Chapter
7
Heavy metal music poured from the
house literally rocking the foundation. AJ pounded on the door,
struggling to yell over the music, “Nick please. We need to talk!”
If possible the music became louder.
Brian, Howie, and Kevin stood back holding their hands over their ears.
Nick had no neighbors to worry about, so he felt free to play his music
as loud as he wanted. It was so loud Howie had expected the windows too
shatter at its pure intensity. The music stopped suddenly, mid-screech, and the
front door swung open. Nick stood there fully dressed with a pair of
sunglasses over his eyes, “What now?”
The four Boys outside all made eye
contact with one another and nodded.
Nick frowned at the quietness, until
he realized that they were charging at him. Kevin grabbed him by the
arms, and Brian and AJ each grabbed one of his legs. He yelped knowing
what they were going to do. All at once he felt his feet leaving the
ground. He kicked and screamed, but couldn’t fight them off as he was
carried to AJ’s Prowler.
Once he was safely secured inside with
a safety belt and Howie and Kevin’s arms, AJ slipped into the driver’s seat and
put the car in gear.
“This isn’t fair…” Nick was whining,
“Let me out. I don’t feel well, I wanna stay home!”
“You can stop it with that Kaos, we’re
not taking you back just yet, so don’t waste your breath,” Kevin said.
AJ chuckled from the front seat, “You
know, you could have avoided this if you had just let us in yesterday.”
Nick gave AJ the finger, and slumped
in his seat. He turned his face towards the window.
“So… “Howie tried to make
conversation, “Where we going Aje?”
“To the place where they make the best
pizza in Orlando, and have the best arcade too,” Brian answered for AJ,
trying to sound exciting, he glanced back to catch Nick’s eye.
Nick frowned and slumped lower in the
seat.
“Then afterwards, we can all get ice
cream,” Brian finished softly, “You know, it’ll be like the old days, when we
used to hang out together.”
“That sounds like fun Bri,” Howie said
lightly gently reaching over to touch Nick’s shoulder, “Sound cool to you
Nick?”
“Whatever,” was the reply. The
rest of the trip went on like that. Them talking to Nick, and Nick
blowing them off.
“This is it,” AJ said parking the car
in the lot. They had gotten there kind of early, so not many people were there.
They all got out of the car, in desperate need to stretch their legs
after the long drive.
“Alright Nick, when we get in there, I
am going to kick your butt at Nascar Racing,” Brian smiled brightly and tugged
Nick’s arm.
Nick’s jaw trembled, and he turned
away, facing the car, “You guys can’t pretend like it never happened!” he
shouted, he leaned against the warm exterior of the vehicle, “I won’t!”
“Nick…” Howie began. Finally, he
was going to talk to them.
“No, don’t ‘Nick’ me! You treated the
group like garbage, you treated everyone like garbage that you throw away!
Now all of a sudden you guys go digging through the trashcan and think,
hey, didn’t mean to crumple this up and throw it away yet. You think you
can just iron out the wrinkles like that? Everyone gave up on this group,
but me… And right when I’m gonna throw in the towel, when I think it’s not
worth it anymore, you guys show up. Do you guys think you can erase my
memories of how easy you guys can kick this group to the curb when something
comes up? Huh? You think we can just start over, from scratch. You think
you can buy my forgiveness? You think I’m that petty?” He had
turned around to scream at them, his face was flushed with his anger and hurt.
His fists were clenched at his sides, “Well you gotta learn, little Nicky
ain’t so easy to deal with ok? I don’t want any of your bull crap about
how you’ve worked out your differences…”
“Nick!” Howie tried to interrupt him,
“We don’t think that we can buy you with…”
“Then why are we here, Howie?”
“To have a little fun Nick. It’s what
we’ve all been missing. We just wanted to spend some time together,”
Kevin said in a quiet voice, he rubbed at his stinging eyes, “We know we’ve
neglected the group, and neglected you. We’re sorry. We understand
what we’ve done, and are trying to make amends, Nick. We don’t think this
will be easy at all, and no this group is not anything any of us would dream of
putting in the garbage. If it was, do you think we’d all be
here, well do ya?” Kevin was almost yelling at Nick, who cringed.
“Kevin, ease up,” Brian warned, but
before Kevin could, Nick answered him, “No.”
“No… That’s right,” Kevin said more
softly, subdued, “Nick, our lives went off the wall for a while there, and
we’re trying to get back on track. We know what’s important now, and we
wanted to share that with you…”
“But what about later down the road,
Brian’s gonna get married, you may get married… then what? Does the group
go back in the trash again?” Nick asked quietly, his last sentence no louder
than a whisper.
Brian shook his head, “Never.
This group is the best thing that ever happened to me, and I
will never put it, or you, on the backburner again, Frack. Ok, is that ok
for you?” Brian asked, a few tears stained his face. Nick looked up at
him with matching stains. He stood still for a while, calculating them.
It looked like a face off. The four of them, Brian, Kevin, Howie,
and AJ, standing together, and Nick standing alone. He dropped his head
for a few moments, unable to meet their intense eyes on him. “It’s ok.”
He said in little more than an undertone. He made no move toward them,
but no move away from them either. Slowly Brian moved forward followed by
the others and wrapped his arms around him, they all did. And this time,
Nick returned the hug, and was reluctant to step out of the embrace.
He wiped his eyes one last time and
looked at each one of them in turn, his eyes lingered on Brian, “Ready for me
to kick your ass Littrell.” He nodded toward the game room.
Brian caught his nod, and laughed,
“Yeah… I guess I’ll let you win a few times.”
“Let me win, Littrell, you’re full
of…” the banter trailed off as the two headed towards the entrance of the Pizza
And More, leaving Kevin, Howie, and AJ to stare after them.
“Frick and Frack… together again,”
Howie shook his head, “Why do I get the feeling we’ll regret this?”
“Because two weeks from now, we’ll be
on tour and finding plastic vomit in our sleeping bags,” Kevin guffawed,
“Come on, guys. I’ll… I’ll race ya to the door!”
***
