Chapter 25
By Chelle and Tess

The ten of them were heading to the front door when the DJ stopped them. He pulled Kevin to the side and stood for a few moments talking to him When Kevin rejoined the group, he was frowning.  "Seems our little surprise has alerted the media to our presence on the island. Davy is gonna have a fit."

"Oh no.....What are you guys gonna do?" Shawn asked

"Well the DJ thought to call for a stretch limo. It's out back," Kevin told them.

Kevin and the guys turned around and headed for the back. The girls hung back for a minute, not knowing if they were supposed to be following them or not.  "Well, are you coming?" Kevin turned and asked them.

The girls grinned and joined them, heading for the rear entrance of the club.

As they all piled into the limo, they were still talking about what had just happened inside the club. "Oh My God....I can't believe how incredible this evening as turned out. I mean did you hear that crowd in there?" Shawn said still in shock. She had never experienced anything like it before.

"Yeah....And you guys coming on stage like that....amazing," Sherry said.

"Well....I still can't believe we won!" Tanya laughed.

"You girls were great....That rendition of The Tide Is High....blew me away..." Howie said.

"I can't believe the dance around Chelle...." Brian said.

"Yeah...I thought she was gonna faint when you reached out and grabbed her Kev," Howie said, laughing.  

As the others kept laughing about their big triumphant prank, Chelle just sat their in silence.  She couldn’t believe how much fun they all  had embarrassing her like that.  With that, she stared out the window of the car in hopes of not crying in front of them.  “Nope not gonna do it .. Not here not now”  Chelle thought to herself.

"Wow...I never knew vertical sex could be so much fun!!" Nick laughed.

You haven't had vertical sex before?" AJ asked.

"Not on stage!" Nick laughed leaning into Chelle.  Chelle moved away, shrugging Nick's arm off her shoulders.

"Speaking of on stage...what the hell was up with changing things at the last minute?" Carmen yelled at AJ, smacking him on the arm.  "You nearly gave me a heart attack!!!"  

After she heard what Carmen said, Chelle was furious. Nick's comments had hurt, but this was intolerable.  "You knew?! Ok, so the joke was on me...ha ha. You guys are supposed to be my friends!" she cried, tears slipping down her cheeks.  "How the Hell could you humiliate me in public like that?! Playing a joke on me is one thing...but to be so damn public about it. You made me look like a fool!"   Chelle looked around the backseat of the limo and stared each one of the guys down. "And thank you so much...Backstreet Boys....I hope you got the publicity stunt you needed!!" she cried.  The limo stopped and she grabbed for the door handle. Before anyone could stop her or say anything at all, she bolted from the limo.

"Damn...damn...damn..." Nick cursed as he slid from the limo. "Chelle!!! Chelle!!" he yelled as he ran after her.

The rest of them sat in the backseat, stunned.  Shawn looked at Kevin , tears in her eyes. She had known something was wrong with Chelle earlier. She should've stopped this prank then.  

"I think we went too far," AJ said quietly.

"No...You think?!" Kevin yelled.

"Kevin...it won't do anyone any good to get upset. Let's go inside and wait for them. I'm sure Nick will find her and get her to come back," Brian said, always the voice of reason.

"I'm gonna go help Nick find Chelle," Carmen said. "This is all my fault."

AJ pulled her into his arms and kissed her temple. "Let Nick handle this. Brian's right...if anyone can calm her down, it's Nick."

“Alright guys, not to bring up anymore bad ideas…but why don’t we take this little party upstairs to the girls suite..cuz um.. I don’t think we need to run into Davy tonight”  Howie suggested.

With that thought, the other guys grimaced and walked towards the elevators.   “yeah, we can order dinner from our suite..and by the time Nick and Chelle come back we’ll have some food waiting for them”  Tanya added in.

The group slowly worked their way back to the girls suite and each silently hoped that Nick was able to smooth things over with Chelle.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Back at the girls’ suite~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The group settled into the living room of the girls’ suite.  They ordered room service while they were waiting for Nick and Chelle to return.  Everyone remained quiet as their own thoughts continued to drift back to Chelle’s words.  No one imagined that the joke would backfire as it had.  AJ and Carmen were sitting on the balcony in hopes that they would see the two somewhere on the beach.  Kevin, Brian and Sherry were sitting on the couch all staring off in a distance.  Tanya and Howie were seated at the dining table looking over the items the girls had won from the contest.  Shawn found it difficult to sit and relax. She was pacing back and forth regardless of the pain she felt in her ankle.  Chelle’s words stung at her heart.  She felt guilty for letting the joke go as far as it did.  Chelle had finally opened up to her and now this.  She let out a loud sigh as she kept hearing her words over and over.

