Xanda hugged Kevin good-bye and quietly left his hotel room only to be noticed by three young girls in the hallway. Kevin grimaced slightly as he closed his room door, hoping that the girls did not notice him or Xanda for that matter. Xanda walked down the hallway past the girls with her head down while she tried to remember the room number where AJ was staying. "Psst!" She heard some one whisper. When she turned around she noticed that Kevin's door was cracked open. "C'mere." Xanda called sweetly to the opened door while down on her knees. A moment later Roadie came bounding out of the door and ran softly into Xanda's open arms. "Hey, that looks like the cat AJ tours with." One girl whispered. Xanda looked up at the three girls who stood a few feet away watching Xanda's every move. "It's not AJ's cat." Xanda smiled at one of the girls who returned the smile with a glare. "Then who's cat is it?" Another girl snapped. "He's my cat." She replied while trying to treat the girls with kindness though she would have rather been as icy as they were. "Oh...then that's not the same cat." The smallest of the three girls stated quietly to her friends. "It's my cat but he's been touring with AJ for the past few months." Xanda explained to the girl. "She's lying!" Two of the girls whined while the other watched Xanda with curiosity.

"Xanda, you better get going." Kevin said after opening his door when he heard voices floating down the hall. Kevin noticed the three girls staring at him in wonderment but saw the disapproving look that one particular girl kept throwing at Xanda. "Xanda? Is everything all right?" He asked while looking the other three girls over. He assumed that they couldn't be over 16 years old. 'Man, Nick's probably got underwear older than them.' Kevin mentally chuckled while trying to keep a straight face. "I'm fine, Kevin. Thank you. But, could you do me a favor?" She asked with pleading eyes while trying to ignore the girls staring her down. "Sure! Whatever you need." He replied with a warm smile. Two of the girls started to giggle when they saw his bright smile; Xanda rolled her eyes. "Could you please keep Roadie in your room while I go talk to AJ?" Kevin took a step back into his room and held the door open. "C'mon, Roadie! Looks like you're gonna be rooming with me tonight." "Thank you, Kev. I owe you big time after tonight." Xanda said as she placed Roadie on the floor. "You don't owe me anything. What are friends for anyway?" He asked back. Xanda looked at the three girls then back at Kevin. "Well, do me another favor then." Kevin cocked an eyebrow wondering what on earth she could need. "Sign some autographs before you go to bed. I get the impression that these three young ladies are fans and I'm sure it would make their night." Kevin was taken aback my Xanda's attitude and how unlike AJ she truly was. "Um...sure! No problem." Xanda gave Kevin a quick smile and turned around to walk towards the elevator.

****

"Oh no, it's Xanda Bear!" Some guy shouted as Xanda waited in front of the elevator. She quickly turned around and saw Kevin at the other end of the hallway with the girls, signing autographs. He looked up and shook his head in disbelief. "XANDA!" Another mans voice shouted. Xanda quickly turned around and knew that the voices were coming from her hotel room. She thought for a moment and smiled. 'Howie and Nick are gonna get it.' But she realized that Howie was with AJ and Brian was with Nick. "He's still in my room, that bastard!" She shouted with anger before kicking in the door. Brian quickly fell to the floor laughing. "I think she's pissed, what about you, Nick?" Nick saw the red in her eyes and quickly bent down to help Brian up. "I don't think we should be fucking with her, Bri." Nick whispered. "Fucking her? I'm not fucking her. That's AJ's job and judging by her permanent attitude problem, he's doing a bad job at it." Brian explained, obviously still drunk. "We hit your mini bar. I guess one of us hit it harder than the other." Nick explained to Xanda. "I want him out of my room!" She shouted to Nick from the doorway, ignoring his explanation. "I'm trying, Xanda." Nick said quietly.

