CHAPTER TWENTY NINE-“Sheee’s Baaack”

 

“What?!?  What is it Isa?” Lina asked as I just sat there and thought to myself could this situation actually get anymore complicated.  “Isabelle, if you don’t tell me what’s going on I’m going to scream!  You’re killing me.  Whatever you’re thinking, say it out loud!!!”

 

I turned to face her.  “Well…” I started off.

 

She just stared my way with a look of agonizing anticipation.  “Well…” She urged on when I didn’t say anything.

 

“Well,” I began again.  “I think Leighanne is cheating on Brian.”  I said. 

 

“Um…Isabelle, I think you’ve got that backwards, hun.  It’s the other way around.  Brian is cheating on Leighanne.”

 

I shot her an icy look, actually making her cringe.

 

“I’m sorry.”  She said genuinely.   

 

“I’m sorry too.”  I said.  She nodded back at me letting me know she understood.  Not that I didn’t know how to face the truth, but I don’t know why hearing that said out loud, gave me a distressful feeling.

 

“I’m serious, Lina.  I really think Leighanne is cheating on Brian.”  I retold her.

 

She looked baffled by what I had said, except I could understand her confusion. Again she asked, “Isabelle, what happened when you called?”

 

“A man picked up.”

 

“Who?”

 

“I don’t know, but I think she called him Ken.”  I informed her.

 

“Who did?”

 

I sighed.  “Leighanne.  This man picked up and she got upset that he did.  She said something like, ‘You know you’re not supposed to pick up the phone.’ Or something like that.”

 

Lina still looked staggered.  “Who’s Ken?”

 

“I don’t know.  It also sounded as if I had woken them up.”

 

She laughed.  “Tell me if this isn’t the most ironic shit ever.”

 

I sighed.  “How do I tell Brian?”  I said speaking off my mind.

 

“Uh…you don’t.”

 

“Huh, I have to tell him.  He has a right to know, doesn’t he?”

 

“Isabelle, it’s none of your business…”

 

“I know,” I cut her off.  “But I think Brian deserves to know.”

 

“YES, he does.  But it’s not your place to tell him!  You don’t even know if she is or she isn’t cheating on Brian? What if you’re wrong?”  She questioned. 

 

With a shrug, I said.  “I guess, but I really think she is.”

 

She looked at me suspiciously.

 

“No,” I said, meeting her suspicions.  “I’m not trying to justify my own situation here, Lina.”

 

“I didn’t say that.”  She quickly responded.

 

“But I know that’s what you’re thinking.”

 

“Well Isabelle…” she dropped what she was gonna say, and instead said.  “I don’t know.  This just seems really weird.  But I just don’t think you should bring this up to anyone.  At least not just yet.”

 

“Ok, so what should I do?”  I asked her.

 

“Nothing. Just call her back and ask her what you originally intended to find out, and leave it at that.”

 

“Fine.”  I said picking up the phone, then slamming it back down.  “Wait, what if he picks up again.”

 

“Then just ask for Leighanne.”  She said simply.

 

“What if he recognizes my voice?”  I added.

 

“Ugh! Isabelle, he won’t,” she said getting agitated by my stalling.

 

“What if he does?”

 

“Give me the fucking number!”  She said, as she reached over me and aggressively picked up the phone.

 

I silently smiled to myself, as I had gotten her to do the deed for me.

 

“Hello, Leighanne Wallace, please…hello?  Leighanne?  Hi, this is Angelina…um…you know, from the Backstreet tour.  Yeah, well Brian asked me to do him a little favor and that is to ask you what time your flight gets in tomorrow morning?” Lina rolled her eyes.  I assumed it was cuz Leighanne hadn’t recalled who she was.  “Ok, I’ll let him know that…sure no problem…I’ll make sure to tell him you said not to make you wait…ok…bye…uh what?  No,” Lina said with a slight pause.  “I didn’t call before…ok, bye.”  She put down the receiver.  “Well, tell Brian to be there promptly at 11:30 in the morning.  Her flight leaves at 10:15.”

 

“Ok.”

 

“Well I have to go for a fitting…I got like hordes of interviews when we hit L.A.”  she said with excitement.  “Hollywood, here I come!” she said with a laugh and exciting the room. 

