"Kevin what am I going to do?" Nick whinned as he looked at Kevin, "she's dead."
"We don't know that Nick," he replied, hoping that he could get Nick to think positivly, "she's probably just lost."
"Don't you think she would have tried to call me by now if she was just lost?" Nick snapped.
"Maybe she hasn't been able to find a phone," Howie said, "that's probably what she's looking for because she knows that you're going to be nuts without her."
"It shouldn't have taken this long!! Someone out there should have helped by now!!"
"Relax Nick. Acting like this isn't going to make things any better. We have people out looking for her. She couldn't have gone very far," Kevin assured his younger friend and bandmate.
"What if they don't find her?" Nick asked as his body began to shake. AJ opened the door to Nicks room and his eyes immediately fell on Nick. He looked so pained by everything. Maybe last night didn't happen, it was just a dream. That had to be it. There was no way that Nick was capable of murder.
"Nick, Rok called. He said that if you need to talk to someone, you know where to find him," AJ stated as Nick looked up at him. Nick nodded as he looked intently at AJ as if he were trying to read his mind to see if he had told Brian about what really happened.
"Look Nick, I'm going to check somethings out alright?" Kevin said, "I'll let you know if anything comes up alright?"
"Yeah," Nick answered sadly.
"I'm going to go with you," Howie replied, "we should call the police too." AJ watched as Nick cringed when he heard Howie mention the police. He knew that he hadn't covered things up enough that the police wouldn't be able to figure things out.
"No, you can't call the police," Nick shouted suddenly.
"Why not Nick?" Kevin asked.
"Because then.....," Nick paused for a moment to think about what he was going to say, "because then I'll know she's gone."
"No, we'll just have them keep an eye out for her alright?" Howie said softly. Nick looked at him. How the hell was he going to convince these guys that they shouldn't call the police?
"Doesn't she have to be missing for like fourty-eight hours or something before we can report her missing?" Nick questioned, hoping this would sway them.
"Nick if she was abducted we need to talk to the police now," Kevin explained sternly, "we can't waste any time. Come on Howie." Howie glanced quickly back at Nick as he and Kevin exited the room.
"You better not say shit AJ," Nick warned, his voice no longer filled with the mock sadness that he had used to protect his innocence.
"I'm not going to say anything Nick," AJ replied, disappointed. It wasn't a dream after all.
"Good," Nick answered after a moment of hesitation, "what the hell are we going to do if the police get involved?"
"I don't know Nick. I thought you'd figure things out," AJ said sarcasticlly.
"Don't fuck with me right now, alright? I've got other things to worry about."
"Yeah like getting away with murder."
"Damn straight and I swear to God if you do anything that fucks this up, I'll kill you myself," Nick threatened as AJ stared at him. Nick wasn't going to jail, no matter what it took to keep him out. Even if that meant keeping AJ quiet for good.
"You'd better come up with something soon or else I don't know what's going to happen," AJ commented. Nick looked at him, with anger in his eyes.
"I'm going to fix everything. Don't worry about it." AJ rolled his eyes as he turned to leave the room. This was going to be a challenge. Guilt was going to start to take control of him and he wasn't sure if he was going to be able to prevent himself from saying anything. AJ made his way back to his room. He didn't trust himself to be around anyone just yet.
Dropping onto the bed in his room, AJ shut his eyes. So many things had happened, every single one of them was wrong. When he first walked into Nicks room and saw that something was wrong, he should have said something then. He never should have let Nick intimidate him. As his mind began to wonder, his thoughts began to scare him. What if Nick tried to pin this on AJ? It wouldn't take that much since he was already on edge. Everyone must have thought that something was up any way. Shit, AJ thought, that son of a bitch if going to make it look I had something to do with Lena's 'disappearance.'
Nervously, AJ sat up and pulled a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. By the end of all of this, that is if there ever is an end, AJ was going to be a complete nervous wreak and he knew it. It had only been a day and he was already losing his mind. He was almost sure that it would be like Edgar Allan Poe's A Tell Tale Heart where that guy killed the other guy and buried him under the floor boards. Then out of his guilt, he would hear the beating of the dead man's heart. The beating wouldn't stop until he confessed to what he had done.
What perplexed AJ the most was that he had very little to do with what happened and he was having these feelings, where as Nick had actually killed her, disposed of the body, and put on this act about how scared he was and yet showed no signs of remorce. AJ couldn't help but wonder if Nick has lost his heart and soul by doing this. What normal person would commit a murder and then go on as if nothing that happened?
AJ was going to have to knock some sence into Nick. The longer he waited, the harder things were going to get and the higher the risk that Nick would turn all of this around on AJ. If Nick did infact turn in AJ, AJ knew he wouldn't hesitate for a second about telling them what had happened that night, making sure to leave all the details in about how Nick killed Lena and then threatened him if he said anything about what had happened. If he was going to go down, he was going to take Nick with him. That's probably exactly what Nick is thinking right now, AJ thought to himself.
Nick had a completely different take on everything. He just didn't want to go to jail. He didn't stop to think about what he had done. All he cared about was saving himself. It didn't matter what happened to anyone else in the process, just as long as he was safe and free. It disgusted AJ. Nick, a man that he had grown up with, had turned into a monster of sorts. Real human emotion had fled his entire being. There couldn't have been an ounce of decentcy left in him because if there was, he would have said or done something. It makes you wonder about the human race, what won't we do any more?
AJ took a puff of his cigarette. Smoking was a habit that he had attempted to quit. Everytime he tried, something happened that sent him into override and he needed a cigarette to help soothe his nerves. It was a bad habit, he knew it was, but addictions can sometimes be hard to break.
"Kevin and D called the police, I'm sure of that much," AJ said softly to himself. "How the hell are we going to do this? We don't know anything about this. I'm not a murderer. Why should I worry? I didn't actually kill her, Nick did. Yeah, but I let him get away with it. I could have and should have done something. It wouldn't bring Lena back but it would have made things right, at least I think. Fuck, what are we going to do?"
Chapter 7