Chapter 10
Nick awoke for
the second time that evening to discover that it was no longer evening at all,
but early morning. According to the
clock on the bedside table, it was after two.
Realizing he had not heard from Leah in hours, Nick got up, wondering if
she was back yet. Smoothing out his
rumbled clothes, he left his room, padded down the hall, and stopped outside
Leah’s door. A “do not disturb” sign
hung on her knob, but he knocked anyway.
Leah was a night owl; he doubted she was asleep yet.
No one answered,
and, figuring she had fallen asleep after all, Nick started to walk away. Then the door clicked open behind him. He turned around to find Leah in the doorway.
“Hey, Leah,” he
said, going back up to her door.
“Oh! Nick!”
She looked surprised to see him and quickly stepped out of the
room. The door clicked shut behind her,
but she didn’t seem to notice. “What are
you doing here?”
“Oh, I just came
to see if you were back yet,” Nick said.
“Were you sleeping?”
“Um… no… no, I
was just watching TV in bed,” she said quickly, shifting her weight from foot
to foot.
“Oh… cool. Look, I just wanted to apologize for
earlier. I actually came by your room
this evening to see if you wanted to go out, but you were already gone. I’m sorry.”
“Oh, that’s
okay.”
He narrowed his
eyes at her. She was acting awfully
strange… “Is everything okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah,
everything’s great. I… um… should
probably go back inside my room now.”
“Why?”
She gave him a
funny look. “Cause I’m tired, and I’m
going to go to bed,” she said briskly.
“Why do you have to ask so many questions?”
“Sorry,” Nick
said irritably. “I’ll leave you alone
then. Goodnight.”
Leah turned
quickly and reached for the doorknob.
But, of course, being a hotel room, the door was locked. And judging by the look that came over her
face, Nick realized she didn’t have her room key with her.
“Locked out?” he
asked with a chuckle.
She glared at him,
her face turning bright red. “Damn it,”
she cursed, trying the knob again, as if it would magically be unlocked this
time.
“Just run down to
the lobby; they’ll give you a spare key,” Nick advised her. “Don’t worry, it happens to everybody.”
“Yeah…” she
murmured. “Yeah, I’ll just go dow-“
But her words
were interrupted by a click, as her door suddenly swung open. Nick’s mouth dropped open in surprise and
then shock, as it suddenly dawned on him that someone had opened the door from
the inside. There was someone in Leah’s
room! He looked at Leah to find that the
blood had drained from her face. She was
staring at him, her expression a mix of shock and guilt. And that’s when he knew…
Before Leah had a
chance to react, he pushed past her and shoved the door open all the way. And there, standing just inside Leah’s room,
was another man. And not just any
man. Dressed only in boxers, his hand on
the doorknob, his curly hair plastered to his forehead, there stood Nick’s
archrival, Justin Timberlake, his face ashen with shock.
The two men
seemed to realize exactly what was going on at the same time.
“Nick? Wait… you mean, Leah is… Leah’s your
girlfriend?” Justin stammered, quailing under Nick’s accusing glare.
“You slept with
her! You slept with her, didn’t you, you
asshole?!” Nick cried, outraged. He
could feel the color creeping up his neck and the blood pulsating through his
veins.
“I didn’t know!”
Justin protested, holding up his hands in defense. “I didn’t know she was your gir-“
He didn’t have a
chance to get the rest of his words out.
Violently blinded by rage, Nick raised his fist and punched Justin as
hard as he could, right in the middle of his sputtering face. Justin cried out in pain, blood spurting from
his nose. But he was not too injured to
retaliate; the next moment had him charging at Nick, his hands
outstretched. He collided into Nick,
shoving him backward with extreme force.
Grunting, Nick stumbled backwards and hit the wall of the hall, his head
banging hard against the plaster. He
clawed at Justin’s face and shoved him back, sending Justin flying backwards to
the ground. Nick pounced on him, and
they wrestled on the floor, punching and ripping at each other while Leah
screamed for them to stop.
Nick wasn’t sure
how long the fight actually lasted, but suddenly he was aware of a strong pair
of hands grabbing him, yanking him away from Justin. Craning his neck, he found that it was
Joe. Another member of the security team
had his hands on Justin and was restraining him from Nick. Leah was backed up against the wall, wringing
her hands and in tears.
“Come on, Nick,”
Joe said loudly and firmly into Nick’s ear.
“Come on, back to your room before someone else finds out about
this.” Nick heard the words, but he was
too angry to comprehend them. Holding
him tightly, Joe dragged him back to his room and practically threw him inside,
shutting the door tightly behind him.
“What the hell
happened out there?” he demanded, pushing Nick down on his bed.
“That… that son
of a bitch! He slept with Leah!” Nick
cried.
“He did? I’m sorry, Nick,” Joe said. “Let it go though, man. She ain’t worth your time if she’s gonna
cheat on you like that, and he ain’t worth ruining your reputation.”
“My
reputation? You sound like my mother,”
Nick said in disgust.
“Well, sorry, but
just think what would happen if the press find out you and Justin had a fist
fight. They’d have a hay day with
it! You don’t want that, do you?”
“No,” Nick
muttered.
“Then be glad it
got broken up when it did. I don’t think
anyone else saw you, and if you don’t spill to the press, I doubt he will
either. Judging on how he looked, you
kicked his ass. I don’t think he’ll want
that to get out on MTV.”
Nick had to laugh
at that. “Really?” he asked
hopefully. “Did I hurt him that bad?”
“Well, you
bloodied his nose. Might’ve even broken
it. He was definitely bleeding more than
you.”
Nick had to smile
at that. He felt pretty achy himself and
knew Justin had gotten in a few good hits, but at least he wasn’t gushing
buckets. He just hoped he wasn’t going
to end up with a black eye or something.
People would be sure to ask how that had happened. Maybe he’d blame it all on Leah. After what Mandy did to him, people would
probably believe it. And Leah would
definitely deserve it, after what she had done.
He suddenly
realized that his worst fears had come true – he’d been screwed over by her again. She’d played with him, cheated on him, broken
his heart all over again. And the second
time hurt even worse than the first.
“That bitch,”
he spat angrily, shaking his head. Tears
rose in his eyes, and he quickly blinked them away, not wanting Joe to see what
a loser he was. How stupid could he have
been? Why hadn’t he seen it coming?
“You okay?” Joe
asked gently.
“Yeah,” Nick
muttered, refusing to look at him.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
But he
wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
***