Chapter Two-Hundred-Four
“Do you honestly care how my ride was?” Kori asked moodily as AJ waited ever so patiently for her answer.
“Would I have asked if I didn’t?” Kori narrowed her eyes at him.
“Why don’t you quit the charade? Everybody knows you don’t like me so why pretend to be nice to me?”
“I never said I didn’t like you, those were your words. And don’t get me started on talks about charades.” Kori noticed his eyes darken and she raised her eyebrow. Wiley rolled his eyes exasperatedly and stepped away from the two.
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“You know perfectly well what it means.” Kori shook her head.
“I did not ask for this. Why did you have to come over here when you know we don’t get a long?” and she turned to go stand next to Wiley. AJ rolled his eyes.
“That’s right – run away like you always do.” Kori turned her back on him acting as if she hadn’t heard a thing. Growing very frustrated AJ started toward her but Ashley stood in front of him giving him a hard stare.
“Move out of the way honey.”
“No.” AJ gave her an impatient look.
“You said—“
“I didn’t say that you could go looking for the fights,” Ashley told him quietly so only he could hear. “She was minding her own business, and you went right up to her and stirred up trouble.”
“I asked her how her ride was. It was an innocent conversation starter! It’s not my fault she can’t have a normal conversation with me.”
“You knew she would react that way.”
“I did not. I was simply trying to get a long with someone who is supposed to be my sister.”
“Alex please…” Ashley pleaded softly, the pain evident in her eyes. “Don’t make things worse for me.”
“I’m not – I’m trying to make them better.”
“You’re upsetting her. The more you upset her the more she is going to pull away and want to leave me.”
“So what if she gets upset? At least then she would be feeling something.”
“I don’t want to lose her…”
“I’m not going to let you lose her,” AJ reassured softly and he slid his arms around her and pulled her into a hug. “Trust me okay?”
“Just don’t purposely stir up trouble…please…”
“Fine,” AJ answered after a long moment, as he could see a way around that rule. He has to get her fighting with him if he wants his plan to work. Ashley rested her head against his chest as she hugged him close to her and he bent down and placed a soft kiss on her forehead as she smiled some now.
“You know what’s kind of interesting?” Howie spoke up as he suddenly appeared so he was standing between AJ and Nick.
“Hmm?” AJ asked curiously, raising his eyebrow at his best friend as he rubbed his hand over Ashley’s back.
“The last time we were in a Mc Donald’s…Nick was jealous of you…afraid you were going to steal Ashley from him and was ready to rip your head off,” Howie began. “And now, here we are standing in Mc Donald’s again, and you’re standing here hugging on his girlfriend and he is standing here looking thrilled about it.”
“Well it’s a lot different now that he is her brother,” Nick insisted. “I mean, he’s pretty weird and all…but I honestly doubt that he is into incest.”
“Good, I’m glad you know me that much,” AJ replied with a roll of his eyes.
“And I’m thrilled because ever since he became her brother I haven’t seen her any happier.” When they finally made it to the front of the big long line, they ordered their food and took it back to the tables to eat it. Ashley sat in between AJ and Nick and AJ sat there quietly contemplating on the best way to work his way around Ashley’s rule. There has to be a way to piss Kori off without looking like he is even trying. But what?
~*~*~*~*~
“I’m hungry,” Sean whimpered hours later. He had fallen asleep in Trevor’s arms but had awoken at the feel of his stomach rumbling. It had been hours since he had eaten anything. Trevor smiled some.
“You’re adorable when you whine, you know that right?” he informed him as he stood up and helped his wounded lover from the ground. Sean made a disgusted face.
“You’re lucky I am in so much fucking pain right now or Id punch you for that…”
“Then I would know you were all better,” Trevor insisted with a roll of his eyes and he began to steer him in the direction of the house. Sean leaned into him and rested his head against his shoulder.
“What are we eating? We’re in a new house, I know you didn’t have time to grab all of our food before we left…”
“I’m going to call up David and ask him very nicely to go pick up something special for you.” Sean made a disgusted noise.
“Ask nicely…you’re such a fucking softy. If it were me I wouldn’t have to ask.”
“And look where that got us.” Sean scowled bitterly. “And anyway, don’t get me started on who’s turning into a softy right before my eyes. If I knew all it took was a bullet wound to soften you…”
“I am not a fucking softy,” Sean argued sourly. Trevor laughed.
