AJ stared down at the small box he held in his hand, everything he'd done, everything he'd been through had led him up to this moment. The fate of all of it, the lies, the deception, the hurt. Nick, Kayla, Jenna and himself, everything about who they were at this moment in time had been reduced to a black square box. He flipped it around in his palm, finally opening it up and looking at the contents within. The 4 karat Ascher cut diamond ring he had bought stared back at him, a ring he felt like he had spent a lifetime searching for, and a ring that was going to change his entire life.
He closed the lid on the box, and stuck it into the pocket of his jeans, he wasn't nervous about asking her, in fact it felt like the most peaceful thing he had ever felt. He was however anxious about finally telling certain people of the relationship he had been hiding for over a year, in particular Nick and Kayla. It had been easy to keep the relationship with Jenna quiet, the band had taken a break so he never saw Nick, and Kayla had been living in Texas until recently, so they hadn't seen much of each other either. Telling the guys had been weird, Howie had known about the relationship all along, and they had spent a lot of time with him and his wife Christine, but Brian and Kevin were shocked by the news. AJ knew they didn't fully understand the story he had given them about how he and Jenna got together, and they definitely didn't like the fact that he asked them not to tell Nick, but now the time had come to tell the last two people on his list, and he still didn't know how he was going to do it.
For now though, he continued
to plan just how he would choose to ask Jenna to marry him.
AJ led Jenna by the hand towards the private beach of the resort they were staying at in St. Lucia. The night air was warm, but a nice breeze blew off the water, cooling their skin. It was a beautiful night, with the stars and moon shining above reflecting on the surface of the ocean. AJ sat down near where the water met the white sand, and Jenna sat down beside him, tucking her arm under his and laying her head on his shoulder.
"It was such a good idea to come back here." She said, referring to the fact that the very resort they were staying in, was the same place they had met so many years ago. "I can't believe we have to go back in a few days, two weeks just doesn't seem long enough."
"We can stay as long as you want." He sighed. "Everything I need is right here."
"Me too." Jenna replied, cuddling closer to him.
"I love you Jenny, more than anything. I hope you know that." He said.
"I know you do. And I love you too." Hearing those words from her, always made him smile, and he knew he didn't need any elaborately planned fireworks or billboards to do what he had brought her out here for. He fished into his pocket, and pulled out the familiar black box he had carried virtually everywhere he went for the past couple of weeks, waiting for the right moment, the right mood and the right feeling. He shifted his body in the sand so he could look into her eyes, and she smiled as she looked back into his. He flipped open the lid of the box and held it before her.
"Will you marry me Jen?"
"Yes." She said simply.
"Are you sure you don't want me to be the one to tell him?" Jenna asked as she sat down on the edge of his desk, they had been discussing this for weeks now.
"No, I have to do it." He sighed. "I have to tell Kayla too."
"How do you think she's going to take it?"
"If I'm happy, she'll be happy." He hoped. "I'm going to call her to grab lunch sometime this week, I'm gonna tell her then."
"Isn't Dallas awful far to go for lunch?" Jenna questioned.
"She moved back to Tampa a few weeks ago."
"Oh." Jenna said. "When do you plan on telling Nick?"
"Honestly, I'm not sure. But I have to tell him soon, because he's going to hear about it one way or another." Jenna nodded.
"Well, I'm going to start getting ready. When will Howie and Christine be here?" She asked.
"Soon." He said looking down at his watch. "They always come early." Jenna went upstairs, and AJ went back to the email he had been reading when Jenna came in. It was from Kayla. She had told him about her decision to move back to Florida, she missed the beach and the smell of the water, and even with everything bad that had happened, in order to overcome it, she had come back and face things. She told him about the place she had rented and provided him with her new address and phone number, begging him to visit soon. He contemplated replying to the email and telling her through words instead of having to meet face to face, but she didn't deserve to hear it by email. He hoped what he told Jenna was true, that if he was happy she would be too.
Nick however, wouldn't be happy. He ran through the questions Nick would ask him in his mind and tried to think of answers for them. Obviously it wouldn't be the truth. But Nick had long been suspicious of AJ's intentions, and had on more than one occasion confronted him about certain events that had occurred involving both Jenna and Kayla. If he could have just avoided telling Nick at all he would have, but through the other three guys, the entourage of people they worked with, or media outlets, he would find out. His worst fear was that Nick would come barging in on his wedding like in 'The Graduate' and Jenna would run off with him.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell, AJ closed his email and turned off his computer. Howie and Christine were here, he'd think of what to say to Nick later.
"Hey Howie! Where's Christine?" He asked, opening the door. "She's doing okay isn't she?" AJ exclaimed as Howie walked through his front door.
"She's at home." He said stoically.
"Is there a problem with the baby? I thought she wasn't due for another month."
"Christine and the baby are fine, she's just not in the mood to socialize today." Howie stated. That didn't sound like Christine.
"C'mon in, sit down. Can I get you a beer or something?" AJ asked, as Howie finally followed him, sitting down in the chair next to him,
"No, I'm not thirsty." He said, quickly changing the subject. "So AJ, I'm just going to get to the point. I'm not here for dinner tonight, in fact I'm just going to say what I need to say, get some answers and get back to my wife." He stated, staring down at his hands. He pushed his fingertips together and sat for a moment before continuing. "I heard something pretty interesting and I thought you should hear it too." There was a chill in his voice that AJ could feel from the tips of his toes.
"What's that?"
"Well Christine came to me today very upset. I assumed it was just hormones, but then when she started to cry and shake, I knew it was something more. She finally told me that she couldn't give birth to our child without telling me something." AJ's heart raced, he knew exactly what it was. "I was sure it was just something trivial, something magnified by her pregnancy, but then she told me something very interesting. Something I have a pretty good feeling that you already know about. Do you want to hazard a guess at what it might be?" He asked.
