Anastasia gasped as he opened up a small box that concealed a ring, in the other room she heard commotion as her friends started counting, “Ten! Nine!” In the back of her mind she saw Nick, the thought made her smile but then another person entered the picture: Mandy. She frowned slightly and shook her head to see a waiting Adam in front of her.
“Oh Adam…,” she smiled down at him
“I can’t believe it’s gunna be a New Year!” Brian patted his friend on the back, Nick smiled, Mandy was gone, everything seemed to feel right with him. He couldn’t wait to see is Piggy again. “Six! Five!”
“Four! Three!”
“Yes, Adam I will!” she was scooped up in a tight hug, tears streaming down her face but surprisingly she felt empty.
“I love you Annie.”
“ONE! HAPPY NEW YEARS!!”
“ONE!! HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!” the large mass of people screamed and shouted, amongst all this happiness Nick suddenly got a sick feeling in his stomach and sat down on the couch. He looked over at Brain and Leianne who were kissing and his stomach dropped even more, Howie walked over with his date, “HAPPY NEW YEARS NICK!”
Nick forced a smile, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he grinned putting his strange feelings aside and went back to partying.
The Next Day…
After falling asleep sometime during the early morning hours Nick woke up around 1 in the afternoon, halfway falling off the kitchen chair. After coming to realize where he was and what was going on he got up and shook himself off, the house was a disaster area and stepped over litter and debris from last night’s “events”. He searched around trying to find Aj but instead saw Howie cleaning off one of the coffee tables.
“Hey man.” Nick greeted
Howie sighed but then smiled good naturedly, “You finally up?”
Nick scratched the back of his head, “Yeah…what are you doing here?”
“Well, Aj was drunk out of his mind and I couldn’t just leave him…”
“Where is he?”
“Well after I convinced him that the couch wasn’t real I put him in bed. Man is he gunna feel it when he wakes up!”
“You’re a good man, Howie.” Nick laughed and then glanced at his watch, “Aww man sorry I’d stay and help but I got to get home.”
Howie rolled his eyes, “Sure, you just want to get out of cleaning.”
“No, I want to spend some time with my family before I leave for New York.”
“You’re going to New York.”
Nick grabbed his jacket from the closet, “Yup, I’m gunna go get Anastasia.”
Howie smiled, “Good luck.”
“Thanks.” With that Nick left.
Anastasia walked into the office of the head-wedding planner who was talking on the phone and motioned for her to sit down. After waiting a moment the lady got off the phone and introduced herself, “Hello, dear. I’m Mrs. Connolly, but you can call me Meghan. Now, is your fiancée here?”
“No, I’m afraid he couldn’t make it…”
“Typical man! Well this is a woman’s place anyways, when do you think you’d like the wedding?”
“We were thinking sometime next May.”
“Ahhh yes, well I can recommend two of my best planners.” She pressed a button and called to her secretary, “Alyssa, please send in Melissa and Justine.”
Within moments two ladies walked through the doors and smiled, after the standard introductions they all sat down and began to discuss the wedding for about a half hour.
“Why don’t we 3 get together tomorrow to talk about the theme of the wedding and who will be in your party.” Melissa suggested after realizing what time it was
“You can come over to my place tomorrow, say around one?”
The others agreed and Anastasia left to call Adam about what she had just talked about.
Nick rushed home and flew up to his room to start packing his mother who had been washing dished at the time when Nick arrived home peered into the room with curiosity, “Fine, don’t even say ‘hi’ to your mother. And where are you off to?”
“Oh mom, sorry.” He walked over to give his mother a hug, “Happy New Years.” But then turned back to his closet and grabbed a shirt.
“Well?” his mother arched an eyebrow
“Well what?” Nick didn’t look up from his suitcase
“Well where are you going? I am your mother, I should be informed.”
“New York.” He said stuffing his case closed
“New York? Well…why?”
“To celebrate!”
His mother confused gave him a puzzled look
“I broke up with Mandy!”
His mother grinned, “Really!” she clapped her hands together, “Well that’s great! I mean…I’m so sorry.”
“No, mom, you were so right. We were horrible for each other. I finally know who I want, I mean I’ve never felt like this before!”
“And it’s in New York.” She furrowed her brows in frustration still not putting two and two together.
“Mom!” Nick sighed good naturedly, “Anastasia lives there.”
His mother smiled and went over to her oldest son; reaching around him she gave him a hug, “Good for you.” She patted him slightly on the back but then stepped away, “I knew you liked her.”
Nick blushed slightly, “I have a flight out tomorrow morning.”
“Good, go get her! And whatever you do don’t let her say no! You two are perfect.”