"Backstreet! BSB what time is it? It's time to go to work, y'all! What kind of work? Hard work, ugh!" we chanted before going onstage in front of 30,000 eager fans. Three more days and I will be going home. Those three months seemed like a lifetime. We took our places and the countdown began.
"10, 9...8, 7...6, 5...4, 3.....2......1!" it counted and the curtain dropped. My eyes scanned the crowd, doing what I always did once the show started. I heard the familiar beat of "Let's Have A Party" and the screams erupt. I belted out the first verse before noticing someone that looked vaguely familiar in the front row.
'Caitlin' I asked myself. I shook my head in disbelief. We were in Holland, she was in Tampa. There was no way that it could possibly be her. I shook the thought out of my head and we continued with a few more songs. After that, we all left to go backstage and Howie sang his solo. I chugged bottled water.
"Doesn't that girl look a lot like Caitlin?" I asked Brian, Kevin, and AJ.
"I thought so too, man!" AJ exclaimed.
"You think it's her?" I asked excitedly.
"I don't know, see for yourself!" Brian said.
"What?" I asked, obviously confused.
"You're on! GO!" Brian said and Howie entered the room. I ran to the entrance of the stage and composed myself just in time for my cue to go on. I walked out onto the stage and heard the arena erupt with 30,000 screams. All this screaming for me? Cool.
"Open up your heart to me. And say what's on your mind," I sang into the Microphone. My eyes looked out onto the whole arena, but my heard looked at the girl in the front row. I followed my heart and my eyes landed into hers. I almost stopped singing I was so shocked. It was Caitlin. I wasn't supposed to leave my microphone stand, but on instinct I stepped off the platform and sat on the stage, directly in front of her. We looked into each others eyes and I just sang to her. All of the love that I had burning for her, I was expressing through my song.
"Cuz I see Heaven in your eyes," I finished. She smiled at me and threw a rose onto my lap, attached to a card. I couldn't wait until I got backstage so I could read it. I smiled at her one last time before AJ took over the crowd. The card was a simple card with a heart around the word 'Friendship.' I opened it up and I read it:
Nick, Meet me at the McDonalds down the street after the show. I'll be waiting.
~Caitlin~
I finished reading it and showed it to the rest of the guys. Our bus driver would let us go to McDonalds. AJ would make sure of it. Well, the show would be over in another 45 minutes. I could wait that long.
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Boy was I wrong. When we had three more songs to do, I started to get impatient. I almost wanted to speed the songs up a bit. "We're the Backstreet Boys, and we'll never break your heart!" Howie said, which was our cue to exit the stage. We all took center stage, held hands, and bowed down before the audience.
When we got backstage, I quickly gathered my things and ran onto the bus, with the guys right behind me. The fans had not gotten out of the arena yet, so we fled to McDonalds.
