Oreos for Breakfast: Nick BSB Fiction

Oreos for Breakfast - Chapter 23

By
The Paperbag Princess & The Pumpkin Coach

"Run."

Vanessa leaned into the car as I opened the door, and I looked up at her. "Run?"

She hadn't even said 'hello'. She'd seen me in the car and smiled, and then her face had changed, and now she was telling me to run. She hated me, didn't she? Jon was going to beat me up.

She nodded seriously as Rachel came around the car and stood next to her. "Hi, Van. Nice to see you, too!"

Vanessa looked at her with the same expression. "You should run too."

"Jon is going to beat me up, isn't he? I told you he hated me, Rache!" I whined, and both girls looked at me.

"Jon is fine. Well… he'll deal. But you should get the hell out of here for entirely different reasons."

"What?" Rachel demanded, and Vanessa sighed at her.

"What happens during harvest, Rachel? Who helps?"

"Everyone. Friends and… oh."

"What?" I said, seeing a look of understanding passing between them.

"There are about ten preteen girls in that house, Nick," Vanessa told me seriously. "I've lost count. There is giggling and MTV watching, and the new favorite game is to spot Rachel in all the family photos."

"Are they the 'good friends'?" Rachel asked, and Vanessa rolled her eyes.

"Duh. I don't raise stupid children. The girls in that house are the same girls that have been helping at harvest for years. No Ms. Popular Kelly shallow girl."

Vanessa looked so pleased by that fact that Rachel and I both laughed. So Kelly was the one that was only going to come over if Rachel was around?

"You don't like Ms. Popular Girl, do you, Van?"

Vanessa shook her head. "She's a bitch in training. I went to school with her mother."

Rachel smiled at me. "Well, the girls worked hard today. They deserve a brush with celebrity, don't you think, baby?"

"Can we sing them our new song?" I teased, making her giggle.

"Totally. Jon's got a guitar in there somewhere."

Vanessa sighed, stepping back to let me out of the car. "Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you."

"I don't mind, Vanessa. Not the girls. Is Jon going to beat me up?"

"Of course."

Nick looked so worried I just had to kiss him. "He's just protecting his baby sister, Nick. You'd do the same for your sisters."

"Yeah…" he admitted, considering.

"God forbid the girls ever date," Vanessa sighed. "It's going to be ugly. But let me give Nick a kiss before Jon crushes his pretty face."

Nick shot me a panicked look over Vanessa's shoulder as she hugged him, kissing him quickly on the cheek. I laughed, opening the trunk to rescue the food. "It's okay, bunny. I brought him lasagna and wings, he'll let you live."

"Oh, thank god you brought food. I only roasted a ham and a turkey," Vanessa informed us. We Connors did have a problem with making too much food. Well, there were ten girls, and me and Nick and Jon and Vanessa and Mom and …

"It's the pop star!" Patrick yelled, coming out of the house. Yeah. Patrick and his family were here, too. "I'm surprised he has the nerve."

"Oh, stop it, Patrick," Mom said after him, joining him on the porch with Billy in her arms.

"Hey, Jon and I wanted to beat him up before. If you'd just let us do that, he would have been too scared to do anything to Rachel."

"Patrick!" Mom and I scolded in unison, and I could feel myself blushing. Sometimes I hated my brothers. They used to do this to me in high school, too. They always found out who liked me, and they'd terrorize him in the hallways at school. No wonder I couldn't get a date!

"Who are we beating up?" Jon asked, walking out the door. He stopped when he saw Nick, standing next to Patrick with his arms crossed.

They did look scary. Damn football player brothers!

"You're not beating up anyone!" I insisted. "Both of you just stop it and help me with the food. If you're not nice to Nick, I'm taking my lasagna and going home."

Patrick and Jon exchanged a glance and then sighed. "We can't deprive everyone of the lasagna, just because of one punk ass pop star," Jon finally conceded.

"I'm glad to see you can be so adult," Mom said, shaking her head. "Nick, come here and give me a hug."

