Jen sighed as she pulled into the driveway. She had a lot on her mind while she was at the store and Nick was one of them. She got out of the car and began to take the bags out of the car. Jen quickly glanced over towards the house and saw no one. Then she picked up a few bags that she had out on the ground and walked towards the house. When she got to the front door, she opened it and her mom came right over to help.
"Here," she said, "let me help."
"It's okay mom. I don't have much, just a couple more out side."
"Oh, let me get them," her mom said walking out to get them. Jen began to unpack the bags on the counter in the kitchen.
"Thanks mom," she said when her mom came in with the last few bags.
"Sure no problem." Jen smiled lightly and went back to unpacking the bags. "AJ called," her mother told her breaking the silence.
"He did?" she said stopping to look at her mother.
"Yeah."
"What did he say?"
"Nothing much. He wanted to talk to you, but you weren't here so I told him that I would tell you that he called."
"I'll have to call him later and see what he wanted," she said going back to taking things out of the bag. She was trying to hide the fact that she was excited that he had called. Jen didn't want to seem as if she was getting despriate.
"Why don't you go call him now and see what he wanted. I'll finish up here for you, okay?"
"Alright, thanks," she said slowly walking out of the kitchen. She grabbed the phone in the living room and walked up to her room, closing the door behind her.
"Hey," Nick said, scaring Jen.
"What are you doing in my room?" she asked starttled.
"Sorry if I scared you. Anthony fell asleep. I didn't want to just leave like that," he said from her window seat.
"What was stopping you?" she asked looking at Nick.
"You don't know do you?"
"Know what? Nick what's gotten in to you?"
"Nothing," he said walking towards her, "I just want to thank you for letting me come see Anthony."
"Well, your welcome. I'll see you," she said getting a little nervious as Nick came closer to her. "Nick, you're making me uncomfortable," she said when he didn't answer.
"It's okay," he said, "I'm not going to do anything."
"Then maybe you should just leave now," she said.
"I know you really don't want me to leave, now do you?"
"Yes I do," she said backing up and hitting right into the door.
"Come on Jen, don't lie to me," he said putting his hands on the door above her head. He was now face to face with Jen.
"Nick, don't lie to yourself," she snapped.
"Oh come on. I know you love me. You even said so."
"Nick, I was scared. People do things that they never would for the people that they love, Anthony was who I was thinking about. I wanted him to have his father, that's all."
"I heard the sinceriatry in your voice," he said not giving in an inch.
"Fake." Nick just looked her and said and did nothing for what felt like forever. "Yeah, Nick, you were fooled. Just like I was throughout our whole relationship. Hurts doesn't it? To think that someone loved you and have it turn out to be a lie. Makes you feel bad huh? Now you know I felt when I found out it was all a lie."
Nick backed away from her and sat on the bed. Jen took in a deep breath and relaxed. She was glad that he didn't do anything because that was a brave thing that Jen just did.
"You lied?" he said after a few minutes.
"Yes."
"Why?" he asked.
"I wanted you there for Anthony. He needs a father, there is only so much that I can do alone," she said seriously. She looked at Nick, he seemed to be confussed about everything. "You alright?"
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine."
"I didn't think that you would actually believe me. I mean I thought that you would think that after everything.. well I was stupid, but I'm not as stupid as you thought I was."
"Jen, I'm sorry for what I just did," he said looking at her, "I thought.."
"That you could take advantage of me. I know that you never loved me. You just wanted to have a little fun with me then leave me again. I know that that's what you were thinking just a few minutes ago," she interupted.
"I'm going to go now," he said getting up from the bed, "Again, I'm sorry Jen." She just looked at him as he opened the door and left. Jen turned on the phone and called AJ.
"Hello?" he answered.
"AJ, this is Jen. My mom told me that you called," she said.
"Yeah, I did."
"So what's up?" she asked.
"I just heard that Nick got out of the hospital. Have you talked to him?"
"He just left."
"Oh, he was there seeing Anthony?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that's good. Do you think that he's going to stay around for long?"
"I have no idea. We're just going to have to wait and see what happens now won't we?"
"I guess. Hey, I wanna ask you, did you tell Nick that you loved him? Brian told me that Nick said....."
"Yes AJ I did. Don't worry, I knew what I was doing. I was right in thinking that Nick would believe me and come by and see Anthony."
"You lied?"
"Yeah."
"You're a sly girl. Do you know that?" he said smiling to himself.
"Yeah well, he took it more seriously than I hoped. When I got home, Anthony was sleeping and Nick was in my room. He was going to try and take advantage of me until I told him that it was all a lie."
"What did he do?"
"He had me backed up agaisnt the wall. His face was in my face and I have no idea what he had on his mind that that point. He was saying about how I had told him that I loved him and all that, but I told him that it was all fake and he couldn't believe it. He was shocked."
"Go Jen!! I would have loved to have seen the look on his face when you told him that it was all a lie!" She laughed. "So now what are you going to do?"
"I have no idea," she confessed.
"Do you know where he went?"
"No but I don't think that he is going to want to come back anytime soon."
"Well, your plan worked for the most part, but now what are you going to do? You got him there once how do you get him back again?"
"I had hoped that he wouldn't do anything like this. Having him here would have been good for Anthony. I just thought that he wouldn't have moved so quickly on it, I thought I would have had time to come up with something else."
"Hey it was worth it," he said.
"Yeah it was." She smiled at herself; AJ sighed. "So, what do you want to talk about now?"
"I don't know."
"Me either."
"We'll I guess I'll be talkin to you," he said.
"Yeah, you will."
"Okay, bye."
"Oh, and AJ.." she said.
"Yeah?" he said eagerly.
"Um..." she said not really sure what she wanted to say to him, "I..," she paused and took a breath, "I want to thank you for being a great friend," she said, regreting as soon as she said it.
"Oh," he said disappointed, "Yeah, of course."
"Well, I'll see you."
"Yeah, bye."
"Bye," she said hanging up.
Chapter 29