*The Next Morning*
Nick was up the rest of the night trying to figure out what he was going to do. He had made his decision, he want Nicole but she didn't want him back. All that was left was Stacy but did he want her because Nicole had found someone else? Or Did he really care about her?
After a long night, morning finally came. Stacy was going to want his decision, he wasn't sure if he had come up with one. He decided that maybe he should call Brian for some last minute advice.
"Hello?" Brian answered.
"It's Nick."
"Hey Nick, what's new?"
"Last night was horrible. Nicole called and she told me that she was getting married," he told Brian. He had never told them that he once asked her to marry him because they knew that they would give him a hard time about her saying no.
"Really? Well I guess that makes your decision a lot easier, huh?"
"No because when she called, I had already made my decision. I want Nicole."
"Man she's taken move on. At least you have someone."
"I don't care about Stacy the way I care about Nicole."
"Look Nick, I don't know what to tell you. I know you love Nicole, I don't doubt that at all. But you have to realize that shes moved on and I think you should too. Try things with Stacy, see where they go. Who knows, maybe you'll find happiness."
"I don't think so, I need Nicole." Brian sighed.
"Dude, you need to forget about her, shes forgotten about you."
"No she hasn't, she couldn't have. Not after everything we've shared and everything we've been through. She just can't love someone else."
"But she does." Nick felt his heart drop and a sudden sadness overcame his sences. He didn't know what to do.
"I'm sorry," Brian said when he knew that Nick had taken that offensively, "I didn't mean to hurt you but you have to realize that you are going to have to move on no matter how hard it is."
"Why? There has to be something I can do."
"Nick, the only thing you can do is be happy for her. Who ever this guy is, he has to be a hell of a guy because I know how much she loved you. I don't think that she could ever forget about you."
"Then why would she do this to me?"
"Nick, shes not doing anything to you. She moved on and I know that she would want you to move on as well so please just be with Stacy so that at least you're not alone. You and Nicole can always be friends."
"I don't want Stacy. Last night I realized that I was only with her because I didn't want to be alone and thats not fair to her. Its not like I care about her in anyway. I thought I did, but then I realized that I was looking for a replacement for Nicole and I know no one would ever be able to replace her."
"Look, do whats right. If that means dumping Stacy and being alone then ok. But if you want to be with Stacy, thats even better because at least you'll have someone."
"Alright, I will."
"Well, I'll talk to you later, bye."
"Bye," Nick said and hung up the phone. Stacy was going to ask for his decision any minute and he was finally sure that he had come up with the right one. Soon the phone rang and he knew that it was Stacy.
"Hello?" Nick said.
"Well Nick, I'm not going to waste anytime, who do you want?"
"First of all let me say that you making me have to chose was unfair. I should be able to be with you and still be friends with Nicole. Nicole and I go back a long way and I don't want to have to give that up. So incase you haven't already figured it out, let me tell you that its been really nice these past two years and I hope you have a good life."
"Fine Nick, thats how you want it? Great, but don't come crawling back to me when you can't find someone else."
"Don't worry, I won't and thats a promise."
"Alright, I'll remember that. Bye Nick."
"Bye Stacy," he said as he heard her hang up the phone. From there he didn't know where to go. He broke it off with Stacy, he knew that their relationship wasn't right considering the conditions that he had. He wanted Nicole in his life and if and when he decides to be with someone, they are going to have to accept that.
Nick sighed, now he didn't have anyone, but he knew that he had done the right thing. Being with Stacy would have been wrong, he understood that she might be jealious of Nicole because he still loved her very much. In his mind her knew that he could never completely love Stacy because he still thought that Nicole was his one and only. Now what was he going to do? If he wanted to be with Nicole, but she was taken. He knew that he had to let her be happy and that meant that he had to let her marry this other guy. He decided to call her and apologise for last night and congradulate her.
"Hello," came Nicoles voice. He smiled at the sound of it.
"Nicole, its Nick, I want to apologise for last night. I shouldn't have said what I said, but it was how I felt and if I learned anything from you, I learned that I should always express my feelings."
"Thats a good thing to have learned."
"Also, I just want to say congradulations and I hope you and him are very happy," it killed him to say it, but he knew that it was the right thing.
"Thank you Nick," she said and smiled. She was glad that he was accpeting this now.
"I just want you to be happy."
"Thanks, how are you and Stacy doing?"
"We broke up."
"What? Why?"
"She had too many conditions. She said that if I wanted to be with her, I had to stop being friends with you and I figure that if she really cared about me then she would trust me enough to stay friends with you."
"Well maybe she was jealious, or maybe nervous because we are so close and everything. We have a past and maybe she just thought that we would both give in. You can't blame her entirely. I know that if I was in her position I would feel the same way."
"I still can't believe that you're marring someone other than me."
"Believe it. I love you, but we promised to see other people and I feel in love we both knew that this might happen."
"Yeah but I never thought that it would happen. Now that it did, its kind of hard to believe."
"I'm still a little surprised too. I mean I'm the one getting married, soon actually, and this is going to be a big change for me."
"Soon? How soon?" Nick asked suddenly panicing.
"Next month."
"Thats really fast don't you think?"
"Yeah but Josh ends school soon and we want to do this as soon as we can so that we don't have to worry about it."
"Wow," he said feeling heartbroken. A feeling that he had been feeling a lot lately and he figured that was going to be his only emotion for a while.
"I want you to be there."
"I don't know."
"Please? I haven't seen you except on TV since I moved. I would really love it if you would come."
"Nicole...."
"Just think about it. I'll call you with the excate date and time tommrow ok?"
"Alright."
"Thank you. I have to go now. I'll talk to you tommrow."
"Okay, bye," he said and hung up the phone. He didn't have too much time left. What was he going to do?
Chapter 18