“Shawn, would you please rest your ankle.  Pacing back and forth like that is definitely NOT helping it”  Kevin scolded her.  

“Kevin, I can’t sit and relax.  I cant believe how I let this get out of hand”  Shawn said through a sniffle.

Kevin got up from the couch and wrapped his arms around her, “shhh….getting upset and re injuring your ankle there is not gonna make what happened go away.  Nick will talk with her.  You see how they are together.  If anyone can get through to her, it’s Nick.”  he reassured her.

“Kevin’s right, Shawn.  And this is not your fault.  I don’t think any of us realized how she was going to react.”  Brian chimed in.

“Not to cast blame here but why did you guys change the plan?  The original plan was that you guys were going to enter the contest and dedicate the song to your biggest fan?”  Sherry asked looking at each of the guys.

“well….I guess you can say that was my fault.”  Howie replied.  “when we saw you girls perform your number.  It was pretty obvious that you were going to win.  So, I thought it would be great to perform with you girls.  AJ and Nick actually both kinda wanted to surprise Chelle.  But they didn’t realize it would turn out the way it did.”

“Well, I think we all should probably apologize to Chelle when they get back.”  Kevin suggested.

Once again, the room fell silent.  Minutes later there was a knock at the door.  
“That must be our food”  Tanya said as she opened the door.  

“ah, food.  Just the thing I need.”  Brian said rubbing his hands together.

Sherry just laughed at Brian, “no wonder they call you and Nick…Frick and Frack.  You and Nick are just alike”

The rest of the group laughed along with Sherry.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chelle~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chelle ran down to the beach, her tears making it hard for her to see. She couldn't believe how bad this hurt. It was just a joke after all. But the words stung and cut her to the quick. She heard running behind her and turned to see Nick coming to a stop just at the sand's edge. She turned her back on him, her hair blowing in the wind, getting stuck to her wet cheeks. She didn't want to hear any explanations right now. She just wanted to be alone.    "Chelle?"

"Go away Nick. I can't talk to you right now," she said her tears making it hard to speak.

"Chelle...Please?" Nick pleaded.

Chelle turned and screamed at him, "What! What more can you do to me?"

Nick came closer, reaching his hand out to her. "Please Chelle...I'm sorry..."

Chelle slapped his hand away, crying. "I can't deal with you. Go away."

"No....we need to talk,' Nick whispered stepping even closer.

"No! Can't you understand!? You guys hurt me!" Chelle cried.

Nick pulled her into his arms and held her tight. She struggled against him, her tears of anger slowly turning into tears of hurt.

"Why? Why?" she cried into his shirt, holding onto him for dear life.

"I'm sorry Chelle...I'm sorry..." he whispered, dropping tender kisses on the top of her head.  Nick looked down at Chelle and tucked her hair behind her ear.  He couldn’t believe he caused the woman he loved to cry.  The one thing he promised not to do…was hurt her… but here they were.

"you say you love me....however you didn’t even call me... you just blew me off…like I didn‘t matter."  Chelle said pulling away from Nick then turned looking out at the ocean with tears still falling down her face.  “You humiliated me, then bragged about me being some sort of damn sex toy that you enjoyed playing with on stage”  Chelle kept staring ahead of her never once looking back at Nick.  She knew if she looked him in the eyes that she would lose her nerve and not say the things that were needed to be said.  Questions that tugged at her heart all afternoon long.

“I wanted to call you but the guys wouldn’t let me”  Nick confessed hugging her from behind then leaned down towards the side of her face. “and as to me treating you like a sex toy.  I am sorry.  I didn’t mean to poke fun.  We were only wanting to tease back at you for pretending to not know who we really were.”   Chelle listened to Nick but continued staring off in a distance.    Nick then continued explaining, “please don’t think I don’t love you… cuz, I do love you, Chelle.  I do.  that's why it hurt to see you with all those guys….. your my Chelle, remember?"  Nick said holding her tighter in his arms.  

“What guys? you mean the idiots from the club?”  Chelle asked looking back at Nick.

“Look Chelle, I don’t want to argue with you baby.  I am really sorry.  This was only a joke that turned out bad.  I love you.  I didn’t mean to hurt you.  And yes. I don’t want to share my chelle with any of those idiots”  Nick then leaned down and kissed her.

