chapter twenty
chapter list
chapter twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-One
Three years had passed. I had managed to stay away from the Backstreet Boys. They are touring Europe right now. I watch them on TV when I can, and I own all of their CDs, but I avoided meeting them in person. I had seen a couple of their interviews on MTV. They had mentioned me. They even showed a picture of me and asked people if they had seen me. I felt like a lost kid whose mommy was looking for her. Their attempts hadn’t been successful though.
~<3~<3~<3~
“Howie, are you coming shopping with me? You know you love that store, and this is the only place that has it. You can’t come to England all that often.”
“Yeah. I’ll come. Just a sec, AJ. I have to shower first. I’ll come to your room. Then, we have the rest of the day to hang out here.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be waiting for you.”
~<3~<3~<3~
“Emma, thanks for working late. You can leave in about 10 minutes when we finish stocking these things.”
“It’s ok, Amanda. I don’t mind staying.” Amanda walked out of the storage room into the shop to help the customers.
“Excuse me, miss. Can you help me?” A customer had tapped Amanda on the shoulder.
“Sure. Emma will help you. Emma! Can you come out here and help these gentlemen while I finish this up.”
“Yes. I’ll be right out.” I walked out of the storage room to help the customers. It’s amazing how easy it is to avoid someone that you don’t want finding you if you change your name. Emma Arnold is what I go by now.
I walked up to the men and my jaw dropped.
“Nikki…I don’t believe…” I turned and walked as quickly as possible back to the storage room.
“Amanda, do you think you could help these customers? I really can’t – “
“Emma, I have to finish this. Please go do it.”
“But – “
“Please, Em.” I walked slowly back out. AJ and Howie were standing where they were a minute ago. They both had similar looks on their faces. Obviously neither of them thought to look overseas for me.
“Nikki. It’s so good to see you.” AJ hugged me for quite a while. I felt like I was going to cry, so I pulled away. Howie took AJ’s place and hugged me just as long.
“Guys, it’s…I…”
“Why did you leave? Please tell us.”
“AJ, I didn’t mean to leave like that. I had to.” I looked down at my watch. “It’s 7 o’clock. I have to go.” I left as quickly as possible out the employees’ door. AJ and Howie went out the front door and tried to see where I had gone. They saw me walk into an apartment building and got out their cell phones.
“Brian and Nick went somewhere together, so I’ll call Brian’s cell phone. You call Kevin.” AJ began dialing before he finished speaking. “We can go try to talk to her before they get here. Maybe we can get her to tell us why she left.”
chapter twenty
chapter list
chapter twenty-two
