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Important Authors Note: Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay in updating this. I was stuck on the chapter until this weekend, where I had a really good idea...to make this story part 3 of the Permanent Tracings series. It would definitely work, and although it won't be mysterious in the fact that you are guessing the Boy, there will be some suspense. So here is Chapter 2...of the third story of the series. And if you have not read the other two....it really isn't necessary....as I've tied in some stuff to catch people up. Thanks and please leave feedback!

Chapter Two

Just as he’d predicted, several feet of snow covered the ground when AJ woke up. He didn’t even have to get out of bed for him to be able to tell that much, for he felt it in the air all around him, coldness causing his body to shiver. God, how he hated the snow. And to make matters worse, he’d seen it coming and his dumb ass hadn’t even prepared for the blizzard. This just made his mood worse. He’d known what to expect days before the storm had even been caught by weathermen and it almost made it worse than everything being a total surprise.

Forcing himself to get out of bed, AJ slowly trudged over to the window to see for himself what had happened during the course of the night. AJ slowly pulled the shades open, peering out of the window. A loud groan of disgust escaped his lips.

“Fucking peachy.” he mumbled to himself.

This was just the perfect way to spend his few days of freedom before heading overseas for the second part of the tour. He wanted to enjoy himself, partaking in things he wouldn’t get the chance to do under usual circumstances. But no, that would make his life easy. Three feet of snow just had to fall overnight. Everything before him was a winder wonderland....gone wrong. Snow covered everything, even burying several things.

“Just had to go and buy a house here in New York...” he grumbled, knowing that the only reason he had was because a couple of the other Boys had homes up there, and they assumed it would be easier if they all had one house in the same State for certain instances so that they could take off together. Unfortunately, he’d been the only idiot to actually follow through. Kevin and Brian never had. At least there was still Nick and Howie, who also had houses in Florida and California. Kevin and Brian and flown back to their homes right after the meeting. He wished he had gone back to one of his others too. Apparently, New York was a bad choice, for in the winter.... “My life sucks!” AJ exclaimed in complete frustration as he whipped his body away from the window to get away from the repulsive site before him.

Deciding with nothing else to do that day, he might as well sleep in, AJ climbed back under the covers, cuddling up beneath them to stay warm. He closed his brown eyes, content and comfortable. He was only a few mere minutes away from drifting back in to a dreamland though when his phone rang, startling him. His eyes shot open as he moaned, deciding to ignore it. The ringing continued though.

“For the love of God!” AJ exclaimed, getting of bed in a fury, “What the fuck now?” on his way to the phone, he grumbled choice words the entire way there, cursing out whomever it was under his breath. He picked up the phone, answering with a not too kind “Hello?”

“AJ?” came about the last voice he wanted to hear. AJ automatically wondered if he’d done something wrong, “Were you still asleep? It is past noon.”

“Some people aren’t anal retentive and find it necessary to wake up at the ass crack of dawn every morning.” AJ smirked, knowing that Kevin would have nothing to say to that. He then asked, “What’s going on?” trying not to sound too irritated.

“Are you still in New York?”

“Um...yeah?”

“Shit...” he heard Kevin curse, “So are Nick and D...” his voice trailed off before saying, “How bad is it up there?”

“If I had parked my car outside, I would officially not be able to find it?” AJ put his response as a question to let Kevin decide for himself, “I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere today.”

Kevin sighed, “Well...if things don’t get better, we’re going to have to postpone things a little. If things are that bad, I don’t think planes will be taking off and landing there. Especially since more snow is headed your way. That will just cause a whole new skew of problems.”

AJ snorted. Of course there was, because mother nature hated him. It seemed wherever he was, the bad weather followed. Thunderstorms, hurricanes, blizzards, tornados. It never failed. He was a target for the worst of weather. AJ was convinced that he was jinxed in more areas than one, not even caring that he was feeling sorry for himself. It was a part of life. The way he saw it, people could live with it along with his bad mood.

“More snow...just what we need.” he said aloud, “Maybe the storm will miss us...” he said aloud before thinking to himself Wishful thinking.

“Maybe...” Kevin’s voice trailed off. AJ knew that there was more coming. There was always more from a Kevin phone call. A lecture was always a possibility. Either that a fatherly type talk, “Well... I just wanted to make sure you got back okay last night. And be careful whatever you do, since I probably won’t talk to you again before we meet up.”

Ah, there it was. Kevin’s fatherly, worry-wart side. Even though the man pretended that the others were old enough to care for themselves, it never failed. He was always concerned, worrying about all of them in even the smallest of situations. It was a typical Kevin trait, but even though it annoyed AJ at times, he wouldn’t trade it in for anything. He even found himself smiling over it for the first time since he’d woken up.

“Yes, daddy, “AJ mocked, and he could almost see Kevin rolling his eyes, “Everything is good. I plan on just staying in all day. No worries.”

“Alright...well, I’ll see you in a few.”

“Yup. Laters.” AJ replied, hanging up the phone.

With a sigh, AJ shivered again, but was now fully awake. Deciding to just stay awake for the day, AJ headed down the stairs to make a cup of hot cocoa, various things on his mind, including the weather. He remembered a couple of years back when he’d been in Maine during a blizzard very similar to this. Way back before any of the most recent drama’s in the group had been discovered. In a few days, he hoped that he would be somewhere with better weather. The future had many unknowns in store for all of them though. Many, many unknowns, and not even AJ could see what was coming yet.
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“Hey, J...you okay?”

