Chapter 9
It had been three days after that night and during those days, they got to know each other really well. They would stay up and talk late into the night in Arlet’s room. For those four nights that the Carters have been there, Nick didn’t sleep in his room once. He always slept in her room after all the long talks they had and to make sure she was safe. He wanted to protect her as much as he could. And again, Arlet was totally grateful for it. Every time she woke up and found Nick by her side, with a protective arm slung over her, a huge, appreciative smile would break out on her face.
It’s now have been five days that the Carters had been over and Arlet’s family decided to take them to their condo up at Breckinridge Ski Resort. Arlet decided to stay back to do some Christmas shopping for the seven unexpected guest. Nick stayed with her.
“You ready to go?” Arlet asked as she walked down the stairs into the living room. She found Nick on the N64 that her brother set up.
“Yeah, one minute.” Nick replied without taking his eyes off the screen.
Arlet laughed. “Give it up Nick. My brother will always be better than you. Face it.”
“Oh, we’ll see about that. I’m going to beat him once before we leave. I’m going to beat him if it’s the last thing I do.” He responded determined.
She shook her head unconvincingly. “If you say so.”
Arlet sat on the couch watching Nick. She laughed at the amount of determination Nick had to just beat someone at a video game. She laughed again when the noise of Nick’s scream of defeat filled the room.
“NOOOO!”
“What did I tell you? You’re never going to beat my brother.”
“That was so unfair!” He cried, pointing at the screen.
“Nick! Give it up! C’mon, let’s go shopping.” She chuckled.
“Okay...” He replied very reluctantly. He turned off the game and TV and grabbed his coat and followed Arlet out to her 4-Runner. He got into the passenger seat, crossed his arms and pouted like a little child.
“God! You’re so pathetic! It’s just a game. Gees...” Arlet said looking at Nick with a somewhat amused look on her face.
“Yeah well it’s not just a game to me!”
“I know.”
“I’m going to beat that game! I’ll show you! I’m going to beat that game and you’re going to apologize for doubting me.”
“Yeah and when that day comes, I’ll jump out of my wheelchair and do a dance.” She told him sarcastically and smiling.
“Hey, that sounds familiar.”
“Yeah, it’s in the movie ‘Empire Records.’ It’s my favorite movie. Anyways, let’s do some Christmas shopping.” She exclaimed very cheerfully.
Nick groaned at the word shopping. Arlet backed out of her parent’s driveway and headed towards the Colorado Mills mall.
“So tell me, what kind of stuff does your family like?” She asked while she waited for a space so she could merge onto 6th Avenue.
“Well for BJ, she likes punk and ska music so maybe some CD from a punk or ska band.” Nick told her.
“Really? She likes punk and ska?” He nodded. “Right on! She’s cool. Punk, ska and alternative are my absolute favorite kinds of music. I have just the CD’s to get for her, just hopefully she doesn’t have them.”
“For the twins, maybe some motor crossed stuff. They both like doing that stuff so maybe like a poster of a famous rider and some clothing, if there’s a store that has that kind of things.”
“Sure, I’m pretty sure the Mills has a sporting goods store. It’s a new mall and it’s so much bigger than the other ones around here.
“So uh...what are you going to get me?” Nick asked slyly.
Arlet lifted an eyebrow. “You think I’m going to tell you? Yeah right. You’re going to have to wait till Christmas to find out.”
“Oh c’mon. You can tell me. I’ll tell you what I got you.”
“You haven’t gotten me anything. You didn’t know me until you came here so you wouldn’t know what I would like and I’ve been with you the whole time you’ve been here. Nice try. Besides, I wouldn’t want to know what you got me. I liked to be surprised.”
“Man! I want to know what you got me!” He whined in a very childlike manner.
Arlet laughed. “Man, you are so pathetic. Have I told you that already?”
“Yeah, about ten bazillion times.”
“Yeah well, I didn’t say I got you something yet anyways. I still have to figure out how I’m going to purchase it without you knowing it’s for you.”
She turned to look at Nick and lifted her eyebrow once more. He smiled at her broadly. When they arrived at the new Colorado Mills mall, it seemed to be busy from all the people getting their Christmas shopping done before all the gifts were taken. It was five days until Christmas so it would of been hard to get any of the real decent gifts.
“Man, I wish I knew you guys were coming earlier so I could of done this before you guys came and didn’t have to during this mayhem. Let’s just hope there’s some decent stuff left.” Arlet said.
Nick followed her, wearing a green beanie and heavy, warm sweater. Arlet laughed at him.
“What?” He asked.
“Why are you wearing sunglasses? There’s barely any sun out and we’re inside. What? Are the lights going to blind you? C’mon, you’re concerts have brighter lights than these I’m sure.”
“Yeah well, it’s my disguise. Don’t want to be mobbed. You never know what will happen when hundreds of girls come running towards you. It can be scary at points.”
“Ok, whatever.” She rolled her eyes. They entered the mall and looked around. “Let’s go this way. We’ll just look around and hopefully we’ll see something for your family.” Arlet told him and she pointed towards her left. The two of them walked down the mall, looking into different stores to see what to get Nick and his family.
As they walked, occasionally they would get stopped by a couple people who were fans of Arlet and her band. She graciously offered to sign autographs and take picture with them. She would even talk to them for about five to ten minutes. Nick stood back and watched with a big smile on his face. Nick was impressed how well Arlet handled her fans. She didn’t turn down a single autograph, didn’t say no at getting her picture taken and even answered all the questions they threw at her. One of her fans even asked her if he was her boyfriend and Arlet just shot an amused look over at him and just told them he was her good friend. She didn’t act differently around them than she did around her family, his family and around him. No one asked for his autograph and he thought it was good change for once. After the fans left, Arlet turned to Nick. She was beaming.
