Chloe and Christi arrived home about thirty minutes later. They had gotten stuck in a little bit of traffic on the way home.
As soon as Christi unlocked the front door, Chloe ran into the house and up to her bedroom. She threw her former dance bag, now known as her cheer bag on the ground. She ran over to her nightstand and picked up her phone, she began scrolling threw her contacts trying to find Nick's number. Once she came across his number in her phone she quickly began typing away on her phone screen. After she was satisfied with her message she pressed send and hoped that Nick would see the message, text her back and forgive her. She really made a big mistake not believing him when he said that Andrea could have sent the message.
Chloe waited about five minutes and she still hadn't received a reply from Nick. She sighed before setting her phone back down and heading back downstairs to eat dinner. It had been a long day and she was starving.
All through dinner Chloe sat at the table not saying a word. She looked up every now and then, but then just looked down again. She didn't even eat hardly any of her food; she just moved it around with her fork to make it look like she had eaten so Christi wouldn't worry about her.
After dinner Chloe walked back up to her room and got on her laptop. She had to type a report on the water cycle for science. Once she had logged onto her computer she heard a low buzzing. Chloe quickly realized it was her phone. She jumped over her bed and looked at the caller ID on her iPhone. The screen read, "Nick." Chloe's eyes about popped out of her head, he was calling her, that meant that he was probably willing to forgive her. Chloe answered the phone without talking another minute to think.
"Hello?" She called out, her voice bright and bubbly. Much different that it had been five minutes earlier.
"Hey." The voice responded, Chloe could only recognize the voice as Nick. She had to admit she was a little afraid that it would be Andrea when she answered.
"Hi Nick." Chloe said, walking over to her bedroom door and closing it, not wanting Christi to hear her conversation.
Chloe walked over to her bed and laid down on her stomach, resting her chin on her pillow pet.
"Hey, so I got your text message and...I really appreciate it." Nick said.
"Thanks, I'm so sorry I didn't believe you. I feel so stupid for thinking that you would send me a message like that.' Chloe responded. She reached up and scratched her cheek lightly. "Did you ever find out if Andrea did send it to me?"
"No, I haven't talked to her the whole day, I was thinking about calling her later." Nick said.
Chloe couldn't see what Nick was doing but she heard some rustling in the back ground. "Nick?" Chloe questioned, wondering why there was so much rustling in the background. Nick didn't respond right away.
"Umm Chlo? Can I call you back in about an hour? Andrea just got here, my mom must have sent her up to my room." Nick explained, her wanted to explain how he hadn't know Andrea was coming over and didn't see her get out of the car but, that would be rude to say to Chloe right in front of Andrea.
"Sure. Bye Nick." Chloe said, before pulling her iPhone away from her ear.
"Bye." Nick said before pressing the end call button on his phone screen. He set his phone down, thinking he had pressed the button to end the call but really it was the speaker button.
Chloe was about to hang up when she heard her name. It wasn't he mom calling her and then she realized she hadn't hung up from her phone call with Nick. She quickly realized that Nick's voice was rising and he sounded like he was mad. Nick never got mad, over anything. Chloe knew it was wrong to listen to their conversation when Nick thought they hung up but Nick was raising his voice and she kept hearing her name being mentioned over and over again.
"Andrea, I don't see why you have such a big problem with me and Chloe being as close as we are." Nick said, his voice growing louder as he spoke.
"I don't. I just don't want her to get hurt." Andrea retorted.
"What do you mean by that?" Nick almost screamed. Chloe flinched a little; she had never heard Nick raise his voice as much as he was now.
Nick was really mad; no he wasn't just mad he was furious. Andrea hadn't given him an answer to his previous yet, and he was thinking that Andrea meant that he would physically hurt Chloe. He would never in a million years think of putting his hands on a girl, yet alone Chloe, to cause them harm and pain.
"I'm just saying, I think she might have a tiny crush on you, and I don't think that is very appropriate considering the age difference. So just so she didn't get hurt I sent her a message from your phone so she would think it was from you." Andrea finally answered, she was lying and Nick could tell she was thinking of what she would say next.
"So, you didn't want Chloe to get hurt, because she likes me and there is an age gap between us, so you are saying we could never date. Well, I'm not usually a rude person but right now I like her more than you." Nick said, setting a slight glare on Andrea's face.
"Why! What have I done wrong?" Andrea screamed, luckily Nick's mom was in the basement and Nick had the door to his bedroom closed so she couldn't hear.
"Andrea! You keep trying to claim that you sent that message to Chloe so she wouldn't get hurt! Well, that message hurt her! It hurt her so much that she wasn't able to focus on dance the day after you sent her that message and now Abby kicked her off the team and out of the company! She can never dance there again Andrea! Chloe had so many friends there and she had her team that she competed every weekend with and she had undeniable talent, but now no one will possibly see that talent ever again because Abby kicked her out and the studio is the only dance studio around here!" Nick was mad, Andrea had hurt Chloe in more ways than one, he loved her like a sister and possibly more he still wasn't sure how he felt about her, but all he knew was that no one hurts the ones he loves and gets away with it.
Chloe was in shock. Andrea admitted to sending her the message, so she had been right. Andrea had sent the message and Nick was telling the truth the whole time. Chloe pulled herself away from her thoughts and listened to Nick and Andrea argue again.
"You know what Nick, if it was so wrong of me to help Chloe move on and not be heartbroken then I'm sorry." Andrea said.
Nick sighed. "Andrea, you didn't help Chloe with anything. If anything you hurt her more than helped her."
"Okay, I get it I’m the one that's wrong. So I'm a bad girlfriend. What about all that stuff you said to her? Does, you waited too long, ring a bell?" Andrea snapped backed, she was getting frustrated.
"Yes, and I realize what I said was wrong, but I didn't purposely mean for it to hurt her and I regret saying that to her every day!"
Chloe looked down she remembered those words they still haunted her to this day.
"Andrea, if you are going to do things behind my back and hurt my friends....I can't date you." Nick said, not feeling one ounce of guilt.
Andrea's face twisted in hurt, anger and basically every emotion before she turned on her heel and stormed out of the room and Nick's house altogether, slamming the door behind her.
Chloe hung up after that final sentence Nick had said. She didn't want Nick to realize that she had heard their whole conversation.
The rest of the night went by pretty fast but it was hard for Chloe to focus, she kept thinking about the conversation she heard Nick and Andrea have. She felt somewhat guilty for listening but it gave her closer at the same time and she knew that Nick would always be there for her no matter what.
Chloe did her daily night routine which consisted of finishing homework, getting a shower and then finally going to bed. She climbed into bed and kept replaying what Nick had said during his break up with Andrea. He had defended her the whole time and she loved him for that. Chloe figured one thing out that night though, the feelings she had for Nick were defiantly stronger than she ever thought they could be.
