Two weeks later, on December 12, BJ and Tara moved into their new home. The girls were soo excited to have a place of their own, with no parents to tell them what to do, or when to be home. Nick was happy also, because it turns out that the place they got was only five minutes away from the Carter house, where Nick was still living. Karine was asked to join in on the movement to the house, but declined the offer for now because she wanted to stay at the dormatry for the rest of her school year. She told Tara that she would move in during April, when College finished.
AJ became more and more different as time went on. At first it was the red eyes, and grumpiness, and now it had turned into a sickness. Karine was very worried about AJ, and was was Denise.
Christmas was a little over two weeks away. Tara and BJ started to decorate their three-bedroomed house, put up a really nice looking fake christmas tree (since all the real ones die quickly in Florida) and decorated it. Nick came over and helped put up the christmas lights on the outside of the house.
Karine was in her dorm room on december 15, setting up a small christmas fake christmas tree, and decorating her room with funky christmas lights that blinked along with christmas music.
Christmas was ten days away, and she had just finished her shopping. She bought Tara, Denise and AJ presents, and had just finished wrapping them, and placed them under the little tree, when she heard a knock at her door. Karine opened the door and saw AJ standing, there, who looked very miserable, and somewhat sick.
"Oh My God, AJ! What is wrong with you?" Karine asked, looking at the pale, frail thin structure of the man standing infront of her. AJ had lost alot of weight, and she really noticed it right now, and also to mention, his skin color became very white. AJ stumbled into the dormroom, and gave Karine a hug, and started to cry. Karine didnt know what was wrong, so she just kept hugging him back, rubbing his back while he cried.
"whats wrong?" Karine asked.
"Im really miserable..." AJ said
"About what??" Karine asked.
"... my life.." AJ said. AJ felt a wave of sickness come over him, and he ran into the little bathroom of Karines and threw up. Karine grabbed a cloth, and dampened it, and cleaned up AJ's face after he was finished.
"AJ, I want you to take a nap" Karine said, leading AJ to her bed. After AJ got to her bed, Karine grabbed a bucket and brought it over for him.
"If you're going to be sick.. the bucket is right here" she said.
After AJ laid down, he fell asleep right away. Karine noticed that AJ was burning up, so she put a damp cloth on his forehead, and rolled his sleeves up.
As she rolled the sleeves of his shirt up, she noticed bruises on his arms.
"whats this?" Karine said, and examined his arms closer. Karine saw little holes in his arms, holes which have been made from needles. Karine looked at AJ and had an idea of what had been going on with him. Karine shook her head in disbelief, she couldnt believe AJ was using stuff. Then she couldnt understand why. She felt sorry for AJ, and angry at him at the same time.
Karine called Tara, since she didnt know what she should do.
*RING RING*, the phone rang over at Tara's and BJ's house. Nick picked up the phone.
"hello" Nick said.
"uhm.. hi.. is this Nick?" Karine said, she never really met Nick before, but she knew that Tara and him were together.
"Yeah this is him" Nick said.
"Hey, its Karine.. is Tara there?" Karine asked.
"Yup.. hold on.." Nick passed the phone to Tara.
"Hey Karine! Whats up?"
"Tara, do you think you can come over to my dorm? I have a really big problem, and it has to do with AJ"
"Sure.. I can come right now.." Tara said.
"OH, maybe you should bring Nick too, since he knows AJ better than we do"
Tara got off the phone with Karine, and told Nick the situation. Nick and Tara got into Nicks car, and took off over to Karines dorm.
Nick and Tara walked into Karines room, and saw AJ lying there, passed out on the bed.
"Whats up with him?" Nick asked, looking at AJ, spread out on the bed.
"He passed out" Karine said.
"What?" Nick said, not believing what he heard.
"Yeah, and look what I found.." Karine rolled up the sleeves again and revealed the bruises and marks to Tara and Nick.
"Hes using drugs.." Karine said, upset.
"Man... " Nick said, shocked, and worried. "We have to take him to a hospital.." Nick said.
"But.. the news will get ahold of this.." Karine tried to protect AJ.
"No they won't, we'll stop them from being there.. He REALLY needs to be at a hospital" Nick said. Nick called an ambulance, who arrived five minutes later.
AJ was taken to the hospital, and Denise arrived shortly after. AJ was taken into the emergency unit, where he was tested for the amount of drugs in his blood. Still passed out, they performed some tests on AJ, and then put him up in a room, in the substance abuse unit section.
Around 11am the next day, AJ woke up and noticed that he was in a different room, he wasnt in his house. He didnt remember going to Karines, so he had no idea what happened to him, or where he was.
"what?!?! Where am I?" AJ said, as he sat up, and looked at the plain white room around him. He looked down at himself, he was wearing a white gown.
"what the hell?" AJ said. AJ heard a door open, and looked up to see Denise, Karine, Nick and Tara standing there with a doctor.
