[10 days later--August 12th, 2003]
Howie pounded on the front door. He
had left a few days after talking to Kevin, but at the first chance he got,
had flown back down; he and Cathy had decided to take the Kevin and Sarah
situation into their own hands and fix it. "Kevin! Answer the door! I know
you're in there!" Howie shouted and rang the doorbell again.
"Uhmm...Howie?" Someone tapped him
on the shoulder and sent him flying a mile high.
"Kevin!! You scared the shit out of
me!" Howie placed a hand over his heart.
"Well, I came home from grocery shopping
to find a little Latin man pounding on my door..." Kevin grinned. "Wanna
help me bring in the food?"
"Sure..."
[the same time, back at the house]
"So, will you get your butt and AJ
and Brian's down here as well?" Cathy begged.
"I can try..." Nick spoke into the
phone and walked from his office to Brian's, where AJ and Brian were talking.
"I still don't understand why you need us, though."
"Oh, come on, Nick. Howie's already
down here. Don't you want to help them out?" Cathy sighed. Brian and AJ stopped
talking when Nick walked in.
"Well... yea... but I dunno... This
is between them, ya know? I just don't want a pissed-off Sarah and Kevin
at the end of it."
"I'm just trying to help..." Cathy
said, hopelessly. Nick sighed and Brian gave him a puzzled what's-up look.
AJ raised an eyebrow.
"We'll see you in two days."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Aug. 15th, 7PM]
Cathy had figured after everything
that had happened, everyone had lost sight of the more important things...their
friendships. They had to restore that before anything else. That was why
the girls were having a sleepover like old times and planned to stay up all
night watching movies and talking. The Boys also agreed to do the same and
they were at Kevin's place, "bonding."
[at Kevin's house]
"I bet the girls are doing this better
than we are..." Brian whispered to the Boys in the kitchen. Nick was in the
living room talking to Kevin.
"The girls were right..." Howie sighed.
"What?" AJ's eyebrows knitted.
"We haven't spent enough time together
like this in the past few...years..." Howie filled his cup with water. "We
don't even know how to spend time together now."
"It's not that bad," AJ argued.
"We've only really been all together
at the reunions, but it's not like this cuz the girls are there. Even at
the company, all five of us are never around at once," Howie replied evenly.
"When are we getting back together?"
Brian asked as he emptied the popcorn bag into a bowl.
"Soon?" AJ shrugged.
"Let's talk about this later... We
have a big brother to take care of..." Howie shook his head and headed back
to the living room. Brian and AJ looked at each other, shrugged, and follow
their friend.
[hours later]
"I just wish I had never opened my
mouth...I shouldn't have said it...but you should have seen, her, D...god,
I thought she needed to hear that she was loved...she was so upset, so lost...but
I screwed everything up." Kevin placed his head in his hands. Brian and Nick
had fallen asleep during the movie, AJ soon after. Now it was just Kevin
and Howie.
"Just talk to her..." Howie whispered.
"There's nothing else you can do, Kev."
"I can't..." Kevin sighed.
"Why not? We both know you want to...What's
preventing you from doing so?"
"He said three words he shouldn't've,
Kat. I can't get past it. I want to go back in time and stop him. Stop him
before he began thinking like that...Stop him maybe even before he met me--"
"What about us? If he had never met
you, " Cathy smirked, cutting Sarah off, "we'd have no BSB buds to call our
own," she grinned, trying to make Sarah smile. "Just be friends again," she
reasoned. "Don't you miss that?"
"Of course I do," Sarah said quietly,
making sure not to wake the others. "But that true friendship we had was
ages ago...and I guess we were slowly building back up to it...It's just...
I feel... He... I...I don't know... It's weird... and awkward now..."
"That's why you talk... but stick to
becoming friends again, okay?" Howie pointed out. "It can't get too awkward
with that... Just steer away from relationship stuff...Become friends again,
first. That's easy enough, right?"
"Friends first..." Kevin sighed and
ran a hand through his hair. But didn't she tell Brian that she loved
me?
"You going to talk to her?" Howie placed
a comforting hand on Kevin's shoulder.
"It just feels like I'm taking a step
back..."
"Give it a shot... It can't be too
bad to just talk... Would you rather leave things like it is?" Cathy pressed.
"No! I just...I'm just worried..."
