"Got a minute?" Kevin knocked on the door of the production truck, oblivious to the screams his presence had caused in the parking lot behind him.
Chris poked her head out, saw Kevin, the girls. "Yeah, but we should go inside the hotel." They quickly made their way through the lobby of the hotel, and up to Chris' room without incident. Closing her room door behind them, she flipped on the lights and pointed to a chair. "What's up?"
"I got another one of those interesting propositions for you." He smiled.
"Another song?? I dunno Kev, I'm not a dancer, I feel PAIN after moving around like that for too long."
Kevin laughed, "you are not in that bad of a shape."
"Yeah, well...it still hurts." She grinned. "So what's this proposition?"
"Jive has decided to release Don't Want You Back as a single. Which means we need to shoot a video. The concept for the song has gone over so well on stage, we want to make it into the video."
"I don't think 5 guys standing on top of me for a video would work so well, Kev. Not to mention, it'd be really obvious how much I can't dance."
"That's where you're so wrong, Chris." He chuckled. "They cut away from you at the right moment with the camera, looks like you're an amazing dancer. As for the video, they're storyboarding it now. We'll shoot it in LA on Friday. Will you do it?"
"We have a concert Thursday night, don't we?"
"We'll take the red eye out. The no sleep thing, remember?"
"Aah, yeah, I'd forgotten, silly me."
"You'll do it?"
"Of course I'll do it." Chris hugged Kevin. "I've always wondered what video shoots were like, lip-synching the same song over and over and over again..."
"Chris, this is a Backstreet video shoot."
"Meaning?"
"We sing."
********************************************************************
Day in the Life Of.. (Day 77) DeMoines - Los Angeles - DeMoines
Chris watched the guys move around for the cameras, thinking Kevin was exaggerating when he called this singing. The guys sang the song, alright, but in every possible accent and voice imaginable. She was amazed they were able to do it with straight faces. A come hither look into the camera from Nick as he sings "...another victim of your sexuality," in his best Donald Duck voice.
"Don't worry, we're getting it." Julia whispered before she could ask. "Did you know they did this on video shoots?"
"They didn't do it in the making-of video's I've seen! I doubt anybody knew, Jules....this is a bit," she pauses to hear AJ's "You started going out with so-called friends," as sung by Frank Sinatra, "strange."
"To say the least." Julia laughed. "So when do you go?"
"I'm going into makeup and wardrobe in ten minutes."
Whoever was in charge of writing the video (who did that sort of thing anyway, Chris wondered) had decided to have some fun with it. The result was a storyline, from beginning to end, of a relationship between a girl and a guy. The relationship ends, of course, with all of the guys telling off said girl. The girl was Chris, of course. The guy, and here's where Chris just knew the writer was having fun, was Nick. And they'd scripted not only a "passionate first kiss," but a scene where the two were to "make out and frolic in a pool"' Chris hated the idea. She thought it was boring, typical and cheap, but the guys all seemed to like it, so she kept her mouth shut.
She emerged from wardrobe the image of a high school student. Cheerleader's uniform, pom poms, mary janes, hair in pigtails. And the finishing touch, a varsity jacket. Reading "Nick Carter," on the back, of course. She frowned and tried to pull the skirt down.
Nick couldn't stop from laughing when he saw Chris. "You look like you're Aaron's age."
"This is your varsity jacket, though." Chris pointed. "Nice touch, right?"
"What sport?" Nick spun her around until he found the emblem. "Football? They put me in a FOOTBALL jacket?"
"Frack, relax, it's ok, Chris can still cheer at the basketball games if she's wearing a football jacket." Brian cracked.
"Very funny, Frick. It's just, you know."
"Right. They told me to tell you it's your turn."
"My turn?"
"Wardrobe."
"I thought I was wearing this?" Nick gestured to the flannel shirt and navy pants he was currently wearing.
"You wore those in the last shot, genius."
"Can I request that they put Nick in those tight football pants?" Chris laughed.
"Do cheerleaders wear anything under those skirts?" Nick bent down to take a look, and Chris jumped into the air. "Ooh, she's doing a cheer for me!"
Chris smacked Nick. "Get into wardrobe."
"Yes, mom." Head down, he trudged off without a look back.
Brian watched him walk away. "You two are great together."
"Not as great as Frick and Frack," she joked in reply, not knowing how to take Brian's comment.
"Chrissy, you can marry Nick and you won't touch Frick and Frack. But good just the same." He smiled.
"Cheerleaders didn't look like this when I was in high school," Howie came over and looked her up and down. "You look adorable."
