“Guess we took up enough of your time tonight,” Brian decided, finally standing from the couch as he gathered their messy paper plates from the coffee table. After Kevin’s hauntingly dark presence lifted from the rest of the group, the visitation actually managed to turn into an enjoyable experience for all involved. The boys were wholly honest about the seriousness of their commitment to the girls. They apologized for their past mistakes, hoping that the girls would understand. Savannah had first thrown some heated comments in their direction, but they maintained truthful openness that actually caused her to calm considerably. Savannah had always been a good judge of character when she wasn’t allowing her stubborn nature to block her sensibility. So, when Savannah eased, Howie and Rhiannon followed.
“Are we supposed to comment on that open statement?” Savannah was quick to ask, tenderly attempting to lift the footrest of the Lazy-Boy to elevate her leg. Only, Howie seemed to understand what she was trying, moving to help her before she sustained yet another injury to her delicate leg. She smiled toward Howie with thanks, causing him to shrug innocently before moving back to cleaning up the living room from the miniature party.
“I was kind of hoping that we might be passed all your little comments,” AJ laughed uneasily, obviously infatuated with the woman sitting before him. Even with the faded bruises and healing lacerations along her face, she remained absolutely radiant with a beauty that no one could hope to ever contain. And AJ had been tripping over the most suave statements he could muster from his overactive brain, but Savannah always seemed to have a quip to knock him back into place. Howie had been grateful for Savannah’s quick tongue, because he couldn’t stand the thought of Savannah being with a man and assumed that AJ was just looking to conquer Savannah’s sexuality for another notch on his intimate belt of affairs.
“You’ll never be passed her little ‘comments,’ trust me,” Rhiannon warned with a snicker of laughter.
“Then we better go while the getting’s good,” Brian decided, pushing the last of the plates into a trash bag Howie was holding. Seeing that the room was in top condition, Howie tied the trash bag and tossed it toward the front door to discard before leaving for the evening. He then glanced back to see all the boys standing to follow Brian’s actions to stand before the girls. “It was a pleasure to actually meet you both, Savannah and Rhiannon.”
“Likewise,” Rhiannon agreed with no contempt in her voice, reaching to shake Brian’s hand.
“Same goes for me!” Nick was quick to announce, reaching to peck two quick kisses to the girls’ cheeks.
“You can take the rest of the cake with you, trust me,” Savannah grimaced, reaching to wipe her now wet cheek.
“He’s more than happy with that,” AJ laughed, reaching to shake Rhiannon’s hand. “Thank you for letting us into your home. It’s gorgeous.”
“Thanks to me it’s gorgeous. If Savvy would have decorated, you would have been blinded—”
“By her amazing ability project her radiant beauty onto your home?” AJ was quick to finish.
“Not exactly…” Rhiannon snorted.
“AJ…” Howie warned with a slight growl, causing the feisty man to glance up from the women. He frowned momentarily when he noticed that the others were already vacating the premises, knowing he had to hurry. So, AJ was quick to grab Savannah’s hand, layering it with a charming kiss before stumbling out. Howie glanced toward the girls with a shake of his head, starting to follow AJ. “I’m just going to walk them out.”
“Well, aren’t you such a sweet date!” Nick cooed, pinching Howie’s cheek as the door shut behind them. Only, he immediately jumped behind AJ when Howie offered a dark scowl of contempt. Swallowing hard, Nick held his hands up in defense and forgot about the leftover cake in his hands, which Brian managed to save with a quick dive.
“D, we didn’t come here to start trouble,” AJ was quick to interrupt as Brian shoved the cake back into Nick’s hands with a mutter of what AJ assumed was a clean version of curses. “We came to make amends. We were stupid to think that the band was more important than our friendship, because it turns out that our friendship is what keeps the band.”
“Without you, there is no band. Without you, there is no circle of friendship,” Brian interrupted.
“And without getting too mushy, we want you back,” AJ finished plainly.
“…I don’t know what to say…” Howie sighed.
“Don’t say anything!” Nick blurted, which only caused sharp glares to turn his way. He narrowed his eyes with disgust, puffing his chest in defiance. “I’m having the guys over for a BBQ next Saturday. We’re just going to hang out and act like assholes. We want you to come and bring the girls.”
“Can I think about it?” Howie asked.
“Yeah, no doubt,” Brian agreed.
“You just can’t say no!” AJ called.
