Always and Forever [2]

Pleasanton, California...

Nick drove up in front of his house and smashed his forehead on the steering wheel. With a groan, he opened the door and walked out. He drove his dad's old Honda Civic. It was a silver Civic, great mileage, looked great, almost looked new. He walked through the door to his house. His parents weren't home yet, and his little brother was at his friend's house. Nick walked into the kitchen, pulled out a bottle of beer, and took a long sip. He groaned, and threw the empty bottle away. He felt slightly buzzed. He sat down on the couch, his dog hopping beside him. His dog, Snoopy, a caramel brown Tibetian terrier, hopped up beside him. Snoopy had long, scraggy, fur that covered his eyes. "Hey there, Snoops," Nick said, patting the dog on the head. Snoopy lied down and rest his head on Nick's knee. As always, Nick began talking to his dog; having conversations with him. "How was your day, bud?" Nick asked. "Yeah, I know I gotta stop drinking...I've got it under control at the moment, though...it's no big deal." Snoopy gave him a concerned look and put his paw on Nick's knee. With a sigh, Nick patted Snoopy's head, got up, and walked to his computer. He sat down, checked his email. "Hey, here's one from Will," Nick said to himself as he read it. "Nice...the old boy's found himself a new girlfriend....good for him."

Nick pulled up MySpace. He went to Will's profile and went to his friends list to see his new girlfriend. "Cool, she's a cute girl," he thought to herself. "Congratulations, dude," Nick thought to himself. He sent her a request, with a message, "Hey, I'm Nick. I'm Will's friend." Suddenly, Nick's doorbell rang. He opened the door, it was Matt. "Hey man, what's up?" Matt asked. "Not much, you wanna come in?" Nick asked. Matt nodded, "Thanks," he said. Nick grabbed a soda, and threw another bottle of soda at Mattias. Nick sat at the edge of the couch, and just looked at the bottle, toying with it in his hand. "I heard what happened," Matt said. Nick groaned, "It's nothing I didn't see coming....Mavro and Forrest both told me it was coming," Nick muttered, taking a long sip from his soda. "You OK?" Matt asked. Nick nodded, "I'm fine, everything's cool..." he mumbled. "Just making sure...especially considering how this came right after the whole Julia incident." Nick sighed. He hadn't talked to Julia for a month now because of what happened. Nick had been crazy about Julia, but she never felt that way about him. She started dating another guy, and that drove Nick to even more heartbreak, even though he kept trying. Julia finally talked to Nick about it, and that drove him to near-suicide depression. He began cutting, began drinking, wore nothing but black for a whole month. "I think it's better if we just leave the past buried..." Nick said. Matt nodded, "Well, just wanted to make sure you were OK. I'll see you later." With that, Matt got up and walked to the door. "Take it easy, man," Matt called out. "You too," Nick called back, not moving.