The Missing Lyric (Nemi)

Chapter 33

Demi

"So how do we want to do this? How do we want to talk to our families about this?" I asked Nick as I pulled into our driveway. I kept my eyes straight ahead, but I heard Nick's sigh beside me. "I mean should we do it today or wait until tomorrow?" I asked, still staring straight ahead. Nick wasn't answering me, so I turned to look at him. His head was turned so he was looking out his window, making me unable to see his face. I touched him arm, lightly & he turned his head, slowly. I saw the glimmer in his eyes, knowing he was fighting tears. "You okay?"

"No." He shook his head as if he was annoyed. "I'm an idiot. I should have just supported you when you first told me about her. We should have told her from the beginning & became her foster parents right away. Then she wouldn't have been over there to fall on that fucking lawn ornament." The tears were filling his eyes now as he glanced away. "I should have been the one carrying her & getting covered in her blood. I should be her dad." Nick said, his voice cracking. He brought his fingers up to press into his eyes & my heart was aching for him.

"You will be."

Nick sniffed & cleared his throat when he looked up at me. "She's gonna hate us for lying to her. I have this weird feeling, Dem."

"Don't say that. I mean she might be upset at first, but she'll be fine after some time." I squeezed his hand. "Come on. Let's go in & order some food & just hold each other all night. We'll meet with our family tomorrow." Nick nodded, staring, absently out the window behind me. I got out of the car & he followed. After I let us in the house, I turned to see Nick leaning on the wall beside the door. He looked pale. "Baby? You okay?"

"I just got lightheaded."

"We need to get some food into you." I put my arm around his waist & held onto him as we walked into the kitchen. He sat at the counter while I got out some fruit. "Pick where you want me to order food from." I asked sliding a stack of menus toward him.

"I'm not that hungry. You pick."

"Babe. You need to eat something."

"I'll eat. I just don't care what I eat, so order whatever you want." Nick said, then bit into an apple. I picked a menu at random & ordered us some food. Nick & I went upstairs to change into our comfy clothes then cuddled on the couch while we waited for the food to get there. We talked about Lyric & all the memories we had of her. After we ate, we decided to invite both of our families to a restaurant we had brunch at often. They had a private room in the back, so we could tell our family all at once. We called to reserve the room, then called our families. Kevin was the only one who wouldn't be there, but we were going to facetime with him during the discussion. Before Nick & I headed to bed, we talked about Lyric again, but this time we talked about our future with her & all the things we would do with her & for her. We both came to the conclusion that after this happened, we didn't care what happened with the media or how much hate we got. We wanted Lyric to be ours & we'd do whatever it took to make it happen.

The next morning we woke up & I called Kris to check on Lyric. She was still the same, but the doctors told Kris that she may need another surgery, just to make sure the damage was repaired, properly. The doctors were concerned about the repair, that it could open up very easily. I was scared & knew how dire it was that we get some blood matches into the hospital as soon as possible.

Nick & I were meeting our family for brunch, so we headed to the restaurant to meet everyone just before 11. Nick held my hand as we walked from the car to the front door of the restaurant. There were paparazzi snapping photos of us as we walked, since this area was frequented by celebrities & well known to the vultures with cameras. They swarmed together to get a shot of us holding hands, since we were still big news. If they only knew how big we were gonna get. I held my purse close to me, eyes straight ahead, following behind Nick, who was keeping his gaze averted away from the crowd of photographers. He had a baseball hat on backwards & I was surprised he didn't turn it around & keep his head down. He probably wasn't giving a fuck about the paparazzi at the moment. His focus was on our daughter, as was mine.