Hello Beautiful

“Good morning!” said a cheery voice. I groaned loudly and reached for a pillow to cover my head with.

“Five more minutes Mommy!” I whined.

Nick pulled away the pillow. “It’s not Mommy,” he whispered in my ear, using his scary monster voice.

I jumped about a foot. “What the heck was that for?”

He was shaking with laughter. “I was trying to wake you up. You need to get dressed so we can go eat. I’m starving.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re always starving.”

“I’m a growing boy with a fast metabolism!”

“Yea, and diabetes! How is your blood sugar level this morning?”

“Laura, I’m fine. I’m more worried about you. How does your chest feel?” I looked down at my bruise. I had almost forgotten that it was there. I realized that I still wasn’t wearing a shirt. I reached into Nick’s closet and snagged a random one. It was dark brown, like his eyes.

I slid my arms through the sleeves and buttoned it up. “Well?” Oh, right, he still wanted an answer. I looked up at him and saw for the first time that he wasn’t wearing a shirt either. My breath caught in my chest and I couldn’t speak for a moment as my eyes took in his perfect muscles. I slapped myself mentally.

“Uh, it feels better, probably from all that ice yesterday.” I tore my eyes away from his perfecion and turned around to see what time it was: 10 am. Whoops. We had a photo shoot at 11. “I’m gonna go change for breakfast,” I said, thinking through my wardrobe for something to wear to the photo shoot. I was completely checked out, and accidentally walked into the doorframe on my way out. “Ouch.” I rubbed my head and felt dizzy suddenly. Oh God, not again.

Nick walked over to me quickly and I reached for him, feeling light-headed. I closed my eyes and leaned against his chest, pressing my forehead into his shoulder. I felt like somebody had driven a wedge through the middle of my head with a sledgehammer; I had this splitting pain that just wouldn’t go away. I groaned and Nick picked me up gently in his arms and then laid me down on the bed.

“Joe,” he called through the open door. I cringed and covered my ears; everything sounded a million times louder than normal.

“Yea?” Joe stuck his head through the doorway.

“Can you get some ice?” Nick whispered softly.

“Sure. Is she ok?” He sounded concerned, but I couldn’t see his face; the room was spinning and I was seeing white.

“I think so. Ice please,” Nick said, feeling my forehead. “This must be the concussion,” he murmured softly, stroking my hair. Joe came back with the ice and Nick gently pressed it against the bump on the back of my head.

The ice immediately helped and suddenly I could see; my vision wasn’t foggy anymore and my head didn’t hurt as much.

“Laura, can you hear me?”

“Yes, I can hear you Nick.”

“How do you feel?”

“A little dizzy and light-headed.” Kevin walked in.

“Is she ok?”

“Kevin, can you go grab a bottle of water for me?”

“Sure.”

“Laura, can you see me?” He moved so that he was right above me. I faked him out.

“No.” I tried to make my voice sound puzzled and annoyed.

He moved his face closer to mine. Now it was about 6 inches away.

“How about now?”

“No.”

His face got even closer. When he was about an inch from me, he asked again. “Now?”

“Crystal clear,” I giggled and planted a quick kiss on his lips. “Thanks for being so helpful Nicky.” I laughed at the dumbfounded expression on his face. He shook his head back and forth, as if clearing fog from inside his brain. I laughed again.

“No problem,” he said after a minute. “That’s what friends do. They care for each other when they are hurt or alone.” He grinned at me as he quoted my words from the day we first met. I laughed, remembering everything from that day; meeting the Jonas Brothers on my balcony, the show, saving Nick’s life, our date... I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat when I thought of how much fun we had had that night, and how we hadn’t really done anything like that since then.

I was brought back to the present by Nick pouring water on my face.

“Hey! Don’t you know that you’re supposed to be nice to sick people?” I said indignantly while spitting water at him and laughing.

“You’re not sick, faker. You’re fine.” Actually I probably was fine, but my head really did hurt and I was still light-headed. “But, just to be safe, I’m gonna call and cancel that photo shoot today. We wouldn’t want you to faint. The magazines would start rumors that you had collapsed from exhaustion because me and you were up all night having sex; something along those lines, but more ridiculous.”

I laughed, and then thought about what Nick had said about having sex all night...

“Laura. Laura! LAURA!” Kevin waved his hand in front of my face. “Where do you want to eat breakfast?”

“Ummm... I don’t care, where do you want to go?” I asked Nick.

“Uhhh... Chick-fil-a?” Nick asked, looking at me. He knew that was my favorite, and it would keep Joe’s sugar intake to a minimum. I laughed, thinking of the last time we had had breakfast at Waffle House. Yikes.

“Uh, sure,” said Kevin, looking at me funny, as if he was scared that I was going crazy. This just made me laugh harder and then Nick started cracking up which really didn’t help. Soon we were both laughing like crazy and it took us a good ten minutes to calm down again.

Afterwards, I was clutching a stitch in my side and Nick was getting up off the floor, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. Kevin just stood there and stared at us, as Nick flopped down on the bed next to me.

I reached up to wipe away a tear he had missed. I pulled my hand away, but he grabbed it and pressed it against his chest. I could feel his heart beat racing beneath his t-shirt. I smiled at him and he pulled me into a hug.

“Breakfast!!!” Joe called into Nick’s room. He released me and stood up. Nick stuck out his hand to help me. I grabbed it and steadied myself before walking through the door to the kitchen with Nick behind me, his hands around my waist, making sure that I didn’t fall over again. Overprotective, but whatever.

We sat down and ate the food John had brought us. I hated that we couldn’t even walk into a fast food restaurant anymore without getting mobbed.

Nick was looking at me. “What?” I asked him.

“You have icing on your face,” he told me, laughing and wiping it away.

“Thanks.” I blushed.

“Hey, how come Laura got a cinnamon roll and I didn’t?” Joe whined.

“Because when I eat a cinnamon roll, I don’t go bouncing off the walls,” I said, stating a fact.

“Can you really do that?” Joe freaked out. I probably shouldn’t have used the phrase ‘bouncing off the walls.’ I grinned at Nick apologetically, knowing that we would have to endure a day of Joe trying to actually bounce off the walls... Whoops.