[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
Chapter 11:

"Brian, can we talk?"

Brian stood in the open doorway, sending AJ his death glare. AJ knew that if looks could kill he would have defenitely already dropped dead. But he was still standing and witnessing just how much anger Brian felt towards him. Brian was silent a minute more before his lips parted and his voice escaped, quiet and dangerous. "I have nothing to say to you at the moment." Once again he attempted to shut the door, but AJ prevented him from doing so a second time.

AJ looked at the Kentuckian with pleading eyes. "Please Brian, I really want to talk."

"Leave me alone, AJ," came the short southern reply.

AJ sighed. "This isn't fair-"

Brian was quick to cut him off this time, his usually warm blue eyes turning to a dark icy shade. So cold and so unnormal looking. "No, what isn't fair is what you did. Not only did you disrespect my cousin, but you also disrespected me! And that is unacceptable. I don't know who you think you are, but you had no right to do what you did! You have issues to deal with, AJ, and until you've dealt with them, I have no desire to speak with you!"

AJ blinked several times in response to the words Brian had just spat at him. He had never heard Brian speak this angrily towards anyone, he hadn't know Brian to ever become so angry, especially since he always seemed like such a forgiving person. "Man-"

"Leave," Brian hissed.

"Brian-"

"Don't think I will hesitate to call Hotel security if you don't leave right now," Brian growled, his expression showing that he was speaking the complete truth with his words. He waited impatiently for AJ to back away, but the tatooed man didn't move.

The tears sprung to AJ's eyes, Brian wasn't even giving him a chance to properly apologize for the mistake he had committed. The fact that he was truly sorry for what he had done and Brian wasn't even acknowledging it, was punching AJ in the gut. "I'm sorry!" he whispered as he let go of a rush of air, swallowing down a bout of sobs.

"I highly doubt that."

AJ didn't have a chance to protest further for his right to apologize, for Brian had already slammed the door shut. He felt his hands clentching into fists as his palms became sweaty and he raised his left hand to ram it into the wall out of complete anger, but the idea didn't seem appealing and he lowered it again. Instead, he turned around and began to head back towards his room.

He had gotten no further then halfway towards his room when a tall, blonde-headed man came walking towards him. AJ groaned, immediately recognizing him as being Nick. This was not something AJ needed at the moment, he didn't need anymore confrontations. So trying to be smart, AJ kept his head down, hoping to pass by Nick without any words, but...

Tonight was just not his night.

Luck did not come easy to him.

"Yo J!"

'Leave me alone!' AJ thought, keeping his focus on the ground as he walked.

He didn't get very far.

"J! I'm glad I ran into you!" Nick spoke as if he were in a hurry, blocking AJ's path. "Are you ok? You seemed really pissed off towards D on the bus this morning and I wanted to make sure everything was ok. I'm sorry if I've done anything to make you mad-"

"Save it, Nick," AJ answered, glaring at Nick with hurt.

Nick gave his friend a questioning look. "J, what's going on?"

"Screw you man. I know how much you guys hate me, so just do me a favor and save your bullshit. And if you'll excuse me, I'll stop wasting you time now," AJ spat and stormed past Nick, not giving him a chance to say anything else.

"Did I miss something?" Nick asked himself dumbly as he watched AJ disappear down the hall.

*****

His mind had been blank as he fell asleep that night. For once he didn't dream any troubling dreams, or be bothered with any troubling thoughts. He wouldn't allow it. He just wanted peace for once. Nothing more or nothing less, and he had been determined to get it. Getting the restfull sleep he needed and hadn't had for so long threw him into total bliss and if he had his own way, he would have never woken up. But...

RING!

AJ groaned as he rolled away from the phone and proceeded to bury his head under the pillows, pulling the covers up to hide himself from the world. Why now did he have to be disturbed? And with all things to be disturbed by, why in the name of God did it have to be that annoying telephone the hotel had set up on the nightstand? That thing had the most annoying ring he had ever heard.

RING!

'I'm not answering you' AJ thought, squeezing his eyes shut and holding the pillows tightly over his head. He felt like he was going to suffocate from not being able to breath, but if that's how it had to be to keep from being bothered by the ringing 'torture device', then so be it!

RING!

"I'm not answering you!" came AJ's muffled voice from beneath the pillows. "So STOP RINGING!!!" Almost as if on cue, the phone became dead silent and AJ grinned to himself. In relief, he came out from under the pillow and rested his head gently on top of it, preparing to head back into his peaceful dream land.

