The wilted flowers sat outside Kylie's door. Nick had sent those 2 days ago. He'd been calling Kylie all day for the last 5 days. The first few times, someone picked up but never said anything, then slammed down the phone. Lee and Brian told him that she had found out about his girlfriend, or now, ex-girlfriend. He knew that she had a right to get pissed off, but not to this extent. So, he decided to come and explain it to her in person. He knocked on the door and said nothing.
"Come in, it's open." said Kylie.
Nick came in, and was as before, completely bowled over by how beautiful she was to him. She was even prettier now that she was slightly better.
"Oh, it's you." stated Kylie coldly.
"Yes it's me. Kylie, I know you have a right to be hurt. But I didn't know what to do. I like you so much, I didn't want to lose you." pleaded Nick.
"But you have" said Kylie.
"I've broken up with her, to be with you. You're the only person I want." confessed Nick.
"You could have told me Nick. It would have been so much easier."
"I was afraid that if I told you, you'd get mad, and I'd lose you."
"But what if I hadn't found out huh? Would you have left me hanging there, or get together with me but never break up with you original girlfriend? Nick, tell me." said Kylie.
Nick was sick of this. he couldn't understand why Kylie was contemplating him to be such a bad person. He only meant well; he'd been trying to explain it to her. She wouldn't listen. It was as if nothing was getting through her head.
"Look Nick, just get out."
Nick's eyes glazed over as he silently walked out the door. Kylie closed the door shut and leaned her back against it. Tears were streaming down her eyes. It was so hard for her to do that, especially since she liked him so much. But, when she was being cheated on, she had felt like the whole world had collapsed. She was determined not to encourage such behavior.
Outside, Nick felt terrible. He felt like the horrible person Kylie accused him of being. He felt wounded, his pride had been hurt. Kylie had turned him down. But, he liked her so much, so much that not having her, hurt him. Did he love her? he asked himself. He did, Nick realized. He loved her so much it hurt.
"I love you Kylie." Nick whispered softly, he turned his back on the door, and walked away.
Kylie was discharged a couple of days later. She found herself so desolate. It was summer, school was out and she had absolutely nothing to do. Her only friend was Lee, and she was at the hospital. She couldn't bring herself to go there so often. Her parents were getting along, which was a relief, although she wasn't sure if it was only for her sake. Her sister, Stephanie, was a workaholic. She had nothing to do, but wandered the streets of Orlando aimlessly. She entered a coffee shop to have a sit down and a drink. She ordered an ice cappuccino and sat there in silence. The silence was broken when a handsome, young guy approached her. It had been a while since a guy had come up to her like this, but it used to happen a lot before the her world fell apart. Now, she was slowly picking up the pieces.
"Hi. What's a beautiful girl like you doing all alone on this particular afternoon?" asked the guy.
Kylie looked up at him. He was good looking, of average height with charming features, gray eyes and nice wavy black hair. Definitely, a far cry from her last crush; tall, blond and blue eyed. She knew the line was pretty corny, but the way he delivered it was actually pretty charming.
"Nothing much." answered Kylie.
"Ahh, guy problems right?" asked the person.
"How'd you know?" asked Kylie in disbelief.
"It figures. Beautiful girl like you, all alone sitting here quietly all depressed like. Only a guy could do something that bad to you. Whatever he did, I apologize on behalf of all mankind and pray to God he hasn't turned you off men completely." said the stranger.
"No he hasn't, but he nearly did." explained Kylie truthfully, flattered that such a good looking guy would praise her so much.
"Good. The name's Tyler." smiled the stranger.
"Kylie." introduced Kylie.
The next time Kylie and Nick encountered each other, was just before Brian was about to go into the operating room. At this moment, Brian's room was filled with the Backstreet Boys. Brian's parents and brother were out having lunch. Then, Lee came in.
"Hi, honey." greeted Brian, trying to be cheerful. In truth, he was dead scared. He'd had a brush with death once before, and he definitely didn't want another one.
"Hey." Lee was totally worried. She was so scared that she would lose Brian. She loved him so much, she couldn't bare to see him go.
