A Day in the Life Of (Day 13) Montreal - Halifax
Once again, Chris stood in the front of the room, holding a television remote. "Here we go guys, it's episode two." She dimmed the lights, pressed play, and let them watch.
Kevin's voice from his confession filled the room, talking about how naturally he fell into the father role. Cut to him and Nick talking late at night, Kevin offering what was clearly romance advice, Nick grabbing him in a tight hug.
Clips were edited together, one after another, of Kevin giving advice, showing Chris the dance steps at rehearsal, pulling apart AJ and Nick from fighting, all strung together with the confessional talks, Brian, AJ, Nick all telling how much they loved and needed Kevin.
The segment finished with Kevin talking about Kristen, and how he hoped that he'd made the right decision in doing the show.
From there the show got lighthearted. Julia's sign and the resulting chase were on, with Kevin talking about the incident afterwards; Chris learning, and finally performing the dance for the first time.
The show ended with Nick and Chris tucked into bed and wishing each other goodnight.
Chris turned the lights back on. "Acceptable?"
Kevin looked up with tears in his eyes. "That was wonderful." He hugged her, then proceeded to hug all of the guys in the room. "I never really knew you guys felt that way.."
"I love you, man!" AJ said in his best drunken love proclamation, smacking Kevin on the back. "Gimme pen."
Chris handed the pens and paper out, and the group signed their releases. "Thanks."
Howie hugged Chris, "Thanks for not showing it."
Chris looked at him, confused. "I don't watch the footage Howie, what happened?"
"Oh." He pulled away, quickly. "Nothing, I should go change for the show."
"Howie?" Chris called after him, but he left. "I wish I knew what was wrong," she muttered to nobody in particular.
"That's just the way Howie deals with stuff," Brian explained, helping her collect the papers. "Alone. It's nothing personal."
"I'm not taking it personally, I just hope he's ok."
"He's D, he'll be fine." AJ smacked her rear. "Ready to rock the house, baby doll?"
Chris smacked him back, hard. "Yeah, you horndog."
Nick hooted, flicking AJ's hat off of his head. "Horndog, now there's a new one."
"Shaddup, you beautiful boy, you," AJ reached up to squeeze Nick's face and Nick took off down the hall to get away.
The show went without incident, and the crew headed back to the hotel for their last night in Canada.
********************************************
A Day in the Life Of.. Day 44 (Boston)
The group quickly settled into a routine. Between the road trips and shows, as promised, one city quickly began to blur into another. Chris had begun spending road trips on the production truck working when she wasn't filming confessions, and the strain of being on the road was starting to get to everyone. Nick and Chris would spend a few nights every week together, as would Julia and AJ, but both women swore nothing was going on. The show continued to be a huge success, pulling in the best ratings in its 2 months of any previous series on MTV.
The week before, Howie had finally broken down in his confession, sobbing into his hands as he told Chris about his sister, and his nightmares. The week's episode had focused on Howie and his grief, and not a dry eye was to be found when the show was over. It had also gathered the best ratings of the series so far, and MTV was prompted to establish a fund for lupus on the spot, something that Howie appreciated.
Chris' weekly Internet searches had gotten strange, as the fan sites began posting more and more about her, and specifically, her relationship with Nick. Some sites thought she was an evil old woman out to steal his heart (no...not that..). Some thought she was just being a really good friend (which she thought she was). Others thought they were both madly in love with each other and should do the nasty immediately (no, not that either). The same was being said about Julia, of course, but Chris' regular appearances sleeping with Nick on the show, and dancing suggestively with him during the concerts had made fans suspicious. It was definitely strange, reading about her personal life on websites.
Before anyone realized it, the end of October was upon them, and it was Halloween. They hadn't gone out as a group in a long time, and all were determined to have a great time. They would be in Boston, a fun city, on a night where they were supposed to hide their faces. Chris and Julia had agreed to come, and nothing was going to stand in their way.
"I was thinking as going as Shaft." AJ slicked his hair back in the mirror. The group was sprawled around couches and chairs in AJ's room, Nick flipping channels on the TV, Chris scanning a magazine for costume inspiration.
"AJ, you're white." Julia threw a pillow at him.
AJ tackled Julia and sent her to the floor, shoving the pillow in her face. "You can be Diana Ross, we'll be a team."
"It would be cool to find something that we could all go as." Brian threw a pillow at AJ and Julia wrestling on the floor. "Get a room, you two."
