Two

She just sort of dazed out for the length of the trip to Milwaukee when she wasn’t simply staring out the window on the pouring rain that seemed to be following the buses. The band’s bus eventually caught up with the other buses and trailers without much complaint from anyone and without much word past the idea that AJ had been slacking behind the bus, taking his time to board.

Nicole was thankful for that much. She was still unsure on how to approach her friend, and former boss, Jessica. Let alone, what she’d say to the guys. And in the same notion, she wondered how they each responded to the fact that she had been fired.

Jessica had watched each of the guys settle into the bus with a quiet demeanor herself…

When she had three of them in a close area, she cleared her throat and looked to them all. "Can I talk to you fellas about something?"

She sat down at the edge of a padded seat that faced the kitchenette where Howie turned to watch her. He looked cautious, based on her worried voice. "You want Kevin out with us?"

Jessica glanced towards the one closed door to the entertainment room where she knew the older man was. With Kristen, his girlfriend. A short shake of her head followed. "No, it’s okay. I’ll tell him on my own."

Waiting for the three to seat themselves and give full attention, she watched them each then spoke carefully. There was no easy way to say it, so she decided to just come out and do so. "Management’s released Nicole from the tour." In instants, each of the three started with surprised voices, asking questions that she batted off while pushing her hands out. "Now, calm down a minute. I don’t know a whole heck of a lot either. I just had to deliver the news."

"To her?" Brian asked gently.

With a nod, "Yeah, I told her already. Back at the arena."

Nick leaned back in his seat, tipping his head back. "Oh, God. Poor Nic."

Brian swung his head around to look at the closed door to the room where his cousin was. "You don’t think…Jes, I don’t think anything happened. Is that why? Nicole wouldn’t do anything. I can’t believe," he was quickly cut off when she waved a hand.

"I don’t know if anything happened. Or if it didn’t happen. And I don’t know that that’s the reason. I just know that I had to tell her what I did." Jessica stood up, smoothing a hand over her pants and sighed. "Just as I said, let me tell Kevin." She then glanced at the door again. "I’m not sure how I’ll do it." Then with a mutter, "I’m sure Kristen will be happy with this news."

When the Backstreet caravan arrived at their destination everyone cleared off the vehicles to get into their hotel rooms. AJ mulled behind on his bus with Nicole, talking with her. "You really that weird about this?"

She shrugged and faced the window again after glancing at him standing by the front entrance. "It’s just—don’t you find this a little odd? I get fired, but I’m still here?"

He smirked lightly, "Nic, it’s okay. Who’s gonna mind?"

"Management? The people who fired me, maybe."

"And we’ll get to the bottom of that. In the meantime, can you not make your host feel so unwanted?"

When Nicole looked up to his face, she read the slight, crooked smile and watched his hand tug on his ballcap. He then nodded towards the door. "I don’t think it’s gonna let up much. We can go now. Everyone else has gone up."

Reluctantly, Nicole grabbed onto her packed bag and leather sack, making her way to AJ. He grabbed onto the duffle bag to ease her load then reached for her hand. "It’ll be okay."

They walked swiftly through the hotel lobby and up to the floor he was staying, with one member of the entourage escorting them. The entire time, Nicole felt the man was watching her. She felt odd under the circumstances; he had to have known she was someone familiar with the looks he kept giving.

Getting into the room AJ was to have for the night, Nicole immediately sifted through her bag, gathering her pajamas. After changing in the bathroom, she came out and found AJ laid out on his stomach and facing her. He had already removed his jeans and was in a pair of sweatpants with a t-shirt on. She stalled at the doorway for a moment, not quite sure on why he was watching her. "What?"

"Nothing. You wanna stay up for a while? Go to sleep? What?"

She tipped her head with a slight shrug. "I dunno. I guess the past few nights have been late for me."

AJ rolled over and tugged at the blankets, motioning her into the bed next to him. He snorted lightly, "No kidding," while flipping off the overhead lights, but leaving a table lamp on.

