“Waaaa!!!” AJ screamed as he jumped around the corner and stood in front of me.
“Ahhh!” I screamed.
He cupped his hand over my mouth and muffled my scream. “Shhh...it’s ok, it’s just me..AJ.”
I sunk my teeth into his hand. He took his hand away from my mouth and held it in pain. I said, “What are you doing here? You scared the hell outta me!”
“Oww, Oww, Oww. Sorry. It was a surprise. Our last four dates were cancelled so we got to come home early. I thought you’d be happy to see me,” he said still holding on to his hand.
“I’m so sorry,” I pointed to the teeth marks on his wrist.
“It’s ok.”
“So did Aaron go home?”
“No, he’s staying here with us for a while cuz his family went to their house in LA for a while.”
“Oh..”
“I have to unpack all my stuff, so I’ll come back later tonight.”
“Ok. It’s good to have you home again,” I said before he left.
~*~*~SAME TIME~*~*~
Mary answered her phone after the fourth ring, just as the answering machine clicked on. “Hello?”
“Hey babe!”
“Brian! Hi!”
“What kind of chips do you want?” a voice called to Mary from her kitchen.
“Uh, who was that?” Brian questioned.
“JC”
“JC who??”
“JC Chasez, silly! He and Justin dropped by for a visit.”
“Oh. Well I was gonna ask if you wanted to go out dinner with me tonight since it’s my first day back, but I guess you already have plans.”
“Yeah. I’m really sorry. I know it’s been a REALLY long time since I saw you last, but we are gonna do something’ today.”
“Ok.”
“Sorry, I hope it’s ok,” she said sincerely.
“Yeah,” he lied. “Bye.” He slammed the phone down on the receiver causing the whole phone to fall off the kitchen counter. “Damnit!” he cursed loudly.
“Yo Bri, what’s wrong with you?” Nick asked as he entered the kitchen to see what was going on.
“Mary!” he said calmly before getting angry. “God! She’d rather hang out with Justin and Lance than me. I haven’t seen her for over 10 months!!!” Nick didn’t know what to say so he just stared at Brian. “Sorry man, I’ll calm down,” he walked out and left Nick confused.
“Hey dude, I was looking for you,” Nick turned around and was face-to-face with AJ. “We need to talk.” He pulled out a chair from the table and sat down; Nick did the same.
“What’s up?” Nick asked.
“It’s about Lindsey...”
~*~*~20 MINUTES LATER~*~*~
“LINDSEY!” Nick called up the stairs as he walked in my front door. I emerged from the top of the stairs and strolled down towards him. “Sheesh, doesn’t anyone knock anymore?” I laughed. My smile disappeared when I saw the serious look on his face.
“Why didn’t you tell me?
Confused, I asked, “To knock? I figured-”
“No not that!” he snapped at me. “About how you didn’t mean all that stuff about not wanting to be with me and that you really miss me!”
“What? How do you know about that?”
“It doesn’t matter. Why did you lie to me about something so important?”
“It’s none of your damn business. I’ll do what I want,” I said before walking out my backdoor onto the beach. To my great luck, AJ was behind their condo as I walked along the beach. He jogged down to me and walked at my side. “Go away,” I said bitterly.
“What?”
“Go...the fuck...away!” I repeated slowly. I turned my head and saw his puzzled face. “Why did you--you promised not to breathe a word!” I yelled.
After figuring out what I meant, he said, “He had a right to know!”
“So what, no one gave you the right to tell. I trusted you more than ANYONE and you went behind my back.”
“I-”
“Just GO AWAY!” I yelled before running as far away from his as I could.
When I finally stopped running and my head stopped spinning, I realized where I was. I was only a block away from Mary’s house so I jogged a while more until I reached her house. Frantically, I pounded on her door.
After a while, she finally answered it. “Hey Lins!”
“I need to talk to you, it’s really important,” I looked past her and saw Justin. “Please!”
“I’m really sorry but I can’t right now. I’ve got plans with the guys.”
“Guys?”
“JC and Justin.”
“Oh god, you don’t even have time for one of your best friends?”
“Best friend? Hmm, I thought that ended a long time ago when you ran to AJ for every freaking thing!”
I stared at her in disbelief before leaving her house. I thought to myself as I sauntered along the sidewalk on the long way home. ‘Great, I can’t go to AJ, Mary, or Nick...who the hell am I supposed to talk to?’ I thought about it for about 10 more minutes before thinking of someone who would really listen to me and give me logical advice.
I rushed down the street and rang the doorbell to the guys’ condo when I arrived. I was really hoping Nick or AJ wouldn’t answer. To my relief, Howie came to the door.
“Hey!” he greeted me warmly..something that hadn’t happened at all that day.
“Hi Howie..is Kevin home?”
“Kevin? You’re here to see Kevin?”
“Yeah...is he home?”
“Uhuh, come on in, he’s in the living room.”
“Thanks,” I gave him a friendly smile, grateful that someone was being somewhat kind to me. I walked to living room, but on my way there, I noticed AJ and Nick on the beach talking and I sighed with relief. “Kev, can I talk to you?”
“Sure, what’s going on?” he asked as he set down the song he was working on.
“It’s about Nick...and AJ.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah..” I proceeded to tell him the story of how I felt betrayed by AJ and that I actually did have feelings for Nick. Also about what Mary had done and said to me.
“So you aren’t going to settle anything with any of them?”
“Well I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Actually...you did.”
“Oh yeah? What’s that?”
“You didn’t tell Nick yourself.”
“So? I didn’t want him to know.”
“Well, anyway, I was talking to Brian today and he said that Mary had blown him off today too to be with Justin and JC.”
“What is her problem today?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Ugh, what am I supposed to do?” I put my head in my hands and sighed.
“Whatever your heart tells you to.”
As corny as Kevin sounded, I knew he was right. When I lifted my head and looked out the window, I saw AJ coming up the beach towards the condo. I stood up and gave Kevin a hug. “Thank you so much for listening. You have no idea how much it means to me. I’ll see ya tomorrow.” I quickly exited through the front door and jogged back to my house. When I entered my kitchen, I saw a blond boy sitting at my table. He turned around when he heard me come in.
“Aaron? What are you doing here?”
“Sorry I just came in. Brian and Nick are getting on my nerves. Brian won’t shut up about Mary being...well I’m sure you know. And I heard AJ telling Nick about what you told him.”
“You did, huh?”
“Yeah. Sorry, I know it’s none of my business.”
“It’s no problem.”
“So, wanna go do something with me?”
“Sure, why not, I have no one else to hang out with.”
“Where should we go?”
“Well, I need some new clothes. So lets go to the mall,” I suggested.
“Ok.”
In the car, on the way to the mall, the guys’ fifth single off Millennium, “It’s Got Be You,” came on the radio. I had never really thought of the words until now...
“Baybay it’s the way ya make me kinda get me go crazy never wanna stop! It’s got be you..uhuh uhuh...Everyday, I promise you I will be true yeah it’s only you!”
Hearing it made me realize I really did only want to be with Nick. But in the back of my mind, I still thought it wouldn’t work out.