The house was dark, all the lights were off. The only way to tell if it was day outside was the small slivers of light that wafted through the curtain every time the gentle wind from the open window blew. He sat, stone still, on the couch, staring out into nothingness. He sighed and rubbed at his face, God he needed a shower.....badly. He smiled slightly and stood up, his muscles yelling for moving so fast. Rubbing his shoulder blades, he walked over to the window and closed it, before opening the curtains all the way to let the light in. It was almost time for him to be home. He had to look halfway decent.
He hurried up the stairs, past the empty guest rooms and into the huge master bedroom and dug around for some clean clothes.
He changed just as the doorbell rang once....then again almost immediately afterwards. He heard the door open and then heard his mother, "Nick? Honey?? Are you here?"
Nick buttoned his shirt, checked his hair one last time (it looked fine) and walked down the stairs, "Yea..I'm here.."
Jane Carter looked at him a little skeptically, "Did you just wake up?"
Nick smiled wryly, "I've been up...just got dressed a minute ago.."
"Daddy!!"
A boy, with sandy blonde hair, appeared from behind Jane and launched himself into Nick's arms. Nick relished in the feeling of the boy's arms wrapped around his neck. The boy leaned back in his father's arms and grinned, "I made sumthin' for you, daddy!"
"Did you? Where's it at Brayden??"
"Granma has it!"
Nick looked at his mother, who held up a peice of paper finger-painted with stips of blue and green. "Well, it's wonderful, come on and we can go put it up on the 'fridge now."
He set Brayden on the floor and the little boy took off for the kitchen, yelling, "Cookies, too!!"
Jane smiled, "I think pre-school gave him sugar again.."
Nick shook his head with a smile, "Didn't you say I was like that too?"
"Yea...you were worse though. How are you doing Nick?"
"I'm fine mom."
"You say that...are you really?"
Nick sighed and rubbed at the crick in his neck, "Yea...I'm okay mom.."
Jane sighed, "Alright...have you talked to any of the guys lately?"
"Talked to AJ last night, Brian's coming home next week. AJ may come over later..said he wants to see Brayden."
"That's good...I'm gonna go say 'bye and then I've gotta get home.."
Nick nodded, "Ok.."
Nick hung up Brayden's picture on the refridgerator while Jane said goodbye to her grandson. "You be good for you dad, ok?"
Brayden nodded, "I will, granma."
She kissed the top of his head and then reached over to hug her son, "I love you Nick."
"Love you too mom, tell dad I said hi."
"I will. Have fun boys."
Nick turned back to finish hanging the picture, "How's that Brayden?"
"Looks good daddy. Cookies?"
"We're gonna have dinner with AJ later, so you can have two for now."
"AJ's comin'!"
Nick laughed and picked him up, setting him at the table, "Yep..said he'd come over later this evening. So..how was school?"
"It was fun! I got a gold star.."
"That's good, right?"
Brayden rolled his eyes, like his father should have known, "Yes, daaadd.."
Nick smiled as he turned his back to grab a paper towel and put a few cookies on it before setting it in front of Brayden.
Nick watched Brayden run around the backyard with a few of his dogs. He shook his head lightly, that kid had so much energy. Brayden was 4 (turning 5 soon), had sandy blonde hair and dark blue eyes. If someone saw Nick and Brayden together on the street, that someone could tell they were father and son. Brayden's mother, and Nick's ex-girlfriend, wasn't around. She wasn't ready to be a mother, stayed about five months after he was born and then disappeared. Nick had been in a sort of depression ever since...four long years. He tended to have his bad days and his good days.
His son was most of his good days. Whenever Jane or one of his siblings had Brayden, it seemed as if there was a huge void in Nick. He was withdrawn and just....sad. But as soon as Brayden returned, a glimmer returned in Nick's eyes.
Nick sat down on the couch but, where he could keep an eye on Brayden in the backyard still. Brayden didn't remember his mother at all, he knew he had one..but he didn't understand why she didn't live with him and his dad at their house. Nick had tried to explain..but it was kinda hard to explain something that complicated to someone so young. Brayden came running in with the dogs, "Hey dad!"
"What?"
"When's AJ comin'?"
"In a couple hours. Come here and take off your shoes."
Brayden sat in his father's lap and Nick un-tied his shoes and set them on the floor. Brayden wiggled out of his father's lap and onto the floor, "Can I go play Playstation?"
"Yea..go on."
Brayden hopped up and ran for the stairs and scrambled up them and into his room. Nick didn't play video games that often anymore, but Brayden did. As soon as he could walk and talk, he was playing video games. Nick had finally decided to put it in Brayden's room a few months ago and now it was all he seemed to want to do anymore.
Nick sat in silence for a little while longer before he was startled by the phone ringing. "Hello?"
"Hey! What you doin'?"
"Hi AJ..nothin'...what are you doing?"
"I'm about fifteen minutes away from you..it okay if I come over now?"
"Yea..sure. Brayden got home about an hour ago and is upstairs playing video games.."
AJ chuckled, "Sounds like him. Well, okay, I'll be there in a few then."
"Alright, man."
"Bye."
"Bye AJ."
Back to the "Ready To Fall" Main Page
To Chapter 2
Back to the Main Page