“I’m leaving!”Caroline yelled to AJ as she stepped on his and Nick’s bus a few days later. It was time for her to leave back to Orlando, and she dreaded every minute of being alone.
“WAIT! I’m coming!”AJ said stumbling out the back of the bus focused on buckling his belt buckle. He looked up at her as he pulled his hoodie up over his hat and rubbed his eyes from being so tired. She wondered when he would stop wearing that damn hoodie.
“You excited to be getting back home?”he asked looking over at her as they made their way to the airport in the rental car.
“Oh yea I get to look forward to nights alone and a lot of Lost watching…”she said making him laugh. “While your out flirting with fans and doing shows everynight.”
“Hey you still got me to talk to…I know I can’t be there, but you know.”he said patting her on the leg as he turned into the airport parking lot. The hotel they were staying in was literally next door to the airport.
“I got it.”AJ said taking her bag from her rolling it in as he walked behind her. “Let’s go get you checked in.”he said pulling his sunglasses off of his face searching the airport for the American Airlines desk. He spotted it at the end of the room to the left and grabbed her hand as they walked towards it.
“I don’t know how you deal with people taking your picture all the damn time.”she said noticing the paparazzi outside the windows of the airport taking pictures of them. He shrugged and tried to ignore the people yelling his name through the glass.
“Do you have your papers ma’m?”a skinny short old man with glasses said as they stepped up to the desk. AJ pulled her papers out of his back pocket and handed them to the man. After a few minutes of typing her ticket printed out and she was on her way.
“I’ll miss you.”AJ said standing behind her as they waited in the baggage check in line. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her on the cheek from behind. “I still want to see you after this you know that right?” She turned around and looked at him and tried to quickly change the subject, but he refused to let it go.
“It was just a week thing AJ no worries.”she said patting him on the shoulder. He looked down at her hand confused.
“No I want to see you again.”he said smiling.
“Good then come see me when you get time.”she said and his smile faded.
“That will be never…how about you come see me as soon as possible?”he asked pulling her into him as they neared the front of the line.
“We’ll work something out.”she said handing her baggage to the checker.
“You guys can stand over there if your not ready yet.”the man said pointing to a side station to the right of the baggage check in area.
“Call me when you get in okay?”AJ said and she thought that was sweet that he was worried about it.
“I will…”she said as he looked down at her. He only stood at 5’6’’ so he wasn’t that much taller than her 5’4’’ stature.
“I miss you already.”AJ said holding onto both of her hands as she smiled.
“You gotta get back for soundcheck…”she said looking up at the digital clock behind him. It was almost four oclock, he would be so late.
“I know.”he said and gave her a few quick kisses before pulling her into a hug. “Bye!”he said as she pulled away from him and walked back towards the baggage check in. She turned around and waved at him as he stood there waiting to make sure she got in okay.
“10,000 troops will be sent home early from the Baghdad area per the new agreement by George Bush. They are expected to be returning back to the states sometime in the early week…”the TV blared in Caroline’s kitchen as she set her coffee pot onto the stove burner. She looked up shocked as her phone rang and it read Josh’s name. He must be back in the states. This would not be good. To nervous to pick it up, she let him call and leave a voicemail.
“Hey baby…it’s me. I got sent back early I don’t know if you heard yet. I am in North Carolina getting debriefed so I should be back in the next few days. I can’t wait to see you.”the phone went silent and she held the phone to her chest breathing in hard while closing her eyes. She thought she had at least 11 months before he was returning. For the past 3 weeks, her and AJ had been talking a lot, just about everything and anything. She was really starting to fall for him and she hadn’t even begun to think of what she would say to Josh about the whole thing. As she was pulling on her jeans, taking the coffee pot off the burner her doorbell rang. She thought it best to just leave it, but they were persistant as they kept ringing it over and over.
“Surprise.”a deep raspy voice said from underneath a hooded black hat. She only knew one person with that sexy of a voice.
“HEY!”she basically yelled as she put her two hands on his face. He put his arm around her waist as he pulled her into a kiss and she closed the door behind her. As he continued to kiss her, she layed back on her couch.
“We flew back to Orlando for a few days to record some stuff for the new album…so instead of coming to see my mother I chose to see you.”he said making her laugh as he layed on top of her. “You look beautiful.”he said lifting himself up off of her hopping as he stood up.
“My house is a mess…”she said picking up some clothes off the ground. “I know its not anything like your use to.”
“I could care less about your house. I only care about seeing you.”he said making her smile as he pulled her into a hug. “I was gonna head to the studio you wanna go with me or you just want me to call you later or what?”
“Of course I wanna come with you!”she said giving him a silly look. She grabbed her pocket book off the counter along with her coffee thermos and followed him out the door.
Author's Chapter Notes:
Okay so i got tired...the next one will be the long one promise :)
