Chapter
20
“It’s settled,” Kevin was rubbing his hands
together, “We’re taking him to my house.”
“Why your house?” Brian asked his
cousin, “How can you just settle something like that without saying anything to
any of us. Should we not care?” Brian was speaking in a very unpleasant
tone; that Kevin didn’t like too well.
“So what? You want him to go
stay with you and Leighanne. How would she feel about that when she
returns home? Have you even told her?”
“Have I had time?” Brian shot back.
“Guys, whoa,” Howie put two fingers in
his mouth and whistled, “Hey, calm down. Who cares which house Nick goes
to, as long as he’s somewhere we can take of him at. My house if full of
family, maybe it would do him good to see…”
Both Brian and Kevin were giving Howie
unreadable looks, “Kevin, your house is fine,” Brian said in a slow voice.
“Howie, did you see how Nick reacted
to his own family?” Kevin asked Howie, “We can’t scare him away, D.
He can’t be overwhelmed.”
AJ entered the room with BJ, “We can
go get him. Doc says it’s time.”
Howie, Kevin, and Brian glanced at
each other, and nodded.
“I hate my clothes,” Nick was
grumbling to himself as they entered the room and found him in front of a
mirror. He appeared to be studying himself intensely, so intensely he had
forgotten Leslie was in the room sitting on his bed watching him. Brian,
Howie, AJ, Kevin, and BJ stood silently, listening to his commentary on
himself.
“Nothing fits right,” He ran hands
through his hair, letting it fall in his eyes, “I hate everything….”
Brian blinked, Nick was tearing
himself apart, at this rate who needed the press?
“Ahem,” he cleared his throat to
alert him to their presence. Leslie turned to see them. Nick froze
in the mirror. He stared at himself, then stepped back to see the others
in the room standing in the doorway, “Ready to go?”
Brian nodded, “I see you found the bag
Kevin packed for you.”
Nick nodded, “Thanks…” he said flatly.
“How are you feeling?” asked Howie,
“Not too bad?”
Nick turned to face them, “I’m ok.
Where are we going?”
“My house,” Kevin said. He ventured
further into the room and lifted Nick’s bag.
AJ threw a glance at him, “His house?
Why? He never liked us to come to his house. We’re too messy
for him.”
“He wants to be in control naturally,”
Brian said through his teeth, “Yeah, Kev’s house for a little while, then you
can come to my house.”
Kevin glanced at him sharply before
smiling briefly and nodding. Nick didn’t miss one motion. He was
very observant, “You were fighting over this? Over me?”
Brian and Kevin looked ashamed, “Why?”
Both looked surprised at Nick’s
question, “Why? Because we love you and want you to be in the best place
possible. My house is big and clean and…”
“I knew it!” AJ butted in, “I knew it!
You wanted to be in your own house cause it’s clean and you think the rest of
us are dirty pigs!”
“I never added the dirty part in front
of the pigs now,” Kevin countered. This made Brian and Howie smile, and
made AJ give a little laugh.
BJ was ushering Nick away from his
pale reflection and leading him towards the door. Leslie followed.
The four remaining Boys looked at each
other, “Guys, I know this is gonna sound cheesy. In fact it is cheesy, but we
have to make a pact,” Howie said seriously. Brian and AJ snickered
furiously at Howie’s summer camp vocabulary, “I’m serious. No more
fighting over Nick. If you haven’t noticed he’s become very perceptive.
We cannot let him get bad vibes from us.”
AJ and Brian had sobered and were now
nodding with gravity in their eyes. Kevin looked saddened, “Ok, so what’s
the pact? We agree no fighting about Nick?”
Brian jerked his head positively in a
hasty manner, “No more fighting.”
They all shook on it; then went to
join the three Carters in the lobby.
“And Nick, you’ll get this room,”
Kevin opened the door showing Nick to the guest room he had designated to
him. The room was done in royal blue with dark paneled furniture and a
queen-size bed in the middle. No mirrors, no bathroom, no TV… Nick
looked at Kevin, “Why this room?”
Kevin blinked, “You don’t like it?
Well we can find you another one, or maybe one of the girls could switch
with you.” Kevin was about to call to BJ and Leslie, who were settling down in
the rooms Kevin had given to them.
“No,” Nick said quickly, “It’s ok.
I was just wondering.” He entered the room and sat down
on the bed. He rested his head in his hands, and just sat there, shaking.
Kevin closed his eyes on a tear that wanted to get out, but he refused to
be a crybaby in front of Nick. He walked to the bed and sat beside Nick,
“I know this is hard, and it’s gonna get harder, but this time all of us
will be here together. You won’t have to do anything alone.”
Nick raised his head slightly, “Don’t
say things you won’t mean later…” He lie back on the bed, “Do you have any
painkillers?”
Kevin open his mouth, he had Tylenol,
but the doctor said not to give him that. He would have to go out and buy
Advil, or Aleve, or something, “You hurting?”
Nick closed his eyes, but nodded.
“We’ll get you something, but for
right now, how about we get something to eat, huh? That might make you
feel better too.”
“Not hungry,” Nick said emotionlessly,
“Go on without me.”
“Nick, you haven’t eaten anything
since yesterday, and even then you had your stomach…” he paused on his
words, “It’s time to eat Nick. You’re too thin.”
“Well that’s better than being
‘too fat’ wouldn’t you agree Kev? Oh no wait, you’ve never had the problem,”
Nick said bitterly, never opening his eyes, and never sitting up.
Kevin cringed, “You could have said en
guard, Nick, then I would have at least been ready for attack,” Kevin said
softly. He resisted the urge to pull Nick up into a sitting position to be sure
he was listening, “Nick you were never too fat for anything. You were
growing, and your body was still deciding what to do with itself.”
“Nobody ever saw it that way,” Nick
muttered.
“Yes they did. Why do you think
we teased you? If you were fat we wouldn’t play with you about it, that
would be mean,” Kevin spoke with a chuckle, “All you needed was a little muscle
tone, you would have been buff.”
Nick snorted, “Like you, huh?”
Kevin frowned, “Yeah. I was going
to start taking you with me to the gym, but…”
“But what?”
Kevin sighed, “Brian told me that
Leighanne wanted them to get married.”
“So?”
“Brian’s 25, Nick, he’s doing this
right. I’m 28, and still without that special someone in my
life that will make it all worth while.”
Nick was silent.
“I got depressed. Everybody
seemed to be happy with girlfriends and fiancés at that time, but me. You
had Mandy…”
“Mandy had Brent…” Nick added
conversationally.
“Mandy had… huh?” Kevin was jarred
from his train of thought. Nick’s eyes were open and he was concentrating on
Kevin with his crystal blues.
“Kevin… you guys are gonna listen to
me right?” Nick asked in a small voice.
“Yeah, Nicky,” Kevin said, “You wanna
talk? I can get the others.”
Nick was quiet, then he shook his
head, shutting his eyes back, “No.”
Kevin was taken aback, but Nick
continued, “Not today, but it’s nice to know that when I do, someone will be
listening.”
***
