"I was kidding, Nicole! Are you ok?"
My eyes ripped off my dad's face and onto the floor. I breathed heavily and nodded. "Yeah, yeah Dad."
"Don't take my jokes too seriously, it's bad for ya," he joked. I rolled my eyes and ran up to my room.
RING!! RING!! RING!!
I glared sleepily at the ringing phone and then at my clock. It was 8:05. I groaned and buried my head into my pillow. The phone didn't stop ringing, unfortunately. It seemed to get louder as I covered my ears more and more with my pillows. Finally I gave in and grabbed the phone.
"What do you want?" I snapped grumpily.
"WHOA!" exclaimed AJ. "Not a morning person, are we?"
"Sorry AJ. What are you doing calling my house so early?"
He paused. "It's early?" I moaned and he started laughing. "I'm sorry, Nikki. I wanted to talk about later tonight. You know, the movies?"
"Yeah, what about it? Dang it, AJ! We have all day to discuss tonight! You just HAVE to call me at 8 in the morning, don't you?"
"Yes siree! Anyway, should I pick you up at 7?"
"Yeah, yeah. What are we gonna watch?" I asked with my eyes closing again.
"How about "Meet Joe Black"? It looks like a good movie."
"Yes! Brad Pitt's soooo-o-o-o fine...," I trailed off at the sound of AJ grunting and making gagging sounds. I was starting to bite his head off, but another call was coming in. "Hold on, AJ!" and I pressed the "Flash" button on my phone.
"Hello?"
"Hi Nicole!"
I paused. Something was strange here. "Hi Brian...."
"Something wrong?"
"Yeah...no...hold on," I said and I pressed the "Flash" button once again. "AJ?"
"Hmm?"
"Brian's on the other line. I'll just see you and Howie tonight, k? Or call me later, when I'm actually awake."
"Oh, Brian called?" he sounded upset. "Well, ok. I'll call you later." With that, he hung up. With no "see-ya" or "peace, baby" like he usually says. I cocked my eye brow but switched back to Brian who was waiting patiently.
"Sorry bout that. Wanna talk about something?"
"Well, kinda....yeah...a little...," he hesitated to talk to me. He seemed shy all of a sudden. I smiled and thought how sweet Brian was.
"Come on, if you wanna say something, say it."
"Do you wanna go dancing tomorrow night with me and Nick?" My mouth hung open. Something was definetly wrong. Why was everyone all of a sudden asking me out? It felt nice...ah ha! I knew why!
"I guess so. Brian, tell me the truth about this," I said.
"Truth?!" he gulped.
"Um, yeah. Are you guys asking me out and stuff to make me feel better about Jeff? It's really sweet of you, I just wanted to point that out." No answer. "Brian? Still there?"
"Oh, yeah. Uh-huh. Very sweet of us, huh? Well, I gotta go so I'll call you later about tomorrow. See ya!" With that, he slammed down the phone. I stared at my phone with wide eyes and shook my head.
"Boys," I muttered.
I quickly changed into some flared jeans and pulled on an Adidas t-shirt. I brushed my hair so much that it started getting frizzy. Finally, I was satisfied with my hair in a messy bun so I ran down the stairs and strolled into the kitchen. I was surprised to see my whole family sitting around the table, still in their pajamas and slippers.
"Hi ya'll," I said cheerfully as I pulled out my chair.
"Hi nothin'," mumbled Kaitlyn.
"Kaitlyn," my mom warned. "Be nice."
"What's up with everyone?" I asked.
"Your stupid phone calls woke us up!" Kaitlyn complained to me, with a dangerous and sleepy look in her eyes. I laughed and poured some coffee for myself.
"I'm sorry, Kait. You won't believe what happened," I said. Everyone was quiet as I sipped my black coffee. They all stared at me, waiting for me to talk.
"Well?" asked my dad.
"Well what?"
"You gonna tell us what happened or not?"
"Oh! AJ and Howie asked me to the movies, and then Brian and Nick asked me to go dancing with them. Very strange, but also very sweet. I think they're trying to make me feel better about Jeff. Aren't they just the most adorable guys?"
"What makes you think they're trying to help you about Jeff?" my mom asked, observing my face with a mysterious smile.
"I mean, is there any other reason? All of them but AJ and Brian have steady girlfriends. I just figured that...," I shrugged.
"That's very thoughtful of them," Mom commented. "Not many guy friends would actually do that if they had girlfriends."