“Nick.’  Chelle asked breaking away from the kiss and looked in his eyes. “Do you really love me?  Cuz, I’ve got to tell you… I don’t think my heart can handle much more pain right now.  I know we both said the words last night.  But do you really love me?  Because, when I said I love you… I meant it”  Chelle then looked down towards the sand afraid that Nick would take his words back

Nick placed his hands on the side of Chelle’s face causing her to look at him.  Planting a soft kiss on her lips then looked her in the eyes and said, “ I love  you. And those aren’t words I am just saying.  That is what my heart is feeling.  Yeah, we’ve only known each other for a short time….but isn’t that what they call love at first sight?  I didn’t think it would be possible for me to fall in love like that…but you made it possible.  And when we leave this island… I want us to be together.  With this being the beginning of a beautiful relationship between us.”

As Chelle listened to Nick, she closed her eyes.  She didn’t know what to think.  Here was a man telling her the things she longed to hear but was her heart ready for all of this?  Deep down she was so afraid to love again.  Chelle opened her eyes and looked directly into Nick’s eyes searching for her answer.  What she saw tugged at her heart.  She saw a man who loved her….who really loved her.  Chelle gave a little smile then said in a whisper “ I want that too…I love you Nick”  Nick held chelle in his arms then kissed her like his life depended on it.  In his heart, she was the one.  Never before had he ever felt like this.  Never again did he want to lose this incredible feeling.  


~~~~~~~~~~in the girls’ suite~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While the others were gathering around the dining table to eat, AJ and Carmen were still sitting on the balcony with the doors wide open.  Every so often they’d report back to the others what they saw.  

Carmen looked up and down the pool area but was not able to see much with all the trees and plants scattered about.  However, AJ was learning more and more about Chelle through Nick.  His first place he looked was on the beach..but wasn’t able to see anything.  “man, I would’ve thought I’d see them somewhere on the beach” AJ said back to Carmen.

Just as AJ was about give up, he caught a glance of a couple embracing each other.  AJ grinned from ear to ear.  He found them and they were kissing which definitely was a good sign.  “Carmen look there”  AJ said pointing them out.  

“Shawn, we see them.  Come here quick”  Carmen yelled back.  As soon as Carmen said she saw Nick and Chelle, Shawn ran to the balcony.

“Jesus Shawn, I am not carrying you around again.”  Kevin said with a laugh.

The others also joined AJ and Carmen on the balcony.  “where are they AJ?”  Howie asked.  AJ pointed them out.  When the girls saw Nick kissing Chelle and Chelle embracing him back..they could not help but do what all girls do.  “aawwww” the girls all cooed at once.   

“Oh geez, women.”  Brian said shaking his head.  “tell me when the smooching is over with… I’m still eating.”  and with that Brian went back inside.

“WOO HOO  GO NICKY”  AJ hollered out.   “AJ you ass”  Kevin smacked him on the head.

“uh, oops… sorry dad”  AJ grinned back at Kevin.  He knew the joke had been his idea…and even though he loved teasing Chelle,  he never wanted to stir trouble for his best friend or Chelle.  AJ knew Nick was in love with Chelle.


~~~~~~~~~~~back on the beach with Nick and Chelle~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Nick and Chelle continued kissing and holding on to each other, a loud holler was heard from up above.  

“WOO HOO GO NICKY”  a voice hollered out.  Nick and Chelle both broke from their kiss and turned to see who was hollering.  From a distance they could see all of their friends grinning from ear to ear from the balcony of their suite.  They both couldn’t help but laugh at the scene.  

“you know we somehow keep putting on a good show for them ya know”  Chelle said with a laugh.  

“well, how about we give them something to see” Nick said with a smirk.  Nick then took Chelle in his arms and dipped her back and kissed her in front of all their friends.   

Laughter was heard once again.  AJ shouted out, “ooooh Nicky you better hurry and get back up here… Brian’s gonna eat your dinner”

That statement got Nick’s attention.  He broke from the kiss and said, “Brian’s what?”  

“oh Nick.  You mean you’re picking food over me right now?”  chelle teased.  

Nick took a step back and was scratching his head to think.  “hmmm, that’s a tough one there” then gave her that Carter grin she loved to see.  

