Pros and Cons

Nick

While I was on the road my phone rang. "Naomi when I say, I will call. I mean I will call. You don't have to call me."

"Why the hell are you going to Michigan?" One word. Nick. Nick was my mentor in high school. Well that's what he liked to say. He was two years older than me and he used to buy us weed because he knew people. He had a crush on Ruby and when Ruby and I started dating, Nick cut all ties with me and Oliver. He went to U of Mich a year later and I haven't heard from him since. I still cared about his opinion though. Other than Oliver, there wasn't another guy who I could trust to be brutally honest with me.

"I'm going for a third opinion." I said and with that I hung up the phone and proceeded to drive all the way to Michigan.

It took me 11 hours to get to the city of Ann Arbor. It was cold and damp and not nearly as glamorous as providence or Boston are. But it's where Nick was. I hadn't spoken to him in almost 2 years and I had no idea how he would react to seeing me. Would he punch me in the face? Would he hug me and pretend like all that crap with Ruby never happened? Once I rolled onto campus I parked in the visitor parking lot and opened my phone. I didn't have his number so I had to go looking through facebook until I found it.

"Hello?" he said when he finally picked up.

"Nick?"

"Yeah who is this?"

"It's uh it's Andrew."

"Andrew? Like Little Andy from high school?" I had forgotten about that nickname.

"Yup."

"What's up kid how you been?"

"I'm uh I'm actually on your campus right now, do you have time to meet up with me for a sec?"

"Yeah, Meet me at the Coffee Spot in the library, it's right near the visitor parking lot."

When I got to the coffee shop I saw Nick there, leather jacket and all. He was known for that leather jacket in high school, he wore it all through the winter even though we all knew it wasn't warm enough. He always told me it was his 'armor', that it helped keep his facade, helped to protect him from the people who didn't like him, I always admired that about him, he never gave up on his persona. It made him strong, it made him admired. Nick still looked the same from when he graduated, shaggy blonde hair and broad shoulders, he could have been a great athlete but that wasn't really his thing. When he finally noticed me he looked a little surprised to see me despite that fact that we had just been on the phone. Almost as if he didn't think I was really here, or that I'd be here so soon, but nonetheless he gave me a warm smile and walked over to me.

"Little Andy!"

"Hey man." I said awkwardly, as he pulled me into a hug.

"Man did you get tall! How tall are you now anyway?"

"6'4''. I grew like 3 inches the summer before junior year." I said.

"Damn...So anyway! Good to see you man, how you been what are you doing here?" I laughed a little before going into the story, I told him I'd explain in a bit and that we should catch up a bit first, get a cup of coffee and sit on the grass or on a bench or something. And that's what we did.

Eventually, I told him the whole story, from the hospital trip with Naomi, to going to see Oliver to ask about what I should do. I explained to him how he was my next option for an opinion and how much it would me an to me if he weighed in on this whole situation. No matter how long ago it was that we were friends I trusted him and wondered what he would think. "Geez Andy, I don't know, I mean it's your life. I haven't seen you or spoken to you in what? Two years? We've changed since high school."

"Okay how about this." I said, "Let's hang out today, catch up some more, treat it like old times and then you can tell me what you think after all of this, I could really use your input." He paused and thought about it for a minute. "C'mon just one day having out with your old protegee."

Nick cracked a smile and eventually said yes. He showed me around campus, introduced me to his girlfriend and a few of his friends. Ann Arbor was a nice town and nick was proud of the life that he had built here, it wasn't New York but he loved it just the same. Eventually, he brought up the one thing I was waiting for. Ruby. When I told him that we broke up, he didn't smile like I thought he would, "That sucks man." was all he said. It was weird, in high school Nick was the king of drama, he loved to create fights out of nothing and get on peoples nerves just because it amused him. He loved when other people were sad because of something stupid they had done. So this reaction, was a surprise.

"Don't have the surgery. You seem to be doing fine on those meds, why complicate it more?"

I stopped, that was the answer that I had wanted to get out of everyone really. But for some reason I wasn't expecting it from Nick. I thought he would tell me to get the surgery because it would be a risk that could have a great outcome. It just seemed unlike him to want to keep things uncomplicated. "What's up with you man? I mean I appreciate your advice but I thought you would be pro surgery. You were always such an all or nothing kind of guy."

"I guess I grew up here." He took a pause and just looked up at the sky for a minute, "But hey, I know things didn't end well for us, but I have your back, I'll say whatever you want me to say really, that is just my opinion."

We sat in silence for the next couple of minutes, on a bench in the middle of campus. It was nice to see him, all grown up now and living a life that I never would have imagined him living. He always seemed so much older than me and he still did even now, it seemed like he had his life together and mine was falling apart. Here he was about to finished college with a beautiful girlfriend and a job waiting for him on the other side, he was gonna move back to New York and bring the girl with him, he even figured they might end up engaged in the not too far future. And what was I doing? Driving all over the country trying to figure out what to do with the little time I might have left.

"Well now I'm split 1-1, thanks but i'm more confused now than I was before."

He laughed, "You should ask Peyton, I'm sure she'll have some opinions on this." 

Peyton. How shall I describe Peyton? Well I guess the easy explanation was that Peyton was my first. She grew up in the same building as me, went to the same school as me, our dad's would play pokery every Thursday night and our mom's were co-workers, so we pretty much had every reason to be friends and that's what we always were. We had always had small crushes on each other, well I guess the better explanation was that we were eachother's back up plans as well as our first resorts. When she turned 16 and I was still 15 her friends started to give her crap because she was the last to lose her virginity, so we had sex, it wasn't something that either of us regretted, but we weren't in love, it was fun then and it was fun for the next few months but it never went passed that. We did it every Thursday night while our parents were all playing poker in one of our apartments, we went to the other to blow off some steam. Peyton was always real with me, her critiques of everything i did in bed were tough but they thought me how to get the job done. We stopped sleeping together when I fell in love with Ruby, and so she picked up weekly sex with Nick. They hooked up for a year before he went to college and then she followed the year after that.

"Ha yeah, she might be a good one to go to next." I thanked Nick and he walked me back to my car. We had a nice manly good bye hug and then I got in the car. A few minutes later I pulled into the lot of a dunkin donuts and called Naomi.

"Hello?"

"Hey, how you doing?"

"I'm fine, did you get your answer yet? Are you coming home?" she asked eagerly.

"Not yet, I'm gonna be gone for a little while longer."

"Who you going to now?"

"I'm going to California, I gotta see Peyton. I'll call you when I get there." and with that I hung up, got out of the car and bought myself a coffee and a donut. Then I started driving.