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Chapter 10 He’s Not Being Rough Just Affectionate

***Michelle’s Point Of View***

I have to admit that in the beginning of their relationship, Kalie and Ryan were really happy together and it was starting to look like they were going to spend the rest of their lives together. Things changed drastically though. Chris, Dan, Crystal, Nick and myself noticed Ryan’s true personality but unfortunately Kalie didn’t.

It all started around the time Nick came back to visit us before he and the Boys released the next album. The nine of us, including Kasey and Trish, were hanging out at my house and Ryan started being a jerk to Nick and the other boys, even Kalie’s own brother!

Ryan would say rude comments, ignore the boys if they tried to talk to him, then he would make fun of the guys, especially Nick, and he started flirting with us girls behind Kalie’s back. I was getting sick of it and I was about to kick him out of my house when he said gruffly to Kalie, “Give me a kiss because I have to go home and finish my paper. You coming home with me or your brother?”

“I’ll come home with Kasey. Good luck on that paper.”

“I don’t need luck,” he said with a very cocky voice. They kissed and the rest of us cringed.

Once he left I sat Kalie down and said, “Girl we need to talk.”

“About what?”

“About Ryan,” Chris said.

“What about him?” Kalie asked raising her voice a little bit.

“He was being a complete jerk to all of us and he’s so rough with you,” Nick said. “There is no reason for him to be rough with you of all people.”

“He’s not being rough just affectionate,” she replied.

“If that’s being affectionate then I’d hate to see when he is being rough,” Kasey commented.

“And he was being such a flirt! I hate to tell you this but I have a feeling he’s going to cheat on you one of these days if he doesn’t have another girl besides you already,” I spoke up. “Am I right Tally?”

Crystal nodded her head, “Mich is right Kay. I wouldn’t trust him if I were you.”

Kalie stood up and looked me dead in the face. “What?! How could you say that?! Can’t you see that we love each other?! He would never do that to me! He loves me and I love him! How dare you say he’ll cheat on me?!” she screamed defending her jerk of a boyfriend. “I’m leaving!” With that she stormed out of my house.

Nick got up to chase after her but I grabbed his arm and sat him back down. “Don’t go running after her because she’s being blinded by him. And mark my words, when he does cheat on her and she finds out she’ll come running back to us and admit how stupid she was for not listening. But don’t go running after her now because she won’t listen, it’s no use.”

“But what if we’re wrong about him?! We could have just lost one of our best friends right now!” Nick said angrily.

“Nick calm down. Michelle is right. Maybe Kalie needs to realize what a jerk he is for herself,” Chris said.

He shook his head and said, “I hope you’re right. I don’t see enough of Kalie as it is. I don’t want to lose her now when we’re trying to help her.”

“You know what,” Kasey spoke up, “I’ll talk to her tonight about it. I may even get Kim and Kyle to talk to her too because we have been noticing him becoming rougher and rougher with her. And knowing my twin she’ll come around and see how foolish she’s being, hopefully.”

“And maybe we should all tell her we’re just trying to help her. So she won’t be mad at us forever,” Crystal suggested.

“And what if Nick’s right?” Dan asked, “What if we are wrong about him?”

“Oh you know me and picking out cheaters. You all dated cheaters once in your life time,” I pointed to everyone in the room, “and I was the one who told all of you about your cheaters. Plus it happened to me before and the guy who cheated on me acted the same way Ryan is acting now.”

“You’re right,” Nick sighed. “I just hope she’ll come to her senses and realize what an ass he is and that we were only trying to help her.”

“Like I said I’ll talk to her tonight about it and let her sleep on it,” Kasey said.

*****Kasey’s Point Of View***

That night Ryan mysteriously ran back to his apartment totally blowing dinner off which Kalie made. I had a strong feeling another girl was waiting for him back at his place.

Kalie was pouting constantly during dinner and she wouldn’t talk to me or Trish. I couldn’t take her silence anymore so I spoke up, “Kayl, we were only trying to help you today. We wanted to let you know what was going on behind the scenes.”

“Yeah Kay,” Trish said sweetly. “We’re just trying to protect you and tell you to watch your back. We all love you Kalie and we don’t want to see you get hurt. It’s better to be warned about it first than for you to find out about him on your own. And also you don’t want to find out from us after the fact that we knew all along.”

“Trish is right sis,” Kim said. “You can’t be mad at your friends for telling you the truth.”

“But how can he do that to me? He loves me and I love him,” her voice was filled with confusion and sadness.

“Sis, I know the truth hurts some times,” Kim continued, “but not all guys actually mean it when they say they love you.”

With that she ran up to her room crying.

She wouldn’t talk to our friends or our siblings for a good while after that day. But even worse she still dated Ryan.

***Michelle’s Point of View***

A few weeks later on November 21, BSB’s Black and Blue came out and Nick sent Crystal, Kalie and myself a signed copy of the CD and the sheet music of all of the songs.

He also wrote Crystal and I a note about one particular song, “Track number three was written a long time ago but it fits into the situation going on with Kalie right now. It’s called Get Another Boyfriend. I’m hoping she’ll get the hint and I hope she’ll get her vision back quickly because you don’t know how much I miss her. It’s bad enough that I can’t see her because I’m a Backstreet Boy. I don’t want her to be mad at me because we were just trying to help her.”

Nick was right; the lyrics of Get Another Boyfriend fit Kalie’s relationship with Ryan perfectly and I was missing Kalie too. Heck we were all missing her. She wouldn’t talk to us at all and I was worried about what was going to happen if she and Ryan did break up. She really did love him but I wasn’t convinced he loved her back. My suspicions came true when Chris and I caught Ryan in the act.

Chris and I went on our first date together on November 25. Everyone predicted that we would start dating but it took us a while to start trying.

