Dawn and AJ hugged so tightly AJ picked her up off the ground as Dawn let out a squeal of laughter.
"Oh my God, I’m so happy to see you!" Dawn said to him after he finally put her down.
"Look at you", AJ said.
Dawn struck a pose and laughed.
"I can see the attitude hasn’t changed much", he joked.
Dawn playfully punched him in the arm.
"Well, I can see your hair color has", she teased and stuck her tongue out at him.
AJ’s hair was brown with blonde tips. That’s something she always admired about AJ, his individuality and carefree attitude. He didn’t care what anyone thought about him. She wished she could be more like that. She wished she didn’t place so much importance on other people’s opinions and let what they said effect her so much. Sometimes she got so mad at herself for it.
“Have a seat, I’ll be right back,” AJ said, motioning to the couch.
"So, what’s to eat?" Dawn asked as she sat down and watched AJ disappear into the kitchen.
"I made pizza", he responded, "It’ll be done in a few minutes".
He then came out carrying 2 glasses of juice.
"You remembered!" Dawn said as he handed her a glass.
"Of course I did, I remember everything", he replied.
Dawn wasn’t too fond of soda, she loved juice. She was surprised that AJ remembered.
”How could I forget when you would order juice or fruit punch every time we would go to a restaurant"? They both laughed.
"I miss those days when we used to go out and goof around and have a good time", Dawn said, putting her head back on the couch, reminiscing.
“Yeah, we were so young back then,” AJ sighed.
They talked and laughed about old times for a little while then Dawn asked, "So what made you call after all this time"?.
‘This is my chance’, AJ thought to himself, ‘I should bring it up now’.
He wanted her to sing backup for his group, the Backstreet Boys, but he wanted to know why she quit singing first. He wanted to talk to her about it, but for some reason it just wouldn’t come out. In some sense he didn’t want to know.
"I miss singing", Dawn said out of nowhere.
AJ looked at her shocked, it was like she could read his mind.
He finally brought himself to ask, "what really made you quit"? He knew she would get upset for asking that.
"I told you already", she responded, getting a little irritated since this was the second time he asked her about this.
"I know what you told me, now tell me the truth", he shot back, "And don’t forget who you’re talking to", he added.
She looked at him, surprised. Not because he knew that she was hiding something from him, but because he still knew her so well after all these years. She was irritated that he kept asking her about this, though. Who did he think he was anyway? Since when did he care so much why she did the things she did??
"OK, just answer this one question then," AJ said, knowing what the answer was going to be. "Did Anthony have anything to do with it"?
"Anthony just didn’t want me to get disappointed”, she replied defensively. “He was trying to protect me".
‘He was trying to control you’, he almost said. He caught himself before it came out, though. He saw that Dawn was getting upset, he wanted to comfort her, but in some small way he was mad at her for letting someone else tell her how to live her life, especially with a talent as special and promising as hers.
"What do you have against Anthony anyway", Dawn threw at him, "you’ve had a problem with him since high school".
AJ winced when he heard her ask that, he didn’t want to get into it right now.
"Listen", he said as he sat down on the couch beside her. "We haven’t seen each other in 3 years and I don’t want to argue. Lunch is ready, let’s sit down and eat."
"You’re right", she replied as they got up and started to walk into the kitchen.
"I just have one last thing to say on the subject though." Dawn began as AJ turned around and looked at her.
"What’s that?" he asked.
"Anthony is a wonderful person and he loves me", she said sounding a bit defensive, at least AJ thought, "and I love him".
AJ sighed, then turned around and walked away making sure Dawn didn’t see him shaking his head at what she just said. It took everything he had to keep himself from grabbing her and shaking some sense into her.


Chapter 4
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