They settled in the warmth of the comforter with AJ on his back and Nicole lying on her side, facing him. He moved his head a few times, trying to find a comfortable position on the thin pillows and Nicole just watched. "It’s been a while since we’ve done this."

He turned his head with an inquiring glance. "What?"

"Slept together. So to speak," she chuckled lightly.

"Yeah, well you’ve been busy with someone else."

She swatted a hand at him with a small laugh. "Idiot…even before that, I mean."

"I know." His voice then fell a bit low. "What happened last night?" When she was quiet, he prompted, "With Kevin?"

Nicole sighed, "I know what you were asking. I was just thinking about it all." She went silent again, letting the thoughts run her mind. It took some time before she was able to speak logically, meanwhile her mind was putting everything together in ragged ways. "He kissed me."

AJ’s eyes widened immediately. "He what?"

She smiled oddly, "He kissed me. And, well I kissed him back a few times. I dunno, it’s just weird. Come morning, Kristen was at the door looking for him."

"Already?"

"Yeah, something about coming back early. I don’t know. We were fine all afternoon. I just don’t know about now."

He just nodded, lost on what else to say.

Nicole then spoke up, "What about Maggie?"

With a light shrug, "She’s real cool."

"Yeah, she is."

"And I had fun with her…"

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

With the way he was being short, she questioned with an awkward tone, "What’s wrong?"

AJ shrugged again. "It’s just weird for me to think about this, talking to you, lying in bed with you. You’re my friend. More than that even. But you’re asking me about hooking up with your friend."

Nicole nodded, somewhat understanding his thinking and decided maybe it was best to drop it all. She didn’t want to keep thinking about Kevin at this time, knowing he was in his room with his girlfriend. Then her mind went onto other ideas. "What do you think they’ll say?"

"About what?"

"Me."

"You being fired, or you staying here?"

The question ran around in her brain. "I guess both."

He reached a hand to her shoulder, rubbing lightly. "I wouldn’t worry ‘bout that. It’ll be weird, but it’ll be just fine after shock wears off."

Her voice sounded small, "You sound so sure."

"Because that’s how I felt." He watched her blue eyes in the light of the bedside lamp. They continued to hold a look with the other as if she were trying to judge if what he was saying was true, and he was just trying to make her understand he was being honest. "It was a real surprise at first. But now…it’s cool that you’re still here."

Her lips tugged at a small smile.

"I’m glad you decided to come on that bus."

Nicole scoffed, "I didn’t really decide that. You did."

"Then, I’m glad that you didn’t fight against me too hard."

Her smile wasn’t quite as enthusiastic as his, but AJ was happy with it all the same. "So, now what? I just wander around, following you like a groupie?"

AJ moved closer to her, pulling at her hips with his hands and laughed gently. "Groupies don’t’ get to sleep with us."

Nicole broke into real laughter and hugged him. She began thinking about how close they’d been ever since she first set foot onto the Backstreet camp and yet they’d drifted a bit in the past two weeks. He was beginning to hang out more at night at the bars or clubs, trying his best to socialize and Nicole just seemed to be always busy or just tired. And the fact that for the past week, their only subject for talks was Kevin didn’t help them to fulfill their friendship.

Just two weeks, but it felt like forever with having to see each other so many hours in the day, seven days a week. Being with him at that moment, knowing he was happy to have her still around was very comforting.

"Tell ya what," he began while still being close in the bed. "We’ll go out tomorrow, after the concert and really have a good time. We haven’t done that for a while. Just the two of us."

She smiled, shifting towards him in a cozy position and leaned her head against his arm that stretched around her shoulder. "Sounds great to me."

AJ smiled, "Me, too."

They both closed their eyes, willing sleep to come for the evening. Some time passed while they were comfortable in the bed and were beginning to relax into rest.

AJ broke in a low voice, "See, now aren’t you glad you decided to stay?"

"Whatever," Nicole laughed, batting a hand at his chest.