Chapter
15
Over the next few months, Nick and Angela kept in touch, emailing,
IMing, and calling each other, like they had promised. But none of those things were the same as
seeing each other in person, and so both of them looked forward to early April,
when Angela would be on Spring Break, and they could see each other once again.
***
Nick jerked awake at the shrill ring of his phone. It was a Monday night, just after eleven,
and he had been dozing on the couch.
“Hello?” he asked groggily, putting the phone to his ear.
“Oh, Nick,” came a voice.
He recognized it as Angela’s, and just by the tone, he knew something
was wrong.
“Hey, Ang,” he said.
“What’s wrong?”
“My mom…” Angela said, her voice trailing off.
“What happened?” Nick asked, his heart pounding.
“She’s dead,” Angela cried, beginning to sob.
“Oh, Ang,” Nick whispered, his heart breaking for her. He wished he could be there to hold her and
comfort her. “I’m so sorry, honey. What happened?”
“A car accident,” she replied between sniffles. “She died in the hospital a few hours after.”
“Oh, God,” Nick murmured.
“Did you get to see her?”
“Yeah… She wants me to come
live with Dad and Lynn,” Angela said.
“Are you going to?” Nick asked hopefully. This was a horrible tragedy, but if Angela
came to live in Orlando, at least some good would come out of it. They could be together.
“Yeah,” Angela said softly.
“It’s what she wants.”
“You don’t want to?” Nick asked, a little stung at how unhappy she
seemed about it.
“I don’t know,” Angela said, sighing. “You know I want to be with you, Nick. But I can’t stand the thought of living with
them. My dad’s okay, I guess, but I
can’t stand Lynn, not even when I go to visit for just a few days. How will I manage living there on a regular
basis, even if it’s only for a few months, until I get my own place?”
“You can spend as much time with me as you want,” Nick said. “I’ll be here. We don’t go on tour again until summer, so we
have the whole rest of the winter and spring to be together.” He paused, thinking quickly, then said, “You
know, you could live with me if you want to.”
Angela was silent, as if deep in thought for a moment. Finally, she replied, “Nick, you know I’d
love to… but I can’t. It wouldn’t be
right, and anyway, what would my Dad think?
I’d have to tell them the truth, and you know they wouldn’t be happy
about it.”
“Yeah. I understand,
Angela,” Nick said. “It’s okay.”
“Thanks anyway, Nick,” Angela said.
“So when would you be moving down?” Nick asked.
“Probably next weekend,” she said.
“I’m going to look into transferring to a junior college near Orlando,
so I can live there and be with you.”
Nick smiled. “I’d like
that,” he said.
Angela sighed. “Well, I
think I’m going to go to bed now. I’ve
already cried my eyes out, and I’m exhausted.”
“Okay,” Nick said sympathetically.
“’Night, sweetie.”
“Goodnight,” Angela replied, and hung up.
Nick slowly hung up the phone and sighed, feeling horrible for
Angela, but happy that soon they’d be seeing much more of each other.
***
