I don’t really know why I ended up outside of Kevin’s hotel room but there I was. Actually, I'm a liar.  I do know why. Amelia was in complete denial, and someone had to do something. I tapped lightly on the door, silently praying he wouldn’t be there. I heard him grunt and the bed springs creak, and almost turned and ran in the other direction. “Who is it?” he barked.

“It’s me,” I replied hoarsely. The door flung open about a second later.

“Hey Em.” I let out a long breath that I didn’t realize I was holding. He was shirtless, barefoot, and wearing a pair of black sweatpants. He reached both arms up and leaned on the top of the door frame, his muscles flexing. “What’s up?”

“Kevin, do you have time to talk?” I studied his face, and with my eyes, silently asked permission to come in.

He smiled. “Sure, babe.” He stepped out of the doorway and held the door open for me. I balked at his calling me “babe.” That sort of thing would make Joey furious. This was going to be even harder than I thought. He flopped onto the edge of the unmade bed and motioned for me to come over, patting the sheet beside him. “Have a seat.” I took a few tentative steps towards him then glanced behind me at the desk chair. “Oh, what the heck,” I thought, and eased down stiffly beside him. He smiled warmly, the wheels in his head obviously turning. “What was it you wanted to talk about?” he asked suggestively.

Oh good Lord, he was flirting! He very obviously had the wrong idea about my little visit-- not that he could really foresee the real reason for my being in his hotel room. I sighed and shook my head. “I know about what happened in Vegas.”

“Yeah Nick and Chrissy got married, and when the tabloids get a hold of this....” He put on his clueless face.

“Kevin....” I said sternly. “I know.”

His eyes widened. “She told you?” he snapped, obviously angry.

“She’s my best friend.”

“Are you mad?” I snorted. He didn’t know the half of it. He stood up and began pacing, his hands on his hips. “Listen Emily, we were drunk. Shit-faced, actually.”

I glared at him and crossed my arms. He knew I hated that term. “She’s nineteen, Kevin. Do you know how much trouble you could get into for that?”

He groaned and ran his hands through his hair. He always did that when he was frustrated. “I didn’t buy the drinks for her, Em. You’ve gotta believe me. You know they don’t card the celebrities around there. The bartender was hitting on her all night.”

“Kevin you knew better! You’re an experienced drinker. She isn’t (or wasn’t, I thought to myself).” What I really wanted to say was that Amelia was a month and a half younger than me and and that his “you’re too young for me” excuse was no longer valid. Oh boy, he was really about to get a bomb dropped on him.

He turned to me and grabbed my wrists. His eyes darkened. “Why the hell do you care so much anyway?” he hissed. “I’m pretty sure you lost the privilege to care about my sex life the minute you hooked up with Joey Fatone!” It was no secret that Kevin was jealous of Joey. As we’d fallen back into “friend mode,” Kevin took every opportunity to tell me about it. Though at the moment, I had to wonder if he was really just joking, or not.

“Let go of me!” I yelled at him. “I don’t give a crap about your sex life, as long as it doesn’t involve my best friend!”

“She’s a big girl, Em. She can take care of herself!” He snapped. He was red-faced and the vein in his neck was bulging as he kept pacing back and forth in front of the bed.

“Oh yeah? Then why is it that she won’t come to you and tell you she’s late?” I replied hastily.

Kevin stopped dead in his tracks. His blood ran cold and the color drained from his face. “She...she’s what?” he stammered. That wasn’t exactly how I’d planned for it to come out.

“You heard me.” My voice was barely above a whisper.

“Get out,” he croaked, pointing to the door.

I nodded and stood up. “Be nice, Kev. She’s scared senseless.” I squeezed his arm and walked out the door. Outside, as I walked down the hall knowing I couldn’t go back to mine and Amelia’s room yet, I broke down. I ran for the stairs and sank down on the top one. This was my ugly cry, complete with loud, blubbering sobs that echoed in the stairwell and tears that streamed endlessly down my face, making the neckline of my shirt wet. For the life of me, I don’t know why someone didn’t call security because of the noise.

Meanwhile, Kevin threw on a t-shirt and slipped on a pair of flip flops. He grabbed his key card and took off down the hall. He knocked on the door only to be met with a “Go away!”

“No!” he replied gruffly. The door popped open and he walked in. She was already laying back down on her bed and covering up. Kevin’s heart sank as he stared at her. Her eyes were rimmed with red, and mascara tracks from the makeup she hadn’t removed the night before ran down her cheeks. Her hair was disheveled and she was still in her pajamas. She buried her face in her pillow and pulled the sheets up over her head.

“Go away Kevin,” she moaned.

“Nope.” He shoved her legs out of the way and sat down beside her, pulling at her sheet. “We need to talk.”

“No we don’t,” she said with her voice muffled by her pillow.

“How are you feeling?” He asked with geniune concern as she peeked her eyes out from under the sheet. He cocked his head to the side and waited for her reply.

“That little...” She bolted up in the bed and glared at him. “She told you!”

“Yeah...” His hand landed on one of her knees. “Have you taken a test?”

She covered one of her hands with her mouth and let out a sob. “No.”

“Ok then. So, this could all just be a big scare right?”

Amelia shrugged. “I’m pretty regular.”

“There’s been a lot going on though. Maybe it’s stress.” She raised an eyebrow at his knowledge of the menstrual cycle. “I’ll be back in 10 minutes.” He stood to leave.

“Wait. Where are you going?”

“To buy you a test.”

“I can buy my own test.”

He crossed his arms and smirked. “Is that why you haven’t taken one yet? That was almost a month ago, Amy. So you’re at least a couple weeks late, right?”

She sighed and dropped her shoulders. “Yeah.”

“So I’ll be right back.”

“Kevin wait! Where are you gonna go?”

“There’s a big pharmacy section in the gift shop in the lobby. I thought I’d check there first.”

“How are you going to swing that? The paparazzi are everywhere, Kevin.”

He shrugged and walked out. Ten minutes later, he was back with a brown paper bag. He tossed it on the bed where she was still lying. “Did you really go down there and buy that?” She asked loudly.

“I had to, Amelia. Now go do your thing. I bought two...just to be sure.” He sat rigidly on the desk chair in the corner as she marched into the bathroom. Five minutes later, she came out with fresh tears streaming down her face. He rushed to her side and pulled her into his arms as she buried her face in his chest, her shoulders shaking violently.

“Shh, Amy. It’ll be okay. We’ll be okay.” He stroked her hair lovingly and gently pressed his lips to the top of her head. He hoped he was right. Years later, there would be a Las Vegas commercial with that infamous tag line, “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” and they would laugh hysterically each and every time they saw it.