Chasing our Fate

Blake slowly clapped his hands and smirked. “Well, I was beginning to have my doubts…Skids always claimed you were wise beyond your years…I wasn’t seeing it for a second. Nevertheless, you did. Good job my friend.”

“You’re no friend of mine…I don’t even know you,” Nick sneered.

“Whoa…did it just get twenty degrees colder in here?” Blake mused, “I guess I can’t blame you though…after all…you are my replacement, so to speak.”

Nick scoffed, crossing his arms. “At least I’m doing a heck of a lot better than you did, seeing how I’m the one who dating her now.”

“Touché, but I’m not here to fight so you can calm down…It’s not like I’m going to just miraculously come back and run away with her…but, I would if I had the chance granted…you’re a lucky man to have a woman like that…she’s perfect.”

“I know,” Nick snapped back, “and once again, she’s mine. I think it’s time for you to leave.”

“Once I get that number,” Blake quipped.

Nick rubbed the back of his neck and laughed bitterly. “Dude, do you really think I’m going to purposely give my own girlfriend’s new number to her ex-boyfriend?”

“If you are the so-called gentleman you say you are, yes.”

“No,” Nick replied, “Why would I do that? She obviously isn’t talking to you for a reason.”

“Well no way Sherlock…which is why I’m trying to get in touch with her and you’re not helping because your big jealous ego is in the way,” Blake replied sarcastically, “If I really wanted her back do you think I would come to you of all people? Besides, you owe me.”

“What are you talking about?” Nick snapped, “And trust me bro, I have no reason to be jealous of you.”

“While you have rarely heard about me…I had to spend three years in a relationship hearing all about you, don’t get me started on being jealous. Now, you can’t get upset with me for wanting to talk to someone I’ve known a lot longer than you have. If you were a good person, you would simply do as I ask. It’s really simple,” Blake explained.

Nick hesitated to reply, not wanting to admit that he had a point. “Look, to be honest with you…I can’t, and not because you’re her ex. I’m already on eggshells with her as it is at the moment and I really don’t want to upset her by bringing you into her life. There’s obviously a reason why she hasn’t mentioned you much and I really don’t want to know.”

“That’s too bad because I’ll tell you,” Blake stated, “I don’t like holding things back so it’s really easy, let’s just say…if both of us didn’t agree that it was time for us to part…you wouldn’t be dating her right now. We just needed to be away from each other because of all the history we had, so it was either her or me. I agreed to leave and moved here. You took my place…my dorm…my girl.”

“That’s why there was a last minute cancellation in the dorms?”

“Bingo, and why Storm got such a nice dorm, I was a junior in college,” Blake stated, “Now don’t get me wrong…I’m not bitter or anything…I know for a fact that Stevvie is happy with you, and I’m glad we haven’t spoken. We just held each other back, but that was a long time ago, and we’ve both grown and I feel it’s time for us to reconnect. You understand?”

Nick nodded slowly. “But, why would go to a whole new country? When did you guys break up?”

“I love Canada…that’s it. Well, that’s a loaded question…that brings us back to the reason I left, officially? Or when did we stop ‘seeing’ each other?”

“Both,” Nick stated.

“We broke up in July of 2011…and we didn’t actually quit seeing each other until like that December I think?”

“What do you mean by seeing each other?” Nick questioned, afraid of the answer.

Blake laughed. “Well…to put it nicely…our minds moved on, but our bodies took a little longer. If you know what I mean."

“Okay…wait, that means you were around when I was...”

“Not exactly…I found my days when no one was around. I only came on the weekends to see my parents anyway.”

“She was sleeping with you that whole time she was getting to know me?” Nick realized,
“Great, that’s another side of her I didn’t need to know. Please get out.”

“Calm down buddy, it’s not like we planned it…you can blame me because I was the one who would stop by when I happened to be in town. I strictly came to visit and well…one thing leads to another. I probably shouldn’t be telling you this anyway, so give her a break. We did date for three years after all,” Blake explained.

“Exactly, you guys did. Not present tense. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get some sleep,” Nick scoffed, “you have no idea what I had to go through to get her to even go on a date with me, and you just had to stop by and she was willing to open her legs for you. It explains a lot, you know. And you can definitely forget about getting her number. I’m not kidding dude, get out.”

“Fine…I know when I’m not welcome, but I’m going to warn you…this isn’t the last you’ve seen of me. I mean a lot more to Stevvie than I think you realize. Let’s not ruin your relationship with her by your jealousy, because I have morals too. If you will…don’t mention this meeting to Skids…she’d kill me. Maybe in the future you’ll realize that I’m not trying to cause any harm. Nice to meet you…by the way. I’m a huge fan.”

<->

“Thank you Canada and Goodnight!” Joe yelled as we dropped below stage. Immediately, our tech crew began dismantling our microphone packs and guitars from our bodies. As we stepped out from our stage mock dressing rooms, our crew backstage began the usual round of applause for another completed show that went smoothly. We were like a well-oiled machine as we followed the usual routine of thanking our crew and saying our goodnights. I kept on a happy face even though I was torn on the inside. I never carried my problems over into to my work because it was my escape.

“I think we rushed S.O.S towards the end,” Kevin commented, “Overall, it was a great show. Canada never disappoints.”