He picked me up and took me out to an early movie and dinner afterward.

I was sitting across from him getting lost in his dark brown eyes and kept thinking about how cute he looked with his black hair spiked up. Also I kept thinking to myself, “He looks really hot in that navy button down shirt. And damn! Why haven’t I noticed that he’s gotten muscular?

The date was going just the way I imagined it and I started to become more comfortable with the idea of Chris and I becoming more than just friends.

When we were walking out of the restaurant, we saw Ryan sitting at a table across the room. He was dressed to try to impress and he was sitting and flirting with a girl who wasn’t Kalie.

I stopped in my tracks and watched as Ryan made out with his secret lover. Chris walked over to me and whispered, “Don’t do anything you’re going to regret.”

“Oh trust me I’m not going to regret this.” I walked with purpose over to Ryan and tapped him on the shoulder.

“What?! Can’t you see I’m busy!” he snapped. His face went pale when he saw me standing there with my hands on my hips.

“So you say you love Kalie? If you love her then why the hell are you here with this tramp?!” I pointed to the girl he was sitting with. Boy did she look like he had gotten her from off the street. I wouldn’t have been surprised if she was a hooker or some pole dancer. “Wait until Kalie finds out! Your ass is going to be kicked to the curb sooner than you can gravel ‘But Kalie I can explain!’”

“You won’t tell her,” he said staring at me with hard, angry eyes.

“And why wouldn’t I?!” I snapped back.

“You don’t even talk anymore. You’re not her friend anymore. You told her the guy she’s in love with doesn’t love her back and is an asshole. She told me everything and I told her it wasn’t true and she believed me. So now I’ve got both Kalie and the gorgeous Jackie,” he said being self confident and an utter ass.

“You know what? I am right about you! You’re nothing but a bastard,” I hissed through gritted teeth.

“Oh yeah,” he stood up and looked down at me, “what are you going to do about it?”

“What I should have done the day you were over my house!” I slapped his face hard leaving a five star.

“Michelle is right! I should have listened!” I heard Kalie’s voice come from behind me.

“Kalie I can…” Ryan started but she interrupted him.

“Don’t even go there! You are a fucking bastard! We’re done!” She turned to me and almost started to breakdown, “I should have listened to you Mich. I feel so stu…”

I grabbed her shoulders and pushed her toward the door. As I did I whispered in her ear, “Don’t breakdown in front of that jerk. Be Kalie Marie, the girl who doesn’t cry over boyfriends. How are you getting home?”

“I don’t know because I brought the bus here. Ryan said he was going to drive me home and spend the night.”

“We are driving you home,” Chris and I showed her to his car.

Once Chris started driving Kalie said in a near whisper, “I feel so stupid.”

“Why Kay?” Chris asked looking at her in his review mirror.

“I should have listened to you and the rest of our friends and my siblings. I should have known you were telling me the truth about him. I’m so sor…”

“Kalie,” I interrupted, “you don’t need to apologize to me or Chris. You were blinded by him but now you know the truth about him. If I were you I would apologize to your siblings, Dan and Tally, and especially Nick. He’s really beaten up that you’re not talking to him. He misses you enough as it is.”

“So you’re not mad at me?”

I turned around in my seat to look at her face and smiled, “Of course I’m not. You needed to see what a jerk he was for yourself. I’m glad you can see again.”

“And I’m glad you’re not mad at me!”

“How can I be mad at my best friend?”

“And Chris you’re not mad at me are you?”

“No. Like Mich said how can I be mad at my best friend?”

“I love you guys!”

“We love you too!” Chris and I said in unison.

“So why were you guys at a fancy restaurant like that just the two of you?”

I looked at Chris and grinned at him, he returned the favor.

I said sweetly, “We just went on our first date.”

“I KNEW IT!” she exclaimed. “It took you two long enough! Now all we need to do is hook up Dan and Tally! Congrats guys.”

“Don’t say that yet,” Chris laughed, “It was only our first date.”

“But do you want there to be more?” she questioned.

“Yeah I do. What about you Mich?”

“I’d love to go out on more dates with you,” I replied.

“Awe!” Kalie squeaked, “You two are going to be such the cute couple!”

Chris and I chuckled and continued on our trip back home.

She apologized to all of us the next day and we all forgave her but she didn’t learn her lesson.

He came crawling back to her a few weeks later asking for her forgiveness and a second chance and coming up with all this bullshit of how much he missed her and he can’t live without her and how much he supposedly loves her. So she foolishly took him back.

I didn’t want anything to do with Ryan so I made her promise me that she would make time to hang out with me and the rest of our friends without Ryan and she agreed because she knew how much we all didn’t like him. Again I have to admit that in the beginning he was the boy we knew in high school but after a certain amount of time his whole personality would change. And his partying didn’t help too much either. He was very heavy handed when it came to booze.

We were all starting to concern over her when we noticed random bruises all over her body suddenly. She claimed they were her fault because she tripped over something or accidentally bumped into something but we all knew Kalie, she wasn’t at all clumsy, I mean she was a professional dancer for crying out loud. All of this was happening when Nick was on break before tour and he was getting angrier and angrier that this was happening to his best friend.

“She deserves better than that piece of shit!” he kept repeating.

“I know she deserves better Kaos. But we can’t tell her that because you remember what happened the last time. I don’t know about you but I don’t want her to be mad at me again. I want to intervene but she does need to learn for herself. I guess that’s the only way she’s going to learn,” I said shrugging my shoulders.

“I hate that this is happening to her.”

“We all do Kaos but she does have to learn for herself,” Crystal agreed with me, “I hate to say it but it’s probably true. I guess she’s really in love with him.”

“Or just afraid of being lonely,” Dan threw in.