I Need You Tonight
Part V

"Hey, Dani," The voice on the other end of the phone line greeted me. I recognized the voice well. It was Nick. He and I had agreed to remain friends and have no hard feelings towards each other. And I’m being completely honest when I say that I’m happy when Nick calls me.

"Hey Nick! What’s up?"

"Nothing much. I just thought I’d call. I wanted to know if you wanted to come over and play the new video game that my mom just bought me. It’s really cool looking. I haven’t opened it yet, so you’ll have a better chance of beating me. You’ve never been able to do that yet." Nick’s voice held a smile.

"Oh shut up!" I said playfully. "I have too beaten you! Remember that time I beat you at that Mario game? Ha! I have beaten you! And I would love to take you up on that challenge. What’s your new game called?" Nick gave me the 4-1-1 on the new video game.

"Okay. What time do you want me to come over?"

"Now’s fine." He replied.

"I haven’t even taken a shower yet!" I hated going places without a shower.

"Oh, Dani! It’s summer! Plus, we’ll be in the house the whole time so you won’t see anybody. If it makes you feel any better, we can go swimming for a few minutes before we play the game so no one will be able to tell what your hair looks like."

"That’s not funny!" I laughed. It was a good idea though.

"I know, I was just teasing. Just slap on your bathing suit and come over. I’ll be expecting you in ten minutes." And with that, Nick hung up.

Ten minutes! I had to work fast. I gave my legs a quick shave and slipped into my bikini. I washed my face and slapped on a little makeup. Wait. This is Nick I’m going to go see, I don’t need to put on any makeup. He’s no longer my boyfriend so I don’t need to look nice for him. But I still felt the need to look good. I got a small duffel bag and stuffed it with my spaghetti strap tank top and a pair of short shorts. I slipped on my favorite pair of sandals, grabbed a towel from the bathroom, told my mom where I was going, and finally, started on my way to Nick’s house. It was just down the street so I could walk. I had only taken eight minutes to get ready and I knew it would take me shorter than two minutes to get to his house. So a big, HA goes out to Nick for not thinking I could do it in ten minutes.

When I got to his house, Nick was waiting for me in his driveway, looking at his sport watch.

"9 minutes and 37 seconds. Not bad," Nick said, still looking at his watch. When he finally looked up at me, he had a look of awe on his face as he looked me up and down. "Not bad at all." I knew I looked good in my new bikini but I hadn’t expected Nick to say that. I sat there stunned for a minute. Actually he didn’t look to bad himself.

"Nick!" I slapped his arm playfully as I walked past him up the driveway, putting a small wiggle in my walk. "So, let’s get in the pool. Then we’ll go and check out your new game." Nick had stood glued to where he was standing when I first saw him, watching me walk. I don’t know why, but it made me a little nervous to have his eyes glued to my backside.

"Oh, okay." He finally ran to catch up to me. We walked the rest of the way to the pool and I set my bag down. I sat down on the edge of the pool and dipped my feet in.

I squealed. "It’s cold!" I yanked my feet out of the pool and stood up.

Nick laughed. "It’s supposed to be! Just jump in. You’ll get used to the water quicker that way." Nick took off the wife-beater shirt that he was wearing and I couldn’t help but look. No. I wasn’t going to fall for Nick again. If anything, I’d make him fall for me. I watched as Nick jumped off the diving board and straight into the freezing water.

"Come on! Jump in!" He called when he surfaced.

I went towards the deep end and walked the length of the diving board.

"Here goes nothing," I whispered, and prepared myself for the cold as I jumped in. It wasn’t really as bad as I thought and, like Nick said, it was easier to get used to when you jumped in. I surfaced and I laughed. "Hey, Nick! It really isn’t that bad!" I went back under water and swam over towards the five foot area.

"Let’s play a game or something, but just a quick one so we can go and play that game of yours." I swam over towards Nick.

"What game?" He asked.

"I don’t know." I tried to think of a game that only took two people to play.

"Well, have you ever played colors?" Nick asked, wiping his eyes of water.

"No. What is it?"

"Well, one person thinks of a color and the other person has to try to guess what it is. Whenever they guess a wrong color, the other person dunks them, but when they guess what it is, the other person has to flip them around under water." Nick explained.

"Okay," I said. "Let’s play!"

"There’s only one other minor detail." He smoothed his hair back and took a breath. "The person who thinks up the color has to be um, molding purses." At least that’s what it sounded like. Nick had mumbled the last part so low that I couldn’t hear what he had said.

"What?" I moved closer to him so I could hear better.

"I have to hold you." He said more clearly this time. Was he hitting on me? Had he suggested this game just so he could hold me? I pushed the thought away. I could be a mature fifteen year old and play this game without thinking of it as a reason for him to get close to me. "I’ll play the game as long as you don’t try to do anything smart. Like don’t even think about undoing my top strap!" We both laughed and I moved closer to Nick. "Okay, so just how exactly are you supposed to hold me?" He picked me up and held me as he would if I had injured my foot or leg. "Oh."

"Hang on." He set me down and grabbed my hand. "Come over more towards the deep end. It’s easier to do it when you’re in higher water." When he had finally gotten in the right depth of water that he needed he stopped. "Okay, come here."

I walked over to Nick and he picked me back up. I was surprised at how easily he had pulled me out of the water. I put one arm around his neck and let the other one drag in the water.

"Okay now, pick your color." While Nick was thinking of his color, I snuck a peek at his arms. His biceps had grown since the last time I had seen him with his shirt off.

"Okay! Got it! Start guessing." Nick smiled and I could tell he liked the idea of dunking me.

"Will you give me a clue? Like is it in the eight basic colors or is it one of those other colors like turquoise..." He dunked me.

"Hey! That’s not fair! I didn’t even guess!"

"But it was a color, and the wrong one, so I dunked you anyways. I’ll give you this; it’s a version of my favorite color." He smiled. I tried to think of all the different shades of green.

"Oh well. Green?" Dunk. "Guess not. Um.... lime green?" Dunk. It went on like that until I finally gave up. "What is it?! I’ve guessed every shade of green that I could think of!"

"Puke green!" And with that, Nick flipped me over. When I surfaced I laughed.

"That was fun!" I got all the giggles out of me before I finally asked, "Are we going to play the game now?"

"Oh yeah! Sure!" I waded over to the side of the pool and pulled myself up. I dried myself off as best as I could and slipped into my clothes.

"Ready?" I looked up at Nick and he had a towel draped over his head. "You’re so weird." I laughed.

"I am not!" He said like a little child would. He pulled the towel off of his head and looked over at me and smiled. Why did he have to look so good?!

"Let’s go play the game, okay?" I walked over to the door and walked through. Nick led me straight to the kitchen.

