Ughhhh... I know. I'm in the middle of another fic. But this one just wouldn't leave me alone! I felt sad! I wanted something new! It demanded to be written! So sorry, here's another one. It might only have a couple chapters. As in, one more. Leave a review, please!
"I can't believe you're finally getting married!" Sarah gushed.
Nicole turned around, her jaw dropped. She swatted at Sarah who giggled and ducked out of reach, darting towards the other side of the bed. "Yeesh! Make me feel old, why don't you?"
"I didn't mean it like that," Sarah quickly said. "Jared and I got married when I was nineteen. We just… we've been rooting for you. And Chris really does treat you like a princess. You really deserve this. You deserve to be happy."
Nicole looked down at the white dress that was laid across the green and yellow duvet on the generic hotel bed, all the lines and curves that made up the lace and the beading. Looking at it, it gave a sort of expectation of the person who'd wear it. It was elegant and extravagant and Nicole had never seen herself as a… well, a bride.
"You know that, right?" Sarah continued, going to her sister's side to place a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"I know what you meant," Nicole murmured. She turned away. "Now get out, I need my beauty sleep. The rehearsal is in twenty short hours."
Sarah gave a giddy squeal and danced to the door. "I'm going to organize my makeup!" At the door, she turned to hop up and down like she used to do on Christmas morning. "Eeeek! I can't wait!"
Nicole laughed and shooed her out. As soon as she was alone, Nicole backed up and she sank into the chair against the wall in front of her bed to stare at the dress. She brought her fist up to her chin and sighed.
The clock on the wall ticked six minutes past midnight, and her chest ached as she saw the beads twinkling in the moonlight streaming through the curtains. Her heart clutched painfully, and she turned her chair to the window and watched the moon instead.
~TWTWTW~
"Life is a series of choices, Nicole. Some choices matter and some will have absolutely no consequence to the rest of your life whatsoever. Your father and I fully supported your decision to leave Beacon Hills. I cannot, however, say the same for your habit of falling asleep in chairs."
Nicole blinked drearily and squinted against the bright morning sun. Her mother stood in front of her with her hands on her hips, fixating a disapproving glare on her eldest daughter.
"I mean, really, Nicole. Your posture is atrocious lately. Do you want to develop kyphosis?"
Nicole's voice was groggy with sleep. "A hunchback? I'm not sure that's how that works, mom."
Her mother waved her off and turned to drift across her room, straightening things that were never touched by Nicole to begin with—like the decorative box of tissues and channel guide on the entertainment center.
Nicole yawned and stretched. "What time is it?"
"Your great-grandpappy had a hunchback," Her mother persisted. She tutted at the small plastic bottle of whiskey that Nicole had dug out of the minifridge the night before, rattling it to indicate the fact that it was empty. "Really? Are we doing this again?"
Nicole stood and went to snatch the bottle from her mother's hand. "Could you dial back the lectures? I just woke up."
Her mom opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted as the door burst open. Sarah came tittering through with a drink carrier in one hand and a bag from the coffee shop downstairs in her other. "A small green tea for you, mom, because I know you're watching your caffeine intake."
"Did you get your sister a coffee? You really shouldn't have, studies say that caffeine can cause back pain and ulcers, which explains the chronic heartburn I was experiencing before I quit the stuff completely…" Their mother completely ignored the tea that Sarah handed to her, discarding it on the entertainment center so she could pluck up the tall drink meant for Nicole and pop the lid off. She gave it a sniff and jerked back with her nose scrunched. "Good night, nurse! What is this?"
Hesitantly, she lowered her nose to the open container and gave another sniff as Sarah responded. "An Americano, of course. I also have some fresh fruit which is all she's allowed to eat until dinner because she needs to fit into that dress tomorrow night." She reached out and pried it out of their mother's grasp, giving her a fleeting dirty look as she passed it into Nicole's grateful waiting hand. "Drink your tea, mother."
Nicole blew the steam off of her coffee and thanked her sister. She sighed heavily and started towards the bathroom. Her mother and sister immediately started fussing over the state of her room—specifically the few empty mini liquor bottles in the trashcan near the chair Nicole had fallen asleep in.
She let the bathroom door softly click shut behind her and sighed as she sat on the toilet to take long, patient sips of her hot coffee. Her mother had mentioned her life choices before she'd even had the chance to fully wake up this morning. Ironically, it had been all she could think about the whole night last night.
All the choices she made that led her here, now, in this bathroom, with this disgustingly large, beautiful diamond on her finger that weighed her finger down. She turned it to face up perfectly and sighed at it and wondered what Derek would say about it. He'd hate it. Or would he?
Slowly, she went to the counter and set her coffee down. She looked herself in the mirror and held her hand up, watching the way the lights played off the diamond next to her face.
She twisted the ring around on her finger and gingerly worked it over the knuckle, sliding it down unhurriedly, relishing the subtle loss of weight. There was a loud bash on the door and she gasped and the ring flew off her finger and into the sink, where it bounced and circled the drain before disappearing.
