"Ahhhhhhhh." Sarah sighed in pleasure as she lay back on the luxorious comforter on the king-size bed. So far her birthday had been perfect, The boys had given her breakfast in bed, and sang 'Happy Birthday' in perfect 5 part harmony. Their presents to her had been equally sweet. Nick had given her gift certificates to Contempo Casuals and Steve Madden, her two favorite stores. From Brian there had been a perfect satin bound journal, with gorgeous heavy paper. AJ had given her a beautiful ring that was made of thin silver bands, braided and entwined together, and from Howie there had been a beautiful hair comb made of pearls. Kevin's present.....that was too sweet. It was a thin silver bracelet with a small medallion hanging off it. On the front of the medallion it said 'Kevin and Sarah' and on the back it read 'Love Forever'. She had broken down in front of all of them, smiling up at Kevin, tears running down her cheeks. The hotel was quiet now, the boys were at the arena, giving the press conference. Sarah switched on the tv to the channel airing the conference and settled back into the pillows. She buried her nose in Kevin's shirt that she was wearing, breathing in his cologne and turning up the volume.
The press conference was already halfway through when Sarah switched the tv on, and the reporters were into the personal questions, while the boys tried desperately to avoid as many as possible. Then they hit on the infamous question, the one Kevin had been wrestling with since 2 nights ago.
"Now, do any of you have girlfriends?" They started down the row, each taking a turn. Nick was first, his eyes downcast, still hurting from his incident with Kelly on that night 2 weeks ago.
"No." he murmurmed, "No I don't." Then Howie.
"No." Then it was AJ's turn.
"Yup." AJ smiled, "And she's perfect." The reporters laughed, then they moved on to Brian.
"Nope, he said, not anymore." Then it was Kevin's turn, his eyes were downcast, his brow was knit, deep in thought.
"Kevin?" they asked "How about you?"
"Yes." Kevin said, looking straight into the camera, his eyes soft, a smile on his lips. "I have found the love of my life, and I am very happy." Sarah was amazed, she couldn't believe he said it. "Oh, and I know she's watching, so baby, look next to the tv, there's a surprise there for you."
Puzzled, Sarah muted the tv, and walked to the cupboard it sat on. Next to it she found a small blue satin box. She pulled it open and found a normal key, nothing special at all about it. Picking it up, she noticed the small piece of paper under it, unfolded it and looked. It simply read
Then she turned it over.
She smiled to herself 'it is so like Kevin to do this' she thought to herself, and ran lightly into the other room. Upon inspecting the piano, she noticed a post-it note on the unfinished sheet music Kevin was working on. She pulled it off and read
Sarah's mouth fell open, and she threw back her head, and laughed to herself. Then she ran back into the bedroom, and jumped onto the bed. Turning down the tv, Sarah picked up the phone and punched in Kevin's cell phone number. She watched on the tv as Kevin pulled out his phone, and turned away from the microphone.
"Hello?" he muttered into the phone. "I love you boo." Sarah laughed, "I'm moving in with you, and I'm coming to the arena now. Bye!!" She watched as Kevin turned back around, a huge grin on his face. Sarah laughed, then ran downstairs and hailed a cab.
Once she was at the arena, Sarah jumped out of the taxi, and showed her pass to Mike, head of security. "You know me!! Now, where would the boys be?" Mike gave her careful instructions which took Sarah to the row of dressing rooms. Knocking on the door marked 'Kevin', Sarah stuck her head in and grinned. "Can I come in?" She asked.
"Have you ever needed to ask that?" Kevin smiled up at her. He walked over and pulled the door open, prodding Sarah into the room. Once she was inside he turned and looked at her, then broke out laughing, picked her up, and spun her around. "You know you're my girl Sarah? You're always gonna be my girl, my baby doll!" Then he lowered Sarah to him and kissed her. "I am going to make you so happy Sarah, I promise."
"I know you will." She whispered, wrapping her legs around Kevin's waist. "And I can't wait." He smiled, and set her down gently on the ground. "You know I've never actually been in your dressing room?" She said, looking around "It's nice.....lots of food!!" She laughed, gesturing towards a table in the corner, piled high with fruit, vegetables, and dip.
"Yeah, well, that's one of the perks!" Kevin laughed, and pushed it towards her, "Eat, I'm always to nervous to eat anything before a show." Sarah picked up a grape and popped it in her mouth.
"Well, Kev I got a question, why are we going to New York, not Orlando?"
"Orlando is not my home, it never was. I moved there to further my own career, and it worked, but that is not where my heart is. Plus, everyone knows that's where BsB lives, I mean, Nick can't even go and get his mail without being mobbed you know what I mean?"
"Yeah I do." Sarah replied. "But what about Lexington?"
"I love Lexington, I wish I could go back there, but that's exactly where all the crazy fans would go next to find me." Kevin said, sighing. "I mean, I love Lexington, that's where all my family is, so we're going there a lot." Kevin said, pointing at her, smiling "Get used to it!" he laughed.
