CHAPTER FIFTY THREE


The light was shining brightly into my eyes waking me up from my sleep. I blinked, and focused on the most beautiful thing in front of me. None other than the Backstreet Boy Carter. I had never seen him more beautiful, wrapped in my arms. The covers were pulled down sometime during our sleep and I watched as his bare chest rose up and down rhythmically. I’d never been happier. Just imagine. After all I’ve been through to just…lay here in his arms. It’s all I’d ever wanted.

I couldn’t help it. I leaned down and began to trace my fingers across his chest, making imaginary patterns against his soft skin. I was hypnotized by his beauty. I dipped my head to his chest and left feather light kisses following my patterns.

I felt his breathing get heavier beneath me and smiled. I was affecting him in his sleep. I continued my patterns until I felt a hand at my chest pushing me away slightly.

I looked down into crystal blue eyes, “don’t do that.” He whispered, his voice still gruff, “then we’ll be back where we started.”

I broke into a smile. “How’d you sleep?”

“Good. Why, did I sleep long?”

“Naw,” I glanced at y watch and jumped a mile, “SHIT!”

“What?” Nick asked sitting up now nervous, letting the sheets fall lower.

I forced my eyes to his face, “I-we-shit Nick, we’re late for rehearsal.”

I don’t think we’d ever been more motivated in our lives to get change quickly and run to the arena. An angry Kevin. An angry prying Kevin who would probably yell at us anyway the minute he saw us.

We arrived at the door to the changing room. I glanced back at Nick, my smile was small but still there. I took a deep breath before opening the door. No one was there. But I noticed a certain red jacket and backed up, shoving Nick out the door with me. Leighanne. She’s still here. I forgot all about her. And I forgot to tell Nick.

“Nick, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you,” I started checking to see if anyone else was there.

“Can’t it wait? Kev is gonna kill us,”

“I know, but just listen. I meant to tell you, Leighanne…”

I heard Nick sigh.

“What?” I asked, searching his face.

“Why does everything have to be about her, can’t we just have one day for us?” Nick asked softly. Our eyes locked.

My heart went out to him. “Yes, of course. You know every day is just for us, but…”

“No buts, just me and you.”

“Please Nick, just let me get this out.” He sighed and dropped his gaze to the floor, breaking eye contact with me. “Leighanne is…well, she’s still…here, and she’s not going to be leaving any time soon. It’s all under Kevin’s control and I didn’t know what to do,” I was rambling, I knew, but I had to tell him. “He’ll do anything to get us back together, I know I already told you that, but I thought it’d pass, but it hasn’t. And everything is just so complicated and-”

He silenced me with a finger against my lips, “Shhh, we’ll have our moments,”

I nodded. Hoping to God he understood like he said he did.

I turned right into Kevin. Shit.

“Where the fuck have you two been? What the hell were you thinking? You both are really starting to get on my nerves, I can’t believe you both could be so irresponsible.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but was cut off by Nick, “we just went to see if we could get something for Leighanne,”

Kevin frowns, not understanding. I turn and look at Nick incredulously. “I think he’s thinking of getting back together with her.”

Kevin breaks into a wide grin, leaving me staring at Nick, mouth hung open.


CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR

“Seriously?” Kevin asked smiling brightly.

“Yeah, Brian and I were talking on the way here and well, he wants to try again,” Nick explained, glancing at me briefly, and smiled back at Kevin.

“Whoa, I’m sorry guys. I’ve just-”

“It’s cool man, we’ll be there in a sec,” Nick smiled.

And Kevin grinned back, “alright.” He said before jogging off.

That’s when I turned to Nick. “What the hell are you thinking?!” I yelled smacking him in the chest.

“It’ll get Kevin off our backs if he thinks you’re with her,”

“You don’t get it! He’ll think we actually are together, he’ll make sure. I’ll actually have to be with her,” I tried to explain to Nick. I seriously didn’t want to go back to her. I wanted to be with Nick.

“It’ll work,”

I sighed loudly. I knew it would. It was actually a perfect plan. Use Leighanne as a diversion. But I just didn’t like it. I didn’t like it all.

* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *

“You both look different, you’re like…glowing. Oh my God! Did you-”

“Shut up AJ!”

“Oh my God! You’re smiling! You did! Holy shit!” AJ laughed.

“Shh…” I whispered checking to see if anyone heard.

“You know, you aren’t being so quiet about it yourself,” AJ pointed an accusing forward at me.

“You ready for dinner?”

I shut my eyes tightly. She always had the worst timing. I took a breath and faced her. I ignored AJ who obviously tensed up at ‘dinner’.

“One second sweetie,” I smiled as sweetly as I could, trying to give her the hint to go away and that I’d be right there.

She nodded, “okay. I’ll see you outside,” she smiled before turning on her heel, letting her blonde hair flip over her shoulder.

I was jerked back to reality when AJ smacked me across the face. “What the fuck are you thinking? My God!”

“AJ…” I trailed off rubbing my burning cheek.

“No, this is ridiculous. What the hell happened?” AJ crossed his arms and made a point to glare at me intimidatingly.

“Ask Nick,” I mumbled, suddenly mad.

“NO! Tell me now,” he clenched his teeth and grabbed my arm.

He was seriously mad. I shrugged, “Nick thinks it’s a good idea. He figures it’s the only way to get Kevin off my back.”

He let go of my arm and stepped back letting me go. “Oh,” was all he said. As I turned to walk away I didn’t miss him shaking his head.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Brian?” AJ asked, squinting to see if it was me.

“Yeah,” I sighed walking toward him. I sat Leighanne in the lobby.

AJ was smiling, in a good mood or something. I wasn’t. Not even close. This had to be the worst week ever. I hope my acting was convincing enough.