AJ got off of Julia and stood up, adjusting his pants. "I could use a cigarette now..."
"I can truly call that the worst sex I've ever had." Julia reclaimed her place on the bed, laughing.
"What if we went as the Endless?" Chris exclaimed. "There are 7, right?"
Nick jumped at the thought. "That would be great!"
Everyone else sat clueless. "Chris, we don't all read the shit you and Nicky do, please explain?" Julia finally asked.
"The Endless, from the Sandman. It's amazing series of comics. The family who controls us...oh, you know, Dream, Death, Destiny, Destruction, Despair, Desire, Delirium." Chris explained. "They're all related, and they each control that element of the universe."
"I wanna be Dream." Nick grinned. "I want to wear that cloak.."
"Kevin has the coloring for it." Chris thought out loud. "Think seriously, Nicky, who would best fit as what."
Nick looked at Chris. "You should be Death, and Julia Delirium, since she's shorter than you."
Chris nodded, "That's easy enough. Kevin as Dream, you...with your height, you should be Destruction."
"I barely remember him, he wasn't in the comic for long."
"All I remember is that he looked like the Jolly Green Giant." Chris turned to AJ. "Desire, no question. You probably even already have the perfect suit for it. One thing, Bone, Desire's sexless."
"What?" AJ glared at Chris. "I'm a man, baby, don't try to change that.."
Chris laughed and calmed AJ down. "All I mean, is certain elements have a gender attached to them. Others don't. Death is feminine, as is Delirium. Desire knows no gender. Get it?"
"Aaah, yeah, I get it."
"Now who's left." Chris looked at Brian. "Destiny?"
"What's he look like?" Brian asked.
"Sean Connery, walks around with a tablet chained to his arm. You'd wear a toga type thing, cloak over your face."
"I'm in."
Nick looked at Howie. "Despair."
Howie snorted. "Appropriate. What's my costume?"
"Sumo wrestler." Nick stated.
"This is going to be a lovely night, kids." Howie sighed. "Just get me really drunk, really quick, ok?"
********************************************************************
After the show, the crew ran back to the hotel to quickly change into their costumes for the night. Chris and Julia both had to put temporary dye in their hair, so they'd left earlier to get ready. One by one, the Endless Family gathered in AJ's room for the night.
"Look at you, Bone!" True to form, Bone was Desire. Hair slicked back, Nick's wireframe glasses hanging on his nose, pink armani suit, wingtip shoes, white button down shirt underneath...fully buttoned, which had to be a first for AJ. Julia had even gotten him to shave off his goatee. Black lipstick and black eyeliner (carefully applied by Julia) finished the outfit.
"Call me Desire," AJ purred to Chris, and stepped aside to let her into the room. As she passed, he looked her up and down. "Not a bad look yourself."
Chris rather liked her outfit. To do the perfect 'death' look, she had on a pair of tight black jeans (she'd actually borrowed a pair of Julia's to make sure they were skintight) with a heavy black silver belt, a loose black tank top that ended an inch or two above her belly button, showing just a teensy bit of skin, and a black fedora. Her hair had been dyed black, and her makeup, expertly applied by Julia, was the image of Death in the comic, pure white skin, black eyeliner and shadow with the curl around her eye, black lipstick. The bright blue eyes sticking out from the pale skin wasn't part of the Death look, but what could you do. A large silver ankh on a leather string around her neck and a silver tipped cane completed the look. "I always wanted to be Death for Halloween." She smiled.
"I feel like I need a piece of corn," Nick grumbled. He was done up in a pair of overalls, with one button hanging off, a flannel short sleeved shirt hanging out underneath. He'd had dirt drawn onto his face, and a little bit of eyeliner could be seen on his face if you looked closely. Ratty sandals and messy hair, all in the name of Destruction.
"Don't worry little brother, all will be fine." Chris laughed. Earlier that day Nick had started it, referring to the others in the gang as either big or little brother or sister, depending on their ranking in the Endless. The way it worked out for them, was with Brian as the oldest, followed by Chris, then Nick, then Kevin, AJ, Howie, all brought up by baby sister Julia. They were having fun, over the last two months they'd come to feel like a family, and were enjoying acting as one. And Nick was enjoying calling Kevin 'little brother.'
Kevin blew into the room, his head covered by his black cloak. "I feel like Dracula." His voice came muffled, from within the layers of clothing.
