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Chapter Eighty
Point of View: Narrator

AJ shrugged and threw the butt of his cigarette to the pavement, stepping on it and twisting his foot. "Let me get this straight B-Rok," he said, blowing out the last mouthful of smoke in the opposite direction. "You want me to call up my ex-girlfriend who might know some guy that is maybe related to Nick's dead ex-girlfriend's back-up dancer. And this is off a lead that you got from Leighanne's sort-of-friend, whose name you don't remember right now."

Brian nodded, pressing his fingertips together, "Look, I know it sounds like a long shot but--"

AJ blinked rapidly, waving his hand around, "Dude, dude... Sounds like a long shot?" he asked, "Did you not hear the litany of 'sorta' 'kinda' 'maybe' that I just gave you?"

Brian sighed, "Okay, it's probably not gonna happen, but AJ -- Nick's gonna go to jail if we don't find this guy. I mean, he might even if we do find this guy, but this guy could be the missing link. We need someone who witnessed Krystal's suicidal tendencies - someone besides Nick and us."

AJ rolled his eyes, "If you were Krystal, you'd fucking wanna kill yourself too. Make'em listen to that live tape of hers there - the one when she sounds like a bunch of screamin', dyin' cats, that'll convince'em."

"AJ--"

"'Oh yeah, yeah, we see now, she must've been listening to herself sing! That'd drive anyone to suicide! Clear the man's record!'" AJ bellowed, imitating a low voiced judge.

Brian grabbed AJ's arm to calm him down. "AJ, I'm serious, okay?"

"I am, too," AJ muttered, taking another cigarette out of the pack in his pocket. He lit it and took a long drag, spitting the smoke off to one side.

Brian looked into AJ's eyes. "Man, please. It's for Nick, okay? Remember Nick?"

AJ sighed. "He's definitely cleaned up this time?" he asked, "No fucking around? No turning back?"

"Definitely cleaned up this time," Brian nodded.

AJ gnawed his lower lip. "Okay, I'll call her tonight when I get home."

Brian hugged AJ close, "Thanks, you're the best, man."

AJ pulled back, "Woahhh," he said, "Way, way too close. Way too close." He made a circling motion around himself, "Three feet of personal space. Unless your a woman, our chests should not be rubbing together. Got it? Okay, good."

Brian laughed, "You'll never change, will you?" he asked.

AJ shook his head, "Nah, probably not." He spit another mouthful of smoke out and smiled at Brian. "So," he said after a pause. "Nick's back, huh?" He smiled. "You know, I really missed the little fucker."



Kayla picked at the crust on the tuna sandwich Zoe had left in the fridge for her when she left that morning for work. She stared at it like it was a mortal enemy, then glanced at Nick's seat at the table. She chewed the little piece of bread she'd stuck in her mouth and sighed.

She got up and put the tuna sandwich back in it's baggy and zip locked it shut, then shoved it deep into the trash, under several layers of empty cardboard boxes and discarded newspapers so Zoe wouldn't get her feelings hurt that the sandwich hadn't been eaten.

I don't like tuna anyways, thought Kayla, as she turned and ran back up the stairs to her bedroom. She grabbed her computer and turned it on, planning to check her Facebook and maybe read some articles on TMZ. She wanted to see if she could dig up Desi's last name somewhere on the Internet.

She wasn't entirely sure how she ended up doing it, but she typed into Google's search engine Nick Carter's exgirlfriends and hit Go. A string of truly gorgeous women popped up on the first website she clicked - not the least of which were Amanda Willaford, Paris Hilton, and, of course, Krystal.

Kayla frowned, staring at them. She ran her hand over her nose and lips, then cupped her breasts and stared down at them, pushed them up to make big cleavage like Krystal's, then pressed her hands tight to her body, stifling them, trying to make them small and perky like Paris's. Bored with that, her palm lay flat on her belly. She wiggled it and frowned when it did, indeed, wiggle. She looked up at a picture of a bikini clad red head, which the site boasted that Nick had dated a couple years ago, and eyed her rock-hard abs.

"Who am I kidding?" she muttered, moving the mouse to the little X and watching the website disappear.

Quickly, she pulled up a new browser window, and when Google opened up again, she tapped losing weight super fast into the search box. After a reading webpages for a few hours, Kayla popped up off the chair and grabbed her purse. She ran down the stairs, kicking on her tennis shoes at the door, and out to her car, headed for the nearest Walgreens.

She was going to do whatever it took to be perfect for Nick by the time this was all over.



"Heyyyy Sierra," AJ drawled into the phone. He pulled the cord of the phone that ran to the receiver and stretched it with him across his kitchen as he talked. "How've you been?"

"If this is a booty call, you can fu--"

"It's not a booty call," AJ assured her.

"Well you can still fu--"

"Have you heard about Nick?" he asked quickly.

Sierra had always had a soft spot for AJ's youngest band-mate. They'd identified on a lot of topics and been really good friends while AJ had been dating her. She wasn't in love with Nick by any means, but she'd grown a friendship, which was part of what had devastated her so much when AJ had randomly, seemingly out of the blue, dumped her.

"What about Nick?" Sierra asked. "He's out of rehab now isn't he?"

AJ sighed, "So you know about Krystal at least, right?"

"The singer he was dating? Yeah I heard she died."

"Yeah, well, she killed herself, technically, and... Well, there was a misunderstanding and they think Nick did it. That he killed her."

"Nick would never --"

"See, I know that, you know that," AJ said, "But they don't know that."

Sierra paused. "What're you saying AJ?"

AJ took a deep breath. "Okay, look, I know it's a long shot, but hopefully we can do this." He steeled himself. "We need someone who knew Krystal, who witnessed her suicidal behavior so we can prove to the state that Nick didn't kill her, but she killed herself."

"And why does that mean you're calling me?"

"There's this guy," AJ said, "This guy that Krystal dated; she kind of cheated on Nick or dumbed him silently, I guess, while he was in rehab. The thing is we need to find this guy because he's the missing link - he's the guy that could tell us about Krystal, we're hoping anyway."

"Okay..." Sierra said, slowly, still not seeing where this was going.

AJ sighed. "This is going to sound so stupid, and I apologize in advance, but we're having issues finding this guy and Brian's wife has this friend who suggested we try calling you."

"To find the guy?"

"Yeah," AJ said.

"Well, what's his name?"

"Desi," said AJ. "According to Leighanne's friend you might know this guy that's related to---"

"Desi Hernandez," said Sierra.

AJ shook his head in surprise, "What?"

"Is that the guy? Desi Hernandez?"

"We don't know his last name," AJ said, spinning around, trying to find a pen, and almost pulling the phone off the wall. He scribbled down the name on a random envelope within his grasp.

"Well, he's a dancer and he's my friend Orlando's cousin," she said.

"Sounds like the connection Leigh's friend was thinking of," he said. He scribbled down the info for her friend, Orlando, on the envelope. "Hopefully this'll help Nick out."

Sierra smiled sadly on her end of the line. "Keep me posted, Alex," she requested. "Tell Nick I said hello. Let me know if I can do anything else for yo--Nick."

"Thank you Sierra," AJ said kindly, "He'll appreciate it."