Knock! Knock! Knock! The door interrupted his thoughts. "Nick?" asked a voice. "Can I come in?"
'Brian! No, he can't come in, he'll be disappointed in me, he told me to get to know her better and I --'
"Nick, are you there?"
"Go away!" he yelled.
"Come on, Frack, I'm not leaving until you give me an answer. You can't leave us all hanging here. What happened?" Brian said. "I'm your best friend you can talk to me."
"No, please, go away!"
"Nick, something happened down there and I think you should at least give us an explanation or something. By the looks of it, it must have been serious. You know? I have to take Karen back to my place and being her first night at a new home isn't exactly a great feeling for a person. I just want to make her feel at home and with this in the way, it won't be easy!" Brian said in a strict voice.
Nick slowly opened the door.
"Now what happened?" Brian asked. Nick just looked at him without any expression on his face. "Come on, Nick, I'm going to stay here all night till I find out what exactly happened down there. If you don't tell me, consider our trust forgotten."
"Forget that Brian, me losing your trust is already too late." Nick said sadly.
"What? What are you talking about?" Brian asked curiously.
"I...I..."
"Come one spit it out!"
"Well, I started a conversation with Karen. I don't know what made me do it but I said all these stupid things...." he looked to the ground.
"What stupid things?" Brian asked impatiently.
"I told her I was worried about her because she didn't phone..."
"Ya so..you say stupid things all the time."
"No, I was straight out with her...you told me to get to know her better..well, I told her I had feelings for her and then..."
"Then..."
"...then I kissed her."
"You what?"
"I kissed her."
"Nick, you shouldn't have done that!" Brian said angrily.
"I know I shouldn't have, I couldn't help myself."
"Nick you REALLY shouldn't have."
"I know Brian I know!"
"No, you reall --"
"I GOT IT, ALRIGHT?" Nick yelled. "I apologized and everything. I asked her not to say anything to anyone..."Nick looked at Brian seriously. 'Why is Brian so protective over this situation..I was wrong I know it, but..'
"And.." Brian said.
"She didn't say anything and my reaction was to lean in and give her another kiss, but I only gave her a peck on the cheek, that's it."
"Damn it Nick, I told you to get to know her better, not crawl all over her when you get the chance to."
"Brian I know, I knew that...it was my reaction."
"Your reaction?!?" Brian said losing control of himself. "Nick you can do anything you want, you could have even stopped yourself from making the move. God Nick I shouldn't have let you be alone with her."
"I'm not a kid Brian..!!!"
"Well, what you did sure proves that you are."
"You know what? What I don't understand is how the hell you go off flipping on me...?" Nick said, now angry.
"What are you talking about?"
"You act all perfect here when you have your own problems with Leigh Anne, maybe you should pay attention to your own relationship instead of causing more problems for everyone else."
"You know what? You have no idea what your talking about."
"Oh ya! I forgot, I'm immature, I'm so damn immature."
Nick and Brian continued to argue and argue about nothing.
"Nick, you know what? This isn't about me or Leigh Anne, I admit I am having my own problems with my relationship but you know what? This is about you! Not me. I'm just trying to help out this poor girl here."
"What gives you all the rights to care for this "poor" girl? You don't OWN her. I found her first."
"Found her first? Damn, Nick, what is she an object? Did she call you? Did she open up to you? I'm only trying to help here. I thought you'd be happy that I talked her into staying with us so you could keep your eye on her. Is that all you can think about..you, you, you?"
"I..I..." Nick paused and looked out the window. He didn't know what to say. "I..know..I know..I regret it now, I was stupid for moving too fast, I..just.." He looked towards the ground and a tear rolled down his cheek. "Open up to me?" he said thinking back to what Brian had said. "Did she open up to you?"
Brian realized that yelling wasn't going to solve anything. He didn't want to lose Karen's trust by telling Nick what he knew, but Nick was his best friend and he didn't want to ruin their friendship either. Instead he changed the subject. "And what about Theresa? Can you explain that?" he asked.
"Theresa? I honestly don't know. As I leaned in to kiss Karen, she walked in and the next thing you know it she ran out the door....Brian, did Karen open up to you? Do you know what was wrong with her? What did you guys talk about?" he asked trying not to lose the topic.
"She was crying..." Brian told him trying to ignore the fact that Nick wouldn't let go.
"Theresa? She was?" Nick asked surprised. "But why?"
"Did you do something to her?"
"No..." Nick said. 'What's up with Theresa? And why is Brian trying to ignore the Karen topic? Something is really up.' he thought to himself.
"Nick..I'm going to take Karen home now...she needs some rest." Brian said.
Brian got up to leave.
"Frick, thanks for listening and not getting mad at me." Nick said.
"No problem."
"And Frick?"
"Yeah."
"Please don't tell anyone."
"I won't."
"Bye!" Nick called out, but he was gone. 'Why didn't he tell me what he knows about Karen? I thought we were in this together?' he asked.
As Brian reached downstairs, he saw that Karen hadn't stopped crying. He walked over to Kevin, A.J. and Howie. "Thanks..why don't you guys head home? I don't think Nick is going to come back down." He said to them.
"Was everything alright up there?" Howie asked.
"Yeah, we heard some yelling." A.J. said.
"Was that you yelling?" Kevin said surprised. "You hardly yell, what happened?"
"Nick wouldn't explain anything to me," he lied. "He started pinning things on me for nothing and..you know what? Just forget it, let's all go home and we'll talk it over in the morning, it's been a long day."
"Alright." Kevin agreed. "Brian you have a lot of explaining to do."
"Yeah, explaining...it truly has been a long day!" he mumbled to himself, "What am I getting myself into, really?"
"Well, I better head over to Amanda's house to let her know the party's over." A.J. said.
"Okay, Brian, are you going to take Karen home?" asked Howie.
"Yeah, I'll meet you guys at home." Brian said. "Don't wait up alright?"
"Okay, be careful!" Kevin warned.
"Let's go. You need some rest." Brian said to the helpless girl.
As Brian and Karen got up to leave, Nick was standing at the top of the stairs looking down at the two. 'What's going on with those two?' he thought. 'Brian said nothing was going on between them I have to trust him on that. I just wish that she would....."
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