Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 37

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 37
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

Why was someone saying my name? Didn’t they know that I was dead? They should just let me lie here in peace.

There it was again. My name. I tried to turn over toward the voice, but I couldn’t move. My head felt like someone had driven a knife into it or something. Was that how I died? Did I surprise a burglar and he’d stabbed me in the head?

Then why did my back hurt, too?

Oh, maybe because I was all twisted in the covers.

“Nick, you have to wake up now.”

Oh, maybe I wasn’t dead. I wanted to be, but I wasn’t.

“Go away,” I mumbled, turning back away from the direction of the voice and pulling a pillow over my head.

“Can’t. Too important. You have to get up and call Ken.”

What the hell? Why did Ken need to talk to me? I was going to start touring soon and he didn’t have anything to do with that. That was my dime. My problem.

Okay, maybe I’d made some of it his problem.

“Tell him no. I’m busy dying.”

I felt Anna’s weight on the bed and managed to turn over, but still didn’t open my eyes. “You’ll wish you were dead in a minute, I think. But for now you have to wake up, Nick.”

The next thing I knew there was a warm washcloth against my forehead. That felt really nice and I sighed, moving my head to feel more of the warm wetness against my face. “You are stinky,” Anna said.

“I thought you were being nice to me.”

“It is nice to tell a friend that they are stinky and need to shower.”

I stuck out my tongue at her, and then opened my eyes. The curtains were still pulled, but even so it was too bright in my room. My room. Dark walls, banged up furniture. Not a ruffle or pink thing to be seen. Strong cotton sheets, not satin and flimsy.

“I never have to see Paris’ bedroom again.” I whispered, and Anna smiled.

“You’re right. But you need to get up and take some aspirin before we talk.” Anna looked very serious all of a sudden, and I knew better than to argue with her when she had that look on her face.

As the hot water and steam in the shower hit me, last night came back to me. Lots of yelling and kissing and pushing and shoving. I ran the washcloth over my arms and winced. What the hell? Lifting my arm, I saw scratches on my forearm. Paris’ nails might be fake, but they still drew blood.

I smiled as I recalled her screaming at me that I’d be sorry. Whatever. I was a free man now. She was done with me. I felt like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. It was too easy to get sucked into Paris’ world of partying and posing for photographers. It was great for a while being the coolest man in her circle, but that wore off pretty quickly and now I knew why no one ever lasted with her. She was a shallow and immature child. I had to find all those silly cards and letters she sent me and get them back to her or burn them. I didn’t want any evidence of our relationship around.

I might have stayed in the shower too long because when I stepped out I couldn’t see the mirror for all the steam and my fingers looked like shriveled raisins. When I joined Anna, she was staring at her computer screen and I could see her serious look reflected back at me.

“So what’s so horrible and where’s the aspirin?”

“I left it on the counter for you – the aspirin. Take three or four. You’ll need them.”

“Why did you wake me up at midnight, Anna? Is this some cruel joke?”

“Wish it were, superstar. You slept all day. And… you need to see this. Sorry.”

I smiled. “That’s what superstars do, Anna. We party all night and sleep all day!” I joined her at the kitchen table and before I could say anything, she turned the laptop around so I could see the photo on the screen.

“What the… when was this?”

“Tonight. What happened when you broke up with Paris, Nick?”

I could barely hear Anna as the blood rushed to my head and I brought the computer screen closer. Flipping through the photos, I saw Paris covered with bruises – on her arms, her lip, her shoulders. Fuck.

“I didn’t. It wasn’t me, Anna. You have to know that! I wouldn’t do this to a woman! Anna!”

She didn’t say anything immediately and I panicked. “Where is the slut? I’ll show her what bruises look like!”

I was out of my chair and nearly to the door before Anna grabbed me, telling me to calm down and relax and anything else she could think of to make me stop moving.

“Nick! You can’t do this. Sit down. These are tonight. Like an hour ago. She’s out at some club and the bloggers are going nuts. Ken has called a few times and some of her friends are saying shit…”

“I did not do that, Anna!” I screamed, the rage engulfing me.

“I know, Nick. I know you’d never do this… but I’m your friend and I need to know what happened last night. What could have happened to her that she looks like this?”