"Ahh, so this is Lee." said Howie, stating the obvious.
"We finally get to meet you after hearing about you non stop from lover boy over there." joked Kevin.
"Lee, this is Howie, "Brian pointed to Howie, and then pointed to Kevin, "My cousin Kevin," then at AJ, "And the one and only AJ. And you know Nick right?" All to well, added Lee in her head.
"Hi everyone." greeted Lee.
"Hey, how come Kev get's introduced as family, AJ gets the one and only, what do I get man?" teased Howie.
"You see D, Kev is family, and well, your normal. AJ's the one who's slightly......" Brian trailed off.
"Abnormal, but not slightly." finished Nick bitterly. He's taken to snapping at loads of people lately.
"Damn Brian, no wonder you've been keeping her a secret. If I'd known sooner you were so beautiful, hehe. You'd better watch out" threatened AJ jokingly. He decided to ignore Nick's remark. Nick had been getting pretty intolerable, but AJ knew that his heart must be in pieces.
"Promise me, you'll make it through all right?" Lee gave Brian a good luck kiss.
"Promise." said Brian hopefully.
"Yo Rok, that goes for all of us too, y'know." said AJ.
"We don't know what we'd do without you Frick." Nick stated honestly. He'd been pretty screwed up the last few days. With the whole Kylie thing, even more so with this Brian thing. Then, there was a knocking at the door.
"Come on in." Brian said. At the door, was Kylie followed by her sister, Stephanie.
"Hi Brian, I came to wish you luck." said Kylie. Then she saw Nick standing there. She avoided his stare and tried desperately hard not to stare back at his gorgeous face. "And she," Kylie turned to face her older sister "she came to tag along."
"Hi, I'm Stephanie, Kylie's sister." explained Stephanie. She surveyed the room, and one particular guy caught her attention: the blue haired guy with the goatee and the tattoos that bore an uncanny resemblance to a smurf. There was something about him that she just felt so plainly attracted to. AJ saw her looking at looked right back. AJ thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen.
"Well, I'm Howie. That's Kevin. " Howie pointed to the tall, dark, handsome guy. "Nick" he then pointed to the tall, blonde handsome guy, "And smurfette over there is AJ."
"Hi, Kylie." greeted Nick bitterly. Tension filled the room.
"Hi, Nick." replied Kylie quickly, escaping to Brian's bed to wish him luck.
"So your Kylie, figures." said AJ rather stupidly, Howie gave him an elbow to shut him up.
"Dude." whispered and threatened both Howie and Kevin who were standing on either side of him.
"Brian, good luck alright. And don't worry, I'm sure it'll all be fine." reassured Kylie who gave him a friendly hug.
While they were in the hospital together, they did spend some time with each other out of sheer boredom and were now pretty solid friends. Nick's eyes washed over with a deep longing for Kylie to be hugging him.
"Brian, whatever it is, I'm sure it'll turn out perfectly fine, but I really need a cup of coffee, anyone wanna join me?" invited Stephanie, trying somehow to will the smurf over by making eye contact with him.
"Er....ummm..........yyyeah......I'...i'..ll g.g...gg..go..." stuttered AJ. He had made his way next to this beautiful woman, and once near her, he felt totally dumbfounded. He had no idea what to say which was totally unusual.
The Backstreet Boys noticed this and too thought this a little strange.
"Right, I'll catch you guys later, ok?" said Stephanie as she went out the door, leading a speechless AJ behind her.
"That was strange." stated everyone except Lee at the same time. Then all of them burst out laughing because of that.
"What was so strange?" asked a confused Lee.
"Enlighten me, O love of my life." said Lee looking over at Brian who had finally stopped laughing.
"Well. O love of my life, you see, AJ is an extremely confident person. I've never seen him like this, all speechless and stuff." explained Brian.
"I've never seen Steph flirt like that. That was so weird. She is an accountant for crying out loud." exclaimed Kylie.
"AJ and an accountant, that's a good one. No one will ever believe me." Joked Nick, laughing falsely. With Kylie in the room, not really talking to him, he felt terrible, like something ripped open his heart.