"So, are you feeling okay?" Adrienne slowly edged her way over to the couch and sat down. "I mean, you don't hurt or anything?"
BJ's laughter resounded through the phone's receiver. "No Andre, I'm feeling great. So you can quit worrying about me." BJ laughed again when she heard Adrienne's sigh of relief. "I swear, Andre. You need to quit being such a worrywart over everything. I'm fine. Really."
Adrienne apologized. "I was just concerned is all."
BJ could sense the unsteady tone in Adrienne's voice. "What's wrong, Andre?"
"What? Nothing's wrong."
"Is too. I can tell by your voice." BJ listened intently at the stretch of silence on the other end of the line. "Andre?"
Adrienne bit her bottom lip. "It's, uh...."
"Andre, you can tell me."
Before Adrienne could reply, Nick strolled into the room and pounced into the love seat in front of her. In a hushed tone, she answered, "I really don't want to talk about it right now, BJ."
"You're talking to BJ?" Nick looked up from the television, which was blaring a Capri Sun commercial.
"Yeah, I am." she replied coolly, turning away from him.
BJ listened to the dialogue in the background. "Who's there with you?"
"Your brother."
Nick rose at the mention of his role in the family. "Does she want to talk to me?"
"No, she asked who I was talking to." She brushed a few loose strands of hair away from her eyes. "You were saying, BJ?"
Nick could feel his temper rising for no reason. "Let me talk to her about something for a sec."
Adrienne gave Nick the look-over and snorted. "I'm sure it can wait."
"Andre? Is something wrong?"
Adrienne gave Nick the evil eye. "No, nothing's wrong. I was just telling Nick here that---"
"She was just telling you goodbye!" he yelled over the phone, plucking it from Adrienne's grasp. "Yeah, BJ? It's Nick. How are you feeling, sis?" Adrienne scowled and charged out of the room.
"Nick? Where did Andre go?" BJ sat up and tugged at her hospital gown. "Put her back on for a second."
"She left." Nick trotted back over to the love seat and sat down. "So, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, Nick. But, I really need to talk to Andre for a second. Please?"
He fumed and set the phone down on the table. "Adrienne?! BJ needs to talk to you!" Within moments, Adrienne appeared in the doorway and crossed over to the phone. "What?"
"Is something troubling you?"
She snickered. "Yeah, you could say that."
"Let me guess...... it wouldn't happen to be Nick, now would it?"
"Let's just say it's to the point that if he bugs me anymore while I'm here, he's going to become your roommate."
BJ clucked at her friend. "Oh come on. Nick isn't that bad!" She settled back against her pillow. "Nick is a nice, kind, compassionate soul."
"Are we talking about the same person?" Adrienne snorted, glancing over at Nick, who had moved and now sat brooding on the couch behind her.
"Oh, you must mean my brother, Nick." The girl laughed. "Yeah, my brother can be a pain at times. I told Aaron to give you my message about the baseball bat...."
"He gave it to me." Adrienne cast her glance back at Nick. He still sat with his arms crossed, staring blankly at the television screen blaring out at him. "And Leslie told me about the mallets stuck for safe-keeping in the pantry."
BJ had to laugh. "Oh, I had forgotten about those. We only take them out on special occasions any way."
"Well, I am about to make an exception then."
"Oh, Andre. Have a heart. The boy isn't all bad." She shook her head. "I should know. I've put up with him all my life."
"My condolences."
Nick clenched his fists to where his knuckles were white. "You can quit talking about me now, you know?"
Adrienne covered the receiver with her hand. "And you can quit horning in on my phone conversations."
"Sha! Yeah! Maybe if you moved it to the other room, or at least out of ear shot then..."
Adrienne pressed the phone closer to her ear in an attempt to drown Nick out. It didn't work.
"...And if you think I'm just going to sit here and let you insult me like you are, then you're wrong! Now, can I please talk to my sister?!"
"What's wrong?" Nick's eyes met with his sister's, as Angel scampered into the room and dove into the love seat, a magazine in hand. "Why are you yelling?"
"I'm not yelling!" Nick spat. "I am politely telling Adrienne here that I would appreciate if she would let me talk to BJ!"
"Oh, you're talking to BJ?" Leslie asked, entering the room right after her sister. She took a bite from the apple she held in her hand and asked, "Can I talk to her after you're done?"