Shaking his head, Howie waved the boys off. Watching for a moment as the walked down the driveway, Howie then turned to enter the girls’ condo for his own proper goodbyes. He moved to walk toward the living room, but found Savannah and Rhiannon eagerly waiting in the threshold of their foyer. He immediately arched his dark brows in question. But, Savannah didn’t wait long to ask Howie his opinion when the boys had left. She shifted carefully to look at Howie, arching her light brows. “So, what’s your verdict?”
“On what?” Howie laughed in surprise, still accommodating himself to her bluntness.
“On your friends.”
“What about them?”
“Are they still your friends? Or am I still allowed to think that they’re a bunch of arrogant assholes looking to cover their own asses from a severe butt-raping—”
“Good Lord, Savvy! Can’t you just ask him if we’re supposed to take their apologies seriously?” Rhiannon gasped in horror.
“Well, that, too…” Savannah decided quickly, glancing to Howie.
“I think that the three of them are finally acting like the men I became best friends with,” Howie confided with a soft smile. “I have no doubt in their sincerity.”
“Neither did Kevin,” Rhiannon murmured.
“What?” Howie questioned in confusion.
“Nothing, I’m just happy that you’re going to be maintaining your friendships!” Rhiannon recovered.
“Well, yeah…”
“And, we want to help seal the deal,” Savannah concluded, extremely thankful that Howie was making amends with the men. And, since Mr. Wright had been so gracious as to not include her dirty material, Savannah assumed that she and Rhiannon could seal Howie’s friendship permanently with the thank you notes that had previously written for just this type of occasion.
“Damnit all to Hell!” Savannah breathed in disbelief, just staring at the bottle of Pepsi that she desperately wanted to bring back into the living room to drink. It seemed like such a simple problem, but the task was utterly impossible given her healing dislocated shoulder, crutches, and thick brace strapped hard to her right leg. And, she refused to ask for help because Howie was with the band for the day and Rhiannon was currently dozing in her bedroom. She had woken with a terrible headache from the severe concussion, so Savannah ranted until Rhiannon agreed to lay down for awhile to see if the headache would dissipate for awhile.
Not that Savannah even really wanted to ask for help in the first place. She was growing tired of being so feeble and helpless. Not being able to do anything on her own was frustrating, because she had been so independent before the accident. She hated to rely on others, because it made her nervous. Humans were known to make errors, so it was easier to rely on her own intuitions to spare herself the pain of a dangerous folly.
And deciding that she had to learn to fend for herself while healing, Savannah narrowed her beautiful jade eyes on the soda, conjuring some sort of plan to get her back into the living room. Her leg was already starting to burn from the increase in gravity upon the tender staple lines as she stood. It would be hours before the aching would even lessen one degree and she was becoming exhausted from the exertion. So, growing with contempt at the cylinder of carbonated liquid, she hurriedly tucked it underneath her chin and started into the living room.
Only, she wasn’t prepared for the bitter cold of the bottle against her skin causing a slippery surface. And, without warning, the bottle rolled away from her neck, crashing down hard against her delicate knee. The burst of hot pain zoomed along her spinal cord as she lost her footing with the crutches. The left crutch jammed hard underneath her healing shoulder as the other slipped away from her grasp. It cluttered to the floor as the left sent her back against the wall with a sharp slam. One picture fell from the wall, crashing down heavily on tender leg again.
“SON OF A BITCH!” Savannah screamed in agony, pitching the left crutch as hard as she could across the hallway. “NOTHING BUT A PIECE OF—“
“HOLY SHIT!” AJ’s raspy voice screeched as the front door was opened just in time for him to catch the sailing crutch. He stumbled back against the heavy door from Savannah’s wicked throw, just staring at her in sheer disbelief. He had come over to invite Savannah on a date with a surprising amount of confidence radiating from his persona. Only, things seemed to change when she almost killed him with a flying crutch. “Next time I promise not to walk into this house without knocking! Damn, the front door was open and I figured you’d be resting, so—”
“I wasn’t aiming for you!” Savannah hissed in pain.
“Then what were you doing?” AJ questioned.
“Letting my frustrations explode about being a damn cripple!”
