Chapter Seventeen: ** Assumptions **

“Kevin? Kevin, wake up,” Debelah urged, tapping Kevin on the shoulder as he slept.

When Kevin slowly opened his heavy eyes, his vision still foggy with sleep, he saw Debelah’s face a foot away from his own. Blinking a few times to focus, he yawned and covered his mouth with one hand. Debelah was kneeling next to his bed still in her night clothes. Her hair wild from sleep and face freshly scrubbed, she stared at him with worried eyes.

By all right she shouldn’t be up, since she’d been up to the wee hours having her ear chewed off by all of the guys. Almost driven to tears, she and Roslynn had sat on the bed while they were being berated, both feeling like they were two inches tall as they tried unsuccessfully to defend their actions. It’d seemed like a good idea at the time.

“Deb? What’s wrong?” he asked sleepily.

“Are you still mad at me?” she asked quietly with wide child’s eyes, resting her chin on the bed as she stared at him anxiously.

Kevin closed his eyes with another yawn, “I’m not mad at you.”

“Yes, you are. You said you were.”

“I was mad at what you did; not at you. I was worried as hell, Debelah. We all were.”

 “Sorry,” Debelah’s gaze lowered and then she asked, glancing over at Howie in the other bed,” Is Howie mad at me?”

 “No, Howie not mad. Howie trying to sleep,” Howie mumbled not opening his eyes but turning in his bed.

 The tension lifted a bit from her face. “That’s a relief. Well, I’ll let you guys get back to sleep. Sorry I woke you up.”

 “S’okay,” Kevin mumbled, his eyes still closed a he started to drift back to sleep. “G’night, Deb.”

 Debelah decided not to tell them that they had to wake up in an hour and a half anyways and silently slipped out. When she got back to her room she shut the door tightly behind her, leaving her room pitch black. Hurrying over to the bed, she slipped under the thick covers hoping to get another hour’s worth of sleep.

 On the edge of falling asleep a few moments later, she vaguely realized the presence of someone next to her. When two arms wrapped around her and pulled her next to a warm firm body she jumped instinctively, her eyes snapping open. And then she immediately relaxed into the arms, realizing without seeing who it was.

 “I thought you were mad at me,” she whispered, closing her eyes.

 “No, I’m not mad at you,” AJ whispered back, hugging her closer. The room fell to silence with the words unspoken and they both drifted off to sleep.

*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!*!

“Have you done this before?” AJ asked, looking up at her.

 Deb nodded,” Tons of times. C’mon, you got NOTHING to worry ‘bout, Alex.”

 “Fine,” he looked around for a second. “maybe we should do this on the counter in front of the mirror.”

 “Sweet!” Deb ran towards the bathroom with AJ following. She hopped on the counter and shifted her weight to get in the best position. “Come here,” she said, motioning him towards her. AJ slowly walked up to her and stood in between her legs, placing one hand on top of each of her bare thighs.

 He looked at her seriously, “You sure?”

 Deb rolled her eyes. “Of course. It’s not that hard. Put this here, that there and ba-da-boom, you’re done.”

 “Well, I guess when you put it like that…..”

 “See? I mean, it’s not that hard to shave around a goatee and those little line things you got running down you chin.” Deb frowns and looks at the readers.” Wait, what did you THINK we were doing?” (A/N)- he he

 Debelah was WEARING shorts and a tank top and AJ…..he HAD been wearing a shirt but it had gotten lost or misplaced while they’d been…..busy earlier. But he had pants on! Why yes he did. Big baggy jeans that hung VERY low; low enough for his boxers to peek out anyway. When he’d scratched his chin after waking up and announced he needed to shave, she immediately piped up saying she could do it.

 Concentrating hard, she picked up the shaving cream and shook it before opening it. Squirting some on her hands she carefully wiped it on his face, creating a rich white lather over the whole area. She leaned back to make sure she’d gotten it everywhere and began to laugh.

 “You look like Santa.”

 Yeah, well maybe later I’ll let you sit on my lap,” he said mischievously.

 “Now, only if you’re a good lil’ boy,” she said playfully, wagging the razor in his direction. He jumped back a step, “Hey, watch where you wave that thing!”

 “Sorry!” she quickly put it back on the counter and then began to swing her legs. AJ looked at her cautiously.” Are you sure you’ve done this before?”

 “Sure,” she nodded and then added in a quick mumble as he moved back to his place in front of her,” once or twice in my whole life…”

 “What?”

 “Nothing.”

 The first stroke with the razor was somewhat hesitant but a pleased smile crossed her face when she saw she had not, in fact, messed it up. She turned a bit to rinse it in the sink and then went to continue. Occasionally, she had to reach down with one hand and slap his hand creeping up her thigh so she could concentrate on what she was doing, but an impish smile showed him she wasn’t serious.  Finally, she set the razor down and looked him in the eye.

