Chapter Five: ** It's Happening Again **

Debelah stared straight ahead, not needing to see the man who had just spoken to her. She gripped her glass in her hand, the knuckles in her hand turning white with the strength she held it with while her face was blank, showing no emotion.

Kevin and Nick, though, turned to see a man who looked to be in his mid-twenties with light brown hair and dark eyes staring down at Debelah, with a hint of anger in them that Nick and Kevin didn’t see. He looked like he worked out, the general muscle-y tough guy, and was about an inch shorter than Nick.

“Uh, Debelah, we’ll…be at the bar with AJ,” Kevin said, excusing himself and Nick as they got out of the booth to give the two their privacy.

Debelah looked up at them, her eyes locking with Nick’s for a second and she silently pleaded with him not to leave her there, alone with Dave. But she sighed a second later, dropping her eyes from Nick’s inquisitive ones.

“K, I’ll be right here,” she said weakly, staring at her glass in her hand, trying to control her hand from squeezing it so hard it broke. That would not be good.

“K, if you’re sure…”Nick trailed off, feeling uneasy about leaving after her look. He glanced over at Dave who slipped into the booth next to Debelah, not missing the tiny move away Debelah made. No emotion showed on her face about it, though.

Dave stared up at him, an annoyed expression on his face, "She said it was okay, so why don’t you just let me talk to my girlfriend in private.”

Debelah’s head jerked over to stare at him in shock. Kevin and Nick looked at them strangely, too, remembering the conversation with Debelah earlier that morning where she had told them all that she didn’t HAVE a boyfriend and she’d broken up with her last one about a month ago because he wasn’t nice to her.  Now this guy came in and claimed to be her boyfriend.  Debelah sat there, silently fuming, but didn’t say a word because she simply could not think of anything TO say. 

“Well, uh, I guess we’ll leave then, so you can talk to your gir- to Debelah,” Kevin said, grabbing Nick’s arm and practically dragging him away.

“Deb, I missed you,” Dave said in a charming voice, moving closer towards her.

She refused to look at him, fixing her gaze straight ahead, her hand still holding the water glass. She kept her face still but her eyes were absolutely burning with anger. Only her voice betrayed her when she spoke, it shaking with anger, shock and the bit of fear she tried to hide from him seeing, "What the hell do you want?”

His eyes darkened a bit, and his charming voice had an edge to it when he spoke,” Now, Deb, that’s not nice at all. Here I come to see my girlfriend and you act like you don’t want to see me.” He cocked his head to the side, staring at her as he spit out sarcastically,” Now, I KNOW that’s not true, is it, sweetie?”

“I- broke up with you,” she said, struggling for control.

He leaned towards her,” No, we had a small disagreement. I know you feel bad about it, hon, but we never broke up. Besides, I couldn’t just walk away from you when I saw you here. I needed to get what I want.”

“What do you want?” she asked, looking down.

 “I -“he slid his left hand onto the top of her thigh as he leaned even closer to whisper in her ear,”-want you back.”

“Get AWAY from me!” she screamed at him, pushing his hand off her leg and scrambling backwards in the booth, her back hitting the cold back of the booth. She frantically looked around her, desperately trying to find a way out of this.  The felling of being trapped engulfed her as she tried to push herself as far away from him as she could.

Dave let out a short laugh,” Debelah, Debelah.” And with one swift move that made her gasp, he lunged at her, his left hand gripping her leg right above her knee and squeezing tightly. His face was hard, his eyes dark with rage as he shoved his face into hers. His voice was low and fast, so terrifying to her with how much anger it held that it made her cringe back. “Did you really think that I would just let you just walk out? Let YOU leave ME?! I don’t know where you got the idea that you could, because let me tell you something, Deb. I’m not going to let you get away with this. I could RUIN you in ONE second. Just remember that.”

“You can’t- do this,” Debelah said desperately,” I broke up with you. I left you. You can’t just come back and do this again. It’s over. You can’t-“

“I can do anything I want, Deb,” he smirked. “You should know that by now. I can’t wait to go on tour with you, hon. It’ll be great. Just like old times.”

Debelah swore her heart stopped for a second,” You’re…what?! You’re coming on tour? What makes you think you can-“

“Wouldn’t the media just LOVE to hear about the little incident a few months ago, Deb? What happened on your little walk that day? Hmm? And what about your father? They’d love that, too. I WILL tell everyone if you don’t start acting right. You’ll tell everyone I’m you’re boyfriend, you’ll act right and not breathe a word of anything or else all of your past is going to the tabloids. Got it?”

                                                                                *              *        *

“Kevin, I really think we should go back over to the booth,” Nick said nervously to Kevin who was sitting in the barstool next to AJ.

Kevin looked up from his drink to look up at Nick with a confused look on his face,” Why?”

“I just don’t think…I don’t like that Dave guy and I don’t think Debelah wants to be over there with him,” he blurted out. AJ looked over at Nick, wearing the same confused look as Kevin since he knew nothing about the man who’d come over to the booth and talked to Debelah.

“Why do you think that?”  Kevin asked.

“Just the way she looked at me when we were leaving…and because he was acting like a jackass.”

Kevin thought for a second before asking,” Didn’t Debelah say she didn’t have a boyfriend?”

AJ was lost,” What are you guys talking about?!”

Kevin turned to AJ,” Some guys named Dave came over to the booth to speak to Debelah and he said that he was her boyfriend.”

AJ just stared at him,” But Debelah said she didn’t have a boyfriend.”

