Battle Of The Blondes

© Sweet Kisses™

~*~

Britney sighed and stared out into the distance, wondering for the millionth time already in a matter of a minute just what the hell she had done for Nick to stop calling her. Nick had just all of a sudden stopped calling her and at first she had just thought that he was busy, he’d just call her later, and after all he’d promised her that he would. But all of a sudden, he never did. He just all of a sudden never called again, not in the twelve days since his last call had he called, and she had begun to worry. She wondered if something had happened to him, so she tried calling him, and nothing. He never even returned her messages.

Something just wasn’t right, and she just knew that. It was like a horror or dread that had suddenly filled her body, and usually her instincts were right, give and take a few scenarios when they hadn’t been. She had cried just so many tears because she didn’t know what was going on or what she had done to deserve that kind of treatment from Nick, and seeing Justin was bad enough. She wanted to tell Nick all about it and how strong she appeared to be and how she had just finally told him where to go, once and for all. She thought that Nick would be proud of her, happy for her, but no. He wasn’t, and he never knew, because she never got the chance to tell him because he just stopped all contact, just like that, like she meant nothing, that she was just nobody.

Just like everything else, this was proving to her just what she should’ve believed all along. That your hopes and dreams never come true and that you can only trust yourself, and not some guy, no matter how trustworthy he may seem. She had cried so many tears, falling asleep crying because Nick refused to talk to her and she never knew why, and waking up to finding the situation still the same, and not some awful nightmare that she was just having. But it was no nightmare. Well, maybe a nightmare in reality, if that was possible.

But Nick had been so convincing, so loving, it was just so hard not to believe him...

Now it all meant nothing, and Britney felt like her heart was shattered on the floor. She was a combination of several feelings. Sadness. Unhappiness. Anger. Fury. Remorse. Regret. Just a whole lot of feelings thrown in together swirled around in the pit of her stomach and made her just want to scream. Why did all these bad things just have to keep happening to her? Would she never find happiness and true love that she could actually rely upon in her life? Was she destined for doom? Was doom her destiny? Maybe this was karma coming back to haunt her, and after all, she’d had a great few years being famous, and maybe this was teaching her now that she should’ve made it all last and loved every moment of it while she had the chance, and maybe this was making her appreciate the simple things in life, or at least teaching her to rely solely upon herself finally...

And then she heard the door open. She wasn’t surprised. Well, to an extent she was, but she hadn’t expected him to be home that early that day, but whatever the reason, she had to face him and finally get some answers. And after all, this was marriage. They were supposed to be communicating, trusting, and above all, loving. But, well, maybe not everything when it came to them went according to plan or the set rules. But whatever did these days, anyway?

Britney found him scanning a document that was several pages long, seemingly uncaring about announcing the fact that he was home or that he was happy to see her, not like he’d seen her yet, anyway. His eyes remained focused upon the document in his hand. She cleared her throat to gain his attention. "Nick."

Nick looked up briefly, his eyes cold, and then looked back down again. "Oh, hi," he said carelessly, brushing it off as though it were nothing. "You’re still here."

Britney frowned. "Why wouldn’t I be?" she asked, moving closer to him. "You asked me to stay here while you were gone, so I did."

Nick shrugged and sailed past her, still not making eye contact with her. "Oh, did I? Stupid of me, wasn’t it? But that’s me. Stupid trusting Nick. You trust someone and you get burned. Big lesson in life. Never trust anyone."

Britney stared at him in confusion and placed her hands on her hips. "Nick, what the hell are you talking about?"

Finally, Nick showed just a little bit of emotion by throwing his bag on the floor and whirling around, giving her the most angry look she’d ever seen from him, and it was surprisingly scary. "You saw him, didn’t you?" he yelled, stepping closer to her, almost stalking her as though she were his prey. "You saw Justin, didn’t you? And don’t lie to me, I read all about it and I saw the pictures. So, let me be the first to congratulate you on your engagement."

Britney’s heart was racing and, not even realising it, she was moving away from him, as though she were trying to move out of his way of line in case he tried to hurt her in some way or form. But he wouldn’t hurt her, would he? He said he never would, but he looked mighty angry now, like anything was possible...

"I don’t understand," she whispered.

Nick’s eyes remained cold and unforgiving. "Just answer me one thing," he said in a low voice. "Did you or did you not see Justin while I was gone?"

Britney swallowed nervously. "I did," she said softly. "But he sort me out, he found me! I had no intention of ever seeing him again, and I only talked to him because you told me I needed closure with him, and that’s all I was trying to do: get closure between us so I could move on and marry you!"

"Oh no, not according to the Enquirer," Nick snapped, shaking his head. "According to them, you two are engaged because you’re both so happy that you’re pregnant." His eyes suddenly turned from sarcastic to sad. "How could you? How could you do that to me? I trusted you!"

Britney gasped. Damn stupid media and journalists, following her every move. She could’ve killed herself for seeing Justin that day, she knew that nothing good would ever come from it, and she was right. Her instincts were right then. "I haven’t done anything wrong," she explained helplessly. "I’ve done nothing. Honestly. All I did was make it clear to him how much I hated him and how much it was over, just like you said I should say. Honestly, Nick, I’ve done nothing wrong. Nothing."

"Bullshit!" Nick cried. "How come the Enquirer printed a picture with the two of you looking all nice and close and cuddly? Explain that, huh? Can you? Can you? You can’t, and you know it!"

