THE ONE

Alec always considered Jason to be one of his good friends, because of whom he survived the 4 years of high school, without going mad.

But once he left for Thailand and then went to London it had become impossible to stay in contact with anyone.

He had got quite a surprise when Jo told him that he got married to Nicole.

Relationships very rarely survived from high school till getting married.

Alec remembered Nicole as the pretty blonde girl who always sported band aids, and managed to get hurt atleast 10 times in a day.

It was a rare occasion when Nicole was completely injury- free.

Jason had been the football captain in high school and also the swim team captain. Completely in control, Jason had a way of moving that was careless yet confident.

On the other hand, Nicole was clumsy. They were like chalk and cheese, and Alec was sure they were perfect for each other.

Nicole had moved into town midway through high school and had joined the school where, Jason, Jade and he studied.

They never were very good friends, but somehow, mostly through swim team Nicole and Jason became friends and soon much more than that.

Jade and Nicole became really good friends in college, just around the time when she started drifting away from him.

He rang the bell on the door of the pretty house, which his mom had told belonged to the Bradshaw's.

"Coming!" Someone yelled from within.

Alec heard something fall to the ground and break.

The twins! How could he forget?

"I'm so sorry!"

The door was opened and Alec saw Nicole standing at the door with a tired look on her face.

She looked just like he remembered her, petite and thin.

With a heart shaped face and a smile which was too big for it.

The smile which flashed on her face as soon as Nicole noticed who was at the the door.

"Alec!" She exclaimed. "I'm sorry I don't think I should hug you."

That's when he noticed that the front of her shirt was splashed with something which looked like milk.

He couldn't stop the smile from coming onto his face, "Hey Nicky! I hope that's milk."

Nicole laughed, "Still the Alec I remember. Come in!"

She led him inside. The house that looked serene and calm from outside looked like a bomb sight from inside.

There were cushions on the floor. Toys were strewn everywhere along with shoes, clothes and books.

And right in the middle of the living room was the source of the noise from earlier and the milk on her shirt.

"So Nicky, you're still as clumsy as before."

"Unfortunately yes, but this time it wasn't my fault. My twins decided that the right time to come and hug my knees was when I'm carrying a glass of milk." She smiled while picking up some of the clothes from the floor. "Sorry for the state of the house."

"No problem. There are two kids living here. Two really energetic kids as I hear." He said helping her pick up some of the cushions.

"Oh yes! They are as energetic as possible."

"I'll just take out that car from under the table. I don't like the twins going under there." She said bending down to pick up the bright orange toy car.

"Where are they anyways? And where is Jason?" Alec asked looking around.

"Jason took them to get cleaned up. Believe it or not, they were in a worse state than I am right now."

Alec laughed.

"Nicole who was at the door?" The sound of Jason coming into the room startled Nicole. "Hi Alec!"

"Hey Jase!"

Alec started saying something else, but Nicole's yelp stopped him.

At the sound of her husband coming into the room, Nicole quickly tried to get up and in the process placed her hand on a piece of glass.

"Ouch!"

Alec saw the blood prickle out of the cut on her hand and immediately went to pick her up.

Jason who was coming into the room with one twin on each arm, on the other hand said calmly, "Of course you would do that. The antiseptic is in the kitchen, I'll go get it."

Jason put down the kids on the sofa and with a warning to not get down, he went into the kitchen.

"Why is the antiseptic in the kitchen?" Alec asked once Nicole was on the sofa with a hand pressed tightly on the cut.

"Well... The twins get into so many scrapes and then there is me... So there is someone who is bleeding all the time. Jason came up with the idea of keeping a first aid box in all rooms." Nicole replied.

"Except for the living room. I'm so stupid that I thought that it would be difficult to get hurt in the living room. I guess I was wrong."

Jason came back with a first aid kit in his hand and a rueful smile.

"It's a good thing you're back home early today. I don't know what I would have done." Nicole hissed as Jason placed the cotton with the antiseptic liquid on it right on the cut.

Alec winced. He still remembered the sting of the antiseptic. His nose still a fresh reminder.

"Thinking of your nose are you?" Nicole asked, when she saw the grimace on Alec's face.

"How do you know?"

The cut was still there on his nose, and the bridge of his nose had become bluish- black.

"Jade told me what happened." She chuckled.

Ofcourse she did.

By the time the cut was bandaged and Jason had packed up the first aid box, the twins were squealing and fidgeting on the sofa, where they had been told to sit.

"Mom!"Noah yelled out atlast, unable to tolerate the punishment of sitting still.

Nicole turned around, "Yes Noah?"

"Who is he?" The little guy pointed a fat finger straight at Alec with a grin on his chubby face.

"Haven't I told you that pointing is rude?" When Noah's hand dropped with a guilty smile, Nicole continued, "Alec why don't you introduce yourself?"

Alec bent down in front of the doge till he was at their eye level, careful to stay away from the broken glass shards.

"Hello! I'm Alec, I'm a friend of your parents." He said.

Nadia, who had been looking at him suspiciously the whole while spoke then, "No. Moms friend is Jady! Our godmother!"

"Yes. Well Jade is my friend too. We all were in school together."

That interested the twins. They looked at each other and shared identical looks.

"So where's Jady?" Noah asked.

"At her home I guess." Alec replied.

"Nadia Noah did the two of you introduce yourselves?" Asked Nicole saving Alec from the interrogation ceremony that was sure to follow.

The twins had many questions. Questions about every single thing. And they just needed one opening to start asking them.

Huge grins split their similar round faces. While Noah had inherited Nicole's hazel eyes, Nadia had got Jason's sharp blue ones.

