A gruff voice growled into the phone, “We got your girl. Check under the door.”
The phone went dead and Nick frantically searched around to flip the light on. He looked beside him; she was gone. He jumped out of bed, “JOURDIN!!” She wasn’t in the bathroom, either. He looked by the door and saw a white envelope sticking out from underneath it. His heart pounding, he reached to pick it up. He pulled out the note inside, composed of cut up letters that read, “We’ll give you back the girl, if you answer our questions. We’ll call you back.”
Nick felt a chill surge through his body. This was not happening. It couldn’t be. Someone could not have just taken her out of his arms without him noticing. Could they? Sure, he’d been exhausted, he’d felt he wouldn’t be able to move for days- Jourdin had made sure of that… But she couldn’t just be gone!
The phone rang again and Nick dashed back across the room, “Hello?!?”
“Your girl sure is pretty,” a different voice than the first time said.
“Give her back!” Nick yelled into the phone. “What do you want??”
“Just an answer for now.”
“To what??”
“Where’s her birthmark?” the voice asked.
“On her upper right thigh.” Nick replied immediately.
“Smart boy.”
The connection cut off again, leaving Nick at nearly the point of tears. He didn’t know what to do, who he could call without making a big deal of things. Who would have even known about her in the first place? Before he had time to let his mind wander further, the phone rang again. “WHAT?!?”
“You gotta calm down” the voice said. “You wouldn’t want her to know you’re not as strong as she thinks, would you?”
Nick’s lower lip trembled, and he forced a cough, trying to keep the waver out of his voice. “I’ll do whatever you want… just give her back to me..”
“You’ll get her back… eventually” the voice replied. “But for now, another question. What’s inscribed on the ring you gave her?”
“All my heart, baby boy.” Nick answered.
“When did you give it to her?”
“When she moved in.”
“What date?”
“June 7.”
“Good call.”
Nick screamed when he heard the click of the phone being hung up again. What the hell was this? What were the questions getting at??? He stared at the phone, willing it to ring again, and it did, the same voice as the first time back on.
“Which of the Victoria’s Secret models do you look at when you jack off?” the voice asked.
“What the fuck?!?”
“You heard me.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Nick hollered.
“Do you want to see your girl again anytime soon?”
“Heidi Klum,“ he answered quietly. Where was this going? How were these insane questions going to get her back to him? The phone went dead again and he slammed it down, the tears he’d been trying to hold back beginning to well up in his eyes.
He heard the door open, then close and looked up to see Jourdin walking into the room, seemingly unharmed, wearing her green satin pajamas and holding a copy of the Victoria’s Secret catalogue.
“So that’s how the pages end up stuck together… it’s her tits, isn’t it?” she asked, looking over towards him. “Oh god… baby boy…”
Nick stayed on the edge of the bed, blinking, the tears slipping over his cheeks as Jourdin rushed over to him, wrapping her arms around him.
“Are you okay?”
Nick didn’t say anything. How could she just come walking in like that, joking, when he’d been scared to death?
“Baby boy? Please answer me…”
“You knew… that was going on?” he asked quietly, shrugging away her embrace.
“I… AJ and Kevin and I… were just playing… I wasn’t in the room with them though… I was just down the hall…what’d they do?” Jourdin asked, suddenly concerned things might have changed a little from what they’d discussed. She’d just asked the guys to play with him a little, tease him about the crush she suspected he had on Heidi.
The phone rang again and Nick reached for it. When he heard AJ’s chuckle in the background he went off, yelling. “THAT WASN’T FUCKING FUNNY!!” He hung up the phone, moving to sit in a chair across the room for Jourdin, who looked ready to cry.
“Baby boy.. I am so sorry.. I just thought they’d tease you… what happened?” she asked, scooting over on the bed to face him, but keeping her distance.
“Making me think that someone had fucking taken you away from me is NOT teasing me” he said flatly. He’d played more than his fair share of jokes on the guys over the years, and even in the past few days he and Jourdin had conspired on a few choice pranks, but he’d never tried anything like that, he wouldn’t have even thought of it.
Jourdin looked a little confused, but before she could ask, there was a knock on the door. Nick didn’t look like he was going to move from the chair where he was sitting, anger written all over his expression.
Jourdin went to the door and walked out into the hall, finding AJ and Kevin. She let the door close behind her, “What’d you guys say? He’s pissed!”
“Yeah, I noticed.” AJ said. “We made up a note that said we had you and he had to answer some questions to get you back.”
“We didn’t even know if he was right or not.. we were just messin’ with him. We didn’t know he’d freak out that much.” Kev said.
“We came to apologize. I guess it did probably sound kinda bad. But to his credit, he answered the questions fast.”