Sarah fidgeted with her wristwatch. Only Brian knew...but why had she been
so stupid as to tell him, anyway? What she said couldn't have been true...she
didn't love anybody...and nobody could love her.
"Why be worried? He cares about you--"
Cathy began.
"In a way he shouldn't," Sarah whispered
harshly. Cathy studied her. The six of them had been over this all night...no
matter what, Sarah could not be convinced that she was "lovable."
"You don't want a romantic relationship,
so don't go for one...but be his friend again. You know you want to be his
friend again," Cathy said.
"Don't sweat it out too much... I'm
sure Sarah is doing the same... Okay? This isn't a one-way street here...
Both of you are feeling the same thing--" Howie consoled.
"How can you say that, D? One of us
professed their love, the other ran away. I don't see how we're on the same
wavelength," Kevin grumbled, immediately feeling bad for growling at Howie.
Kevin reminded himself that maybe she did have feelings for him...but maybe
Howie had lied to him. Sarah didn't love him...
"Kevin...both of you are scared right
now. Too scared to even talk to each other. You both are afraid of awkwardness...
All I want you to do is to go with the flow, Kev. Things will happen...Will
you try, at least?" Howie pressed. Kevin sighed. Friends first, right?
"So are you going to talk to him or
not?" Cathy didn't take her eyes off Sarah and leaned back against the sofa.
Sarah sighed.
"Okay..."
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[5 days later--August 20th]
Brian and Howie had left for LA and
and Florida respectively--the reunion's extra addition had cut into their
work a bit, and they had to rush back to put things in order. Nick had gone
to Florida as well to check up on his band. Kevin had gone with Brian, giving
the excuse that he had paperwork to catch up on too, having already taken
so much time off to deal with his house. When the Boys had tried to convince
him to stay, or to at least stay so he could talk to Sarah, he waved them
off, promising them that he would...later.
Sarah hadn't said much the morning
after the sleepover, and no one had pushed her about it, considering Cathy
promised everyone that things would work out in due time. But looking at
how things were going, Howie was a bit worried that his plan with Cathy was
going to end up having been done in vain. The girls returned to work--Jenny
left for her re-registration activities on the East-Coast, Hannah left again
to meet up with Lance. Julie was back at the office, Chin was back at the
fashion school & shows, and Cathy returned to the YMCA. Summer was coming
to a close, and everyone was busy again. Everyone but Sarah. She still had
yet to make any mention of her old job with the Boys--it was still under
assumption that they would only talk about it if she did. AJ was "hanging
around"--procrastinating a bit on some work in LA, but having had put Johnny
to rest for a while, he had about as much free time as he could ask for.
Nick, at the first chance he got, flew back from Florida to "join in the
fun."
[around noon]
AJ took a bite of his peanut-butter&jelly
sandwich as he sat down next to Sarah on one of the couches in front of the
TV. She looked over at him as he did so, a smile creeping onto her face.
His hand stretched out for the remote that she was holding.
"You look like a camel."
AJ stopped in mid-reach and looked
at her, raising an eyebrow.
"Fwha?"
Sarah's grin grew bigger. As absurd as it
was, her mind loved the fact that she was smiling.
"You look like a camel!" she laughed, taking
note to maneuver the remote out of his reach. She returned her gaze back
to the TV and settled herself. AJ quickly attempted to chew the food in his
mouth so he could actually speak...It took him some time.
"What did you call me?" he asked, once
his mouth was functional and somewhat empty.
"A camel," Sarah replied nonchalantly,
flipping channels. She didn't know why, but something this simple was extremely
amusing and she wasn't about to let this spark of happiness die so easily.
AJ knitted his brows and took another
bite.
"Fwha's graht shupposhed dooh mhea?" he questioned.
It was Sarah's turn to raise an eyebrow. He held up one finger, indicating
for her to wait. He swallowed. "What's that supposed to mean?" He wiped a
crumb off his goatee. Sarah rolled her eyes.
"Your mouth, stuffed to the brim, attempting
to chew the massive amount of food you shoved in it...you were chewing like
a camel. Oh, don't give me that look. Would you rather me call you a giraffe?"
Before AJ could respond, Chin walked
in with some groceries.
"Help please?" She headed over the counter.
Sarah threw down the controller--strategically on a different couch so AJ
would have to make some effort to get it--and sauntered to the kitchen to
help Chin. "What are you two doing?" Chin put away some crackers.
