or her, and he chose the drugs. And now I am so glad that I stopped my sister from marrying him because she also told me that the divorce was never final. They would have been married for a year next month."
"You are so kidding us!" Coreene said.
"No, she's not," Nick said. "I know, I was there when his mom-"
"Nick-" Cassandra interrupted.
"No, go ahead, Nick," Kevin said. Nick looked at Cassandra and she only rolled her eyes and nodded her head.
"Fine," she said.
"Okay," Nick continued. "Tamara introduced us to Austin's mother, Carol. I don't know what really happened but when I turned around, there was Carol, yelling at Cass. Accusing her of murdering her son."
"Cassandra? What did you do this time to make her say such a thing?" Coreene asked.
"Coreene! I didn't say anything! All she did was ask me what my name was and as soon as I said it, she just started accusing me-"
"And Cassie now believes that she really did kill him," Nick finished. They all stared wide eyed at the couple.
"You know you guys," Coreene said, "we're going to lock you away so you can't get into anymore trouble. You guys seem to find trouble in the weirdest places."
"Hey, it's not our fault!" Nick protested.
"Yeah!" agreed Cassandra.
"We're going upstairs!" Nick said.
"Yeah!" and Cassandra and Nick stomped upstairs. As soon as they got in her room, they burst out laughing for no apparent reason.
The next morning when Nick and Cassandra came down, they saw Coreene, Emalia, Nicole, and Jonathan sitting at the kitchen table, all talking about something.
"Hey guys," Cassandra said, still sleepy, "what are you talking about?"
"Oh good," Emalia said, "you two are up. Okay, we're going to quickly fill you in, then we need you two to go over to the other house and keep Kevin occupied for a couple of hours."
"Huh?" they both said.
"Just listen," Coreene said.
"Okay," Emalia started to explain. "Tomorrow is Kevin's birthday, and we're throwing him a surprise party today-"
"Why don't you just have it tomorrow?" Cassandra asked.
"Will you let me finish?" Emalia paused. "Thank you. As I was saying, Bethany and James are at Mercedes' and Brian's right now, and they are leaving tomorrow, so we're having it today. I've already called Mercedes and Brian and they'll be over in a little while with Bethany and James."
"Oh. So why do you need us?"
"We need you to go keep Kevin busy for a while," Coreene said.
"Why?" Nick asked. "Why us?"
"Yeah," agreed Cassandra. "Why doesn't Emalia go keep him busy for a while? Wouldn't that make more sense?"
"You have a good point," Emalia said. "Well, no complaints from me!"
"Good, then it's settled," said Coreene. "Emalia will go keep Kevin busy until everyone gets here, and Nick and Cassandra will go find a cake, now."
"What?" Nick whined.
"Don't whine, you big baby!" Coreene laughed. "We could tell you guys to make a cake, you know." Coreene paused. "But we won't ask you to make one because we want one that's edible."
"Hey!" said Cassandra. "Are you saying that my cooking isn't edible?"
"No," said Coreene. "We're not worried about you." She pointed to Nick. "It's him we're worried about."
"Hey!" Nick said, and they all laughed.
"Go now you guys."
"Yeah, and get something chocolate!" Emalia added.
"Fine, I'm going to go get dressed," Nick said, and gave Cassandra a quick kiss.
"I'm coming with you," Emalia said. Cassandra gave her a look. "What? I'm not going with him! I'm going to see Kevin."
"That's what I thought," Cassandra said.
"Ladies, please don't fight over me!" Nick said.
"Oh shut up!" Cassandra and Emalia said together in unison, and started laughing as Nick gave them a surprised look.
"Will you guys please get dressed and get that cake!" Nicole said.
"Fine," Nick said. "I'll meet you in my car in five minutes. Okay?"
"Fine," Cassandra said and ran upstairs to get dressed. Nick and Emalia turned, and walked out of the door and over to the guys' house.
"Okay, now don't wake Kevin up," Emalia whispered to Nick as they walked into the house. Nick nodded his head and ran up the stairs, followed by Emalia.
"Now you two have fun!" Nick said with a grin.
"Very funny!" Emalia said in a loud whisper, and she quietly walked into Kevin's room. Nick laughed to himself and walked into his room. He threw on a different pair of jeans and a white shirt. He looked at himself in the mirror, and gaged.
"Ick, not a good hair day," he said to himself. Grabbing his white hat off the edge of his mirror, he threw it on backwards then ran out of his room. He grabbed his keys off of the kitchen table, and ran outside to where Cassandra was already sitting in his car. "Hmm, something's not right," he said to her as he got in his car. "The day when you're ready before I am-"
"Just don't finish that sentence," she said. He laughed and they started off towards the store.
