Chapter
5
Late that
night, Krystle sat perched on the bed in her hotel suite, her hands clasped
tightly in her lap. She heard the toilet
flush in the bathroom, and moments later, Howie emerged.
“You ready for bed, baby?” he asked her, yawning. Howie was exhausted after yet another
concert. They hadn’t had a night off
yet, and he was looking forward to the short break they would have after the
second Fort Lauderdale show the next night.
Krystle had removed her makeup, but she was still fully
dressed. “Um, Howie, there’s something I
have to tell you first,” she said hesitantly, shifting her weight
uncomfortably.
Howie sat down next to her on the bed. “What is it?” he asked, peering curiously at
her.
“Well… um… there’s no easy way to say this… so I guess I’ll just
come right out and say it.” She took a
deep breath, then blurted, “I slept with AJ!”
The color drained from Howie’s face, and he stared at her in
shock. “You what?” he asked hoarsely.
Ashamed tears filled Krystle’s eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she whimpered. “I… I don’t really know what happened. It was after that fight he and Bianca had the
other night. I met him in the hall after
I went to tell them to be quiet, and he looked like he needed someone to talk
to, and I knew you wanted to go to sleep, so I went down to the bar with him,
just to talk. I had a few strawberry
daiquiris, more than I had planned to, and he drank a few beers, and I guess we
both got drunk. I don’t really remember
what happened after that, but… I woke up the next morning to find myself in bed
with him.” Her voice trembled, and she
looked away from Howie, refusing to meet his eyes.
Howie said nothing. He
looked down as well, unable to even look at her. He felt betrayed, used. His girlfriend and his best friend… sleeping
together? How could either of them let
themselves do something like that? He
had only known Krystle for a few months, but AJ had been his best friend for
over a decade!
“Howie, I know this doesn’t really make it better,” Krystle
continued suddenly, “but it was only one night, only one time. I-I didn’t mean to. I just didn’t know what I was doing. If I was sober, it never would have
happened. Never! I love you, Howie!”
She had told him so before, and he had believed her, but now her
words sounded phony and fake. How could
he trust her when she had slept with another man, his best friend?? How could she really have gotten herself so
drunk that she didn’t realize what she was doing? And how could AJ take advantage of her like
that? How could he let himself get
drunk? He, who had spent a month in rehab
and had been sober ever since - how could he let himself slip like that?
“Howie?” Krystle asked, when Howie still did not speak. “Howie, are you mad at me?”
Howie was more hurt than mad.
He finally looked up at her, his large brown eyes filled with sadness
and pain. Krystle was staring carefully
back at him, biting her bottom lip, waiting for his reply.
“I don’t know, Krystle,” he said finally. “I just need to think for awhile.”
She nodded. “Fine. I’ll see you later then, I guess.” She sighed heavily, stood up from the bed,
and walked out of sight. Moments later,
Howie heard the click of the door closing as she left the suite. He lay back on the bed and closed his eyes,
trying to dislodge Krystle’s words from his memory, halfway grateful she had
been honest with him, and half wishing she just had not told him.
***
AJ and Bianca had just climbed into bed when the phone rang.
“I’ll get it,” Bianca said, grabbing the phone from the night
table on her side of the bed. “Hello?”
“Bean?”
The voice on the other end of the phone was a female one, but not
one that Bianca recognized. It was too
high-pitched to be her best friend Brianna, but who else would call her
Bean? Some of her other friends back
home called her that, but how would they get the number to her hotel room? Brianna didn’t even have that number, just
her cell phone number.
“Yeah,” she said uncertainly.
“Who is this?”
“Krystle,” the girl on the line replied, and Bianca suddenly
recognized the voice. Krystle sounded
different though; her voice was higher than Bianca remembered it, and it
sounded oddly shaky, as if she was crying.
“Hi, Krystle. What’s
up? Are you okay?” Bianca asked.
“No,” Krystle sniffed, and Bianca realized she was indeed crying.
“Well, what’s wrong?” asked Bianca, trying to sound sympathetic
and not annoyed, although it did irritate her that Krystle suddenly calling her
“Bean”, as if they were friends, when it was obvious she needed something.
“Howie and I had a fight,” sobbed Krystle, “and I don’t want to go
back into our room.”
