Now, I know you are thinking one of two things. Either "How could I (or anyone, for that matter) do that to Brian Littrell?" or "That was rude!" I know you don't know the reason I ran away, so I can't blame you for thinking I am a wimp. Anyway, you will understand in a minute. Here's what Maribeth said happened after I left.

Brian went back inside after a few minutes, slowly making his way over to a chair. He sat down slowly and unsteadily. Rachel immediately noticed his downcast look (and the fact that I was nowhere in sight). She tapped Maribeth on the shoulder and they walked over to Brian, AJ and Nick in tow.

"Yo, man, what's wrong?" Nick asked, sitting down next to his best friend.

"Where's Alex?" Rachel said.

"She, umm . . . she," Brian stumbled

"Wait, let me guess," AJ said. "This has something to do with what you told us you were gonna do, right?" Brian nodded.

"What was he gonna do?" Rachel asked.

"He was . . ." Nick started, then he turned to Brian. "Can I tell them?" Brian nodded again, unable to speak. "He was gonna tell her he loved her."

"Oh, my . . ." Rachel gasped, looking at Maribeth, her eyes wide.

"And you told her?" Maribeth squeaked out in astonishment.

"Yeah," Brian said weakly.

"That, and I beg you take no offense to what I'm about to say, was probably the probably the stupidest thing you could have done," she said. All the guys looked at her in surprise.

"Telling the person I love how I feel was the stupidest thing I could have done?" Brian said, his voice rising. "Opening my heart?"

"Whoa!" Maribeth said, growing defensive. "If you'd like to know why, shut up and stop jumping down my damn throat!"

Brian shut his mouth and looked up at her, his blue eyes full of pain.

"Look," she said, softly, "I don't mean to be nasty, but you have to understand why Alex was so upset."

"That's okay," Brian said. "I'm listening."

"It's like this," Maribeth began. Rachel went over and sat on Nick's lap, listening to Maribeth. "Alex was going out with this guy named Darren. She truly loved him and he loved her, too. Or at least that's what he told her. One day, both of us walked into his house to pick something up and we caught him in bed with another women. She was pretty upset, as you can imagine. She holed herself up in our house for days. She wouldn't talk to anyone."

"Hasn't she gotten over it yet?" Nick asked.

"That was, what?" She looked at Rachel. "One month ago?" Rachel nodded.

"Oh, wow," Nick breathed.

"Wow is right," Rachel said, "and now that Brian told her he loves her, I don't know what she's going to do." She looked at Brian, who was on the edge of tears. She laid a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. It's not your fault. You didn't know."

"Someone should have told me," Brian said. "I would have held off telling her."

"Well, at least you know she feels the same," Maribeth said.

"How?" Brian asked.

"If she didn't, she would have told you straight out and that would have been the end of it," Rachel explained. "The fact that she ran is, in a way, a compliment."

"Oh," Brian said. Just then Jamie, Joanne, Kevin, and Howie came over to the group. When they saw the somber faces, their conversation stopped immediately.

"What's going on?" Kevin asked. Rachel explained the whole story to them. "Oh man," was all Kevin could say.

"We should probably go look for her," Howie suggested.

"Does anyone have any idea where she could be?" AJ asked. Everyone went silent.

"I know where she is," Maribeth said quietly. Everyone turned to look at her.

"Where?" Brian asked, getting ready to run out the door.

"Look, she's not gonna talk to everyone," Maribeth said to the group. "I'll take Brian and go talk to her."

"Just stay here. We'll be back in an hour at the longest. Rachel, pull Justin aside and tell him what happened. Tell him that if they get tired to get the DJ to take over. If Bob asks, tell him there was a temporary delay and we'll be back ASAP." With that Maribeth grabbed Brian's arm and pulled towards the exit, when she heard AJ call her name.

"What?" she asked, frustrated.

"Good luck," he said.

"Thanks." With that, they were out the door.