I went downstairs and found my flannel pants and long-sleeved blue t-shirt. I told Nicole I’d be back after watching some more TV with AJ. She was talking to Nick on the phone, so I don’t think she heard all of what I said.
I went upstairs and walked through Brian and Kevin’s game of football in the hallway, almost getting decapitated in the process. I knocked don AJ’s door, and as I expected got no answer. I opened the door to find a sleeping AJ hugging a tattered old teddy bear. He had on a tank top and red flannel pants, so I assume he moved in my absence. I woke him up just to see what kind of reaction I would get. He came to pretty quickly, and we got to talking about everything from sports teams, to my social life, to stories about our friends.
“You mean Kevin did what?” I exclaimed, “I thought he was perfect!”
“He has his flaws, just like when Nick tried to stage-dive into the crowd at one of our early concerts,” he said with a laugh, “If it wasn’t for security Nick wouldn’t be here today.”
“That figures. Oh my God!!!! Look what time it is! Nicole is going to kill me!” I said staring at the clock that read 3:00AM.
“Hey, if you want you can crash here and I’ll sleep on the floor,” he offered.
“Only one problem…. HOW DO I CONVINCE NICOLE THAT I DIDN’T SLEEP WITH YOU IF I SPEND THE NIGHT HERE???”
“Um… you got me. But come on, it’s already like a little slumber party. I’ll just camp out on the floor. It really doesn’t bother me.”
“And they wonder how you got your “one night stand every night” reputation,” I said sarcastically flinging a pillow at his head.
“You didn’t,” he laughed picking the pillow up.
“Oh, but I did.”
“You’re going down!” he cried jumping on the bed I was standing on wielding the pillow.
“No way!” I hit him with another pillow.
“Ha!” he said, making a direct hit on the side of my face.
We beat each other up for a few more minutes, before we both collapsed laughing to the bed. Through my uncontrollable laughter I realized two things. One, I had just gotten to know one of the coolest people I’d ever met, and two I was falling asleep too fast to say anything more. I could still hear AJ’s laugher as I felt like I was being slowly pulled off into dreamland.
Chapter 23