chapter fourAJ insisted on taking Lauren out to lunch. Lauren tried to decline, not in the mood to be with a hulky bodyguard or ambushed by a guerilla of teenyboppers, but AJ wouldn't budge. He told her he knew of a little deli place ten minutes away that he went to all the time by himself and not once had been disturbed.
"If I see one teeny and she screams my ear off, I'm going to personally drop-kick your ass," she threatened, walking to AJ's car.
"Hey, I can't help it if the ladies love me."
"You are so full of it, McLean," Lauren stated.
AJ stuck out his tongue and slowly backed out of the driveway. He drove out of his neighborhood and got onto the freeway. There, he turned on his stereo and cranked it up.
"Yeah, this is a great way not to get attention!" Lauren yelled over the radio to AJ. She turned down the music, much to Alex's distaste.
"Party pooper," AJ claimed.
"That's me." Lauren hummed along to the current tune, occasionally singing a few words. AJ, on the other hand, just belted out the notes, whether they were in tune or not. He added a few words here and there, too.
"Your girlfriend must be very tolerant," Lauren teased when the commercials came on.
"Hah hah, very funny. And there's no one right now. We decided it would be best if we saw other people..."
"She dumped you, didn't she?"
"Dropped me like a dime," AJ replied.
"I like her already."
AJ gave her a dirty look and rolled his eyes. He pushed back his sunglasses on his nose, and checked his rearview mirror before sharply changing lanes.
"God, will you drive normally? I want to get to the place in one piece, thank you."
"Where's your sense of adventure?" he countered.
"I think I saw it back there in the other lane."
"Bah hum bug."
Lauren grinned, crossed her legs and turned up the radio. A song by NSync came on and Lauren glanced at AJ. His face scrunched up in disgust and he reached over to change the station while keeping his attention on the road. He finally switched the station and let out a loud, deliberate sigh. A light jazz song played and AJ tapped his hand on the steering wheel to the beat.
Lauren was relieved when he finally took an exit off the highway. She noticed that around her that everything was nestled away in trees. It seemed so secretive, so...not public.
AJ pulled into a parking lot of a nicely-sized restaurant. The parking lot was fairly full, even for a place this well-hidden.
"Where did you find this place?" Lauren asked. She followed him to the entrance.
"You'd be amazed by how many hours I've spent just driving around. Especially since you've been gone," he said with a little hint of sadness in his raspy voice.
Lauren felt guilty. She hadn't thought about AJ and the rest when she left. The only thing she could think about was Nick. In that night she'd left, there was nothing else to think about. The images of him were unavoidable.
"I'm sorry," she apologized.
AJ put his hand in hers. "I'm just glad you're back, that's all." He gave her hand a light squeeze and smiled.
When they finally were seated, AJ didn't say much. It made Lauren nervous because when Alex didn't talk, something was obviously upsetting him.
Lauren peeked over her menu and looked at him. He was staring at the menu blankly, clearly not reading anything. His jaw was set. She couldn't tell for sure because of his dark sunglasses, but he looked like he was on the verge of tears.
"Did I really affect you all that much?" she inquired.
AJ snapped out of his trance and stuttered, "What?"
"When I left," she said, "did I affect you that much?"
"You did. It was just so sudden, you know? I would've been prepared better to help you if I knew more. Then maybe you wouldn't have left."
"I would've left regardless of what you would've done, Alex," she told him. "I didn't want anyone around me; I felt so bad."
"I felt worse," he said, looking back at his menu. "I had no way of knowing where you were. I was so afraid you'd go and do something and I wouldn't be there to stop you."
"Alex, I know I'm not that bad," she said.
AJ smiled. "I know, but I only thought about the bad things. I mean, what if you did try to hurt yourself? I would've felt so bad if you were in the hospital. You are like my sister, Lauren."
"And you're like a long-lost, missing link-type brother to me," she teased. "Mr. Christmas-Head."
AJ laughed. The waiter took their orders and left. AJ leaned closer to Lauren and said, "So after lunch, what should we do? Terrorize the Santa Claus down at Hudson's? Make some prank calls to Brian? Or should we go get tipsy on some egg nog and go from there?"
Lauren almost snorted as she sipped from her glass. "Oh, decisions, decisions! Well, how about all of the above?"
"Sounds good to me."