Chris was thankful for the interruption, she didn't know what Brian had been getting at. She didn't know if she wanted to know either. "Just how a grown woman wants to look. Adorable."
"Baby, you sure you don't want to roll around in bed with me?" AJ pinched her rear, sneaking up on her.
"I've been pinned." Chris said meekly, pointing to her jacket.
"What!" AJ screamed in mock horror. He spun her around to read the back of her jacket, a high pitched scream when he read the name ."CARTER!"
"What?" Nick was tucking his shirt into his pants, the wardrobe room door still closing behind him, when AJ took him down. The two men went barreling to the floor, AJ screaming something about 'for Chrissy's honor,' Nick very confused.
Howie helped Nick up and brushed him off. "You wandered into the middle of an AJ moment."
"What happened?" Nick looked at AJ, still wondering if he'd done something wrong.
AJ laughed. "You pinned my girl."
"Here, just take it Bone, I can't take the heartbreak," laughing, Chris handed AJ the varsity jacket. She turned to face Nick and carefully looked him up and down. "No tight pants?"
Maybe not tight pants, but he still looked gorgeous. The blue jeans were tight enough in the right places, and there was something about the way the football jersey that made him look very big and masculine. "It's a video, Chris."
"Tight pants are good things, you know."
"And put my jacket back on." He grinned.
***********************************
Twelve hours later, the gang was on a flight out of LA, video shot. Everyone seemed pretty happy with it, and as much as Chris disliked the concept, she had to admit filming it had been a blast. Playing and goofing around with the guys was fun, and she hadn't been doing enough of that lately.
Chris was staring out the window on the plane, snuggled up in the varsity football jacket the wardrobe people had let her keep ("after all, what use are we going to have for a 'Nick Carter' football jacket"). It was a big, comfy jacket, and the perfect thing to keep her warm on cold plane rides. And all plane rides were cold, she was discovering. Shivering slightly, she pulled the jacket tighter around herself and tried to sleep.
"Chris," Julia was shaking her. "Wake up, phone call."
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, just Mike."
Chris groaned and took the phone from Julia. Only Mike would desperately need to talk at 4am on a Saturday morning when she was somewhere over the Midwest. "Morning."
"I hear you had a good shoot yesterday?"
"It was fun, yeah. It'll make a good episode as well, Mike, these guys are hysterical."
"I can't wait to see."
"So why are you calling?"
"As you know, Christmas is coming up. We, MTV, want to give the Backstreet Boys a really nice present, we feel like we owe it to them. The series is doing phenomenally, as you well know, and obviously we couldn't have done it without them."
"Ok.."
"My question to you is, what do they want?"
"What do they want?"
"Collectively speaking. What could we give them?"
Chris bit her lip and thought for a minute. "There's really only one thing I can think of that they all would want."
"What's that?"
"Time off camera."
A pause. "Ok, I'll see what I can do. Thanks Chris," and he hung up.
***********************************************************************
A Day in the Life Of..(Day 96) New York City
Chris couldn't be happier to be home. She'd gotten back to her apartment the night before, taken a three hour bath, made herself a cup of tea, and basically reacquainted herself with her home. It was strangely unfamiliar to her, having been away for 5 months. She was only home for 2 days now, but she intended to relax for as long as she was there.
Julia staggered into the apartment, her arms sagging under the brown bags. "I think I got everything you needed?"
Chris was having all the guys over for dinner that night. Despite Kevin's claim to a food poisoning phobia, she was cooking, and dammit, they were going to like it. Cooking was something she did for fun, as a relaxing hobby, and a home cooked meal seemed like the best way to thank her friends for the months they'd spent together so far. "Wonderful." She grabbed some bags from Julia and set them on the counter. "And the tickets?" MTV had come through in a big way, she couldn't wait to tell the guys about their Christmas present later.
Julia patted her pocket. "Got 'em. Now what can I do?"
The two women set to work. One very messy kitchen later, a full meal was eaten, and 5 very satisfied customers sat around Chris' dinner table, finishing off the wine.
"Who woulda thought you could cook," Kevin mused, swirling his wine in the glass.
"Thanks, Amazon." Chris threw her napkin at him.
"Almost as good as my mama's," Brian drawled in his thickest accent.
"I only said I would try." Chris grinned. She had tried to do a real southern dinner, with fried chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes, and gravy. Chris drained the last of the wine from her glass and stood up.
"Now?" She looked at Julia.
"Now."
"My turn for an announcement."
"OH MY GOD, SHE'S REALLY A MAN" Brian hollered.
