“Columbia,” Nick said somewhat sternly. “I don’t know why you think that’s so funny.”
“It’s not, it’s just, Nick Carter…college. It’s kinda of crazy, don’t you think?”
“Shut up AJ.” Nick snapped. “You don’t see me making fun of your new “hobby…” or should I even call it that?”
“I happen to think that designing a webpage is very interesting,” AJ defended. “And it’s hard work too.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” Nick muttered.
“What was that?!”
“Nothing,” Nick said as he hit the cue ball and finally sank a shot.
All of the sudden, Brian burst into the room were the pool table was and startled both Nick and AJ. “Would you two quit it already? Especially you AJ. Higher learning is always positive; better than your stupid website…AJ.”
AJ sighed in defeat. “Anyway Bri, do you have a reason for practically breaking down the door?”
Brian smiled, “Nick, you’re girlfriend’s here.” Brian than proceeded to make kissing faces until his eyes met with Nick’s, which by this time were downcast. “What’s wrong now?” Brian asked.
“Angelina broke up with me seven days ago.” Brian nodded in realization as Nick continued, worrying edging at his words. “Why is she all of the sudden outside Howie’s door?”
“I dunno,” Brian said. “But you should probably go see what’s going on. Howie’s gonna be a little pissed off when he finds out that your ex-girlfriend knows where his new house is. Even more so considering his lived here for two weeks.”
Nick sighed as he walked up the stairs and towards the front door. The second he saw Angelina, he knew exactly why she had come. “Here! Take this!” she yelled as she threw the ring Nick had given her for a one year aniversary present. “I swear, if I see you ever see you again, it’ll be too soon.”
It was then that Angelina took a swing at Nick, which Nick easily avoided. “Angelina…what the hell!” He yelled. “You were the one who broke up with me, remember?”
Angelina was quiet for a moment. “I only did it because of…because of this!” she screamed as she pulled a magazine picture from her purse and shoved in into Nick’s hands. By this time, Brian and AJ had joined Nick at the door and witnessed Nick as he broke down laughing. “What?” Angelina asked. “This is serious Nick! Who is that girl in this picture?”
Once Nick stopped laughing he looked at Angelina as both Brian and AJ began laughing. “The girl in this picture is my mother Angelina…My mother.” By now, all three of the Backstreet Boys were practically on the ground laughing as Angelina’s face turned red.
Angelina coughed in disgust, “Whatever,” she said, rolling her eyes. “God, all of you disgust me.”
Nick stopped laughing. “Angelina, if you are going to act like this over a picture of me talking to my mother, than you’re the one who is disgusting. I can’t believe how shallow you are and now that I have finally realized this…I think I’m happy that you broke up with me.” Brian and AJ’s jaws both dropped and their eyes opened wide and their laughter completely ceased as if on cue. “Goodbye Angelina,” Nick said, and with that, he shut the door and walked away, leaving Brian and AJ still standing there in amazement. Neither of them had ever liked Angelina but they had never had any idea how to tell Nick that. Angelina was the type of person who always had to be the center of attention and who was harsh and abrasive with people.
After a couple moments, AJ turned to Nick who was walking down the hall of Howie’s newly purchased Florida home. “Damn boy! Good job!”
Nick quietly smiled to himself before continuing on his way back downstairs.
Nick smacked the table around the alarm clock for a couple of seconds before actually hitting the snooze button. Once he finally obtained silence, he found it impossible to get back to sleep so five minutes later, when the alarm went off again, he crawled out of bed. Butterflies could not even begin to describe the feeling he had in his stomach. Today was the beginning of the second semester at Columbia and this marked Nick’s first day as a college student. As he stumbled downstairs on his way to make breakfast, the phone in Nick’s bedroom rang signifying a personal call. Nick turned and ran back upstairs tripping on several objects as he grabbed for the phone. “Hello,” he said, out of breath.
“Nickolas Gene!” someone yelling into the opposite receiver. “Are you up yet?”
“Yes Mom, calm down. I woke up 10 minutes ago.”
After a brief conversation, Nick hung up the phone with his mother and continued getting ready for his first day at Columbia.
“Devyn, I swear to God if you don’t wake up right this second, I’m going to kill you,” Mike yelled from the dorm room kitchen.
“Give me a minute you asshole,” Devyn yelled back. Slowly she rolled out of bed and began getting ready for her physics class that started in twenty minutes. She quickly kicked piles of clothes around looking for a pair of decently clean jeans and a top that hadn’t yet been spilled on.
Seconds later, Mike appeared in the doorway. “Just checking to make sure that your lazy ass is out of bed.”
“It is…anything else you’d like to control this morning?”
“Yeah, clean up this room of yours. It looks like you live with fricken pigs.”
“God, Mom, I’ll take care of it.”
“I swear Devyn…if I hadn’t known you practically all my life, I probably would have kicked you out long ago,” Mike laughed.
“Shut up Mike! If I hadn’t known you my whole life, I’d swear that the search for my real parents was over and that you were my real mother.” Devyn yelled, throwing a shirt at Mike from one of the piles of clothes.
Mike felt very uncomfortable for a few seconds as he hated when Devyn talked about finding her real mother because she had been abandoned behind old Chinese food restaurant when she was a baby and adopted by a family who could never really reach her. He never knew exactly what to say so he continued feeling uncomfortable until Devyn commanded, “Wait, throw that back.”
“Why should I?” Mike asked.
“Because, that’s the last clean shirt I own you dork, throw it back.”
Mike laughed as he threw back her shirt. “You are such a nerd Dev.”
Devyn shot Mike an icy glare before pushing him out the door and getting ready to leave for her physics class.
Chapter Three
Back to the HL Index
Back to the Katie's Stories Page
Back to the Main Page