“I don’t know, Anna! Stop looking at me like that! I don’t! I mean… we were mad. We had sex in the bathroom, and later she slapped me and I might have pushed her against the wall… but… shit, Anna. I didn’t do anything”

“Nick, you’re a big guy. And I’ve seen you when you’re angry.”

“Fuck you!”

I stormed out of the room and slammed my bedroom door. Fuck her! I didn’t do this and how could she think I did? The house phone rang and I just looked at it. No one had the house number. Everyone used my cell. Shit. It was going to be like when I was arrested, wasn’t it? Only I didn’t have Rachel here to help me. Only Anna.

She was all I had. If she didn’t believe me, I was totally fucked.

I ran back into the living room and Anna was still there, sitting on the couch with her laptop on the coffee table in front of her. She looked up at me when I came into the room. “I’m still here, Nick. I’m not going anywhere.”

Tears sprang to my eyes and I went over to her, sitting next to her on the couch and pulling her into my arms. “I can’t lose you, too, Anna. You are my best friend, and I love you so much.”

Before I knew it, my hands were tangled in her hair and she opened her mouth to my lips. Her tongue was strong against mine and she didn’t fight when I pushed her back on the couch. I didn’t want to think about anything. I couldn’t lose Anna, too.

After a moment, I moved my hand to her breast and she stopped me. “No, Nick.”

We both stopped moving, but didn’t move away from one another. Our lips still together, our breathing heavy, it was like someone had stopped time.

“What am I doing, Anna?”

“The wrong thing, Nick. It’s okay, you’re upset and… Just…” She kissed me again, but this time it wasn’t the passionate, consuming kiss of a moment ago. It was the kiss that you give a friend to reassure them that you are there. That you are on their side and will be there for them.

We moved apart then and Anna fixed her clothes and retreated to her corner of the couch. She pulled her legs up to her chest and looked at me.

I ran my fingers through my hair and looked over at the laptop. “I’m sorry, Anna. I know we can’t do that. I just…”

“Shhh… Nick, I know. But we can’t confuse things. We need to deal with this now. Okay, sweetie?”

“I was just thinking that this is going to be like when I was arrested. Only I don’t have Rachel to help me.”

“No, but you have me. I’m not going anywhere, Nick. Promise.”

“Pinky swear?”

She smiled at me then, and we both laughed, linking pinkies and then pulling away. “Of course.”

“So what are they saying? You’re reading the sites, right?” I didn’t think I could be trusted with something breakable in my hands right now. Anna could tell me what was going on.

She nodded, pulling her computer onto her lap and hitting the keys for a moment. “It doesn’t look like anyone has said anything official. Paris didn’t say anything going into the club to the paparazzi, she just went out wearing nothing, the better to show off her bruises.”

“Sounds like her. She loves to cause a scene, you know.”

Anna snorted and that made me smile for a moment. I loved Anna. She was a good friend. “Well, she’s been successful here, it looks like. The rest is all people speculating about what this means. They know you broke up – she issued a statement today.”

“She did? We merited a statement?”

“Duh. She’s Paris freaking Hilton, she can’t do anything if the press doesn’t know. I didn’t think you needed to see it. It was all over the entertainment shows and stuff.”

“Great – what did she say? That I was a loser and she hated me? That’s what she was saying last night.”

“No. Just that… well, she needed to work on herself and her psychic told her yesterday to break up with you. She called you and you were devastated, of course.”

“Heartbroken, really. As fuckin’ if. I guess this was the act of a desperate man? And she didn’t call to break up with me. She called to scream at me because I hadn’t called her all day and she was acting like a spoiled child!”

“So this is all retaliation for breaking up with her when she thought you were going to propose?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. What are the chances that it’ll all blow over?”

We were interrupted by my cell ringing again. “Ken,” I said as I looked down at the display.

“You need to talk to him. Damage control. Want me to go to my room?”

“I have no secrets.”

After ten minutes of talking to Ken, I was even more confused and scared than before. He was convinced I should skip town and that the Hiltons would have me arrested. He didn’t care that I hadn’t done anything, and they wouldn’t either. Great.

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