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Chapter 5
"THE BETRAYAL"
"Five minutes until showtime" , Nick had heard Aaron saying. Aaron was sitting next to their mother and almost as excited as Nick to finally see his eldest sister he didn't remember, as he had only been 2 when she was sent to live with her 'other' family. Nick was still squirming nervously in his seat, but taking care not to bump AJ anymore as AJ was getting moody because he wanted a cigarette. Brian was still chattering about how if Jacki was even half as great looking as Kid Rock had said then he was going to sweet talk her until she fell in love with him and then they would get married, and then he would be Nick's brother -in -law! " Wouldn't that be great Nick?" he heard Brian keep repeating as if to try and get everyone's approval on the idea. "Yeah ", Nick heard himself mumble back while thinking yeah it would be real great , yeah really , hhhmmmm, you know maybe Rok is on the right track. Maybe if he uses some of that southern sweet talk on her she will fall in love with him , marry him and then he can talk her into forgiving me for betraying her. I mean it was over 10 years ago that it happened. Surely she still doesn't hate me that much! And Brian could make her see that if they were married she would have to forgive me caz I would be over their house all the time with me and Bri being best buddies and all, wouldn't she? He tried to remember what she looked like. He remembered the first time he saw her when their dad had brought her home the day her mother had been buried. All he could really remember was she was a small, pretty, blonde and had these big crystal blue eyes that were red and swollen from crying. He also remembered how his mother and father didn't try to hide the fact that she was not loved or wanted by them, but he had always been afraid to ask why. He was only 4 at the time, but he knew she needed someone to help her get through the death of her mother, caz geez he would have needed someone if it had been his mom that had died, and it was obvious that his mom and dad weren't going to help her. All they did was yell at her everytime she would start crying and tell her to stop it because it woiuldn't bring her mother back and it was making everything worse than it was. What did they expect her to do? Nick was so confused by this treatment she was getting because his parents were always so loving and giving to him and his sister BJ who was 2 . Maybe they were just mad because his mom was pregnant again and they didn't think they could afford the extra child. Nick had heard his dad and mom talking about sueing the guy who had killed Jacki's mom but then heard dad say that the guy didn't have any insurance and something about that state didn't have an uninsured motorist clause , whatever that was. But from the sounds of it , it wasn't good, caz it meant Jacki didn't have anything to live on but the clothes in her suitcases. Nick felt so bad for her and he thinks this is why he fell in love with her so fast because she had no one else that loved her. He remembered the first night he had waited until everyone had gone to bed and snuck in her room to give her his teddy bear to keep her company because he remembered how scared and sad she looked before she went to bed. And how he ended up getting in bed with her, holding her, and promising her he would never leave her , always take care of her and never let anyone harm her. He snuck in her room every night for almost a year until she had got to where she started sleeping peacfully through the nights with out waking up crying from all the bad dreams she used to have. And to his knowledge, to this day , no one but Jacki and he ever knew about it. Nick didn't realize he was smiling as he remembered the first time he caught her singing and dancing to "Back in Black" by AC/DC. It was a few months after she had come to live with them and the rest of the family had gone out to have supper and come home earlier than expected. Jacki was never allowed to go with them because she always had homework and house work to do. That was something else Nick just realized, why had Jacki been the only one that had to do house work? His mom did very little and the younger children didn't do any. He guessed it was just the fact that his parents hated her so much and this was some kind of punishment. Down in the basement, Jacki didn't hear the car pull up earlier than usual that night because she had the stereo so loud. She was down in the basement den practicing for her 'destiny' to be the greatest female rock star ever, she had eventually told her younger brother. Nick had gone down the basement stars to find her, after he couldn;'t find her upstairs. The basement had been soundproofed so the kids could play and not bother the adults upstairs when they got loud. He knew she hadn't seen him come down the stairs so he had hid between two chairs where he could watch what she was doing. She had just put "Back in Black" on again and picked up a plastic guitar that Nick had got for his birthday. She made believe she was playing it, though he knew she really did know how to play one. She then started to dance a routine you could tell she had been practicing for a long time. She was amazing, he remembered thinking, she was doing things, singing and dancing with the guitar that he had never seen done by anyone then, nor never seen done by anyone since. It looked like the guitar was part of her body! She was moving her body in swaying movements in time with the beat of the music but was moving her feet to the sounds of the guitar which was something you just had to see to believe, part of it she would bounce into a squat and come back up when the tempo of the song had changed, she even had a part where she would go into some kind of routins that involved her doing backflips! And she never missed a beat or dropped the guitar! She was amazing and she even had a great voice that never faultered during all this jumping around. How did she do all that with out getting out of breath he wondered. When that song was over she turned the stereo off and proceeded over to their piano. She sat at the bench and started playing chopsticks, he smiled at this, but then she went in to "Bridge over Troubled Water" by Simon and Garfunkel, and she started singing with a voice so sad and beautiful that he got goosebumps all up and down his arms listening to her. He even had tears in his eyes. She was so beautiful sitting there singing, but she looked so sad. Nick knew she had the voice of a pro. He was almost in a trance when the cellar door was thrown open making a crash.
