Kevin’s hangover was a complete shock to him- as far as he knew, he had not drank a drop of alcohol the night before at the party. As he and the rest of the guys picked up trash around AJ’s uncle’s house, he thought about Lynnsey. He had not talked to her since the morning before. He needed to call her.
His thoughts switched to Brian and AJ. They were acting weird. When AJ had asked Brian to hand him the broom, Brian had replied, “Why not? You take everything else I have.” AJ hadn’t replied. And Kevin was still clueless as to why Brian had left the party so early. He would have to remember to ask him about it later.
They finished cleaning up around noon, and headed back to their hotel. They would be leaving New York that night to go to a press conference in Las Vegas concerning their upcoming album. As they walked past the lobby desk towards the elevator, the clerk behind the desk called to them.
“All of you have messages!” he called.
“I would have forgotten to check before we left if he hadn’t of said something,” Kevin said. The other 4 nodded as they walked to the desk. Each were handed an envelope. Only Howie opened his. The others put their envelopes into their pockets and headed upstairs to pack. Howie was just anxious to see if it was from Kara. It was. The message, typed by the clerk, said:
Howie-
I have left the hospital and am staying at my mom’s to recooperate. My flight to Florida leaves in a few minutes, so just call me tonight. I love you.
Kara
“AJ, since you’re so anxious to make things up to me, maybe you could do me a favor?” Brian asked as they walked back to their rooms.
“Uh… sure, Brian. Whatever you want. What is it?” AJ asked.
“You mentioned awhile back that Amanda had met Lisa Moone through work or something, right?” Brian asked.
“Yeah… Lisa Moone, as in the actress, as in Michelle’s competition. What about her?” AJ asked.
“Well, I need you to call Amanda and get her number for me. I’m sure Amanda has it.” Brian said.
“Me? Call Amanda? You’re crazy! And for Lisa Moone’s number? Is this your revenge you were talking about?” AJ asked.
Brian’s face turned cold. “Are you going to get me the number or not, friend?”
AJ sighed. “Yes, I’ll get you the number. I’ll call Amanda tonight.”
Brian’s cold expression disappeared, and a smile replaced his frown. “Thanks, buddy.” He walked ahead of AJ and to his room.
AJ shook his head. He did NOT want to call Amanda. He had enough to worry about when he finally could talk to Jen. Amanda was not going to help.
He was about to enter his room when he heard a cry coming from across the hall- Kevin’s room. He rushed over and went in.
Kevin was sitting on the bed, his face buried in his hands. A piece of paper lay on the floor.
“Kevin… what is it?” AJ asked.
Kevin looked up, his face flushed, tears in his eyes.
“Lynnsey broke up with me.”
AJ’s mouth dropped open. “What? Why?”
“She can’t handle the business. Nick was right. It was ill-fated from the start.” Kevin sighed and picked up the piece of paper on the floor. “She could of least have done it face to face or on the phone.” He handed the letter to AJ.
AJ read it, and then said, “Sounds like to me, she couldn’t get in touch with you at all to break up with you to your face. Isn’t that the main reason she broke up with you anyway?”
Kevin sighed again. He turned to AJ, and AJ saw some anger in his eyes. “Just go AJ. Like you’re one to be able to talk right now anyway. You’re the reason Brian and Michelle broke up. Looks like your relationship is about to be the next one off the list as well.”
“Brian told you?” AJ asked.
“No, he told Nick. Nick just told me a few minutes ago. I told Howie.” Kevin glared.
“I guess that’s my cue,” AJ said, turning towards the door. He turned back around. “Do Howie and Nick feel that way, too? That this is all my fault?” he asked.
Kevin nodded. “Do you blame them? I mean, you’re a good friend to me AJ, but Brian’s my cousin. He’s really hurting right now, even if it doesn’t show. He loves that girl, and though she and you may have been drunk, it doesn’t erase the image of you with her out of his mind. If I have to take sides… I’m sorry AJ. Look, I need to be alone to think about this, about what I should do about Lynnsey. You understand.”
AJ nodded, and left the room. He could see the awkward way he was going to be treated already. And he still needed to find Jen and talk to her about her kissing Curtis, his kissing Michelle. The dancers had already left New York, and he wasn’t going to see her until that night. Ugh. Everything was so screwed up.
