Mixed 'N' Matched Love

Nick's POV:

*A/N: Perfect song for this ch.: It's Over ~ The Cheetah Girls* (I know, really corny & old, but heyy, it fits.)

That night, after everyone had left and the party was long gone over, I sat by the windows leading to my balcony and cried and cried until I had almost but run out of tears.

On my lap sat a single red rose Drew had given to me one day, jokingly saying that the day that the rose died, so would our friendship. The rose was obviously a fake and so I knew that that day was never going to come.

It’s been a long while since Drew had gifted me that, but it was still in perfect condition since then. Except for now, since it was getting practically sprayed all over with my tears. I could see the thick fabric started to getting wet, so it looked a little wilted.

’So, I guess this is it,’ I thought helplessly. ‘The end of our friendship.’

It’s been a half hour since I’ve been sitting in front of my window, hoping Drew would come out and see me, and then come and try to sooth me. But, he had his windows closed and the curtains pushed together, so I knew that wasn’t happening.

It was over. It was all over.

For endless days, I had myself locked in my room in the dark, just like the old days, so I could mourn there without ever being disturbed.

It was finally after three days that Nyla had had enough and practically dragged me outside. And not just outside my room, I meant outside outside for the entire world to see what had become of me.

I tried my best to stop Nyla from taking me out there, but grabbing a hold of random things I had passed by – like the chairs, or the dining table, or the door, and even the tree next to my balcony – but Nyla apparently had no concern for my horrible condition.

Before we even got there, I found the guys and…Drew waiting for me in front of the house.

“Oh. My. God.” all three guys chorused out, while Drew just stood there looking around at everything but me.

”And we thought Drew looked bad.” Pat added, with a grin.

”Shut up, you’ll hurt her feelings!” Cal told him, slapping his shoulder.

Drew still didn’t say anything and was now staring at the ground.

“Sorry.” Pat muttered to me.

I just nodded back, before turning my eyes down.

”What happened to you, Nick?” Dex asked me then.

I didn’t know what to say, because even I didn’t know what was wrong with me.

When I was pulled past the mirror by the front door, I caught a quick glimpse of my reflection and man, was I surprised by what I saw or what?

I looked a lot worse than I felt actually. My hair was all puffed out and messed up, looking as if I had an afro or something. My eyes were bloodshot red and had huge bags underneath them from the loss of sleep and all the tears I’ve wasted over the nights, plus there was also the fact that I’ve been sitting in my room for so long with no lights at all and right now standing in front of the sun for so long wasn’t really doing me so good.

Oh, and let’s also not forget the fact that I haven’t been eating right either. So, basically I was like a half-dead zombie, except that I was alive, which, by the way, was the last thing I wanted to be right now. Yep, it was just like the old days.

“Ok look,” Nyla started speaking then. “I called you all for a reason.”

”And what would that be?” Pat cut in. “I was in the middle of something really important, ya know?”

”Well, I was getting to that,” Nyla glared at him. “You see, there’s obviously something clearly wrong with both Drew and Nicolette.”

Pat started to snicker then and head snapped up and my eyes flashed over to him.

”What’s so funny?” Nyla asked him.

"Nicolette, that's what Nick's short for?! God, it sounds like a flower!" he laughed out loud.

Something snapped in me then and I could no longer stay silent.

”Oh really, and what’s yours – Saint Patrick?!” I retorted back at him.

Pat shut up then and Nyla continued on with her little speech, which was taking forever to start.

"Anyways, as you can see, they're both a mess."

“Uh hello, right here!” Drew finally said, waving his hand around.

He had also looked up then and I could see that there was an angry look on his face. He was clearly losing his temper with both Pat and Nyla, but he was trying to keep it hidden, because he was just too good of a person.

That almost made me start crying again, but I held my ground. I could be just as strong as he pretended to be.

I looked up at Drew briefly and took over his current appearance. I noticed first of all that his hair was no longer in its messy, but in a totally cute way, right now, it was just plain old messy. Like he just pretty much, just got out of bed or more like dragged out of it, in a similar way as I just had.

Second of all, his clothes were all wrinkled, as was his face a little. His eyes were just as red as mine either from the loss of sleep, but he could’ve been crying too – I mean, he had once confined in me that he cries in the shower at times when he’s really upset.

“Can I go back to my room now?” I groaned out. “I’ve seen all that I’ve needed to.”

”And what would that be?” Nyla asked turning to me.

”That I’m a mess!”

I started to turn away, but since I was too weak, Nyla had a better advantage of me and before I could even sense her, she grabbed my arm and pushed me back – and that too against Drew.

My hand ended up hitting his arm, but Drew didn’t bother pushing me away, so I just did it for him.

For a minute then, the world suddenly started to spin. I closed my eyes tightly and held my hand to my head, trying to keep myself up and on my feet.

‘What was the matter with me?’ I asked myself. I looked around to see if anyone had noticed, no one had. I sighed in relief as the spinning stopped, but I knew it wasn’t long before it was going to start coming back up. 'If only I had something to hold onto,' my eyes looked around a little, but the only thing next to me was Drew's arm and I didn't dare use that as an option.

I no longer had the strength to tell him off, so I just stayed silent. I was surprised though when Drew took over for me.

”Look, I am like this close to knocking the daylight right out of you!” he threatened, through his clenched teeth.

“Hey, Pat, where’d you get those chips?” I heard Cal ask Pat then.

I knew he was trying to change the subject and get Pat to just shut up already, and I was really thankful to him for it.

“Oh yeah, from Drew’s room,” he replied back. “You should see all the food he has stored up in there. He’s like a bear getting ready for like hibernation or something.”

I had almost but forgotten that Drew would always smuggle in food whenever locked himself up in his room. He and I would always spend so much time up there, whenever Drew was like mad at him mom or something.

Just thinking of all the food he had up there made my stomach growl. But, I knew there was no way I was going to be able to get my hands on all that delicious food, so there goes that little daydream.

“Well, it’s nice to know that at least someone had all the necessities that a person needs in order to survive after being locked in a room.” I muttered to no one in particular.

I figured that no one had heard me since the guys were all talking about something with Nyla, but Drew was still standing really close to me and he had probably heard it. Well, at least I hope he hadn’t.

“What?!” he snapped his head to me then.

”Nothing,” I quickly replied back. “I didn’t say anything.”

Drew turned around all the way to look at me, but I just turned the other way and pretended to be overly interested in smoothing down my hair.

“Whatever,” Drew muttered. “Like I care anyway.”

Suddenly, without thinking then, I grabbed a hold of Drew’s arm as another strike of dizziness hit me. It didn’t really help though, because I still ended up falling down on the ground with the last thing before my closed and I lost all consciousness was Drew’s concerned eyes still flashing before my own.