The two friends worked their way to the recreation room where there was more dancing and partying going on. Chris picked up a bottle of water from the cooler in by the door, and looked into the room. There weren't as many people here, but there was food, and surrounding the food were all five of the Backstreet Boys. They were talking, eating, and joking with the fans who were also surrounding the refreshment table. Kevin was talking intently with an older woman, motioning with his plastic cup as he spoke.

"No doubt Kevin's giving that lady his opinion on life. He's been known for that," Chris said to Kat, who laughed and nodded.
"I know. I've been exposed to that lecture many a times by him. He needs to get something else to do."

Brian was talking to Nick and Emily. He had his had on her hip. Nick started laughing, and Brian punched him lightly on the shoulder. Nick pretended that he was seriously injured and stumbled away, giving Brian a threatening look. Brian just laughed. After a few steps, Nick returned to the group and he started to talk...and talk....and talk.

"That Nick certainly has a motor in him," pointed Kat. "He must be on something."

Chris shook her head. "I don't know him that well, but I know for a fact that none of them do drugs. Caffeine, maybe, but nothing else"

Kat gave her a look. "No need to get defensive. I was trying to be funny." Seeing Chris's face fall, Kat quickly put an arm across her shoulder. "Come on, Risser, I was just joking."

Chris looked up with a small smile. "I know. It's just, well, something happened tonight and I think I'm seeing things in a whole new light." Kat smiled back. "You'll tell me, right? I want to know exactly what happened." "When I'm ready, I'll tell you,'kay?" "When you're ready. I'll wait. But you'd better be ready to share soon." Kat gave her friend a hug, and Chris smiled gratefully. "Hey, you two gorgeous ladies! Wanna drink?" asked Nick, who had finally tore himself from Brian and Emily. He looked closely at Chris's face. "Weren't you the one with the totally awesome voice that sang with us tonight?" Kat looked at Chris and squealed. "You sang with the Backstreet Boys? On stage? In front of zillions of people? And you wanted to wait to tell me that?" Chris blushed. "Yes, Nick, that was me. My name's Chris Richardson. I'm Brian and Kevin's cousin. And yes, Kat, I did sing up there with them, but that's not what I was waiting to tell you." Nick nodded. "Well, it was nice meeting you. Let me say you did a totally awesome job. Totally. You should go into performing." "Thanks," replied Chirs with a hint of amusement in her voice. She gave him a mock salute and watched him walk away. when he was out of earshot, Chris and Kat burst out laughing. "Someone should tell him to lay off the beer," choked Kat. Chris struggled to control herself and said, "And I met him backstage right after the show ended, too. Oh, well." "I don't think any of them care. The tour's over for the next month or so. It's party-time now." "Cool," said Chris. She smiled and jumped into the air. The music to Hey Mr. DJ came on. She grabbed Kat's hands and pulled Kat to the middle of the floor. "Let's dance!" "I don't think so," said Kat, tilting her head toward when the Boys were standing. "I don't wanna look stupid." "Oh, come on! It'll be fun. And they're not even looking." "Okay," Kat said reluctantly. AJ had ben talking with Brian and Emily after Nick had left, but he had been keeping an observant eye on Chris. He noticed how close and animated she was with her friend and it made him smile. When the song started, he saw Chris tug on her friend's hand and start to dance. "Oh my," AJ said softly, watching her dance. "What?" asked Emily, turning her head to follow his gaze. Brian also turned to look, and his mouth fell open slightly. "Wow! I didn't know she could move like that, and I'm her cousin!" exclaimed Brian. "Maybe you shouldn't have had her sing tonight," Emily teased. "You should have had her dance." Brian nodded. "Maybe I should have." AJ nodded in agreement. "Yeah. You should have..." Chris and Kat were aware of the gathering crowd, and Chris began to get a little nervous. Kat could sense Chris's discomfort, and smiled as if to reassure her. She raised her eyebrows in question, and Chris returned the smile and gave Kat a two-thumbs up, and pointed twice. Kat nodded. It was time to strut their stuff. Chris started to do the moves which she had seen the Boys do during the concert. She pretended she was AJ, and even though she was very uncomfortable, Chris opened her eyes when she heard the applause fill the room. To her horror, she saw that Kat had stopped dancing, and it was just her. And everyone was watching. Luckily, the song ended, and Chris sighed with relief. Then feeling completely embarrassed, she lowered her head and ran out of the room Watching Chris run out of the room, AJ turned to Brian with a look of shock in his eyes. Brian and Emily were also standing in bewilderment. "I had no idea. No idea," stammered Brian."Wow!" Emily squeezed Brian's arm. "Why don't you go and ask her to be one of your dancers? She obviously has the moves..." Brian gave Emily a quick kiss on her forehead. "I'll do it tomorrow." AJ had to go to the bathroom, so he excused