Michelle had tried not to cry on the way to Chicago, because she knew that she would end up going into the script reading looking terrible, but she knew she couldn’t help it. She could hardly comprehend what had happened the night before. All she remembered was hearing Brian talking about her and Leighanne, and getting upset, and running into AJ, and then kissing him, and then being yelled at by Brian, and then waking up in her hotel room with a terrible headache and even worse heartache.
Now, she had to go do this script reading for a movie, and pretend that everything was OK, and that she wasn’t feeling like the biggest jerk in the world.
Brian zipped up his suitcase and dragged it to the door. His message had been from Michelle. It had simply said:
Brian-
Please, please call me. I should be in Chicago by noon. Please. Please call me as soon as possible. I LOVE YOU.
– Michelle.
He had no intentions of calling her.
Michelle would be on her way to Chicago right now, he thought. “No. Don’t think about her,” he said aloud to himself. He tried to block her out of his mind, because when he did think about her, his heart hurt.
He knew that the only reason he ended up getting hurt was because he let people in. He let people get close to him, he let himself love them, and then they took advantage of that. First Leighanne, than Michelle. The only way to avoid that from now on would be to become apathetic. To date women he wasn’t serious about. To make his heart cold. That was why he wanted to call Lisa Moone. Well, that was one reason. She had a reputation of being a wild girl, and she played racy roles in the movies she was in. She wasn’t the type to get serious about a guy, and that was what he needed. And, she had stated in an interview when asked about her rival, Michelle Colback’s Backstreet boyfriend, she had said, “He’s hot!” So Brian knew she would be receptive to his call. But the main reason for trying to get together with her was that he knew it would hurt Michelle. Michelle hated Lisa, and him being with her would hurt Michelle a lot. Deep down… he really didn’t want to cause Michelle pain. He was in love with her, but he just wanted to do something to redeem himself, to make himself feel better, to show Michelle that he could get along fine. This was it.
Gretchen had finished the last scenes of her latest music video for her new release, “No More Tears” which was her song about Brandon, and she had immediately called Nick at his hotel and left him a message. She had just told him that she would be in Chicago until 3 PM if he wanted to call her.
She felt really guilty though- during the filming of the video, hearing her Brandon song over and over again had only reminded her of how David had been there for her when Brandon had dumped her. He had come and kept her company every day, and not only that, but he had been willing to listen to her cry and sob over the phone when she had moved out to L.A. They had drifted apart and kept in contact less once her career took off and he started college In Georgia, but like real friends, they had found their way back to one another.
And it wasn’t that Nick wasn’t there for her, because he was, and he understood her life in show biz better than David did, but David understood her better than Nick did. Nick had been unable to comprehend the depth of her distrust and why she felt that way even though he knew what Brandon had done to her, but David completely understood, because he had been there to her at her lowest point, right after it had happened. All Nick saw was a happy star who should be over it. David saw the hurt girl he’d known since 9th grade who had truly been shaken up over losing her self-respect over a jerk-off.
She needed time to think. Was it normal to compare your boyfriend with your best guy-friend? Probably, but she felt guilty for doing so. And Nick kept on coming up short in her comparisons.
Kara barely made it to the toilet before she threw up. She had felt weak and nauseated ever since she had gotten home from the hospital, and it was dragging her down.
Did she have cancer? She didn’t know, but it was starting to feel like it. She just wanted to know. Whatever the answer was.
AJ hung up the phone and winced after having talked to Amanda. He had survived through the conversation- she had been very civil, and had gladly given him Lisa Moone’s number. He had scrawled the number down for Brian, and planned to give it to him in a few minutes.
Brian dialed Lisa’s number, not even nervous. He wanted so badly to get back at Michelle that nervousness was impossible.
“Hello?” a sexy voice answered.
“Lisa?” he asked.
“Yes? Who’s this?”
“This is Brian Littrell. From the Backstreet Boys.”
“Oh, hi Brian!” she said. “You’re with Michelle Colback, aren’t you?” she asked.
“Actually, that’s why I’m calling. I was recently set free, and so I was wondering if you would be interested in going out sometime?”
“Oh.. of course! That would be great!”
Brian smiled. This was going to be good.