A New Day
Chapter 3
By 7:45 AJ was finally almost ready for a night on the tiles with Nick. He zipped up his leather pants and sat on the bed to pull on his boots. He spotted something poking out from just under the bed and reached a hand down to pick the dark material up off of the floor.
Howie's boxers. They'd wondered where those had gone, having lost them somewhere between the bedroom door and the bathroom as they had headed for the shower.
AJ smiled and absent-mindedly twirled the material between his fingers as he remembered the intense passion that had ignited between them once again. They didn't need hot water to create steam, they had made enough all by themselves.
He smiled at the memory, still fresh in his mind. He and Howie had stayed in that shower long after the water had run cold. Not that they had noticed, far too wrapped up in each other, literally. He stood up and walked back into the bathroom to put on his cologne. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and stopped to do a double take. He couldn't believe how different he looked. He remembered that only yesterday he had been staring into this very same mirror, lamenting about how he could never be happy and seeing that this had been reflected in his face. Yet that all seemed to be almost surreal, as if some distant memory from long ago.
In just a few hours, Howie had erased all the pain and torment that had been in his life for so long. Howie. Just the thought of that man was enough to send AJ off into a blissful state of remembrance. AJ shook his head and refocused his gaze on his reflection. He had the biggest, most silly grin on his face. He decided he looked ridiculous, but then he decided that he didn't give a shit, which made him smile even more.
"Howie man, what have you done to me?" He asked out loud. He heard the doorbell ring and glanced behind him at the bedroom door. He took one last look in the mirror before popping on his sunglasses and heading out of the bathroom and back downstairs.
Nick was watching AJ as he sat in a tiny booth in the back of the club. The place was heaving with people, and the music was pounding out music, the beats coursing through the small space. AJ was acting weird still, Nick decided. He had been weird the night before, and it seemed that he was still the same today.
Nick shook his head. He didn't understand it. Any normal night, AJ would have been lapping up all the attention he was getting. Yet Nick watched as AJ politely yet firmly turned down yet another proposition. It wasn't like him. He would normally at least dance with them. He watched as AJ put the two bottles of water down on the table, before sliding in and sitting next to Nick.
"Man. It is heaving in here!" AJ exclaimed as he opened up the bottle and took a long swig from it.
"I know. It's cool huh?" Nick replied, watching AJ carefully.
"Yeah." Came AJ's reply. Nick looked at him, AJ wasn't as enthusiastic as he seemed. It looked to Nick like he would much rather be anywhere but here.
"Bone?" Nick called, laying his hand on AJ's arm. "You okay?" He asked concerned.
"Who me?" AJ asked, surprised. "I'm fine. Why'd ya ask?"
"I dunno. You just seem… different. Like there's something on your mind." AJ looked at Nick, surprised at how perceptive his young friend was. Nick continued. "You wanna talk about it?" He asked, genuinely concerned.
AJ shook his head as he thought fast, trying to get out of the situation. The last thing he wanted was Nick asking questions.
"I'm alright Nick, I swear. I guess I'm just tired. Howie and I were up late last night." A strange look passed across Nick's face as AJ suddenly realised how that sounded. "I was having a rough time last night, and Howie and I ended up talking for hours, sorting things out y'know?" AJ added. He wasn't strictly lying. After all, he and Howie had talked last night, amongst other things. AJ felt a slight blush creep onto his face as he thought about what they had gotten up to, and he was thankful that it was fairly dark in the club, so that Nick wouldn't see.
Nick nodded, seemingly accepting this explanation before looking at his watch. "You wanna go?" He asked.
AJ glanced at his watch as well, noting that it was almost 2am. He looked at Nick and nodded, deciding to quit whilst he was ahead and get out of there before he let something slip. Nick smiled and stood up.
"C'mon then man, lets blow." AJ smiled at the blonde before standing up and following him out of the club. The wandered over to Nick's car and got in.
The drive back to AJ's was quiet. Nick kept half of his attention on AJ as he drove, watching the smaller man stare out of the window at the scenery flying past. Nick didn't know what to think. He knew wasn't just tired. Something was going on, but he had no idea what it was. AJ had something on his mind, he could sense it. Yet something told him that whatever it was, he shouldn't push things. Trouble was, the last time he had decided not to at least try and talk to AJ, he had almost drowned himself in the bottle. So the end result was that Nick was torn, half of him was shouting at him to talk to AJ, to force him to tell him the problem, whilst the other half was begging him to leave things alone, because AJ obviously wasn't ready to talk yet.
As a result, Nick was not ready when they reached AJ's house. He still hadn't decided what to do, and he didn't want to screw things up with his friend. As a result, he did nothing. He stopped the car outside the house, and AJ removed his seatbelt before looking over at Nick and smiling softly.
"Thanks Nick." He said, before reaching over and pulling his friend into a hug. Nick was stunned by this, and it was a moment before he hugged AJ back. He had been so sure that something was wrong, but now he was suddenly not so sure. The sound of AJ's voice, and the way he had thanked him and hugged him tight, made Nick think twice about his earlier conclusions. AJ was a good actor, but not that good. Nick had always been able to read him well, and knew when he was lying. To him, it seemed that AJ was being genuine.
But if that was the case, then was he having problems or not? Nick was really confused.
"You wanna come in for a bit Nicky?" AJ asked him,
"Huh? Oh, no. S'okay, I'm gonna head back. Guess I oughta get some sleep. We got that meeting tomorrow haven't we?" He asked.
AJ looked at him, caught by surprise. "Shit. Forgot 'bout that. It's at 9am right?" he asked.
"Uh. Yeah. Brian rang me this morning to remind me."
"Trying to make sure you got there on time for once huh?" AJ laughed. Nick grinned at him.
"As if that will work." He told AJ, and they both laughed. AJ opened the door and got out, he turned and leaned back in before he shut the door.
"Sure you don't wanna come in?" He asked. Nick smiled and shook his head.
"Nah. I'm fine."
AJ nodded as he shut the door. Nick restarted the car and went to pull away.
"See ya tomorrow 'round 10." He smirked as he drove off. AJ laughed as he watched Nick leave, shaking his head as he turned and headed for the house.
"That kid will never change." He said to himself as he opened the door and let himself in.
Nick drove back to the small apartment that he kept in Orlando for when he was in town, still deep in thought. He had absolutely no clue what was going on with AJ, and he didn't even know where to start trying to figure things out. He parked the car and headed up to his room, still trying to think of something. He mentally shook his head. 'Howie would be able to work out what's wrong.' He thought to himself. He grinned and slapped his palm against his forehead. He could be soo stupid sometimes.
He hurried over to the phone and punched in the familiar numbers, happy that he had finally thought of a way to try and figure out what was wrong with his friend. The phone rang. And rang…And rang…