himself and headed upstairs to the bathroom where he could have a greater sense of privacy. As he walked down the hall, he thought he heard voices coming from behind one of the doors. He paused by one to listen, but it stopped. Shrugging, AJ continued on his way. Chris was in her bedroom witting in front of her mirror. Her eyes were red from tears and her head was full of confusion. She began to argue out loud, which is what AJ had heard. "I can\'92t believe I did that! I'm supposed to be this calm, good person. And I totally blew my self-image, my reputation, and my self respect by acting like a complete idiot! Oh, God," she cried, putting her head in her hands. Her mind began to argue with her. But you know you can do it. And that's what you want to do. So why beat yourself up over it? "I don't want to seem anything other that the good person I'm supposed to be." But you're not happy that way. Stop thinking about what everyone else thinks. Do what you want to do. Chris shook her head hard and stood up. "It's not that I don't want to, it's the fact that I can't." she said, raising her voice. She pointed at the mirror. "And you have no right to tell me what to do!" Are you happy denying yourself the one thing you want most? "Stop it! Stop it!" Chris screamed, with her hands covering her ears as if to block out the voice of reason in her head. Are you happy? Could you live like this forever? Can you? "Yes!" she cried. "Yes I CAN!!!" Then she stopped, and lowered her hands. Suddenly a wave of dizziness came over her. Chris felt her knees give out, and she struggled to keep her balance. But the force was too strong, and she fell to the floor with a thud, hitting her head on teh nearby table. AJ had been in the bathroom which was connected to Chris's bedroom, but he didn't know it at the time. Her arguing had gotten loud, and he opened the door which separated the two rooms just a crack so he could see what was happening. Then he saw her fall, and heard the sickening crack as she hit her head on the way down. "Oh God," AJ said as he flew across the floor to where she was laying. He didn't dare move her, but he lowered his head to her chest to hear for breathing. Chris was, and he noticed that she smelled like Chanel. AJ looked around for something to place under her head. He grabbed the nearest pillow, and gently lifted her head as straight as he could, put the pillow underneath, then lowered it. He took her hands in his own and squeezed them as if to force her awake. "Come on, come on," he whispered. "Wake up." He didn't want to leave her alone, and no one could hear him if he called for help anyway because of the music down below. With more urgency, AJ shook her hands, trying to get her to wake up. Chris heard someone calling her name, felt someone holding her hands. But she couldn't open her eyes. There was a man standing before her in her mind's eye, and he was holding a piece of paper in his right hand. She couldn't see what he looked like, nor could she read what the paper said. Looking up at the man, Chris saw him give a slight nod, and then there was a flash of light. Chris shrank away and attempted to cover her eyes, but something was holding her still. "Let me go," she cried. "It's too bright! I can't see..." AJ heard her moan, and he moved closer to her head, still holding her hands. He gently put one down, and began to smooth the hair out of her face which had come loose from her braid. Chris slowly opened her eyes and saw AJ hovering over her, felt the touch of his hand smoothing her hair. She smiled weakly and began to sit up. "Ooh," she groaned.
"Are you okay? What happened?" AJ asked. "Maybe you shouldn't get up."
But Chris was already sitting up, and took her free hand and lightly touched the left side of her head. "Ow!" she said. "No, I'm okay. That happens a lot."
"Are you sure?" AJ couldn't believe that something like this could happen often. "You hit your head pretty hard."
"How did you get in here?"
"I was in the bathroom and I heard some noise. I opened the door and saw you fall."

Chris began to blush. "I'm sorry," she said, lowering her head. AJ smiled slightly. Chris looked like a little girl who had been caught disobeying. He hardly knew her, but AJ knew, somehow, that he wanted to be with her. He stretched out his hand and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"It's okay," he whispered. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine. Like I said, it happens all the time. I just need some Advil and I'll be much better." Chris began to move as if to get up. AJ hopped up first, and reached down to assist Chris, who took his hand, and he pulled her up. Whoa. She's so light.
When Chris was standing, she felt a little light-headed, but shrugged it off. Dropping her hand from AJ's she gave him a serious look and said, "Thanks for helping me. But do me a favor, 'kay? Don't tell Bri or Kev about this. They'd totally spazz. Kat's mom's a doctor and she's been taking care of me."
"If you're sure you're okay..."AJ said, looking into Chris's eyes.
"Yes, thank you, I'm fine," Chris replied, equally mesmerized by the intensity with which he looked into her eyes. It was as if he were uncovering hidden secrets from the very bottom of her soul, just like he did at the concert.

