I decided to put on some make-up and powder my nose before Nick’s arrival. I dried off my hair with the hotel’s complimentary handy hair dryer, and applied my normal rouge and powder to perk up my pale face. I didn’t want to alarm Nick, to have him thinking I was ill, so I tried to put up a bold face. But my eyes still looked blood-shot.

Nick and I had become strangely close friends. He was the youngest member of AJ’s band so it had made him the closest to my age, and more considerate to my teenage needs, with a goofiness that I could relate to. More so, he was AJ’s closest friend and the only one who had a ready excuse for his friend’s shortcomings in our awkward relationship. He made me happy when I was down; his whimsical face had that way of bringing a smile to yours. Perhaps, because his infectious laughter always got in the way whenever he wanted to say something solemn. He was such a child at heart. And in the mood I was in today, I needed a friend: a good, reliable one.

Exactly half an hour to the time, I heard faint knocks on my door; I opened it without asking and saw Nick leaning in the doorway, grinning at me with his quirky smile.

I jumped up to hug him as tight as I could, my small frame squeezing in between his oversize one. Nick had a statuesque lanky frame, almost 6ft 2, nice warm smile, with an all-American look: blue eyes, square jaw, and blonde hair. Today, he was wearing a long black leather jacket, a blue tee shirt and blue tanned jeans, and his short coif blonde hair ruffled over his face in its peculiar way.
 
“Hey, hey, hey…” he exclaimed. “You can’t be that happy to see me.”
I pulled away from the hug and dragged him by his long arms into the room, shutting the door behind us. “This is nice...” He exclaimed, admiring the suite. “This still doesn’t explain why you left. You wanted a bigger room, what?”

I sat him down on the deep-seated chair I was sitting on the day before, and held his face to kiss him: long, hard penetrating kiss, and he didn’t object too. I could see his arms flapping around behind me in surprise.
I pulled away and smacked my lips, pleased with my triumph, “Aah, I’ve always wanted to do that.” I licked my lips like a child stealing a scoop of her favorite ice cream. He was a good kisser too, nice soft lips with an inquisitive tongue and fruity bubblegum breath. Nice.

“You have? So can we do it again?” He aimed for my mouth but I replied him with a smack on the mouth, giggling as I walked away from him.
“You naughty boy.” I took the chair beside him.
“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” He adjusted his jacket, dusting off his clothes. “So, what have you been up to, you little runaway. You left without saying goodbye.”
“Didn’t I say goodbye? I thought I did,” I pretended.
“Of course you didn’t; to AJ, but not to me. You could have at least told me where you were going,” He said, his eyes scanning the room.
“I’m sorry, the thought slipped my mind.” I brushed the hair out of his face.
“So, how are you, whose room is this? What was the emergency you had to see me about?”
“Calm down, I would get to your questions one after the other,” I urged.
“Yeah, right. I know you Nikki, you’re up to evil, I can see it in your eyes.” He turned to me, and started to squeeze my cheeks. “Whenever you have this look, you’re planning something, see you’re eyes are red…easy up on the Brandy girl, you know you’re still underage,” he teased, pulling my cheeks apart.
“Stop it, you sound like AJ.” I beat his hands away.
“Whatever, your eyes look awful like you’ve been overdoing it a bit. It’s almost the same color as your hair.” He sprang up and headed to the mini-bar. “Anything to drink around here?”

Looking inside, he located a bottle of Heineken. He quickly uncapped it and pulled out his pack of cigarettes from his inner jacket pockets. About to light the stick in his mouth, he asked, “I can smoke in here, can’t I?”
“You’ve started already, so go ahead. But I don’t know if this is the non-smoking floor though.” I brushed off, curling my legs on the seat. It fit me nicely.

He took a long drag and exhaled; blowing well-defined smoke rings into the air, a trick AJ had taught him. “Her name’s Vikki.”

“What?” My eyes expanded at Nick, his tall frame towering over me in the room.

“AJ’s new squeeze, the girl you caught him with in the bathroom, her name’s Vikki and she’s 19. Funny isn’t it? From Nikki to Vikki, weird guy, weird. Like Nick and Nikki. Nice ring to it, too.” He laughed at his own joke, took another long drag on his cigarette dimming his eyes as he did, and then he exhaled again, this time with no rings.
“I don’t care,” I lied. Knowing that I did, just the mere mention of another woman in AJ’s life had my blood pressure rising.

“That’s bullshit, you know you do. That’s why you asked for me, isn’t it? You wanted to know what he was up to.” Nick’s voice was beginning to annoy me.

“Well…” At that point, the reason I had wanted to see him escaped my mind, instead thoughts and images of AJ with this new groupie from the bathroom incident filled my head. I was working on getting angry, when I asked, “How is she, this Vikki?”

“She’s alright.” He threw himself back on the chair, clutching his beer in his hand. “She has black hair though, jet black hair, black nail polish and all, like you know, that Gothic look that’s been going round.”

I nodded. I remembered her black mane spread all over his back as they screwed stupidly in that bathroom.

He continued, “Apparently, she’s been following him...well…us for awhile. From like three concerts ago, way back. She cornered him at the hotel and they knocked some booty, nothing wrong in that. When you left, he asked her to come stay with him, and she, rather like you, obliged. So we have a NEW addition to the family now,” he said, flippantly.

Suddenly, I felt sick. Nick was narrating my story like I had been replaced with a newer, more reliable, less impulsive model: one whose batteries didn’t run out, or didn’t need to be recharged.  Was that what I was? An object that could be so easily replaced by the next willing groupie; I thought I had meant more than that to AJ. My stomach roared loud enough for Nick to hear.
“I think I’m gonna be sick.” I clutched my stomach and ran to the bathroom. Nick dropped his bottle and followed behind me.

