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The banging on the door woke Claire up. She snuggled in closer and felt the arms around her tighten. She kept her eyes closed and tried to go back to sleep.

Then she heard the voice. It was Brian and he sounded beyond angry.

“Brian, hush,” it was Howie. “You’ll wake them.”

“That’s the point Howard,” Brian sounded like he wanted to hit someone.

The door handle rattled and Claire opened her eyes and looked at the door. Then she glanced at Aj next to her. She didn’t see how he was still out because her brother was making a lot of noise.

A new voice joined the two outside the door. “Here’s the key.” Nick. The traitor had probably told Brian about catching her and Aj kissing before the show a few days ago. Man, the kid was gonna get it.

Claire snuggled in even closer, closed her eyes and willed her breathing to slow so the men who were about to come in wouldn’t know she was awake.

Brian, Howie and Nick stopped just inside the door. “Aw. How cute do they look?” Howie stated.

Claire wanted to laugh. She cracked her eyes and watched. Brian looked really angry, Nick looked unconcerned and Howie looked bored.

They stood in the doorway, just watching until a fourth person joined them. Claire’s brother turned to face their cousin.

“I told you Kev. I told you.”

“Brian, calm down. I’m sure there’s a reason for this. They probably just fell asleep watching a movie.”

Claire watched Brian open his mouth to speak but Kevin held his hand out.

“Go,” he said. “We’re ALL going to go. I’ll come back in a little while and talk to them.”

Kevin stayed behind, watching the others leave. He then turned back and said quietly, “There HAD better be a good explanation for this Clairebear.”

Claire shut her eyes tight until she heard the door click closed. How had Kevin known she was awake?

The shirt she was wearing she’d stolen from her brother Andrew. It was big and comfy to sleep in. Claire was a bit shocked to find her pants off. But when she looked over the edge of the bed, they were sitting on the floor. She must’ve gotten up in the middle of the night and taken them off. Claire grabbed them and hurried to the bathroom.

A few minutes later, she emerged, fresh faced and wearing pants. She again marveled at how Aj had been able to sleep through the noise.

Claire did what anyone would’ve done; she lay on the bed on her stomach and stared at Aj until he woke up.

“Geez Claire,” he laughed, leaning over to kiss her good morning.

She backed away. “We had company a few minutes ago.”

“That doesn’t sound good,” Aj said, in lieu of offering a ‘good morning’. Then as if barely realizing she was there he added, “Why ARE you in my room?”

“We fell asleep watching the movie.”

“So who was the company you speak of?”

“My very angry big brother; Kevin promised he’s come back to “talk” to us. He’ll probably be here any minute.”

As soon as the words left her lips there was a knock on the door. Claire whispered to AJ, “You go put some clothes on and I’ll stall Kevy.”

As Aj walked into the bathroom with his clothes, Claire got up and looked out the peephole.

“Yes?” she said aloud. “Who are you?”

“Cut it Claire and open the door,” Kevin sounded a bit mad.

“Fine. Don’t play along then,” she sulked as she opened the door.

Kevin practically shoved her aside and started pacing. “Where’s the weasel?”

“Don’t call him a weasel!”

Kevin opened his mouth to reply but the bathroom door opened and he turned to it.

When he saw Aj he stopped mid-pace and stalked over to him.

Aj was pretty tall but her cousin was taller. Claire silently walked over and placed herself between the two men.

Kevin absolutely towered over her but Claire wasn’t intimidated. “I won’t let you hurt him Kevin.”

“Claire,” Aj said quietly. “Maybe you should go back to your room. I can handle Kevin.”

She turned to look at him. “No,” she said. “I’m not gonna leave. He might hit you and I like you too much to let him do it.”

Turning once more, this time to face her cousin, Claire said, “Go sit. Then we can talk,’’ she pointed to a chair across the room.

Kevin reluctantly went to sit down and watched like a hawk as Aj and Claire sat next to one another at the head of the bed.

To goad her cousin a bit, but mostly because she liked doing it, Claire grabbed Aj’s hand and laced her fingers through his. The look on Kevin’s face said his suspicions were now confirmed.

No one spoke; the phrase ‘if looks could kill’ pretty much defined the moment.

Aj bravely cleared his throat. “So,” he began.

That was all it took for Kevin to explode. He started yelling.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO THINKING?!” he started pacing again. “HOW THE HELL CAN YOU EVEN THINK OF SLEEPING TOGETHER WITH BRIAN RIGHTEXT DOOR?!”

“We didn’t sleep together!” Claire defended. “Well technically we did. But SLEEP is ALL we did. We conked out watching James and the Giant Peach.”

“Claire’s right Kev,” Aj spoke. “I wouldn’t do that, not to you, not to Brian and not to Claire. I like her too much.”

Claire smiled. “I promise Kevvers. We didn’t do a thing aside from watch JGP and fall asleep.”

Kevin looked like he didn’t believe a word out of their mouths. “Are you sure?” he asked, sounding a bit defeated.

“Believe me Kevin. I would know if I had had sex last night or not,” Claire told him.

Aj snorted and Kevin glanced at him with a semi-murderous gleam in his eye. Then he looked at Claire and seemed relieved.

“What’s the story behind this?” he asked, pointing to the two of them. “And why do you keep hiding your arms?”

“Well,” Claire said. “Do you want the whole story or do you want the short version?”

“The whole story. And again, what’s up with hiding your arms?”

Aj was smirking; Claire hadn’t told anyone about what she had done. He knew she didn’t want to tell anyone but didn’t see a way out of it.

“It’s part of the story,’’ Aj told him.

“Start talking Claire.”

“So at the beginning of the tour I was still having issues with the whole “you’re-really-Brian’s-baby-sister” thing,” Claire began. “And I felt like everything was out of control so I did something really stupid. I didn’t know Aj was still awake and I definitely didn’t know he was watching me. I guess I didn’t shut the bathroom door all the way because after I cut my right wrist the door flew open…”

Claire stopped talking when she saw the look on her cousin’s face.

“You cut yourself?!” he half-shouted.

She showed him her wrists. Two long, thinish, jagged pink puckered scars ran almost from the inside of her elbow to her wrist. She usually kept them covered with her liquid foundation so no one could see them. “I only did it once. And you guys don’t see the scars because I use make up to cover them.”

Kevin looked livid. “Back to the story,” he demanded. “We’ll discuss the cutting later.”

“Well Aj was freaked out. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it tightly around both my arms. Then he drug me to the lounge on the bus and made me tell him everything. Which I did. He made me promise that if I ever felt out of control again I’d talk to him. And he makes me show him my arms every night so he can make sure I haven’t cut again. The reason I came to his room last night is because I couldn’t sleep. Aj’s a great person to talk to when you need it. I guess the bond we’ve formed because of what happened is pretty tight. To me, it only seemed natural that it would lead to the two of us dating.”

Kevin looked at Aj and said, “Thank you for helping her.”

To Claire he said, “You know your brother is not going to be happy about this. So please, don’t,” he seemed to be searching for the right word. “Flaunt it in front of him.”

Claire and Aj both assured him they wouldn’t.

Kevin’s parting words, “Just be careful ok?” seemed as close to a blessing for them to continue their now not-so-secret relationship as they were going to get.