"Nick " his mother yelled, "Nick, are you down there? Did you find Jacki? Time for bed you two!"
Well he had to answer so he got up from between the chairs, thinking Jacki would be mad at him for spying, and yelled back to his mother,"We'll be up in a minute mom, we are just putting everything away."
Jacki looked down at him with those crystal blue eyes of hers, that now sparkled whenever she looked at Nick, and she said with a smile ,"Hey lil' shithead, you want me to teach you to sing like me?" And from that moment on that was the secret nickname Jacki would call him,lil' shithead.
That is also how Nick started his singing career. Everyone had always been told, by his mother, that she had found Nick in their backyard singing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" one day. How beautifully he had been singing it and she never even knew he knew the song, but guessed he had heard her singing it and learned it from her. Nick was so sick of this story she told because she knew it was Jacki that had spent hours teaching Nick to sing the song so perfectly, but Nick had been told never to tell anyone this, but ha ha on her because he finally did tell everyone this, hadn't he. Yea he had blabbed how it had been Jacki that had taught him how to sing and dance and just about everything else he knew, at the press conference when they were first starting to be noticed in the United States. And that was also when Brian had christened her the Backstreet Boy Goddess that made everyone so curious about her which eventually led to this charity concert.
"Nick, Nick", Brian was saying as he was really getting in to this marriage/brother-in -law thing, "Nick did you hear me? Will you be my best man?"
"What?", Nick said, still half in the trance he had put himself in thinking of the past."Oh , yeah , sure thing Bri."
"Hey Nick, Tell me something", Brian was kindof whispering now ,"How come everytime I say something to your dad about marrying Jacki he gets this really mad look and never answers me? I thought he liked me? What is going on , or does it have something to do with what ever it was you did to her when ya'll were kids? You never told me what it was ya know. I thought we were best buds and don't best buds tell each other everything, especially when your best bud is going to be your best brother-in -law too!"
Luckily Howie, who was sitting on the other side of Brian was getting impatient too because he decided to make this the time to tell Brian that he was thinking of marrying his girlfriend Claudia, and that they could make it a double wedding, Nick didn't know if he was serious or making fun of Brian and he was hoping that Brian was just kidding around about all this getting married to Jacki shit because Nick knew she would never give Brian a chance in hell to get her to fall in love with him. Nope she wouldn't have nothing to do with Brian and all because he was Nick's best friend. And he knew she was never going to forgive Nick for betraying her and he really couldn't blame her. Man, he was thinking, as he went into another trancelike state, why did he have to try to be a big shot and drive his mom's new car that day? He knew he didn't know what he was doing, but did that stop him, noooo. And if that wasn't bad enough why did he have to make such a scene afterwards so that Jacki would feel bad for him and lie to his parents and said she had done it just to save him from getting a spanking. And that is probably all he would have gotten was a spanking or gotten grounded as his parents had never touched him or his 4 younger siblings , its like they saved that for poor Jacki. But then again they thought Jacki was always the one that got into things and broke stuff because she always took the blame for what the younger kids had done. And all because they were afraid they would get in big trouble and she had loved them so much she would lie and say she didwhatever it was they had gotten into. Nick wondered now why didn't his parents had never wonder why the smaller kids had never broke anything, I mean thats normal stuff for kids to break things. And didn't they ever wonder why Jacki , who had always been so perfect at everything she did, would be so careless at times breaking all this stuff? I mean that was the reason Jacki had gotten drunk after he drove the car through the fence into the swimming pool. She told Nick that she had to get drunk because thier dad and his mom knew Jacki knew how to drive a car and would never be so stupid as to push the gas pedal all the way to the floor and then not turning the steering wheel to go around the circular driveway and not straight ahead through the fence and into the pool. Hell if it hadn't been for Jacki knowing how to dive Nick would have probably drowned. Jacki had been upstairs cleaning the bathroom and checking on the twins who were sound asleep in thier beds just down the hall from the bathroom, she thought Nick was downstairs watching cartoons. She was almost 16 at the time and Nick was 10. Nick had got bored and started to look around to see what he could get into to get Jacki's attention. Nick was so jealous of Jacki that even though he loved his other siblings he thought that Jacki belonged to him and wanted all her attention all the time. So when he saw the keys to the new car on the TV he thought that if he