“Yeah she did. But he said he was and she didn’t say anything when he said it.” Kevin said. He turned to Nick, his brow furrowing,” But, now that I think of it, she kinda had this look like-“

Nick finished,” – like she had no idea what he was talking about.  Guys, I really don’t like this Dave guy.”

“Where did you say they were?” AJ asked suddenly, standing up.

“At the booth, why?” Kevin asked. 

AJ’s gaze immediately went in the direction on the booth and he stepped forward, "I’ll be right back." Quickly he made his way through the crowd in the direction of the booth.

                                                                *              *              *

Debelah stared forward, breathing hard. She couldn’t take this all it. She’d thought that she had finally gotten away from him, from the painful life he’d made her live. She’d left him and her past behind, and worked as hard as she could to move on. Now, when she’d finally gotten her break, her one big chance to start over, he’d come back and was threatening to ruin it all for her again. Anger started to grow in her, bubbling up, growing stronger and stronger.

Dave, not hearing an answer from her, grew impatient. He squeezed her leg harder, digging his fingers into her skin. She winced in pain and turned sharply to him, a new fire in her eyes. His voice was steely, "Got it?”

“Got…what?” she asked angrily, playing dumb just to piss him off. Which wasn’t such a good idea. He squeezed harder and she squeezed her eyes shut and just nodded. He leaned back, satisfied, but no removing his hand. “Good, then you get to tell everyone you’re dating me and that I’ll be coming on tour with you. I’ll make sure you behave right. I don’t want to see you fooling with any other guys, got it? Besides, it’ll look good for me to have a famous girlfriend,” he laughed the last line.

Debelah opened her eyes and stared at him, unbelievingly. Although she knew from experience that she should just go along with whatever he said, a past of her rebelled and she opened her mouth and yelled angrily, "Go to HELL, you BASTARD!!” She enjoyed the shock which registered in his eyes, but not for long. The shock turned into rage.

AJ finally stepped around the last couple and stood in front of the booth. He turned around so he was facing it and his mouth dropped open in shock. He saw Debelah with her back pressed up against the back of the booth and some guy leaning into her, anger on his face. He had one of his hands on her leg and AJ wasn’t really sure what he was doing but he saw Debelah wince and bend forward in pain.

He was hurting her.

That’s what registered in AJ’s mind and snapped him out of his shock.  He reached down, grabbed the guy by the shirt and hauled him out of the booth and away from Debelah. Anger poured through his veins at the thought of some guy hurting Debelah and he grabbed the guy by the shirt again and punched him in the gut.  The guy doubled over in pain and Debelah stared at AJ in disbelief, frozen in shock in her seat in the booth. She could not believe he’d just done that.

“What the hell were you doing?!” AJ yelled at the man.  

It took a few seconds for Dave to stand up again and he turned sharply to AJ, ready for a fight.  But seeing AJ standing there, his eyes hard and threatening, his body poised to attack, putting himself between Dave and Debelah deliberately, made Dave stop. He raised his arms, managing to look confused and still pissed off,” Hey, dude, I was just talking to my girlfriend.” He smirked. “Lover’s spat, you know. Isn’t that right, Deb?”

Debelah raised her head to look at Dave and automatically opened her mouth to say something but she quickly stopped, closing her mouth again.  She looked back down at the table, contemplating what to say.  She looked up to see AJ’s eyes on her.  Concerned, caring eyes.  She looked away, feeling like she didn’t deserve to have him look at her like that.  She nodded in response to Dave’s question.  He nodded in satisfaction, turning back to AJ with a smirk.

“See? It was between me and my girlfriend. None of your business.”

“You- were hurting her,” AJ said through gritted teeth, his fists still clenched.

“Now, why would I do that?” Dave asked, managing to look insulted. “She’d my girlfriend.”

Debelah, who had just taken a sip of her water in hopes of calming herself down, started to choke on it. She quickly got her air back and raised a hand to show AJ she was fine since he had jumped forward to help her. Dave hadn’t even looked over, but was instead scanning the crowd, staring at girls in short skirts. Snapping back to attention, he walked over to the booth, leaning over to give Debelah a kiss on the cheek, frowning when she pulled away slightly. They’d work on that later.

“Bye, hon. See you tomorrow for tour,” he said carelessly for AJ’s sake. He started to walk away but turned around, snapping his fingers like he’d forgotten something. “Oh, and Deb, I’ll try to stay away form the press for now.” And then he left.

AJ watched Dave’s retreating back for a second before turning back to Debelah who sat lost in her own thoughts, biting her bottom lip.

“Debelah?” he said, worried and curious.

She snapped out of it and hurriedly grabbed her purse and leather jacket and scrambled out of the seat, standing up. “I gotta go. I’ll be at the hotel,” she said, her voice shaking.

“You’re not leaving alone,” he said firmly.

“I’ll get Lonnie,” she said, referring to one of the bodyguards. Her hand that wasn’t holding the purse and coat was shaking and her eyes darted back and forth nervously.

AJ took a step towards her, "Debelah, what’s going on?”

She turned and looked him square in the eye, her eyes filled with sadness, hopelessness and fear, "It’s happening again, AJ.”

He shook his head, confused, "What are you talking about?”

Debelah bit her bottom lip again, shaking her head, "No, nevermind, AJ, just forget it. I gotta go.” He watched as she turned and hurried over to where the bodyguards were and leave with Lonnie following her out of the club. AJ thought for a moment before going back over to the bar, telling Kev he was leaving and ran out of the club, headed for the hotel to find Debelah and find out what the hell was going on.