Nick seemed rooted to the spot, so I took his hand and walked him over to Mom as my stupid brothers came off the porch to get the stuff out of my car. Billy squealed for me, so I took him as Mom hugged Nick. "It's lovely to see you, Nick. I'm sorry I raised such Neanderthals. What would their father say?"

"Oh, please, Mom," Patrick told her, walking by with a tray of lasagna in his arms. "Know why we intimidated all of Rachel's boyfriends in high school? Because Dad told us to!"

"I didn't have any boyfriends in high school!" I protested, following him into the house.

"Exactly!" Jon asserted, walking in behind me. "That was the plan. No one in this town was good enough for you, baby sister."

"Is that why I had to go to London to have a relationship?" I wondered.

"Yeah, look how that ended," Patrick snorted, setting the lasagna on the kitchen table, which was already loaded with food. "Just stay here and be celibate. It's easier."

"Or not," I replied, scowling at him. Nick walked in with Mom, talking to her about something, and I smiled to myself. No, sex was a very good thing. It might be easier to never have a relationship, but it was worth it in the end. As horrible as our breakup had been, I didn't regret taking him back for a moment. Things were better now than ever.

Of course, I was leaving tomorrow and god knows what was going to happen, but… we'd deal with that tomorrow.

Nick came over to me, under the pretense of saying hi to Billy, but I knew he was just avoiding my stupid brothers.

"Oh, Mommy! Guess what?"

She turned to me with a smile. "What, Rachel?"

"Nick's going to Japan in November, and I'm going with him!"

Nick looked a little embarrassed, but Mom grinned at him. "That's fantastic. I'm jealous! You'll have to take lots of pictures for me." Mom and Dad had always wanted to go to Japan. That was one of their 'someday' trips.

"You could come, too," Nick offered.

That would be fun, wouldn't it? My mom was cool. She wouldn't bug us, or be one of those moms that had to be in bed by 8 every night… She looked interested, but I shook my head. "It's over Thanksgiving."

"Thanksgiving?" Jon exploded. "You won't be here for Thanksgiving?"

"I'll bake pies before I leave, Jon. You'll survive without me."

But it wasn't the pies. We all knew that. It was a family holiday, and Dad loved family holidays and even after the boys got married, Thanksgiving had been at our house. The in-laws would come. James' family always came. Thanksgiving was a very big deal at our house.

"You're taking her away on Thanksgiving?" Patrick asked, glaring at Nick.

Nick looked terrified. He needed to get to know my brothers better, because they were only kidding. Mostly.

I'd said 'yes' to Japan before I'd realized it was over Thanksgiving, and then I almost took it back. But… my family would all be here, and they'd have each other. Who would Nick be with on Thanksgiving? Okay, the fellas, but he'd told me that they were all bringing their girls, and I knew Nick would be lonely. This was okay. If I were here, I'd only be missing him anyway.

"Yes, Patrick. Nick is kidnapping me and forcing me to go to Japan for Thanksgiving. Because I've never wanted to go there or anything."

Patrick scowled at me. "There had better be pies."

"Will there ever be a Thanksgiving without Rachel pies?"

"Since when did Rachel's pies become better than mine?" Mom complained. "I taught her everything she knows about pies!"

Jon and Patrick quickly tried to backpedal, that Mom's pies were, of course, the gold standard, but mine were very good, blah blah blah. Then the wives got into the act, and finally even Nick was laughing.

I was about to go over and tell him Jon and Patrick were just joking, when a shrieked "Nick!" distracted me.

The girls had arrived.

I'd never been so glad to see a gang of preteen girls in my life. Patrick and Jon were going to kill me. I mean, I knew I'd fucked up, and they'd be protective of Rachel, but… they were freaking me out.

Katie and Colleen ran over and hugged me, and I gathered them into my arms. "What are you doing here?" Colleen asked.

"I had a day off and came to visit before Aunt Rachel goes to Europe."

"So you're just here until tomorrow?"

"Sorry. Aunt Rachel says we're helping you pick grapes tomorrow, though."

