(Ashlynn's POV)
Nick sat back down next to me. My mom sat the food down. "I have some errands to run you two. I'll be back later. Does pizza sound good for dinner?"
"Yes Mom. That sounds good. See you later." She kissed the top of both of our heads and left.
"Apparently she doesn't have anything against you. That means she's not going to have a problem with you and I dating. See? There was nothing for you to worry about." I wanted to lean over and kiss him, but I didn't think that I should because of what I had said earlier. We ate in silence, Nick scarfing down his breakfast. He was finished way before I was. He noticed my lack of appetite.
"Ash what's wrong? Why aren't you eating?"
"I'm not hungry." I pushed my plate away, keeping my fork in my hand.
"Ashlynn Rain, you haven't eaten anything since yesterday morning. You have got to be starved! I'm not your mother but you need to eat. You don't have to eat everything, but eat at least half. If you don't your sugar levels will be all out of whack."
"NICK I KNOW!" I threw my fork down and tried to walk out of the room, but failed. I took a couple steps then fell to the ground. Nick came running to my side and I burst into tears.
"Ashlynn what the hell is wrong with you?" He shook my shoulder.
"I don't kn-know Nick!" I was shaking with tears. I fully expected him to hold me, and tell me everything was going to be alright, but he didn't. He was staying away from me. In fact he had been ever since I hadn't said 'I love you' back to him.
(Nick's POV)
I knew that at this point I should be holding her and telling her that everything was going to be all right. I should be trying to comfort her, but I didn't. I subconsciously had been avoiding her ever since she hadn't said 'I love you' back to me. I wasn't doing it on purpose; I just didn't think that she wanted me to act like that around her until she figured everything out.
(Ashlynn's POV)
"Where's your meter?" He asked me.
"What?"
"Your blood sugar meter. Where is it?"
"On my bathroom counter. Why?"
"I'll be right back." He got up, leaving me curled up on the cold tile floor of the kitchen. I tucked my knees into my chest and wrapped my arms around them. The tears kept flowing down my cheeks. I had no idea why I was acting like this. It wasn't to get attention from Nick, it was as if I was having severe mood swings and I hadn't had them before.
"I'm back." He announced when he entered the room. He was carrying my meter in one hand and my crutches in the other.
"I can see that. Now why did you want to know where my meter was? What are you doing Nick?"
"I want you to check your blood sugar levels. I think that's why you are having mood swings. Does your leg hurt at all?" He pricked my finger with the meter.
I hadn't really been paying attention, but now that he mentioned it, I could feel my whole leg throbbing. "Yes it hurts horribly. Could that be another reason I'm so upset?"
"Yeah it could be. Come on, you're going to bed. You need more sleep to heal."
(Nick's POV)
I handed her the crutches. She looked at me like I had lost my mind. "Yes you are going to be using your crutches. I'll carry you up the stairs, but you have to use your crutches the rest of the time. You need to get used to them for when I'm not going to be here to help you."
"At least help me up Nick." I lifted her up and put her on her feet.
"Here's your crutches. Let's go." Slowly but surely, she started to walk to the stairs without my assistance.
Once she was all settled in bed I tucked her in and turned to leave. She didn't stop me. "Pleasant dreams. If you need me just call." I walked out of the room and down to her car. I still hadn't gotten my stuff from the trunk and my phone charger was in my bag. My phone had died before we had gotten here and I wanted to know if Kevin had been successful with Danielle. I got my stuff out of the trunk, slinging my guitar across my back and pushing all my bags in using the wheel chair. The guest room was down the hall from Ashlynn's so I could go in and check on her every so often.
After dropping off her wheelchair in her room and making sure she was sleeping, I took my stuff and put it in what was going to be my room for the week. I took my laptop out of my bag and plugged my phone into charge. I logged onto facebook and changed my status. "The last 24 hours have been interesting. Home at last :)" I did the same to my twitter. None of my fans had to know that home meant New Jersey. They could all think that it meant I was back in California. My friends and family in Cali could call if they wanted to know what was up. My phone vibrated beside me. I picked it up and read the message on the screen.
