As Dawn and AJ were eating their pizza, Dawn looked over at him.
"You never answered my question about why you called me after all these years."
AJ put his pizza down and looked at her.
"Well, actually the reason why I haven’t answered is because I’ve been trying to figure out where you stand with your singing career".
He searched her face for some kind of reaction.
"I told you," Dawn replied, "I don’t have a singing career".
Not about to let this conversation drop, AJ responded, "but you want one".
She sighed and looked down at her hands. AJ just watched her face, trying to figure out what was going through her head.
“I do miss singing," she finally said.
"Well, I have an opportunity for you", AJ said, "and you have to say yes".
Dawn looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me? I HAVE to say yes"? She said with a smirk.
"Well, you don’t have to, but I know you’d be perfect for the job”.
"Job? What job"? Dawn asked.
"Well,” he began, "we’re gonna be recording our next album soon and we need a few backup singers. We pretty much have them picked, but we still need someone that has more of a vocal range than the others to take on additional vocals. I thought of you".
Dawn just stared at him, she didn’t know what to say. She had to admit, she liked the idea of singing again. She also liked the idea of getting out of the house. Since leaving college, she really didn’t get out too much, unless it was with Anthony.
‘Wait a minute’, she said to herself, ‘what am I thinking? Anthony will never go for this’.
AJ watched Dawn, looking for some kind of clue as to what she was thinking. It looked pretty promising, he thought.
“I don’t think I can," she suddenly answered.
"Why not"? he asked, shocked and disappointed.
"I just don’t think it would be a good idea".
"Not a good idea?? What are you talking about? This is the best idea that I’ve come up with since we got those tattoos!"
That brought a smile to Dawn’s face. Her and AJ had a matching tattoo of a small yinyag on their left hips. Dawn remembered when they went to get them and let out a little chuckle.
"See", he responded, "you know I’m right".
Dawn was deep in thought when AJ pulled up a chair next to her and sat down.
"Listen", he said, putting his finger under her chin and tilting her head up so she was looking at him. "You’re not guaranteed the job. You would still have to try out for the rest of the guys. I let them listen to a tape I have of you singing and they loved it. Why don’t you just show up tomorrow at the studio where we’ll be and show ‘em what you’ve got. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that they’ll completely agree with me that you’ve got what we’re looking for".
Dawn thought about it for a minute.
"I don’t know" she said while looking at the ground, "I have to talk it over with Anthony first".
AJ wanted to jump up and down and scream at the top of his lungs that she should make her own decisions and not let Anthony tell her what to do, but he refrained. He knew if he said anything of the sort he would risk Dawn probably never speaking to him again.
"OK, fair enough," he responded. "Go home tonight and talk to Anthony then call and let me know what he says. If you want I’ll even talk to him".
Dawn knew that would be a bad idea. It’s not that Anthony didn’t like AJ, it’s just that he didn’t like the relationship her and AJ had, he didn’t think it was appropriate. He always thought AJ had ulterior motives, which was way off because AJ had been with his girlfriend Marissa for a long time. She knew Anthony wasn’t going to be very happy that AJ had gotten in contact with her again.
After promising she would call AJ after talking to Anthony, she left to go home. She glanced at the clock in the car.
"Shit", she moaned. "Anthony is going to be home in an hour and he’ll be livid if dinner isn’t made when he gets there".
She thought about AJ’s proposition the whole way home. She wanted so badly to take him up on it. As she pulled into onto her street, all the color drained from her face when she saw Anthony’s car in the driveway.
"Shit, shit, shit!!" she said aloud. "He’s gonna be so pissed!"
She got out of the car and ran into the house, still unsure of what she was going to tell Anthony about AJ.
When she walked into the house, Anthony was just getting a beer out of the refrigerator. Dawn hated when he drank, he would get violent. She especially hated when they argued when he had been drinking, which seemed like all the time lately.
"Hi honey", she said and went to give Anthony a kiss. He pulled away from her and shut the refrigerator.
"Where were you?" he demanded.
"Well," she started, "it’s kind of a long story, mind if I start dinner first then we can talk about it?"
"No, I want to know now,” he demanded.
Dawn sat down at the table not even knowing where she was going to start.
"Do you remember AJ, from high school?" she asked.
She looked at him and could see he was getting angry. He didn’t answer, so she just continued.
"He called me today, his group is looking for backup singers and he wants me to audition for it."
"I thought we discussed this singing thing awhile ago and decided you weren’t gonna do it anymore," he responded, clearly irritated.
"No", Dawn began getting upset because the conversation wasn’t going the way she wanted, although it was going the way she expected. "YOU decided it. I went along with it to make you happy, but now that this once in a lifetime opportunity has come up, I want to do it. I miss singing, Anthony, and I am good at it", she finished.
"You WERE good at it", Anthony shot back, "Do you really think AJ called you because he likes your VOICE"?
Dawn rolled her eyes and stood up.
“AJ is not like that, we are just friends. We WERE best friends until you decided that you were jealous if him and didn’t want me talking to him anymore."
She started to walk out of the room, but Anthony followed her.
"You got a thing for AJ now?" he shouted at her as he walked behind her.
"Do you know how stupid that sounds? I don’t want to talk to you about this anymore", she responded, trying to get away from him.
"We ARE talking about this and we’re talking about it NOW!" He yelled at her.
She still had her back to him trying to ignore him because she knew where this conversation was going.
"You do want him, don’t you?!” He got more angry when she didn’t answer. “You slut!"
He spun her around and slapped her across the face so hard she hit the wall and fell to the ground.
"Why do you make me do stuff like that", Anthony growled, then walked out of the room, leaving her lying on the floor.


Chapter 5
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