"Drop the coat, lemme see!" AJ jumped up to get a look at the makeup job Julia had done on Kevin. It wasn't so bad, his skin was as white as Chris', and his eyes had been lined to make them appear dark and sunken. The result was a very intimidating, very sexy looking Kevin. Julia had emphasized the need for makeup on all of the guys, since they were determined not to be recognized tonight.
"Wow Kev, the vampire look suits you well." Chris watched Brian try to make his way into the room, toga falling down around his knees. "You need some safety pins?"
Brian grabbed the folds of fabric before they hit the floor. "Yeah, like 50. This thing just won't stay up."
"Who put this on you?" Laughing at the way the cloth had been wrapped, mummy-style, around Brian, Chris began unraveling him to fix the mess.
"Howie the sumo boy, he's on his way as soon as he adjusts his loincloth." Brian snickered.
"I heard that." Howie, loincloth intact, strutted into the room. "I saw the pics in your comic Nicky, I don't exactly look the part."
"It's the thought that counts," Nick adjusted his overalls again. "At least you don't look like a hick."
"Hey, Brian might take offense to that." Chris couldn't help but crack as she continued fixing Brian's toga.
"Are you calling me a hick?"
"Do you really want to ask that when I'm holding an open safety pin to your crotch?" Chris looked up at Brian from where she was knelt at his side.
"She's got a point, B." AJ opened his mini-bar and closed it for the tenth time in the last hour. "This thing's empty, we ready to cruise?"
Julia joined them in the hallway, having finally finished her own makeup. Delirium was the most 'loose in form' of the Endless, meaning, her look, colors, etc. was always changing. Julia had dyed her hair pink, green and yellow in uneven streaks, and was wearing a badly shredded purple slip dress with torn black fishnet stockings, and two different colors of old converse hi-tops. She was carrying a stick with a fish drawn in yellow and green crayon taped to the tip. "Brothers and sisters!" She called in greeting, hugging Howie. "Damn D, a loincloth. Someone's getting lucky tonight."
Howie laughed and pushed Julia off. "This isn't exactly my idea of an attractive outfit."
Rounding up the bodyguards, the group jumped in cabs and went to Gillians, a club/game room/pool hall/bar that was having a Halloween blow out. Once inside, they immediately headed for the bar. AJ ran off to get them a round, while Julia and Chris checked out the place.
"This looks cool." Julia was looking at the games they had listed downstairs. There was a Haunted House, some kind of obstacle course, looked like fun.
"I want to play pool later." Chris pointed towards the tables. "I haven't played pool in AGES."
"Your best friend meeting us?"
Chris' best friend lived in Boston, and all of a 5 minute walk from Gillians. Being on the road had been hard for them as friends, they had communicated solely by e-mail for the last few months and were dying for a face to face visit. "Yup, she said she'd be here before 11."
An hour later, Chris was shaking it up on the dance floor with Nick and AJ, 2 cosmos down, and not feeling any pain.
"CHRIS!" A shriek made her look up.
"LISA!" Chris ran across the dance floor and grabbed her best friend in a bear hug.
"AJ!" Nick screamed at his friend in imitation of the girls.
"NICK!" The two hugged like long lost friends.
"Very funny." Chris led her friend over to their table, where Nick and AJ joined them. "This is my best friend in the whooole wide world." Chris had been introducing Lisa that way since they were 12, it was far too late to stop now. She introduced each of the guys to her, giving quick warnings about each guy in turn, AJ: watch out for his hands, Kevin: don't ask his advice unless you REALLY want his advice, and so on.
Chris and Lisa grabbed their drinks and headed off to wander the club, and catch up. "My god Chris, you didn't mention to me that you were traveling with 5 guys who looked like that." Lisa chided her friend.
"You knew full well what they looked like, Li, they're on tv all the time. You've even seen my show!"
"But they're different in person." Lisa waved at the bartender as they walked by. "And Nick looks much younger on camera, for some reason. He acts younger."
"Nick's....not as young as everyone likes to think he is." Chris said softly.
"You too?"
"Don't you start in on me and Nick too." Chris stopped to admire Howie, who was dancing up a storm with a beautiful redhead on the dance floor. "I hear enough from Julia every day."
"Oh? And what does Julia tell you?" Now Lisa was interested.
"Nothing important. There's nothing going on."