They both squealed at that, and I put them down to save my hearing. "Nick, these are our friends," Katie said, turning around to introduce me.

There were about eight little girls just standing there, staring at me, then at Rachel. I felt like if I touched any one of them, they'd all erupt into shrieking.

Katie rolled her eyes and grabbed the hand of one of them, pulling her over to me. "Nick, this is my best friend, Beth. Beth, this is Nick."

"Oh, my god," she whispered, and Rachel burst into giggles. I shot her an amused look and then kneeled down to be at Beth's level.

"Nice to meet you. Were you helping pick the grapes today?"

She just nodded at me.

"Rachel's making me help tomorrow. Will you be there? You'll have to show me what to do, I've never done it before."

She was quiet again for a second, and then Katie kicked her. "It's totally easy, Nick," Katie told me. "Right, Beth?"

Beth nodded, and I could see Katie give up. She waved all the other friends over and introduced them all at once. I caught the names, Sheri and Marleen and Maria and Lina and Terry and a couple of others, but I wouldn't be able to say which girl was which if my life depended on it.

It didn't matter. It never did. And Rachel wondered why I could never remember anyone's name. One of them said, "but aren't you on tour?" and I told them that we had a few days free and they were off. They wanted to know about the tour and my bus and the fellas and how did I meet Rachel, and I started signing napkins, and Vanessa had a camera, and I was smiling for pictures.

He was so adorable. He'd started out kneeling, but now he was sitting on the floor with Colleen in his lap, answering everyone's questions, acting like he did this every day.

Oh, wait. He did.

Still, it was more fun to see him do it at my house, charming the little girls, and even my brothers, a little bit.

Allie went over to Patrick, pulling at his pants, and he looked down at her with a smile. "What, Alliecat?"

"I wanna play!" she whined, pointing over at the girls surrounding Nick. "Nick didn't say hello!"

"Aw, that was mean," Patrick said, trying not to laugh. "He just didn't see you, sweetie, he's surrounded by all the big girls." He picked her up, flying her over the group of girls. "Another fan for you, Nick."

"Allie!" Nick cried, with the appropriate degree of excitement. "Where did you come from?" He held out his arms and Patrick handed her over.

"They wouldn't play with me," Allie pouted, looking at the all other girls. It sucked to be little sometimes.

Nick kissed her, settling her into his lap next to Colleen. "They will now." He went back to answering questions and Allie leaned against him, happy to be next to the center of attention.

Patrick turned away from the crowd and caught me watching them. I raised an eyebrow at him and he leaned next to me with a sigh. "I suppose he's not all bad," he admitted.

I poked him. "He's awesome and you know it."

"Not when he's cheating on my baby sister, he's not," he whispered, not wanting anyone to overhear.

"Next time he does it, you have my permission to kill him. But he won't."

"He'd better not. I just want you to be happy, Rache." Patrick was the joker in the family. It worried me when he got all serious like this.

But when Patrick was serious, you had to respond in kind. "That's what I want, too. I'm really happy with him."

He considered me for a long moment, and then shook his head. "You've just had such bad taste in the past…" I whacked him, even though I knew he was telling the truth. I did have lousy taste in men.

"He's just a guy!" Katie said in her most exasperated voice, and Patrick and I looked down to find her scolding Beth. "You can talk to him."

Patrick and I both snickered. "Yeah, I was there when you first met him, Ms. Kate," I said, and they looked up at me. "You couldn't talk to him."

"I could, too!" she protested. But she knew it was over.

"You were totally tongue-tied, and you and Col got in a fight over what room he should sleep in."

"That was before he was sleeping in yours," she fired back, and I just had to laugh.

"Brat. But, yes. It was before that. Now stop picking on poor Beth. We'll be here for a few hours, he'll have time to talk with her. Are the girls staying for a while?"

"Beth's staying over, but I guess the others will go home after dinner."

"Cool." I smiled at Beth, but she was just staring at up me. "Alright, Beth, you cannot be afraid to talk to me."

She shook her head, but it was obvious she couldn't say a word.