"I don't know How." AJ stammered unconvincingly, Howie seemed like a different person, like his face had hardened and his eyes had become dark and empty.
"Don't want to say it? Fine, she told me that she cheated on me with Nick."
"Howie, I-" He stammered.
"No. no, let me finish." He said. AJ had never seen so much anger in someone's eyes. "See, she told me all about that party Nick threw a couple of years back, the one I couldn't make, but the one you convinced me to convince Chris to go to. I remember that so vividly now, how Christine shouldn't sit alone just because I couldn't come to the party, and how she was family so she should be there." AJ sat silently, his intentions to invite Christine had been completely honorable, he just wanted her to get to know everyone better. "Then she told me about how drunk she ended up getting." Howie continued. "How she felt uncomfortable because she didn't know anyone, and how Nick just started talking to her. She didn't go into any details, because she says she doesn't remember what happened. She just remembers Jenna seeing them together in bed and how she begged them both not to tell me."
"It's not her fault How, you know how Nick was back then, it didn't matter who the girl was. He did the same thing to me with Jenna."
"Funny you say that AJ. Because a similar thought crossed my mind, except the memory for me was a little different. See the way I remember it was you trying to break Jenna and Nick up. You bringing Nick out to the clubs and egging him on to sleep with anyone he could. You offering Nick whatever drug or drink crossed your path. You spending every waking moment plotting a way to get your precious Jenna back."
AJ sat silently, he was beyond any lie that could help him. Tears formed in his eyes.
"Would you go that far to break them up AJ? Would you use Christine to do your dirty work? Because if memory serves me right, Nick and Jenna broke up shortly after that, and she went running to you? Didn't she? Would you betray all of us and send Nick after my fucking wife!" He screamed.
"I had nothing to do with that Howie, that's not why I wanted her to be there. I wouldn't do that to you."
"But you knew it happened didn't you?" AJ nodded a yes. "You knew and saw it was happening and did nothing to stop it."
"Howie, you have to understand. I never thought Nick would go that far, and it was nothing I planned, I swear to you. Once I saw what was going on, and realized...they were gone, and I didn't know where to." He pleaded. "I didn't find out that it had actually happened until after Jenna saw them, she told me."
"I don't know what to believe anymore." He said with a shake of his head. "I should have stopped you all those times. When I saw you plotting to break them up, or paying some prostitute to hit on him and God knows what else. I was weak, I admit it, and if by not stopping you I was somehow responsible for what happened with Nick and Jenna , then I'm guilty. But I never maliciously went after anyone, ever. I never hurt people on purpose to get my way, or to get who I want. I hope to God you really didn't have anything to do with Nick and Christine ending up..." His words trailed off, like he couldn't even bear to utter the words again. "I have to get back to her."
"Are you and Christine going to be okay?"
"Do you even really care AJ? Or are you just trying to save face?" Howie questioned without response. "I don't know what's going to happen, all I know is that she's pregnant with my child and I intend to be with her." He sighed, leaving the house.
AJ sat with his head in his hands, he hadn't even planned for Christine and Nick to hook up that night, but he felt guilt as if he had. Now Howie was wrapped up in all of this too. He stood up from the couch and went to go upstairs, but stood frozen in his tracks when he saw Jenna. She was sitting at the top of the stairs, her face white as a sheet, tears streaming down her face, and her hands clutching to the rails of the staircase.
"Jen-"
"You..." She stammered, standing up and backing away from him as he made his way up the staircase towards her. "It was all you...why?"
"I did it because I loved you Jenny. I've always loved you." he pleaded.
"Love? You destroyed everyone and everything. How can you call that love?" She questioned. "Was that all true? Was what Howie said true? Did you spend all that time trying to break Nick and I up? The drugs, the women? Was that all you?" She looked at him like he was evil, her eyes showing equal parts fear and hatred.
"Nick made his own choices."
"That you shoved in his face!" She screeched. "What else did you do?"
"Everything I did was for you, was to get you back. Now we're together like we should be, and we can be happy again." He said, taking ahold of her arms and staring into her eyes.
"You destroyed my relationship with Nick, you destroyed Howie and Christine. Kayla was a part of this too wasn't she?" Jenna said, a look of dawning washing over her. "You knew they were together when you sent me to Nick. Why? Were you in love with her too? Do you have to destroy every relationship anyone has?"
AJ stepped back from her. "Nick wasn't supposed to chose you!" He yelled angrily, unable to keep any of it inside anymore, his face crumbling into tears. "He and Kayla were in love! He was supposed to chose HER, and YOU were supposed to come back to ME! We were gonna be happy like Kayla and Nick were. You were gonna forget about him and love me again."
"You're insane." She said in disgust, pushing past him in the hallway and making her way downstairs.
"Jenny please don't leave again!" He yelled from above, running down to stop her.
"Don't leave?" Jenna said, spinning around on her heel to face him. "You disgust me Alex. I don't know who you are, and I don't know who you've turned me into but I hope you burn in hell for what you've done! You've used me and manipulated every single person around you, you've destroyed whatever happiness any of us could have had to fit your selfish desires!" She screamed through a torrent of tears. She looked down at the ring on her hand, and then pulled it off. Her anger filled eyes stared into his, and she dropped the ring to her feet, never looking away from him. "Stay away from me..." She began slowly, her voice cold and unfeeling. "and stay out of my life, and if you have even an ounce of a soul left in you, you will do everything in your fucking power to make things right again in the lives you've screwed up! And I don't mean mine!" With that she slammed the door behind her and was gone.
AJ picked up the ring that was supposed to have changed his life and crumbled to the floor with it squeezed in the palm of his hand, that life had just imploded.