"Are you okay?" AJ asked rubbing my back.
"I, uh...(cough, cough)...hmmm. Hmmm...I'm fine." I was going to shut the page so he didn't see it but it was too late.
"Hey," he said looking over my shoulder. "That looks like...it is Vanessa. And...Lance? Let me see that." He grabbed it from me, "It says here that Lance's new girlftiend is photogenic and it looks like they're happy together." AJ looked at me. "Oh no. This doesn't look too good. Here's a picture of them in a photo booth...should we tell Nick about this?"
"Let's not. If he finds out then he does, but whoever wrote this blew it out of proportion. I mean, she's not his girffiiend, they're just friends."
"I don't know," he said. "How about you talk to Vanessa about this and let her decided," he stuck it in my purse.

"Vanessa, wake up!" Nick said and yanked the covers off her. She opened her eyes to see Nick glaring at her angrily. "Explain this," he said and tossed to paper on the bed next to her. She sat up and looked at the paper in disbelief.
"I...this is crap! We're just friends!"
"Well according to...now everyone you're his girlfriend! Why did you lie to me, again," he looked hurt. She didn't mean for this to hurt him.
"Nick, I was going to tell you I don't know why I didn't. I'm so sorry that you found out this way!"
"Look I don't want to be in a relationship of lies. I just got over one like that."
"I'm sorry Nick. I didn't mean to..."
"Well now if we go out and someone takes a picture of us the headline is going to read 'Nick dates Lance's girlfiiend or Lance's girlftiend cheats with Nick Carter'." He sat down and put his head in his hands.
"Nick it's just one article...and how many people are going to believe this. As far as they know I could be his sister."
"I'm going to go for awhile. I'll see you later." He walked out the door. Nick walked around for awhile before sitting on a bench at a park. His cell phone rang. He didn't feel like talking to Vanessa right at this moment, when he looked at his caller ID on his phone he saw that it was Mandy.
"Hello?"
"Hey Nicky what's up? I was just in town and I wanted to know if you wanted to hook up for a late breakfast."
"Sure," he said. They met and went to a little place.
"What's wrong Nick? You don't look too happy right now."
"Oh you mean you haven't heard?" Nick stood up and walked to a newsstand and opened the paper to the entertainment section. He dropped it in front of Mandy. Her eyes widened.
"She's already cheating on you?"
"She says they're just fiiends but every time they go out, she lies and tells me she's alone." He was getting upset again. Mandy could tell. She grabbed his hand.
"Nick she shouldn't be treating you this way. I know I wasn't the perfect girlftiend but I didn't jerk you around like this." She smoothed his hair.
"I don't know what I should do," Nick said as his phone rang again. "It's Vanessa, I don't want to talk to her right now..."
"Here Nicky let me see what's going on." He reluctantly handed her the phone; she walked out of earshot so Nick couldn't hear what she would say.
"Hello?"
"Mandy!?!" Vanessa said in shock.
"Yes. Nick doesn't want to talk to you so what do you want?"
"The guys and everyone are looking for him. He's supposed to be at the Rosie show in two hours. We're all ready to go..."
"You're going too?" Mandy asked.
"Well that was the plan," Vanessa said getting angry.
"Not anymore Nick and I are trying to work things out between us. He said since you want to be with Lance so much, go ahead. He doesn't want to see you anymore and he said that by the time he gets to the hotel he wants you out of the room and out of his life. Tell the guys not to worry that he'll be there. Oh and, Nick doesn't want you to go spreading rumors he said you don't need to make it worse by telling everyone what happened. He's hurt enough. Just leave quietly. Got it?"
Vanessa just hung up she was crying. No one was with her in the room so she packed her stuff. How could Nick mean those awful things? Was Mandy telling the truth? Well she had to be she answered Nick's phone, so she was obviously with him. She called Lance.
"Hello?" Lance said.
"It's me. I need you to pick me up please. I need a ride to the airport."
"Sure. I'll be right there."

Mandy walked back to the table where Nick was sitting.
"Nick I'm sorry. She said she has to leave. She wants to be with Lance. She said not to worry or even think about her anymore. I'm so sorry Nick. I tried to get her to talk to you about it but..."
"That's fine," Nick said looking down.
"I, uh...guess it's better this way," Mandy smirked. 'Now you're all mine...' she thought to herself.

"Vanessa you in here?" AJ and me knocked on the hotel room door. She quickly answered it.
"Yeah, come in. Nick will meet you at the show." We walked in surprised to see Lance sitting on the bed.
"Hello," he said.
"Hi," AJ and I mumbled our greetings.
"Where are you going?" AJ asked looking at her packed bags.
"I'm leaving. Don't worry I'll call, maybe." With that she picked up her bags and left with Lance close behind. A.J and I stood there for a second then turned to follow her.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Look I don't feel like talking about it to anyone right now. Leave us alone!" she pulled Lance and they left.
"What was that all about?" AJ asked looking at me.
"I have no idea. I wonder where she's going."

I went backstage with AJ and the guys to meet Rosie before the show. She was really nice and funny.
"This is my girlfiiend, Angela," AJ said introducing me to Rosie.
"Hello Angela. I was wondering do you have a bunch of tattoos like AJ?" she asked jokingly.
AJ then proceeded to tell her what his tattoos meant. I went and sat with Howie's mom, who is very nice just like him, then the show started.

After the show we all went to cat then Howie took his mom shopping and the rest of us went back to the hotel. Nick went to Brian's room and told him what Mandy had told him Vanessa said. They talked for awhile and Brian made him feel a little better. But when Nick went back to his own room he was kind of sad to see all her stuff gone. He could still smell her perfume faintly when he lay on the bed to take a nap.

Vanessa went through her backpack on the plane looking for her lip-gloss. The first thing she saw was one of Nick's basketball jerseys. She must have forgot to take it out when they were done with one of their rehearsals. She picked it up and held it in her hands. She found her lip-gloss and shoved the jersey back in and closed her eyes. She quickly opened them up. All she could think of was Nick all she could see she when she closed her eyes was Nick she loved so much but she didn't want to be there if he wanted to be with someone else. She wouldn't stand in his way. She wanted him to be happy.

Nick woke up to the hotel phone ringing loudly. He looked at his watch. It was 6:00 in the evening.
"Hello?"
"Hey Nicky it's me Mandy. Can I come over."
"Yeah sure whatever." He hung up. He didn't really feel like company. Ten minutes later there was a knock at the door.
"What the hell did she do fly?" he thought to himself. When he opened the door he saw Lance standing in front of him.