Chapter 6

Nick waved at Lindsay to let him in; however, given how lightly her parents slept, she wasn't willing to risk opening the front door and letting another voice inside the house. So she silently opened the window instead.

"Hey, Nick," she whispered. It was a nice night, so she didn't feel too guilty about leaving him outside. "What- what are you doing here?"

"My dad gave me your message today," Nick said cheerfully. "I'm so glad you called. I wanted to call you back, but I knew I wouldn't be able to talk to you if your parents answered, so I figured I'd come by instead."

Lindsay smiled. This felt a whole lot different from the previous time that Nick was outside her window in the middle of the night, back when she was trying to break up with him. She wanted him to keep his voice down, of course, but other than that, she wasn't annoyed that he was there- she was actually happy to see him. There was something that she had been itching to ask him though.

"So, um," she began, uncertain of where to start. "It, um, it seems like things are going a lot better with your dad, if he's letting you go out with your friends and giving you your phone messages."

Nick smiled broadly. "Yeah, it is." His features strained a bit on his face as he continued, "I suppose in some way I have Sara to thank for that."

Lindsay couldn't help it- jealousy coursed through her. But she bit her tongue. "Oh, um, did she encourage you to work things out with him?" she wondered in her fake nice voice instead.

"Well, she definitely helped me study for my finals," Nick replied. He had a strange expression as he looked like he was trying to interpret her tone. "I still did pretty terrible- there's no way a few good weeks could make up for a year of slacking off- but my grades improved enough that my dad could tell I at least tried at the end. Plus he knew that I had stopped smoking weed. So he agreed to sit down and have a talk with me."

"About what? The army?" Lindsay whispered, rapt. Nick's story was fascinating.

Nick nodded. "Yeah, I told him how unhappy it would make me, asked him what I could do to avoid it."

"What did he say?"

"Well," Nick began, "first of all, he told me to get back into basketball. I was messing around on the courts a lot right after Sara and I broke up, which was while you were away, I guess. But my dad really pushed me to try harder- he knew what I was capable of back when I played in school. So now I'm on a competitive summer league. My dad spotted me the cash to join, and I play two nights a week."

"Wow, that's great, Nick," Lindsay said sincerely. Every positive statement was like a little jab to her heart. See Lindsay? I'm not the loser you cast me off as. Yet she was still thrilled for him. Bizarre.

"Now, that's only if I stay clean," Nick emphasized. "If my dad catches me with weed, or suspects I'm using again- the deal's off, and I owe him the registration fee."

Lindsay shrugged. "But that shouldn't be too hard, right?" She asked him, desperately hoping that she sounded casual. Nick seemed like he was doing so well- marijuana was the last thing that he needed.

Nick leaned in a bit until his forehead was resting on the screen, looked her straight in the eye. "Nah. I told you before, I don't even really want it anymore," he clarified.

She smiled at him. "Did your dad say anything else?"

"Oh, yeah, the basketball wasn't everything," Nick quickly jumped in. "He said if I wanted to stay at home, and didn't have any plans for the army, I was going to have to get a job this summer so that I can pay rent the next couple of months. And I have to keep the job next year- but my rent will decrease during classes since he won't want me working as many hours. But I'll be working on weekends and holidays."

"Wow, well that seems- reasonable," Lindsay concluded honestly. She was having trouble imagining paying rent at her age, but disappearing for two weeks is still a lot less than what Nick put his dad through. "Did you get a job? I guess so, huh, since I don't see you at A1 anymore," she smiled at him wistfully. She didn't start working at A1 until after Nick had quit, but she randomly saw him working there a few times when she had come by to see her dad.

"Yeah," he said, smiling again. "At a music store. The Music Box on Van Dyke Ave."

"Wait, that huge one with all the guitars?" Lindsay whispered excitedly. "And all the drums? That's so great, Nick!" She knew that she was beginning to sound like a broken record. But she couldn't be happier for Nick, and for every congratulations she dispensed, she felt a little worse for doubting him.

"Yeah, I was pretty pumped," he replied, with a shy smile. "Sara knew how much I love music; she pushed me to get a job doing something that I was really passionate about. I like basketball, too, but staying at A1 wasn't going to make me a better player or anything. So when I said I was thinking of applying to some music stores, she was psyched. Of course, I think that she was probably picturing a disco record store or the discotheque," Nick joked.

Lindsay attempted to smile and tried not to grind her teeth or cringe while hearing Nick say Sara's name again. She nodded and Nick immediately continued, talking excitedly.

"Yeah, they have a really amazing drum guy; he's the guy that gives the lessons. He used to play in a pretty famous band that opened up for Alice Cooper or some shit. I started two weeks ago and he's the one that's training me- so I think I'm going to learn a lot. And I can get a discount on drum lessons from working there. I have to pay rent this month first, but hopefully I can start in a few weeks. We'll see- it depends on my hours, I guess. They're not working me all that many to start but they said if I do well in training they could increase my hours a lot. It's going really well so far."

"Wow, Nick, that's amazing," Lindsay said breathlessly. She truly couldn't think of anything else to say.

