He looked up and saw Theresa standing there. "Theresa... I don't want you to leave me."
"Travis please let me explain." she said feeling bad as she saw that he had been crying for quite some time. "Can I sit down?"
"Yeah..." he said looking away.
"Travis, I never wanted to hurt you. You treated me the way every girl wants to be treated....."
"Then what's wrong? How come you want to break up?" he asked innocently.
"It's not you Travis, it's me.. Ever since I got here I had a crush on Nick.. and when I met you, you reminded me so much of him, but I didn't realize it till last night why I liked you. I'm sorry... I'm the idiot here. I was at a time of anger and sadness when I met you and you took my problems away. I know I'm losing such a great guy, but my heart tells me that I can't hurt you anymore and worst of all like that." she said as she started to cry.
"So you used me?"
"No..I never used you, I... I... I guess I just owe you a really big apology." she sobbed.
"Theresa, it's okay... you mean everything to me and I'll do anything to keep you by my side, even if it means that we have to be friends."
"I'm sorry..." she kept saying.
"Theresa, I do love you and I hope when you go back to New York you'll keep in touch with me..."
"I have to talk to you about that....I'm moving down here. My dad and Dawn's dad got jobs down here. I just found out."
"Oh.." he said sadly.
"But I will keep in touch. I want us to be friends. But you deserve better, I haven't treated you the way you should be treated." Theresa said.
"Don't worry, I understand now, but I just wish you told me last night instead of running out. It hurt..."
"I'm sorry.." she reached over and gave him a hug. "I'm glad you undestand... and I'm glad that we are going to be friends."
"Same here." Travis smiled weakly. 'I really want you to be my girlfriend though.' he said to himself as he embraced her.
Back at the house, Nick was sitting in front of the TV watching some baseball. As Karen was in the shower and Brian was in his room pacing around. 'I have to pull myself together. I have a life ahead of myself, I can't let Leigh Anne or anyone else bother me.' he said to himself. 'I don't know why I'm letting this bother me so much.' he sat down and flopped back into his bed. 'Man, I need to go catch some fresh air, maybe I'll go do some shopping by myself.' He got up and got dressed.
As he was about to leave, Karen stopped him. "Hey, where are you going?"
Brian looked up and saw Karen in a bathrobe, "Well, I'm going for a walk, I need some time alone..." he said. "Plus now you and Nick have the house to yourself. Kev and Howie are going to be with A.J.'s mom all day...so have fun!" he teased.
"Are you okay?" Karen asked worried.
"Yeah I'm fine. I just need to get out of the house today. I'll see you later alright?"
"Wait! Do you need someone to be with you right now? I'm worried about you Brian." Karen said.
"No, you stay here with Nick, it's best if I'm alone right now. I'll be home in time for dinner alright?" Brian said.
"Oh..." she said sad. "Okay."
"Look, I need time to think things through. I have a lot going through my mind right now."
"Well, do you want to talk about it?"
"Karen, you know that if I wanted to talk about it YOU and NICK would be the first people I'd come to... Please, don't worry about me." Brian assured.
Karen looked at him with worried eyes. "Okay... just feel better alright? And if you need anything.. I'm here..." she said grabbing his arm.
"I know you are, thank you for that..." Brian reached out and gave her a hug. He could smell the beautiful scent of fresh fruits all over her. "You're a great friend... and I wouldn't trade anything for that..." he said looking her in the eyes and gave her a peck on the cheek. "YOU get back to Nick and I'll see you later."
Karen smiled, "Okay..." she yelled out as Brian left. She walked into her room touching her cheek. 'I hope he feels better, I just wish I knew what was bothering him.' She opened up her closet. 'I owe him a lot for giving me a place to live, a family to love and a closet of clothes.' she smiled to herself. 'Without him I woudn't know where I'd be right now.' she thought. 'And Nick... he's so sweet. Who would've thought I'd be with him right now?' she looked into her closet, 'Hmmm.. what should I wear?' She looked around and spotted an outfit that would impress Nick. She put it on and dried her hair.
"Nick, I'm going out for a bit," Brian said.
"Where are you going?" Nick asked.
"I'm going to do some shopping..." Brian said.
"Shopping? By yourself? Do you want us to come?"
"Nah, you and Karen enjoy the time alone.... Kev and Howie won't be back till later this evening and I'll be back by dinner time. So be good?" Brian laughed.
"Haha," Nick said sarcastically. "But are you sure you want to be alone?"
"Man, you're just like Karen, she asked me the same thing upstairs."
"Oh, did she...?" Nick smiled.
"Yeah, well, see ya!" Brian said closing the door behind him.
Theresa sat with Travis down in the looby for about a half hour. Everything seemed to be going well, the tears stopped and now they were just getting to know each other as friends. "Travis? I'm glad you want to be friends after the way I've treated you, you don't know how much it means to me."
"Anything for you, Theresa."
Meanwhile Dawn came down to the lobby to find Theresa and she spotted her with Travis, she wanted tospend some time with her best friend since they hadn't spent much time with each other since she started to go out with Aaron and her with Travis. But she decided to leave the two alone for awhile.