“You handled those fans real well.” Nick said truthfully.
“Oh thanks. Yeah, I love my fans. I never get tired of them asking for my autograph. I know what it was like to ask for someone’s autograph and get turned down. I don’t want to do that to them.” She replied, still glowing. “Anyways, I think I got stuff for everyone except for BJ. Let’s go down to FYE. It’s at the other side of the mall.”
“Okay, sounds good to me.”
They walked all the way down to the other side of the mall and into the FYE.
“I’m going to go look over here.” Arlet informed him. He nodded and then turned to look at another rack of CD’s.
Arlet walked over to the rock section of the store and started to look through the CD’s for the ones she wanted to get for Nick’s sister. As she looked at one CD, she could feel someone behind her. She ignored at first but noticed the feeling was still there. At first she thought it was Nick. But she was way off.
“Hey Baby.” Came the one voice that sent horrible chills down her back. Arlet’s back straightened and she held her breath. “I was hoping I would find you here.” He grabbed one of her arms and roughly turned her around to face him. He had both hands grasping each one of her arms. His grip was so tight, Arlet was sure he was blocking the circulations in her arm.
“Let me go.” She gritted through her teeth.
“Oh, is that how you’re going to treat me after all these years we’ve been apart. Is that how you’re going to thank me after I gave you the best night of your life.”
“Best night of my life my ass! Let me go!”
“I don’t think so. I have been gone way too long. And now I’m back for some more Baby. You still going out with that Dick still?” He asked, menacing.
“He’s name is Derek.”
“Dick. Derek. Same thing.”
“Hey, let her go!”
Arlet looked over Keenan’s shoulder and saw Nick standing there.
“This isn’t your business! So scram!” Keenan commanded.
“This is my business! I said let her go!” Nick told him angrily. Arlet could see the amount of hate and anger flicker in his eyes.
“Who the fuck are you?!”
“I’m her boyfriend!“ He lied. “Now don’t make me repeat myself again! Let her go right now or I’ll beat your ass right here! Right now!”
“Oh, I’d like to see you beat my ass boy! I’d like to see you try!” He laughed at him. His laugh made Arlet nauseous. She could see the flames of hate and anger in Nick’s eyes become bigger and it almost scared her. Keenan pushed her away and turned to face Nick. “Alright Blondie, bring it on.” He taunted.
And in less than a second after he said that, Nick raised his fist and drove it into Keenan’s face. Keenan fell backwards, hit his head on the CD rack and passed out on the floor. Arlet hurriedly jumped out of the way and stood there. She stared numbly at the unconscious body of Keenan in front of her, then up to Nick. The flames in his eyes were burning even bigger and his breathing was short and sharp. Arlet could see him trembling from the adrenaline he had.
Customers gathered around the three. Gasps of horror and shock rang everywhere. Before Arlet could say anything, Nick grabbed her wrist, pulled her out of the store and out of the mall. He dragged her across the parking lot to her car, grabbed her keys and put Arlet into the passenger seat. Arlet sat in her seat, shaken at what just happened. And at Nick. He got into the driver’s seat and sped out of the parking lot.
The ride was completely silent. Both of them didn’t say a word to each other. Arlet was afraid to say anything because Nick was so furious that if she said anything, he might accidentally swerve the car into a ditch. And Nick was afraid to talk as well cause he thought he would yell and take all his anger out on Arlet and he didn’t want to do that.
When they pulled up to her parents house, they were both surprised that Nick managed to make it to the house by himself. After Nick stopped the car, he sat back in his seat, covered his face with his hands and took in a deep breath.
“Oh God Nick, I’m sorry.” Arlet said quietly. She looked down at her quivering hands and tears started to fall down her cheeks.
Nick uncovered his face and looked at her. He leaned towards her, took her chin in-between his fingers and lifted her face up to look at him. “Arlet, look at me. Don’t apologize for anything. You didn’t do anything. It’s not your fault.” He told her gently.
“Yeah but its my fault I brought you into this. I shouldn’t have told you about Keenan. I shouldn’t have asked you to help me. It’s my fault.” She said very weakly.
“Ssh, don’t talk like that. You didn’t ask me to help you; I offered. I want to help you and I want to protect you in any way I can. I promised you that. And I’m going to keep that promise to you for the rest of my life. I’m not gonna go back on my word. I’m glad you told me about Keenan and I’m glad you allowed me to protect you. If you hadn’t told me about him, we probably wouldn’t be as close as we are now. We probably wouldn’t have those late night chats that we’ve been having. And I would be very upset if I didn’t get to know you and talked to you.” He smiled at her. He brought up his other hand to her cheek and wiped away a tear with his thumb. “Now, don’t cry anymore. Don’t worry about him. You’ll be safe. C’mon, let’s go inside. We can watch a movie or something and order some pizza to get today out of your mind. How does that sound?”
Arlet smiled up at him. “Yeah, I like the sound of that. Thank you Nick. Thanks for everything. Thanks for saying you’re my boyfriend and thanks for standing up for me back there. I don’t know what I’d do without you. You really are one of my best friends. I hope you know that.” She told him. Nick smiled in response then exited the car. When she walked around to him, Nick grabbed her hand, gave it a tight squeeze and lead her up to the huge, loving, warm house.
Chapter Eight
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