Michelle filed her nails as she waited for Brian to come pick her up. What a day it had been! Running into AJ and Brian… that had been interesting. AJ was a very negative person… she didn’t know why he acted like such a jerk around her. She didn’t let it bother her though. Who cares what he thinks? Brian… now he was an angel. Wow, what a body. What a face. What a sweetheart. She couldn’t believe he had called her the very day he had asked her for her number. Guys were notorious for waiting awhile before doing that. He’s special.
Of course, he had looked a little downcast, and she couldn’t figure that out, but none the less… She heard a knock on the door, and hurriedly gave herself one last glance. ‘Go get him’, she thought to herself.
Brian waited patiently at the door, wringing his hands like he always did when he was nervous. Michelle opened the door, and he smiled at her.
“Come in for a minute,” Michelle said. He walked into the suite and was more or less impressed. Not even he and the guys got rooms like that.
“Would you like some tea or something before we go?” Michelle asked.
“No thanks.”
They silently retreated down outside the hotel, and got into Brian’s rental car.
“What movie are we going see?” Michelle asked.
“I thought we’d see the new Harrison Ford movie,” Brian said. “It’s supposed to be good.”
Michelle nodded, but inside winced. She hated Harrison Ford. Strike one.
When they got to the theatre, Michelle and Brian found seats in the middle, and fortunately, they were pretty sure they had not noticed by any fans or anything.
Brian tried to start a conversation since the movie wouldn’t be starting for another 15 minutes.
“So, do you like Harrison Ford?” he asked.
Michelle hesitated. Then she gave him a weak smile. “Not really. But I’m willing to give him a chance.” Brian smiled, and she smiled back. They continued talking about different things until the movie started.
‘Let’s erase that strike,’ Michelle thought.
The movie had ended, and Michelle and Brian were just starting to leave when they heard a lot of noise coming from the lobby of the movie place. They made their way to the front, and were bombarded by people and flashing cameras.
‘What the hell is going on here?’ Michelle thought. Then she figured it out. Someone had evidently seen and recognized them and had called a few friends to come check it out. Few. More like 50. Michelle gave Brian a scared look, and he grabbed her hand.
“Just smile for the cameras,” he said through clenched teeth. People started trying to come up to them with pads and pens in their hands.
Brian glanced at Michelle. “Do you want to try to get out of here?”
“No. Let’s sign some autographs.” And so they did.
2 Hours Later
Brian and Michelle walked tiredly to Brian’s car. For 2 hours they had endlessly signed autographs and posed for pictures.
“What a night,” Brian said. “I had wanted to take you out for coffee, but I guess it’s too late now.”
“I guess… but that was fun, wasn’t it? I’m so used to doing those kinds of things in an organized fashion, but that was wild! I never thought in a million years that anything like that would happen!” Michelle said.
“I know. And it’s so cool to see their faces when you simply sign your name on a piece of paper. I always figured that I’d eventually get over the feeling of it, and become numb to it after doing it so many times, but I still haven’t,” Brian said.
“I know what you mean. It’s weird.”
“Not all that weird,” Brian said. “Some people have it in them, some people don’t. I guess we’re two lucky ones.”
Nick drummed his fingers on the top of the table. He knew he should go to sleep since they’d be leaving in about 5 hours, but he couldn’t. It was useless tossing and turning in bed, so he got up to think. He wanted Gretchen to trust him, and it was frustrating that he didn’t. He knew that if she would just give him a chance, she’d find that he was nothing like that Brandon guy. He would never do that to her.
His thoughts went back to Mandy, his ex. He had cheated on her, yes, as he had on several other girlfriends. But he wouldn’t do that to Gretchen. No way. They said ‘Once a cheater, always a cheater,’ but he didn’t believe that. It just took a special person to tie the cheater down. He didn’t want to be a cheater anymore. He regretted messing around on girls, hurting them. He had never done to them what Brandon had done to Gretchen, but still, he felt guilty. Especially after Gretchen had told him about the hurt she felt when she found out that Brandon had cheated on her. If he had caused any of his ex-girlfriends that kind of pain… he just couldn’t live with himself. What a fool he had been!