“Well, that’s not good,” AJ frowned, carrying the crutch back to where Savannah was propped against the wall. He tried to offer it back to her, but she violently pushed it away. AJ’s frown deepened as he watched her bowing her head in shame. He could heard the hot sobs starting to choke against her throat, warning him that something had happened to cause Savannah a tremendous amount of pain. Concerned, AJ reached to just place a gentle hand on her right shoulder for support. “Are you okay?”
“I haven’t been okay for awhile,” Savannah choked, blinking back her tears.
“Well, here, let me help you—”
“I don’t want help!”
“You don’t have much of a choice, Savannah,” AJ grunted, reaching to loop his arms around her waist to hold her away from the wall and assure that she was indeed okay.
“Savvy! What was that crash?!” Rhiannon interrupted with a deep bellowing of sheer panic, rushing down the stairs after the loud hysterics. She had been roused from a sound state of sleep by Savannah’s painful cry. Worried that Savannah had caused herself a severe injury because of her foolish stubbornness, Rhiannon was hurrying down the stairs without any concern for her throbbing temples and aching arm.
“That would have been crutches hitting my skull,” AJ ruefully replied, continuing to hold Savannah as he reached for the other fallen crutch.
“Then it would have made a hollow echo, pussy,” Savannah breathed back, although she was offering a small smile of appreciation for his concern.
“Do you think this is the appropriate time to be tormenting your savior—“
“Savannah Grace, answer me!” Rhiannon screamed.
“I’m fine!” Savannah finally hollered back as Rhiannon rushed into the foyer.
“What happened?” Rhiannon blurted.
“I fell into his arms again…” Savannah trailed with a shrug as AJ finally helped her stabilize with the crutches.
“And you had no sarcastic comment to add?” Rhiannon questioned incredulously.
“He saved my ass from getting yet another useless surgery, so I figured I might have to be nice the second time…”
“So nice, in fact, that she agreed to go out to lunch with me,” AJ tried.
“I did?” Savannah murmured in sheer surprise, arching her light brows with question.
“Well… I was hoping…” AJ grinned wickedly. “That’s why I came over in the first place.”
“Is this like a date?” Rhiannon mused.
“It’s whatever she wants to call it, really.”
“You mine as well go, Savvy. You’ve been bitching that no one lets you out of this house anymore—”
“You mean I’m actually allowed back into this conversation about my social life?” Savannah sarcastically quipped.
“Savvy…”
“Further more, my mother is actually allowing me to leave the house unchaperoned? What happened to all the shit about wanting me to stay home and rest? You’re so worried that I might get hurt if I go out and I get too tired on my crutches and what would happen if my shoulder suddenly dislodged again and I fell on my leg?” Savannah questioned with a mock of horror.
“I think we can trust AJ to take care of you for a few hours...”
“Why’s that?” AJ laughed, glad that Rhiannon was actually talking Savannah into the date.
“Because Howie would probably kick your ass if you got Savvy hurt again.”
“And what the Hell are you doing here?” Kevin questioned bluntly, opening his door to find his least favorite person of the moment standing at the threshold. He just didn’t believe that Howie would actually have the gall to be standing on his doorstep, especially after their last altercation before a management meeting. He had never butted heads with Kevin before. Howie was always docile and reserved when it came to the boys arguing over any type of concerns. He weighed each side of the argument carefully against the other, never speaking out until he was convinced with his decision. So, to have Howie irrationally throw a temper tantrum over two mysterious women had hurt Kevin’s pride more than he cared to admit. The boys always respected his decisions as if they were written in stone and Kevin refused to have it change so quickly. What he said went – no ifs, ands, or buts.
“I have something you want.”
“Well, it sure isn’t your shining face that I’ve been longing to see.”
Howie sighed heavily, “Please stop acting so childishly, Kevin.”
“You–”
“I don’t want to fight,” Howie quickly interrupted, offering the stack of thank you letters the women had written especially for them to release to the media. He had spent several hours with the other boys, toiling over what to do exactly with the letters. Everyone had agreed it was best to pass them onto Kevin, allowing him to make the final decision about their destiny. If anything, they were just hoping that Kevin would see the importance of the cards and realize that the girls weren’t just unimportant nuisances on his career path. Because it was obvious that these women were so much more.
“What’s this?” Kevin snapped, reaching to actually take the cards.
“Thank you notes that Savannah and Rhiannon wrote for us.”
“And what do you want me to do with this bullshit?”
“Read them and then you decide what we should do. It’s in your hands, Kevin, just like you wanted.
