Fifty-two

There’s something about a concert in Vegas that gets everyone excited. Maybe it’s just the excitement of the town that rubs off on you… the lights, the casinos, and the whole experience. Whatever it was though, it had a hold of us all. I even skipped my usual costume of blue jeans and a tee shirt for the red dress that AJ’d bought be earlier on the tour and I’d yet the opportunity to wear. It was a simple dress, but short enough to show off my legs and cut low enough to show a little chest action too.  It was no wonder AJ loved it so much.

I sneaked out of the concert before the finale knowing that we had the next day off which meant that we were going to party hard that night, especially being in Vegas. I went back up to the room and checked my hair and makeup while putting my cameras away figuring that I could get casino pictures of the guys later because we were going to be there for four days. Just as I was finishing up I walked back into the sitting room of the suite and heard the automated click of the lock on the door and AJ walked into the suite. "Hey, baby…" I smiled and walked toward him for a kiss. He more or less grunted at me and walked around me toward the bedroom. I stopped in my tracks with a confused look on my face for a moment and turned around and headed for the bedroom. AJ was moving around taking sweaty clothes off leaving them in piles around the room. I watched him for a moment and noticed that he was purposely keeping his eyes off of me. I leaned against the doorframe and crossed my arms in front of me rubbing my hands over my skin, which suddenly felt cool from the chill in the room. "Something wrong?" AJ let out a dry chuckle and looked at me wordlessly and then looked away before walking into the bathroom and making a point of locking the door behind him. I sighed and shook my head, "Great…"

I sat down on the couch and flipped on the television and began watching CNN to pass the time until AJ decided to come out of the shower and talk to me. When I heard the shower turn off and the bathroom door open again my heart skipped a beat wondering if he was finally going to talk. My heart dropped though when he shut the bedroom door and once again made a point of locking it to keep me out. I dropped my head into my hands and groaned quietly.

A secret knock on the door startled me and I got up to answer it, "Hey, Kel…" Howie smiled from the hall.

I smiled, "Hey, honey, come on in, what’s up?"

"Didn’t AJ tell you? We’re going out tonight, he told me to meet you two here."

"Oh…" I said with a forced smile and sat down on the couch.

Howie followed my lead and sat down next to me, "You okay?"

I shrugged, "Yeah… he’s just not talking to me for some reason. Locked me out of the bedroom…"

Howie looked at the closed bedroom door and then back to me, "Did you have a fight?"

"Nope."

"Hmm… that’s weird. He seemed fine earlier."

"Yeah he did…" AJ had been "on" during the concert that night. He was his usual hyper self running around doing bad things to the minds of the prepubescent girls in the venue while providing all sorts of good fantasies to the adults. Watching him that night made me forget all about how weird he’d been acting with all of his possessiveness…at least until he’d locked me out of the bathroom and the bedroom.

Howie reached out and patted my knee, "I’m sure it’s nothing. Maybe he just needed a few minutes alone." I smiled at Howie and then looked back to CNN. "You look really great tonight by the way…" he said and smiled.

I smiled again, "Thanks… he bought me this dress."

The door to the bedroom opened and I looked away from Howie back to the television with my stomach doing flips. "Hey, D…"

"Hey…" Howie said cheerily. "I was just telling Kel how great she looks tonight. Apparently your taste in clothing is improving…" he giggled. I smiled and looked at him and then to AJ. AJ wasn’t smiling, and he still wouldn’t look at me.

"You want a beer?" AJ asked Howie.

"Sure…" We sat quietly as AJ reached into the mini bar fridge and pulled out two bottles of beer and handed one to Howie. Howie looked at me, "Kel… you want one?"

I shook my head getting more and more pissed off at AJ’s behavior, "No thanks, honey…" Howie shot me a supportive look and I looked down at my hands. I played with the ring on my middle finger sliding it on and off slowly while deep in thought. "So where we headed tonight? I guess Nick went off downstairs to gamble already, but Kevin and Brian are waiting for us to tell them where we’re going."

AJ took a long drink of his beer, "I wanna play pool."

Howie nodded, "Cool… But I don’t think Kel’s gunna be able to lean over the table in that dress… How about we go dancing and then play pool tomorrow?"

"I want to play pool…" AJ said again.

