Chapter Twenty-Six

I woke up on the very edge of the bed. Again. This boy was going to have to learn about sharing space. He had his hand on my stomach, holding me in place.

I glanced at the clock. Eight AM. I wondered if AJ needed to be at the studio by a certain time, but I didn’t want to wake him up to ask. I was perfectly happy to stay where I was.

Sunlight was creeping in through the blinds. He was snoring lightly. I couldn’t help but smile a little. I stifled the laugh so that I wouldn’t wake him. I don’t know how long I stared at his face. His beard was a bit scruffy. He looked peaceful, though. I sighed.

All of a sudden I heard music. AJ’s cell was going off. At first, he didn’t seem to hear it. The phone had been left in the living room, so the ring was distant. As the air quieted again, though, he shifted and opened one of his eyes.

Crap, I thought. Hopefully he woke up slowly and wouldn’t register that I’d been watching him sleep. How cliché was that, after all? Completely sappy. The fact that I was mesmerized by his face…

I was doing it again.

“Hey, beautiful,” he said, both eyes closed again. His voice was deep and just a little raspy.

It sounded wonderful.

I smiled, blushing and not knowing how to respond. He pulled me closer to him.

“Glad you don’t have to work today.”

“That makes two of us,” I leaned my head against his shoulder. “What about you? Is that who was calling?”

He groaned, remembering that his phone had been going off. “Don’t go anywhere.” He got up, grabbed his boxers, and stepped into them as he left the room.

Being much more modest, I quickly got up and put on my own PJs before he came back.

“That was Brian,” AJ yawned and tried to flatten his hair. “He left me a message that he wasn’t coming in today.”

“How come?”

“Said he wasn’t feeling well. He sounded awful. Hope whatever he has wasn’t contagious. It doesn’t sound like something I want to catch.”

He flopped back down on the bed and slowly realized that I wasn’t in it anymore. “Hey, I told you not to move.”

“Don’t you still have to go in? Or can you not record without him?”

“I’m going to go in for awhile this afternoon. There’s… a song I need to finish.” He cleared his throat. “Anyway… got anything to eat?”

“Does this look like a Bed and Breakfast?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, you’ve got the first part down. Now it’s time to prove the other half,” he laughed.

I rolled my eyes. “Let me go and see what I’ve got.”

I decided on omelet’s, the only slightly impressive breakfast food I knew how to make. AJ set the table, and we ate together, talking as easily as during dinner the other night.

It was weird that this wasn’t weird. I’d expected this morning to be a little more awkward. But I guess he was used to this. And he was pretty easy-going anyway, in almost all situations. I wondered if he always stayed this long the morning after. The fact that he hadn’t bolted for the door had to be a good sign, right? This meal certainly wasn’t worth staying for, although he claimed it tasted great.

Then I remembered my stalker. AJ couldn’t in good conscience leave me, could he? He was too worried that Peter was going to show up and carry me off.

“What’s wrong?”

“Huh?” I returned my attention to breakfast.

“You look… pensive.”

“Just thinking.” The more I worried about when he was going to leave, the less I could enjoy the moment. Forget that. I could do with a little more of living in the present.

I put a smile on my face. “Last night was…” My smile widened.

He grinned back at me. Then said, “Oh, I have to go to the car!”

My smile lessoned. That hadn’t exactly been the response I was looking for. “Um. Okay?”

“No, I have something for you. I’d just forgotten about it.”

He grabbed his keys and headed outside. I wondered how long it would take him to realize that he was still only wearing his boxers. I hoped there was a random Backstreet Boy fan outside, walking by the apartment complex. That would certainly brighten their day.

What in the world did he have for me? The three minutes seemed to last forever. AJ finally reappeared.

“Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

“Do you want your present or not?”

“Alright.”

“Hold out your hands.”

I did. He placed something in them. It was oddly shaped, though, so I still had no idea what it was. “Can I open my eyes now?”

