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Chapter 23

Chapter 23

On the way back to the hotel they hit a moderate amount of traffic, so by the time they finally got there, quite a few fans had arrived. The boys graciously got off the bus and signed autographs and took pictures with the girls as they were walking into the hotel.

“Where’s those girls that you were with in Cincinnati?” someone asked. “I was there and saw that one get hit in the head. Is she okay?”

“She is fine, thank you for asking,” Brian responded, and that was all he said. The girl was so happy that he talked to her she didn’t even notice that he didn’t answer the rest of her question.

They boys made it into the hotel, with the help of security, about twenty minutes later and hurried up to their rooms to take a shower and get their stuff. They were going to go out clubbing downtown until bar time, and then head back onto the buses for the trip back through Cincinnati to drop off Andrea and Annie and then onto Chicago.

Marcus and Q snuck Andrea and Annie off the bus and around to the side entrance of the hotel.

“There you go ladies, safe and sound,” said Marcus once they were inside and heading up to their rooms on the elevator.

“Thanks guys,” Andrea and Annie said in unison.

“Why don’t you and Nick come over to our room when he’s done taking a shower? Everyone else is meeting in our room too, and we are deciding were to go downtown. I guess there is this hot club called The Blue Room or something like that, but I don’t know,” Annie said with a puzzled look on her face.

“You know, if you keep doing that with your face, it’s going to stay like that, right?” Andrea joked with her cousin as they stepped off the elevator. Annie stuck her tongue out at her cousin and then giggled. “See you in a little bit,” said Andrea as she put her key in the door and walked into Nick’s room.

Nick was already in the shower when she walked in. She knocked on the bathroom door and poked her head inside. It was so steamy she couldn’t see very well, but she was grateful to have her contacts in instead of having foggy glasses. “Nick?” she called out, hoping she didn’t startle him.

He peeked his head around the shower curtain, water dripping off of him onto the floor. “What’s up? Did you want to join me?” he asked with a devilish grin, hoping to seduce her into the shower with him. She was taken aback by his comment, caught between her head telling her not to and the sensation in her pants telling her otherwise.

“What’s the point,” she said casually, trying to keep her cool. “You’ve already washed the sweat off.”

“Oh, you liked me all sweaty huh? Well, I can think of few ways to get me all sweaty again.” Andrea’s face turned crimson and Nick gave her a sexy laugh. “You know you want to so why fight it?” He asked her seductively as he pushed the shower curtain open, revealing him and all his magnificence. She quickly averted her eyes and was about to turn and leave when he grabbed her and pulled her into the shower with him, clothes and all.

They kissed passionately as the water pelted down on them, soaking her shirt. He looked at her hungrily as her shirt became see-through and clung to her every curve.

“Nick,” she said quietly and she pushed him back.

“Don’t worry,” he responded tenderly, knowing that she wasn’t ready. “Whenever you are ready, I will be waiting for you.” He bent down and kissed her again, and giving her waterlogged body one final look up and down, he shut off the water to the shower and grabbed two towels from the rack above the toilet. He handed her one and wrapped the other around himself. “By the way,” he said as he stepped out of the shower and held out his hand to help her out, “you look amazing wet.”

“Thanks….so do you,” she said with a cute smile on her face. This time, her face was only a dark shade of pink when she blushed. “The reason I came in here before was to tell you that we are meeting in Alex’s room when you are done. But now I have to get ready too,” she said with a smile.

They each dried off, put clean clothes on, Andrea redid her makeup and her hair, and they were out the door in record time. They knocked on the door to AJ’s room, and Annie answered it.

“Well it’s about time,” she said with an annoyed look on her face. That looked changed to inquisitive when she saw that Andrea’s hair was wet. “What did you do?” she asked, her eyes shifting from her cousin to Nick and back again.

“I, uh, fell into the shower and got all wet,” she said, hoping that would appease her cousin, but knowing it wouldn’t. “I’ll tell you later,” she finally said, giving in to her cousin’s pressure stare. They made their way into the hotel room and took a seat on the end of the bed.

