AN: I managed to fit in a short chapter before June 13th! YAY! happy dance yall. LOL

“Whoa, wait a minute. You’re not even going to let me explain?” Destiny said, startled by the news she just received. She followed him out of the bus and around the dusty road to the gas station which was situated beside the diner.
“No, you don’t have a right to explain anything, Destiny. I saw you two kissing. A picture is worth a thousand words. I don’t need all the sorry excuses. Every word kills me. Just leave me alone.” He said, furiously wiping his unwanted tears with his thumb.
“We’ve worked so hard for this relationship and because you saw one thing you’re letting it all collapse?” She pleaded with him.
“One little thing, Destiny? That one little thing made me lose all my trust and without trust, we can’t build a relationship.”
“You don’t even know what happened.” She sighed as she tried her best to keep up with him.
“I told you I don’t want to know, what I saw was enough now unless you plan on joining me in the mens room, I suggest you leave.” He said as he slammed the door in her face.

“What the hell just happened?” Coral asked curiously as she stared out of the window.
“I don’t know but whatever it was, it can’t be good.” Howie took a big sip of his orange juice.
“Do you guys have any idea why AJ and Des are bickering outside like a bunch of chickens?” Carrie said with her mouth full of eggs.
“Chew, swallow then speak.” Coral said.
“Yeah, the weatherman didn’t say anything about egg showers.” Howie added.
Carrie chewed quickly and swallowed the food with a big gulp. Her eyes widened as she started choking slightly. She grabbed the remaining orange juice from Howie’s glass and drank it down. Coral stood up and tapped her friend on the back.
“Satisfied now?” Carrie said, giving them an evil glare.
“Yeah, thank you.” Coral said with a smile.
“Great, I can die happy. Anyway, do you know why?” Carrie sat down beside Howie and leaned her head on his shoulders.
“First fight?” Howie questioned.
“They argue all the time. I tend to think they actually enjoy it but this seems pretty bad.” Coral said as she overheard some more yelling in the background.
“They seem mad.” Carrie said with a concerned look in her eyes.
“More upset if you ask me.” Howie said, obviously noticing the tears in the couples eyes as they stormed through the windows of the diner again.

Most of the crew was already glued to the glass windows but it didn’t seem to phase AJ and Destiny or maybe they were too caught up in their own world of personal issues to even notice the people who demanded knowledge which they weren’t privileged to withhold.

“I can’t hear you!” AJ yelled as he entered the diner and covered his ears.
“Oh yeah, that’s mature AJ.”
“Almost as mature as you.” He mumbled quietly. He walked over to the nearest empty table and sat down.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” She said, sitting down right next to him.
“Only that you can’t be very intelligent for thinking you can cheat on me without getting caught.” He sighed and looked around trying to find a way out of the booth.
“And you can’t be very intelligent for thinking I would actually cheat on you to begin with.”
“So are you saying I imagined it?” his voice was starting to rise again.
“No, I’m not saying that. I’m just saying you misunderstood the scene.” She explained.
“Oh yeah? please enlighten me since you’re obviously not planning on shutting up any time in the near future.”
“Thanks for the approval. Jordan, tell him what happened.” Destiny said, standing on her knees , looking for the felon of the crime she was being accused of.
“Oh yeah Destiny, Thank you so much for clearing that up. I’m out.” He said as he climbed on the table and jumped off. He ran out of the diner with a stern look on his face. Kevin gave Destiny a look she couldn’t interpret and followed his brother to the bus. She let her head drop to the table. All the happenings hadn’t sunk in yet. She was still shocked but she knew the tears were soon to come. Only a few seconds passed and she was surrounded by comforting hugs.

“You okay, baby?” Nick asked, looking at her with sympathy.
“As good as I get...” She answered dryly.
“I’m sorry that was a stupid question.”
“No, I’m sorry. It’s totally not your fault and I’m being unfair to you. I just don’t believe he doesn’t trust me enough to know that I didn’t do anything!”
“He’ll come around.” Coral said confidently.
“Yeah, I don’t think he can live longer than a day without you.” Carrie added.

Destiny sighed heavily. She wasn’t as sure as her friends that this catastrophe was going to work out. AJ was an extremely stubborn person and once he had his mind set on something it was hard to get him to think otherwise. And right now, she wasn’t so sure she even wanted to get back together with him. As AJ said, without trust there wasn’t a relationship and the fact that he had none in her to begin with wasn’t very appealing to her. Why would she bother getting together with someone who doesn’t have faith in their love?

“Fucking bitch! Screws around on me, lies to me and worst of all traps me in my god forsaken seat.” AJ said as he sat on his bunk, tearing off the photos of him and Destiny which were in a perfectly linear situation.
“That’s the worst part?” Kevin stood in front of him.
“Well no, but it pissed me off.”
“You showed her, walking on the table must have put her in place.” Kevin said jokingly.
“Kev, this isn’t a laughing matter.”
“Bone, this is when you need to laugh the most.”
“Explain to me how this irony works...because I don’t find my entire relationship ending amusing in any sort of way.” He said as threw the photos on the ground. In his mind, they symbolized the memories they experienced in the short time they spent together. They were happy and it killed him to see her with a smile. He just wanted her to hurt right now. AJ wanted Destiny to hurt just as much as he was.
“Okay, okay, maybe that wasn’t the best thing to say.” Kevin replied, bending over to pick up the photos.
“You think?”
“Do you want to be left alone?”
“Where in the world did you ever get THAT absurd idea?”
“I’ll take that as a yes. You’ll be okay, bro.” He handed the photos back to AJ in a tidy pile and exited on that note.

