September 6th 2003
Howie was sitting in a little coffee shop, enjoying a cup of tea and a muffin when somebody sat down across from him. Freaked at first thinking it was a fan he almost jumped out of his seat.
“Whoa, hold on D, it’s me.” AJ said laughing at his best friend.
Rolling his eyes at AJ, Howie sat back down. “You scared the shit out of me, D.”
AJ continued to laugh and took a sip of his hot chocolate. “Sorry, I tried to be loud and everything, but you must have been out of it. Everything ok?”
Howie sighed and was going to say everything was fine, but for some reason he didn’t feel like lying. It was AJ anyway, his best friend, the person he was supposed to be able to tell everything. “No, not really.”
Putting his mug down, AJ got into perfect listening mode. “Ok, spill what’s bothering you?”
He wasn’t really sure where to start. How do you bring up the fact that you’re scared to death of your band mates little brother? Groaning, Howie rested his head in his hands. “It’s Aaron, I don’t get what’s going on in his little brain, but whatever it is, is not good.”
AJ sighed and nodded himself. “I know I’m worried about the guy too.”
Howie looked up. “I don’t just mean his vulgar language and attitude; I’m talking about how he’s been acting towards Vanessa. Have you seen the way he has been looking at her?”
Of course AJ had noticed, he wasn’t blind, but how is he supposed to tell his friend that? “I’m sure it’s nothing, D. He’s just being a kid.”
Laughing Howie shakes his head. “For one, that’s bull shit and you know it. Two that is not comforting to know he’s just being a kid. Do you remember the shit you did when you were his age?”
AJ shivered at the thought and laughed. “Okay, that is scary, but really, D. I don’t think you should worry too much. So far he hasn’t touched her wrong or anything. It’s mostly just been talk. When he starts physically touching her, then worry.”
Smiling Howie nodded. “Thanks J.”
*****@*****
“Shopping, Shopping, we get to go shopping!” Kristin chanted as her and the rest of the girls walked down the middle of the mall.
Vanessa laughed and held onto Hailie’s hand tightly. “This is nice; we haven’t done this in a long time.”
Leighanne looked in one of the windows and smiled big. “Oh, Girls, do I have a great idea!”
The other two women turned to look where Leighanne’s eyes were and laughed.
“You’ve gota be kidding me.” Kristin said shaking her head. “I still don’t have my figure back from having Chris, how do you expect me to fit in…that…thing.”
Leighanne rolled her eyes and pulled both of the women into the store. “Come on girls, we’ve both got husbands and fiancés that still want to have a good time, why not show off a little.”
Vanessa’s mind went back to Howie’s birthday and the black lace teddy she had bought. Part of her couldn’t believe she had gotten it in the first place, but she was sure glad she did when she got more then a generous thank you from Howie.
Before all three women knew it they were trying on different things, Hailie being the one to pass the stuff under the dressing room doors, and watch the babies. Totally enjoying herself, since she got to be one of the ‘big girls’ as she liked to call it.
“The guys need to go out and party more often.” Kristin said as they paid for the different items they had bought.
“Yeah they do, but you know we don’t need an excuse like them going away to go shopping, we’ll just have to do this again some other time.” Vanessa pointed out.
“Most definitely.” Leighanne said smiling as they pushed the strollers towards the food court for a mid morning snack.
*****@****
“Who ever thought you would still be able to keep up with us after having a baby two months ago.” JC said laughing as all the members of Nsync flopped down on the grass beside a basketball court.
Justin laughed along with him and dribbled the ball between his legs. “Nick bought me all that state of the art gym stuff to put in the basement last month and it is working wonders.
“Sounds like he’s trying to tell you you’re fat.” Joey pointed out, a smirk on his face. The guys always had fun making fun of Nick.
“Don’t be bad mouthing my man, or I will have to beat your ass.”
Joey leaned over to give Justin a good view of his ass and started to pet it. “You wouldn’t hurt my ass.”
This caused the whole group to roll their eyes.
“How about we go play some more, I’m not even sweaty yet.” Lance said jumping up and running in for a lay-up.
Everybody else followed suite and they started another game.
*****@*****
“FORE!” AJ yelled as he put his hand on his forehead to protect his eyes from the sun.
“I think you should be yelling duck, rather then fore.” Brian laughed, pointing at the pond full of ducks that the ball seemed to be heading for.
AJ cursed as the ball splashed in the water almost conking one of the ducks in the head. “I can’t get a good swing with this damn belly.” He grumbled, walking over to this bag to put his club away.
“Yeah, that’s right blame it on our kid.” Marshall said shaking his head, his hand going to rub AJ’s bulging stomach. “It’s ok little guy, papa didn’t mean it.”
“What makes you think it’s a boy?” Howie asked as he teed up.
