For the next two days, they were going to be on the bus traveling. They had to go from New York to Texas. They had to get up early that morning to get on the bus. Someone pounding on the door woke both Nick and Jen up. For the second night in a row, Jen and Nick had slept in the same bed (for all you perverts, they did not sleep together if you know what I mean). When Nick went to the door, A.J. was standing there all ready with McDonald's breakfast in hand. Nick was barely awake, but asked Jen what she wanted. He chose a sausage and egg biscuit for Jen and a bacon, egg, and cheese for himself. They quickly scarfed down the biscuits and got their luggage together and headed for the bus. After they had gotten everything situated on the bus, Jen got Nick a pillow and blanket and fixed him a nice place on the couch.

Even though it had been almost four days since his accident, his ankle still hurt. She got him a glass of water and handed him one of his pain killers. Nick wasn't satisfied until Jen was on the couch with him and all was comfortable. It wasn't too long after they had been laying there, that Nick fell asleep. Jen slowly and quietly got up and went to the back of the bus to work in her creative journal. In it, she always wrote poems, stories, and basically anything that popped into her head. It wasn't long before A.J. came in and asked what she wanted from McDonald,s.

"Do you guys eat every meal at McDonald's?" Jen asked laughing at her remark.

"Only if I can help it," A.J. replied laughing. "Oh, by the way, Nick's awake," he said and left.

So, Jen got up and walked into the front of the bus.

"Jen's here, Nick," said Denise.

"Jennifer, get him another pain killer. He's really complaining now," she said.

Jen got a glass of water and pulled out his prescription from the cabinet above the stove.

"Here, Nicky," she said, handing him the water and one pill.

He took the medicine and asked her to sit with him. Jen sat there and ran her fingers through his blond hair. This time he didn't go back to sleep. Kevin put on a video on the TV of footage from the last tour. They teased each other when something funny happened. Even Nick, every once in a while, would burst out laughing. Obviously, the pain killers were working. Finally, we came to Mcdonald's. The order was whopping to send Jen in to order the food, since they thought no one knew who she was. The order was eleven quarter- pounders with cheese, fourteen fries, five Cokes, four cheeseburgers, three Sprites, two Dr. Peppers, and one Mt.Dew. She walked in and gave her order. She had one bodyguard with her. His name was Mark. After she ordered and was waiting for the food, two girls came up to her and asked her a weird question.

"Are you one of the Backstreet Boy's girlfriends?" one of them asked.

"No," she said. But she really had wanted to say yes. She had wanted to scream YES! She knew she was a very lucky girl.

Soon everyone in the restaurant was standing around her. Mark called another bodyguard and told her to make a run for the bus. She made it on there, practically falling over Brian on the couch opposite the door. About five minutes later, Mark came back with five bags, and Chris, the other bodyguard, came back with four drink trays. They munched on the burgers and fries.

About an hour later, A.J. was sitting by the window listening to his CD player. Jen walked over and asked him what he was listening to.

"A Tribe Called Quest," he said. He didn't say much of anything else, so Jen got up and got her bag of chips out of the cabinet.

"Hey, can I have one?" Brian asked.

"No," she said playfully.

"Fine. You go be that way. I don't want any of your chips," he said laughing. She offered him the bag and he grabbed the whole thing.

"Hey," she yelled.

Brian grabbed a handful of chips and threw them to Kevin across the couch. He grabbed some chips also and passed the bag to Nick. He wasn't fast enough and Jen jumped on him, reclaiming her bag of chips. She made sure not to bother Nick's ankle.

That night, everyone decided to get hotel rooms. Everyone had piled into Nick and Jen's room.

"I'm hungry. Let's order pizza," said Nick.

"I like that idea," said A.J..

While we were eating, Denise called the front desk and asked if they could get a physician to look at Nick's ankle. It had been four days since the incident. A little while later, a physician came in. He took off the brace and examined it. He said the swelling had gone down and he could probably leave the brace off. He told him to walk on it lightly from now on. After the physician left, Jen decided to take a swim in the hotel pool.

"Can I go with you?" Nick asked limping toward her.

"Sure," she said smiling.

She went into the next room and changed. She beat Nick down there. She got in the water and began walking around. Suddenly, someone grabbed her and threw her under the water. When she came back up, Nick was standing behind her laughing. She splashed him.

"That was not very funny, Frack," she said.

"I thought it was," he said still laughing.

"Oh yeah," she said and splashed him again.

"Oh, you did it now," he said.

Jen backed up in the pool and he followed her.

"Come here girl," he said.

There was nobody else in the pool. It was about 10:00pm. She turned around and tried to swim away. Nick grabbed her legs and pulled her towards him.

"No, oh gosh," Jen yelled.

Nick put his arm around her waist and slung her in the water. She swam to the side of the pool and put her back up against it. He swam over to her and put his hands on each side of her on the wall. He leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. She put her hand around his neck and kept kissing him. She broke away from him and draped her hands around his neck.

"Is that all you think about? Kissing," she asked smiling.

"Maybe," he said. He kissed her again.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you can really kiss?" he asked smiling.

She felt herself blush. "No," she said sighing.

"Well you can," he said and ducked under the water and swam to the other end of the pool.

She felt herself smiling. She swam to the ladder and climbed out.

"Where you going?" Nick called.

"I'm tired," she said.

"Well, wait for me," he said and climbed out of the pool. They walked out of the pool house and into the lobby of the hotel. Nick grabbed her hand and pulled her over to him and kissed her. When they got on the elevator, she looked over to him.