“People can change,” he said aloud to himself. “They can. I can.” And he decided to do that.
The next day
The Backstreet Boys’ plane arrived in Orlando right on schedule, 5 PM. All of them could not wait to go home and see their families.
Nick went to his parents’ house, and talked with his siblings and parents, and told them a little about Gretchen. He didn’t go into detail, since he and Gretchen weren’t a couple…yet. But his mom wanted to know.
“You sound very taken with her, Nick. How old is she again?”
“She’s 18. She just finished her high schooling by mail.”
“Really? That’s great!”
“We’re not… dating or anything…”
“But you want to date her. I can tell. I think I’ve heard a few of her songs before. She’s very talented, huh?”
“Yeah…she really is.”
“Nick, when you were gone, Mandy called a few times,” Leslie said to him, coming into the room.
“What? Mandy?” Nick shook his head in confusion. They hadn’t spoken in 2 months.
“She wants you to call her.” Nick debated this. Should he call her? He had vowed to himself that he would not get involved with her again, and to not risk that, never talk to her again either. “What did she want?”
Leslie shrugged. “She just really wanted to talk to you?”
“Did she say where she was at?” Nick asked.
“No… but I did tell her that you’d… be down here this week.”
“Great, she’ll probably drop by uninvited,” Nick moaned.
“Sorry Nick,” Leslie said apologetically. “I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”
“I know. Just… think before you do things.”
Leslie left the room, and Nick’s mother gave him a strange look.
“You’re not going to start something up with Mandy again, are you? I thought you said that the pain you put her and yourself through was not going to repeat itself.”
“Don’t worry, Mom. I’m not going to start dating Mandy again. I’ve already found the one I want to be with.”
His mom smiled. “Good. That’s what I want to hear.”
Howie tried to go to sleep that night, but couldn’t. He thought of what he had done the day before. He told the other guys that he had done some shopping, and that was true, but he didn’t mention that he had done it with someone. Kara, the PEOPLE journalist. After they had finished the interview, and the other guys were going inside the hotel, he had asked Kara for a way he could contact her before she left L.A. She had told him that she would only be there for a few hours the next day, and that she left L.A. at noon. He had gotten her beeper number, though she had been hesitant to give it to her. The next day, they had met at the L.A. Mall and had spent the morning together. He didn’t know what was up with her, but she had been uptight the whole time. Sometimes she’d forget about whatever was worrying her, and let herself ease up, but mostly, it was always ‘check the watch’ or ‘look around.’
He had asked her if he could stay in touch with her, because he had begun to like her. But, she declined, had said it was not in either of their best interests, and they had separated. Her going to the airport to fly back to New York, him back to the hotel, to feel lousy and wonder what had gone wrong.
Now that he thought about it, maybe it was because she felt too business-like to let anything happen. Maybe it was because he was just unlucky in love. Maybe it was because she was stuck-up. Maybe it was because she just flat-out wasn’t interested. Whatever the reason, it sucked.
Mandy Williford checked her appearance in the rearview mirror before getting out of her car. She smoothed down her short skirt, and confidently walked up to the front gate of the Carter mansion. She buzzed the intercom, and was let in. Nick probably wasn’t expecting her, but who cared? He’d be happy to see her. He always was.
She knocked on the front door, and Leslie Carter answered.
Leslie looked unsure. “Let me go see if Nick can have company right now.”
Mandy waited impatiently on the front step, and fiddled with her hair.
Leslie came back to the door and smiled uneasily. “Come in.”
Mandy walked in and immediately recognized everything- the smell of the house, the furniture, the fireplace, the ‘welcome’ mat… everything. She belonged here.
Nick walked into the foyer and faced her.
“Well… it’s a surprise.”
“What is? Come on, Nicky, you knew I’d be back sooner or later.”
“Mandy… let’s go into the recreation room and talk.”
Mandy laughed. “OK. Let’s ‘talk.’ Whatever you say.” She chuckled to herself. Whenever Nick had used to say “Let’s talk,” he had always meant “Let’s go make-out.”