“oh you’re a funny one”  Chelle mocked him and smacked him lightly on his arm.   They both laughed and walked hand in hand back towards the hotel.

~~~~~~~~~~moments later in the girls suite~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Nick and Chelle entered the suite, the girls all immediately ran up to Chelle and hugged her.  “chelle honey, we are so sorry.  We were only wanting to tease with you.” Shawn began explaining for herself and the girls.  But Chelle cut her off and said, “I’m ok Shawn.  Nick explained it all to me.”  chelle then paused for a moment to make sure the guys could hear her as well.  She didn’t intend to spend the rest of the evening rehashing the night’s events.  “Look I don’t want you guys to think that I am not a good sport when it comes to jokes.  And yeah.. I know… I did ask for it.  I wasn’t truthful about knowing you guys”  Chelle paused for another second and stared at the ground “I’ve been a big fan for quite sometime.  So, ha ha you got me… and you got me good tonight.  Hats off to you guys.”  Chelle then looked over at AJ and said with a devilish grin, “oh , and uh…AJ …  I wouldn’t fall asleep if I were you.’    Everyone laughed at Chelle’s comment.  The guys one by one hugged Chelle to make sure she was alright.  

The group once again gathered around the dining table but this time joined by Nick and Chelle.  While they were eating, Tanya and Howie explained the items the girls had won.  

“Tomorrow’s the day we’re suppose to go on this trip to that other island.  And we each can bring a date”  Tanya said looking over at her friends.

“yeah, who are we gonna bring with us”  Chelle said pretending to think really hard then said, “hey what about those guys we met this morning ya know …  at breakfast?”  

“what?  Oh wait one second there… that reminds me…..I think you owe it to us to take us with you after that stunt in the elevator this morning”  Kevin insisted.

“What about this morning?” Carmen added in.  “Don’t know what you’re talking about.  We rode down the elevator with complete strangers.  Didn’t know who the guys were.  But one of them.. Wooo..  He was nuts.”  

Brian looked at the girls, a wicked grin on his lips...."Oh and did any of you get burnt in the wrong place today? Ya know, like from the nude beach.. Hmm?"

"Oh honey, that nude beach had nothing better than the guy at the spa this morning...oy" Carmen replied in one breath as she turned to look at Chelle.  Chelle smiled back at Carmen as she remembered who she was referring to.


"what guy from the spa?" both Nick and AJ questioned at the same time both looking directly at Chelle and Carmen.
Chelle then got up from her chair and crawled onto Nick's lap wrapping her arms around his neck, "oh Nicky, there was no gorgeous guy at the spa"

Nick looked at her and said "Yeah right..."  Chelle giggled back and instead of replying back she kissed him instead.

"Speaking of the spa...you will never guess what smart ass did to our record rep..."  Howie said with a laugh.

Everyone turned to AJ.  "Why are you all looking at me?" he asked.  

"Howie said smart ass, who else would we look at?  you're the only smart ass I know" Chelle answered.

"Look in the mirror, Chelle," AJ said

"ha ha, and I'd see you standing right behind me" Chelle laughed back.

"Knock it off you two. What happened?" Shawn asked.

"Yeah...what happened?" Carmen asked, curious.

“well, dopey over there”  Brian began to explain while pointing over at AJ “decided to give us all a heart attack this afternoon”

Kevin then interrupted Brian, “yeah and he did it after Davy had been such an ass all day with us.  Man, you’re lucky we didn’t pound you back there.”

“will someone please tell us what happened”  Sherry said loudly.

Brian then continued, “while we were all racking our brains of how we were gonna ditch Davy tonight..   Smarty here invites the guy to hang out with us at the “SPA”.  and Davy got all… googly eyed when he thought he’d get to hang with us for the rest of the night.”  Brian then looked over at AJ “after he did that I wasn’t sure which one of us wanted to kill him first..but it was a close race.  Anyways, what he did was talk with Antonio from the spa and he suggested  ‘Ululani”

"And what about her?" Chelle asked looking back at Nick and the other guys.

"Well, she is old, fat and missing teeth," Kevin said, while AJ laughed in the background. Actually he was laughing so hard he couldn't talk.

"Oh my god!!" all the girls cried in unison.

"So if we want to go with you girls tomorrow.." Brian began.

"And we do..." Nick said hugging Chelle.

"Then we have to find a way to avoid Davy once more...."Howie explained

"And it won't be easy...thanks to knucklehead..." Kevin said pointing to a still cackling AJ.

"Why don't you guys get some things and stay here with us...Put a do not disturb on your room...we'll just sneak out in the morning...." Carmen suggested.

"Yeah that would work and Davy will never know the difference..." Tanya said, grinning at Howie.

