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Author's Chapter Notes:
sorry this took so long its been a busy week ENJOY!
AJ yawned as he walked back into his hotel room tossing his bag down on the floor. It was already well past eleven but he knew with the time difference he still had ample time to call Ashley back. He decided to take a shower first, wanting to relax his tense muscles after the show.

He came out of the bathroom half an hour later and was looking for his phone when there was a knock on his door.

“What’s up man.” He said opening the door to a grinning Nick.

“Dude remember those two girls I hooked up with last time we were in Jersey?” he asked stepping into the room a little. AJ just looked at him telling him to go on. “So they’re downstairs…with a few friends who might I saw are mighty fine.”

“Point being?” AJ rolled his eyes at the stupid grin on Nick’s face.

“Come mack with me. They wanna shoot a little pool in the bar downstairs…maybe make their way to the hot tub.”

AJ took a second but shook his head remembering what he had to do.

“Man I gotta call my sister. She’s been waiting for me to call her back since Monday. Things are just starting to get better I can’t screw up again.” He said pushing Nick towards the door.

“You already put off calling her this long…what’s one more night? You have plenty of time to call on the ride to Boston tomorrow…c’mon hot chicks, hot tubs…you can’t pass this up.” He egged him on, all the time the grin not leaving his face.

They exchanged glances and AJ sighed tossing his phone back onto the bed and pulling on a shirt and jeans over his boxers.

“That’s what I thought.” Nick laughed as they made their way out of the room.

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Ashley groaned as she turned over in bed. She picked up her ringing cell phone from the nightstand. Without looking at it she held it up to her ear.

“Hello.” She grumbled.

“Hey kiddo.” AJ said on the other end. “Did I wake you up?”

“It’s 7:00AM on a Saturday morning…what do you think?” she said in a grouchy tone.

“Whoops. I forgot about the time difference.” He laughed a little but she didn’t think it was very funny.

“What do you want?” she grumbled. He could tell she was still falling in and out of sleep.

“Marcus said you called the other day.” He said. When there was no response he continued. “I know it took a while for me to call you back, but you know how crazy things get on the road.”

Still there was no response.

“Ashley! Wakeup!” he yelled into the receiver.

“Huh? Sorry.” She said waking up once more. “Can this wait?”

“I thought you said it was important.”

“It was important when it happened, Alex.” She said in a semi angry tone. “I don’t want to talk about it this early.”

“Well then when can we talk? I told you I want to be there for you and I mean it.”

“I’m over it, just forget it.” She was now nearing a fully awake state and wanted to be able to go back to sleep. “I’ll just call you later and maybe we can talk then.”

“Fine, but I want to know what’s going on so you better call.” He sighed. “Go back to sleep and I’ll talk to you later. Love you kiddo.”

“Bye.” She grumbled and hung up tossing her phone back on the nightstand before grabbing her pillow and burying herself under the covers once more.

Ashley had just fallen into a deep sleep again when her cell phone began to go off once more.

“What the hell!” she groaned ready to throw it into the wall. “What do you want now?” she almost yelled expecting it to be AJ.

“Well that’s no way to greet your best friend.” Angel laughed.

“Angel!” Ashley shot up in bed excited to finally hear her friend’s voice.

“That’s more like it!” she chuckled. “Guess where I am.”
“Please tell me California. I miss you so much, it’s been too long.”

“I’m in San Diego right now, but I’m coming your way tomorrow. Mom said as long as it was ok with Denise that I could stay until Aarons show’s here in Cali were done.”

“Oh my god! I can’t wait to see you! When do you get here?” she said excitedly.

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

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Ashley ran out of her room as she heard the doorbell ring.

“I’ll get it! I’ll get it! I’ll get it!” she yelled all the way to the door. She flung it open to find a grinning Angel on the other side. She jumped on her as she hugged her, almost knocking her to the ground. “You don’t understand how good it is to see you!”

“Believe me after being in Japan forever I feel the same way!” Angel laughed.

“Hey Aaron, I didn’t know you would be here.” She smiled and hugged him hello.

“You’re mom said home cooked meal and I was all in.” he laughed as Ashley grabbed Angel’s bags and walked them further inside. “I don’t have a show until tomorrow so mom said I could have a little down time, if you don’t mind me crashing your little party.”

