I wandered around the hospital for a while after playing with Frankie, finally spotting a bench in a deserted hallway and curling into a ball on it. Joe’s condition was terrible, and I knew that the chances of him coming out of it were slim--if any at all. I closed my eyes and let the tears fall freely, not caring about anything or anyone but Joseph.
A few minutes later, I felt someone next to me, and looked up to find Nick sitting on the edge of my bench, looking at his feet. I wiped a hand across my cheek and sat up, facing him.
“Hey How are you holding up?” I asked.
“Me? Don’t worry about me; because I’ll be fine…I’ve been through a lot worse in my life. But you don’t look so great, and Mom is worried about you being alone. She doesn’t want you running off down deserted corridors again without telling someone first,” he told me.
I let out a soft giggle at his attempt to put the situation off onto Denise. “Nicholas, are you sure it was your mother worried about me, or was it really you?”
“Well, mostly me…but she was worried too. Your…boyfriend…is in a coma, and she’s just concerned for you…for all of us. But come on, Kevin got us a hotel room, and he wants you and me to go get some rest,” he said, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet.
I let my fingers lace through his, the calluses from his guitar sending a sense of comfort through me. When we reached Kevin, I tried to pull my hand away, but Nick tightened his grip, taking the keycard from his brother and pulling me out into the bright morning sun. I hadn’t realized that I’d stayed up through the night, so the light took me by surprise.
W made our way through the hotel lobby, Nick glancing around for what I assumed to be paparazzi, who had definitely heard of the situation by now. He opened the door to the room and my jaw dropped. Kevin went overboard, booking the biggest and best suite in the hotel. Nick pulled me down onto one of the king-sized beds and tucked the covers around me. My body ached for sleep, but my mind just wouldn’t allow it. Nick wrapped his arm around me comfortingly, but it didn’t ease the tension.
“Brit, what’s wrong? Go to sleep; you’ve had an insane night,” he said, already sounding groggy.
“I can’t, Nick. This whole thing is my fault…you know it’s true. Joe wouldn’t have run off last night if it weren’t for me! He’d be fine, and we’d be on the road, happy and not worrying about anything,” I said, unsurprised that tears were welling up in my eyes once again.
He ran his free hand through my hair, pulling me close to him. “Now stop that! This isn’t your fault, Brittany. Yes, the situation is what made him run off like that, but you can’t blame yourself for the accident. No one is at fault for that…it’s called an accident for a reason. Now please, try to get some sleep. The sooner you get rested, the sooner we can go back to the hospital.”
“But Nicholas, this whole stupid thing IS my fault! I should have just kept my mouth shut…I should have never done this in the first place! Ugh!” I said, getting more flustered by the second.
Nick sat up abruptly, anger evident on his face. “Are you saying that what happened with us was stupid? I’m sorry you feel that way, but I can’t do anything to change that.”
“No, Nick! That is not what I meant! That wasn’t stupid…oh, Nick, it wasn’t stupid at all! Can we please not fight about this right now? We had this argument last night, and I really don’t want to re-hash it all again. I just need someone right now. More specifically, I need you right now,” I said, curling closer to him.
“Brit…don’t say that unless you really mean it. We’ve done this back and forth thing for long enough, and now isn’t the time to say anything that you’re going to just take back later,” he said, placing his arm back over me. “I love you, Brittany; so you can’t just say things like that to me if you don’t believe them yourself.”
His words caught me off guard, and for the longest time I couldn’t say anything. Finally, I decided to go with my heart--or at least, a portion of it. “I do mean it. I mean every word.”
Nick sighed and pulled me closer to him, kissing the top of my head. Before I had time to object, I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
I woke up some time later to find the spot where Nick had previously been empty. I stumbled around the suite, trying to find any sign of where he’d gone. When I reached the bathroom, the door swung open and I was face-to-face with Nick. Steam rolled out behind him and I stumbled backwards, suddenly realizing that he was wearing nothing more than a fluffy white bath towel. I spun around so my back was to him and threw a hand over my eyes.
“Nicholas! Dear God, please clothe yourself! Ugh! What were you thinking, strutting around here in nothing but a towel while I was in the room?” I asked over my shoulder.
He laughed airily and walked past me, pulling clothes from a suitcase on the floor. “Dad brought us all some clothes from the bus, and I couldn’t sleep. You were out cold, so I wasn’t going to sit there…I decided to just take a shower. Go watch TV or something while I get dressed, then I’m going to get us some food.”
I flopped onto the bed, channel surfing but not really caring, and waited for Nick to come back. He appeared again, buttoning up his light blue shirt.
“I want a taco, Nick,” I said, still trying to avoid looking at the bit of his chest that was still exposed.
“You’ll get whatever they have downstairs…if they don’t have a taco, then I’ll make Kevin go find a Taco Bell later or something,” he said, rolling up his sleeves and stuffing his wallet into his back pocket. He walked over and placed a small kiss on my cheek before walking out of the room.
After he left, I threw myself onto the pillows and sighed. “Ugh! Why do the both have to be so amazing? This isn’t fair!”
“Who are you talking to, Brit?” I looked up to find Tina standing over me, eyebrows raised and a hand on her hip.