"Beth, I have known you your entire life! I used to be your babysitter." She and Katie had been friends since diapers, practically. Their mothers were old friends, and I used to baby-sit for all of Vanessa's friends when I was home on breaks. Beth had always been the shy one, now that I considered it.

"But now you're on MTV!"

"So?"

"See?" Katie backed me up. "She's still stupid Aunt Rachel."

"Stupid?" I whined. "Who are you calling stupid?"

"That's what we call you when you're not around, Rache," Patrick informed me. "Stupid Aunt Rachel."

"Hey! I thought I was Fun Aunt Rachel!"

I loved my family. We were such idiots together. Even Beth started giggling as Patrick and I teased one another, and I was startled out of the argument when Vanessa thrust a guitar at me.

"Step away from the Backstreet Boy!" she commanded the room at large, and silence fell.

Was I being attacked?

Actually, the silence was nice. Ten little girls could get very loud. I leaned back on my hands and looked up at Vanessa, my new hero.

"Rachel now has a guitar. If everyone is good and lets Nick eat some dinner, Rachel promised me they'd sing a song for you."

"Ooooohhh…" the girls chorused, and I had to laugh. Rachel and I looked at each other and shrugged. We could come up with something, right? I wasn't sure if I could remember the words to our country song this morning. We'd been too busy with sex and figuring out our schedules for the next month to go back and write down the lyrics.

"And then I think your parents will be here to pick you up around seven."

The girls groaned, but I swear Vanessa muttered 'thank god'.

"Let's eat. I'm starving!"

There was movement towards the table, and Allie looked up at me. "Will you sit next to me at dinner?"

I kissed her cute little Rachel nose. "I think I'll sit with some of the girls who have to leave soon. We can hang out after they leave, okay?"

She pouted at me, but before she could say anything else, Rachel plucked her off my lap. "I'll sit with you, Allie Cat. Is that good enough?"

"I suppose," Allie sighed, looking down at me sadly. Rachel offered me a hand, and I jumped up.

"What are we gonna sing?" I asked her, considering the crowd at the table. A couple of the girls kept looking back at me, and I waved at them.

"Got no money in my pocket," Rachel sang, and I laughed.

"Can we remember the words?"

"Hell, we just made them up this morning. We can do it again!"

"I might need coffee," I teased, making her laugh.

"I can do 'More Than That' on the guitar," she offered, and I nodded.

"Cool. Should we do one of yours?"

"They don't want hear my stuff. This all about you, baby."

This was so nice. All the guests were gone, and I was curled up with Nick on the couch. I liked listening to him talk with my brothers. Boys could always bond over football. I was half-asleep, but evidently it was a good game.

This was good, wasn't it? Just being normal, watching Monday Night Football like everyone else in the country. We weren't pop stars now, we were just hanging out with my family, talking about the game and eating too much. The girls hadn't let Nick or me eat much at dinner, so we were making up for it now.

"Do you want anything, baby?"

Yawning, I shook my head. "I can't imagine what."

"I'm gonna get another beer."

"If I drink anything else, I will fall asleep."

He dropped his voice, leaning closer so that everyone else in the room wouldn't overhear. "Do you want to stay here tonight?"

"Are you crazy? And have little girls sneaking into our room in the middle of the night to see what color pajamas you wear?"

Grinning, he glanced over at Katie and Colleen and Beth, sitting near us on the floor. They were talking about something… which team had the cutest players, I think. "And I don't want to freak them out that I don't wear anything."

"Except handcuffs."

That made him laugh, and the girls looked over at us curiously. "Want anything, girlies?" he asked them. "I'm getting another drink."

"Is Aunt Rachel driving?" Colleen wondered. Even the kids knew about the dangers of drunk driving in our house.

"Maybe you should stay here tonight," Katie offered, and Beth nodded. She still hadn't said much to either of us tonight.

"I'm driving," I informed them. "And we're going back to my house after the game, because I need to get some sleep before I leave for London tomorrow."

