“Hi honey!” Denise McLean exclaimed as she entered the house, giving her son a warm hug. He smiled and led her to the living room.
“Mom, I would like you to meet Melody, my girlfriend,” he said, motioning to the couch where she was sitting.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you sweetie,” she said, extending a hand.
“Likewise, Mrs. McLean,” Melody said, shaking it.
“Oh, just call me Denise, that’s what everyone does,” she laughed.
“Ok, Denise.”
“Is everyone ready to go?” Howie asked, passing out the tickets. They all nodded and headed for the door. Denise had a van, so she offered to drive. Howie sat in front with Denise so Melody and Aj could sit together.
“So Melody, how old are you?” Denise asked, starting the questioning process that everyone who dated Aj had to go through.
“I’m 18,” she answered.
“Do you go to school around here?”
“Yes, I just finished highschool at Arundel and was accepted into AACC.”
“So I assume you were a good student.”
“Well, I would think that I was a fairly good student, I finished in the top ten percent of my class.”
“What do you plan to do after college?”
Melody got choked up. She didn’t have a plan, because she wouldn’t live through college. She didn’t know how to answer the question, and Denise was looking at her in the rear view mirror, waiting for her reply.
“Um, mom, can you skip that. I don’t think Melody is comfortable with answering it,” Aj cut in, helping Melody out.
“Okay, moving on. How did you two meet?”
“I’ll take this one,” Aj said, giving Melody a “just agree with what I say” look. She nodded and let him talk. “Melody is a friend of Nick’s girlfriend. We all were going to go out to dinner but Howie and I didn’t have dates. Vallery, that’s Nick’s girlfriend, said she had two friends we could go with. That is how I met Melody. We just really hit it off that night and haven’t been able to stay away since.”
Melody listened to what he said, thankful he didn’t mention anything else about what had happened. She really felt bad about what she had done to him then. If only she had known how wonderful he was, she would have given him a chance right from the start.
“Did she know you were in a group?” Denise was curious to whether or not Melody really liked Aj or was just with him because he was a Backstreet Boy.
“No, she didn’t. Actually, she kind of got mad at me because I didn’t tell her.”
“How did she find out then?”
Melody smiled, “It was an accident. I heard one of their songs on the radio and really like it. When I went to by the CD, I recognized them.”
“Well, that’s definitely and interesting way to find out,” Denise laughed. Aj looked at Melody. I’ll have to ask her what song it was later, he thought.
A little while later they pulled up to the stadium. Marlin and Oriole fans were everywhere, cheering and calling out for their team. Inside, there was a crowd of fans around the field, trying to get autographs. Brandy Anderson, Mike Bordick, and Cal Ripkin stood a few feet apart, busily trying to make sure as many fans as possible would get an autograph.
“Do you guys have to do that a lot?” Melody asked Howie and Aj.
“Are you kidding? All the time, it never fails that when we go somewhere we end up signing autographs,” Howie informed her. Sure enough, his point was proved shortly. As they made their way, as quick as possible, to their box seats, girl ran after them with the pens they had originally brought for the baseball players to use.
Melody chatted with Denise for much of the game. Denise got to know her a lot better, and the more she got to know, the more she was glad Aj had found her.
“Hey Mel, look over at the big screen,” Aj said, tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention. The cameras where focused on the four of them, then zoomed closer, just so they had Melody and Aj.
Every music station, radio station, TV station and newspaper watching quickly were all over the fact Aj was there with a girl. They all planned to have the news spread by the next day. Melody was unaware of the fact that she would ever become known for going with Aj. Melody smiled and waved for the camera, before they switched back to the game for the new inning.