"Um, Nick. This isn’t where your TV is therefore we wouldn’t be able to play the game in here."

"I’m hungry!" He rummaged around in a cupboard. "Want something?"

I had to admit, I was a tad hungry. "Well, okay."

"Just help yourself. Whatever you find that you like, eat it. You can look wherever too. Oh yeah. There’s some ice cream in the freezer. I know you like that stuff." He pulled his head out of the cupboard and shut it. "There’s nothing in here. Oh, there’s some Twinkies and other stuff in the pantry. Come take a look." He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the pantry. It was loaded with all kinds of junk food.

"Wow. You guys have every single type of junk food in here that you could ever think of! This is great!" I reached up for a box of Teddy Grahams. "I’ll just take these!" I laughed and reached into the box. I took a few out and ate some. "MMM! These are so good! I love these things! Want some?" I offered the box to Nick and he took a few.

"Want some Zebra Cakes?" He handed a package to me and grabbed the whole box for himself. After finding all the snacks that we wanted, we went into the living room and Nick showed me the game that his mom bought for him.

""It’s really cool!" He said, looking at the back of the box.

"Let me see." I reached out to get it and Nick grabbed my hand.

"Nice ring. It’s new," He observed. He thought for a second and then said, "A.J. get it for you?"

"Yeah," I said, a little uncomfortable.

"That’s great that you’re relationship is working out," Nick gave me a short smile and I could tell that he didn’t mean what he said. We didn’t say anything else until Nick had slipped the video game in and he handed a control to me.

"I don’t know how you’re supposed to play this but I guess we’ll just find out as we go." He pressed the restart button and the game started. We went through a few levels, finding out how to play. We had to restart the game a few times though. We kept learning about how many bad guys there were in the first few levels.

Riinnnng! The phone jangled.

"Oh, I’ll get it." Nick said, and hit the pause button. He reached for the phone receiver. "Hello?" He sat in silence for a minute. He motioned for me to come over to him. I got up from where I was seated on the floor and moved to Nick’s side. "It’s the guys." He whispered to me, covering up the mouthpiece. "They’re on speaker phone. Go grab the other extension." I ran to Nick’s bedroom and picked up the receiver.

"You on, Dani?" Nick asked.

"Yup. Hey you guys!" I heard a shouted, excited chorus of "Hey, Dani!"

"We have really good news you guys!" It was Brian. "It’s about the Backstreet Boys!"

"What is it?!" Nick sounded really excited.

"Well, we got a call from an executive at Jive Records this morning. They want us to record an album for them! They’re offering us a recording contract!" Brian shouted the last two sentences and I couldn’t blame him. That was so awesome!

"Alright! Whooooo!" Nick hollered from the living room. He was on a cordless so he ran into the bedroom. "Dani! We did it!" He dropped the phone and wrapped me in a hug.

"Oh, Nick, that’s great!" We held each other and jumped up and down.

"We really did it!" He spun me around in a circle. "If you were still mine I’d give you a really great kiss, but I’ll just have to settle for a hug." He whispered, and wrapped me in a hug again.

"Hello?" We heard a distant voice call.

"Oh yeah!" Nick laughed. "The guys are still on the phone!" He picked up the cordless phone from where he had dropped it and invited the guys over for a celebration party. I hung up my line and waited for Nick to get off of his line.

"Hey, Dani?" Nick asked when he had ended his phone conversation. "Will you help me get ready for the guys to come over? I told them to come over in thirty minutes. I’m sure that would be okay with my mom."

"Your mom’s not even here, Nick! Where did she go anyways?"

"She went to take the kids shopping and then she’s going to drop them off at my aunt’s house. They wanted to visit my cousin, so they won’t be here until tomorrow but my mom will be home pretty soon. That’s why I said thirty minutes." Nick explained. "So will you help me?"

"Okay, but let me call my mom to let her know I’ll be here longer than I thought. Plus, I’ve got to tell her the good news!" I got up off the bed and hugged Nick. "I’m so happy for you guys!" I sat back down on the bed and phoned my mom.

"So what do you want me to do?" I asked when I had gotted off the phone with my mom.

"Well, the house isn’t clean," Nick gave me a sheepish grin.

"And I guess you want me to clean it, huh?" I smiled. "That’s fine, but I’m not going to clean bedrooms. Just the other rooms."

"Great! I’ll get some food out and set up some stuff and when I’m done I’ll help you clean. Ready for operation ‘Get Ready For Party’?" I nodded and smiled. "Okay. We’ll both start out in the kitchen. Ready? Go!" We both ran for the kitchen, laughing the whole time.

I cleaned up and did the dirty dishes while Nick got out food and set it out on the counter and table.

"Hey, can we put on some music?" I yelled over the water.

"Oh! Good idea!" Nick ran into the living room and turned the radio to his favorite station. "Better?"

"Yeah!" I put the last dish in the dishwasher and started it. Then I went to the living room and started in there. I had been to Nick’s house thousands of times so I knew where everything went. I went to the coat closet and got out the vacuum cleaner. I vacuumed and then went into the second to last room that I had to clean. I was surprised to see Nick already in there, bustling around the room and putting things in their right spot.

"I guess I’ll leave the game room to you," Nick said when he saw me. "I’ll clean the bathroom."

We set out on our different paths and finished cleaning. When we were both done, we met in the kitchen.

"I’ve got to go take a shower. I’m all sweaty!" I turned to Nick. "But I promise I’ll be back before the other guys get here!" I looked at the clock. I had fifteeen minutes to get ready.

"Okay. I’m going to get in the shower too." Nick went to the living room and turned off the radio. "If I’m not done before you get here, just come on in. I’ll probably be done though." Nick walked me to the door.

"Bye, Nick." I smiled and turned to leave.

"Dani?" I turned to face Nick. "Thanks for helping me." I smiled.

"I actually had fun cleaning, believe it or not!" I laughed. "I’ll see you later!" I grabbed my duffel bag from the front porch and headed down the street for my house.

I took a quick shower and slipped into my bathing suit and over it, a different pair of short shorts and a different spaghetti strap, this one more showy and sexier. I put on some makeup and the same pair of sandals that I had worn before. I put a dry towel in my bag and also a brush, my makeup bag, and some deoderant. I walked out the front door and headed for Nick’s house for the second time that day.

I rang the doorbell and Nick answered it. He was only wearing a T-shirt and shorts but he looked good.

"Hey, Dani!" He let me in and shut the door. "My mom’s home and she said that she didn’t mind the party. She said she would have suggested it herself if she were home." He led me out the back door and to the pool. "The guys will be here in a few minutes."

"Is everybody coming?" I asked. For some odd reason, I didn’t want A.J. to be there, and I knew it had nothing to do with my dream. My stomach wound was almost completely gone now and so were the memories of the dream.

