Danielle paced in her kitchen with the phone glued to her ear. "Okay. Yes. Except I don't want to move until June," Danielle explained to her realtor. "Yeah, I'm staying through graduation, and then I'll be heading out of here. If it's not sold before I leave, then I'll make arrangements to get the papers signed."

She listened to her realtor for a moment, and then replied, "Yep, sounds good. OK, keep me posted. Thanks." And she hung up.

"Well that's that. The condo is officially on the market." She looked around her for a moment and continued, "Good. And all the memories here can go on the market with it."

With her call made, she grabbed her backpack and headed out the door to class.

"Nick!" Brian yelled down the hall at him. "C'mere, I want to talk to you."

"What? Aw, Rok! Now? I'm just heading back to my room to relax a little bit."

"That's fine, we'll talk in your room." Brian told him.

Nick rolled his eyes. Now what does he want? He could sense a lecture.

They went into Nick's room and Nick walked over to the TV where he started punching some buttons on his Play Station.

"You're gonna play that now?"

"Well, yeah," Nick said giving Brian a look like he should have known that. "It relaxes me. Wanna play?"

Brian looked at him for a second before replying, "Sure. Why not."

They started playing the game and Nick piped up, his eyes still glued to the screen.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about?" His fingers moving ferociously on the controls.

"AJ."

"B, don't even start up on me about that," Nick said.

"No, you're gonna listen to me," Brian said pausing the game.

"Hey!" Nick protested.

"No! Shut your mouth, quit whining and listen to me!"

Nick shut up and sat back, throwing his controls on the floor.

"What AJ did, it was a shitty thing to do. I don't blame you for being pissed off. But the fact of the matter remains that YOU are talking this too far," Brian said.

"ME?" Nick began.

"Shut up," Brian stopped him with a point. "Yes, you. You have known AJ for a good part of your life and you are letting a girl who you've just recently acquainted yourself with affect everyone."

Brian paused before he continued, "Now. I also realize you've got some deeper feelings for Danielle, and that may be affecting your perception."

"Are you done?" Nick asked.

"No," Brian answered.

Nick threw his hands up in front of him, "Well, continue then."

"Here's what's gonna happen. You are going to accept AJ's apology. You are going to put this behind you and we are going to carry on, business as usual."

Nick was silent and stared at Brian, then looked away to focus on a nearby lamp.

"OK?" Brian asked.

Nick looked back at Brian, "what?"

"OK?" he repeated.

"Fine. Fine!" Nick said slapping his hands on his knees.

"Good."

"Can we finish our game now?" Nick asked.

"No." Brian answered.

"What?"

"Go find AJ, then we'll finish the game," Brian ordered.

"I'll find him after the game," Nick said reaching down for his controls.

"No! You'll do it now!"

"FINE!" Nick yelled throwing his controls on the floor once again.

"And, quit that fucking pouting!" Brian yelled.

Nick got up and went down the hall to AJ's room. I'm gonna accept his apology, but I'm still gonna be mad. He resolved this thought in his mind so he could follow through with smoothing the waters with AJ.

He knocked on the door and a minute later AJ opened it. "Nickolas! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Can I come in?" Nick asked.

"Sure," AJ stepped aside and let Nick in with a wave of his hand.

The exchange between the two went well. AJ wanted Nick to know that he was sorry about jumping to conclusions but he still wasn't sure about what was really going on with him and Danielle. Nick accepted AJ's apology and let AJ know they needed to agree to disagree on the topic. He still needed to sort out the mess that AJ started, and THEN sort out his feelings for Danielle.

Nick was reclined in one of the chairs in the dressing room. He plopped his feet up on the table in front of him and began to check the schedule to see when they would have enough time off so he could make a quick trip home. March 6 and 7, he read on the schedule. That was in just a couple of days. How come he didn't know they had two days off coming up? Two consecutive days without any shows. Now I just need to get out of everything else.

"Kevin?" Nick asked from across the room.

Kevin stopped reading the paper and peeked past the page at Nick. "Yeah?"

"Ummmm, have you looked at the schedule?"

"Yeah, what's up?"

"It's just, we've got those two days off, and if it works out, I'd really like to go home and then meet up with y'all on the 8th," Nick explained.

"Home? Is anything wrong?" Kevin looked worried.

"Naw, umm, yeah. I just..I just need to go home, ya know?"

Kevin eyes him suspiciously, "What's going on Nick?"

Nick couldn't think of a lie quick enough so he blurted, "Kev, I gotta talk to her. I gotta get this crap sorted out, cause it's making me crazy right now."

"You seem fine to me, especially now that you and AJ have patched things up," Kevin calmly replied.

"Yeah, I'm fine, but this is still eating me up. C'mon Kev, do this for me, aight?" Nick pleaded.

