Life After That (3 page)

10 minutes later, Ashley's cell phone started to ring and he answered.

"Hello?"

"Hey honey, it's me!" the voice on the other side of the phone said.

"Hey baby. How are you?" It was Jen, Ashley's girlfriend.

"Good, you?"

"Good. A bit tired. We got back from rehearsal a while ago, and now I just finished eating. What's up?"

"Nothing really. I was just wondering if you were home cause if you were, I was gonna drop by. I miss you!"

"Me too. Yeah, you should come, but we got this meeting in like… 10 minutes. Why don't you get here in an hour? Is that ok?"

"Yeah, that's great! I can't wait to see you!"

"Me neither."

"Ok then I'll see you in an hour?"

"Yeah, in an hour."

"Ok, bye bye! Love ya!"

"Ok, bye!" Ashley then hung up.

"Was that Jen?"

"Yeah."

"So how are things with her?" Only Trevor and Ashley were at the kitchen at that moment.

"Pretty good. Better than I thought it would be."

"You guys are together now for how long?"

"5 months."

"Oh yeah. That's kinda a lot, isn't it?

"Yeah, but she's a great girl. Sweet, beautiful, and she loves me…"

"But you don't love her…"

For a moment there, there was a silence. Ashley was trying to figure something out to say… say that he did love her, but those words just couldn't come out of his mouth. He decided then to be truthful to his friend, but all he managed to say was:

"Is it that obvious?"

"Not that much."

"Really? 'Cause I don't wanna hurt her. I wanna give this relationship some time to grow. Maybe in time I'll get to love her, you know?"

"Dude, I hate to be the one to bring this up, but I think you gave this relationship enough time. If in 5 months you still don't love this girl, I don't see it happening."

"I don't wanna break things up with her. Not right now anyway. I think I'll give it some more time."

"Well, that's really up to you. I was just trying to help ya."

"I know, and I thank you for that. Really!"

"Hey, no problem man."

They got off of their chairs and male hugged each other.

"Hey guys, get in here!" they heard Mike Cronin yell from the dinning room.

When they got there, Erik and Dan were already sitting at the table so were the 2 Mikes.

"Where's Jacob?" asked Morin.

"Probably in his room. I'll go get him." Trevor said going to get Jacob.

When they were all at the table, Mike Morin started:

"Jacob, glad you could join us" Jacob gave him a half-smile "Alright, now let's get to the point. This is your schedule for the next 4 days starting tomorrow." Meanwhile, Cronin was handing the guys their schedules "As you can see, those appearances are all in NY, so we'll leave tomorrow morning and will be back by Friday. Everyday you'll have something to do on MTV, 'cause that is the most important channel for you guys right now. You made it onto TRL already, but you gotta stay there, so you have to show your faces there every time you get the chance. There are some other shows in there though, as you can see. Tomorrow we'll leave at 8 a.m., and don't be late! Does anyone wanna say anything?"

"I do. I'm taking Janie, alright?" Jacob questioned.

"If he's taking Janie, I'm taking Jen." Ashley said.

"That's ok Jacob. That's ok Ashley. Anyone else?"

"I wanna take someone too, but I just wish I had someone to take." Trevor said with a sad face.

"Me too…" Dan and Erik said at the same time.

"Well, we're not gonna stay here feeling sorry for your love lives. Does anyone else have anything to add? No? Then this meeting is over." Mike Morin then left the table.

At the agreed time, the doorbell rang. Knowing who it was, Ashley went to answer it.

"Hey baby!"

"Oh my God! It's so good to see you! I've missed you so much!" Jen said hugging Ashley for a while. When they broke it, they kissed "And most of all, I missed this!" Jen was a beautiful girl. She was 21, 5'7", 110 pounds, blond hair, and green eyes. She really was beautiful. She met Ashley at a J Records party. She was one of the record label executive's niece. They were introduced, got to chat a little, and Ashley then asked her out on a date for the following day, and they have been together ever since. First time they met, Ashley thought she had a great conversation, was beautiful, so he used her to help him forget about Kirstin. He didn't like to think he had used her, but he had to face it. It was the truth.

"So… what are we gonna do?"

"Actually, I was thinking we could just hang here. Tomorrow we're gonna have to wake up early. At 8, we're off to NY."

"Oh, and when are you guys coming back?"

"Friday. And when I said 'we', I meant, me, the other guys, and you!"

"Really? I'm going? You arranged for me to go? Wow! This is actually gonna be the first time I'm traveling with you guys."

"I know! I promise you'll love it!"