"Yeah! It’s going to be great. Maybe we I could even have you all spend the night!" Nick stopped and looked at me. "Oh yeah. Would your mom let you do that? Since you would be the only girl in the house except for my mom."

"Well I don’t know but I don’t think she’d mind. Except that A.J. would be here too, but she knows I wouldn’t do anything like that." We heard a car engine stop in front of the house.

"They’re here!" We said at the same time, rushing for the driveway.

"Hey guys!" Brian hopped out of the front seat of Kevin’s jeep. It had been a week since he had gotten out of the hospital and he was doing great.

"Hey!" I called back and walked over to the car where all of the other guys were getting out. "Hey A.J!" A.J. jumped out of the back and wrapped me up in a bear hug.

"Dani! We did it!" He pulled away from me but still had his arms around me. He leaned down and kissed my lips, pressing into them as if there was nothing else. I laughed, interrupting the kiss.

"Not here! Nick’s mom is watching us!" His only answer was a laugh.

"I’m just so excited!" He swept me up and held me just like Nick had earlier in the pool. "I’m just so happy I can’t control it!" I laughed the whole time he carried me to the pool and sat me down in a lawn chair.

"Let’s go swimming!" Kevin stripped off his shirt and jumped into the pool. "Come on! Get in!" The rest of the guys followed his example.

"Hey, Dani! Get in!" Howie called. A pool filled with a bunch of very excited guys could be a very dangerous place. I held a mental debate as to whether I wanted to get in or not. What the heck?

"Okay," I said reluctantly. I knew that all eyes were on me as I took off my shorts and stripped of my shirt.

"OOH WEE!" Brian hooted.

"Oh you hush up!" I said teasingly. I sat down cautiously on the pool steps.

"Come on, Dani!" A.J. swam over to me and grabbed my calves. "You have to get in all the way! Don’t be a weenie!"

"I’m not being a weenie!" I cried defensively. "I just don’t want to get in there to have you guys dunk me and play tricks on me the whole time. I’m just going to sit back here and watch." I sat back and relaxed.

"Dani, if you don’t get in by yourself, I’m just going to have to pull you in." A.J. moved his hands down to my ankles.

"You wouldn’t!"

"I wouldn’t would I?" A.J. grasped my ankles tighter and gave a small pull.

"Don’t you dare!"

"Then get in by yourself! Come on!"

"Okay, but only if you guys promise that you won’t play tricks on me or dunk me. Promise?"

"Promise!" Chorused the other guys.

"Promise." A.J. said. I moved to get in the water but A.J. still had my ankles.

"Um, you can let go of me now." A.J. let go of my ankles and I got in all the way.

The guys didn’t play any tricks on me or dunk me, surprisingly, and I ended up having a really good time. After about two hours, we got out of the pool and went inside to eat. We stood around the island counter, talking about the new record.

"That would be really cool if we made it really big!" Kevin had a distant smile on his face.

"Yeah! Then all the girls would obsess over us and we could have just about any girl that we wanted!" Howie smiled a dreamy smile. We all laughed at him. "Well you never know!"

When it turned ten o’clock, Nick invited everyone to spend the night.

"Even you, Dani." He looked at me. "If your mom says it’s alright. If you want, I can have my mom call your mom and talk to her and tell her that everything’s alright?"

"I like the idea of spending the night with you," A.J. said, and wrapped his arm around me. "Say you’ll stay!"

"Okay!" I laughed. "I’ll stay. And I think it would help if your mom called mine." Nick yelled for his mother and she talked to my mom over the phone.

"Dani, honey, your mother wants to talk to you," Jane Carter handed me the phone and whispered, "You can go in my room so there won’t be so much noise."

"Thank you," I whispered back, and made my way to her bedroom. "Hello?"

"Dani? I talked to Nick’s mom and she assured me that everything would be fine. But I need to make sure. I’m going to give you a few rules. Nothing can go on sexually between you and A.J. and you have to behave yourself."

"Mom, we’re all just friends, except me and A.J. but I promise that we won’t do anything sexually, alright?" I sighed. "Mom don’t you trust me?"

"I trust you, Danielle. It’s the others that I don’t trust. I don’t know any of those guys very well except for Nick."

"Okay, Mom. I’ll be good. I promise. Say hello and I love you to Dad for me. I love you, Mom. I’ll see you tomorrow. Bye!" I hung up before my mother could say more.

"Hey you guys?" I called over the noise.

"What’d your mom say?" Brian asked through a mouthful of Twinkies. I laughed as pieces of the Twinkies flew out of his mouth.

"Well," I stopped laughing and put on a frown. "The only problem is that I don’t have any clothes to wear tomorrow, but other than that, everything’s fine."

"Awesome!" Howie said, also through food, but not a Twinkie, a ding-dong. "Let’s play a game."

"How about spin the bottle?" Kevin suggested.

"Objection!" I cried as if I was in court. "There’s only one girl here and unless you guys want to kiss each other, I suggest we play something else. But I’m going to run home and get some clothes and stuff so by the time I get back you guys better have a game to play." I waved and let myself out the front door.

I made sure that I was quiet so wouldn’t get a lecture from my mom. I ran to my room and grabbed another duffel bag and filled it with clothes for tomorrow, including a clean bra and underwear. I went to my personal bathroom that was connected to my bedroom and grabbed my toothbrush, face soap, and stuffed a few tampons into my bag, just in case. Hopefully the guys wouldn’t get the brilliant idea to go looking through my bag. Okay, I think I had everything. I went quietly back downstairs and ran out the front door. I had made it lecture-free!

I walked inside Nick’s house and was greeted by a bunch of guys wrestling in the living room.

"Oh my gosh," I said under my breath. I ignored the guys and went to put my bag in a corner to where it was partially hidden. I did not want the guys to look in it. I sat down on the sofa and watched the guys wrestle. Not one of them noticed me. Grunts and shouts filled the entire room as they rolled around the floor. Guys. They’re so immature sometimes.

I sat there unnoticed for about ten minutes until finally Brian rolled hard into my leg, both of us yelping in pain.

"Oh!" Brian cried, smiling and looking up, still rubbing his arm. "It’s you!"

"How long have you been sitting there?" Nick asked. He had been wrestling Brian with the help of Kevin.

"About ten minutes." I got up from where I was seated and looked down at the five red-faced, sweating, panting, guys. "I didn’t want to interrupt anything so I just watched."

"Well you should’ve joined us!" Brian said, throwing out his arms. "You could have helped me out with Nick and Kev!" I laughed.

"Nah. That’s not my kind of thing." I said, still laughing. Brian reached up and grabbed a hold of my leg, holding on tight to it.