Kevin took a deep breath, "Alright lil bro, I'll make sure it's cleared, but you have to talk to management first and I'll back you up if you need it."

"Cool, thanks Kev."

"One word of advice," Kevin spoke up as Nick was leaving the room. Nick stopped and turned his attention to Kevin. "Make sure she's there before you make a trip for nothing."

Nick nodded and walked away. He had to make some arrangements in order for this to work out.

Once Nick got approval from management, it was March 5. He would be leaving the next morning and he needed to make sure he would be able to see Danielle. He went to his hotel room to call her in private. Hopefully, he could leave her a message and pray she would still be there when he arrived. He dialed her number and closed his eyes waiting for the machine to pick up.

Danielle was just sitting down to eat some mac and cheese when her phone started ringing. She hurried up and finished her first bite as she grabbed the phone. "Yuck! Why does this crap always sound good BEFORE I make it?" she asked herself while checking her caller ID. She gulped on her bite of mac and cheese when she saw Nick's number on there. "Shit," she said. "Should I answer it?" She knew she had one more ring before the machine picked up. Without much further thought, she pressed the TALK button, "Hello?"

Did she just answer? Nick thought his eyes springing wide open.

"Dani?"

"Yes, Nick. What do you want?" she asked him abruptly.

"Dani, don't hang up, okay? I just have so much to tell you and explain," he began.

"No, Nick you don't need to explain anything. AJ already did that," she snapped.

"Wait, Dani, please. I really need to talk to you. I'm coming home tomorrow," he told her.

She was just about to snap back at him with another remark when she stopped herself, "Wait, you're coming home? Why?"

"Because I can't stand that you're mad at me, and I need to talk to you," he sat for a moment and listened to the silence on the other end. "Will you meet me?"

Danielle took a deep breath and closed her eyes. If he was coming home, the least she could do would be to meet with him.

"Fine, Nick. I'll meet you. When? Where?"

"Don't worry about that, I'll find you. I just wanted you to know I'm coming," he told her.

"Okay, okay. Nick?" she asked.

"Yeah?"

"You better not be up to something," she told him.

"I just want to talk," he reassured her.

"Fine."

"Fine!" he mocked.

"Goodbye Nick."

Nick chuckled, "Bye, Dani."

The next day. . .

Danielle tried to keep her mind focused on her classes but she was nervous about seeing Nick. She didn't know why, but her stomach was in knots.

She left her last class for the day and grabbed a coffee near the outdoor commons area. She was just stirring the cream into her coffee when she heard his voice, "What? None for me?"

She smiled and turned around to see Nick standing before her in a sweatshirt and jeans with a ball cap on backwards.

"You're pretty gutsy, coming here alone," she told him.

"Billy is nearby, just in case. I've been keeping a low profile."

"Ahhh," she nodded. Damn he looked good. And smelled even better. He was staring at her with a half smile and extended his hand to her. "C'mon, let's go sit and talk."

She looked at his hand then back at him, before putting her hand in his. She prayed he wouldn't feel how sweaty her palms were. Feeling his hand in hers made her heart skip. Why did it have to feel so good?

They found a spot on the commons area lawn under a tree and they sat down in the grass. Danielle took her backpack off her shoulder and let it fall next to her. She looked up at Nick who was watching her get situated.

"Okay, Carter. You're here. I'm here, say what you have to say and then let me get on with my life."

Nick was taken aback, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It just means that I want you to hurry up and clear your conscience so that I don't have to deal with this anymore. I'm already this close to being past the whole thing," she told him holding her two fingers up to show him.

"Will you just really listen?" Nick asked her, the impatience growing in his voice.

"I'm listening!" she told him.

"Okay, first of all, AJ is an ass."

"And this is something I don't know?" she piped in.

"Just let me talk OKAY?" he shot back. "What he told you, was just not true. Not at all."

"Really?" she asked.

"Really," he replied.

"You are lying. I can see it written all over your face," she said.

He quickly corrected, "Well, maybe at first. Like, RIGHT at first. On New Years, before we started talking. My motives were a little less than pure."

"I knew it! Why else would you have come over to me?" she yelled and started grabbing her backpack.

"Whoa, whoa! Hold up! I'm not finished," he yelled grabbing her backpack and pulling her back down. "But, after we started talking I just couldn't, ya know, take advantage of the situation. I COULD have that night, you know. But, I didn't."

"I have to admit when I woke up that morning, I did a double check on myself to make sure I was intact," she said quietly not looking at him.

"It wouldn't have been hard, ya know? You were so drunk and hurt, and you were wrapped all around me bawling for hours," he began.

"Yeah, yeah, Nick. I know! OK?" she said wanting him to move on.