"And you know what the best part is? They offer discounts on the drums, too. And my dad was so psyched that I got the job there and with the basketball and everything that he offered to put my rent money towards buying me a brand-new set. So the money that I'm earning will actually be going to go to the drums, not my dad, at least at first."

This felt a little like the Dimension tryout, only in reverse. Instead of Nick telling Lindsay about everything that was going wrong in his life, and her kissing him because she felt sorry for him, this time he was telling Lindsay about everything that was going right. And her urge to kiss him was even stronger now, because this was the Nick that she thought he could be and probably was all along, at least before weed got in the way. She was grateful there was a screen separating them because kissing him was a mistake the first time- and she didn't want it to be if she kissed him again.

Lindsay could swear Nick was reading her mind when he spoke next.

"It was funny, when I put my application in, I didn't think they would call me in a million years. They were nice and all, but I didn't think I would ever hear from them again. But they must have really liked the fact that I knew so much about all of the different kinds of drums. A lot of their employees are guitarists. So I guess my old kit helped me out after all. Even if it didn't help me out that day for Dimension." He gave Lindsay a little smile and reached out to her. The screen door prevented him from grabbing her hand, but he held it up to the screen, and Lindsay held hers up in return, and their hands touched through the mesh, and Lindsay could feel it all the way to her toes.

She smiled at him but after a moment pulled her hand away. She had thought of something else she wanted to ask him. "Nick, why did you leave the store so quickly after I told you I was grounded?" she wondered shyly, not sure if she wanted to know the answer.

Nick blushed, looked at the ground. "It's embarrassing."

Lindsay stared at him. "I don't care. Tell me. You know I won't make fun of you."

He looked back up at her for a second, red as a tomato. "I just had- I just had- after Sara and I broke up I just had this vision of you and I being able to hang out this summer," he said. "I came into the store to ask you out. When you told me you were grounded, for, like, infinity, I just- all of a sudden I got kind of emotional. I almost felt like I was going to cry or something- so I split before you could notice or ask me what was wrong."

Lindsay looked at him skeptically. "But you came into A1 to return your ball, not to see me," she felt the need to state the obvious.

"Lindsay, have you ever seen a basketball get that flat just from someone using it while playing?" Nick asked her, smiling but rolling his eyes a little. "I beat the hell out of that thing. You know, I'm surprised your dad never said anything to you about it, because I'm sure he knew the second he saw it. I'm just glad he wasn't pissed off, because I basically ruined his merchandise and cost him a basketball."

He came into the store to see me after all, Lindsay thought. But before she could contemplate it too deeply, Nick spoke up again.

"But then I realized it was stupid to be upset just because you're grounded," Nick said, continuing with his story. "I might not be able to ring your doorbell and talk to your parents, but that doesn't mean I can't see you. I can still come by and talk to you like this, and maybe, if you're up to it- you could even sneak out and go out with me."

"Wait, so you want to take me out?" Lindsay clarified, a little stunned. This whole conversation was kind of surreal. "When?"

"How about right now?" Nick asked her, giving her a grin a mile wide. "Ken's having a party tonight. His parents are away at their lakeside cottage or something and he managed to convince them to let him stay home. And we all managed to convince him to throw a party. So what do you think? Do you want to go?"

Lindsay paused a moment to weigh her options. Kim would probably kill her for going out to a party that she didn't plan on attending herself. And her parents would certainly kill her if they found out. But neither of those seemed to dampen her enthusiasm in the slightest. She had been waiting for someone to rescue her from the depths of grounded hell all summer. And Nick had somehow managed to transform himself into the perfect Prince Charming.

"Sure!" She whispered excitedly. "Um- give me a few minutes to change."

Nick smiled again. "Okay," he said devilishly, a sly grin on his face.

She instantly could tell what he was thinking. "Nick!" she whispered, then became more serious and whispered, "Just give me a minute, I'll meet you outside," before shutting the window and closing the curtains.

In the next few minutes, Lindsay frantically threw on some decent-looking clothes and checked herself in the mirror to make sure her hair looked all right. She had just brushed her teeth a few hours ago, but she was worried her nap had made her breath worse, so she quickly dug a mint out from her purse. This was as close to a date as she and Nick (or she and anybody) would have as long as she was grounded.

After getting ready, Lindsay hastily stuffed some of her decorative pillows under her covers in the vague shape of a human form, just in case her parents checked on her from afar. She opened the front door and silently slipped out, before locking it securely behind her.

Nick was in her front yard waiting for her. "You ready to go?" he asked her, clearly excited.

She nodded fervently, just as excited to be going out, and going out with him. Nick took her hand and it gave it a squeeze and all of her nerve endings seemed to be firing at once. They walked hand-in-hand for several minutes before she shyly pulled her arm away. There was no sign of his car anywhere; he must have parked it pretty far away so that the sound of the engine wouldn't wake her parents.

But when they turned the corner at the end of her block, Lindsay's mouth dropped open in shock. Daniel was sitting in his Trans Am, waiting for them.