“Where are you now?” asked Bianca.
“Down in that little café by the lobby. Bean, I’m sorry to bother you this late at
night, but do you think you could come down here? I really need someone to talk to in private.”
Bianca rolled her eyes at AJ.
“Well, what about Kristin or Leighanne?
Did you call them?” she asked.
“They’re not like you, Bean.
They wouldn’t understand,” cried Krystle.
Bianca sighed inwardly, but she was too nice to tell Krystle
no. “Alright,” she relented. “Let me just get dressed, and I’ll meet you
down there in five minutes.”
“Oh, thanks, Bean, that really means a lot to me!” Krystle
replied, sounding cheerier. “I’ll see
you in a few minutes.”
“Yeah, see ya,” Bianca replied, and hung up.
“What was that all about?” AJ asked, staring at her with an
expression of amusement and bewilderment combined. He knew that Bianca and Krystle weren’t
exactly the best of friends.
Bianca rolled her eyes again.
“Krystle and Howie had a fight, and she’s sitting down in that café in
the lobby, sobbing. She says she doesn’t
want to go back up to her room, and she needs someone to talk to.”
AJ shook his head. “No
offense, but why you?” he asked. “I
mean, it’s no secret you guys aren’t exactly two peas in a pod.”
Bianca shrugged. “That’s
what I was thinking,” she replied.
“Krystle said Leighanne and Kristin wouldn’t understand. I guess it’s cause I’m closer to her
age. But still, you’d think she could
just call one of her girlfriends to talk.”
AJ nodded, puzzled. It
sounded a little fishy to him too.
Suddenly, a horrible thought hit him – What if Krystle wants to tell
Bianca what happened between us? He
felt sick to his stomach at the thought of it.
“Bianca!” he blurted suddenly, startling her.
“What?” she asked, looking at him strangely.
AJ blushed and continued less vigorously, “You don’t have to go
down there. Let me go. Krystle and I get along better than you two
do. I can talk to her. We talked a couple nights ago, in fact, after
that argument I had with you. You just
go to bed, and I’ll handle it.”
“Are you sure? She sounded
like she wanted another girl to talk to.
You know, girls stick together through this kind of stuff.”
AJ looked at her doubtfully.
“You want to ‘stick together’ with Krystle?” he asked.
Bianca grinned sheepishly.
“No,” she admitted. “Are you sure
you want to go down there? I’m sure
she’ll still be blubbering about it. Do you really want her sobbing on your
shoulder?”
AJ chuckled. “It’ll be
fine,” he said confidently. “You just go
to bed. I’ll be back later, alright?”
Bianca smiled gratefully.
“Alright. Love you.” She leaned
over to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.
“Love you too,” AJ replied, standing up. He was dressed in only his boxers. He found his jeans lying on the floor and
pulled them on, then looked quickly around for a shirt.
“My sweatshirt’s by the door,” Bianca said. “Just wear that.”
“Thanks,” AJ said, slipping on a pair of soccer sandals over his
bare feet and grabbing her gray hooded sweatshirt, which had actually once been
his. It was just something Bianca had
worn around so much that he had given it to her. “Bye!” he called, grabbing his room key and
slipping out the door.
It was very early in the morning, and the hallway was dark and
deserted. He crept along quietly, so as
to not awaken any of his bodyguards, who were also sleeping on that floor, or
teenyboppers. He knew he was not
supposed to be out of his room without proper security, but he knew Krystle
wouldn’t want a bunch of bodyguards listening to her boyfriend problems.
He made it to the elevators at the end of the hall and pressed the
down button. He stood, staring straight
ahead at the closed elevator doors as he waited. He did not see the dark figure creep out from
the shadows behind him. The elevator
arrived, and the doors slid open with a ding.
As AJ started into the lighted elevator, a pair of hands grabbed him
roughly from behind. Before he could cry
out, a hand clamped over his mouth, muffling his scream. He was shoved violently into the elevator,
his face slamming hard into metal of the back wall. Before he could recover from that, he was
jerked backwards again and pushed to the ground, landing flat on his face.
He never saw his attacker.
He never knew what was coming.
Just seconds later, a hard, heavy object struck the back of his
head with a crushing force, and he fell into oblivion.
***
