* Chapter 35 *

It was about 7:15 when I opened my eyes the next morning. I could feel one of AJ’s arms draped over my side as I was lying there facing the wall with the TV. After I rolled over carefully, I saw that he was still sound asleep so I laid there watching him for a few seconds. I lifted his arm from my side before I slipped out from under the covers, grabbed some clean clothes from the dresser, and headed for the bathroom.

"Where ya goin’?" AJ called out quietly as I approached the bathroom door.

"Taking a shower," I whispered back before going in and shutting the door behind me.

I let the warm water dampen my hair as I stood under the showerhead. After I was done with my shower, I hopped out and quickly got dressed and ready to go for the day. When I stepped out of the bathroom I saw that Arti was still sleeping in her bed and AJ was no where to be found. The blankets and sheets on my bed were made neatly and the pillows were sitting perfectly in place against the headboard. I smiled to myself as I slid some shoes on and went out on the small balcony to enjoy the sunrise. I leaned up against the white marble railing and looked out over the water below as the sun started to peak up from its hiding place under the horizon. A few people were out surfing on the tide that was coming in as the sun began to warm the earth below. I could hear a song playing faintly on one of the stereos that was sitting next to a small group of people on the beach.

‘I knew I loved you before I met you, I think I dreamed you into life. I knew I loved you before I met you, I have been waiting all my life’ was heard in the fresh morning air coming from the beach below.

I closed my eyes and let the words sink into my soul as the ocean breeze blew small strands of my hair in my face. I listened as someone opened the sliding door and joined me on the balcony.

"Hey," Arti said when she was standing next to me against the railing.

"Morning," I replied while I opened my eyes and turned my head to see her fully dressed with her hair and make-up done. "Did you guys have fun last night?"

"Yeah! You should’ve come with us!" she said with a grin.

I turned around so I was facing the sliding door to our room before I said anything.

"Let’s go tonight," I suggested with a sly smile. "I want to see the party side of this town before I have to leave and go back to my boring blah life."

"Sure thing!" Arti replied happily before we went back inside.

"I’ll talk to..." I started to say before I looked up to find everyone lounging on our beds, in the chairs, and on the floor. "Them..." I said, pointing to Mel and Cynth sitting comfortably on my bed.

"Hey everyone," Arti called out before she ducked into the bathroom to get some lotion for her hands.

AJ was sitting up against the foot of my bed, Brian and Nick were lounging on Arti’s bed, Howie was sitting in the chair by my bed with Meg on his lap (how cute!), and Kev was sitting on the floor leaning up against one of the dressers.

"We know that you and the girls are leaving tomorrow so we want to spend the day with y’all before ya leave," Brian explained as I took a seat next to Cynth on my bed so that my feet were sitting next to AJ on the floor.

"Ok...so what’s the plan?" I asked while I played with AJ’s neon purple tipped hair a little.

"Yeah...what’s the plan?" Mel asked as she reached over and played with AJ’s hair too like she was mocking me.

I could tell that she was teasing me so I playfully swatted her hand away from AJ’s head and tickled her in the side. She let out a yelp in surprise and continued laughing as I tickled her mercilessly. When I didn’t ease up at all, AJ, Meg, and Kev pulled me up off the bed away from Mel and set me down on the floor before they started tickling me.

"Stop!!!! I can’t breath! Stop!" I yelled out as everyone else laughed at me. "Uncle!"

They finally stopped to give me a breather for a few seconds before AJ continued without warning.

"AJ!!!! STOP!!! Aaaaahhhh!!!" I screamed as everyone gathered around us in an amused circle of onlookers. "Cynth help me!"

"This one is between you two," she replied with a laugh before she grabbed Mel and headed for the door. "We’ll meet you two in the café for breakfast."

Everybody else followed them out as AJ continued tickling me until I was completely out of breath. My face was red and my eyes were watering when he finally let up.

"Geez AJ...I am gonna be so worn out by the end of the day..." I said as I lay there on the floor with my eyes closed, trying to take deep breaths to calm my racing heartbeat.

He only gave me an evil smile as he stood up and then offered me a hand. He pulled me up and then waited patiently while I fixed my hair that was all messed up thanks to our little ‘tickle war’. When I was done putting my hair into a ponytail, he took my hand in his and led me to the door.

"Today is going to be great!" he said happily while he opened the door.

"I sure hope so...I don’t wanna leave tomorrow," I replied sadly as we walked to the elevator. "I don’t want to but I know that I really have no choice."

"Don’t worry," AJ leaned close and whispered in my ear. "I’ll come to visit you sometime."

"No...you are going to be WAY too busy to worry about me. I’ll keep in touch with YOU. That way, we won’t have to worry about BOTH of our jobs being on the line," I said with a smile.

"Ok...but that doesn’t mean that I can’t come visit," he replied with a sly smile in return.