"Thanks Brian. But no, not that," she continued. "You guys know what a hit the series has been, and how appreciative we all are that you have let us do this to you. In thanks, MTV has decided to give you all a Christmas present."
"Which is?" Nick looked at her, eyebrow raised.
"3 days off camera." She watched as all of their mouths dropped open. Then she added the icing on the cake. "On an island in the Caribbean."
"What?" Howie's eyes were wide.
"MTV has rented each of you (you meaning you and Leighanne, you and Kristen, you and Amanda)," she gestured, "a bungalow at this private resort on St. Maarten. You'll be totally alone, totally private, and camera free."
"Thank you so much," Kevin got up to hug her. "You're coming, right?"
Chris nodded. Much to her surpass, MTV had included her and Julia in the present, getting each of them a bungalow of their own as well. "Julia has all the paperwork on the place, it looks gorgeous."
"When?" Nick looked like the moment couldn't come fast enough.
"We leave January 21st." MTV had carefully picked the date for the trip. The guys would be working straight through the Christmas-New Year's stretch, and probably desperately in need of some down time by then. "It's all cleared with the Firm, all you gotta do is say yes."
"Does this mean I get to see you in a bikini?" AJ winked.
Chris laughed. "We'll see, Bone."
"Thank you so much, Chris, sounds like it'll be fun." Brian hugged her tight. "And Leighanne's gonna love you."
"Amanda too."
"And Kristen."
"Can I bring Claudia?" Howie's voice was quiet.
"Who?" The word was spoken by the group as one.
"This girl...I met her in Boston, remember at Gillians?"
"The redhead?" AJ never forgot a girl.
"Yeah, we've kept in touch, she's really cool."
"Damn D, she's hot!"
"Thanks."
"Of course you can, Howie."
"Just me." Nick said softly. "I don't have nobody to bring."
Chris hugged Nick. "I'll be there Nicky, so will Jules, we'll all be there. It'll be great."
"Yeah, just great." He muttered.
Aaah...the wisdom of the young....
**************************************************
A Day in the Life Of..(Day 97) New York City
"I love New York at Christmastime." Chris spun around in the snow, looking up at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. "There's no place else like it in the world."
"I hate New York. But it's not bad at Christmas..." Nick conceded grudgingly. Despite his claim to hate New York, he'd gleefully run all over the city and back again shopping with Chris, playing in the snow.
"Heart of stone, you." Chris hugged him tight. She LOVED Christmas. Always had since she was a kid. Christmas carols, giving presents to people, snow, reindeer, Santa, she ate it all up.
His arms wrapped around her, holding her tight. "Find me some mistletoe, I'll cheer up quick."
She kissed his cheek. "That's free." Grabbing his hand, she continued down 5th Avenue, cooing over store windows as only a woman can. A scream from next to her stopped her in her tracks, and she looked over to see a teenager staring at Nick, eyes wide. Chris ran over to the girl before she could scream again, "I bet you know who that is."
The girl nodded, tears running down her face.
"Want an autograph?"
The girl sniffled and nodded again, her eyes never leaving Nick.
Chris dug around in her bag and found a pen. "Now something to sign..." she rooted around some more and found her backstage pass from the show the night before. "This'll work." She handed it to Nick, and he signed like a good boy.
"There you go." She handed the backstage pass to the girl.
Chris was rewarded with a shrill scream from the girl, "OH MY GOD IT'S NICK CARTER."
"I think we'd better leave," Nick stepped to the curb and hailed a cab.
Sliding into the cab next to Nick, Chris couldn't help laughing.
"Why do you find that so amusing?" Nick didn't find it funny.
"I don't necessarily find the girls amusing. I find your reaction to them amusing." She tried to wipe the smile off her face, honestly she did, but Nick was still pouting, and he just looked so silly and cute.
"You're laughing at me."
"No, I'm not," she was trying to stop laughing, really, just he looked so cute when he got upset like this, it was adorable.
"I just don't like hearing girls scream."
Chris lost it, burst out laughing hysterically. "Most guys only dream of making a girl scream."
"Chris, you know what I mean.." but Nick was laughing too.
"You're a goof, you know that."
"And you're crazy."
"Like a fox, baby."
"Like a fox."
**************************************************
A Day in the Life Of.. Day 101 (Hartford)
Chris stood backstage at the concert, watching the guys dance around. In honor of Christmas, she was going to join them on stage at the end to sing a few carols to the crowd.