Marshall shrugged. “I dunno, all the rest of you guys had boys, maybe it’s a Backstreet trend.”
“Vanessa’s baby is probably a girl, since girls seem to run in our family.” Aaron said as he fidgeted on the green next to Howie.
Everybody chose to ignore what Aaron had said, since they weren’t really sure what to say. Howie on the other hand did a little wiggle butt dance and swung the golf club, hitting the ball, but not so it would go far down the course but so it would hit something he felt like hurting at that moment.
“TWO!” Howie yelled as the ball sailed towards Aaron’s head.
Aaron didn’t even look up from where he was playing with a patch of grass since Howie hadn’t used the right hazard word. Before he knew what hit him the ball bounced down on the top of his head, almost knocking him over.
“What the fuck!” He exclaimed rubbing his throbbing head.
Everybody turned to look at Howie, shocked he had done that.
“What did I do?” he asked looking as innocent as possible.
When they all raised an eyebrow he shrugged. “I warned him.”
*****@*****
“Two pitchers of beer please.” Chris told the bartender.
“It feels good to be back in a place like this.” Justin said looking around pool bar. It was still only late afternoon so the place wasn’t really busy.
“Did I tell you that Vanessa’s cousin, Stephanie is coming into town tomorrow morning?” JC mentioned out of the blue, causing all his friends to turn and look at him.
“I didn’t know you still had contact with her. I thought you admitted she was too young for you and let it go.” Joey reminded his friend.
JC shrugged. “I did, but then she kept instant messaging me and for some reason I just couldn’t block her. I mean she’s a really great girl.”
Taking a sip of his beer Lance sighed. “She’s eighteen now right?”
“Yeah she is, but you know what guys just because I mention the girl doesn’t mean I want to fuck her.”
That shuts everybody up and they all turn to their drinks.
*****@*****
“I love how this place smells.” Kevin exclaims as he takes a deep breath of the smell of hamburgers and fries.
Brian does the same and sighs. “Yeah, smells like this bring back memories.”
“This is where I took Vanessa on our first date.” Howie blurted out of the blue.
Aaron snorted. “You took her to a freaking diner? Shouldn’t you have done some fancy Italian place or some shit like that? Even I could wine and dine a girl better then you.”
Howie gritted his teeth, whishing he had another golf ball to throw at the blonde teenager.
But he didn’t have to because Nick smacked him upside the head and glared at him. “You watch it.” He said in a serious tone.
Aaron glared at his brother and scooted his way out of the booth, heading back towards the bathrooms.
“That kid is having issues.” AJ said as he watched Aaron’s retreating back.
Nick rested his head in his hands and sighed. He felt way over his head.
*****@*****
“I don’t know about you girls but I’m pooped.” Kristin said as she flopped down on the couch in the Mathers-McLean living room.
“Oh, me too.” Vanessa said, imitating Kristin’s actions.
Leighanne laughed at her friends. “You guys are party poopers, how about we put on a little fashion show?”
When the two tired women looked at her strange Leighanne felt like she needed to elaborate. “We want our men to be satisfied when they see us in the new things we bought, so we need to know how to present ourselves.”
Vanessa and Kristin looked at each other and both got huge smiles on their faces before then both shot up off the couch, grabbing their Fredrick’s bags and running for the downstairs bathroom.
*****@*****
“Ewe that’s just nasty Brian!” Kevin exclaimed swatting his cousin on the arm.
Nick laughed and applauded. “Bravo, Bravo. I would toss you flowers if I had them.”
Howie rolled his eyes. “I can’t believe you guys are still belching the alphabet at your age.”
“He did do it in French.” AJ pointed out like that would make all the difference.
Aaron who was actually being civil at the moment started laughing too. “I agree with Nick and AJ that was pretty damn funny.”
Brian stood up from the booth and bowed. They had finished their meal a couple of hours ago, but they were just having fun goofing off like old times. It wasn’t too often that they got to do this anymore.
Just then the song ‘Barbie Girl’ started playing in the room and Aaron jumped out of the booth and started to do a very flamboyant dance around the room.
Nick once again barred his face in his hands. “I should have just left him with Vanessa. He would fit in with the girls.”
Howie’s eyes went wide. “Like hell you should have.”
Kevin laughed, trying to change the subject. “Why don’t we call our wives and see how they are doing?”
“That’s a good idea.” Marshall said, taking out his cell phone and dialing his house.
After about five rings Vanessa finally picked up the phone.
//”Hello?”//
Marshall had to hold the phone away from his ear because the music in the background was blasting. “Vanessa?”
//”Hey Marsh.” She said, recognizing Marshall’s voice. //
// On the other side of the phone Kristin yelled at Leighanne. “Oh yeah Leigh, shake that sexy ass, girl.”//
Marshall’s eyes went wide. “What the hell is going on over there?”
