Chapter 23
“Hello, Mrs. Thompson?” Brian asked when someone answered.
“Yes, this is she.
Who’s speaking, please?” came the nurse’s voice.
“This is Brian Littrell,” Brian replied.
“Oh, hello, Mr. Littrell!” Mrs. Thompson greeted
warmly. “How are you?”
“Not too good, actually,” Brian said.
“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Mrs. Thompson said. “What’s wrong?”
“Well, I just came back from the store, and do you know
what I saw there?” Brian did not wait for an answer. “Pictures of Nick in one of the
tabloids. Recent pictures, taken at my
house!”
“Oh my,” Mrs. Thompson gasped. “Who would do something like that?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” Brian replied, speaking
through clenched teeth.
“What? You’re not
suspecting me, are you?” the nurse cried, aghast.
“Tell me, who else could have done it?” Brian asked. “You’re the only one who comes to see
Nick. You’re the only one in his room
alone.”
“Mr. Littrell, I promise, I didn’t do it! I would never do such a thing!” Mrs.
Thompson protested.
“Then who would?” Brian asked.
There was a silence, and then Mrs. Thompson spoke
timidly. “Well, I don’t want to accuse
anyone, but what about that nurse that came while I was away? Alice Scott?”
It was then that it hit Brian. Alice had been there two weeks ago. Two weeks was the right amount of time to
get a roll of film developed and sent out to a tabloid. And if it had been Mrs. Thompson after all,
why would she wait so long to take the pictures? She could have done it weeks ago, when Nick
was even worse off than he was now. It
had to have been Alice.
“Oh, Mrs. Thompson,” Brian started shakily. “I think you’re right. I’m so sorry!”
“That’s okay, Mr. Littrell,” the nurse replied
forgivingly. “But are you really sure it
was her?”
“Almost positive,” Brian replied. “Like I said, no one else was here. The rest of the guys went home weeks ago, and
of course none of them would do something so awful. We haven’t had any other visitors since
Nick’s accident. That’s why I thought
it was you. But I had completely
forgotten about Alice.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mrs. Thompson said.
“What for?” Brian asked.
“I’m the one that should be sorry.”
“Well, I’m the one that hired Alice. She seemed like such a nice young lady, and a
good nurse too. I had no idea she would
do such a thing!”
“Probably for the money,” Brian said with a sigh. “It’s all about money nowadays.”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Mrs. Thompson agreed.
“Well, I’ll let you go now,” Brian said. “Again, I’m very sorry.”
“It’s okay. I guess
I’ll be seeing you tomorrow then?”
“Sure,” Brian replied.
“See ya.”
With that, he hung up and turned to Leighanne.
“I was wrong. It
wasn’t Mrs. Thompson. It was Alice.”
***
“Alice? Oh, Brian,
how awful!” Leighanne cried. “What are
you going to do about it?”
Brian shook his head.
“I don’t know. I don’t think
there really is anything I can do. But I
guess we’ll have to keep our guard up even more about who we let in this
house.”
Leighanne nodded.
“I just wonder what the fans are going to do when they see those
pictures.”
***
“Thanks for coming over so late, Kae,” Marissa said,
letting her best friend inside.
“No problem,” Kaelyn replied. “Now what did you want to show me?”
“C’mere,” Marissa said, leading Kaelyn up the stairs to her
bedroom. She pulled the tabloid out from
under her bed and tossed it at Kaelyn.
As Kaelyn read the headline, her eyes widened. Wordlessly, she turned to the page of the
article, gasping when she saw the same pictures Marissa had seen.
“Oh, my God,” she cried, her hand going over her
mouth. She looked up at Marissa with
watery blue eyes. “Riss-“
“We did this, Kaelyn,” Marissa whispered, tears filling her
eyes.
“I know,” Kaelyn sobbed.
“If only we hadn’t have been so stupid!”
“There’s a lot of ‘if only’s’… If only we had called our parents to come get
us…. If only we hadn’t have drank so
much… If only we hadn’t have gone to that stupid party in the first place,”
Marissa said, her voice faltering with tears.
“But we did do all of that, and we can’t take it back. And we’re not even paying for it! Shawn’s paying for it, just cause he was
driving. Luke paid for it too. And so is Nick, but he didn’t do
anything! Why couldn’t it have been me
that got hurt instead of him? He’s the
innocent one in this!”
“I know,” Kaelyn cried.
“But we are paying for it.
We’re paying for it by sitting here and realizing what we’ve done. Personally, I’d rather be dead than to be
here.”
“Don’t say that, Kaelyn,” Marissa sobbed.
“But it’s true!” Kaelyn cried. “Having to live with what we’ve done is far
worse than dying. I envy Luke!” Her eyes filled again at the mention of her
boyfriend.
Marissa said nothing, just wrapped her arms around her best
friend and sobbed with her.
***
