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Chapter 3

Here it was, Lori was on tour already for three months and she and AJ were still not
speaking. No one knew what the problem was between them, but she didn’t really care to
reveal it because she would get even madder at him. She was kind of surprised at herself by
the way she was reacting to his presence. She was usually really laid back about things, but
not when it came to Alex, or AJ as everyone now calls him. What a stupid name, AJ. She didn’
t understand what was wrong with the name Alex.

He had changed a lot since she had seen him. One day, she was feeling a little better about
the whole thing and Nick gave her a CD of theirs for her to listen to. She liked the songs and
had to admit that Alex still sang very nicely. She flipped through the CD booklet and read the
thank you’s. That’s when she got really mad. She read Alex’s and at the very bottom she read
what he said about “MJ”.

She threw the book down and stormed off to the other room and left Nick sitting on the couch
by himself. He knew better than to go console her. He didn’t feel like getting yelled at for
thirty minutes. Plus, he couldn’t bear to see Lori cry anyway. She seemed to be doing a lot of
crying lately. But, then again she would have her days when everything was perfectly fine.
Nick couldn’t understand what the problem was and he was tired of seeing her miserable and
seeing AJ acting all distant towards everyone.

Nick sat there for a minute and could hear Lori crying in the other room. He went to go find
Brian. He knew that together they can get something done about this situation. They were all
pretty stressed about it and it seemed to be affecting AJ and Lori’s performances.

Later that night after the concert, they all got there stuff together and headed outside to the
tour buses. Nick had asked Lori to come ride with them for a change. Lori hesitated, but then
finally gave in to him. She wanted to spend some time with Nick anyway. They were on the
bus for about thirty minutes when Nick said that he would be right back. They were watching
TV in the backroom of the bus. Lori waited for a few minutes and was about to open the door
when all of a sudden someone came into the room and knocked her onto the ground.

She opened her eyes and saw Alex’s face inches from hers. She suddenly got this nauseous
feeling come over her and quickly threw him off of her. “Get off of me! What the hell are you
doing here anyway?”

AJ stood up and went over to the door. “They shoved me in here. Sorry, it was out of my
hands,” he replied pulling on the door handle. “God Damnit! Open!” AJ growled as he pulled
even harder on the handle.

“God, how many brain cells have you lost over the years?” Lori asked. She shoved him out of
the way and tried to open the door.

“It’s locked Lori. Deal with it. I think they are trying to tell us something here,” AJ said sitting
on the couch. “I guess we need to talk.”

“No way. I think you need to shut-up!” Lori banged in the door again and yelled profanities at
the door making sure that everyone on the tour bus could hear them.

“Lori, look you need to stop this,” AJ said getting off of the couch and grabbing Lori’s
shoulder to turn her around.

“You have no right to tell me how I am supposed to feel. You have no right to even speak to
me after what you have done to me.” Lori glared at him and when AJ started to apologize she
said, “Shut-up Alex. I don’t want an apology from you. It’s a little too late for that right now.
Because of you I can’t date anyone.”

“What?” AJ asked out of surprise. He backed up a couple of steps. “What are you talking
about? You mean to tell me that you haven’t dated anyone in the past seven years? That’s
crazy!”

“Fuck you, Alex. I can’t trust anyone. After what you did to me, I can’t fall in love anymore. I
can’t forget about everything. And I am extremely bitter because of it. I never expected to
see you again. And I wish it was that way right now, but I’ll be damned if I leave this tour and
jeopardize my career just because you are here.”

“Lori, I was thirteen! What do you expect me to do? How did you even know what love was?
You were eleven years old. You were no better than me,” he replied. He looked at her. He
could just see the rage in her eyes. He knew he screwed up.

Lori looked at him for a second and tried to rationalize with herself about why he had said
what he had said. That was a losing battle and Lori just basically gave up on it and did the
most natural thing that she could do. She pulled her right arm back and hit him the hardest
that she could. Score! Right in the mouth.

AJ looked up at her from the couch. He managed to stumble to the couch before falling on
the floor. He couldn’t believe that she did that. He felt the side of his face and realized that
his lip was busted open. He knew that he would not let this one down with the rest of the
guys.

“So, you call a year of my life was wasted! You call my virginity being taken wasted?” Lori
screamed.

“Lori, no. That’s not what I meant at all! I loved you, I did.” He walked over to her and took
her hands. He was a little afraid that she might retaliate on him once more, but decided to
take the chance. “It was just a different kind of love. I just never thought that it would affect
you this way.”

Lori fell into his arms and cried her ass off. “Alex, I have been so closed up inside for all of
these years. I don’t know if I will ever let go of it entirely.”

“It’s okay, sweetie. You won’t be alone this time. I promise you, we will work through this
together. You and me, baby.” Alex stroked her hair and comforted her.

“And me,” Nick said coming into the room. “I’ll take care of her.”

AJ looked up at him with this puzzled look. “You stay away from her Nick. She’s mine.”