Like Father, Like Son ✔

Chapter 23 - Five Days Gone

CHAPTER 23

CAT

"Nick!"

Cat was pretty sure she was about to run her fist through the door, or at the very least she'd break her hand in an attempt to do so.

"Nick! Hey! I know you're there! Open the fucking door!" she yelled, completely disregarding the early hour of the morning or the fact that there were half a dozen neighbors in range of all the commotion she was creating.

She tried his door handle again, like it would've miraculously unlocked itself in the five seconds since the last time she tried yanking it open. She cursed herself, wishing she wouldn't have been so dumb as to forget the damn key he'd given her weeks ago.

"Babe," she spoke in a softer tone, leaning against the doorframe and pressing her hand to the door. "Nick... sweetheart, just... come out here and talk to me, please, it's been days and I'm getting worried about you," she went on.

It'd been five days in fact – five insanely long days. She tried his parents, but all she'd managed to do by calling was worry Liv sick, since they hadn't heard a peep out of him either. She tried both his sisters, and when that didn't prove to be fruitful she sent about half a dozen texts to his best friend Leon.

"Yeah, he should be back at his place now, but don't count on him being coherent," Leon texted her back at about seven in the morning. Forcing the words in Leon's message out of her mind so that she wouldn't wind up analyzing them too much, Cat rushed to put on some clothes, ran a quick brush through her hair, didn't bother with make-up and then ran off towards the front door, only stopping briefly in the living room to tell Hannah and Josh that she was leaving.

They were both sleeping on Cat's living room floor these last few days, just in case James decided to break down the door in the middle of the night, or they got a call that Nick was lying in a ditch somewhere. It was just a really rough time for Cat, to the point where she'd rendered herself physically sick with worry more than once.

So now that leads us right back to the present, during which Cat was banging on Nick's door like a madwoman, scared to death of what she might find on the other side.

"Nick," she murmured again, knocking softly on the door – two feeble attempts, figuring it was pointless to try anymore. He wouldn't answer her. But it occurred to her then that he could be passed out in his own vomit or something, if Leon's words were any indication: don't count on him being coherent. She started to panic, and immediately she went back downstairs in search of the landlord. She knew he lived in an apartment on the first floor.

She probably scared him into giving her a spare key with all of the ugly sobbing she did when trying to tell him the very brief synopsis of what was going on. He probably barely understood two words.

Cat went back up, jammed the key into the lock and turned. She swung the door open and didn't even bother to close it again, her eyes scanning the darkened room. None of the lights were on, which wasn't too surprising since Nick forgot about them most of the time. There was a weird smell coming from the kitchen. Nick hadn't done any dishes all week and it kind of reeked.

"Nick? Babe, it's me, are you here?" she called out, switching on a few lights and pulling open some of the blinds to let the early June sunshine in.

Duke came to greet her within seconds.

"Hey boy, are you hungry?" Cat asked, grabbing the bag of dog food from the cabinet where Nick kept it and pouring some of its contents into Duke's empty food bowl. He still had enough water. Good.