Ashley and Nick stood in the hallway for what seemed like an eternity, his arms tightly around her, not wanting to let her go. She wished they could just build a wall up around them and block everyone out so that they could stay right there in their happy place, but she knew it wasn't that easy. She knew AJ wasn't the only one that she would receive ridicule from. Critics, fans, the other guys. Who else would have negative opinions on their relationship? She wanted to convince herself that they didn't matter and their opinions wouldn't faze her, but she knew that would be a lie. She needed to think this through. If she left now would that be that? Would the fans forget it ever happened and things continue like normal? Or would the ridicule follow her home, where she would have to face it alone? And the biggest question, if she left now would Nick forget about her too? She wanted to believe he wouldn't and they could make it work, but she knew that it was far too early for distance to not affect them. Now that she knew how happy she was with him, could she be that happy with out him?
The elevator chimed and the doors opened once more as Nick pulled away from Ashley slightly and looked in her eyes. She could see he was questioning the same things that she was. “Nick this has nothing to do with you. Believe me, I want nothing more then to stay here with you.”
"Then stay."
"It's not that simple and you know that." She said pulling away from him and stepping into the doorway of the elevator so it wouldn’t close again. “I need to get out of here, I can’t be around him right now.”
“We’re leaving in an hour.” He said with as his face fell to a frown. He knew he had to convince her to stay somehow.
“I promise I’ll be back in time.” She reached up and kissed him quickly. “I just need to clear my head.”
He nodded in acceptance and watched as the elevator doors closed. Nick sighed running a frustrated hand through his hair. He had to fix this. Things were just starting to look up for them and he knew if she left now it would ruin everything. He knew he couldn't fix it on his own though, and there was only one person who could. He quickly turned on his heels and headed back down the hall towards AJ's room, pounding on the door until it opened.
"You just had to go and fuck things up, didn't you?" Nick didn't even bother greeting him, or hiding his anger.
"Don't even start with me, Carter. I'm not in the mood to hear your bullshit." AJ said through clenched teeth, knowing at this point he was so angry with himself for what he said he could loose his cool at any second. He tried to close the door in Nick's face, but Nick stopped it, slamming it back into the wall.
"My bullshit?" Nick laughed. "You're the one blowing up a little situation into something more then it needs to be."
"You sleeping with my sister is no little situation." AJ could feel his blood starting to boil as he tried to resist the urge to shove Nick away from him. "Isn't there some kind of unspoken code against that bullshit?"
"So take it out on me then, don't go calling her easy and talking down to her when the person you're really angry at is me."
'Believe me I would love more then anything to take it out on you.' is what he wanted to say, but his anger over powered the little restraint he had left and without hesitation he swung, striking Nick across the jaw, one of his rings cutting Nick's lip open.
It took Nick less then a split second to react, shoving AJ roughly against the wall with a loud thud and punching him in the stomach. AJ shoved back with all his power, slamming Nick into the door. Their fight didn't go unnoticed as everyone came out of their rooms to see what all the commotion was.
“What the hell is going on with you two?” Kevin said pulling them into the hallway and pushing them apart from one another.
"He came at me!" AJ yelled. "Ask him what his problem is."
"Fucking lies! You sucker punched me!" he said angrily. “He’s the one with the god damned problem, running his mouth without thinking!” Nick yelled as Howie tried to hold him back from lunging at AJ.
“There would be no problems if he could keep his fucking dick in his pants.” AJ yelled as he tried to free himself of Marcus’ grasp. “All the fucking girls in the world and you have to go after my sister?”
"Enough." Kevin yelled. "Both of you calm the fuck down. If you can’t talk this out like civilized grown men then I suggest you both walk away right now." he looked sternly at each of them.
"Fine." AJ said with a defeated sigh.
"I'm good." Nick grumbled, barely audible. Kevin looked at him once more before turning to leave. "I said I'm good." Nick said taking a deep breath and shrugging free from Howie's loosened grip.
"I'll handle this." Angel said assuring the rest of the guys, as they went back to their rooms. "Get inside and sit."
"It's done and over with, just forget it." Nick said frustrated, not wanting to be near AJ right now.
"Obviously it's not. So let's just sit down and like Kevin said talk it out like grown men." she could see the agitation written across their faces. "If you both care about Ashley as much as you say you do you'll talk this out." she crossed her arms and stared at them waiting for a response.