"Where have you guys been?" Coreene asked as Nick and Cassandra walked through the door, carrying a cake.
"What are you talking about?" Cassandra asked. "We hurried!"
"The guests are going to be here any minute."
"Brian and Mercedes?" Nick asked. "They're not guests anymore. Hey, where do you want this?"
"Uh, put it on the patio table." Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Hey guys, come on in!" Cassandra said opening the door. Brian, Mercedes, Bethany, James, Angel and Howie walked in. "Here, let me take her," Cassandra said, referring to Charity, who Brian was holding. He gently handed Charity to Cassandra.
"Hey, I brought some of the famous cheesecake!" Mercedes said holding it up.
"Great!" said Cassandra. "Put it in the fridge for later." Mercedes nodded and went into the kitchen.
"Let's go swimming!" Brian yelled and ran outside and jumped into the pool without waiting for a reply from anyone else. They had had the pool cleaned and drained two days ago.
"Okay then!" Nick said. He, too, ran outside and joined his friend in the pool. Cassandra, Bethany and James slowly followed everyone else outside and sat at the table, while they all jumped into the pool.
"So, Bethany, James I know that you two were having problems. I hope that you got them all worked out?"
"Well," Bethany thought to herself, "we can't all be as perfect as you and Nick, and just get married-"
"Actually," James explained, interrupting Bethany's thoughts, "we did. I asked her to marry me, and she accepted! We decided to wait until she goes to college, though."
"Oh, that's wonderful!" Cassandra said. "I'm so happy for you two!"
Just then, Howie's voice was heard from the door.
"You guys, shut up! They're coming!" Everybody quieted down and hid around the door. Emalia and Kevin walked through the door and as soon as they did, everyone jumped out from their hiding.
"Surprise!" they all screamed.
Kevin just about jumped ten feet in the air. "You guys scared me!" Kevin said.
Emalia started laughing. "This is your pre-birthday surprise party!"
"Oh, okay, cool!" Kevin said.
Emalia led him over to the table. "The man of honor's seat," she said.
Kevin sat down and pulled Emalia down onto his lap. "And this is my lady of honor's seat," he said, and smiled at her. They all started talking.
"Food time!" Emalia said as she and Kevin walked out with two huge plates of food. Cassandra handed Charity to Mercedes, and whispered into her ear. Cassandra walked up onto the diving board in her bikini.
"Do something fancy!" Nick said to her. She only gave him a look. She ran, jumped, and dove into the pool with almost no splash.
A couple seconds later, when she didn't emerge from the water, Brian said something.
"Guys, shouldn't she be up by now?" Nick went over to the side of the pool, and looked in. Without another word, he dove in.
A couple more seconds later, he emerged from the water with Cassandra. Kevin rushed over to the edge and dragged Cassandra out of the pool, and laid her next to the edge.
"Quick, what do I do?" Nick asked.
"CPR," Mercedes replied.
"I can't even spell that!"
"Fine, pinch her nose shut, and blow a breath into her mouth." He nodded, and bent his head down.
"Now what?"
"Now, quickly push five times over her heart."
He nodded again, and fiddled with his hands. "Now what?"
"Now do it again!" He pinched her nose again, but this time when he covered her mouth with his, he felt a tongue enter his mouth. He quickly pulled away and looked at her. She grinned.
"What the-"
"Boo," Cassandra said and knocked him into the pool. Mercedes started to laugh. Cassandra stood up and waited for Nick to emerge from the water.
When he did, he had a very confused look on his face. He jumped out, pushed the hair out of his eyes, and looked at her. "Pay back."
"For what?" he asked.
"Remember that night in Isabella's house when you pretended to be dead? Pay back!"
"Oh, very funny Cassandra!"
"I know, isn't it just?"
"I guess I deserved that."
"Yes you did!"
"Okay, you can stop now." Everyone laughed at them as they sat there.
Emalia went inside, and grabbed the cake from the fridge. She only put four candles on the cake, because it was all that she could find. She brought the cake out and they all started singing.
"Hey Emalia," started Kevin.
"Yeah?"
"I'm twenty seven years old. Why are there only four candles?"
"Because, Kevin Sweetie it's all that I could find."
"Oh. Well I guess that it's the thought that counts. So where are all of my presents?"
"Nope, not until tomorrow," Brian said. "This is only your pre-birthday. You don't get your presents until your birthday."
"Oh," Kevin said and pretended to pout, but soon looked up and smiled.