“How am I going to be okay when my entire world is gone...” AJ quietly said to himself. He breathed heavily, trying his hardest not to cry again. Even though he was alone, he wouldn’t permit himself to look weak. AJ shoved the pictures into the bottom of his backpack.
“Those aren’t ever coming out again...” He said weakly.
“Having another conversation with yourself, Alex?” Serenity smiled as she approached her friend.
“You know those are the most interesting ones.”
“Well, I might not be as interesting of a conversation to you as uh, yourself but I can try. You wanna talk?” Serenity offered him a shoulder to cry on.
“You know what? Yeah, I actually do. It’s been too long since we’ve had a conversation.”
“Destiny doesn’t really like me. I couldn’t get near you.” Serenity said with an angelic look.
AJ rolled his eyes and shrugged. “Destiny has many problems.”
“Shouldn’t have brought her up.”
“It’s okay. I’m not liking her very much myself right now. So guess I’m on your side now.”
“I never said I don’t like her.”
“Serenity...”
“Okay, so I don’t.” She giggled nervously.
“It wasn’t very hard to figure out.” He winked at her.

“How can you be so cheery after what you just saw in there?”
“I got you here by my side. You’re my best friend and you proved to me that you’ll always be here for me. Even if I treat you like crap...which I have been doing lately.”
“I don’t blame you. You were just trying to keep your girlfriend happy.”
“To be honest Renity, Destiny was pretty oblivious to your visit. I didn’t really trust you. Not until I talked to you last night. From that moment on, I saw how loyal you were. You’re really happy with Nick and you still remembered me.” He looked her in the eyes and smiled, forgetting about Destiny for once in a long time.
“Yeah, Nick’s great.” She said carelessly.
“Thanks Renity. I appreciate it.” He jumped off the top bunk and opened his arms for a hug.
She approached him and hugged him tightly. They found comfort in eachother’s arms. Neither one of them daring to move. AJ nuzzled his head into her neck, realizing she was wearing the same perfume Destiny had worn the first day he ever met her. He felt stupid because the smallest thing got him upset. AJ started thinking about Destiny and slowly the sobs starting creeping up his throat, dying to get out.

“Let it all out...” Serenity said as she rubbed AJ’s back in a circular movement.
That’s all it took, the tears kept dropping from his eyes. He didn’t want to look completely hopeless but it was beyond his control. He was shivering and anyone who knew AJ McLean wouldn’t even recognize the figure which stood in front of them. He was different, more vulnerable, more in touch with his feelings. The only person it perhaps didn’t disturb was Serenity. She had grown up with him. Serenity experienced the change along with AJ. She knew all of his sides and this one wasn’t strange to her. Surprisingly, he was opening up to her again and she wouldn’t take it for granted.

“Funny, the only day it doesn’t rain, I somehow find a way to get wet.” She playfully said.
“Sorry about that.” He gave her a smirk.
“It’s okay.” She moved her fingers to his temples and gave him a massage.
“Mmmm thank you.” He said in what sounded like a moan.
“I’m sure it isn’t that good.”
“You’re wrong.”
“I’m glad I could be at your service.”
“You always are.” He closed his eyes, leaned forward and kissed her deeply.

She caressed her finger on his left cheek and pulled him closer to her, the kiss growing with every passing minute. Eventually, pulling back for air, they stared at eachother.
“Wow...what the hell just happened?” Serenity asked
“I can’t say I know but I can say I liked it.”
“Yeah...and this time you actually meant to kiss ME, right?” She hesitantly asked.
He laughed at her suspicion. “Yeah i knew I was kissing you, Renity.”
She lowered her head in shame.
“What?” AJ asked
“AJ, what about Nick?” She asked, her glance never moving away from the ground.
“Shit, I forgot about him. Crap, I’m not any better than Jordan.”
“We don’t have to tell him.” Serenity said quickly.
“What? Yes we do.” AJ insisted.
“Alex, I was going to break up with Nick anyway. He’s to involved in other things to really care about me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright, I’m sure you’ll treat me better anyway.”
“You know I am...but we can’t start dating right after you two break up.”
“I’m sure he’d rather I’d date you than some stranger.”
“That’s even worse, Des.” AJ said, sitting on the bunk.”
“What did you just call me?” Serenity said.
“What? No. I said that’s even worse than Des. I don’t think I could do that to Nick. I don’t believe I did this to Nick. I’m such an idiot sometimes.” He wanted to hurt himself for making that mistake and for being such a hypocrite after viewing the scene Destiny had ‘performed’ for him only minutes prior to this.
“I’ll just go ahead and end it with Nick and we’ll figure out what we have going on later.” She concluded, gave AJ a reassuring hug and left him alone on the bus again. He dreamily leaned back on the bunk and fell into a deep slumber.

“Jordan!” Serenity called out.
“Renity, you got it?” He questioned.
“Yeah, I have your money, Jordan.” She searched through her pockets and handed him a large amount of money.
“Damn, this pays for the guilt I was feeling just a few minutes ago.”
“Can’t thank you enough for separating those two...” She laughed and gave him a pat on the back.