I’m not sure how long I’d been in the stairwell when Kevin found me, but apparently, it was a while. “Hey,” he said, his voice echoing off the cinder block walls and causing me to jump. I turned to find him standing with the door propped open and looking down at me with his serious face.

“Did you talk to Amelia?” I asked sullenly.

“I didn’t just talk to her. I bought her a test. Two tests, actually.” He sighed as he let the door close behind him and sat down beside me.

“And?”

“Both positive,” he said stoically as he stared straight ahead of him. I nodded slowly, not really knowing what to say. Kevin turned to me and put a hand on my forearm. “You okay?”

I chuckled slightly. “Shouldn’t I be asking you that?”

He held his head down and kicked at the treads of the stair his feet rested on. “I never intended for you find out about that night.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that it happened, Kevin.” I laughed bitterly.

“I know,” he said, still holding his head down in shame. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s a little too late for ‘sorry,’ don’t you think? God, Kevin, I am so mad at you for so many reasons right now.”

“I know. I’m pretty mad at me, too.” He stayed hunched over with his elbows resting on his knees but turned his head to look up at me. I could see the fear in his eyes.

“I just don’t understand, Kevin. You let her get drunk off her ass then, what? Took advantage of her?”

“No!” he nearly shouted. He winced at the volume of his own voice and immediately got much quieter. “No. It wasn’t like that. I was drunk off my ass, too. I woke up the next morning...naked...” His ears flushed in embarrassment. “...with her in my bed and basically no recollection of what happened the night before. I wanted to go jump off a bridge-- I felt like such an ass. We agreed to never speak of it again and pretend the whole thing never happened. Of course we can’t do that now.”

“Nope. Definitely not. I can’t believe you didn’t even use protection!” I scolded him.

“We did, actually. It was the first thing I wondered about that morning, and I honestly couldn’t remember. I found a...a used condom in the floor by the bed after she’d gone back to her room.” There were those red ears again.

 I pursed my lips in deep thought. “I know it’s probably wrong to question my best friend about something like this, but....are you sure it’s yours?”
 

He nodded. “Pretty sure, yeah. She and AJ hadn’t.....had any kind of sex that could result in conception for a couple weeks before she and I...” Again with the red ears.

“Oh, okay. I’m kind of sorry I asked.” I laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“Yeah. I kind of was, too.” He fell silent and looked back down at his feet.

“Have you talked about what you’re going to do?”

He shook his head. “No, not really. I think she’s still trying to let it all sink in. I told her I’d check in on her later and maybe we’d talk. We did agree to keep it quiet for a while, though.”

I nodded. “That’s understandable.” I wiped a stray tear from my cheek. It was all a lot to try to take in.

He turned around so that our knees bumped up against each other and placed his hands on my cheeks. “I know I already said I’m sorry, but I feel like I just keep hurting you.”

“Tearin’ Up My Heart” started blaring from my cell phone. “I don’t have to answer it,” I said hastily.

“Actually, go ahead. I need to get going, anyway. Busy day.” He stood up, and without another word, walked back out into the hallway while I scrambled to answer my phone.

“Hey, you,” I said, attempting to sound cheerful.

“Hey, yourself. I take it I didn’t wake you up?” Joey’s actually cheerful voice said through the phone.

“No. I’ve been up for a while, actually,” I answered truthfully.

“Where are you?” he asked.

“In the hotel.”

“What a coincidence. So am I!” he bantered back.

“You’re in a hotel?”

“Correction. I’m in the hotel. Your hotel.”

“I thought you weren’t supposed to be here for two more days!”

He chuckled. “Well, N’Sync’s not supposed to be here for two more days. You’re here, so I’m here.” He sounded so proud of himself, and ordinarily, I would have been overjoyed, but now was just not a good time. Not after the morning I’d had. “Em?” He sounded concerned. “I found Marcus, and he says you’ve been crying in the stairwell.” So someone had heard me. “What’s up?”

I sighed as I stood up and started back out into the hall. “Nothing that you need to worry about, Joe.”