'It's official. Danielle and I are engaged. She said yes!!!! :D '
'Congrats Kevin! I just wish things were going as good w/ me & Ash as they R w/ u & Dani :/'
'What's wrong? Did u guys get in another fight?'
'No. But a fight would've been better'
'Oh God, what did u do 2 her now?'
'I didn't do anything. Well...'
'Nick...'
'I screwed up OK!?'
'Nick what did u do?!'
'Can I call u? it's 2 much 2 text'
'let me ask Dani. I'll just tell her ur having girl trouble. She'll understand.'
'k thanx'
A few seconds later my phone started ringing. "Hello?"
"Hey Nick it's me. Now what happened with you and Ash?"
"Well, she told me her deepest darkest secrets, which of course I can't tell you. All I can really tell you is that she was depressed after I left and she now has a hard time committing herself to a relationship with someone. After she said some stuff about herself I told her that I loved her. She tried to say it back but she couldn't. Ever since then it's like she's avoiding me. She won't kiss me, and we've barely even touched each other. She broke down into tears when we were in the kitchen and she tried to run from me. Kevin what have I done? I need your help to fix this. Please Kevin, I'm begging you." I broke down into tears.
"Nick?" It was Danielle.
"Danielle? What are you doing on the phone? Where's Kevin?" I wiped my tears.
"He's right here. You were on speaker. I'm going to help you get her back."
"But how Danielle? I screwed up and this isn't the first time in the last twenty-four hours."
"Were you guys all couple-like before she told you her secret?"
"Yeah. We would kiss and hug and hold hands and snuggle up together and everything. How does that help?" I decided to leave out the part where we had fallen asleep in her bed together. Kevin wouldn't exactly approve of that.
"She probably misses the contact between you and her. Where is she and what is she doing now?"
"She's in her room asleep." I ran my hand through my hair.
"When she wakes up be nicer to her and hold her hand to start with. Just progress up from there and don't pressure her to say I love you back. She'll do it in her own time."
"Thanks Danielle. And congratulations. It's nice to almost have you in the family."
"Thanks Nick. Talk to you later? Here's Kevin."
"Yeah thanks."
"Did that help you?"
"Yeah a lot. Thank you so much Kevin. For everything. I have to go, I think Ash is up."
"Good luck. Bye." He hung up. I sighed and leaned back against the headboard. I didn't think that she was really up, I just had to say something to get off of the phone. I guess they were both right though, I really did need to be nicer to her. After she told me she had self acceptance issues, I went and told her that I loved her. She probably thought that I was lying to make her feel better and that was why she didn't want to say it back.
I got onto facebook and changed my relationship status from 'single' to 'it's complicated'. The fans could wonder all they wanted.
(Kevin's POV)
"Thanks so much baby for helping me with Nick." We were sitting on her couch, snuggled up together.
"You're welcome. Anything to help Nick. I just hope everything works out okay for the two of them."
"Yeah I do too. They are just the perfect couple. They grew up together. I don't know if I told you but they were born the same day in the same hospital in the room next to each other. They just have so much in common and they're perfect. I don't want to see Nick ruin it again."
"Again? I thought he just met up with her after six years."
"He did. But when we were at the arena he told her that he had forgotten about her and they got in a huge fight resulting in her running off the stage and breaking her leg. Then they got into a fight at the hospital. Nick just isn't that good with girls."
"Well he's young. He'll learn. He sure does have a good teacher to learn from." She smiled and kissed my cheek.
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Sorry that it is so short. I haven't had the time to write, and I thought that I'd post what I already had. If you have any ideas on how to take it from here, please send me a message. I don't really know what to do from here. I have some ideas for a little bit later, but I can't get from here to there. Thanks so much for reading!