They went into the recreation room, and Nick closed the door.
Mandy started to come towards him, but his words stopped her.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Nick…”
“I told you that it was for the best that we didn’t see each other anymore or ever again. I thought I made that clear to you, Mandy!”
“But… that’s what you always say when we break-up.”
Nick paused. Maybe she had a point there.
“Well, I meant it this time. You can’t just come here, uninvited, not even giving me notice about it. You’re not my girlfriend anymore, you can’t do that!”
“Oh really? So who is your girlfriend now? That must be the reason you’re acting this way. Who is she Nick? I can take her,” Mandy said defiantly.
“Mandy, you’re crazy. I don’t have a girlfriend, OK?”
“You don’t have to try and protect her, Nick. What’s her name?”
“I said I don’t have a girlfriend!”
“I will fight for you Nick! I love you!”
“No you don’t,” Nick mumbled. “If you did, you wouldn’t want to fight someone I care about.”
“Aha! So there is someone!”
“I never said that!”
“Well, you might not have a girlfriend, Nickolas, but there’s someone, and I will find out who she is and take her down.”
“You’re psycho,” Nick shot at her. “Get over it!”
“You know what? Don’t tell me what to do. I love you and I know you love me too, and you’re going to realize it sooner or later. You can’t get away from me!”
Nick groaned. “Just chill, Mandy. Since when have you gotten like this?”
“You made me like this you know,” Mandy said softly. “You’ve broken my heart more than once, but I just can’t let go. I KNOW we belong together. If not, I wouldn’t still be here.”
“Mandy, you’re still here because you’re glutton for pain, not because we belong together. You enjoy the whole drama of the relationships we have, and that’s the only thing you love about me.”
“Well, Nick, you may think that, but I don’t. You’ll see sooner or later. I am going to get you back. You might as well face it.”
With that, she turned on her heel. She was almost out of the room when she turned around.
“Hey Nick, I think I know who your lover-girl is.”
Nick scoffed at her. “Oh yeah? Who?”
“Let’s just say I read PEOPLE magazine and I look at all the pictures.” Mandy smiled smugly at the uneasy look on Nick’s face and left the house.
Nick could only mutter an obscenity under his breath.
AJ smiled contentedly as Amanda talked his ear off over the phone. He didn’t mind though. She always had interesting things to say.
“I met the most interesting person the other day while filming a music video for the Cranberries. I was an extra and she was doing a cameo. You might have heard of her. She’s an actress. Her name is Lisa Moone,” Amanda said.
“Yeah, I’ve heard of her,” AJ said.
“She’s a huge fan of yours, and she wants to meet you sometime,” Amanda said.
“Cool. Are you going to keep in touch with her?”
“Yeah, we got to be good friends while filming.”
“Cool.”
“I can’t believe you’ve never met her before. It seems you’ve met every famous person there is,” Amanda commented.
“Well, that’s not a great attribute. And they’re not all a joy to be around.”
“What are you talking about?” Amanda asked.
“Michelle Colback. Brian and I visited her movie set the other day. I really dislike her.”
“Oh yeah, so does Lisa Moone. They’re rivals, you know. She had a lot of mean things to say about Michelle.”
“Well… I do too. I need to meet this Lisa so we can talk,” AJ said.
“Yeah, well… I gotta go, OK?”
“But it’s only 7:30,” AJ said.
“I know, but… sorry. Gotta jet.”
AJ sighed. “OK.”
She had been doing that a lot lately. Cutting their conversations short. It just made him even more worried about their relationship.
“So,” Kevin said to Brian over the phone. “When are we going to go on our yearly camping trip?”
“Maybe in a month or so,” Brian said. “We have some time off then, and it will be in November, so it won’t be too cold or warm.”
“Cool. We should start planning it. Who do you want to invite?”
“I don’t know. Maybe if I’ve gotten to know Michelle better…”
“I don’t know. AJ won’t be too happy.”
“I don’t care. He doesn’t have to converse with her.”
“Yeah, well… It’s gonna be fun.”
“Yeah. It’s definitely going to be interesting.”
~~~~~~~