Heavy
metal music poured from the house literally rocking the foundation. AJ
pounded on the door, struggling to yell over the music, “Nick please. We
need to talk!”
If
possible the music became louder. Brian, Howie, and Kevin stood back
holding their hands over their ears. Nick had no neighbors to worry
about, so he felt free to play his music as loud as he wanted. It was so
loud Howie had expected the windows too shatter at its pure intensity. The
music stopped suddenly, mid-screech, and the front door swung open. Nick
stood there fully dressed with a pair of sunglasses over his eyes, “What now?”
The
four Boys outside all made eye contact with one another and nodded.
Nick
frowned at the quietness, until he realized that they were charging at him.
Kevin grabbed him by the arms, and Brian and AJ each grabbed one of
his legs. He yelped knowing what they were going to do. All at once
he felt his feet leaving the ground. He kicked and screamed, but couldn’t
fight them off as he was carried to AJ’s Prowler.
Once
he was safely secured inside with a safety belt and Howie and Kevin’s arms, AJ
slipped into the driver’s seat and put the car in gear.
“This
isn’t fair…” Nick was whining, “Let me out. I don’t feel well, I wanna
stay home!”
“You
can stop it with that Kaos, we’re not taking you back just yet, so don’t waste your
breath,” Kevin said.
AJ
chuckled from the front seat, “You know, you could have avoided this if you had
just let us in yesterday.”
Nick
gave AJ the finger, and slumped in his seat. He turned his face towards
the window.
“So…
“Howie tried to make conversation, “Where we going Aje?”
“To
the place where they make the best pizza in Orlando, and have the best arcade
too,” Brian answered for AJ, trying to sound exciting, he glanced back to
catch Nick’s eye.
Nick
frowned and slumped lower in the seat.
“Then
afterwards, we can all get ice cream,” Brian finished softly, “You know, it’ll
be like the old days, when we used to hang out together.”
“That
sounds like fun Bri,” Howie said lightly gently reaching over to touch Nick’s
shoulder, “Sound cool to you Nick?”
“Whatever,”
was the reply. The rest of the trip went on like that. Them talking
to Nick, and Nick blowing them off.
“This
is it,” AJ said parking the car in the lot. They had gotten there kind of early,
so not many people were there. They all got out of the car, in desperate
need to stretch their legs after the long drive.
“Alright
Nick, when we get in there, I am going to kick your butt at Nascar Racing,”
Brian smiled brightly and tugged Nick’s arm.
Nick’s
jaw trembled, and he turned away, facing the car, “You guys can’t pretend like
it never happened!” he shouted, he leaned against the warm exterior of the
vehicle, “I won’t!”
“Nick…”
Howie began. Finally, he was going to talk to them.
“No,
don’t ‘Nick’ me! You treated the group like garbage, you treated everyone like
garbage that you throw away! Now all of a sudden you guys go digging
through the trashcan and think, hey, didn’t mean to crumple this up and throw
it away yet. You think you can just iron out the wrinkles like that?
Everyone gave up on this group, but me… And right when I’m gonna throw in
the towel, when I think it’s not worth it anymore, you guys show up. Do
you guys think you can erase my memories of how easy you guys can kick this
group to the curb when something comes up? Huh? You think we can just start
over, from scratch. You think you can buy my forgiveness? You think
I’m that petty?” He had turned around to scream at them, his face was
flushed with his anger and hurt. His fists were clenched at his sides,
“Well you gotta learn, little Nicky ain’t so easy to deal with ok? I
don’t want any of your bull crap about how you’ve worked out your differences…”
“Nick!”
Howie tried to interrupt him, “We don’t think that we can buy you with…”
“Then
why are we here, Howie?”
“To
have a little fun Nick. It’s what we’ve all been missing. We just wanted
to spend some time together,” Kevin said in a quiet voice, he rubbed at his
stinging eyes, “We know we’ve neglected the group, and neglected you.
We’re sorry. We understand what we’ve done, and are trying to make
amends, Nick. We don’t think this will be easy at all, and no this group
is not anything any of us would dream of putting in the garbage. If it
was, do you think we’d all be here, well do ya?” Kevin was almost yelling
at Nick, who cringed.
“Kevin,
ease up,” Brian warned, but before Kevin could, Nick answered him, “No.”
“No…
That’s right,” Kevin said more softly, subdued, “Nick, our lives went off the
wall for a while there, and we’re trying to get back on track. We know
what’s important now, and we wanted to share that with you…”
“But
what about later down the road, Brian’s gonna get married, you may get married…
then what? Does the group go back in the trash again?” Nick asked
quietly, his last sentence no louder than a whisper.
Brian
shook his head, “Never. This group is the best thing that ever happened
to me, and I will never put it, or you, on the backburner again, Frack.
Ok, is that ok for you?” Brian asked, a few tears stained his face. Nick
looked up at him with matching stains. He stood still for a while,
calculating them. It looked like a face off. The four of them,
Brian, Kevin, Howie, and AJ, standing together, and Nick standing alone.
He dropped his head for a few moments, unable to meet their intense eyes
on him. “It’s ok.” He said in little more than an undertone. He
made no move toward them, but no move away from them either. Slowly Brian
moved forward followed by the others and wrapped his arms around him, they all
did. And this time, Nick returned the hug, and was reluctant to step out
of the embrace.
He
wiped his eyes one last time and looked at each one of them in turn, his eyes
lingered on Brian, “Ready for me to kick your ass Littrell.” He nodded toward
the game room.
Brian
caught his nod, and laughed, “Yeah… I guess I’ll let you win a few times.”
“Let
me win, Littrell, you’re full of…” the banter trailed off as the two headed
towards the entrance of the Pizza And More, leaving Kevin, Howie, and AJ to
stare after them.
“Frick
and Frack… together again,” Howie shook his head, “Why do I get the feeling
we’ll regret this?”
“Because
two weeks from now, we’ll be on tour and finding plastic vomit in our sleeping
bags,” Kevin guffawed, “Come on, guys. I’ll… I’ll race ya to the
door!”