"Nicole Jessica Powell! You better be getting in the shower! We have reservations for ten o'clock!" Sarah reported like a five-star general.
Her heart was in her throat as she stared at the drain in horror, her hands covering her mouth. There came another knock, this one less a bash and more a torrent of irritated thuds. "Nicole?" Her mother called. "Nicole, I'm coming in."
The door opened and her mother and sister froze at the sight of her.
"What's wrong?" Sarah asked from over their other's shoulder. Nicole didn't respond. She knew she should say something. Anything! She couldn't. She was the worst. The silence loudly stretched on, and they looked at the sink, then back to her, then back to the sink.
"Nicole…" Sarah slowly deduced. "Where is your ring?" She already knew.
"What?" Their mother obliviously asked. She looked between her daughters cluelessly. "What? Sarah, where is her ring?"
"It's okay!" Sarah put her hands out in a calming motion. "Whatever you do, do not turn the water on! JARED! JARED, GET YOUR TOOLS!"
"Sarah?" Their mother asked, watching as the younger girl lunged for the exit, calling for her husband all the while. She looked back at the sink. "Nicole!" She shrilly exclaimed.
Nicole backed up, plopped on the toilet, and covered her face, her shoulders silently shaking.
"Oh, honey, don't. Don't do that!" Her mother quickly came to her side and began to pet her shoulders. "There, there now. I hate it when you do this! You've always been such a quiet crier; it's terrifying to see a baby not make any noise when it cries! Oh, your face gets so red! Honey, we have reservations! Stop it!"
Nicole gasped and pushed her mom away, her cheeks wet with tears. She shook her head. "Get out!"
"What?"
She pushed her mom across the bathroom. "Just go! I want you out! Get out!" The door of the room opened and Sarah returned with Jared hot on her heels at the same moment that Nicole pushed her mother out of the bathroom and slammed the door.
She twisted her hands in her hair and panicked.
Outside, she could hear her mother and sister's frantic voices.
"What did you do? What did you say to her?" Sarah, who was accusing their mother.
"Nothing! She was crying!"
"You made her cry!"
Their mother gasped. "Absolutely not! She lost the ring down the drain for heaven's sake! You really think anything I could say could possibly make her feel worse?"
"Yes! Yes! You always make it worse!"
"You try talking to her then!"
The room quieted and Nicole gripped the edge of the counter tightly, willing the tears to stop. Her chin trembled and she shook with anger and sadness and guilt, and when there was a gentle rap at the door she jumped.
"Nicole? It's okay now; Jared is here with his tools. He can get the ring."
Another sob choked her and she turned around and dissolved, sliding to the floor.
"Nicole, don't worry about the reservations, okay?"
Nicole sobbed so hard she couldn't breathe.
"I heard the service at that restaurant isn't very good. It's okay, really!"
There was no response. There were muffled voices, but they spoke too lowly for it to reach Nicole's ears through the door, and she was too hysterical by that point anyway.
"…Nicole? Uh, it's me. Jared."
She snorted and paused to blink, her eyes hot as tears continued to spill down her cheeks.
"Nicole, look… True, you dropped the engagement ring. And that's probably pretty scary. You're probably afraid Chris is going to be mad—ow! Sarah! Let me finish! Umm, okay, what was I saying? Oh, yeah. Chris. I don't know him very well, but from what I can tell I think he'll take it okay. You know what's scarier? Sarah, if we miss those reservations."
Nicole choked out a laugh. Slowly, her crying had dwindled, and she was now just hiccupping on the ground, running her hand over her hair as she listened to Jared awkwardly attempt to coax her to open the door.
"Seriously," He said, and she could hear the smile in his voice and wondered if he'd heard her laughing. "She kept talking about it all last night. If we're going to make it on time I need to get in there so I can get the ring from the pipes."
Nicole leaned over and reached up to flip the lock, opening the door a crack. "Just Jared."
Sarah huffed and Nicole watched Jared turn to make a calming gesture to her. He turned back and slowly opened the door, stepping inside, and he shut it behind him.
He stood looking down at her with a toolbox in his hand. "Wow. Hey."
Nicole sniffed and swiped at her nose. Her chuckle was nasally from her tears. "Sorry about this, Jared."
"It's really no big deal. It's kind of my job. Well, the whole taking-things-apart part, but aside from that, I had three sisters, so crying doesn't freak me out. Could you, uh, scoot over?"
She apologized and went to sit on the toilet lid again, chewing at her thumbnail. She watched Jared open his toolbox and listened to him talk about the time he had to repair the pipes in the toilet of their basement one time because Caroline and Cora… he trailed off.
"Oh, sorry."
Nicole forced a shrug. "No, don't be. I know how close you are to them. You shouldn't feel like you can't talk about them."
Jared considered her carefully. "Yeah… I guess. I just know you and Derek were pretty close too."
