"Do you want any help?" AJ McLean asked his girlfriend -- or now his EX-girlfriend Sarah Martin. AJ watched her pack all of clothing into boxes.

"No." Sarah responded coldly.

AJ sighed and reverted his eyes back to the television before stretching out on his large comfortable bed. 'Let her be that way.'  he thought angrily. 'That's what she gets for trying to change me.'

They had had another fight about the same thing they had been fighting about for months now. It was one nasty little word. And not even the l-word. He could handle saying he was in love. In fact he had told Sarah he had loved her many a time. But this time it was the m-word.

Marriage.

Even the thought of it made AJ want to shudder. He was only 23. He didn't want to settle down and have a family NOW for Christ's sake. He wanted to go out, have fun and PART-AY. Marriage didn't fit into those things. It also didn't fit into his career plans.

After all, multimillionaire pop stars didn't need marriage. Being famous and married -- or even in a relationship -- made the normal problems of a relationship ten times worse. AJ and Sarah weren't quite strong enough to cope with the problem of being together less than half the year. After all, they had cheated on one another several times in their relationship's span of eleven months. Granted AJ had cheated a little more than Sarah but still cheating was cheating.

Sure, his band mates Kevin Richardson and Brian Littrell could handle it but AJ sure as hell couldn't. Being tied down was no fun at all. AJ had no idea how his friends did it.

"AJ?" Sarah asked, suddenly appearing in AJ's line of view. She held a cardboard box in her arms.

"What?"

"I'm going now. I'll have the movers come for the rest of the stuff."

"Movers? For what?"

"My stuff."

"You have nothing but clothing here Sarah." AJ replied, craning his neck to watch the television around her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her wince slightly. Oh well, that's what she got for trying to change him. She ACTUALLY thought taping pictures of diamond rings on the refrigerator, putting wedding magazines in his suitcases, and programming his cell phone to play the wedding march when it rang would change his disgust for marriage. "And I'd appreciate it if you had someone leave the keys for the 'Cedes after your done with it please." She had been driving his Mercedes since they had started dating and if she thought she was going to continue to drive it she was mistaken'.

AJ brought his eyes up to hers. She looked near tears and for a moment it made his heart clinch up. But this had happened before. She cried. He told her he would think about it, even though he had NO plans at all to think about marriage with her or anyone for that matter. He didn't feel like letting her live on with fake promises. It was cruel. If she wanted marriage she needed to go find someone else. Plain and simple.

"AJ, I -" she began but looked down at the floor. "Fine. I'll leave them now. My mother's coming to get me anyway."

"Do you need any help bringing down the boxes?" AJ repeated his earlier question. After he didn't want to seem like a TOTAL cold, heartless, bastard.

A cold look glazed her eyes over. "I don't need your help."

"Sarah...come on. Don't be like this. You KNEW-"

"You can tell me you love me, but you won't marry me? Does that make sense?"

"Baby, you knew there was no way I'd be getting married now. You should have left."

"It's not that easy J. I LOVE you. And most NORMAL people marry the person they love."

"I don't want to fight now, okay? I want to end on good terms okay? I love you and you know that but I'm not ready for marriage."

"No. I think your just afraid."

AJ sighed and looked out the bedroom window into the brilliant early fall sun. "What time is your Mom coming?"

Sarah heaved an exasperated sigh. It was just her luck to fall in love with a guy who didn't want to get married. "You just proved my point, honey."

"Even if I wanted to Sar it would be so POINTLESS for me to get married now. You saw how we couldn't stay faithful to each other when I was away. You SAW that. Just imagine a marriage. Imagine us married and with two or three kids and still cheating on one another. We can't do that to kids."

"RIght. RIght. Hide behind the career and kids. AJ I see right through that whole little thing. Whether or not you want to admit it, YOU'RE AFRAID."

"Sarah, I'm gonna ask you one more time. Do you want help with your boxes?"

Sarah looked ready to jump into the bed and tear his eyes out with her lovely fake nails paid for courtesy of AJ. "They are already downstairs. I don't NEED your help." she shot back, stalking over to one of the easy chairs in the room and snatching her purse off of it. "Have fun with your damn little career." she muttered on her way out.

AJ listened to her stomp down the stairs, muttering obscenities as she went. He didn't relax until he heard the sound of keys being hurled onto the table by the door and the heavy front door behind slammed.

So WHAT if he was afraid of marriage? Every man was, minus his band mates. But they didn't count. THEY were whipped. He wasn't going to mess around with something just to get his heart broken. No way Jose.

No marriage for him. Thank you very much.  

 

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

 

A week later AJ was going stir crazy in his house. He had been so accustomed to Sarah flitting around the house that it was....scary being in the house with only his dogs for company.

