Later that afternoon, Brian was surprised when AJ arrived to the venue without Noelle in tow. His first reaction was that he had been caught in that college “booty call” game. After all, Noelle had left before he’d woken up. The only remnant of the night that they spent together was the note that she’d left on the bed.
Brian quickly rid himself of the thought. Though both he and Noelle had tried to be those people on the first night that they’d met, it had since become obvious that neither of them was able to resist the other. Brian couldn’t help but to wonder what would have happened if he had met Noelle earlier. It was a logical thought. She’d always been AJ’s sister.
Brian caught himself thinking that his failed marriage to Leighanne never would have happened had he met Noelle, but that was ridiculous, wasn’t it? He’d only known Noelle for a little over a month. There was no way that Brian could say that meeting Noelle earlier would have derailed his entire life over the last few years. At one point, Brian had been so in love with Leighanne that he couldn’t believe that he would have noticed Noelle. Not to mention the fact that Noelle’s nine years younger that Brian. If they had met ten years ago, she would have been in high school.
Still, Brian couldn’t help but to be disappointed that Noelle had decided not to come to the Boys’ rehearsal today. Seeing Noelle sitting out in one of the last rows of the venue during rehearsal—usually looking bored, sometimes skillfully playing with Nick’s Nintendo DS—was always enough to put a smile on Brian’s face.
Brian chuckled to himself as he thought back to their last rehearsal. Noelle had just beaten a level that she’d been stuck on in some Mario Brothers or Yoshi’s Island game of Nick’s. In the middle of one of the Backstreet Boys’ dance routines, she’d jumped up squealing excitedly and did a little happy dance of her own. Brian had started laughing and stopped dancing, which only caused the others to start running into each other. It was a mess.
As AJ took his stool next to Brian on the stage, he cleared his throat. Brian had a strange smile on his face, which oddly enough was making AJ a little bit sick.
“What are you laughing at?” AJ asked suddenly, which broke Brian from his reverie.
Brian shook head quickly. “Nothing. Just thinking about—nothing. Nevermind, it doesn’t even matter.”
AJ nodded slowly, letting it go. “So, where did you disappear to last night?”
Brian quickly turned to AJ. In the split second that he had to decide how to answer that, he scanned AJ’s face. Brian felt like AJ was testing him, though he couldn’t be sure. “I stayed for a while—hanging out with Noelle. Once she was ready to go, I left with her. You seemed to be preoccupied, so neither one of us felt it was necessary to bother you.”
“So, you just went to bed?” AJ prodded. He had no reason not to believe that was the case, but his brotherly defenses were starting to kick in.
Brian narrowed his eyes at AJ, confused. He wondered if Noelle had told him something, or worse, if he had decided to have a talk with Noelle. It really wasn’t like AJ to get into anyone else’s personal business, but lately, he sure had wanted to know a lot about Brian’s. “Yeah, I went to bed. Where else would I go?”
AJ shrugged. “I don’t know, Man. I’m just asking.”
“Is the third degree over? Are you going to tell me what your problem is now? Or am I supposed to just ignore this entire process?” Brian snapped, though he had a feeling that he should have kept his mouth shut.
“I don’t mean to give you a hard time. I just know that my sister is into you and I don’t want to see her get hurt,” AJ replied. “That’s all.”
Brian nodded. “Look, you brought her on this tour. You can’t expect that we’re all going to ignore her presence.”
“I don’t want you to ignore her,” AJ defended. “There’s something with you, I guess. She says that she knows that you’re married, but still.”
Brian could feel the blood draining from his face. AJ said something. How could he be stupid enough to think that no one would EVER mention his wife when Noelle was around, or hell, like AJ, directly TO Noelle. “S-so, you talked to her this morning?”
AJ nodded. “Yeah, she says that it’s nothing, that I’m overreacting. Who knows? Maybe I am.”
Shit. Brian thought to himself. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“What’s the matter with you?” AJ asked, his eyebrows knitted. “You look like you’re going to be sick.”
Brian shook his head quickly, unable he couldn’t speak. He thought that he was going to vomit. He felt like the biggest ass. After everything that she’d told him, he should have come right out with it. He should have just said that he was married, but that it was over. It seemed easy now. He had the separation papers, signed by both him and his wife. If he could only get Noelle to listen to him, he could tell her everything. He could show her that he wasn’t like that other guy. Maybe under different circumstances that would have worked, but not after everything that Noelle had already been through.
Brian needed this day to go by quickly so that he could get back to the hotel and talk to Noelle. He needed her to listen to him. She had given him feeling back. She had given him something to look forward to every day. He couldn’t just let this be it. She needed to hear the truth from him.
***
Like clockwork, Brian came banging on Noelle’s hotel room door immediately after returning from the venue. Noelle ignored the sound. She didn’t know if he and AJ had talked. She didn’t know if Brian knew that Noelle knew about his lies and manipulation, but Noelle wasn’t about to open that door to more lies and manipulation. There was no way she was going to allow herself to fall into that trap again.
So, when Brian banged, Noelle turned up the television.
When Brian banged some more, Noelle put a pillow over her ears.
She didn’t know whether the banging continued from that point or not. She did know that when she pulled the pillow away from her head, there was no one behind the door.
