Slurring as he turned away from the blonde girl dancing in the cage in the middle of the dance floor he stated almost incoherently, “I don’t want to hear what you have to say. I told you and Bri earlier that I was going to have fun tonight.”

“I am Bri...look Nick, you are trashed. I think it is time we headed back to the hotel,” Brian said, grabbing Nick’s arm and trying to pull him from the table they occupied.

Jerking his arm away from his friend, Nick yelled, “Fuck off Brian...you need to loosen up, have a little fun. Being Mr. Perfect all the time can’t be that great. Why don’t you dump Leigh off at the hotel and lets go wherever those ladies in the cage are going.”

Shocked by his friend’s request, Brian looked toward the bar, seeing Leighanne, Kevin and Howie getting another round of drinks. Then, he looked towards the cage and saw the two girls Nick was talking about. One of them bore a striking resemblense to Britt. He knew where this was going, the same place Nick had taken it before when he was hurt by or missing Britt. He looked at the girls a final time and then looked over at his friend, who was now standing up and grinding his hips as he stared at the blonde girl in the cage. “No, I think that we need to get back.”

Nick saw the girl coming towards him, he took the steps down to her, almost falling in the process. Brian couldn’t really see what was going on, but their body language spoke volumes. Nick grabbed her hand and approached Brian. By this time, the others had gathered around them. “Alright choir boy, you wanna go...then lets go.”

The others stared at him appauled, “What are you doing Nick?” Kristin asked confused.

They had all seen this before. The situation varied but they were all the same. Nick gets upset because of something Britt has done or because he misses her, then he goes out, gets loaded and finds the girl that looks the most like her and takes her back to the hotel. This had happened more times than they could count, more times than Britt could ever imagine. Yet none of them had the guts to tell her or to stop him.

“Brian said he wanted to get back to the hotel...and I am getting back,” Nick replied defensively.

AJ, never one to put a stop to Nick’s infidelity, spoke up, “Come on man, say good bye to Blondie here and lets get out of here, don’t do something stupid again.”

“Now there’s a good one, don’t give me that shit AJ...we can go, but she - wait a second, what’s your name?” Nick asked as his grip around the blonde tightened.

“Rachel,” she answered simply as she began running her fingers seductively over his chest.

“RACHEL,” he stressed, “will be going with me.”

Stepping in, Leighanne was on the verge of tears, “how can you do this to Britt?”

“Who’s Britt?” Rachel asked curiously as she continued to grope Nick.

“Don’t worry about Britt, she’s just a girl I used to know,” Nick replied as he wrapped his arms around her even tighter and headed for the door. Leaving his friends behind, with their jaws hanging open in shock.