"Sure, I'm almost done talking to her any way." Adrienne agreed, smirking at Nick. "I can practically see the blood boiling in his eyes." she chuckled to herself, turning her attention back to the phone. "Hey BJ, I need to be getting some stuff done, so I'm going to hand the phone over to Leslie, okay..... Yeah, I'm working tomorrow..... Okay, well, sleep tight.... Here's Leslie."
"Hey, sis. How are you feeling?" Leslie picked up the phone and carried it with her to the other side of the room.
Adrienne turned and went to sit in the love seat, which was already occupied by Angel. Doing away with that option, she averted her eyes to the couch and groaned. "Well, might as well make the best of it." She padded back over to the couch and stood in front of Nick, hands on her hips. "Scoot over, blondie. I want to sit down."
"There's the floor." he replied flatly, his eyes glued to the television.
"Oh, he's gonna be smart with me, is he?" she thought to herself, tapping her foot impatiently on the carpet.
Nick removed his eyes from the screen and gave Adrienne a blank stare. "Is there a reason you're looking at me like that?"
Adrienne growled and flopped on to the floor in front of the couch. Scanning the room, she sighed heavily and looked up at Angel. "Angel, do you have the remote?"
She shook her head and continued to browse through her magazine.
A chuckle from behind confirmed what Adrienne had been dreading. She turned. "Nick, can I please have the remote?"
Nick looked at her as if she had just sprouted horns. "I don't think so!"
Adrienne was seeing red at this point. "There is a very important movie coming on tonight that I have been waiting to watch all this week."
A devious grin spread across his face as he replied, "I'm sure it can wait."
Fully aware that he was giving her a taste of her own medicine, she forced a smile and asked again. "Nickolas, could you please give me the remote?"
"Look at her fume!" Nick laughed to himself, watching Adrienne's face grow red with fury. He tossed the remote from one hand to the other in a teasing fashion. Tossing it straight up, he caught it mid-air and challenged, "Make me."
It took every bit of strength she had to keep from lunging at him. Instead, she opened and clenched her fists, using every ounce of restraint to growl, "I have been waiting all week to watch this movie. And I won't be in the best of moods if I am forced to miss it. So, unless you want me to make a scene and leave you humbled and humiliated like I did a while ago when I shut you out in that little one-on-one game of ours---"
Angel dropped her magazine in shock. "You beat Nick at basketball?!?"
Adrienne nodded and pressed on. "Yes, I did. And if Nick here doesn't hand over the remote soon, I may have to show him that's not all I can beat him at!"
"Oh, tough guy, huh?" Nick snickered, swinging the remote back and forth in front of her face. "I'd like to see you try."
"Les?"
She was jerked from her thoughts. "What?"
"What's going on there?" BJ pressed her ear to the phone, trying her best to make out the whooping and hollering echoing in the background. "Why is everyone yelling?"
Leslie cringed as she saw Adrienne dive at Nick's hand and land on top of him. She sighed, "They're fighting again."
BJ sighed as well and settled back into her pillow. "I don't know why they can't get along. Andre is such a nice person. I don't see what Nick could not like about her."
Leslie agreed. "Yeah. She's such a great friend. She gets along with all of us. Remember? Even Dad said she's nice."
"That's why I don't see why Nick doesn't like her." BJ rolled on her side and buried her face in her pillow. "This is so messed up. I really had hoped that Andre would like him." Reaching for her glass, she sat upright and took a sip from it. "She could really use someone like that in her life right now."
"I'm sorry, but I don't think there's any chance of them, well, you know..." She leaned back over and peered back into the living room. Nick was holding the remote up high in the air over Adrienne's head, which he held down with his other hand. Angel was jumping on the sidelines, cheering the two on. She sighed. "It's not going to happen."
BJ growled in frustration and threw herself back on to her pillow, cringing at the slight pain that arose in her side when she did so. "But Leslie, it has to! I know you thought I was a mental case when I first said something about it, but I really think those two are meant to be!" She closed her eyes and tried to drown out the shouts vibrating through the receiver. "Maybe they just need some convincing."
"I dunno, sis." She stuck a finger in her ear, the shouts rising to a pitch level. "They may not appreciate us playing Cupid."
"Leslie?! You remember how unhappy Nick was over his last break-up? He was miserable for days! The guys were worried about him because he wouldn't even touch the N64 that week! And when I talked to Fatima about it one time, she made the comment that his mood even effected his performance onstage!" She paused to catch her breath. "That last break-up was bad for him. And I think that if he would just give Andre a chance, and if she did the same, then just maybe---"
"Do they know what you're up to?" Silence. "BJ?"