"Hey! What's going on?" Kevin asked, slightly winded from running down the hallway. "Brian's in my room, for starters; he cleaned out my bar, and he's drunk off his ass! I want him out of here!" Xanda demanded to no one in particular. "She needs to get laid." Brian laughed. "C'mon, Brian. Back to your room. Nick, can you keep him there until he sobers up?" Kevin questioned as he helped walk Brian to his room. "Yeah, no problem." Nick mumbled as he followed them. "Oh my god, it's Nick and Brian!" The three girls screamed happily. "I'm sorry, girls, but they won't be signing any autographs tonight." Kevin explained. "Those girls are kinda cute." Brian remarked as Nick slightly pushed him into the room. "They're underage, dude." Nick laughed. "Jailbait, damn!" Brian shouted before Nick shut the door. "Oh my god, Brian called us cute!" The girls squealed. "He was drunk." Xanda said flatly before turning on her heel.

****

Xanda waited impatiently at the room door. She glanced down at her watch that read midnight and prayed that she was at the right room. She heard someone's footsteps becoming louder and held her breath as the door softly opened. "Hey." She smiled at the man. He took a step back and quickly grabbed onto the door. "Whoa, you okay Howie?" She giggled slightly. "Yeah, I'm fine; still kinda drunk, though. You're the last person I expected to see." He explained. "Oh. Can I come in?" She asked while peaking into the room. "I'm sorry! Come in, excuse the mess. You can blame that on AJ." Howie stated quietly. "Where is he?" Xanda noticed that the room was completely quiet, too quiet for her liking. AJ didn't seem to be anywhere. But, judging by the condition of Howie's room, AJ had definitely made an appearance. "He's somewhere in the other room." Howie pointed to a closed door. "Mind if I go in and..." "Oh, go ahead. Just don't kill him, please?" Howie pleaded. "Howie, Kevin explained everything to me. I just want to make sure AJ knows.I don't want him blaming himself for the article." Xanda replied.

****

Xanda walked into the room as quietly as she could. She stumbled around the room looking for a source of light. She found a lamp and reached to turn it on but noticed that the light bulb had been taken out. She felt along the sides of the walls and not after long, she found a switch and flipped it on. The light was dim and hardly illuminated the room but it did enough to show all the alcohol bottles scattered around the room. Xanda walked around the room picking up an occasional bottle of Vodka or Whiskey. "Beer? He drank beer with hard alcohol? He's gonna hate the morning." Xanda said aloud. She could almost imagine how bad his hangover was going to be. She wanted to smile and tell him that it was his fault but she knew that it wasn't true. Instead, she wanted him to hold her, bury her face in his chest and reveal to him her true feelings even if she had to lie to make him happy.

Xanda walked around the room lost in her thoughts and tripped over something on the ground. "AJ?" She questioned quietly. AJ was passed out on the floor with the Rolling Stone magazine in his hands. Xanda quickly became alarmed and fell to her knees. "AJ? Wake up, baby. C'mon, open your eyes." She whispered while touching his face and smoothing out his hair. She realized that there was no waking him but promised herself that she would be there for him when he woke up.

****

For the next half hour Xanda sat with AJ's head in her lap, talking to him and telling him things she could never say to his face. After a while Xanda knew that something was wrong. She checked his pulse and realized it was weak along with his shallow breathing. "Howie!?" She called out from the room. "Yeah, Xanda?" He asked back as he walked into the room in a daze. "I didn't mean to wake you but he won't wake up. His pulse is slow. I'm starting to get worried. Has he ever drank this much before?" Howie looked around the room and all the empty bottles before turning his attention back to Xanda. "Brian and I helped him with a lot of these bottles but I don't remember much. I don't know how much he drank. What do you want to do? Call the hospital and find out if he should be brought in?" Xanda kept her attention on AJ before looking at Howie. "When was the last time you saw him awake?" "Right before you got here so he hasn't been passed out too long." Howie replied, his face showing all signs of concern. "Call downstairs and tell them to call an ambulance then can you call Kevin and tell him what's going on?" Howie looked at AJ's face once more before he walked out of the room. Xanda and Howie seemed remarkably calm and quiet but the feelings they had inside were the opposite.  Howie had honestly never seen his best friend drink so much before.  He was too scared to admit to Xanda that AJ had finished off a lot of those bottles on his own, after Howie passed out the first time.