"Don’t even think about it mister...I don’t want you spending all of your hard earned money on me."

He gave me a warm hug before the elevator doors opened at the lobby level. We made our way into the restaurant to where everyone else was sitting at one of the ‘bigger’ corner booths. Kev, Arti, Mel, Brian, Cynth, Meg and Howie were all squished into the ¾ circle booth while AJ, I, and Nick sat on chairs that we pulled up to the open side of the table.

"Let’s eat...I’m starved," Nick said after AJ and I sat down in the chairs beside him.

"You’re always ‘starved’," Brian teased.

"Nu uh," Nick replied as the waitress came to help us.

"It’s ok Nilo...He’s just pickin’ on ya cause you’re the youngest..." I said as I gave Nick a sympathetic look. "Wait! I’m the youngest..." I continued in a worried voice.

"Are not! I am!" Mel boasted happily.

Mel slapped Arti ‘five’ before she smiled innocently at the rest of us. After everyone told the waitress what he or she wanted, we continued with our weird conversation.

"So, y’all are coming with us to a club tonight?" I asked with a hopeful smile.

Howie couldn’t resist the weirdness of the moment.

"I’d go anywhere for you..." he sang in a silly voice while we started cracking up.

"You are a goof!" I told him. "Maybe I should lend you my pretty white jacket...you’ll be able to give yourself a hug and you’d be able to visit this room where the walls are covered with pillows!"

"And you would know because?" Kev said to tease me a little.

"I was informed...by...a...by a friend...yeah that’s it," I said with an innocent expression.

"Are you so sure about that?" AJ asked slyly.

"Yeah...you would know..." I joked. "Remember? Oh, I guess you wouldn’t. You can’t remember what you say in your sleep."

Out of the corner of my eye I could see him moving his hand towards my side with tickling fingers. I didn’t move my gaze from the salt shaker in the middle of the table that I was looking at.

"Alex...don’t even think about it," I warned slowly while I moved my chair a few inches away from him and closer to Nick. "My bodyguard here will have to hurt you..."

I leaned on Nick’s shoulder sideways so I was facing AJ and watched curiously as the smile slowly fell from AJ’s face. He seemed almost upset at the sight of me leaning on another guy even though it was only Nick.

"Aaaawww come on! I was only kidding," I said while I moved my chair back to its original position. "He *pointing at Nick* probably wouldn’t be able to hurtcha anyway *laughs*!"

"Gee thanks," Nick said, slugging my right shoulder playfully.

"Ouch!" I yelled out before I doubled over the table and pretended to cry.

My act didn’t last for long though...I couldn’t hold the laughter in any longer.

"You sure are a wimp!" I said to Nick between giggles.

"You’re just noticing that now?" Bri joined in on the teasing.

"Naw...I knew that all along," I replied with a smile.

The food came and we ate our food with a little conversation here and there. When we were done, we sat there and tried to decide what we’d do for the rest of the day. Nick, Mel, and Bri decided that they wanted to go play in the ocean water for a while before the beach got too crowded and there were no protests so we all went to our different rooms to change and get ready.

"Ya know...I think he really cares aboutcha," Arti said as she walked over to one of the dressers and looked for her suit. "I don’t know how you two are going to deal with being so far apart."

"Me either," I replied sadly as I sat down on my bed and lay back on the pillows. "I noticed that you were getting cozy next to Kev though..."

"He is such a nice guy," she replied with a dreamy look on her face before she snapped back to reality. "Well...if ya must know, we talked the whole time yesterday at the Carter’s."

"Oh really?"

"Yep."

"Anything else that I should know about?" I asked sarcastically.

"Uh...no," she said with a playful shrug.

"Sure...I believe you," I replied with an evil grin.

She paid no attention to my silliness and continued hunting for her suit while I grabbed mine and headed for the bathroom to change. I wasn’t really in the mood to go swimming so I wore a pair of shorts and a tank top over my dark green suit. We grabbed a few towels, sunscreen, my cell, book, and Discman before heading down to where the others were already waiting on the warm sand of the beach. I watched them put their towels and things on the beach from behind my dark purple-tinted sunglasses.

"Let’s go!" Mel exclaimed after everyone had set their stuff down and got situated.

"Have fun," I called out after everyone before I lay down on my towel and pulled my Discman out.

It had my ‘Mandy Moore’ CD in it so I put it on random before I slipped the headphones on and closed my eyes. I laid there in the comfort of the warm sun for a while until I felt a pair of freezing hands on my warm arms.

"Holy freak!" I screamed out as I opened my eyes to see Nick sitting beside me. "What was that for?"

"Wanted to make sure you’re still alive!" he said sarcastically with a silly grin. "How come you’re up here all by yourself?"

"I’m not a huge water person...plus I needed to work on my tan," I replied as I sat up. "And you are proof that the water is freezing cold."

