Even the thought of Jade trying to fix her up with another guy hadn't dampened her good mood.
Danny was totally unexpected for the sight that greeted her when she was shown into the patio. Jade was practically eating the guy whom she was kissing. They were all over each other and Danny was mortified that she had to see her friend like this. Danny felt sorry for the poor guy Jade was ravaging. Danny had to clear her throat five times before they heard her.
Jade lifted her head, and turned towards her, a huge smile on her flushed face. "Danny!" She called out happily. "You're here, finally!"
Danny smiled at her friend, trying to peek at the guy whom Jade had been kissing but without success. "I'm glad to see you've made very good use of the time while you waited for me." Danny said dryly.
Jade grinned shamelessly back at her and pulled the guy up to stand beside her. "I want you to meet..."
The rest of the sentence didn't register in Danny's mind as she saw the guy's face. Nick! It was Nick! What the hell was he doing in Jade's house, kissing her like... like he was desperately in need of her. Like he would die if he didn't kiss her. Shock numbed her cold body. Danny thanked heavens for her self-control. And the years of practicing to hide the merest hint of emotion behind a nonchalant mask.
Nick didn't have the advantage Danny had, or practice. His face had completely drained of color the moment he had realized who she was, he looked so pained and guilty, but at the same time, in those blue eyes, the ones Danny had drowned in just a few hours earlier, was a silent pleading that she not give them away.
Danny wouldn't have done anything to hurt Jade anyway. She would keep this mistake from her, Jade would never know what a jerk Nick was, provided that he not do this to her again.
"Danny?" Jade's face was right before her, "Are you all right?"
Danny shifted her cool flat gaze to Jade and gave her a tight smile. "Sure."
"Nick's my boyfriend." Jade said enthusiastically, wrapping a hand about his waist. Nick stiffened at that show of affection, the pain on his face intensifying. "That's nice." Danny forced out through constricted throat. There was nothing she liked better than to pummel the tall blond Adonis standing before her.
No, actually, before she pummel him, she'll like to know why he had said all those things to her last night. She'll liked to know whether he meant those things he said to her or not. Why didn't he tell her he was attached? Why did he kiss her? What did she mean to him last night? A distraction? What?
Danny had made up some flimsy excuse about needing her to do something important and much as she liked to to, she couldn't stay. She had fled Jade's place, her mask of bored aloofness never failing her.
Ever since then, Danny couldn't help baiting Nick. She just couldn't get over his deception. Just couldn't help feeling both attracted and repelled by him. To his credit, Nick had tried to ignore her barbs at first, understanding why she was needling him, but as time went by, when more of her barbs had found their marks, he had begun defending and sometimes even attacking her. It made Danny feel both soothed and frustrated that they were bitter enemies now. At least she know how he felt about her.
< Why? > Danny forced the bile back down her throat,
Nick pressed his nose against the glass paneled window
and peered through the tinted glass into the
cloud-filled sky, trying to get a glimpse of land,
good solid land where everything didn't quiver. He
hated flights, he really loathed them.
More than he hated flights, he hated the anticipation
he felt at returning home and being able to see the
golden-hair hoyden who can disarm him with just a
smile and hogged his every thought. Who wears an
impenetrable armor about her as comfortably as she
wore her clothes.
Nick cursed himself silently, why was he so obsessed
with her? What was it that drew him to her? Why can't
he be a good boyfriend for a change and think about
Jade instead of her best friend? Nick had known the
precisely moment when he had fallen out of love with
Jade and fallen helplessly like a puddle of melted
butter at Danny's feet. It was the night they met.
Nick winced when he saw the stark betrayal he glimpsed
for a fraction of moment in her magnificent eyes when
he realized that it was him who was making out with
her best friend. He had felt like an asshole, worse
than the lowest of vermin when he realized he had
succeeded in breaking through the armor when none had
ever before. At that moment, Nick had hated himself
more than Danny could ever possibly hate him.
Nick had gone to Jade as planned the day before with a
leaden weight in his heart. He had to see Jade again,
if only to judge for himself his feelings for her. He
had let her kissed him, he wanted to know if what he
suspected would come true. The simple chaste kiss he
had given Danny was branded into his soul, the
electricity had jolted his senses and made him feel
more alive than ever. And it was only an uncomplicated
kiss, only think what would happened if he- No. He
couldn't allow his thoughts to go in that direction.
Though he didn't know Danny in depth, he knew enough
to know that Danny wouldn't allow herself to make the
same mistake twice. He had hurt her very badly when
she lowered her guard against him, hell would freeze
over before she would allow him anywhere near her
defenses again.