//”Huh, Marsh, I can’t here you very well. Don’t worry things are fine, talk to you later…bye, bye. //
Shutting his phone he shook his head, trying to grasp what he had just heard.
“What is everything ok?” Kevin asked, getting worried.
Marshall nodded his head. “Yeah, they sounded fine. I’m just trying to figure out why Kristin was yelling at Leigh to shake her ass.”
“WHAT!” Came all the guys’ voice in response, all except the one who was too busy trying to get a guy in the booth next to them to sing the male vocals to the song.
*****@*****
“I think you’re getting a little tipsy there Jup.” Chris said laughing as he watched his friend try to hold his pool cue steady.
“And you’re not?” Joey said pointing out how Chris was barely standing up at this point. The guys had been at the bar for the last three hours and the only one of them that was still standing sober was JC who had picked the short straw and got the job of being the designated driver for the night.
JC shook his head and laughed at his wobbly friends. “You guys crack me up.”
Just then Justin screams, causing all his friends to turn and look at him. “What the fuck was that…there is something alive in my pants!”
Lance looks at his friend strange, eyeing his crotch for a second, thinking that was what the other man meant in his drunken state. Then he heard the vibrating sound and reached into his friends pocket pulling out his vibrating cell phone. “Here.”
Glaring at Lance, Justin took the phone. “If you wanted to feel me up, why didn’t you just say so.” He mumbled as he answered the phone. “Lo.”
Everybody watched Justin as he listened to the phone, only saying a few words himself. When he hung up a few minutes later everybody looked at him as if asking who it was.
“That was Marshall; he wants us to come back to the house, something about the girls and stripping.”
This got all the guys attention and they were rushing out the door.
*****@****
“Who was on the phone?” Leighanne asked as she continued to dance to ‘Girls just wanna have fun’
“Marshall, I think the guys just wanted to make sure we hadn’t killed the kids or something.
Kristin turned to look at Hailie who was also dancing around in her undershirt and Barbie panties.
“And I told him they were fine.”
“Yup, perfectly fine.” Laughed Leighanne.
Ten minutes later and in the middle of Lady Marmalade all the guys burst into the room to see the three women and little girl dancing in their underwear.
“What the hell?” Howie exclaimed, being the first one to run over to his fiancé and try to cover her up.
Brian, Kevin and Marshall quickly followed suit.
Nsync and Aaron stood watching with open mouths
“Didn’t expect to see something like this tonight.” A still very drunk Joey mumbled to the closest person, which happened to be Aaron.
“Me neither.” He responded, sounding just as messed up as the older man.
“Come on Kris, let’s get you dressed and home.” Kevin said, throwing is wives clothes at her.
Kristin smirked at the other girls as she did a little dance and ground against Kevin. Leighanne and Vanessa doing the same thing to Brian and Howie.
Before they knew it everybody in the room was dancing. Hailie even trying to mimic the same dance moves as the other women against Marshall, not knowing that wasn’t exactly politically correct.
Once the song finally ended Brian, Kevin and Howie and grabbed their girls and helped them get dressed as quick as possible. Saying goodbye the now horny backstreet members ushered them out of the house.
Howie was even too quick to get home he didn’t notice the lust in Aaron’s eyes as he and Vanessa passed.
“Come on I think we need to get you guys home before you pass out” JC said to the rest of his band member.
Justin pouted and clung to Nick. “I don’t wana go with you, I wana go home.” He whined.
Nick rolled his eyes at his fiancé and pushed him towards JC. “Take him away Jace, get his drunken self sobered up and I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
Justin and Nick wanted to do things as normal as possible, which meant not seeing each other until the ceremony.
Taking Justin by the arm all of Nsync walked out and to the car.
Nick turned to his little brother and sighed. “Come on Airhead, let’s get our asses home too.” He said, getting Josh situated in his care seat.
Aaron didn’t even protest to the nickname, he just wanted to get home and take care of the little problem he seemed to have gotten from the sight of the girls dancing around in their underwear.
“Bye guys, see you tomorrow.” Nick called as he ushered his brother out the door.
Finally alone in their house Marshall looked down at his daughter who was still standing in her underwear. “Please tell me you don’t do this all the time when I leave you alone with Vanessa.”
AJ slapped Marshall upside the head before he made his way into the kitchen, needing something to eat.
Hailie giggled and shook her head. “Nope, but I think we better do it more, cuz I think Aaron liked it. He was looking at Me.” She said in a sing song voice before she ran up the stairs.
Marshall sighed, he knew his daughter had a crush, but it was bantly obvious that the object of her little girl desire had feelings for somebody else. Which was enough to worry him even more.
