“You could have just got some coffee from my house…”Caroline said stepping out of AJ’s black Range Rover. She handed him his coffee cup from Coffee Bean and shook her head.
“It just wouldn’t be the same.”he said smiling as he put his arm around her and walked her into the studio.
“Where’s everyone else?”she said seeing the empty studio room.
“Coming in later tonight. I wanted you to hear some of the stuff before they got here.”he said pulling out a chair for her to sit at the soundboard with him. He sat down next to her and began messing with the computers in front of him. “Let’s see what we got… This one’s my favorite.”he said quietly as the music began to play.
There’s me looking down at my shoes
The one smiling like the sun that’s you.
What were you thinking what was the song inside your heard
AJ looked over at her and smiled while putting his hand on her leg. “They want the chorus to be different, but this is the way I wrote it.”he said stopping the music.
If I’m a loser, or just unlucky
So are you…
Not everything is supposed to come true
Some words are best unsaid
Some love is not really love at all
I’d give everything I have to be with you
And that’s enough…
There’s us.
Caroline looked over at him and smiled because at that moment as the song kept playing she realized this song was them. The way he had written it. It was them. She would give up Josh and her job and her school and everything just to be with him everyday, even if that meant no privacy anymore. After only knowing each other for a month, this was so much more than she had ever had with anyone else. She didn’t know how he felt but she assumed this was the reason for letting her hear the song. “I think its great.”she said and he smiled kissing her on the cheek as he stood up to take a phone call. She watched him as he walked out into the hallway through the glass door talking to someone. He looked like he was stressed out as he put his hand up to his forehead and sighed as he hung up the phone. Her own phone was vibrating in her pocket but she just let it go.
“Everything okay?”she asked as he walked back in shaking his head.
“The guys aren’t coming in today…that was Nick. He got stuck in LA so we’re just gonna do everything tomorrow, which means my entire day tomorrow will be spent with the boys and not with you…”AJ said giving her a side smile.
“Well that’s okay….”she said smiling back at him as she stood up from her chair. “We’ll just make the most of tonight ya know?”she said looking down at her watch realizing it was already four in the afternoon.
“You wanna go see a movie or get something to eat or what? I’m not good at this date thing, don’t have much practice.”he said making her laugh.
“We could pick something up and rent a movie…”she said walking over to him putting her hands on his jacket pulling the hood a little bit. “And lay in my bed and watch it.”she said and he smiled raising his eyebrows with the “oh” look.
“That’s my girl.”he said laughing a little as he kissed her. “Let’s get outta here.”
Later that night after the hour Blockbuster extravaganza as people noticed who AJ was and he had to stop and take pictures with all of them they finally got to lay back in her bed. “I finally date a girl who likes Chinese food.”he said putting his plate down on the side table as he looked over at her. It was funny to see them laying in the bed like that. They looked like some old married couple.
“You’re lucky I don’t normally it fucks with my stomach.”she said pretending to throw up. He laughed at her and pulled her into him as he kissed her. “Are you not gonna watch the movie?”she asked as he kissed down her neck.
“Nope.”he said smiling at her as he rubbed his hand up her bare stomach. He put his hand on the rim of her panties and rubbed the top of them for a second before pulling them off of her legs. “You okay with this?”he asked putting his forehead up to hers.
“Yea.”she said kissing him as she unbuckled his blue jeans. He moved on top of her and slowly went inside as she breathed in deep. It had been a long time since she’d had sex.
“You’re beautiful.”he said leaning above her pushing some hair out of her face. She had always when she was younger imagined AJ as being aggressive and pushy when he was having sex just from the way he acted on stage, and she was right, normally he was, but for some reason he was taking it easy with her. He just wanted it to be right for her, not just sex for him.
“Caroline I have been calling your name for…Oh my God!”she heard as the door opened to her bedroom and there stood her Marine. He dropped the pack from his back with all of his clothes as he just stood there with his mouth open. Caroline pushed AJ off of her and they scrambled to put there clothes back on.
“Josh it’s not…”she said trying to find something to say. I mean they were in the middle of having sex when he opened the door. There was no way of getting around it. “I was gonna tell ya.”she said looking down at the floor.
“I leave for one fucking month and you start fuckin some gay ass Backstreet Boy.”Josh yelled pointing to AJ. AJ kept his mouth shut because this was between them for now. He just stood there in his boxers and DC hat watching the whole thing unfold.
“Josh Come on…it’s not like we were even gonna work out.”she said and his eyes got huge.
“I ASKED YOU TO MARRY ME!”he yelled getting closer to her face. She moved back from him until she was up against the wall. “AND I GO TO IRAQ AND COME BACK TO FIND MY WHORE OF A FIANCE GOD DAMMIT.”he yelled getting right in her face.
“Hey man back off!”AJ said running over and pushed him off of her.
“You back off man this is my business. I should be beating your ass right now.”Josh said turning around to AJ pushing him back. AJ rolled his eyes at Josh’s dramatics. Josh got into AJ’s face and pushed him again. AJ just took it and looked away from him getting more mad every second.
“STOP IT!”Caroline said pulling on Josh’s arm to get him away from AJ. Josh reached back and pushed her so hard she fell back on the floor.
“DON”T TOUCH HER!”AJ said pushing Josh back. That was the final breaking straw for him and they were soon rumbling on the floor. Josh took one final swing at AJ and left him laying on the floor. Josh was a Marine, meaning he had Marine training to kill, AJ was lucky he didn’t kill him as he layed there on the floor grabbing his stomach Josh kicked him once more before turning back to Caroline.
“Get your shit and get the hell outta my house!”Josh said throwing her shirt at her as he walked downstairs. Caroline crawled over to AJ who was still on the floor laying on his back in pain.
“Babe?”she said putting her hand on the side of his face as he looked up at her. “I’m sorry.”she said letting the tears rush out of her eyes. He slowly raised his hand to her face to lift her hair away from where she hit her head on the wall. It was slowly bleeding and he gave her a side smile to let her know he wasn’t mad at her.
“Are you okay?”he asked quietly because it hurt him to talk. They could hear the house being trashed downstairs. Dishes were being slammed, walls were being punched. They just needed to get what she needed and get out of there.
“I’m okay.”she lied and looked away from him as she tried to help him up. “We need to go.”she said pulling a bag out of her closet.
“Forget your stuff…I’ll buy you new clothes…and whatever else.”he said knowing they didn’t have much time before he came upstairs again. She looked over at him thinking how sweet that was and put his arm around her as she grabbed her pocket book and she helped him outside.
“When he cheats on you Caroline you remember who was here for you first! I won’t be here then you stupid bitch!”he yelled kicking the door behind them as they walked out.
“You gotta drive.”he said as he limped to the passenger door and threw her the keys. She sat down in the car and cranked it up. She back up out of the driveway and drove a little down the street, but stopped suddenly scaring the shit out of AJ as he wasn’t paying attention.
“Are you okay?”he asked narrowing his eyes as he looked over at her. As he put his hand on her leg she broke down. She couldn’t contain it anymore. The tears just flowed and she tried really hard to breathe normally. “Hey…hey it’s okay.”he said slowly holding his arms out to pull her into a hug. “Baby…you got me. It’s okay.”he said rubbing his hand up and down her back as he kissed her on the cheek. She looked up at him and pressed her lips to his, they were wet from her tears and tasted like salt. “It’s okay…you can stay at my place.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
This is where the story will get interesting...
