Brady, Nicole and Sami argued relentlessly the whole limo ride back to the hotel. Nicole and Sami were both ganging up on Brady and Brady was yelling at Sami and for the most part, Lucas was just watching the three of them.
Sami had clearly gotten sick of screaming at Brady and focused on Nicole instead, "And what the hell were you thinking? How could you leave your things where Brady could find them and figure out the truth? And on top of that, how could you let him drag you down the talk show and screw everything up?"
"I didn't know where he was taking me." Nicole shot back, looking over at Brady helplessly, "I also didn't know that he was going to go into my room and look at all my stuff. Of course, I shouldn't have been so stupid. I've known for a while now that Brady has the hardest time minding his own business."
"You're right, you shouldn't have been so stupid." Sami hissed, "Now everything is ruined."
"It's not ruined." Brady told her irately, "It was ruined from day one, so you can't ruin something that's already ruined. You and Lucas should have stayed out of this. It was between Nicole and me."
"You?" Nicole looked at him skeptically, "How does that work?"
Brady squirmed in his seat nervously, "Well, I heard about how Lyric Wilson was supposed to have an incredibly gorgeous fiancé that was her inspiration. I just assumed that... I was that guy. Because, you know, a lot of people find me very hard to resist." Brady looked directly at Lucas while he was saying this. Lucas grimaced in response.
"Come on, don't look at me like." Lucas groaned, shaking his head, "It's really not cool."
"No, it isn't." Sami gave Lucas a pointed look, "Do you understand why I didn't want to leave you two alone now?"
"Yeah but you didn't need to worry. Brady wouldn't have done anything, I think I've already made it clear how I feel. And in case I haven't," Lucas looked directly at Brady, "I do not and will not ever like you in that way, got that?"
"Aw, that was harsh, Lucas. You're going to make him cry." Nicole said sarcastically, "On second thought, go ahead and continue because Brady deserves to suffer. Oh and Brady, don't assume things. You were not my inspiration. Truth be told, I had a huge crush on one of the gardeners."
Brady looked from Lucas to Nicole with a hurt expression on his face, "I don't get why you're all mad at me. I only did it for Nicole's sake. Nicole, I was trying to be a friend to you. You deserved to have people know that you were the writer, not Sami and-"
"You didn't do it for me." Nicole stated bluntly, "You did it for yourself. Either you were doing it to spite Sami because Lucas likes her and not you or you did it for another one of your own reasons."
"Nicole, that's not true-"
"Yes, it is." Nicole cut him off, holding up her hand to silence him, "It's never been about me. I tried to get you to fall for me but nothing I did seemed to work. I mean, instead of falling for me, you fell for a guy, which proves just how stupid I was for ever thinking we could have something. So, you know what? Have fun lusting after Lucas even when you know it's not going to get you anywhere because I am completely fed up with you." Nicole pressed her head against the window and looked away from Brady, not wanting to see his expression.
"Nicole, I never asked to fall for- him." Brady finished, giving an almost imperceptible nod in Lucas' direction. Nicole didn't pull her face away from the window.
"I certainly don't remember asking to fall for you either." Nicole murmured, "I don't think you ever get to choose."
"Would you just let me talk to you for two seconds?" Brady asked desperately.
"Go cry to your boyfriend." Nicole shot back angrily.
"Hey!" Lucas yelped indignantly, "I am not his boyfriend. I'm not even his friend."
Brady seemed stunned by this revelation, "You're not?" he asked in a small voice.
Before Lucas could answer, Sami opened the door to the limo, "Thank God, we're back at the hotel. I really think Nicole and Brady could use some time alone together to sort out their problems." Sami stepped outside the limo but Lucas hesitated for a minute.
"What are we going to do now?" Lucas asked Nicole, who finally looked up from the window, "I mean, since Brady's kind of messed up this entire thing."
"I don't know. Get ready to go back to Salem, I guess. I'll get in touch with my agent and tell her the campaign is over. But thanks to Brady, she's probably pissed at me too." Nicole had her arms crossed and was glaring at Brady. Lucas nodded and scooted out of the limousine.
