Nick was enjoying his time with the pool table. There was no style or flow to his game Nick's objective was to sink the ball by any means necessary within the rules. It wasn't pretty and Holden referred to him as the luckiest slop player whoever lived, but it served Nick well in all the years he had played. Nick had been playing since he was 5 years old on his grandparents pool table and at times that pool table was his salvation. He couldn't begin to count the number of nights he'd go over to his grandparents house and shoot on that table for hours after a fight with his mom or his sisters.

Nick looked over at the couch as Jason sat down after his blow-up on the phone, and Nick knew Jason long enough and well enough to know there was only one thing that could get Jason to lose it like that; his family. Over the years Nick had pieced together some of Jason's family history and it wasn't pretty. Nick didn't pry mainly because he was afraid that would mean Nick would have to share about his family too, and that was a pretty painful subject in a lot of ways. Holden also had some issues with his family as well, but again Nick wouldn't pry out of respect for Holden and that Nick wasn't wild about sharing his history or pain. Many times he wanted to tell them both at least they still had their family together. Nick and his mom had their share of issues, and at one point it looked like he was going to be moving in with his grandparents until his older sisters played peacemakers, and they had worked through them but there would always be scars there for all to see.

Nick shook his head for a second realizing that his issues didn't matter at the moment, but a friend of his was hurtin' pretty good. Nick put up his pool-cue and grabbed a beer from the mini-bar and made his way over to Holden and Jason. 

Nick sat on the other side of Jason and asked, [B]"Wow, how many times did we do this in college? Grab a seat on the couch, have a couple of drinks just prior to going out on a Friday night?"[/B] Nick shook his head and said to Jason, [B]"And who was the one who always said 'no matter what else has happened during the week when it's Friday Night put it on the back burner and cut it loose.' A very wise man got Holden and I through many a bad time with that philosophy. It still works to this day you know."[/B]

Nick looked directly at Jason and said, [B]"We got your back my friend."[/B] He raised his beer bottle and said to both Holden and Jason, [B]"We take care of our own."[/B]