If I Knew Then

Chapter 38: Jealous

After the talk with Lance, Nick was starting to feel a little better about things even when he saw Leighanne at the video shoot the next day. He was not surprised but at the same time, Brian hadn't told anyone she was coming along.

"So she's in the video?" Nick asked, trying not to sound disappointed. Leighanne glared at him because she saw right through him.

"Yes, we all have scenes with girls so I thought it would be perfect for her." Brian beamed. Nick wanted to throw up. He wasn't crazy about the intimate scenes with girls himself, he was very nervous.

"What's wrong, Nick?" Kevin asked over the buffet table. They'd had lunch set out for them, and Nick was busily eyeing the foot long sub sandwich. AJ was in hair and makeup still so everyone was waiting on him.

"I don't know about these girls."

Kevin nodded thoughtfully.

"I forgot to take that in consideration when we accepted the video treatment, I'm sorry we didn't talk about it first, Nick."

"It's fine. I just haven't been this close with a girl since before I knew...before.."

Nick was talking about his ex girlfriend Mandy, who he'd broken up with almost a year ago. He had only been close with Brian since. Part of him was okay with that, but another part longed to be with someone and hated being alone. He felt empty and alone.

"It's normal to feel like that, but you can't let that stop you from finding someone that truly appreciates you. I know you like Brian but you can't wait for him forever." Kevin said, echoing Lance's advice. Nick watched Brian and Leighanne kiss across the room and felt sick to his stomach. He knew that Lance and Kevin were right. He couldn't wait forever because Brian would never leave her.

"So what do you guys think?" AJ asked as he walked over towards them. Howie laughed and the others joined in.

"You look like a skunk." Nick giggled as AJ rolled his eyes.

His hair looked like they tried to dye it but stopped halfway, part of his hair was brown and the top was blonde in a large stripe across his head. Nick kept cracking jokes at it during the shoot.

"They ran out of bleach, I'll make it work. It looks cool. I mean it looks better than yours, Nick." AJ said, also laughing. None of them had the heart to tell him AJ it didn't look cool at all and hoped that years later he would look back and realize how stupid he looked today.

The video shoot ended up going pretty well and they worked late into the evening, everyone was hungry and tired. They were all discussing if they wanted to grab food but Nick was distracted by his phone. He and Lance had been texting off and on all day. Brian pretended he didn't notice but he wondered who Nick was talking to.

"Why are you smiling? Something funny?" AJ asked, as Nick pocketed his phone and blushed.

"N-nothing. I was just talking to one of my friends." Nick said, which wasn't a lie because nothing was going on between him and Lance. Not yet, anyway. Right now they were friends, but occasionally they'd flirt. It felt refreshing to talk to someone new, that was comfortable with themselves and wouldn't judge him.

"You have other friends?" Leighanne said, and Brian laughed with her. Everyone was suddenly uncomfortable. Nick wanted to punch her in the throat.

"Why is that so hard to believe?" he asked.

"Because you're so obsessed with Brian that I didn't think you talked to anyone else." Leighanne sneered. Nick felt the anger boiling up but took a breath instead. She was trying to get a rise out of him and he wasn't giving her the satisfaction. Nick wanted to burst out and tell everyone how she threatened him but he didn't want to open that bag of worms today.