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Chapter 15

“Nick, oh my God. My life is over!” Lori exclaimed. She put her head on his chest and hugged
him as tightly as she could.

“What happened, Lori?” Nick asked.

“They didn’t like my album enough to keep me on the label,” she replied. “Donna said that they
had to take a different direction with another girl artist that they just signed. So, that means I
get booted off the label because they feel like this girl has more potential than I do.” Lori got
up and walked towards the window. She then started to sob again. “I’m a complete failure.”

“No you’re not, Lori.” Nick got up and walked over to her. He gave her another hug and let her
cry. He didn’t know what to do or say to her to make her feel better. “Lori, you are one of the
most talented singers out there and I can’t imagine anyone could be better than you, so I am
sure that another record label will pick you up. You really shouldn’t call yourself a failure.”

“Like you know what it’s like to fail at the one thing that you love the most?” Lori asked him
through teary eyes. Nick looked down at his feet. He knew what failure was like in television,
but not really in music. He felt really bad for her.

“I’m sorry, Lori,” Nick said quietly. “Just give yourself a couple of months and try it again. You’ll
get discovered.”

“I think this is it, Nick,” Lori replied breaking the hug. “I tried being a star once and it just wasn’
t good enough. Why should I do it again?” Just then AJ came through the door.

“What’s going on?” AJ asked. “Baby, why are you upset?”

“I think I should leave now,” Nick said giving Lori’s shoulder a squeeze as he exited the room.

“Baby, I have bad news,” Lori started. AJ walked over to her and grabbed both of her hands.
“Um, Jive didn’t like my record and they thought that it would be best if they didn’t pump
anymore money into me in the recording studio.” Her eyes glistened again. She thought that
she might cry again, but she held it back.

“They dropped you?” AJ asked her. He looked astonished. “Are they crazy? You’re great! How
could they do this to you?”

“I don’t know, Alex! I don’t even know how to tell Mom and Dad. They will be so disappointed in
me.” Lori looked down again and felt the tears come.

“Lori, they aren’t going to be disappointed in you. Just disappointed for you.” AJ brought her
close to him and held her tightly for awhile. There was a knock on the door and AJ released
Lori to go answer it.

There was Jenn, Kevin, Howie, Brian and Nick standing in the doorway. “We came to say that
we are sorry that things didn’t work out for you,” Kevin said.

“And that we still love you,” Brian added with a cheesy grin.

“Aww. Thanks you guys! I appreciate this! Even though it’s really embarrassing,” Lori replied.
She wiped the tears off of her face.

“Group hug!” Nick said dragging as many people as he could to join in. Everyone surrounded
Lori and AJ.

*****************

“Who the fuck do they think they are doing this too?”

“Man! They don’t know nothing!”

“Yeah man. Lori, you should like do something really bitchy.”

“YEAH! We can come up with something, right Bri?”

“Yeah. We’re creative.”

“What are we gonna do, man?”

*******************

“I swear. I don’t know why the three of them decide to get drunk the night that Lori finds out
that she’s dropped,” Kevin said. He had been listening to their conversation for the past hour
from the room next door. Brian had obviously decided to go out and get liquor for both Nick
and Lori.

“Well, I went in there and stole some of their alcohol!” Jenn exclaimed holding up a half empty
bottle of Jack Daniels and an almost empty bottle of Southern Comfort. “Let’s have our own
kind of fun!”

*****************
“Okay. So, we’ve decided that,” there was a hiccup, “that Nick’s going to grab the paintball
gun.”

“And, Brian will be a distraction.”

“And Nick will paintball her house!”

Lori plopped down on the couch. The room was spinning and she was glad that she was drunk.
She liked being drunk with her two best friends. They enjoyed each other’s company and they
always had a lot of fun together. Especially her and Nick. She couldn’t remember why AJ wasn’
t there. But she didn’t care, as long as the spinning didn’t stop. “Brian, you look hot when I’m
drunk.” Lori laughed at the comment she just made. She usually thought that she was a riot
when she was drunk.

Nick fell out of the chair he was sitting in and rolled around on the floor laughing. “Yeah, that’s
funny,” Brian replied. “I think a lot of people think I’m hot when they aren’t drunk.”

“Yeah, twelve year-olds,” Lori replied. This made Nick laugh even harder. “I wouldn’t laugh too
loud Carter.”

“Yeah, well, I must be hot if you liked me a year ago,” Nick spat back.

“You were a rebound,” Lori replied. Nick stuck out his tongue at her and Brian just rolled his
eyes.

When AJ came in, Brian and Nick both were in their underwear and Lori was fully clothed. All
three of them were sitting at the table in the room concentrating on the handful of cards in front
of them.

“What do you got, Nick?”

“Nothing. Man! I suck.” He laid his cards face up on the table.

“Nick! You fucking idiot! You have like a full house!”

“What? No I don’t!” A pause. “Oh shit! I do! Haha! Beat that!”

“That doesn’t count! You folded man!”

“No I didn’t. I was just testing you guys’ knowledge!”

“I want a strip tease, Nick!”

“Lori! You haven’t even shown us what you have!”

“You perv! Like you’ll ever see this body! Plus, I didn’t lose!” Lori glared at Brian.

“The cards in your hand, genius!”

“Fuck you, bible hugger!”

“You’re a bitch.”

“Yeah, a sexy bitch.”

“Okay, people. Jay is here. I’ll catch up.” AJ proceeded to take off his shirt and started to
unbuckle his pants. Clad in his underwear, he sat down in one of the chairs.

Lori just looked at him and said, “Alright boys. Out! Get out now! I’m done with you!”

Brian fell out of his chair when Lori yelled. Nick and Brian both protested as Lori shoved them
out of the room and locked the door. “All of these bottles are empty.” AJ held up several
bottles that were sitting on the various tables in the room. There were a couple on the table
they were playing Poker at and several on the dresser.

“Well, I think I might be able to help you out, baby,” Lori said stumbling over to the dresser. She
opened the top drawer and took out two unopened bottles of Jack Daniels. “These are for you,
baby.”

AJ took the two bottles from her and set them on the dresser. He pulled Lori closer to him and
said, “We’ll save those for later.” He picked her up and laid her on the bed and kissed her
passionately. At that time, there was a loud bang coming from the other room and then the
pictures hanging on the wall all came crashing down. Then, the next thing AJ and Lori heard
was Jenn moaning and another bang on the wall. The last bang wasn’t as loud as the last one,
but it was still loud enough to be heard down the hall. AJ looked down at Lori and said, “I think
we can do better.” So, the competition was on.

***********

Brian barely made it to his room before all of the alcohol decided to leave his system. He ran
into the bathroom, tripping over something in the process, and puked at least five times. It was
like it was never going to stop.

Nick was outside of the bathroom waiting to make sure that Brian was okay. His friend was
never really good with alcohol. He never drank anyway. This was the first time he had seen
Brian this trashed in a long time. It was a fun night though. Nick was starting to sober up a little
bit by being worried about Brian. Nick wouldn’t go into the bathroom with him though because
he knew that he would be puking too, right along with Brian. Instead, Nick just plopped on
Brian’s bed and eventually passed out.

It was early morning when Nick woke up. He didn’t even know that he had passed out. He saw
that Brian wasn’t in the room with him and went into the bathroom to check on him. Nick had
passed out by the toilet many a times, so he figured that that’s what happened to Brian.

“Brian? Wake up! I don’t really want to pick you up, man.” Nick rolled Brian over and gasped at
the sight before him. Brian was laying there, pale and his breathing was very shallow.