“My girlfriend’s crying in the stairwell. Of course I need to worry about it.”

“Where are you?” I trudged down the hallway and slipped my keycard into my door.

“I got a room, and I was thinking about ordering us some breakfast. That is, if you haven’t eaten yet.” I could hear him turning the pages of a book. He was a sucker for those information binders in every hotel room. The first thing he always did when he got into his room was read them.

“Actually, breakfast sounds great. What room are you in?”

“927.”

“Great! I’ll be up in about 20 minutes?”

“Sounds good. You sure you’re okay? Can we talk about it when you get here?”

“I don’t really want to do a lot of talking,” I said provocatively, in an attempt to distract him from the matter at hand.

“Oh really?” I could practically hear his excited smile. “Then hurry up, woman!” he joked. I hung up and glanced at Amelia, who had fallen back asleep. She looked terrible, and I felt a little guilty for planning to leave her alone all day, but Joey was just the distraction I needed to get my mind off things. Everything was so messed up, I didn’t even want to begin to sort through it all. I wasn’t even sure if I could face Amelia at the moment. I hopped in the shower and shaved my legs, then got dressed, put on some makeup, and ran some gel through my wet hair, intending to let it dry in curls. I left Amelia a note letting her know where I was, grabbed my phone and key, and went up a couple floors to Joey’s room.

When I knocked and he flung the door open excitedly, I really didn’t mean to stand in the hallway gaping at him as long as I did, but his hair was red. I don’t mean that it had a few red streaks or that it was a lovely shade of auburn. I mean it was fire engine red. Give him some white face makeup and a red nose, and he could have been Ronald McDonald.

“It’s too much, isn’t it?” His face started turning just a few shades lighter than his hair.

“Well, you should know that AJ’s is blue....”

“Crap! Now it looks like I’m trying too hard.” He laughed heartily, which was enough to break the ice, and I waltzed into the room, letting the door swing shut behind me. “It’s not going to last very long. I promise.”

“It doesn’t look that bad...it’s just a big change is all. I’m glad it’s not going to last long, though.” I giggled and patted the top of his head to feel the fiery red spikes.

“It’s gone tomorrow.” He said seriously.

“Oh, have a little fun. At least grab some attention at the VMAs.” I smirked.

He smirked back. “I’m pretty sure the hottie on my arm’s going to be the reason I’m grabbing attention at the VMAs.” He closed the space between us and enveloped me in a sensual kiss.

“I’m so glad you’re here,” I breathed, clutching handfuls of his t-shirt and taking in the scent of his aftershave.

“I’m glad I’m here too.” He wrapped his arms around my shoulders and squeezed hard.

“Until I saw you standing there in the doorway, appalled at my hair....” He chuckled softly against the top of my head then pulled away slightly so that he could look down at me. “I didn’t realize how badly I’d missed you, and this...” He squeezed me tight again. “This feels amazing.” I snaked my arms around his waist and squeezed back, then buried my face in his chest and sobbed. I was just overwhelmed. For a long time, he simply stood there holding me.

I finally pulled myself together and removed my face from his chest. I wiped the lingering tears from my cheeks and looked to down to find mascara smudges on my fingers and a large wet spot on Joey’s blue t-shirt. “I ruined your shirt.” I sniffled and forced a smile.

He shrugged. “I’ve got a lot of shirts. Are you okay? It’s not something I did, is it?” He put his hands on my shoulders and cocked his head to the side with his eyes fixed on mine.

“No, not at all. I can’t tell you right now, Joey, but I promise it’s nothing to do with you. You’ve made it so much better.”

He bit his lip in concentration, staring hard at me. “Okay.” He pointed towards his balcony. “Breakfast is over there. It’s probably cold, but I can always order more.”

I started walking towards the sliding glass doors. The table on the balcony was set for two, complete with silver platters, orange juice in champagne flutes, and a single long-stemmed rose in a crystal vase in the center. I smiled. “No. It’s perfect.”