went outside and started the car like Jacki had showed him that she would hear him and come running and realize he needed her to stop paying so much attention to the twins and play with him. So he went outside and started the car up, but after a few minutes he realized she couldn't hear him because she was up stairs on the other side of the house so he thought if he could just drive the car around the circular driveway to the other side of the house she would at least see him and come out and get him, but she also would be so proud of him for being brave enough to drive the car. She had been showing him how to drive when no one else was around because he got scared when thier dad tried to show him. Even though she knew Nick was way to young to learn to drive a car , their father thought that it was time for him to at least start sitting behind the wheel and learning all the things and then thier dad would try and get Nick to sit in his lap and drive a little in the driveway. But Nick was terrified and it angered thier dad so much and he would fuss at Nick for once again being a cry baby. Their dad knew Nick scared of everything and this was the only thing that ever dissappointed him about his son. It really hurt Nicks feelings to when dad would fuss at him about being like that. " Be a man!" he would tell Nick, and Jacki would think , a man! hell he is only 10, he's not supposed to act like a man. Well Jacki figured if she got Nick used to the car he wouldn't be afraid of it and the next time thier dad would try to show Nick how to drive he would see Nick wasn't afraid anymore and be proud of his son. And Jacki thought if this is what I have to do to help save Nicky's feelings then so be it. So she started to teach him to drive, well really sit behind the wheel and start the car, as his legs just weren't quite long enough to really reach the gas pedal, or so she had thought. Well, Nick had got tired of waiting for her to hear him so he shifted the car into drive and gently pressed the gas pedal and the car barely moved as Nick had turned the steering wheel turned to far to the left and he just didn't have enough speed to make the car move against the front tires that were pointing to far to the left. Nick was just to unexperienced and did not know why the car wouldn't go. Well Nick could hardly reach the gas pedal and he had figured out that the reason the car didn't go was because it needed more gas, so he knew he had to shift himself around to get his foot in the position where he could really push the gas pedal to the floor so he could go faster. While he was shifting his body back and forth so he could scoot down in the seat he didn't notice he had straightened out the steering wheel and the car was now pointed in the direction of the 6 foot high fence that enclosed the in the ground swimming pool! He thought he was ready to drive again and this time he wasn't going to fool around so he out his foot on the gas pedal and pushed it all the way to the floor. The next thing he heard was the crash of the fence and a splash , he felt himself being thrown around the car and felt the water rushing in and around his face making it hard for him to breathe.
The next thing he remembered he was looking up in those crystal blue eyes that had been crying again, blood was running down the right side of her beautiful face. He was coughing up a lot of water and his chest hurt. Jacki had told him later that she had been upstairs when she heard the crash and a splash, she then went out on the balcony that was just above the pool and saw the car almost totally submerged. She said she could see Nick's hand sticking out of the open drivers' door window, but it was not moving. She said she dove from the balcony into the pool as she had thought there was just enough room for her to make the dive and go between the car and the side of the pool, and if she had had time to plan it that is probably what would have happened. By the time she realized she had miscalculated the dive, she had hit the top of her head on the car bumper making a large gash in the top of her head a little to the right side from which blood had started to ooze out of. But this didn't stop her caz she knew he was drowning , so she somehow swam to the drivers door and got Nick's hand , that was still sticking through the open window, and pulled him out. He was not breathing and she was bleeding all over the place but she had to give him mouth to mouth rescue breathing, that she luckily had been taught how to do in school that year. She got Nick breathing again and got a towel and held it to her own injured head trying to stop the bleeding, she told Nick she needed stitches but he was frantic, he was crying and screaming he was going to get killed by his parents, he was so scared, so Jacki knew what she once again had to do, hell she was going to get in trouble for it anyways caz she should have been watching NIck better, so she told him she knew what they were going to say to their parents. So they made a plan, Nick went and got the twins while Jacki held a towel to her still bleeding head, and when she was sure the twins were back to sleep she had Nick call his parents and tell then to get home quick that something had happened. And this is when it was decided that she had to get drunk to make them believe their story.
