"Nick, what the hell is the matter with you?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing my ass. How stupid do you think I am. I saw you with her."
"With who?"
"With that sleezy little whore that was hanging off you all night."
"No one was hanging off me."
"Nick, I saw you leave with
her. Do you expect me to believe you just went out for coffee or
whatever pathetic excuse you're gonna throw at me this time."
AJ strained to hear every word coming out of the room Nick and Jenna had quietly slipped into. He knew Jenna had seen Nick leave with the girl. He watched the anger flash over her face, anger that quickly turned to sadness.
He went
to console her, and they sat off in a corner as she cried on his shoulder.
He told her she had to break it off with Nick, that if she got in any deeper
with him she'd only end up getting hurt even more than she already had.
Through her sniffled tears she agreed with him.
Once Nick
finally came back, Jenna immediately pulled him into the room. They'd
been fighting for over an hour, and AJ had heard every word of it, but
she had yet to break up with him, to AJ's growing frustration.
"Nick how could you do that to me? How could you sleep with her and expect me to act like it was nothing?"
"I didn't sleep with her."
"Oh right, this one just gave you head right? What about the others Nick. Yes I know there have been others. I've pretended like I didn't know about it before and I won't do it anymore. Are you listening to me?"
"Yes Jenna I'm listening."
"I don't know what you think
I am to you, but if you think I'll turn a blind eye to everything you do
that hurts me, you're wrong. I'm not going to let you screw anything
that crosses your path and then come home to me. I can't take it anymore
Nick, the women, the drinking, the drugs, I don't know exactly what you
do when we aren't together, but I know you're involved in a lot of shit
I don't want to get messed up in. It ends or we do, simple as that."
"AJ what are you doing?" Howie's voice said, startling AJ so much he jumped back and landed on his butt.
"Jesus, don't do that!" He said trying to catch his breath.
"What are you doing sitting in the hallway?"
"Eavesdropping." He said bluntly, standing up, smoothing his pants down.
"On who?"
"Nick and Jenna."
"Give it up AJ. Sure she used to be your girlfriend, but it was a long time ago. You guys were just kids. She and Nick have something good going. Why don't you just let her be happy."
"Because she isn't happy with Nick." He said with a flash of anger in his eyes. "Go away."
Howie sighed in visible annoyance and continued down the hall as AJ resumed his crouched position outside the door. The voices inside had grown quiet. AJ cursed Howie for making him miss the end of their conversation. He wanted to hear the break-up, he wanted to know if she said anything about him. But he'd missed it. He waited to hear more voices within the room, but nothing was said for nearly twenty minutes. Finally he gave up and went outside to have a smoke. He needed to calm down, all this waiting and worrying had turned him into a bundle of nerves.
Things had been going perfectly since they got back from Europe. Jenna was growing more and more apart from Nick and ever closer to AJ. The wedge he had successfully planted in between them had been growing steadily, and it finally looked like it was all coming to an end. He would finally have Jenna back, and he could stop the lying and manipulation.
With each successive day his conscience ate at him more and more. Making him turn to anything that would keep it at bay, at least until the day Jenna finally came back to him. He hated Nick for making him do the things he'd done. He wasn't a bad person, he just couldn't take watching the woman he loved be with a person who should have been his friend.
AJ thought back to a time when he was happy. When he didn't spend every waking moment being angry at someone or something. When Jenna had loved him just as much as he loved her.
He'd met Jenna while on Summer vacation, sitting at one of the many hotel bars in the Dominican Republic. They'd struck up a conversation, and from the very first smile she had consumed his life. He found out she was from Sanford, not too far away from his own house in Orlando. He spent the whole summer with her, trying to forget that once the summer was over he'd have to reprise his role as "AJ" and the magic he felt with her would have to end.
Howie had been the only one of the bunch to meet her, and he'd tried to convince AJ to stay with her, but unfortunately he hadn't listened. He'd seen the way relationships faded out and failed when he had to be "the Backstreet Boy". He'd already lost more relationships than he cared to think about to his career, he didn't want to lose Jenna like that. So he convinced himself that he needed to be free, that he couldn't be tied down when they went back out on the road. He'd broken up with Jenna and ended the only relationship that ever made him feel like a real human being, the only real love he'd ever felt.
Over the next couple of years he'd tried to keep in touch with her. Even though seeing her was hard, letting her go would have been much worse. He emailed her, and talked to her on the phone whenever he came back into town and when the regret of breaking up with her finally became too much he knew he had to get her back.
He invited her to an album launch party, ready to confess his reasons for breaking up, ready to profess his love. There were too many people at the party, and he searched for her face all night, but he never found her. He returned home that night with the sad realization he'd lost her for good, but in reality his worst nightmare couldn't have prepared him for the truth.
Later AJ found out that not only had Jenna been at the party, but she'd struck up a conversation with Nick. Who had no idea she was there to see AJ, who still had no idea they used to be lovers. Jenna and Nick left the party together, and that was the end of her friendship with AJ, the beginning of Jenna's relationship with Nick, and the start of a deep anger that had consumed AJ ever since. Losing Jenna to Nick that night crushed him in a way he never imagined possible, nothing he could say or do mattered to her anymore, he didn't matter to her anymore. But he knew deep down that she still loved him, he just needed to show her, and he couldn't do that with Nick in her life.
AJ butted the rest of his cigarette out and went back inside. Remembering the past hurt too much, and he wished he could get it out of his mind. The door to the room they had been in was open, but neither nick nor Jenna were anywhere to be found. Both their cars were gone, and AJ decided to leave as well. He wanted to call her, to see if the break-up had gone well, but he knew she needed time. If he came on too strong, she'd only push him away.
He drove
out of the parking lot and back to his empty house. It was just a
matter of time.