Chapter 4"Get up, Nick, it's a new day," Brian smiled warmly.
Nick groggily sat up and rubbed his eyes. Running his fingers through his tousled hair, he yawned widely, then flopped back onto the bed. He paused, then looked at his free hands. They were released, as were his feet. His eyes darted around the room. Everything was as it should be—hotel tables with stacks of "how was our service?" cards, armchairs, suitcases here and there, and clothes scattered around the room and sticking out of drawers. There were no signs of whips, ropes, or rolling pins. Had it all been a bad dream?
"We're going home today, remember? Get your stuff together." Brian was busily packing his clothes. He looked at Nick again. "Aren't you gonna start?"
"Yeah..." The blonde boy gazed out the window and saw the beautiful city of Chicago begin to bustle about. The sun was just over the eastern horizon, sending a yellowish glow over the metropolis. "Pomp and Circumstance" by Edward Elgar floated into his ears by means of the digital clock next to his bed, which read 9:46.
"So, d'you like the game?" Brian asked casually, struggling to cram the last of his socks into his suitcase.
"It was great," Nick replied, his thoughts still on the living nightmare of the evening before. 'It was all so real though.' His wrists and ankles were wrapped in cotton cloths, but he remembered doing that himself. After their basketball game, he had put them on to soothe his aching joints. Just to be sure, he unwrapped the cloths on his left wrist.
His wrist was red and tender, like it had been rubbed. "It WAS real," he whispered. But why was Brian acting so normal, like he was trying to hide the pain he had inflicted on his bandmate the night before?
"You'd better start packing or else I'm leaving without you," Brian joked.
As the reality hit him, Nick's eyes became ablaze in fury. Brian was behaving like the previous night had never happened and they were ordinary friends, as always. "What are you trying to pull??" he asked angrily.
Brian gave him a confused look. "What?"
He was rewarded with a steely glare from Nick. "Oh you know what I'm talking about."
"If the bed was THAT uncomfortable you could have told me."
"That's not it!!" Nick screamed. "Why are you acting like nothing happened?!?!"
Before he knew it, Brian had pinned him to the ground like a wildcat. "Because nothing did happen. If word of this gets out, you and I are both dead men. Understand that?" he growled, his dark blue eyes drilling into the younger boy's brain.
Nick gulped. "Yes," he said meekly.
"Good." He got off Nick and resumed packing his bag. "Gather your stuff."
"Yes." So it was over. They were going to forget it and go on with their lives as though nothing had happened. Nick let out a huge breath of air he didn't even know he was holding. It was over.
Brian saw his friend visibly sigh with relief and an evil grin curled onto his face. 'Poor naïve child.'