Nick walked around the living room as he listened to the phone ring. Half of him wanted Craig to pick up the phone, the other half would prefer to leave a rambling apology on his voicemail,
"Hello?" He groaned silently, guess there would be no message left,
"Uh hey man, it's Nick." He wondered how Craig was going to respond to him after what they went through when he came out to visit Nick. He had thought about that fight a lot. He had never hit one of his friends before. The other guys in the group didn't count, they treated him like a child and thought they could say anything to him and treat him any kind of way. His friends had more respect for him than that. They respected his temper more and didn't think of it as some temper tantrum.
"Hi." He walked out the door, too nervous to stand in one spot,
"How are you?" He didn't know if he should just jump into it or gradually ease into it. He'd never had to apologize to one of his friends like this.
"I'm fine man. What's up?" Guess, it was time to do what he called to do. Getting it over quickly was better than prolonging it. It was like snatching the band-aid off instead of slowly peeling it,
"Look, I just wanted...I'm sorry for hitting you and being an asshole. I know you wouldn't sleep with Shayna. I was just fucked up...stupid." He held his breath as he waited for a response. He just hoped Craig would forgive him and not make him sit through some lecture on what he did was wrong and how it was wrong. He got enough of that from Howie, Brian and Kevin.
"Nick, are you sure? I would never do that and you don't know how pissed off I was at you. And what you said about Shayna still makes me mad when I think about it." He felt like someone let the air out of his sails, he had totally forgotten what he said about Shayna. How he could call her a slut, or whore, or whatever awful name he did was beyond him. She was the sweetest girl he had ever known, without a bad bone in her body.
"Yeah I know man. I shouldn't have said that. I don't know what I was thinking." Apologies just weren't his strong point.
"What is your problem when it comes to Shayna?" He walked on the top of a four by four, trying not to fall off, placing one foot in front of the other,
"What do you mean?" He hopped off his make shift gymnast pole,
"Nick, are you going to be with Shayna or not? You two need to figure it out, it's healthier for both of you." He probably knew Shayna was there with him now,
"She's here now, at my parents' house."
"I know." Nick shook his head, of course he knew. There was no point in getting angry about it,
"We're trying to figure it out." He hated talking with Craig, he felt like he was being manipulated. Actually, there were times when Craig was the only person in the world he was comfortable talking to and the very fact that he got Nick to admit feelings no one else could was exactly why Nick needed to talk to him,
"So you haven't figured it out yet?" Nick shook his head,
"No." He could hear a slight sigh from the other end of the phone,
"But you've slept together already haven't you?" He wanted to say no, but why bother,
"Yeah, but look man-" He was interrupted by Craig,
"You owe me no explanations." He sighed,
"So why did you ask then." His head began to hurt as he waited for Craig to respond,
"Because sometimes you need to just hear things out loud before you can figure it out. You and I are fine, don't mention it. Just go take care of your woman." Nick smiled,
"Thanks man, I will I promise."
"Don't promise me anything, just handle it." Nick nodded,
"I will, no more bullshit." He hung up and stood outside with a smile on his face before heading back in the house. He was going to figure this all out before he left. Single or not he was leaving this place with his life in order, that was a promise to himself that he had every intention of keeping.
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Chapter 107