 

I had to laugh at her phony arrogance.  It was overwhelming.

 

“By the way.”  She said peeking her head back through the door.  “Remember…stay out of it!”

 

“I will.”  I assured her, though my tone was definitely not convincing. 

 

That night, I had a horrible time getting to sleep.  Besides the occasional whimper coming from Lina in the bed across, my mind was occupied with so many things.  So many…worries.  And it wasn’t just the fact that I thought Leighanne was cheating on Brian and I felt I should tell him, it was more like I couldn’t figure out honestly why did I want to tell him.  Was it because I thought what she was doing was wrong and he deserved to know the truth?   But then that would mean what Brian and I have is wrong, and I’m just as bad as she is.  No!  I argued with myself.  Brian and I are different.  I love him, and he loves me.  But then how did I know she didn’t love this Ken guy?  Well if she does than there’s nothing wrong with Brian and I being together. “UGH!” I sighed, as I tried to come up with an answer to a question I wasn’t sure of. Did I want to tell Brian about Leighanne because I want to justify “us”?  Do I want to make our situation not seem as bad as it could be made out to be? 

 

I closed my eyes, but my lids felt warm from the tears that wanted to escape.  Everything was just so confusing.  And not just my personal love life, but also something seemed extremely wrong with Lina.  I had noticed it this morning. And I’ve been so pre-occupied with my own life that I had not caught it before.  But Lina’s been doing extremely well.  I mean, she hasn’t gotten excessively drunk in like more so than a month.  She stopped taking those irking pills on her own.  And her tremendously horrible nightmares have been diminished to a couple of mumbles during the night.  What was up with that?  Not that I didn’t want her to get better, but her dramatic change seems to have taken place over night.  It just didn’t seem right.  I sighed, thinking of the fact that in a couple of weeks she would be turning nineteen, and I still hadn’t finished her poem, which right now was looking more like a childish nursery rhyme than anything else.  I quickly scanned my brain for any other gift idea that might be appropriate, and there was nothing.  There’s no material gift that I could afford, that she couldn’t get herself.  I really wanted to give her my first gift idea.  With that thought in mind, I glanced at the clock across from me, and looked at the time.  It was nearly two in the morning. I closed my eyes once again desperately trying to get some sleep. Finally, conquest was reached as I fell into a light slumber.

 

Surprisingly, I awoke with a smile on my face.  Looking at the same clock I had last night, now it read 11:45.  “Good morning.”  I said, as Lina came into the room.  She was already dressed in black jeans, and a gray Calvin Klein baby t making her look very well developed.

 

“Good morning to you too.  Aren’t we chipper this morning.”  She said.

 

“Well, I had a really nice dream.”  I told her smiling.  “About Brian.”

 

“Really?  Hehe, how nice?”

 

I laughed.  “Don’t read so much into it.  I just dreamt that he came in my sleep, and told me he loved me.”

 

She laughed.  “That wasn’t a dream, hun.  He came by this morning before he left for the airport and he leaned over, and lightly kissed your cheek, and then he whispered…ahhh” she annoyingly sighed.  “I love you.”

 

I smiled thinking of the occurrence.  “You should have woken me up.  I would have liked to say it back.”

 

“Like he doesn’t know it already.  Anyways, I was going to wake you, but he said to let you sleep.  He’s so romantic.”  She said with a girlish grin.

 

I nodded.  Maybe all my worries were for nothing.  Maybe this would all turn out all right.  I thought to myself with a smile.  I got up, and headed for the shower.  I felt so much better than I had last night.  Maybe it was true what they said.  Things do look better after a night’s sleep.

 

When I came out of the shower, Lina was gone.  She’d left me a message on one of those yellow sticky pad, saying she’d be in AJ’s room, for me to come by and we could go to lunch together.  That sounded like a great idea.  So after I got dressed, I headed out the door.

 

“Oops!  I’m so sorry.”  I said.

 

“It’s quite alright, I’m not made out of glass.”  Came the voice of Patrick Owen, the boy’s New York publicist. 

 

“I’m really so sorry.  I really need to watch were I’m going.”  I said apologetically. I bent over to help him pick up the papers I’d knocked out of his hands when I clumsily bumped into him.