"I know I will. Thanks!" she said giving him a passionate kiss.

"Hm… I liked that! Maybe I should do more nice things to you if what I'm getting in return is that." Jen giggled "C'mon. Let's go watch some TV."

They watched TV for a while, went up to Ashley's room, fooled around a bit, and got to sleep.

Little did Ashley know what was going to happen to him the next few days.

ORLANDO, FL - TUESDAY

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! We're gonna be late!" Cronin yelled from the corridor. "Trevor, get up!" He said knocking on Trevor's door. "Erik, get up!" he knocked on Erik's door this time. "Dan, get…"

"I'm up!" Dan said from his room.

Cronin smiled and continued to Ashley's door. Knocking, he said "Ashley, get up!"

"Jen, baby, wake up." Ashley brushed a lock of Jen's hair away from her face, and kissed her cheek.

"Hm." Jen was sleeping next to Ashley on his bed. She opened her eyes. "Hey baby, good morning."

"Good morning." Ashley smiled at her figure. She was beautiful. Why didn't he love her already? "C'mon, let's get ready. We gotta be downstairs in 30 minutes."

"I left some clothes the last time I was here didn't I?

"Yeah."

"Great, so I'm bringing those."

"Ok, so let's pack and get dressed."

In exactly 30 minutes, Mike Morin was screaming from the living room:

"Ashley, Erik! Get in here! We're running late!"

Trevor, Dan, Jacob and Janie were already waiting on the couch.

"We're gonna go from the airport straight to MTV?" Jacob asked Dan.

"No, we're gonna stop at the hotel for a while and then go to MTV."

"Do you want me to go to MTV with you?" Janie asked Jacob.

"I don't think it's gonna be too exciting for you to be there. You will probably just wait in the dressing room. I want you there though, and Jen can stay with you so you won't be alone, but it's up to you honey."

"I wanna go." She smiled hugging and kissing Jacob.

"Oh Thank God you 2! Let's go!" Dan said to Erik and Ashley, rushing out the door. Ashley took Jen's hand and followed the others out off the house.

NEW YORK - NYU - SAME DAY

"Kirstin, wait up!" a female figure called at Kirstin.

"Hey Steph. What's up?" Kirstin asked this short, redheaded girl. They were standing at the college hall.

"What time do you start working today?"

"I won't be working too much this week. My boss is not gonna be there this week, so he told me to go just to work on some files after lunch and I'll be out at 3, 3:30. Why?"

"It's just that we gotta work on that paper for Mr. Connick's class."

"Oh yeah! You're right! I totally forgot about that. Listen, the paper is due just for Friday and it's not a big paper, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"Well, I don't feel like doing that today, so can we do it tomorrow, please?"

"Yeah, sure. Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm just not in the mood." You could tell something was wrong though. She was still thinking of Ashley. It wasn't going away. She tried so hard to forget about it since Thursday, the day she saw the video, but it wasn't working.

"Oh ok. So if you want to, I can come pick you up at work tomorrow and we can go to the library."

"At 3 then?"

"Ok, then it's settled. I'll catch up with you later!"

"Ok, bye!"

NEW YORK - HOTEL

"So, here are the keys to your rooms. Trevor is with Erik, Jacob is with Janie, Ashley is with Jen, and Dan is by himself." Cronin gave them their keys. "You only have an hour here, and then we're leaving for the MTV Studio, so go to your room, do whatever, and we'll meet in here at the lobby in an hour, alright?"

"Ok!" They all answered and went to their rooms.

"Hello dear!" this woman in her mid fourties, with grayish-blonde hair, tall and skinny, greeted Kirstin from her desk.

"Hello Marge. How are you?" Kirstin asked in a sweet tone. Marge was Mr. Goodman's secretary and was a real sweet lady. Mr. Goodman was Kirstin's boss.

"Good honey, and you?"

"I'm good. Is Mr. Goodman's office locked?"

"No, I unlocked it earlier for you."

"Thank you Marge. If you need anything that's where I'll be."

"Ok dear."

Kristin's job, being an intern job, wasn't at all exciting. That week she had to work on filing some documents for Mr. Goodman, and organize those documents (such as memos, meeting transcripts, etc.) according to their dates. But in general, her job consisted on filing, yes, but tapes of shows and videos. She had to organize them in this audiovisual room and update whatever was new on the archive onto the computer. She didn't complain about her job. She liked it. There were some nice people there, and it was better than not having a job at all in that area. She had to start somewhere, but she never saw herself working at MTV in the next 5 years. She wanted something bigger.