The quietness was short lived...

RING!

"I am going to sue someone if that phone does not stop ringing!"

RING!

"I've have a good attorney!"

RING!

"Don't think I will hesitate to call him!"

Silence.

'I don't like this hotel' AJ thought as the grogginess settled over him again. He rubbed at his stinging eyes, trying to relax and fall alseep again, when...

RING!

'Holy Hell!' AJ sat straight up in bed, glaring at the annoying phone, debating on whether he wanted to answer the stupid thing. 'At this moment, I think whoever invented phones was a freaking moron! ALL I WANT TO DO IS SLEEP!!!'

RING!

AJ snatched the phone, whipping it up to his ear. "WHAT?!" he screeched into the reciever, more then peeved that he was being bothered this early in the morning. The clock on the nightstand read '7:27am'.

"Mr. McLean, this is the check-in desk calling to give you your wake-up call."

'Wake-up call?' AJ stared at the far wall for a second. "What the Hell for?" he grumbled after a second.

"One of your friends requested that we give you a wake-up call this morning, to let you know you have a meeting to attend in Conference Room 3 this morning at 8:00am," the man answered.

"Is it freaking hotel policy to keep calling the person back if they don't answer?" AJ questioned heatily.

"No sir. I'm sorry about the constant ringing, but it is hotel policy to fulfill a customer's request."

"What are you talking about?"

"Your friend requested that we keep calling you back until you answered."

'Damn you, Howie!' AJ thought with a glare. "Fine, thanks."

"Have a good day, sir."

AJ slammed the reciever back onto the base. The clock now read '7:29am'. He had only about a half an hour to get ready before he had to be downstairs in the conference room. Damn, he was really not looking forward to this one bit. He'd rather be anywhere but here at the moment, preferably at home where he could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

But there was still the rest of the tour before he could go home for good. Though, they did have a five day vacation coming up soon and he did plan on spending it at home back in Florida. At least he had that to look forward to...

Upon climbing out of bed and staggering to the bathroom for a shower, there came a knock on his hotel room door. "What?" he called out, not wanting to go over and open the door.

"Just wanted to make sure you were up and getting ready!"

It was Jeff, his body guard.

"You want me to wait outside here and escort you down to the conference room in case there a hoard of insane, obsessive AJ fans?"

AJ let out a small chuckle at Jeff's sense of humor. "Nah, that's ok, man!" Then he walked into the bathroom and turned on the light. The light immediately stung his eyes and he had to shield them until they adjusted to the bright light. He shuffled over to the shower, drew back the curtain and turned the water on, making the temperature as hot as his body could withstand. Then he stripped down of his boxers and wife beater, and stepped into the scalding water.

The shower was a soothing event for him that morning and he stepped out feeling completely refreshed. Wrapping a towel around his waist, he walked out of the bathroom and headed over to one of his suitcases, pulling out a pair of boxers, dark baggy jeans, and a red Tommy Hilfiger shirt.

Ten minutes later and at exactly 7:57am, he swiped the comb through his short spiked hair and proceeded to walk out the hotel room door. The hall was completely deserted, much to AJ's pleasure, and he headed towards the elevator with no trouble at all. The ride down to the lobby was short and much to his pleasure again, there was barely anyone in the lobby, which he had to cross in order to get to the conference rooms.

Upon reaching Conference Room 3, he noticed the door was cracked open a bit and he could hear everyone talking inside. Deciding he wasn't in too much of a hurry to walk into the room, he stood outside and listened to what was being said.

"Figures he would be late."

Brian.

"Probably ignored the wake-up call."

Howie.

"And you all thought I was the one that hated to get up in the morning?"

Nick.

"I personally don't care."

Kevin.

"I told the person at the check-in desk to keep calling until he answered."

Howie.

"I went by his room before I came down and he was up and getting ready."

Jeff.

"He probably purposely didn't come again."

Brian.

AJ took in a deep breath, biting his tongue so he wouldn't burst in and start going off on Brian. He sighed before pushing the door open and walking in silently. None of the fellas said a word to him. No greeting was given as AJ took a seat furthest away from all of them.

Not even a minute after AJ had taken a seat, did Mike, the respresentative from their management team, walk in. "Hello all...sorry for once again being late," he greeted, setting his brief case atop the confrence table.

"You're not the only one who is," Brian grumbled.

'Piss off Brian' AJ thought, not even looking at him.