"What exactly was that?" she asked.

"What? I can't kiss my girlfriend," he said smiling.

"No. Not when we're walking through a hotel lobby," she said, also smiling.

"Well, there were a couple of girls sitting on the couch watching me and whispering to themselves. But you know...you know ,if you don't like me kissing you then I won't," he finished.

"I didn't say I didn't like it," she said and walked over to him and pressed her lips to his.

"I just wanted them to know that YOU are my beautiful girlfriend," he finished grabbing her.

They started kissing again. When the elevator doors opened, A.J. was standing there.

"You guys make me sick," he said and got on the elevator.

Jen and Nick walked down the hallway. Halfway down, Jen rode piggy-back on Nick's back to their room.

"But, I still kissed you because your my girlfriend," he said putting her down.

They unlocked the hotel room and went in. When they got in, Aaron and Jane Carter were sitting on Nick's bed.

"Mom, Aaron. What are you guys doing here?" he asked.

"Denise called and said they could use Aaron on the tour and I wanted to see how you were doing with you ankle," said his mother.

"Well. I wish Denise would have told me you guys were coming," said Nick. Jen could tell he was very surprised. Denise came in and took Aaron and Jane to their rooms and Jen and Nick got ready for bed. Nick was very upset that he had not been informed about his mom and Aaron.

"I can't believe they didn't tell me. Can't believe it," he said running around the room.

"Now my mom's gonna be here the rest of the tour and I can't do this or that. She's gonna be on my back the whole time," he said angrily.

"Nick. Chill out. It's not that bad," she said.

"Chill out? Chill out? Why don't you chill out, Jennifer?" Nick said yelling at her.

Now she felt like crying. It was the first time in their relationship that he had ever yelled at her.

"Okay. You cool off in here for a while. I'm going down to Brian's room," she said and slammed the door.

"Jen. I'm sorry," Nick said, but it was too late.

She was already gone. She walked down the hall and knocked on Brian's door. He opened it after about a minute.

"Jennifer, what are you doing down here?" he asked.

"Nick's really upset and I was wondering if we could talk," she said.

"Sure. Come on in," he said and opened the door wide open.

"Well, did you know that Aaron and Jane were coming here?" she asked as she sat on the bed.

"No. They're here?" he asked.

"Yes. And Nick is so overreacting about it. He overreacted about the Tampa thing too. I'm really worried about him," she said.

"Don't worry about him. He's on tour and he's very stressed. The best thing you can do for him right now is stay out of his way, but be there when he needs you," Brian said.

For the first time, Jen realized that all Brian was wearing was a pair of dark red boxers. His hair was wet and it was dripping on his chest. He looked quite good actually. They talked for about two hours and Jen accidentally fell asleep in Brian's room. She woke up and looked at the clock. It was 6:49am. 'Oh my gosh. Nick's gonna kill me,' she thought. She picked up her shoes and crept quietly down the hall to her room. Luckily, she had her room key in her back pocket. She unlocked the door and quietly went in. Nick was laying in the bed. She crept by his bed.

"Well, look who finally decides to come back to her room," he said still laying there with his eyes closed.

"I accidentally fell asleep in Brian's room," she said just standing there.

"You accidentally fell asleep in Brian's room, when your sharing a room with your boyfriend down the hall? Why would you do something like that? Right now, I can only think of one reason," he finished. He had a very serious look on his face.

Jen felt like crying.

"I gotta get a shower," he said and pushed by her. "I'm sure you took one in Brian's room," he said sarcastically, yelling from the bathroom.

Jen walked over and knocked on A.J.'s door. He came to the door with a pair of jeans on and no shirt.

"What did Nick do last night?" she asked.

"Let's see. He was very restless. He ate and ate and ate. Then, he walked the whole room. He asked me about five times 'What do you think their doing?'. What were you doing?" he asked.

"Not that it's any of your business, but we were talking," she said and closed the door.

When Nick got out of the shower, he came back in the room but didn't acknowledge Jen.

"Nick. Nick. Oh, come on. Why are you being so immature about this?" she asked.

"Why am I being so immature about this? Let's see. Where shall we begin? My girlfriend got mad at me, so she decided to go screw around with my best friend," he said sarcastically.

"Is that what you're so worried about? You think I slept with Brian? Are you crazy? Do you think that I don't love you? Geez, Nick. What do you take me for? Huh," Jen said sighing. She walked out into the hallway and leaned up against the wall right outside the door. It wasn't a minute before Nick came out there.

"I'm sorry. Your right, I overreacted. It's just that...I love you so much and your always there for me and sometimes I feel like exploding, but you're there and I feel so much better. Like that other stuff doesn't even matter. And the idea of you leaving or breaking up with me, scares me to death. I couldn't do that. And I know that there are times that I seem really mad at you and angry with you, but I hope that you know that I would never deliberately hurt you in any way. I love you, Jen. Your my girl," he finished almost in tears himself.

"I love you too, Nicky. But, I was not mad at you last night. I went down to Brian's room to ask him for some advice about you, because you were so stressed out. I decided to leave you in there to cool off, when I should have stayed in there to help you and talk to you. So, I'm at fault for most of this," she said not fully crying.

"Oh Jen. Please don't cry. You're too beautiful to cry. I'm sorry I hurt you this morning. But truthfully, it really hurt me last night because I didn't know what you were doing and my imagination was running wild," he said.

She walked up to him and kissed him.

"Not out here," he said between kisses and pulled her into the hotel room and closed the door.

Jen took a shower and they got ready to get back on the bus.