"The llama made a sandwich for himself--"
"LLAMA!?" they heard AJ yell from the family
room. Chin smirked with Sarah as they carried on with putting away the groceries.
"...and I was flipping channels," Sarah
calmly continued, "trying to keep possession of the channel-changer." She
finished her explanation as she put away some vegetables in the fridge. "I
guess he liked 'camel' better." She shrugged, smiling at Chin, who was trying
keep from laughing.
"I never thought about my boy being
a camel, or llama, for that matter," she snickered, happy to see Sarah smiling.
Nick walked in, and headed for the open
fridge, dodging the two girls.
"Thanks for the help, mister I'm-gonna-sleep-till-lunchtime,"
Chin muttered, swatting Nick on the butt as he walked by. He stopped for
a second, unsure of whether to protest the violation or to make up an excuse
for not aiding the two girls. "I'm hungry, and you two are doing fine." He
chose the latter. "If I get a bruise, you're going down, Chinnabon." He decided
to address both issues, using a nickname about which Sarah had told him.
Chin eyed Sarah at the name; she just shrugged innocently. "Dude, where's
the peanut-butter?" the blonde one wailed as he stood, head in the fridge.
"The cow took the last of it, I guess," Sarah said and
smiled at Chin as they continued putting away the food.
"I'M A COW NOW!?" AJ's voice once again filtered in. Chin and Sarah burst
out laughing, leaving a bewildered Nick still peanut-butter-less.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[1 week later]
"Kev, it's been over a month. If you don't
go over there, I'm going to hurt BOTH of you," Howie stated into the phone.
"Why can't she come over here?" Kevin tried
to joke, the phone between his shoulder and ear, his eyes darting around
his kitchen trying to find something to help him think of an excuse.
"Don't give me that, Richardson. If
we enter September without you two talking, I'm locking you both into a room.
That seemed to work for some of us years ago. Don't think I won't resort
back to that tactic, got that?"
"D--"
"Don't think I'm kidding. No friends of
mine are going to continue their lives NOT talking to each other, buddy.
I've got to go now, business calls."
Kevin sighed and hung up the phone.
He looked at the calendar on his fridge. He basically had a day before Howie
could go through with the threat. He had been back home for about 3 days...too
long without talking to Sarah, according to the other Boys. He grabbed his
keys and headed for his car.
[10 minutes later]
Kevin drove over to the girl's house.
Since all the guys had their own keys, he let himself in, not even knowing
who occupied the house at the moment. He hadn't called; he didn’t want to
scare her away before he even got there.
"Sarah..." Kevin began, noticing when
he walked into the family room that she was alone. She looked up, part of
her mind immediately screaming that she was not ready to 'talk' with him...the
other part yelling that it'd been over a month. She looked at what she had
in her hands. A newspaper. She looked at Darwin, who was sleeping at her
feet.
"He needs to read his newspaper," she
mumbled, getting up before Kevin could sit down beside her, the 1st part
of her mind getting the best of her. Kevin raised an eyebrow.
"What are you talking about?"
"Darwin needs a walk," Sarah muttered,
heading towards the front door to find the basket that held the dogs' leashes
and plastic bags. Kevin waited for her to return, but to his dismay, she
called her dog from where she stood at the front door. Darwin immediately
jumped up and followed her path. Undaunted, Kevin trailed the beagle.
"I'll be back in half an hour," she
informed him, opening the door once she had attached Darwin's leash onto
the dog collar.
"I'll go with you," Kevin insisted,
his hand stopping the door from closing behind her and the canine.
"You don't have to--"
"I want to," he replied simply, stepping
out, shutting the front door behind the three of them. Sarah looked down
at her dog...Darwin looked up, wagged his tail, then averted his attention
to a nearby bush, shoving his head in to take a sniff.
"Okay," she mumbled as Darwin pulled
on the leash, making her almost trip over the front step; Kevin caught her.
She gave him an awkward 'thank you' smile as she shrugged out of his arms
and followed the beagle.
The walk was silent except for the
tinkling of Darwin's leash and the shuffling of shoes on the cement. When
they got to the park, it was empty, so she let her dog off the leash. He
ran around like mad, happy to be free. Sarah found a bench to sit on to watch
her beagle. Kevin quietly sat down beside her. The two watched the dog for
some time.
"Sarah..." Kevin began, silently alarmed
when he found himself at loss for words all to soon.
