Later that evening, Leslie, Nick's sister found a small backpack, belonging to Kylie in the living room. Nick immediately knew it was Kylie's, because the moment she had stepped through that door, he had engraved her entire image in his mind. He remembered every little detail about her. Nick dug out Tyler's handphone number from his address book and started dialing straight away. Nick desperately wanted to see Kylie again. The phone rang, but after 4 consecutive rings, the phone switched into voicemail mode. Nick hated these answering machine things, so he just hung up.
After dinner, he jumped into his car and drove to Tyler's house, a place he thought he'd never visit again. Slamming his car door shut, he raced up the steps to the door and knocked anxiously. He was rushing a little, because deep in his heart, Nick was definitely worried about Kylie being with Tyler. The fact that she was supposed to be staying over with Tyler at his house was not too comforting either to him. A middle aged lady finally opened the door.
"Yes?" greeted the lady whom Tyler vaguely resembled.
"Hi, um, I'm looking for Tyler, and Kylie?" asked Nick.
"Oh, Tyler and his girlfriend went out to dinner." explained the woman.
"Oh, do you happen to know where?" asked Nick anxiously.
"Sorry, I don't. But he did mention something about a drive up Parker's Hill."
"Ok thanks." mumbled Nick quickly and rudely as he scattered back into his car. Nick's mind was in panic mode. He drove the car out of the driveway as fast as he could, and quickly sped off. This was too much of a deja vu for Nick. Even though Nick knew that his premonitions could be totally wrong, he went anyway, for Kylie's sake.
Tiny drops of rain started falling to the ground. Nick sighed and turned on his windshield wipers. He desperately hoped that history would not repeat itself, as he strained his eyes to see the road amidst the blurry raindrops that began to pelt harder. He barely saw the turning with the sign that read Parker's Hill, when he turned into the road.
Tyler showed Kylie around Tampa that evening, and then took her to a very nice dinner, and they ended up on Parker's Hill. Tyler claimed it had a very scenic view. While Tyler was driving, he was sipping, or rather gulping down some beer from a bottle he seemed to have produced out of no where. Despite Kylie's protests, he wouldn't stop. To her relief, they got to Parker's Hill alright. She had planned that she'd somehow now switch with him, so she'd drive back.
"Ok Tyler, get out of the car now and switch places with me, ok?" asked, no, more like commanded Kylie.
"We don't need to get out of the car for that." implied Tyler, grinning at her idiotically. Kylie could smell the stench of alcohol that lingered on his breath.
"Tyler, I'm serious." said Kylie with a stern look on her face.
"Aw, stop playing. You know you want it." replied Tyler, leaning towards her.
"No, I'm not playing and I know I don't want it." refused Kylie. But that didn't stop Tyler. He lunged closer forward to her. She heard Tyler locking all the doors in. His hand reaching for her breast, but Kylie dodged and Tyler was only successful in ripping Kylie's dress strap.
"TYLER!" exclaimed Kylie, grabbing her dress strap and clutching it close to her body. "You're so obviously drunk. Stop it. Open the door and let me drive!" demanded Kylie.
"Aww, just one kiss?" pleaded Tyler. Kylie was in no mood for this.
"If just one kiss, will you let me drive back?" bargained Kylie.
"Yup." answered Tyler, a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Fine." said Kylie. Immediately after she consented, he plunged right into a full out kiss. Kylie was so not into this, but Tyler was dragging the kiss on longer. She was not enjoying this. His hand somehow wandered to Kylie's hands and tried to pry them off her dress that she was clutching desperately to keep on.
"STOP IT!" exclaimed Kylie, shoving him off. "Fuck off!!"
"Whoa. Bitchy." exclaimed Tyler. "I like that." Kylie stopped him by shoving her hand in front of his face. Kylie was scared, she quickly unlocked the door behind her, and dodged out of the car as quickly as she could. Tyler grabbed another bottle and took another gulp before he commented.
"Have it your way bitch. You don't know what your missing." said Tyler.