“What did you ask?” Jourdin inquired.
“Where your birthmark was and what’s written on your ring and when you got it.” AJ told her.
“My upper right thigh, ‘All my heart, babyboy’, and June 7. Was he right?”
“Damn… yeah.” Kevin said. Nick really was in love with her, wasn’t he? He never remember anything like that. He suddenly felt worse for having agreed to mess with him like that, he probably had really gotten scared.
Jourdin smiled. “I’ll have to show him my appreciation for that later. But for now, let me talk to him, okay? I’ll try to smooth things over.”
“Alright. We are sorry, though.” AJ said.
Jourdin nodded. “G’night guys.” She hugged them both and went back into the room to find the lights had been turned off and Nick had gotten back in bed. She could hear him sniffling, making her feel even more awful. She walked towards the bed, “I’m sorry, Nick.”
“Fine.” He didn’t want to say anything else. He couldn’t really. He’d been scared and he didn’t get scared like that. Just knowing he felt so strongly for her was probably the most frightening thing.
Jourdin got the feeling she wasn’t welcome in bed and shuffled her way over to the chair, curling up with her knees to her chest. She’d never felt this sort of separation from him, and she hated how badly it hurt, but realized she’d unintentionally hurt him, too- she probably deserved at least some of the pain.
When Nick realized Jourdin was crying, he couldn’t take it anymore. He sat up, “Boo, come over here.”
She got up, trudging over to the bed, “Yeah?”
He turned on the light and held the covers up, “Get in.”
Jourdin slid under the sheets beside him and lay down. He reached across her and turned the light back off. He lay back and gathered Jourdin in his arms, pulling her close to him. “That scared me really bad, Boo… thinking someone might have taken you away from me… I couldn’t handle that..” he whispered.
“I’m so sorry… they are, too… that didn’t quite go like any of us had planned… I guess they got a little carried away with being able to mess with you. But no one is going to take me away from you. I love you so much… I’m not going anywhere.”
He squeezed her a little tighter and kissed her cheek. As mad as he was, part of him was almost glad it had happened, maybe that was what he needed to discover just how deep his love for her really was.
~~~
Jourdin stood off the side of the stage, laughing so hard her stomach hurt as Nick and Howie began a yodeling contest on stage, causing the other guys to cover their ears and the crowd went hysterical again, as they had for most of the show. Nick had warned her the last show would be crazy, but ‘insane’ was more accurate. The five Boys had done almost nothing but tease and pick on each other since they’d taken the stage. Jourdin was relieved the past few days seemed to have cleared the air from the ‘incident’ with AJ and Kevin.
Nick had begun plotting and carrying out various small revenges- first replacing all of Kevin’s relaxation cds with copies of System of a Down and hiding a camcorder in Kevin’s “bedroom” on the bus until he’d caught a moment suitable for showing everyone in the dressing room, and giving AJ’s dog beer and letting him go on AJ’s bus to leave various suprises and posting a few incriminating pictures of AJ and his ex-girlfriends around on his bus. So far Nick had been pleased with the reactions he’d gotten, and felt somewhat avenged.
Jourdin had hung back, staying out of the jokes. The few minutes she’d thought Nick had been upset with her had shaken her enough to not be willing to try anything that might cause it again. But something about that night and his reaction had made her feel more secure in their relationship than she ever had before, she knew he’d do anything for her.
For the most part, being on the road had been a blast- spending time with Nick and the guys, seeing what tour life was actually like, and just being away from school. They’d head back home in the morning, after one more night in a hotel. She was ready to be at home with him, back in their bed together.
She snuck backstage as they finished the encore. She’d done a good job of staying hidden, she didn’t think really anyone had seen them together the entire week. Although they hadn’t actually been together that much, outside of the hotel rooms, but just knowing that they were together was good for her.
~~~~
Jourdin lay with her head on Nick’s chest, listening to his heartbeat as he played with her hair, twisting it around his fingers.
“I can’t wait to be back home with you” he whispered.
She turned a little, to look at him as she spoke, “Me neither… but god, I don’t want to go back to school… I’ve had so much fun being out here with you.”
“But being home with me will be fun, too. And school will be better… I’ll help you study… and provide distractions for study breaks, of course,” he said, smirking.
Jourdin giggled, “And just what are you going to help me study? I don’t have an anatomy class…”
“Human sexuality?” he asked, raising an eyebrow and giving her that sexy half-smile that always drove her wild.
Jourdin gave him a deep kiss, crawling on top of him, “You gonna be my personal tutor?”
“Yup… hands-on learning…” he replied, kicking the sheets away from them and kissing her, his hands moving down to her hips to position her over him.