 

“Like I said, it’s alright.” He said in a firm voice.  I guess he didn’t like having to repeat himself.  

 

“Well, here you go…” I said, handing him back his papers, which consisted of some notes he had taken back at the meeting yesterday and the Minnesota New Paper.  Wasn’t he supposed to have left by now?  “Um, bye.” I said awkwardly as I turned to leave.

 

“Hold on.”  He called back.

 

“Yes?”  I said turning back to face him.

 

“You’re Isabelle Wakeford right?” 

 

I walked back to meet him.  “Yes, I am.”

 

“You’re…um…Angelina Mayfield’s…” he looked at me for assistance.

 

“Cousin.”  I finished off for him.

 

“Well…” he said as his lips formed a quirky smile.  He fixed on me his small dark eyes. They were so dark they looked threatening.  And he had very few eyelashes, if any.  “Now, come on Isabelle.  We both know that’s not true.”

 

I smiled.  “Well actually…” I began as I felt myself blush from being caught in a lie.  “We’re really best friends.  But we’re so close, and our families are so close, that we just consider ourselves like cousins.  “

 

He widened his smile, revealing his crooked front teeth. “Ok, fair enough.”  He said, then he turned around to leave.  Just as I was about to turn around to leave as well, once again he called me back.  “Miss Wakeford.”

 

“Isabelle’s fine.”

 

He grinned.  “Isabelle, then…you were there, at the meeting yesterday morning, correct?”

 

“Yeah, I was.”

 

“Oh good.  So you’ll be careful of what you say, and do around the boys from now on, then won’t you?”  He said his eyes becoming even smaller than they already were.

 

“I don’t say or …”

 

“Just be careful of your actions around the boys, Isabelle.  Especially Brian…” he cut off.

 

Did he find out about Brian and me? I quickly thought to myself.

 

“…Since the media is focusing on him right now.  Is that clear?”  he continued as if to detour my suspicions.

 

I nodded. I just wanted to leave his company as quickly as possible.  I couldn’t stand his biddy eyes, or the way he pronounced my name as he dragged the S.  Isssabelle. 

 

“Ok, very well.  Have a good day.”  He said as he walked away.

 

I rolled my eyes as I turned to walk away in the opposite direction. “Yesss, you too.”  I muttered mockingly under my breath.

 

I knocked on AJ’s door a couple of times. It took about three minutes before someone finally called out hold on, I’ll be right there.  At the same time, Howie and Nick were coming down the hall.

 

“Hey, what’s going on?”  They asked when they saw me standing there.

 

“Nothing, I’m just waiting for Lina and AJ to hurry up and open the door so we can go to lunch.”

 

We heard the locks on the door being opened, as AJ came to the door wearing only a white towel that he was holding up around his waist.

 

“Hey, wassup?”  He said when he saw us all there.  “Uh, can you wait a few minutes, um Lina’s kinda busy right now.”

 

Howie and Nick laugh behind me. 

 

“You two are worse than rabbits.”  I told him making them laugh even harder. 

 

“Yo, Isabelle, let them be.  They ain’t nothing but mammals.”  He said.  And of course, he started singing.  “You and me baby ain’t nothing but mammals, so let’s do it like they do it on the discovery channel.”  He said, making himself laugh hysterically.

 

They all did as AJ closed the door with a smirk on his face.  “Come on, Isabelle.”  Howie said.  “We’ll take you to lunch.”

 

I started to laugh too as we walked away.  I mean, what other choice did I have.

 

Nick kept singing the mammal song and he pressed the down button on the elevator.  By now, he had gotten Howie and I singing it too.  We laughed liked idiots as the elevator went ‘ding’ meaning it had arrived.  We were just in a really good mood.  I wasn’t going to let that stupid Mr. Owen ruin today, but I didn’t have to, because sometimes things were out of your reach and though I wouldn’t let Mr. Owen get to me.  Something else did.

 

The doors opened, making us all stop laughing as we came to face Brian and Leighanne in the elevator. 

 

“Hi.”  Brian said quickly.  Trying to stop the uncomfortable silence that otherwise would have occurred. 

 

“Hi.”  We all said back.

 

“Hello everyone!”  Leighanne said back, coming out and giving Howie a hug. Howie hugged her back.

