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Chapter Fourteen

As Kevin slowly awoke from his deep slumber, he groaned inwardly to himself when he looked at the clock. It was only 6:28 in the morning. He didn’t have to awaken until nine that morning. As he closed his eyes and tried to fall back asleep, he sighed, giving up when he just couldn’t seem to do it. It was obvious that he was meant to be awake for the day. Go figure. The one day that he could sleep in a little, and his biological clock woke him up earlier than he would have liked.

Remembering where he was, and that he had the room all to himself, Kevin turned on a light, sleepily stumbling over to the table that was over by the huge window which overlooked the city. He grumbled a few choice words to himself when he stubbed is toe on a chair leg.

As soon as they had all arrived in London, and checked in to the hotel, Kevin had retreated to his room to be alone. He didn’t blame anybody for not wanting to be around him or the guys for not wanting to share a room with him. He’d been grumpy and his temper short lived all day. Actually, it had been that way for a couple of weeks now. It was definitely getting worse though. That much wasn’t hard to see. His sleeping habits hadn’t been very good either lately. They never really had been to begin with. Since he was always so busy, he hated spending all of his free time sleeping. At that moment though, he wanted to sleep. Sleeping would cause him to forget all about everything for a few short hours. Too bad for him though, he couldn’t. That would make his life easy. God forbid that happen for once.

Kevin sighed as he plopped down into one of the soft leather chairs. He leaned back, resting his head on the back of it. Closing his eyes, Kevin’s thought about the show that would take place the next night. Before he knew it, his mind wandered off to Adonica on stage with him, dancing. And then other thoughts entered his mind. He could see the pictures so clearly. Them walking hand in hand down the beach. Them living together, waking up in the same room. The two of them… Kevin’s eyes flew open as he shook his head to clear it. He had to stop day-dreaming and fantasizing about things happening with her. It wasn’t going to happen. It was time that he move on and get over the girl already. It was the right thing to do. But when somebody liked someone as much as he liked her, Kevin knew that doing such a thing wasn’t so easy. Kevin just wished that there were some way to get across how much he really did like her. He knew that it wouldn’t get him anywhere. It was beyond too late for that.

It wasn’t just a physical attraction that he felt for Adonica. It wasn’t something that he wanted for sexual reasons. He truly, genuinely had real feelings for her. He knew that he was being pathetic, but he didn’t care, nor could he help it. Kevin decided to just give up all together on trying to forget about her. It was only making things worse. Maybe if he didn’t try so hard, he would forget on his own, naturally.

That brought his thoughts back to one last idea of showing Adonica just how he felt about her. Or how he was feeling lately when it came to her. Kevin wanted to think of something creative and good. Something that would be special. He leaned forward, drumming his fingers on the table giving this some deep thought. He didn’t want to do anything drastic that would cause Rich to attack him again. Just something simple, yet special. Kevin wasn’t the type to try and cause a breakup in a relationship. That wasn’t him at all. Yet, he knew that whatever he came up with, it would draw attention to him. It wasn’t like nobody was in the dark anyways about how he felt, so he figured why care how obvious whatever he came up with was.

Then suddenly, the perfect idea came to his mind. It wasn’t exactly something to show how he felt about her, but to say aloud how he felt when it came to her. He looked over at the clock seeing that it was now 7:13. Kevin picked up the phone and speed dialed the number that he knew he had to contact to make sure that what he’d thought up was okay. He didn’t see where it would be a problem, but beings it was so new to another rising musical artist, he wasn’t sure if it would go over so well with him. Kevin hoped that he could talk to the singer personally to get his consent. It was something he would probably only do once anyways.

Somebody picked up the phone almost right away, introducing himself, telling Kevin that it was the first person he’d wanted to speak with. Kevin introduced himself professionally, stating what he wanted to do. The man told him that it shouldn’t be a problem at all and Kevin smiled for what felt like it had been the first time in an eternity. Asking for the particular artists phone number, just to double check with him, Kevin thanked the man and hung up for not more than five seconds before picking it up again and dialing the number that he’d been given.

“Hello?” a male answered after six long rings.

“Hello,” Kevin replied with confidence, asking for the man he was wishing to speak with.

“This is him,” he replied, and then was silent for a moment before asking, “What can I do for you?”

