Chapter 20
Two weeks later
Two weeks had passed, and Olivia had settled into her new
schedule, which seemed to revolve around the radiation treatments she had to go
to every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Her parents had gone home the week before, leaving her alone
again. Although it was a little lonely
being in her house all by herself, it was a relief. She loved her parents, but by the end of a
week of them hovering over her, she was ready for them to leave.
Meanwhile, Nick had told her that he would be leaving the next
week to go on tour with the Backstreet Boys.
He had sounded happy to go back on the road, after being at home the
whole summer, and she had been happy for him, but a little disappointed as
well. She knew she would be even more
lonely once he was gone.
That summer, she and Nick had bonded more than she would have ever
thought. In only a matter of weeks,
they had become great friends. Olivia
felt like Nick understood her in ways her friends in Iowa couldn’t. She considered him to be one of her best
friends, even though she had only known him a couple of months.
And Nick felt the same.
Olivia was a great friend to him and just a great girl. Lately, he and she had been meeting on the
beach just about every night to talk.
He had poured out his heart to her, revealing things he had never told
even Brian, who was his best friend. He
knew that when he went on tour, he would miss her. A lot.
***
“Olivia?” Nick asked one
night, looking down at Olivia, who was lying on the sand on the beach, her head
resting in his lap.
“Yeah?” she responded.
“I’ve got something I want to ask you.”
“What is it?”
“Well, I was wondering… do you want to come on tour with us?”
Olivia sat up suddenly, raising an eyebrow at him. “Really?
You mean that?”
“’Course,” he replied.
“I’d like you to come. That is,
if you want to. You don’t have to or
anything. It was just a thought. I just-“
Olivia giggled. “You’re
babbling, Nick,” she said. “You know I
would love to…”
“But?” Nick asked. He just
knew there was a “but” coming up.
She sighed and smiled glumly.
“But I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“My radiation treatments. I
still have them for another month.
There’s no way I could go on tour with you now,” she said.
“Oh. Well, how about after
they’re all done?” he asked hopefully.
“Well… I guess I could manage that,” she replied, smiling.
He smiled back.
“Okay. Well, I guess we’ll just
have to rely on the phone and internet in the meantime. I’ll give you my cell phone number, and I’ve
got a laptop, so I’ll give you my email address, and we can email each other.”
“Okay, cool,” she said.
“And it’ll only be for a month.
Then we can hang out every day again.”
“Yup,” he said. “I can’t
wait.”
She smiled. “Me neither.”
***
Four days later
“You take care of yourself, okay, Liv?”
Nick and Olivia stood in Nick’s driveway. He was getting ready to leave to drive to
Orlando for a couple days of rehearsals before the kick-off of the second leg
of their current tour. This would be
the last time they would see each other until Olivia was due to come along with
the tour in three weeks.
Olivia smiled. “I
will. And you do the same, Carter.”
Nick grinned and pulled her into a hug. “I’ll miss ya.”
“Me too. But don’t worry,
I’ve got your cell number, and I’ll call you.
Probably more often then you’d like.
I bet you’ll be so annoyed by me that in a few weeks, you won’t even
want me on tour.”
Nick chuckled. “Probably,”
he agreed, but he knew that there was no way he could get sick of Olivia. She was definitely one in a million.
“Well, you’d better hit the road.
You’re already running late, and I don’t want you to be late for your
rehearsal,” Olivia said hesitantly, not really wanting him to leave.
“Yeah,” Nick said absently.
He made no effort to move.
“Nick?” Olivia asked after a moment, a faint smile crossing her
lips.
With a quick, smooth motion, Nick bent down and pressed his lips
to hers. Before Olivia could even
comprehend what was going on, the kiss had ended, and Nick had pulled
away. She stared at him in
surprise. He just offered her a
slightly embarrassed smile and got into his car.
“I’ll see ya, Liv,” he said, starting
the engine.
“See ya,” she managed to echo, still stunned. And before she could say anything else, he
was backing out of the driveway and disappearing down the street.
***