 

“Welcome back.”  He told her. 

 

“Thanks Howie, you’re always so sweet.  It’s good to be back.  Hi there Nick!”  She said walking toward him to give him a hug.  He backed away. And she frowned.  Then he smiled playfully.  “I’m just playing.  Hi, wassup?” he said coming to meet her hug.

 

“I knew you always liked me.”  She said jokingly.

 

He grimaced behind her back.  “Yeah, right.  I’ve always liked you.”  Then he added sarcastically.  “I just never like to show it.  That’s all.”

 

She laughed, turning her attention to me.  “Hi, Isabelle.”  She said.  Thank God she didn’t try to hug me.

 

“Hi, Leighanne.”  I said pressing the elevator button again, as a distraction. 

 

“Wow!”  Nick said, taking the attention away from me.  “You’re hair looks good, Leighanne.”

 

“Why thank you, Nick.  I just crimped it, that’s all.”  She said running her fingers over it.

 

“No, I mean.  You got all the blue out.  Blue’s just not your color.”

 

She laughed it off, making Nick frown disappointedly seeing as his little joke hadn’t gotten to her. 

 

“Yeah, well…so…hey man, need any help with that?”  Nick asked Brian as we all finally realized he was standing there with two heavy suitcases, and a makeup case under one of his arms.

 

“No, I’m alright.”  He said “Thanks.”  But we could tell he was struggling to keep them all up.

 

“Well if you guys wanna come to lunch with us we’ll wait for you.”  Howie offered.  Both Nick and I looked at each and rolled our eyes, and sighed.  Howie was just being himself.

 

“No that’s ok, Howie.  Thanks anyways, but I was thinking I’d unpack some stuff.  Can you believe my dry cleaning girl brought my things back like five minutes before I had to leave for the airport.  I had to stuff it in with the rest of the luggage; I didn’t have any time to check it.”

 

“Well, why are you unpacking?  We are going back to LA in like three days.”  Nick said looking at the rest of us to make sure he wasn’t the one who was misinformed.  Brian nodded.

 

“Yes, well…I think I’ll unpack anyways.  I hate wearing things that have been cramped up together.”  She said with a smile.  “Enjoy your lunch.”

 

“Sure.”  Nick said holding the elevator door open for us to get in.  “Catch you guys later.”

 

“Yeah, I can’t wait to start hanging out with you guys again.  People in LA can be so overdramatic.”  She said with a small laugh.  “Know what I mean?”

 

We all nodded.

 

“Right, well.”  She said looking directly at me.  “Maybe you and I can spend some more time together, Isabelle.”  She said.  “We could go shopping or something.  Maybe when we get to LA or something.”  She said looking me up and down and giving me a fake smile.

 

I gave her one of her own smiles, and said.  “Maybe.”

 

She grinned linking her arm around Brian’s.  “Maybe…that is if I’m not too busy catching up with Brian.  We’ve been apart for so long, there’s a lot we miss doing together. We’ve missed each other so much.”

 

That was Nick’s cue, and he let the elevator doors go, and they closed. 

 

I felt both Nick and Howie staring at me as we descended in the elevator.  Ugh I wasn’t going to let her do this to me a second time!  Who did she think she was the Queen of England?  No, she’s not and I wasn’t going to let her keep doing that to me.

 

I pressed the stop button on the elevator.  Alarming both the boys.  And I hit the floor we had just left.

 

“What are you doing?”  Nick immediately asked.

 

But Howie didn’t need an explanation.  Instead, he too hit the stop button, then turned to me and said.  “Isabelle, you can’t do that.”

 

Nick caught on, and added.  “Just let it go.  She’s not worth it, and I’m sure Brian will take care of it.”

 

“Don’t ever doubt in him.  He’s a good guy.  He knows what to do.”  Howie said fending for his friend.

 

“Yeah, Brian will do the right thing.  Just try to keep it low for now.”  Nick said.

 

I looked up at him.  That’s what Kevin had told me.

 

“At least until Patrick is gone.”  He finished off.

 

I sighed, pressing L on the elevator, and letting it lead us back down towards the lobby.  “I just don’t know how much longer I can do that.”

 

 

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