"Pease?" He asked in a baby voice and widened his eyes. "Pwease pway wif us! We pwomise not to hurt you. Pwease?"

"Are you being serious with me?" I stopped laughing. I don’t know if I really wanted to wrestle around with a group of guys. Some of the wrestling moves had let’s just say "interesting" hand positions and pin moves.

"Yeah," Brian let go of my leg and his face was serious too. Whoa! He really wanted me to wrestle around with them? What am I supposed to say to that?

"Hey guys?" Jane Carter had gotten up from where she was sitting at the kitchen table and waltzed into the living room. Thank goodness for mothers! "Why don’t you guys go out on a scavenger hunt? I heard that you were looking for a game to play." She looked over at me and gave me a smile and winked. She had overheard Brian asking me to wrestle and had decided to make an interjection. "We can make up two lists, split up into teams, and then race to see whoever can get the entire list before the other group." She shrugged. "It’s just a suggestion."

"That sounds cool!" A.J. jumped up from where he was laying on the floor. "Let’s do it!"

"Okay!" The rest of the guys jumped up from the floor and Nick ran to get some paper and a pen. We all sat down around the kitchen table.

"Okay, start naming things." Nick poised the pen over the paper.

"Toilet paper!"

"Keys!"

"A brush!"

"A pen!"

"No, no, no!" Mrs. Carter laughed and grabbed the pen from Nick’s hand before he could write anything. "The list has to be made up of weird things that are hard to find at someone’s house." She explained.

"Like what?" Howie asked. "An eight track tape or something?"

"Well, something like that, but not something that the person would mind giving away or throwing away. The object of the game is to return here with the objects. So let’s think of things that they wouldn’t mind giving you guys." She thought for a few seconds. "Like a burnt out light bulb," she wrote as she talked. "Or a pen that has no more ink in it."

"How about an empty tube of toothpaste?" Kevin suggested.

Once we finished the list, we split up into two teams. Nick, Brian, and Kevin on one team and then Howie, me, and A.J.

"When I say ‘go’, you guys run for the side of the street that you picked." Mrs. Carter stood in the middle of the dark driveway between both teams. "On your mark, get set.... GO!" Both teams raced in the darkness and my team went to the right while the other went to the left.

Twenty minutes later we were racing back towards the house, yelling that we had all of the items on the list. We ran and when we reached the yard we saw that the other group had beaten us to the front porch where Mrs. Carter sat. She was checking off the items on the list and pulling them out of the grocery bag that the other team had collected the items in.

"Yep. Everything’s here!" She announced. My team groaned. While making up the list, we had also made up a reward for the team who won. The team who won got to do whatever they wanted to the losing team, in this case the losing team being me, Howie, and A.J. It was kind of like the losing team was the winning team’s victims. They got to choose our fate.

Nick, Brian, and Kevin hooted and hollered.

"Now, to decide what to do with you all," Kevin flashed a devilish smile. "We need time to think, so shoo," he waved his hand at us. "Just kidding. But you guys go away for a second so we can make up your penalty." My team went and sat against a tree and waited for our sentencing.

"They can’t do anything really bad. Nick’s mom is watching us." But right when A.J. said that, the phone inside rang and Mrs. Carter left to go answer it.

"Not anymore she isn’t," I said. "Oh great. Now they can really do anything that they want with us."

"You know," Howie said. "Yours is probably going to be the worst, Dani, now that Mrs. Carter is gone."

"What do you mean?" I didn’t hide the edge in my voice.

"Well," Howie hesitated. "They could make you streak or something or go skinny dipping in the pool, although that would be pretty funny to watch." He smiled, a distant look in his eyes.

"Oh shut up!" I smacked him on the arm. "I didn’t want to think about that. I just hope they’re not dumb enough to make me do something like that." My stomach did a flip-flop. I had butterflies in my stomach. I knew that the guys might try to make my consequence like that but until Howie had said so, I didn’t think that they really would.

"Okay," Brian said, strolling over to where we were seated around a tree, the other guys following not too far behind. "We’ve come up with your penalties." A smile crossed his face and I didn’t even want to know what they had in store for me.

"Howie," Kevin turned towards Howie, the devilish smile still playing on his lips. "You have to eat a slice of pizza."

"Hey!" Howie’s face lit up. "I think I’m liking my penalty!"

"No, you don’t understand." Kevin leaned in closer to Howie and dropped his voice a notch. "We get to put hair on the pizza."

"I think I’m liking the penalty a little less, now." Howie said, his smile disappearing.

"But not just any hair," Kevin moved away from Howie and crossed his arms over his chest. "Pubic hair!"

"Ooooh! Gross!" Howie exclaimed. I covered my mouth with my hands. That was pretty gross. A.J. just laughed.

"You guys are disgusting!" Howie went on. "I won’t eat it!"

"Well, if you won’t eat it, then we’ll just have to force it down your throat!" Kevin, Brian, and Nick all burst out laughing. They were enjoying making victims out of us.

"A.J." Brian stopped laughing but his voice held a hint of amusement. "It’s your turn buddy." He moved next to A.J. and wrapped his arm around him and held his shoulder. He squeezed A.J. to him and said, "Since we know that you really like girls, you have to walk over to a random house, knock on the door, ask for the daughter, if she didn’t answer the door, and then kiss her." Brian laughed and let go of A.J. A.J. just stood there, shocked, yet relieved that his hadn’t been as bad as Howie’s.

"Uh-uh!" I interjected. "That’s not fair! If he were single that’d be alright! But you know what? He’s not." I pointed to myself.

"Oh. Sorry, Dani," Brian said, then burst out with laughter again.

"If you guys are still gonna make him do it, don’t make me watch." I said. I shifted my entire wait on one foot and crossed my arms across my chest.

"Okay, you don’t have to watch." Brian managed to say through laughter. Once he stopped he said, "Okay you guys, you have to do yours before we tell our good friend Dani here," He wrapped his arm around my waist. "What her consequence is. So Howie, go order your cheese pizza." We went inside and Howie ordered a small cheese pizza and three large cheese pizzas for the rest of us to eat later on.

After hanging up, he muttered, "I still can’t believe you guys are making me do this." Once back out on the lawn, Nick pointed out a house.

"Go to that house. I think you’ll be surprised by who answers the door." I looked to where Nick was pointing. Oh no he was not going to make my A.J. kiss that! When we started for the house, I walked over to Nick and pulled him back.

"Nick!" I whispered. "Why are you doing this to me? Why?" I guess he could sense the hurt in my voice because the nasty smirk that was painted on his face was wiped off and replaced by a frown.

"I just wanted you to feel what I went through when you kissed A.J. while we were going out." His frown increased and I could hear the pain in his voice.