"What time do you leave?" Katie asked. "Because Nick said you were picking grapes tomorrow."

Nick got up as I answered. "The car's coming at five or something to pick us up, so we'll help for a little while. I need to pack still."

"What car? Aren't you driving down?" Colleen knew that I usually kept my car at James' when I was in the city.

"The record company is sending a limo to pick me up," I bragged. "Isn't that cool?"

"Totally!" They wanted to know all about the limo, and I promised them that next time they'd get to ride in it. But tomorrow it was all about sex with my boyfriend on the drive down. And tonight. Was this stupid game over yet?

The boys yelled, and I looked over at the TV. Something had happened. It wasn't that I didn't understand football. I was just too tired to care right now.

Was that a cell phone? "Is that your phone, Aunt Rachel?" Katie said, and I shook my head. I didn't even have my phone with me. Nick did, though… I reached between the couch cushions and found it there. I flipped it open and a young voice starting talking before I even said hello.

"Dude, did you see that play? The Eagles rule, man!"

I laughed. Aaron. "Totally," I agreed, even though I had no idea what play it was. "Your brother looks pissed off, too."

"Oh. Rachel." All the excitement left his voice when he said my name. Damnit. How was I going to convince Aaron that I was cool? Fuck, I'd take tolerable right now. "Where's Nick?"

"Across the room. We're with my family, and he dropped his phone." He'd run back in when he heard the noise, and now he was arguing with Patrick about something.

"You're letting him watch football?"

I almost rolled my eyes, and then I realized the girls were staring at me with wide eyes when they realized I was talking to Aaron. "My brothers always watch Monday Night Football, especially when the Eagles are on. Nick is the only Bucs fan here."

That made Aaron laugh. "Yeah, he should have stayed in Florida. Can I talk to him?"

"Of course." I held the phone out to Nick. "It's Aaron."

His face lit up and he crossed the room to take the phone from me. "Aaron! Dude!" He laughed at something, and then looked at me, wondering if Aaron had been a jerk to me. I shrugged at him, and he rolled his eyes, leaving the room.

He'd better not say anything to Aaron, or the kid would just hate me more.

It was so dark out here. I looked out the window of the car as we drove back to Rachel's house, and I could see millions of stars. It reminded me of the sky in Marathon and took my breath away.

"Did you say anything to Aaron?" she asked suddenly.

I looked over at her with a yawn. Aaron? I'd talked to him like an hour ago, when the game was still on. "I only talked to him for about five minutes, Rache."

There had been another play, and too much noise to talk to him much. He just wanted to tell me that the Bucs were losing, anyway.

"I meant… about me. Because he wasn't mean to me or anything."

Oh. I'd forgotten all about that look she'd given me , with the game ending and saying good night to everyone and getting out of the house. Obviously Rachel had been waiting until we were alone in the car to talk about it. "No. We just talked about the game."

"Good."

"What did he say to you?"

"Nothing," she said, shrugging. "He was just so disappointed when I answered. I tried to joke about the game with him, but he just wanted to talk to you. I guess… never mind. I'm overreacting."

"What?" I asked, taking her hand.

She looked away from the road to smile at me. "Nothing. Really. I'm just tired. In a few weeks, I'll get to spend time with him, and he'll realize I'm a nice person."

"He knows that."

"He does not," she snapped. "And your mom likes me, so that doesn't help, because he's at that age."

"If you could only have one of them like you," I teased, "Which would it be?"

"Aaron," she answered without hesitation, and I blinked at her. Aaron over Mom?

"Yeah," I agreed. I could deal with Mom not liking one of my girlfriends. Hell, I could marry a girl that Mom didn't like. But not Aaron.

Rachel picked up my hand and kissed it lightly. "Aaron's the favorite."

"Don't tell the girls."

She snickered. "You think they don't know? It's pretty fucking obvious, Nick."

Hell. Pulling into her driveway, she smiled over at me. "Now, we're going to stop talking about your family. Or mine."

Grinning, I kissed her. That was fine. I didn't need anything else but Rachel and her big, gorgeous bed.

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