 “I can not concentrate when you do that,” she said sternly, trying not to laugh.

 “Sorry,” he apologized, smiling wide.

 “No, you’re not.”

 “I know.”

 Rolling her eyes and laughing, Debelah washed the razor again and finished it. She leaned back to examine her job. “Ooh, I did goooood.” When AJ went to grab the aftershave bottle, she suddenly remembered what she was going to ask him earlier. “Hey, what was it you needed this morning?”

 “What?”

 “When you came into the bathroom while I was taking a shower. I mean, I said your name and you just walked back out without saying anything. What’d you need?”

 AJ slowly walked back in and looked at her strangely, talking slowly,” I didn’t come in the bathroom while you were taking a shower. I went to go talk to Brian in his room.”

 Debelah stopped swinging her legs and stared at him for a second confused before shaking her head,” No, I was washing my hair and I heard the door open and the floor creak when someone walked in, and I SAW a shadow of someone walking in. But when I called your name, you walked back out.”

 “Deb, what are you talking about?”

 Debelah scratched the back of her neck, her gaze not moving from him,” So you DIDN’T come in?”

 “I didn’t come in,” AJ repeated, confused, before opening the aftershave to put it on.

 “Well, then I know I must have sounded crazy then, but AJ…”

 “Yeah?” he asked absentmindedly.

 “…while you were talking to Brian, someone snuck into my room and came into the bathroom while I was taking a shower.”

 AJ dropped the bottle.

 *          *          *          *          *          *          *

 Debelah sat in a chair in the tour bus as it headed towards the next venue. The guys were scattered around the front of the bus, looking half asleep; except for Brian, who was asleep in his bunk with Roslynn, and AJ, who had gone to the back to grab another shirt. She nervously tapped her foot on the carpet as she stared out the window at the scenery whizzing but not really seeing it, zipping her oversize sweater up even more so it was zipped up all the way to her neck.

 AJ came back into the front, pulling his shirt on over his wifebeater, an odd look in his eyes as he looked around at everyone.

 “Hey, guys,” he said in a purposely casual voice,” did anyone stop by the room this morning? I think I missed someone coming by when I went to Brian’s room and I’m just not sure who it was.”

 There was a chorus of ‘no’s’ and Debelah bit her lip, looking at them, and turned to AJ was looking at her in troubled thought. Debelah shook her head ‘no’ at him, silently telling him not to mention anything to the guys about it. She’d already pissed them off with her late night trip though NYC last night; she wouldn’t add on something else for them to worry about. She turned back to the window as she brought her feet up on the seat and hugged her knees to her chest. She felt AJ sit down next to her and wrap an arm around her shoulders. Debelah leaned back against his chest and turned her face to bury it in the crook of his neck, closing her eyes.

 “Our break starts tomorrow,” Kevin reminded them, as if they need reminding. Their three day break started the next day and then they would start on the second leg of the tour. Everyone’s faces immediately brightened up at the thought of time off but Debelah looked nervous suddenly and Howie noticed it.

 “Deb, where are you going?”

 She looked down at her hands in her lap, biting her lip.

 “Deb?”  AJ asked, looked down at her.

 “I, um, don’t know.”

 “You don’t know yet?” Nick asked.

 “Well, you see, I don’t have a house. When I lived in New York, I was living in Dave’s apartment. And my grandmother passed away a couple years ago and I had to sell her house, so I was just kinda… just gonna…hang out…I guess.”

 “Why didn’t you say anything?!” Kevin and AJ both exclaimed at the same time.

 “I didn’t want you guys to feel bad for me, like ‘look at the girl with nowhere to go’,” she confessed, embarrassed at having been caught.

 They all stared at her, dumbfounded for a second before Howie spoke up,” We wouldn’t have felt bad for you, we might have been worried that you were just gonna hang out for three days in the middle of nowhere. We’re not gonna let you just wander around for three days!”

 “No, she’s not,” AJ shook his head. Deb looked up at him.

 “I’m not?”

 “Nope, you’re coming home with me.”

 *          *          *          *          *          *          *

“No, uh uh, look at this one,” Debelah said to Nick. She threw the M&M up in the air, closed her eyes and caught it in her mouth.

 “Well, can you do this?” Nick dared. He leaned his head back and balanced the M&M on his nose. Standing still for a second, he quickly jerked his head back and caught it in his mouth.

 Debelah frowned at him,” How’d you do that?” She grabbed another candy and tilted her head back like he had, placing the M&M on her nose. Nick also grabbed another and balanced it on his nose. Howie walked in the room to see them both standing in the middle of the room, balancing M&M’s on their noses, their arms held out for balance and their eyes crossed as they stared down at the candy.