"Don’t you trust me?" Britney whispered. "Why don’t you trust me?"

"Why should I?" Nick countered coldly.

Britney’s heart sank and felt overcome with frustration. It seemed that everyone was out to wreck any sort of happiness that she would ever experience in her lifetime, and she felt ready to sue. Or kill. "He hugged me," she said desperately. "He just all of a sudden wrapped his arms around me and for a second I was frozen but then I shoved him away! He repulsed me, Nick, he made me sick to my stomach, and I realised just how important you are to me and how much more of a person you are than him."

Nick rolled his eyes. "Yeah, keep piling on the lies, Britney," he snapped sarcastically. "Maybe one day I might believe them!"

Suddenly, all her anger came rushing out at once. "What is the matter with you!" she cried. "How could you not believe me? How could you not trust me? How could you think that I’d ever do something like that? With him, of all people? You know how much I’ve been avoiding having to see him, so how could you think that I purposefully went out to find him?"

Nick crossed his arms defensively. "Maybe you did, how do I know that?" he retorted coldly. "I wouldn’t know what goes on in that twisted mind of yours."

Britney narrowed her eyes, hating the person he had become all of a sudden, and hating the person he was making her become all of a sudden. She felt like she was a time bomb, ready to erupt at any moment.

"Let me ask you this, Nick," she hissed, her pretty features becoming marred from her anger. "If you were raped, if you were beaten, if you were tied up, if you had all that done to you, constantly, would you ever go back to the person that did that to you?"

"Why wouldn’t I?" Nick asked, his eyes somewhat taunting her. "If I were you, I would. After all, you did, so who’s to say you won’t do it again?"

Britney felt gutted. "Do you really think I’d go back to him when I’m so happy with you?" she whispered. "Why don’t you trust me? Why did you stop calling me? I was so lonely without you, Nick! I missed you, I really did."

Nick appeared unmoved by her display of affection and softness. "Yeah, well, sorry it’s not mutual."

Britney scowled and felt like she could be fit for homicide. “You know what, Nick? You’re paranoid, you’re lame, and you’re pathetic. I’m just really sorry that I never saw it before. But then again, love is blind, so what else could I see but the front you could easily put up? I mean, it was sure to break at one point, better now than later.”

“I’m pathetic?” Nick countered, eyeing her with a sense of sarcasm, contempt, and with a little bit of superiority. “Honey, take a look at yourself. I’m not the one who’s alone, barefoot and pregnant with no one to love her. I’m not the one who’s so pathetic that she keeps going back to the person who continually abuses her. I’m not the one who’s so pathetic that she believes in everything she hears.” His eyes became like blue icicles. “Now who’s pathetic?”

Just like she knew she would at one point or another, something in her finally snapped, something inside her finally boiled over. She got right up into his face, not really caring anymore about their difference in height or strength, and by now she’d learned to put up one hell of a fight, so she’d have a go if she had to.

"You bastard!" she exclaimed. "I loved you! I love you! I thought I loved you more than anything in the goddamn world! I’ve practically worshipped the ground you walk on! I loved you most of all because you saved me from the man you’ve just accused me of seeing and because you’re so different from him! And you know what? I should thank you, because you’ve just proved to me that all men are fucking pigs and you’re the biggest one of all!"

Nick’s eyes flared up instantly with anger at her words and instinctively, his hand raised in the air and brought it just an inch from her face before he realised what he was about to do and that her eyes were squeezed tightly shut. He lowered his hand and began to tremble. He couldn’t believe he was just about to hit a woman, a pregnant woman, no less. What kind of a man was he if he did that, and what kind of a woman was she if she made him want to do that?

Definitely not someone he could marry, that was for sure.

"Get out," he whispered.

Britney stepped back, her eyes wide with fear. "You were going to hit me," she said softly in realisation.

"Get out!" Nick repeated in a louder voice. "I mean it! I don’t want you around if you make me like that! You don’t make me a better person, you make me just like him! You make me just as bad as him! Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised to find out that Justin was beating you, because I can certainly understand what drove him to it!"

With every last bit of courage she had, Britney instead slapped Nick directly across the cheek, her eyes filling with tears and her heart smashing to the floor.

"You fucking asshole," she said brokenly, the words punctuated with tears. "God forbid if I ever thought that I’d be happy and safe here." She slid off her ring and threw it at his chest and it quickly dropped to the floor, the high pitched sound giving her an awful sense of finality. "You don’t know what love really is, Nick. You talk about it, you think you know what it is, you even try to show it and prove it, but the truth is that you don’t even have a goddamn clue about what love really is!”

Nick lowered his hand from his cheek, in complete disbelief that Britney would ever have the nerve to slap him. With any other person, he would’ve cheered. But now, he felt like crying. "And what makes you such an expert? Like you’d really know what love is. You’ve just had so much experience haven’t you, O enlightened one?"

Britney’s eyes hardened over with anger. "Because if you knew what love really was and you really wanted someone who loved you unconditionally, for the person you really are underneath everything, flaws and all, you’d stop me from walking out the door."

And despite her words, he never did.

~**~

The door swung open and his face appeared, his body leering in the doorway. Justin was drunk, again.  "Hey, what ya doin’ ‘ere?" he slurred slightly.

Britney prayed to God that she was making the right move. "All right, Justin, here’s the deal. One more chance, and if you screw up, I’m gone. Got me?"

Justin smiled smugly. "I knew you’d see things my way."

~***~