"I'm Nadia."

"And I'm Noah!"

The kids said together with toothy grins.

Alec smiled and ruffled their hair, "That's nice!"

"Alec why don't you and Jason sit and get talking. I'll go and change and I'm sure the kids would like to go watch some TV."

Nicole spoke up.

At the sound of the word TV the twins exclaimed with joy.

"I'll clean up the glass then." Jason said, "We can talk while I clean up."

Nicole lead the twins out carefully avoiding the broken glass.

"So Alec... How's life been?" Jason asked as he started sweeping the glass.

"Life has been great! But not as good as yours ofcourse. Married and twins. You have been busy."

Jason laughed, "Yeah... I got lucky. And what about you? Wanderlust is going great and I heard about Emma."

The mention of Emma's name brought thoughts of the earlier conversation in his mind.

He shook his head and grinned, "We should all meet up one day."

"Yes absolutely."

They spoke for some more time, remembering the old days and catching up with each other's lives.

"I had to talk to you about something more." Alec said once Jason had finished cleaning up and was sitting next to him.

"What?"

Alec told him about the idea he had been thinking about for some time now.

An idea which would make a huge difference in the life that he lead now.

"That's awesome, Alec." Jason said once he heard about it, "I can give you number of people who can help you out. I really hope it works out."

"So do I." Alec said.

Jason was the first person he had told about the idea he had been brooding over for almost a year now.

Just as they were discussing the rest of the details, the door bell rang again.

Nicole who had been in the kitchen the whole while, beat Jason to the door, which she opened to see Julia standing out there.

"Both the Carter siblings had the thought of dropping by on the same day."Nicole said as she lead, Julia into the living room.

"Alec!" Julia looked at her brother who was sitting on the sofa with a surprised look on her face, "But your car was at home."

"I walked. What are you doing here?"

Alec had decided to leave the car home and walk the little distance to Jason's house.

Julia sat down and said, "I'm here to invite Nicole and Jason."

"Invite?" Jason asked.

"Yeah... We were planning to go out tomorrow night. Just drinks, dancing and stuff."

"And how do I not know about this?" Alec asked his elder sister.

"Well I did speak to Emma and she's in." Julia shrugged.

"What do you say Nicky?" Jason looked at his wife.

"I can call mom, to look after the kids. I'm in."

Nicole seemed very excited at the prospect of going out.

"So it's decided even you'll are coming! That's great!"

Alec smiled at the enthusiasm of the women. Then a thought came to his head.

"Who all are going?" He asked Julia.

"Well Steve and I, you and Emma and now Nicole and Jason. I'm going to ask Jade after this."

So Jade was coming. Would she bring the doctor with her? Or was she being honest when she said that they had broken?

"That'll be good. You know since Jade and Emma had started out on the wrong foot." Nicole said sheepishly.

How did she know everything?, thought Alec.

"So it's decided." Jason said.

"Where are the twins? I want to meet them." Julia said changing the topic.

Nicole took her to meet the twins who were in the other room, with a promise of getting something to drink for the men.

Alec sat silently, lost in his thoughts for sometime. He was thinking about what Emma had told him that morning and about what had happened with Jade.

Atlast he started speaking.

"I know this is going to sound weird and.... It's not something you would expect Alec Carter would ask. But... When.. Or actually how.. How did you realise you were in love Nicole? That she was the one." Alec realised that he was stuttering and decided to shut up.

Jason had been expecting a question like this. He had been where Alec was right now. Confused and frankly a little scared of finding that special 'the one' people keep talking about.

And to make it worse for him, Alec also had Jade in his life.

He smiled, "It's not weird at all. You know we both had been dating since junior year when she moved into town. But I was still shit scared. I still remember that day clearly. I was having breakfast and Sam walked into the kitchen. You remember Sam?"

Alec nodded. Sam was Jason's younger brother, who was now in Paris where he was living his dream of being an artist.

"Well he walked into the kitchen and I still don't know what happened but he tripped and before I knew it he was on the floor. Well... Instead of seeing if he was okay, the only thing that was going around in my head was that, this was something Nicky would do. I closed my eyes and clearly imagine how she would look. Sitting on the floor ruffled, with an almost fed up smile on her face." A smile formed on his face, "Long story short, my mom used to always tell me and Sam, when you can picture her reactions and the way she would look in situation that are not even connected to her, then she's the one."

Just as Jason finished speaking, Nicole walked in carrying a tray of coffee in her hand followed by Julia.

"I didn't know what to get so I decided on coffee." She shrugged and placed the tray on the table.

Julia came and took the seat next to Alec and asked, "What have you guys been talking about?"

"Uh... Nothing." Alec replied a little too quickly, the result was that he got a suspicious look from Julia.

Before she could voice her suspicions there was a loud noise from inside.

"The twins!" Nicole exclaimed.

She started walking out of the door at the sound and tripped over the end of the sofa.

"Oh" she said once she found herself on the floor. "I'm fine! I'm fine!" She said before anyone could get up to help her.

Alec closed her eyes. He could see her reaction. The huge grin on her pretty face and sparkle in her eyes. He could imagine how she would get up and pick Nicole up before sitting down and laughing till she almost wet her pants.

With his eyes closed he could see the way her hair swayed. The graceful way she had of carrying herself.

It almost felt like she was sitting right opposite him. It felt like it was real.

He opened his eyes with a jerk.

Jason had noticed the expression on his face, he raised his eyebrows at Alec.

Alec just shook his head glad that none of the others had noticed him.

Jason's mom had to be wrong.

He felt shaken up.

It was not Emma's face or Emma's smile that had flashed in his head.

It had been Jade.

.......................