"What the hell?" Catlyn asked herself as she lay on her bed in the dark room. "What was I thinking?" She stared at the ceiling, watching the shadows dance. Thoughts of Nick drifted to her mind. The way he had touched her, the way he had kissed her. His voice, his smell. Tears trickled down her cheeks as she thought of the love she'd pushed away out of fear. Reaching over, she picked up the phone, dialing his number.
"Hello?" a soft feminine voice answered.
"Umm…is Nick there?" Catlyn asked, unsure if she'd dialed the correct number.
"Yes, may I ask who's calling?"
"Catlyn."
"Hold on a sec," the girl murmured. Catlyn could hear her say something to someone. She heard Nick in the background growl something and then there was the shuffling of the phone being handed off.
"Hello?"
"N-n-nick?" Catlyn asked. It had been almost a week since she'd talked to him, but her heart still beat wildly at the sound of his voice.
"Who the fuck else would it be, who is this?"
"Catlyn," she replied softly.
"What do you want?"
"I…wanted…I…nothing. I'm sorry for bothering you," she whispered.
"Wait!" he exclaimed as she hung up the phone.
Catlyn broke down in tears, the pain of what she had lost causing a huge weight to attach itself to her heart. "I can't stay here," she said sitting up. "But I can't go home. What the hell am I to do?" she sighed. "Everything reminds me of him. I can't…get away." The phone rang suddenly, jarring her out of her thoughts. Looking at it in surprise, she picked up the receiver apprehensively. "Hello?"
"Catlyn?"
"Adam?" she asked, relieved that it wasn't Nick calling her back. "How'd you know where I was?"
"Because…you emailed me the other day, dingbat," he laughed.
"Oh. Forgot, sorry," she grinned.
"Forgetting your little brother, I'm crushed," he said with mock dejection.
Catlyn giggled. "What are you up to?"
"Nothing. Just wondering when you're going to come home. Perry is getting married next week…just wondering if you were going to make it."
Catlyn was silent for a moment, an idea forming in her mind. "Perry is getting married?" Perry was her cousin that she'd practically grown as sisters with. If Catlyn missed her wedding, Perry would hate her for life. This was the opportunity to get away from everything here. Nothing at home would remind her of Nick or anything reminding her of the Backstreet Boys. "Of course I'm going to be there. Tell mom that I'm going to be arriving in Wichita on Thursday."
"That quick?" Adam asked with a chuckle. "That's the day after tomorrow."
"But of course," she grinned. "Gotta make sure I'm there in time for the hoopla of the wedding."
"Great," he said, excitement creeping in his voice. They talked for a little while, Adam telling her all of the trouble he'd been getting in to. His antics always made her laugh. Catlyn soon heard her mother's voice in the background, and then heard Adam sigh. "Well, I've gotta go. Mom wants me to go to the store and stuff. I'll see you Thursday then."
"Yup," Catlyn nodded. "Thursday. Love ya," she said hanging up the phone. "Now to get ready," she grabbing the phone book to look up the number for the airline company.
She called up the airlines, reserving her flight for Thursday. Looking around the room, she gathered her things into one area so she could stuff them in her bag tomorrow night. She then sat down at the table with a sheet of paper and a pen, composing a letter to Nick.
"Who is Catlyn?" Shelly asked, stroking Nick's hair as he rested his head on her chest.
"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled, closing his eyes. He felt like shit. Partly due to the amount of alcohol he'd drank, partly due to what he was doing to the poor girl sitting next to him. But most of it could be contributed to the ache he'd been carrying in his heart since the day Catlyn had told him she didn't feel anything for him. Could it have only been a week? It felt like an eternity since he'd seen her smile, since he'd heard her laugh.
"Isn't she Kyndall's friend?" Shelly asked twisting a piece of his hair around her finger.
"I said I don't want to talk about it," he growled, sitting up.
"I'm sorry Nick. I was just…I just…" she said her eyes filling with tears.
"Look," he sighed running a hand over his face. "I just want to be alone."
"Okay," Shelly said softly, getting up. Grabbing her clothes from the end of the bed, she slowly dressed and then walked to the door. Looking back at Nick sitting with head in his hands, she fought back the urge to run to him, walking out the door quickly.
"Fuck," he said, falling back on the bed. He slowly fell into a troubled sleep, his dreams filled with images of Catlyn and how things should have been with them.
"Leaving?" Kyndall asked Catlyn. "Why?" Kyndall had stopped by the room to check on Catlyn, worried after the display Justin had put on. Catlyn had told her of her plans to go home on Thursday.
"I'm going to go to Perry's wedding and then hang out around home for a while. Give me some time to work things out."
Kyndall sighed. "Well, I can't say that I'm overly thrilled that you're leaving me, but at least you're not going with Keebler and crew."
"God," Catlyn groaned. "Don't remind me of the nightmare that was. I must admit, Joey wasn't so bad. He was kind of cool. But the rest of them. Wow. Talk about psychos," she said shaking her head.
"Yeah, Justin seemed kind of controlling," Kyndall commented.
"Oh definitely," Catlyn nodded. "Too controlling. JC was just as bad. And I wasn't even WITH him. Lance was kind of an airhead. Doing whatever the other two told him too. Chris was too busy with his fiancée person to notice anything else. So that only left Joey that I connected with. I think it pissed Justin off that Joey and I was friends. I'm gonna miss his Pillsbury self," she giggled.
"I'm just glad you're smiling again," Kyndall said softly.
"Yeah, well," Catlyn shrugged. "As long as I don't think of the mess that I made of things, it's all good."
Kyndall nodded. "Well, I hope things work out," she said hugging her friend tightly. "I'm going to miss you."
"I'll miss you, too. But you'll have AJ," Catlyn grinned.
"Yes, I'll have AJ."
