“I guess so.”
“Good,” I smiled. “That was easy.”
“Lindsey, nothing worthwhile is ever easy. You pick up a few tips like this when you hang out with Kevin for 8 years.”
Not wanting to think about what he said, I said, “Mary, Brian, Nick, and me are going out tonight. Wanna join us?”
“Sure..where to?”
“I dunno probably just to Roetelle’s to eat and dance.”
“Ok.”
“Be ready about 7.”
“Actually I have some stuff to do, so I’ll meet you all there.”
“Ok. I gotta get back now. See ya tonight.”
“Bye.”
When I returned to the other 3, I told them AJ was going with us and they all agreed it was fine.
~*~*~AT ROETELLE’S~*~*~
“Should we go ahead and get a table?” Brian asked.
“Yeah, I guess. AJ had some stuff to do. He’ll be here later,” I told him.
We followed the waiter to the table and sat down. “Hey-you know who that waiter looked like?” Mary asked me.
“No...”
“Hello!! He looked just like Mr. Schrameck!”
“Oh my gosh he does!”
“Ok..I’m missing something here...” Nick said confused.
“Nick, you’re always missing something,” Mary laughed. “Mr. Schrameck was our band teacher for like 7 years.”
I shivered at the memory, “He was WEIRD!”
“Wait...band? You were in band?” Brian looked at Mary with a puzzled face.
“Yeah!” she replied as if it were a known fact.
“Well what did you play?”
“The flute.”
“You did?”
“YES!!”
“Oh! That’s cool.”
“You never told him that?” I asked Mary.
“I never really thought about it. I haven’t picked up my flute in years!”
“There he is,” Nick spotted AJ walking towards our table. Mary and I were too busy reminiscing to realize who he was with.
“I hope you don’t mind that I brought Claire with me,” AJ said.
Mary jerked her head toward AJ at the mentioning of Claire’s name. I knew right then that it wasn’t going to be a good night. “Oh good god!” Mary said angrily. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Mary, we should...go outside and talk,” I tried to get her away from Claire.
“Utuh! I want some answers now!” she demanded.
“She’s...AJ’s girlfriend.”
“You’ve GOTTA be joking! This slut, AJ? Even you can do better than her!” Mary screamed as people turned their attention to her.
“Mary, calm down. You’re making a scene,” Brian informed her.
“You BET I’m making a scene! This brat stole MY boyfriend!”
“It’s not my fault he loved me more!” Claire smirked.
“LOVE? More like a one-night stand. I bet you haven’t even talked to him since.”
“Well...”
“See! She’s a little slut, AJ! Drop her.”
“Could you be more of a bitch?” Claire said snobbishly.
“Yeah, actually I can!” Mary stood up so she was face-to-face with her.
“You guys...” I said nervously.
“I guess this wasn’t a good idea,” AJ stated. “Bone! You knew Mary was gonna be here!” Brian said as Mary and Claire exchanged verbal threats.
“I’m sorry!” AJ yelled.
“You should have thought about it first! Someone’s gonna end up hurt!”
“You little..” Mary said before giving Claire a hard slap across the face.
“OK THAT’S ENOUGH!!” I yelled. The entire restaurant had watched the whole fight between Claire and Mary, as well as the little fight between AJ and Brian. “Now that you have EVERYONE’S attention....do you have anything you’d like to say?”
Claire and Mary turned and faced all the people in the restaurant, embarrassment shown on their faces. “Sorry,” they muttered.
“Ok, then,” I turned to Mary. “Come with me...we need to talk,” I whispered. When we were outside on the sidewalk I said, “I’m really sorry you had to see her. I didn’t know she was coming.”
“I can’t believe AJ would date her!”
“I know. It was a big shock to me too. You’ll never guess what happened last night.”
“What?”
“I saw her cheat on AJ!”
“And he’s still with her?”
“He didn’t believe me when I told him.”
“Oh my god, he needs a big ‘ol smack in the face.”
“You mean like what you did to Claire” I smiled.
“Something like that. Just not as full of hatred!”
“That was so funny, Mary! You should have seen yourself!”
“Yeah,” she laughed, “She’s had coming for a while now.”
“Lets get Nick and Brian and ditch this place,” I suggested.
“Good idea. Better yet, you get them. I won’t be held responsible for my actions if I go back in there.”
“Good point.”
~*~*~THE NEXT DAY~*~*~
“I’m hungry,” AJ whined as he, Nick, and I walked around Epcot.
“Didn’t we eat breakfast like 2 hours ago?” Nick asked.
“Yeah..so?”
“So...you shouldn’t be hungry!” I stated.
“Well I am! Lets eat!”
“Fine,” Nick and I agreed.
After ordering lunch, we all sat down at a table and began eating. I noticed a man at a table next to us reading USA TODAY. I saw four familiar faces on the front page and I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was AJ, Brian, Claire, and Mary at the restaurant. The headline said, ‘Feuding BSB Girlfriends,’ in huge bold print.
“Oh..my..god!” I dropped my hamburger on my plate.
“What?” AJ asked. I pointed to the paper and his mouth dropped, along with Nick’s. Nick ran over to the newspaper stand and grabbed a copy of it. He read us the article, skimming to the important parts.
“Blah blah.....BSB girlfriends of Brian Littrell and AJ McLean, Claire Sowell and Mary Hunter, got into a heated argument last night over an ex-boyfriend. Violence was even involved between the Orlando residents...”
“VIOLENCE? Oh..this can’t be good..” I said.
“There’s more...After seeing the two quarreling, Littrell and McLean began an argument of their own...”
“This won’t go over well with the managers,” AJ stated.
“Yeah and MTV’s gonna have fun with this story.”
AJ’s cell phone rang and he answered it; it was Kevin. “I just got a very angry phone call from Donna about you 2.”
“Er...what did she say?”
“What’s all this about you and Brian fighting and Mary and Claire HITTING EACHOTHER?”
“That’s NOT what happened! Claire and Mary got into and argument about David, her ex-boyfriend. Mary slapped Claire but ONLY once. That’s all!”
“Yeah, well it’s all over the press and news. And besides that, Donna is really upset.”
“We tried to stop it-”
“Umm, I tried to stop it!” I said to AJ.
“Yeah-whatever,” he muttered.
“Keep them away from eachother until everything cools down,” Kevin instructed.
“We’ll do our best.”
“Ok, bye.”
“Bye.”
“Ya wanna know what I was just thinking about? Nick asked when AJ hung up his phone.
“Not really..” AJ started.
“We’d love to!” I said.
“Well,” he gave AJ and evil glare. “I’m old now right?” he looked at our confused faces. “Well, oldER. And I’m a rich guy. I think it’s time for me to move out of the condo...”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because it’s pointless for me to stay. I’m old enough to live by myself and I have been for a while now.”
“There’s a perfectly good reason why you shouldn’t move,” I stated.
“What?”
“Me, Nick! Me! If you move, I can’t just walk over to your house anymore. I won’t see you as much.”
“Lindsey...I can’t stay with the guys forever. I won’t go far, I promise,” he comforted me.
“If you must move...I want you to move in with me.”
“What?” Nick said.
“What?” AJ said immediately after Nick.
“I..want you...to move in..with me..” I said slowly.
“Lins, maybe you should give this a little more thought,” Nick suggested.
“Why? We’ve been together for more than a year now. How much longer should we go?”
“Four years!” AJ said.
“AJ, please don’t get all big brother on me.”
“Lindsey...”
“Stop! It’s not up for argument. It’s a yes or no question, Nick.” I looked from AJ, back to him. “Well? What’s it gonna be?”