Point of View: Brian
I wanna roooock and rolll alll niii-ii-iiiight.... I wanna roooock and rolllll allll nii-iii-iiiiight....
I pulled the blankets over my head and rolled away from the night stand, closer to my wife and pressed my face into the pillow.
I wanna roooock and rollll alll niii-iii-iiiight....
"Brian," Leighanne groaned.
"He'll hang up."
I wanna roooock and rolll all niii-ii-iiight...
"Brian he's not hanging up."
I pressed my face into the pillow harder.
The phone beeped as AJ hung up and dinged with a voicemail. "See? He hung up," I mumbled, my body relaxing again. I rolled onto my back and hummed as I returned to my deep sleep breathing.
I wanna roooock and rolll all niii-ii-iiiiight...
"Brian," Leighanne's voice was a warning.
"Okay, okay..." I sighed and let the warm blankets fall away from me and picked up the phone and a sweatshirt and pouted as I exiled myself into the hall before answering. "What?" I hissed into the phone, yanking the sweatshirt on.
AJ's voice was thick. "'Rok..."
Instantly the hair on my arm went up. Last time AJ sounded like this was the night he went to rehab. Shit. "AJ... What'sa matter?" I asked, padding down the stairs and zipping the sweatshirt as I talked. I needed socks. Those would be in the laundry room. I headed for the laundry room.
"'Rok, I fucked up."
"What'd you do? AJ where are you?"
"I'm home, but... Oh Jesus, he's going to hate me."
My mind scrambled to put the pieces together. "Who's gonna hate you? AJ, what happened, man?" I reached the laundry room and pushed the door open and started rummaging around through a laundry basket for socks. Speaking of someone hating someone, Leighanne was going to hate me when she saw this basket had been rummaged through.
That's what she gets for not putting the socks on top, I thought.
"Nick," AJ said. He snuffled and I realized he was crying.
"Why is Nick going to hate you? AJ are you crying?" I asked, incredulous.
"We just fuckin' barely got over the last problem we had, 'Rok," AJ answered.
"Okay, AJ, you gotta start at square one if you want me to help you," I said, finding pay dirt of not only a pair of socks, but thermal socks and sweatpants. I quickly pulled the sweatpants on and bounded to the living room carrying the thermal socks. I plunked down in my chair and yanked the socks on, tugging a blanket off the back and wrapping it around myself. I was freezing.
AJ sighed, "You're going to hate me, too."
"AJ, I'm not going to hate you, just tell me what happened and we'll figure out how to fix it, okay?"
"Kayla and I almost had sex."
"Oh good Lord," I gasped. AJ was right. Nick was going to hate him, or kill him. Kill him probably. Nick was going get out of jail, find this out, and fucking kill AJ, and go right back into jail. I covered my face and groaned.
"Rok..."
"God dammit AJ, can't you keep your pants on, ever?" I asked.
AJ was quiet. "I told you - you'd hate me, too."
I sighed. "I don't hate you, I'm frustrated with you. Why the hell would you almost have sex with Kayla?"
"I met her the night Nick's house burned down and-- and I was really strangely attracted to her..."
"You're strangely attracted to everything with boobs and legs, AJ," I snapped.
"No, BRok, this is different," AJ sputtered, "It's different with Kayla. I don't know how to explain it except I've never felt like this. Ever. It's a completely different feeling."
I shook my head, "AJ, it doesn't matter, she's Nick's girlfriend."
"I know."
"And she's like all he's got, AJ..." I added in a murmur.
AJ's voice dipped low in its register. "I know." I could hear the remorse in his voice. "That's why it fucking sucks so bad. I just... Jesus, I've said no like five times now when she's approached me, and tonight I just lost control and then we sorta start to do it and my eye and --"
"Hold up there tiger," I said, "She approached you? And what about your eye?"
"She kissed me in the elevator at the hospital the morning after the fire," AJ confided, "Then the other day she shows up at my house and tries to make out with me on my lawn and Leslie caught us and freaked the hell out..."
My body tensed. "I can't fucking believe her," I snapped.
"Right?"
"I can't really fucking believe you, either, though, so don't get excited."
AJ got quiet.
"What happened to your eye?"
"Well thats why we didn't have sex, so it was kind of a God-send..." he muttered.
"What was?"
AJ cleared his throat, "I uh... While we were... you know... uh, I was ... I was taking her bra off and... it got caught on itself, and - uh -" he paused.
I cringed at the visual. "And what?"
"...it snapped back and the clasp thing caught me in the fucking eye and I had to go to the hospital, and I've got a severely scratched cornea. I look like a fucking pirate."
I rubbed the back of my neck. "The bra snapped you in the eye and you got a scratched cornea," I repeated.
"Uh-huh."
"Only you, AJ."
"I KNOW," AJ cried, "Well, something like that would totally happen to Nick, too, but still."
I sighed.
"Brian, what the fuck am I gonna do? We just barely started talkin' again after that whole mess with Sierra."
Sierra, AJ's ex-girlfriend, the one who he'd called to find out about Desi and Orlando and all that when Nick had first gotten arrested, had been the center of a controversy a mile wide between Nick and AJ. Sierra and Nick had grown close, and Nick had fallen desperately in love with her. He'd confided this to me (Why was I the go-to guy for this shit?) and I'd told him to tell AJ the truth... Nick had told AJ and AJ had forbidden Nick to even talk with her again, which was hard since at the time we all living on the teeny tiny tour bus. It got harder and harder for Nick to avoid Sierra, and AJ was getting more and more jealous, and finally he broke up with her.
I could still remember that night, too, because I received a phone call not only from AJ, but from Nick, as well as Sierra, all complaining about their respective problems in the break-up. "I miss Sierra," AJ had complained. "I really loved her, I can't even ask her out now," Nick had whined. "Why doesn't he love me?" Sierra had sobbed.
It seemed like I was always in the middle.
And this... well, this was colossally worse. Only because Kayla was all Nick had besides us fellas. Kayla was exceedingly important to him. He was in jail. He was going through hell. The last thing he needed was to get out of that hell and find out Kayla had cheated on him. He'd lose not only Kayla, but one of his few best friends.
"I don't know what to do, AJ," I said, massaging the corners of my eyes by the bridge of my nose.
AJ's voice was heavy with defeat, "I don't either."
"I'd start by not seeing Kayla again," I said.
"I told her not to come around here again."
I sighed, "That's a good start..."
AJ whispered, "I still... I still have feelings for her."
"Well get over them," I said roughly.
"Remember when you met Leighanne? And she was engaged?" AJ asked.
A chill went over me, one separate from the freezing ball of cold I was already. I pulled the blanket closer to my chin. "Yeah," I whispered. I still felt a little bit ashamed of that. It was one of those things that I didn't tell people.
AJ hesitated. "How did you know it was worth breaking them up for?"
I swallowed. "...I had... a - a feeling."
"What was that like?"
"Like the world had never been complete before she walked in the room... like the sun would never shine again if she were gone..." I said slowly. "Like she was the only woman on earth and I was magnetized to her."
"That's exactly it," AJ whispered.