He grabbed her suitcase from the backseat of his car, and flung it out the window. Kylie watched in horror as all her stuff fell down Parker's Ravine. Without another word, Tyler drove off down the hill. With the tires screeches echoing in her ear, Kylie was relieved that it was over, but terrified at the same time because she was lost. She had no money, she didn't know where she was, and even if she did, she didn't know how to contact anyone. Brian and Lee went further down the peninsula for a couple of days alone. AJ and her sister were somewhere, they wouldn't say where. Kylie's feeling of relief then turned into being frightened.
Drops of rain had begun to fall across Nick's windscreen. He flicked on the windshield wipers, and watched the road in front of him blur rhythmically with the wipers and raindrops. This made him even more worried. It was an unusually cold night as it was. He finally almost got to the turning for Parker's Hill when he spotted a girl. A girl, dripping wet, in a dress, walking in the opposite direction. The girl seemed to be holding on to her dress, and rubbing her arm for warmth. She was thoroughly soaked through, her light make up running a little down her cheeks, and her long brown hair was drenched. This was no ordinary girl he realized, it was his Kylie. His Kylie, who managed to look so beautiful when she was all wet and cold. He stopped the car and opened the door to let the chilly, icy wind come biting through. Kylie had no idea who it was at this point, it was raining to heavily and she was so cold and wet. When she saw the door open, she peered in and was never so relieved in her life, she saw Nick.
"Nick!" said Kylie in desperate relief. She got into the car and threw her arms around Nick in a hug.
Nick was a little surprised, but it was a happy surprise, as he smiled to himself and he put his arms around her and patted her on the back to comfort her. Kylie just felt so comforted in Nick's arms. For some reason, she felt safe.
"Kylie" exclaimed Nick. "You're alright." He was just as relieved as she was.
"Relatively." answered Kylie.
She was actually crying as she was walking, but all the rain made it impossible to tell. She was still clutching on to keep her dress on. Then, she realized that they'd been hugging each other for quite a while, so she pulled back. "And I've totally drenched you and your car." said Kylie apologetically.
Nick smiled, it was so like her to be so cheerful in a bad situation.
"Don't worry about it." reassured Nick as he reached to the backseat to grab one of his jackets which he handed over to her. "Your dress.." observed Nick.
"I know, Tyler..." Kylie was all ready to explain as she zipped up Nick's jacket that was really too big for her.
"I know all about Tyler. I was looking for you, you see. The same thing happened with someone I know, with Tyler. You left your backpack at my place, and I was going to warn you tonight, but Tyler's mom told me you guys went out for dinner and then..well...and then...here we are." explained Nick rapidly, he was just so glad that she was ok. Nick started the car and turned it around, back towards his house.
They reached Nick's home quite late. No one was downstairs and Nick was relieved because he was not too sure how his mom would react. He took her by the hand and led her up to his room. Kylie didn't know why, but when Nick took her hand, something just clicked and felt so right. She felt so safe. Nick opened the door to his room to reveal a room which resembled one which just had a tornado rampage through it.
"This is my room. Uh, sorry it's so messy right now. I kinda share it with Aaron, my brother." explained Nick, a little embarrassed that she had to witness his untidiness.
"I know, you told me." smiled Kylie.
"Uh yeah, of course I did. Anyway, he's out touring and stuff, with my dad, so I guess your welcome to crash here if you'd like." offered Nick.
"Thank you so much." thanked Kylie sincerely. She didn't know what she would have done without him.
"Uh, you can take a shower, I'll get you some towels, ok?" said Nick as he walked out the door.
"Ok." replied Kylie. She surveyed his room, noticing all sorts of sports posters and awards interestingly blended with the mess of clothes and just basically stuff that lay all over the place. Just then, a very pretty girl, about her size came through the door. Blonde and somewhat resembling Nick in ways, she came in carrying a bunch of clothes and towels.
"Hi, I'm BJ, Nick's sister." introduced BJ warmly.
"Yeah I guessed that much. Nick's told me about you." smiled Kylie.