Kevin paused, wondering if he was making a mistake. He was considering backing out but quickly took a deep breath, deciding to continue.

“This is Kevin Richardson, of the Backstreet Boys,” he told him, “I was wondering if you could do me a favor…or rather, let me um, use one of your songs for a stage performance…just for tomorrow night.”

There was a long pause making Kevin afraid that he’d been hung up on. But eventually, the artist responded.

“Which song were you thinking of?” he asked

Kevin told him, hoping that it would be okay. The song had only been out for a month or two, “It’s to kind of prove a point to somebody.” He told him, feeling the need to explain himself, his reasonings and his motives.

“Sure,” the man replied, “I don’t see a problem with it.”

Kevin breathed a sigh of relief, happy that the guy was friendly and down to earth instead of the type who let his sudden fame get to his head.

“Great, thank you. I appriciate it,” Kevin said, greatful

“No problem,” the fellow music artist replied, “I’m glad that my, um, music can help you.”
They both laughed slightly. Kevin was a little embarrassed for the situation, but his plan was under way.

“Good luck,” the young man said, “I hope it all works out for you. Call me and let me know how things go. I have to go now though. In the middle of promotional stuff for the new album.”

Kevin thanked him again, telling him that he would clue him in to how thigns turned out and hung up. He had just about thirty-six hours until the show. He had to meet with the band and inform them in on the idea, hoping that they could do this particular song. Kevin, for some reason, had a strong feeling that this was going to change everything. It might not win him Adonica, but it might help clear his mind of the tormented thoughts of never being able to have her. He hoped, in the least, that it would do that. If not, he had many months of recovery to face in the process of mending his still broken heart.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Alaura nervously toyed with the hem of her blouse was she awaited the doctors arrival. She’d been sitting in one of his little offices for nearly half an hour and there was still no sign of him, or her. She had no clue what it was. All she knew was that it was a person by the name of Doctor Meehan. She had gotten an appointment in London by the luck of her being a dancer.

The perks of having full coverage medical insurance and the advantage of being able to use the privilege anywhere in the world. Alaura thought, rolling her eyes slightly

With that thought, it brought Alaura back to why she was even sitting in the office in the first place. It had started two days earlier. She had started feeling sick and her period had come and lasted one day, only spotting slightly. Devin had noticed the change in her and demanded that she see a doctor. He was going to accompany her, but a meeting came up at the last minute for LFO to attend, forcing her to go alone. That was fine with Alaura though. She didn’t really want him there in the first place. It would make her feel uncomfortable, like he was watching her, waiting for the doctor to diagnose something bad. All she really wanted was to get out of there. She was toying with the idea of getting up and leaving. It would be so easy to make a run for it right then and there. The idea was so tempting. Alaura pushed herself up from the chair, and began walking towards the door when it started to open. Alaura froze for a moment before scurrying back to the chair, casually acting like she had been waiting patiently the entire time. That was as far from the truth as it could get, but Dr. Meehan would never have to know that. It was there to tell her what was wrong with her, not read minds. A medium-sized man with a head full of dark brown hair walked into the room. Alaura guessed that he was in his late twenties.

“Good afternoon,” he greeted, and then paused, looking down at a clipboard that he was holding, and then looked back up at her with a smile, “Alaura.”

“Hi,” Alaura replied, shaking the hand that was being extended in her direction.

“So,” Dr. Meehan said, perching himself on the black stool that was in his office, “What brings you here today?”

Alaura shrugged, embarrassed about the one part, but told him anyways why she was visiting. He looked at her, once in awhile jotting down notes on his clipboard. A slight blush crept up on her cheeks as she got to the more personal of the information. She figured that he was used to this kind of thing though, so decided not to let herself get too humiliated.

“I see,” Dr. Meehan commented when she was through, “I’d like to run some quick tests on you, Alaura. It will take about half an hour for the results to come in. Do you think that you can stick around for that long?”

Alaura’s eyes widened, “Um…yeah, sure. I guess so,” she stuttered.

She could feel knots forming in her stomach. She didn’t like the sound of that. The word “tests” never indicated something good. Alaura suddenly wished that Devin were there with her to hold her hand. She’d been so confident before that the doctor would turn her away telling her that Devin was being paranoid and she was fine. That hadn’t turned out to be the case though. Alaura’s mind conjured up the worst possible scenarios as she followed the doctors’ orders for the tests. He took a couple of blood tests as well as a urine sample.