No answer.

“AJ?” I asked, impatiently.

“Just giving you a little suspense!” he laughed. “Yeah, you can.”

I did. I looked at what I was holding. It was… AJ.

A five inch version of him, anyway. He had a brown hat and trench coat on. I started laughing. “What is this?”

“I told you I was a superhero!”

I continued to laugh. “You really did have an action figure! Oh my gosh!”

“What?” he crossed his arms. “You didn’t believe me?”

“Not really,” I smiled. “Thanks.”

“He can protect you when I’m not around. He’s got superpowers,” AJ winked.

“So does the guy he was created after,” I stared into his eyes, thinking that this was the most wonderful gift I’d ever gotten. “Thank you.”

“I know. I’m awesome.”

“And modest as always,” I pulled his head closer and kissed him.

The morning passed by too quickly. When Nick and Howie started calling, I knew that AJ should be heading to the studio.

“When are you going to August’s?” AJ asked.

“Not until later.” I continued before he could interrupt me, “But Dianna’s coming over at noon, and we were going to go see a movie. And I’m staying at August’s tonight.”

I kind of regretted that last part now, due to… recent developments.

“Happy? I’ve lined up all the baby-sitters.”

“Very,” AJ smiled.

I sighed. “Everyone’s going to start hating me… I mean, I can’t even drive myself. I’m the biggest inconvenience in the world.”

AJ frowned, thinking over what I said. “Well, you said you’d almost saved up enough money. What if I loaned you the rest, and you could buy the car you were looking at?”

I shook my head. “That’s your money, AJ. You shouldn’t have to buy me a car.”

“Well, this isn’t your fault. I don’t know why you keep blaming yourself.”

“I just… should’ve done a lot of things differently.”

“He’s the freak who caused it, not you. I can’t say that enough, can I? If we’re going to be mad at somebody, it can be him.” He wrapped his arms around me.

I was still getting used to the whole relying on other people thing.

Predictably, he waited until Dianna arrived before he left. He gave me a quick kiss good-bye. “I’ll call you tonight, and see you tomorrow,” he promised.

Dianna and I went to the movie. It wasn’t that great, but we had a good time. She suggested going to the mall from there. I declined that idea, for obvious reasons. We opted instead for window shopping in downtown Orlando. The day flew by.

“What do you keep smiling about?”

We were at some outside tables, at an ice cream parlor. What was better than a chocolate ice cream cone for dinner? I was trying to eat it faster than the sun was trying to melt it.

“Nothing,” I tried to wipe the grin off of my face but failed.

“Uh-huh,” she said. “That doesn’t look like nothing.”

“It’s… I’m… I’m just in a good mood. That’s all.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, unconvinced. “What time is August coming to pick you up?”

“She was going to come by at eight unless I called her and said differently.”

“Oh, okay,” Dianna said. “That works out perfectly. I’m supposed to meet Howie at the hardware store. He promised me we could redo the bathroom.”

“That sounds like fun,” I said.

“And I’m sure AJ will call you to make sure you got there safely?” she teased.

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, he’ll check up on me, you can count on it. He’s very gun-ho about this whole thing.”

She was the one with a smile now. “I’m glad you guys have worked things out.”

“Well, we… I mean… we’re not really together at the moment. Although… well… I don’t know what we are actually,” I sighed, biting into the cone.

“Your good mood today says otherwise,” Dianna said loftily.

“I’m just worried about how long I’ll hold his interest,” I said, wanting to confide in someone.

“Listen, I’ve been with Howie for years. Years,” she stressed. “I’ve known AJ just as long. I’ve seen a lot of girls come and go…”

“Yes, I know!”

“He has never looked at any of them the way he looks at you. One day we are going to get that through your thick head!” she laughed. “You want it in writing?”

“Maybe,” I joked, thinking things over.

“Look, the Backstreet Boys!” we heard someone nearby say.