"You still feel bad about that?" I was shocked. I thought that it was over, but I guess now that I was going out with A.J. it just sparked up the hurt.

"Dani," He started to say something, then caught himself and stopped. "Let’s just say that it hurt a lot more than you know." He stopped abrubtly and I stopped too. We had reached the house. I had said that I didn’t want to watch but now that I knew who A.J. had to kiss, I couldn’t help but watch.

We hid behind a bush and watched as A.J. walked slowly and uncertainly to the door. Before he knocked on the door, he turned around and gave us a wave. I noticed that he wasn’t smiling. He turned back around and rang the doorbell. After a few seconds, someone answered the door. I think that it was her parents. A few seconds later, the person who had answered the door disappeared into the house, leaving the door open a few inches. A little bit later, a girl appeared at the door. I grimaced when I saw her. I couldn’t believe that Nick was doing this to A.J. And to me. How could he?

She came out onto the porch and shut the door. I watched as A.J. grabbed her and kissed her. It was just too much. I couldn’t take it. I got up from where I was hiding behind the bush and ran. I ran, blinded by tears. I ran for all I was worth for the house. I went straight inside and ran to Nick’s room, glad that Mrs. Carter didn’t see me come in. I slumped face-down on the bed and cried. I grabbed the pillow and cried into it. How could Nick have done it? He knew. He knew! And yet he still did it! When he came back he was really gonna get it.

I screamed into the pillow, the pillow muffling the sound. I screamed in rage and I was no longer filled with hurt and pain but with anger and rage. I kept crying. I sobbed and then sat up on the bed, still crying. I backed myself into the corner where the bed met up with wall. I propped my knees up and layed the pillow across them. I tried to calm myself, taking deep breaths and slowly my sobbing turned into dry hiccups.

I sighed into the pillow. A hand clamped on my shoulder and without meaning to, I lashed out. I flung out my arm closest to the person and screamed, the scream sounding more of a roar than a scream. But I had lashed out at the right person. It was Nick. He stood there shocked at what I had done, holding his arm where I had evidently hit him. The rest of the guys stood behind him, also shocked at what I had done.

"How could you do it?" I screamed, jumping up and standing on the bed. I hit him with the pillow. "How, Nick? How could you?" I hit him again with the pillow.

"Come on, Dani. I’m sorry. Now stop hitting me." He said and grabbed the end of the pillow.

"Why? Why would you want to hurt me like that? You knew! You knew, Nick!" He finally yanked the pillow out of my hands but I still stood above him on the bed. "You knew." I growled through clenched teeth.

"I know." He said softly, looking down. "I did know." He looked up at me again. "I did know." He repeated, this time louder.

"See?" I said, my voice cracking. "You knew. So why did you do it? Why?" My voice caught in my throat and I sunk down onto the bed. A hand touched my shoulder and I shrugged it off. I didn’t want Nick to touch me. "Don’t touch me, Nick."

"It’s not Nick." I was surprised at the voice and jerked my head up. It was A.J. "I didn’t want to." He said gently and sat down on the bed next to me, rubbing my back. I had curled into a ball, my face towards the bedspread.

"Could you guys, um, leave us alone for a minute?" A.J. asked. I lowered my head back onto the bed. "I need to talk to her."

"Sure." Brian answered and I heard the door shut. When I heard it, I lifted my head back up and sat with my knees pressed to my body, perpendicular to the bed.

"Dani," A.J. reached across and slid his hand over mine. I looked up at him and looked him in the eye. "I really didn’t want to do it. And I can guarantee you that I didn’t enjoy it. Plus afterwards, she slapped me." He gave a small laugh.

"I’ll slap that ugly b-"

"Hey," A.J. cut me off before I could curse. "But I do have to agree with you. She was pretty ugly." The statement made me smile. "But I don’t get what Nick knew."

"Well..." I started. I sighed. "Can I get Nick in here? Maybe it would be better if he was here to help me explain it." A.J. nodded and I got off the bed and walked to the living room where Nick was seated on the couch, head in hands. I cupped my hand under his chin and lifted his face. When his eyes met mine, I smiled.

"Will you join me and A.J? I need to talk to you," I still held his chin in my hand.

He hesitated before answering. "Sure." He gave me a smile and my smile broadened. I let go of his chin and waited for Nick to follow me back his room.

I sat down on the bed next to A.J. and Nick settled into his beanbag, which he moved in front of the bed so he could see.

"Nick," I took a deep breath. "I’m really sorry that I lashed out at you. I just felt so hurt and betrayed." I took another deep breath and continued. "I’m really sorry though and I’m asking you to accept my apology."

"It’s okay." Nick smiled. "And I want to say I’m sorry that I did that to you."

"Apology excepted." I smiled, but stopped when I continued. "Will you explain to A.J. what you knew about this girl that no one else here knows. I think that he should know."

"Oh gosh." Nick ran a hand nervously through his hair. He took a deep breath and looked at A.J. who waited anxiously to hear what he was about to say. "Well, this girl goes to our school and it’s a shame that I had to see her during the summer, but that’s beside the point. This girl is not," He paused, searching for the right words. "Well, she’s not as nice as she looks, let’s just say that. She gives me a hard time at school and especially gives Dani a hard time, like she lives to put Dani through hell. She’s one of the popular girls and has turned a lot of kids against us and spread really bad rumors about us, which eventually ruined our reputation. She’s almost even turned us against each other." Nick stopped.

AJ looked at me. "I never knew about any of this." He said softly, giving me an apologetic look.

"I know you didn’t but there’s no way that you could have." I gave his hand a squeeze and then turned back to Nick. "Tell him her name."

"Katie Landers." He spat out the name and it filled the air like a disease. "You have no idea how much she’s put us both through." He turned to me. "I’m really sorry, Dani. From the bottom of my heart, I’m sorry."

Before I could respond, the doorbell sounded, signaling that Howie’s pizza was here. From inside the bedroom, I could hear Howie groan.

"Howie!" Nick jumped up from the bean bag and ran out of the room, me and AJ close behind him. "Your pizza’s here!" He said in a sing-song voice. He yanked the door open and stopped smiling. It was Katie. I rushed to the door and stood behind Nick, glowering at her and forcing myself to stay calm and not hit her.

"Singer Boy, you better tell your butt ugly friend to keep his sloppy lips away from me!" She crossed her arms over her chest. Oh I could kill her! I balled my hands into fists, the anger building up inside me. She flipped her hair over her shoulder in such an I’m-better-than-you way that I lost it. I pushed Nick away and stepped right in front of Katie.

"Oh shut your fat ugly mouth, Katie!" I yelled. "You just came over here so you could see if you could get another kiss!"

Katie’s mouth hung open. "I cannot believe you just said that to me." She regained her composure and said in a snotty voice. "I would never kiss that thing again, even if you paid me a million dollars!"