“You can step out into the waiting room while the results are being processed,” Dr. Meehan informed Alaura when she was finished with the tests, “Somebody will call you back in when we’re ready for you.”

Alaura gulped as she grabbed her purse and left to go back to the large waiting room. She hoped that there was something decent to read since it looked like her visit was going to be longer than expected. She knew how doctors’ offices worked. Half an hour meant at least an hour in medical language.

Sitting down in a chair, Alaura listened to people around her talking. She felt alone and out of place. It was obvious that she was the only American in the office. It made her feel slightly embarrassed. All she wanted was to get out of there. She was tempted to bolt from the building. Did she really need the test results? Maybe she would be better off not knowing what came up. But despite her longing to flee, Alaura found herself staying in place. She knew that she had to know what the test results confirmed. That way, she could take care of whatever it was. Alaura hoped that she wasn’t dying. That was the thought that kept nagging at her brain.

Alaura grabbed an issue of People off of a table next to her and started flipping through the pages. An article about the Backstreet Boys caught her attention, but she decided not to read it. She toured with them. She most likely already knew anything that the article had to say. In fact, she probably knew the truth instead of the altered version to make it seem more interesting that journalists always seemed to alter for magazines. She continued to rapidly flip through the pages, not really paying much attention to anything that was in it. She tried to read an article, but as soon as she was finished, she found herself wondering what it was about. Alaura knew that her concentration was non-existent at that point. Giving up, she tossed the magazine back down onto the stack, beginning to tap her foot. If there was one thing she hated, it was waiting. Looking at her watch, she saw that twenty minutes had passed. Alaura rolled her eyes. She didn’t understand what the holdup had to be. What was so hard about processing the test results and letting her know within five minutes? It seemed pretty simple to her.

Alaura felt like calling Devin from her cell phone, but after punching in half of the number, she remembered that he was in a meeting. Those always took a few hours. It had been schedueled to start at noon. It was a little more than half past. Alaura finally decided to just close her eyes and try to sleep for the remaining minutes that she was waiting. She didn’t know how long she had been asleep for, but what seemed like seconds later, she heard somebody calling her name. Alaura groggily sat up, and looked at her watch. It was just past 1:00. Yep, just as she predicted. Doctor time was always just about double what they said.

Alaura stood up and breezed past the nurse and back into the room to wait for the doctor to tell her the results. She was ready to get out of there for good. She had plans for the day and didn’t want to waste the whole thing in a dark doctors office. She refused to. After another ten minutes of what seemed to be endless waiting, Dr. Meehan walked into the room again still holding the infamous clipboard. He closed the door gently behind him, sitting back down on his stool again.

“Sorry for the holdup,” he apologized, his accent seeming thicker than it had before, “The lab got a bit behind.”

Alaura snorted. Of course it had. She looked at the doctor expectantly to tell her what had come up.

“We do have your results though,” Dr. Meehan said, flipping the packet of papers to a few pages back, “Nothing serious, but it is a good thing that you came in.”

“What’s wrong with me already?” Alaura demanded, getting rather impatient with the man.

“To put it simply, Alaura, you’re pregnant.”

“What?” she asked, “Wait, that’s impossible. It’s too soon to know that. I…I just lost…I just had sex for the first time ever less than a week ago.”

“With modern technology, we can detect pregnancy in as little as one day after intercourse.”

Alaura’s eyes grew wide as she drew in a deep breath, squeezing her eyes shut once. Damn technology. She tried to swallow but couldn’t, for her mouth was too dry. She was happy, but this wasn’t supposed to happen under these conditions. Alaura had no idea what she was going to do.

“Shit,” she muttered aloud, saying the only thing that came to mind, coming to grasps with exactly what she had to do now.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Alaura heard a knock on her hotel room door. Rushing over to it, her heart raching in her chest, she wiped a tear away and looked through the peephole seeing A.J. standing there. He looked confused by the way he was looking around. She breathed a sigh of relief that he was there. He was exactly who she had called as soon as she had gotten back from the doctors office. He was there now, just as he promised that he would be. Alaura opened the door half way, grabbing his arm and pulling him inside. A.J. lost his balance, but caught it again before he fell. Alaura shut the door behind them, locking it.

