Chapter 34: The End?

Randy and John were sitting on her bed waiting for her to wake up. Nikki woke up with John and Randy looking straight at her eyes.

"Hey! It's a new day! Get up! I have some breakfast waiting!" John jumped for joy.

Nikki sat up on her bed. She rubbed her eyes and checked the clock. "It's 6 AM. It's too early. What did you make then John?"

"Look for yourself." Randy replied.

-----------

"Oooh… who made it?" Nikki asked sleepily as she looked into the delicious-looking omelet.

"I did." John gave a handful of bacon to Nikki and Randy. Randy laughed because John was wearing an apron. A pink apron that belonged to Trish.

Nikki put down the fork and backed away from the counter. "No way am I eating that."

"I know it's meat. Sorry, I forgot you're a vegan now." John removed Nikki's bacon and placed it in his own plate.

"Thanks." Nikki grabbed the omelet and began eating.

Randy and John noisily munched through the food.

"Eww… why do you fellas like eating meat? It's sad." Nikki frowned at them both as she placed her dishes in the sink. "Orton… your turn."

"Aww shit. I hate doing the dishes. Can't John do it?" Randy complained.

"Why don't you do it? It's your turn." John argued.

"Why don't you both do it?" Nikki began to laugh. "Do it in your own bedrooms please, not out here." Nikki began to crack up.

John placed his hands on his hips like he was a gay person. "I don't find that the least bit funny young woman."

Randy had his own remarks. "That was pretty good Nikki." Randy couldn't help but laugh either. Even though he was still kind of disappointed at Nikki for rejecting him, he couldn't help but love her. "I'll do it myself." Randy headed over to the sink.

John finally found something funny. "Do you mind masturbating in the bathroom? Not in the kitchen? I'm still eating my delicious Italian sausages here." John sipped on the sausage. "In fact it's spicy. Woo!"

Nikki began to laugh even harder. "Haha. John has a hot Italian sausage that he's sucking on!" Nikki yelped. She was cracking up so much she almost fell of the barstool.

John smiled. "Look Nikki, Randy's doing the dishes!" He began to crack up too.

"Ha! We should record this for future generations to see Orton doing the damn dishes." Nikki laughed.

"Watch him scrub that thing!" John laughed at Randy.

"Hey! Watch your laughter. You might break your Italian sausage that's getting shorter every second." Randy laughed.

Nikki laughed so hard she did fall off the stool. "Ha! He did break his sausage in half!"

Randy snickered like there was no tomorrow. He loved seeing Nikki laughed. It was so majestic, yet kind of creepy at the same time.

John slowly stopped laughing. "Hey guys… doesn't this omelet look like a woman's----"

"JOHN!" Randy and Nikki yelled at the same time.

There was a moment of silence until the three started cracking up again. There was Nikki who was cracking up on the floor. Randy was doing the dishes hard, and John was sticking the sausage into the omelet. Soon someone walked in the room.

"I'm home!" Trish yelled.

The three's laughter was so strong; they didn't even hear Trish's yell. They still kept on laughing.

Trish walked up to where John was, and saw him sticking the sausage into the omelet and then she screamed, "Eww! What kind of foolishness are you doing!"

That's when they all stopped laughing.

Nikki was still snickering on the floor. "He thought his omelet looked like a woman's---"

"Nikki?" Trish looked around. "Where are you?"

"I can smell your toe from where I'm at right now." Nikki laughed.

Randy and John began laughing again too.

Trish looked down. "I'm sorry girl." Trish tried to help Nikki up but she refused. "What are you doing down there?"

"I fell off the barstool laughing." Nikki said.

Trish smiled. "Stupid Nikki." Trish looked at John's plate. She grabbed John's sausage and took a bite.

"Hey! She bit my sausage!" John said loudly and all three began laughing once again.

Randy wiped his hands on the towel.

"Hey look, Randy's done doing the dishes. Where they dirty?" John chuckled.

"Oh yes were they dirty. I had to scrub it hard." Randy grinned.

Nikki looked up at Randy and began to laugh so hard, they heard her snort a few times, then they couldn't hear her laughing anymore. All they saw was her mouth moving as if she was laughing.