"You would too! You kiss a lot of everything for free!" I shot back.

"Singer Girl, you’d better watch it. You and your Singer boyfriend might just be paying the price when school starts back up." She looked at Nick. "And next time you’ll get more than just a whirlie of crap!" She laughed a haughty laugh and that just set me off. I lunged at her, knocking her off her feet.

"Shut up, Katie!" I stood above her and looked down at her.

"Oh you wanna fight do you?" Katie got up from where she had fallen on the pathway. She walked over to the grass. "Come over here and fight me, then." She raised her fists up. Oh great, what had I just gotten myself into? I didn’t want to look like a wimp so I walked over to where Katie was standing.

"Okay then." I smiled and held up my fists. "Slut." I said, and swung at her. I connected with her stomach and she doubled over. She straightened up again and glared at me.

"I can’t believe you hit me! Singer Girl you’re going to get it!" She swung for my face but I ducked. I came back up with an uppercut that nearly knocked her over.

Katie stood there, tears welling up in her eyes. "I hate you. You’re a stupid little snot that has no place in the school. You and your Singer boyfriend are such social outcasts that it’s a shame to the school!" She swung at me again and connected with my stomach, but her punch wasn’t nearly as bad as her mouth. I was surprised at how weak she really was. Her punch barely made me flinch.

I smiled. "You know what?" I gave her a hard punch in the stomach that knocked the wind out of her and her feet from under her. She lay on the grass holding her stomach and crying silently. I leaned down next to her and whispered, "He’s not my boyfriend."

Her eyes met mine. She was shocked. She had always known us as the singing couple.

"The boy you kissed is my boyfriend." Her eyes darkened. I stood up and looked down on her. "His name is AJ." I looked down at her and still to this day I feel no remorse for what I did next. I hauked a loogie for all I worth and the spit wad landed on her face. I walked through the front door, leaving Katie laying on the grass, screaming and swiping violently at her face.

"Geez, Dani! I can’t believe you just did that!" Kevin exclaimed. I walked to the couch and collapsed on it, exhausted.

"Neither can I!" I laughed. It had felt so good to punch Katie like that and watch her suffer at my hands for a change. The doorbell rang again and Nick groaned. He was still by the door so he yanked it open.

"What?!" He asked. The confused pizza boy stood on the front stoop.

"I’m here to give you your pizza?" He said uncertainly.

"Oh!" Nick said, and ran to the kitchen to get the money that his mom had left on the counter before she went to bed. He ran back to the door. "Here’s your money!" The pizza man handed him the pizza boxes. "Thanks!" Nick closed the door with his foot.

"Alright!" I cried from the couch. "Nick? Could you be so nice and bring one of those pizza boxes over here to me? I’d be so very grateful!" Nick placed one of the large pizza boxes into my lap and smiled.

"That was awesome!" He lowered his voice.

Brian grabbed the pizza boxes from his arms and ran to the kitchen shouting, "Howie! It’s hair time!"

"Oh gross!" I muttered. Nick sat down on the couch next to me and opened up the box that was still in my lap.

"It was so great to see Katie cry." He picked himself out a piece and took a bite. I was too exhausted to even get one. "And she was crying because you put her through pain!" He was still whispering even though we both knew that no one would hear us over the noise of someone applying hair to Howie’s pizza.

"You don’t know how good it felt to hit her until she couldn’t breathe!" I threw my arms upward and rested them on the top of the couch.

"That looked so awesome how you knocked her off her feet!" He took another bite of his pizza. "But I couldn’t hear what you guys were saying."

"Oh it wasn’t anything important." Nick shrugged.

"You want a bite?" Nick asked, referring to his piece of pizza.

"Yeah! But I’m so tired that I can’t even hold up the stupid piece of pizza!" Nick laughed and quickly finished off his pizza. He grabbed another one from the box.

"Then I’ll just have to feed you." He said, lifting the pizza to my mouth. I took a bite and chewed. Nick was so sweet! He was feeding me since I couldn’t feed myself! He fed me the whole pizza and then when I was done I closed the box. I didn’t want him to feed me another piece. The way he looked at me when he fed me made me nervous. Well, not exactly nervous but it filled my entire stomach with butterflies and it was so intense that it almost hurt.

"Hey you guys!" Brian called excitedly from the kitchen. "Come here! Howie’s just about to eat the pizza!" Me and Nick joined them in the kitchen.

"We’re gonna have to be kind of quiet because my mom’s asleep." Nick warned.

"Hey, after this me and Howie have to leave," Kevin said, talking quietly.

"Why?" I asked.

"Well I have to go somewhere tomorrow morning and Howie has to be somewhere early so we can’t stay any longer. It’s nearly midnight." I looked at the clock. He was right! I had lost track of the time.

"Well, then, Howie hurry up and eat your pizza!" I said, making sure that I wasn’t too loud. I looked at the pizza for the first time. It was covered, and I mean covered, with pubic hairs. "Oh gross! Who’s are those?"

"Well, let’s just say that I’m gonna be a little bald down there for a while!" Brian said and burst out laughing.

Howie gingerly picked up the piece of pizza, making sure not to touch any hairs. He aimed the pizza towards his mouth. He stopped when the pizza was just inches away from his face.

"Howie! Howie!" I chanted quietly. Everyone joined me and Howie looked at me.

"Thanks for your support, Dani," He turned back to the pizza and closed his eyes. We stopped chanting and he bit into the pizza.

"OH! GROSS!" We all cried. Howie’s face contorted as he tried to chew.

"You have to swallow it! And then that’s it!" Brian shouted. Howie gulped the pizza down.

"Someone give me something to drink fast before I puke it all up!" Howie called. Kevin ran to the counter and grabbed an opened coke can and handed it to Howie. We watched as Howie gulped down the entire can.

"That was so unbelievably disgusting!" He said after finishing the coke. We all laughed and when we had finally settled down, Kevin looked at the clock.

"I’m sorry guys, but we’ve got to go. It’s fifteen minutes after midnight." Kevin said and started for the door, Howie and the rest of us following.

Once Kevin and Howie had left, me, AJ, Nick, and Brian collapsed on the couch. We sat there silently for a while. I leaned head against AJ’s shoulder and he put his arm around me. I closed my eyes and sat there.

"Hey!" Brian said suddenly. I opened my eyes and looked over at him. "Dani, you never did your penalty!" I groaned.

"Haven’t I been through enough tonight?" I closed my eyes and hid my face in AJ’s chest.

"Yeah, but you still have to do it. Sorry." He got off the couch and pulled me to my feet. He grabbed hold of both of my hands and led me outside. Nick and AJ. followed.

