Chapter Nine

"What?!" cried AJ. The Backstreet Boys were in a meeting with their manager. "A tour for four months in Europe?! What the hell? I’m just getting warmed up into a wonderful relationship with a beautiful girl and this is what I get?! Dammit!" He marched out.

Back at home, Hazel, Alicia, and I were making a big lunch for the guys as a surprise. Brian had broken up with Leighanne two months ago, and we had introduced Alicia, one of our good friends, to him. They had clicked the moment they saw each other, and now they were inseparable.

"Hey, guys! It’s been 3 minutes since they last phoned us! What is keeping them?" Hazel wringed her hands nervously. Ali and I looked at each other annoyed and turned to her.

"Maybe they need time to call us! And it’s HOWIE who has been calling. You guys talk so much that we can hardly talk to our guys!" I replied, bit irked. Ironically then, the phone rang.

Hazel rushed to it and picked it off the hanger. "Howie? I miss you, too, baby! What?! Oh my god. Of course not. Don’t worry I won’t. Oh, I think I’m going to cry. All right. Fine. I love you, too, honey! Five minutes? ‘K! Bye-bye! No you hang up! No you! No you! No…" She turned to us with tears in her eyes. "He hung up on me."

"I wonder how that happened!" Ali exclaimed sarcastically. "Anyway, what was THAT about? ‘Oh my god’ what? Does it have something to do with my Bri-Bri?"

"Or AJ?" I asked nervously.

"No, no, nothing. It’s kinda personal, if you know what I mean. Well, let’s get that lunch going! They’re coming in 5 minutes!" Hazel dashed back to the kitchen, leavin Ali and me staring at each other tense.

* * * * * * *

"WEEEEEE’RREEE HHOOOOMMMMEEE!" Nick’s voice hit us, and we scrambled to our feet to meet them. When he saw that no girl was hugging him (we were busy enough with our own guys), he replied sadly, "I’m always such a loner." I winked to Ali and Hazel in our little way and we all squeezed him so much that he had trouble breathing. When he gained consciouness, he replied to Brian, AJ, and Howie, "Hah! In your face!" We all started cracking up uncontrollably.

Soon after the happy lunch, AJ tapped me on my shoulder and said, "Can I talk to you somewhere private?" I led him to my room and motioned for him to start talking. "We’re going on a tour," was all his reply.

"And…?"

"To Europe." He paused again.

By this time, I was practically dying of curiosity. "Spit it out, McLean!"

AJ gave me this really sad look, and I felt bad for saying that. Somehow, deep inside, I knew that something was wrong. "For four months." Then, reality hit me. Hard. I was falling… falling into the depths of sadness… It felt as if 10000 tons of grief had fallen on me in a split-second.

"Oh…," I managed to mumble.

"Oh, Krys," AJ drew me close to him. "We both knew that it would be hard when we started this whole relationship."

"I know," I whispered, "and maybe we should stop."

AJ pulled me away and looked at me scared, "What do you mean? Krystal, we’ve just started! We can’t give up now! Krystal, look at me, look at me! Listen, we can’t give up on this! This has got to be the best thing that I’ve ever been in since… hell, I don’t even remember!"

"AJ," I said, tears rolling down my face, "we can’t keep an over-seas relationship. It’s too hard, and we’ll be literally dying because we miss each other too much. I don’t want a girl, especially me, to get in your way of your career."

"Krystal! I’d quit the Backstreet Boys just for you!" AJ was practically screaming. He swiped his sunglasses off and I saw tears in his eyes also. But I thought that this relationship wasn’t going to run smoothly. As much as I loved AJ, I knew that, deep inside, I had to give up. I couldn’t get in the middle of AJ and his job. Besides, I didn’t think that AJ loved me as much as I loved him.

I stood up. "AJ, we’re through." And I left, leaving him clutching his head. Everybody looked up at me as I approached them. And then I broke down, crying. My head began to spin, swirling around my heart, breaking it to tiny pieces. I wished that I could go back up there and say that I didn’t mean it, but I knew that it was good for both of us. Long distance relationships never last, and if AJ and my relationship wasn’t going to last, there was no point in continuing it. It would only cause more painful and hard heartbreaks.

"Krystal! Krystal! Honey, what’s wrong?" Hazel’s comforting voice took over my mind. Then, consciousness returned to me. It was me who had dumped him. It was my fault, and I shouldn’t be the one crying.

I stood up, cleared my face, and replied, "I dumped AJ." The look on everybody’s face was shocked.

"W-why?" Brian asked, mouth open.

"Long distance relationships can’t last. And I want this relationship to last, but it won’t. What’s the use? I wanted to save us from a bigger heartbreak when we get too close in the future."

Brian grapsed my shoulders tightly, near cutting off my circulation. "Krystal, you are total b*tch. A total, f*cking b*tch." Then, he headed upstairs to my room where AJ was. After a few minutes, the Backstreet Boys were out of my house, leaving Hazel, Ali, and me staring in shock.