Aaron quickly got up to answer the door. "Hey Brian, what's up? Hey...umm..is it Karen? Come on in. Everyone's in the living room." He ran back to the family room, taking a seat next to Dawn grinning.
Brian walked into the living room and apologized for his tardiness. "I'm sorry guys, something came up and I had to take care of it. Now it's taken care of and I'm here."
"Hey, where's Karen?" asked Howie. He wanted to see what she looked like in the dress.
"Yeah, where's Karen." Kevin asked.
"She'll be here in a sec, she had to use the bathroom." Brian said.
"Oh. Bri, can I talk to you for a sec?" asked Kevin.
"Sure." Brian said following Kevin into the hallway.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Kev, not now, please! Can we wait till we get home?" Brian begged.
"Brian, if something's wrong I want to help."
"Please, Kev, not now!"
"Alright when we get home."
They headed back to the living room to join everyone else.
A couple of minutes later, Brian caught a glimpse of Karen peeking in at the corner. He got up and grabbed her arm. "Come on, Karen, don't be shy." he whispered.
"I can't Brian, I can't!" she begged.
"Don't worry, no one's going to bite you!"
"Please, no..."
"Karen..you promised to have a good time?" he said with puppy dog eyes.
"Okay," she couldn't resist it.
"I know you met them before but let me introduce you to them formally. I promise I won't let go of your hand until your 100 % comfortable." Brian said happily. He walked to the entrance of the living room holding Karen's hand. Karen still hiding around the corner. "Well, guys, THIS is Karen..." She remained behind the corner. "Karen come on!" Brian whispered loudly. Everyone laughed. "Okay, I'll do this again! Everyone please meet Karen." She still wouldn't budge. "One second..." Brian said. He disappeared for a couple of seconds. "Okay, one more time. I'd like you all to meet Karen." Brian pulled at her wrist and she jumped a couple steps next to him.
Everyone was silent. 'WOW! She looks gorgeous.' Nick thought to himself.
'To think, a girl with all that dirt on her face, turned out to be pretty.' Dawn thought. Dawn looked over at Theresa who had a disappointed look on her face. 'I wonder what's on her mind right now.'
Karen looked at Brian like she wanted to get out of there as fast as she could. Brian looked out at the seven faces just starring at Karen. Karen whispered to Brian, "Umm..what are they looking at?" Brain just smiled.
"Okay guys, you sure know how to make someone feel uncomfortable." Brian said jokingly trying to break the silence. "Hello?! Earth to people. God, it's like you were all abducted by aliens or something."
A ring of "I'm sorries" rang throughout the room.
"Karen I must say you do look good in that dress." Kevin said. "Man, I have good taste don't I. Ha, I'm kidding!" He whispered to Howie, "It fits perfectly in all the right places."
"Kevin, I think she's a little too young for you." Howie whispered back.
"No I wasn't thinking that. God, Howie..who do you think I am?" Kevin said offended.
"Never mind!" Howie said shaking his head.
Brian still holding onto Karen's hand. "This is my cousin Kevin and this is Howie, as you have already met them." He led her to the couch. "This is A.J."
"Nice to meet you Karen, I'm sorry for my rudeness that day.."
"Don't worry about it, it's forgotten." Karen said.
"And, this is Aaron, Nick's brother, and Dawn." Brian continued.
"Nice to meet you, Karen." Dawn said nicely.
"You already know Nick." Brian said. "And lastly this is Theresa."
Theresa just looked at her. Nick's eyes just followed her as she went around the room with Brian.
Brian led her to an empty space on the couch and sat down. "Come on sit down." Karen sat down obediently. "See no one is biting you YET!" he laughed.
"Be quiet! I'm just nervous. You've known these people for quite awhile and I've known them for what? A whole 5 minutes?!?" Karen said quietly.
"Okay, okay! I'm sorry, my bad!" Brian smiled. He shouteded out to Nick who has been in a daze ever since Karen walked in, "So when are we going to eat? I'm starved!!!"
"Yeah, I'm hungry!" A.J. jumped in.
"My dad's almost done barbecuing the chicken wings...but the steaks are done! Let's go have some of that." Nick suggested.
Everyone followed him into the backyard, where Leslie, BJ and Angel were already eating with Mrs. Carter.
"Hello, everyone!" Mrs. Carter said.
"Ladies, this is my family." introduced Nick. "This is BJ, Leslie and Angel. This is my mom and my dad. Guys..this is Theresa, Dawn and Karen."
"Nice to meet you beautiful ladies," said Mrs. Carter.
"Nice to meet you too Mrs.Carter." Theresa said.
"Please..call me Jane!" Mrs. Carter said.
"And me Bob!" Mr. Carter jumped in.
Everyone laughed. Brian still held onto Karen's hand. He could feel her hand trembling. She was really, really nervous.
"Yo Brian..can I talk to you for a second?" Nick asked. "Alone?" Looking at Brian and Karen.
