"Nick!" Kyndall exclaimed opening the door. "What are you doing here?" she asked looking around him.
He laughed. "Well, I could leave," he said starting to turn and walk away.
"No, no. It's okay," she smiled. "I just…didn't expect you. Catlyn's not here," she stated as he walked in and she shut the door.
He nodded. "I know. She's with Brian and Leighanne."
"Okay. So, you came to see me?" she asked walking over and sitting down on the chair.
Nick laughed. "Why is that so hard to believe?"
She shrugged. "I don't know. Because you never did before?"
"I'm sorry," he smiled.
"Would you like something to drink?" Kyndall asked motioning towards the kitchen.
"Umm…no," he shook his head. "I'm okay."
"So…" she said looking around nervously. "How are things with you?"
Nick chuckled. "I'm not going to bite you."
"What? Oh!" she giggled. "I know. I just…like I said, this is a surprise."
"I didn't interrupt anything did I?" he asked looking around.
"No. I was just playing around on the computer," she smiled. "Looking up stuff."
"What was ya looking for?"
"Oh…umm…just random stuff," Kyndall replied evasively.
"Hmm," Nick murmured. He wanted to pursue the topic, but decided to drop it. "Ya know. I don't think I've ever really been inside here before," he said gazing around the room.
Kyndall laughed. "Not much to it. Lotsa junk. Catlyn collects everything," she shook her head.
"Oh really? And what do you collect?"
She thought for a minute. "Umm…CDs," she grinned.
"CDs?" he asked, looking at her funny.
She nodded. "I have over 500."
"You're kidding, right?" Nick said, his eyes wide in surprise.
Kyndall shook her head slowly. "No, I'm quite serious."
"What the hell do you do with that many CDs?"
"Umm…listen to them?" she replied.
"When? That's like…" he looked up at the ceiling, counting. "Way too many hours to count."
Laughing, she shook her head. "I listen to a couple of songs here, a couple of songs there. I'm quite a moody person, and I have music for all of my moods."
"Hmm. Remind me the next time I'm looking for a CD, to just call you up and ask you for a review on it," Nick teased. He jumped suddenly as his phone rang. "Excuse me for a second," he said looking at Kyndall. "Hello?" he answered it. "What? >pausepause< Oh. I don't know. Why? >pausepausepause< Kyndall. >pause< Catlyn? No. What difference does that make? >pausepausepause< Look, now's not the time. >pausepause< No. I'm not going to," he sighed and looked over at Kyndall. "Look, I have to go. >pausepause< Crys, come on. Stop it. >pausepausepause< Whatever. I'll call you in a bit. >pause< No. I have to go. Bye. >pause< Yeah. I love you too," he murmured as he hung up. "Sorry about that," he said softly.
Kyndall smiled softly. "It's okay. It uh…sounds like ya'll are having problems," she said looking over at him. He nodded, but didn't say anything, just looked at his phone as he turned it slowly in his hands. "Anything that you'd like to talk about?" she asked, moving over next to him on the couch. "I know that we aren't exactly the best of friends, but I'm a pretty good listener."
He smiled, turning his head sideways to look at her. "Yeah. Catlyn mentioned that about you." Sighing, he looked back down at his hands. "I met Crystal about two years ago. We were at a show in Tampa. It was really cool, being back at home, performing for all the people that I have known for years," he gave a short laugh. "My friends Mark and Corey were in the audience making faces, throwing things, basically just making asses of themselves. I had a hard time concentrating because they were being so crazy. Sitting next to them was this really cute girl, who kept giving them dirty looks. I could tell she was really annoyed with them. So during one of the intermissions, I had Darnell, one of our security guys bring Mark over to me. I told him to chill out because he was disturbing this chick's experience," he shook his head. "Mark laughed at me and told me that I was a wimp and needed to get over my fear of girls and just ask the girl out because me being on stage wasn't impressing her. She was there to see Howie, not him."
Kyndall laughed. "Oh no," she murmured.
Nick nodded. "So, I went back onstage, and performed my heart out, making sure she was the center of my attention. I think I pissed the guys off a bit because I was paying so much attention to her and I was kind of glued to the spot in front of her." He sighed. "Anyway, she left and I didn't get her number, her name or anything."
"Awww," Kyndall said.
Nick smiled. "It's all good though, because Mark, being the best friend that he is, had already gotten it for me. So, I called her up, and after a bit of convincing got her to go out on a date with me. And the rest they say, is history." He looked at Kyndall and smirked. "Touching isn't it? We fight all the time. Nothing I do is really good enough for her. I'm messy, play too many video games, play too much basketball. Heaven forbid I'm away doing my job. But when I'm home, she's rarely around for me to do anything with. When she does come on the road with me, all she does is complain because she doesn't get to sleep, the food is crap, she gets tired of going to the same show every night…blahblahblah."
"Hmmm," Kyndall murmured. "Have you talked to her?"
Nick nodded slowly. "Yeah. But it really doesn't do anything. Nothing changes. We're slowly falling apart, and I don't know what to do to stop it."
"Do you think that ya'll would be better off if you weren't together?" she asked quietly.
"I don't know," he shrugged. "Maybe. To be completely honest with you, I don't think that I love her enough to bother trying to keep up together."
"Oh really?" Kyndall asked surprised.
"Yeah," he said softly. "And that bothers me more than anything." He looked up quickly as the front door opened.
Kyndall glanced over her shoulder and smiled. "Hey Cat," she greeted her friend.
"Hey Kyn," Catlyn smiled. "NICK!" she exclaimed looking at him. "What're you doing here?"
He grinned. "Oh, just chatting with Kyndall. How are ya?"
She shrugged. "I'm doing okay. Just running in to grab a few things, then I'm back out the door. It was nice seeing you," she said walking to her room.
Kyndall looked at Nick as he watched Catlyn walk away. "I wouldn't waste your time," she warned him softly.
"What do you mean?" he asked, tearing his eyes away from the now empty hallway.
"She isn't looking, and even if she was interested, she wouldn't do anything about it."
"But…I'm…not looking -"
"Yes you were," Kyndall smiled. Patting him on the arm, she stood up. "Let's go get something to eat. I'm starving," she said.