"It’s not that cold," he said while wrapping his wet arms around me in a hug just to get me wet.

"Oh my holy heck! You’re freezing! Let go of me...you feel like a wet dog," I joked.

He only hugged me a little tighter when I tried to push him away. At least he was succeeding at getting me wet as well. When I looked up, I saw AJ staring at us from behind the almost-black lenses of my sunglasses. He turned his head away in disgust before he dove back into the churning ocean tide.

"Ok, ok...Can you let go of me already? I think I’m wet enough..." I told Nick with a half-hearted smile.

"Naw...you should come in the water with us," he said as he pulled away and stood up.

I watched them playing happily in the water for a while until they decided to come up on the beach for a little break. AJ wasn’t with them, but I figured he was getting a drink at one of the little stands set up along the beach in various locations.

"I’m going to go get a drink," I told everyone as grabbed some money that was clipped onto the back of my cell and stood up. "Be right back."

I wandered off in the direction of the nearest beverage stand that was about 100 yards from where we were on the beach. The line at the stand was already a few people long, so I strolled up behind the last person in line and waited patiently. After a few seconds of waiting, I moved a few feet closer to the stand and waited again as the next person in line was helped. I got bored after a little while so I looked around to see what was going on out on the beach.

"Oh...my..." I gasped when I saw AJ sitting on a large boulder that was a little ways further down the beach with a busty bimbo box-bleached blond sitting happily on his lap kissing him.

My first instinct was to run up to him and start screaming, but my feet wouldn’t give in to that idea. I immediately turned around and ran back to where my towel was as fast as I could. When I got there, I scooped up my things before anyone could ask what was going on and hastily ran back towards the hotel. I was too shocked and upset to talk to anyone so I just went straight to our room, locked the door, and then locked myself in the bathroom. I slumped down into the large Jacuzzi tub that was opposite of the shower and curled up into a ball before I broke down in sobs.

"Liz?"

Arti called out my name as she let herself into our room. When she heard me crying she knew something was wrong.

"Liz hun...what’s wrong?"

I tried to answer her, but the tears kept coming as the horrible scene scorched my mind.

"Let me try," I could hear Kev say.

I buried my face in my hands and let the bitterness and sadness flow through my falling tears.

"Els...please talk to me...come and open the door," he said calmly through the door.

My ears didn’t hear anything that was being said because I was too emotionally withdrawn to let myself hear what was being said. I only sobbed harder every time someone new tried to coax me into opening the door. It seemed that I cried and sobbed and let all my emotions show for at least an hour before I finally calmed down enough to talk to someone. I could hear the others talking in our room as I pulled myself together and put my ear up to the door.

"Cynthia...Melanie..." I called through the door softly.

The room grew quiet as I waited for a reply.

"Can I talk to you two?" I continued.

"Sure," Mel replied empathetically.

I stepped behind the door so everyone else couldn’t see the horrible shape that I was in and opened the door to let Cynth and Mel in before I locked it again.

"Oh hun..." Mel said as they both gave me a warm hug. "What happened?"

"That’s not important right now," I replied with no emotion. "I need you to talk to Arti and find out which club we’re going to and when. I at least want to have a little fun today..."

Tears formed at the corner of my eyes as I said the last three words.

"I’ll talk to her," Cynth said before they headed for the door.

"And Cynth...could you bring me some clean clothes? I’m gonna take a shower to freshen up a little bit."

"Sure thing," she replied.

I waited until she brought me some clothes and then I hopped into the shower. I made it a quick shower and took even less time getting dressed. When I was done putting my socks and shoes on, I blow dried my hair and put it into an elegant French-braid so it fell down my back to keep it out of my face. I put a little more make-up on my more-than-usual pale face, making sure that I didn’t look like I had been crying for the last two hours. When I had my eyes and cheeks done, I added a little extra lipstick and glitter to my eyelids before I finally turned towards the door to enter the room where everyone else (minus AJ) was hanging out. I did look a little more chic than I usually do because of the extra make-up, but that was the look I was going for. The black eyeliner that I added really made my eyes stand out with a 'mysterious' type of feel that they normally didn’t have. The black pleated skirt which fell right above my knees that Cynth had picked out went perfectly with the white button-up shirt with the large designer-style cuffs that she had paired it up with. I gave myself a fake smile in the mirror before I opened the door and strolled over to my bed with all eyes staring at me in wonder.

"Wow," I heard Nick say to himself as I walked past him and picked up my cell phone and backpack from the table by my bed.

I rolled my eyes at the immaturity of his reaction before I turned my attention to Arti. She handed me a small piece of paper and watched me as I studied it carefully for a few seconds before shoving it in to a pocket in my small backpack.

"I’ll meet ya there," was all I said before I walked out the door...alone.