Chapter 12
That night, Nick
decided to take a nice, long bath. As he
removed his clothes in the bathroom, he moaned in pain. His body felt achy everywhere, the mixed
result of the tour and the fight with Justin Timberlake, which he was still
bruised from. He slipped on his bathrobe
and turned on the water in his big Jacuzzi-style tub, anxious to slide into the
hot water and relax his muscles.
His robe felt
unusually loose on him, and while the tub filled, he took notice of his scale,
which lay neglected in the corner. He
was sure he had lost weight during the tour; night after night of jumping
around on stage would do that to a person.
Curious to find out exactly how much, he shed his robe and climbed onto
the scale. When the digital red numbers
appeared, revealing his weight, he gasped aloud in shock and delight. He had lost twenty-five pounds! No wonder his pants had been so baggy on him
lately… they must have been at least a size or two too big. How had that happened? Though he always lost weight when he was
touring, he had never lost twenty-five pounds in a month before.
Guess I must
be doing something
right, he thought with a grin, turning off the water. As he climbed into the tub, he banged his
shin on the rim. Cursing loudly, he fell
into the tub with a splash and sat gripping his leg and rocking back and forth,
while pain coursed through it. He was
such a klutz lately.
When the pain
subsided, Nick sank back in the water, letting out a heavenly sigh. This was the life. He would have been content to stay in that tub
all night, just relaxing and trying to take his mind off of Leah. But eventually, he grew bored and climbed
out. Wrapping himself in his bathrobe,
he perched on the edge of the tub and watched the water drain from it.
When the tub was
empty, he hoisted himself up.
Immediately, pain shot through his left shin, right where he had banged
it on the tub. Gasping in agony, he fell
back onto the tub ledge, grabbing his leg yet again.
“Man, I must have
really nailed myself,” he moaned, gingerly rubbing his shin. It ached under his fingertips, and he knew he
would soon have an angry bruise forming there.
But how could it possibly hurt that much when he stood on it? A bruise wouldn’t cause that, would it?
He decided to
stand up again, to test it. He was met
with the same result – total pain.
“Lovely,” he muttered, massaging his shin. How was he supposed to get out of the
bathroom if he couldn’t even put weight on his left leg? He sat there for a few minutes, considering
his predicament. Finally, he decided to
just crawl out. Feeling incredibly
stupid and glad that he lived alone, he lowered himself to his knees, grunting
in discomfort, and took off crawling slowly across the cold, tiled floor. His left knee protested the movement, but it
hurt a lot less than trying to walk, so he gritted his teeth and bore it,
continuing on across the floor. He
crawled all the way into his bedroom, across the plush carpet (which felt much
better on his knees), and to his bed.
There, he pulled himself up and onto the bed, where he collapsed,
panting.
He was still
wearing only his robe, which was now damp from his skin. But he didn’t have the energy to get up and
find a pair of boxers to sleep in.
Exhausted, he stretched out and closed his eyes, assuring himself that
everything would be better in the morning.
***
When morning came, things were indeed better. After awakening and remembering the previous
night’s events, Nick took a deep breath, swung his legs over the side of the
bed, and slowly stood up. His leg
panged, but did not give out, and though it hurt, the pain was less than it had
been the night before, and he could walk on the leg. Relieved, he limped around the room a few
times, then came back to rest on his bed.
Propping his leg up in front of him, he pulled back the terrycloth
material of his robe and examined his shin.
Indeed, there was an angry bruise running across it, right where he had
banged it on the tub. Not only that, but
his whole leg looked larger than the other one.
Yes, it was definitely swollen.
He had really gotten himself.
Running his fingers across the tender skin, he winced, shrugged, and
swung his leg back over the side of the bed.
Standing back up, he walked across the room to his closet.
When he was dressed, he decided to try to get downstairs for some
breakfast. He took the stairs slowly,
clinging to the banister as he hobbled down.
Eventually, he made it to the kitchen.
As he limped around, rounding up a box of cereal and carton of milk, the
phone rang. Cursing under his breath,
Nick left his breakfast on the counter and made it to the phone.
“Hello,” he panted, grabbing the phone and immediately sinking
down into the nearest chair, his leg throbbing.
