There they stood, the three of them.
"Please, please, please, make him not see me… please!" were the thoughts
going through Jasmine's mind. She looked up at AJ, he was deep in thoughts.
She took a deep breath and tried to relax a bit. "mm… he smells good" she
smiled to herself, she really felt safe in his arms even though Sebastian
were just inches away from her.
"Who's the guy? What is she so afraid of? Why do I even care so much, I just
met her… But she looked so scared… and so… I can't describe it…" AJ thought
and looked down at her. "She's smiling." He smiled back, happy to be there
for her.
Finally the elevator stopped and Sebastian got out on the top floor. Jasmine
breathed out all the air she'd been holding the whole ride, then quickly
pressed the button for the 8th floor.
She didn't say anything. Just stood there by the door, deep in thoughts. "He
didn't see me!! Is that really possible? We were so close… Or he DID see me,
but pretended that he didn't… no… Oh God, just hope that he really DIDN'T
see me… please let that be true…"
AJ looked at her. "What was that? Can she explain it to me?… Maybe it's none
of my business… but I wanna know! she can't just expect me to forget all
about it…"
Jasmine glimpsed a quick look at AJ's direction. He stood there, watching
her. She could see he was dying to ask her his questions. "Should I tell
him?… Nah, why would he wanna know about my life… he's busy with his own…
beside I wouldn't know where to start… I can't just say: That was my abusive
ex-boyfriend… That sounds stupid… true, but stupid…"
They had reached floor eight.
AJ were still looking at her. She turned around and looked back at him. She
stood there quiet for a second like she was about to tell him something. AJ
waited patiently.
"Thank you for helping me." she said with a small smile. She stepped up to
him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, then turned around and left the
elevator.
AJ just stood there. "What did just happen? Is she expecting me to let her
go away with out any explanation what so ever?" He took off his sunglasses,
shook his head. "No way!" And then hurried after her.
"Jasmine? What…" he kept walking behind her but she wouldn't stop. "Jasmine,
come on! Can you at least look at me?" She kept walking. "I can't tell him
the whole thing… It's too hard… He won't understand…" AJ got sick of running
after her so he grabbed her arm and stopped. "Jasmine wait!"
That made Jasmine spin around so fast that she dropped her sunglasses in the
twirl. She quickly bent down to pick them up, but AJ got a hold of them
before her. He stood up and handed her the glasses.
"Sorry… I didn't mean to… but you just left… and.. I don't know why I care…
but I do… so I…"
Jasmine slowly stood up, trying not to look at him. But she had to turn her
face towards when she took back the sunglasses. She looked at the ground.
"It's ok… it's not your fault…"
He bent down a bit trying to look in her eyes. "Are you sure…." he started
but then their eyes met.
She looked at him. He had removed his sunglasses too. And those big brown
eyes… she couldn't take her eyes of them. They weren't anything like this in
all the pictures she had seen… so brown, kind, warm… caring… and worried…
"Wow!! What eyes!!" AJ thought. He knew he was staring, but he couldn't take
his eyes of her. "She's gorgeous!…" His eyes moved looking at her whole
face. "…Oh my God! What a bruise! Who could've… That guy! NOW I get it!!"
They stood there in silence till AJ spoke up.
"What happened? Are you OK?"
"What?.." Jasmine didn't hear him at first, but she saw it in his eyes that
he had asked something.
He pointed at his own cheek. "The bruise… What happened? Are you OK?"
"Oh… Yeah, I'm fine… thanks for asking." She turned around and started
walking towards her room.
AJ followed. "Wanna tell me about it? I'm a good listener."
"It's OK, I just…" She looked at him, about to tell him that she had just
fallen with her bike back home. But she couldn't lie, not to him. His face
said that he had already figured everything out. "…there's not much to
tell… and besides, weren't you going somewhere?" she continued instead.
"Yeah, but it's no hurry… It was that guy huh? In the elevator… Who is he?"
"Um…yeah… and he's my EX-boyfriend… My very jealous ex-boyfriend Sebastian
who has a very bad temper… I broke up with him a few days ago… I never
thought he would follow me here… I didn't even know he knew I left…"
She locked up her door and turned back to look AJ. Right then his cell phone
started ringing. He looked at it but didn't answer.
"I bet someone's waiting for you… you should go." she smiled.
"Are you sure you're OK? What if he comes back…" he looked at her.
"I'm OK. I'll just hang in my room all day. This room isn't checked in under
my name, so he shouldn't be able to find me. I hope he'll just give up
searching and go on to the next hotel." she tried sounding convincing even
though she was really scared.
"If you want, I can come back after rehearsals.. and we could talk, If you
want…" he looked at the ground and then at her.
She smiled. She had never imagined him to be shy. "Sure. I'd love that."
"OK. Cya later then!" he gave her a big smile, and then hurried away to the
others who were waiting.
"Bye" she closed the door.
"You finally decided to join us?" Howie said as AJ came out to the lobby.
"What took you so long?" Nick asked. "Now you won't have the time to eat
breakfast." he continued and the five of them started walking to the van.
"Nevermind. I'll tell ya later. Let's go to rehearsals."
The other four stopped walking.
"Wow! Who are you? Where's the AJ who always needs to be dragged to
rehearsals this early?" Kevin laughed.
AJ looked back at the others. "The sooner we get there, the sooner we'll get
back here" was AJ's answer, and he continued walking.
The others hurried after him.
"And WHY do you wanna be back so soon?" Brian asked with a smile. "Is it so
much fun in the hotel rooms… or could it maybe be.. A GIRL!!"
AJ kept quiet.
The others looked at each other and then said together. "Yeah! It's a girl!
No doubt about it!!"
"Who is she?"
"When did you meet her?"
"How did you meet her?"
"Is she pretty?"
They all asked at the same time.
AJ just gave them a big smile, and jumped in to the van. Followed by the
others who were wondering what had happened to the AJ who laid under his
cover screaming a while ago.