They both gave in and walked into the room taking a seat on opposite ends. Angel followed them in and took a seat off to the side. She knew they could talk it out on their own, but she knew with her there they would be less likely to make it physical again. She waited as they sat in silence, staring at each other, waiting to see who would be the first to break the silence.
“Why my sister?” AJ said through a sigh leaning forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his legs and looking across the room towards Nick. They stared at each other for a second before Nick broke their eye contact and sighed to himself.
“Look man, it’s not like I went out there and said what can I do today to piss AJ off? Oh I know, I’ll go out and try and hook up with his sister.” Nick started.
“Then why?” he reiterated.
“Like I said it wasn’t on purpose. I honestly thought we could be friends, man I don’t know what to tell you.” He sighed frustrated because he didn’t know how to get his point across or what AJ wanted to hear. “I don’t know what to say except that I really do like her, a lot.”
“You can like her all you want, but did you really have to fricken sleep with her? And make it so obvious to the rest of the world?” he said with slight irritation, trying to keep his cool.
"Look I admit that what happened in the lobby last night wasn’t the smartest thing, and I’ll take the blame for it, but I’m not apologizing for anything else. I mean what did you think was gonna happen? That we were gonna hold hands and have fricken picnics? We're adults, this isn't some little kid shit. We have real feelings for each other, what can’t you get about that?”
"She just turned eighteen, she's not a fricken adult."
"See that's part of the problem the two of you have. You can't accept the fact that she's grown up." Nick shook his head with a sigh.
"You think you know her so well after a couple weeks?" AJ scoffed. "All you know is what she wants you to know. Why don't you go ahead and ask her why I'm so pissed about this whole situation. She knows." he said pointing at Angel.
"I'm not trying to pretend I know everything about her, I know there's a lot I don't know. But that’s why I don't want her to leave." Nick tried to explain, beginning to get frustrated once more. "Look, maybe we should have had this talk before things got this far, but it happened. You can either accept it and get over it or keep being an ass about it which is gonna end up bad for both of us.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“She’s out right now trying to clear her head and think about weather or not she wants to stay on tour or leave and go home. She doesn’t know how she can handle all the crap she’s gonna get from everyone else about this when you’re not even on her side about it.”
“Her leaving is the last thing I want.” He sighed. “I was angry before, I wasn’t thinking. But I know her, she’s not gonna listen to what I have to say. Not for a while at least. If I tell her to stay she’ll do the exact opposite just to drive me crazy.”
“Then just do me a favor and don’t say anything at all.” Nick said with the slight hint of a smirk.
“You know you’re such an ass sometimes.” AJ shook his head and laughed a little. “Why the hell can’t I ever stay mad at you?”
“It must be my boyish good looks.” He joked.
“I’m sorry about the right hook before.”
“It’s alright. You hit like a girl anyway.”
AJ was about to respond but there was a knock on the door and everyone fell silent as Angel opened it and Ashley walked in. She looked at everyone for a moment before her eyes fell to the floor. She knew it was obvious she had been crying.
“Ash…” AJ began but she immediately stopped him.
“Just don’t ok?” She looked at him, her face void of emotion. “I don’t want to hear it right now.”
He sighed, defeated, leaning back into his chair.
“Can we go talk in your room?” she looked at Nick. He nodded and stood from his spot on the bed. He wasn’t sure if this was going to be a good or bad talk, but he silently prayed that if it was bad news he could find a way to change her mind.
They left the room and walked down the hall and into Nick’s room. Walking in they both stayed silent as they took a seat on the bench at the end of the bed. Ashley stared down at the floor as she could feel Nick’s eyes on her.
“Do you think we were stupid for last night?” she finally spoke up, turning to look at him.
“Not at all…do you?” he said uneasily.
“I keep telling myself that I should, but I don’t.”
“Well why should you?”
“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “I over heard some people talking outside…” she started but he cut her off.
“Ash, you can’t listen to what everyone else has to say about your own life. Believe me it will drive you crazy. You can’t make everyone else happy. Worry about yourself and what you need to do to be happy…even if that means going home.”
She couldn’t help but smile at him.
“What?” he looked at her wearily.
“That’s exactly what I needed to hear.” She said pulling him into a hug.
“So then you’re going home?” he said with a slight frown, pulling away so he could look at her.
“You can’t get rid of me that easy, Carter.” She smirked at him. His eyes lit up with delight and he was about to say something but she stopped him. “Just kiss me.”
Author's Chapter Notes:
thank you guys all so much for staying with me :) i know ive been really bad at uploading new chapters but I'm trying to get better....i really hope you all enjoy this one! please let me know what you think