After several bouts of vomit, Nick helped me wash my face and carried me back to the living room. He placed me on the bed but I refused to lie down, instead I sat up and placed a pillow on my stomach.
“Have you had lunch?” he asked.
“Nope, I haven’t,” I murmured. The day had gone by so fast that I totally forgot I had missed a meal.
“Can we order lunch in here or…”
I cut in, “Yes, we can.” I handed him the phone to place the order for room service.

He placed a simple order for lunch for the two of us. Broiled chicken, with gravy, mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables, chicken noodle soup and cheesecake with plenty of water.
“Talk about a healthy meal.” I remarked when he dropped the phone.
“Well, my mom used to make that a lot when we got sick.” He sat on the bed with me, his hand patting down my hair like a big brother soothing his ailing sister.
“You don’t have to stay for lunch, I’ll be fine,” I suggested, not wanting to inconvenience him. I knew they often worked around a schedule.
“No, I want to stay. I want to have a chance to giggle with you before I leave. I miss that,” he chuckled, with his blue eyes twinkling.
“OH, doesn’t the new girl come with giggling qualities too?” I said in sarcasm.
“Stop that. I knew I shouldn’t have told you about Vikki.” He took away his hand.
“No, you should. I’m glad you told me, because I was going to ask you either way.”
“But I assumed you being here and all you may have gotten on with your life, you never called to ask to come back and…”
“It’s only been a day, Nick. One full day. If I didn’t call yesterday, maybe I would have called today. Couldn’t he at least wait for that? Immediately I leave he just replaces me with some broad he doesn’t even know,” I scolded, clenching my teeth. Men always saw to their wants first hand, like we came one after the other like cars, a new model every other year.

“No offence, Nikki, but he didn’t know you too well either when you moved in with us.” I gave him a death glare that got him to sink under the sheets, begging to be forgiven. “But that’s men for you, don’t expect too much and don’t give too much in return.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said solemn, playing with the tips of the bed covering. “But I thought AJ was different. I thought he knew me too well to betray me. And I thought I was well enough without him.”

“Are you okay?” He lifted up my face with his fingers, peering into my eyes.
I shut my eyes, and said softly, “I’m having those nightmares, remember them?”
“Yeah, AJ told me,” he hesitated with the reply knwing that AJ might have told him in confidence.
“I figured he would, you guys always shared every detail with each other. What did he say?”
“Nothing much. That you were having nightmares about your stepfather beating you up, strangling you, that sort of thing,” he replied, avoiding my face, afraid that he might hurt my feelings if he told me the details of what exactly AJ had told him.

“Do you think they are true?” I bit on my lower lip awaiting a reply.
“I don’t know. I didn’t make much of it then and I don’t think much of it now, but if you are still having those nightmares, maybe it’s time you talked about it with someone.” His voice depicted a deep sense of maturity and concern.

“It’s not something I like to talk about.” I shook my head profusely.
“Try me.”
“I can’t Nick, I can’t.” I buried my face in my hands, wiping away the tears that had accumulated in my eyes.
There was a knock on the door, the peculiar knock from the room service waiters. Nick jolted up, “I’ll get it.”

A few minutes later, he pushed in the cart into the bedroom. “Madam, your meal is served. Should I feed you, would it make you feel better?” His eyes questioned, standing at attention like a butler waiting on his madam.

I laughed, “NO, I’m fine, just bring the trays over here to the bed, let’s eat it here, okay.” I patted the comfortable firm bed.
“Oh, kinky, are we? Is that what you do with your new lover?” he placed my tray beside me on the bed.
“Stop it, I’m never going to tell you who this new guy is, knowing you, you would just run to tell AJ,” I commented.
“Would I?” He took off his jacket and sat down with his tray of food facing me. “I might, I might not. But you have to understand, AJ is like my brother, I have to tell him everything.”
“You don’t have to, but you can keep some of the good stuff to yourself.” I opened up the tray of food; a whiff of steam came surging from it.
 “This looks nice,” He said, wasting no time to dig in.
“Yeah, and it’s hot too. Nick…” I called.
“Yeah.”
“I need to see AJ. Do you think I could go back with you later today?”
He dropped his cutlery on the bed and burst into caricature laughter at my request, clutching his stomach as he laughed.
“Nick, what’s so funny?” I asked, dumbfounded.
“It’s so funny, how much you want me to do something for you, and you refuse to tell me what’s bothering you,” he said amidst short bouts of laughter still. His eyes were teary from laughing so hard.

“I said I couldn’t tell you, Nick. It’s too gory, and horrifying. You would freak out and hate me,” I emphasized.

He made for my hand and squeezed it, saying, “I can never hate you Nikki. I can’t. And don’t ever think that.” His tender blue eyes tore into my conscience with genuine promising absolution. “I’ll take you to see AJ, no problems, I’ll take you to see him. We were planning on going to the underground club tonight so it’ll be a good chance for you to see him, and maybe have a little chat with your successor. I can’t guarantee it would be pretty,” he warned, picking up his cutlery again.

“It’s okay. I’ve seen worse, believe me, I’ve seen worse.” I reached for his face and pecked him on the cheek, a sloppy thank you kiss.
He laughed saying that I was bribing him, but I brushed it off replying that I was simply expressing my gratitude. I was very grateful for what he had done for me today, what he had said, and for his concern in wanting to share my problem. He was just the sweetest, platonic male friend a girl in my dilemma could have. And no matter how many people I told, the problem won’t get any better. So its best that I just kept it to myself.

We talked some more as we ate, and after lunch, I got dressed to accompany him back to the Four Seasons to see AJ.