John took a bite of the omelet. "Mmm this omelet is good!"

Trish smiled. "You bit my omelet!"

Then continued to laugh so hard. Randy was already crunching his stomach from the laughter of pain. John was banging on the table. Trish had to hold on to the counters to ensure that she doesn't fall off of them. Nikki had nothing to worry about; she was already on the floor.

Then Nikki saw something sparkly on Trish's left finger. Nikki suddenly stopped laughing and got up. She took Trish's hand and yelled, "Oh my goodness gracious! You're engaged!"

Randy looked up and John rushed to Trish.

"Are you really?" John asked in a low voice.

"Yeah. I'm so happy too." Trish replied.

John left the kitchen.

Randy shrugged. "When's the wedding?"

"I don't know! I just got engaged!" Trish exclaimed.

"You have hella sparkles in your eyes. Aww… Trish looks so happy!" Nikki gave Trish a tight hug. "We're going to have to go bridal shopping! Yay!"

"I hate bridal shopping." Randy murmured.

"Who said you had to go?" Trish asked.

"Who said you was even invited to go?" Nikki asked.

"Oooh… Randy got told!" Trish exclaimed. "Well, I got to go unpack." Trish headed for her room.

Nikki leaned on the counter. "Oh I ain't doing the dishes, you're doing them already." She smiled.

"Looks like John wasn't done with his omelet and sausage." Randy showcased the plate to Nikki.

And then they started cracking up again.

--------------------

Trish joined Nikki and Randy in the loft. "Ok… is it just me or has John not been talking for two days now?"

"It's just you." Randy and Nikki replied simultaneously without facing away from the plasma screen.

Trish sighed. "I was talking to my fiancé a while ago, and he wanted me to move in with him before we get married."

Nikki paused the game. "I forgot about the fact you're going to have to move when you get married."

"To New Jersey right?" Randy asked.

"Yeah." Trish sighed.

"I'm sorry guys." Trish leaned on the chaise.

"What are we going to do with this place now?" Randy asked.

"The pent? Nothing. You and John are still staying here." Nikki answered.

"No, I'm going with you." Randy informed Nikki.

"You can't go with me, like, no." Nikki said.

"Why not!" Trish and Randy said. Instead Trish yelled louder.

"Well, you'll have much more fun here if you stay with John. You two are both womanizers." Nikki said.

Trish laughed.

"I'm a ladies' man, John is the womanizer." Randy said.

"Oh really?" Nikki asked.

"Ugh. Why do you want to move to Greenwich with me?" Nikki asked.

"Because I told myself wherever you are, that's where I should be too." Randy smiled.

Trish smacked herself in the head and began laughing.

"Trish stop. Let the man speak his heart out." Nikki hit Trish with a pillow.

"Yeah!" Randy stuck out a tongue at Trish. "Hey! I was not speaking my heart out."

"Sure…" Nikki assured.

Randy nodded.

"Fine. You can move with me. But I can't imagine John living alone." Nikki said.

All three of them tried to think. They looked up.

"Shit!" John yelled.

"What?" a girl asked.

"I broke the TV. Nikki gave that one to me too." John said.

"Who cares? Just say one of the guys here broke it." The girl replied.

Then a window broke.

"What was that?" John rushed to the veranda.

"Yeah!" some guys yelled.

"What happened?" John asked frantically.

"Ahuh. We threw out everything in your kitchen. When they landed in the park, it made a sparkly look. It was cool." One of the guys replied.

"Of course it'll sparkle. It's stainless steel, and when it lands there it breaks!" John said.

Then the sound of sirens came about. The policemen were knocking on the door.

"Who owns this place?" a policeman asked.

"I do." John said, scared.

"It's illegal to throw things from a window this high into a public park. Did you know you almost killed an old woman trying to walk across the park?" the policeman questioned.

"Well it's not my fault!" John reasoned. "The woman walks slow!"

The policeman sarcastically laughed. "Come on boy, we're taking you downtown."

Randy, Trish and Nikki looked at each other. "No."

"And I have full custody of Pixie." Nikki said. She grabbed Pixie and placed her on Nikki's lap.