 “What...are you doing?” Howie asked, baffled.

 “Wha’?” Deb asked and then caught sight of Nick out of the corner of her eye and she burst out laughing, the M&M falling off her nose. She saw Kevin a long ways across the large room, standing next to a mat on the floor and she impulsively shot towards him running. She leapt at him in a side tackle that wouldn’t have normally moved him since he was so much bigger but he was caught off guard and, unbalanced, fell onto the mat with Debelah sitting on his chest with a huge grin on her face.

 “Hi!” she chirped happily.

 Kevin just looked at her for a second before responding slowly,” …hi.”

 “I just wanted to say hi,” she informed him cheerfully.

 “So you felt it necessary to run and knock me down?” he asked dryly.

 “Yep!” she stood and struck a muscle man pose, placing one foot on his chest. “I have knocked over the Jolly Green Giant! I am victor! No one can beat the great master! I am the winner- oomph!” she somehow found herself lying on her back on the mat. Roslynn struck a similar pose, standing, and said,” I have beat the victor! I am master! Muah ha ha!”

 Debelah grabbed Roslynn’s feet and pulled them out from underneath her. Roslynn landed next to Debelah and slapped her leg.

 “Hey!” Deb slapped Roz back.

 “Stop it!” Roz pushed Deb.

 “You stop it!” Deb pushed Roz back.

 “You started it!” Roz pulled Deb’s hair.

 “Did not!” Deb bit Roz’s hand.

 “Did too!” Roz pulled Deb’s hair harder.

 “Did not!” Deb started to pull Roz’s hair.

“Uh-HUH!”

 “uh-UH!”

 “Girls, let’s just calm down for a second!” Kevin instructed, rising to a kneeling position. Deb and Roz stopped, looked at him, looked at each other and then simultaneously leapt at Kevin. Deb jumped on his back, wrapping her arms around his neck and her leg around his waist and Roz started tickling him, Kevin’s secret weakness.

 “So, how’d you do that?” Howie asked Nick. Nick looked away from the wrestling and started to show Howie to do the M&M trick.

 “Like this?” Howie asked, his head tilted back with the candy on his nose but it fell off.

 “No, like this,” Nick balanced it carefully on his nose, holding his arms out to balance himself.  “See?”

 “Oh, ok,” Howie tried it again, and got it to stay on his nose. Brian walked in and his face lit up,” Hey, I wanna try!” He balanced two on his nose and smiled,” Oh, yeah, I’m good.”

 AJ walked in and stopped. He looked around the room at everyone and he grinned,” I didn’t know Kevin was ticklish….he he revenge time.” He rushed over to the mat.

 A sound check person came in a moment later,” Rehearsal in fifteen minutes for the Back…street…Boys….” He trailed off, looking around the room to see three Backstreet Boys balancing M&M’s on their noses, and, across the room, the remaining two along with the opening act and Littrell’s girlfriend were wrestling, or rather, Debelah, Roslynn, and AJ were tickling Kevin while Kevin threatened them loudly between laughing spurts.

 “Ahem, excuse me?” the sound check guy called out louder until he had their attention. The M&M’s dropped top the floor and the wrestling stopped. Kevin stood up, causing Deb and Roz to fall off onto the mat and AJ looked at Kevin innocently when he turned to look at him.

 “I TRIED to stop them!” AJ lied.

 “Sound check in fifteen minutes,” the sound check guy said again.

 “Oh, ok. Thank you,” they said, acting like nothing had happened.

The guy gave them one more weird look before walking out.

*          *          *          *          *          *

Right after Debelah came off stage, she went and took a quick shower, getting changed into a pair of comfortable zebra print pajama pants and a hot pink tank top. Drying her hair, she yawned and realized she had time for a quick nap before the guys came off stage. Going back into the back room where their stuff was, she laid down on the couch on her side, facing the door and quickly fell asleep.

*          *          *          *          *          *

The guys finished the concert and ran offstage in high spirits. Laughing at a joke Brian had said, AJ went towards the back room while the guys tried to plan something to do to celebrate the end of the first leg of the tour, wanting to share his good mood with Debelah. Whistling, he turned at the doorway but stopped dead in his tracks at the sight in front of him. His face paled and he felt his stomach flip over as his heart plummeted down. He took a step back not believing what he was seeing.

 *How could she do this to me? After everything we’ve gone through….oh, God, tell my this isn’t happening*

 Debelah laid on the couch asleep, facing him, but someone else was on the couch with her. Though his back was turned, he could recognize him as one of her dancer’s, Bruce or something. He was lying on the couch with Debelah, his arms wrapped around her tight and holding her right next to him. They were laying next to each other. Together. Cuddling.

 *She’s cheating on me with him*