“Be nice to me, I hurt…” He mocked in Sean’s pitiful wounded voice so naturally that he almost sounded exactly like him. “I love you Trevor…you’re the only drug I’ll ever need. I care about you. You’re my better half…” Sean glared at him. “And the way you squeezed my hand in the car when you sensed my pain…the way you held my face in your hands so delicately…I never knew you could be like that…”
“Would you like me to stop? Would you like me to treat you the way I treated Shelly?”
“You know the answer to that.”
“Then shut up and stop mocking me…It’s not easy you know.” Trevor laughed.
“What’s not easy?”
“Feeling so strongly about another human being as I do right now. I stopped caring somewhere around five years old.”
“That’s not true,” Trevor insisted and Sean looked up at him confused as he was brought into the house. “You’ve always cared about me.”
“Maybe because you were the only one who ever cared about me.”
“That’s not true either.” Sean let Trevor lay him on the couch. “Shelly loved you once before…and so did your daughter – even if you didn’t love her back.”
“Some people just aren’t meant to be a father.” Trevor sat next to him taking his hands in his as he noticed the pain in his eyes. “Don’t tell me I never loved my daughter…because I did. I just didn’t know how to show it. Maybe if my own father and mother had loved me things would have been different. Maybe she is better off with the Backstreet Boy.” Trevor couldn’t hide the surprise in his eyes.
“You mean that?” Sean nodded.
“She’s better off…he can give her the affection I never got.”
“Then why don’t you just give up entirely? Why are you so determined on killing Kori and Ashley?”
“Because Kori betrayed me.”
“Sean…”
“I’m serious. This isn’t the abused boy from so long ago talking…I really hate her.”
“I hate a lot of people too baby but—“
“--This is different. This is an I won’t move on until she and everybody important in her life are dead.”
“All because she took a picture of you murdering someone?” Sean looked away.
“Sean?”
“I thought you were going to call David? I’m hungry.”
“Sean Ellerbee…”
“You kept a secret from me earlier! I’m entitled to mine!”
“I eventually told you what it was!”
“I don’t want to talk about it!”
“Damnit Sean! Tell me! We can’t afford to have secrets from each other. If this could get us in trouble…”
“It won’t get us in trouble. It has nothing to do with you, it’s between me and her…what that bitch put me through.”
“What did she put you through? As your boyfriend I deserve to know!” Sean grew very quiet.
“Sean please…” Trevor pleaded and he shifted so he was lying down next to him on the couch. He cupped is cheek in is hand and he bent down and placed light kisses on various parts of his face.
“Trev…don’t…please this isn’t fair.”
“What isn’t fair, is you shutting me out like this. You usually tell me everything.” Sean sighed heavily and Trevor could see the defeat in his eyes.
“Talk to me…”
“It’s what she led me to believe…it almost destroyed my relationship with Shelly.” Trevor gazed in his eyes with great concern as he lightly caressed his cheek waiting for him to continue.
“I slept with Kori once…” Trevor gaped at him in surprise.
“Illegally…”
“Rape?”
“No. She wanted it.”
“Why would she want it? I mean…no offence, I could see why but I mean she was in love with Scott.”
“Her and Scott broke up once…no one knew about it because it only lasted a day.”
“So how did she end up having sex with you?”
“She was upset…she came to me for comfort…one thing led to another…and you know…”
“So…” Trevor began looking perplexed. “Then who is the real father of the kid?”
“Scott…but she wasn’t sure at first.”
“So what happened then?”
“We fought about it for weeks…vicious name calling, threats, I ended up having to tell Shelly of the possibilities…she flipped out, and then her and I were fighting too…she almost left me and at the time I was so in love with her…” he explained. “Finally I took her down to one of those plan parenting places…where everything was kept confidential and we had it tested and after another agonizing week when the results were available we were reassured that the baby is Scott’s.” Trevor looked relieved as he heard this and he smoothed his fingers through his lover’s hair.
“So if the baby wasn’t yours, what is the problem?”
“Well like I said our fight was pretty vicious…we were still bitter toward each other and I couldn’t forgive her for losing Shelly – Shelly had left me and I was hurt. She was hurt by all of the harsh words I said and wanted out of our gang. I told her no.”
“So that’s when she decided she would take a picture of you for blackmail, steal the code to the museum alarms, and run away?” Trevor asked, suddenly comprehending. Sean nodded the anger evident in his eyes. “It took me a month to get Shelly to forgive me. A month.” Trevor rested his forehead against Sean’s gazing into his eyes as he hugged him close.
“Let it go Sean…”
“I can’t.”
“It’s not worth it…”
“Yes it is. You know how much I loved Shelly back then Trev…she put me through so much pain. I want her to suffer the way I had.” Trevor couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy.
“Would you have done this if you had almost lost me?” he asked softly.