"But! I didn't. That's the point!" he said. "Danielle, look at me." He lifted her chin up to look at him with one hand and then took one of her hands with the other. "LOOK, at me."

She allowed her eyes to rest on his and she listened to his words.

"Danielle, I would be an idiot, if I wasn't attracted to you. For me to tell you I'm not would be a lie. But, no matter what, the last thing I would ever want to do is hurt you."

Suddenly, a trigger went off in Danielle's mind. He had told her this before. The night of his party when he thought she was sleeping. Nick could tell by her expression that she was starting to really listen to him. That he was getting through to her.

"I'm no angel. I've had my share of women. And I've done my share of treating them pretty badly too, just wanting one thing ya know?" She nodded. He took her other hand holding both of her hands in his. He looked into her eyes, "But you're different."

Danielle was beginning to have flashbacks of Nick's words that night of his party.

"You are not like any other girl that I've had in my bedroom. I never want you to feel like I treated you like one of them. . ."

Nick continued, "Once I held you in my arms and felt your tears, I knew that I wanted to be the one you turned to. I believed in your feelings. I wanted you to trust me."

"You can, you know. Trust me, I mean."

"Brian came to find me that night in Minneapolis after he saw you. He thought WE'D had a fight. But then I was coming to find you when we ran into AJ. It tore me apart when I found out what AJ had said to you. Then you were gone. I felt so out of control. There was nothing I could do, and I didn't know where you were."

Danielle looked him in the eyes and knew he was telling her the truth. He'd told her this before. She remembered that night. The Nick sitting before Danielle, really was the Nick that she had run to so many weeks ago. She felt horrible for all the time that had passed with the both of them angry and full of uncertainty.

"Nick," she began.

"No, let me finish," he cut in.

"But. . ."

"Just let me finish," he smiled at her. "When I saw you were with Joey on Valentine's Day, it hurt. It got me right here. . ." he pointed to his heart. "I was so mad, Danielle, especially because you didn't tell me."

"But, Nick, it didn't happen like that," she told him.

It was Nick now who was starting to become agitated. "What happened then, Dani?"

She shook her head, not wanting to go into this with him right now. "That's not important. What's important is that Joey and I are not back together and we never will be."

"But you came to Minneapolis to see me?" he asked.

"Yes," Please Nick, drop the subject. She wished. She just didn't want to talk about this. "None of that matters now, Nick."

He knew that he wasn't going to get anywhere bringing this up now. When she was ready to talk, she would.

"Fine," he told her. "I'll drop it for now. I'm just glad we're patched up. We ARE patched up, right?"

Danielle smiled and squeezed his hand. "Yeah, Nick, we're patched up."

Nick pulled her into a hug and they embraced for a moment.

"Can I take you to dinner tonight?" he asked. "Can homework wait?"

"I'll do my homework before dinner. When do you go back?" she asked him.

"Day after tomorrow. Can you play hooky tomorrow?"

"Hooky? Why?" she laughed.

"Cause then we could spend the day together. We've got some time to make up for," he said.

"I've only got a morning class tomorrow, so after that. . .I'm all yours," she said. "It will be good to see you."

"Wanna go out on the boat?" he asked.

"Sure! Do you know how to drive it?" she laughed.

Nick rolled his eyes and grabbed her in a headlock, "Do I know how to drive it? Yes, of course I do!"

He stood up and took both of her hands pulling her into a standing position, then into another hug. They agreed on a time that Danielle would pick Nick up for dinner. Both of them left campus feeling much better. Nick was relieved that she wasn't mad anymore, and Danielle felt like a weight was taken off her shoulders. But they both shared another feeling, and that was the uncertainty of where their friendship was going to go from there.

In another part of the country. . .that same day

"What do you mean she just met him at school?" Joey yelled into the phone. "I thought they weren't talking? I thought she was selling her place?"

Joey listened to what was being reported to him. "Oh, so now they are on hugging terms? Fuck! Keep me posted!"

Joey hung up his cell phone and turned to Chris. "Well, they are apparently talking again!"

Chris shook his head and rolled a basketball in his hands. "So, now what?"

"I don't know. Am I supposed to believe she wasn't seeing him? Especially now?" Joey asked.

"At this point nothing would surprise me Joe. But, Brit swears up and down they weren't DATING dating. Friends, yes. But, Brit said she stopped talking to him around the same time she stopped talking to you," Chris reminded him.

"Well she's still not talking to me, and now she's seen hugging him!" Joey yelled.

"Are you gonna keep having that guy follow her?" Chris asked.

"Absolutely! I'm not around to see what's going on, I want to know who's messing with her," Joey replied.

"Joe, you DID break up with her," Chris reminded him.

Joey went and looked out the window, "Yeah, I know. Biggest mistake of my life."

Chapter 11
Chapter 9
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