It certainly was the strangest Christmas she'd ever had. She'd never been particularly close to her family, but missing first Thanksgiving, and now Christmas was hard. She'd been on the phone with her little brother the majority of the day, but still missed her family terribly. She watched as the guys ran through the band introductions on stage, and Kevin began a speech about how wonderful Christmastime was, and how nice it was to be somewhere with snow. When Chris' name was called, she ran out, hugging and kissing each of the guys, running from the mistletoe AJ suddenly materialized.
Nick took center stage, and did his thank you's. Turning to Chris, he grinned. "We weren't sure which Christmas carols to sing for you all here tonight. There's one song we had to sing though, this little lady here tells me it's her favorite."
Chris looked at Nick, eyes wide. "The Christmas Song" was her favorite carol, and never failed to bring her to tears each season. Nat King Cole's version, of course, HAD to be, very soft, listened to in front of a fireplace with a mug of steaming cider. She discovered quickly that Nick Carter singing the song on stage, in a crowded arena in Hartford, CT, worked pretty damn well too. As tears filled her eyes, Nick held her hand and sang his heart out.
"Although it's been said, many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you."
***********************************************
Chapter 44
Later that night at the hotel the group exchanged Christmas presents, and sat around drinking egg nog, sharing Christmas memories. Everyone was emotional, being away from your family during the holidays was hard, despite the closeness of the people around you. As Nick said it so well, "they're family."
"I can't believe you got me a Playstation 2." Nick had been repeating the phrase to Chris all night long. Not only had she gotten him the console, but all 8 games that were currently out in Japan, and some Japanese DVD's so he could test the unit's DVD playback.
"I'm glad you like it, Nick." She hugged him tight and fingered the silver necklace he'd gotten her to match the earrings she'd gotten for her birthday. "I love my necklace too."
"What's the worst present you've ever gotten?" Kevin offered as a topic for discussion. "Howie?"
Howie thought for a moment, then answered, "ties. Lots of ties."
"A Barry Manilow CD set."
"A Backstreet Boys album" Julia snickered.
"What?" Brian looked at her.
"I got your first album as a gag present one year."
"Gee, thanks." AJ grabbed the pitcher of eggnog and held it close. "See if you're getting anymore of this now."
"The JAP-ulator." Chris said, then started laughing as she realized how weird that had to sound to 5 southerners.
"The what??" A collective confusion set over the group.
"When I was in high school, my aunt got me this awful plastic jeweled calculator thing. I called it the JAP-ulator...Jewish American Princess."
"Cute, Chris." Julia snickered.
"Coal."
"Someone gave you coal, AJ?"
"Yup."
"Why does it not surprise me that you were a bad boy one year?"
"Ok, enough with this subject," AJ laughed. "Biggest party night of the year's coming up, I got tickets to a party. We going?"
"Where? And how many tickets?" Brian asked. "Leighanne might try to meet us."
"5 tickets plus dates, we're set."
"5?" Julia raised her eyebrows. "So where does that leave Chris and me? Throwing us out in the cold on New Years, how mean..." she sniffled.
"You can be my date, Julia." Kevin put his arm around her reassuringly.
"And you can be mine, Chrissy," Nick took her hand. "Our first date."
Chris laughed. "Sure, Nick."
"We can get a limo, and wear matching outfits and all!"
Everyone was laughing now. "Nick's finally getting to go to the prom!" Brian cackled.
"That's not funny." Nick grumbled, throwing a piece of candy cane at Brian.
"Don't worry Nick, my prom sucked." Chris told him.
"Really?" He looked at her, eyes wide. "I thought they were these great things?"
"They're supposed to be, but they end up being these things at some overly fancy country club where you spent too much money on your dress to be comfortable, too much money on the limousine to feel ok making it wait too long while you have fun, and you spend most of the night wondering what you're going to be doing AFTER the prom anyway."
"What happens after the prom?"
AJ hooted. "I know what is supposed to happen after a prom..."
"What happens?" Nick asked again, completely innocent.
Brian laughed. "Frack, prom night is traditional cherry popping night."
"Oooooh." Nick laughed, "you're a little late there, Chrissy, sorry."
"It's New Years, not the prom, Nick." She hid her face as she felt it turning bright red at Nick's comment.
"But, wait, I thought I just read the other day that Nick's a virgin?" Kevin asked, all seriousness. "Backstreet Boys can't have sex, that's just wrong!"
Howie threw a pillow at Kevin. "You put far too much rum in the egg nog, AJ."
"You know what we're forgetting to do?" Chris gasped and ran to her room to grab something. She returned with the video in hand. "Movie. Gotta watch this every Christmas." She popped the movie in the VCR and sat down next to Nick on the couch.
"What movie?" Brian asked.