"Alright!" she smiled at him. Then, she grabbed another grape, and threw it at Kevin when he wasn't looking, hitting him in the ear. He turned to face her slowly.
"Did you just hit me with a grape?" he asked, in a mock serious tone.
"Yes I did." Sarah replied, with a devilish grin on her face. Kevin slowly reached forward and grabbed a bunch of grapes.
"Now....you're gonna get it." He grinned, and started chucking grapes at Sarah.
"Stop it!!" Sarah screamed as she tried to shield her face with her hands, laughing. "I'm getting all sticky!!" After Kevin had thrown every grape he had at her, he ran at her and tackled her, knocking her gently to the floor. Kevin sat on her waist, and held her arms to the floor.
"Are you going to be good now?" He asked, smirking at her.
"I'm never good." Sarah replied, a smart-ass grin on her face.
"I know." Kevin laughed. "That's part of why I love you so much." He leaned down and gently kissed her. Sarah kissed him back, then gently pushed him off her and walked to the sink to wash the grape juice off her.
"Ewww." Sarah muttered "I have grape in my hair!"
"Come with me." Kevin whispered, taking her hand and pulling her out of the room. She followed him through what seemed like endless corridors, and up and down different staircases. After what seemed like ages, they reached the stage. Sarah went and sat on the edge of the stage, kicking her heels up like an impatient little girl. Then she began to hum the new Tyrese song "Sweet Lady". Kevin picked it up, and came to sit next to her, humming also. After Kevin had hummed through the chorus, he took her chin in his hand and kissed her.
"I feel so bad doing this!" Sarah giggled, "I mean in a few hours there are going to be thousands of fans in this arena, if they saw....or even thought of us doing this…man would they be pissed!"
Kevin turned and looked out at the arena. "This is what I love to do." He sighed. "But I'm not into how we were presented to the public in the beginning, I mean, Backstreet bedsheets!!? They put our ages, birth signs, and dates, and favorite hobbies in our debut cd covers, what was up with that?! We were marketed from the beginning as a boy band to teeny-boppers, and I didn't realize." He looked at Sarah. "But I have no regrets, none. I'm not going to lie, I like the music we're singing, but the next album….it'll be more mature." His eyes scanned the arena, and he smiled, "I've never actually told anyone all that before." He said to her, "Thanks for putting up with my babblings."
"Kevin, I am willing to put up with a lot of your babblings." Sarah grinned, then looked at her watch. "But……I'm really sorry, I gotta get back to the hotel, you know, start packing."
"Ok, I'll walk you to the car." Kevin picked himself up off the stage, and helped Sarah up too.
Once they had gotten to the car, Kevin kissed her "I'll see you later ok?" The look in his eyes was soft, and he leaned into the car. "I love you…….and I am so happy you are moving in with me……our plane leaves tomorrow, and then...." He smiled "We'll be home." Sarah smiled back at him.
"Think of me when you're on stage."
"I always do."
Sarah was back at the apartment, folding clothes into her suitcase, and singing along with her Total CD, which was at full blast. "She's no...competition, so tell herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr." Sarah sang into a mirror, while throwing flair jeans into her bag. Just then the phone rang. Smacking the pause button on the CD player, she grabbed the phone.
"Hello?" she said in to the telephone.
"Hello....is this Sarah?"
"Yes this is her, who is this?"
"You're dating Kevin, aren't you?" Sarah was silent. "Listen to me, you bitch, Kevin is mine, and he has been FOREVER!!! So keep your hands off him!!" Sarah sucked in her breath.
"Who is this?!!" Sarah screamed.
"You don't need to know that." The voice said. "All you need to know is that you'd better watch your back, you're not safe all the time you know." Then Sarah heard the phone click, and a dialtone.
Suddenly Sarah's world turned upside down. She knew that the phone call had probably been made by some hysterical teeny-bopper who had seen the press conference and was upset, but Sarah had never been so scared in her life. She slammed the phone down, and locked the door to the hotel penthouse. Then she locked herself in the bedroom. Huddling on the bed, crying, Sarah took a minute to once again breathe in the traces of Kevin's cologne on his shirt, it made her feel a little safer. Then she called Kevin on his cell phone for the second time that day. Once he answered, Sarah started to babble her whole story.
"WHAT!!" Kevin yelled. "You were just threatened! DAMN!!! Sarah, I am so sorry, I never should of told, I..."
"Kevin, it's ok, it's ok, I'm just really scared and I know I shouldn't be."
"Sarah, I can't get there....I can't get to the hotel, there are already mobs of fans everywhere, I can't get out of here. Oh god, I wanna be with you now, I mean...I can feel how scared you are, but DAMN! Just sit there, I'm sending security to the hotel, ok?"
"Ok." Sarah whispered "I love you."
"I love you too baby."
Sarah finished that day in terror. After she had finished packing, the security guards showed up. Two sat just outside the door, and one stayed inside with Sarah. Sarah went to bed early, at 9:00, and didn't feel a thing when Kevin came in at 1:00 a.m., and kissed the tears on her face, that still fell from her eyes, even as she slept.