"All right, I guess we should go. You two have fun." Lucas said, beginning to make his way back to the hotel with Sami at his side. Nicole didn't make a move to leave the limo, instead she stared intently at the seat across from her, her eyes narrowed viciously. Brady sighed and took hold of Nicole's arm.
"You're not leaving until I say something to you." he informed her.
"Did I look like I was going anywhere?" Nicole retorted, trying not to focus on what the feel of his hand touching her was doing to her.
"Nicole, I'll admit it. Part of the reason for telling the truth might have been to get back at Sami. But there was more to it than that. If you really wrote books that ended up being so popular... then you're very talented. And you did deserve to be recognized for that."
Nicole shook his hand off, "Don't you get it? I wasn't ready to be recognized. Having Victor still in my life made things too complicated. I agreed to do this campaign so I could divorce Victor and still be able to support myself. I wanted to surprise when I got back to Salem. You know, just once I wanted to do something that might make you think I was more than a gold-digging, self-centered whore. But you did one hell of a job of ruining that for me, didn't you?"
"Oh, God." Nicole could hear the guilt surfacing in Brady's voice, "I had no idea. I'm so sorry."
Nicole almost melted against the genuinely remorseful tone in Brady's voice but once she realized what she was doing, she steeled herself against his words, "I don't care anymore. Just leave me alone."
Nicole didn't let herself look at Brady, knowing that if she did, she probably wouldn't be able to control herself. Lately, she hadn't be able to tell what she wanted to do more- tear him apart or tear his clothes off. She was very undecided on that and she knew that both options weren't good ones. That was why she waited a few minutes before moving, waiting until Brady was out of sight before leaving the limousine.
Sami held the fake engagement ring between two fingers, staring doubtfully at the trash can. Since the publicity campaign was over, she didn't need to wear the ring anymore and she didn't particularly want to, considering the fact that it had been supposed to be for Chloe. But for some reason, she was having a hard time parting with it. Maybe it was because the ring had been such a huge part of what she and Lucas had been pretending to do. For a while, wearing the ring had actually managed to make her feel like she had actually been Lucas' fiancé. True, Lucas had said he was going to get her a real engagement ring once they were back in Salem but had he really meant it or was had he just been caught up in the moment? Would things really stay so good between them once thing returned to Salem?
Sami couldn't believe she was already starting to doubt her relationship with Lucas when the publicity campaign had only ended less than two hours ago. But she couldn't help dreading the return to Salem and facing everyone after the Brady-induced disaster at the last talk show. Sami was especially dreading how Kate would react when Sami and Lucas returned. If Kate had seen the last talk show appearance, Sami had a feeling that Kate would have probably jumped to a lot of conclusions by now. Kate probably assumed that she and Lucas weren't going to be together when they returned to Salem. But that was wrong. It had to be.
Unless Sami and Lucas really had gotten too caught up in the publicity campaign and didn't really feel so strongly and affectionately about each other. No, Sami corrected herself, I know how I feel about Lucas. I'm just not sure if it's the same for him or if he just decided it was easier to pretend to be in love with me during the past her few weeks rather than continue playing two different parts.
Sami stifled a gasp when she felt a hand drop onto her shoulder from behind. She whirled around to face Lucas, realizing that she had been so lost in her thoughts, she had temporarily forgotten she wasn't the only one there. Lucas' eyes were questioning and Sami tried unsuccessfully to push her previous thoughts out of her mind.
"Aren't you going to start packing?" he asked her. Sami clenched her fist around the ring, letting the cold metal dig into her palm. She smiled weakly at Lucas, hoping he wouldn't see that she was upset.
"Yeah, in a minute." Sami responded hastily, "Hey, one of us should find Shawn and Jan and tell them that we're leaving. I'm pretty sure Nicole will want to get back to Salem as soon as possible, judging from her frame of mind." But I don't, Sami thought, her throat feeling constricted, I would rather stay here.