"White Christmas. Oh, and we gotta sing along with all of the songs."
"I love this movie," Julia sighed.
"Me too." Chris said softly. It was the ultimate romantic's Christmas movie. 2 guys, 2 girls, and everyone lives happily ever after."
"I still can't believe you got me a Playstation 2."
***************************************************
A Day in the Life Of (Day 107) Washington, DC - New Years Eve
Chris couldn't believe the year was over already. New Years always made her a little pensive, made her step back to think about what she'd done with her life the year before. Every year, she'd beat herself up over New Years, curse herself for falling into a rut. This year she could truly say she'd done something different, broken new ground. It had been a good year, and she was going to send it off with a bang.
To celebrate, the entire gang was going to some ritzy invite only club party. It sounded like a phony VIP affair, but AJ swore he'd heard it would be 'ragin', and AJ wasn't one to misjudge a party.
"You dressed yet?" Nick banged on Chris' hotel room door.
Chris answered the door, one heel on, the other in her hand. "Zip me," she spun around and presented her back to Nick.
Nick silently pulled the zipper up on her dress, kissing the nape of her neck when he was done. "You look beautiful."
"So do you." Chris kissed his cheek lightly. She had to admit they made a striking couple. Nick was wearing a white tuxedo with a silver bow tie. Chris, Nick's 'date' for the evening, was wearing a soft gray silk dress with spaghetti straps and silver heels. Nick with his blond hair, Chris with her dark brown...the light and dark contrasted together made for a unique look.
"So you ready now?"
"One second." Everyone else had left for the club an hour or so ago. Chris had been running late, and Nick, taking his 'date' to heart, refused to leave without her. She grabbed her purse, checked her lipstick, squirted on some perfume, "Now I'm ready."
Hand in hand, the two walked the 5 blocks from their hotel to the club. "You could almost think this was a romantic stroll." Chris observed as they looked across the Great Lawn.
"Almost?"
Chris pointed to the bodyguards trailing behind them. The Firm had recently decided Nick needed more security, so Nick had a new guy in addition to Toby, trailing him everywhere. Elaine was walking with the new guy, looking like just another romantic couple.
"Oh, yeah." Nick sighed. "Like one wasn't bad enough, right?"
"Just pretend they're not there." Chris looped her arm through Nick's and pulled him along.
"I like real, remember, Chrissy? Not pretend." He stopped and pulled her into his arms. "You're so soft."
"We should get to the club," Chris squirmed a little against his chest. She was feeling a little too comfortable. Something was going on between her and Nick, she'd finally admitted that to herself. She still wasn't sure exactly what that SOMETHING was, though.
"Ok." He let her go and held her hand until they reached the club. Inside, they found the gang hanging out in one of the smaller rooms of the place, black lights and lava lamps everywhere.
"Party's going full blast, I see." Chris grabbed Julia's drink out of her hands and sipped. "Not bad..."
"Heey!" Julia yanked it back. "I assure you, I need this more than you do."
"Something you're not telling me, Jules?" Chris looked at her closely.
Julia laughed, and pointed to the bar. "Go, get yourself one, they ARE good."
Chris made her way to the bar, people packed in tight, music loud. "Cosmopolitan," she screamed to the bartender to make herself heard.
"Aren't you that girl from MTV?" A tap on her shoulder.
Chris turned around to find herself looking up into a pair of deep brown eyes. "Um, well."
"You are!! The one with the Backstreet Boys." The guy was really cute. "I love your show, you do a great job interviewing them, and it's so interesting to watch."
"Thanks." She took her drink from the bartender and turned to leave.
"Can I get a kiss before you go?"
All attraction went right out the window. "What?"
"I know you don't know me, but..."
Now she knew exactly how the guys felt. "It's New Years, sorry, I'm saving my kisses." She joined the rest of the group. "Now that was strange."
"What was strange?" Julia must have already had a few of the cosmo's before Chris had arrived, she was already fumbling her words.
"Random guy recognized me, asked for a kiss."
"Did you kiss him?" AJ hollered.
"No, AJ, I didn't." Chris shook her head, smiling. "Would have been weird."
"Random kisses are fun, Chrissy." AJ said sweetly.
"I'm sure they are, Bone, you certainly never seem to mind kissing the ladies..."
"YEAH!" AJ jumped across the table, pulled Chris out of her chair, and, bending her half backwards, kissed her smack on the lips. "There. Random fun kisses."
Chris took a gulp of her drink. Damn that man could kiss..."Happy New Year AJ."
He looked at her, laughing. "Yeah, you too Chris."
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