“Nothing’s wrong,” Nick lied. “I’m just a little tired.”
“I don’t think that’s true. There’s something more. What happened?” Brian asked.
“There’s nothing wrong!” Nick replied irritably.
Brian shrugged and looked Nick in the eye. “Nick, you know you can talk to me about stuff. Don’t forget that. If you want to talk, just let me know.”
This encouragement caused Nick to open up. “Something happened with Chrissie a while ago. No one knows about it except for a few people that Chrissie may have told.”
Immediately, Brian’s eyes widened and he straightened his posture. “That night you two shared a room?”
“Yeah. You know we got into a fight on the bus because of that Andrew guy, and then, back at the hotel, I did something really, really, really dumb.” He hesitated, but Brian gave him a reassuring look. “I slept with her. She had a nightmare in the middle of the night, and she woke us both up. I don’t know what came over me, but I was holding her, and then I kissed her. I promised her I wouldn’t say it was a mistake like the time before, and then we had sex. Then, the next morning, I decided I didn’t have feelings for her, and I told her that, and I don’t know why, but she flipped out.”
The way Nick defended himself when he had taken advantage of a teenage girl, especially one as wonderful as Christine, really angered Brian. “Nick, what the hell did you expect her to do? Did you actually think she’d take it well?” Brian exclaimed.
“Wait, let me finish.” Brian paused, irritated, but allowed Nick to finish his story. He quickly summarized the argument they had when Christine had come back into the room, then leaned back, prepared for a long lecture.
Sure enough, Brian had some things to say. “First of all, I don’t know where you got the idea that you could do that to her in the first place, seeing as she’s seventeen and she trusted you that night when you said it wouldn’t be a mistake, but then there’s also the issue of protection. You didn’t use protection. She could be pregnant again. Then there’s one more thing. You wouldn’t take her back that morning, but then you begged for her to take you back a little bit later. What’s wrong with this picture?”
“I know, I’m an asshole, but don’t do this to me. I’m already doing this to myself!”
Brian sighed heavily. “I’m sorry, Nick. It’s just that Chrissie is like my little sister, as well as my girlfriend’s best friend, and you may be my best friend, but you’re wrong here, buddy, not her. I think you need to sort this out, yourself. Decide if you love her still, and then go from there. I can’t do that for you.”
“It’s the issue of trust!”
“Do you honestly think that she would cheat on you again? Look at how she took it the first time. The idea is whether or not you love her.”
“I do. There’s no question about that. I love her with all my heart.”
“Are you sure? If you don’t trust her, then how can you love her? Love comes mainly from trust,” Brian replied wisely. “In most cases, if you love someone, you trust someone.”
“Okay, thanks, Brian,” Nick said. “Now I think I want to be alone for a while.” He walked into the bedroom, but Christine was in there, so he turned to leave.
Christine stopped him. “Don’t leave on my account.”
Nick climbed onto his bunk above hers, and remained silent, pondering what to do. Brian was right. Either he loved and trusted her or didn’t love or trust her, but he wasn’t sure which one. Suddenly, Christine spoke up. “Nick, I’m not pregnant.”
“You’re not? That’s good,” he replied sincerely.
“Yeah, I know. Not that it would have made that much of a difference as far as my career, with the tour being almost over and all, but you know… What do you think is going to happen when the tour is over? Do you think we’ll stay in touch?”
“We being me and you?”
“We being all of us. Me, you, the other guys, the other dancers…”
“Probably. I usually keep in touch with the dancers,” Nick said.
“That’s good.” She hesitated. “Nick…I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. Everything on this whole tour, with Brian and Andrew and all that other stuff. I confess, I was trying to make you jealous.”
This took Nick by surprise. Christine was apologizing to him? Shouldn’t it be the other way around? “I’m sorry, too, Chris. I’m sorry for breaking your heart…several times. I’m sorry for our fight when you were pregnant. I’m sorry for not using protection. I’m sorry for everything I said, too.” He heard a small sniffle from her bunk. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Christine lied. In truth, she was in pain because she knew she had given up the one thing that she wanted the most.
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” A voice inside her screamed to tell him how she felt, but no. Every time she did that, he brushed her off in some new way.
He climbed down from the bunk, knowing she was lying to him, and looked at her. Cautiously, he brushed a teardrop off her cheek as his knees quaked uncontrollably. “Chris, I want things to go back to the way they used to be,” he whispered.
A shocked look came over her face. “What?”
“I love you, and I think you love me, too.”
Christine sighed. “That’s what you said in Madison, Nick. How can I believe you? You keep saying it was all a mistake.”
“I was afraid. I didn’t want to face the facts. I realize now that I can trust you, and I’m sorry,” Nick said hesitantly. He leaned forward, his arms resting on either side of her, but she pulled back.
“Don’t get my hopes up, because you’ll just make them fall all over again,” Christine said, every ounce of strength in her body working to fight against her heart. She slid out from underneath Nick’s arms and ran out of the room.
“Wait, Chris…” Nick called, but it was hopeless. He climbed back onto his bunk, tears streaming down his cheeks. There was no way he could ever get back what he lost, so he might as well give up trying.
“Okay, both Chris and Nick are totally miserable,” Andrea stated to the other girls. Fatima, Sandra, Jessica, Leah were seated in a circle, looking at her. “We need to do something about this.”
“Yeah, but what?” Jessica replied.
“I don’t know, but it has to be good enough to get them back together,” Andrea said, her brows furrowing.
“We could put them in a room together on the last night of the tour,” Jessica suggested.
“No, because if they don’t get together, then it’s all over. Besides, knowing Chris, she’ll ask to sleep on my floor. She doesn’t want to get hurt again. We have to show her that she won’t.”
“I don’t get why we don’t just let Nick figure this out,” Leah mumbled grumpily. She was against the whole idea in the first place, but Sandra had talked her into at least discussing it.
“We all know that Nick would never have the nerve to do anything on his own. Not now, anyway, after being rejected twice,” Sandra said.
“Wait, what if we gave Nick an idea of what to do to get her back and let him do the rest?” Leah threw in.
“That might work, but what could Nick do to get her back? That’s the hard part,” Andrea said.
Fatima, who had remained very quiet throughout the conversation, jumped up excitedly. “I have a wonderful idea!” She told the girls of her plan, and sat back, satisfied that everyone agreed with it.
“Now we just need to get Nick to do it,” Leah said exasperatedly.
“Do you really think we’ll have a problem with that? He’d do anything to get her back!” Andrea exclaimed. If this plan didn’t work, nothing in the world could get to Christine.