Theresa spotted Dawn and yelled out to her. "Dawn! Come here."
'Wow, she sounds happy, I wonder if they got back together.' Dawn said walking towards them. "What's up?" she said.
"Come join us, we're having a wonderful conversation here." Theresa smiled.
"Well, I don't want to intrude. Travis? How are you doing?" Dawn asked.
"I'm doing fine, Theresa and I decided to stay friends."
"You did?" Dawn said surprised.
"Yeah we did. I explained everything him and you're not going to be intruding on anything. So sit down." Theresa said.
"Okay?!" she said sitting down a little surprised at how well Travis was taking it. She looked at him curiously though. 'He still likes her very much.' she said noticing the way he looked at her. 'But I guess...'
"So Dawn, how come you're not with Aaron today?" Theresa asked.
"Well, I thought I'd spend today with my best friend. Ever since I've been with Aaron we haven't hung out as much... and I thought it'd be nice to spend some time together today with no problems and.... spend time like we always do in New York."
"Well, that sounds like a great idea. Do you want to join us Travis?"
"Nah, it's okay, remember today's my brother's birthday, we're heading to Disney World today.. you guys go and have fun!" he said.
"Well, I'm glad we had our talk, and I'm glad we are still friends. I hope to see you again later." Theresa said.
"Definately." he smiled.
"Well, we're off, where to Dawn?" Theresa asked.
"Let's go check out the stores and do some shopping..." she grinned.
"Alright! Let's go!"
'That's the Theresa I know, I'm glad she's back!' Dawn smiled to herself.
At the house, Karen walked down the stairs, "Ahem!" she said trying to get his attention.
Nick quickly turned his head, he looked at the girl with surprised eyes. She was wearing a pair of tight blue jean shorts with a tight white tank top that showed her full figure. "Well, what did I do to deserve a beautiful girl like this?" Nick grinned. "Come here you beautiful thing." Karen walked towards him and sat down on the other side of the couch. She planned to tease him. "Now why do you have to sit so far away? I don't bite." he smiled.
"Well, we have the place to ourselves and I don't want you to be a bad boy." she smiled as they flirted with each other.
"I won't be bad," Nick said moving towards her. "I just want to watch some TV with you," he said putting his arms around her. As he turned to watch the television, Karen noticed that his eyes kept wandering back to her. He continued to flip through the channels. All of a sudden, he turned the TV off and faced Karen. "There's nothing on...." he grinned.
"Sure Nick, give me that..." she said turning the TV back on. She found a soap opera on TV.. "Look, 'Days of Our Lives' is on...."
"Don't tell me you watch this garbage..." Nick joked.
"Garbage?" Karen laughed. "This isn't garbage, it's very interesting, the show went from memory loss to demons to deciet to mind programming.. it's not garbage," she laughed. She looked at Nick, "Yeah, I guess it is garbage. It's not reality." She changed the channel to MTV. On the screen was the video 'You Drive Me Crazy,' by Britney Spears. "Hey, whose this?"
"Britney Spears... she's on our label."
"I like this song..." she smiled. She started to sing the chorus imitating Spears, "U drive me crazy, I just can't sleep, I'm so excited I'm in too deep..." She got up and started to dance.
Nick sat there laughing at his crazy girlfriend. He got up to join her. They continued to dance crazily until the song ended. The two stood there laughing. "Man, you're a crazy girl ya know?" he said to Karen while grabbing her around the waist.
"Well, crazy I am.... But I'm crazy for you." Karen said softly. She slowly looked up and kissed him. Then she looked on the TV, 'God Must've Spent A Little More Time On You' came on. "Hey it's those hotties." she said letting go of Nick and sitting right in front of the TV.
Nick stood there and chuckled. "Hello, I'm still here, you know?" he said sitting down beside her. He watched her intently as her eyes were glued to the television. He got up and shut all the blinds in the house and dimmed the lights. He leaned into her ear and whispered, "Hey, want to dance?" He held out his hand.
Karen looked up at him. "Sure."
He pulled her up. And they started to dance. They grew closer and closer as she leaned her head on his chest. Karen felt his breathe on her neck. "You know what? This is our first dance as a couple." he whispered.
Karen looked up at the blonde cutie in her arms. "I know." She leaned on her chest again and embraced him tighter.
As they continued to dance, they danced their way towards the couch. Nick picked her up as their faces were levelled with each other. "Did I tell you that you're beautiful?" he said.
Karen smiled. "Yeah, probably about 50 times..." she leaned in and kissed him. They deepened the kiss and Nick laid her on the couch. The music kept playing as they continued to kiss. Karen laid beside Nick, "Well, I guess that is now labelled our song..." she laughed softly.
"Yeah, our first dance..." Nick yawned.
"Nick.." Karen said tired.
"Yeah.." Nick said also tired.
"I want you to know that it's.... great to be.... in your arms..." she drifted as she fell asleep.
"It's great to have... you in... my arms..." he too drifted asleep as he held her tightly.
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