Chapter 30"I think he's in the dressing room still getting ready. Things still going bad between you two?" Howie asked.
"He took me out to lunch today before the concert and we had a long talk. I think we got things figured out. He apologized for Britney always getting in the way of us."
"Well it's good you got things figured out. I'd hate to see you two break up," Howie said and he meant it. Even though he had feelings for Mandy he knew she loved TJ and because of that he didn't want to see their relationship end and her being hurt.
"Thanks Howie. I'm going to go see TJ before he has to go on stage," Mandy said giving him a hug then running towards the dressing room. The door was open a crack so she didn't bother on knocking. She slowly opened the door to where she peeked her head inside. What she saw made her open the door all they way and stand there staring. After she closed her eyes for a few seconds and opened them again to make sure what she was seeing was real then she cleared her throat loudly. TJ and Britney were sitting on the couch in the dressing room kissing and they separated when they heard someone clear their throat.
"Mandy! What are you doing here?" TJ asked surprised acting like nothing had happened.
"I'd ask you the same thing but it's obvious that I already see the answer to that."
"Mandy it's not what you think we..."
"I don't want to hear it TJ! You lied to me earlier when you said nothing was going on between you two! I can't believe I was actually stupid enough to believe your ass!"
"Listen Mandy I really think you should calm down a little bit," Britney said.
"My God call the paparazzi! Britney Spears was thinking! That must be a first for you isn't it?" Mandy asked sarcastically.
"I'm just trying to be nice and..."
"Little hoe ass sluts like yourself don't know the meaning of the term nice," Mandy said when TJ came up to her and put one of his hands on her shoulder. "Don't touch me! How long exactly were you cheating on me? No never mind. I don't want to know the answer. I hope your relationship with her brings pure hell into both of your lives," Mandy said leaving the dressing room slamming the door behind her with tears pouring out of her eyes. She ran down the hall almost knocking Howie over so he grabbed her arm and stopped her to find out why she was in such a hurry. "Howie please let me go," Mandy said through tears.
"No, not till you tell me what's wrong. Why are you crying?"
"Because TJ is an asshole! Now do you have any more questions?" she asked with an attitude.
"I thought you two worked everything out about Britney?" Howie asked confused.
"Yeah then he decided to go and have a little make-out party that included only him and that slut."
"Mandy please let me explain!" TJ yelled at Mandy going towards her. Howie grabbed Mandy and moved her out of the way and punched TJ as he reached them. He never got mad at anyone enough to actually hit them but to him when TJ hurt Mandy he had crossed the line. Then he grabbed Mandy's arm and walked away into the girls' dressing room.
"What happened?" Jasmine asked seeing Mandy's tears.
"TJ and Britney is what happened," Mandy said still crying.
"Girl I'm sorry," Jasmine said giving her a hug. "Howie I'll deal with her you deal with Kristen."
"What's wrong with Kristen?"
"I don't know she's feeling sick or something. She's over there laying on the couch. See you in a few," Jasmine said hooking arms with Mandy and leaving the dressing room closing the door behind them. Howie went and sat down on the couch where Kristen was laying down.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing, I'm fine. I'm just feeling a little nauseous, that's all."
"You feel like you're getting a fever," Howie said feeling Kristen's forehead. "Maybe I should take you to the doctor."
"No. I'm just hot from being on stage and I didn't eat before going on stage so I'm just a little woozy."
"Kristen I don't think we should take any chances. You haven't been taking very good care of yourself lately. I'm going to call AJ. Get your shoes on then I'll take you to the hospital."
"God Howie you don't need to call AJ. It's a waste of a phone call."
"If you're sick AJ has a right to know and he would want you to see a doctor."
"Fine I will call AJ and if he wants me to go to the doctor I will. Okay?" Kristen asked.
"It's a deal," Howie said as Kristen picked up her cell phone and began dialing AJ's cell phone number.
"Can you leave so I can talk to him privately please? I haven't talked to him in a while," Kristen asked before she dialed the last number. Howie agreed and he left the dressing room so Kristen could have a private conversation with AJ. Once the door closed instead of pressing the last number and send on the cell phone, Kristen pressed the end button to turn her phone off. "AJ doesn't need to know anyways," Kristen said to herself. She then grabbed a blanket and laid back down on the couch and fell asleep. About three hours later Howie came back into the dressing room finding Kristen asleep on the couch and gently shaking her until she woke up.
"Did you get a hold of AJ?" he asked when Kristen slowly opened her eyes and she nodded her head yes. "What did he say?"
"He said since I'll be home in a few days if I'm not feeling well then, then I had to promise I'd go see a doctor," Kristen lied.
"That doesn't sound like AJ when someone tells him you're sick," Howie said disbelieving.
"Yeah well we had to come to a compromise about it. If I'm still sick when I'm home I go to the doctor. That was the compromise," Kristen said with an attitude. "We haven't been getting along well lately anyways so he probably doesn't even care."
"Now you know that's not true. You both are just so busy with touring that you don't have that much time on your hands any more. Now come on. The concert got over about an hour ago and we're all going to stay in a hotel tonight," Howie said helping Kristen up.
"Good. I'm not in the mood to sleep on the bus again. I want to sleep good tonight without the rocking of the bus."
"Well you'll sleep really well tonight. Mandy's had a long night so Jasmine's going to share a room with her so they can talk. You'll have your own room that way."
"Why doesn't Mandy talk to me about whatever is bothering her?" Kristen asked feeling insulted.
"Because lately you've only been caring about yourself and with you being sick, now it's showing you don't care about anyone including yourself."
"That's crap."
"If you say so," Howie said sarcastically. He helped Kristen onto the tour bus where they drove to a near by hotel and they all got checked into their rooms. As soon as Kristen climbed into bed and her head hit the pillow she was out cold. She woke up at about two o'clock in the morning feeling really sick, more than before. She turned on the light and pulled back the blankets on the bed to get up to go to the bathroom and immediately became scared. Without hesitating she dialed the number to Howie's room.
