~CHPATER 24~
The girls entered the hotel to find the guys after their interview. They found them in the hotel lounge, sitting around, doing nothing.
"Hey C, guess what?" Brian said.
"What, Bri? And if you say nothing, I swear I'll kill you!"
"Nothing…nah, I'm kidding. Guess where Frack is right now?"
"Where?"
"The spa! We made him go. Told him it would relax him!" At this, everyone burst out laughing.
"He still hasn't figured it out yet?" Alyssa asked. Kev and Brian shook their heads.
"Loser!" she said laughing.
"Hey, you know what I noticed?"
"What?"
"Howie's never around. Where is he?" Fate asked. All the guys looked at each other.
"Well, uh, Fate, I'll tell you later, OK?" Kevin said nervously.
"What did he do?" Christina asked, curious.
"Maybe Nick'll tell you sometime, C. But right now, I…I wanna keep it private."
"OK, fine! Leave us out!" Sarah said, pouting. Jess looked up and smiled.
"Hey, there's Drew. I'll see you guys later, OK?" Jess said.
"Oooh, gonna get some tonight?" Alyssa asked, wiggling her eyebrows at her.
"Something like that. Later, peeps." She ran up to him.
"AJ, I gotta surprise for you," Alyssa said sweetly.
"A little to sweetly," AJ thought as she led him away from the group. Brian tightened his arms around Sarah and softly kissed her neck.
"Did you miss me?" Sarah asked, giggling.
"Too much!" He whispered something romantic in her ear and she smiled. Then almost as if they read each other's minds, they got up and walked over to a couch across the room. Christina looked around uncomfortably.
"Umm, I'm gonna go find Nick. Later." She leaned down and whispered something into Fate's ear. She looked at her and shook her head.
"Do it, Fate," and with that, Christina left. Fatema and Kevin looked at each other.
"Fate, about last ni-"
"No, don't talk about it. I want to know how Howie majorly betrayed you guys. I have a feeling that it has to do about what I said on the radio yesterday." Kevin sighed.
"Yeah, it does. You want something to eat first?"
"Yeah, sure." They quickly left the lounge.
[Brian & Sarah]
"We're finally alone! I thought they would never leave!" Sarah said, snuggling up to Brian.
"Yeah, I know. Anyway, it's better that they're eating before Kevin tells Fate about Howie."
"What? Why? What happened?"
"Sweetie, I can't tell you. Kevin has to be the one to tell everyone."
"OK, but maybe Fate will. But why can't you tell me? Is it something that bad?"
"Well, kind of. And when you know about it, you can't tell anyone cuz only the five of us know and a couple of other people who have helped us out of the mess. We’re lucky that the press didn't find anything out or we would've been hell and Backstreet would be gone forever."
[Kevin & Fatema]
"OK, Kev, enough small talk. Tell me now!" she demanded.
"Alright. You know how Kristin and I have been going out for like a couple of years?" Fate nodded. "Well, before that I had another girlfriend, Ashley. On our one-year anniversary, I had this whole dinner thing planned. Candle, her favorite foods, flowers everything. I sent a lime to her house to pick her up, right? What I didn't know was that Howie was in the car. To make a long story short, he raped her." Fate gasped and dropped her fork.
"Oh my god…what happened afterwards?"
"He was obsessed with her, right? Afterwards, he kidnapped her and practically brainwashed her. Now she's in a mental institution and will never recover." Kevin answered sadly, tears slowing dripping down.
"That's terrible, " Fate choked. She took Kevin's hand and tried to comfort him.
"So how come he's not in jail? You should have charged him."
"Actually, that's not the whole story. It wasn't really Howie who did it."
"What?!"
"It was his brother. They look alike right, so Ashley couldn't really see his face when he raped her. Howie was so mad at him, that he practically disowned his brother. He couldn't believe that he would do something like that. And yes, he is in jail, but it's a private one. And he's on this island that no one knows about. That's why you didn't hear anything about it in the press. I mean can you imagine what would happen if this got out?" He put his arm around Fate. She was crying real hard.
"Sweetie, it's OK, he's not coming back."
"That's…so…sad. How can someone do something like that?"
"Shh…don't cry. It's over. I feel extremely bad for Ashley too. I was, still mad at Howie's brother for what he's done. I still can't believe it. He should die, for ruining Ashley's life that."
"Kevin…I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."
"Fate, it's OK. I understand. It doesn't matter. I overreacted. Howie's brother is never coming back. Don't worry, Fate. I'll always be here to protect you." --
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