That afternoon it took her 2 hours to tell the story because of all the questions, long pauses, and having to stop for her to cry. It was scary to her. Having been beat and cussed at and being called names was frightening. The guys all went their own ways about it.
Kev and Howie were talking about it. What were they gonna do? With the tour and stuff, would Donna let her come along? They hoped so. Brian and Nick were engrossed in a quiet game of Mario Cart, each of them silent and thinking about it. Jordan cried herself to sleep, scared of what was going to happen. AJ went for a walk having a convo with himself.
‘How could they do that to her? Who knows? Well I’m going to do something about it. What can I do? I’ll figure out something. The poor kid.’
Kev had seen AJ leave, and he still hadn’t returned when everyone separated, so he went to check on Jordan. He knocked, and there was no answer so he walked in to find her sleeping. She looked so pitiful curled up in a little ball the way she was. He could tell by the tearstains that she cried herself to sleep. And he knew that sooner or later she would have to face her foster parents. Then he covered her up, kissed her forehead, and turned out the light. Kev ran into AJ in the hallway.
“Hey Kev?”
“Yeah?”
“Didn’t you think Jordan’s story was kinda short? Not time wise…but…It, it just seemed like something was missing.”
“I didn’t notice, maybe it’s just cause she was too scared to say, though.”
“Maybe..” They exchanged looks and went back into AJ’s room to find Jordan crying with her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming. She had woken up from a nightmare.
“Jordan, now I know there’s more that you didn’t say before hun,” AJ said to her. She nodded giving in. She didn’t really want to tell them. But she knew that she couldn’t keep it to herself any more. Nick and Brian walked in.
“What’s up now?” Nick asked.
“She has something else to tell us. Sit!”
“WOOF!” Nick said as he went to close the door, but Howie came through.
“Hey man what’s…up?”
“D man, sit down…” AJ said.
“Jordan are you okay?” Brian asked.
“No,” she said in a tiny voice. It took them 15 minutes to calm her down. Then she told them the real reason she wanted to jump.
“My foster parents killed my best friend Kenny (short for Kendall or Kendra, it IS a girl’s name!) and said that if I told anyone, I was next. That’s why I wanted to jump. Cuz I couldn’t live with my self knowing the truth.”
“Jordan, you should’ve told someone,” Nick said in a soothing tone.
“I know I just panicked. I didn’t know what to do. I was too afraid of them,” she said in between sobs. Kevin hugged her and she cried into his shirt.
“That’s about the fourth shirt you’ve soaked in two days!” AJ teased. She blushed a little and laughed.
“I guess so.”
“Let’s play Nintendo!” Nick exclaimed. That made them laugh harder.
“You are goin’ down Blondie!”
“Wanna bet?!”
“No, cause I never played.”
“Then you’ll learn!” Nick picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like a cave man. Now this made everyone laugh until they cried.
“ME BIG STRONG! ME-TARZAN! COME SAVE DAY!!” (Inside Joke) Nick screeched as he opened his door.
After a couple of games she got the hang of it and started kicking Nick’s butt.
“No fair! You’re cheatin!” Nick whined.
“Nu uh! I just got a knack for it,” Jordan responded. Brian had been sitting on the bed.
“My turn Nicky! I’m gonna kick your butt Jordan!”
“You wish!” she retorted. AJ laughed.
“We got ourselves another ‘Nintendo Freak’ and that makes a trio!” They all laughed.
After Brian beat her a few times, she handed the remote over to a very over eager Nick and plopped onto the bed the others were sitting on. She soon fell asleep. AJ nudged Kevin and pointed at her. Kev smiled and moved her to AJ’s room. When he came back he phoned Donna and told her all about Jordan. She agreed to meet her the next day and they made arrangements for bodyguards and stuff.
When Jordan woke up, she was in the bed that she had slept in the night before. For the first time in months she didn’t have a nightmare and she had a peaceful sleep. She sat up just as AJ burst in.
“Hurry Up! We got 2 hours to get ready. We gotta leave at noon to catch our flight. Here, wear this,” he said, tossing her some clothes, “I’ll be back in an hour so I can pack my stuff.” With that he left a very confused Jordan in the room by herself. She got out of bed, took a shower, and changed into the clothes he had given her. They were AJ’s, so they were kinda big on her. In other words practically falling off.
At 11 AJ came back like he said he would and found Jordan making the beds.
“Hey thanks,” he said.
“No problem. Besides, you have enough cleaning up to do already,” she said, looking at the mess.
“Yeah, I guess I do,” he said, looking around the totaled room.
They finished cleaning his room and put his stuff in his suitcase. They
decided to help Brian and Nick, whose room was 5 times worse. After that,
they were on their way to meet Donna, Jonny, Nick and AJ’s parents, Aaron,
and the rest of Nick’s siblings.
