I groaned as someone opened the curtain to my bed and let the sun in. I felt so tired, I just wanted to sleep all day.
“Hey you guys! It’s noon, we’ve gotta get to the hotel and then the venue.”, I heard Kevin say.
“Alright, give us ten minutes!”, I said as I climbed out of our bunk followed by Nick.
“Good Morning!”, everyone said cheerfully as I walked into the bathroom.
“Morning!”, I said trying to wake myself up.
I washed my face, and got dressed in record timing. When I came out Nick was the only one left in the tour bus.
“Hey!”, I said as I kissed him, “Interesting night!”
“Defenitely!”, he said with a grin, “It was going fine until that short stop...”
“You’re such a perv!”, I said as I playfully smacked him.
We walked outside, and into the van. We were going to the hotel first to put down our bags. Then we were going to the venue.
“How many rooms do we have?”, I asked as we got the keys and decided where everyone was staying.
“Four, so I guess you, me, and Brian will stay together, Kat and AJ, and then Kevin and Howie will have their own rooms. Is that okay with everyone?”, Nick asked while handing out the keys.
Everyone mumbled yes. Everyone was tired because of the little interruption last night. We headed up to our rooms, and then went to the venue. I was left by myself so I decided to go outside and talk to some fans.
“Hey look! It’s Mandy, Brian’s sister!”, I heard a girl say, so I went over to talk to her.
“Hey girls!”, I said to her and her friends, “Are you girls going to the concert?”
“Yeah! We have pretty good seats too!”, one of the other girls said, “Fifteenth row!”
“That’s great, but I bet Meet and Greet passes would be even better!”, I said as I pulled four out of my pocket and handed them to the girls.
“OH MY GOD! Thank you so much, I can’t believe this!”. the girls said as they jumped up and down.
“No problem!”, I said while going to the next group of people.
“Hey girls!”, I said to the next group of girls, they didn’t look as friendly.
“Oh look, it’s the tramp that stole Nick from me!”, one of the girls muttered under her breath, I just ignored her.
“Are you going to the show tonight?”, I asked trying to smile.
“Yeah, I heard Nick is announcing that you two are going out. Is it true?”, another girl asked, she seemed pretty nice.
“Yup, he is.”
“That’s great, congratulations!”, the same girl said while the rest of them called me a whore under their breath.
“Well, I was going to give you girls Meet and Greet passes...”, all of their faces brightened up, “but I only have one left, so I’ll just give it to you!”, I said giving it to the nice one.
“Thank you so much! I can’t believe I’m going to meet the Backstreet Boys!”, the girl screamed.
“No problem!”, I said as I went to go back inside.
“Mandy!”, someone screamed, I turned around and saw Leighanne running towards me.
“Leighanne! What are you doing here?”, I said as I hugged her.
“I’m surprising Brian! Don’t say anything, I have front row tickets, I want him to see me during the concert. I’m gonna lay low until the show. Do you wanna go to a cafe or something?”, Leighanne asked while some of the fans muttered the same things they said about me, to her.
“Yeah, sure, that’d be great!”, I said as we got in her car.
“So you and Nick! That’s so great, I knew you guys should be together!”
“Thanks, although we got into a bit of trouble with Brian last night!”, I said as I shuddered thinking about it.
“Really? What happened?”
“It’s kind of a long story, I’m sure he’ll tell you anyway. But basically he caught me and Nick fooling around, and blew it out of proportion!”, I said looking at my watch, “Oh my god! I totally forgot! I am so sorry, can you take me back to the venue?”
“Of course! What’s wrong?”, Leighanne asked while making a U-turn and heading back to the venue.
“Nick’s announcing us being together at the concert tonight, and he’s dedicating "I Need You Tonight”, to me and we have to practice. I’m so sorry!”, I said as we pulled up to the venue.
“Don’t worry about it hun! I’ll just hang out and see if I can find a fan that actually likes me!”, she said with a laugh as we hugged goodbye.
“Oh my god, I can’t believe I forgot!”, I said to myself as I ran into the venue, “I am so sorry I’m late!”, I said as I ran onto the stage.
“Mandy, there’s been an accident...”, Brian said, he looked like he might have been crying, I looked over at Nick and he looked pretty upset too.
“What happened?”, I asked knowing something bad happened.
“Nicole and her boyfriend were driving home from a party, and a drunk driver hit them. Nicole was killed instantly, but her boyfriend’s fine except for a broken leg. I’m so sorry.”, Brian said as he went to hug me.
“NO!!!”, I screamed, “This isn’t happening, I’m gonna call Nicole now and she’s gonna be there!”, I said the tears streaming down my face.
“Mandy, she’s dead, I’m sorry, but it’s true.”, Nick said as he came towards me.
“No, she’s not!”, I screamed as I ran to the tour bus, I had to call. I dialed her number and waited.
“Hello?”, Nicole’s mom said into the phone.