Suddenly, there was a knock on Chris's bedroom door. "Are you okay Chris? Can I come in?" Kat called from the other side. Chris pulled her gaze from AJ's and her hand from his. She walked to the door, unlocked it and opened it, revealing a very worried Kat.

"I am so sorry," said Kat, wrapping her arms around Chris. "I didn't mean to stop and leave you like that. You just looked so awesome and into it. I didn't want to take away from you."

Chris hugged Kat and smiled. "It's okay. I'm fine now."

Kat pulled away with tears in her eyes. "How can you ever forgive me?"

"Easy. That was nothing. It was completely trivial. Now if you tried to steal my boyfriend, well, then I'd have a hard time forgiving you."

Kat smiled slightly. "You always made light of every possible situation."
"When you have so much going on in your life, that's the only way you can survive. Now come on," Chris said, walking to the door, pulling Kat along with her. "It's time to party."
With that, Chris bounced down the stairs and back into the crowd, with the falsest of fronts ever known to man. Hiding the face that she was, in reality, struggling with a situation too far gone to be undone....
"Really? You wrote that? What's it called?"

Even though it was dark outside, the oncoming traffic made it possible for A.J. to see Chris blush. "I wish you hadn't have woken up. I didn't want anyone to hear that." Seeing the look on his face made Chris's heart feel heavy. "I'm not ready to share that with anyone. No one knows. Not even Kevin or Brian." A.J. nodded, but he knew they knew. That was the whole reason they had invited her up on stage with them that night. He knew that. It was to display her talent for the talent scout who was in the crowd that night. And he also knew that she had loads of it. She was going to make it big whether she realized it or not.

"I understand." AJ said, softly. He couldn't believe that this beautiful girl was related to Brian and Kevin. They're so goofy, he thought.

Chris turned on her left signal and proceeded to pass the bus which was in front of her. After checking her rearview mirror, she turned on her right signal and slipped back into her lane, and without skipping a beat, got off at the next exit. Then she stopped at the toll booth and rolled down the window, her money in her hand. As she handed out the ticket and the money, she could feel the chilly night air. Yet she breathed in the crispness of an unusually cool summer's evening. It was almost autumn.

She brought her arm back in and rolled up the window. Pulling out from the toll booth, she looked over to her right and saw that both Nick and AJ had their eyes closed, and there was slight snoring coming from the backseat. Chris was grateful that no one was up again; she wasn't comfortable in the social scene.

Half an hour later, she pulled into the driveway. There had been complete silence from her passengers, to which she was surprised. But she knew that Brian had a sixth sense when it came to celebrating, even though he didn't look the type. There was an unfamiliar vehicle in front of the garage, and there were lights on in the house. Chris turned off the ignition, unbuckled her seatbelt, and opened the car door.

As soon as the interior light came on, all five of the Boys woke up simultaneously. It was as if they all had ESP or some other form of mental telepathy.

"Woo-hoo! We're here!" yelled Nick, throwing open the door and running toward the front door. AJ shook his head in amusement, but smiling, followed. Kevin, Brian and Howie all scrambled out of the backseat, nearly knocking Chris over in their race toward the door.
To Chris's eyes, they all looked like little kids out to have a good time. She had even gone over the speed limit so they would be back as soon as they could. The show was completely awesome, and she felt they deserved the party. After she locked the doors, she went up to the door, which opened by itself, or so she thought.
"Hi there! You must be Chris," a tall and gorgeous woman said, holding out her hand. "I'm Brian's fiancee, Emily."
Chris shook Emily's hand. "It's nice to finally meet you. Bri's told me so much about you. I can't wait until the wedding."
Emily smiled. "Me, neither." She took Chris's arm and led her inside. "I know this is your house, so I'm sorry if I seem pushy or anything. It's a habit, I guess."
"That's fine. It certainly is loud here."

"Yep. Get used to it. You have approximately seven hours of this stuff until they all pass out on the floor."

Chris laughed. "In that case,I'd better go and change into something a little more comfortable. I think my jeans and sneakers are calling my name."
Emily nodded in agreement. She was dressed in jeans and a blue, long-sleeved, cotton shirt. Sandals were on her feet and her hair was pulled back into a ponytail.