Chapter Five

Before the night was over, the Backstreet Boys had memorized every room in our house and where everything was. For about an hour, they were raving about how huge our place was. Even I had to admit, it was large. Krystal’s family and mine had bought this place for us for our high school graduation. It was more than I ever expected. My friends and relatives had chipped in a few, too. Plus, my grandparents, who were extremely wealthy, left me a HUGE fortune and we spent some of that on the house, and the rest on the decorations. It was a modern house with two bathrooms (it’s very useful when you have two girls in the house), three bedrooms, one guestroom, a living room, a kitchen, a rec room, a small den, and a large family room. The outside was painted all white, but the inside was very different. Krystal and I had loved to paint and decorate and we had pledged solemnly to create the house into the most spectacular house ever. So, we decided to have different themes for every room. "Umm, Hazel?" I whirled around to face Howie. "What’s up?" I asked, blushing a bit. "I was wondering if you’d like to go out with me tomorrow." All I could was stare. I must have looked really idiotic because Howie asked, "Are you okay?" "Yeah, yeah," I said making a mental note to slap myself really hard later on, "I’d love to." "Great! I’ll pick you up at seven." He walked away to join the rest of the guys who were already making themselves at home on the couch, watching a basketball game. Krys was cheering along with them. "Krys!" I hissed. She looked up and gave me a ‘What now?’. I motioned her to come. Reluctantly, she came. "Howie asked me out!" Krystal’s eyes grew wide. "I can’t believe it! A Backstreet Boy is taking me to dinner tomorrow!" Krys squealed in delight. "I’m so happy for you, Hazy! You are sooo lucky! I wish AJ asked me out. Damn! You were always the prettier one, you know." I smiled and shook my head. In truth, she was the prettier one, but because of her sporty attitude, boys tended to like her more as friends, not as girlfriends. I was the girly one, still sleeping with millions of stuffed animals and my room in pink. Even though, I was majorly glad that Howie asked me out. It all seemed like a dream. Ever since the Backstreet Boys came out, I had loved Howie. His shining puppy eyes, cocky grin, and especially his never-ending charm. He just oozed out charm, making me love him even more. ‘Hazel Dorough,’ I sighed to my self dreamily with half-closed eyes. ‘Mrs. Dorough. No, Mrs. Howie Dorough. Mmm…’ "HAZEL!" The sharp voice took me out from my dream. Krystal was waving her hands in front of me. "What happened?" "Nothing, nothing at all," I replied. She sighed and went back to the game.