(written by Lacy) "Nick told me you were back," Brian said, looking at Jessica as if she were some alien from another planet. Jess swallowed the lump rising in her throat. "I thought he might," she said. "Did you ever doubt that he would? Did you actually think you could keep your being here a secret?" Brian asked, taking a step closer to her with every breath he took. "I never tried to!" she said, the look in his eyes scaring her. Suddenly his attitude changed and he took a step back. "Why are you here, Jess?" he asked, his voice getting a little lower when he said her name. "She's here because I asked her to come," Jade said from behind him.
He turned around to see her standing in the doorway, leaning against it's frame with her arms crossed. "But as to why I asked her to come is none of your business, Brian. I understand that Nick is your friend, but I specifically asked him not to tell anyone we were here, and this is the reason why. I knew you would come and try to harass Jess. I knew you would," she said. "I'm not trying to harass anyone, Jade. I just want to know why you're here," he said honestly. "I was transfered here. I'm writing for the Orlando Press again," Jade said, looking around him at Jess, who seemed to still be taking in the fact that Brian was even there.
Suddenly there was a thump heard from upstairs. The look changed on Jade's face and without a word she took off running for the stairs. Brian turned around and looked at Jess for an answer. "Cat," she said, her emotions slowly coming back under control. She knew that Scott had just knocked over the endstand upstairs again."Look, Jess, I'm sorry if I hurt you by coming here. I just wish you would have let me know you were here yourself. Why didn't you call me or something?" he asked.
She looked at him as if he was the dumbest human beign to ever grace her presence. "Call you? Last time I called you, Brian, it took over a year to get a reply back," she said. He looked down at the floor. The same floor that he had looked down at 3 years before. "I was on tour," he said, not looking up at her. "Yeah, on tour. Right," she said, blinking back the tears that were fighting to fall. So is that what he called it when he was showing off his new fiance to the world? "Look, Brian, you don't owe me any explanations. You just answered every question I ever had in the past 3 years. I think you should go," she said, the last 5 words shaking as they passed her lips. Without another word, he turned around and walked out of the house that had taken him 3 years to walk back into.
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"Jess, I'm gonna go wash the car, can you watch Scott for a few?" Jade asked, running down the stairs in a short pair of denim cut-offs and a white tank belly-shirt. Jade was in one of her rare good moods. The bags under her eyes were gone due to the fact that she had gotten plenty of sleep the past 2 days. Jess hadn't let her leave her room. Jess told her she was gonna make herself sick if she didn't stop worrying so much.
It had been 4 days since Brian had been there, and Jade had forced herself to forget about it. She didn't want to bring up the subject to Jess in fear that it might hurt her even more. "Yeah, sure," Jess said from her spot on the floor in the middle of the living room. Scott was beside her playing with his Matchbox cars as she flipped through a magazine. "Thanks," Jade said, taking off for the basement to turn on the water to the hose. After grabbing what few rags she could find around the house, she threw her hair up in a messy bun, threw on a black and white Nike baseball cap, and headed out the door.
The sun felt good on her almost-bare back, and she fought the urge to just lay down in the front yard and soak up a few rays. Opening the car door, she threw Vanilla Ice into her car's CD player and turned up the volume full-blast as "Ice Ice Baby" filled her speakers. She didn't care if people stared, she always listened to that kind of music when she was washing her car. Shoving a rag into the bucket of soapy water beside her, she didn't hear someone coming up behind her. Feeling someone's hands going around her waist, she screamed while being lifted into the air. "Nickolas Gene Carter!" she yelled when she realized that he was her terrorizer. He laughed and set her back down on the ground.
"You don't know how much I've missed hearing you yell at me," he smirked. She playfully punched him in the arm before resuming back to her car. "Did Brian come over yesterday?" he asked. Jade threw him a look before answering; "Yes. But he wasn't here long." She really didn't want to talk about this. Yes, she was a little upset that Nick had told him they were there, but she knew she didn't have to worry about him telling Kevin because he has promised he wouldn't. "I'm sorry Jade, please don't be mad. But he recognized your car and I couldn't lie to him. He's really missed Jess," Nick said.
"Well, he has a really funny was of showing it! The only thing he did while he was here was antagonize her," Jade said, throwing the rag back into the bucket and grabbing the hose. "Are you mad that I told him?" Nick asked. "Oh, don't worry. I'll get my revenge," Jade said, turning around with the hose pointing right at him. Before he could say anything, she pushed the lever and water came shooting out of the nozel. "AAAHHH!!! IT'S COLD, IT'S COLD!" Nick yelped, running to the other side of the car for protection. Jade shut off the water and started laughing hysterically. Nick stood on on the other side of her now-shining car, shivering like a leaf as water dripped off his soaking body. "That was not funny!" he yelled as she collapsed on the ground in a fit of laughter. "Oh, yeah? You think so, huh?" he asked. Shaking the water out of his hair, he walked around the car to stand above Jade, who was still laughing uncontrollably on the ground. Smiling to himself, he jumped on top of her and pulled her to him.
"AHHH!!! No, Nick! You're all wet and cold!" she yelled, trying to get away from him. "Uh-uh, you're staying right here to see how it feels!" he said, laughing. He grabbed her hat and threw it across the yard so that her hair was now down in her face. "You jerk!" she yelled, laughing, "Stop it, you're getting me soaked!" Suddenly their little escapade was brought to a halt as the sound of people clearing their throats was heard a few feet away from them. Looking up, they saw Howie and AJ standing above them with smirks on both their faces.
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