"We were planning to have the wedding in June. Maybe in Maui, Hawaii." Trish said.

Nikki sighed happily. "I can totally dream myself playing on the beach."

Randy looked at Nikki. "And I can totally see you and me doing it." He said.

Nikki and Trish looked at him.

"Whoops. Did I say that out loud?" Randy asked.

Nikki nodded.

"Sorry. It was suppose to stay up here." Randy pointed to his head.

"Well, I guess we're splitting up. We're going to have to talk to John to see what he wants to do." Nikki said.

"We're not splitting up! You and I are living together." Randy said.

"When you put it that way, it sounds weird. No, we're roommates that happen to be the best of friends." Nikki said.

Trish spotted a note on top of the karaoke machine. She read the note:

Whoever read this first (I know Trish will.)

I went home to West Newbury. I'll be back to get my stuff.

"What's that?" Nikki and Randy asked.

"I don't know." Trish handed Nikki and Randy the note.

"What the hell?" Nikki and Randy said.

-----------------------------------------

Two Weeks Later…

"Ok… so it's settled. Nikki and Randy will move to Greenwich, or at least the condo in Stamford for the meantime; John will move somewhere near where I'm going to live I New Jersey so he can keep my company; and I will be in New Jersey." Trish said as she laid out all of the penthouse paperwork.

"Wait… what are we going to do with this penthouse?" John asked.

"Well, Trish and I were thinking about handing it over to Jeannine. She's going to be here for college at NYU, taking some sort of drama course. And she's planning to work on Broadway while she's on it." Nikki explained.

"Perfect." Randy sighed. "I'm gonna miss this place. So many memories."

Trish wiggled her butt on the couch to make herself more comfortable. "Remember when we were making smoothies and the John turned on the blender and then everything went splat on the wall because he forgot to put the top on?"

Nikki nodded. "An then we always use to play DDR every chance we got."

John began to cry.

"What's up man?" Randy asked.

"I'm going to miss this place for sure. We're all gonna be separate." John sniffled.

"Not Randy and Nikki. Not you and me." Trish said. "We agreed on that remember? Like 5 minutes ago?"

"Oh. My bad homies." John looked around at all the boxes. "It looks so sad."

Randy, Nikki and Trish looked around as well.

"This feels like four friends who are going away to college or something." Nikki said.

"Yeah. But we all still be friends 'aight?" John said.

"Aight!" They all said.

"You didn't tell Jeannine that we were going to give her this place right?" Randy asked Nikki.

"No. I just asked her what's her plans for college." Nikki replied.

"Good. 'Cuz this…" Randy placed the paperwork into a Manila envelope. "Is going to be her graduation present."

Nikki smiled. "Good idea, never thought of that."

Trish got up. "Well, I guess we have to resume packing now. We have to get everything out, the whole place clean, and etcetera by mid-March."

Everyone got up and began to pack up in their rooms. Nikki went out to her veranda and stared out at the park near their building.

"… Should I throw this out? This might harbor space at the condo, or the house we going to live in." Randy asked Nikki as he walked into the room holding a small photo.

Nikki didn't answer. Randy placed the photo on top of Nikki's bed. He went outside to Nikki and found her softly crying. Randy hugged her.

"It's OK. We're all moving on." Randy stared out at the park. "I'm sure going to miss this place."

Nikki hugged him back. She leaned her head on his chest. "I don't wanna move."

"Just think, this isn't the end. It's never the end. It's always a new beginning." Randy assured her.

Nikki looked up at him and smiled. She wiped her tears. "I guess."

"Not I guess, I'm know." Randy said.

Nikki laughed.

Randy released her. "I'm gonna go finish packing."

"OK." Nikki said.

Randy left her room.

Nikki walked to her bed and sat there. She found the photo Randy was talking about and stared at it. It had been a picture that was taken in London a while back. She smiled at it, and placed it in her wallet.

"Orton's right. 'It's never the end. It's always a new beginning.'" Nikki began to back her stuff. "Orton's right?" Then she began to laugh. Whatever. Shit… I must find a big enough box to pack my hats. Come to think of it, I need another one. She laughed again.