It was two days later....exactly when they were supposed to be leaving. The snow hadn’t stopped anything due to the fact that the roads had been plowed and salted, the second storm having died before it reached them, beating the hell out of Ohio. Kevin and Brian had flown up from Kentucky together to meet up with the others. From there, they were leaving as a group. All five were sitting in the plane waiting for it to take off, a small delay in order due to a child screaming near the front. The stewardesses were trying to calm it down before the trip began.

AJ looked over to Brian to see that he had concern written in his face. God, how he hated that look. He received it far too often. There was just something about it that made him feel like a complete helpless cause. He’d received the look from each member of the group at one point or another too. Ever since they’d joined together nearly thirteen years ago.

Not Really AJ thought, but what he said out loud was, “I’m fine.” forcing a smile that must have been convincing because the others had taken their attention off of him with the short, simple response.

The truth was, AJ was worried. The school shooting he had seen in his mind still had yet to occur. This scared him because he knew that it was coming. Any day now, the incident would be on the news and he would see for himself just how much damage had been done, and most importantly...where. If he knew that crucial fact all along, he knew he could possibly warn people over it. Then again, maybe the school would think that he was part of the crime and hold him responsible. Either way, it was a lose-lose situation.

With a sick feeling in his stomach, AJ looked out of the plane window. True, he wasn’t exactly a fan of flying, but that had nothing to do with the feeling this time. It was because he felt ill about all of the children and teachers whom were about to be killed, not even knowing what was coming. Only he knew. How many families would be destroyed? How many parents would lose their children. How many children would be left without parents, spouses without their significant other? It was unknown until the event happened.

The large jet started to lurch forward and AJ leaned back in his seat, taking in a few deep breaths to brace himself for takeoff. In roughly eight hours, he’d be in Europe, which was including the connecting flight . It would be a tight schedule, for they had exactly forty minutes to land, go through security all over again and find their next flight while at the same time going through mobs of fans, trying to sign a few autographs along the way. Only once had they missed a connecting flight, and boy had Kevin thrown an absolute fit. After that incident, they were all more aware of the time and making their plane on time. When Kevin was mad, it was in ones best interest to stay away until he calmed down.

“You sure you’re okay, AJ?”

This time, it was Kevin asking. AJ sighed. Was he really coming off as being that lost and out of it? He didn’t think that he was acting that out of the ordinary. Perhaps he was though. Maybe he was worse at hiding his troubled thoughts than he thought. He shrugged, trying to think of something to say.

“I’m just nervous about flying,” was the only lie he came up with.

“You’re always nervous about flying...and you’ve never acted this weird before.” Kevin pointed out, raising one of his bushy eyebrows.

“I feel sick?” AJ tried again, it sounding more like a question than a statement that was supposed to convince the others.

“Whatever...” Kevin muttered, turning back to his book.

It was obvious that the man wasn’t even going to try to talk it out of him. For that, AJ was grateful. It wasn’t like he would tell his friends anyways. What was he going to say? I’m psychic guys, and sometime soon, there is going to be a school shooting and kids are going to die. Right. Like he could really explain that. They would deem him psycho and send him in to the nearest local hospital for testing. Keeping the secret was hard, but it had to be done. It would be so easy if he could just tell them everything. They were his best friends. That’s what they were there for...to tell one another everything. This was something that he couldn’t though, and it sucked, torturing him on the inside. So many times, he’d wanted help with something he’d seen, thinking that he could possibly stop a few things from happening. That would involve telling people though. It was something that would freak them out and possibly make them stray away from him. He couldn’t stand that. Therefore, AJ kept it in and had a feeling that he would have to for all eternity.

“I can’t believe that we’re going from a foot and a half of snow to probably more snow...” Nick started to whine, “Part of touring is getting away from this shit...not going to more.”

AJ found himself snorting. Wasn’t that the truth. True, the snow had melted somewhat...about half of what accumulated was gone. Eighteen inches was s till too much for AJ’s liking. Two inches was pushing things. And now, they were going to be going to a place where it was likely that there would be more snow. Maybe not as much, but it would still be there. Ah, the joys of touring during the winter. Luckily, they were venturing to the colder areas first.

When screams entered AJ’s head, he closed his eyes to try and block out the sounds. This was another thing that happened to him. He’d hear things in his mind occasionally until the incident happened. The major vision happened first, and then little minor things swarmed through his head afterwards. He was used to it, but he’d never like it...

“I can’t believe that the tour is half over already...” Brian commented with a smile, “I’m just sorry for all of the trouble that I caused earlier.”

“It’s cool,” AJ smiled at his friend, “Everything is back on track now.”

And it was. At the beginning of the tour, Brian had collapsed on stage due to a problem with anorexia he’d faced. None of them had really seen it, because they’d all been so preoccupied over making sure that Howie was okay after a cutting incident a few years ago. Both men were doing fine now. Howie was in a healthy relationship with his former counselor, Stacie and things were going great. Brian was getting his life and health back on track and over the past two months, he’d gained ten pounds back. It was a slow process for both, but positive things were happening for both. They only could hope that it stayed that way.