"You two do look awfully comfy sleeping together on the show."
"We're both just lonely. I've been single a really long time."
"Mark was an asshole, you should just get over him and move on." Lisa shrugged. She never had a problem moving from one man to another, it was staying with one man she found difficult.
"I am over him. I just haven't met anyone, that's all."
"What about Nick, then? The series has to end eventually. Even if you can't have him now, what's stopping you then?" Lisa pointed out, always the voice of reason in Chris' life.
"For one, he's like a little brother to me, and I'm pretty sure he sees me as a sister. He's an extremely good looking guy, Li, I'm not immune, but I love him as a member of my family."
"You never know Chris, keep your options open."
"Yeah, right." Chris raised her empty glass. "Let's go get some more liquor."
2 hours later, Chris was amazed she was still standing. She was having some difficulty speaking, and hanging over whatever body was nearest to her in order to remain standing, but all in all she was ok. At the moment, clinging to Nick as they swayed to a slow song playing in the club. Nick was as drunk as her, if not worse, his hands constantly finding their way to places they shouldn't be on her, his lips continually brushing over her neck and hair. It was insanely pleasurable, and an experience she didn't want to end. She just leaned into his embrace and hoped the song would never end, his arms tight around her, holding her safe.
"We're gonna go do the Haunted House." AJ's face suddenly in hers, breath heavy with liquor. Trance broken.
"Oh," Chris pulled away from Nick, stumbling slightly and grabbing onto him for support. "Ok."
Downstairs, the Haunted House took up half the club. In pairs of two, they would be sent into the dark, left to feel their way through the maze.
"You sure we wanna do this?" Nick whispered in her ear, holding her hand tight. "I get spooked easy, and we're both kinda blitzed."
"I'm Death, you're Destruction, what can go wrong, little brother." Chris giggled.
AJ and Julia went in first, followed by Kevin and Lisa. When it came Chris and Nick's turn, once again he asked her, "you sure we wanna do this?"
"It'll be fun Nick." She kissed his cheek quickly and led him into the dark.
Nick immediately bumped into her as the darkness surrounded them, his arms going out to keep her from falling. "Sorry."
"That's ok." She laughed, and felt around them. "I think the wall's going this way." One hand out in front of her, the other holding Nick's hand tight, they made their way through the darkness. It was strange, not being able to see her hand in front of her face, relying solely on touch and the sound of Nick's voice for guidance. As a New Yorker, total darkness was something unfamiliar to her. Lights are always coming from somewhere, even at night. She carefully felt her way through the hall, hand pressed to the wall. Until...
With a roar, a cabinet opened in front of them and a skeleton popped out. Chris and Nick both jumped, grabbing onto each other, then laughing at the stupid gag. "Cute."
They continued along, confident they could handle some more skeletons, which they did, like old pro's. The next room didn't have a floor. Well, it did, but it felt like it was full of those balls at amusement parks. Chris and Nick rolled around in the plastic balls, amazed how hard it could be to move through them when drunk. Chris lobbed a ball in the air, laughing when she heard a resounding thud followed by an "ow." A ball bounced off her head, and she grabbed a handful, "You know I used to play softball, Nicky boy?" She threw them in the direction of the last toss, and heard a few hit her mark. Sitting in the balls, she tossed them up in the air until she realized she was no longer hearing Nick around her. "Nicky?"
Nothing.
"Nick?"
She threw a few balls around her. She'd lost her sense of direction entirely and had no idea which way they were supposed to be walking. "This isn't funny."
She heard a ball roll around behind her, and threw a ball in that direction. She was starting to get a creeped out,. "Come on, Nick."
A pair of arms came around her and picked her up, lifting her out of the balls and into a warm hug. "I'd never leave you, Chrissy."
"Better not." She hugged him tight,
They finally emerged into another room, still pitch black, and stopped for a moment to collect themselves
"You think we're almost done?" Nick spoke into her hair, his breath on her neck.
Chris couldn't stop the shiver that went down her spine, and her body instinctively tightened next to his. "Dunno."
He put his hand on her back, steadying her, leaning her against his body for support. "You realize we're in here without the cameras?"
Chris squeezed his hand. She honestly hadn't realized they'd left the cameras outside. "Guess they couldn't fit through here. But, all the more reason for us to get out of here, we're not supposed to be off camera."
"It's nice, though." Nick's arms went around her, pulling her close.