"Well, no, but---"
"I don't think we should tamper with their love lives any. I remember how upset Nick was last time when Mom tried to get---."
"But we won't be tampering with their love lives! Think of it as.... as giving a helping hand."
Leslie rolled her eyes. "Andre will kill you if she finds out what you're up to. And Nick will be more than angry...."
"They don't have to know!" BJ said in a shrill voice. She took a deep breath. "I'm not saying we're going to pry into their personal lives. I'm just saying we should help set the scene for action and let them go from there."
"Uh, things are already pretty active here, BJ." she chuckled, wincing when she saw Adrienne take a spill under Nick's feet.
"You know what I mean." There was a pause in their conversation. "It could make them both happy. Will you help?"
Leslie rubbed her chin and watched as Nick and Adrienne continued to battle it out with Angel still screaming from the sides. "Yeah, I'm in. I'll even have the others put in their two cents worth, if that's what it takes."
"Thanks, Les. Hopefully, I'll be released tomorrow so we can all work together, because it's sounds like it might take some group effort." She listened for a moment at the commotion which had yet to cease. "But, whatever it takes to make them happy, right?"
"Yeah." she replied, pulling her hair into a low ponytail. "I guess I better let you go now."
"Probably. Mom went downstairs to grab something from the cafeteria and the nurse should be bringing my tray in any moment now." She rotated her neck in a circular motion, trying to relieve the kinks that had settled in her spine. "I'll talk to you all tomorrow."
Okay." Leslie pulled the phone up beside her. "G'night."
"G'night."
"Hey, BJ?"
"Hmmm?"
"I sure hope you're right." she murmured into the receiver.
"Me too." she whispered back, just as the nurse pushed the food cart into ther room. "G'night."
Leslie hung up the phone and stretched her arms out at full-length in front of her. "Playing Cupid with those two?" She grimaced as another shout rose from the room. "Can't wait."
Angel swerved around the chair behind her, screaming at the top of her lungs. "Give it to her, Nick! I'm going to tell Dad if you don't!"
Nick paid no attention to her feeble threats, but instead wheeled around the table and dove back across the couch.
Adrienne dove right on top of him. "Let me have it!" She groped for the remote, which he managed to keep just out of her reach.
"You want it so bad, huh?!" Nick bellowed, holding her at arms length. Acting quickly, he pulled the front of his jeans away from his body and dropped the remote inside. "You can get it yourself!"
Adrienne stood back and glared at him. Nick just smiled coyly back at her, holding his hands up as if welcoming her to the challenge. Letting out a low growl, she turned on her heels and stomped out of the room.
"I thought you said you could beat me! Hey Andre, c'mon!" He chuckled in spite of himself. "They're baggy, if it helps!" When he didn't get an answer, he snickered and kicked back in a reclining position.
Angel, physically exhausted, flopped back on to the love seat and pouted. "That's gross, Nick! No one wants the remote after it's been in your pants! We'll have to boil it in alcohol!"
"Oh be quiet." he barked, tossing a throw pillow at her. She ducked and it flew past her head. "All of your screaming was hurting my ears!"
"Shut up!"
"YOU shut up!"
"You!"
"YOU!"
"What is all the commotion in here?!" Nick and Angel whirled around in their seats to see their father looking from one to the other for some answers. From the look on his face, you could tell he was slightly upset. "I was cleaning out the garage and I could hear you all the way in there! Now, what's the problem in here?"
"It was nothing, Dad." Nick blurted, casting his gaze down at the floor. "Sorry."
Bob gave the two a doubtful look and sat down on the couch beside Nick. "Well, you shouldn't be making so much noise when it's nothing." He gave them both one of those stern, fatherly looks and glanced up at the television. Propping up his leg, he yawned and began to search the area around him. Scratching his head, he queried, "Has anyone seen the remote?"
Nick's eyes almost bugged out their sockets as his dad sifted through a stack of magazines on the coffee table. Before he could dig the object from his jeans, Angel wrinkled her nose and answered her father's question. "Nick stuck it in his pants." Nick felt his face growing beet red as his father's gaze rested on him. If that weren't enough, she quickly added, "He said if you want it bad enough, you can get it yourself!"