Howie chuckled, "Dude, I heard you. But how about we just do something all together tonight? We’ve got tomorrow off… we can do whatever we want tomorrow…"

"D, what part of ‘I want to play pool’ don’t you get?"

"AJ, I just…"

I reached out and put my hand on Howie’s knee while looking up at AJ, "He’s trying to say that he doesn’t want me there…"

AJ smiled and held his beer bottle up to me in a mock toast, "She’s a smart one isn’t she?"

I sighed and looked at him, "What the hell is going on?"

"Oh like you don’t know…" he shot back at me.

"No… I don’t know. You were all over me before the concert, you had a good concert and then you get back here and you’re locking me out of the bedroom and you don’t want to talk to me. So no, I don’t know… why don’t you tell me?"

"How do you know I had a good concert?"

I sighed and gave him a confused look, "How do I know that you have a good show any night, AJ? I was there!"

"No you weren’t…"

"I wasn’t there… My ears aren’t ringing from the screaming… I didn’t use a whole roll of film when you guys got into the silly string fight and you and Nick had bra’s on your heads…"

"Sure sounds like she was there…" Howie said quietly.

"Where the hell were you then? I looked down to wave at you and you weren’t in your seat. Some little girl was there… I didn’t expect to see some fucking fan in your seat…"

I stood up to give myself something to do to try and keep my cool, "First of all… The ‘fucking fan’ you’re talking about has a name. It’s Katie. She’s 17 years old and when I was down in the lobby tonight someone stole her purse that had her ticket in it. So I gave her my seat and I wandered around with my press pass. Second of all… I’m not some fucking slave, AJ. I have a job to do on this tour and it’s not to follow you around and sit in a specific seat each night so you can check on me and see where I am. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but you’re smothering me! Following me around like a goddamn puppy half of the time? Offering to go to the bathroom with me? This has to stop!"

"Yeah like I can trust you…"

"What the fuck is that supposed to mean?" I yelled as I finally lost my temper.

"Gee… let me think…" AJ said sarcastically with a finger on his chin. "How about I walk into the bedroom this afternoon to find you sleeping with Nick? How about someone tells me they saw you walking out of the bathroom earlier this afternoon holding hands with Kevin when you were supposed to be checking your voice mail? Why don’t you tell me what that means, Kel?"

"So what, you’re calling me a whore now? You think I’m fucking Nick and Kevin because I don’t spend all of my waking moments with you? Maybe I’m fucking Howie too, we were just alone in this room together while you were in there getting dressed! He told you how hot I looked in this dress… I could have thanked him with a quick blow job you know… Ooh and Brian… I must have fucked him on the bus ride here since I rode with him instead of you. Isn’t that right?" AJ glared at me for standing up to him and I stood my ground as he walked up to me trying to use his height as his intimidation. "You going to hit me now? Did I embarrass you in front of Howie?" There was absolutely no way I was backing down on this one. "You walk up to me like you’re tough shit and you’re going to do something to me… well do it AJ. What the fuck are you going to do?" I caught a glimmer of remorse in his eyes but he knew it was too late, he’d gone too far. I nodded, "That’s what I thought…" I backed away from him and grabbed my purse from the table before looking at him again and pointing a finger at him. "Next time you accuse me of something… you damn well better be sure it’s true." I looked at Howie who was still sitting on the couch with a deer in the headlight look on his face, "Sorry, Howie…"

I stormed out of the suite and ran into Marcus, "Whoa…"he smiled.

"Sorry, Marcus…" I sighed as I fumbled around trying to get my phone out of my purse.

"You okay, kiddo?"

"Yeah just peachy… I’ll see you later…" I said as I finally grabbed my phone and began walking toward the elevators.

"Kel, you need security…" Marcus yelled out toward me.

"Trust me… I’ll have it…" I yelled back as I listened to the ringing in my phone. Just as the elevator doors closed he finally answered.

"Sup?"

"Where are you?"

"Getting my ass kicked at poker, why?"

"Want some company?"

"I thought you were all going out?"

"Do you or don’t you want company, Nick?" I sighed as I leaned against the mirrored wall of the elevator.

"Where are you?"

"Middle elevator, about half way down."

"I’ll meet you in the lobby…"