It was two weeks later and Denise still had Ashley on strict house arrest. She had loosened up on the phone and computer privileges but still wouldn’t let her hang out with any of her friends. Denise had luckily let her talk to Matt before he left for Hawaii but only for a short time. She had exactly one more week left on her punishment and she couldn’t wait for it to be over. She really regretted what she did and she and Denise had a huge talk about it.
Ashley sighed as she looked over at the clock. It was only 10 AM. Part of her punishment was waking up early every day, it was probably what she hated the most. She was so bored she had even finished her all three required reading books and their two page reports.
Denise decided to give Ashley a break on her daily chores so she was laying on the couch in the living room flipping threw the channels on the TV. The phone rang and Ashley groaned looking around noticing the closest phone was in the kitchen.
“Ashley can you get that?” Denise called from upstairs.
“Yea.” She groaned and made her way to the phone. “Hello?” she answered not recognizing the caller ID.
“Ashley? This is Marcus, AJ’s bodyguard. I need to speak with your mom right now.” He said firmly.
“Is everything ok?” she said worried.
“Just please put Denise on the phone.” He ignored her question; which made her worry even more.
“Mom.” She called out walking up the stairs. Denise emerged from the laundry room. “It’s Marcus. He said it’s important.” She handed her the phone.
“Hello Marcus.” She said and walked back into the laundry room. Ashley lingered around trying to hear what was going on.
“Is he alright?” she could hear the urgency in Denise’s voice and got closer trying to hear what was being said on the other side. “Ashley, go to your room.”
Ashley sighed and did as she was told, keeping her door open slightly to still try and overhear Denise.
“What happened?” Denise asked. “And he wants me to come out there? All the boys are ok with this?”
She listened intently and then spoke again. “Ok send me all the information. When he calms down a little have him call me. When is he flying out?”
“Thank you so much Marcus. I know you’ll take good care of him until I get there. Tell Alex I will see him in a few days.”
‘See him in a few days?’ Ashley thought to herself. What could be going on? She peeked out her door and saw Denise going into her bedroom. She grabbed her cell phone and searched threw the contacts dialing Brian’s number.
“Hello?” he said timidly. She noticed right off the bat that he didn’t sound like himself.
“Why did Marcus just call the house?” she asked. “Is Alex ok?”
“Ashley…” He sighed pausing a moment. “I really think you need to talk to your mom about this. It isn’t something that should come from me.”
“Did something happen to him?” she asked, but he didn’t answer. “Brian if something is wrong with him I want to know.”
“There’s nothing wrong with him. Go talk to Denise.” He said as he hung up. She sighed and threw her phone down on the bed. She made her way to Denise’s room and knocked on the door.
“Come in sweet heart.” Denise said.
“Why do you have to go see AJ?” she asked as Denise threw some clothes into a small over night bag. “What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing sweetheart. I don’t want to worry you with small things.”
“It can’t be that small if no one will tell me what’s going on.” she said walking in and sitting on the bed. “Marcus wouldn’t tell me, Brian hung up on me and you won’t even look at me.”
“They boys are postponing their tour for a little while.” Denise started. Ashley raised an eyebrow at her and she continued. “I know that you know about the troubles that Alex has been having.” Ashley nodded worried something had finally happened to him.
“Kevin and Alex got into an argument about it today.” Denise took Ashley’s hands sitting down next to her. She was fighting back tears, knowing she had to be strong for Ashley. “He has finally decided that he needs to make changes in his life and has decided to check himself into rehab.”
“Is he ok?” Ashley asked concerned. She knew getting help was good but it still made her nervous.
“He will be.” Denise smiled a little. “I have to go out to Arizona this weekend though to make sure he’s doing ok down there.”
“What are they gonna tell everyone?” Ashley asked worried that people would hate AJ.
“He’s leaving that up to the guys. I’m sure they’ll find a way to make it work.” She could see the sadness and the tears threatening to fall in Ashley’s eyes.