"What do I have to do? I’m tired and I don’t really feel like doing anything but curling up on that couch in there," I pointed to the house.

"Well, Nick come here." Nick walked over to where Brian was standing. "We decided that you would have to streak." He smiled.

"Oh great. Howie said that this would happen but I didn’t think that you guys were perverted enough to make me really do it." I sighed. "Okay, turn around. I have to take off my clothes." The three guys did as I said and I stripped down to my bra and underwear. "Hey you guys?" They each turned around a little too fast and it made me laugh, despite the fact that I was freezing my buns off. "Can’t I just go like this? It’s so cold!"

Brian looked at me and then exchanged glances with Nick and AJ.

"No." They all said at the same time.

"Butt naked." Nick said.

"Turn around." I said again. I sighed. I went into Nick’s neighbor’s yard to take off the rest. That way I could hold onto the last of my clothes so they couldn’t lock me out of the house naked. I hid my bottom half behind a small bush and held my boobs with my hands.

"Here I go!" The guys turned just as I did. I took off running, holding my boobs to my body and tightly clutching my panties and bra. I ran down to the stop sign at the end of the street. I stood facing away from where the guys were. Now the hard part. Running to where I really was naked in front of them. I took a deep breath and turned, running as fast as I could. I stopped at a house with a large bush in front of it and slipped into my bra and undies. The house was just far enough so the guys wouldn’t have been able to see anything in the dark. I ran the rest of the way not feeling as naked and when I reached the house again, grabbed up my clothes quickly and put them on.

"Hey! No fair! You cheated!" AJ. cried, then wrapped me up in his arms and pulled me close to him. The warmth of his body was excellent.

"You’re freezing." He moved his hands up and down my arms to create body heat. "Let’s go inside." He said. I looked at Nick and Brian and they both looked pretty much astounded. They had just witnessed a naked girl running down the street. How did I expect one fifteen year old and one twenty year old to react?

"You guys?" I waved my hand in front of Nick’s face. "Snap out of it. It’s not like you haven’t flipped through a dirty magazine or anything!"

"This is different!" Nick exclaimed, finally coming to.

"Yeah!" Brian added, coming to. "Those are just pictures but this was real life." He smiled at me.

"Don’t tell anybody." I whispered, and followed AJ. inside the house.

When we were all inside and over the fact that I had just gone streaking, we sat down to play some video games.

"Hey, you guys?" I asked in a sleepy voice. "I’m going to go change into my night clothes, okay?" They acknowledged me with a slight nod of the head and I went to the bathroom carrying my duffel bag.

I flipped on a light switch and started rummaging through my bag. Hey! Where were my pajamas? I went through the bag again and when I still didn’t find them, I emptied the bag out on the floor.

"Oh no!" I cried. I stuffed everything back into my bag and ran back into the living room. "You guys? I don’t have anything to sleep in!" Nick paused the game.

"Just sleep in your clothes." He yawned.

"No, that’s too uncomfortable." I sighed. I hated sleeping in my clothes. I always woke up more tired than when I went to sleep.

"You could always sleep naked." Brian smiled. "We promise we won’t look at you."

"I might just have to." I said. Brian laughed. "No seriously!"

"No," Nick handed AJ his controller and walked past me. "Follow me." I followed Nick into his room. "I’ll let you borrow some of mine." He went through his dresser drawers. "I don’t know what you girls like to sleep in, but you can look in here to see if you find anything that you can sleep in." He stood back and offered the drawer to me. I started going through his stuff. I had never gone through his drawers the whole time that we had been going out and I found it a little weird when every now and then I ran into a pair of his underwear.

I guess Nick sensed my uneasiness because every time I ran into a pair of his underwear, he’d laugh at the way I tossed them aside.

"It’s just underwear, Dani," Nick laughed and moved closer to me. "I’m sure you’ve seen it before."

"Yeah, I have, but it’s just usually mine." Just then I ran into another pair of underwear and we both laughed.

"Just move it over there." Nick picked them up and tossed them into a corner of the drawer. He picked up a pair of boxers. "Here." He handed them to me. "Try them on. They’re too small for me."

I unbuttoned my shorts and slipped them off. "I guess it doesn’t matter anymore now that you’ve seen me completely naked." I slipped on the boxers that he had handed to me. They fit almost perfectly. "Hey! These are comfortable! The only thing that I don’t like is the little hole in the front." Nick laughed and turned back to his dresser drawer.

"Here’s a shirt. I don’t know if it’ll fit you but it’s really comfortable." He handed the shirt to me. I took off my shirt, not caring about the way Nick was openly staring at me. He’d seen me in a bikini before so it didn’t really matter. Plus, my bikini top is much skimpier than my bra. I slipped into the shirt that he had handed me. It was a little big but, like he said, it was really comfortable.

"Thank you so much, Nick." I gave him a warm smile. He smiled back at me and I had the urge to give him a peck on the lips and a hug. But that urge didn’t last too long. Before I could think any more about doing that, I turned and walked out of the room. I stuffed my clothes into my duffel bag. I sat down on the floor behind AJ who was seated in front of the TV and playing the new video game that Nick had gotten. It seemed so long ago when me and Nick had played that same game and gone swimming in the pool. And it seemed like weeks since we played colors. Oh gosh, that was fun! But I leaned my head against AJ’s back and closed my eyes. I loved AJ so much, I really did. These lingering old feelings for Nick will eventually go away.

"Hey, you guys?" Brian asked through a yawn. His player on the video game had just died. "Can we go to sleep? I woke up really early this morning and I’m so tired." He yawned again. Watching him yawn made me yawn, then Nick yawned, and soon we were all yawning.

"Yep! I think it’s about time we go to sleep!" Nick agreed, laughing. He went to his bedroom and came back with a ton of blankets in his arms.

"Here," I said, grabbing for a few. "Let me help." There were enough blankets for all of us. Brian made a pallet for himself on the floor and Nick did the same.

"Would you guys mind if I slept on the couch?" I asked, holding the blankets that I planned to use in my arms.

"No. You can sleep there. That’s fine." Nick said as he made himself comfortable on the floor. "Your mom would probably want you to sleep there anyways." He rolled on his side.

"Well then," AJ said. "Hey, Dani. I’ll get the loveseat and you can have the sofa, unless you want to join me?" He smiled a mischievous grin and I laughed.

"No, that’s okay. I’m fine over here on the couch!" I layed one blanket down on the couch and then spread another on top of it. I went to the light switch and prepared to turn it off. "Good-night you guys!"