"whats going on?" AJ asked the doctor.
"Alex, you were brought here last night, heavily passed out. We ran some tests on you, and the tests revealed high amounts of heroin and cocain in your blood" the doctor said. AJ looked at the four behind the doctor.
"What, you guys are joking right? I dont do that stuff.." AJ said, trying to cover up.
"Alex, we are not joking. You have a serious drug problem, and we want to help you deal with it, to make you better" the doctor said.
"Well maybe I dont want to be better" AJ retaliated, shouting at the doctor.
"You have no choice, Mr McLean, your not going anywhere" The doctor left the room and shut the door, leaving Denise, Karine, Tara and Nick in the room with AJ.
Silence filled the room as AJ looked at each of them.
"this is all your fault!" He said to Nick, and gave him a nasty look.
"What?!? Why is this my fault?" Nick asked, not knowing what he did.
"Its yours, BRIANS, KEVINS and Howies!" AJ said "You guys did this to me"
"No, AJ, YOU did this to yourself" Nick said. Nick wrapped his arms around Tara.
"I dont even want to talk to you.." AJ said. Nick looked at AJ, and then glanced at the others, turned around and walked out of the room.
"I'm going with Nick. Im soo sorry, Karine, I'll call you later!" Tara said, and then she left the room to go with Nick.
"AJ, we're going to help you get through this" Denise said, with Karine, as AJ started to cry in his bed.
"leave me alone... I want to be alone.." AJ said. Denise and Karine left the room, giving AJ some time by himself, while he cried alone in his hospital bed.
"So are we still going to semi-formal together, Tara?" Nick asked, two days later while they were on lunch break at school.
"of course! Unless you dont want to" Tara said.
"No, I really want to! I got myself a cool new suit for it" Nick said proudly.
"really? awww!!! I cant wait to see you in a suit!" Tara said, and then she gave Nick a kiss.
Ryan came up to Nick and Tara, and started to bugg Nick again.
"Man, cant you lay off? What did I ever do to you?" Nick said, annoyed.
"No, I wont lay off as long as your with my girl" Ryan said.
"If I remember correctly, YOU cheated on her. You didnt want her. And shes not your girl anymore, shes mine! She doesnt like you" Nick said.
"all girls love Ryan" Ryan said, showing his big ego.
"yeah, whatever" Nick mumbled.
"So Tara.. will you be my date for semiformal?" Ryan asked.
"Ryan, Im with Nick, get that through your head! I dont like you anymore.. you had your chance, and you lost it" Tara said.
"That doesnt mean we still cant go to the dance!" Ryan said.
"God, you must be stupid!! Im GOING with NICK!" Tara said. Ryan slammed his fist down on the table, and walked away with his jocky prep friends.
After school, Tara walked over to the College to visit Karine, and the two of them went over to the hospital to go visit AJ. When they got there, Brian and Kevin were there, sitting in the waiting room.
"Hey guys" Karine said.
"uhm.. hi" They said, looking at Karine strangely. Karine remembered that they never met before, and that they didnt know who she was.
"Im Karine, Im AJ's friend" Karine said.
"oh.. You're Karine?" Brian asked.
"yup!" She said. Tara came around the corner, holding a pop in her hand.
"Hey Tara" Brian said.
"Hey Frick!" Tara said.
"Wheres Frack??"
"Hes playing some bball with Aaron" Tara said "and then hes goin christmas shopping"
"oh, cool" Brian said, a little disappointed that he couldnt see Nick.
"Poor AJ, Christmas is only like, 8 days away, and hes going to be spending it here" Kevin said.
"Well, we're trying to have it so he can spend christmas home, with me" Denise announced.
"thats a good idea" Kev said.
"So.. can we go in and see him?" Brian asked.
"Yeah, in a few minutes. The doctor is just finishing up in there" Denise said.
A few minutes later, Brian and Kevin went into AJs room.
"not you guys" AJ said.
"Bone, Frack told me that you blame us for your problem, we want to know why!" Brian said sternly.
"you want to know WHY? I'll tell you why... my life is totally ruined because ofyou guys. EVER since you guys started that shit with Lou and the Wrights, life hasnt been the same!! We lost fans, we toured unhappily, and we started to not get along! Then Backstreet Boys broke up! All because of you guys!" Aj said angrily.
"AJ, it was your idea to break up.." Kevin said.
"Yeah Bone, you said you wanted time away... make your own solo career" Brian remembered.
"oh, yeah I did say that.." AJ said.
"Im really sorry guys.. Im just a mess" AJ said sadly "I want things back the way they were..."
Brian and Kevin went silent. Deep Down inside, they wanted things to be back the way that they were also. It had been almost 3/4 of a year since they broke up, and during that time things were soo different for the boys.
"We do too, man... we do too" Kevin said softly.