"So, Nick rescued you huh? He rescued me too, only that time by accident." explained BJ.
"Sorry?" asked Kylie, a bit confused.
"Oh, he didn't tell you?" asked BJ, glad to know her brother was loyal to her wishes about keeping it private. Without letting Kylie answer, she continued,
" I went out with Tyler a while back."
"Oh." remarked Kylie, surprised like, knowing that Nick must have been pretty furious about all this.
"We're both so lucky to have Nick."
"Tell me about it, he can be a pain in the but sometimes, but most of the time he's a really great brother." commented BJ.
She could already tell that Kylie was a really nice person and could see why Nick had fallen for her but would not admit it to her. "Oh, here are some of my clothes which should fit you, but your a little taller than I am, so maybe I think you should borrow one of Nick's shirts." BJ went over to Nick's chest of drawers and pulled out a faded shirt which she tossed to Kylie. BJ's shirt would have been a middriff for Kylie, which she wasn't too particularly pleased to wear, especially on a chilly, rainy night like this.
"Thank you so much." thanked Kylie.
"No problem." smiled BJ as she walked out the door.
Nick was sort of sneaking around the house. He didn't really want to lie to her, but he wasn't too sure how pleased his mother would be if he wanted a female friend to spend the night. He had checked downstairs again and she still wasn't there. Walking back upstairs, he went to his parents room, which so happened to have it's sturdy pine doors open.
"Mom." called Nick.
"Yes Nick, honey, come on in." invited Mrs. Jane Carter warmly.
Nick went into the master bedroom. He hadn't been in there for a while, the last time being, when he was 10 and frightened of a thunderstorm. It was kinda nostalgic for him.
"Er mom, I need to tell or rather ask you something." said Nick, approaching the bed that his mother lay in. Jane switched off the television and patted her hand on the side of her bed.
"Shoot son." she encouraged.
"Well....." Nick paused. "You know the thing that happened with Tyler and BJ." said Nick. Jane nodded, listening. "Well...my friend you see, it happened with her too and she has no where to go. I caught her walking, soaking wet in the pouring rain, and the other people she came down with, are all somewhere else. She was supposed to stay with Tyler you see, but now..." Nick babbled on in a flurry or words in attempted explanation.
"It's ok, Nick. She can stay. After what had just happened, she needs to be helped out. It's the least we can do." approved Jane.
Kylie stepped out of a nice, long, hot shower and quickly got dressed. She just sat down on a bed, Aaron's, in fact, when a blonde lady came into the room. This she assumed was Nick's mother, whom she was surprised to see looked pretty young.
"Hello. Kylie, is it? It's alright. Nick's explained the whole thing." said Jane warmly.
"It must have been terrible to have your daughter go through it." commented Kylie.
"Yes, it was and I'm sure your mother will feel exactly the same." Jane said. "You can sleep in Aaron's bed, he's out on tour. Make yourself at home" Jane could somehow trust this girl and the way Nick had talked about Kylie before, told her that Nick did respect and admire this girl a lot. She wasn't too thrilled to having a young girl spend the night in Nick's room, but somehow, now that she met this girl, she felt as if she could trust them.
"Thank you so much, Mrs. Carter. You've raised a gentlemen of a son. If he didn't find me, I'm not sure where I'd be right now." thanked Kylie gratefully.
"Thanks. I try hard. Good night, Kylie. Nick will be along in a minute." Jane smiled and walked out the door. What a nice mother thought Kylie, a little envious.
Then Nick popped back into the room with a mug of something.
"Hey." greeted Nick. Kylie was looking much better already after a refreshing shower. "Hot chocolate a la Nickolas." smiled Nick.
"Thanks, you shouldn't have." Kylie took the warm mug in her hands and sipped the chocolatey concoction which she thought was pretty good ,although she still thought that she wasn't worth all the trouble. "Uh, this is your shirt I'm wearing, I'm kinda taller than BJ so....."
"Yeah, no problem." said Nick truthfully, who did think she looked good in one of his old t-shirts.