As Noelle banged on the door, tears streamed down her face. She promised herself that she wouldn't cry. She swore that she was just coming to him for answers and nothing else, but as every conversation, every little touch, every smile came flooding back to her, she lost control. When no one answered the door right away, she banged louder.

Finally, she heard the thumping of heavy footsteps on the carpeted floor. There was a pause as he looked through the peephole to see who was banging so urgently from the hallway. When he saw that it was Noelle, he quickly unlatched the lock and swung the door opened.

“Noelle?” AJ answered, and immediately reached out for his crying sister. “What's the matter, Sweetie? Are you okay?”

Noelle could only shake her head as she continued to sob.

AJ pulled her inside his room and wiped her eyes with the backs of his thumbs. “Noelle, talk to me. What's going on?”

“I need to know something,” she hiccupped through her tears. “I need you to tell me something.”

AJ nodded slowly. “Yeah, Honey, anything.”

“Tell me about his wife. Tell me about their relationship. Tell me everything. Tell me something. Give me a reason to want to care that he actually has a wife,” Noelle sobbed, knowing that AJ had no idea what she was talking about. Her plan was to come in quietly and hang out with her brother and then, maybe, casually talk about Brian's wife. It hadn’t happened to work out that way.

 AJ's heart dropped to his knees. He knew that Noelle was falling for Brian, but he didn't expect a reaction like this. “Noah, I'm sorry. I knew that you cared about him. I should have talked to you about Brian sooner.”

“I lied to you earlier,” Noelle replied as her sobbing began to slow down. “I didn't know about his wife.”

 AJ nodded and began to feel the anger surge inside of him. “Yeah, I assumed as much.”

“And there's more.” She paused until AJ nodded, urging her to continue. “We slept together, more than once. I tried to fight my feelings for him because of some other things that are going on in my life and because he's your friend, but it happened. He stopped me today on the street and he told me that he was different. He told me that he and his wife were separated and that I mattered to him and I felt myself caving in, so that's why I'm here. I need to hear it from you. I need to know what they were like together. I need to hear that she's a good person. I need to hear something that will keep me away.”

 AJ clenched his jaw and balled his fists. He wanted to go down the hallway and knock Brian out for hurting his sister. It was so out of character for Brian to do something like this that it was almost unbelievable. “Noelle, I'm so sorry. I-”

 Noelle shook her head and put her hands up in front of her to stop him. “I don't need you to be sorry. I need you to tell me what I need to know. I need you to tell me the things that will help me to get over him. Make him into a cold, conniving, manipulator.”

 AJ shook his head sadly. “I really wish that I could. I want to be able to tell you that he's a womanizing jackass, but he never was that guy. I mean, he and Leighanne had been having some problems, but he never talked to anyone about it. I think he would have told us if they were separated. I don't know how he could keep it out of the media, except, I guess, no one's really looking for that kind of information about us anymore.”

“You're not helping,” Noelle replied with a sigh as she walked over to AJ’s bed and threw herself down. She sank into the plush down comforter and almost felt a little bit better.

“I’m sorry,” AJ replied, though he knew that saying ‘sorry’ wasn’t helping. “Do you want me to lie to you? Do you want me to tell you that he was always a terrible person? I'm not trying to take up for him because I think that what he did to you was horrible, but all the same, he was always the good one. I really don't know what to say. Why don't you start? Tell me how all of this happened?”

 “Well,” Noelle started, and then paused, trying to get the words right in her mind. “You see. Brian, um, well, do you remember 'hunky'?”

AJ shook his head, not wanting to believe it. Noelle and Brian slept together on the first night that she had been here.

“No,” he gasped in disbelief.

Noelle nodded. “Yeah. Brian was hunky. We met in the hotel bar in Germany, got drunk together and had really amazing sex, like, three times.”

 AJ grimaced as his stomach turned. “Seriously, Noelle?”

Noelle mustered a small smile and sighed. “Sorry. Anyway, the next morning, you came banging at the door and we realized who each other was and we decided that it was never going to happen again. We tried to avoid each other, but that's mostly impossible. We have this unbelievable connection. We started hanging out—as friends—and then one thing led to another and a couple of days ago, we slept together again. When you came to my room to talk to me about him, I was about to tell you about our relationship, but you beat me to the punch. Today, we finally had it out in the streets. I told him to leave me alone and he did.”

“So, he's at least being respectful now, I guess.” He was trying to look at this objectively, but it was hard when this was his sister and the guy was Brian.

“That's when he told me about the separation. The thing is, this isn't the first time that I've gotten myself into this mess.” She paused again. She figured that since she was letting skeletons out of the closet, she might as well come completely clean. “You see, the real reason I'm out here is because I was kicked out of medical school for having a relationship with my married professor.”

“Noelle,” AJ groaned as he slapped his hand to his forehead.

“I know,” Noelle sighed. “I’m a slut, but I really cared about him and I was really starting to care about Brian and they both used and took advantage of me, not that I’m taking the responsibility off of myself, because I’m still a slut either way.”

AJ rolled his eyes. “You’re not a slut.”

When Noelle just shrugged in response, he continued, “So, did Brian know?”

 “Not at first,” Noelle replied, “no, but eventually, yeah.”

 “So, he had time to tell you about Leighanne?”

“Yeah. That's what makes me so sick about this whole thing is that he knew that I'd gone through it already. So, tell me about the wife. Make her matter to me. I looked them up and she’s totally hot.” Noelle sat up on her elbows on AJ’s bed, a sad expression was etched onto her face. “Do you think she’s hot?”

AJ looked at his sister out of the corner of his eye wondering if he should tell her the truth and then, he shook his head. “No, she's a total dog.”

----

As Brian hung up the phone with his mother he rushed to answer the door. He swung the door opened and was met by a fist to the face. Brian took a step back as he clenched his bleeding nose in his hand. “Dude, what the hell did you do that for?”

“That was for Noelle,” AJ yelled from his place in the doorway. “You're a fucking asshole. I just came here to tell you that you and I are done.”

“You broke my fucking nose, AJ, you aren't even going to give me a chance to explain?” Brian yelled through his pain.

“There's nothing to explain. You stopped wearing your wedding ring. You and Leighanne are having problems, fine. Go break someone else's sister's heart, don't use mine because she's here and she's convenient! We all know that you and Leighanne are going to be fine, but that girl in there is broken to pieces,” AJ screamed, “and I'll NEVER forgive you for that.”

With that, AJ turned and stomped down the hallway.

Brian ran out of the doorway, nose still bleeding, to try to stop him.

“AJ,” Brian called to his friend’s back. “AJ, come on!”

AJ threw his hands up and continued walking without ever turning back.

 “Fine,” Brian screamed. “Fuck you, too! Fuck you both!” He was only met in response with the slamming of a hotel room door down the hallway and then complete, deafening silence.