What Nick and Jacki hadn't thought of was that they were giving the two adults just the ammunition they needed to get rid of the child that they had never wanted in the first place. So the wheels were set in motion and Jacki was placed in a mental institution for troubled teens, and this is when she had tried to tell the truth that Nick had been driving the car! But no one believed her especially when Nick acted like she was lying and just trying to get out of trouble. Ohyes , all the acting lessons Jacki had given him were really paying off, well for Nick anyways. He was good too, and she would have been proud if it wasn't her he was using his acting skill to betray. No matter how Jacki had begged and pleaded with him he just wouldn't give in, and I mean she never stood a chance because of course thier parents would believe Nick over Jacki. So Jacki had been placed in Brooksplace, a very nasty place, Nick had heard others say, but hey, Jacki was tougher than he was and could take it better than him if he had been placed in that mental place! Besides he was just a little boy. Jacki had been in the place for about a month when that detective had got back the results from the skin tissue he had got off the back bumper of the car that Jacki had told him she had bumped her head on and not the mirror like it had been originally told when they had first lied about it. Luckily the detective believed her story and investigated the car a little better and found the small amount of skin tissue and hair that had been left when Jacki had made a small almost unnoticable crack in the back bumper when she had hit it with her very hard head when she had dove into the pool to save Nick. He remembered his parents always telling her she had a hard head. Well, the detective went to his parents with this information and told them what he had found. At first they tried to argue but when they had called Nick into the room he was caught offguard and started crying and finally told them all the truth. And even though Nick's parents had finally found out the truth they still help jacki partially to blame for what had happened. They had argued with the authorities that if Jacki had been watching Nick like she was told to do that he wouldn't have never been able to get the keys to the car and go try to drive it. And that both the children had told the same story that Jacki had been teaching Nick how to drive the car, even though it was to get their dad to stop fussng at Nick they had tried to make it look as if she was a bad influence on the kids and had serious problems with the way she thought. They had even tried to use the fact that Jacki had gotten drunk and left Nick, a 10 year old, in charge of the twins, then only 2. But the authorities didn't listen to any of it, as they had had the pyschologists talk to Jacki and found out her reasons for doing all this was purely for the good of the children , and not to harm them. They found that even though she went about the accident the wrong was by getting drunk she had made sure that the twins were safely asleep and next to Nick and her just in case they had woke up. And she had made sure that Jane and Bob knew something was wrong and that they would be home in a matter of minutes and only then did Jacki guzzle down the 100 proof whiskey in such a large amount it only took her a few minutes to get totally drunk. So the authorities told them that thier was no reason to keep Jacki in Brooksplace and they would have to come and get her the next day. Nick was so excited at the news of Jacki coming home. He knew she was furious with him for betraying her like he did, but he just knew she would forgive him as soon as she looked into his blue eyes and saw just how sorry he was. She had always forgiven him in the past when she was mad at him for doing something bad, because allhe had to do was look at her with his big blue eyes and tilt his head in a way and give her his big apologetic frown, and tell her how much he loved her and was so very sorry and she just couldn't stay mad at him, yup, thats all he had to do was get to her and apologize and everything would be back to normal again. Why Nick hadn't even got in that much trouble for smashing up the car because when they had heard how he almost had drowned and Jacki had saved his life they were just so relieved he was safe they just felt he had been punished enough having to live with the lies Jacki had made him say all this time. They just couldn't accept the truth as it was that it was all Nick , but then again Nick sure wasn't going to argue with them about it so he just agreed with everything they had said. And as far as Jacki saving Nicks life well they acted like it never happened,though Nick had always thought they should have at least thanked her for doing it, I mean she was the one who got hurt. But Nick was going to try to forget all about that because all he cared about now was the fact that his sister he loved more than anything else in the world was coming home tomorrow. He had a hard time getting to sleep that night.
Nick was jolted out of his thoughts by a very excited Brian , who Nick had heard chattering in the background of his thoughts all this time. He had grabbed Nick by the arm almost pulling him out of his seat when the lights had dimmed and the smoke was starting to come out of what seemed to be the stage floor.
"It's time!', Brian was saying, he had worked himself up into a very excited state, "OMG, its time, I can't believe we are finally going to see her!"
The eerie music that was at the beginning of Kid Rock's Bewitdaba was starting to play and the dancers were starting to methodically and rhythmically emerge from the dark eerie smoke. Everybody knew this was a new dance routine that Jacki had choreographed by herself. The dancers were spread across the stage doing the dance routine very precisely to the beat of the music that is at the beginning of Kids song just before he takes the stage.
"Which one is she?", Brian yelled in a worried voice, as it was hard to hear for the loud music, "You don't think she chickened out do you? Shit, I hope not, I got all these plans for her."
Everyone in the audience was standing now and moving to the beat of the music.
Nick was now worried. "Where in the fuck is she?" he muttered to himself....
more to come