Nick knew why he had stayed in the meaningless
relationship with Jade for so long. Definitely not
because he loved her to distraction, or because Jade
will be heartbroken if they broke up, she wouldn't,
Nick knew that Jade stayed with him only because he
was away for the bulk of the time and she could be
allowed to play the field without her date feeling
pressured. Nick and Jade was suitable in that sense,
they didn't want to tied down so young, they had no
earth-shattering feelings for each other. Sure they
liked each other well enough to spend time together
when Nick was in the vicinity, to engage in activities
that couples of their age and beyond engaged in.
Danny was the main reason why they stayed together.
Because if he broke up with Jade, he would have no
valid reason to see Danny. Much as he tried to
convince himself, Nick knew that in his own perverse
way, he had enjoyed sparring with Danny. No one ever
stood up to him like Danny did, his own family
notwithstanding. Nick had to admire her creativity
with her insults of him. They were veiled, but not so
that he wouldn't recognized them for what they were.
One thing Nick had concluded, he wouldn't never be
bored in Danny's company. She had such a sharp and
caustic wit that she always keep him on his toes.
Other men might be intimidated by her intellectual
power but not Nick. It was her beauty that drew him to
her, but it was that wit and intelligence that kept
him there.
Beside him, Brian nudged him, "You're awfully quiet. I
know you hate flying and usually, you're very vocal
about your hatred of them, but today, your vocals
seemed to have gone to sleep, Kevin and the rest have
been giving you concerned looks and I have been given
so much 'go-ask-him-what's-wrong' looks that I am
going crazy. So, would you just open your mouth and
put all of us out of misery?"
Nick laughed, just as Brian expected he would. But
when he did speak, his tone was unusually sombre, not
at all like the Nick Brian was used too.
"I was just thinking-"
Brian looked at him in horror, "What?! You actually
used that cobwebs-covered gray thing you call a
brain?"
Nick never even heard him, which surprised the hell
out of Brian, "about this fame thing. After all the
touring and the singing and the dancing and the
screaming girls wild for us, when we finally get to
come home, it's all so normal. I mean, we still have
to disguise ourselves when we go out, but we're almost
like normal people here, yet not really. Brian, do you
sometimes have the feeling that you don't belong
anywhere? Not at press conferences, not at stage
singing our hearts out and especially not when we're
home with our family."
Brian stared at Nick's serious face and looked into
his usually mischievous bluebells eyes and saw that he
was dead serious. "If you think that, Nick, I think
you have a serious problem." Brian answered, his own
blue eyes darkened with worry for his best friend.
Nick shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, but I've been
feeling very restless, as if I've been looking for
something but haven't, couldn't find it." < Or found
it, but couldn't claim it. > "It's very frustrating. I
should be content, I mean, what more could I want? I
have a perfect life, a perfect home, with parents and
siblings to love me, a bunch of friends to share in my
happiness, a girlfriend who is very beautiful and
understanding and a career which I love and which is
earning me money faster than I can figure out how best
to spend them. What else could I want?" < How about a
certain golden-haired angel who has been haunting your
every waking and sleeping moment? >
Nick quickly shook his head to get rid of that
unwanted thought.
Brian was shocked at how frustrated and angry Nick
sounded and looked. He never even knew Nick was going
through a period of mental anguish. He hadn't paid
enough attention to his friend to see the signs. So
now what? Nick was crazy. Should they or should they
not commit him into the asylum? How would their fans
react to it? Most importantly, how would Nick's family
and Jade react to it?
"If you're thinking I'm crazy and should be sent to
the mental hospital, you can save it, Brian. And don't
look at me like that, I know you and I know how your
mind works." He shrugged offhandedly. "You're not
difficult to figure out."
Brian snorted at that. They had spent loads of time
with each other, Brian knew Nick as well as Nick knew
him. "You are crazier than usual, Nick. I have never
thought you to be the thinking kind, you were always
the doing type of person, you always left the thinking
part to Kevin, which is why most of your harebrained
schemes always land us in trouble. Now all of a
sudden, you announce to me you have been thinking and
you spout to me such... deep and... spiritual," he
spat the word out derisively, "stuff and you expect me
to believe you haven't recently had your brain
rearranged?"
"Brian, in case you haven't been looking at a calendar
recently, let me inform you, I'm no longer the
scrawny, immature young adolescent you knew who tagged
along with you, seeing at you with hero worship in my
eyes, participating in every dumb, sick games you
could think of. I'm twenty years old and an
accomplished young adult who can think for himself. I
have grown up, Brian. I am entitled to think, you
know."
Brian laughed, "I would have said otherwise. You might
have grown up physically, but mentally," he tapped his
friend's head, "you still have the mental capabilities
of a four year-old or less."
Nick frowned at his best friend, a little hurt at his
last comment. Quickly, he turned back to the window,
proceeding to stare out the window into the white
heavens again. Brian felt contrite the moment Nick
turned away, wearing a wounded look in his eyes.
