Chapter 13
Nick glanced back to wave at Olivia again, only to find that the
tube was empty.
“Shit,” he cursed, slowing down and turning off the motor. He got to the back of the boat and looked
around. Where was she?
His eyes panned across the water, and suddenly, he spotted her
bright green life jacket. “Liv!” he shouted.
His eyes narrowed as he watched her.
Something was wrong.
She was slumped into the water, her head hanging down. The only thing keeping her afloat was the
life jacket. He could see her arms
floating out beside her, making no attempt to paddle.
“Olivia!” he cried again, his voice rising in panic. What had happened?
She was a ways back in the water, so he started up the boat again
and slowly turned around and came back for her. Then he raced back to the back of the boat
and leaped off the end, swimming as fast as he could towards her limp form.
“Olivia?” he asked, pulling her close to him and giving her a
gentle shake. She didn’t move, only
continued to bob up and down with the waves.
“Don’t worry, I got you,” he murmured, panicked, as he began to
swim back to his boat, dragging her along with him.
He hoisted her up onto the back of the boat and then climbed up
himself. He spread Olivia flat on the
deck and, with shaking fingers, unzipped her wet life jacket.
Was she breathing? Nick
bent closer to her, and to his relief, he could hear her taking ragged
breaths.
“Come on, Liv, wake up,” he urged,
patting her cheeks, trying to revive her.
He wasn’t sure what had happened.
Had her head hit the water too hard when she fell and knocked her out? Or had she simply fainted?
Whatever it was, he didn’t have to worry about it too much longer,
for at that moment, Olivia’s beautiful blue eyes opened.
“Liv,” Nick cried in relief. “Are you okay?”
She struggled to pull herself into a sitting position, and Nick
quickly put his hand behind her back to support her, watching her in
concern. “You all right?” he asked
again.
“Yeah,” she murmured finally, reaching up with one hand to massage
one of her temples.
“What happened? Did you hit
your head?” he asked.
“No… I think I passed out,” she admitted, looking royally
embarrassed.
“Really? Well, are you
gonna be okay? Should we head back?”
Nick asked.
“No, no, I’ll be fine,” she insisted quickly. “I just get these headaches every once in
awhile, you see. I had one this morning,
and it went away for awhile, but it came back all of a sudden right as I was on
that tube.
“Are they migraines?” he asked sympathetically.
“Yeah, they are,” she replied, purposely looking away. Her headaches were not migraines at all, and
she knew it. But Nick didn’t have
to. Not yet anyway. Not when they had such a good thing
going. It would ruin everything if he
knew the real story. And that was the
last thing Olivia wanted. But
eventually, she realized, the truth would come out.
***
By eleven, Olivia’s headache had worn off, and she felt much
better. Nick had stopped the boat, and
the two of them lay sunbathing on the back deck area.
“You look like you’re getting sunburned,” Nick commented, noticing
Olivia’s pink cheeks. “Do you have
sunscreen on?”
“I put some on this morning, but it’s probably worn off by now,”
she replied.
“I’ve got some,” he said, getting up to get a bottle of
Sunblock. “Here, sit up.”
Olivia sat up, and Nick crawled around behind her. He squirted some sunscreen onto his hands
and gently massaged it all over her back.
“Ooh, it’s cold,” Olivia giggled, the hairs on her neck standing
up. A little shiver ran through her,
but she wasn’t sure if it was from the sunscreen or Nick’s touch.
“Thank you,” she said, when he was done.
“My pleasure,” he replied, stretching out on his back.
Olivia glanced at him, at his long, tanned body, his sun-bleached
blonde hair. There was no denying how
good-looking he was. The boy was hot. And even better, he was nice too. He seemed practically perfect, too good to
be true.
But Olivia knew he wasn’t perfect, and so did he. There was something inside him that had
forced him to do what he had done, the night she first “met” him. But what was it? What could have pushed him to try and take
his life?
It was a question that had haunted her for weeks, ever since it
had happened. And now that she knew him
better, it puzzled her even more. Nick
was such a good-natured, fun-loving guy; at least, it seemed that way. She hadn’t any idea why someone that had
everything – good looks, a great personality, an awesome job, lots of money,
and his pick of nearly any girl in the world – would attempt suicide.
“Why did you do it?” she asked suddenly, unable to keep the
question to herself any longer.
“Huh?” Nick took off his
sunglasses and rolled over to face her.
“Why did I do what?”
“Why did you try to ki-… well, you
know.”
Nick glanced away and sighed heavily. “You sound like my shrink.”
“I’m sorry. I was just
wondering. You know, most people look at
a guy like you and think, Wow, he’s got everything. But that’s not true, is it?”
Nick pursed his lips together tightly. “I dunno.
You’ll probably think I’m selfish.
Those people are probably right.
I’m rich and famous… what else could I possibly want?”
“Well, there must be something.
Otherwise, why would you do that?
What would make you think that life wasn’t worth living anymore?” Olivia
pushed.
He frowned. “You don’t
understand.”
“You’re right. I
don’t. But if you’d just tell me why,
then I would.”
He sighed. And then he
opened up to her. “I dunno, it was just
everything. We’d just gotten done with
the tour, and I came home, and I just felt… depressed. I’m not even really sure why. It wasn’t just one thing. It was lots of things. I felt so alone. I broke up with my girlfriend last year, and
I haven’t really dated much since. I
missed having a relationship, and having a girl to come home to, someone to
talk to. And then there are all the
jokes and all the rumors that have been bothering me for years.”
“What jokes?” Olivia asked.
“About my weight. That I’m
too fat. And about Mandy, my ex. That she beat me up and kidnapped my dogs and
spent all my money, like I was some kind of weak, gullible idiot for ever going
out with her. I mean, yeah, I made a
mistake by dating her, but it wasn’t like all that at all. But that doesn’t stop all the jokes. People think I’m stupid. They say our group has no talent, that we
just lip sync, that we can’t write our own material. They say that we were manufactured, like
we’re some kind of dolls, not five different people with five different
personalities. And they say that we’re
not going to last much longer, that all our fans will grow up and move on, and
that pop music is going to die out.
People are vicious, you know that?”
Olivia watched Nick intently, her heart going out to him. He had so much built up inside of him, and
he had obviously never let it out to anyone before.
“I know,” she said softly, reaching out and gently touching his
shoulder. “And I know this is hard, but
you just have to ignore people. You’re
not fat or stupid, and you are talented. Extremely talented. And your fans aren’t just going to betray
you. You have fans of all ages. They’ll always be there for you. The critics just like to be difficult.”
“Yeah,” he said dully.
“And, you know, it’s not like you’ll never get into another
relationship. You’ll find someone
someday, the girl that’s just perfect for you, and you’ll fall in love. But sometimes you have to wait for
that. You can’t just force yourself to
be attracted to someone. It just
happens.”
Nick nodded, looking deeply into her eyes. “You sound like an expert on this stuff.”
Olivia laughed slightly.
“Not really,” she admitted. “I’ve
never been in love before.”
“Neither have I, really.
Not true love, anyway,” Nick replied.
“But don’t worry. Like you said,
it’ll happen someday. For both of us.”
Olivia smiled tightly and put her sunglasses on, so that Nick
wouldn’t see the sadness in her eyes.
***
