Three

With movement in the room, Nicole roused from her sleep and flipped onto her stomach, burying her face into the pillows. She didn’t want to wake up that morning. There was this horrible feeling inside that something wasn’t going to be good that day. And she had this dream where she lost her job…

Some sort of commotion was happening not far away from her, but it was still muffled. Then she heard someone’s voice, "Aw! Damnit!" Then something else was being pushed around and some scuffling on tile. Nicole wasn’t quite sure on what it was, but it was definitely interrupting her sleep.

She moved again on the bed, turning her back on where she saw light slits on the wall. Someone was obviously trying to wake her up and having no consideration on her want to sleep. Suddenly, something hit Nicole. She should actually be up if she intended on working.

Then she was wondering who was in her room. First guess she had was Kevin…then she heard some deep coughing that almost turned into choking. No, that wasn’t Kevin.

It only made sense on who it was because she’d only heard one person in the past few months who nearly died just from coughing. Nicole immediately rose on the bed, pressing her elbows into the mattress and stared at the bathroom door that was somewhat cracked. In a cautious voice, "J, you okay?"

The sounds in the bathroom stopped momentarily, then he took a peak into the room. "You’re up?"

Nicole nodded then came up from the bed to lean in the doorway of the bathroom while AJ went back to the mirror. "Yeah. I was a little afraid you were dying in here."

With a slight chuckle, "Nah, I’m okay." He leaned in real close to the glass, bringing a finger to his eye.

She tsked, "AJ, I thought you gave up on the throw-aways?"

He was trying to poke his finger right into his eye and Nicole had to cringe at the thought. She only thanked God she had nearly perfect vision. "Some of us aren’t blessed with 20/20." His comment was on a huff while he was still trying to move the contact around on his eye. He then winced and closed his eyes tightly.

Nicole tugged at his arm, "Lemme see."

"You don’t even wear glasses, let alone know this shit."

She smiled crookedly, trying to figure out when he got so cranky. Pulling at him again so he would face her, "You wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

"One would think so."

The smile remained on her face, but faded a bit while she tried to touch lightly at his face and the surrounding area of his eye. Then her eyes scrolled over to his left eye, the one he wasn’t touching constantly. It was a bit red beneath his eye and off towards his temple. She remembered just two nights before he and Kevin had a conflict of sorts. Something about her, Kevin’s girlfriend, and Kevin making a choice. Kevin wound up swinging and connecting with AJ’s face. "Does it still hurt?"

With her hands near that side of his face, AJ knew what she was talking about. But, he didn’t feel all too comfortable to talk about it all again. Not at a point where she wasn’t quite being herself and hadn’t mentioned Kevin much in the past twenty-four hours. He wanted to keep it that way for as long as he could so she could be okay with staying with him. "Nah, it’s fine."

She moved her hands after a brief glance into his dark eyes that were watching her and went to the right eye. Her voice was soft, trying to soothe him. "My brother has soft lenses. He always messes them up. Folding them against his eye. You’d think he just got them two days ago. He’s had them for a few years now."

At that point, she had one hand using its fingers to keep his eyelids spread apart while the other hand had a finger stretching, lightly dragging at the contact on his eye. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing he’d ever endured.

"Nicole…"

"Trust me, I’ve done this."

He could trust her, just not with fingers and nails so close to his eyes.

"Nicole…"

She stopped the movements of her fingers and just looked at him, as well as she could with the face he was giving her. AJ was obviously uncomfortable. "Why are you doing this, this early in the morning?"

He shrugged minorly, "I have to do it some time, right?"

Nicole rolled her eyes with a small smirk. "You’re really something, McLean."

With a laugh, he tried to relax as much as possible while she continued on with the procedure to his eyeball. "See, I’m just giving you something to do. It’s like you’re still on our payroll. Ow!" he harped when her fingernail grazed his eyelid.

His eyes closed instantly then he pressed a finger to the one that was stinging. AJ clamped one palm over his right eye then glanced up with the other to see her with hands on hips just staring back at him with a bothered look. "What?"

"Thank you."

"Thank you? You poked my eye out."

She scoffed with a light laugh. "I did not. But thank you for being a pest. Just wear your glasses and you’ll be fine." He grumbled a bit and she was sure she heard him whine from the pain.

With a smile, "I thought you liked going blind?"

"When did I say that?"

"All the times you ignored the offers for real contacts. Not these shitty disposable ones."

Grumbling, "Maybe that’d be better than having my friend stab me in the eye."

Nicole had to laugh at him. He was being so terribly dramatic about it all when in fact she was just trying to help him with his contacts.

His one good eye gave a glare, "You ever do this to your brother? Slash his eyes?"

She smiled from cheek to cheek at the idea. "Of course I did. But he’s Jason. He deserved it."

They were both interrupted when the door clanged open and a voice called out, "Hey, Bone! Let’s get going. You’re making us late as usual."