The guys all looked around. It was perfect. They would be able to spend time with the girls and still get away from Davy.  While the group discussed the details of the trip for the next day, one by one each guy snuck back over to their suite to get their belongings.  Brian and Nick went to gather their things at the same time allowing Brian to finally have a chance to talk with his best friend.  “ya know, I don’t know why you didn’t already do this Nick”  Brian said to his friend, “you haven’t spent one night in your room since we’ve been here.”

Nick grinned back at his friend and  said, “Can you blame me man.  No offense but if I need to pick to spend the night here alone or with Chelle well…that’s a no brainer.  Besides, I wouldn’t want to have any run ins with any uh… ‘INTRUDERS” ya know”  

“oh ha ha.  Please don’t remind me of that night.” Brian said shaking his head.

“well, at least you and Sherry were together.  You have each other to lean on right?”  Nick asked his friend.

“yeah, she is great.  We’re finding that we’ve got a lot in common.  I really like her.”  Brian confided in his friend, “and what about you and Chelle.  Everything ok there.?”

“we’re great man.”  Nick replied with a big smile “and I will only tell you this man… I am in love with her.  I told her that I want us to be together after this trip.  We haven’t really discussed any particulars but we’ll figure it out somehow.”

“Man, I am happy for ya.  You both deserve to be happy.  And you’re right.  You’ll find away to be together.” Brian said to his friend.  He was really happy for Nick.  It had been along time since he had seen him this happy.  “well, we better hurry back.  We don’t want to keep our ladies waiting now do we”.  Brian placed his arm around his friend while grinning back at him.  He thought to himself, “I hope Sherry and I will be as happy as Nick and Chelle.  But so far, everything was working out for the two of us.  Man, would I like to be that character in her book”.

Nick and Brian were the last two to gather their belongings.  When they re entered the girls suite, the others were still discussing the next days events.  Chelle was sitting in her chair with her legs draped over to the side.  Nick just stood there and admired his girl.  She was reading over the brochure of their upcoming trip.   As Nick was staring at Chelle’s leg, he noticed something different that he hadn’t seen before.  He walked over to Chelle and leaned over to kiss her.  After the kiss, he ran his hand down  her leg and held her ankle in place so he could look at her ankle.  “Hey Chelle?”  

“yeah?”  chelle replied looking back at Nick..knowing what he was about to ask.  

“What’s this on your ankle?  When did you get it?  Cuz I don’t remember seeing this before”  Nick questioned.

“oh, I forgot about that.” Chelle smiled her kiddish grin then looked over at the other girls. “well, during our ‘girls day’ we all got tattoos”.

The other guys looked at the other girls.  “you all did?”  Brian asked.

“yep, all of us.  Take a look at their ankles also.”  Sherry answered.  Each of the guys took a look at their girls’ ankle with such interest.

“uh, what is it exactly.  I mean I know it’s flowers…but what is it?”  Brian asked.

Chelle answered back for the others, “it’s a leis made into an anklet.  And well, since we met you guys here..we wanted to signify this trip in a way we’d never forget.”

Kevin was sitting on the couch with Shawn’s legs already on his lap.  He also took a look at her ankle and noticed that his favorite color was colored in the leis.  “wow, that is really pretty”.

Howie was stunned that the girls all did this.  Tanya in his mind just didn’t seem the type to get a tattoo.  But this was sweet.  “That is pretty.  Love the color babe”  Howie said winking at Tanya.

While the other continued talking about their shopping adventure, Nick traced his finger over Chelle’s tatt studying the her new art work.  One thing that caught his eye that he didn’t mention to the others were his initials wrapped inside the leis.  After seeing this, Nick whispered to Chelle who was staring back at him “I love that.  See, you are mine”  He then kissed her lightly without anyone noticing.

“Hey guys not to sound like dear old dad again…but if we are going to sneak out on Davy…we do need to get to bed soon.  

"yeah, he's right. We do need to be up early." Shawn added in.

"oh, and uh that does mean that we all should get a good nights SLEEP" AJ said looking in Nick and Chelle`s direction.

In unison the others said, "Yeah SLEEP" looking over at Chelle and Nick who were lost in their own world.

Nick broke away from kissing Chelle and realized everyone was staring and them. "what?"

"we just want to make sure you understand that we ALL need some sleep which means it needs to be QUIET where others can sleep also.." Kevin said trying to sound serious.

Chelle and Nick both blushed and just nodded. Nick then whispered to Chelle, "yep were gonna have to find a way to keep it quiet. We'll work on that" Chelle giggled at Nick's suggestion causing everyone to look back at them.

"we'll keep it down.. Geez. Good night guys" Chelle said pulling Nick with her towards her room.

With that said everyone started walking back towards their own rooms.