Six Months Later
*AJ’s View*
The Backstreet Boys were on break, thank God. I was so tired, which people don’t believe happens to me. I just needed some rest, but first I had to get a good supply of food so I could hibernate at home. So there I am, in the canned goods aisle, trying to decide on Baked Beans or Chicken Noodle soup. “Hey… I could just get both.” I thought to myself, when out of the corner of my eye something flew past. “That blur looked like Mary.” I said aloud. So I followed where it went. I saw her at the checkout. “Shopping can wait.” I thought. I followed her from a safe distance out to the parking lot. I was wondering if she would see my expedition in the parking lot, but she didn’t look. I kept following her until she pulled up to a two-story beach house. “Rachel’s doing really well for herself.” I nodded in approval. I decided I had come this far I might as well go up to the door and say hi. So I walked up to the door and knocked like the polite gentleman I am.
“Yeah?” So’Cy answered the door without looking very closely. “Oh, my God.” She breathed heavily. Just then Rachel came down the stairs.
“Hey So’Cy… Do you think three tattoos is too much?” She called. I was really surprised to hear that come out of her mouth. She really had changed.
“Three?” I questioned aloud.
“AJ!” Rachel screamed when she saw me. She ran up to me and gave me a hug.
“Nice to see you too.” I smiled. I slowly returned her hug.
“Oh yeah. Do you want to come in?”
“Yeah. That would be great.”
“You’re… AJ.” So’Cy managed to say.
“Yes I am. Where’s Mary?”
“AJ?” I heard from behind me. I turned around to see a very happy Mary. She too ran and hugged me.
“Hey chick. How have you been?” I smiled. For some reason saying chick had rubbed off on me.
“Good good. How did you find us?”
“Just brushing up on my stalking skills. Did I hear right about three tattoos?” I returned my attention to Rachel.
“Well, I have two. I was thinking about getting another.” She smiled. God, how I missed that smile.
“Can I see?” Tattoos are a huge turn on for me.
“Sure.” She rolled up her sleeve and showed me her armband tattoo. “This is my most recent. I got it when Mary got her tongue pierced.” Then she lifted up her shirt to show me a unicorn on her back. I noticed something shining from her stomach.
“What’s that?”
“My belly ring.”
“God, girl. You’ve changed.” I was truly blown away.
“You mean in a good way or a bad way.”
“I mean in a different, intriguing way.” I shook my head trying to get the image out of my head that I was having at the time. Nothing to get into though. I remembered something else too. “Hey, Mary. Nick said he misses you.”
“He does?”
“Yeah. He says it all the time. He’s been in a bad mood for the past six months. Sometimes I just wanna smack him.” I thought about how he was acting like me missing Rachel. I bet Nicky likes Mary. Who knew?
“Really?” Mary seemed really interested. I can’t believe she must have feelings for him too. These two need to get together.
“Yeah.” I turned to see the quiet girl looking at me. “Who is this Rachel?” I asked.
“I’m So’Cy.” She said fully under her own power.
“Nice to meet you So’Cy.” I smiled. Finally I looked back at Rachel. “Do you gals want to go out and do something. Maybe we could stop by Nick’s place and see if he’ll join us.”
“Sounds like fun.” Rachel grinned. Oh yeah, she still likes me.
*Nick’s View*
“AJ sure is taking his dear sweet time getting back from the store… Probably stuck in the canned food aisle again.” I thought to myself. I heard a car pull up in the driveway. “Finally.” I opened the door because he had a lot of stuff to buy. I’m so nice. My jaw dropped when I saw Rachel and Mary step out of the car. There was another chick too, but I didn’t recognize her. I ran up to Mary and picked her up and spun her around.
“Nice to see you too Nick.” She smiled.
“Oh, I see how you are. You don’t see me for the longest time and I don’t get any lovin’? Grr… Nick. Grr… like that.” Rachel said sarcastically.
“Gee, Rach. I’m sorry.” I hung my head sheepishly. I went over and gave her a big hug. “Forgive me?”
“Hmm… this time, but don’t let it happen again.” She warned. Rachel and me used to always joke around like that. She changed a lot too. I saw she had a tattoo on her arm. And Mary. AJ told me about the tongue ring. I wasn’t too surprised, but actually seeing it was like… wow.
“Oh!” Mary blurted. “We didn’t introduce you to our friend So’Cy. So Nick this is So’Cy, So’Cy this is—“
“Nick, yeah I know.” She finished for Mary. I shook her hand. She was a small thing. Very skinny. I thought I could break her with my handshake.
“We came over here to see if you wanted to do something.” AJ said.
“Yeah, sounds like fun. What are we gonna do?” I asked to no one in particular.
“I have an idea.” Rachel said. Full of good ideas I guess. “We could go back to our place and jet ski.”
“Jet ski? Cool!” You see, I love the ocean. Jet skiing is a lot of fun. “You know D is down stairs. I could go get him.”
“Yes, that would be a good thing. You go do that,” So’Cy said.
So we took AJ’s vehicle out to Rachel’s house. Man that place is huge! “You didn’t go off and get a singing career did you, Rach?” I wondered.
“Now Nicky. If I had a singing career don’t you think you would have heard of me before now?”
“Uh… oh yeah. Good point.” I hate when my mind draws a blank like that. “So, take me to those jet skis!” I had to change the subject.
“Impatient much, Nicky?” Mary laughed. She took my hand and pulled me around to the back where the dock and two jet skis were. There was a really nice looking speedboat too. She went to a blue jet ski. “You can ride with me.” She said.
“Hey. No argument here.” I wasn’t gonna complain. I ain’t that stupid!