He toyed with the idea of calling one of the guys but then quickly remembered Howie was helping his sister and niece lay down tracks for their up coming albums. Kevin and Kristin wanted "alone" time and Brian and Leighanne were busy working on their new production company - BriLeigh. And Nick was out in LA doing promo stuff with his siblings for the next month and a half. All of his "regular" non-group friends had "regular" jobs of their own to attend too. Plus he had given his bodyguard Marcus some time off, so going anywhere was kind of out of the question.

"God this INSANE...." AJ muttered to his Yorkie Terrier, Vegas, as she walked into the kitchen where he was sitting at the heavy glass table, staring out into the backyard.

Vegas walked over, looked up at him and then continued on over to her food bowl. AJ laughed and shook his head. He felt like a prisoner in his house. "Damn marriage phobia." he announced, before suddenly standing up and grabbing Vegas. "We're going for a walk. Now where are the rest of you guys?"

Ten minutes later AJ had gathered up the rest of his dogs - Yorkie Terrier Jack Daniels, Shiztu's Panda and Bear and the newest addition to his dog family Serenity - and had them all ready to go.

He let them all put him out of the house and down the road, not even really paying attention to where they were going until he realized they were nearly a half a mile away from his house at a park. With a little half shrug, he walked over to a bench, sat down and let his dogs off their leashes to run around.

He pulled his baseball cap farther down on his head as he breathed in deeply. This was A LOT better than being a prisoner in his own mansion. Slowly, he let his eyes scan the park. Every single one of the four basketball courts was packed, whereas the two tennis courts were empty minus two boys skateboarding on a homemade wooden ramp.

Actually only one was skating. The younger one - about nine or ten - was messing around while the older one - seventeen or eighteen, probably an older brother - instructed him. A little ways off the tennis court sat a pretty young woman around AJ's age, leaning with her back to a tree. She had a large sketch pad propped up on her knees and a charcoal pencil in hand but wasn't using either. She was staring at the two boys on the tennis court, with a slight smile curling around her pretty lips.

She wasn't a contender for Miss America but this girl was pretty in her own way. Her light brown hair was stick straight until it reach the bottom at her shoulders where it curled slightly. Her baby blue eyes sparkled but still held a small look of depression that was just barely noticeable. She looked to be about 5'6 or 5' 7, but AJ couldn't tell because she was sitting down.

Just then, as if she was aware someone was looking around she turned her head towards AJ's direction. AJ attempted to avert his eyes but hadn't noticed soon enough and failed. When her eyes met his she smiled, revealing a set of almost perfect pearly white. Watching her smile sent and electric jolt down AJ's spine and gave him the chills even in the mild heat of the September afternoon.

AJ smiled back and nodded his head just before she looked away again. This time her gaze went back to the two kids skating on the tennis court. They both looked relatively related to the girl, especially the younger one. "Siblings?" AJ muttered to himself, just as he realized Jack Daniels had pranced his way over to the girl and was in the process of smothering her with kisses.

He groaned but couldn't help but smile. 'No wonder dogs are considered man's best friend.' he thought as he got to his feet to retrieve his dog and hit on the girl.

By the time he reached them, JD had found himself a place in her lap and was lounging there comfortably. "Hey." AJ greeted, giving her another smile. "Sorry about the dog."

"No. It's okay. He's cute." she responded, closing the sketching pad and putting on the ground with the charcoal pencil before standing up - and he had been right. She was about 5'7 -  and handing JD back to AJ.  He took the dog back and immediately JD squirmed to be put down. AJ put him down and let him run back off to the other dogs, who were busy harassing the people playing basketball. "I'm JennaLee Montgomery." She offered him her hand.

AJ reached out and took it, as the chills returned momentarily, as he thought, 'She obviously doesn't recognize me...Perfect.' "My names Alex James."

"It's nice to meet you, Alex." she responded, as AJ quickly caught a little bit of some type of southern accent.

"The pleasure's all mine." AJ told her. His brain had suddenly become vacant as he searched desperately for something to keep talking about. "So...do you come here a lot?"

JennaLee smiled and opened her mouth but before she could answer the two boys that had been skateboarding trotted over. "You ready, Jen?" asked the older of the two. Both boys quickly looked AJ up and down and then seemed to dismiss him.

After casting an unreadable look his way, JennaLee bent down to pick up her sketch book and pencil. "Sure." she responded before turning back to AJ. "I'll see you around." And with a final wave she walked away from him, the two boys on either side of her.

He watched them go and about half a block away the younger boy turned his head back towards AJ and shook his head before turning back to JennaLee.

She could BET he was gonna see her around.