She cleared her throat and looked away. "Does he… I mean, did you… say anything to him?"
"Derek knows, if that's what you're asking," Jared said, opening the cabinets to get to the pipes underneath. It grew awkwardly quiet as he began to work. Minutes passed as he disassembled the pipes and she was startled when he finally spoke again. "He doesn't know it's this weekend, I don't think. He… uh, didn't want to know."
He might as well have swung a bag of bricks at her stomach. She hunched over farther and turned her face away, covering her mouth to will the pain into submission. Nicole gasped in a silent breath and forced her voice to remain neutral as she said, "Really, I'm sorry about this."
Jared lifted his head and peered through the cabinet at her. The door suddenly opened and Chris stepped through.
Nicole immediately stood, and the tension shifted and morphed into a new tone, one that only Jared and Nicole were aware of, though you wouldn't know it by looking at Nicole. She allowed Chris to pull her into a hug and looked down when he pressed a tender kiss to her forehead.
"Are you okay?" He asked, his kind brown eyes set in concern. "Sarah came to get me."
Nicole's eyes flashed into the room behind him, where her sister stood nearby with her mother and looked on. "I didn't mean to, I was just—I was washing my hands and i-it just must have slipped and—"
"Nicky, stop, stop," He hushed, pulling her to him in a comforting embrace. "It's seriously fine. Look, Jared's got it handled like a champ, right Jared?"
"Yep!" He called from under the sink.
She snorted at his blunt reply and looked back at Chris, unable to keep the sadness from her face. "Did I ruin the weekend?"
He almost looked offended. "You do know what tomorrow is, right?"
Nicole smiled with a small twinge of shame. "The Patriots play the Cowboys."
Chris laughed loudly and tugged her into another tight embrace. "I love you."
She screwed her eyes shut. "I really don't see how. I'm the worst. I don't see how you'll ever forgive me."
He chuckled again, kissing the side of her head. "There's nothing to forgive," He reassured. "Besides. Even if something had really happened to it, I have insurance on the ring."
"Insurance? On an engagement ring?" Nicole felt strangely odd about that. What had he been expecting to happen?
"Now there's a man who's prepared to marry my Nicole!" Her mother happily clapped, and as Chris turned away to give her his best charming smile, Nicole frowned to herself.
Jared suddenly popped up from under the counter with the ring.
Chris cheered with Sarah and their mother clapped again. "Your father would be so happy to know that you've both found such capable men!"
Sarah and Nicole rolled their eyes and Jared raised his eyebrow at Chris, who grinned good-naturedly. Chris clapped Jared on the back. "Hey, thanks man. Glad you were here. Good thing the water didn't rinse it too far down, huh?"
Jared caught Nicole's eye just before she looked away, handing the ring over to Chris. "Yeah," He agreed. "Good thing."
Nicole watched as Chris slid it back onto her ring finger, and when he flashed his teeth in a wide grin, she weakly returned it. "See?" Chris assured. "No worse for wear."
It was much later, in the middle of breakfast as Nicole listened to Sarah talk with their cousin about the DJ, when Nicole's phone buzzed. She let go of Chris's hand to check it.
I need to see you.
Her heart raced and she sweated with a secret thrill like she hadn't for nearly two years. There was only one person it could be. Chris laid his arm across the back of her chair and leaned in, and she quickly dropped the screen on her phone to the home page. "Tell your boss he can figure out how to check his own schedule," He whispered, and she forced a smile.
She glanced at Jared and waited for him to lean away before she replied.
When and were?
Blood and adrenaline sped through her veins and she felt dizzy as she chewed her nail to anxiously wait for a reply. When the phone buzzed, she jumped. Chris was in the middle of laughing at a joke her uncle made about the upcoming sports game and didn't notice.
Room 310. Tonight.
Derek was there, at the hotel. Jared had said he didn't know it was this weekend. Had he lied? She knew it was wrong, but she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding and put away her phone.
~TWTWTW~
The numbers on the door mocked her. She had been standing in the hallway for what felt like an eternity. She almost left three times. She kept expecting the door to open and the choice to be made for her. But that wasn't Derek's style. She knew that.
After almost chickening out for the thousandth time, she strode back to the door and knocked purposefully without thinking. There was a pause, and the door opened.
Twenty-three months. Twenty-three long, agonizing, life-altering months. They'd dragged by, and they'd sped by. She'd dreamt of this moment again and again and now here they were at long last. He was right there in front of her and… there he was. Just standing there, looking exactly as she remembered.
It was everything she had expected and a swell of emotions that were too frenzied to even process had her nearly falling to her knees. Had she been dead for the past two years? She felt like this was the first breath she'd taken since she walked away. She hadn't realized until that moment that she'd been numb, and now everything was electrified.
He opened the door wider, giving her just enough space to pass inside. "Come in," He said, his voice low and rumbling and soothing like gentle thunder in a rain shower.
She stepped inside.