"Good-night!" All three of them said in unison. I flipped the switch down and made my way cautiously back over to the couch. I got under the top blanket and made myself comfortable. My thoughts drifted as I lingered between sleep and awake. I saw various visions of what Nick and I had done as a couple. Everything we had done since we knew each flashed before my eyes quickly. Then the visions of AJ and I came. There weren’t as many as there had been with Nick because we had only been going out for a little while. Nick and I had gone out for almost three years. Three glorious years. Three wonderful, happy, glorious, kiss and hug-filled years. I missed how close Nick and I used to be. I longed for the friendship that we had before. But I knew that I loved AJ and that I was incredibly happy with being with him. He was so fun and so sweet. I slipped deeper into sleep, but I was still conscious of the real world. In my mind I saw AJ there, his dark eyes gazing into mine. In his eyes I could see my reflection and I looked as if I glowed. I ran my hand through his hair and I know that it was only a dream, but the texture of his hair was so real. It was silky smooth. I looked deeper into his eyes and this time I didn’t see myself. Even though AJ was looking at me, I saw something that surprised me. In his eyes I saw AJ holding me and comforting me because I had been crying. But when I Iooked even deeper into his eyes I saw Nick in the dark corner, lurking in the shadows. Yet, I could still see the angry expression on his face. Actually, when I looked closer, it wasn’t anger, but hurt mixed in with intense jealousy. He scowled at the sight of AJ holding me, but softened when he saw that I was crying. I looked back at the image of AJ holding me and saw that now AJ had calmed my tears and was now kissing me. A long, passionate kiss. I looked over at Nick and was shocked at what I saw. He was no longer there. He was there, but not in a solid state. He looked as if he had turned to vapor and the only thing that I could really make out were his eyes. I looked as close as I could into AJ’s eyes so I could see Nick’s eyes more clearly. Nick’s pupils held the reflection of fire. A hot, blazing fire that looked as if it held no end. Then his eyes turned to vapor and Nick disappeared.

I moved a few inches away from AJ, but I still felt his arms around me. I shook my head to clear things and when I looked back into AJ’s eyes, I saw my reflection again. That was so weird. I was still between the bridge of dreaming and reality but I was able to think this thought; What has this vision got to do with anything? Is that how Nick really feels? Is any of this real? And it was after that question that I fell into a deep, peaceful sleep.

I woke to the light that shone through the blinds and poured onto my face. I had had a restful sleep. I stretched, but still kept my eyes shut. Wait a minute. When I layed down on the couch to sleep, I had positioned my face away from the blinds. So how did the sunlight end up on my face? I opened my eyes. I was no longer on the couch. I rolled over and caught myself before I screamed. Next to me lay Nick, asleep and comfortable on the floor.

What the heck?! I had fallen asleep on the couch! Then I remembered another incident where I had fallen asleep in one place and woken up in another. The linen closet incident. Just remembering the linen closet made me think of the dream which in turn made me think of the evil look on AJ’s face as he plunged the knife into my stomach. AJ! I had to get away from Nick before AJ saw me!

I rolled away from Nick and lifted up the blanket. I looked up and stared directly into Brian’s eyes.

"Brian!" I whispered, shocked and scared that he might have seen. Well of course he saw, I hadn’t even gotten out from under the blankets yet. I slipped out of the blankets and sat down on the floor next to Brian. "It’s not what it seems!" I assured, the words tumbling out of my mouth and stumbling on one another. "I can explain! I really can!"

"You don’t have to," He whispered back. I guess the look on my face must have shown my confusion because Brian went on to explain. "Last night I woke up in the middle of the night and saw you getting up from the couch. I called to you but you didn’t answer me. I got up and stood next to you and when I saw that your eyes were open but not there, I knew you were sleepwalking. I watched you walk over to Nick’s bed and slide under the covers next to him and close your eyes. I was going to wake you up but I heard somewhere that if you woke up a sleepwalker it could be dangerous. So I just let you go."

I was so relieved that I didn’t have to explain. But then fear grabbed me again. "Did Nick notice?"

"Yeah," Brian answered in a whisper. "He woke up when you got in. I guess you hit him in the leg or something. Before he could say anything though I told him you were sleepwalking and he just kind of relaxed." Well great. Later on I’m somehow going to have to face the guy that I sleepwalked right into his bed. I groaned softly and Brian gave my arm a squeeze.

"Don’t worry." He smiled reassuringly. "Nick didn’t seem to mind and after I told him you were sleepwalking he laughed and layed back down." He took a deep breath. "Then...." His voice trailed off.

"Then what? Tell me." Brian seemed to think about it for a moment and then, reluctantly, told me.

"Then you snuggled up next to him. You put your head on his shoulder and curled up around him." He stopped to see my reaction. I didn’t need a mirror to see that I was blushing.

"I didn’t know I did that."

"How could you have known?" My heart skipped a beat. Nick had woken up and had heard me and Brian talk about what had happened. I turned around slowly, not knowing what to expect Nick’s reaction would be. To my relief, it was pure humor that played his face and made the corners of his lips turn up.

"I...I..." I tried to think of something, anything, clever to say to Nick, but nothing came.

Nick laughed. "It’s okay, Dani. Brian told me you were sleepwalking so I knew that you weren’t just coming because you wanted to." Nick’s smile lost a little of its cheer when he said that. "Well, how about some breakfast?" He got up and went to the kitchen. I got up from the floor and joined him, along with Brian. AJ was still asleep.

"I’m going to go wake AJ up, okay?" I asked, and went back to the living room without waiting for an answer. I stopped short and turned on my heel and marched back into the kitchen. "Don’t say anything to AJ about my sleepwalking. Please? I just don’t think he needs to know because it might spark up bad feelings again." The guys nodded, remembering the fight that AJ and Nick had gotten into and I started again on my way to the living room.

I looked down at AJ. He looked so peaceful sleeping. All of a sudden the vision that I had had right before sleep swam before my eyes. I pushed it to the back of my mind, but not before I resolved to tell Nick about it. I had to ask him some questions.

I leaned down and kissed AJ’s lips. He stirred in his sleep but didn’t wake up completely. I sighed- my plans for having a romantic early morning wakeup hadn’t worked. I shook AJ instead of kissing him and this time he opened up his eyes.

"Rise and shine, Sleepyhead!" I sang out. AJ stretched and sat up on the loveseat.

"Good morning, Dani!" He said, beaming. "It’s great to have the first thing I see in the morning be you!" He slipped out from under the blankets and followed me back into the kitchen.

"So, what does everyone want for our celebration breakfast?" Nick called out cheerfully. I had totally forgotten the reason of the party! The guys had gotten a recording contract!

I heard shouts of, "Eggs, bacon, toast, waffles, pancakes, sausage" and other breakfast food. I sat down at the kitchen table and watched the guys prepare themselves a celebration breakfast. I smiled and wondered what their record album would sound like, what a recording studio would be like. And I smiled as I fantasized the guys making it into the big time.

Part VI
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