“it’s no big, you’re always welcomed.” She smiled and led them to the living room where Denise was.

“Hey you two!” Denise got up to hug them both. “It’s been too long.”

“Thanks so much for letting me stay here.” Angel smiled.

“And for dinner.” Aaron grinned.

“I know how much Alex misses it on the road so I figured I’d extend the welcome. I thought your mom would be coming.” She took a seat back on the couch.

“She had some stuff to do with Leslie that she figured she’d get done while he wasn’t around to bug her.” Angel laughed.

“Hey!” Aaron said as they all laughed.

“I’m so glad you’re here Angel, we have so much to catch up on.”

“Yes we really do.” She grinned at her.

“Come on Aaron, were not gonna leave you out.” Ashley laughed as they headed back to her room.

“You mean I get to gossip with the girls too?” he said in a high-pitched voice. “Oh my gosh so super exciting!”

“Oh shut up before we change our minds.” Angel rolled her eyes laughing at him.


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“Wait…he what?” Angel almost screamed as Ashley finished retelling the events of the past weeks.

“Wow…that guys a total jerk.” Aaron chimed in. “Who knew girl gossip could be so interesting. Tell me more.”

Ashley laughed at how intrigued by her story Aaron had been.

“Are you doing ok now?” Angel asked disregarding her brother.

“I’m dealing. I met a few people who are really helping me out though, and oh my gosh the guy, Jared is so funny. He’d probably die if he was here right now. He’s in love with Nick, like obsessively, he’d probably pass out if he saw Aaron.” She laughed.

“Guy…in love with Nick?” Aaron raised an eyebrow. “No thanks.”

“He’s really cool he doesn’t act all crazy or anything like the girls do, but when he gets into it you can’t help but crack up. And the girl, Tina, she’s just really chill. They don’t really care about everything going on and they hate Derek and his minions just as much as I do.”

“We should all hang out while I’m here, I’d love to meet them.” Angel smiled. “How are things going with AJ after you talked?”

“Ok I guess. It took him five days to call me back when I needed to talk to him. He did call though so I guess that’s a step.” Ashley looked down at her phone that was ringing next to her. “Speaking of the devil…let me answer it, I kind of blew him off the other morning.”

“Hey Alex.” She said as she answered.

“Hey kiddo…called later this time.” He laughed.
“Yea, sorry about that. You know how much of a grump I am in the morning, you should have been prepared.”

“I forgot about the time difference, I didn’t realize how early it was. Can you talk now?”

“Not for long, Aaron and Angel are here.”

“Oh ok. So what’s going on? How was your first week of school?”

“Alright. Nothing major.” She lied. She had dealt with things by now and really didn’t want to involve him in everything

“You don’t sound too convincing.” He said noting the apprehension in her voice.

“My first day wasn’t that great but things got better. I made some friends and I dealt with it.” She sighed.

“Ash, you can talk to me if you need to. Has that guy been bothering you or something?”

“No, don’t worry about it, things are fine, I dealt with everything. I’m fine really.” She wished he would give it up.

“Well then I guess if you don’t want to talk I’ll just let you go back to your friends.” He sighed knowing he had waited too long to talk to her this time.

“I’ll call you soon ok?” she said

“Ok kiddo, have fun, tell Angel and Airhead I said hi.” He laughed, “Love you.”

“Ok, bye.” She said and hung up.

“Why didn’t you want to tell him? Angel asked.

“I dunno, I just don’t really feel like I can open up to him anymore.” She sighed. “Like that night we were talking he started going on about sex and stuff and how I would talk to him about it. I really just wanted to blurt out everything about me and Matt but I just couldn’t. We’re not the same anymore.”

“Wait you…” Aaron caught onto what she was saying,

Ashley’s eyes grew wide, she had forgotten all about Aaron being there,

“That stays in this room you understand? I will kill you if you if you repeat even one work to ANYONE!” she threatened him
“Ok, in this room only I got it.” He agreed, scared of her aggression.

Ashley bit her lip nervously as she looked at him trying to read his expression and whether or not she could trust him.

“Dinner!” Denise called out and everyone made their way out of the room, apprehension and anxiousness still very clear in Ashley’s mind.