"Nick," he called out softly, laying a hand on his
friend's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I
said. I was just teasing, like I always do. I thought
you knew. Come on, talk to me."
Nick sighed and turned back to face Brian, "I'm just
cranky, ignore me. Maybe, I'm having PMS, like Jade.
Male PMS."
Brian cracked a smile at that. "Speaking of Jade,
she's going to be right there at the airport waiting
to welcome you back home, isn't she?"
Nick's smiled. "Yeah, she is. She's thrilled that I'll
finally be back home where I can spend some time with
her. I'm glad that I'll finally get to see her again."
Suddenly, as if a dark cloud had passed over his head,
Nick's good mood evaporated. "I just hope that we
don't spend the bulk of my time flinging insults with
that snobbish friend of hers. She's tempermental,
surly and she loves to embarrass the hell out of me.
She says the most outrageous things and she insults
me, our music, everything I believe in. I think God
put her on this earth to piss me off and make my life
a living hell. I have no idea I could hate a person so
much until she shows up." < Yeah right! You hate her,
like you hate singing maybe? >
Brian smiled in amusement at Nick, seeing his flushed
cheeks, the anger or is that passion? in his eyes.
"Yes, you hate her, don't you? She loves getting a
rouse out of you. What was it she said about you the
last time you cross verbal swords? Something along the
lines of 'You're a pasty-skinned she-male trying to
act all holy and pure when you have a mind dirtier
than a psycho-killer-cum-rapist. Trying to act macho
when all you are are a sad lump of expanding mass of
limbs growing from a round, stuffed doughnut you call
a body.' Right?"
Nick glowered at Brian, who laughed out loud. "Shut
your trap!"
AJ glanced over at Brian who was laughing his head
off. He hiked a brow at Nick. "What's with him?"
"Trying to get himself killed!"
"Discussing the barbs he and that girl, Jade's friend,
shot at each other at their meetings." Brian supplied
when he managed to contain his hilarity temporarily.
Interest flared to life in AJ's eyes. "You mean the
spitfire who looked and behaved like an Ice Queen and
who couldn't stop giving our usually charming Nick
evil glares? The one who shot Nick dead the last time
he insulted her? What's her name? Denise?"
"Danette Wilson," Nick snapped, annoyed at Brian's
knowing look and AJ's interest in his nemesis. "Better
know as Danny."
"For a person who hates her as much as you claim to,
you sure know a lot about her." Brian observed.
"Jade's been trying to make me tolerate her. Feeds me
all sorts of info on her to me. It makes me sick, but
if it makes Jade happy, I'll do it."
"She has a sharp tongue, all right, but admit it.
She's one salsa hot chick." AJ grinned in this
lascivious way which make Nick want to throttle him,
bashed his teeth in and then warn him away from Danny.
Brian nodded vigorously while sneaking glances at
Nick, not that Nick or even AJ noticed. "She's
beautiful all right. But she seemed to have ice for
blood running in her veins."
"I'll change that. If anyone can, the great AJ Mclean
can heat her blood and melt the ice. Winning the
little lady would be no sweat at all!" He announced
cockily.
"That's what he says," Nick muttered under his breath,
his blood boiling at how AJ was boasting about his
skills with women, not just any, but the frigid, < and
the beautiful, > his mind whispered tantalizingly,
Danny Wilson.
AJ's eyes flashed with annoyance behind his ever
present shade. "Are you challenging me Nicky?"
"You think you're Mr. Love-'em-dump-'em, heh AJ? You
think you can get any girl you've set your sights on
eating out of your palm? Well, I tell you, you won't
get this one. She's humanly incapable of feeling any
emotions, so your Mr. I'm-so-smooth routine won't work
on her."
AJ flashed Nick a feral grin, "Wanna bet?"
"Hey guys, calm down." Brian broke in, sounding a
little worried. "It's a little too much, don't you
think, to resort to this? Nick, don't antagonize AJ,
you know how protective he is of his reputation."
"Shut up, Brian, this is between Nicky and me. Stay
out of it." AJ warned.
Brian turned to Nick, "Nick..."
"Brian, he's right, this is between us, so keep your
butt out of it unless you want to be on my side." Nick
shifted his attention to AJ. "I'll give you two weeks.
By the end of that time, if you still haven't won her
heart and undying devotion, I win. If you can make her
fall for you, then you win."
"No, how about this, if you can charm her into not
insulting you the moment she sees you, you win, if I
can get her to go out on at least three dates with me,
I win." AJ's eyes burned with excitement at the
thought of a good chase.
"What are the stakes?" Nick asked, eyes gleaming in
determination. Danny was going to be hit by his
strongest blast of charisma. She was going to be sweep
off her feet with so much male chivalry that she
wouldn't know what hit her. He was going to be civil
to her even if it killed him. There was no bloody way
he was allowing AJ to win this bet.
Chapter Four
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