“Fine.”
“I think I should leave you two alone,” AJ stood up.
“No, you can stay.”
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea. I’ll be over there.”
“Lindsey, are you sure about this?” Nick asked when AJ was gone.
“Nick, of course!”
“Then...I will.”
“Really?” I smiled.
“Yeah.”
“Great!!” I hugged him.
~*~*~ 3 HOURS LATER ~*~*~
“Lets go to Dairy Queen,” I said as we drove home.
“Ok.”
When we walked in, we saw Brian and Mary in line. “Hey guys!” we greeted them.
“Hey!”
After we had all ordered our icecream, we went to the picnic tables outside to eat. “Look at them, that’s disgusting,” I said pointing to a couple making out at a table next to us.
“Get a room!” Mary yelled.
“Excuse me?” the girl turned around angrily. “Oh my god.”
Everyone sat staring at Justin and Claire. “Claire? What the hell?” AJ yelled angrily. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for what was about to happen. “I can’t believe it! Lindsey told me but...god you little slut!” he yelled before going back to the car. I ran after him.
“Justin! You jerk! You knew AJ was dating Claire! How could you his to him?” Mary was still in shock.
“Mary...I’m sorry.”
“No! I expected this from her...but not you! Come on guys, lets go inside,” she said to Brian and Nick.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“AJ, I’m sorry,” I said to him as we stood beside Nick’s Durango.
“I should be sorry. I should have listened to you.”
“Don’t worry about it. Really. I know how much you liked her. I’m just sorry you had to see it for yourself.” I looked into his eyes and saw the pain. I knew how much he wanted to be known as a ‘tough guy’ but I knew the pain he was going through. “It’s ok to cry,” I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly. A few tears escaped his eyes as he returned my hug.
Several minutes later, he pulled away and said, “I can’t believe I’m actually crying! I’ve cried like....twice in my life.”
“You need to soften up. You don’t always have to act all tough all the time ya know. Everyone needs a good cry every once and a while.”
“Well, my life is so good, I usually don’t have anything to cry about.”
“Well Mr. Cocky, I think we should get outta here. I’ll go get Nick.”
“Ok,” he smiled.
“I can’t believe Justin would do that!” Mary exclaimed later that night as me, her, Brian, Nick, AJ, and Howie sat in the guys’ living room.
“We know, Mary. You’ve only said it 7 times in the past hour,” Howie laughed.
“Sorry,” she replied sheepishly.
“Where’s Kevin?” Nick asked.
“He went to take Nikki and Aaron to the airport. Nikki’s leaving tonight and your mom is picking Aaron up. He should be back soon,” Brian told him.
“Oh, ok.”
Kevin walked in the door about 10 minutes later. “Ok, I’m glad you’re all here. I need to talk to all of you,” Nick said.
“What’s up bud?” Kevin asked as he sat beside Brian.
“Well uh, the two of us have talked about this, and AJ knows about it....I’m moving in with Lindsey.”
“Really?” Mary looked at me and I shook my head yes. “That’s great!”
“When?” Howie asked.
“We were thinking tomorrow actually.”
“We’re really happy for you, Nick,” Kevin said supportively.
“Good, cuz I’m gonna need some help with my stuff,” he laughed.
“We’ll give ya all the help you need,” Brian offered, “Ya know, since we’re all stronger than you,” he grinned.
“Except for me,” I said.
“And me,” Mary added.
“Well you’re girls. Of course you aren’t as strong as us guys,” Brian teased.
“Oh really?” I asked.
“Yeah!”
“We’ll just see about that now won’t we?” Mary and I went over to him and dragged him off the couch. After many failed attempts, we finally managed to pin him to the floor so he couldn’t move.
“Ha! Now whatta ya think?” Mary asked.
“This is pretty comfy. Stay there please.”
“Ugh!” we yelled in frustration before getting off him.
“Hey! Stay there!” Brian called.
“Pa-shaw, yeah right!”
“Man..” Brian whined. As he pushed himself off the floor, the doorbell rang. “I’ll get that.” He went to the door and opened it. Justin stood in front of him. “This isn’t a good time,” Brian informed him.
“I know, but I really need to talk to Mary,” Justin explained.
“No.”
“Who is it?” AJ emerged from around the corner. “Justin? God, don’t you think you’ve done enough?”
“Look, I’m really sorry man.”
“Whatever,” AJ replied sourly before exiting the entranceway.
“You should leave,” Brian told Justin.
“Ok, but tell her I stopped by?”
“I guess,” Brian shut the door and reentered the living room.
“Who was it?” Kevin asked.
“Justin wanted to talk to Mary.”
“I will never talk to him again!” Mary exclaimed.
As Mary opened her mouth to talk again, the phone rang and Nick picked it up. “Hello?..Hi!....yeah..what? When?....No way!...But that’s so soon!....Yeah I understand....great,” he said sounding sarcastic. “Ok. Yeah...Bye,” Nick set the phone down and shook his head.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“We...uh...”
“Nick? Come on, what’s going on?” Brian asked.
“Ok...we have to...go back on tour...” his sentence trailed off as the room grew silent.
“No. Way,” I said in disbelief.
“When?” Howie asked.
“Well...since it’s so soon after our other tour, we don’t have to go in for rehearsals, so....three days,” he said softly.
“THREE DAYS!” I shouted.
“It’s only for two months,” he tried to explain.
“ONLY?” I said.
“Lindsey..I’m sorry.”
“Man, this isn’t fair at all!” AJ whined.
“Yeah, really. We DO have lives,” Kevin agreed.
“It can’t be helped,” Brian reminded them. “It’s in our contract.”
“You’re right,” I said. “But it still isn’t fair.”
“We’ll survive,” Nick said. “Maybe...”