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Chapter 10

“Alex….” Lori muttered to herself when she looked through the peep hole in the door. She
opened the door and turned the light on. “Alex, what are you doing here? It’s two in the
morning!”

“I didn’t want to be alone,” he replied. He walked through the door way and into the entry hall.

“I know. I’ve been a little stir crazy too being in this house all by myself. Do you want
something to drink?” Lori asked him walking into the kitchen. “I made some sweet tea this
afternoon.”

“Yeah. That sounds great,” AJ replied. When he stepped into the light, Lori could tell that he
had been crying.

“Alex? Is everything okay?” Lori asked as she poured tea into the two glasses. “You look
really upset.”

“Well, it hasn’t been a good day for me,” AJ said. He took the glass that Lori handed to him and
they both went to sit on the couch.

After a few moments of silence, Lori got up and lit some candles on the table. “The lamp is way
too bright for this early in the morning,” she said as she lit them. “So, Alex, what’s up?” She
sat back down on the couch and looked at him. He tried to avoid eye contact with her as much
as he could, but he finally caved in and looked at her.

“I …. Um… Marissa and I broke up today,” he said looking down. “Look, I’m sorry I came here
to spill all of my problems because I know that you don’t want to hear them, especially if its
dealing with her, but I had nowhere else to go. And you know me better than anyone, Lori.”

“Correction, I know Alex. Not AJ. Sorry,” Lori replied. She didn’t want to disregard him like
that, but she had to protect herself because she knew what could happen to her again if she
gave in to comforting him.

“Lori, come on. Don’t be like that,” AJ said. He grabbed her hands and said, “I know that you
aren’t cold like that towards me. We’ve made a lot of improvement in the past year to make
amends and I thought that you had forgiven me.”

“Alex, I can’t do it,” Lori replied. “I can’t just let everything go and forgive and forget. I will
never forget it and that’s what is stopping me from getting close to you. I can’t share anything
with you because you totally disregarded me when I needed you the most.” She took her
hands away and wiped the tear that escaped down her cheek. “Look, I don’t want to talk about
this right now.”

“That’s your problem, Lori. You never want to talk about us,” AJ replied. “Look, I admitted a lot
of things to you and you just shrug it off. And then, in the hospital a couple weeks ago, you
were all about wanting me in your life. I never know when you’re going to turn me away again.
So, I’m not the only one that can’t trust someone’s feelings.”

Lori looked at him. She didn’t say anything for what seemed like an eternity to AJ. Here he
was, actually being as honest as he could with her for the first time ever since she came back
into his life and she didn’t say anything about it.

“What exactly do you want from me, Alex?” Lori asked. “You want someone to listen to you
while you spill your tears about Marissa? You want support from an old friend? Here’s news
for ya Alex. I was only your friend until we had sex, then it became a lot more than that. I was
way too young for that. But I did it anyway because I believed that you would make the right
decision afterwards. And you did. You stayed with me. For two years actually. I loved you.
And I believe that you loved me, but as soon as I left, something changed. I still don’t know
what changed, but I never heard from you until we ended up on the same tour. And now, that I
am one of the inner circle of friends, you want to patch things up with me. It would have meant
a lot more if it had happened four years ago. So, find someone else to make you feel better. I
had no one to help me and you see how long it has taken for me to move on. It still hasn’t
happened yet.” She left the room and went upstairs to her bedroom. She was going to go to
sleep whether he wanted to or not.

AJ blew out the candles and ran up the stairs after Lori. He had to make things right. He knew
that he was the one that screwed up countless times over the past year, but he couldn’t stand
the thought of Lori being so mad at him to the point where she couldn’t stand being in the
same room as him. She really laid into him down in the living room and he knew that he had
deserved it.

He found Lori in her room, moonlight poured in from the window. She was sitting up in her bed,
hugging her knees, wiping the tears that were streaming down her face. She looked up at him
when he entered the room. “I thought that you would have left by now,” she said. She sniffed
and a couple more tears slid down her face. AJ looked around for a tissue and he sat on the
bed next to her. He lifted her face with one hand and wiped it off with the tissue.

No words were exchanged between the two of them. AJ put the tissue on the night stand and
then took Lori’s face in his hands and brought her lips to his. This time it was real. He could
feel it and he knew that she did too. Once he got to unbuttoning her pajama top, he expected
her to pull away, but instead she lifted his shirt over his head and began unbuckling his belt.


They both awoke to the phone ringing the following morning. Lori tried to ignore it, she was
way too happy about being asleep. She felt AJ’s arm lift off of her side. “Hello?” His voice was
raspy from being awoken from sleep.

“Hello? AJ? Is that you?” Jenn asked. “What the hell are you doing there?”

“Um, well, I stayed the night,” AJ replied.

“Alex? Who’s on the phone?” Lori asked rolling over. “Is it Jenn? Is something wrong with
Brian?”

AJ handed the phone over and got out of the bed as Lori talked to Jenn. He suddenly got this
overwhelming sense of guilt as he got dressed. He used her and he knew it. She was going
to kill him. He knew that he had to come up with some reason to leave.

“Jenn, is Brian okay?” Lori asked as soon as AJ handed her the phone.

“Yeah, he’s fine. That’s not the reason why I called you,” Jenn said. “I just wanted to let you
know that Kevin and I got into a car accident.”