"Yeah?" she whispered back. The rational
side of her mind was finally taking over. They had to talk...they had to
be friends again.
"I'm sorry...I'm sorry if I was out of line
or, I mean, I just wanted to comfort you--"
"No, I'm sorry." Sarah cut him off.
"What for?"
"For forgetting, I guess...and I know
Kevin, it hurts...but I'm learning...and I'm so sorry for how pained you
must have felt when I didn't run to you anymore...I see that now..." Sarah
struggled to find the right words. Kevin noticed she hadn't even made any
real reference to their fight, but she was talking with him, and that's what
mattered. "...But if we work on this...our friendship could eventually be
normal again, it could be what it used to be ...and I miss that."
"Sarah," Kevin spoke up and reached
over to take her hand in his. She thought about pulling away but decided
to just let it be. "Thank you. That's all I needed to hear... that you still
cared about our friendship..."
"Of course I do." Sarah finally shifted
her gaze from her the field to look into his eyes. He missed that--looking
into her eyes. "I'd never want to give up our friendship," she lightly smiled.
It had been so easy...why had it taken over a month?
"Me neither," Kevin smiled warmly and
hugged her. Sarah fought the urge not to cringe--the last time he had hugged,
he had told her...no, she wasn't going to think about that. She wasn't going
to think about what she had told Brian, either. That would just mess things
up.
She and Kevin were friends. That was
it; that was all they ever would or could be ...right?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[1 week later--September, 2003]
"Where are you taking me?" Chin clung
to the stairs.
"Chin! Come on! We're going to miss
the flight," AJ whined. The girls were laughing at the bottom of the stairs.
"Chin, just go. It's a birthday surprise,"
Julie giggled.
"No! I am not going if you don't tell
me where!" Chin whined and sat down. When AJ reached over to pry her off,
she tightened her hold on the banister.
"Chin, trust us..." Sarah walked up
a few steps. "Just go. Everything will be fine."
"No." Chin pouted and wiggled out of
AJ's hold.
"Hon, trust me," AJ squatted down in
front of Chin. "Please come..." AJ begged. He took her hands in his and kissed
them. "Please?" he did his best puppy dog eyes. Chin cracked a smile.
"Stop." She turned away.
"Please?" AJ leaned over to whisper
in her ear.
"Ah...you...those eyes...damn you...Ok."
Chin sighed, giving up, letting AJ pull her down the stairs.
"Luggage." Cathy handed AJ two duffel
bags. He took them in one arm.
"Thanks guys. See you in a week..."
He smiled walked to the garage, the other arm dragging Chin.
"A WEEK?!" the girls heard Chin shriek
as the door closed behind her.
On the plane ride over, Chin was restless
and demanded to know where AJ was taking her. He smoothly changed the subject
the entire time and she nodded off after awhile. When she woke up, they were
landing.
Chin soon realized AJ had taken her
to his house in Florida. He had plans for her birthday but nothing else was
set, so they could do whatever she wanted. They had a few days until her
birthday and Chin insisted on going to Disney World. After that, they just
lounged around, absorbed in each other. AJ's mother insisted they drop by
every day, so they did. Every chance she got, Denise reminded AJ 'I told
you so' and AJ knew exactly what she meant... He and Chin belonged together.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Chin's birthday]
AJ spent the entire day pampering his
girl. Chin warned him to watch himself because she could get to used to it
and he just smiled. They dropped by his mother's house and she winked at
AJ while Chin wasn't around. AJ just gave her a nervous smile back.
"Relax, Alexander..."
"I'm trying..."
"Try harder," she laughed, amused by
his son's nervousness.
"Mom, you're not helping!"
"Okay, sorry. Don't worry, okay? It'll
be perfect..."
"Are you sure?"
"My dear, have you seen the two of
you together?" Denise chuckled. AJ just smiled lightly. "Have you told anyone
else of your plans for today?"
"No..."
"Just me?"
"Yea, Mom..."
"I feel special," Denise giggled.
"Mom..." AJ whined. Denise smiled and
wrapped her son in a warm hug.
"Don't worry about it, Alex. Don't
plan it down to the very last detail--you have to wait for the right moment,
that's the secret, because then it will be the easiest thing you ever did.
Planning it all out gives you a snowball's chance in hell for getting it
right and you'll never forgive yourself. She's not going anywhere, my dear.
She loves you. Remember that."