I didn’t show my face in the Carter house for another four days. I avoided Nick at school by taking the halls that he didn’t, ate inside the school during lunch, stopped by my locker a total of one time, and as soon as the 2:30 bell rung, I was out of there. Lanie reported of Nick stopping by her place a few times when I wasn’t there, and she would always tell me everything that he said.
" ‘I’m not going to force her to talk to me, that would just make things worse. I just wanted to make sure she’s all right. She’s good, right? I’m really worried about her. Oh yeah, PLEASE tell her I stopped by, I really need to talk to her – it’s very important.’ is what he said," Lanie smiled, propping her head up with her hand. "So…I don’t mean to sound like a nagging parent, but I thing you should call him. You know you’re like, one of my closest friends, but you’re being really immature about all this."
"Fine," I sighed, extending my hand. "Gimmie the phone. You know…you’re a pain in the ass sometimes!"
"I know. Be nice to the poor boy! For god sakes, he’s sexy!" she advised, walking out of the room and closing the door with a smile.
What a retard, I thought to myself with a laugh, dialing his number. Well, here goes nothing! "Hello?"
"Hey."
"Hey, Steph! You called! How are you?"
"I’m good, I guess. Considering…"
"I’m really worried about you," he said quietly. "Look, I know I was wrong by not telling you, but I didn’t know how you would take it. I’m really sorry, you’ve got to believe me."
I sat there thinking about it for a second. "Really, it’s okay. Lanie’s right. I’m being really immature about it, and if that’s what you wanna do, then I’m behind you, one hundred percent."
He let out a sigh of relief. "Great! Hey, can you come over? There’s something I need to ask you and I kinda don’t wanna do it over the phone."
"Yeah," I shrugged. "Gimmie ten minutes." With that I hung up the phone and was on my way over.
"Hey!" he smiled, opening the door.
I smiled back. "Howdy!"
"I’m really sorry about not telling you sooner."
"Nick! It’s over and done with. I don’t care anymore. It’s just gonna be really lonely here with you being gone for months at a time."
"Well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you about."
"Oh, okay. Well, do I need to sit down?"
"I don’t think so," he laughed. "Well, I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to join me, the guys, and Brandy on the tour instead of staying here. I know it can be a drag if you’re here with Aaron, Angel, Leslie, BJ, my mom, AND my dad."
I was shocked. "You’re joking, right?"
""Nah…I arranged for you to be able to come with us, and the guys said they’d love it if you came along."
"Holy shit, Nick! That’s awesome!"
"So it’s a yes?"
"You betcha!" I smiled, hugging him.
He laughed. "So is that why you were mad? You thought you weren’t gonna see me for a couple of months?"
I nodded. "Uh, yeah!"
"Well, you no longer have to worry about that, we’ll be seeing plenty of each other within the next, say…four months!" he replied, still hugging me.