We both turned our heads, wondering what any or all of the Boys were doing here. Two girls, high school aged, were sitting at the table looking at a magazine.

“What’s it say?” the other girl asked.

“There’s a little article about their new CD.”

Dianna went to the other table. “Hey, would you mind if I read that, too?”

“Um, sure,” the girl handed her the magazine.

I followed her, looking over her shoulder to read.

“Are you guys Backstreet Boys fans, too?”

I laughed, as Dianna said that we were. Well, I supposed that was true. We loved their music- there just weren’t posters on our walls.

The article didn’t say anything that we didn’t already know, but it was still exciting to see the guys get the positive press.

We headed back to my apartment a little while later.

“This was fun,” I said.

Life wasn’t bad right now, either. If you ignored the whole Peter thing, it was pretty perfect, actually.

Okay, that was exaggerating. My job was still crappy. My apartment was still crappy. I still had no car. Blah, blah, blah. But I’d been thinking of AJ all day. And the Backstreet Girls were pretty darn awesome, too.

“Hey, hon,” Dianna answered her phone as she sat down on my couch. “You’re there now? I thought we were meeting at our place first…. Yeah, I know it closes in an hour… alright. I’ll call you back in a few.”

“He’s waiting for you, huh?”

“Yeah. You know, for being known as ‘Sweet D,’ the man is pretty impatient sometimes,” she laughed.

I looked at the clock. August would be here any minute. “Why don’t you go ahead and go. You’ve got a bathroom to pick out!”

Dianna bit her lip. “Are you sure? Aren’t you worried about being here by yourself?”

I shook my head. “I’ll be alone, what? Five minutes? It’ll be fine. I promise I won’t tell AJ you left!” I laughed.

She thought it over, then decided against it. “No…”

“Dianna! I feel horrible enough about you guys having to give me rides and watch me all the time. I don’t want to keep you from all the other things you need to do. So I say this with love: get out of my apartment!”

She smiled. “Alright, if you’re sure…”

“You don’t have a choice,” I pulled her off of the couch and shoved her out the door. “I’ll talk to you later!”

I brushed my teeth, got my overnight bag ready, and watched the hour get later. Fifteen minutes after eight, I started getting a little worried. August wasn’t usually late. Another ten minutes passed.

I decided to call her. It was getting slowly darker outside. I checked to make sure all the windows and the front door were locked and grabbed my purse. Where was my cell phone? That was weird. I knew for sure I’d had it in here. I started checking the apartment, in case I’d dropped it on the way in. That wasn’t like me though.

Why was I getting such a bad feeling all of a sudden? Just because I didn’t have my phone didn’t necessarily mean anything. I sat down on the couch, trying to remember the last time I’d seen it. I glanced at the clock again. It was already past 8:30. Where was August?

I picked up the AJ action figure that was sitting on the coffee table. I knew it was plastic, but it made me feel safer nevertheless.

Okay, I knew it was stupid for me to just sit here. I didn’t know what was going on, but I wasn’t so naïve not to realize that something was going on. I didn’t have a landline, but my neighbors did. They were only five steps across the hall. If they weren’t home, there was an older couple who lived next to me, and they rarely went out.

I needed to call AJ. The little voice in the back of my mind was screaming that over and over again. I looked through the peephole. Coast is clear, I thought.

Then I heard it. A window was crashing. It sounded like it was coming from my bedroom. I froze, wondering if I should check it out.

No. That was stupid. That’s what every person in every scary movie always did. The audience would be screaming at them, wondering why, and sure enough: that person always wound up dead.

I glanced around for my mace. It was in my purse across the room. There wasn’t time to risk grabbing it. I fumbled with the lock on the front door and stepped out into the hallway. I didn’t know the residents on the other floors, but I had a better bet of being out of sight before I stopped to knock.

I was heading towards the stairwell when I felt a hand wrap around my arm. Then I heard the cynical laugh that went with it.