“They were very loud this year,” Joe added as his texted on his phone, “I love coming here.”

“Yeah, but we need to watch our pitch on “Forever” though, we need to check that at our next sound check,” I reminded them, “and maybe consider switching a couple things up for our last show to make it interesting for the fans.”

We continued to review our show as we headed to our dressing rooms to shower and pack up. Our father joined us to fill us in on our traveling plans. According to him, we had about a ten hour drive from Toronto to Quebec for our next show. Once we got there, after the show, I had a flight to Washington D.C. I was going to honor a couple of Diabetic fans who lobbied for funding for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. A coupe of weeks ago, they held a walk sponsored by their school and raised over 5,000 dollars. They were now going to testify in front of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee as I did years ago. After that, I had to be in New York for a ball honoring Broadway Veterans because I had the honor of presenting an award. All of this meant I had no time to take a flight out to Chicago to see Stevvie, meaning I would have to suffer not talking to her for about a week.

“So, any luck?” Joe asked me.

I simply shook my head a walked on, I was in no mood to discuss my problems.

“Oh, and the buses left early to beat traffic so we have to leave to catch up to them,” our dad explained, “and Maya’s going to be staying with the string girls instead of you Nick.”

“Why?” I asked, “Then I’ll be alone in my bus.”

“You’ll be fine son, let’s meet up with Big Rob so we can sign some autographs,” He replied.

I sighed and followed them. We posed for pictures and signed things for about ten minutes until Big Rob and Mike hustled us into the Black SUVs. We drove for about forty five minutes in silence, while I was attached to my phone. I called Stevvie three times without luck and texted her just reminding her that I loved her. Jackie, Storm, Eric and her parents graciously helped me as much as they could, filling me in on her status and how she was. Apparently, she didn’t just block me out after Prince had finally passed, but everyone for a couple of days and I was the last one left. According to them, she was doing okay, but she wasn’t quite herself again yet. She told her parents that she would soon talk to me when she was ready and I was thankful for that. It was understandable but I hated that I wasn’t there to help her cope. Stevvie was a bit of a homebody already, but now she wouldn’t leave her parents house so if she didn’t need to because of the stress she would have to return to, getting her to travel was becoming a bit of an issue to her parents. I quickly dialed Jennifer’s number, knowing she’d be awake for an update.

“Hey Jennifer, I know you have to be getting annoyed by me, I apologize,” I stated, “I have a feeling this will be over soon.”

“Oh no, of course not. It’s very sweet that you care so much,” She replied, “Stevvie is definitely doing better and I have a feeling you’re going to talk sooner than you think. She came out of the house again today, that’s about it.”

“All right, thank you so much again for this Jen, I really appreciate it,” I replied, “Have a good night.”

“You too, sweetie,” she replied.

I hung up the phone and sighed in relief that the storm would soon be over. What would happen during the aftermath was what I was more afraid of. Things have definitely changed in our relationship and I knew we were going to have to sit down and talk about things that needed to change. I wanted to make sure we avoided fighting while doing this.

“All right boys, please get some sleep tonight, especially you Nicholas because you have a long week and call your mother in the morning. She’s expecting a phone call from each of you,” Dad told us as we headed into the truck stop where our buses hid from the chaos.”

“So…no one is going to be in my bus?” I asked one last time.

“Nope,” he replied, “You’ll thank me later son, I promise.”

I sighed and exited the car to head towards my black and white bus. Before I did, I said my
goodnights to my family and went to visit my sister-in-laws like we always did after a show. We all ended up in Kevin and Dani’s, talking quietly so we didn’t wake Baby Maddie.

“So…Nicholas you look tired,” Jess stated, “Maybe you should head to bed.”

“No…I’m not really,” I replied, “Besides, all I’m going to do is end up tossing and turning or dreaming about Stevvie, making me miss her more. Trust me, sleeping is never something I have dreaded but it quickly is the longer this goes on.”

The response was the same sympathetic look from the group, making me feel a tinge of guilt that they had to suffer my downiness the most, especially my brothers.

“You know what…actually I think you’re right…Goodnight guys…I’m going to turn in,” I sighed.

They all said their goodnights and left me to wander towards my lonely bus. Not even the driver was there yet. This fact just made my aspiration to get married grow even more because I was seriously jealous that my brothers had their best friend with them all the time and I had to wait weeks on end.

I paused and leaned against the bus, just looking at the Canadian night sky. I know it sounds cheesy, but a found a little relief as I imagined looking at the same sky as me, miles and miles away. It may not be night there, but I still felt that she might have been thinking of me. Finally, I just sighed and unlocked the large door; I turned on the lights and dragged my feet towards the refrigerator. To my surprise, as I turned around, I found someone sleeping on my couch under a blanket. I jumped, but kept quiet because I wasn’t expecting anyone to be there at all. Almost immediately, I recognized her dark wavy hair, her soft snore and even the curve of her hip. It was Stevvie.

She slowly woke up and stretched her arms. I stood speechless with a bottle of Vitamin water in my hand, in pure shock that she was really in front of me. We made eye contact and I could just see the love she felt for me as they widened, but her mouth stayed in a straight line. My face was blank as she stood up. Was she was really there?

“Hey Nicholas,” she simply whispered.