"Umm..yeah, hold on a sec." Brian said. He turned over to Karen, "I know that I promised to be with you until your totally comfortable, but do you think I can go talk to Nick for a quick second?"
"Umm...yeah..sure! Just come back quick okay?" Karen said trembling.
"Yeah. Kev, can you keep Karen company for a bit?" Brian asked.
"Sure," Kevin replied.
Brian followed Nick into the house. "What's up, Nick?"
"Brian, what's going on?" Nick asked. "Don't you remember that you have a girlfriend?"
"Yeah, I remember. Nothing's going on if you mean between me and Karen. I'm just trying to make her feel comfortable around us." he tried to explain.
"Nothing's going on? You guys are holding hands and talking awfully close with each other. Come on Brian you can't hide this from me!" Nick yelled.
"Nick, calm down! Nothing is going on! God, I'm just trying to help her, okay? Isn't that what you wanted? To help this girl...it's hard, on me, on her and....Leigh Anne...Leigh Anne..." Brian said angrily.
"I'm sorry Bri," Nick said. 'I've never seen him yell like this before. Something is up.' he thought. "God, Bri, please tell me what's wrong. Something is really bothering you, I'm not your best friend for nothing."
"Do you promise not to say anything, not to anyone." Brian warned.
"Brian, I'm your best friend, you can trust me with anything."
"Leigh Anne stopped by today just when I was about to leave my house with Karen to come here. Karen and I were having a few laughs and as I opened the door, there she was."
"That doesn't sound too good."
"No, she thinks that I'm cheating on her now. I tried to talk to her about what I told you before and she totally tried to ignore the subject. She was saying how her family is taking up her time and blah blah blah. When I questioned her about her absence, she turned it around making me sound like it was all my fault." Brian explained. "To top it off, she got up and left without saying a word."
"Ouch, that hurts!"
"Now can you see why I'm bothered. I was hoping I didn't show it that much."
"I can see through you remember?"
"Heh, Nick Carter, you can see right through me like I can with you." Brian laughed. "I have a question for you, Nicky dear." he joked. "Do you have the hots for our new friend Karen?"
Nick blushed. "No..yes..umm..I don't know, it's just that everytime she shows up, she tends to be in my mind a lot. Do you know what that is suppose to mean?"
"Hmm..sounds to me you might be interested. Ever since we got here you've been so damn quiet and that is not you at all Mr. Chatterbox. Why don't you get to know her better? She's an all around nice girl, ya know. She has a great sense of humor. I think you guys would hit it off!"
"You think so?" Nick asked happily.
"Yeah, I do. Plus what am I going to do with a beautiful girl like that, when I already have a beautiful girlfriend sitting at her house pissed off at me because she thinks I'm cheating on her." Brian said.
"Thanks B-Rok, your the best!" Nick exclaimed. "Do you think she'll talk to me?"
"Now? Sure I'll go get her! I take it you want to talk alone?" Brian winked.
"Yeah, that'd be wicked." Nick smiled. 'I just hope she'll talk to me.'
"I have to warn you though, you can get to know her better by talking to her, getting to know what her interests are and trying to earn her trust first." Brian suggested.
"Okay, thanks for the advice." Nick said.
Brian walked outside into the backyard to look for Karen. When he spotted her, she was sitting on a bench, looking scared and timid as everyone around her was talking up a storm.
"Dawn? Do you think Nick likes her? He keeps eyeing her like she's some sort of Goddess. Man, when she walked into that living room, everyone was so quiet that I just wanted to scream. I don't even know her and I can't stand her already." Theresa said.
"Theresa? She is very pretty you have to admit. With all that dirt on her face before you'd never imagine a girl like that to be in any kind of trouble."
"Yeah, but...but..now.."
"What are you trying to say Theresa?"
"When I was upstairs in Nick's room before everyone got here, we were having such a good time, laughing and talking. Then we stopped talking and there was a moment of silence, we just starred into each others eyes...he caressed my face and we were just about to kiss..when the doorbell rang, and he has hardly spoken to me or acknowledged it in any sense ever since people got here. This isn't the first time it's happened. Dawn, I don't know what it's suppose to mean, I am so confused right now. It seems like he likes me and then once KAREN shows up, he acts all shy around her as if he likes her or something. What do you think?"
"You guys almost kissed? Man, do people have the wrong timing? Don't worry about it, he'll come to his senses sooner or later. Speaking of kissing, Aaron and I kissed." Dawn smiled.
"What? You guys kissed?"
"Twice."
"Twice? When? How?"
"Well, I beat Aaron at Mario Kart and we were play fighting and one thing led to another and HE kissed me. He was so embarrassed I kissed him back to make it seem less embarrassing. Theresa, it was great."
"So are you guys "a couple" now?" Theresa asked.
"No, he hasn't asked me out yet and we haven't talked about it since. Man, I hope we do become a couple. He's so..so cute!"
"Man, your lucky. I wish Nick and I kissed..."
"You will soon!" Dawn promised.
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