AJ and Nicole shared a glance at hearing Howie’s voice. He leaned forward, "As much as it hurt, thanks. I think it’s still in there," and he motioned at his right eye.

She gave a sad, crooked smile and rubbed her thumb around the redness of his skin. "I’m really sorry, dear."

He shrugged, "Eh, just one eye. I got another one." Then AJ kissed at her cheek. "I’ll see ya when I see ya."

Nicole patted at his back as they both left the bathroom. Howie was immediately ragging on his friend. "Man, you’re always late. Can’t do anything right. Last night, the buses. Then getting into the hotel and now this." Once the two shared a look, the older man stopped. "Whoa, what happened to your eye?"

"A little transplant of someone’s finger."

Howie was turning towards the door and opened it back up for AJ. "I thought you gave up on contacts? Oh, hey, Nicole." Then he stopped and faced the young girl again. "Nicole?"

She smiled oddly and waved. "Hey, How."

He pointed a finger out, first at Nicole then at AJ. "What, how? She and you? She’s here?"

AJ patted a heavy hand to Howie’s back and laughed. "English, D. Work on that first."

As they headed out the door, Nicole nodded, "Have fun guys."

Once the two men were in the hallway, AJ was walking down to the elevators with his friend straggling behind with questions. With Howie’s reaction in the hotel room and all the questions he had now, AJ was sure that Jessica had passed along that Nicole had been fired.

"What is she doing here?"

"When did she get here?"

"Why is she with you?"

"How long is she staying?"

Inside the elevator car, AJ slipped on a pair of sunglasses and leaned against the back wall. "I asked her here."

"When did she get here? She slept in your room didn’t she?"

"Yeah, she did. She never actually left. I saw her just after Jes talked to her and I dragged her onto the bus with me." A few moments passed between them and AJ was sure Howie had other questions. But he didn’t offer any up. In an awkward voice, "I guess Jes told you all?"

He slowly nodded, "She told us…well, Kevin wasn’t around."

AJ sighed, "I can only imagine how that’s gonna go."

The elevator doors dinged then opened, allowing the men onto their destination. They took their walk through hallways where a few bodyguards were waiting for them. Through their walk, Howie eyed the other man oddly. "Is there something else going on?"

Instantly, AJ perked up with a leery look, "Between us?"

"No, no," he shook his head. "Between Kevin and Nic?"

With a stiff shrug, "It’s nothing really. Just people talking and whatever."

"Brian thinks that’s why she was fired."

AJ glanced at his friend, thinking the words over. "Well, I guess we’ll find that out. If no one likes that she’s still here, then that’s our answer."

"I doubt anyone will mind."

He pulled his sunglasses down to his nose and looked with a wry glance at Howie. "I can think of one person."

"Right…how soon I forget."

"I’d like to forget." The two friends chuckled as they boarded an unmarked van where the other three men were.

AJ slid into his seat then glanced back to see Brian and Nick talking to each other in one long seat and Kevin just behind them, leaning against the window in a daze. Howie nudged at AJ’s arm, "You think he knows yet?"

He screwed up his lips, trying to decide. "I dunno." Then he turned towards the front and nodded to Jessica who was watching them. With an easy smile, "Hey, Jes. How’re you doing?"

"Okay," she tried to smile. It was hindering her that she still had yet to tell AJ, knowing he was close to Nicole. Yet, now was most definitely not the time to do it. "You were late, McLean."

AJ smiled, remembering that both Jessica and Nicole referred to him as that whenever he was in trouble, or causing it. "Sorry, had some beauty work done." Then he slid his glasses off to show that some of the skin at his eye was still reddened. Jessica looked a bit bothered by it, just imagining the pain that could have caused the sore look.

Howie spoke up, "It looks better than before, that’s for sure."

From behind, Nick batted a hand at AJ’s head. "What’d you do now? Dye your eyebrows?"

AJ turned to face his bandmates with a slight smile and Brian perked up, patting a hand the left cheek. "Hey, nice," then he moved AJ’s head back and forth, looking over the skin. "Scratching your right eye to match the left. Nice."

The few cracked a laugh, knowing about the brief altercation between Kevin and AJ. AJ nodded back at Kevin without thinking. "Yeah, he did the left. She did the right."

Brian and Nick nearly went white while Howie just watched. The oldest of the three had a good idea that AJ had meant Nicole.

The other two had other ideas. Nick asked, sounding a bit awed by the thought, "Kris did that to you?"

Howie nudged again at AJ and gave a disappointed glance, trying to will his friend into silence. It shouldn’t come out right then and there that Nicole was fired from the tour, and the fact that she was upstairs in AJ’s room. With a shake of his head, AJ gave a crooked smile and turned around. "Nevermind. Just a little joke." That seemed to keep everyone at bay for the time being.