A NEW DAY 
by Michelle T
© 2000

CHAPTER EIGHT

Later on, Kevin, AJ and Howie were relaxing in the living room and talking 
about Michelle.  They told each other of the different conversations they'd 
had with her and they all agreed that she and Kim should stay with them for 
the rest of the weekend.   

Suddenly, the door flew open and Nick, Brian and Kim came in laughing and 
dripping wet.  Howie jumped up from his chair and ran over to Michelle's 
bedroom and quietly closed the door.  "Guys, not too loud, she's finally 
sleeping." He said.

They all stopped laughing and turned serious.  Kim asked Kevin what the 
doctor said and he explained everything to her.  She nodded her head and 
looked down in sadness.  Howie went over to her and put his arm around her 
shoulder.  "What's wrong, Sweetie" he asked tenderly.  

She looked up at all of them with tears in her eyes.  "My mom is hurt and sad 
and I'm having so much fun that I didn't even stop to think about how bad she 
may be feeling." She said somberly.  All the guys jumped up and surrounded 
her. 

"Kim, don't feel bad.  She's happy that you are having a good time.  She told 
me so!" Kevin said.  

Brian went to her other side and said, "Yeah, Kim! And who would Nick and I 
have tried to drown if you were just sitting in there with her being all 
pouty face?"

"Yeah, and who would have given me this awesome new hairdo if you weren't 
here, " said Nick rolling his eyes.  Everyone looked up at his head and 
noticed a couple of tiny braids and hair clips in his hair.  

They all started laughing and AJ pulled her from Howie's embrace and hugged 
her tightly.  "You knuckle head, you are with the famous, the fabulous, the 
outrageous BSB dudes and tears are just not allowed.  Got it?" he asked her 
while squeezing her.  

"Ahhh, AJ, you're squeezing too hard!" she laughed then and everyone felt the 
tension leave the air.   

"Ok, Kim, go get changed and then meet me in the kitchen and we'll find some 
junk food for you." Kevin said smiling.  The others looked at him in 
surprise.  Kevin never offered junk food.

Within ten minutes, Kim joined Kevin in the kitchen and hopped up on a stool. 
 He grabbed a couple of Dr. Pepper's out of the fridge and handed them to her 
and sat adjacent to her.  Then he started rummaging through the bags on the 
counter.  "Um, we've got chips, candy bars, cookies, fruit…. what do you 
want?" he asked her.  She said cookies and he passed them over to her.  They 
chatted for a while about different stuff.  Soon she was giggling like crazy 
when she saw his expression while she was explaining Pokemon techniques to 
him.  He had no clue what she was talking about.  

Eventually, their laughter brought everyone else into the room.   Howie and 
AJ grabbed stools across the island from Kim, while Brian and Nick sat on the 
counters behind her.  They all started questioning Kim on her favorite things 
and told her funny stories about each other.  

Eventually, when things started to lull, Kevin asked softly, "Kim, where's 
your Dad?"  She shot her head up to look at him with a pained expression on 
her face.  He instantly regretted asking her and felt awful.  

"He's gone," she said.  

Howie reached across the counter and took her hand in his.  "Where did he go, 
Kim?" he asked quietly.  

She looked at him and fixed her eyes on his eyes.  "He died last May, in a 
car crash!" she let out of sob.  

Brian jumped off the counter behind her and wrapped his arms around her.  All 
of them were stunned into silence.  AJ lowered his head into his hands and 
groaned.  Kevin stared at Kim with fresh tears in his eyes.  Nick kept his 
head down and didn't say anything.  

Howie squeezed her hand tighter, "I'm so sorry, Kim, we had no idea," he 
whispered.  She continued to stare at him and nodded her head.  

"That's why I was so scared earlier when I thought my mom was going to die," 
she said looking at Kevin.  He nodded his head and wiped her tears with his 
thumb.  

Brian kept hugging her and bent down to kiss her cheek.  "Hey Kim? Are you 
ok?"  

She nodded her head and said, "I'm starting to get used to it.  He didn't 
live with us anymore before that.  My parents separated right after my mom 
got out of the hospital a year ago."  

AJ raised his head and asked, "Your folks were split up?"  

She nodded and continued, "My mom was really sad for so long and she tried to 
commit suicide.  My Dad came home real late one night from playing cards with 
his friends.  He was drunk, but he found her and called an ambulance.  The 
sirens woke me up and I started freaking out.  My dad was on his knees on the 
floor near her, crying and begging her to wake up.  He kept saying 'I'm 
sorry, I'm sorry' to her.  They took her away and wouldn't let me go with 
her," she took a deep breath and wiped her cheeks, "The police called my 
grandmother and she came over and got me.  My dad wouldn't go anywhere, he 
just stayed on the floor crying."  

Everyone had tears sliding down their faces.  Nick choked back a sob as he 
tried to catch his breath.  AJ looked over at him and watched his shoulders 
shaking up and down as he cried silently.  Howie kept hold of Kim's right 
hand and Kevin reached for her left.

"Kimmie, I'm so sorry we brought this up.  Please forgive me?" Kevin begged 
her.  

She looked back at him and shrugged her shoulders lightly.  "It's okay, my 
Mom told me I needed to talk to someone about this, but I hadn't been able to 
yet.  I don't know why I just told all of you, it just felt right."  

AJ reached over and tilted her chin to look at him, "Kim, thanks for trusting 
us to talk about this.  I promise we'll all do anything possible to make you 
feel better, ok?  We want to see you happy and if you want to talk more, 
we're all here, ok?" He released her chin and looked down at his hands.  

A couple minutes of silence passed when Nick suddenly kicked Brian in the 
ass, which made Brian push Kim against the counter.  

"What the hell was that for, Dumbass?"  Brian turned to Nick with a glare.  
Kim started giggling and looked up at Howie.  He smiled back at her and 
raised her hand to kiss it.  

Nick jumped off the counter and said, "I kicked you B-Rok, because I couldn't 
resist it, with your little butt just standing there in front of my big foot, 
begging it to kick you."  Nick smiled and cuffed Brian off the head.  

Brian got a sly look on his face and said, "You just wait, Carter, I'm so 
going to get you back!"  

Kevin looked up at Nick gratefully; glad he had somehow found a way to 
release the tension.  "Guys, why don't you let Kim kick your butts at 
Nintendo?" he asked Nick and Brian.  

Kim brightened up at the idea and said, "Yeah, like I could ever beat the 
Nintendo freak!" she said looking at Nick.  

"Hey, you never know unless you try, right?" asked Nick.  

Kim got off her stool and stood next to Brian.  She slowly put her arms 
around his neck and hugged him tight.  "Thanks, Brian."  Then she went over 
to Nick and wrapped her arms around his waist and thanked him too.  They both 
didn't know what to say, so they said nothing.  Then Kim went over the Kevin 
and wrapped her arms around him; he immediately engulfed her in a hug too.  
"Thanks, Kevin." She said.  She released him and walked over to Howie.  They 
reached for each other at the same time and hugged fiercely.  Howie leaned 
closer to her ear and whispered, "I love you, Kim."  She tightened her 
embrace and whispered it back to him.  Kim looked at AJ and saw the love in 
his eyes, before throwing her arms around him and said, "Thanks, AJ, I love 
you too."  He felt choked up and didn't trust his voice to speak, so he just 
nodded and hugged her tight.  He felt her being pulled off him and looked up 
to see Nick dragging her from the room towards their bedroom.  Brian followed 
closely and was attempting to kick both their butts all the way there.  

Kevin, AJ and Howie just sat there and looked at each other.  "Holy Shit!" 
said AJ.