Leah’s Point of View

 It was ten in the morning; we were in the elevator on our way to the suite. Last night was impulsive. It was like I was falling back to my old ways. Guilt was gnawing at the pit of my stomach. All I could think of was how I cheated on Brian. He would kill both of us if he found out. AJ just did something to me. He made me forget everything but him. We were like a match and stick, we always started a fire.

“Age, you’re never going to mentioned this night again are you?” I asked shyly.

“It’s our secret, babe. I enjoyed it…a lot.” He wiggled his eyes at me.

“I did, too. I’m still in love with Brian and I’m going to marry him.” I reminded him.

“I know. Let’s not talk about Brian at the moment.” The elevator stopped and we both stepped out. “Just act normal. We’ll tell them we went out for coffee.”

“Because that will work since we were both out all night.” I said walking to the room.

“We’ll say that we met up after doing whatever by ourselves.” He took out his keycard and swiped it. The door opened.

“WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU?” Brian yelled. He was mad. His face was red and his nostrils were flaring out. I knew he would be upset, but I didn’t realize to this extreme.

“I went out to clear my head.” I answered sheepishly. I walked over to Brian. AJ leaned against the wall pretending to go unnoticed.

“YOU WERE GONE ALL NIGHT WITHOUT EVEN A PHONE CALL.” He screamed at me. I had never seen him this angry before. I was in shock.

“Brian, I had a lot on my mind. I’m sorry I didn’t call.”

“What the hell is McLean doing coming in with you?”

“We..umm…ummm…had…” I stuttered. I was having trouble lying to Brian.

“We ran into each other and had coffee this morning. It was no big deal.” AJ replied calmly. He had no problem lying.

Brian moved to the dining room table and picked up a newspaper. “What the fuck do you call this?” He shoved it in my face.

I took it from him and glanced at it. Shit, damn, fuck, I didn’t believe what I was seeing. Front page news was AJ and I making out in the park. No wonder Brian’s nostrils wouldn’t stop flaring. I guess this secret wasn’t going to the grave. My stomach was queasy and I wanted to throw up. I pushed the newspaper into AJ’s chest.

“What do you want me to say?” I whispered. My life was falling apart. One passionate moment with AJ and everything I had was going be gone. Why didn’t I use my brain?

“I want you to say that I’m imagining this photo.” The picture was very suggestive. It was AJ and I in a full out make out session. My hands were around his waist and AJ’s one hand was on my breast and the other was in my hair.

“Bri, I’m sorry. I never meant for it to happen.” I heard AJ scoff.  Having him in the room wasn’t helping.

Brian walked over to AJ. He slammed him against the wall and got in his face. “You mother fucker, son of a bitch, no good bastard! Leave my fiancé alone. She was happy until you came around. You’re not going to ruin this for us. We are happy and I plan on it staying that way. Go screw a groupie. You touch her again, you mother fucker, and I will kill you.” I had never seen Brian so angry.

“Go to hell! She wanted it just as much as I did.” He laughed in Brian’s face. AJ was acting like the cocky bastard he really was. Last night must have been fluke because he was actually sweet and caring. “Get the fuck off of me. I can’t help it you want mine and Nick’s sloppy seconds.”

“AJ, get out. You’re nothing but an asshole.” Tears fell from my eyes. “I can’t stand you. Please leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” He flopped down on the couch.

“Brian can we talk in private?” I took his hand, but he pulled away.

“No, I think the three of us need to discuss this together.” He sat down in a chair. “Sit, Leah.”

I quickly sat down. I didn’t think I wanted this to go on any longer than it had to. Why was I such a fool when it came to AJ? I lost all my brain cells whenever we were alone together.

“Brian, I’m sorry I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was upset and….”

“Leah you were fine with it last night. Why do you become a coward when Rok’s around?”

I glared at him for a moment, before I began to speak. “I’m not a coward and you damn well know it. I wish you would butt out my life.”

“Enough both of you. It’s my turned to talk and you are both going to listen. First off, AJ, I know all about Leah’s past. You don’t need to throw it in my face.”

“So you like being the third Backstreet Boy to be inside her. I never knew you were that kind of man.” AJ was pissed.

“Shut up AJ. You need to shut your face. Leah, I don’t want you alone with him ever again.” I nodded my head at Brian. “I’ll forgive you this one time. If anything happens again we’re through.”

“Bri baby, it will never happen again. It was a weak moment for me. I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.” I apologized. I was truly sorry for hurting him. I loved Brian a lot. We both stood up and he wrapped his arms around me.

“We’re not done talking, but we’ll do that in private.” He whispered in my ear.

“You two deserve each other. Brian, you’re so desperate for love that you’ll take anything that resembles love. Leah, you’re nothing but a twisted, manipulative, nympho. Both of you can go fuck yourselves.” AJ got up and walked to his room. As the door slammed shut, Eden made an appearance in the room.

“What’s going on?” She asked half asleep. “I heard a bunch of yelling.”

“Nothing for you to worry about, sweetheart.” I attempted to sound reassuring to my daughter.

She sat down on the couch and picked up the newspaper before Brian or I could stop her. She turned to the front page. The look on her face said it all. She placed the newspaper on the table face down.

“M..Mom, what is going on?” She inquired carefully. Eden looked from me to Brian. Her brown eyes glazed with tears that were ready to spill.

“Eden, right now it’s between Brian, AJ and me. I don’t mean to be rude, but it doesn’t have anything to do with you.” I tried to put it nicely. The less people involved the better. Eden was too young to understand the situation in front of her. I ran a hand through my hair.

“Why does everyone keep saying that to me? Just because I’m fourteen freaking years old, I know nothing. What I think doesn’t matter.” She yelled and continued with her tirade. “All of this has to do with me. If dad didn’t knock you up, I wouldn’t be here. Then you would have never seen him again, which means you and Brian would have never found each other. Mom, I think you are a selfish bitch. I can’t believe you would do this to Brian. He deserves so much better than what he has.” Eden finally took a breath after her little monologue.

“Eden, I know you are upset. I get that and I understand it, but there’s a lot more to the situation than you are allowed to know at this point of you life.” I sat down next to her. “Right now, you should worry about yourself and spending time with your dad. Brian and I are working on things.”

“I don’t want to spend time Alexander McLean. He’s an ass. All he does is ruin things for me. Brian is my father. Mom if you push him aside for dad, than you really are a stupid bitch.” Eden stormed back into her bedroom.

I was flabbergasted by daughter. I started bawling and within seconds Brian was holding me tightly against his chest. “It’s going to be okay.” He comforted me.