“If I almost lost you it would have been way worse…you know how you punched the shit out of Charlie and then shot him in the head twice and killed him?” Trevor nodded.
“I’ll never forget it.”
“Instead of shooting him in the head, Id tie him down to a chair, set off a bomb in the house and blow him to pieces if it were the other way around.” Trevor shuddered and then rested his head against Sean’s chest as Sean wrapped his arms firmly around him. The two of them lay there quietly together for a few moments, until suddenly Sean spoke up.
“Trev?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m hungry,” he reminded.
“Oh! Right!” Trevor exclaimed and he reached into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone and he flipped it open and dialed a number while remaining wrapped in Sean’s arms.
~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile, when everybody left Mc Donald’s they drove again for hours and when they were finally in Florida and only a couple of hours away from the Orphanage, they decided they would stop at a rest stop again. Everybody got out of their cars and used the restrooms and walked around and stuff, stretching their legs. AJ looked around the rest stop as he stood there with a pack of cigarettes in his hand and he noticed Spencer sitting on the ground under a tree with Elenore and Dakota on either side of him and Laila in his lap. Howie must’ve asked him to keep an eye on her. Q was standing near by keeping an eye on all three of them. Missing his little girl very much, he stuffed his box of cigarettes into his pocket for later and he went to join the kids under the shaded tree.
“J!” Laila exclaimed excitedly when she saw her favorite person in the whole world approaching. AJ grinned and he went over and scooped her into his arms.
“Hi baby!” He exclaimed cheerfully, and he immediately placed endless kisses all over the little girl and she giggled. He sat down with her in his lap and she snuggled into him some as he looked at the other three kids sitting there.
“Hi Uncle AJ,” Dakota greeted with a small smile.
“Hi honey,” AJ replied and he ruffed her hair, before leaning over and kissed Elenore’s cheek and he ruffled Spencer’s hair.
“This is a nice shaded little area…though it looks like the sun is going away pretty fast,” AJ observed, as he looked up at the sky, the clouds were slowly becoming gray and it is breezy out. Dakota frowned some.
“You don’ts think it will thunder and lightning today Uncle J, do you?”
“For yours and Ashley’s sake…I hope not sweetheart…but it would be nice to have some rain, don’t you think?” Dakota nodded.
“Rain. Buts not thunder and lightning,” she insisted. He sat there quietly for a few moments just thinking, and then a grin spread across his lips and he looked down at Spencer.
“Hey Spence…what do you think about Florida?” he asked, completely unaware that Kori was standing a couple of inches behind him with Wiley and could hear the whole thing. Or was he?
“I like it lots.”
“Yeah me too…it’s pretty great living here isn’t it?” Spencer nodded eagerly.
“It would suck if you ever had to leave…”
“I’m nots leaving. Momma, Wiley, and I moved here.” Spencer insisted. “My friends are all here. Nots going.”
“Well that’s good…because we all like having you around.” Spencer beamed and suddenly AJ felt someone’s presence behind him. He looked up to see Kori standing there, her arms crossed over her chest and giving him a dark look. He smirked.
“Well hi there Kor! Join us! We were just having a little chat amongst ourselves.” He spoke innocently.
“Well how about you and I go have a little chat amongst ourselves?” Kori asked angrily and she grabbed his hand, forced him to his feet. He handed Laila over to Spencer then and willingly let her drag him off away from the kids. When they were far away from the kid’s hearing point, Kori began.
“What the HELL do you think you’re doing? No don’t answer that! I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to help!” AJ blinked innocently.
“What did I do? All I was doing was having a chat…am I not allowed to talk to your son? Do you really hate me that much?”
“You were not having an innocent chat. You were planting ideas in his head and making him believe that he is staying in here when infact, he is not.”
“Oh. That’s right. Why live here where your son is perfectly happy? Where your sister wants you? You would rather be selfish and hurt them instead!”
“Ashley and I have come to an agreement about this, and Spencer wont be hurt if people wouldn’t encourage him into believing we moved here!”
“If you honestly believe Ashley is really okay with that agreement you made then you obviously don’t know your sister at all!”
“I know her better then you do!”
“Bullshit!” Kori having just about enough of AJ thinking he could ever know her sister more then she does smacked him hard across the face. She started to walk past him when he gently grabbed her arm and whirled her back to face him. Nick, Ashley, Denise, and Wiley were all watching this from a distance. Wiley started to go to Kori’s rescue when Nick gently grabbed him by the shirt.
“Let them be. If they don’t fight and get this all out, it will never end.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the next chapter.
Enjoy =)
Enjoy =)