"What was that, Brian?" Mike asked casually, opening his brief case.

"Oh, I was just saying good morning," Brian answered lamely.

"Morning," Mike replied, and looked up. Seeing AJ, he said, "AJ! Are you feeling better?"

"What?" AJ asked, confusion masking his face.

"Kevin told me in the last meeting that you were extremely sick. I was worried," Mike explained.

"Oh..." AJ trailed, remembering how he had gotten Howie to tell that lie for him. "Yeah, I'm feeling a little better now. Thanks..."

"So you're ready for the concert tonight, then?"

"Yeah, hopefully. Do I really have a choice?"

"No," Kevin growled before Mike could say anything.

"Was I asking you?" AJ spat back before even realizing the words had left his mouth. He looked up to find Kevin giving him a firey glare. AJ nearly gulped, knowing what this could turn into.

"Don't start with me, AJ. I have no patience to deal with your attitude this morning."

"You don't have the patience? You weren't even being the one spoken to."

"That is besides the damn point."

"C'mon cuz, just drop it," Brian tried to intervene, glaring in AJ's direction. "It's not worth it-"

"Stay out of this, Brian!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Mike exclaimed, his eyes growing wide at the argument that was brewing. "Is there something wrong, guys?"

'You think, dumbshit?' AJ thought sarcastically, his eyes growing dangerously dark.

"No, nothing's wrong," Howie quickly answered, giving AJ, Brian, and Kevin a look that told them all "to shut up and act civilized during the meeting!".

"Alright," Mike replied, unsure of the answer Howie gave, but he shrugged the feeling off just as quickly. "Right, on with the meeting. This one is short today. I just wanted to go over the schedule with you guys and let you know that there has been an interview added into the schedule."

"An interview? With who and when?" Nick asked curiously, slouching in his seat.

"One of the local radio stations."

"And is it a normal go and be interviewed thing or are there extras added in?"

"The five of you will go in and do the interview like any other one and then they've asked to have you guys help host the rest of afternoon show."

"How long is this all together?" Howie asked.

"The interview itself will span over a time period of about forty-five minutes, interrupted periodically by radio commercials. Then the afternoon show will take about an hour they said, so roughly an hour and forty-five minutes all together, give or take a few minutes," Mike explained, looking through some papers in his brief case.

"And this interview is taking place when?"

"This afternoon actually."

"Thanks for notice in advance," AJ grumbled.

"Yeah I'm really sorry for the short notice. Management just slipped it in yesterday, so your schedule today is going to be very tight. But it is very important that all of you are at this interview today. It will be very good publicity."

"You're going to have to explain that better to AJ. He doesn't understand the meaning of being somewhere when he's scheduled to be there," Brian spoke as if he were saying this casually, but he was purposely being vicious and AJ had had enough.

AJ abruptly jumped up from his chair, looking ready to lunge at Brian and choke him to death. He couldn't believe how unfair they were all being towards him. "Screw you, Brian!" he spat, his fists clentching.

"I'm sorry, but no," Brian replied snidely, leaning back in his chair.

"Will both of you just stop?" Howie growled, looking ready to jump up from his seat.

"Fucking stay out of it, Howie!" AJ yelled.

"No, you need to chill out, AJ!" Howie yelled right back at him.

"Guys," Mike stated nervously.

"I don't give a damn what you all say!"

"Damnit AJ, sit down!" Kevin barked.

"Fuck you, Kevin!"

"Stop being an ass! It's embarrasing!" Howie hissed, his dark eyes turning darker then ever.

AJ paused as he heard Howie say this. "That's right Howie, that's what I am to all of you! A fucking embarassment! Well I'm so fucking sorry that that is what I am!"

"AJ, stop-"

"No! I'm tired of you all treating me like shit! I'm sorry that I'm such a damn embarassment! I'm sorry that I'm a major screw up! I'm sorry I make so many mistakes! I'm sorry that I'm not so damn perfect like the rest of you! I'm sorry that everything is always my fault! Well, stop feeling sorry for yourselves because of me, because you won't have to deal with it much longer!" AJ screamed at Howie, but directing it to all of his bandmates while Mike and the bodyguards looked on in shock. AJ took no notice to them.

"AJ-"

"No, fuck you all! I'm leaving after tonight!"

"Aje-" But Howie couldn't finish his sentence, for AJ had already stormed out of the conference room, leaving everyone with a round of shocked expressions on their faces.