However, moments later, the banging began again. Noelle picked up her shoe off of the floor and threw it at the door. Brian went away for good.
Part of her thought that she should give Brian a chance to explain, but another part of her debunked that quicker than she was able to take another breath. There was nothing to explain. Brian was married. He’d said, “I do.” He vowed, “Til death do us part.” That was it. He wasn’t dead and Noelle assumed neither was his wife.
The worst part about it was that all Noelle had to do was put Brian’s name into a search engine, which she’d done today, and the pictures would come. Noelle got to see scans of the wedding. She got to see video of some stupid interview he and his freaking beautiful wife had done together. She was there. With Brian. All over the Internet.
Noelle knew that she could be pretty trusting, but when was enough going to be enough? How much would it take for her to finally become one of the millions of crazy, insecure women in this world?
Not only did Noelle feel used and taken advantage of, but worse than that, she was hurt. She really thought that Brian could have cared about her. She never even thought to come out and ask him if he was married. He didn’t have a ring on, which seemed odd to her now that none of the other guys would have mentioned anything about it missing; although she hadn’t been with them on the tour since the beginning so who knows what conversations the guys had before she’d gotten there. Noelle had really liked Brian. He was the first guy that she’d let herself get close to since Rob and what happened? Oh, only the same damn thing.
Noelle sighed to herself and slumped down into her bed. She had been trapped in that hotel room all day crying, but she refused to cry anymore. Rob wasn’t worth her tears and neither was Brian. Noelle had learned a long time ago that she couldn’t feel sorry for herself. She just had to be stronger than Brian. She just had to prove that he didn’t mean a thing to her—even if he did.
***
Admittedly, Brian’s behavior was turning stalker-like. Every time he heard a nearby door open or close he rushed to see if Noelle was leaving her room. It hadn’t ever been her.
Now, he was sitting out on his balcony staring down at the street below. He hoped that none of his fans recognized him up there and caused a scene. According to AJ, Noelle had been doing a lot of shopping at the local boutiques that lined the road that their hotel was on. Brian figured that if he sat there long enough, he would eventually spot Noelle on the street, and then he could make a run for it and catch up with her eventually.
The next day, the Boys were leaving Italy. Noelle and Brian would have to share the tour bus, but that was not the place that Brian wanted to have this discussion, especially if she was going to be loud and mad. Not that Brian cared about her telling the others that they’d slept together, maybe it would help him segue into telling them about his separation and pending divorce. He just didn’t want to be stuck with an irrational, mad woman in the middle of Italy somewhere. He could have that in Georgia.
Just as Brian was about to give up, he spotted Noelle walking out of the hotel. It was cloudy and windy; no doubt a storm was coming. Her hair was being whipped around her face and tangled in her over-sized sunglasses. Brian was stunned for a minute to finally see Noelle walk out of the hotel after two days, but he eventually got himself together and bolted from his room. He grew tired of waiting for the elevator and instead ran down the 10 flights of stairs and through the lobby. When Brian exited the hotel to the street, he took a left and headed the way that he saw Noelle going. When he saw her just a few feet in front of him, he froze. Though he’d rehearsed his lines in his mind, he didn’t know what he was going to say.
Something made Noelle turn around. When she saw him, a disgusted look washed over her face. She turned back and continued walking without a word.
Brian didn’t waste any time. He lurched forward and grabbed onto Noelle’s wrist so that she wouldn’t go any further. When Noelle whirled around, there was ice in her eyes.
Brian quickly let go. “Noelle, I’ve been trying to talk to you.”
“There is nothing that you can say that will make any difference to me.” Noelle shook her head, completely forgetting her strategy to pretend like he didn’t matter to her. “Not after everything that I told you. Just leave me alone.”
“That’s why I need to talk to you. I’m not like Rob. I really am leaving my wife.” Brian grimaced at the sound of his own voice. How typically adulterous did he just sound?
Noelle rolled her eyes. “Please. You don’t honestly expect me to fall for that again do you?”
“There’s nothing to fall for,” Brian replied. “We’re legally separated. I’ve got the papers upstairs. I can show you. We’re getting divorced as soon as I get home.”
“But she doesn’t know that yet, right? You promised her you’d try to make it work? All of your things are still at her house?” Noelle shook her head. “You’re the same as all the others.”
“I’m not--” Brian started, but Noelle cut him off.
“You are!” she yelled. “You are and I fell for it. I really started to care about you. Even if your entire story is true, you should have told me. You should have said something! After I poured my heart out to you, you kept looking at me that way that you look at me and you kept telling me that I was special and I fell for it and I slept with you! Just leave me alone. You’re no different than Rob, or any other guy out there that does the same thing.” Noelle could feel the tears burning in her eyelids as she began to walk away.
Brian reached out for her again. His heart was breaking. The last thing that he wanted to do was hurt her. “Noelle, please. Let’s just talk about this.”
“What don’t you get?” Noelle yelled, the tears now pouring down. “There’s nothing left to say! Just leave me alone. If you care about me one little bit, please, leave me alone.”
This time, Noelle didn’t take any chances. She turned and she ran and just as she begged for, Brian left her alone. That time, however, she wished that he had followed.
