*Nick*
"Who was that?" Jessica asked me sleepily, rolling over in her hotel room bed. She had the queen sized bed next to me and A.J. was on the floor. I had refused to let either of them, especially Jessica, sleep in the same bed with me. Howie, Kevin, and Brian were staying in the adjoining room. Did I just say adjoining? Man, my vocabulary is getting bigger.
"I dunno," I said back to her. "They hung up. But whoever it was, they didn't wake me up. Sorry if they woke you up. I'll turn my phone off." There was a moment of silence over the pitch black room, and it made me a little uncomfortable, but I shrugged the feeling off. Jessica turned on the lights, and I covered my eyes from the blinding light.
"What is wrong with you?" she asked me. "You're not your usual perky self."
"Yeah," I heard A.J agree from the floor. I saw him drag himself up from the floor and he sat down on the edge of my bed. "What's the deal with making me sleep on the floor? I can imagine Jessica wanting her own bed, but we've got yet another show tomorrow." I reached for the light, but Jessica slapped my hand away.
"What?" I asked her, thoroughly irritated.
"What is up with you? On stage tonight, what the hell was the dedication thing about?"
"I don't want to talk about it." I really didn't. How could I tell them that I dedicated it to Kayci? How could I tell them that I think that I'm falling in love with her? They just wouldn't understand. Nobody would. I don't even understand it. I grabbed the comforter off of the bed and a pillow and walked over to the other side of the room and laid down on the floor.
"Cool! Bed!" I heard A.J say with an enthusiasm that wrenched my guts. I heard Jessica only laugh and click the lights off, and I was in total darkness again. The floor wasn't too comfortable, and it reminded me of the first day that I had met Kayci.
"No," I told myself, "I don't want to think about it." I pressed my hands to the sides of my head, but the memories came flooding into my mind like a downpour of rain.
**Flashback**
I rang the doorbell, and a woman answered it. Maybe about my age, with short brown hair, and amazing blue eyes. "Are you new here?" I asked her nervously.
"Actually I am. My name's Kayci." I shook her hand timidly, wondering if she knew who I was.
"My name's Nick." I just kind of stood there for a second. Taking in every aspect of her appearance.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, interrupting my thoughts. "I'm such a bad host. Please, come in." I guess that I smiled, and walked through the door. The condo was half the size of my house, which made it pretty big. Especially for one person, I was assuming. "So are you the town welcomer, or did I just get lucky?" I think that she was joking on that one.
"No you just got lucky." I don't remember if I was joking or not. But it made her laugh. "Seriously, I saw all of the moving trucks over here this morning. I waited until they left, then came to snoop around." Why must I be deadly honest all of the time? I knew right away that I shouldn't have said that, even if it didn't seem to bother her.
"Really?" she replied.
"Yup. That's the whole story." Yup?
"You want something to drink?" she offered me.
"No, I'm fine. Thank you," I lied. I should have taken the offer.
"I was kinda hoping that you would say that." Maybe I'm glad that I didn't take the offer after all. "I don't know where any of my dishes are. Actually, I don't know where anything is.
"Do you want some help?" Please say yes, please say yes...
"No, I think I can manage." Damn it, uh, say something else.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
"Oh," I said. I wanted to get to know her better. "It's a nice place that you have here," I said for lack of a better conversation.
"Yeah, it's awesome. It's practically half a house."
"I think that it is half of a house!" Stupid. I'm stupid. "Anyway, I'm assuming that you don't know where anything is, so can I take you out for dinner tonight?" Yeah right. Smooth move, Casanova.
"Sure I'd love that." Really? Did she just say yes? Quick idiot, say something back.
"Great. I'll pick you up around six?"
"Good, see ya then."
Although I didn't want to leave so soon, I walked out of the house. "She's pretty," I said out loud as soon as I got into my car. "I can't believe that she didn't recognize me. Or did she? No, she couldn't have." I was so deep in thought, I almost ran a stop sign. I couldn't figure it out. Was she or was she not one of those crazed fans? If she was, then she was a great actress.....
"No Nick!" I finally said rolling over on the hotel floor. "Stop thinking about that night! Stop it! Stop it! Stop it!"
"Nick, are you talking to yourself again?" I heard Jessica call down from the floor.
"Go back to bed," I said to her coldly. The truth was, I couldn't stop thinking about that night. I kept turning over and over again on the floor, but I couldn't get that memory out of my head. I was still reliving that night, but my mind had skipped over most of that night, and brought me to the part when I took her to the beach.....
**Flashback**
Kayci and I, walked barefoot along the shoreline of the beach. The sun was setting in the distance, and I found myself having to clench my fists together to keep from grabbing her hand that occasionally would brush mine.
"You like the beach, I take it?" Kayci asked me.
"I love it," I said back. "How did you know?"
"Well, first I took into account all of the 'beachy' necklaces that you have. Secondly, you've talked about liking the beach before..." She laughed.
"Thirdly?" I asked, smiling back.
"Thirdly, here we are," she said, opening her arms to the beach and the ocean.
I looked down, and I think I blushed. "Oh."
"Don't get me wrong, I love the beach, too. I only live five minutes away from here. I get the feeling that I'm going to be spending a lot of time here."
"Oh really?" I stopped, and she turned to look into my eyes.
Then she added, "Yeah. And I get the feeling that I'm going to be spending a lot of time with you, too."
Madness, I had determined was my problem. I was going mad. Kayci was making me mad, or at least the memories of her, were torturing me. I sat up and looked at the hotel clock on the nightstand. Two o'clock in the friggen morning. I lazily fell backwards and hit my head against the table. I silently cursed. I was so messed up.
**Kayci**
I was so messed up. Nick was torturing me, or at least it was my memories of him that were making me madd. It was taking me longer than I thought to accept the fact that Nick had left and that he was no longer in my life. But it was still in my heart, as he would remain for a long time. I wasn't going to sit around and wait for him, but actually, that seemed to be what I was doing.
"What am I doing?" I asked myself outloud. "Are you just going to sit here in your bedroom for three months?" Probably.