“Hey, Nick? It’s Bri. Are you okay?”
Nick chuckled at Brian’s apparent concern. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he said sheepishly. “I just… uh… hurt my leg yesterday, and it’s
a bit hard to get around right now.”
“Hurt your leg? What’d you
do?” Brian sounded even more worried
now.
“Nothing serious. It’s
okay, just bruised,” Nick said quickly, hoping Brian wouldn’t ask how it had
happened. It was a little embarrassing
to admit being in this much pain after knocking himself on a bathtub.
“Oh… okay. So, how’s it
going, other than that? You got home
yesterday, right?”
“Yup. And everything’s
going fine.”
“That’s good. So the tour
wrapped up okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool. And how’s your new
girlfriend? Leah?”
“Oh… uh…” Nick thought
quickly, wondering what to say. He
settled on a lie, telling Brian, “She’s… uh… she’s doing good.”
Unfortunately, Brian knew him far too well. “Really.
Are you sure?” he asked, his voice tinged with skepticism.
“Well… actually… no… we kinda broke up,” Nick admitted.
“Aw… sorry, dude. What
happened?”
“Long story.”
“Oh. I see. Well, if you ever wanna talk about it… you
know I’m here.”
“Yeah.” Like you’d
understand. “Thanks, Bri.”
“No problem.” A silence
fell between them, broken only by Brian’s question, “So… what are your plans
for the rest of the week?”
“Don’t got any.”
“Oh… you know, you should come up to Atlanta sometime soon. I haven’t seen you in forever.”
“Well, you’re coming down here in a few weeks to work on the
album. I’ll see you then,” said Nick.
“Well, I know… but you haven’t seen Leigh or Baylee either.”
Leigh and Baylee… of course he had to bring them up. Couldn’t have a conversation without them
these days. Nick felt very selfish, but
he couldn’t deny the truth – in some weird, crazy way, he was jealous of
Brian’s family. He liked Leighanne, and
you couldn’t help but adore Baylee, but still… they took up so much of Brian’s
time, and when Brian was not with them, they took up all his thoughts. Nick knew this was the way it should be, but
he couldn’t help but feel slightly betrayed by the man who had once been his
best friend.
He still is your best friend, Nick told himself angrily.
Stop being such an asshole.
“Nick? You there?”
“Yeah,” Nick said quickly.
“Sorry. What were you saying?”
“I was saying that you should try to come to Atlanta soon and see
us all.” Brian sounded slightly annoyed
at having to repeat this.
“Oh. Right. I’d love to,” Nick replied quickly.
“Really?”
“Definitely. When?”
“Whenever you want… what about next weekend?”
“Next weekend?” Nick went
over his schedule in his head, but he was only kidding himself. He had no plans, and he knew it. “Yeah, Brian, next weekend sounds good.”
“Great. Will you drive up
or fly?”
“Um…” Nick groaned
inwardly. The thought of driving hours
and hours to Atlanta was not appealing, but God, he hated flying with a
passion. “I’ll probably fly. I’ll call the airport later and see about
getting a ticket.”
“Okay, cool. Leighanne will
be glad; I told her I was going to ask you to come stay. Just wait till you see Baylee; he’s grown so
much since the last time you saw him.”
“Yeah, that’s what you said,” said Nick. “Can’t wait to see him.”
“Hey, speaking of Baylee… I had a question for ya, Nick.”
“Oh yeah? What?”
“Well, Leigh and I have been thinking… we want Baylee to have a godfather. And we thought… well, if you want to, that
is… Nick, how would you like to be Baylee’s godfather?”
“Godfather?” Nick asked in surprise. “Me??”
“You’re my best friend, Nick.
I want you to be a part of my son’s life.”
Nick couldn’t help but feel flattered at this. Grinning, he said, “Aw, sure, Rok. I’d love to be his godfather.”
“Thanks, Nick. That means a
lot to me and Leigh.”
“No problem, dude. It’s an
honor.”
“Well, I’d better let you go now,” said Brian. “Call me later when you get your flight
arrangements, okay?”
“All right. Later, Frick.”
“Bye, Frack.”
***