"What's wrong boo?" I asked him. He had a terribly worried look on his face, like he's just seen a ghost.
"Huh? Oh, nothing baby. Don't worry about me." Nick replied.
"Baby, that's all I ever do." I looked up at him and felt him kiss my cheek.
Yup, something is definitely wrong with him... I mean, a kiss on the cheek?! We've been dating six months from yesterday and that's the best he can do? I wanted to address this. I wanted to tell him I wanted the old Nick back. The Nick that made me laugh and cry at the same time, but I couldn't. Adding more stress, probably wasn't the solution to this. It wasn't until I got up from under the tree where we were both sitting, that he came out of his "trance" and reached for my hand, turning me to face him.
"Baby, look. Please don't leave me. I've been going through a rough time lately. He paused, and I saw tears falling from his eyes and I felt a piece of my heart break. I sat down next to him and leaned his head against my chest. I began playing with his hair in a soothing way hoping it would calm him down. You could tell he was trying to hold back the tears, but they continued to fall. Whatever he was planning on telling me, was definitely something big.



I waited patiently for him to spill it all out. I tried not to let him see how I really felt. I sat there for at least five more minutes just trying to calm the rivers from his now, blood shot eyes. So yeah, I practically sat there with the worst queasy feeling in my gut. And just an "fyi", parks probably aren't the most fun in awkward silences like these. I mean, there isn't much to stare at other than a few birds that fly around now and then. Nick's phone beeped, indicating that he had a message. It was terrifying actually. Terrifying how he reached for his phone and flung it against the tree with a murderous look in his eyes. Something wasn't right. Something wasn't okay at all. I reached for the phone. Although it had a broken screen, it was still readable. I clicked the message button and saw that there were at least a dozen unread messages from the same number. I clicked on it. I couldn't believe my eyes. I don't get speechless very often, but this... this was too much, even for me. The newest one said, "Ten grand by tomorrow pretty boy, or you know what's going to happen." and another one that said, "One more day." Was this seriously happening? Were they sending death threats to my boyfriend? Even though I knew the answer, I wanted to hear it from him.
"Nick, nick... what the hell are these?" I could barley get the words out.
"Threats," you could tell this was hard for him. "I made a huge mistake." The tears now came in bucket loads. I could feel the tears seeping through the corners of my eyes.
"I really need to know, baby. I want to be able to help you." I told him hoping this would be convincing enough.
"I'm scared." He told me. He took a long piercing breath. "You know that night, when I called you to come and hang out with me?" I nodded, encouraging him to continue. "Well, when you said you couldn't, I called my boys, and they picked me up and took me to the bar. I didn't drink, I promise. Ask anyone, I only had soda the whole night. Around twelve that night, a stranger wearing a ski mask came up to me and asked me to hold his gun. It didn't strike me as mysterious until the man ran out of the bar, and I saw a group of three boxer- built men come in. They were heading straight at me, too. The middle man grabbed me and threw me against the counter. He was rude too, telling me that he had seen me kill the poor man outside. I tried to explain that I hadn't, but that just made things worse. He beat me up so many times, I lost track. He also told me that I was to pay him -" Nick could barely breathe now, because of al of the tears pouring out of his eyes. I couldn't hold my tears back any longer. I didn't need him to finish, I understood how much pain he was in. The worst part of it all though, is that I couldn't do anything about it. I looked down at Nick and saw he was trying to tell me something, but his tears weren't letting him, "April, I- I need, need to tell you s-something. I-I, we c-can't d-date any, anymore. I-I don't want them to hu- hurt you. P-Please for-for-give me." He was practically bawling. I wanted to cry as well, but I promised myself I would hold on to the tears for later. Tears streaming down my face, I tried to smile. "I love you Nick, with my everything." With that, I kissed him on the cheek and left. I didn't let myself cry, why? Because I was strong, and I knew it.