"Yeah, it is." She hugged him back, wondering if it was possible for him to have grown even larger in the 2 months she had known him. He was so strong, a basketball player's body...she didn't remember him being this strong.. "Let's keep going." She continued down the hall, one arm in front of her. "I think this is a slide?" It looked like there was no floor in the next room.
"Let's see.."
They both stepped into the next room and found themselves tumbling through the darkness. They landed on a soft cushion at the bottom, Nick on top of Chris, his body engulfing hers. "You ok?" He asked softly, not moving.
"Yeah," She was acutely aware of every inch of her body, and how much of it was touching Nick. She could feel his big hands moving around her face, touching her lips, through her hair, down her side, oh god what was he doing...she couldn't see him, had no way of knowing what expression was on his face. She could just feel his hands...hear him breathing...his hands moving over her hips, tracing her belt buckle...a gasp from Nick when he touched her bare skin on her stomach, his lips brushing her neck. She could feel the heat welling up between her legs, and when she unconsciously jerked her hips up into him, she could feel his excitement too.
He groaned and buried his head in her shoulder, pressing his pelvis into hers, his hand slipping under her tank to cup her breast. "You drive me crazy, Chrissy," he whispered before capturing her lips with hers, kissing her softer than she'd ever thought possible.
Her body melted with his kiss, their lips touching so tenderly, so sweetly. His tongue reached out to hers, flicking into her mouth, across her teeth, sending lightning bolts through her body. "Oh god," she pushed him off. "Nicky, we can't do this."
She couldn't see him in the dark, but she could hear his labored breathing. "Nick...where are you," she reached out a hand to him.
"Come on," his voice came from above. He pulled her up, and hugged her close. "I shouldn't drink and be left alone with you. Can't trust myself." His slurred joke didn't mask the hurt underneath, and Chris' heart broke.
"Nicky..." She squeezed his hand, trying to find his face in the darkness, realizing at that moment exactly how much she relied on his eyes to tell her what he was feeling. Without that window, she felt blind.
"Don't." A sniffle. "Just please...don't," his hand left hers for a minute, and returned, wet. Were those tears?? "We must be almost done." They made their way through the rest of the maze without incident, and emerged to find an ecstatic AJ and Julia receiving a prize for the best time through the Haunted House.
"Here they come," AJ looked up when he saw the two stragglers emerge. "We were getting ready to send a rescue team in."
Chris, still holding Nick's hand, tried to look him in the eyes, but he refused to meet her gaze.
"Was fun," he mumbled, staring at the floor. "We gonna leave soon?" He looked at Kevin.
Kevin knew when he was being asked a favor. "Yeah, I think it's time to go."
Nick excused himself to the bathroom before they left, but not fast enough to keep everyone from noticing the black lipstick on his lips, and the white makeup smudged on his face. AJ was going to comment, but a glare from Kevin shut him up before he could get a word out. Kevin knew how to read Nick, and knew that sometimes they were better off just leaving him alone.
Chris ended up going back with Lisa to her apartment, thankful for the night in a real bed. Once they were settled in PJ's with diet coke and sprite accordingly, Lisa looked at her friend closely.
"Now are you going to tell me what's really going on with Nick? I know you too well, you can't pretend to me nothing's going on forever. Something happened in that Haunted House."
Chris looked at her best friend, opened her mouth to speak, and burst into tears.
"Oh jesus," Lisa hugged her friend close, "What has this kid done to you?"
Chris just cried her eyes out. She hadn't shed a tear in a very long time, not since Mark left, if she'd even cried then. Crying just wasn't her thing. And she certainly didn't consider what had happened to her at that first concert crying. Just a strange emotional moment. This was definitely crying though, she held Lisa like the world was ending and sobbed into her shoulder, not sure exactly where all the emotion was coming from. After what felt like hours, she finally regained control of herself and pulled away, grabbing some more tissues and wiping her eyes.
"Chris?" Lisa handed her a cigarette consolingly.
"Yeah." She accepted the smoke and took a deep drag.
"This is about Nick?"
Chris shook her head. "I don't think so. I mean, yeah, I think Nick set something off inside of me, but I don't think it's about him."
"What happened in the Haunted House?"
"I don't know." Chris examined her cigarette closely for answers. "I mean, I know what happened, but I don't know...."
"You going to tell me?"
"He kissed me." Chris looked at her friend. "But it wasn't just a kiss. The whole night we'd been all over each other..."