AJ’s smile faltered, “I knew it,”

“What?”

“She’s draining you man. It’s not working. You were glowing before, now you look…tired. Worn. She’ll realize you don’t love her. She’ll realize it and she’ll make you tell her why.

“What? Don’t be ridiculous!”

“I’m dead serious. The truth is going to come out whether you like it or not. And when she realizes you don’t lover her, she’ll dig.”

“She won’t,” AJ was exaggerating. He hated Leighanne.

“Brian?” I heard Leighanne call.

“Coming,” I called back. Realizing my heart actually sunk at the sound of her voice. God this was going to be hell. I looked up to see AJ studying me. I must’ve looked horrible. I plastered a smile on my face. “She won’t AJ,” I repeated before running to find Leighanne.


CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE


I waited for Leighanne to fall asleep beside me, shutting my eyes every time she tried to touch me. When I heard her breathing become heavy, I slipped out of the bed and grabbed my phone on the night table. I tip toed into the bathroom and shut the door quietly behind myself. I felt sooo mischievous.

I dialed 3 numbers.

“Hello?”

I sighed and smiled lazily. His voice was so sexy, “hey,” I rasped.

I heard him laugh richly, that sent shivers up my spine. “Hey, what’s up?”

“I’m bored, and I miss you and I don’t wanna be here. I wanna be with you,” I complained, sitting up on the counter and positioning myself in between the two sinks.

“Aw, how sweet.”

“Niick,” I whined.

“What?”

“Make me feel better, I don’t wanna be here,”

“Just think of it like this, you’re doing it for us. We aren’t ready for the world to know, let alone our friends, so this way, we could still be together.”

“But we could still be together and just do it in secret,”

“Yes but then it we be suspicious, Kevin would be suspicious, AJ would tell us how suspicious it looks, it would just….it’d be easier like this, don’t you think?”

I wasn’t gonna say no. I wasn’t gonna tell him how hard it was. I swung my legs over the sink, “yeah.”

“And think of it like this, every time you see me, it’ll be like…big. You know? You wouldn’t get bored of me, or anything, and it’d be special every time we see each other.”

“Nick, I’d never get bored of you,”

“Oh come on,”

“I’m serious,” I paused, and narrowed my eyes, “do you get bored of me?”

“No! I was just saying,”

“Yeah, I get it,” I smiled. Such a cutie. “You don’t know how good it is to hear your voice,”

“It hasn’t been that long,”

“With her? Or since I’ve seen you?”

“Both,”

“What? It’s been like almost two weeks with her! I can’t take much more, and since I’ve seen you? It’s been like, 2 days.”

“Two days? And that’s long?”

“Nick I miss you,”

“I miss you too baby,” I smiled. He was so hot.

“I love you,”

“I love you more,”

“Nick, I don’t wanna go back to bed. Can we just stay on the phone together?”

“Brian, don’t be irrational.”

“I love you,” I whispered.

“Baby, I love you more than you’ll ever know, now go back to bed. If you go to bed soon, I’ll see you soon, okay?”

I nodded, “yeah. Okay,”

“Sweet dreams,” he laughed before he hung up. I shook my head and laughed lightly. I loved that man.

I place the phone back on the night table before I slipped back to bed. I sighed happily. I love him. But then I felt an arm wrap around me and pull me closer. I tensed up. It wasn’t Nick. It was Leighanne. I wanted Nick. I wanted it to be Nick. I shut my eyes. But what really scared me was how good it felt.


CHAPTER FIFTY SIX


I was so antsy to get to the arena and see Nick I could’ve fallen out of my seat. When I got there though, I wanted to turn back around. Kevin stood outside the arena doors. Waiting for me. My God, did that boy have a life? My heart was beating hard against my chest, as I made my way up to him. This whole thing better be worth it.

He frowned when he saw me, and crossed his arms over his chest. My God, what the hell did I have to hide from him? I don’t need to hide behind Leighanne because he may find out. That’s ridiculous. Suddenly I didn’t think any of this was necessary. It was just Nick’s stupid idea. And I’m the one who has to suffer. A wave of anger rushed through me as I tried to walk past him.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Whatever,”

“What is your problem?”

“My problem? MY PROBLEM? What the hell is your problem? My life is my life. Back the fuck off.” I burst open the door before pushing past him.

But obviously he persisted and ran til he was along side me. “How’s Leighanne?”

“Does everything I say go right over your head?”

“Has she talked to you yet?”

“I’m talking to a brick wall,” I mumbled walking quicker. He stopped behind me, but I didn’t care to look back. I couldn’t believe how…ugh! How obnoxious he’s becoming!

I wasn’t watching where I was going and bumped right into something, someone. I was about to unleash the rest of my anger, when I inhaled that intoxicating cologne.

“Nick!”

“Oh, hey!” Nick smiled. I grabbed him and kissed him so hard he fell back against the wall.

I pulled away once I realized we were in the middle of a public and crowded hallway.

Nick’s breath was uneven, which made my heart flutter. I did that. “Um…how are you?”

“I’m good,” I smiled. If I wasn’t mistaken, I think I turned him on with one kiss. I’m that good.

“Good,”

“No, I’m not good Nick. I want you and I miss you. I can’t do this,” maybe I could knock some sense into him.

“Of course you can,” he smiled so warmly. He really thought this could help solve our problem. I didn’t want him to think it couldn’t work. I nodded, but I really don’t see how this will help. And actually I’m starting to get slightly nervous about this whole idea. Kevin suspects something, I can’t handle it, Nick thinks it’s perfect, and Leighanne’s oblivious. Something was going to go wrong, I just knew it.



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