“So what’s up?” Nick asked, noticing that everyone was there and he and Andrea were the last to arrive. “Where are we going?”

“I guess we decided on that Blue Room place,” Annie said. “It’s supposed to be chill,” she said, trying her best to sound like AJ when he said it earlier. She knew she sounded so Midwest when she said it and she just started laughing.

“Now I know how stupid I sound when I try to say stuff like that,” Andrea said, laughing hysterically at her cousin. “I can’t believe you just said ‘chill’!”

“Dude, shut up!” Annie retorted, lacking a better comeback. “Let’s not get me started on all the stupid things you say!” Andrea and Annie continued laughing until they could hardly breathe.

“I think it was cute,” said AJ as he walked up to Annie and kissed her cheek. “But you are going to have to hang around me a lot more if you want to talk like me. It’s not something you can just do all of a sudden; you have to become one with the Alex inside you.”

“Okay Yoda, I thought we did that earlier?” Annie asked, giving him a sideways glance. “In the bathroom?” Alex quickly put his hand over Annie’s mouth so she wouldn’t say anymore.

“SSHHH, don’t give away all our dirty little secrets,” he said to her laughing.

“Um, it wasn’t really a secret Bone,” said Kevin laughing. “You didn’t hide it very well, Captain Obvious, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” AJ stammered, removing his hand from Annie’s mouth. “But I will still be able to teach you how to say ‘chill’ without sounding retarded, while we are touring, so don’t worry.” He noticed that same look on Annie’s face that she got earlier. Here it comes, he said to himself. “Right?”

Andrea looked at her cousin after AJ’s comment to see what her reaction was. She knew Annie and her non-commitment stance on life and had a feeling this was not going to turn out well. Annie’s not going to be able to distract him with sex this time, she thought to herself, concerned about the situation.

Annie’s face had lost some of its color and she was no longer making eye contact with AJ; he noticed.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, knowing that she was could not skate away from the topic this time.

“Are you guys planning on continuing the tour with us?” Nick asked Andrea quietly, never taking his eyes off Annie and AJ.

“You guys never asked us and Annie and I never talked about it,” Andrea replied honestly. “I guess AJ assumed we were; were you assuming that too?”

“No,” he whispered back. “He and I didn’t talk about it yet either…” Nick trailed off.

Annie still had not answered AJ. “What Annie? You can’t dodge it now; you have to talk to me. What is the problem? Do you not want to stay with me?” He could feel his face getting hot and he knew everyone was staring at him and Annie. He didn’t want to do this in front of everyone anymore than Annie did, but it didn’t appear like they had much of a choice.

“Alex,” she began tenderly, knowing that what she was going to say might hurt him. “I know that I want to stay with you, but I’m not sure if I can stay with you.” She looked into his eyes, and saw the hurt and sadness filling them.

“What are you talking about?” he asked gruffly, trying to keep his composure. “What about the things you said earlier? Do you remember all the things we talked about? Did you mean any of it? What the hell does that even mean- you’re not sure if you ‘can stay with me’? What’s stopping you?” He was very angry at this point, and felt humiliated in front of everyone.

“Alex, maybe we should talk about this in private?” Annie suggested.

“No, I want you to tell me, right now, what the problem is!” he yelled. She stood there, looking down at her feet. When she didn’t answer him, his blood started to boil. “TELL ME!” he screamed making her and everyone else in the room jump.

She looked up at him, tears in her eyes and fear written all over her face. “IT’S ME!” she yelled back at him. “I’M WHAT’S STOPPING ME!” and with that, she grabbed her purse and Andrea’s arm and began pulling her out of the room. “Let’s get out of here,” she pleaded, tears streaming down her cheeks.

“No, wait, don’t go!” AJ yelled, but it was too late; Andrea and Annie were gone with the slamming of the door. “Don’t go” he whispered, falling onto the ground, sobbing. “What did I do? What have I done?”