“Howie, man,” AJ began. “What the hell has been bugging you lately? You’ve been out of it for days now.”
“Nothing,” Howie mumbled in return. They were on a late night road trip from Atlanta to Tampa for their last show. Everyone was exhausted, glad that this leg of the tour was coming to an end.
“Come on, D,” AJ prodded. “Tell me what’s wrong. Is it Christine?” Howie didn’t say anything. He just stared out the window. He hadn’t gotten around to telling anyone that Christine was refusing to marry him. He was humiliated, especially at the fact that it wasn’t even her idea. She allowed her ex-boyfriend to talk her out of marrying him because he wanted her all to himself.
“It is Christine,” AJ figured out for himself. “What happened when you were up there?”
Howie shrugged. “Nothing. Except for the fact that she refused to marry me.”
“What?!” AJ exclaimed. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She told me she can’t marry me,” Howie explained. “She wants to stay in Connecticut with her mom. And when I said I’d move wherever she wanted to, she told me no. And the great thing about all of this is that Paul was the one who talked her into it.”
“Paul the ex-boyfriend?” AJ questioned.
“Yup!” Howie answered, feigning excitement. “Isn’t it just great that his opinion matters much more than mine does.” He stood up and began retreating to his bunk.
“Howie…” AJ began.
“Not now AJ,” he interrupted. “I need to lie down for a little while.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Ang please tell me,” Katelin begged. She, Ang, Brian, and Nick were all hanging out in the entertainment room of the Boys bus. Katelin wanted to know what else was going on with her best friend. She had no idea that Ang was being blackmailed. “Come on. I thought we agreed that there weren’t going to be any secrets between us anymore. I want to help you.”
“Oh come off it, Kate,” Ang snapped. “I tried for two years to get you to open up to me about your mom and you went and told a total stranger.”
Katelin backed off, clearly offended. So this was why Ang wasn’t saying anything. She was trying to get back at her. “Fine,” she huffed, standing up. “I’m glad the three of you have some big, huge secret that I’m clearly too immature not to know about.”
“Katelin,” Nick groaned. This was one thing that he always hated about her. She had this very good tendency to make everyone feel sorry for her. She was young. There was no denying that. And there were some things that maybe should be kept away from her because, at least for her, being young also meant having a big mouth.
“What,” Katelin mocked.
“Come on, Kate,” Brian said. “It’s not that we don’t want you to know. We’re just trying to keep this as quiet as possible. No extra people knowing. People that aren’t involved.”
“I am involved,” Katelin told him. “I’ve been involved longer than either of you have.” She glared at Nick and Brian. “Fine. Whatever. I’m going to sleep.” She stomped out of the room and climbed into Nick’s bunk.
“Is she really that mad?” Nick questioned.
“She’ll get over it,” Ang replied. “She always does. Anyway, I’m tired too. Wake me up when we get there.” She also walked out of the room and climbed into Brian’s bunk.
“So,” Brian began after the door had been shut behind Ang. “What are you and Kate going to do now?” Nick shrugged, not having an answer. He had no idea what Mr. Taylor was going to do. He could either be reasonable, finally, and let them be together or he would press charges against Nick without a second thought. Nick hoped that he would choose the first option, but Mike Taylor hadn’t been reasonable from the start and Nick didn’t think that he was about to start now.
“I don’t know,” Nick answered. “It’s so up in the air. I just know that I’m not going to lose her. If he wants to press charges against me, then let him. The only thing it’ll accomplish is driving is daughter further away from him. Hopefully, he’ll realize that before I get my ass thrown in jail.”
“Be careful, Nick,” Brian warned. “Not only because of your career but because this guy is powerful. He’s probably got friends everywhere, if you know what I mean. Katelin is his only daughter and he doesn’t like you. I don’t know what he would stop at to keep her away from you.”
“Two more days,” Nick whispered to Katelin as they lay in Nick’s bed at his house in Tampa the next night.
“I know,” Katelin replied. “I’m scared, Nicky. I mean, what if he doesn’t listen to us?”
“We’ll make him listen, Kate,” Nick stated. “No one is going to keep us apart. I promise you.”
“For all we know, Becca’s already gotten in touch with him,” Katelin said, rolling over to look into Nick’s eyes.
He reached up and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “If she did, don’t you think he would’ve been banging on my door already?”
“I guess you’re right,” Katelin sighed.
“Don’t worry about it, babe,” Nick said, smiling. “You know that I love you right?”
Katelin leaned down and brushed his lips with her own. “I love you too, Carter.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Ang!” Brian called. “Phone call.”
Ang tossed the remote on to the couch and reached for the phone. “Hello?” There was silence on the other end. “Hello?!”
“I know what you did,” a disguised, female voice stated.
Ang’s eyes widened as Brian appeared in the doorway. “How the hell did you get this number?”
“Never mind that. I think you should be a little more concerned with the fact that everyone might find out about what you really did.”
“What do you want from me?” Ang whimpered, glancing helplessly at her boyfriend.
“Stay away from Brian,” her blackmailer ordered before hanging up the phone. Ang glanced at the phone, confused, before setting it back on the receiver.
“Who was it?” Brian asked, sitting down on the couch with her.
“Why did you let her talk to me?!” Ang exclaimed. “Didn’t you realize who that was?”
“What do you mean ‘her’?” Brian replied. “It was a guy that asked for you.”
“No it wasn’t,” Ang told him. “It was that same girl who saw me that night. She’s blackmailing me.”
“How?” Brian asked.
“She told me to stay away from you,” Ang responded, staring him straight in the eye.
“Well that’s just too bad,” Brian said, pulling her into his arms. “Because that is something that’s not going to happen.”
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
“Hi Becca,” Brooke greeted, walking into the kitchen at the beach house. “Ruin anyone’s life today?”
Becca glared at her. “Nope. Not yet, at least. But yours has been looking a little too peachy lately. How is Mr. Richardson?”
“He’s great,” Brooke answered, smugly. “Too bad you don’t have a boyfriend of your own. We could swap stories. Oh well.” Before Becca had a chance to respond, they heard the sound of the front door slamming, followed by a frustrated yell. The two girls glanced at each other before cautiously walking into the foyer and seeing Alyssa throwing her jacket angrily to the ground, followed by her purse.
“Hey Lyss,” Brooke greeted, quietly. “What’s wrong?”
“My fucking boyfriend is fucking someone else!” Alyssa exclaimed.
“How is that possible?” Becca questioned. “We’ve been on tour for three months!”
“I mean, he’s doing it as we speak,” Alyssa cried.
“Aw Lyss,” Brooke soothed, putting an arm around her. “I’m sorry.”
Alyssa wiped the tears that were forming in her eyes away. “It’s not your fault. I should’ve known something was going to happen. Things have been going to shit lately.”
“I have an idea,” Brooke stated. “How about I call up Kevin and Howie and we all go out tonight.”
“Okay,” Alyssa agreed, tearfully. “As long as I get completely bombed in wake up in bed with some random guy.”
“Whatever,” Brooke laughed, walking into the kitchen to use the phone. “Just be good.”
“I’m sick of being good,” Alyssa grumbled.