"I'd noticed." Lisa added wryly.
"It was just really nice, Li, you have no idea how lonely it is, being in a new city every day. So then we go into the Haunted House, and it was so dark in there."
"Kevin was great, he held my hand the whole way through." Lisa remembered.
"Nick held my hand, and my back, and picked me up once, even. Then we went down the slide and he landed on top of me. And it was just, I dunno, he was overwhelming. It was like his hands were everywhere."
"So he kissed you."
"Yeah. But it wasn't even just the kiss, he was just so gentle, so soft, so..."
"..loving." Lisa finished.
Chris shot a look at her friend and continued, ignoring the comment. "He couldn't have kissed me for more than a few seconds before I pulled away. But it had to have been the best kiss of my life."
"What happened when you pulled away?"
"That's what I don't know. He stood up, helped me up, and we left. But I thought I heard him sniff, and his hand was wet, I think with tears. I didn't want to make Nicky cry, Li..." she felt the tears well up in her eyes again.
"Just say it." Lisa looked at her friend, knowing exactly what she had to say.
"Say what?"
"You love him."
"Of course I do," Chris reached for another cigarette. "Forgive me if I chain smoke, I need it. I love all of the guys, they're like a family to me. For another 7 months, they ARE my family."
"Chris, don't fool yourself, you'll only end up getting hurt." Lisa frowned. "What happens when the 7 months are over?"
Chris looked at Lisa, dumbstruck. She hadn't thought about that. For the last 2 months, every moment of her life had been consumed by the Backstreet Boys. Nick, AJ, Kevin, Brian, Howie. Julia, the crews and security as well, of course, but she couldn't imagine her and Julia returning to MTV and leaving the guys behind. "I don't know..."
"You're going to pitch Biography to MTV, remember??"
Chris blinked. Her show. Her dream. She hadn't thought about it in months. Jesus, what were the Backstreet Boys doing to her? "Yeah."
"With the success of this show, Chris, you know they'll have to let you do it. You'll be writing your own ticket back in New York."
"Yeah."
"And the Backstreet Boys will go back into the studio, or back on tour, and things will go back to normal. Just a little 9 month adventure in your life."
Chris nodded, tears threatening to spill over again.
"Oh, sweetie, please, for your heart's sake, don't fall in love with Nick Carter. You'll only end up getting your heart broken."
"I know. I'm not." She said firmly. "They're family to me. All of them. I just can't imagine life without them right now, that's all."
****************************************************
A Day in the Life Of.. Day 45 (Boston)
Lisa and Chris slept late. There was no concert that night, the only thing scheduled for the day was a radio interview Chris figured she didn't need to be there for, and Lisa called in sick to work. When they finally awoke, they made a huge pot of coffee, and poured it into travel mugs so they could hit the town.
"You'd be surprised how much I miss fresh air." Chris took a deep breath as they walked along the Freedom Trail. "I feel like my entire life is spent in hotel rooms, airplanes and tour busses."
Lisa grinned. "What's the tour bus like? You always hear stories about rock stars and their bus."
Chris laughed. "I've actually only been in the guys' bus once for a short trip somewhere, short in our world being 2 or 3 hours. It's ok, it's a bus, and there are 5 of them, so it can't be luxury. There are bunks, a tv, microwave, bathroom...if Nick's been around, a mess somewhere..." her smile disappeared when she mentioned his name. "Oh god, Nick. I wasn't even thinking about his feelings last night...do you think he hates me now?"
"You said he told you he was just too drunk, right?"
"Yeah."
"That's his out, Chris. That's all the explanation you're going to get, I think." Lisa pointed towards a billboard advertising the series. "Unless he talked about it."
Chris cringed. "That would be awful."
"Why? You can put their personal lives on TV, but you can't take it yourself?" Lisa had always had a slight problem with the concept of the series, feeling that it was exploitative and went too far. The Howie episode in particular had struck her as nothing more than capitalizing on someone's grief.
Chris stared at her friend. "I never intended to become part of the story."
"Stop sleeping with Nick then." Lisa spat out. "You're not a teenager, you know better."
"We're friends, let's drop the subject."
"Bullshit. You don't keep mentioning his name at every possibility because you love him just like you do the other guys. There are 4 of them, right? I believe you've only really told me about Nick."
"I was telling you about AJ this morning," Chris insisted.
