"Umm, Michele, Michele, Michele... She's a friend of Nick's." Sarah
stuttered.
"Why did she say that I looked like her and that's why Nick's with me?"
Angela asked.
"You know her, weak come back." Sarah laughed weakly. "Whatever, I'm
going to find Nick." Angela shook her head as she snatched the keys from
Sarah's hands then walked out the door.
Sarah stood there, dumbfounded. When she realized what had happened,
she raced to the phone and dialed Kevin's number, since that's where all
the boys are. They were working in Kevin's studio, trying to get a new
song out.
"Hello?" AJ picked up.
"Hey, it's Sarah. Angela's on her way over."
"And?"
"And Marissa kinda mentioned something about Michele."
AJ turned white at the Sarah's words. He knew that Nick's in trouble
and he doubted that singing in the rain would help him this time. "How
much does she know?"
"She doesn't know anything...yet." Sarah told him. "Just tell Nick that
okay? I'll stay in the apartment, just in case if she's going to pack up
and leave again." Sarah shuddered at the thought of Angela disappearing
again. She'd seen what happened to Nick last time that happened. If it
happened again, she was sure Nick wouldn't be able to go on with his life,
he would die."
"Okay. I'll tell him." AJ sighed as he put the phone back in his pocket.
"What's wrong?" Brian asked his friend, looking up from the desk. He
was writing music for a song Howie wrote.
"Angie's on her way here, Marissa said something about Michele." Even
if a bomb had landed right in the middle of the room, it wouldn't create
as much effects as AJ's words.
"What?!" Nick jumped up from his chair. "What did Marissa say?"
"Not much, but Angie's gonna have some questions."
"You are dead, Nick." Kevin commented from the recording room.
"Can you be any less supportive?" Nick yelled back. Frustration and
anger covered his entire body, clouding his angelic feature. He felt like
he was going to explode. He was angry with himself. Why couldn't he tell
Angela sooner who Michele was?
"Hey, just speaking the truth." Kevin raised his hands as a gesture
of peace.
"Well, what am I suppose to do now?" Nick glanced at his friends, their
faces filled with absolute and complete helplessness. He sighed as he slumped
into the chair, deep in thoughts.
Angela was sure she made the world record when she drove to Kevin's house. She rang the doorbell with such impatience that she was certain she broke it.
"What? Who?" Krystina opened the door with such confusion in her face as a new parent changing the diaper.
"Hey, is Nick here?"
"Yeah, he's downstairs. Thank god you're here. I need help!"
"With?" Angela stepped in the beautifully decorated living room.
"I'm putting together a BSB scrapbook for the official site. So I had each of them donating some pictures that they are sure no one had seen before." Krystina pointed at the piles of photobooks. "Now I'm stuck with millions of them. Help me?"
"Sure, why not?" Angela laughed. Maybe this was a good idea, after all, she did need some times to think it through. Marissa hated her, it could be a weak comeback like Sarah said.
"Here, you can start with the Nick pile." Krystina handed her some photobooks.
"Sure, why not?" Angela grinned as she began to flip the pages. "What am I looking for?"
"The ones with him in the center, not like on the side. But if you think you've seen it before, don't use it. When you found one, take it out and put it in the shoebox." she explained as she went back to work. For the next twenty minutes, Angela looked over Nick's childhood pictures, in awe and wonder at how he had looked and how much he grown. Finally, she reached the photobook labeled 'Teens'. She chuckled at the first picture of Nick's face covered in flour, then moved on. Angela stopped when she reached a picture of Nick and a girl, not just any girls, but a girl that seemed like her long lost twin sister. "Who is this?"
"Isn't that you and Nick?" Krystina glanced at it carelessly.
"No, me and Nick never went to a picnic." Angela replied. She pulled the picture out and looked on the back. It said 'Michele, picnic in Sept.' in Nick's handwriting. She turned the page and saw another photo of Nick at a cemetery. On the back of that one, it said 'Michele's funeral, the saddest day of my life.' Those letters were like hot iron, they burned into her mind and heart. Suddenly, a faded memory appeared in her head. It was the first night she spent at Kevin's house, and she remembered Nick tucking her in. In her sleep, she thought she had heard him called her 'Michele', but she always thought of it as an illusion of the tiredness. Apparently, it wasn't. Then the scene of Nick and her in the woods jumped in her mind's eyes. Nick didn't answer why he asked her out and then Marissa's words at the coffee shop echoed in her mind. 'You do know that Nick has a lot of other options besides you, and personally I don't see why Nick chose you.'
However, Angela knew in her heart that Marissa had known all along. As much as she didn't want to think about it, she couldn't help herself and the way her brain put all the details together. The reason Nick was with her was because she looked like his dead friend or rather girlfriend. That's why he refused to tell her why he asked her out and that's why he had called her Michele. "I'm going to talk to Nick."
"Okay." Krystina didn't bother to look up. Because if she did, she would had noticed that Angela was deathly white.