"Sure, I can go tell them." Lucas regarded Sami carefully for a few moments but finally turned and left the hotel room. Sami took a deep breath and unclenched her fist. She stared at the engagement ring for another minute or two before tossing it in the trash can.
"Won't Nicole be mad that we're using her computer?" Shawn asked as Jan continued scrolling through various websites.
"Probably." Jan responded evenly, not sounding very worried, "But it's all good because she's always mad at me. I don't care anymore. Hm, click here." Jan read aloud, the cursor hovering over the link at the bottom of the page, "Okay."
"Jan, you shouldn't just click on random links on the internet. It's not safe." Shawn reprimanded her.
"So? It's fun. You never know what you're going to find." Jan said, waiting for the page to load. The website consisted of a dark blue screen with nothing on it but Jan could hear something in the background. Jan turned up the volume and discovered that there was a sound recording of a bunch of kids saying the Lord's Prayer on the website.
"They sound so innocent." Shawn titled his head, "Too innocent."
"Let's turn up the volume some more." Jan suggested, raising the volume a few more notches. Suddenly, pictures of burning bodies and other very grotesque things began popping up on the scream and shrill scream cut off the Lord's Prayer. Jan shrieked and fell off her chair, cowering underneath the chair fearfully. Shawn quickly exited the website and turned to Jan, who was slowly climbing back onto the chair.
"Dude," Jan panted, "That was incredibly frightening. What kind of people make demented sites like that?"
"I don't know." Shawn rolled his eyes, "No more surfing the web, okay? Bad things happen. Let me check my email."
"Hey, what if we went to hotmale.com?" Jan asked, grinning wickedly, "You know, not like the kind of email- mail but the hot guy kind of male. I want to try it."
"Jan, I just said no more surfing. Jan, that's sick! Oh, shit, my eyes are bleeding!" Shawn cried, turning away from the screen.
"Yes, I'd love to enter your site." Jan told the computer, clicking with the mouse again. Jan squealed happily at all the lovely pictures on the screen. Shawn opened his eyes, then groaned again.
"You know, that guy looks like Lucas." Shawn noted, before deciding he really needed to go to the bathroom to bleach his eyes out after seeing such awful pictures.
"It is Lucas." Jan shot back, "This is his secret job. No one knows about it but me."
"Ew, Jan." Shawn sounded incredibly grossed out, "How can you say that about Lucas?"
"Say what?"
"Ahhhhhhh!" Jan toppled off her chair for a second time at the sound of Lucas' voice. When she got to her feet, Lucas was looking at her like she was crazy.
"Don't look at me like that. I just had a near death experience with the evilness of the internet." Jan informed him crossly.
"Really?" Lucas sounded amused.
"Really." Jan confirmed, "Show him the website, Shawn."
Lucas moved over to see what was on the website, then turned away in disgust, "I can understand how that could be a near death experience. I think I'm going to be sick. I'm sorry but I don't like that kind of stuff. Go find Brady, he'll enjoy it."
"No, not this one." Jan responded, "The one where the evil kids were praying, then there was this scream and these pictures..."
"Okay then, you're not making any sense but whatever. Anyways, I just came in here to tell you that we're leaving."
"Leaving?"
"Going back to Salem." Lucas elaborated, seeming to be in a rush to leave the room, "But I don't want to go into details right now. I have to get back to my room and start packing. You guys should start packing too."
"Sure." Shawn was glad to have an excuse to get away from Jan and the deadly 'hotmale.com', "I'll go start packing right now."
"Me too. I can help you and then you can help me." Jan said, following Shawn out of the room. She had no idea why all of them were returning to Salem so quickly but she certainly didn't mind. Ever since she and Shawn had gotten so close, Jan had been extremely excited about the prospect of going back to Salem and seeing Belle's reaction to what had happened between Jan and Shawn. And Jan knew that throwing her success with Shawn in Belle's face was going to be nothing short of sheer bliss.