"Right, before you got sidetracked on some Nick story." Lisa shook her head. "Look, you're my best friend, and I'll support you in whatever you do. But this whole Nick situation is dangerous. He's a 20 year old superstar. You said it yourself in your first episode, he's not just a normal guy."
"But he is..."
"Chris," Lisa steered her towards a record store window, where they could see some girls inside holding up Backstreet Boys videos. "Ask those girls who they dream of at night."
"That means nothing. It's not his fault he's famous."
"Oh please," she snickered. "Don't give me the poor little rich kid crap. He's young, but he's no child."
Chris turned away from the store and faced her friend. "I can't explain it. But Nick's...I've never met anyone like him before. Simultaneously a child and a man."
"Poetry's next, I know it." Lisa groaned. "You got it bad, girl, but if you're not gonna admit it, at least remember my phone number when everything goes to shit."
Chris rolled her eyes and cringed as the girls coming out of the store recognized her and flocked to her for autographs. This had been happening to her more and more, and she saw Elaine out of the corner of her eye watching the girls closely.
Autographs signed, Lisa and Chris headed to a salon to meet Julia for a fun, girly day. The trio got facials, manicures and massages, and ended the day with a great dinner at the restaurant on top of the Prudential Center. Toasting each other with wine, the city spread out below them, they felt on top of the world.
"I can't thank you guys enough for today, I needed it so badly." Chris sipped her wine, looking out at the lights of Boston. "Needed to feel human again."
Julia nodded. "I don't know how I'd gotten so detached from everything. I think you're right though, Chris, I need to stop spending so much time with AJ."
"Really?" Chris looked at her, surprised. She certainly didn't expect to hear that.
"Yeah. Our little trips to the bathroom...I think they're starting to get to me."
"Little trips to the bathroom?" Chris asked, confused.
Julia looked at her curiously. "The bathroom. Without the cameras...you and Nicky have been doing it too?"
"Doing what?" Chris stared at her friend, eyes wide.
"You haven't been?" Julia exclaimed. "He's all over you like that and...wow."
"Wait." Chris held her hands up. "Back up, exactly WHAT are you and AJ doing in the bathroom?"
Julia sighed. "Taking care of each other, he calls it."
"You disappear into the bathroom to have sex? How romantic." Lisa snorted.
"Not sex, that's cheating." Julia shook her head. "I'll blow him, he'll go down on me, ya know. Taking care of each other."
"Oh sheesh, Julia, I had no idea you two were...for how long!" Chris couldn't hide her surprise. "And how could you just assume I'd know?"
"I honestly thought you and Nick were doing the same thing!" Julia insisted. "You guys are closer than me and AJ, even, I figured you had to be doing SOMETHING."
"Nothing." Chris shook her head. "And, jesus, what on earth are you doing with AJ?"
"I don't know anymore." Julia refilled everyone's wine glass. "It used to be fun. Now I'm starting to feel, I dunno..."
"Cheap?" Lisa offered. "Sorry Julia, I know I just met you today, and you seem like a really nice person. But you can't let him use you like that, you deserve better."
"It was better than nothing." Julia said softly. "Not like we've been meeting any new people, security everywhere we go is locked down so tight we already know everyone around us."
"I know the feeling Jules, but you do deserve better. I thought better of AJ too."
"Amanda's flying in tomorrow," her voice barely audible. "I haven't seen her since AJ and I started..."
"How long have you too been doing this?"
"A month, maybe a little more? Not long." Julia finished off her wine. "It's over, though. I can't do it anymore, it all feels so mechanical now."
"Good, it's not healthy for either of you to do that." Chris hugged her friend. "Jules, I wish you'd told me."
"I'll talk to AJ when Amanda leaves, let him know it's over."
"Have that talk in the bathroom, would you?" Chris offered.
Julia laughed. "Yeah. Don't need that footage either."
"So the bathroom's the place to hide, huh?"
Julia nodded. "All of the guys have taken to disappearing into the bathroom for some time every once in a while. We figure they're in there jerking off, or whatever."
Chris shook her head. "Lovely. Well, at least they still have that private."
Lisa looked at both women, disgusted. "I can't believe you two are willingly doing this to guys you claim to care about."
"They wanted to do it, Li."
"Still strikes me as wrong. No man should have to hide out in the bathroom just so he can take care of himself."
"It's only for 7 more months."
Julia added, "7 long months."
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