“Hey,” A.J. laughed, his eye shining, “What’s wrong with you. You’d think you were hiding something.” He joked.

His smile faded though when he looked at Alaura and saw that her eyes were bloodshot, the area around them red and puffy. A.J. knew that something was wrong because she normally wasn’t like this.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern taking over his soft features

Alaura nodded at first, but she couldn’t pretend that everything was fine and then shook her head as A.J. led her to the bed, guiding her to a sitting position. He sat down next to her, never seeing her this visibly upset. Only one thing came to mind that would cause her to react in such a manner.

“What did Devin do to you?” he asked, “If he hurt you, I swear…”

“Aje, stop,” Alaura said, sniffling as she dried her tears on her shirtsleeve, “Devin didn’t do anything. He’s in a meeting.”

A.J. relaxed a bit, but that still didn’t answer his question.

“Why are you so upset then?” he asked her.

Alaura was about to tell him, but felt her throat tightening up and couldn’t. How would he react? Would she be kicked off of the tour? How would she continue to dance once she started to show? Fresh tears welled up in her eyes as she bit her lip to stifle her sobs. A.J. pulled her into his arms in a friendly hug, knowing that this had to be huge.

“What’s wrong?” he asked again, not wanting to force her, but knowing that if she talked about it, she would feel better. He guessed that he should feel privileged that she had called on him with her troubles.

“I…I went to the…doctor today,” she began.

A.J cringed. The way she was carrying on, the results had to have been bad…worse than bad.

“What happened,” he asked nervously, already knowing that whatever it was, he would be there for her no matter what.

“I…he told me I’m pregnant,” she sobbed.

“That’s great,” A.J. complemented, not knowing why Alaura was so upset, “Devin will be thrilled.”

Alaura shook her head, “No, he won’t be,” she told him, spilling everything, “He’s going to kill me. It isn’t his. I swore I didn’t cheat on him. I didn’t think he would find out. He will now. He thinks I am still a virgin. It isn’t his and he will have to find out the truth now.”

A.J’s eyes widened, seeing where the problem lied. Now he knew why she was so upset.

“Who’s is it?” A.J. asked her

Alaura looked up at him with eyes that told him that he should already know the answer to that. It took A.J. a moment to realize just what she was indicating.

“Oh,” he finally said, and then realized the seriousness of the situation, “Oh god. Are you sure?”

Alaura nodded, finally calming down a little, “I told you you’re my first…what am I going to do? How will I tell Devin?”

“You mean, what are we going to do.” A.J corrected her, “This is partly my responsibility.”

Alaura smiled, thankful that he was reacting so well. She’d been afraid that he would shun her, even though she knew deep down that it wouldn’t happen like that. He was too sweet for that kind of behavior.

“I…what should we do so that it has both of its real parents?” Alaura asked, knowing that she couldn’t bring herself to be with A.J. in a romantic way. She liked him as a good friend, but nothing more. She was sure of this because when they were together, she felt no chemistry, no special spark like she would if she liked him as more.

“I love you as a best friend,” A.J. told her, “But, honestly, I don’t think we should start a relationship just for the child. That would be unfair to us.”

Alaura breathed a sigh of relief. At least he was seeing things in the same light as her. If he hadn’t been, it might have caused problems.

“However,” A.J. spoke up, “I do want to assume full responsibility as the father.”

Alaura smiled. He was being so mature and grown up about this. She respected him and was happy that he was going to be there. Alaura knew that no matter what, she couldn’t stand the thought of having an abortion. It went against everything that she believed in.

“Thank you,” Alaura whispered, starting to shake a little, “I…I really don’t want to lose Devin.” She said as her voice began to shake a little, “I love him too much.”

A.J. didn’t know what to say. He knew that he was extremely jealous. They would have gotten away with what had happened just nights ago if it weren’t for this unexpected surprise.

“No problem,” A.J. smiled, “It’s something that I want to do…no obligations.”

Alaura smiled at him again. A.J. got up, saying that he had to meet the guys for a quick sound check for the next day and asked if she would be okay. Alaura nodded, and he left. After he was gone, Alaura laid down, staring up at the ceiling. One thought was all that she had going through her mind. How was she going to break the news Devin? Looking at the clock, she estimated that she had approximately half an hour to figure it out.