“Everything will be ok sweetheart, I promise.” Denise pulled her into a hug. Ashley fought hard to keep the tears back as she hugged Denise tight.
“I have to finish getting my things together and see if I can find someone to stay with you while I’m gone.” Denise pulled away and wiped the few tears that had slipped from Ashley’s eyes. “Why don’t you call up some of your friends and see a movie or something?”
“I’m grounded remember?”
“It’s summer, you should be out having fun. You’ve been grounded long enough.” Denise placed a loving hand on her shoulder. “Go out with your friends.”
“Thanks.” Ashley smiled meekly and made her way to her room to call up her friends.
As soon as Ashley walked out Denise shut her door and sat back down on the bed finally letting her emotions get the best of her. She felt as if she had been crying for hours when she finally heard Ashley calling out.
“Mom, I’m going to the movies. I’ll be home later.” She said from the other side of the door.
“Have a good time sweetie. Call me if you’re going to be late.” She said trying to mask her tears.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
News had spread fast about the postponement of the tour and as always rumors arose too.
Ashley had tried to keep herself away from everything that was happening. Denise had tried to talk to Ashley about it a few times but she avoided it as much as she could.
She wasn’t sure how to feel about what was going on. Mostly she was sad that this was happening. She could see how much it was bothering Denise and everyone else. At the same time she was happy he was getting help. However there was another part of her that was angry, angry at him for letting things get so bad and angry at herself for caring about him so much after all he had done to her. She wanted so badly to just not care and to say that she wasn’t upset but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
She sat locked away in her room flipping threw the channels and finally settled on watching MTV. She cocked an eyebrow as she heard John Norris announce that the Backstreet Boys were in studio to make a very important announcement. She listened intently as John announced the postponement of the tour.
“AJ and we have come to a decision that he’s gonna receive treatment for depression, anxiety and his excessive consumption of alcohol.” She continued to watch as Kevin became to emotional to continue talking.
As she watched the boys talk she could see the sadness in everyone’s eyes. Nick could barely look up She didn’t even notice the tears that began to form in her eyes.
“They have to help themselves first before they could really receive help and they have to want it…” she heard Brian say as she wiped the tears that were cascading down her eyes. “it was the first time that I heard him say guys I have and problem and I need to get help…”
She continued to watch not being able to control her emotions any more as they wrapped up their segment. She hadn’t even caught most of what they were saying threw her own tears but she could tell they were hurting and just as confused as she was.
There was a knock on the door and Ashley quickly wiped her eyes not wanting anyone to know she had been crying. She got up and unlocked the door letting Denise in.
“Sweetie you really should come and eat something. It’s well past lunch and you didn’t have any breakfast. That’s not healthy.”
Denise walked in hearing the final segway into commercial from Carson Daily. She turned towards the TV to see the camera pan across the boys before cutting out. She turned back and looked at Ashley noticing the tear stains covering her face and the puffiness in her eyes.
“Ashley, it’s ok to be upset.” Denise placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “But you can’t run yourself crazy over this. Alex will be ok. He’s getting the help he needs.”
“I’ll be fine really.” Ashley just shrugged. “I guess just seeing them so upset made me sad...Kevin almost cried.” She took a deep breath and wiped her eyes once more before the tears could fall.
“Alex should be calling later on tonight. Why don’t you talk to him?” Denise suggested. “I’m sure he’d love that.”
“No it’s ok. He needs to talk to you.” Ashley just looked down at the floor saddened. As much as she would love to talk to him she knew he wouldn’t care. He had made it very clear that she was no longer a part of his life.
Denise sighed and watched her as she walked out of the room. She could tell she was hurting more then she let on but she was stubborn when it came to talking about her emotions and Denise knew she would need to come to terms with things on her own.
Author's Chapter Notes:
so at first this was gonna be one really long chapter but i decided to cut it in half so it flowed better so enjoy...it was a hard one to write but I like it.
