More Than Anything

Chapter 3- My December

~*Amanda's Point O View*~

I was absolutely livid as I paced back in forth in our room. I was so angry that he had actually done that.

"Who told you?" Ashley asked as he walked into the room.

"You cheat on me and all you have to say for yourself is 'Who told you?'"

"Amanda-"

"Why? Huh? What would possess you to do something like that?"

"I don't know. Amanda, I wasn't thinking. I had been drinking and I just wasn't thinking clearly." I stayed silent for a minute or so before talking again.

"Do you really wanna know how I found out." He nodded.

"It was on the cover of the 'National Enquirer'."

"The tabloid magazine?"

"That'd be the one. About a week ago I was sitting up in the room and I was bored out of my mind. I went down to the little mini-store in the lobby to pick up a magazine, something to do. I went for the trashy tabloids because those usually provide for some entertainment. On the cover of the 'National Enquirer' there was a picture of you in a club kissing some girl. The headline was 'O-town's Angel, Not So Angelic Anymore'. Do you have any idea how much that hurt? I just kept thinking that you would tell me. That you would come to me, but you never did. It's been two weeks since that happened Ash and you still hadn't told me. I have to wonder if you were ever planning on telling me."

"Of course I was going to tell you."

"When?"

"Soon."

"This is too much Ashley. I can't do this anymore."

"Are you breaking up with me?"

"I don't know. Not right now, but I don't know. Maybe it would be for the best."

"How could breaking up possibly be for the best?"

"You'd be free to kiss whoever you damn well please." I spat bitterly.

"Wh-"

"You wouldn't have to worry about hiding your engagement from your goddamn fans anymore. You wouldn't have to tell your parents. You wouldn't have the inevitable stress of planning a wedding. Need I continue?"

"Are you saying that you don't want to be together anymore?"

"I don't know Ashley. I just don't know. I mean do you even want to get married anymore, 'cause it doesn't seem like it. We've been engaged for nine months and you haven't even told your parents yet. I mean I can understand not telling the fans, but your parents? I know that I haven't told my parents, but they basically disowned me when they found out that I was pregnant."

"I just haven't had time to tell my parents that's all." I sighed in frustration and covered my face with my hands.

"I think I should leave." I said a minute later.

"What? Why?

"I'm going back to LA with Aurora. It'll give both of us time to think about what we really want." I reached up and pulled the necklace that held the sapphire engagement ring he had given me off my neck.

"Amanda, what are, what're you doing?" I took his hand and placed the necklace in it, then I folded his fingers back over it.

"Give it to the woman that's your everything. The woman that's your reason for waking up in the morning, the woman that's the air you breathe, give it to her. That's what your grandma wanted. If I'm not her, then I hope you find her and that you're very happy with her."

"But Amanda-"

"Shh. I love you. I'll see you in three months. Do you think that you could room with one of the other guys tonight? I kinda want to be alone." He nodded softly. A tear rolled down his cheek, he made no move to stop them.

"I love you Amanda. Always and forever." He whispered quietly before leaving.

I laid back on the bed next to Aurora and began sobbing.

Nothing ever seemed to go right in our relationship and when things finally did work out, something always came along to screw things up.

~*Ashley's Point Of View*~

I knocked on Jacob's door and waited for someone to answer.

"Ash?" Jake questioned as he opened the door.

"Can I, uh, room with one of you guys tonight?"

"Sure man." Dan said as I sat down at the foot of Jacob's bed.

"What happened?" Erik questioned his voice full of concern.

"She's leaving." I croaked barely above a whisper.

"Leaving like breaking up with you leaving or leaving like leaving the tour leaving."

"Both. She's leaving the tour and she basically broke up with me."

"Do you think that you guys are going to get back together?"

"I don't know."

~*Jacob's Point Of View*~

Seeing the state that Ashley was in caused me to wonder how Amanda was holding up.

"I'm gonna go check on Amanda." The guys nodded and I left the room.

"Amanda?" I asked, knocking on the door to her room.

"Amanda it's Jake."

"Just a second." A minute or so later she opened the door.

She didn't look much better than Ashley did. Her cheeks were tear stained, her eyes were red and puffy, her clothes were wrinkled and her hair was a tangled mess.

I walked into the room and noticed that she had already begun packing.

"You're really leaving." I stated quietly. She nodded in agreement.

"It's for the best."

"How? This is going to destroy him."

"You think it's easy for me to pack up his daughter and myself and just leave him? I may never see him again Jake. This is just as hard on me as it is on him."

"Why do you think that you won't see him again?"

"I gave him back the engagement ring and told him to give it to the woman that was truly his everything and basically told him if it wasn't me then to have a nice life."

"What would make you think for even a second that you aren't his everything? His reason for getting up in the morning, the air he breathes?"

"He didn't tell anyone except you guys that we were engaged."

"He couldn't tell anyone. You know that you guys couldn't just come out and tell the fans."

"I know that, and I'm not talking about the fans. He didn't tell any of our friends back home in Redding. He didn't tell his parents or any of his family for that matter. We were engaged for nine months and he never told his parents."

"That doesn't mean that you aren't his everything."

"I know, but it does mean that he isn't ready to marry me. We never set a date or reserved a church. We were engaged for nine months and hadn't even started planning the wedding."

"So you're really leaving."

"Yes, he needs time to think about what he really feels for me and if I'm really the woman that he wants to spend the rest of his life with."