"Nice rehearsal guys. You're really getting that harmony down. Lou is definitely going to like this!" Said their vocal coach as he watched the smiles of satisfaction across all of their faces. "This group is really coming together. Good work. Now all of you get out of here. Go home, sleep, do what you need to do." All of the O-Town boys did as they were told. They got out of the studio and were in their car on the way back to their lake side house.
"So what are you planning on doing tonight, Eric?" Jacob asked from the backseat, to Eric who was driving.
"I dunno. I was thinking of going out, but now I think I'm just gonna chill, or should I say get steamy, in the hot tub," Eric laughed.
"Yeah, whatever," said Trevor laughing. "That'll be the day."
"Oh shut up. You know I'm great!" All of the guys booed, while laughing at him. "I'm just kidding. Chill." Eric pulled into the driveway and they all got out.
"So Ash, what are you doing tonight?" Jacob asked Ashley.
"Oh I'll probably just watch TV, go on the net. You know, the usual stuff" Ashley replied gloomily.
"You seemed really quiet in the car, is everything OK?" Jacob asked.
"Oh, uhh… nothing's wrong. Don't worry about me. I'm fine!" Replied Ashley, sounding very confident.
"You're sure then, nothing's wrong?" Asked Jacob one more time to be sure.
"I'm telling you, there is nothing wrong. Com'on Jacob, you know me! I'm fine!" Ashley patted Jacob on the back as they both walked through the front door.
****
Later that night, each guy was doing his own thing. Trevor was out a club and Dan was working out. Eric was, you guessed it, in his hot tub, and Jacob was in the living room writing his latest song. All the while, Ashley was lying in his room.
"Yo, Ash, come out here for a sec. I need you to tell me what I've done wrong with this phrase. It just isn't sounding right," bellowed Jacob from the living room, with his headphones still on, entirely into his work. "Ash…Ash! It'll just take a minute… Come on! Get off your butt for a second." Jacob took off his headphones and stopped what he was doing. He sat there waiting for Ashley to reply. "What a lazy ass. Making me get up from what I was doing," Jacob mumbled to himself as he walked towards Ashley's room. "Ash, I have been calling you! Thanks for ignoring me!" He saw Ashley quickly hide a picture of someone under his pillow, and wipe his eye before he turned to face Jacob.
"Oh sorry. I didn't hear you. So what did you want?" Ashley asked while trying to hide his face under one hand.
"Were you…crying?" Jacob questioned while moving closer.
"Crying? What? I wasn't crying!" Ashley replied quickly while trying to sniff his nose quietly.
"Yes you were!" Jacob exclaimed.
"No I wasn't!" Ashley responded.
"OK, fine. Whatever you say," Jacob said while inching closer, and sitting on the bed directly across from Ashley's.
"I wasn't. Really, I wasn't," Ashley assured him.
"I believe you," replied Jacob, eyeing Ashley's pillow.
"Yeah, whatever. So what did you come in here for?"
"Oh, nothing important," Jacob said, still eyeing Ashley's pillow.
"OK," Ashley looked away for a second and wiped his other eye. Jacob lunged for his pillow and grabbed the picture underneath it. "Yo, give that back!" Jacob looked down at the picture.
"Uh oh," Jacob mumbled.
"Uh oh, what?" Ashley quickly replied.
"Your girlfriend."
"What about my girlfriend?"
"You miss her, don’t you?" Jacob asked.
"I dunno," Ashley looked down and shrugged his shoulders. Jacob just looked at him. "Well, yeah, I do. I miss Shelly a lot."
"I knew it!" Jacob exclaimed.
"Yeah, well what’s the point? It doesn't matter if I miss her. The reality of it is, that I'm not going to be able to see her for at least another month," Ashley sadly told him.
"So what if you can't see her. You have the phone and the Internet. You can talk to her everyday. Hell, you could even talk to her 2, 3, 4 times a day if you really wanted to!" Jacob replied.
"It's just not the same, you know that," he said looking rather depressed.
"Well why can't you see her for another month?"
"Neither her nor I can afford for her to fly down here to visit me," Ashley replied.
"Well…I don't exactly know what you could do, but there has to be someway you two can see each other. If you miss her that much, there has to be away," Jacob explained with faith.
"Yeah, whatever." Ashley wasn't really too much into Jacob's motivational speech. He continued to slouch over with his head to the ground.