“Ms.Turner? Is is true? Please tell me it’s not true!”, I said as the tears continued to fall down my face.
“Yes, Mandy. I’m so sorry sweetie, I know how close you were.”, she said as she began to cry.
“I’m so sorry Ms.Turner. I’m going to fly back tomorrow. I’m so sorry!”, I said as my tears fell even harder.
“Okay, sweetie, bye-bye!”, she said as I hung up, I turned around and Nick was standing there.
“It’s true.”, I whispered as I ran into his arms, “I didn’t even get to say goodbye...”
“I’m so sorry Mandy. I know how you feel, I felt like something had been ripped out of me when Ben died (Author’s Note: In the story Ben is Nick’s best friend who died three years ago).”, Nick said as he held me tighter.
“I just....I dunno!”, I said as I took a deap breath and stopped crying, “We still have to do the thing tonight.”, I said as I pulled away from him.
“Are you sure you want....”, Nick said, but I didn’t let him finish.
“Yeah, I’m sure, go finish practicing.”, I said trying to smile, but I couldn’t ignore this feeling.
“I’m not gonna leave you like this, come with me.”, Nick said while grabbing my hand, he really did care, “I know the routine. You can lay down in my dressing room, and I’ll stay with you.”
“Are you sure you don’t need to practice or anything?”, I asked thinking how sweet he was.
“I’m sure!”, he said as he lead me onto one of the couches in their dressing room.
“Try to rest.”, Nick said as he got me a pillow and a blanket.
“Thank you Nick!”, I said as I laid down and went to sleep.
Poor Mandy, I thought, as I watched her sleep. I knew how she felt. It took me so long to get over Ben’s death. She was defenitely in the stage of denial. I went through that too. I acted fine in front of people, but I cried to myself whenever I was alone. I stroked her hair, and wished I could take all her pain away. All of a sudden someone walked in.
“Shh!”, I whispered as Kat and Brian walked in.
“Is she okay?”, Kat and Brian asked at the same time.
“As okay as she can be.”
“Do you want me to stay with her, so you can go practice?”, Kat asked.
“No, it’s okay, I know what to do.”, I said as Mandy stirred.
“I wanna be there for her, but I don’t know how she feels. I guess it’s better if you’re with her.”, Brian said, “Nicole was such a great girl.”, he said as his eyes filled up with tears, I looked over at Kat who took him outside.
This is so horrible, I thought, as all of a sudden Mandy started tossing and turning violently.
“Mandy...wake up.”, I said gently shaking her.
“No!!”, she screamed as she bolted upright, “It was so horrible...Nicole and her boyfriend...and I was the one that hit them...”, she said in between tears as she leaned on my cheast.
“It was just a dream...shh...it’ll be alright...”, I said trying to relax her.
After a couple of minutes she had calmed down, and we had to get on stage. I stayed with her until Kat was back from performing.
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”, I said to Mandy, while I was about to go on stage.
“Yes, I’ll be fine!”, Mandy said trying to re-assure me.
“Okay, Kat’ll take good care of you.”, I said as I hugged her and quickly kissed her.
“Is she okay?”, Brian asked as got ready to start.
“Somewhat, you should talk to her after the show. She might think you’re mad at her for last night if you don’t.”, I answered back as we started the first song.
We decided that we would end the show with my dedication. So as soon as the normally last song was over the rest of the guys sat on stools towards the back of the stage as I walked to the center.
“Tonight, I want to make a special dedication to my girlfriend. She is the greatest, and we love each other very much and I hope that you can respect that. She’s Mandy Littrell, most of you know her as Brian’s sister. Mandy, come out here please.”, I said as Mandy walked out on the stage, her smile looked half real and half forced but I didn’t blame her.
“This is dedicated to you.”, I said as the band started playing the music, I took her hands and started singing.
I sang from the bottom of my heart. I looked into her eyes and saw how hurt, but yet happy she looked. I knew she must of felt guilty, but she shouldn’t. Nicole would have been so happy to know that we were together. As the song finished, Mandy had tears in her eyes, I didn’t know if it was because of me or Nicole, but I squeezed her hand as if to say “I love you”, and she squeezd back. All of a sudden an exteremly loud applause broke out, that was a first, and a lot of people also had tears in their eyes but were sill applauding.
“Thank you!”, I said into the microphone as Mandy and me walked off the stage hand in hand.
“That was so sweet Nick, I love you so much!”, Mandy said as we hugged, it seemed more appropiate than making out.
“I love you too Mandy, so much!”, we pulled away so she could go talk to Brian and call Larissa and get a plane ticket. She was going back for a week, but probably bringing Larissa back with her. Leighanne had showed up at the show surprising Brian. She was coming with us too, the bus was gonna be pretty crowded when Mandy came back.
“Mandy? Can I talk to you?”, Brian said as he walked up to us.
“Yeah, sure.”, Mandy said as they walked off together.
I just wished she would feel better!