Mandy, Leighanne and Amanda got there a few minutes later. When they walked up they were still holding hands and sitting closely.
"What the hell is going on!?!" Mandy yelled at the top of her lungs. "Why are you holding her hand!?!"
Nick looked up. "Mandy," he said standing up. "It's over I'm sorry but you cause me too much hurt. We're better off as friends only."
"But what about the promise rings we exchanged..." she started.
"Yeah it was a promise to always be friends. I will honor that promise, but I just can’t be your boyfriend anymore,” he said.
“You know Nick, you’re right for once. It was never going to work between us. You are a good friend and always will be, but it’s better off if we’re not boyfriend and girlfriend.” She said in a normal voice much to everyone’s surprise.
Nick walked over to her and gave her a hug and said “Friends forever?”
“Friends forever,” she smiled and said.
“Hey,” Vanessa said standing up “You’re not as bad as everyone makes you out to be.”
“Yeah whatever,” she said in her harsh tone again.
“And I could always be wrong,” Vanessa said under her breath as she turned around. Howie heard her and started to chuckle.
“Well aren’t you guys going to introduce us to your friend?” Brian’s girlfriend Leighanne asked.
“Oh, this is Vanessa,” AJ started. “She came to be an extra in our video and well it’s a long story.”
“Hello Vanessa. I’m Leighanne and this is Amanda and Mandy, whom you’ve already met. I’m pleased to meet you. I’m always excited to get the chance to meet the guys fans. They always give the fellas so much support.”Vanessa smiled.
Just then the director called to the Boys. They were going to do the first scene in the video when they’re walking through the airport door and the last scene when they’re walking out of the hanger. They did a few more scenes that didn’t make it into the video. Around 4:30 am they wrapped it up.The girls left but Vanessa hung around after Nick begged her not to go.
“Is Angela still in the car?” Howie asked Vanessa.
“Yeah she’s probably been sleeping for hours. She seemed upset about…something.” Vanessa said glancing at AJ. Everybody knew what had happened and how much both of us were hurting but on one wanted to bring it up again.
“Do you think I can go check on her before we leave?” Howie said to Vanessa.
“Oh sure I don’t think she would mind. It’s the maroon Buick.” Vanessa said “I’ll help the guys with their things.”
“Thanks,” Howie said. He made his way to the car. The rest of the fans had been long gone hours ago. He knocked on the window of the car. I woke up startled. I couldn’t remember where I was and, man, did I have a weird dream! I looked around wait a minute…Then I heard another knock on the window. I jumped then peeked out the window. It was Howie. “Oh my gosh.” I thought to myself, “It wasn’t a dream after all.” I quickly opened the door it was freezing! So was Howie “Scoot over,” he said.
I moved to the drivers seat and turned the heat on. Howie’s nose was red and he was rubbing his hands in front of the air vents.“Hey,” he said like nothing.
“Umm. Hey,” I said still wondering if I might still be in a dream.
“I wanted to talk to you about AJ,” he said. Just then everything came back to me. All the feelings that I had felt earlier just hit me like train. Howie could tell too.“I didn’t mean to upset you or anything…”
“No, I’m fine. You know, there’s really not much to talk about. We’re just friends. Just like you and I are friends, right?”
“Yeah of coruse, I just wanted to tell you something about him and Amanda.”
“Howie, please! Don’t you get it! I DO NOT CARE! Do I have to spell it out? I just don’t care…” I couldn’t take it I buried my head in my hands and cried. “I’m sorry Howie I don’t know what’s wrong with me I’m just so hurt and I feel so stupid!”
“AJ didn’t mean to hurt you. See him and Amanda are ‘on’ and ‘off’ a lot. Right now he wasn’t sure if they were ‘on’ or ‘off’ when she got here she informed him that she was seeing someone else. They are really close to each other, but they don’t like to hold each other down. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah I guess,” I said slowly.
“So do you want to go and talk things over with him?”
“No, no I don’t. He would’ve came himself if he wanted to talk things over. Thank you Howie for caring about my feelings. I really appreciate it.”
“But I think he really does want to talk things over with you,” Howie said.
“How in the world do you know that?” I asked Howie then he pointed behind me. AJ was walking towards the car!
“Oh my gosh are my eyes puffy, is my make-up smeared, Howie, how do I look?”
“You look fine.” Just then AJ tapped on the passenger side door. Howie opened the door and said “I’ll be leaving now.”
“Thanks Howie.” AJ looked so sexy. He had put a black leather jacket on over his shirt. He sat down.“It’s nice and warm in here,” he said.
“Yeah Howie was pretty cold,” I said and smiled as I thought of how red his nose was.We sat in silence for about a minute when AJ grabbed my hand and kissed it. I looked at him and he said, “I’m so sorry our first meeting had to go this way.”>br> “So am I, AJ. And I’m sorry for being so damn stubborn and not letting you explain your situation.”
“That’s alright. It’s pretty complicated but now that I’ve met you I have a feeling things are going to change.”
“AJ we’ve only known each other for like half a day…”
“I know, I know, but when I feel like this about someone it usually ends up lasting for awhile you know. I can’t make my feelings just disapper. When we look into each other eyes it’s like, I don’t know it just feels so good. You know what I mean? Do you feel the same way?”
I started to giggle “Yes AJ I do! I do and I’m so glad you share those same feelings.”
“Well then…why are you laughing?” he asked with a confused look on his face.
“I’m laughing because I’m so happy that we got this all figured out!” AJ hugged me and looked into my eyes again. He then leaned in and gave me the most beautiful kiss that I had ever felt.
“Well, we’re all done with our video so we’re getting ready to leave, where do you guys live? Maybe I’ll stop by or something, I mean if it’s alright with you since, we, uh, have like, umm, a…a week off or something…” We started kissing again. It felt so good to feel his warm soft lips on mine.
“I’m spending the week at Vanessa’s house. I’ll give you her address and phone number. Call whenever you want or stop by, I’d really like that.” He started to get out of the car but leaned back in and gave about 10 kisses all over my face. I giggled and he smiled.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said.
“Tell Vanessa I’m waiting here and tell the other guys thanks for being so sweet. Especially Howie.”I watched him as he walked away.