| Chapter 47 Nick arrived in Vancouver around 1:00 am local time. He was in his rental car, trying to read the directions to the house he had rented. This would've been easier to find during the day, he thought as he made his way down the same street for the third time. "Finally," he said as he saw the street he needed to turn down. He slowly made his way down the street until he saw his house number. He turned in the drive, and pulled into the garage. He got out, grabbed his bags from the back, and walked up to the door, key in hand. He let himself in and looked around. It was an elegant house. It faced the Pacific Ocean, and had it's own little strip of private beach. The side of the house that faced the water was almost completely glass, so as not to obstruct the view. The decor was simple, but Nick really didn't care. He was away from things and that's all that mattered. He set his bags on the floor in the bedroom and walked out to the balcony. The night air was chilly, but he didn't feel it, he didn't feel much of anything anymore. He stood there for a long time, watching the waves come in. He glanced down the beach and saw the lights on in the house closest to his. That house too was completely glass on the water's side. He could just make out someone standing on it's balcony. It was a girl, that much he could tell. She waved at him, he didn't know what to do, so he waved back. Then she went back into the house. Nick felt embarrassed that she had caught him staring at her, but he really couldn't see anything, so he just brushed it off. He was so tired he could hardly keep his eyes open so he went back into the house, turned off the lights, and collapsed on the bed. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MTV started airing commercials for the interview the next morning. They had made it into an one hour special that was to air that night. Brian sat on the couch watching the commercial for the third time since he'd gotten up. He was a little nervous on how they had put the whole thing together. He didn't want it to reflect any discord in the group, especially between him and Nick. He picked up the phone and dialed Nick's number. "Hello," A.J. said. "Hey Bone, is Nick up yet?" Brian asked. A.J. was silent for a moment, "He didn't tell you?" "Tell me what?" Brian asked. "He left last night to go on that promotional trip," A.J. said. "No he didn't tell me. I didn't think he was leaving that soon," Brian said disappointed. "Yeah, me neither. When we got back from the interview, he asked me to drive him to the airport," A.J. said, "Brian, do you think he's OK?" Brian sat there for a minute, "No I don't. Tara is really worried about him, and she wouldn't be if there wasn't a reason to be." "Yeah, that's true," A.J. said. "Do you know where he was going?" Brian asked. "No, he just had me drop him off outside, and I didn't see his tickets," A.J. said. "OK, well then, I'm gonna call the label and see where they sent him," Brian said. "All right, call me on my cell when you find out. I've got a flight out in a couple hours, so I'm out the door," A.J. said. "OK man, have a good flight, and tell Sarah hi," Brian said. "Will do, and call me when you find anything out," A.J. said. "I will, bye," Brian said then hung up. Tara came downstairs and saw Brian sitting on the couch with the phone in his hand. "Bri, is something wrong?" she asked. He looked up at her, "I'm not sure. Nick left last night to go on that trip, and he didn't even tell me he was leaving." Tara sat down next to Brian, she could tell that he was hurt and disappointed that Nick didn't tell him. "Honey, he just needs some time to work things out, at least that's what he says anyway," she said. "Well, I'm gonna call the label and find out where they sent him," Brian said starting to get up. Tara put her hand on his arm to stop him. Brian looked down at her, and saw something in her eyes that made his heart skip a beat. "Bri, you can't call them," Tara said. Brian stared at her for a moment, "There's no trip is there?" Tara had a tear in her eye, "No." "How long have you known?" Brian asked. Tara sighed, "He told me at the hospital there really wasn't a trip, and then he told me yesterday he was leaving. He asked me not to tell anyone cause he didn't want you all worrying about him." "Did he tell you where he was going?" Brian asked. She shook her head, "No, and now I wish I'd made him tell me. Bri, he's hiding how he really feels, and it's tarring him apart inside. I'm really worried about him." Brian took her in his arms, and they held each other for a long time. "I'm gonna call Kev and Howie and have them come over. We need to figure out what to do," Brian said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nick woke up with the sun in his face. He rolled over and looked around, trying to remember exactly where he was. He looked at the clock on the wall, it was almost noon. He knew he should probably eat something, but he didn't feel like it. He got up and ran his fingers through his hair, changed clothes, and headed down to the beach. He walked down to the water and stood there staring out at the waves. After a few minutes he got tired of standing, and sat down as close as he could get to the water without getting wet. There was a slight chill in the air, so he pulled his knees up to his chest. He crossed his arms over his knees and rested his head on them. He wasn't worried about anyone seeing him, he was on a private stretch of the beach, only the home owners were allowed to be there. There weren't any other houses nearby, only the one, and he hadn't seen anyone up yet. He sat there almost all day. He thought about alot of things. About what his life was like before he met Tara, and what it was like when he was with her. He didn't want to go back to that lonely life again, he couldn't. Now he knew what he was missing, and he didn't know if he could take it. He thought about his friendship with Brian too. He knew the last thing that Bri would ever want to do would be to hurt him. But he was hurting, and he knew it was his own damn fault. He was the one that let Tara go, he made that decision on his own, and now he was having to live with the consequences. But if he hadn't let her go, she and Brian might not be alive. What was worse, letting her go, and seeing her happy for the rest of her life without him, or holding on and morning her and Brian's death? He was so confused. The sun was setting and Nick decided to go in. He hadn't realized he had stayed out there all day. He also didn't realize he was shivering and had been crying until he got up. Then it hit him. He wiped his face and crossed his arms heading to the house to get warm. He felt like he was being watched, so he looked up. The girl was standing at the window staring at him. He still couldn't make out what she looked like, just that she was there. She saw him look at her and moved away from the window. How long has she been there? Nick thought as he hurriedly walked the rest of the way back to the house. He walked in the house and headed straight for the bathroom. A hot shower would warm him up. He took his shower, put on some sweats and walked into the kitchen. His stomach was telling him he was hungry, he just didn't want to expend the energy to eat. He found a bag of potato chips and a can of Mt. Dew and headed to the couch. He turned on the TV and flipped through the channels. He landed on Canada's version of MTV and left it there watching the videos and munching on the chips. He was still cold, so he got up and pulled the blanket off the bed and laid back down on the couch, just as a commercial came on for the interview being shown on MTV that night. Nick thought that was odd for them to be commercialing for a show on MTV since Canada didn't get it. Then at the end of the commercial it said they would re-air the interview on their station immediately following the airing on MTV. Hum, that's weird, Nick thought. Still he wanted to see it, so he set an alarm for the time it was to air, laid down, and drifted off to sleep. Chapter 48 |